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Feb 20, 2017

The Brothers Grim || Klaus and Kol

Storm King is a tense place to live, especially for the Alpha and his second in command. Loyalties are in question and intentions revealed. But not all is icy tones and cold shoulders between Niklaus and Kol. There is hope for them. And, perhaps, for the entire pack. Written with my favorite @violent-nobility

Kol loved his family. And by family he meant his pack. Most of these people he’d grown up with, he’d witnessed their love and successes and heartache. And, like all of them, he had watched in agony as their family had split in two. The worst kind of divorce he could ever imagine, his heart remained in two places, with two brothers. But this one… this one had needed him. Klaus had told Kol that he was wanted, needed, desired as a part of Storm King. He had made it seem like Kol was vital to the pack’s survival. Which made little sense, because Kol was no alpha, nor would he ever be. And that was fine.

The week had been long. There had been the near drowning, and freezing, of the girls, then the celebration. Nik had been on edge with members of their pack spending so much time over at Paradise. Elijah seemed to be replacing each of them one by one with rogue wolves, and, Kol was certain Klaus feared, one day he would just start taking back what had originally been his. But here was what Niklaus failed to realize. Kol didn’t rightfully belong to anybody. He was a member of a pack, yes, but by choice. He had chosen this brother, and had stood firm in that decision through the gut wrenching loss of his other brother. Elijah was gone. That limb, cut off from the rest of his body in a way that no prosthetic could ever replace.

The beginning had been a nightmare. Klaus had been on edge, cranky — more so than usual — and paranoid beyond belief. He’d told Kol to “just go to Paradise, then” on more than one occasion, and Kol thought that, somewhere deep in the darkness of his heart, Klaus believed that Kol would actually do it. But through all this, all Kol really knew was his own pain and heartbreak. He didn’t sleep, volunteered for more patrols than was perhaps healthy — mentally or physically — and he barely ate, much to Lucas’ chagrin. He knew the rest of the pack was hurting, he could feel it, but all he thought about was his own grief and pain.

Sitting up one night, staring at an empty fireplace, long past the point of being able to make out shapes in the shadows, his heart broke again. But this time it was not for himself, not for the way he remembered combatting Elijah in their training circle, or watching as he became suddenly more private about his life, but Kol remembered the times that Klaus had felt the most like an outsider, and Elijah had been there for him. He remembered Elijah carrying Nik after the latter had tumbled down a steep slope and ended up gashing his leg open. He remembered the way they had been brothers, years before Kol had ever arrived, and now they were supposed to pretend they were enemies.

Kol stood, barely noticing the lifting of a wolf’s head in the back of the room, someone who had wanted to keep him company without being invasive, and then made his way back to Nik’s room. It was small but neat. Not as organized and well tended to as Elijah’s would have been. There were art supplies stuffed in cups along the back of his desk.

He was quiet as he opened and shut the door, having no doubt that he likely woke Niklaus in the process anyway, but still wanting to disturb him as little as possible, and then he crawled between his brother and the wall. Nik had lost his best friend with the split of the pack. And all Kol could hope as a second in command was to some day be a mediocre replacement. Something to numb a little bit of the pain. Kol loved his family — and by family, he meant his brother.

Klaus's room was just as cold and forgotten feeling as most of the lodge, but it was everything he wanted it to be -- or so he told himself. There was a mess of files and papers all over, the fallout of his rather poor first season as a manager -- reminders of his failures.

All of them.

They stacked up in silence and accused when ignored. Some failures reminded him through printed paper - complaints and bills and unanswered questions, handwritten instructions on how to do it all right that he hadn't been able to read because that handwriting was Elijah's. Some failures found their voice in other ways -- the reality of how few had come to Storm King. The reality that Elijah clearly found them all entirely too replaceable. They had never been important enough.

He hadn't been. Not to Elijah. Perhaps if he were Finn, things would have been different. Elijah worshipped Finn. The bastard. The coward. The quietly vicious one. Elijah had never seen Finn's faults as long as he was alive -- but he saw Klaus's.

