Hey guys! Sorry for the wait. Had an unfortunately busy weekend, then work the past two days :/ but things should calm down now. Anyways, I see that there's some divide on the Kol/Mari versus Klaus/Mari which is cool :3 I dont know how this will all play out yet but I hope I dont disappoint anyone. But this chapter in particular will focus on Klaus/Mari so... Enjoy! :D
Chapter 24:
Klaus kissed Hope on the head gently, waving goodbye as Elijah walked Hayley out of the compound. Saying goodbye was always difficult, but Klaus knew that Hope was safest outside of New Orleans. She would be back soon, he reminded himself. They were not saying goodbye forever, just for now. It still stung, but it was bearable.
Mari stood awkwardly a few feet away, her hands clasped together behind her back. She had been nervous, showing up with Klaus, but he had made it clear that he wasn't going to let her out of his sight for a little while. Not after the incident with a much too volatile Kol and the damage he had done after visiting Mari in a frenzy.
That look in his eyes still bothered her immensely. He looked torn to pieces, like he was struggling to figure out what to do with the hand he was dealt. Mari knew that Kol cared about her, but he had loved Davina much longer than he cared for Mari. She understood that, but it still bothered her. Mostly because she couldn't blame Kol for wanting to return to Davina.
"Oh, love, try not to look so glum," Klaus' voice brought her out of her thoughts. She lifted her gaze to his, then pushed her glasses back into place on the bridge of her nose. He walked up to her, taking her small, pale face in his hands and brushing his thumbs over her cheeks. "I do so miss that beautiful smile of yours."
Her cheeks flushed, even though she knew he was just trying to cheer her up. Mari tried to smile, but it was half-hearted. Her heart still ached over the loss of Kol, even though she had Klaus to lean on. Falling in love with Kol had been slow, and it took some time. It would likely take time to let him go as well, even if she wished the pain would hurry up and end.
"Are you sure your family approves of... you and me?" Mari asked, reaching up to grab his arms. She lowered his hands from her cheeks, "Elijah seems... wary of it. I dont want to cause any more trouble than I already have."
"Elijah knows how difficult it is to love a human," Klaus sighed, taking her small hands into his. "He is confused about the situation with Kol as well. I can talk to him if you would like me to. Explain the situation." Mari shook her head,
"No, it's okay. If you're not worried about it, I'll try not to be. Your family has done so much for me." She briefly thought about her last interaction with her father, and the bruises he had sent her back with. Mari hoped her brother was doing well, since she was in no position to help him just yet. She let out a breath.
"Mari, love, would you like to have a drink with me?" He asked with that infamous Klaus Mikaelson smile. He could've convinced her to do anything with that smile. Mari looked up at him and nodded.
"Okay."
Mari sipped at the drink Klaus had ordered for her, her head already a little fuzzy from the alcohol. Klaus sat on the stool next to her, frustratingly sober even after having more drinks than she did. Mari furrowed her brow.
"Can vampires get drunk?" She asked him after a moment, swirling around what liquid was left in her glass. Klaus chuckled a little. Her face was flushed, which told him by itself that Mari was already a little tipsy.
"It's difficult, but possible," Klaus answered after a moment. "It would take a large quantity of alcohol in a very short period of time. Its been ages since Ive been intoxicated." Mari seemed to be thinking on that, staring down at the liquor left in her glass. She was swinging her legs back and forth slowly. Klaus couldn'thelp but think she looked adorable like that, so perplexed and intrigued by something.
"Why did you want to come to the bar then?" She questioned, lifting her gaze to his.
"Because I figured you could use a drink or two," he shrugged his shoulders, motioning to the bartender to refill his glass. "To drown your sorrows." Mari frowned at that, sitting back against the counter. She set her glass down.
"Can I ask you something?" She tapped her fingertips against the wooden bar, taking her lip between her teeth. "If the woman you loved..." She pondered on the name she had heard once before. "Camille. Right? If Camille came back suddenly with some... ritual... Would you-"
"Mari," Klaus interrupted her before she could finish her thought. "Camille isn't coming back. She wouldn't want to come back. We said our goodbyes, and as devastated as I was when I lost her, Ive accepted that she's gone. Besides, if she did come back, and I tried to abandon you to be with her, Camille was the type of woman to smack me and send me back to you."
"She sounds like a really kind person," Mari smiled a bit, taking a deep breath. "Klaus, I... I'm trying to convince myself that it's okay and I understand why Kol has to go back to her. I'm trying to... be okay with it. I'm not okay, but I am... able to deal with it because I have you."
