Always And Forever | Elijah Mickelson

Family Is A Complicated Thing

1901

It's been almost 20 years since Klaus has last seen his brother, Elijah. It wasn't like the Original was clingy...he just needed to be in control. Especially in regards to his siblings. Especially because Michael is out there, ready to kill them all.

He and Elijah had been living together until Klaus had told his brother to find the sister of the family where Katerina had last stayed. It was a fruitless mission, so Elijah had reported. He had told he'd stay in Europe for the next few years, trying to find her. Well, Klaus certainly hadn't expected "the next few years" to become "the next few decades". Although both of them wrote letters where Elijah assured him everything was fine Klaus got suspicious. During his last visit two decades ago he had asked Elijah to join him in America again. At first Klaus hadn't thought much about why he declined but now he knew, thanks to some compelled spies he sent out.

His sentimental fool of a brother was playing house with some girl.

Really, Klaus should've seen it coming. His brother, although he always pretended to be the controlled one, was nothing but a caring mess.

Klaus would have to get him out of it because caring is what makes you weak and Elijah can't be weak, not with Michael on the run. None of them could.

So here he was, in the middle of Paris, in front of a house just posh enough to fit his brother's taste. The maid that opened him the door had bite marks on her wrist and he immediately knew he was at the right place. It didn't take long to compell her and get invited in. Klaus assumed she was probably the house owner, compelled to play maid for his brother and his little secret.

That would bring him to his next step, find out just who Elijah's newest love was. All his spies could find out was the location of his brother as well as his alibi, "An English Earl living with his beauty of a wife in Paris while playing part in the high society, far away from the political climate"

"Sir Elijah will be extremely upset when he finds out I let a stranger enter. Why did I do that?" the maid asked herself as she walked Klaus through the entryway of the house and into the oval shaped Salon.

"I take it as he's not home?" Klaus asked her, charming smile on his face as he ignored the clear confusion on the woman.

"Neither him nor the Misses are here, Sir. They'll be arriving separately as both had planned different activities for today, though their arrival will still be shortly after one another,"

Klaus nodded and looked around the room for a while, his hands behind his back. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening slightly. There, along with many other pieces, hung one of Klaus paintings. His eyes wandered around the room and the more he looked the more he recognized the paintings. Most of them were his. Paintings he had drawn ages ago and had left in the places where he had created them. Places where he and Elijah had stayed.

"Are you admiring the art of the house?" the maid asked, snapping Klaus out of his astonishment.

"Did Elijah hang all these up?" he asked, genuinely curious. His brother was a sentimental fool but that was new.

The maid smiled brightly before speaking up again,

"The lady of the house made Sir Elijah hang of all of these up, my lord. She told me they're from the places they've visited before settling here. I don't know why I'm telling you this, though," the maid spoke.

Usually Klaus would've laughed and told her it's because he told her to only speak the truth after she had invited him in but he was too astonished. He hadn't met a lot of private people who admired his art. They usually admired him and his art along with him.