Severed Heaven (Niklaus and Elijah Mikaelson)

Chapter Three: Red Flower Paint

1312, France

     A month passed after my mother had successfully cloaked the Mikaelsons. To my own surprise, everything worked out quite well between the coven and the siblings. They did not completely stay hidden from the villagers, and only came out at night, but when they came out they remained amazingly well-bound to my mother's terms. They even guarded the borders with their blood-thirst, preventing unwelcome outsiders from entering our community during the night. And eventually, they became part of that same community. The villagers seemed to like them, entirely clueless of their dark nature at that, but my mother appreciated it. She even granted them daylight rings, and that's how I really started to get to know the Mikaelsons.

Rebekah sighed deeply as she stared up at the sky, letting the rays of sunshine warm her face. "The sun is surely my favourite new thing."

I chuckled as I picked at the grass. "It's silly seeing you that way. I couldn't imagine having missed it." I said to her, and she gave me a playful push. "Hey, be careful with me. You owe my mother." I teased, acting as if I were really hurt.

We let the silence fell between us. As we were sitting by the stream, and by the willows, I listened carefully to the water pass by. It was a beautiful place, and it was somewhat distant from the village, making it a perfect place to rest and to read, like I often would. I just wished I'd found this place sooner, but I was forever grateful that Rebekah had showed it to me. However, we weren't the only ones here. On the other side of the stream, my eyes found the one person that could make my heart skip a beat. It looked like he was picking flowers in pure silence, unaware of my presence and Rebekah's. "What's he doing?" I asked her curiously.

She glanced into the distance with her eyes adorably squinted. "Oh, I think he's picking flowers to make paint."

"He paints?" I asked her, and she nodded. It surprised me that he did, because he really did not seem like the delicate type.

Rebekah dusted off her dress, clearly unbothered by her brother. I, however, was very much interested in the way that he moved, in the way that he picked the flowers with the gentlest touch. I doubted that I'd ever seen him be this gentle before, because usually he'd portray himself as rather confident and particularly untouchable. I did not know him well, despite the fact that a whole month had passed by. I'd talked to Rebekah's other siblings plenty of times, and yes, they'd convinced me of their good, but him... I couldn't say that he was unapproachable, but I found myself fragile around him, my palms sweaty whenever he would speak to me. It resulted in such avoidance of him.

"My brother fancies you." She broke the silence with those cunning words and looked at me. "Do you not know?"

I hesitated to speak. "Niklaus?"

"Yes, Niklaus." She chuckled, and when she noticed me staring at him, I looked down at my knees in quite a hurry, as if caught. "He frequently finds inessential ways to speak of you."

"Oh, please." I said. "You're just seeing things that you want to see."

The blonde sighed deeply, audibly frustrated by my response. It was almost as if that wasn't what she'd expected to come out of my mouth. "Well, I wouldn't tell you if we weren't good friends." She added on top of it all, and we both glanced over to her brother who had now noticed us. My heart almost jumped out of my chest. "I know he can be stubborn and overly optimistic, but if he loves someone he'd do anything for them. I admire that."

Before I spoke again, I made sure Niklaus was far away enough. I wouldn't want him to hear our conversation. "I much prefer Elijah." I said. It was part lie, part truth.

"Elijah is the one everybody likes." She dismissed my words just like that.

This time, when my eyes longed to find him again and subsequently found him, Rebekah caught my attempt to study him further. She scoffed with an evident laugh lingering in the back of her throat. "Oh my— you like him just the same, don't you?" Her words gave me goosebumps, because I knew I had to deny something I couldn't.