Fighting Free

Chapter 7

"Stop pacing!" It probably wouldn't help one bit that you said it, seeing that you had said to Klaus it at least five times in the last thirty minutes.

Klaus was just very nervous, and he had showed that since the moment you both got up this morning. He didn't knock over his cereal just yet, but it had come close... and he hadn't eaten barely as much as he usually did. Now he was just checking the time, over and over again.
"And you're sure they said yes?"

You sighed, closing the book you was trying to read. When he was acting like this, you couldn't make any progress anyway.
"Yes, they said yes. Elijah sounded pretty happy when I invited him, and I could hear Rebekah in the background, saying to him it was about time you got back at them. I don't know anything about Kol, of course, and Finn doesn't know a thing, like we discussed, so it's just going to be the three of them, you and me. Happy now?"

He shook his head.
"Not really. Kol hates my guts, probably."

You rolled your eyes.
"Just like you thought Elijah would hate them when you asked me to pick you up instead of him? That went fine, remember?" You thought Klaus needed to do this. You didn't want him locked up in your apartment, too scared of his father -no matter how right he was in being scared of that man- to pick up his life again. You were glad you had made it a lunch though... spending an entire day with Klaus like this would probably drive you crazy, and it gave both parties the opportunity to go relatively quick when matters didn't go as you would expect them to.

He shook his head.
"No... Kol is... different. He was still young when I left, and all he heard were our father's stories. He'll believe all of them, which makes me the brother who took his mother from him. Way to go..."

Ok... Klaus could have a point there... but the whole fact that Kol had decided to come along should count for something, shouldn't it? Mikael was fast enough to kick Klaus out of the house, if Kol was just as mad as Klaus thought he was, he wouldn't want to see his brother at all. Unless Elijah bullied him in coming along. Now the both of you had too much time to worry about that...
"Come on. No need for you to pace anymore, or you'll wear out your carpet. Let's just go. If traffic doesn't cooperate, we don't need to be nervous that we'll be late."

Klaus seemed almost glad to get into action, and some of the nerves seemed to disappear. He clearly needed action, something to do. The whole waiting thing didn't suit him.

Sometimes you wondered how he had made it through all that empty time in prison.

Traffic was cooperating, of course, and the both of you arrived at the restaurant fifteen minutes early, but the table was already free. Despite the fact that you most definitely understood why Klaus would want to order a beer, you made him change his mind to coffee.
"Let's first see how this will go before you get drunk, ok?"

Just after your drinks had arrived, Klaus' head snapped up.
The bell linked to the door of the restaurant sounded again, and you saw Rebekah and Elijah enter, followed by a young man who could only be their younger brother, so much did he resemble Elijah. You raised your hand to catch their attention, and Elijah smiled when he saw the both of you.

It didn't take long before everyone was seated. Elijah and Rebekah greeted Klaus pretty amiably, while Kol kept his distance, clearly wanted to test the waters before he would do or say something.

And then it was silent. Somehow you should have expected that. You couldn't bring a broken family together and expect them to pick up where they left off like nothing had happened, but you had forgotten to think out an icebreaker to start everything off. Stupid... You saw a smirk around Elijah's lips when he noticed your desperate look the moment you thought you had made a giant mistake by arranging all of this.