VINGT. esther the cockroach
You know, every time the two hybrids have been asked to be somewhere by the youngest original, it always seems that the latter has disappeared once they arrive. At this point, they really should just take the not-so-obvious hint to not come, for something dreadful always appears to loom nearby.
Though, at this current moment, they couldn't think of any imminent threat as they walked into the school gym... well one of them. After all, one of them was just a slightly over-paranoid 1000+-year-old hybrid who has seen everything the world has to offer, good and bad. Whilst the other one, just as ancient, yet still, so naïve to the worst situations.
Thus, the situation they were in now, Klaus, clearly aware of all the beady little eyes of teenagers on his girl, one of which who was chatting with a classmate, suddenly dazed at the entrance of the Sterling. Cassia, in the meanwhile, is hoping to find her friend amongst the sea of costumed students. Furrowing her eyebrows, she sighs, finally realizing the uncanny omen dances in Mystic Falls held. The Mikaelson next to her, also realizing this, stating, as if he read her thoughts, "my little sister isn't here, is she?"
Shaking her head in response, she continues to look around for Rebekah. "I'm going to look for her," Cassia replies, turning her head up to Klaus.
Wearing his classic smirk, he looks over to a couple consisting of a blonde baby vampire and a certain runaway hybrid, "I'll be here, tormenting the little teenagers." Cassia mutters something along the lines of how creepy he was before kissing his cheek, her lips just grazing his skin before sauntering off. Though before he lost sight of her, Klaus calls out, "don't wander too far, love!"
***
Not long after she had gone into the crowd of dancing teenagers, still with no platinum blonde original in sight, Cassia managed to stumble into a certain fake blond human. Her bashful eyes, wide as she says, "my apologies!" These damn heels, she thought. Yet the teenager didn't seem fazed as he chuckled lightly, declaring, "we've gotta stop meeting like this, Cassia." At the sound of his familiar voice, she beamed up at him, exclaiming, "Jax, hi!"
"Hey, you alright?" The boy asked, seeing how the girl's eyes had been darting left and right, apparent that she was looking for someone. She snaps her head towards him with another grin, "perfect, just looking for someone." Jax nods his head, suggesting that he could help her, only if she wanted, of course. By now, they had moved off to the other side of the small gym, Cassia agreeing to Jax's offer, so busy looking that she, amusingly enough, forgot to even tell him who they were looking for.
"Cassia?" The latter hummed in response, eyes still scouring the gym as if Rebekah would all of a sudden appear. An amused grin on his face as he suggested, "we could probably work a lot faster if you told me who it is you're looking for in the first place."
Sheepishly, Cassia turns to look at him, describing her friend to him, "right! Yes, her name's Rebekah. I think you quite briefly met her at the grill a few weeks ago, before the ball?" The boy's eyes light up with realization as he remembers the confident blonde in his history class, "Oh! About your height, blonde hair. She's in my history class." The Sterling nodding her head, as he repeats the information to her, Jax continues to relay his thoughts, diving slightly off-topic, "doesn't seem to like the teacher much." His face screwed into a slightly pensive expression.
Hearing the observation, Cassia giggles at her friend's obvious distaste for the former vampire hunter now turned history teacher, shrugging, she mutters, "something like that."
***
(random A/N in the middle cause of the low percentage of you that actually finish the whole chapter so blame them! anyways would y'all read a second book or just want one really long one? hehe now all of y'all have to read this and preferably comment with what you'd want, im begging you, please and thank you :)
so beat that all of you fucking ghost readers!)
***
After 20 minutes of searching, both Cassia and Jax couldn't spot the youngest Mikaelson, somewhat giving up and catching up with a game of 20 questions. Walking the halls now, the Matthews boy points out, "where have you been anyways? Small town, you tend to see people you know a lot more often."
Mentally panicking, she chooses to tell a half-truth, "catching up with family."
Yeah... that much was true, she just chose to leave out the part where wicked witch of said family activated her werewolf curse while also trying to kill her 1000 year old vampire children. Before said remaining family fled to the different sides of the country after that close encounter. Oh and let's not forget those few days with the "psychotic maniac" of said family. Yeah, she totally was just catching up with family.
