" you know we've got potential "
TWENTY three years of life and Lena Ricci had never seen a party quite like this. Music pumped through the Abattoir, strangers bounced around, lights flashed in pretty shades of blue. Lena found herself grinning as she leant against the railing that looked down on the courtyard.
She could definitely get used to Elijah's parties.
She then noticed the four witches, as her eyes trailed over the party, who had just entered. Genevieve led the pack, then there was Monique, the other girl who had been resurrected and finally Davina, who looked and obviously felt very out of place. Lena felt a stab of sympathy for the young witch but noticed Carlotta's bouncy blonde curls getting closer to Davina and let out a breath. Carlotta would easily raise her spirits.
"I'm impressed brother," she heard from beside her and turned slightly to see Klaus and Elijah hiding themselves away from the party. The wolves had just entered and Lena could see the grinning Jackson leading his pack. At his shoulder was the much smaller but much bouncier Stacey McCall, in a yellow dress that was fitting yet somehow loose at the same time.
"Yes, now if I can just keep them from tearing one another to shreds," mused Elijah and Lena let out a snort, causing both of them to look at her. Elijah didn't look impressed, but Klaus looked a very impressive mixture of flabbergasted, blown away and amazed. And there was something else in his eyes that Lena was too afraid to decipher.
"For your sake, here's to a spectacularly boring evening," she joked raising her glass of lemonade. Elijah rolled his eyes at her but smiled anyway as he moved over to clink his champagne glass against hers.
"Walk with me, Lena," Klaus ordered, holding out his arm for the young witch to take. She narrowed her eyes at him but did so anyway and allowed him to lead her away from Elijah and closer to the party. She could feel the music vibrating through her legs. "You look absolutely stunning tonight, has anybody told you that yet?"
"My mirror did," she joked, smiling to herself. Klaus chuckled and Lena felt herself smile brighter. Lena did look absolutely stunning in the white, flapper-style dress that she wore. It had spaghetti straps and was tight in all the right places and contrasted amazing with the dark curls she sported that night.
"I heard you come in last night, or shall I say, this morning." Lena shrugged, her eyes dropping to her open-toe heels that she wore. They used to belong to Rebekah, but as a parting gift the blonde had given them to her. She loved them. "What happened to 'I don't drink, it interferes with my magic'?" he asked, sounding just as patronising as any protective and slightly jealous (boy)friend.
"Well, you see, Niklaus, I was a tad bit upset last night," she replied. She had plastered on a fake smile as they walked through the ever-growing crowd of dancing strangers, glancing every which way that she could so as not to look at the very gorgeous man whose arm she was holding onto. She knew that looking at him would make her melt. "See this guy - that I considered at least a friend - told me that I wasn't even good enough at being who I am, and he really did hit a nerve and I lost it. Happy?"
"Not at all, love. I didn't mean to make you feel like that."
"Yes well, you did!" Lena had to breathe deeply to regain her composure and as she did she slid her arm out of Klaus' grip. "I'm gonna go talk to my friends, I'll see you later, Klaus." She could feel him watching her as she crossed the dance floor, making a beeline for the pack of werewolves who had all clustered together.
Her eyes narrowed at the blonde Oliver, who was smiling at someone else - when she looked she realised it was Davina - but then she caught sight of Stacey waving at her and decided to leave the werewolf be. He was one of the reasons that Rebekah had nearly died, but Rebekah was not dead, so Lena wasn't going to stir up a fuss quite yet.
"Well look who it is-" sang Lena, throwing her arms out wide,"-the Crescent clan back to themselves!" the werewolves all cheered and Lena found herself grinning as Stacey clung onto her in a tight hug.
"Man I've missed you," she drawled in that bouncy Southern accent of hers, "and damn you do look pretty!" Lena giggled. She spent some more time with the wolves, mainly Stacey and Jackson who had hugged her too, before deciding she wanted to talk to Davina and Carlotta. As she began to make her way towards them, she caught sight of Klaus standing exactly where she had been standing before, looking anything but happy, and her heart swelled. He looked so lonely in a room full of crowded people and she understood that.
