E N D U R I N G

            For all the momentary fleeting desire to slam her fingers down upon the keys, to let an intentional discordant clash cover the accidental one, Aline only folded her hands in her lap. A beat, then two, and though she could not have explained why, she turned her head uncertainly in his direction ( more or less ).    ❛ Would you play something? I realize I’ve never heard you play. ❜

“So that is how it is to be, hmm? You just want to see me caught off guard.” He gave her a look; one that was meant to be serious but one that died not longer after it was born.  He could hardly fault her for wanting to push him beyond his comfort zone.  He was, after all, trying to do the same to her.  

(albeit with a different purpose in mind) 

He leaned back, more relaxed now than he had been in days.  It was a wholly ridiculous concept to be debating with her and yet he was not willing to part with it just yet.  “Sofas may be able to be cleaned but keep in mind that my age means that I have plenty more experience in returning the favor.  I may not look the part to indulge in a prank war but that is what makes me the perfect candidate — you would not see me coming.”

            ❛ Can you blame me? The perfectly respectable Elijah Mikaelson... caught off guard? How many can claim the honor of having witnessed that? ❜    Cami knew she exaggerated, knew she made a big deal out of that which was inconsequential, but it felt good to joke lightly, to dismiss more serious matters. But so long as he was content to play along, Cami would not break the moment. 

He could see her mind working and realized he had probably only to served to nurture her curiosity instead of quashing it.  Elijah gave her credit; many would turn away the first chance they got.  She simply dug in deeper.  

He had once told his brother he liked her spirit (he was not lying when he had done so).

The inevitable question caused him to break out into a grin.  It was a logical thing to ask, and he had dangled the bait after all.  “Countless as you would imagine,” he answered.  He did not have a number (or at least he did not have a number of those that would still be habitable).  “I can tell you that there are thirty four properties of varying sizes on the continental US alone. Many of them are simply apartments — places to catch one’s breath.”  Of course they had started out as places to hide from Mikael.  “There are grand affairs like the mansion my brother built in Mystic Falls.  It barely saw its doors opened before we left.  Shame it will no doubt go to waste.”  

He thought of Europe and of the homes he could remember there.  “A villa in Tuscany of course.  An apartment in Paris.  There are some that simply foundation now, nothing left to prove we were once there.  It seems excessive, I know.  But with time and money, things tend to pile up.”

            ❛ Thirty four. In the U.S.. Alone. ❜    She repeated the words slowly, bemused despite knowing that she should not find such surprise in the information. Of course they did. Ten centuries spread across the world, inevitably forced to move onward sooner or later... how could they not? Still, the number seemed absurdly high, especially if she dared to consider those beyond the bounds of the only country she had ever known.    ❛ Do you... I don’t know... have someone to look after them? Pay property taxes? Make sure they don’t burn down or get vandalized or... ❜    The sheer maintenance of thirty four properties was inconceivable. 

            Reason and common sense would bid her obey, to trust his instincts and remove herself from the situation. Not to get involved in matters that went well over her head, that inevitably placed her in danger of some form or another. How rarely Cami abided by the guidance of reason and common sense, however, had long since become a problem with no solution in sight. She hesitated instead, the beginnings of a scowl fixing upon her features. In the end, stubborn determination won out, as it so often did. Arms crossed before her, though the gesture carried a tension of its own.    ❛ You don’t expect me to actually leave you to deal with this alone, do you? ❜

            She fully expected him to argue; her presence would inevitably restrict his intended course of action ( it wouldn’t be the first time she stepped in to prevent him from resorting to undue violence ), and that alone would give him cause. Resolute as ever, she was little inclined to yield to his arguments, regardless of what awaited them beyond that door.    ❛ I’ve come this far; I’ll see it through. ❜

            Every tense muscle in her body screamed at her that there was no time to waste, that she could not afford to tarry even to catch her breath, for all her chest heaved with both exertion and adrenaline. Two seconds only Cami stood, leaning against the blood-stained table, broken shards of the bottle still in her hand. The vampire’s daylight ring, newly parted from his hand, she retrieved with fingers that threatened to tremble. The metal slid between her fingers, made difficult to grasp by the blood. Two seconds, and then she was moving again, wheeling toward the door and freedom. 

            Cami drew up short before she had reached the wide doorway; her escape path was blocked, not by the vampire she had attacked, still writhing beneath the burning sun behind her, but by another. She had gambled on his continued absence, and it seemed she had lost. Lucien’s smirk and his taunting words did nothing to ease the fury that had been growing since he had first dragged her here, demanding her help at the point of a knife ( even if said blade was not directed at her ). 

            He’s not such a fool as the vampire she tricked not moments before; there’ll be no easy way out of this. Resolute as always, however, she refused to yield, to simply surrender to him and his snide remarks and infuriating grin.    ❛ I'm glad, ❜    she managed,    ❛ that you’re entertained. But I am not in the mood for whatever game you think this is, Lucien. Get out of my way; I’m leaving. ❜    He’d call her bluff, she knew; they both knew she was out of cards to play.

