" the city's ours until the fall "
OUTSIDE, in the streets of New Orleans, the Casket Girls celebrations were going on. A yearly reminder of the oppression faced by women and how they can triumph over idiotic men. Lena was really rather quite happy to slip into one of the vintage wedding dresses that Rebekah had found her for the festival.
Elijah and Rebekah had moved into the Abattoir, and so Lena now shared her room with Rebekah since neither of them were willing to give up the comfortable king-sized bed and beautiful balcony. The night before, Rebekah had gone to some antiques store and found a beautiful white wedding dress for Lena to wear to the festival as that seemed to be the custom, and she had done the same for Hayley (although Lena's was ultimately more beautiful.)
Lena stood in front of the mirrored folding-screen room divider with it's beautiful gold trimmings and vintage feel. She was pretty sure that she had heard Rebekah say that it was from the late 19th century, and she felt quite impressed.
The dress was gorgeous and Lena had fallen in love with it instantly. She could hardly wait a whole day before she could put it on, but when she did slip into it, she realised that the buttons at the back were far too hard for her to do up and she was stuck frowning at her stupidity in the mirror.
She should've gotten up earlier to let Rebekah fix her dress.
"Need some help, love?" she heard the familiar voice and caught sight of Klaus' reflection in the mirror. She smiled at the sigh of the dimples carved into his cheeks and the cheesy grin on his lips. He really was beautiful.
"I can't reach the buttons," she admitted, causing Klaus to chuckle and move forward. She felt his fingers graze over her spine as he buttoned up the 1920's wedding dress. It was long, and very lacy, and flowed down from her hips with such a light fabric that there was no way she could get too warm that day. It also had the cutest lace sleeves.
"There," Klaus whispered, his breath sending shivers through her. He twirled a curl of her blue hair around his finger, smiling lightly to himself. Lena couldn't help but watch him in the mirror. He was so fascinating. The expression on his face was so light, Lena could hardly believe that it was him.
"Thank you." She made eye contact with him in the mirror and the first thought that jumped in her head when she saw the two of them reflected back to her was how cute a couple they would make. But she tried not to think about that. "I bet you don't get a lot of Casket Girls with blue hair roaming about, huh?" she tried to joke, but Klaus kept that small smile on his face.
"I think you look lovely," he said. His voice was soft, caressing, as if he was afraid to speak any louder. She felt a pinch in her heart when his eyes trailed over her. She wanted him so badly, her hands itched for him, her bones begged for him. But she couldn't have him.
"I'm allowed to go out there, right?" Lena asked, turning to face him. He looked confused as he stared down at her.
"Why wouldn't you be?"
"It's just, Hayley's not really allowed to leave without someone with her and I just assumed the same rules applied to me." Klaus chuckled, shaking his head at Lena and moved his hand up to tuck a strand of mixed blue hair behind her ear. His finger trailed over her jaw, his eyes inquisitive, and she shivered under his touch.
Her hands twitched at her side.
"You can go out whenever, little witch, I just need to know you're safe." Lena nodded, smiling a little before turning back to admire her Casket Girls dress in the mirror. She felt gorgeous in it, and it was the perfect contrast to her bright blue hair.
"I'm still so happy that Rebekah got me this dress, but it's kinda stupid that she got me and Hayley dresses and totally forgot about herself. Oh! I wonder if she got one for Davina, that would be so cool if the four of us went out tonight in our dresses!"
Klaus grinned at her excitement, unable to stop himself from staring at her. She beamed with lightness, her glow showering over him in a way he had never experienced before. Lena was something completely different that he still struggled to wrap his head around, and she wasn't even blonde!
"Have you seen Davina this morning?" Lena suddenly asked Klaus. "It's just, I didn't see her at breakfast and I couldn't hear anything coming from her bedroom but I suppose she's just painting, she loves to paint in the morning," Lena told him, still running her fingers over the white dress. But Klaus' eyebrows had furrowed and fear had grown inside of him. Had Davina left? If she left she could easily take him down, he couldn't have someone as strong as Davina as an enemy.
"Are you okay?" Lena asked him, noticing the way his face has fallen suddenly. He nodded, plastering a smile on his lips again and leaning over to press a soft kiss to her cheek before he left the room again. She watched him go, before letting out a sigh.
Why was Klaus Mikaelson so beautiful?
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LENA was almost out of the Abattoir when Rebekah came rushing in, holding an ivory dress. Lena stopped before her best friend could go crashing into her and she tried her hardest to side step the blonde vampire.
"Honestly, I've been looking for a dress all morning and this is the only one I can find, if it wasn't for me there'd be no festival!" Rebekah complained, showing the dress off to Lena at the side of the courtyard. Up on the landing, they could see Klaus ordering his vampires to look for Davina. "Oh and that dress looks stunning on you, I knew I'd made the perfect decision!"
