manof_myword | And I blame this world for making a good man evil (for Ric)

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And I blame this world for making a good man evil (for Ric)

Elijah sat inside his car staring at his phone blankly. Clearly none of the others in town had thought to run their plan by Ric who could, at least, have told them what they were doing, who they were searching for, after what Elijah had told him. He might not have known to tell them it was a bad idea, though--Elijah had only shared so much.

It wasn't visible, but he was trembling. What was visible was that he was shaken. He tried to push it back, closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to settle before he got out and moved into Ric's building, heading up to his apartment.

They'd made plans to go into the city for the Central Virginia Celtic Festival which amused Elijah after many years spent in Scotland and Ireland, but for which the actual appeal was a whisky tasting that Elijah had heard was going to have some rare vintages which weren't being advertised.

All things considered, he could use the drink, though that really hadn't been his intention in suggesting it. Now he had to wonder if it wouldn't be a farewell. Not that he wanted it to be, but neither did he want to be here with any of his siblings when Mikael got to town.

Shaking his head, he moved up the stairs to Ric's apartment, knocking lightly and trying to not look as bothered--and scared--as he was.

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That was kind of what Anna had implied and Damon growled softly. "Hold on."

Katherine clearly didn't want to leave. Damon wasn't strong enough to force her, but he got her to stop trying to feed the vampire in the coffin mice. Together they put the lid back on, leaving the guy in there, chained, though Damon didn't know if he were roused at all or not.

"Ok, we're out, and he's still in his box. What the hell is going on?"

"I will tell you anything you want to know, and probably more, when you get home." But not while Katherine could hear. He also really needed to figure out a way for them to get that coffin moved, to somewhere Katherine couldn't get back to it, but one step at a time, right? Right. "You have my word." He'd keep it, but please god, come home, Damon.

"And I'll hold you to it." Damon sighed. Getting Katherine away was going to be difficult, since she was glaring already. "I'll call you when we're back."

He hung up and turned to deal with the other vampire.

Elijah, in the meantime, finally turned back from the window giving Ric a look that was still faintly worried, but a little calmer. "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me. I would have done something about it sooner, if I'd known sooner. I don't want Damon dead, and I certainly don't want you to have to leave. When they get back, I'll give Damon a run down, and then we can get together and plan something to get your father moved. We don't need Katherine going back there and causing trouble."

He would have suggested killing the guy, or encasing him in cement and tossing him into the ocean, but he didn't think now was really the time. He took a couple of steps toward Elijah, and then inclined his head a bit. "Come here."

"That seems like a reasonable plan. Katerina...can't be blamed for trying to find a way to end Niklaus, but even she won't go back if she realizes Mikael is just as much of a threat to her safety." He frowned a little, shrugged. "Moving him somewhere else is a good idea."

Elijah simply wasn't used to people doing anything to help him, let alone his family. He believed Ric didn't want him dead, and wouldn't want Damon harmed, either, but it was still difficult to fully fathom.

He watched Ric for a moment, then moved to him, strangely wary, but not of him so much as the feeling vulnerable he'd been since hearing the news.

"I still can't promise I wouldn't at least want to be on their side, if it was just a matter of Klaus," Ric said, honest but a little apologetic. "The rest of you... don't deserve that. I'm not sure even he does, but I can't quite help how I feel about it just yet." He was getting somewhere, softening a little maybe, if only because of how much Elijah nearly cared. It just wasn't an easy, or fast, transition. He took Elijah by the front of the shirt when he got close, and pulled him in.

To a hug. "We'll take care of it."

"I can't really blame you for feeling that way, either," Elijah murmured, though it was into Ric's shoulder. He wasn't used to hugging, to being hugged, anymore, but he wasn't pulling back or even stilling. He wrapped his arms around Ric in turn, hugging back and letting his eyes fall closed a moment.

He didn't bring his brother up often, didn't expect Ric's attitude to change after all Niklaus had done. Couldn't help he still loved his little brother desperately, either, but never expected anyone to understand that.

