Hello, my lovely readers. Okay, I'm waiting for mixed reaction from my fanbase or readers in general for this chapter and the following two-three. On with the show….
Chapter 29: My Brother's Girl/Friends
When my house was not hectic I did not know. Caroline was supposed to arrive home this evening. But I wouldn't be able to see her because she would come home and have to go to bed. It was Friday and school started on Monday. Walking through the house, I heard the doorbell ring and my heart leapt in my chest. 'It couldn't be,' I thought, walking toward the door quickly.
Swinging the door open wide I was smiling until I saw that the person standing before me was too tall, her hair was too dark and she was too tan. "Hey there, Klaus," Hayley greeted me. "Is Elijah here?"
Deflating, I stepped back to let her inside. "Yeah," I told her and then I felt someone brushing past me.
"Hayley," Katherine squealed, yanking Hayley into a tight embrace. "I'm so glad you're here. We have so much to talk about." Then the two teenage girls were running past me and up the stairs. They were talking rapidly about some kind of pre-high school party they were planning on going to Sunday.
Rolling my eyes, I almost closed the door on Damon and Elena. "Whoa there, Nik," Damon called, placing his hand on the door. "Watch Elena's arm," my eyes widened when I saw the cast she was wearing.
"She wanted to climb the tree," Damon said with a shrug.
Elena elbowed him with her good arm. "You didn't have to yell while I was on the fifth branch up," she retorted.
"Hey, I thought I saw a snake," Damon told her and rubbed his ribs as we walked inside.
"Uh huh," Elena told him. "So, what's the plan for Caroline's party tomorrow?"
"I don't know," I told her honestly. I had been so excited about her coming home that I had not put too much thought into what we should do when she actually arrived.
"You're kidding?" Elena stared at me like I had grown two heads. "Caroline will kill us if we don't give her a party. And if she finds out that you forgot about her she'll be pissed," she hissed at me.
Damon began to laugh at Elena until she stepped on his foot and then he began to dance around, cursing. "What was so funny?" I inquired when my friend stopped jumping around.
"Lena said pissed. And did you notice she looks like an elf with her ears sticking out and her hair like it is now?" Damon asked me. Then Elena grabbed him by the neck and began to choke him.
"Hey," Katherine called as she walked down that stairs with Elijah and Hayley trailing her. "No one beats up Damon but me and possibly Klaus."
"Shut up, Kat," Elena snapped at her.
Elijah chuckled and Hayley placed her hand on his arm which went unnoticed by Katherine because she had her hands on her hips and was about to yell at Elena. "I want a party," Bekah called, coming to stand beside me.
"Oh, my God. Is that Bekah?" Hayley's eye widened as she looked at Rebekah who was smiling up at her. "Come here, baby girl." Running away from me, Bekah was happily scooped up by Hayley who began to smother her with the attention that she was starved of. "I can't believe that you are so grown up," Hayley was saying to Bekah who was glowing with happiness.
Rolling his eyes, Damon decided that we were being distracted and began to pull me and Elena by the arms toward the kitchen. "Did your Mother bake more cookies?" Damon was asking as Elena climbed on top of a one of our stools.
"I have no idea," I told Damon, going to look in the fridge.
"We already ate them," Katherine told us, walking into the room and Damon groaned.
Staring at Katherine with an evil look, Damon spoke while leaning over the counter sitting on his knees on his own stool. "You suck."
Katherine stuck her tongue out at him. Hayley came in with Elijah. She was bouncing Bekah on her hip making my sister giggle. "We could make some, right?"
Scoffing, Katherine leaned over the other side of the counter. "You're kidding, Hayley? Do I look like I'm working toward becoming a housewife?"
Hayley smirked. "Yes," she replied and then began to laugh at the way that Katherine narrowed her eyes.
"I don't know how to cook," Katherine admitted, deflating and staring at her nails. "My mother is too busy teaching Lena stuff like that. She thinks all I care about is fashion."
"Well, isn't that all you care about?" Elijah asked, wrapping an arm around her waist and nudging her hip with his leg.
Smiling, Hayley sat Bekah on top of the counter and then held her still so that she could not squirm off. "Elijah, I cannot believe that you haven't taught her how to cook."
Elijah shrugged lightly, "I didn't think she would want to know."
Katherine slapped Elijah on the shoulder. "Gee, thank you for the vote of confidence.
"We're just going to have to change your cooking virgin status," Hayley announced, winking at Elijah who blushed.
"What's a virgin?" Bekah asked, trying to wiggle away toward Damon.
Hayley placed her hands on either side of Bekah and popped her hip between my sister's legs to pin her to the counter. "Oil," she replied. "And until you're old enough that's all you need to know."
"That's boring," Bekah informed Hayley. "Give me to Damon."
"If you promise to stay still and to not try to climb off the counter by yourself," Hayley told my sister, pressing her forehead to Bekah's.
