Chapter 5

A surprised Klaus looked around as he heard his name.

"Look I'm sorry... I didn't mean to offend you..." she said.

"No offences taken love" he said...

She shuffled about for some awkward moments, and then shrugging her shoulders said, "You still have your story to continue, and I can still afford to be awake for a while..." she continued glancing at her watch... "So why don't you come along..."

Klaus smiled...genuinely, he had been disappointed that despite not disclosing his real origins, he had still managed to scare Natasha, but this gesture of hers pleased him, yet he said

"No, it's quite alright Natasha... You should take rest."

"Just shut up and come along..." she said bossily to which Klaus gave a surprised expression, raising his eyebrows and smiling, and then he walked upto her flat, which had a white front door, with an ornate knocker on it, and with a flight of 3 steps leading upto it, their edges lined with tiny potted plants.

"I am still sure I shouldn't invite you into the house though... call me old fashioned, call me cynical, call me the weird Indian girl, call me anything... but I'll feel a tiny bit at ease with myself if the interiors of my house were still just my own..." she said rapidly, turning slightly red.

"Besides I love sitting out on the steps you know... it's not that cold, plus you're dressed warmly, there's hardly traffic on the street upfront..." she went on...

Klaus laughed at Natasha's awkwardness. It was amusing how she was trying to make him feel better and yet trying to be the prudent girl she ought to be.

"Slow down there love... I get your point... the steps suit me just fine..." he said still laughing. "For now at least..." he added with a wink.

She cocked an eyebrow and smiled a bit before rushing up the steps..."Hold on, wait here I'll be back in a jiffy" she said and disappeared into the house.

Klaus was amused to think how she didn't know that she was indeed keeping herself somewhat safe by not inviting him into her house, and Klaus didn't want to force or compel her to do so...

He wondered why he behaved differently around her and Cami. With anyone else he'd never be this patient. He mulled perhaps it was because these two girls were quite different from the ones he generally encountered. Both were quite confident, fearless, and had a rather sharp mind of their own. They didn't seem to cower beneath anyone. Both were feisty, and these were qualities Klaus respected. Maybe... just maybe, had he remained human...had he had a normal life, he might've been similar.

Before his train of thoughts could wander towards the long forgotten territory of being human, Natasha was back, carrying two steaming mugs of coffee in her hands.

"I figured I could still be hospitable to you..." she said jokingly, and handing Klaus one of the mugs.

"Why thank you..." he said with a mock bow of his head.

Natasha snickered and seated herself on the topmost step and said, "So... continue... I believe you had just mentioned your youngest brother."

Klaus took his seat beside her, and said, "Yes...Henrik...my youngest brother...He was a wonderful child you know... very pleasant and innocent... he was very close to me... used to follow me everywhere." He said donning a despondent manner once again.

"He was ?" Natasha interjected softly.

"Yeah... he was killed... young... defenceless..." he continued, eyes filled with tears.

"I'm so sorry... h-how did...?" Natasha asked, feeling genuinely sad.

"It was...it was an animal attack... w-we'd been to a camping ground and there was a spot that was considered dangerous as it was frequented by ravenous beasts... wild wolves... it was forbidden... yet I wanted to go and see and Henrik being my shadow... followed me..." he said, reinventing his history extempore, to sound more contemporary and human-like, sans supernatural afflictions.

It had been a thousand years since that fateful incident, yet it hurt Klaus like a fresh raw wound whenever he revisited it. He was dejected and angry at the same time. Angry at the wolves, and more so at himself...

"I had thought I could protect him... but I failed... and Henrik... It was my fault... All my fault... He died because of me...In front of my very eyes...mangled by those dastardly beasts..." he continued irately, visibly agitated, a tear streaming down his eye. He soon stopped short to compose himself. His muscles tensed and his grip on the coffee mug was rapidly inching closer to the point when it would shatter to pieces.

Natasha was moved. It was heartbreaking to know a young child had lost his life in such a ghastly accident, and it was plain to see that Nik blamed himself for his baby brother's demise. She could fathom how grave a burden he carried with himself, and how heart wrenching the incident must have been for him.

Out of pure empathy, she spontaneously put a hand on his shoulder and said softly, "I'm so sorry... that was awful... and I know nothing I'll say will make it easier, but please don't blame yourself..."

Klaus seemed to calm down a bit under her touch and due to her words, but he still felt miserable.

"Had I not taken Henrik with me, had I not gone, our lives would have been radically different... that one night changed everything... changed our world...changed us", he continued in barely over a whisper...

