The night was hectic and even more tiring than the evening. Maeve spent hours in an anxious state. She was plagued by the nightmare of burning ember flames and the tumultuous jolts of energy that surged through the veins.

She felt a dull phantom ache at the base of her neck. Maeve sat up on the bed, wrapping her hands around her knees. She rested her head on the palm of her hands.

The ominous red, raging inferno, blinded her eyes, drowning the dark room she was in.

After a heavy dinner, graciously Klaus offered Maeve and Ezekiel rooms in the mansion.

"I have a place, you know."

"That tiny place of yours can hardly accommodate you let alone the two of you" said Klaus with a teasing smirk on his face.

"I kept telling her to buy the house──the one we pass on our way here from the town but all I heard were excuses."

Maeve threw a rolled up used tissue at Ezekiel. It hit him in the face making him close his eyes, "how big of a house do you expect for a single me?"

"One that matches your financial status." Ezekiel responded with a snarky look. Maeve stuck her tongue out looking at her brother.

Maeve pushed the covers off of her. She rubbed her hands over a pair of leggings she wore of Rebekah's. Maeve pulled on the jacket she wore while she visited the woods with her brother and later as she died and tiptoed out of that guest bedroom and to the floor below not wanting anyone's attention.

Maeve found herself aimlessly loitering around the large mansion. "Why is this place so huge?" she mumbled to herself entering the ball room. She strolled around the room barefeet. A faint smile curled on the corner of her lips ─ memories of that night came to her like a movie scene. Maeve looked around and then at the empty space in front of her. She remembered where she stood, the middle of the dance floor. A mental image of Elijah materialised in front of her. She could hear the orchestral version of Ed Sheeran's 'give me love'. Maeve tilted her head back as memories glided her to that night.

She tiptoed and danced in a circle recalling how the night went at first. She stopped abruptly when she remembered what happened after that. Maeve pressed a hand to the back of her neck and made way out of the room and onto the driveway of the house.

The three am mist brushed up on her skin and nestled in through her hair. She hugged herself tightening the jacket pulling it's sleeves over her hands. She stood there in the silence. The garden was a stretch of trees and grass with concrete tiling making a path around it. She walked around the concrete path breathing in the scent of trees that flowed in.

She strolled around, looking up at the sky. "So?" she waved her fingers a little making the fallen leaves flow around in circles and glide over her head. She spread open her arms next making the wind blow over her face.

Maeve enjoyed the small spells she could cast, ever since the first one she did at the Pack house in Georgia. The butterflies that danced with her as she made the flowers float around her.

"Couldn't sleep?" Maeve jolted up reacting in shock casting a spell and sent the source of the voice flying back and tumbling over the driveway.

"Holy shi──Elijah?" Maeve dashed to his help. She knelt down to see if he was alright. "I'm so sorry!"

"I should just stop coming up from behind you." he said offering her a smile as he sat up with a short grunt.

Maeve giggled resting back on her heels. "I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone to be awake and hearing a voice startled me a bit."

"It's quite alright Maeve." Elijah dusted his hands and stood up. He offered a hand to help Maeve stand up. She cleared her throat immediately putting some distance between them.

"May I ask what are you doing here at his hour?"

Maeve narrowed her eyes at the original. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Couldn't sleep."

"Same." she shyly smiled at him. Maeve took in the sight of Elijah, her gaze making even Elijah's heart pound in his chest. He wore simply pants and a lose V-neck t-shirt. His build figure was more visible now than it would in his suits. His muscled broad shoulders slightly stretched the cloth of his t-shirt. Her gaze lingered on his built physique longer than she intended. Elijah caught her eyes on his making Maeve blush and pulled away her eyes onto the driveway. Elijah hung his head low and smiled to himself.

The two of them began walking around the long driveway outside of the Mikaelson family mansion, their steps slow and deliberate. The cool night breeze seemed to mirror the growing excitement in the air.

"Maeve," Elijah's voice was barely a whisper. "Can I ask you something?" that question lingered on around his head since the moment his eyes met with hers after he believed he could never see them again.

"I saw darkness." said Maeve with a deep breath. Her voice held a strong amount of vulnerability and nervousness. "There was nothing at first but then there was a bright light and after that...came the jolt that brought me out of it." she confessed. Maeve paused for a moment before she chose to continue, "also...there was this voice."

Elijah stopped in his tracks and turned to her. He locked his eyes with hers, "what voice?"

"It was mine. I know that but──it was so hoarse and malicious. She kept saying it's only a matter of time before I see you again. Matter of time before she would have her way." Maeve looked up into his eyes, that glimmered with pain. A form of pain she hadn't seen him ever have. His eyes, although shadowed from barely any light other than the soft moonlight that cascaded down on them, still could be felt burning in worry and fear. Both of which were for Maeve.