"Thank you." Ric may not have found the gratitude necessary, but Elijah still felt it, deeply.

Ric lifted his hand and pet Elijah's hair, admittedly a little awkwardly. He was, at least, not nervous about Elijah's face so close to his throat. They'd definitely made some sort of process. "You're welcome," he said, deciding fighting a stubborn and overwrought vampire was more stupid than even he was inclined to. "Does this mean you aren't planning on leaving forever, then?" It was only half-teasing. He didn't want Elijah to leave.

The awkward petting was more endearing than not, and Elijah found himself smiling despite himself, even as he eased back a bit, watching Ric with an intent gaze.

"I don't know," he said quietly. "If we can keep him from waking, put him somewhere he can't be found, then...we can stay. If someone goes back and wakes him..." He frowned. "He's spent a thousand years trying to hunt us all down, kill us, Ric. And he can."

That last was said softly, a confession his very fear had probably rendered unnecessary, but he felt it needed saying for explanation, a piece of vulnerability in thanks for Ric stopping Damon and Katherine.

Ric impulsively, softly, kissed Elijah at the last. "I know... My real question is why you're letting him. You know where he is. You know he's not awake...." Why was moving him what Elijah was going with? He got the fear, could feel it and it reminded him of Damon and, even, a little Tyler in a way. He knew where it came from and why it was hard to shake off. He was just, gently, trying to push Elijah past that.

Elijah returned the kiss, just as softly, a tiny shiver running over his skin, mostly just because...the casual affection was nice. Very nice.

"What's the alternative?" Elijah asked, with a bit of a frown. "We can't kill him." Once upon a time he would have flinched when he said that, but through the centuries, one of his biggest regrets was not in striking out and killing his father the first time he'd raised a hand to Klaus in more than the discipline the rest of them got...which, admittedly, would've landed the man in prison these days, but had, at least, been even-handed and truly for discipline rather than...perverse pleasure. "A dagger can be pulled out as easily as whatever magical slumber he lies in now."

He arched an eyebrow, thinking. "I suppose we could dump him somewhere in the ocean..."

"Why not stack the odds in your favor.... Dagger him, while he's in his magic sleep, drop him in wet concrete, then drop him in the middle of the ocean?" He was willing to accept that Elijah was willing and couldn't, given that was the word he'd chosen and the lack of emotional reaction. That didn't mean that they could layer everything possible on top of him, to keep him from getting out again. Ever.

The majority of the "can't kill him" came from being pretty damn sure Mikael hadn't been caught with the stake still in his pocket for hem to pull out and stake him with. Knowing it was out there somewhere left him twitchy, but if no one realized what it was...maybe they'd be okay.

He gave Ric a small smile at the suggestion of all the multitude of things they could do. "I think that is one of the best suggestions I've heard in at least a century, maybe more." He brushed fingers lightly over Ric's cheek almost...testing out the affectionate gesture. "He's ruined every good thing we've ever had in our lives. I'd rather he didn't do it again."

"Then doing everything in your power to stop him seems like the thing to do...." The careful brush of Elijah's fingers had Ric turning his head to kiss them, affirming that he appreciated the affection, rather than just accepted it. "What will it take to make happen? Will your siblings help?"

The kiss pulled a small smile again, sweet and fleeting. It was wrong to keep smiling at such a moment, talking about destroying his father for all intents and purposes, but that Ric had helped, was helping, was...nice.

"A dagger. A cement mixer. A boat." He shrugged. "Nothing too difficult. I have the daggers. Klaus will most certainly help, though he'll want to try and find what's needed to kill him. Finn will undoubtedly try and stop us. I don't know about Rebekah and Kol, but I suspect they will help. He hunted them, too."

Ric could tell he was causing conflict in Elijah, but he didn't intend to stop. If Elijah was conflicted right now, it meant some part of him was trying to let go of some of the stress. Different than trying to get Damon to focus and stop jerking off (metaphorically) to admit that it was a problem. The two of them, he thought suddenly, would balance each other so beautifully...