Had Henrik not been mauled to death, his parents would probably not have concocted the plan to turn them all into vampires... he wouldn't have been chased by his own father... he wouldn't have had a 1000 years worth of struggles and fights and bloodshed... but... he wouldn't have been so powerful either... he would've been just another mortal, long dead and turned to dust... he wouldn't have been the all pervasive original hybrid... And he had to admit he loved the power he commanded... he loved having the strengths he had... Klaus continued with his warring chain of thoughts, spanning a millennium, while oblivious to these realities, Natasha looked at him with her own perspective, she looked at a hurt man, who had lost his brother and carried that blame on his psyche ever since... she felt bad for him...

After a few moments of heavy silence, Klaus broke out of his trance and said, "I'm sorry...I..."

"Please... it's perfectly okay... I can imagine... but hey... you have the rest of your family for you... that's something to be happy about..." she said, trying to comfort him.

Klaus laughed a dry ironic laughter... "The rest of the family... well yeah... I have bits and pieces of it left..." he said.

Natasha looked at him questioningly, not sure how to react.

"My mother is dead, so is my father... good riddance I'd say... Finn and Kol are also gone, so what remains, is Elijah, Rebekah and I, and I bet they would give anything to have my name on the deceased's list too." He said hysterically; seething, particularly when he mentioned his parents, Elijah and Rebekah.

Natasha was flabbergasted to hear all this. It was crushing to realise that this man had lost nearly all of his family, and that too so early in life, he seemed nearly her age afterall, but for a pampered girl, with doting parents, as she was, it was also incomprehensible and rather revolting to think of how he spoke about his parents. 'Good Riddance ?!' how could he even think so...

"Wait... stop..." she interjected. "I can't tell you how terribly bad I feel for you... how sorry I feel to know of your loss... I understand it must have been fiendishly difficult to cope up with such tragedies... but get a grip on yourself...", "How can you think your siblings would want their own brother dead ? They've lost as much family as you have, and about your parents... are you telling me you're okay getting rid of them ?"

She couldn't find words to complete exactly what she felt.

"Of course I'm relieved I'm rid of them. They were no good... diseased and prejudiced, blind to their own follies... My father hunted me his whole life, not leaving any opportunity to punish me, to make my life miserable, to take from me everything that I ever held dear...and my mother... hah... she was the reason for everything... and yet she never stood by me, never confronted that husband of hers... neither did any of my siblings, they all trembled under him..." Klaus said angrily, nearly grunting in exasperation.

"Your father hunted you? To punish you?... What crime did you do man ? Help Osama burn down the World Trade Centre?" Natasha asked, her acidic snark coming back, as she failed to digest whatever Klaus told her.

"My crime, as I think, was being a bastard..." Klaus said

"What do you mean ?" Natasha asked, surprised.

"My mother... well she had her share of fun in her time... and I am the result of her amusements... turns out she had an affair with a... with a man whose family my father hated... I wasn't his favourite child anyway, I was different from the others, and he was always cross with me, never happy, and once he got to know of my mother's indiscretion, and that I was the bastard, his hatred flew freely and more profoundly..." Klaus said.

He was finding it increasingly difficult to revise his life story to suit Natasha, it was a life fraught with extraordinary circumstances, and hence wasn't easy to mould into a 'normal' perspective. But he didn't want the truth to slip out just yet... she would be petrified...

He went on ranting about how his siblings didn't support him, weren't loyal to him, and wanted to oust him... Natasha heard it all in silence, and though she surmised that Nik was a temperamental and damaged man... and he must have done things to offend his family because they wouldn't likely turn on him for no reason at all, yet she also felt his actions were probably guided by a deep resentment he harboured within himself... the resentment of not belonging, of not winning the adoration of his parents, of being the outcast... and he hadn't let go of this baggage... he probably hadn't grown up inside...

Natasha was brought up as a pampered cocooned child, always surrounded by friends and family, and hence her views towards familial dynamics and parents were quite skewed. She couldn't really believe Nik completely when he spoke of the volatile differences between him and his parents, but she knew he belonged to a broken dysfunctional family, and had a lot of issues, and she sure felt very sympathetic towards him... his story gave her tears too...

She refrained from voicing her thoughts out loud because she guessed this wasn't the right time to show him the mirror... he wasn't in his right elements, and the last thing she wanted was a scene created at her doorstep late at night...

Klaus said in a low, but calm voice after a pause, "There's going to be another Mikaelson addition soon..."

Natasha didn't understand what he meant, so she just looked on at him.

"I'm soon going to have a child... my own child..." he said with a little fond smile.

Natasha hadn't anticipated that one coming, and though she felt happy for him at his announcement of a baby, yet somewhere she felt a bit taken aback... she couldn't put her finger upon why she felt so... she couldn't realize a reason... was she a bit jealous ?... Nah... that would be nonsense... she just knew him 3 days... it was nothing... her mind had an information overload and so was behaving a bit odd...

