Even angels have their wicked schemes [For jackcaptainjack]

[lovewhentheyrun]

Klaus had been thinking. Admittedly, deep introspection was not his strong point, but that's what happened when you didn't have anything else to do. He could breathe in London, look back at how things had gone wrong in Virginia, try and figure out where he'd misstepped. Obviously, Esther had been something he hadn't counted on, and, really, he should have seen Stefan's betrayal coming, but he'd wanted to believe in him so badly.

Esther, though. That had been his real blindspot. In that way, at least, he knew his siblings were on his side. She'd wanted all of them dead, not just him, and Elijah was never going to let that happen.

That didn't mean Elijah wanted him back, or even that Rebekah did. What Jack had said, though, had given him hope. He was going back. He just...needed the right approach. The way in. Showing up on their doorstep, all, "honey, I'm home," actually had appeal, but it turned out he was a bit of a coward when it came down to it.

So, he was still in London. He didn't think Jack was, but he was hanging around the pub where they'd had dinner. That was getting boring, though, so he finally reached out, searching for him through the compulsion he'd already laid, and sent a call, strongly suggesting he bring himself back to Klaus's house for a visit.

Then all he had to do was wait.

Comments

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"Both," he said after a moment's consideration.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"I told someone, right after I nearly stayed dead, that I'd never felt more alive. I get cold and cut off, I don't care, no, but I don't do anything, either. I just shut down. Reckless and frantic, I'm throwing myself and everyone who cares about me in front of metaphorical buses. But I'm just... a guy."

Which was to say 'not a vampire'.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus listened, nodded slightly. "When I get reckless..I get careless. Things go wrong. When I shut down...it's easier. I don't care who gets hurt. But a lot of people do."

Some he,shockingly, cared about.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"If I was a vampire, with everything that comes with that? I can see how reckless would be safer for people around me. At least physically safer. Shut off is probably a different kind of pain, though not physical threat, for people you love."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus smirked, just slightly. "Me shut off is far more dangerous than me reckless, in the end. But neither s good."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"Then I guess we're just going to have to keep you on, and on even keel." ...Apparently Elijah's overinflated sense of responsibility was catching. Except the part where Jack felt responsible for the entire damned planet. Or had, when he'd had something to do. Apparently lack of Torchwood meant that he was going to lose his mind and take responsibility for vampires, instead.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus laughed, just a little. "Funny. That's what my brother usually says...."

Which didn't surprise him, that Elijah would choose someone with his own values.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"Then you can consider yourself very well balanced. Just... externally."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"If I listen...." Which he was bad at, but honestly...trying.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"If you're over about 12, then yeah. At some point it's gonna come down to you keeping up your half."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus blinked a bit, then gave him a wry smile. "Point."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"Did that... surprise you?" The blinking had thrown him.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus shrugged a bit. "Not really. I just...." He shook his head. "You just sounded a ridiculous amount like both of my elder brothers there."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"It's a big brother thing. Maybe you should consider yourself adopted." He was joking - mostly - and not thinking of Gray. Or Elijah at all; he could never seem to really remember that there was a fifth sibling.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"Well, if my family won't take me back..." he quipped, the irony amusing him, even if Jack couldn't see it.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"If your family won't take you back, you have yourself a deal. But we're going with human family dynamics. I promised my boyfriend not to sleep with anyone else."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus gave him a particularly angelic smile. "You think vampire family dynamics involve rampant shagging?"

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"If they don't, don't tell me. You'll ruin my fantasies." He was outright lying about that. Probably. "I have never seen an ugly vampire." That he wasn't lying about.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus laughed. "I'll not say a word. Except...well. They've existed, but they don't usually last long."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

That, unexpectedly, caught his attention. He turned his head to look at Klaus, openly curious and maybe a little confused along with the surprised. "Why not?"

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus gave him a wry smile. "No charm. And these days, a very big chip on their shoulder. Think being a vampire means they can get back at everyone who ever snubbed them. They get reckless, indiscreet. Someone generally has to put them down...or a hunter gets them." He sighed. "They made good minions, back in the day, though. Sometimes. Til a pretty girl turned their heads."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

Jack almost protested the charm and chip on the shoulder remark, then thought about the apparent age -as in point they had been turned- of most of the vampires he knew, and translating that to current time, kind of got it. He thought. Maybe. But. "Minions?" He shook his head. "Couldn't they just compel the pretty girl?"

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Well, the ones today mostly had the chips, in his experience. He blamed the media and the idea that vampires were supposed to be beautiful. When one got turned who wasn't...he tended to take it personally.

"What's wrong with minions? Someone has to do the dirty work." He shrugged. "They could, but they usually don't want to have to. They're vampires. Girls should be falling all over them for having a set of fangs." The disdain was clear. "But, honestly--it doesn't happen often. We're sensual creatures, drawn to beauty, to extraordinary people. We turn those we like." And they liked pretty people, usually. Shallow? Likely, but they only occasionally turned pretty, stupid people. "If you just need soldiers...you're not so picky. But foot soldiers have never had a high survival rate in any army, any war."

It wasn't said coldly, not even completely callously. It was soft and a little wry and understanding of how the world worked. You sent in the poor boys who were the rank and file first, before the boys from good homes who bought commissions. Everyone grieved over how many died that day...but who got mentioned by name until they were a leader? Their friends and family mourned them specifically....to the nations they died for, they were faceless masses. It was sad and undignified and horrific....but it was war.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"Foot soldiers aren't the same as minions. Minions implies a level of being subservient that bothers me. Loyalty's a good thing, even when you take it to unquestioningly following orders and a willing to die for a cause. Dismissing the people who do that as unimportant, when most wars are fought, won and lost on their shoulders and with their lives -" He grimaced and shook his head. "I don't care how pretty they are. It's not something that should be dismissed."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus found himself frowning, glancing away for a moment and he shrugged in a bit of irritation.

"I protect those bound to me, as best I can," he said. "I, certainly, am not the one killing them. They're too valuable to me for that, but I.." He was on the verge of saying too much. Backed off, remembered to be just the vampire, not the Original Hybrid.

"Younger vampires often want to curry favor, to do what can be done to gain status. I'm not dismissing them, or devaluing human armies, but war and world building is different in our world.