Elijah was well aware that he had placed himself as the gatekeeper of his family and there were consequences of doing that.  It made him an easy target and apparently she had decided to latched onto that.  “Yes, my reputation,” Elijah stated with a terse smile.  “Centuries of behaving one way and people seem to forget where I came from.  I seem to forget…”

He couldn’t help but think of that red door.  So carefully placed and maintained by his subconscious — his demons were supposed to be safe there.  Of course his mother had torn it all down in her bid to get him to submit.  “I know you are something beyond what usually slinks into town so I will just say this — poke at me all you like, just know that my control is nothing compared to what it was the last time we crossed paths.”

            He did not seem to realize the trench he dug himself, the ever-greater temptation he laid at her feet.    ❛ If you mean to warn me off, Elijah, I would cease, now, before you have done precisely the opposite. Rare though our meetings have been, you know I only take warnings as a challenge, and idleness and boredom never play nicely with me. Do your precious city a favour and don’t tempt me. ❜

It was strange to not have her argue against every word that came out of his mouth. He was used to it. He expected it (part of him craved it).  Still, the idea that his words were having some effect on her was bolstered by the fact that she wasn’t working to dismantle everyone of them.  

(he wished he could offer more)

He took a deep breath, knowing there was no easy answer to that question.  “I am afraid nothing I tell you will bring you the kind of peace you currently wish for, Camille.  My answer to your questions would be totally different than yours — it comes down to that.  It comes down to how far you are willing to push and what are you willing to let slip through your fingers to allow it to happen.” He had a feeling that she would not be willing to let much through.  Instead she would wear each loss like some personal badge of shame.

            Cami knew that no matter how strongly she sought to deceive herself, nothing could convince her that he was wrong. No, nothing he might say would offer her peace. Nothing he might do could offer her peace, though some ( carefully ignored ) part of her wished she could step closer, step into his arms and hide her face against his chest and forget the world. Silently she chastised herself for the mere thought, fleeting though it was. 

            ❛    what do you want?  ❜ anger tampered with the heavy WEIGHT of his words, slipping from clenched teeth in a poorly concealed whisper as maintaining control over his emotions began to prove difficult. the last thing he wanted right now was a visitor. i did what had to be done. i always do. it’s what he had been telling himself, but there was nothing that he had done that had been able to fill the VOID in his chest, a black hole swallowing up his ability to find any semblance of peace.  ❛  SPEAK, ❜ he commanded, finally turning around to face her. // @atlassouled​. KYLO at MAE.  

Klaus decided against letting himself dwell on the memories of this place.  They were there, if he looked hard enough. The hundred dollar bill was easiest to spot of course; the beginning of it all.  But there were other moments, more quiet, more meaningful.  If let himself fall into them, he would be worse off than he already was.

So instead he sat, as if this was any ordinary place.  He raised a hand, called for a drink for the both of them and then turned his focus on her (the here and now her; the one who invoked such pain in him and he willingly let her).

“Unfortunately, as much as we try, we cannot control everything.  It is a surprise to hear me say that I know,” he told her with a faint smile turning the corners of his lips.  He once would have argued against that notion himself.  In many ways, he still did.  He might know that he could not wrestle total control from the fingers of whatever spun the universe but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t stop trying.

“However, I would like to point out that although things will never be as you saw them when you were beyond the bar daydreaming of your future that does not mean that you can’t find some version of that in all of this,” Klaus told her.  “You could still have your practice.  There are many that could find comfort in your counsel.”  He waited a beat or two before leaning in.  “And don’t be so quick to label your efforts thus far as a failure.  There is still much ground to cover.  You will be surprised how what seems like defeat actually turns out to be a victory in disguise.”

            ❛ You are rather one to talk, ❜    she agreed, the faintest of wry smiles gaining purchase on her features. He had spent the years during which she had known him striving to do just that: control everything and everyone about him. Perhaps his flight from the city, the years away, had helped show him otherwise. She didn’t want to consider what made those years different, not when a thousand years had been unable to impress upon him the same lesson.

            But it was something that, all considered, she had not fully contemplated. She could go back to her previous intention, different though it must inevitably be. She needn’t forsake years of study, nor twist her experience to suit an endeavor that so little seemed to suit her skills. And thus, his words silenced her, drawing a frown not of displeasure but of thought. Cami could not have said why all had turned out as it had, why, with her life claimed, she had sought to forge an entirely new purpose for her life. No, she did know: she had felt it necessary to justify her continued existence. To provide the world one more therapist scarcely seemed sufficient. To right the disaster of this city, to help the helpless... Cliched though the endeavor was, surely it counted for more.

              ❛    yer not serious   !    ❜ oh but she was, he could tell, and his laughter rang about the room. it was an unusual sound only because it wasn’t usually seem coming out of mitchell’s mouth. if aline was talented at anything, it was making mitchell feel his humanity. he couldn’t have asked for a better friend.  ❛  an’ wot did you do after that?  ❜ // @atlassouled. MITCHELL at ALINE.  