"I'm not going anywhere, Mari," Klaus reassured her. She smiled, a real smile, and Klaus wondered how such a simple expression could cause a fluttering in the heart he thought was long cold to such things. She picked up her glass and downed the rest of it.
"You have yourself convinced that you're not worthy of love," she sighed. Klaus stared at her for a moment, his eyes widening slightly. She quickly finished her thought, "But you're so damn easy to love. I felt like a kid again when I met you. Just a little kid with a stupid crush. I never thought..." Mari giggled a bit.
"Perhaps we should go," Klaus cleared his throat, trying not to think about how absolutely alluring she was in such a state. Mari pouted a bit, like a child, but nodded.
"Probably a good idea." She was a lot less soft-spoken when she was slightly intoxicated. He kind of liked it. Mari paused for a moment, then looked up at him. "Are you hungry?" She asked him suddenly. Klaus had to bite back a low growl as Mari reached up and brushed her hair to one side, exposing her throat to him. She noticed his jaw tighten, and how he shifted uncomfortably.
"Shall we retire to your hotel room?" He asked her calmly despite the temptation staring him down. Mari thought about it for a moment, wondering if he had declined her offer or if he was relocating her in order to accept it. Klaus threw some cash onto the bar, then took Mari by the hand a lottle forcefully and within seconds they were out of the bar and down the road.
Kol couldn'tstand it anymore. He waited patiently until Davina left the dusty little attic to see Marcel. Once she was gone, he pulled up Mari's number, but before he did anything, he hesitated. He knew, logically, that calling her would likely make things more difficult. She still loved him after all.
In the end, emotion won out over reason. He called her, and he was surprised how long it rang before she picked up.
"H-Hello?" Came her squeaky voice. Kol let out a breath, resting his free palm against the wall and lowering his head. Hearing her voice was more difficultthan he thought it would be. It just reminded him of how much he really missed her.
"Mari. Are you well, darling?" He asked with steady speech. Kol knew better than to let his own emotions bleed through his words. She would worry if she could hear how unsteady he really was about the whole situation.
"I'm..." She trailed off, sighing heavily. Mari sounded breathless, like she had just run a few miles without stopping. "I'm okay," she eventually blurted out, as if the words were difficult for her to manage. Kol frowned at that. It was his fault, after all, that she was so heartbroken.
"Mari, I hope you understand how difficult this is for even me. I never wanted things to turn out like this. I... wanted to be able to make you happy."
"I know," Mari answered, curling her fingers in Klaus' hair in a desperate attempt to get him to stop. His head was between her legs, fangs buriedin the soft flesh of her inner thigh. "You have to be happy, too, Kol." Her eyes fluttered closed.
Klaus was torturing her. As soon as he heard Kol's voice on the other end of the call, he continued what they were doing before she got to call. He had already pried her jeans from her legs, leaving on her underwear while he fed from her thigh.
"I'm trying to be," Kol sighed. She could hear the distress in his voice, and it made her feel guilty. He was clearly upset, and she would have been, too, if she wasn't completely distracted by the feeling of Klaus' warm breath against the inside of her leg.
"W-Why..." She trailed off, biting into her lip as Klaus dragged down her underwear and discarded them on the floor. He was being possessive, even though he had agreed not too long ago to share her with Kol. Now that Kol had left, Klaus must have decided he wasn't going to share anymore. She took a deep breath. "Why aren't you happy? I thought... you were with Davina."
"I miss you," he admitted shamelessly. Mari brought her hand up to her mouth quickly as Klaus' lips moved from her thigh inward to the place he was all too eager to taste. "Mari?"
"I'm sorry," she breathed, unable to say anything else. "I miss you, too." Klais' grip on her legs tightened, and his tongue flicked over her aggressively. Mari couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her lips, and she quickly covered her mouth again with her hand. Her head tilted back, and her eyes squeezed shut again.
"Mari, are you okay?" Kol asked in concern. Something definitely sounded off, and he thought she must have been crying. He hated being the reason she cried, though it seemed like he so often was in recent weeks.
"I'm fine," she said after a few moments of silence. It was obvious that talking to Kol was as difficult as it was for him to talk to her. Her voice only made him more desperate to see her. "Kol, I... I need to go. I can't do this."
"Wait, Mari," he pleaded, leaning forward until his forehead rested against the wall. He couldn't stop the water that pooled in his eyes. He slammed his fist against the wall. "Just wait. Please. I don't want... I don't want you to hurt anymore."
