Klaymonth Day 15: Touch

She was outside of his art room, wondering whether she should be entering his chambers or not. She coughed a little and he hadn't even flinched but she was sure that he had already felt her there, staring. Hybrids did have these special skills as vampires did. She was the one who had to get used to this. She was the newly hybrid and probably the only one left along with Klaus. Just the two of them. She rubbed her eyes when she thought about it, and watched him paint continuously. She didn't even know what had brought her to his room in the first place. Was she missing Hope this much?

"You should take a picture, little wolf! It will last longer. I've always known to be one of the most eligible and dashing bachelors but I think you're stalking is a little exaggeration." Klaus grunted with a smirk from behind his new painting. On other days, Hayley would have either laughed at his snide remarks or found a way to make a fool out of him for saying such things to her. Now, she fell in complete silence as he started painting again. Doesn't he just say something nice for a change? Hayley was asking herself as she watched him closely. She started smiling. His concentration on that one painting was magnificent and she wished she could learn how to paint something so glorious. She had never been a fan of the modern art or any kind of art. She was more of a high school sports city girl, so different from culture, art, and foreign languages world like Klaus belonged in. She didn't mind this, though. She liked to learn about things she could never quite understand and she had learned a couple of things from him.

"Painting is a metaphor for control. Every choice is mine. The canvas, the color…As a child, I had neither the sense of the world nor my place in it but art taught me that one's vision can be achieved with sheer force of will. The same is true of life. Provided one refuses to let anything stand in one's way." Klaus had explained to her what he felt when he painted the best way he could and he had succeeded in impressing her a lot with this. She learned what it was like to paint for him, to let go of yourself, to feel something else beyond that would pull you away from reality for just one moment and she felt jealous as she stood there at the door. She wanted to experience such things just like him.

"Can I help you with something, sweetheart?" Klaus asked her, still not looking away from the painting. Finally, Hayley sighed as he turned around with a smile to meet her eyes. It was difficult to understand what his intentions were now. What could he want with her? What a stupid question! She was there! She had come to him so naturally he would want an explanation. "Elijah should have been your first option, love." Klaus simply said without even asking her why she came to him in the first place. Then he just turned back around and started with his painting again. There was fury in her eyes. She did not like to be talked that way. She had some sort of feelings too and she already had abandonment issues that she didn't want to remember through Klaus' ignorance. "Enough." She whispered.

This had caught Klaus by surprise as he stared back at her from his painting. Hayley was standing there, freezing and he couldn't do anything about it, except look. Freezing? Hybrids couldn't freeze but she seemed frozen to him. "You told me that if I find something to come to you. Well, I have and I know what we can do to bring back Hope! All you do is stand there and paint when you should be listening to me!" Hayley snapped at him and he looked at her in complete shock. "I am listening, love." he finally whispered and she looked up into his eyes to see that he really was interested in hearing what she had to say. Hayley mumbled something to herself and then cleared her throat. "I lied. I don't have anything planned, not even a plan in my mind. I only wanted you to listen to me somehow. Stop what you are doing and just listen to me. You have been listening to no one but yourself ever since you gave up Hope to Rebekah." Hayley explained and felt something in her throat. Her name was hard to pronounce.

Klaus looked at her and then back at his painting. "Come here, little wolf." He told her with a smile on his face. How could he smile like that when his daughter was thousands of miles away from him? We sent her away to protect her but we had to do something to get her back and raise her in a safe town. Hayley stepped forward to him and looked at the painting that he had been working on since forever. It was a painting of a woman holding a baby in her arms and Hayley melted. She could recognize her own face and she had that smile on her face that she hadn't shown since Hope left her. In the painting, she was happy and it looked like she was looking at someone and then she saw the shadow of a man and knew who it was immediately. It was him. They had painted them together as a family. "What is it with you?" Hayley asked Klaus with a smile. "What is what, love?" Hayley put her hand on the painting and Klaus sighed in relief when he saw that she hadn't ruined anything. The painting was already dry so no harm was done, not that Hayley meant to harm his work. She had come to admire his skills and liked them very much. Without realizing what he was doing, Klaus put his hand over hers on the painting.