All of them.

He didn't believe in Klaus. In Storm King. Most of them didn't. Storm King had to seem like an experiment doomed to fail -- but it wouldn't.

The freshest canvas was nearly complete -- darkness, firs, night, jagged edges and aggressive strokes that should have looked bold, but instead came out a lone, unanswered howl in the dead of winter. The smell of the drying paint made the room better. His. His.

This was all his. Elijah couldn't take it away. He wouldn't... but how long until he tries?

Klaus's mind was a dark place these days, darker than it had ever been in his life, and he refused to seek out comfort. Maybe that refusal made him forget that others could need it -- could want it. Whatever it was, when Kol entered the room Klaus assumed something was wrong. His eyes opened and followed every shadowy movement -- and when Kol squished himself into bed, he didn't understand at first. He wanted to demand what Kol thought he was doing, or to ask if he'd forgotten the way to his own room, to remind him that he wasn't Elijah, but he bit his tongue. For a moment, his thin body was hard and tense. Then, with a sigh, he turned and put his arm around Kol and pulled him close.

Kol had come. If Elijah had asked him to stay, Klaus was sure he would have stayed... but he was here. His brother. This one was his. Elijah could never, would never, take him away.

No one would.

He touched the cold tip of his nose to the back of Kol's warm neck and didn't say a word.

There was a taught blanket which settled over them, nestling them both into this bed of tension and loneliness. Kol realized in the absence of the brother who had been the guiding light for both Niklaus and Kol, neither of them had really thought to turn to the other for comfort and solace.

In silence he waited for Nik to tell him to get out, or to make some quip about how Kol must be lost, that this wasn't their brother's bed, and he certainly wasn't Elijah. But as much as Klaus wasn't Elijah for Kol, neither was Kol for Niklaus. He tried to push away feelings of inadequacy -- smother them beneath the pillows until the morning light -- and settle beside Klaus until they were both asleep. The arm around his waist surprised him, and the gentle touch of nose to his neck was as much a gesture of acceptance for them now as it ever was as wolves.

Kol wasn't looking for conversation, but still he turned to face Nik, and buried his face against his big brother's neck, arms folded in between them. "I love you, brother," was what he whispered, unsure if it was loud enough to be heard, even in the silent judgement of this freezing room.

Kol needed his brother, and he needed to be needed in return. They were all each other had, ultimately. And Kol would not turn his back on Niklaus, now or ever.

Klaus should say it back. He knew he should, but he couldn't bring himself to. He tucked his chin over Kol's head and gave a long, slow sigh. There were a great many things he should say... but he couldn't afford any of them. Not one. He couldn't let any of them, least of all Kol, see him bleed. They would turn from him.

He tightened his arm for a moment, then rested his hand at the small of Kol's back. "Then you are where you belong," he finally answered.

He wanted to tell Klaus that there had never been doubt that he was where he belonged. Or he wanted to ask, what, then, did it mean that he still loved Elijah? Or that he could never stop loving their brother.

But none of that would help Klaus, and that was why Kol was there. For Nik's comfort as much as his own. Perhaps more than his own. Because, as much as Kol loved Klaus, he had never been good at comforting.

Tonight they wouldn't be alone.

Kol slipped one of his arms beneath Klaus' so that he could trace lazy patters over his back with fingertips. He sighed heavily and wiggled just enough to find the perfect grooves in Klaus' body for Kol to fit along. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a quiet tune played on the piano, something deep and melancholy. Something suited for them both. It took a couple hours, but finally, Kol slept for the first time in days.

Klaus never slept long. He was up shortly after Kol fell asleep, although he himself had yielded much sooner. At first, he stayed where he was, letting Kol leech heat from him like all good brothers must, but eventually it was too much, he was too still.

He slid quietly and carefully from the bed and paced through the lodge, checking on everyone sleeping there. He went to the Ice Hut and stood outside, watching those sleeping within, but watching through the window.