So, of course, she changed her course and simply waved to two of her best friends before ascending the stairs again. She had almost reached the hybrid when she caught sight of a familiar redhead and shrunk back into the shadows. Maybe she would say something important. Or maybe Lena didn't know what to do with the hollow feeling inside of her that she felt when Genevieve grinned at Klaus as if she knew all his secrets and more.
"Looking for your little witch?"
Lena hated to think that Genevieve looked really beautiful in her blue dress, but there she was thinking it. She hated that. She wished Genevieve had been ugly, this would have all been so much easier.
"Don't tell me you're jealous of Lena, love," he shot back, smirking at her. He had that lustful look in his eyes that Lena had never seen. She had seen glimmers of it before, but it was never quite as potent. Was that a good thing?
"Just curious as to why you'd seek her company, she seems so... ordinary." Lena's eyes narrowed at the smiling redhead. Lena was not ordinary, how could a metamorphic witch be ordinary? It didn't even make sense.
"Well, sometimes, ordinary is a welcome respite," but it was obvious from the way that Klaus said it that he was holding something back, that he wanted to say something but couldn't. Did he know that Lena was standing there, blended into the shadows, invisible to the mortal eye.
"I thought I was your respite," muttered Genevieve in a way that was obviously meant to be very sexy. The curse of string words going off in Lena's head would give a telepathic a migraine.
"Well, you are, you are! Come on, promise me, not another thought about Lena!" Genevieve grinned and her eyes flickered over to the spot in the shadows in which the young witch was hiding. Lena's eyes widened and she stepped away. Before she could be noticed by Klaus she beat her way through the crowd and came to a panting stop beside Carlotta.
"You look like you've just run a... gara di corsa!"
Lena explained, very quietly, to Carlotta what she had just witnessed between Genevieve and Klaus and the blonde witch expressed her sympathies in very harsh curse words spat out in very angry Italian. She was like fire as she spoke, eyes narrowed into little flames, tongue spitting out embers. Lena wished that Cami could see her. She would have fallen in love.
"Ugh I hate that bitch!" cursed a very angry, much younger witch from behind the Italian pair. They both spun around, eyes widening at the scowling Davina. It wasn't that they had never seen Davina angry before - her default setting was mad - it was just that they hadn't been expecting her to be quite as angry after so heavily flirting with Oliver.
"Monique?" asked Lena, glancing over to where said witch now danced with the blonde werewolf. Davina scowled even more in their direction. "Yeah she sucks, you could just, I dunno, punch her or something?"
"You're not meant to be advocating violence!"
"Oh right, well, don't punch her?"
"Dio mio!"
The three of them began to laugh. Lena was glad that she had managed to cheer Davina up just a little. She was always there for the little witch, she would listen to her rant and talk and bitch about the other witches and the horrible way they treated her. Lena had been trying to get Davina to leave them, to stay with either Carlotta or herself, but Davina kept saying no. She had to get her power back but the ancestors were not happy with her at all.
Death had been nothing but darkness for Davina, and that scared her more than it had used to.
"Someone looks like they need to dance," came a chipper, seductive voice from behind them. Lena did not have to turn to know it was Klaus. She would have been able to pick out his voice in the middle of a group of babbling people. She would have heard that rumbling thunder and replied back in her own lightning snap anywhere she went, at any time.
"I don't dance!"
Davina and Carlotta shared a knowing look as Lena turned a harsh glare onto Klaus, but the harshness softened as quickly as Klaus' smile appeared, dimples carving into his cheeks.
"Of course you do, love, now come on, I think we need to have a chat." Lena rolled her eyes but took Klaus' hand, allowing him to lead her onto the dancefloor.
As soon as they had reached the middle, his arm slid around her waist pulling her flush against him. Her cheeks burned brightly as his hand spread over the small of her back. He could probably feel and hear her erratic heartbeat hammering against her ribcage. When he smirked, she realised he had noticed her sharp intake of breath.