"Whatever it is, I will help you. We will help you."

Maeve shook her head and stepped away from him. She kept her back to him before she said, "you don't get it. The power I felt before that jolt. It was just a reminder that...she is me!" Maeve's eyes glistened with unshed tears. "That voice was my conscious. The dark side of me." Maeve turned around on the heel of her barefoot to gaze back at Elijah,

"I told you I have darkness to me. Such a kind that it can destroy...it is malicious."

His eyes locked onto Maeve as he said, "You are not defined by the darkness inside of you. You have always fought against it, shown incredible strength and resilience along the way."

"Right..then please tell me, what would you call what I have done to Damon on multiple occasions?"

"Justice." Maeve giggled at his quick response making him sport a foolish grin himself.

"Really? I would call making my pack member bite him and torture him for a week before I healed him, a little over the top." Elijah looked curious hearing Maeve.

"You didn't tell me about that."

"Wait..." she raised her hand up looking at him questioningly. "I didn't tell you about the highlight of my week when he caught up that day? At eight in the morning?"

"You mean the day I will remember as when I was spared of a death sentence because I showed up early?" he bemused teasingly. "I think you did mention something in the passing."

"Oh?" she said raising both her eyebrows, "in the passing. Well, I am sorry."

With smiles on their faces they continued walking around the driveway. "How did you and Caroline become such good friends that she was ready to go against her friends for you."

Maeve told him the story of how she became friends with Caroline. That day at the carnival when she protected Caroline from Damon and later helped her get out of bounds and fear of Katherine.

"It's just that lately...we have been keeping secrets from one another and I hate it."

"What secrets?"

"I told her what happened at Homecoming but not what I did to Damon or that the wound left a scar. I wasn't there to help her with her father's passing nor could I help her when her father tortured her for quite a while."

Elijah remained silent but his silence spoke to Maeve. Even he couldn't stomach the fact that fell from Maeve's lips, "yes. I was as horrified as you are when I heard...I just haven't exactly talked to her about it."

"That is nice of you Maeve. You musn't ask someone about an incident of such nature unless they approach you with that piece of information themselves."

Maeve ushered him with a wave of her hand towards the door. "I'm hungry. Are you?"

Elijah decided to never again question where and how things might happen or end up being with Maeve. After a circular walk around the driveway, at four o'clock in the morning, he found himself on the floor of the kitchen holding a tub of ice cream in hand that he shared with Maeve.

"Tell me, what was the first ever ball you attended, like?" She quizzed him taking a spoonful of ice cream. Elijah began narrating tales from the many centuries he spent on earth. He told her stories of almost every ball he could remember even if it was just a second long memory.

Once in a few sentences, Maeve managed to slip a snide remark. The tub of ice cream was almost finished but their conversation didn't seem to falter.

There was a moment of silence after Elijah told her about a ball they attended in the seventeenth century where Kol caused a ruckus that even he and Klaus combined couldn't take care off and had to leave sooner than they thought.

"You never told me why you couldn't sleep." Maeve broke the silence, nervousness and her words hung in the air. Elijah met her eyes, contemplating his next words very carefully.

"It was nothing. Just insomnic." Elijah deflected her question.

"I'll give it to you, I almost believe you." said Maeve with a side glare, "but then again, I can see you tells now. What's the truth?"

Elijah sighed, his voice barely a whisper when he told her, "I kept seeing you dead." His confession hung in the air thickly clouding them both. The room was silent for a moment, the weight of their words lingering in the air.

"Ho──wh──I don──" Maeve spluttered out incoherent sounds not knowing the right response for him.

Elijah looked away from Maeve clearly avoiding her eyes. "Everytime I closed my eyes, I kept going back to the crypt where I saw you fall to the floor...dead. Each time I closed my eyes, I found myself there standing over you."

Maeve took the ice cream bucket from him and set it aside. She took his hand in hers. This action led Elijah to once again gaze at her. She smiled softly at him, "I'm sorry for all of it."

"No." he said with a resolute voice. "I'm sorry that I couldn't help you, when I promised I would."

"You don't owe me anything." Elijah used his free hand to grab hers. The force with which he grabbed her caused her to lean toward him more, closing a little distance between them.

"I owe you a lot more than you think. For the first time in a long while, there's someone who hasn't seen us as monsters. Someone who's seeing some humanity in us──in me. I am not an original vampire, but myself if such a thing is even possible." His voice deepened before he added hurriedly, "many have stood where you are and have faced Death, Maeve. I hated the idea that you would too and when you did, it was as if I was thrown into every single one of those situations and I didn't know what to do."

