Fanfic: Harshness of the Seasons (3/10)
Title: Harshness of the Seasons
Rating: T
Author:
terapsina
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing/Characters: Elijah/Elena, Elijah, Esther, Niklaus, Kol.
Word Count: 3'133
Parts: 3/10
Summary: AU To those who know the story of the making of vampires Elena will be remembered as the girl who was sacrificed for the plague they became. But in Elijah's memory she will always be the wife he loved and lost to his parents' desperation. All that he now has left is the wane hope that the body Ayanna preserved will one day wake as she promised. Elejah
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: I'm sorry I made you wait so long, but it turns out that including the right amount of emotion in a scene that requires much of it… isn't easy. I hope I didn't entirely fail. Also here you'll see more of Esther, Klaus and Kol.
Death of Summer //Death of Summer//
Grieving Autumn // Eye of the Storm// //HEAVY RAINFALL//
*Harshness of the Seasons*
*Grieving Autumn: Heavy Rainfall*
*o0O0o*
Her open hand reaches for his shoulder in comfort. It is as smooth and as warm as he remembers it being, but at her touch it feels as if black tendrils of some subtle poison are joining his blood through the skin of his shoulder, with its false sympathy slithering lower towards his chest and then deeper, finally reaching his grieving heart.
Those are the same hands that used to soothe a boy into sleep despite the horrific sounds of the howling wolves and the damp cold of the caves they sheltered in. But right then Elijah has to fight a darker urge, one he has never before experienced and never wished to. He has never struck his mother, or any woman, but that same extended hand carried a blade that slit open Elena's wrist and so, for a single fraction of a moment, he imagines grabbing it and grinding.
The delicate bones would twist until the wrist snapped. And maybe she could feel a raindrop of what Elena had gone through.
What irony that his mother has taught him to be a better man than that.
Instead of acting the monster Esther has made him he responds in a way that seems to injure her far more and for that he refuses to feel empathy.
"Do not touch me! You have lost that right."
He slowly, intently takes a step out of the reach of her arms. And though he still finds no joy from the duress in her usually cool, blue eyes they do not move him either. All he can see is the clotted blood she has washed from her hands, all he can hear is the frightened questions Elena must have whispered and the lies his mother would have spilled to bring his wife to that clearing, to be slaughtered as something no more significant than an ant.
"Elijah, you must understand. I did not wish this, if there had been any other way to protect you all from them, but Henrik proved that…"
"There was! You should have let us stay as we were, we could have left here. The wolves would never have followed us, this was their home before it became ours, and they would have remained to protect it not chased after us as bloodhounds. The only reason you and father chose this path was pride."
His mother could invoke Henrik's name all she wished, it did not absolve her of her act. It did not command his forgiveness. It only dragged his esteem of her further down to be trampled on by the horses she and Niklaus loved so much.
"My son…"
That one word breaks the hold on his restraint far more than any she had spoken before. Elijah might have come from her loins, he might have been her son for his whole life and loved her without question since birth, but his mother, the woman who raised him and taught him about the importance of family, would never have bled her son's wife for magic and revenge.
The woman who was his mother is gone, has joined the spirits of their ancestors more permanently than he will allow Elena to remain. So he will not answer to a title she no longer has a right to breathe out. Not of him.
"Use my name Esther."
His voice is harsh and certain, final. He can see her waver in its face, but Esther, the sorceress and the healer, has never been weak and it does not surprise him when even this does not break her. Instead she opens her mouth to reply, but Elijah has something to say to her yet and interrupts her empty platitudes.
"Family above all! Was that not what you would say to us when we quarreled between ourselves? To take care of each other, because we were all that any of us truly had? But Elena was our family as well, she might not have been your daughter, but Finn raised her for years as his own and she gave birth to your grandson, my son. You gave her advice when Godric was ill and she sat by his cradle all through the night, as we waited for you to finish the poultice to lower his fever. My mother would not have sacrificed her to the Gods."
Esther stays silent at his words, her face gradually hardening into stone while she listens. Her back straightens and for the first time, behind the façade of the woman who had once sung lullabies to her children, he saw the powerful witch with the will of iron who could frighten their neighbors into peace.
If only she would have kept that goal.