"Kay," Bekah replied, moving to be lifted off the counter. Hayley placed Bekah in front of Damon and they began a game of patty cake. Only the nursery rhyme had become a chant of "Make us Cookies."
"Okay. Okay. Keep your pants on," Hayley told them and then she turned to Elijah with a big smile. This time Katherine was staring at the cabinets. She still didn't seem to be paying attention to the way that Hayley and Elijah were acting. I wasn't sure I understood exactly what was going on. However, I was sure that if Caroline was there she would have something to say about it.
Then Elena nudged me with her elbow. She was eyeing Hayley, the way that the teenage girl was laughing and playing with her hair while pulling down a bag of flour. "What kind of cookies are you going to make?" Elena inquired, placing her head on her hand like she was bored. But the sparkle in her eyes told me that she was planning something.
"Chocolate chip," Hayley replied.
"That's boring," Elena announced. "How about peanut butter and chocolate chips?"
"Gummy bears," Bekah said with a giggle.
"Gingerbread," Damon added.
"Snicker doddles," Katherine said thoughtfully.
"Huh?" Damon began to scratch his head with wide, confused eyes.
Katherine shook her head. "They're like these plain cookies that you roll in cinnamon and sugar," she told us thoughtfully. "And they have a cool name. Reminds me of these two." Walking behind Damon and Bekah, she ruffled their hair, making Bekah giggle. "Okay, Satan's little helpers. What do you want to do to help?"
"We can be tasters," Damon informed Katherine who raised her eyebrows. "I saw that on TV."
"I can lick the bowl," Bekah said with a cheerful smile.
"I dare you to make all the cookies that you came up with," I announced, my eyes glowing while my brother, Hayley and Katherine looked at each other.
"Do we have enough ingredients for that?" Hayley questioned Elijah while she opened the fridge to peer inside at our milk, butter and eggs.
"We should," Elijah told her, opening the cabinets and pulling down baking soda, chocolate chips, cinnamon, peanut butter, vanilla and sugar. "Sorry, Bekah, I'm not sure we have Gummy Bears," he told our sister who began to pout.
Opening her purse and digging inside it, Hayley produced a small bag of gummy bears. "There aren't many. But maybe we could make a few for Bekah." Rebekah clapped her hands and Elena turned to look at me. I could see that she did not look too happy.
"On with the cooking," Damon ordered the three teenagers in the room. "Sometime before my hair turns grey."
Katherine began to laugh. "Damon, you're nuts." Turning to look at Elijah her gaze shifted to the ingredients. "Although this is my first time," she began and Hayley coughed to cover a laugh that made Katherine smack her arm for some reason. "As I was saying. This is my first time but I still know that I need an apron."
Opening a drawer, Elijah withdrew two aprons. He held one out to Katherine and another to Hayley. "What about you?" Hayley asked, nodding to his clothes.
Smiling, Elijah looked down at his jeans and t-shirt. "I'm not really worried about them."
"Elijah, can you tie these?" Katherine asked, holding out the strings to the apron and watching my brother. He walked over to pull the strings and tie them around her waist. "Thank you," Katherine whispered, giving Elijah a look that I had seen my parents give each other before around the time I found that I would be a big brother again.
"Katherine, you might want to pull your hair back unless you want the food in it," Hayley called, nodding toward Katherine's hair which was hanging over her shoulders. "This can get awfully messy."
Katherine nodded. "You're right. I so do not want to have to pour out half a bottle of shampoo to get this stuff out of my hair. I mean look at my hair. It's way too pretty to mess up."
When Katherine left the room, Hayley began to laugh. "She's something else you know that, Lijah?" Pulling the apron strings around her own back, she kept getting her t-shirt caught in the strings.
"Here, let me do that for you," Elijah whispered. Coming over to Hayley, he pushed her shirt down away from the strings and then pulled them securely around her waist. "You know you should pull your own hair up," he suggested quietly.
I could only sit and watch the two. There was something that I couldn't quite figure out about the way that Elijah was touching Hayley and the way that she smiled at him. Now, she was pulling her hair up slowly off her shoulders and taking a band off her wrist to pull it around her hair.
"You missed some of it," Elijah told Hayley, gently tugging the hairband out of her hair, then gathering it up and then pulling the band around Hayley's hair.
"Are you going to make the cookies sometime today?" Elena snapped, glaring at the two.
"Sorry," Elijah said, coughing and then turning to the counter.
"Oh, my God. I love chocolate chips," Hayley gasped. "You know when I was their age," she nodded at us. "I could never make cookies without eating a few of these," she took a few chocolate chips and placed them in her mouth. Then she moaned as she sucked on the chocolate. "They're so good. Have some, Elijah."