"What did you want to talk about?" she asked. The blue, pulsing lights beat down on them, the air was thick with tension, and Lena could hardly think straight as Klaus' breath fanned over her face.
"Well there's so many things I wish to discuss with you Lena Ricci. But right now, I just want to dance," he whispered, just loud enough for her to hear. She felt a smile grow on her lips.
"So you lied?" he shrugged, it was so miniscule that she didn't see it, but she felt it. "Did you lie to Genevieve too?"
Klaus froze. He had been too busy getting lost in Lena's eyes to even hear her words at first, but then they registered and the shock took over his body. Klaus Mikaelson never got shocked, especially not by women. But there was Lena Ricci, and Lena Ricci was very good at making Klaus feel things when he didn't want to.
"What do-?"
"Is she your respite?"
Suddenly, Klaus frowned. "Lena, you need to understand one thing--"
"Sometimes, in moments like this, when we get close, when I can see that humanity in your eyes, I think that maybe this could be something. And then I remember, you don't care about anyone but yourself."
Lena's voice had been so soft, so quiet that Klaus could hardly hear her over the loud thumping of the music. His eyes had widened as he stepped away from her, his hands falling to his sides. She had squeezed her eyes shut and she seemed to be trying to regain some sort of composure.
"I care about you."
Lena's head shot up. Klaus had stepped forward again. His hand came up, cupping her cheek, tilting her head upwards. Her lips split apart, preparing themselves for something that seemed almost inevitable as the darkness of his irises became so much closer.
"I've cared about you since the moment I met you, little witch."
But the inevitable never happened for seconds later, there was a shout and a muscly, short, blonde werewolf went sailing over their heads, crashing into the glass table. Klaus hardly had time to push Lena out of the way before Diego went rushing by, meeting Oliver in a head on collision.
"This ends now!" came Elijah's vexed order as he grabbed Oliver and slammed him into the bar. "I won't ask again!"
"Oh we'll end it alright!" Jackson's Southern drawl caused them all to snap their heads towards where the angry Alpha had Diego by the neck, stake pressed to his chest dangerously. Lena grabbed a hold of Klaus' hand. Was their going to be a bloodbath, after a whole month of slight peace.
"What's stopping you?"
Lena felt her jaw drop open when she saw Hayley standing on the steps, baby bump outlined perfectly by her tight navy dress. She was absolutely stunning as the lights beamed over her. She did not look happy.
"Kill him."
"Did she just--" but Klaus cut off Lena, shushing her quietly as his eyes grew in excitement at the fight that was about to break out.
"Go ahead Elijah, do it! I mean, it's not like he doesn't deserve to die, right Lena?" Hayley asked, glancing over the witch. Lena's eyebrows raised in shock and then she nodded. He had almost gotten Rebekah killed.
"Shouldn't you intervene or something?" hissed the voice of the human casino owner who had been involving herself in everyone's business since she arrived. Lena had had to move away from her every five minutes because she always seemed to just appear, trying to get the juicy gossip.
"Why would I? This party just got interesting," joked Klaus, squeezing Lena's hand as she giggled beside him.
"I mean, it was Oliver who handed Rebekah over to the witches so they could torture her, but then again, wasn't it Diego who led a werewolf massacre last month? And the witches cursed the wolves while the humans stood back and let it all happen, so when you think about it, everyone here deserves to die!"
Lena and Klaus shared impressed and proud smirks. There was Hayley Marshall being an absolute bamf all over again. Lena could easily pay Hayley to come back to the compound every few days just to completely annihilate everyone with her wit.
"Are you approaching a point?" asked Elijah, who didn't seem quite as impressed as the two standing by the stairs.
"My point, Elijah, is this. If we can't all learn to get along, if our families can't create some sort of community, then what's the point? Kill each other and get it all over with!"