"It had to be done Elijah. Elena's life for all of yours was the only option and if you hate me from now until you meet Odin, to join her and your two brothers in Asgard? It will be worth it, because that day will not come on the morrow now. Not for you, nor your father, nor your brothers or sister. I would rather live with your eternal scorn than hold yet another cold son in my arms."
Her eyes finally leave him and he follows them to the silently watchful siblings he had forgotten about in his blinding anger at this woman he wishes he could hate as completely as he used to love her. But family runs deeper than just blood and hatred is not all consuming even now.
His family is watching them silent and frozen. For them he feels his heart rise in his throat and his face softens at their torn expressions. They did not ask for this change or its price any more than he did. They have all lost much with this declaration of war their parents have put forth as well. All of them are looking from their mother to him in…
…all except for Niklaus. His rash brother is not in the room at all. Sometime after Elijah's arrival he has fled.
*o0O0o*
When Elijah finds him Niklaus is lying on the ground between the broken, scattered limbs of the forest trees and fiercely staring up at the glittering stars. His no longer boyish face is almost entirely hooded in shadows, hiding his expression from the practiced eye of an elder sibling. Only his irises shine from the light of the moon. They are dry however, although by the chaotic scene in front of him Elijah easily concludes that rage and not apathy is responsible.
Thrown branches, fallen pines and even a dead doe with its guts painting the earth black beneath it are what greet him. It is like a conjuration of a nightmare. A frigid chill suddenly rains upon him to with its chill foresight command his attention. Elijah stills, for a moment the possibilities of what they are and what is yet to become of them horrifies him.
Closing his eyes, he tries to forget the fear in the lines of Ayanna's face when she traded Elena's life for his word. This is Niklaus, the boy who loved waking up to watch the sun at its dawn while Rebekah and Kol complained it too early, 'because he thought it beautiful. This is the young man who enjoys riding, and sparring and showing their sister how to wield a blade despite father's rigid protests. And whoever's son he might be, he will always remain Elijah's brother.
'Like Esther was supposed to forever be mother?'
The thought coldens him like icy water dripping down an unclothed back, but before he can ponder upon the foreboding and the uncertain further, Niklaus speaks.
"I am sorry Elijah."
The walls in him wither, for the few moments it had taken to fear the witch's prediction he had not been thinking of Elena. His brother's condolences however are the cold wave crashing over a swaying ship, only the barest of grips are keeping Elijah afloat and out of reach of the hissing sea monster waiting for him if he stops and thinks about the white skin, the clean line of a precisely made cut, the blank eyes, all of it the immortalized agony of her last moments. His own pain does not promise a soon end.
Elena had kissed him only two mornings ago. Her eyes had glinted as she teased him, her lips had curled invitingly into a coy smile and her head had tilted in victory once he pulled her against him. She had been there every night for what feels like a lifetime now. Her new absence cuts. And he can only guess at the time it will take to experience that sheer, overwhelming happiness once again.
Elijah's answer when it finally comes is a faint, tired whisper. Niklaus should not have been able to hear it, but their new nature has played with their ears as well and so he does.
"I know."
He receives back a look of mute hesitation. Elijah knows that face, has seen it countless times when his siblings have something to tell that they are not quite ready to admit but feel they must. So despite his own ripped apart chest he sits down beside his little brother, waiting for him to let out whatever it is that had made him attack their surroundings with this much uncontained aggression.
It only takes a moment.
"I did love her Elijah! I did! But… not like you do, I did not want to admit to that when I first learned of your intent to take her as your wife of course, because you already had our mother and father's affection, why should you have been more deserving of Elena's as well? If I loved her more, then she would love me as well. That was the way it had to work, is it not correct? The truth is though… I did not want to give her up, except I never really had her did I? She was always all yours."
Elijah does not know how to respond. Does he lie? Does he say Elena could have chosen him to ease the suffering he now sees?
He supposes he could…
…but the problem is that Niklaus is almost correct. The flaw in his thinking is what could not have ever gained Elena's favor. His brother never understood the way Elena was built, he did not comprehend their lives in that unique way of hers. Even Elijah struggled to, he lacked the level of compassion Elena stood by with her unyielding conviction, but he understood. He strived.