When he returned, he went back to his room. This time, he sat in a chair -- the cheap, padded, ugly looking one from the office he never used -- and turned on a small lamp. Its light was warm, gold. The warmest thing he had.

An hour passed as he sat in silence, just looking at Kol, and then another passed far more quickly as his pencil brought life to a sheet of paper, the old sketchpad no one was ever permitted to look at. He drew Kol -- his muscular shoulders, his smooth back, the way the sheets were draped. It would very likely have been an almost sensual picture if not for how he captured Kol's face. The expression was one of weary, heartbroken peace. Youth pushed into maturity too soon. Pain pushed away for duty and love. Something innocent -- sweet. Kind.

Love.

When he finished, he set the book aside, leaving it open for once, and turned off the lamp before crawling back in bed with his brother.

The return of Klaus to bed was a welcome one, and Kol struggled to open his eyes. The lids were too heavy now that they'd felt and succumbed to the sweet pull of sleep's gravity. Still, Kol managed briefly, looking at Klaus in a way that he likely wouldn't remember once he'd woken for good.

The younger brother smiled softly, and stretched to place a chaste but loving kiss to his brother's jaw, then immediately relaxed back into sleep.

It was another hour and a half before Kol finally woke with any semblance of longevity. Klaus was still beside him, which was surprising. He thought he remembered an empty bed, but now he couldn't be sure. Kol laid there with deep circles under his eyes, and a dark stare that somehow held more warmth for this room and his brother than any blanket or lamp could provide. He watched Nik for as long as he could get away with, before Nik's eyes met Kol's. "Thank you," he whispered.

He frowned, the ghost of suspicion immediately coming into his eyes. Klaus never woke slowly, he never drifted or day-dreamed. There was no soft buffer between rest and reality, and so the unexpected never felt soft or out of focus, but was always in sharp relief -- always a potential road to threat or betrayal or loss. There was no reason for Kol to be thanking him, and so Klaus looked at him for a long, searching moment before he turned away, consciously making himself stretch and relax again with his back to Kol, as if none of it might matter.

"For what?"

The silent rebuke was more painful than Kol would have expected, figuring himself to be used to Klaus' mood swings by now. Still, thirty seconds ago he had had a brother. Now... he didn't know.

"For allowing me to sleep here. I know you like your privacy. But I... being near you was a comfort."

With great hesitation, and the knowledge that Klaus would likely pull away or send Kol away, he extended an arm to wrap around Klaus' waist, still seeking his warmth.

Instead, Klaus gripped him by the hand and pulled him closer still, then kept his own arm over Kol's, holding his brother's hand against his heart.

"You should come more often, then." He tried to sound kind about it, at least. There was always a bite to his words these days, but Klaus did his best to lessen it, to make it sound more like an invitation than an accusation.

Kol smiled and scooched as close as he could, arm wrapping tight, hand straightening so that he could wrap around Klaus' torso and feel not just his heart, but every breath, and he hid his face between Klaus' shoulders.

"I will," he promised, already making plans for this to be a regular thing from now on. Not just once in a while or once a week, but every chance he could.

"Lock me out, if you ever want me to stay away. I will... not be offended. But being... here, sharing your bed, it is the first comfort I've found."

"It won't be enough," Klaus replied, speaking without thinking for once. He regretted it, but he couldn't take the words back. Closing his eyes, he held his breath for a moment, then sighed. They could never heal the wound Elijah's rejection left, not with all the love in the world.

To be fair, Kol had expected worse. He expected some kind of lashing out about why Kol needed so much comfort -- a denial tactic that any of them were truly hurting after the split -- and for them to fight about life here.

But he, perhaps, did not hear Klaus' words the way they were intended. He heard the insistence that no matter how often he came, he wouldn't be enough to help Klaus. But Kol had known that from the beginning.

