The hidden Salvatore, she called herself. A secret she had so carefully kept over the centuries.
She enjoyed being kept a mystery. Enjoyed the hunt and the looks on people's faces when they realized her true identity.
Decade after decade she built...
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"I advise you to choose your next words very carefully."
━━━━━━♡♤♡━━━━━━
THE GRILL was bustling around me. Soft chatter echoed through the room as people talked and laughed. Some of them drunk, some of them sober. Some old, some young. It was a nice array of people compared to the dullness of the same few I saw so often.
I stood in the center of it all. Staring at a painting I had seen all morning and yet only now was I finally taking the time to truly look at it. Study the way the paint was so carefully strewn across the canvas in a way that made it look just right. The way the darkness seeped from the edges and began to cover the pure white of the snowflake.
It was oddly...poetic.
"I knew you liked it." Speak of the devil.
I inclined my head toward him slightly, a mischievous smirk on my face as I looked at the smiling hybrid. "Here to steal tiny Tim's crutches?" I asked as I batted my eyelashes in faux innocence.
Klaus rolled his eyes, looking to the ground before his blue eyes met mine again. "Dickens was a dark man." he said as he came to my side. "You would've liked him."
"You're right. I did like him." He peaked a brow, tilting his head slightly. I shrugged a little, "I met him briefly. Two years before his passing, if I remember correctly."
He chuckled a little, turning back to his painting as he stood close to my side. "Have you changed your mind about my snowflake?" he bit out the last word with an amused bitterness.
I looked over to him, leaning over and pushing him slightly with my shoulder. "Maybe. Maybe not." I said and he grinned.
"Truly?" Klaus questioned.
I rolled my eyes, going back to looking at the drawing, "It's growing on me." I studied it again. Once more admiring the precise lines. The way it seemed so effortless and calculated at the same time.
Klaus and I stood in silence for a moment before he asked, "Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?"
My stupid, traitorous heart fluttered in my chest. He should stop saying things like that. He should not stop saying things like that.
I was a damn mess.
I looked down at myself, admiring the form fitting, long back dress I wore. A slit traveling up my leg and ending mid-thigh. The top was a sweetheart neckline, swooping down low and exposing some of the skin of my chest—filled with a crescent necklace dropping to my collar-bone. A necklace he gave me. A necklace I hadn't realized I was wearing because I rarely took it off.
