The bayou water ripples as the silver of the tailgate glints under moonlight before descending under its dark depth.
Klaus had stuffed the men into the truck, stacking them on top of one another, sliding their detached appendages under the steering wheel.
There was an art to disposing bodies, he explained to her, weighing down the bodies with a concrete parking pillar he had yanked from the convenience store parking lot.
"Gator bait," He beams as the swamp hides their kill.
Bonnie stands off to herself on the bayou's muddy bank. She did not assist Klaus in her first lesson, and he did not appear to need her help; he seemed completely delighted to handle it on his own.
Bored of the stifling heat, she quietly summons the wind under her breath and a balmy breeze breaks through the trees and whistles into Bonnie's ear as she looks down and observes the prickling of her flesh.
She smiles, toothy and wide.
She glances over to the naked man, the silhouette of him, the scattered black birds over his left shoulder, the sharp lines of his abdomen and jutting hip bone, and then she steals a quick look downward at the defined muscle of his thigh and the considerable length of his flaccid penis.
"You don't need a full moon?"
His brow quirks and she points upward at the partially swollen moon.
"Benefits of being a hybrid. I change when I want to."
She trudges beside him, shoulder to shoulder, through the black thicket she had traversed merely hours ago when she was running for her life to get away from him. She carries the pistol at her side, not because she needs it, but because Klaus trusted her with it, even after her failed attempt at setting him on fire. And as they trek back to their spelled sanctuary she tells him that she feels like she isn't being Bonnie, like the whole business of dying and coming back to life might have erased who she was, and that she feels strong enough to set the world spinning in the opposite direction, and he concurs, and explains after training with him that is exactly what she will do once they return to New Orleans.
Shoeless and dirty beyond imagine, she craves the bath tub she left behind at the Mikaelson mansion and wonders what the bathing situation will be like at the farmhouse.
Each shadowy tree they pass, she anticipates another threat jumping from behind its massive trunk and she turns to Klaus, "If there are witches, and vampires and wolves, what else is there?"
"All of those creatures from children's tales are real."
Her eyes light up, "So there are fairies?"
"Yes."
"Goblins?"
"Yes."
"Demons?"
He snorts, "Of course."
"Well, what about Angels?" She asks, imagining six foot beings of light with soft feathery wings, picturing one with the face of a man she now recalls, but if she were sure of her memory like she is of the surge of magic she possesses, she would call him Dad.
But Klaus doesn't answer her, he just pulls back the curtain of thorny brush to uncover their home and kisses the top of her head.
BKBKBKBKBK
No one would ever confuse Klaus for the affectionate sort.
There have been many women, too many to count, blurry faces and faded names, falling into lust and infatuation, taking lover after lover for over a millennia. And if there were to be a gathering of the many sort he has adored or tortured, there would be an agreeance, every woman would raise her hand and say that his impulsive nature was reserved for the kill and not the bed.
His advances have all been calculated and predatory. Seduction can only be heightened by the uncertainty of his position and the threat of what he might do.
But this compulsion of his, this undeniable desire to press his mouth on Bonnie without premeditation, well, it is strange.
And he thinks of Caroline, her face like the cresting of the sun, and of Josephine with her brown hands over his heart, and of Helen with her neck outstretched under his bite, and of Nicolette with her rosary pressed against her breast, and of the one with the red ribbon in her raven hair….
They deserved his affection, they were the rarity. The ones he loved.
But he believes after the whirlwind of procuring the one weapon he needs to become King and nearly losing his weapon in almost twenty four hours, he thinks he has bested fate and is just feeling expansive.
He reaches for his crumpled jeans on the porch, and while pulling them on over his sweaty and blood smudged skin, he notices Bonnie's curiosity and he quickly kisses the space between her eyes.
BKBKBKBKBK
"Do you plan on running away again?" He asks with all seriousness, handing her a whiskey with no ice served in a red solo cup.
"What good will it do? She tastes the alcohol, letting it burn her lips before throwing the contents of the cup to the back of her throat.
The whiskey relaxes her and she takes a seat on the wooden steps of the porch.
Klaus refills her cup, "How were you able to cast the spell?"
She shrugs, wondering if she had ever killed a man in her old life and if it ever made her feel as powerful as she is now. "I'm not sure. It was just there. Like somewhere in my brain I just knew what to say when it was time," She responds, looking up at the hybrid hovering over her, grinning, with the whiskey bottle in his hand.
"What?"
"It's…well…not to sound trite but you are growing up so fast. It was only yesterday when you were learning to walk," He smirks, taking a long swig from the bottle.
His grin doesn't disturb her like it did before, instead it warms her as much as the whiskey in her belly.
"What was I like?" She asks, wanting to know more about Bonnie.
He takes up the rest of the wooden slat she is sitting on, and they are once again, shoulder to shoulder, looking out on the front yard and the early morning fog cascading over the grass.
And he sees her, standing in the hallway of his Mystic Falls mansion, wincing at the sight of her mother's killer strung up in his ballroom.
"Loyal, "He stresses, twirling the bottle in his hands.
Author's Note
So I really want these two to bone but I think it's gonna be a couple of entries before I get to it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm glad I finally get to write these two getting to know one another.