Frankie had been working steadily for half the day when she heard the door creak open, Elijah wearily padding in and sitting beside her. Pulling her computer shut and laying it on the ground beside them she turned, tucking her feet up as she crossed her legs and spun to look at him.

"Did you find her?"

"Not exactly," he frowned, "I lost Niklaus. We were tracking her together and then he disappeared, I've tried calling him but he refuses to answer so evidently he found her and intends on speaking with her alone."

"Who is she?" Frankie asked gently, "I've never seen him so- so hurt just by thinking about someone."

"Aurora de Martel, Niklaus' great love. You remember I told you of how we met Lucien and Tristan," Elijah paused and Frankie nodded, "While we stayed at the castle Klaus fell in love with Tristans sister, the Lady Aurora."

"Oh."

"After I lost Klaus today I went to find Tristan, I knew if there was anyone aside from my brother who Aurora would contact it would be him. I wanted to know what he knew of her return and I wanted to know why he had his people tail you earlier."

Frankie did want to know why she'd been tailed but in all honesty she cared much more about finding out about Aurora. The most likely answer about her tail would be that Tristan was high on power and wanted to do something to make his position known to Elijah and it was something she could ask about later whereas with Aurora there was so much more.

"And?" she pressed, "did he know she was here?"

"I'm not entirely sure he did. I listened to his heart as we spoke, while I don't trust him and I do believe that he's working against us to some extent, I don't believe he knew she had arrived, nor that she'd contacted my brother."

There was silence between the two as they thought. She wondered how it would be to have a thousand year bond with your siblings, certainly Klaus and Elijah had a fraught relationship at times but it always settled and they placed one another over the world. After such a long time together was their friendship inevitable, a sibling the only one who could truly relate to everything you'd been through, or was their friendship an anomaly, remnants of the past that they'd not released.

"Maybe they've lost touch a little? After a thousand years perhaps they grew estranged from each other or something. You and Klaus have had decades spent without seeing each other right, perhaps they did too?"

"Tristan's devotion to his sister is almost pathological," he said, "he's obsessive in his love for her. If Aurora has come without his knowing then things are different. He's normally so focused on her that for him to have let her slip, it means he's planning something else. He must be hiding something big."

Frankie sighed, she didn't know how to help in this world of death and betrayal. She wished there was something she could do to help Elijah or to figure out what Tristans plan was or what Aurora's plan was now she was back but she didn't even know where to start.

"You'll figure it out. Klaus might've loved her but he wouldn't betray you after everything you went through."

Elijah's face furrowed in anguish and she softened. She remembered his words to his brother, his pleas that Klaus listen to him explain some memory that he'd regained in the year before.

Frankie wanted to ask him about it all. Ask him why Klaus hated her and ask what Elijah had remembered that he needed to tell Klaus desperately. Asking about Elijah's memories would mean asking about the red door and she was nervous at the way his face would inevitably flood with guilt and pain.

"Look," she said cautiously, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to because I know I'm fucking shit at talking myself, but you told Klaus you saw something when you learned about the red door. If your brother doesn't want to listen, I will. I know it's not the same but sometimes it can be good to get things off your chest."

Elijah shot a warm smile to her. He'd missed her implicit understanding of things and even now he'd had her back beside him for more than a month he couldn't believe he'd really spent the past year without her.

"I don't want you to burden yourself with my mis-"

"Elijah," Frankie cut him off, "Stop it. If I'm not a burden with the fact I shut down and run away then you're not a burden for whatever you've done. You've had a thousand years, anyone would have regrets after all that time but there is nothing you could say would change how I feel about you. I'm all in with you and that includes thousand year old fuckups."

Elijah's arm reached out to wrap around her waist and then tug her towards him. Frankie didn't look up at him instead she shifted, allowing as he pulled her closer before curling her body towards his with her head resting against his chest. One of her hands fell on his that circled her and she began tracing gentle circles the way he was so prone to.

"I'm sorry for snapping," she sighed, "I'll drop it if you want because I know what it's like when you're not ready to talk and someone keeps pushing you. It's just you're always here for me, even when I don't deserve it you're here for me and I want to be here for you too. Everyone relies on you to listen and to play peacemaker but you need someone to hear your side as well."

The secret that Elijah had wasn't one he wanted to anyone to know but he did just a little bit want to share it with her. It was something that would no doubt come out soon enough and at least if he shared it with her she'd hear it from him not from a furious Klaus seeking revenge.

"We lived with the de Martel's for more than a year. It was one of the first times my family knew peace together after we were turned," Elijah said, his grip tightening around her ever so slightly as he paused to place a kiss atop her head, "While I knew when Niklaus began to see Aurora that it probably wasn't the best, I saw no great harm in it, knowing how happy it made him although nothing could've prepared me for the incidents that eventually occurred."