There was something cathartic in letting it all out.  He felt free in a sense, as if the burden he had been carrying since this mess began had been cut from his back.  They had tried their best, dancing around this conversation for weeks now.  In the end, it would have been better to confront it head on.  To let it out.  To get it over with.

Funny, how years ago she had encouraged him to do just that and he had dug his heels in (the Camille he knew then would be proud of him now).

Whatever peace he felt, whatever victory he thought he could claim, he knew it would only be momentary.  Camille had her own burdens she was cling to unnecessarily and he had a feeling now that he had poked her hard enough she would be all too willing to toss them aside (even if they were at his expense).

Therefore, Klaus braced himself as she seemed to wind up, ready to deliver yet another blow to his already wounded psyche.  He noted her distance, the way she seemed to rein herself in.  Steady herself against whatever vulnerability he had pointed out in her.  

It was hard to hear what he already knew.  There was no going back.  No return to those moments when he felt truly at peace, surrounded by her and everything she meant to him.  He stood there, stone faced as his rebuttal.

“I did not expect some grand reunion.”  Not really.  He might have daydreamed a time or two about the taste of her lips but he did not (deep down) believe that he could actually know that feeling once more.  “But at least now it is in the open.  At least now we can stop pretending that despite your need of a friend that there isn’t another layer to all of this.”

He refused to let her hide behind what had happened to her in all respects.  He would never discount the wrong that had been done to her, nor his part in all of it but she could not fling that at him at every turn.  

“You want my help — you have it.  But remember how well you know me, Camille.  Remember that my patience is not infinite and that my ability to handle things is not always what it should be.  I am under no illusion that you will admit your feelings in some grand gesture.  But I am also not going to allow myself to get in too deep.  I am afraid of the consequences.”  Not only for himself but for the city around him.  Her continued rejection might be tolerable now but he feared for the day it was not.  “At least we can say that the air is cleared between us.  At least we can move forward with our intentions laid bare.”

            She knew indeed the limitations of his patience, the frustration that inevitably accompanied circumstances that did not go his way. Barring his erratic behaviour upon his initial return, he had shown significant restraint. Especially, she knew, in light of her own actions of late. How easy it had been to ignore, to settle the disquieting voices that sought to remind her that this was wrong, to justify her need for his help, for him. To this point, he had let her delude herself, ignore that which she would rather not see. Beyond his initial reminder that she herself had broken her own rules in coming to him that first day when she had asked for his help, they had all but ignored the reality of the situation. 

            Cami had been grateful for it, content to deceive herself, for all the hypocrisy of the situation. Now, she felt as if whatever tethered her had been severed or cast free, leaving her adrift, torn once more between what she knew to be right and what she desired, what she needed. Between keeping her distance, for his sake as much as hers, and not being alone in this struggle. But he deserved better than this, this constant game of push and pull, this selfish demand that he help her, regardless of his own feelings. In the past, Cami had told him off for less. 

            She did not know if his warning was meant to frighten her or simply to caution her, but it did not matter. For all she did not fear his temper herself, she knew what it would mean for others. It made her course singularly clear: this had to end, here and now. Whether or not she could do this by herself, she would. She must. 

He could appreciate a clever mind and she had one in spades.  Perhaps that was what drew Klaus to her.  Or her beauty — that too was evident.  Either way, it was clear to him based on the observations he had already made (and Cami’s rather damning words) that there was far more to the relationship than each would want to let on.  He suspected that if he were to confront Klaus about it he would find his sire laughing it off.  

Unconvincingly.

“Your job?” He repeated with a raised eyebrow.  “I hadn’t realized that bartending was such a serious occupation.  I hope they pay you well for your ability to go above and beyond your duties.”  He leaned in a little, that mischievous grin once more on his face.  “Tell me, do you make house calls?”

            Once more, she had said too much, given away more than she had intended. For all her insight, for all her ability to read those with whom she conversed, for all her adroitness in handling Klaus Mikaelson, the game she and Lucien played now was something wholly different. And, it seemed, far beyond her skillset. She wondered for a moment if she would be able to slip her phone from her pocket, to text Klaus. Cami knew that the chances of success, of accomplishing it without Lucien’s knowledge, were next to none. Besides, a voice of pride weighed in, refusing to call Klaus or any of his siblings in to the rescue. 

Now he found himself wishing he could have been a fly on the wall as Elijah took himself off the pedestal that most had placed him on.  It would be worth it — seeing his brother throw insults and generally embrace the pettiness that defined Klaus.  He grinned a little.  “It was bound to happen really.  All that time together.  He can only straighten his tie so many times,” Klaus joked as he turned toward her.  “I no longer worry for my reputation.  Let people assume I have taken on a diplomatic air — they will find out otherwise.  The hard way.  I find that most enjoy learning things that way in the end.  Why else would they push when they should know better?”