"I will do my best to be," he said quietly, swallowing the emotion that threatened to surface. He'd been failing his alpha lately, letting him suffer alone. But he couldn't do that anymore. The alpha deserved to be uplifted and adored. Loved. Wanted. Kol would try to give Klaus all of that, even if he didn't readily accept it.

"Can I make you breakfast this morning? Whenever you're ready to get up."

"I've been up," he muttered -- growled really -- and then shoved his face into the pillow. "Make yourself breakfast, just not yet." It might have helped if he hadn't been completely muffled, but the message was hopefully clear: Klaus was in no way willing to think about either of them leaving the bed yet, no matter how alert he was.

That made more sense, that Klaus had been up already. But that didn't answer his question. "Brother, I don't care if it's at noon, and the hours you've been awake are irrelevant. I would like to... make a meal for you. Sometime today."

He wanted to express his love in this way, only Kol didn't know how to say that. But the offer had been extended, and he understood the words more from his arm being pulled than from the way they'd fit together in a vague and gruff sentence. Bed, now. Other things, much later.

Though he was essentially being held in place just beyond the stretch of his comfort level with the way Klaus pulled on his arm, Kol didn't try to relax back, but instead ended up gently stroking over Klaus' chest while they laid there, perfectly content to not move for the whole day.

This was nice. Eventually, Klaus relaxed again, making it more comfortable for both of then, leaning back on Kol once more. For a few minutes then, he let go of his worries. He let himself relax as much as he knew, let himself trust his brother...

Until he remembered the thing they did not discuss, the thing that had been gnawing at him like a hungry worm seeking his heart, reminding him that treachery was everywhere -- in everyone.

"It was gallant of Todd to rescue... Zandra and Carol, wasn't it? But he hasn't told the story. Perhaps you can tell me. What happened when they fell in the river, Kol? You two were.. there.. for quite some time."

"Apparently the girls were playing on the ice, and Z found a weak spot. She tried to swim until Carol could get her out. But even then, they were both freezing. Jason found them and went and got Elijah. When he'd been gone too long from his light patrol, I went in search of him. I was told the story second hand. Elijah invited Todd back to Paradis so that he could be thanked with a warm meal for helping the girls, and so he could know that they were going to survive. That his efforts had, indeed, saved them. I didn't think it appropriate for him to go alone."

"Mm. And how was Carol?" He was staring straight at the ceiling, and his voice had gone quiet, papery-thin.

Kol's stomach twisted. Klaus was asking because he had to somehow already know. But it didn't mean anything. It didn't... Well, at least it didn't mean that Kol was any less loyal to Klaus as alpha, no matter who Kol had slept with.

"Her feet were injured from the time she spent on the ice. And she was exhausted." He closed his eyes, not wanting to be forced to say it.

Please, Nik. Let this one go.

The silence stretched out and out. Klaus grew tense, even his expression hardening in its slow, subtle way, before he finally spoke.

"It makes sense, I suppose. She was brought from Craters for us. If Finn hadn't been born so pathetic, father would have expected him to breed the bitch. Keep her at his side, all of that -- nonsense. But he was what he was. And then Elijah. Well. Elijah is hardly interested in continuing the Mikaelson line, is he? And I'm certainly not mounting someone from another pack. Of course, it must have seemed natural. She is essentially Mikaelson property. Still. It would be a shame, wouldn't it, if you let her claim any part of you? One might -- wonder -- at your loyalty. And hers."

More than Kol resented his brother for he way he spoke about a woman, was the way he spoke about this woman. This woman who loved them, who had broken herself for them. This woman who deserved fucking better than to be spoken of like she was a mutt better suited for the pound.

"If you have a question, or an accusation, Klaus, I would much rather you be direct. And by that, I mean keep your hostilities aimed at the one with whom you are truly cross. If I had fucked some random wolf across the country, you would not question me. I've stood beside you through all of this. And you can resent me all you like. But I am not leaving your side."