"I'm here now and I am not going anywhere." Maeve assured him. "You won't lose me." she batted her eyelashes looking up at him. Suddenly the room felt small closing in on them. The intimate distance between them, like so many moments before felt comforting. Maeve bit her lower lip when she stole away her gaze from Elijah. His eyes flickered from her eyes to her lips.

She turned back to face him, she saw something in Elijah's gaze - a sense of vulnerability that he rarely revealed to anyone. Both had closed inches of gap, their foreheads almost touching.

"I fear, Elijah. I fear this." she said, in an undertone.

"You fear what, Maeve?" he asked her, his voice low and with a rasp.

"I fear if I fall I might break." Elijah licked his lips, parting them ever so slightly that his breath fanned over her face.

"I won't let you fall." she tried holding back from shuddering at his low voice and the fluttering feeling that rose up in her gut. Their lips hovered inches from each other for a few seconds before they just barely brushed. It was a moment of hesitation and nervous. Neither were sure if the other was there because of the heat in the moment or could there be something more.

Elijah began pulling away but Maeve wasn't ready. She wanted to test the pull, the feeling that ignited in her chest at a small smile from him let alone the way he was always there. Maeve used her left arm and placed it on his neck, turning his head to her and placed a hurried chaste kiss to his lips. Shocked at first, Elijah kissed her back, a gentle press at first turned into a feverish kiss that ignited their entire bodies. His hand released its hold on hers and tangled up into her hair and pulled her even closer to him. She could taste the chocolate syrup she had poured on the ice cream as the kiss turned more passionate. For a moment the world dissolved around them.

Slowly they broke apart, neither opening their eyes to gaze at the other. A ghostly smile tugged on both of their lips. Elijah used his thumb to trace her lower lip.

Maeve sat down again, her shoulders touching his. The two sat back down, slightly in daze of the kiss they shared.

"Did you seriously meet Mary Antoinette?" Maeve started a conversation after a few minutes of silence. Elijah laughed audibly at her choice of conversation.

"Yes I did. She was a──" another conversation broke out but this time, her hand was tangled up with his, resting on his lap. Their legs were stretched out touching each other, backs against the cabinets, shoulders touching.

As the morning light flooded slowly, Maeve's head dropped on his shoulder, eyes closed and she fell soundly asleep. Elijah kissed her head and rested his head on top of hers. Before long even he fell asleep, a dreamless slumber.

“look at how adorable they look!”

“shush! You'll wake them up.”

“like the flash light of your camera won't.”

“i don't like this.”

“who's asking for your opinion? let them be happy.”

“i get a say in all of this.”

“will you two stop being such creeps? it's seven in the morning.”

Elijah was the first one to stir awake. He lifted up his head, squinting his eyes at the light that evaded the kitchen. First he took notice of a hand in his before it registered the three other figures in the kitchen. Through the slits of his eyes he noticed two figures hovering over him and Maeve.

"Morning Elijah." Rebekah wished her brother battering her eyes while a lopsided smirk curled on her lips. He rolled his eyes and glanced sideways at Maeve who was still sound asleep.

"What are you doing here?" he asked keeping his voice a murmur to not wake Maeve up.

"I went to look for Maeve but she wasn't in the room. After searching the whole house, we ended up here." Ezekiel answered Elijah, his face scrunched awkwardly. "Please don't tell me what happened last night."

"Nothing did. We just ate ice cream and talked." Elijah responded keeping out the fact of them kissing.

Rebekah's face faltered at his words. Klaus simply rolled his eyes and exited out of the kitchen. "Nothing did?" Rebekah reiterated sorrowfully.

"Mind taking it elsewhere? She's still asleep." Elijah said glancing at Maeve who now snored lightly.

"Take her to the room then." shot back Rebekah. "God knows how long you have been on the cold floor." Rebekah walked out of the kitchen. Ezekiel threw one last glance at Maeve and Elijah before even he left them alone.

Elijah nodded. Gently he placed an arm around her, moving her to sit up again. He kept his movements slow and gentle. He placed his hands on her back and the other under her knees. He cradled her close and lifted her up in his arms and walked out and into his room.

He placed her softly on the bed and pulled the covers over her and tucked her in. Elijah looked with adoration in his eyes. The innocent look she had on her face, her soft pouted lips. He placed a quick kiss on her forehead and exited the room.

If only he had stayed a second long he would have seen a smile appear on her face before she pulled the covers closer to her.

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Hey guys! So I'm changing a lot of things from the previous update...lmao

Sorry about the chapter notification before. I accidentally published it before even finishing up the chapter.

Hope the wait was worth it. What do you think?

Better than the previous version of this story? Please tell me so I know you guys still love this story.

Do respond guys. Your comments mean a lot!!!

Take care everyone!

Raven :)