Enigmatic Fears: A Klaus Mikaelson Story {7}

Chapter 33: I Will Be Better

~Klaus POV~

"Of course you're here." Alaric grumbled as soon as he entered the compound and saw Klaus sitting with a drink in his hand.

"In my own home, how rude of me." Klaus replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not here for you, I'm here for Fiore. Is she here?" Alaric asked.

"Hate to disappoint, but your girlfriend seems to have popped out for a bit." Klaus answered to the shock of Alaric. "Surprised I know about your secret romance? Yes, it seems the cat is out of the proverbial bag as it were."

"Don't look at me." Alaric told him. "I never wanted it to be a secret. Because unlike you, I know how to love someone. And I know that Fiore deserves much better than someone who abandoned her and her kid."

"Yes, yes, absentee husband, father—I've heard it all before." Klaus said with a dismissive wave. "But I still am the husband. I suppose that means I outrank you."

"Say that again." Alaric threatened, causing the hybrid to cackle with laughter.

"Or what? You'll give me a detention?" Klaus shot back.

"You are such an asshole!" Alaric snapped. "You are the only person on the planet who has ever called Fiore wife and yet you treated her like she was expendable. You might be the only person ever to call her wife and you still can't even see that she settled for a dirt bag like you."

"If you think I don't know that then you are a deluded idiot who will never last long on her radar." Klaus threw back, but Alaric remained unimpressed.

"So you knew it, and you still didn't do anything about it?" Alaric continued. "No wonder she doesn't want to get married. Her first go around was just an entire millennium of disappointment."

"You—you proposed?" Klaus asked quietly.

"Yeah." Alaric replied. "But she said no."

Klaus sat back down on his chair, closed his eyes and took a deep breath that felt like he was inhaling glass. With his eyes locked onto his drink, he addressed Alaric with the words he knew would be wrong for him to withhold.

"She wants to get married." Klaus told him. "Possibly even to you. But she is scared that you'll hurt her. Like I did. You just have to remind her that it'll be different. Then you'll be on your merry way."

"Is this a trick?" Alaric asked sceptically.

"No trick." Klaus said with a shake of his head. "I just know that if anyone deserves to be happy, then it is her."

Alaric nodded in acceptance, genuinely believing the words that Klaus had told him. "Thank you."

"Mmm. Treat her better. Better than I did. Better than anyone ever will." Klaus murmured in response before grabbing Alaric by the neck and squeezing tightly. "Because the second you even think about doing something that might hurt her, I will rip you to shreds."

Klaus let go of Alaric, who spluttered and massaged his neck when he heard Fiore enter her room. Clearly, she was avoiding him.

"She's in her bedroom." Klaus told Alaric. "You two have much to discuss."

~Fiore POV~

I hid in my bedroom, hoping not to run into Klaus as I thought about what to do with my Alaric situation. Nik was making me feel things I thought I was done feeling which wasn't opportune at all. I didn't want Alaric to know, but if he didn't then that was already another problem. And then there was the man of the hour—Alaric. I didn't want to leave him. But I didn't want to get married. Things were so good the way they were now, marriage would just complicate things. The same way it did with—

"Hey." Alaric said as he knocked on my bedroom door.

"Hey."

~Klaus POV~

Klaus knew he shouldn't have been listening in, but he couldn't help himself. Half of him wanted to watch Alaric fail spectacularly, the other half wanted Fiore to be happy with her impending nuptials.

"I need you to know, I understand why you wouldn't want to get married again." Alaric began. "Your marriage with Klaus wasn't exactly the most smooth-sailing. No one gets that more than me, my first wife ran away to become a vampire and then my second was murdered at the altar."

"All I'm hearing is if I marry you, someone I know will murder me."

"But this will be different." He insisted.

"How could you possibly know that?" Fiore asked him.

"Because we are different." Alaric continued. "We are in different places of our lives and even our less than fairy-tale marriages have changed us. We know what works, what doesn't. We know to be better. I know to be better. I will be so much better. I promise."

"I believe you." Fiore murmured.

"Good." Alaric opened the box and go down on bent knee. "So, Fiore—"

"Wait." Fiore interrupted, giving Klaus the tiniest shred of hope that maybe this was not what she wanted. "I need to tell you something about Klaus."

"Did you—did you kiss him?"

"No!" She quickly refuted. "I didn't do anything, I swear. Technically. I just—"

"I don't need to hear it." Alaric told her. "I just want to be with you."

"Are you sure?"

"Fiore, will you marry me?"

"Okay." She said in agreement. "I mean yes. Yes! Yes, I will marry you!"

Alaric slipped the ring on her finger before finally pressing a kiss to her lips, causing the hybrid's heart to flood with an ache he knew only Fiore could cure.