"With how she broke his heart?"

"With all of it. Niklaus' siring of Lucien and my eventual siring of Tristan. Rebekah was the one who sired Aurora although not willingly, we all refused to turn her once we learned of that talent, knowing the curse which we'd be sharing if we were to do so. Eventually Aurora tried to take her own life just as she knew Rebekah was coming, causing her to save her which then allowed her to force her own transition."

"Poor Bek," she murmured softly, "Poor all of you, I can't imagine how lonely it must've felt for all of you to be the only vampires in existence."

"It was difficult," he agreed, "but it was our curse to bear. The plague of vampirism, of Mikael's wish to destroy all of us, it was ours and ours alone."

"Do you still feel that way? That you're cursed to live alone?"

"Not in the same way. There are things that I value about this life now, but it's not something I'd curse another to unless they wanted it, it's not something I'd ever want to curse you to."

Frankie stayed silent now. It was something she'd considered before but never really allowed herself to think too much about. How things would change for them if they never addressed her mortality and his immortality.

Age wasn't something they could ignore forever. Already in the time she'd known him three years had passed. They were similar ages now, but they wouldn't remain that way and she'd wondered before whether she'd take vampirism as a solution. If she really thought about it she knew it was a possibility, if the choice was between an immortal life with Elijah and a mortal one where she eventually would lose him the former would likely win.

"I don't think you're cursed," she said finally, "I don't know what's going to happen later but I don't plan on going anywhere."

Elijah pressed another kiss to her head. While her kind words comforted him, he secretly resolved to do everything he could to preserve her mortality and retain the innocence that it granted her.

"What happened after she was turned," Frankie asked, "Did her feelings for Klaus change?"

"They only grew," he continued, "Klaus was convinced that she was who he was destined to be with and that they'd be together for all of eternity."

"But that obviously didn't happen, what changed."

"Mikael. We were in hiding from him of course, and word had spread about creatures who fed in the night on blood and we knew we needed to run. I was gathering my siblings when I saw Aurora," Elijah paused here, he could feel the guilt flooding him and his eyes closed as he remembered the moment he'd committed his worst atrocity, "She asked me what was happening and I told her that father had found us and we needed to flee, she wanted to join but I could not have our curse become hers."

"Elijah," Frankie pulled his hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to the palm like he was so prone to, her thumb stroking across it soothingly, "If that's-"

"That's not what I remembered when I saw behind the red door," he cut her off, "I saw an act of rage."

"What happened?"

"Aurora grew angry when I refused to allow her to join, she could be like a child at times and so she taunted me with a secret of Niklaus' that I didn't know. I was shocked that there was something she knew that I couldn't and I remember snapping at her in a rage. We didn't know all that our vampirism could give us then but I know now that I compelled her to tell me the truth."

"Klaus' great secret."

"Mhm," he nodded, "I found out that night that he was the one who'd killed our mother not Mikael and that he'd been lying to us all this time."

"Oh, 'Lijah."

Frankie knew that Elijah valued honestly and loyalty and that while he wouldn't have wanted to admit it, hearing that Klaus had lied about something something so important would've been as great a betrayal as he could've imagined at that time.

There was clearly something more to the story, Elijah's method of retaliation she now realised was what was kept behind the red door but she understood that whatever he'd done had been because of the pain that engulfed him over Klaus' betrayal.

"I compelled her a second time that night. I still didn't know truly what I was doing, but I knew more than the first and I did it anyway. I compelled Aurora to hate him, to see Niklaus for who he truly was and for her to break his heart like he'd broken mine."

Frankie sat up now, she didn't want to keep laying in Elijah's arms because she wanted to pull him into hers. She could hear the pain in his words, the way his voice cracked as he spoke and she wanted to pull the regret from him more than anything.

Elijah's face was stoic but when she tugged him towards her he allowed it. He allowed her to pull his head towards her shoulder and for her hands to tangle in his hair, running though it softly.

"You compelled your brothers great love to hate him," Frankie sighed, "that's what you saw behind the red door."

"It is," he nodded, pulling back to face her, "I am the reason for all that became of him. When Niklaus talks to her today he'll know that and everything that we fought for, every effort we've made to call a truce with one another will be for naught."

"He'll forgive you," Frankie promised, her hand on his cheek brushing back and forth comfortingly, "I know he will. He'll be angry at you but anger is always your brothers first reaction. He's quick to flare up but he'll realise everything you've done for him too Elijah."

"Let's talk about something else," Elijah said uncomfortably, pressing a kiss to her temple before changing the subject, "How's your project going?"

"It's fine," she sighed.

