Summary: you’ve decided to go clubbing with your best friend the last summer before college starts to take your mind off of the Mikaelsons who have invaded your life this summer. Specifically, you’re trying to distract yourself from Niklaus Mikaelson and the flutterings he has caused you. Tequila is your friend tonight.
Part Summary: spending the day with Klaus
Warnings: typical stuff you’d see in the show
Word count: 2,485
Tags: elle88531, violentmommabear42 (let me know if you want to be tagged or I missed you out on the tag list!)
Authors note: this part was going to be massive if I didn’t end it here. Oh my gosh. You guys have no idea what’s to come. I’m dying of excitement just to write it. Ah! (Oh, and thank you for the feedback on the other parts and please keep it coming! I want to make sure people still want to keep reading it so I don’t bore anyone and hearing from you guys is how I know that!)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10
Walking slowly back towards the kitchen, you braced yourself for whatever would happen next. He was bound to have heard that phone call. All you could do now was hope you didn’t blush too much in embarrassment.
As you rounded the corner and stepped into the kitchen as quietly as you could, you saw that Klaus was still in exactly where you had left him. In fact, it looked like he hadn’t moved a muscle since his siblings had left. He wasn’t looking at you, not even to flash one of those smug little smirks that he’s so good at. This lack of reaction was worse than if he had been waiting with a wolfish grin and some teasing. He was just still and with his back to you again, you couldn’t tell a thing about his emotional state. It was unnerving.
You hesitated, unsure whether or not you should approach him, talk to him, or just turn around and leave him alone. You could feel your heart beating a little faster as you realized that you couldn’t stand there forever and that you really didn’t know what was the better option. Klaus obviously knew you were there. He had to have, but in all the times you’ve seen him he’s never been one to hide his emotions.
He was so still. You couldn’t just leave, you decided. You had to say something.
“I’m sorry about ruining our d – the ice-cream,” you said, catching yourself before using that word.
It was silly that you couldn’t bring yourself to say the word or even mentally allow yourself to call it a date. There was just so much behind that one word. So many assumptions and implications. You were too unsure and too worried of the answers to use it. Was it cowardly? Perhaps. But you’d rather be a coward than heartbroken and humiliated.
Klaus turned around at your words, a startled blank look on his face. His eyes connected with yours, looking nowhere else as if he were trying to see if you were lying. You looked back, unsure why he’d think you’d lie about being sorry for ruining the night.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Klaus said, seemingly having deemed you as truthful.
Before he could turn his back again and get lost in his thoughts, you stepped forward and took a breath. “It’s just that you seemed excited about the ice-cream and I know when I disappeared it must have seemed really rude at first and then –“
“You were kidnapped,” he interrupted you, a bit of bite to his tone.
That wasn’t the point you were trying to make and you weren’t going to back down at a sharp tone. You took another few steps towards him. “I know. I just mean I’m sorry you didn’t get to enjoy your ice-cream,” you tried again. You were starting to feel dumb. Insisting on apologizing about ice-cream wasn’t exactly the issue at hand and maybe it was too frivolous a topic to be using as an excuse to talk to him. You were probably annoying him.
“I wasn’t excited about the ice-cream,” Klaus said in an annoyed tone.
You bit your lip. Yep. You were annoying him. Great.
“I was excited about sharing it with you,” he clarified with a pointed look.
You sucked in a breath. There was something in the way he could stare at you so intensely that made the fluttering come back in a sudden whoosh. Just as suddenly as his look had intensified, it vanished as he turned his head and looked down at the floor.
“I shouldn’t have left you outside,” he said, more to himself than to you. You paused for a moment as the understanding sunk in. He blamed himself. He was angry with himself.
“You didn’t know,” you offered.
“My enemies are everywhere. I should know better than to let me guard down.”
“You can’t be vigilant all the time.”
“I have no choice.”
It was quiet for a while. You were back to where you were when you walked in: unsure if you should leave him alone or stay and talk. Again, there was something about the moment that made you decide to stay. You might be pushing your luck, but you didn’t want to go and even if you did, you couldn’t when he was looking so confused and angry at himself.
“What happened after you realized I was gone?” you asked. You hadn’t meant to ask it but your curiosity got the better of you.
“I thought you’d left.”
