Lover Be | The Originals

Chapter Forty | Kala

CW: mentions suicide

It was a warm afternoon in late spring, the relentless sunlight brightened their makeshift room despite being drawn shut. Two girls sat on one of the two twin-sized beds. They had almost no similarities between them. One had true-black, straight hair, the other was more of a deep aburn with wavy curls. One had glasses and was tall, the other freckles and short. Except for their deep brown eyes, nobody would have guessed that they were sisters, let alone twins. 

"Mrs. Turner made these," the black-haired one said, holding up chocolate cupcakes in each hand. 

Mrs. Turner was an older woman who had become the guardian of the girls about a year and a half earlier, after the deaths of their parents. She was retired and spent most of her time baking sweets to try to ease the girls' pain. There wasn't much that some cookies or brownies could do about making them forget the double suicide of their parents, but both girls appreciated the woman's attempts.

Malia took one cupcake from Kala's hands, looking down at it. She tried to hide her emotions, feeling heartbroken about their lost parents. 

"Hey," Kala gave her sister a soft smile, placing her free hand on Malia's. "It's you and me, right?"

Malia brought her eyes to her twin's. She nodded, feeling a bit better.

"You and me," Malia repeated.

Kala pulled a lighter and a couple of candles from her pocket. She stuck one candle in each of their cupcakes and lit them both.

Malia was about to blow hers out, but Kala stopped her.

"Not so fast," Kala laughed. "I'm older, so I get to make my wish first."

Malia rolled her eyes with a grin.

"Oh, come on. Older by 10 minutes is barely older at all."

Kala shook her head. "Fine. We'll do it together. Happy eighteenth birthday, sis."

The girls exchanged a small smile and blew out their candles

-

Malia had spent most of the week privately agonizing over how to honor her sister for their birthday. If she were still at home, she would probably take a couple of cupcakes and some candles to her grave and spend the day there. Since she had moved, she felt extra pain with the distance she had put between them. It seemed silly now, moving away from her parents and sister. 

She thought about blowing the day off altogether. She would take it easy, lay in bed all day, and maybe binge-watch some reality television show. But Kala loved birthdays. She saw them as a fresh start. Kala was always seeing new beginnings in the small things. 

This would be her first birthday without her beloved twin. She was getting older, and Kala would remain the same forever. There would be no new beginning for her. She was gone. 

She'd gone to a local bakery and picked up a single cupcake and a pack of candles. The cupcake idea still seemed good. When they were little, their dad baked two homemade cakes every single year, one for each of them. They each got to pick the cake, frosting, and how it would be decorated. When their parents died, Kala shifted their annual birthday treat to cupcakes because both of the girls were completely helpless as bakers. 

When she got back, she sat at the closed piano and stuck a yellow candle into the middle of the cake. The lighter sparked a few times before finally producing a flame, which she brought to the wick. She stared at the flickering flame for a while, thinking of her sister and all of their memories together. 

"Happy birthday, Kala," she finally whispered. "I hope you're finding peace wherever you are."

She blew out the flame. 

"I'm sorry to intrude," Klaus spoke softly from behind her. "I heard what you said."

"It's the first time I've had to celebrate without her," Malia explained. She moved over on the piano bench, making space for Klaus to sit beside her. He took it.

They sat beside each other, their thighs touching slightly. Klaus was quiet. Patient. 

"I'd always look at her and wonder how she managed to be so fully herself, so authentically alive. She was like that from the very beginning, even when we were kids. It was like she knew the secret to life."

"She sounds remarkable."

"She was," Malia glanced up into Klaus's eyes. "I couldn't understand why she did it. Why she would take her own life, just as our parents did? She knew how it destroyed both of us. When they died, she worked so hard to heal us both. She had so much hope that we would be okay one day. That we would be able to feel just . . . normal again. How could I have missed it? We were together every single day of our whole lives, how could I not see how she was hurting?"

"Sometimes we keep our demons tucked far away, even from the people we love. It's not your fault, love."

"I'd like to believe you," Malia said. "Maybe one day I will."

Malia looked at Klaus, then looked at where their legs touched. She felt their proximity. There was an unspoken understanding between them. Klaus had lost some of his siblings, too. 

Malia glanced between Klaus's eyes and lips, leaning toward him slightly. He looked back but turned away when her lips were just shy of his. Malia paused for a second before letting out a small huff, turning forward again. 

"It's not that I don't want to, Malia," Klaus turned back to look at her, but she kept her eyes forward. "I don't want to take advantage of you when you're vulnerable like this."

Malia shook her head. 

"I don't want to kiss you because I'm sad. I want to kiss you because, through everything, you've shown up for me. You've gone out of your way to make me feel normal. Even though everything is so, absolutely not normal. And even when I resented you, I wanted you to be safe. Klaus, I think I'm falling for you."

She had just turned to face him when he brought a hand up to her cheek and pulled his face toward hers. Their lips met in a firm, deep kiss. It was a vulnerable kiss, full of desperation and longing.

As they pulled away, their breaths mingled. Their faces remained close and Klaus stared intently into the girl's eyes. In each other, they found a flicker of hope and the promise of a new beginning.