Not wanting to get into detail, Cassia changes the subject, shooting him a smile and asking, "what about you? I haven't seen you either."
"Oh, you know, worrying about finals, college apps..." the high schooler casually responded, assuming the Sterling knew due to the tiny white lie she made up what seemed ages ago about finishing school early. Cassia didn't even think of those primitive reasons, mainly because if she was being quite honest, she pessimistically thought the kind boy had gotten snatched by another vampire roaming in the night. Inwardly scolding herself, she subconsciously nods, going along with that excuse of graduating early.
Unintentionally, the two had walked to the entrance of the school, conveniently running into a certain original hybrid who hastily walked out of the school while talking into his phone. Yet, suddenly, the Mikaelson had stopped his pacing, staring down at the ground, his brows furrowed, lowering his voice, questioning, "what is this?"
His voice, notifying the Sterling of his presence.
"Nik?"
The other hybrid sent the teenager beside her a small smile before walking up behind Klaus, grabbing his hand. Feeling her soft hand in his, he turns his head, looking at Cassia, his eyes hiding a raging storm of emotions behind them and to practically any other person, they wouldn't have noticed it.
Yet, she wasn't anyone, was she?
No, she knew that in those eyes, were pure exasperation, mixing with reckless emotions, more so, anger and concern. Her gaze moved to the floor in front of her, spotting the stark white line of salt, keeping them barricaded in. Cassia let out an annoyed huff, one time.
Can't there be just one event without the confrontation of supernatural issues?
"She's not here. Both of them," he states. Shooting him a confused look, both of them? Squeezing the hand that was still intertwined with his, Klaus clarified, "Rebekah is nowhere to be seen and it seems our favourite doppelganger has gotten into some trouble with my dearest mother."
"Katherine's here!?"
"Very funny," he deadpans, yet before he could add on to his comment, the younger Salvatore brother walks up behind them, declaring, "your mother is back" and with that one bothersome observation, walks off back into the building. Groaning quite loudly as she smacks her forehead onto Klaus' shoulder, Cassia mutters, "bloody hell. That wicked woman's a cockroach."
Humming in full agreement to her comment, Klaus' lips quirk just the slightest before planting a kiss on her hair. Her eyes follow the salt line before remembering the teenager still stood a few feet slowly yet surely losing patience, waiting for Cassia. At the thought of leaving the poor boy who was probably so confused by now.
"Go find the Bennett witch. I'll find you in a bit," she whispered as she let go of his hand, pecking his cheek before walking back into the school.
"Hey, is everything okay?"
Plastering on her signature grin, the hybrid nodded, "of course." Yet Jax didn't think to believe that, he still nodded his head and suggested, "back to the dance then?"
Now Cassia really started to panic. How was she supposed to do this anyway?
Get straight to the point? Yeah... that seems most ideal.
"Actually..." The Sterling grabbed his wrist, looking into his blue eyes, and plainly said, "You've had a long night. You're tired so you're going to go home, lock all your doors and windows and sleep. You're going to forget anything unusual you've seen tonight."
Her eyes bore into his as she spoke, guilt ridding her from the inside as she noticed his eyes dilate. The boy in front of her proceeding to robotically repeat her command back. She watched him walk out of the school with no problem. With a sigh of almost relief that the compulsion actually worked and that he, in fact, had just confirmed he was human, Cassia walks further into the school to find Klaus.
Though, of course, to her luck, she got lost and somehow just ended up back at the entryway. Walking over to a slightly hidden wall outside, she leans her body against the wall behind her. Why bother anyway? She thought. There was nothing she could help with, it was witch business after all and if the little Bennett witch needed any motivation, she was sure Klaus would do an equally splendid job with doing as much. This lead to Cassia leaning against the wall for god knows how long, staring up at the stars and the dark overcast covering the moon, wishing for simpler times.
***
"If I recall, the last thing you told me was 'you'll find me in a bit.' But, I don't seem to remember seeing you in there," he commented cheekily, a few feet away, the lights from the school reflecting off his perfect skin and glinting in his blue-green eyes.