Looking down at Hayley's hand that had a few chocolate chips it, Elijah smiled. Taking her hand in his own, he poured the contents into his own hand. Popping the chocolate into his mouth, he began to suck on the chocolate the way that Hayley had. "They are good this way," he announced when Katherine came into the room.
"What's good?" Katherine asked, looking at the two with an uplifted eyebrow. Then Elijah began to choke. "Are you alright?" Katherine called, coming to stand beside my brother.
"Oh, we were just testing the chocolate chips to make sure they were still fresh," Hayley said before holding out the open bag to Katherine. "Want some?"
"I don't think my sister is into that kind of thing," Elena told her snidely and Damon snorted before clapping a hand over his mouth.
"What?" Hayley looked at Elena like she had said something horrible. "What did you say?"
"She said she likes her chips in the cookies," Damon announced. "Cookies. Cookies. Cookies." We began to chant before the teenagers decided to get to the task of cooking. It didn't take them long to begin to fill up bowls with cookie dough.
"Do you want them to be in shapes?" Hayley asked.
"Christmas trees," Bekah called out.
"Reindeer," Damon called.
"Bitch," Elena muttered.
"What?" Hayley gasped with a wooden spoon in her hand. I thought she was going to hit Elena. That's what Kat would do.
Elena refused to repeat her comment. She just glared at Hayley as Katherine stared at her snicker doodle cookie batter. "Does this look right?"
Elijah peered into the bowl. "Looks fine to me. Hayley, would you like to take a look?"
Walking over, Hayley peered inside the bowl and nodded. "It looks fine." Sticking her finger inside, she pulled out a bit and licked it, staring at Elijah. "It tastes fine."
"Shit," Katherine whispered, looking at her watch. "Lena, we need to get home. I'll see you guys later."
"No," Elena protested. "We haven't had any cookies," she told her sister as she sneered up at Hayley.
"We'll come over tomorrow and have some tomorrow," Katherine said placing her hands on her hips.
"I want them now," Elena snapped, her face turning red.
"Too bad," Katherine yelled and then grabbed Elena. Katherine was picking her up, dragging her kicking and screaming from the room.
"That kid is weird," Hayley said, pointing her spoon in the direction of the departed Gilbert sisters.
"Sometimes I think that she was adopted," Elijah replied. "Katherine and Jeremy do not act anything like Elena."
"That must explain it," Hayley said with a sigh. "Should we get these into the oven?"
Elijah nodded and they began to place the cookies into the oven. All of them except for the snicker doodle cookies. "Okay, kids. Do you want to help with these?" Hayley asked us and we cheered.
Taking the bowl with the cinnamon and sugar, Hayley placed it on the counter. "Do not rub your eyes, okay?" We nodded as she picked up the cookie dough bowl. "Now, take some cookie batter like this and make little balls," she showed us what to do and we made our little cookie balls. "Stick them in the other bowl and roll them around until they're covered."
Bekah was having the most fun because after she got done with a cookie she would place it on the tray. Her last act would be to place her sticky hands on someone's face until every one of us was covered in cookie dough. Hayley was laughing as Elijah took some cookie dough and ran it down the bridge of her nose. "You're going to pay for that, Mikaelson," she warned before taking some dough and smearing it along the back of his neck.
"Cookies," Damon announced as the timer went off and so did the doorbell. "Ah, man. That's probably my dad."
"That's okay," Hayley announced cheerfully. "I'll go get him and tell him we made cookies. You take some with you after we find a container."
"You are cool," Damon told her, hugging her. I was shocked that this girl was winning my friend over.
"What kind of cookies would you like to take with you, Damon?" Elijah asked my friend who was cheerfully trying to get a cookie off the chocolate chip peanut butter tray.
"Whatever you want to give me," Damon told him, eying the snicker doodles with curiosity. Elijah nodded, pulling down a container. He began to take the cookies off the trays.
Handing Damon a snicker doodle, Elijah smiled. Damon grinned before taking a bite and his father and Hayley walked into the room. "This room smells good," Giuseppe announced.
"Would you like some of the cookies, Mr. Salvatore?" Hayley asked him sweetly.
"That would be very nice of you, Hayley," the older man replied, blushing slightly and I rolled my eyes before sliding off my stool.
"See you later, Nik," Damon said, taking his cookies.
"Bye, Damon," I called as he left.
"We need to clean up," Hayley said, gathering Bekah off the floor.
"Gummy bear cookies," Bekah replied, pointing over Hayley's shoulder at the three cookies.
"One tonight," Elijah said and picked it up and we headed upstairs.
I yawned while standing in the doorway of the bathroom. Hayley undressed my sister and placed her in the tub. Bekah was eating her cookie in the tub which Mother would not allow her to do. Of course, Mother and Father were not at home yet. Nothing new. Sitting on the floor, I began to drift toward sleep.