Though Klaus tried to keep a neutral facial expression, you could see that it had hurt him. It hurt you to think that he’d thought that. Even if it wasn’t true, you didn’t like the idea of you hurting him.
“Then I saw your phone on the ground, smashed up.”
Yeah. Josie was going to kill you over that. Kidnap victim or not.
“I called Elijah and we all searched for you.”
“All of you?” you blinked in shock. Even Kol?
Klaus smirked at your tone. “Yes, even Kol.”
You blushed. You hadn’t realized that you’d said that out loud.
“We searched the whole area. Even had a witch cast a location spell but there we couldn’t find you.”
You narrowed your eyes in thought. That was an interesting piece of information. There was another witch in the area. A witch they knew well enough to help them. And if they used a location spell that came up with nothing then that meant Jess had a witch of his own to cloak you.
Speaking of Jess, you suddenly remembered the task you were given. More to the point, you remembered the compulsion you were under.
As you saw it, there were only two options. You could either risk trying to tell Klaus what had happened and hope he could reverse the compulsion in time before you killed yourself, or you could start looking into ways to get rid of this compulsion yourself. One thing was for sure. Either way, you were going to figure out what the Mikaelsons were doing here.
Your curiosity had finally one. It was only a matter of time that it did, and now you were involved whether they liked it or not. Since you weren’t actually suicidal, finding out if you could rid yourself of the compulsion on your own was probably the best option. If you couldn’t do that then you’d end up dead either way. Tell the Mikaelsons about your tasks and the compulsion end up kill yourself as per said compulsion, or do what Jess told you and betray the Mikaelsons and end up dead as a result.
You didn’t want to make them responsible for your death.
Figuring out a way out of this compulsion was the only way. You just hoped that you could do that before you had to tell Jess anything. There was no way to get out of sharing the information you uncover, but without any compulsion, you’d be able to just give him a bit of it. Maybe even mislead him a little.
“Love?” Klaus asked, pulling you from your thoughts.
He was watching you with some concern and you wondered how long you’d been standing staring at nothing while you were lost in your thoughts. For a moment, you worried that he’d somehow figured it out. You had to remind yourself that mind reading was not on the list of supernatural talents that Klaus had at his disposal.
There was a crease between his brows and a softness to his eyes that told you his concern was stemming from his self-blame. Meaning, he probably thought you had been thinking about your being tortured by Jess. No. Thought maybe anybody else would be.
You couldn’t really remember much of it and you didn’t really want to. You didn’t have time to dwell on psychological scars. You needed to survive and you needed to protect the Mikaelsons because if Jess gets his way, they’ll all die.
“I’m fine, I just wish I could be more helpful,” you told him honestly.
“My siblings have it under control,” Klaus assured you. He walked over to you and rested his hands on your shoulders. He looked into your eyes and gave you a caring smile. “You’re safe now. I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he promised. Then, a mischievous smile came across his face and his eyes sparkled. “Besides,” he began, a nonchalant tone coming out in stark contrast of his mood moments earlier, “we’ve got a lot of work to do if you’re going to be any good.”
“Any good at what?” you frowned.
He looked at you with a devilish smile. “I’m going to teach you how to paint.”
Your eyes widened.
“Follow me, my little witch,” he told you in a quiet voice, a grin on his lips as he walked out of the kitchen.
You stood there for a second, a little in shock at the abrupt change in mood. Painting? Klaus Mikaelson was going to teach you how to paint? You turned around to watch him sauntering over to the French doors that led into the garden.
Right. Okay, then.
You followed him out, spotting him casually walking down the path that led to the guest house. He didn’t look over his should to check you were following but then again he could probably hear you walking behind him. He could probably hear you breathing and even your heartbeat.
A jolt of realization ran through you. He could hear everything. There was absolutely no hiding and you were about to be in the same room, with him right by you while you painted. Your heart raced a little faster at the thought. The flutterings were back.
As you stepped through the front door of the guest house and looked up to see Klaus waiting in the living room on the other side of the large red couch, a wide grin bloomed across his face. The flutterings were going to be particularly bad today. You just knew it.
“Your blush is quite lovely in the daylight as well,” he said and you really had no idea what to say to that. Apparently, your cheeks did as you felt them heat and Klaus’s grin got impossibly wider.