Elena was as much her own as she was his. And in a different sense she was Finn's as well. Elena loved more than just her husband, she loved the family she lost, the father she gained and their son above all else. The one thing, the most significant thing, that Elijah knows made it impossible for her to give Niklaus what he desired, was his brother's inability to but for a moment imagine sharing her, not even with the people with whom jealousy should not have been an issue.
Niklaus was capable of love, but Elijah had long since noticed how the loneliness in his heart made him too selfish to give it without any clauses. Elijah prays for the day his brother finds a woman who might heal that wound.
Thoughts of his brother's past infatuation with Elena wakes a long forgotten thought and despite himself, he laughs in amusement of the realization. His voice cracks, it almost sounds as if he is crying instead and yet he can't keep this memory to himself.
"Did you know that all the sons of our father have been taken with my wife? Finn thinks of her as a daughter. There's you and me. And remember how Henrik brought her flowers every morning for a moon until father put a stop to it? Even Kol…"
Niklaus finally looks towards him with the slightest interest drawing across his eyebrows.
"… even Kol fell under her beauty. It was the briefest of fancies true, did not even last a day as I remember, but he did."
The memory is still fresh, maybe even more so now than it would have been a week previous. Elijah had been so enamored with her while observing that scene, so oblivious to just how minor that feeling was compared to the Love that would grow.
-*o0o*-
Since he first heard her laugh at him through the leaves of the tree Elijah had met the lovely Elena on a few more occasions. He had learned that talking to her was easier than to anyone else he had ever spent any significant time with. She simply had the most unique outlook on their lives, one he had never considered before.
She saw the good in the close contact they shared with their more powerful neighbors and not, as he himself had, only the danger of it. He had heard of the constant warring the people born in this land participated in of course, but Elena saw the wolves, although rabid once every full faced moon, as protection against this as well.
And Elijah knew it to be true once he thought on it. Their modest village had never been attacked by outsider spears. Neither did they need to contest with many more numbers for the animals of the forest. She had insisted, there might have been enough to share with one other group, but they could have faced hunger, either when winter came or the smothering heat of the summer struck, if they'd had need to do so with more.
And she also passionately described to him that however harsh the life was here, it must be more fortunate than the one facing the people of the land their parents fled for this one.
So Elijah realized Elena was intelligent as well as beautiful and every coming sunrise he saw more of both, was unable to close his eyes to either despite the significant effort he spent in the attempt. He could not have helped but to admire this young woman.
So here he was, walking towards the field where the wild horses grazed, knowing Elena would either join him there or was already waiting. His heart was pumping faster than he was used to. It was an intoxicating sensation.
But just before he had the chance to exit the tree line he heard more than one voice and slowed in caution to listen.
"But Elena, are you sure you do not want to go for a horse ride? It would be most entertaining, do you not agree? And you will have the rare pleasure to be by my side besides!"
The voice was familiar and it did not take but a moment for Elijah to identify its source, although he was sure that the smug inflection would have made him aware even without the blood tie between them.
Kol seemed to have chosen the sweetheart of the week and to Elijah's surprising displeasure the girl in question was Elena. He need not have worried if the loud huff Elena let out to be heard by him was anything to go by.
"These horses would throw you off their backs before you had the chance to even mount them."
Carefully watching his steps now, as not to alert the two people he moved closer and slowly crouched once they were in sight.
Elena was standing stiffly with her hands across her chest and a displeased frown on her face. Kol on the other hand oozed carefree pleasure. His brother was enjoying the conversation he saw.
Elijah… was not. Although he dared not yet care to explore the 'why' of it.
"So come back home with me Siren. I'm more than willing to show you how quick and able to mount I can be."
Elijah's hands fisted the grass beneath him in irritation at the boast and he almost moved to interfere, had he not been slowly growing to know Elena he would have, but by now he knew that she preferred to deal with her problems personally whenever possible.
Besides, Elijah knew that unlike his other younger siblings Kol dealt with rejection without the smallest of issues. If Elena proved to be too stubborn in her refusal for his company he would soon change his sights to the fair smith's daughter or a bright eyed friend's sister. But that would only hold true if Kol did not notice Elijah's presence, for what he thought of as humiliation was a different matter entirely.
