AN: Reminder I have a poll for this story on my profile, and I will be updating this story tomorrow as well. Angst coming up!
He tells Elena, as she helps him sort his first room of memories in his mind palace, that the witches are trying to come up with a way for visiting vampires, witches and werewolves to know the rules. It's an interesting piece of magic they're working on, and she seems interested, but something's wrong. He can tell, but can't the source.
He almost regrets teaching Elena how to keep a good neutral face, she was an open book before he did. But it's hers to tell, and he won't push at it. She helps him sort through the little cubes of memories. His memory cubes are slightly smaller than hers, but she supposes that it's because he has more memories than she does. He catches her stare too long at the cube in her hands, and he assures her that Caroline is fine. She's just sleeping. Or she was before he went to see her.
She nods, and asks him to tell her about anything he hasn't mentioned. He tells her about Kol and Rebekah's series of bets and wagers, about how Finn and Sage are doing, and updates for her from Mystic Falls. Jeremy got a full baseball scholarship to the college he wanted. She raises and eyebrow and he admits Kol pulled a string and he had pulled a few as well. She thanks him, done with her pile of memories. He nods, and they work on another room before he has to leave, her room. His feelings have already been sorted, and she can't tell if she's concerned or proud he sorted them by himself. Feelings were hard, they tangled up so easily, the cubes would stick together until they were mentally separated.
But Klaus asks her to return him, and they return to her mind palace and she closes the door to his mind, and then send him back into the real world. She produces a marker, and writes on her outermost wall. She writes that she'll be asleep for a while, and not to try and enter her mind. They're welcome to visit her physical body, she'll be listening, but she's exhausted and if she sleeps she doesn't have to think. The neon purple is vibrant against the gray wall, and she moves herself to her mind palace.
Her walls are all in place, no doors at all. It's not to hurt Caroline or Elijah, really. But she just feels like laying in bed, and she doesn't think she can fool either of them if she stays awake. She doesn't want to cry to Caroline again, barely any time since she last cried in front of her, and she doesn't want Elijah to see her lose all of her shit either. She feels like she's almost there. Elijah and Caroline have their own lives, and she hopes they focus on them in the time they have in their schedule to do so. Since she won't fill a time slot in their days, they should have more fun. Feel better. She doesn't want them to feel stuck in her head like she does.
She closes her eyes as she pulls the comforter up.