Don’t Forget to Stab Me in the Back When You Go || Niklaus and Kol
Kol comes back after a week gone with Dante, just in time to see Niklaus... leaving?? Kol tries desperately to instigate a fight between them, But Nik remains calm and determined to part ways with this family who seemingly has left him behind. Kol’s temper flares and a storm strikes the compound. Written with the wonderful @hybridtempertantrum
There'd been rumors about Kol's return, but he had not believed them until he had heard the sound of his brother's voice from the kitchen. So the black sheep of the family had come back – and he needed to find out where he had been. Not that he had any desire to talk to him or even acknowledge his existence, but, with what was happening around the compound these days, he didn't have the luxury of being able to not know – or care.
Klaus approached the kitchen with slow steps, nothing in his expression betraying his worse than bad mood as he moved toward the refrigerator to get a bloodbag.
“I see you have decided to pay us a visit.”
Auda had given him a hug and a welcome home, but when she heard Klaus approaching, she'd quickly excused herself out a side door, giving Kol no reason as to the motivation behind her exit. It wasn't long, however, before Kol heard the voice of his brother behind him. He tensed almost immediately, but even something in his aggression to his constant betrayer, his bully, had shifted. His nostrils flared slightly and a smug grin spread across his lips as Kol turned to face Niklaus. "Hello, brother. Please. Don't tell me how much you've missed me, I do not think I could handle the sentiment."
There was something different about Kol, something he had never felt or seen before, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Klaus' eyes narrowed briefly, then his expression went back to a neutral face. “Fear not, dear brother, I had to be informed of your absence since I had not noticed it. The furniture in this house does certainly not appreciate your return.”
The only indication that Klaus' words had wounded him was the flexing of the muscles in his jaw. Kol licked his lips in a quick movement and looked down, forcing the smile to linger on his expression. "Naturally. I had been absent for so long before, this must have just like an unwelcome inlaw had finally left after overstaying their welcome." The problem was, Klaus believed Kol's welcome had been overstayed after mere hours of him waking. "I will try to be more conscientious of my surroundings, and consult with you the next time I plan on redecorating."
“Or --” Klaus stopped walking and turned around to face his brother. Beneath the fake humor in his eyes there was a very real threat that he would -not yet- voice. “ – you refrain from touching what is mine and find yourself your own place to stay. I hear Italy is a fun place to be this time of the year – or how about some cozy cabin up there in the Scottish Highlands? No one would bother you and my furniture would be safe from your mood swings.”
A subtle energy emanated from Kol, in his burst of sudden rage, matching Nik's hostility. Magic warmed his blood and he had to take several long breaths before replaying with his temper in check. "And what on earth makes you think I have any desire to leave, brother? I just got back. And I have made such good friends here. I would say you understand but, well, everybody here seems to loath you."
Klaus' eyes narrowed. "You do not seem to understand that this, here, is my house. Not yours. Not Elijah's, not Rebekah's. It is mine. I decide who lives here -- and who leaves. It is really not a question of whether or not you have any desire at all -- If I do not want you around? You will leave."
"Brilliant," Kol growled, his eyes clouding with something dangerous, but it was not the typical veins spreading, black stare which vampirism offered. "You allow all of these people inside your home, people who actually hate you, by the way, but me, your own flesh and blood, you evict." He griped the counter, trying with everything he had to reel in every angry, hateful thing he felt toward this brother. "Tell me why. It's your home and I know you are going to argue that you are under no obligation to justify your actions. But I am your brother and once upon a time that meant something. Or at least it meant something to Elijah and Rebekah. At least they are trying to pretend like it still does."
Klaus regarded him with a calm look, a look that was, for once, not guarded or fake or even aggressive. “Because I am tired of it.” He put the bloodbag on the counter and just stood there, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. “I am tired of looking after my family, of protecting the people who mean everything to me – and being hated for it. I am tired of building a home, of creating a safe place for all of us in a city that, due to my work and my experience, has lived in peace for the first time in a very long time. I refuse to be yelled at, fought against and ridiculed any longer for my attempts at giving all of you that which our parents have denied us ever since we were born. You hate me – as you believe is your right – and yet you still profit from what I have built. You seek to get back at me and yet you are still alive because I have dedicated my entire existence to your protection. I will no longer grant you – any of you – access to what I have fought so hard for despite my family fighting me every step of the way. I have saved our brother from an enemy who was too strong to be defeated only to have him bring back a 'new family' into my home relying on my protection when they, as you so attentively observed, loathe me and wish me gone. I will not let any of this go on any further. It has become so convenient for you and them to unite against me and throw one hateful word after the other in my face – and I will not take this any longer.”
