Amare [2] ➳ N. Mikaelson [ON HOLD]

➳ 15: le grand guignol

VALENTINA waited for hours for any news about her husband. She paced the floor repeatedly. Every time she took a seat, she would instantly rise to her feet again and resume anxiously again.

As soon as Elijah returned home, she ran into the room with urgency to see Klaus lying shirtless in their bed. His light blue eyes closed as he writhed in pain from Papa Tunde's blade embedded deep inside his chest.

She gaped in horror at the sight and cautiously approached his side. "Oh, Nik." She placed a hand on his sweat-covered cheek and hovered her other hand over the large scar running down his chest. "Take it out." She sternly demanded from the older Original.

"I intend to," Elijah replied as he stared at Klaus, clearly conflicted, from the opposite of the bed. "This was all you." He whispered to his little brother while removing his suit jacket and rolling up his dress sleeves.

Valentina scoffed harshly in rejection. "Please. You're just gonna pretend like Rebekah and Marcel didn't betray you, too? Why do you always do this?"

"I am not your enemy, Valentina. I understand your anger. You too lost a great deal that night, and I sympathize---" Elijah attempted to reason with her earning an infuriated glare in his direction.

"Then why do you try to justify any of it? We barely got away, and even then, it cost nearly us everything." She said emotionally, tears burning at her eyes. "Tell me, Elijah, would you be able to stand here and justify the recklessness if Mikael had killed me that night?" She interrogated bitterly then shook her head side to side before he could answer. "Actually, you know what? Never mind, I don't want to hear the answer."

Elijah's stern scowl softened into a face of surprise and sadness. "No. Valentina, that's---"

"Can you just take th torture device out of my husband's chest already, please?" Valentina impatiently snapped and averted her eyes from his gaze.

"You're angry. You're hurt. I understand that but you must also try to understand their reasons." He grabbed a scalpel from the table and sliced it into Klaus' flesh along the red scar bisecting his chest. He set it down and then dug his hand into the open wound to grab the blade.

"Fuck their reasons." She snarled coldly with a finger jabbed in his direction. "They had other options but they choose the stupidest one. What is it with Mikaelsons and picking the dumbest option?"

"You say that as though you are not a Mikaelson yourself. You also forget that you come from the most stubborn family I have ever met." Elijah tried not to smirk in amusement.

He finally ripped the blade out from Klaus' chest causing the hybrid to moan in pain. "Tell me, have you finally settled on names for the twins?" He questioned in genuine curiosity, changing the subject when he sensed her anger growing.

"No." She answered honestly after a long pause. "I can't decide. Nothing feels... fitting."

He set the weapon down in a metal bowl and grabbed a towel to clean his hands of his brother's blood. "Niklaus will be weak as he recovers. Seeing how you're the only person in this entire world that he would not slaughter, I need you to watch over him and feed him if you would from these." He motioned to a stack of blood bags sitting on the table. "But slowly, please. I've taken the liberty of lacing them with vervain so he'll ingest it slower. Perhaps you could use the time constructively? Persuade him not to murder his baby sister."