It was easier to focus on the question of his loyalty, something which he had no doubt in, rather than the fact that Nik was insinuating that because Carol couldn't have better, because she couldn't have one of the elder, alpha brothers, she had settled for the bottom of the line, just to get her hands on a Mikaelson. Kol hated the way that picked at every insecurity he had about himself. He hated the way it framed Carol. He hated that he couldn't defend her without looking like a traitor.

"Not a question, brother, merely a suggestion. It would be best, I'm sure you can see, if it doesn't happen again. As my right hand, you really ought to set a better example of pack loyalty. Sleeping with strange wolves has always been against pack law. You'd do well to remember that. Still. I'm pleased you found something to entertain yourself with while Todd played hero."

Why had he done this? It would have been easy to just enjoy a perfect morning, to take comfort in Kol's presence. Now, he was angry and hurt, the ice creeping back into his heart, and he suspected Kol felt the same. Their little brother had always been as passionate as Klaus -- Kol just tended to show it less.

"She is breeding stock though, you know. It's the entire point of the Craters arrangement. I still remember the day father explained it.

"She must have been... fourteen, I suppose. He called Carol, Elijah, Finn, and I into the Paradise office. We'd been damming up a fork of the river earlier -- Elijah and Carol and I had, Finn watched. You were in town with mother. Lovely spring day. We thought we were in trouble. Finn seemed delighted. And then father explained -- that she was not to touch anyone but Elijah or I, that Finn was eldest, but not allowed." His stomach clenched and he shifted, beginning to look and sound deeply unhappy as he forgot to measure his speech, lost in the memory. "Had to keep the family strong. She stopped being quite so friendly to anyone after that. Oh, it had all been innocent before, we'd all played as siblings, but for weeks, she wouldn't speak to Elijah or I. You thought we'd gotten in a fight, remember? She followed Finn around, I suppose he seemed safe after that. I'm not sure they spoke to each other. What is there, a decade between them?

"I was sure we'd lost our friend -- our sister. And then one day, I came outside and heard you two playing. For a moment, Kol, I was so pleased that you'd somehow brought her back -- and then I hated that while you had done it so easily, I knew I never would have succeeded." His expression changed, still tight, but turning now to one of pain. His cheek twitched and he fell silent, considering all of the things it was easier to understand as an adult than as a child. The bitterness he'd felt a moment ago was gone, and he hoped that Kol understood. It wasn't anger, not really -- it was jealousy. Jealousy that once again, Kol could find the friend he couldn't have. It had taken until now for Klaus to realize it, and he turned to look at Kol, searching his eyes for understanding, forgiveness, anything.

Kol listened in silence, horrified for both his brothers, but mostly for Carol. To be told at her early teenage years that she had been not just abandoned, but discarded by her family for a purpose such as this. To breed. She had been sold into, essentially, a form of prostitution. In exchange for what? An alliance? A shaky one at best, that had all but dissolved the moment their parents had died.

Lying there, in his brother's bed, feeling the warmth of his body and the juxtaposing, chilling bite of his voice, Kol grit his teeth. His nostrils flared, and he stared, as he was, down at the mattress. He wanted to scream at Niklaus. At Elijah. At their father. They had done a great misdeed by that woman. And then Nik... could he have been so petty? Could his jealousy really have led him to be so childish? But he hadn't been much more than that at the time. Seventeen. A child.

But Carol...

"Nik," Kol said quietly as he finally made himself look up to meet his brother's gaze. "You have to know that Father robbed you of the potential of not only your friendship with that woman, but of the possibility of more. If she hadn't been told that, if they had let it blossom... At fourteen she had to have been mortified. And doubtless when it became apparent that not only was I not an option for her breeding, but that I hadn't been told of the situation, I had to be the only remaining option for a friend. Klaus, I wasn't..." Kol sighed. "I was a last resort. That's it. That is... likely all I will ever be. And until... she and I had never... I am sorry, brother, that I made you doubt my loyalty to you. Ever."