"Kol, I have to go."
"Don't," he begged. "Don't go." He wasn't ready to say goodbye to her again, not yet. Her voice brought more comfort to him than he cared to admit. He thought maybe it was just as hard for her, and by keeping her on the line, he was only torturing her more.
"Ah, Klaus," she whimpered. Kol's eyes widened, and his heart stopped beating in his chest. He pushed off of the wall, taking a few steps as he listened intently. She was panting heavily, and it became clear what was going on. She wasn't crying. "K-Kol, I have to go..."
"Yes," Kol said as calmly as he could through his teeth. "Go. Enjoy my brother." He hung up the phone quickly, staring down at her name and contact picture for a moment. "You bastard!" He shouted, his spiteful words aimed at Klaus. He threw his phone into the wall in a fit of rage, watching as it shattered into pieces that shot in all directions. He let out a loud growl, then put his fist through the wooden wall of the attic.
Mari pushed Klaus back, sitting up with a look of shame in her eyes. She set her phone down beside her. Klaus may have pushed a little too much, but the only other option was to let that phone call hurt her as much as Kol's leaving did.
"I'm sorry," Klaus said softly. He had gone too far, he knew that. Something overcame him in that moment, and while he outwardly regretted it for Mari's sake, the darker part of Klaus was pleased to have made it clear to Kol that Mari would be fine without him.
Mari grabbed the collar of his grey long sleeved shirt, pulling him up to her and kissing him roughly. She needed to drown in Klaus, needed to forget everything else but him for a moment. Klaus understood, and he wasted no time.
He pulled off the shirt she was clinging to, throwing it to the side. Hers came off next, and once it was out of the way, Mari began fumbling with Klaus' button and zipper on his jeans. Her hands were shaking, so he moved them gently to do it himself. He paused for a moment, looking her in the eyes to make sure this was what she wanted.
"Please," she whined, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly. "Please, Klaus." Giving in completely to her wishes, he pulled her arms from his neck and spun her around. Mari let out a few deep breaths to steady herself, but with each passing moment she only wanted him more. Klaus pulled her back against his chest, brushing her hair to the side and biting into her shoulder gently.
While he fed a little more, Klaus worked his jeans down. With one hand on her hip, he used the other to bend her at the waist, running his hand along her spine as she leaned forward far enough to grab the headboard of the bed. It may have been wrong, to lose her sorrows in Klaus the way she was. It probably hurt Kol more than he would have admitted, but Mari couldn't change things now. Kol had made his decision. She needed to make one, too.
Her grip on the bed frame tightened until her knuckles turned white as she felt the pressure of Klaus entering her. Just as it had before, it hurt a little for a brief moment. Her body had to adjust to him, and it did so much faster than it did before. Klaus bent over her to grab her wrists, and he pried her hands from the headboard. His own hands slid up her arm to the place just above where her elbow bent, and he held her arms there as he began to move his hips.
Her head fell back on his shoulder, and her eyes closed. It was a temporary fix, she knew, but when Klaus was inside of her, she couldn't think of anything else. He felt so good that, for the moment, she forgot everything else except him, and the feeling of him buried deep within her.
It still amazed her how gentle and rough he could be at the same time. His grip on her arms was tight, but he wasn't hurting her. That sort of control over his strength intrigued her. She wondered how long it took to learn.
Eventually, he turned her around again, picking her up entirely from the bed so he could wrap her legs around his waist. This time, he used to the headboard to give himself leverage as he bounced her with the arm he had around her waist. She moaned and panted with each thrust, her lust-filled hazy eyes focusing on him when they weren't closed. He buried his fingers in her blond curls and broughther lips to his to kiss her heatedly as he made love to her.
After an hour and three orgasms, Mari knew her body couldn't take much more. Klaus knew, too, so her released his hold on her and let her settle down onto the bed again. She laid on her side, so Klaus laid next to her so they were facing one another.
"Are you alright, love? Does it hurt?" He asked, brushing the hair that stuck to her cheek away genty. She shook her head, still too breathless for words. "Would you like me to stay?"
"Yes," she nodded. "It's better when you're here." She slid over to be closer to him, curling up against his chest even though she was a little sweaty. Klaus hugged her to him, running his fingers through her tangled curls to loosen them.
"Rest now, love. Think of only happy things." Klaus knew without compulsion there was no way to completely end her pain. However, he would do what he could to make it easier. Klaus loved her too much to just let her suffer. If he had to become her crutch, he would. Even if he was shielding her from his own brother, Klaus would do it for her. Always.