Shushing her mind and reigning in her surprise, she said, "Wow... congrats... that's great..."

"You and your girlfriend must be so happy..." she added with a smile.

"Girlfriend ?!" Klaus asked mildly amused

"You don't wear a ring... and I just assumed it wasn't boyfriend... I just conjectured... I'm sorry..." she said kicking herself mentally for putting her foot in her mouth.

Klaus laughed. "Her name's Hayley; and she's what I call a 'liquor fuelled one night stand'", he said, repeating verbatim the phrase he had used the night he came to know of the existence of his child.

"Oh..." Natasha said feeling more awkward than before, unaware of what a proper reaction would be.

"Girlfriend... ", Klaus laughed again... "Well she's on her way to becoming my brother's girlfriend I'd say... she swoons over him... and he on her... I bet she wishes that Elijah was in entirety, her baby's father" he said, his bitterness returning once again.

Natasha couldn't fathom there could be a weirder family than theirs...

"And together they all think I have selfish interests towards wanting my own child... that I am incapable of caring for my own offspring..." he went on.

"But I won't let them take my child away from me... I won't let them feed her with hatred towards me", he said, livid.

Once he was done venting, Klaus sat in silence, head bent down, looking spent, eyes still brimming with tears... the tiny little thought of his had baby made him feel better though, warmed his heart a bit...

"Her... it's a girl...?" asked Natasha softly.

"That's what we think...she's a formidable little thing already" he smiled back.

She could see the mention of his unborn daughter made his visage change subtly. He seemed infused with a certain tenderness... pride, even... and Natasha found it really endearing, and smiled tenderly looking at Nik.

"She'll be amazing", she said.

Klaus looked at her, sitting beside him, and realized she had been the only one in a while, who had listened him out... he knew she had her own outlook on him, and that parts of his story had miffed her, made her exasperated, she might even have been feeling more wary of him, but still... she had heard him... yes, he had left out vital chunks of information, yet Klaus felt, that when the time came, (if the time came), she would probably hear out his real story too...

He was looking at her face and thinking on his own, when he noticed Natasha yawn a little. He chuckled and realised it was time to take leave, to be fair to her.

"Someone's expecting a visit from Wee Willie Winkie soon... don't let me keep you past your bedtime little girl..." Klaus said in his cheerful manner.

A now slightly groggy Natasha snickered, and stifling another yawn said, "Practising your fathering skills on me?"

Klaus laughed again, and they both stood up as Natasha continued... "It indeed is time to go sleep... I cannot keep my eyes open anymore..."

"Thank you for your company Natasha... I enjoy it." He said sincerely.

"Oh everyone does... I'm delightful" she joked.

"You're welcome anyway..."

"I must admit I was a bit selfish tonight in coaxing you away from your bosom friend...I reckon I wanted to spend some time with you" he said, not failing to tease Natasha every time by his hidden references to Mike.

Natasha rolled her eyes as the tease wasn't lost on her.

"Rest assured, I'm not letting you coax me into anything again..." she replied.

"Will I see you again soon?" Klaus asked.

"Maybe... Maybe not" Natasha teased with a smirk, "But you know, this thing... us running into each other and then having fairly long graveyard shift chats...it's getting repetitive... So next time can it please be in daylight? And in tad more normal circumstances? Oh and not involving anyone drunk please?" she quipped.

"So there will be a next time..." said Klaus with a tantalizing half smile.

"I meant IF there is a next time..." Natasha defended herself.

"And how am I to reach you IF there is to be a next time ? Spy on you ? knock at your door ? Follow Mike ?" he ribbed again.

"Well... first... if I see you following me or camping out here I'll consider getting a restraining order against you... and second... we'll meet if we're meant to..." she said sassily, with a smirk.

Klaus laughed at her response and said, "A believer in destiny I see..."

"Yup...indeed" she said, and stifled another yawn soon after.

"March to your bed now young lady... Be a good girl" Klaus continued his repartee.

Natasha smiled and bid him a goodnight, and turned to enter her house.

Klaus walked down the steps to leave, when he heard Natasha's voice...

Her head was peeking out of a half closed door, long ponytail hanging by the side of her face. With a playful smile she said, "Oh and by the way... I don't dislike you... not yet at least..." she winked and closed the door, disappearing inside...

A smile reappeared on Klaus's lips... He headed towards his original mansion, his reclaimed home, with a warmth settling inside of him... the warmth which issued from a strong glimmer of hope... because he knew, there would be a next time... and it would be soon...