𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍:
Never letting you go again
(S2:E19 - Klaus)

"NEVER DID IT OCCUR TO ME that I'll find someone after Rafe died," Genesis mutters as she and Elliot stand inside her small greenhouse in her backyard. Genesis busied herself with watering her plants while Elliot sat on a stool with his book in hand.

Elliot closes his book shut, placing it on his lap as he asks, "Why?"

Genesis turns around, placing the watering pot beside the wooden table. She faces him with a pondering look, answering, "I just thought no one could break the barriers I built over the years like Rafe."

Elliot nods thoughtfully, "And Elijah did?"

Genesis purses her lips, looking away as her arms wrap around her, hugging herself, "Slowly but yes." Genesis mutters slowly, but Elliot has heard it, and he hums.

"And you're afraid that he's coming too close. You're afraid to get attached again." Elliot tells her knowingly, and Genesis sighs heavily.

"I don't want to feel loss again."

Elliot crosses his legs, taking a sip of his coffee, "Do you want the truth or the sugar-coated response."

"The truth. Always the truth."

"It's one of the curses that immortality comes with loss. Grief and pain are always lingering in the shadows, waiting to consume an unsuspected vessel. But that's also one of the signs that what we felt was real, that it wasn't an illusion. We can never escape those three emotions, and it's just the way it is for us."

Genesis purses her lips. She can always rely on Elliot when it comes to these conversations, and he always has a way with words-given that he's a lawyer. Elliot always knows what to say, how to respond, what to reflect on, and what to do.

"It's when I'm with him. I haven't felt anything like it." Genesis says with a frown as she thinks of Rafael, "But then I always felt this ache in my heart. It's as if my heart is warning me. I can't explain it." Genesis huffs frustratedly, she can't express the words coherently, but it's on the tip of her tongue-how she felt.

"Maybe you're afraid of another heartbreak?" Elliot questions as Genesis looks back at him, nodding slowly, agreeing, "Yeah, maybe it is."

There was a moment of comfortable silence between them as Elliot observed Genesis's confused and anxious expression. Then he said, "He would be happy, you know? That you found someone."

Genesis saunters towards him, sitting beside him as she crosses her legs as, her eyes staring straight ahead. "He said he didn't want me to be alone," Genesis looks at Elliot with a small smile as she wraps an arm around him, leaning on his shoulder, "But I have you. I'm not alone."

Elliot releases a hearty chuckle as he looks at her, amused, "You know that isn't what he meant."

Genesis shrugs, "I know."

"Rafael meant that you get to share your morning with someone, someone to wake up beside, to do human mundane things-domestic things. Have someone to talk to during midnight about everything and anything, to laugh with, someone that will wipe your tears and comfort you." Elliot lists off with his fingers as Genesis lightly laughs.

"How about you?"

Elliot raises an eyebrow, "What about me?"

"Why do you like blondes so much?"

Elliot shrugs as if in thought. Genesis wished she could read his mind. At least she could talk to him the way he talks to her. Elliot isn't the type of person to talk about himself, "I guess I have a type." Elliot answers shortly.

Genesis decided not to push the topic any further, asking with an intrigued tone. "Have you ever loved Eli?" Elliot never mentioned the romantic part of his life, he told her it wasn't interesting to talk about, but everything about Elliot Cresswell is interesting, as how his mind works.

"Haven't we all?"

───⊱⁜⊰───

NIKLAUS TEXTED GENESIS that he sent Maddox to retrieve his in Niklaus's words-work of a bloody brilliant artist's body and that he had already informed Cassandra that he was ready to return to his body.

Elijah informed her that Elena had called and apologized for what happened on the night of the dinner party-he hadn't spoken to Elena since then. She had just assumed that Elijah was angry at her and the Salvatores for ruining their agreement.

Genesis advised him to tell Elena about what the curse really is about and to give Elena a strong reason why Elijah is dead set on killing Niklaus. They need her to believe that no matter what, Elijah will help Elena live.

After a panicked call from Stefan that Niklaus is in the Gilbert home and targeting Jenna. Elena rushed home to check on her aunt. So, Genesis decided to head towards the park, where Elijah and Elena decided to meet.

"I heard of Niklaus's perspective of Katherine's betrayal. Can you tell me yours?" Genesis asks as they walk side-by-side. Elijah tucks his hands into his pockets, and Genesis glances at him. He was wearing a black oxford shirt, collar unbuttoned and sleeves folded by the elbow, and brown trousers, and he was wearing his black Armani suit and a Rolex watch, specifically a yacht-master 24 in white gold.

"Katerina was a sweet girl, and her life isn't tainted and corrupted yet with such sorrow and bitterness." Elijah begins, his eyes filled with reminisce as the memories pass by in his mind like a film, "I didn't want her to die. An innocent human girl thrust into a circumstance that she had no control over."

"But it is meant to happen. The life of the doppelgänger will always be for Niklaus's sacrifice." Genesis points out, and Elijah nods slowly. "Indeed it is. I had come to terms with that reason."

"How about Elena?"

"What of Elena?"

"Elena is an innocent human," Genesis answers, and Elijah shakes his head, grinning, his tone mocking.

"Elena is hardly innocent." Elijah chuckles, looking at Genesis with a smile, "Katherine made it known that she will always put herself first and does not care for the people who get harmed along the way as long as she remains unscathed."

Elijah sighs, a disappointed look washing over his face, "While Elena, she proclaims that she'll do anything and everything to protect her loved ones but never admitting it herself that she has already hurt them, and instead dismisses them, saying that she's only doing the thing she knows what's good for them-but never cared enough to ask them what they think is good for them. And I do believe in what Caroline said that Elena has a particular way of making everything about her in inappropriate times."

Genesis hums, nodding her head in agreement as she wraps a hand around his arm, and Elijah loves the way that for Genesis, the action it all felt natural for the two of them. "I agree with everything that you said. It's a strong argument."

Elijah smiles, and Genesis says, "I bet you'll be in an argument with Elliot for a long time-it'll be an interesting debate to watch."

Elijah chuckles and replies, "I will never get in an argument with a lawyer. They always have this ability to twist words and manipulate every thought." Elijah tells her, and Genesis snorts as he continues, "A knowledgeable conversation perhaps, wherein I gain wisdom from the topic."

"And what of our conversation now? Are you gaining something?"

"Your attention is what I'm gaining, and I'm rather basking in it," Elijah answers with a mischievous grin as Genesis playfully slaps his chest.

"Out of all the women you have met in your lifetime, why is it me that you decided to pursue?" Genesis questioned him, and they both halted as Genesis stepped in front of him, capturing his hazel brown eyes.

Elijah intertwined his hand with hers as his other hand cupped her face, thumb brushing her cheek softly as Genesis instinctively leaned in. They both gazed at each other as if nothing in their surroundings mattered, as if it was just them-only them.

Because it's always been you, and it will always be you. Elijah thought to himself as he answered.

"Because you ignited a fire in me that no one else has, not desire, not lust, but the reason to continue this immortal life because when I'm with you, everything in this world seems new and worth living. I have lived for a millennia, Genesis. But I haven't met a person quite like you--and I know I will never let you go."

Again.

I will never let you go again.