Grace // Klaus Mikaelson

2.01

5:30 in the morning, Grace's feet pounded against the tarmac. She was only two kilometres into what had become her morning ritual of 10km before the sun rose. Before summer, she had considered a 30 minute 5k a success now. She was pushing out 35 min 10km runs. Grace was aware that the transition into her new werewolf state would come with changes, but she didn't think for a moment it would turn her into a track star.

With heightened physical endurance had also come anger and hunger, Grace had been increasingly aware of her ever-shortening fuse, but now it seemed the world was against her with every little inconvenience being of great aggravation. Running was the best way to take out the aggression and burn the ever-mounting energy she had come to possess.

Zeus loved the introduction of this new regime. He would join her for stretches and then run off to do his own exploring but always managed to find her again. At first, she felt apprehensive about bringing him along, but they had been doing it for a few days now, and she was yet to lose him.

The outdoors brought her peace and calm; she finally understood the buzz that her old, more athletically inclined friends would speak of, the freedom that running brought. It was at once both a struggle and delight. Still, she was extremely aware that it was only because of a supernatural and physiological change in her body that she was even considering running to give her some sort of endorphins release.

The old Grace despised the idea of running.

It seemed lots had changed. The mirror in the bathroom of her apartment had very quickly found itself covered with a dust sheet. She hardly recognised the girl that looks back at her; her reflection was not her own. Before she had moved to Mystic Falls, before her parent's murder and her own kidnapping, Grace had a vibrancy, a glow that had fuelled her. When she had lived in Mystic Falls that glow and disappeared, she was gaunt, pale to the point of translucency. When she had triggered her werewolf curse, the vibrancy had begun to creep back in, her skin becoming brighter, and she muscled strengthening.

Her body that she had mistreated and neglected had begun to heal itself. And she couldn't even bring herself to look at it.

She hadn't realised quite how much life had been drained from her until it started to flood back in. She must have looked like a pitiful and deathly creature when she had emerged from the coffin. The magic coma had only exacerbated the already hopeless state she was in.

On that, though she tried now to dwell on for too long, it made her think of Niklaus and Stefan. Her world had crashed so suddenly, and so violently she didn't dare dwell on what she had lost.

Knuckling down for the final 100m dash, she sprinted to her door, beads of sweat forming on her brow - the early morning runs saved her from the punishment of the beating sun. Still, the physical exertion mixed with the fact that she seemed not to be immune to perspiration had meant that one of the only purchase she had made so far was tonnes of work out clothes.

Zeus yipped excitedly at her heels as he chased her down the street; he had become one of the few things that could bring a genuine smile to her face - TV was mind-numbing, and the only books she was interested in were not intended to elicit smiles and happy thoughts.

A bundle of German Shepard goofball level stupidity would always be amusing.

A menacing-looking blonde waiting outside her door, however, was seldom amusing.

"Rebekah." She grumbled, fishing out her keys.

"Grace," Rebekah chirped back to her. She was far too happy for this early in the morning. Her nose did twitch as Grace walked past her, but she seemed to restrain herself from passing comment. "I am here to make a proposition."