Lena giggled, curtsying in the dress and causing Rebekah to laugh too and that was when they heard Hayley's voice from behind them. "So, the witch is missing, huh?" she asked, bending down to shove the dress Rebekah had gotten for her into the box filled with other beautiful dresses.
"Walked right out the front door apparently," Rebekah whispered back. If they talked any louder Klaus would hear them and they knew he wouldn't like them talking about it. Lena still felt a little guilty though, it had been her fault that Klaus had realised that Davina had left. "Know anything about it?"
"No," replied Hayley and the two girls looked to Lena, knowing that she was friendly with the young witch. She shook her head and told them that she had no idea Davina was missing until she heard Klaus shouting about it. "We did sorta tell her that the witch elders were dead," Hayley explained to Rebekah, who just looked confused.
"Well, why would she care when the witches tried to kill her in their ritual?" she asked. Hayley and Lena shared a look, both of them having a slight idea of what pushed her away from the Mikaelson house.
"I think it was more that Marcel didn't tell her that the one thing preventing her from being free had been eliminated," Lena suggested, shrugging a little.
"So you two are the reason she's run off," Rebekah pointed out, rolling her eyes at the pair and starting to walk away from them.
"Hey, we were just trying to tell her the truth," Hayley snapped at the blonde vampire, causing her to spin back around, "she's the one who realised they were just using her to keep their control over the witches."
"Well, I've never been a fan of the boys club, Lena will tell you that." Hayley glanced over the blue haired witch, who had taken to sit on the trunk that Hayley had closed. She nodded. "Just wait, Elijah will join them and the three of them will be impossible."
The three women watched Marcel and Klaus talk lowly to one another. Already, together, they could be quite insufferable, Lena couldn't begin to think what it would be like if Elijah joined in.
"Used by the witches, lied to by Marcel, manipulated by Elijah, threatened by Klaus, she's like a modern day Casket Girl," Rebekah said, her tone anything but humorous. Lena let out a sigh, allowing her gaze fall back onto Klaus. He was exactly where he thought he belonged, above everybody else, ruling them all as king.
Lena felt so sorry for him. He must have been so lonely.
"Are you talking about Davina or yourself?" Lena heard Hayley ask and her head shot over to see Rebekah's face fall. It was obvious she didn't know either and Lena felt sympathy wash over her. Poor Rebekah, always stuck in the middle of guy drama without even wanting to be there.
"Does it matter?"
Hayley looked back at Lena, who shrugged a little.
"Anyway, us girls have got to stick together," Rebekah's voice echoed through Lena's ears, causing her to smile in nostalgia. Rebekah had been uttering those words to her ever since she was young, they had been ingrained into her mind since she was a child.
Girls protected girls, always.
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SHE was laughing, head thrown back, dancing in the middle of the street. Klaus watched her from the side, unable to stop the chuckles from falling out of his mouth as the way she spun around and danced with strangers.
Lena looked beautiful as the glow of the streetlights fell over her, the flush of moving about reddening her cheeks and the beam of light and energy that naturally came off her in waves.
Lena Ricci was everything good in the world and more.
It was then that Klaus caught sight of Marcel and Elijah whispering to each other and narrowed his eyes at the pair. They had never been the best of friends, Marcel was always Klaus' son, so of course he had to go over.
"Ah, you two look rather cozy," he teased once he reached them both.
"Hardly, I was just telling Elijah how we're wasting time."
They were meant to be looking for Davina, but Lena had wanted to join in on the festivities and of course Rebekah wasn't about to say no when her best friend had gotten all dressed up and everything. Not that Klaus was complaining, he had rather enjoyed watching Lena enjoy herself.
"You don't like festivals?" asked Klaus, raising his eyebrows at Marcel.
"I don't see why not?" Rebekah's voice rang through their ears. She had Lena on her arm, but the little witch was too busy getting lost in the atmosphere and loud music and drunken laughter of strangers to really care about the four vampires. "Who doesn't love a street fair?"
"Sister, come to help us find our stray?" asked Klaus, hardly able to take his eyes off Lena.
"We can't let your secret weapon get in the wrong hands, can we?"
"For the record, we are moments away from retrieving her."
"I recognise that tone of voice, Niklaus," said Elijah, sounding distrusting, "clearly you have some diabolical machination. What is it?" Klaus smirked, and pushed past his siblings, allowing himself a moment to push the stray hairs out of Lena's eyes before making his way over to the teenage boy with his violin.
"Timothy!" he greeted the boy, smirking in that evil, maniacal way that he did. "Might I have a word," but it wasn't really a question. Compulsion never was. Klaus managed to compel the teenage violinist to hand over his phone so that he could phone the back-stabbing newbie vampire otherwise known as Joshua Rosza.
"Uh, hello?" came the voice on the other end of the phone. Klaus smirked. Lena had stopped paying attention to the festival and was now asking Rebekah what Klaus was doing.
