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

[manof_myword]

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.

Comments

[manof_myword]

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."

[notarolemodel]

"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."

[manof_myword]

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.

[thisismybar]

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."

[manof_myword]

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.

[thisismybar]

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?"

[manof_myword]

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.

[thisismybar]

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."

[manof_myword]

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.

[thisismybar]

Well, in fairness, Klaus was the only Mikaelson to actually be in his body thus far, and Ric so did not want to think about that, though he had to admit a certain degree of confusion that Rebekah hadn't picked it up via scent. Maybe it was something to do with the amount of perfume the teenagers surrounding her wore. Who knew. He wasn't asking.

"I don't think it'll be as bad as you think." He paused. "I hope it isn't that bad." Because he didn't want to lose Damon's friendship, trust, or presence in his life and oh god he was so torn about this and why did he feel guilty? "Why does this feel like I'm preparing to confess that I've been cheating on him?" he blurted out.

[manof_myword]

Elijah arched an eyebrow at the blurted question, then frowned slightly at the implications inherent in it.

"I don't know. Perhaps the West Side Story-ness? And he...really doesn't like me." For whatever reason. He's sorry he couldn't kill his brother, all right? He's his brother. Damon never killed Ripper!Stefan, either. "Or you think Elena isn't the only one he wants."

[thisismybar]

Ric blinked and looked startled. "I... Don't think Damon works that way?" Wanting more than one person. He seemed to focus on a single person for, oh, centuries. "Guess that means the West Side story is the winner, because I don't think he really dislikes you, either."

[manof_myword]

Elijah shrugged a little, not sure what to say about Damon and his ability to care or the way he cared. "Perhaps. Maybe it's just...different when it's a thin like between friendship and...more. If not a romantic angle, maybe you feel like us just hanging out is taking time he'd think should be his? Or that he'll worry I'm taking his place as your friend?"

He didn't know, but he was thinking how Klaus might react in the same situation. He was still pretty sure Damon hated him, though.

[thisismybar]

"Some of all of it," he said, slow and thoughtful. "I think mostly I don't want him to feel like he's second best. I don't want either of you to, but I'm pretty confident in my ability to keep you from thinking that. I'm not so sure about Damon."

He loved Damon. He was falling in love with Elijah.

[manof_myword]

Elijah still looked a little surprised that his feelings came into play so much. It wasn't like he didn't think Ric cared--they'd progressed far enough that they weren't just screwing around. Odd as it was, he liked it.

But he was used to caring about people who cared about him...but not so much worried about how he felt about it.

"I don't want you to make him think that either," he said, still frowning a tiny bit, bemused. "He's your best friend. I wouldn't want to jeopardize that..." He was still a little shaken by the whole thing with Mikael, the fact that it was still in the air, but he was good at focus-shifting.

[thisismybar]

Ric was still mostly thinking about Mikael, too, to tell the truth, but diverging onto a tangent that wasn't something that scared the hell out of Elijah seemed like a good idea, until they could deal with it. Dealing with it had to wait until Damon got there.

"You won't. Neither will he be a threat to what we've got going on, except in the most immature ways possible. Try to avoid making him bleed to make any points though, please? And possibly compulsion, unless the alternative is making him bleed."

[manof_myword]

Elijah gave him a dismayed look that might or might not have been exaggerated in a teasing way. Mostly, he was happy to take the divergence.

"You remember my attempts to reason with him have historically failed spectacularly, right?"

But, no, really. Damon only seemed to pay attention when Elijah made him bleed. The Original had suspicions about the boy liking it.

[thisismybar]

"No one's attempts to reason with Damon have been blindingly successful," Ric said, voice laced with dry, fond humor. "I'm just saying maybe we could try yelling as a first line of offense and save the stabbing." He was possibly teasing? Maybe? Actually he was trying to protect Damon and doing it really, really awkwardly.

[manof_myword]

Elijah gave him a rueful sort of smile. "A novel idea all around. I suppose I can give it a try..." The rueful stayed in place. "I don't suppose you can get him to make the same concession?"

The boy had skewered him to a door the night they met, after all.

[thisismybar]

"Believe me, I will be fair in applying my pleading for you to not to kill each other and to keep violence to the consensual and mutually enjoyable sort." He isn't so sure about Elijah, but he does know Damon and has more than ample reason to suspect that Damon gets off on being beaten up. Not necessarily in the healthiest of ways, maybe, but he wouldn't keep doing it, if it wasn't working for him.

[manof_myword]

Elijah arches an eyebrow and gives him a bit of a smirk. "So consensual and mutually enjoyable violence is all right...?"

Though, really, he's not sure Damon could handle his sort of consensual violence, even the mutually enjoyable kind. But then, very few people really ever have been able to. Modified, sure. He's used to that.

[thisismybar]

How does he end up in these conversations? Oh, right. He walks into them blindly, without any understanding of where they're actually going or the implications of what they might say about him.

He's barely had sex with Elijah, and now he's talking about Elijah being kinky with his best friend. That says something, all right.

"Far be it from me to try to tell either one of you what you're allowed to do.... " He could tell Damon until he was blue in the face. That didn't mean Damon was going to listen to him.

[manof_myword]

Elijah is fairly certain that Alaric didn't really mean to go there with the conversation, but it's certainly a good distraction from his panic over his father--far more interesting, less emotionally charged.

"Hmm...I don't know. I think Damon might like someone telling him what to do." He was truly just teasing now, amusement clear in his eyes.

[thisismybar]

The amusement and obvious teasing made Ric pull himself back together enough to laugh. "Why don't you ask him?" Just to see the look on Damon's face in response to that, and because holy hell he kind of wanted to see that byplay now.

After they dealt with Elijah's father. It was going on his list for someday, though.

What were vampires doing to his sexuality,e xactly?

[manof_myword]

Elijah tried to imagine how that conversation would go and found himself cracking up a little (well, inside), though, really, getting Ric to laugh after Elijah's freakout was an achievement. "I might just do that, once we get this mess straightened out..."

He was worried about his father, but not quite as terrified anymore. That helped.