"Sorry," the girl said half-heartedly, without moving her head to glance at him. Walking towards her, Klaus shrugs and gestures vaguely in front of him, "nothing to worry about. Bonnie got it down either way." This time, Cassia turns her whole body to the Mikaelson, raising her brows in suspicion, she cautiously moves her hand to where the boundary was, gasping as her hand simply dropped back down.
"What are you still doing here then?!"
Hearing his response, she doesn't even resist the urge to roll her eyes. "Couldn't leave without finding you first now could I?" He chuckles at the action and asks with a softer tone, "something wrong, little rose?" It was no surprise that he had noticed her dazed state once he spotted her in the first place. She only shook her head, hoping to dismiss it so that Klaus could leave and get rid of his cockroach of a mother for good. He only looks at her incredulously, stating, "the more you deny it, the longer Esther roams free." Cassia huffs and admits, "All of this is miserable. This town. The people."
A slight frown on her lips as she continues, "I miss when the biggest thing we had to worry about was your god awful aim."
Her comment earned her a firm poke in her side from the original hybrid as he defended himself with a boyish pout on his face, "I got better."
"Yeah? As if you ever would have without those hybrid powers of yours," she retorted with a smirk causing Klaus to feign a dramatic gasp. "You wound me, Cassia Sterling." Taking no shame, the latter simply shrugged, suppressing a smile.
"Your ego could use a little deflating anyway."
Oh, how she adored Niklaus Mikaelson. After all, he's the only one who fully understands her, making her roll her eyes at his arrogant antics to cheer her up.
He only laughed for a few seconds until silence filled the air. During those few seconds, the Mikaelson finally remembered the task at hand from before and at this point, the two might as well have psychic powers of some sort, Cassia speaking his thoughts out loud, asking, "shouldn't you be tracking down the wicked witch before she slips away again?" Klaus hums for a moment before proposing, "alright. But as for you, my love, may I suggest going home and packing? Of course, my hybrids have got the most of it but I thought you'd like to pick out some of your own possessions yourself. After all, I did promise you that we'd be long gone from this miserable town as sooner than later."
Klaus felt guilty for forcing her to stay here so long after promising her a worldwide adventure though he felt just the slightest bit better as he witnessed the bright grin that threatened to split her face in two, form on Cassia's features. At that moment, the Mikaelson swore he would take her around the world as many times as she'd like, from the seven wonders to all the little hidden sites and scenery only few have discovered, just so he could savour that overwhelmingly enchanting smile for the rest of his immortal days.
If only she knew even the slightest of the things that smile does to me, he fondly thought, his expression, mirroring hers.
Nodding with bursting excitement, Cassia replies, "Okay, I'll be there. Kill her extra brutally for me, will you?" Shaking his head in amusement, he agrees, "of course, I will. I won't be long." The Sterling nods her head once more, her mouth opening as if she was going to say something before closing. She repeats these actions a few more times before deciding to just lift herself on her tippy toes to kiss him, the scent of pine trees and expensive cologne evading her senses. The little colourful fireworks in her stomach explode with just as much ferocity as all the other times as Klaus places his hands on her face, caressing her cheeks.
Unwillingly, the latter pulls away, smiling down at her with such adoration in his eyes as he mutters, "go. Before I stop fighting my restraint from pinning you against this wall and kissing you senseless."
With her arms loosely wrapped around his neck, she raises her eyebrows almost daringly, as if challenging him. Yet she knew what the Mikaelson matriarch could do even within these few minutes that Klaus chose to be here with her instead of finding the former so Cassia reluctantly lets go of him and steps back.
That enchanting smile showing no signs of faltering as she took just another moment to look at him, almost memorizing his features, his confident stature, his just slightly swollen lips that curved into a fond smirk and god, those stormy eyes that were, for now, more calmed than ever before.
And that same enchanting smile was what she left him with as she sped home to the Mikaelson mansion.
another A/N! This one's been extra-long! Anyways, this chapter is basically just me remembering Jax and him being his usual awkward adorable self. also because I don't really see Cassia being involved much with what goes on during the dance. and now that im realizing it, these past few chapters have been fillers for the end of the season :)