Hope For Tomorrow

Loyalty was something he had always demanded from those around him. Once his brother Elijah and sister Rebekah had given it willingly, unconditionally; those days were long gone. As was his way, he had lashed out at them time and again over slights both real and imagined and punished them in terrible ways as he saw fit.

Loyalty was something he gave sparingly and took back as and when it suited him. Klaus had no qualms at turning on his own siblings, his brother Finn had been daggered in a coffin for around nine hundred years and his brother Kol, as well as Rebekah went in and out of their coffins at his whim. Other people therefore were completely indispensible to him; even it seemed, his precious doppelganger.

In the close confines of the attic room Klaus could smell the fear and desperation coming from her. He could see the panic in her eyes from across the room as she watched her uncle decline under a curse she could do nothing to combat. And yet she fought.

Cami knew what loyalty was. She had it in abundance. He'd seen it at work while she searched for answers, certain that there was more to her brother's death than could be seen on the surface. He had felt it when her eyes bored into his own and she warned him to stay away from Davina and Josh, determined to protect two young people who could, in point of fact, kill her quicker than she could blink if they chose to.

Her loyalty was in evidence now. She stuck beside her uncle, even going so far as to have Josh compel her a doctor to help, searching for an alternative to fighting magic with magic; surely she must see Kieran was a lost cause. But if she did, Cami wasn't giving up until she had to.

Even with the stubborn tilt of her chin and the obstinate look in her eyes which kept her going, she looked like hell; yet Cami still held out hope for tomorrow.

Klaus was struck by the odd urge to cradle her face in his hands, stroke the soft skin beneath her eyes with his thumbs. He wanted to bury his head between her neck and shoulder and stay there a while, feel her hands in his hair and the tremble under her soft skin as he gave her something that would make her forget all the pain and torment she carried around and help her to sink into sleep when she was sated; possibly before he was. Klaus was sure that when it came to Cami he could be that generous.

Loyalty was not new to him, but it was a funny thing. Klaus could feel it curling in the pit of his stomach, a long forgotten but not unpleasant feeling. He wasn't quite sure how it got there, but he didn't question it. It felt nice.

No matter what happened from this moment forward, Klaus knew he would feel it. Decisions would be influenced and his priorities would change with it. She looked at him then, a fleeting flash of fright in her eyes, chased quickly away by the certainty that he would know what to do.

Klaus moved to stand beside her. Her scent permeated his mind, her closeness a pleasant sensation.

In her time of need she had turned to him, in spite of her anger towards him. When she could have won her uncle's release from the curse by bringing him to his knees she had not plunged Papa Tunde's knife into his heart, she had handed it to him instead, believing in him.

Cami had a loyalty towards him too it would seem and Klaus wondered if at some point, he could be something to her other than a bad thing.

Klaus now felt something he hadn't in the longest time; he too had hope for tomorrow.