Feeling the sense of sincerity in his brother's voice, the roll of thunder that threatened an oncoming storm, Kol stood straighter, chin lifting, expression sobering. A sad smile passed over his lips while his brother fell into stride of one of his ritual monologues. Couldn't he see that everything was different now? That Kol was different now? He couldn't leave, now when there was so much to be done to save Elijah. Not when Kol could actually help them bring peace. "You think I hate you?" he asked, though he knew the answer. Though the meaning of Kol being included in Nik's blanket description of people who mean everything was implied, he did not believe it to be true. Rebekah, yes. Elijah, certainly. But Kol did not belong here. Not really. Not where he had never been wanted.
Walking around the edge of the counter, he reached out to touch Nik's arm, but stopped just short of contact. "I cannot, in good conscious, leave Elijah behind. And you are right. I did hate you. Because our brother and sister? They were more important to you to have by your side. While I was more important in a box. Collecting dust. Forgotten. If I have been uncivil, then that is some excuse; but I have other reasons, you know I have. It has not just been in my sleep that you have chosen to turn a cold shoulder to me, to walk away and turn your back on me, but through our entire lives. If you are hated, Niklaus, it is because you have barricaded yourself against all who threaten to penetrate any vulnerability you believe yourself to have."
He was quite for some time. "I do not wish to bring about your destruction, nor that of our family's. And I would appreciate it you would stop assuming to know anything about my motivations."
There was a hollow smile on Klaus lips, a sad expression in his eyes. “How you keep holding Elijah in such high standards while closing your eyes from the truth. It might have been my hand who thrust that dagger into your chest – but it was our decision to put you to sleep when, once again, you were threatening to expose our home to Mikael.” A shrug. “I do not shy away from my actions, I do not claim to have found the best solution to the problem you presented back then – but it did ensure our survival and brought us to where we are now. But I am not the only one to blame – and yet I am the only one to receive your hatred for it.”
"You know nothing of the conversations I have had with our brother. You know nothing of the ill wishes I spoke to him. Of how I told him of how much I hoped he'd suffered. Of how I could not forgive any of you. You think just because I do not wish to see him dead means..." He stopped, he'd completely ignored the blood on the counter. "I have forgiven him. As I have Rebekah. As I have you . Believe me or don't. But whatever you think I have been doing while gone, I assure you you know nothing." He bit at his bottom lip. "I cannot leave until this is resolved. But if you loath me so much, then I will keep my distance from you and be gone the moment we've won the war."
Klaus stayed calm throughout Kol's words, eerily so, not a single muscle moved on his face nor did his eyes give anything away of what he was truly feeling.
“You win the war,” he said after a moment, picking up the bloodbag again. “You win it and you live wherever you want to. Move in – move out – it's your decision.” He turned toward the door, then stopped for a moment, his back to Kol. “Send me a postcard when it's over. That is, if you still can.”
This was a turn of events which Kol had not anticipated. Nik was the one leaving? No. No. No. No. He could not still be turning his back on them. He could not really be this petty. When Klaus turned his back to Kol, the younger brother was suddenly behind him, shoving him in a way that would cause Niklaus to spin and face him once again. When he put a hand around Nik's throat, clenching, magic vibrated through him, sparks lighting at his fingertips. Veins snaked from beneath Kol's eyes and he bared his teeth. "You cannot leave him. You are Elijah's world. How dare you turn your back on him now."
Klaus snarled at him, but didn't raise his hands to defend himself, staring back at Kol with an impassive face. “Elijah has a family now. People who love him, people who care about him, people he would die for.” He didn't mention Furion, couldn't – or he would have lost his grip on his self-control. “I have saved him from this island, I have risked my life – I have made a powerful enemy and in turn he betrayed me.” There was a shrug, calm eyes looking back at Kol. “I am done.”