"Joshua, my most disappointing minion, I suspected you wouldn't answer the call were it from me," Klaus said. Lena was staring at him, arms crossed over her chest, frowning. He hated it when she frowned, especially at him. He always felt like he was doing something wrong when she frowned at him.
"Klaus, hey, what up? Guess what, I just moved to Turkey. Weirdly, they don't eat turkey here, go figure." Klaus rolled his eyes at the boy on the other end of the phone. Were all youngsters like him? Was Lena supposed to be like this, but wasn't because Rebekah had raised her right?
"You're lying," stated Klaus, "in fact Marcel and I were just chatting about your failed double agent status and we've surmised that you're likely still in town and in the company of a friend, a young angry witch."
"Uh nope," answered Josh, although Klaus could tell that he was nervous. "Nope, no witches here, totally digging Turkey though."
"Are you really gonna leave Davina's fiddler soulmate Timothy alone with me?" Klaus knew what he was doing. Klaus was a good manipulator, it was in his blood, woven into his skin, pounded into his veins. He did it well. "Oh Josh, what would she think of that? I assure you, I just want to talk to her. Tim and I will be at the compound, I really do hope she comes home soon," and with that Klaus hung up on the club-kid vampire, smirking to himself. There was no way Davina would be able to resist. She wanted to protect those she loved, even if she got hurt in the process.
"If you hurt Josh--" Klaus heard Lena's anger-filled voice before he saw her tiny figure storming up to him. Behind her he could see Marcel, Elijah and Rebekah all struggling to hold in their laughter. "--or Davina, I swear to god Klaus Mikaelson, it will be the worst mistake of your life, do you understand me?"
"I didn't realise you were so close to the...youngsters," he shot back, lip curling up in humour. But Lena didn't smile back.
"Maybe because I finally get to talk to people my own age. But do not, and I mean do not, hurt them! If either of them end up dead, so do you!"
And Klaus watched as Lena stormed away from him, an irritated blur of white and blue, dodging past dancing and stumbling strangers. He watched her and he didn't want to look away. He watched her and he felt himself falling, deeper into the spiral of what he assumed was the most soul consuming love of all time.
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YET again, Lena was not very happy with how Klaus had dealt with things.
She sat in the courtyard, still in that now sweaty wedding dress, arms crossed over her chest and glaring at Klaus until Rebekah returned with Davina, who he had tried to poison. Klaus had tried to poison her friend. She was very upset with him.
Lena, while she sat glaring at the hybrid, heard the clicking of Rebekah's heels and shot up from her seat. She watched as her best friend carried her new friend into the courtyard before the view was obscured by Marcel's back. He had gone rushing up to Rebekah, asking if Davina was okay and Lena felt anger surge through her.
If he hadn't used her in the first place, maybe none of this would have happened.
"She's devastated and exhausted, where's her room?" Rebekah asked.
"No, I got her," argued Marcel, before having to repeat himself at the incredulous look Rebekah shot him. The blonde vampire handed over the young witch to Marcel, allowing him to carry her to her room in the Abattoir. Lena watched them go, feeling the urge to go with them but noticing the look on Rebekah's face, she decided to stay.
Rebekah needed her.
"Come on Bex," Lena whispered into the silence. Rebekah and Klaus had stood glaring at each for a good two minutes and Lena was starting to itch for noise. "You look exhausted."
Lena could feel Klaus' eyes on her as she held her hand out to her best friend. The Original took it and allowed her best friend to lead her up the stairs to their bedroom, neither of them looking back at the Hybrid. He had done very bad things that night, and Lena wasn't feeling in the forgiving mood that night.
"I'll run you a bath," Lena told Rebekah as she led them into their shared room. Rebekah nodded and as Lena went to run her the bath, Rebekah started to undress.
"It is said that this is a man's world and sometimes it is," Lena heard Rebekah say, and looked up from the warm bath water to see her best friend entering the bathroom wearing nothing but a bathrobe. "For every Casket Girl that was saved, countless others were not. But women are more resilient than given credit for, and some women, well, let's just say their oppressors better watch out."
Lena let out a chuckle, slipping out of the bathroom to get changed out of the 20's wedding dress and into something more comfortable, while Rebekah oozed her muscles in the bath.
"I, too, am resilient and I'm tired of being oppressed," said Rebekah, her voice just loud enough for Lena to hear as she shimmied her way into a nightgown. "For one thousand years, my brother has taken what he wants in whatever way he wants regardless of the consequences. Marcel seems determined to allow it and Elijah stands right by his side futilely awaiting the day he'll change."
The witch pulled her hair up into a bun as she leaned against the doorframe, watching her best friend smile in the mirror, a chaotic plan already stirring in her head. Lena could see the cogs turning, the dots connecting, the plan forming. Rebekah knew exactly what she had to do.
"Well, Bex, whatever you're planning, leave me out of it. I'm too tired to deal with another episode of Mixing It Up With The Mikaelsons."
i mean after a while, I too would get tired of Mikaelson Family Drama
but look here's Lena's dress