A matter, he knew, that would go a great deal more badly for Elena's honor, at least where the biased opinions of their village men and women were concerned. Despite how much Elijah loved all his family, he was not entirely blind to their shortcomings and Kol was not above a few careful lies if he thought himself slighted. But only if Kol came to be aware of Elijah's presence would he need worry about this.
Momentarily he heard the hiss of pain Kol let out, he raised his eyebrow in surprise as Elena grabbed his brother by the ear twisting, and amused he concluded she had this situation well within her able control in any occasion. His help would only interfere.
"Now, Kol?" She sweetly asked not even blinking at Kol's awkwardly half bowing form. "Did you not have someplace else you should be?"
His brother glared up at Elena and grinned wickedly.
"I did. I can see when I'm not welcome."
Finally letting go she stepped back a serene smile already crossing her face, carefully hiding a touch of triumph. Elijah observed more cautiously, this seemed too simple.
But Kol was heading back towards the village and Elijah swiftly moved to stay out of his line of sight. Luckily his brother was not quite as skilled a hunter as Elijah or father and did not take notice.
A few steps before he could leave entirely Kol halted. Elijah winced, Kol always liked the last word and unfortunately he had a particular knack for them, Rebekah tended to throw things shortly after this seemingly innocent look crossed Kol's face.
"How is Elijah doing? I rarely see him anymore, if I did not know him better… I'd think he was sneaking off to meet some pretty maiden."
-*o0o*-
Niklaus' lips twitch at his story, no doubt enjoying Kol's parting comment in a way Elijah will never appreciate, but otherwise they both remain silent.
Elijah does not doubt they are both immersing themselves in the better recollections left by his lovely Elena now and so fighting off the pain that rains upon them so ruthlessly from the latest one.
*o0O0o*
// previous chapter// // next chapter//
*o0O0o*
A/N2: Turns out there's still going to be one more chapter in this time before I jump across five hundred years. This chapter grew a bit longer than planned, so I cut it in half. On the bright side, I'm halfway through with the next one already, so hopefully the window between updates won't be this long.
Be a dear! Review!
Rating: T
Author:
terapsina
Fandom: The Vampire Diaries
Pairing/Characters: Elijah/Elena, Elijah, Esther, Niklaus, Kol.
Word Count: 3'133
Parts: 3/10
Summary: AU To those who know the story of the making of vampires Elena will be remembered as the girl who was sacrificed for the plague they became. But in Elijah's memory she will always be the wife he loved and lost to his parents' desperation. All that he now has left is the wane hope that the body Ayanna preserved will one day wake as she promised. Elejah
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: I'm sorry I made you wait so long, but it turns out that including the right amount of emotion in a scene that requires much of it… isn't easy. I hope I didn't entirely fail. Also here you'll see more of Esther, Klaus and Kol.
Death of Summer //Death of Summer//
Grieving Autumn // Eye of the Storm// //HEAVY RAINFALL//
*Harshness of the Seasons*
*Grieving Autumn: Heavy Rainfall*
*o0O0o*
Her open hand reaches for his shoulder in comfort. It is as smooth and as warm as he remembers it being, but at her touch it feels as if black tendrils of some subtle poison are joining his blood through the skin of his shoulder, with its false sympathy slithering lower towards his chest and then deeper, finally reaching his grieving heart.
Those are the same hands that used to soothe a boy into sleep despite the horrific sounds of the howling wolves and the damp cold of the caves they sheltered in. But right then Elijah has to fight a darker urge, one he has never before experienced and never wished to. He has never struck his mother, or any woman, but that same extended hand carried a blade that slit open Elena's wrist and so, for a single fraction of a moment, he imagines grabbing it and grinding.
The delicate bones would twist until the wrist snapped. And maybe she could feel a raindrop of what Elena had gone through.
What irony that his mother has taught him to be a better man than that.
Instead of acting the monster Esther has made him he responds in a way that seems to injure her far more and for that he refuses to feel empathy.
"Do not touch me! You have lost that right."