"I wanted to call her this summer. It wouldn't have been so difficult to discover which fire camp she was at. But you see now why I could not ask -- I could not ask her to come with us. It would only have looked like I wanted to use her for father's purpose."

Klaus stood up. His pants were low on his narrow hips and he slid them off and started dressing in proper clothes, his back to Kol, trying to hide the pain in his eyes. "She should be here, but now you know why she isn't -- why we've -- denied you your friend. Again.

"I want to be happy for you. But happiness is... somewhat harder to come by these days." There. The truth, bluntly laid out, more openness than he usually gave anyone, ever.

Sliding from the warmth of the bed, Kol stood behind his brother after he had half dressed, and moved around to face him. He wrapped arms around Klaus' shoulders and held him in a hug whether it was wanted or not, returned or not.

"There is nothing to be happy for me for," he said softly. "She and I are not a couple. And if we were, that would be more cause for grief than for celebration. Not because she's not worth celebrating over. But with the packs as they are, a union like that would only lead to disaster. I am your brother. I am your second in command. And I am not leaving your side. That is the only union I need." Kol stepped back, and toward the door. "I should get ready for the day. Is there anything specific you need from me?"

Klaus had accepted the hug with a stubborn silence and stillness, but when Kol stepped away and he realized how cold it was without his brother, how quickly the ache returned, he reached out and grabbed Kol by the arm. Although he couldn't say the words, the question was there in his eyes: will you stay?

The hand on his arm stopped him instantly and Kol looked at it for a long moment before he looked up at Klaus. There was the hint of a weak smile before he nodded once. "As long as you want me, I'll be here."

"I want you," Klaus said, his voice too tight to hide that he was close to tears. He pulled Kol close and wrapped his arms around him in a desperate embrace. "I will always want you, brother."

Admitting truths was never pleasant for Klaus. Affection came so easily to others, who gave and took it so freely, but it always felt like a compromise to him. To love or to be loved, either felt like foolishness, weakness, the loss of oneself -- but slowly, he was beginning to learn that the pain of trusting no one might, in the end, be greater.

The one person he could truly trust was right here, and Klaus knew he'd nearly alienated his brother. How like him, to destroy anything beautiful that came to his hands.

"I... need. I need you. Always by my side. Always mine. Always here." He ran a hand over the back of Kol's head, messing his hair up further, and pressed his chin a bit too firmly into his shoulder.

Kol sucked in a tight breath through gritted teeth as Klaus unintentionally dug his chin into the muscle, and quickly reacted as he would have as a wolf, first turning suddenly to bite at Klaus's ear, which he quickly turned into a playful, but loving kiss.

"I'm here, Nik. And I'm not going anywhere. You know. Except on patrols. And to fight off that fucking Craters pack who keep scalping our food. Clearly the exchange they made for the daughter wasn't enough to keep them from being... dead."

Kol had found two, and had reported only the second. The first was allowed to believe to be a mistake. But not this. This was a blatant breech. "And brother? I know you're wary about Jason, and his loyalties. But he saved two lives that day. He deserves a little leniency."

"He's an electrician and a gunman -- our only, in both cases. However I feel about him," he straightened up, "we need him. Now. I believe you said something about burning the kitchen down?"

Kol chuckled and bumped his shoulder against his brother's. "Excuse you. I'm a damn good cook when I want to be. I'm just... too lazy to care much about it. But..." his brows pinched and he looked down. "But I would like to do that for you. First, however, I would like to put some clothes on. It's getting fucking cold out there."

"And deny us the pleasure of such a view?" He smirked at Kol -- then abruptly turned and tore the morning's drawing from the notebook and handed it to Kol. "A view I appreciated already, I suppose. Go. Get dressed. Then be prepared to make good on your promise, Chef."

Kol had smirked at the initial comment, but when he was handed the picture, he stared at it for a long second, recognizing the figure, of course, but struggling to understand that Klaus had drawn him.