Hayley looked at him in shock and then her eyes softened as she watched their fingers intertwine on the painting. They liked being like this, just the two of them together. "Is something wrong, love?" Klaus asked in that sweet British accent of his. "No." Hayley whispered back, still keeping her hand there. He then did something unexpected and ran his hand over her own. The touch was magnifying and Hayley lightly moaned at the feeling that was causing shivers to go down her spine. Then he pulled his hand away and the warmth in her body now changed into cold. She thought that she had upset him in some way and tried to do something to make it up to him and said, "Teach me to paint, Klaus."

He looked back at her, surprised of her request. "Love, you can't just learn." "Kids do get art classes in school, you know. You can learn the basics and end up painting something much more beautiful than anything else any other professional artist has ever painted." Klaus smirked. "Since when are you so interested in painting something to overpass me?" Hayley just shrugged and said, "Curiosity is taking the better of me." The truth was that she wanted to be around him more. She wanted to let go of everything, all her problems with being a hybrid, being cast away by her family, her daughter that she gave birth to and lost all in one day, Hope. "Give me your hand." Klaus sighed and told her. He knew that she would not leave him alone until he would listen to her own demand. "What? Why?" she asked.

Klaus stared at her with a smirk and whispered, "Don't ask questions. I won't bite, little wolf." Hayley snorted. "It's not like that's what I'm worried about." "I'm sure that's not the case at all. You bloom with anxiety, love. Give me your hand." Hayley took his hand and felt it for one moment. His touch. It was too much for her. "Choose your color." He told her as he put on new canvas to start a different painting. "What?" "Your color, little wolf. Don't make me repeat myself." "Purple." Hayley said quickly and gulped. It was her favored color and Klaus knew it well because he smiled at her choice. He handed a paintbrush over to her and she accepted it. "I am teaching you the basics? Isn't this what you want?" Klaus asked and stepped closer to her, his lips to her ear as she whispered. "It may be." Hayley whispered back but deep down, she knew what she wanted and it had nothing to do with painting. She wanted him and she wanted their daughter with them. "First stroke." Klaus whispered and Hayley blushed. "What?" "As you paint, love. Let me show you your first stroke. From it, you go with the flow and imagine, create something that comes into your mind. It can be anything." Klaus told her and Hayley looked away, a bit embarrassed by the way she was behaving around him.

"Thank you for this." Hayley whispered and Klaus pressed a hand on her back, making her shiver even more. "What are you thanking me for?" "Just for being here and helping me." Hayley said, putting the brush down after a couple of strokes and looking up into his eyes with desire in them. Klaus looked at her pretty serious as he whispered, "You should know that I do want to help you and I do not want anything in return. Don't think that whatever I do to help you, has something in for me. I am doing this for you, Hayley." Klaus' words didn't surprise her. Jackson had once told her the same thing. "You know, Klaus isn't doing this out of the kindness of his heart. He's doing it for you, Hayley." "I know." She whispered back to him with a smile on her face, a genuine smile just for him.

After a couple more minutes she sighed and turned back around to the painting, putting her hand on it gently. The painting that she had started looked amazing because he had been guiding her all along with his hand pressed against hers gently, a touch which symbolized comfort and control, not to mention trust. She wanted to trust him and she knew she could. She wondered if he trusted her. "I want you to keep my paintings safe." He suddenly whispered into her ear and she looked shocked. "You want me to keep them?" she asked and Klaus nodded. "My prized possessions, yours to keep, little wolf." Hayley smiled slightly as she heard that. His most prized possessions. He did trust her deeply, there was no doubt about that. "Touch. Gently." Klaus instructed in her ear as they finished up the painting and she was smiling sweetly.