He slowly, intently takes a step out of the reach of her arms. And though he still finds no joy from the duress in her usually cool, blue eyes they do not move him either. All he can see is the clotted blood she has washed from her hands, all he can hear is the frightened questions Elena must have whispered and the lies his mother would have spilled to bring his wife to that clearing, to be slaughtered as something no more significant than an ant.
"Elijah, you must understand. I did not wish this, if there had been any other way to protect you all from them, but Henrik proved that…"
"There was! You should have let us stay as we were, we could have left here. The wolves would never have followed us, this was their home before it became ours, and they would have remained to protect it not chased after us as bloodhounds. The only reason you and father chose this path was pride."
His mother could invoke Henrik's name all she wished, it did not absolve her of her act. It did not command his forgiveness. It only dragged his esteem of her further down to be trampled on by the horses she and Niklaus loved so much.
"My son…"
That one word breaks the hold on his restraint far more than any she had spoken before. Elijah might have come from her loins, he might have been her son for his whole life and loved her without question since birth, but his mother, the woman who raised him and taught him about the importance of family, would never have bled her son's wife for magic and revenge.
The woman who was his mother is gone, has joined the spirits of their ancestors more permanently than he will allow Elena to remain. So he will not answer to a title she no longer has a right to breathe out. Not of him.
"Use my name Esther."
His voice is harsh and certain, final. He can see her waver in its face, but Esther, the sorceress and the healer, has never been weak and it does not surprise him when even this does not break her. Instead she opens her mouth to reply, but Elijah has something to say to her yet and interrupts her empty platitudes.
"Family above all! Was that not what you would say to us when we quarreled between ourselves? To take care of each other, because we were all that any of us truly had? But Elena was our family as well, she might not have been your daughter, but Finn raised her for years as his own and she gave birth to your grandson, my son. You gave her advice when Godric was ill and she sat by his cradle all through the night, as we waited for you to finish the poultice to lower his fever. My mother would not have sacrificed her to the Gods."
Esther stays silent at his words, her face gradually hardening into stone while she listens. Her back straightens and for the first time, behind the façade of the woman who had once sung lullabies to her children, he saw the powerful witch with the will of iron who could frighten their neighbors into peace.
If only she would have kept that goal.
"It had to be done Elijah. Elena's life for all of yours was the only option and if you hate me from now until you meet Odin, to join her and your two brothers in Asgard? It will be worth it, because that day will not come on the morrow now. Not for you, nor your father, nor your brothers or sister. I would rather live with your eternal scorn than hold yet another cold son in my arms."
Her eyes finally leave him and he follows them to the silently watchful siblings he had forgotten about in his blinding anger at this woman he wishes he could hate as completely as he used to love her. But family runs deeper than just blood and hatred is not all consuming even now.
His family is watching them silent and frozen. For them he feels his heart rise in his throat and his face softens at their torn expressions. They did not ask for this change or its price any more than he did. They have all lost much with this declaration of war their parents have put forth as well. All of them are looking from their mother to him in…
…all except for Niklaus. His rash brother is not in the room at all. Sometime after Elijah's arrival he has fled.
*o0O0o*
When Elijah finds him Niklaus is lying on the ground between the broken, scattered limbs of the forest trees and fiercely staring up at the glittering stars. His no longer boyish face is almost entirely hooded in shadows, hiding his expression from the practiced eye of an elder sibling. Only his irises shine from the light of the moon. They are dry however, although by the chaotic scene in front of him Elijah easily concludes that rage and not apathy is responsible.
Thrown branches, fallen pines and even a dead doe with its guts painting the earth black beneath it are what greet him. It is like a conjuration of a nightmare. A frigid chill suddenly rains upon him to with its chill foresight command his attention. Elijah stills, for a moment the possibilities of what they are and what is yet to become of them horrifies him.
Closing his eyes, he tries to forget the fear in the lines of Ayanna's face when she traded Elena's life for his word. This is Niklaus, the boy who loved waking up to watch the sun at its dawn while Rebekah and Kol complained it too early, 'because he thought it beautiful. This is the young man who enjoys riding, and sparring and showing their sister how to wield a blade despite father's rigid protests. And whoever's son he might be, he will always remain Elijah's brother.
'Like Esther was supposed to forever be mother?'
The thought coldens him like icy water dripping down an unclothed back, but before he can ponder upon the foreboding and the uncertain further, Niklaus speaks.