Frankie wanted to do more to reassure him that things would be alright between him and Klaus but she understood that he wanted to distract himself from it and so instead she let herself babble on about her project, explaining about an embarrassingly long FaceTime call where a client reprimanded her on her colouring only to realise it was them who'd saved the file wrong and that the illustration actually fit everything they wanted.

Elijah smiled as she talked, the affection that always flooded him when he was near her did so again and he felt each of his fears for his brother slowly soften.

"What about the client who didn't pay you?" he prompted, "Did you end up calling him?"

"Fuck," she groaned, throwing her head back in annoyance, "I was meaning to this morning but with those guys from the Strix and then that girl in the courtyard I totally blanked. I'll call him tomorrow before I leave for Ric's."

"I can always compel him for you," Elijah offered with a teasing lilt to his voice, knowing how she'd roll her eyes and refuse even before she got a chance to.

"I'm fine," Frankie rolled her eyes, "The contract he signed grants me an interest on the payment if he doesn't get back to me by the end of the month. I'm just gonna highlight it and remind him that it's an extra 250 for late payment."

"You're incredible."

"I'm not," Frankie laughed, "People just think they can get away with not paying creatives so I had an intense lunch with one of the law professors at Ric's school who taught me to write good contracts."

Elijah pressed a kiss to her lips and Frankie laughed. She liked Elijah complimenting her like this, she knew she was no smarter than anyone else but she liked hearing him praise her so kindly over things she thought no one might notice. She didn't think she was anything close to incredible but his words were pressed so sweetly to her always that to made her heart swell.

"You're right," he teased when they pulled apart, "I take it all back, you're practically mundane."

"This is why Rebekah's my favourite," she informed him, standing from their place on the couch and laughing as she pretended to stalk to the door, "Clear winner competing against you and Klaus."

"Oh dear," Elijah had stood too, speeding in front of her to catch her and snake his arms around her waist, "don't you remember I can hear your heart stutter when you lie?"

"You're no fun," she frowned, fighting hard to keep her lips from curling back up into a laugh as she pretended to pull away, "That super hearing you've all got, this is why no one likes you."

"And what about you?"

"I mean, after Rebekah maybe-" Frankie was cut off as Elijahs grip on her waist tightened and he sped them quickly to the bed, his arms caging her in while his lips twitched to a smirk. She was silent for a moment and his eyebrow raised as though daring her to continue, "Well Bekah's certainly never done this before."

"I'd hope not," Elijah replied, his fingers fiddling with the buttons on her shirt as his lips began to kiss along her neck and then down her chest.

"Do you think-" Frankie cut herself off with a grin as Elijah paused his movement and looked up at her inquisitively, "Do you reckon she would if I asked?"

Frankie had gathered over their time that Elijah, while a kind and somewhat patient man, wasn't one particularly prone to sharing and certainly not when it came to her. At the look that flashed across his face she knew she'd won and that her words had teased him just as she'd hoped, laughter spluttering from her lips at the sharp look of jealousy that crossed his face.

Elijah was well aware that she was teasing, she'd made it more than clear that she was fairly pleased with the arrangement between the two of them and that in reality there was no one that interested her more than him and yet with the suggestion of her interest in someone else it was as though he needed to wrap his arms around her and steal her away with him forever more.

"Not that I don't delight in talking about my siblings in this position," he said sarcastically as her head rose up to press kisses against his jaw line, "But I think it's time I make you forget their names, your name too."

"And who's name will I remember?" she asked, her grin returning as his fingers gently pressed her back while he sat up, kneeling and tugging his jacket and shirt off while she lay beneath him.

"Mine."

It was hard for her to think after that, she'd tried to pull him back down towards her, wanting to run her fingers through his hair as she kissed him, needing to do so more than she wanted to breathe. Instead his hand had caught her two wrists in one, holding it above her head as his free hand explored her skin, inch by inch, as though he needed to memorise each goosebump that raised itself in anticipation.

It was a long while before he'd even reached her trousers and even then he explored more delicately until she wanted to writhe in his grip for more attention.

If she'd really tried she could've pulled her hands from his and tugged his clothes off like she wished she could but she didn't want to. She liked his fingers circling her wrists, his lips choosing precisely when and for how long they could kiss for, what was going to happen next. Trapped beneath him, her begging and whimpering doing nothing to sway his movements, it was overwhelming, a good overwhelming where each grace of his fingers was all she could focus on.

She wanted him to go quicker, touch her harder, more directly, but each demand seemed to only slow his pace and soon she learned that his name was his favourite thing to hear her say.

He'd been right, at least somewhat. By the time it all ended there was only one name stuttering desperately from her lips as her nails dug tightly into his skin. She'd done just as he'd said, forgotten his siblings, herself, all she could do was beg desperately, hold him tighter, hope that the ecstasy coursing through her wouldn't end.

🥰🎉