“I should probably tell you that I’ve never painted before,” you mumbled.
“Never?” Klaus asked in surprise.
“I’m more of a looker than a doer,” you explained. Was that a smirk on his face? Klaus’s eyes flashed at you with a hungry look. Oh. Right. The blushing. You frowned. You hadn’t asked where, or rather who, they were getting their drinks from, but maybe in everything that had happened over the past couple of days, Klaus hasn’t had a chance to drink?
“You wear your emotions like an open book, you know that?” Klaus asked, looking amused. You blushed. His eyes flashed again. “What’s got you thinking so hard, love?”
“I was wondering if you were, uh, thirsty?” you asked, feeling a little awkward at asking at all.
Klaus seemed to find this very amusing as his eyebrows shot into his hairline and his lips twitched up at both corners. He shook his head with sparkling eyes. “Not particularly, no.”
You sensed he was waiting for an explanation. You swallowed a little dryly. “You seemed a bit hungry after I, uh…” Klaus smirked as you blushed in embarrassment at not even being able to admit it, “after I blushed,” you managed, averting your eyes for a second. “I thought maybe it was making you uncomfortable,” you explained.
Klaus laughed but he didn’t explain why.
“Okay, well if it is, just let me know,” you said.
“I told you, I like your blushes,” he reminded you.
“I know but if it’s making you uncomfortable – “
“They aren’t.”
“You must be thirsty.”
“I’m not.” A smirk. “Not exactly.”
You weren’t sure what to say to that.
“Shall we get started then?” he asked, gesturing behind him.
You walked over to him. Behind the couch, there were newspapers set up all over the floor and two canvases. An array of paints and paintbrushes were also waiting for you, plus two easels that you hadn’t spotted before resting against the wall. He’d planned this.
“I think we’ll start with something simple,” he said and went over to set up the easels.
You watched as he picked them both up effortlessly and put them on the newspapers, one of them angled away from the other. He locked the legs in place, his arms flexing a little as he tightened the metal rings. He bent down to pick up the canvases. You had never realized that he opted for form-fitting jeans. The flutterings might not be the only problematic feeling you were going to have to deal with today. Luckily the hot summer day and lack of air-conditioning in the guest house could be used as an excuse if things got too bad.
To be honest, you had always thought needing a cold shower was just an expression people said and not an actually done thing. Let alone a necessity, which it very well may become.
Klaus placed the canvases gently on the easels and turned to you, ready to start the lesson. Upon seeing you, he got an odd look on his face. You couldn’t place it. You hoped you didn’t just look like you’d been staring. Or that you were flush. Or that your heartbeat was as fast and erratic as it felt.
“Since your garden is so lovely, why don’t we paint one of those flower beds,” he suggested.
You glanced out the window to see the colourful flower garden that took up most of the beautifully landscaped garden that Josie worked so hard to maintain. You nodded.
“Which flower is your favourite?” Klaus asked.
“I couldn’t really say,” you answered honestly. “I think it’s tied with the carnations, roses, and daisies. Those are the first flowers I helped Josie plant when I moved here.” You smiled at the memory. “I used to make daisy crowns for us and we’d wear them the whole day.”
Klaus smiled. “Why don’t you try some of those,” he suggested.
“How?”
“Focus on the colours you see in them and the overall shape. Then add the details.”
It sounded simple but you were sure yours would come out looking like a five-year-old painted it while Klaus’s would be almost life-like. To be fair, he had probably been painting since he was five. Actually, he probably painted better at five then you were about to now.
You took a breath and picked up the paintbrush.
“Don’t be afraid to study the flowers before you start and take your time,” Klaus added, already putting his brush to use.
You decided to start on the daisies first. How hard could daises be?
outofknives; hello group!! arella-mun here. i thought this would be the proper way of introducing myself as a newbie.
the name's dira, but you can call me arella-mun, or mun, or dira, or whatever you want really! /give me nicknames i love nicknames（。’ω’。）♥ i'm the person behind arella's blog, and i can't wait to roleplay with all of you and your interesting oc's!! don't be shy about starting up a thread or a conversation with me. nwn
also, i noticed a few of you followed me last night,, i'll try to get to your starters when i come home today after school! if you'd like to start a specific kind of thread or something with our characters please let me know, i'd love to do so with you! (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*
