Elijah's Eternity: New Orleans (Complete)

Chapter 9: The Farewell Breakfast

By: eternityunicorn

The rest of the night was agony. Elijah could unwillingly hear Niklaus and Hayley being intimate. Hell, everyone in New Orleans could probably hear those two. It only served to drive him mad as it remained him of his own escapades with Eternity, making him long for her while she was away. His body ached for her presence, for her skin against his, just as it had for the past ten years. The want of her was worse now, however, since she had returned, but remained out of his full reach...for now anyway.

He paced his bedroom with a glass of bourbon in hand. The liquor was calming his nerves, which were frayed from his anticipation for Eternity's return. Niklaus was right, he wasn't his own anymore. Eternity had a hold of him so completely that it made it impossible to not desire her to be near by. He was starting to understand why Loki had been so obsessed with keeping Eternity and trying getting her to return to him for four hundred years. Though Elijah would never act so abhorrently as he had, he still could sympathize with the Trickster in his need for Eternity.

Now that the immortal woman had returned, his need for her only grew - and of course, he didn't just mean physically speaking. It wasn't that he couldn't live without her. He could, if he had to. Hell, he had been doing so for ten years. No, it wasn't that. It was simply the fact that he didn't want to live without her. He wanted to keep her with him permanently; as permanently as possible.

Though they were a long way off from even considering it, marriage did come to mind. However, Elijah wasn't sure if Eternity even recognized such a concept. Did her people even have marriages? He knew she had been in a committed relationship with Loki, but she never did say if she had been married to him. He wondered if marriage was viewed differently for the immortals beyond the stars. Maybe a committed relationship was a marriage to them? Or maybe there was a different way for two lovers to bind themselves together forever. Perhaps some sort of spell or ritual. Elijah didn't know, but he wanted to find out.

Hours passed with wonderings such as this swirling through his mind, as he continued to pace, refilling his glass of bourbon every now and again in an failing attempt to calm himself enough to cease moving. Upon making such a realization of failure, Elijah moved from his bedroom into an adjacent room where he kept a shiny black grand piano. Music always helped sooth his restless mind. So, it was there beneath a small crystal chandelier that he sat and began to play a quiet, soothing tune.

Yes, the music definitely helped keep him distracted from the mess of a man he was with Eternity away. It had certainly helped before, whenever he had been feeling particularly miserable over the past decade. Though, at that time, Gia would often times play along with him on her violin. He smiled softly at the memory. They had made some great music together, he had to admit. She was so musically in tuned that he could play anything and she would be able to jump into the melody seamlessly.

Thinking of Gia, Elijah couldn't help feeling the pang of guilt again over how things had ended between them. She was definitely better off without him, but he still felt as if he had lost a good friend as a result of his selfish careless attempt to move on with his life after Eternity had left. Perhaps one day, she could forgive him and they could remain friends.

"Elijah," called Eternity from behind him suddenly, breaking his thoughts regarding the other woman immediately.

He paused in his playing abruptly and turned to see her standing there in the doorway of the adjacent room. She was smiling softly at him, dressed in a flowing white dress with her hair braided over one shoulder and decorated with pink roses. With the subject of marriage not far from his mind, Elijah couldn't help thinking that she looked like a bride on her wedding day.