Henrik Mikaelson Just for Today

Klaus & Henrik.

Henrik knew Klaus would be doing one of three things. One painting or two drinking or three watching Hope. He didn't care what he was doing all he wanted to do was talk. He found his brother in his art studio. He walked over to him and sat down next to him.

"I don't blame you. Klaus, I never did." Henrik said. Klaus turned his attention from his painting to his brother.

"For what?" Klaus asked, but he already knew the answer.

"Don't play dumb brother. Every year on my birthday. You've always lit a candle in my honour and go on about how you were to blame."

"You were spying." Klaus said. Why should he be surprised? Henrik was always nosey. 

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that. There isn't much to do in the afterlife." Henrik responded and he wasn't lying about that at all. 

"You were either spying on people or causing mischief with Kol." Klaus recalled.

"Well, we made a pretty good team back then. I mean it, Nick, I never blamed you brother.  So, you shouldn't blame yourself." Henrik said.

"I do blame myself, little one. It is my fault what happened to you that night." Klaus responded, he wouldn't admit it but he had reoccurring nightmares of Henrik's death over the past thousand years.

"Brother it was I that decided to follow you. You didn't drag me with you. I was always exploring it was bound to get me killed someday." Henrik reminded his brother.

"It was my job to protect you." Klaus said, no one could convince the Original otherwise.

"Brother,  you did protect me, my entire life. But there are some things that are out of our power. Even if it hurts to admit that. My death was one of them." Henrik responded don't get the boy wrong. He wished he hadn't been so stupid that night. But he couldn't blame Klaus for his reckless action.

"No, I should have caught you before we were too close to the wolves. I should have spotted you the moment. I left the hut and take you back inside." Klaus said, Henrik was a child that night, he wouldn't let Henrik be held responsible for his death.

"Nicklaus, if I don't blame you, why can't you no longer blame yourself?" Henrik asked.

"Things are often easier said than done," Klaus answered. Henrik sighed, this might be the one thing that Klaus wouldn't be open to accepting.

"You are the most stubborn person, I have ever known." Henrik told Klaus.

"You should have learned that years ago," Klaus replied. Henrik just rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I did but I hoped you have softened a little bit. If I can't relieve you of your guilt you feel for my passing. Then, I'll just have to move onto the second thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"You never run out of topics to discuss." Klaus said.

"Well, when you grow up with five older siblings. You learn to always have more than one thing to talk about." Henrik responded.

"I recall Kol once hexing you. So that you couldn't speak for three days." Klaus recalled. Henrik chuckled.

"I got him back, in the end, putting a snake next to his sleeping spot. He screamed louder than Rebekah when she found a spider in her hair." Henrik responded. 

"Kol never stopped checking his sleeping spot after that night. Not that you would know since you slept in Esther and Mikael's quarters." Klaus chuckled. That night hearing Kol scream was one of the best nights of the hybrid's life.

"There no easy way for me to tell you this. And believe me, I don't want to but in order for our family to be better for you to be better is to know. That your fear of becoming like our father has already come to pass." Henrik said keeping his voice low, he wanted to keep this conversation as civil as possible.

"NO! I am nothing like our father. He beat me without mercy for years." Klaus snapped.

"Klaus, I don't want to upset you b..." Henrik started.

"Then why make such a vicious lie?" Klaus interrupted, he was nothing like Mikael the hybrid told himself there were no similarities whatsoever. 

"I wish it was a lie Nicklaus, but it isn't he beat our siblings too. Yes, he was more brutal on you. But like it or not pa has in some ways shaped who you are. The Nick, I knew as a child hated the thought of his own blood his brothers and sister fearing him. But the man I see before me now sees no problem with striking fear into the hearts of his loved ones and treating them like toys. You mimic the same fear you had for our father back then to Finn, Elijah, Kol and Rebekah." Henrik told Klaus, this conversation wasn't going well and Henrik doubted it would end well.

"Lies. I have protected my siblings, I have put our best interests first. You dare lecture me on father's beatings. He never laid a hand to you once, you were blessed for that." Klaus scolded. 

"You're right father never once laid a hand on me. But don't you think for one minute it didn't hurt me to see you in pain. By father's hand have you forgotten that out of all of us. Rebekah has stood by you the most she even raised a sword to father to defend you. Yet you daggered her repeatedly over the centuries all because she dared to love another person." Henrik responded.

"She didn't need anyone else, she had me," Klaus yelled.

"NO! She deserved, she deserves to love someone outside of you and our family. She deserved someone to put her first someone she doesn't have to be afraid of. Someone who will grant her happiness in ways. This family can't. You all deserve to find something worthwhile outside of this toxic family." Henrik responded.

"I have protected her from men who would take advantage of her. I had to keep us together always and forever." Klaus told Henrik.

"Always and forever that's one of the problems Nicklaus. It doesn't keep you close it only pushes you further apart. You can't trust each other when one is afraid of the other. You could all be conjoined at the hip, but if they are afraid of you then you will always be alone." Henrik replied.

"You were never alone Henrik, you have no idea what it feels like," Klaus said. Henrik didn't want to respond to that comment. It was true that he didn't experience the loneliness that Klaus felt back when he was human. But that didn't mean he has never felt loneliness of some sort and the loneliness the boy once felt he would never speak about.

"I asked Elijah earlier if I survived the wolf attack and became an Original with the rest of you. Would you, my brother dagger me as you did the rest if I decided to go against your wishes. He told me, no but I don't believe him. Now because when I look at you all I see is a man who had no control as a child. Who later grew to gain control of others by any means possible even though it would never make him feel safer in the slightest. A man who has little faith that his own family can love him and others at the same time. I no longer believe I would feel safe to be in your presence like I did back then. And those are words I never thought I would say." Henrik told his brother as he stood up.

"Henrik..." Klaus started.

"I hope one day, you are capable of having faith in others. That you can be brave enough to give up your need to control others and finally allow yourself and the rest of our family to be happy. As for my niece do her favour. Don't make her our family's redemption. It will only destroy her. She has already inherited this family's enemies she can't be held responsible for the actions of those who came before her. She's going to make plenty of mistakes on her own." Henrik interrupted his older brother before he turned his back to Klaus and left the room.