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

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"Congratulations," Jack repeated, fairly quietly and without a hint of anything but some vague amusement to mar the sentiment.

He took a drink of his tea, and inclined his head a bit. "Do you have a timeline, yet?" If he was going back to New York for London, there was probably travel involved. Packing. Something.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus smiled slightly, not arguing anymore, but the question took him aback just a bit, just because, no. He didn't really have a plan. Usually he had a plan. Right now? Winging it.

"Not really, no," he admitted.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"Coasting on having made a decision for now?" It was rhetorical, and a bit of very gentle ...chiding, he supposed. He moved on quickly. "I'm sure when you're ready to move, the staff and money will enable you to move as quickly as you want."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"Pretty much." The smile on Klaus's lips was ironic, self-deprecating, acknowledging the chiding. He shrugged at the comment about staff and money. "Not much to move, really. Just pack a bag and head to the airport." He could buy a ticket day of, whenever he decided to go.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"And the house will carry on without you, and be here if you have to come back." He got it, at least he thought he did, but only a little. "Have you been out, recently?"

He was... worried about Nic. Lovely.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"It always does." He'd been away well over a year now, and it was fine. A hop to New York wasn't anything they couldn't handle.

He frowned a little bit at the question. "Out of the house? Yes.: He had to feed, after all. "Out to do something fun? Not really."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

Jack wouldn't have been surprised if the staff doubled as convenience food. He flashed a smile at Klaus, anyway. "Wanna?"

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, sometimes they did, but there weren't quite enough of them to feed on daily without them getting ill, and Elijah got cranky when he killed the help.

"What did you have in mind?"

FINALLY working HTML and without dumb errors.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

Good question, Klaus.

Jack tilted his head and thought fast - wanting to answer Klaus' questions helped a lot, right about now - about what was going on in London, what was in London, and what he knew of Nic.

"Have you heard of the Affordable Art Fair (http://www.londontown.com/LondonEvents/TheAffordableArtFair/434e7/)?" He was kind of hoping the 'cheap' aspect meant it wasn't necessarily something Klaus would have already done on his own. Or that it was appealing. "Or barring that, we can go find where the teenagers are hiding, you can pretend to be Edward, I'll be Jacob. Then we can see who picks up the most women. Loser buys the winner dinner." He pauses. 'Or is dinner. Compulsion not allowed."

No, he didn't expect that to do more than open the way for Nic to talk to him.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"Heard of it, yes, but I haven't been this year." Or in a couple of years, actually. His lips quirked and he had to chuckle at the other suggestion.

"We can save the teenagers for later."

He was sort of fed up with them, at the moment, as a species.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

Jack was relieved, on a couple of levels. One of them was that he didn't now, after the impulsive dare, want to have to find a way out of even a joking offer to feed Klaus. The other was that he in no way liked teenagers enough to want to hang out with them: he consistently made them cry.

Jack was just not a kid friendly person.

"I'm sure, like wine, they'll all be better with at least a decade to mature. Unless they turn into vinegar. Art Fair, then? Or would you rather me keep tossing out suggestions until I hit on something that really appeals to you?"

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"That point is entirely debatable, but possible." Klaus didn't have much use for humans in general, at the moment, after he thought about it, except for as food or amusement.

Jack was something else, but then Jack wasn't really your typical human. And Jack was Elijah's.

There was too much wrapped up in that to put him in any category.

"The art fair sounds good."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"Then grab a jacket, and let's get out of here for a little while."

Jack caught the implications of the statement, and he might even be willing to debate it, but he wasn't willing to do it right now. After he got Nic out the door, probably. He stood up, even as he was speaking, and stretched himself out and twitched his coat back into place.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus didn't really need a jacket, but it was a reasonably good reminder that people would expect him to have it on. "I'll be right back."

He didn't move at light speed, but he didn't dally, either, moving upstairs and coming back in a few moments, jacket on.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

Jack took the opportunity to look around a couple of bookshelves a bit, a little wistful at some of the titles. But he refocused immediately when Nic came back, with a smile, and held his arm out in an 'after you' sort of gesture. Nic's house, he wasn't wandering it alone, even though he knew the way.

"Preference for transportation?" he asked, still... waiting on the debate, as it were.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus shrugged a little. "I'd say we could walk, but given it's nearly four miles and across the river..." He didn't think Jack would like walking that far in the chill night air.

"The Tube works well enough for me."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

Jack pulled back his sleeve to check his watch, then looked at Nic and raised his eyebrows.

"Sweetheart, I may not have vampire speed or stamina, but I'm pretty sure we're talking about an hour, even by the most leisurely pace. If it gets me out of public transportation and heading underground, forget it: let's walk."

Yes, it was chill and damp. No, it wasn't his temperature preference, but he certainly didn't anticipate any real trouble. He had endured far, far worse than autumn in fall.

"You can tell me about the debatable points of people improving with age, while we walk."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"We could take a cab," Klaus offered. It was just annoying, this time of day, trying to get through traffic, occasionally.

He'd drive, but where the hell would they park over there with a festival going on?

But if Jack wanted to walk, he shrugged and led the way back out to the street, giving him a sideways glance and another shrug.

"Grown up humans can be just as annoying as the little ones."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

Jack came damn close to adding to the list of possible ways of traversing three miles in London, but he refrained. He stuffed his hands in his pockets when he stepped outside, pivoting to swing his coat out of the way so Klaus could close it behind them, then starting to walk.

The sideways glance got one in return, along with a very faint smirk. "Some of us never really grow up, or get better," he said, with a just slightly dry tone. "But humans don't have the market on annoying cornered. There's just a whole lot more of them around. I somehow suspect being around your family will knock the edge off, Nic. No one likes to be alone. Being alone in a crowd of aliens is... a helluva lot worse."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus gave him a look, considering if he'd feel the same if he really knew who he was, what he truly was. What he'd done.

"I've heard that before." Usually thrown at him--for not growing up. "And, yes. Hopefully, that will make it easier."

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

What Jack assumed he'd done to Elijah was likely to be a bigger problem than what he'd done to anyone else, but the question was still a good one. Answer likely not being very flattering to Jack, really.

Then again, he hadn't quite gotten the idea that Vampires tended to be dangerous, even with Elijah's warnings and association. His view was skewed toward the controlled and honorable.

"That some of us never gain any maturity?" he asked, not entirely sure he'd followed. "I'm sure just about everyone with any sense of fun has, at least a few times, and usually with exasperation. I still don't miss actually being a kid."

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

"Mmhmm," Klaus answered the question. "Of course, I suppose that depends on people's definitions of maturity. I, for one, see nothing wrong or immature about a healthy sense of fun."

Granted, fine, his idea of fun was usually pretty destructive--or, at least some of his ideas of fun. Clearly, he had non-destructive ideas of fun, too. Like sketching and art and museums. Possibly hanging out with Jack met both "fun" impulses.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

"Sweetheart, I actually got glitter into my vampire 'boyfriend''s hair gel, for fun. I'd love to claim maturity, but I don't have a leg to stand on, with that one. If I turn up bald? You know what happened."

Speaking of potentially destructive - though self-destructive in this case, and he had absolutely zero fear of being harmed. It had still been, dammit, fun.

[lovewhentheyrun.livejournal.com]

Klaus actually stumbled to a bit of a stop, staring at him. "....You actually did it?"

And still had his hair? Klaus would have been a bit worried about retaliation, himself, after that.

[51stcenturyjack.livejournal.com]

Jack stopped just as Nic did and gave him a very, apparently legitimately, confused look. "I told him I was going to. Why would I not, after that?"