"I am sorry Elijah."
The walls in him wither, for the few moments it had taken to fear the witch's prediction he had not been thinking of Elena. His brother's condolences however are the cold wave crashing over a swaying ship, only the barest of grips are keeping Elijah afloat and out of reach of the hissing sea monster waiting for him if he stops and thinks about the white skin, the clean line of a precisely made cut, the blank eyes, all of it the immortalized agony of her last moments. His own pain does not promise a soon end.
Elena had kissed him only two mornings ago. Her eyes had glinted as she teased him, her lips had curled invitingly into a coy smile and her head had tilted in victory once he pulled her against him. She had been there every night for what feels like a lifetime now. Her new absence cuts. And he can only guess at the time it will take to experience that sheer, overwhelming happiness once again.
Elijah's answer when it finally comes is a faint, tired whisper. Niklaus should not have been able to hear it, but their new nature has played with their ears as well and so he does.
"I know."
He receives back a look of mute hesitation. Elijah knows that face, has seen it countless times when his siblings have something to tell that they are not quite ready to admit but feel they must. So despite his own ripped apart chest he sits down beside his little brother, waiting for him to let out whatever it is that had made him attack their surroundings with this much uncontained aggression.
It only takes a moment.
"I did love her Elijah! I did! But… not like you do, I did not want to admit to that when I first learned of your intent to take her as your wife of course, because you already had our mother and father's affection, why should you have been more deserving of Elena's as well? If I loved her more, then she would love me as well. That was the way it had to work, is it not correct? The truth is though… I did not want to give her up, except I never really had her did I? She was always all yours."
Elijah does not know how to respond. Does he lie? Does he say Elena could have chosen him to ease the suffering he now sees?
He supposes he could…
…but the problem is that Niklaus is almost correct. The flaw in his thinking is what could not have ever gained Elena's favor. His brother never understood the way Elena was built, he did not comprehend their lives in that unique way of hers. Even Elijah struggled to, he lacked the level of compassion Elena stood by with her unyielding conviction, but he understood. He strived.
Elena was as much her own as she was his. And in a different sense she was Finn's as well. Elena loved more than just her husband, she loved the family she lost, the father she gained and their son above all else. The one thing, the most significant thing, that Elijah knows made it impossible for her to give Niklaus what he desired, was his brother's inability to but for a moment imagine sharing her, not even with the people with whom jealousy should not have been an issue.
Niklaus was capable of love, but Elijah had long since noticed how the loneliness in his heart made him too selfish to give it without any clauses. Elijah prays for the day his brother finds a woman who might heal that wound.
Thoughts of his brother's past infatuation with Elena wakes a long forgotten thought and despite himself, he laughs in amusement of the realization. His voice cracks, it almost sounds as if he is crying instead and yet he can't keep this memory to himself.
"Did you know that all the sons of our father have been taken with my wife? Finn thinks of her as a daughter. There's you and me. And remember how Henrik brought her flowers every morning for a moon until father put a stop to it? Even Kol…"
Niklaus finally looks towards him with the slightest interest drawing across his eyebrows.
"… even Kol fell under her beauty. It was the briefest of fancies true, did not even last a day as I remember, but he did."
The memory is still fresh, maybe even more so now than it would have been a week previous. Elijah had been so enamored with her while observing that scene, so oblivious to just how minor that feeling was compared to the Love that would grow.
-*o0o*-
Since he first heard her laugh at him through the leaves of the tree Elijah had met the lovely Elena on a few more occasions. He had learned that talking to her was easier than to anyone else he had ever spent any significant time with. She simply had the most unique outlook on their lives, one he had never considered before.
She saw the good in the close contact they shared with their more powerful neighbors and not, as he himself had, only the danger of it. He had heard of the constant warring the people born in this land participated in of course, but Elena saw the wolves, although rabid once every full faced moon, as protection against this as well.
And Elijah knew it to be true once he thought on it. Their modest village had never been attacked by outsider spears. Neither did they need to contest with many more numbers for the animals of the forest. She had insisted, there might have been enough to share with one other group, but they could have faced hunger, either when winter came or the smothering heat of the summer struck, if they'd had need to do so with more.
