Sweet Maeve Mikaelson

Chapter 17 - Heartbroken

Maeve couldn't remember what she'd just been doing. One moment she was with Ianthe and they were hashing out their plan to keep her safe from Mikael. Now it was dark and she was standing in the kitchen again. Hours had passed. But where did they go?

"Your bond with Elijah is very strong," a voice came from behind her. It was Klaus. They were alone.

Trying not to reveal the most recent gap in her memory, Maeve turned to him politely.

"It is a mate bond. We cannot be separated."

"I am well aware," Klaus mumbled and she managed to catch his eye. He looked torn, but more so about what his next words would be than anything else.

Maeve took it as an opportunity.

"Can we start over?" She asked simply, expecting nothing more than a fresh start for them both. "I would very much like to be friends."

Klaus hesitated and his eyes widened, almost horrified at the thought.

"Friends?" He repeated as though he had never said the word in his whole life.

"Yes," Maeve smiled and waited for him, understanding a man like Klaus would be very weary and suspicious even when she was truly honest.

"Why?"

The question stumped her at first and not because she didn't have good reasons. It threw her off balance because she saw his confusion. How he couldn't imagine anyone wanting to be something as easy as friends with him while asking for nothing more.

"Through Elijah, you are my brother. I hold no animosity towards you however much your actions were... deplorable."

Klaus stared at her, uneasy with how Maeve was willing to put it all behind them. He truly had been awful to both her and Elijah. The rational part of his mind was telling him this was a trick. No one had ever wanted nothing but company. It was very strange.

"I told Elijah I would never dream of asking him to choose between us. I wish for you to want the same."

Maeve's sweet words washed over Klaus and he shifted on his feet to hold back a feeling he hadn't allowed in for centuries. Guilt.

"Elijah said you don't have a mate Klaus," she carried on talking because he didn't. "If that is true I am very sorry. However that is rather odd. If the Original spell was written in the way I suspect it was all those years ago..."

Maeve shook her head and trailed off. What did she know about Esther's magic when Esther was the one who tricked her into a thousand year coma? Giving Klaus false hope wasn't fair either so she stopped talking and buried the idea, unwilling to open it up and cause more hurt.

"I am sorry," Maeve finally said sympathetically. "But most people don't have a mate bond. They find love and I have faith you will too Klaus."

Again, Klaus just looked at her like she was an alien. Maeve supposed she wasn't far off from one, especially in this century.

"What I mean," Maeve's ramble continued on. "Is that I understand why you don't like me. I'm sorry seeing Elijah with me causes you pain. But I won't apologise for my bond with him. You're the one that ought to be apologising, not me."

A long stillness fell between the two of them. Klaus didn't move or reject her offer and Maeve supposed that was something. She knew he wouldn't apologise but she had hoped he would give her more than silence.

"I made a mista-" Klaus started but Maeve's vision suddenly swam. She grabbed the kitchen work-surface quickly and winced when she felt pain across her chest. It had been building all day, she'd even ignored a sharp stabbing sensation in the heart around twenty minutes ago. But this was something new and worrying.