He shook his head minutely, and blinked to make himself focus on the actual issue. "Can you dagger Finn again, until it's done?" He paused. "Well, not you, but someone?"

A flicker of remorse slipped across Elijah's face for a moment. Finn had deserved so much more than any of them had given him. They could have defied Klaus at some point, released him...and then they would have been on the run from two sides.

Besides...nobody liked Finn enough to consider it for long. Self-righteousness didn't sit well with any of them, even Elijah.

"I can do it," he said. "I hate to, when we've taken so much of his life already, but...I can." He gave him a wry smile. "The proscription on vampires using the daggers doesn't apply to us." Like so many other things. "I shouldn't ask anyone else to do something I'm not willing to do myself."

"That's a noble sentiment, Elijah, but presumably you're going to want him to like you when you let him up again. That'll be easier to accomplish, if you aren't the one who puts him down in the first place. Let me handle it. You can explain after, if you're going to need to, but you don't need to deal with that regret again."

Elijah made a tiny bit of a face because, really, Finn liking him would be nice, but there'd always been a quiet rivalry between the two eldest. Elijah had played head of the family for 900 years now and really wasn't eager to give it up.

None of which really had any bearing on anything, or maybe on everything, he was too turned around to figure it out, so he nodded a little. "All right. I'll get you a dagger and ash."

That there? That was trust. A lot of it.

It kind of made him twitch.

It was an insane amount of trust, and Ric only realized it when Elijah agreed. He'd asked Elijah to hand over a weapon that could put Elijah down. Not only that, but one of a sort that he'd plunged into Elijah's back. He stared at Elijah for a moment, then softly leaned in and kissed him. He was nothing but tentative in that, because he got it, and he felt bad for what he'd done.

Now. He couldn't pretend to have felt bad, then.

"If you're sure.... I suppose we could always... No, I still want to do it."

The kiss surprised Elijah, the same way affectionate gestures seemed to, always, when someone else initiated them. But he returned it, just as softly, and gave Ric a wry sort of smile, glad he got it, and even that, now, he hesitated, if only for a moment.

"It probably is best to keep the daggering of siblings as Niklaus's thing, or we'll have an epidemic on our hands," he said lightly, not feeling like they needed to dwell on the trust thing or...whatever else.

Ric was becoming steadily more determined to keep throwing affection at Elijah until it stuck. He figured he had about thirty, maybe forty, more years of life to work on it. That wasn't too bad in the scheme of things, though not too impressive against a thousand years of it being a rarity. He'd have to step up his game.

"Good." Because it was where he'd wound up. "You know I'm going to tell Damon the truth when he gets back, right?"

Elijah would have loved to know Ric's intentions--especially their longevity, but he wasn't really ever allowing himself to think...what this could be. That would lead to so many other questions. But the affection? He adored it, even as it flustered him, and delighted in being able to return it, even if he was still getting comfortable reaching out, not bracing for it to be rejected.

He and his siblings might orbit in each others' reach, but others tended to keep their distance from them, and they far too often fell into violence.

His fingertips stroked lightly down Ric's arm, giving him a curious look. "The truth about why you called him off or about...everything?" As in, well, them.

Ric looked pained for a second, and uncertain. He had no idea how his answer was going to go over, but he wasn't going to start lying to Elijah now. "Everything. They're too interconnected to keep this out of it, and even if I could, I don't like hiding things from Damon. It's not good for him."

Elijah took that in, then shook his head, expression a cross between rueful and amused. "Well, that should be an interesting conversation."

And probably meant he was going to 'fess up to his siblings and stop driving them mad trying to figure it out. Pity--that had been sort of fun. But this was far more important than fucking with them for his own amusement. Kol not figuring it out, he could see, simply because his youngest brother hadn't spent any time around Ric. But Rebekah was in his damn class, and Klaus had been in his body. How they hadn't figured it out by scent alone left him highly disappointed in their deductive abilities, honestly.

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