And she also passionately described to him that however harsh the life was here, it must be more fortunate than the one facing the people of the land their parents fled for this one.
So Elijah realized Elena was intelligent as well as beautiful and every coming sunrise he saw more of both, was unable to close his eyes to either despite the significant effort he spent in the attempt. He could not have helped but to admire this young woman.
So here he was, walking towards the field where the wild horses grazed, knowing Elena would either join him there or was already waiting. His heart was pumping faster than he was used to. It was an intoxicating sensation.
But just before he had the chance to exit the tree line he heard more than one voice and slowed in caution to listen.
"But Elena, are you sure you do not want to go for a horse ride? It would be most entertaining, do you not agree? And you will have the rare pleasure to be by my side besides!"
The voice was familiar and it did not take but a moment for Elijah to identify its source, although he was sure that the smug inflection would have made him aware even without the blood tie between them.
Kol seemed to have chosen the sweetheart of the week and to Elijah's surprising displeasure the girl in question was Elena. He need not have worried if the loud huff Elena let out to be heard by him was anything to go by.
"These horses would throw you off their backs before you had the chance to even mount them."
Carefully watching his steps now, as not to alert the two people he moved closer and slowly crouched once they were in sight.
Elena was standing stiffly with her hands across her chest and a displeased frown on her face. Kol on the other hand oozed carefree pleasure. His brother was enjoying the conversation he saw.
Elijah… was not. Although he dared not yet care to explore the 'why' of it.
"So come back home with me Siren. I'm more than willing to show you how quick and able to mount I can be."
Elijah's hands fisted the grass beneath him in irritation at the boast and he almost moved to interfere, had he not been slowly growing to know Elena he would have, but by now he knew that she preferred to deal with her problems personally whenever possible.
Besides, Elijah knew that unlike his other younger siblings Kol dealt with rejection without the smallest of issues. If Elena proved to be too stubborn in her refusal for his company he would soon change his sights to the fair smith's daughter or a bright eyed friend's sister. But that would only hold true if Kol did not notice Elijah's presence, for what he thought of as humiliation was a different matter entirely.
A matter, he knew, that would go a great deal more badly for Elena's honor, at least where the biased opinions of their village men and women were concerned. Despite how much Elijah loved all his family, he was not entirely blind to their shortcomings and Kol was not above a few careful lies if he thought himself slighted. But only if Kol came to be aware of Elijah's presence would he need worry about this.
Momentarily he heard the hiss of pain Kol let out, he raised his eyebrow in surprise as Elena grabbed his brother by the ear twisting, and amused he concluded she had this situation well within her able control in any occasion. His help would only interfere.
"Now, Kol?" She sweetly asked not even blinking at Kol's awkwardly half bowing form. "Did you not have someplace else you should be?"
His brother glared up at Elena and grinned wickedly.
"I did. I can see when I'm not welcome."
Finally letting go she stepped back a serene smile already crossing her face, carefully hiding a touch of triumph. Elijah observed more cautiously, this seemed too simple.
But Kol was heading back towards the village and Elijah swiftly moved to stay out of his line of sight. Luckily his brother was not quite as skilled a hunter as Elijah or father and did not take notice.
A few steps before he could leave entirely Kol halted. Elijah winced, Kol always liked the last word and unfortunately he had a particular knack for them, Rebekah tended to throw things shortly after this seemingly innocent look crossed Kol's face.
"How is Elijah doing? I rarely see him anymore, if I did not know him better… I'd think he was sneaking off to meet some pretty maiden."
-*o0o*-
Niklaus' lips twitch at his story, no doubt enjoying Kol's parting comment in a way Elijah will never appreciate, but otherwise they both remain silent.
Elijah does not doubt they are both immersing themselves in the better recollections left by his lovely Elena now and so fighting off the pain that rains upon them so ruthlessly from the latest one.
*o0O0o*
// previous chapter// // next chapter//
*o0O0o*
A/N2: Turns out there's still going to be one more chapter in this time before I jump across five hundred years. This chapter grew a bit longer than planned, so I cut it in half. On the bright side, I'm halfway through with the next one already, so hopefully the window between updates won't be this long.
Be a dear! Review!