WAR OF HEARTS • hayley marshall

32 | EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE AND INTOXICATED

Elijah Mikaelson was holding onto his famous self control with his all of his supernatural strength. Being stuck between two stubborn and hard headed and more than a little murderous siblings, was not his idea of fun. Not that he had much fun to being with, but between Klaus' evening adventures with Genevieve and Khalia leave a trail of bodies behind her every night, the oldest living Original was exhausted. And on top of all that, he still needed to keep the supernatural community in check.

The only blessing, however small it may be, was that when Khalia returned home once a week, she slept the whole day long and he used that time to clean up the mess she left behind.

Not for the first time in the month that has passed since Rebekah's has left New Orleans, did Elijah silently curse Hayley. He knew that the real reason his sister was acting out like this was because of the werewolf's girl departure from the Compound and decision to stay in the  Bayou. No matter how much Khalia might swear she was just catching up on 'me time' he would never believe it.

And yet, when he passed by his sister's room and saw her snuggled in her covers with a blissfully peaceful look on her face as she slept deeply, he couldn't even being to remember the anger that he felt everytime he had to clean up her mess.

Peace was something that his sister didn't experience easily - being attracted to the opposite gender has always been something that always made her stand out. Not that the people who made a comment about her preferences lived very long afterwards - either Khalia or Kol would dispose of said person. After Kol's death, peace of mind evaded her even more so.

It was only the last few months here in New Orleans - and he would easily admit to anyone but his sister that it was due to Hayley's presence in their lives - that Khalia was starting to get better. That she was unknowingly letting Hayley start to put her broken heart back together.

Then Hayley left and unintentionally undid all of her hard work - shattering Khalia's heart all over again and now his sister was spiraling down a path darker than before and he had begun to fear that she might never return to the light.

But seeing the look on her face, the faint upwards tug of her lips as she slept and most likely dreamt of something wonderful - probably a life where Kol was alive, or perhaps a life where she and Hayley were together - Elijah felt hope swell in his chest.

Khalia wasn't completely lost yet, there was still hope for her.

If there was an extra skip in his step with the realisation, no one would notice because his one sibling was asleep and the other was quietly conversing with his red-head bed companion. Rounding his way into Klaus' room, a look of distaste covered his face.

He made it perfectly clear that he didn't like Genevieve a lick and chased her out of his home as fast as possible, knowing that she would return later on. After arguing with his brother about leaving the city to its own devices, he called a meeting with the supernatural factions.

A meeting which Hayley crashed.

"Do you have any idea what it took just to get those people in one room together?" Elijah glared at the pregnant girl after all of the different factions decided to leave because they didn't want the werewolves in the city.

"No, actually, I don't! Because I didn't even know what you were doing out here until someone else told me. Tell me something, Elijah. Did you leave the werewolves out because of me? To punish me for leaving?" Hayley retorted heatedly, heart still aching as bad as it did the moment she walked in the church and didn't see Khalia by Elijah's side.