Kol's eyes faded back to normal and he released Nik. He stepped back, a million emotions crossing his face at once. "He has a new family, perhaps, and that stings me as much as you, but he would walk away from everyone, Nik, everyone for you. And you are a bloody fool if you do not see it." His expression turned to that of emptiness. "Right, because him allowing me to live my life is such a betrayal to you . The justifications you have about daggering me, do you not think he had his own about freeing me? Do you care nothing of the torment I lived through while in that box?" He nodded, stepping back, away from a man he did not know. "Go, then. Leave. I'll be sure to tell him you said goodbye and fuck you when he realizes you're gone."
Kol pulled his dagger free from his back pocket, throwing it on the ground in front of Klaus. "Here. Feel free to stab the rest of us in the back while you're at it."
Another one of those empty looks. “You berate me for assuming things about what you think or feel and yet – you do the same to me. This is not about you, Kol. This is not about your life or undaggering you. And while I might have hoped to be given the chance to be the one to take that dagger out of your chest and present you with what I have achieved for this family, him denying me of that moment was an unpleasant experience... but one that is no longer of importance to me.” He turned to face the door again. “You do that. And good luck with Xanon.” Ignoring the dagger and Kol's words, he closed the door behind him.
Kol watched him leave, lips pursed. The sky started to darken while he stood motionless in the kitchen, rolls of thunder shook the walls, rain began to pour outside in a sudden downpour, and finally several cracks of lightning struck all around the compound. The storm Kol had created would not pass for several hours. Long after he'd moved from the kitchen, gone to Niklaus' room and sat on his bed, wrapping his brother's pillow in his arms. One of his siblings would find him there much later as the storm was starting to die down. When he left the room, Kol left his dagger behind. If Klaus ever returned, Kol wanted him to know that the past was in the past. He wanted a fresh start. He wanted to try again.
Kol was pacing back and forth upstairs, draining one blood bag after another and tossing them to the side in his wake. To put it lightly, the younger brother was fuming. Not one to wake up on the right side of the bed after a century of being daggered, Kol learned through Elijah he had only been released from his prison because his life had been put in jeopard by the creatures who were currently after the brothers.
He hated this, hated these individuals who tried to call themselves his family, and Kol had no intention of being a part of the fight now. I’d rather bring you to your own demise, Niklaus, than help you rise above. Maybe then you’d be truly sorry. Kol’s tendency for siding with the inevitable winner of whichever war he found himself in only added fuel to the fire in his resolve to bring Niklaus to his knees.
Eyes remained dark as he drained the blood, desperate for something more substantial, more fulfilling, but that was exactly what had gotten him into that bloody box in the first place. But now, they were living in their home in New Orleans with wolves, no less, and Kol had been asked to control himself, at least until they were sure that the shadow figures wouldn’t come back for more blood.
Kol stopped short passing a window, catching his reflection in the mirror. The gashes on his collar and chest were the worst he had, still bleeding after nearly an hour. Looking into his own black eyes, he put another bag to his lips. When he heard a quiet commotion outside, Kol stepped out onto the balcony and looked down on the street below. Something had been thrown outside, causing it to shatter. He wasn’t sure if it had come from this compound or why, but he didn’t much care either.
“You’ll regret this, Niklaus,” Kol said into the night air, shoulder rigid from his anger, hands now clenching the metal railing of the balcony. The younger brother heard voices downstairs, but he didn’t care enough to listen in, too lost was he in the overwhelming commotion of his mind.
Back inside the office, Kol resumed pacing, reaching for another blood bag only to find he’d consumed the entire basketful he’d brought upstairs with him. Angry at himself, at Elijah and Rebekah, but mostly at Niklaus. He was the one who had caused all of this. He was the one who had thought it appropriate to dagger each of his siblings.
In a fit of sheer blinding rage, Kol screamed and lashed out at the nearest object, throwing the desk through the open french doors and off the balcony, listening as it crashed in the courtyard below.
