Fighting Free

Chapter 2

He took a deep breath after he had rung the doorbell. The thick wooden door muffled all sounds coming from inside. He could barely hear if the bell had worked, let alone if there was someone coming to open it. One moment he contemplated just turning around, seeing if he could get by somehow on his own. The only thing stopping him from doing that was the girl standing behind him. It would be cowardice, running away now, and he was no coward. Or so he had to prove. To someone. To her. To himself. To... to the man he refused to think about.

And then the lock clicked, the door opened. Someone was at home. Who would it be? That same man he refused to think about?

His sister, who might forgive him? If there was anyone who would take him back, it would probably be Rebekah, although she had loved their mother very much. But he had always been her anchor, the one she ran to when she had fallen down, when she was scared of the weather. When she was scared of their father.

One if his brothers? Elijah, who he had always looked up to? Finn, who would shut him out immediately, he was quite sure of that. Little Kol, who was probably not that little anymore?

When the door swung open, he looked into the shocked face of his elder brother.

"Niklaus?" Elijah was clearly surprised to see him, not knowing for one moment what to do. No wonder... he hadn't seen his brother in years, had barely heard from him during that time. "Why didn't you tell us you would be coming home today?"

Klaus shot an apologetic look over his shoulder to you, before turning back to his brother. "I... didn't dare to. Besides, I had someone to pick me up from... there."

You just shrugged. He hadn't even asked his family? He must have been really afraid of their reaction.

Something that didn't seem completely justified, judging by the fact that Elijah stepped aside after he had recovered from the shock and invited Klaus in. Then he turned to you. "Come in. We can't leave someone who brought my brother home standing outside. He offered you his hand. "I'm Elijah, Niklaus' brother."

You stepped forward, shaking the hand. "Y/N. I'm sorry, I thought he had written you..."

Elijah smiled slightly. "He didn't write that often. We might have been quite harsh on him a few years ago, and he took that as a sign we'd rather not have contact at all."

You decided you kind of liked him. He looked formal, dressed up in a suit, even when he was at home –not that you had any idea what he had planned for the day, of course-, his words carefully chosen, and he moved like he knew exactly what he was doing. You followed Klaus and Elijah inside, looking around, kind of impressed by the sheer size and luxury of it all.

Klaus looked at you, slightly amused, despite of his nerves. "Yes, I know... it can be quite overwhelming if you've never been here before. Our... father absolutely insists that the status of our family is visible in our family home." Something he had always hated. He never really felt part of this family. Something always seemed to be missing.

Elijah closed the door. "Well, luckily for you, our father isn't home yet. We still have to think out a plan on how to handle him, because you might have been completely wrong about mine and Rebekah's willingness to see you again, I fear you were right about father."

You could see how Klaus tensed at the mention of the man, and with the few things you had heard about the Mikaelson's father, you almost started to become afraid of him already, even when you hadn't met him yet.

"Rebekah?" Klaus asked his brother, almost forgetting about you. "She's here?" He looked up the stairs, as if the girl, or woman –you had no idea how old she was- would appear there, just because he said her name. And apparently he wasn't very wrong. A smile played around his lips when he saw his sister standing there, clearly lured by the noise coming from downstairs.