He took a deep, steadying breath, and then placed a hand at the side of Klaus' face, pulling him in so that Kol could kiss his temple. "Thank you," he whispered, then left the room to go change.

In the privacy of his own room, Kol looked again at the drawing, swallowed the lump in his throat, and then tucked it in a box he kept with his most prized possessions. He dressed quickly, then made his way to the kitchen to meet Klaus.

Klaus was already there when Kol came in, as was Jason -- who looked like he regretted being there. He had gotten the coffee started, but had also hoped to avoid Klaus. Instead of that happening, Klaus had walked in and bitten him on the back of the neck.

"Ah, the chef has arrived." Klaus sounded merry, as if none of the quiet pain confessed minutes ago had happened. He hopped up on the counter and crossed one leg over the other.

"Lucss?" Jason rubbed sleepily at his face. "Eh. Kol. What do you want?"

"Now, now. Is that any way to speak to my brother, Todd?"

Jason wasn't used to the playful side of Klaus and he gave Kol a worried look.

Kol smirked and waved away the concern. "I told Nik I would make him breakfast this morning. Would you like some."

Smacking Klaus in the thigh with the back of his hand, Kol reached around him to grab a skillet off the rack and then moved to the fridge.

"My brother and I were talking about... the river incident. And... we are over covered tonight on patrols. If you would like a day off, you can have one. Though, I know too many of us don't know how to relax for a full night, so I won't force you to stay home."

Klaus shot Kol a brief, considering look, but accepted what he'd said and gave Jason a nod. "You've been struggling to find time for target practice, haven't you?"

Jason's eyes lit up. "I'd love time to go shooting. Thank you. And uh, yeah, breakfast would be awesome if you're not gonna put me in it as some kinda Kol trick..."

The smile that crossed Kol's lips was pure happiness. Playfulness. "Listen, mate, I'm not looking to poison my brother," he exclaimed as if it was all the explanation Jason needed as to why Kol wouldn't be cooking him today.

When the other wolf's back was turned, Kol put a hand on Klaus' arm and gave him a look of gratitude. Jason needed the boost in morale after having gone back to see the kids. He needed a night to be himself and to know that good deeds and thoughts of the pack and of life in general did not go ignored. He was valuable. And he needed a day off.

Kol pulled down the waffle iron and grabbed the bowl of eggs. There was a little bacon left to be had, so he pulled that out as well, now tossing it in the hot skillet, stepping back as it sizzled.

"Do you want anything in your waffles? Blueberries? We have a couple options."

"Bacon," both Klaus and Jason replied. They looked at each other, and Klaus added: "And blueberries."

Jason snorted. "No blueberries for me. I'm not tainting precious bacon with that shit."

"All the more for Kol and I, then."

Kol nodded, cooked the bacon, mixed it in the batter and then put it on the iron. Then he added the eggs to the bacon grease, knowing it would add to the flavor. The first plate was soon done and he handed it to Jason. Then he added blueberries to the batter and started Klaus' breakfast with the eggs cooking.

Breakfast only took a few more minutes and then they all had plates and warm syrup and orange juice or chocolate milk and he moved to a table. "See. No burning the house down. And no poison. Have a little more faith in me."

Jason was trying not to drool by the time Kol was done. He had to wait for both Kol and Klaus to start eating, and Klaus seemed to want to wait until Kol was ready. Once they were all sitting at the table and the brothers had dug in, Jason did as well.

"Fuuuuck.... okay. You can stay, Kol. This is good. What the.. mm." Jason often had a rude mouth, but he occupied it with food.

Klaus looked amused -- happily so. He met Kol's eyes and gave him a small nod. Thank you.

Kol had a little syrup dripped on his chin and he grinned in response, stealing a particularly crispy piece of bacon from Klaus' plate and plopping it in his mouth quickly, almost giggling as he did so.

Last night he had slept.

This morning he'd broken through a wall with his brother. He was happy today. He nodded at Klaus in return

#violentnobility #one shot #the brothers grim #v twin peaks

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