"Can you let me escape first? Blood makes me queasy," cut in Lena before another argument could ensue. Everyone turned to look at her and she could hear the incessant giggling of Carlotta and Davina, who had sunk to the back of the crowd.
Elijah let go of Oliver then, allowing the werewolf to straighten as he let out a growl. Jackson took that as a sign to let go of Diego, hesitantly lowering the makeshift stake he held in his hand.
Lena let out a breath as she let go of Klaus' hand. Why did every party end so horrifically these days?
✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
"KNOCK knock," Lena called out into the silent room. All that could be heard was the sound of the city turning outside, cars zooming by, drunk singing, loud laughter. Then there was Klaus, with his back to the witch, glaring at his just finished painting. It was all blood red and navy blue and inky black, but there was that one light source. The moon, gazing down upon the city that never seems to sleep.
"Come in," called back Klaus. It wasn't until she was standing shoulder to shoulder with him that he finally looked down at her. She had changed out of the dress and into her nightgown, her cardigan pulled over the top to keep her shoulders warm. Her hair, which had curled down her back in chocolate waves was now pulled into a messy braid out of her face. Her face that was completely free of any makeup whatsoever and still Klaus could not help but stare.
She was the moon in which he had gotten the urge to paint just before she had walked in. He knew that much.
"It's pretty," she whispered.
"It's chaotic," was his reply.
She glanced up at him, smiling softly to herself. "Who said chaos wasn't pretty?" and he smiled back at her, and to anyone else it was a smile which he would have given the stars, in love with the freedom and tranquility of their shine, burning brightly and fiercely, yet feeling so far away from them all. It was a smile that spoke of the contrast of peace and carefulness with mayhem and disarray. It was utterly confusing and strikingly beautiful all at once.
But their moment was broken the minute Elijah stepped into the room, holding a yellowing sheet of parchment in his hands. It was the new peace treaty, and it had already been signed by all the factions.
"Sign it," Elijah ordered, holding the pen up for his brother to take.
"Why? You've already done so on our behalf," shot back Klaus, sounding every bit indifferent.
"Brother, I'm not a fool." Lena could see Elijah's grip on the table tightening. His knuckles paled. "It's clear to me you're not as disinterested as you'd like me to believe. Sign, please!"
"At least he said 'please'," mumbled Lena as the two brothers turned to one another. Neither of them took notice of her comment.
"If there is no peace between us, then how can you expect others to follow suit?"
"Fine," puffed out Klaus, taking the pen off of his older brother. "If it will make you happy." Lena watched as Klaus dipped the pen in the red ink - she was pretty sure it was blood, but she didn't want to assume - and signed his name beneath Elijah's. "But I assure you this city's inhabitants will not adhere to this agreement."
"Well, you are welcome to wager against me--"
Lena glanced between the brothers. The tension between them was thick. Thicker than she had ever seen before. She felt claustrophobic just being near them both, something bad was definitely going to happen.
"--but you will lose."
Elijah sauntered out just as fast as he had sauntered in. He did not want to be around his brother for very much longer. Something was going to happen, Lena could feel the bad energy seeping into her bones. It was exhausting.
"I should get to bed," Lena muttered, pulling her cardigan closer around her. Klaus nodded and turned to her, brushing back stray strands of dark hair. He was beginning to miss the blue, he hadn't seen it in a while. "Goodnight, Klaus."
"Goodnight, little witch."
His lips were soft against her forehead but she could still feel the ice cold pressure of them against her skin as she sunk into the large bed, pulling the duvet up to her chin. As she rolled off into a sleep deeper than one she had ever had before, her lips turned up into a small, content smile.
Everything would fall apart soon, the foundation of the whole city would begin to crumble and everything that had been built to be good would collapse, but right now was all that mattered, and right now she felt quite happy.
i have gotten like no sleep this week and it's because I've been writing this kill me now thanks
but here's Lena's dress (HALSEY NEEDS TO WEAR THIS THANKS) and also how fucking hot does my queen look in that gif yes