"Up," Elijah ordered me. I blinked up at him, realizing that Bekah was sitting on Hayley's hip and ready for bed. She was blinking rapidly but still a bit fussy.
"Read me a bedtime story, Nik," Bekah asked me. We went into the room and Hayley laid her down on her bed. "I will, Bekah," I promised her as my brother and his friend walked out the door. "What do you want to hear?"
"Good Night Moon," Bekah informed me and I nodded my head. Ten minutes later she was out. Getting up and yawning, I walked by Elijah's room on the way to my own. There was the sound of giggling coming for the direction of his bathroom.
Hesitating by the door to his bedroom, I eased inside the room. The door to the bathroom was open and I peered around the corner to see Elijah using a wash cloth to clean the cookie off of Hayley's face. Then she took it to clean the cookie off of the back of his neck. I could only stand there and wonder what they would do next when my jaw dropped as Elijah pulled his friend to him and kissed her.
How could he do that? He was supposed to be with Katherine. I wondered if my parents ever kissed other parents. Or other adults. It didn't seem right. I always thought that Elijah would never do anything wrong. Did he not love Katherine? I would never kiss anyone I was not in love with. And I loved Caroline.
Before I could walk away unseen I saw Hayley pressing her body to my brother's and then he was pulling her shirt off. I had not seen many girls in their bras but I knew from TV that when people started taking their clothes off that they were going to have sex. Were they about to have sex? 'Oh, what would Damon think about this?' I wondered as Elijah unbuckled his pants.
Our parents were going to come home soon and they were going to get caught. Maybe they should be caught. Maybe I should tell Katherine what I saw. My thoughts were going crazy while clothes began to fall to the floor. I had seen enough. Hurrying out to the hall, I almost ran into my Father.
"Niklaus, is Elijah in his room?" Father asked me. "There is a mess that he needs to clean up in the kitchen," he started to walk past me and into Elijah's room. For a moment I almost allowed him to go in.
"Father! Wait!" I called loudly enough for Elijah to hear. "I think I told Elijah that I would clean up for him."
"You did?" Father stared down at me, looking surprised. "That's nice of you, Niklaus," he patted me on the head before walking back downstairs.
After he had disappeared, Hayley appeared in the doorway in a robe. "Hey, Klaus. Thanks," she said.
I smirked at her and tilted my head to the side. "I didn't do it for you. I did it for my brother. Have a good night, Hayley. Oh, and I hope you and Katherine enjoy the party on Sunday."
I started to walk away with the desire to kick something when Hayley stepped in front of me. "Klaus, you're not going to tell anyone, are you?"
I smirked up at her, "Why should I not?"
Hayley wrapped her arms around herself. "They're not even together anymore. He broke up with her three months ago. And nothing was supposed to happen."
"Why should I care?" I snapped. "After all. I'm just a kid." Pushing past her, I hurried down the stairs and wondered why if they were broken up that Katherine was here all the time. Or was she? I went down that stairs and cleared the things off the counter, putting the ingredients in the cabinets and fridge.
Heading back up the stairs, I laid down and yawned. Staring at the candle that I had received a billion years ago on Bonnie's sixth birthday I stared at the candle's light. It had to not blow out or darkness would fill me. Or something like that. Watching it, I saw the flame flicker and then it went out.
Feeling a cold wind blow, my heart squeezed painfully tight. I felt my thoughts turn to the desire to burn down my house. To strangle my best friend. Hate filled me. Disgust began to boil. I had never felt anything as frightening consume me. My breathing slowed as I opened my eyes and then suddenly a match glowed in the dark.
The candle was relit and I felt a warm, little body lay down beside my own. "You're okay. Don't let the darkness get you, Nik," a voice whispered to me, wrapping slight arms around my waist.
"I won't, Caroline," I whispered back, burying my face into her soft curls. "Thank you for coming home."
"You're welcome," Caroline replied.
So, I know that you're all probably reeling from that chapter. And all I can say it send me reviews and I will try to answer your pressing questions next week at the end of the new chapter. Until then review answers are below.
Elijahlover: Hey, thanks. I hope you didn't hate the chapter because I know you're a big Katherine/Elijah shipper. But life has many bumps in the road and Katherine and Elijah's story is still developing and they will have many things to overcome to get to where they are in Klaus' "present."
Guest: You're welcome.
Redbudrose: I hope you liked. There will be more Klaroline to come in next week's update. A lot of it, actually.
Amaya rose23: I can't tell you. Otherwise, I ruin it. But readers can guess and I can try to pm them sometime before the end of April (when I get out of school on summer break).
Klaroline4everlove: I know and she is…
MJTE: I hope you enjoyed her surprise return.
Thank you for reading, faving, following and reading: elijahlover, ferrylis, Guest, Redbudrose, amaya rose23, Mystery Girl3, CB4389, klaroline4everlove and MJTE.
Peace,
LL