Who: Klaus and Tyler What: Drinking and accidental invoking of the sire bond When: Not long after Marcel showed up Where: Random bar Rating/Warning: Mediumish? Some minor violence Status: Complete
Coming ‘home’ was turning Klaus into an alcoholic. He could no longer blame it on just being in the same area as his parents. There was more now, strange dreams and Marcel. The fact that Freya was dead in the dreams still bothered him. How could it not? The absence of his sister was worse than reliving Mikael’s beatings. But Marcel being here? That was just too fucking much. What more could that man want from him? He already stole his business. What did he want now? Drinking was clearly the best way to deal with it all.
He had been in the bar for a while, currently nursing his thirst glass of bourbon. He was in slightly better spirits, but that wasn’t saying much.
Tyler was spending a lot of time in bars, though after his dreams it wasn’t such a strange thing. For one, alcohol really did help with the cravings. He was still pretty new to the vampirism thing, and they still struck him hard sometimes. Especially now that he was surrounded by people all the time. They were a lot easier to control with when the only people he saw was the occasional hiker.
That, and everything else relating to his dreams was still messing him up. For one, he wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with his ignoble demise at the hands of Damon for what seemed like no apparent reason. And Klaus showing up out of the blue wasn’t helping matters. He wasn’t sure what to do about Klaus. His instinct was that Klaus wouldn’t be causing much trouble any time soon. For one, he was human. If he wanted, Tyler could snap him in half without even thinking about it. And people could be different from the dreams, and Tyler had the feeling that Klaus was one of those people.
But intellectually, he knew Klaus was a monster. A monster who had forced Tyler to nearly kill Caroline so that Klaus could swoop in and seduce her. A monster who ruined Tyler’s life, killed his entire pack, and murdered his mother.
He was broken from his revery when he saw Klaus himself sitting at the bar. Tyler sighed. For such a big county, it sure did feel small sometimes.
“Hey,” he said, pulling up a stool beside Klaus. “I told you we’d probably see more of each other.”
Klaus looked over at the man sitting next to him. “Hey,” he greeted in return, there was even a bit of a grin of his face. “You’re the guy from the coffee shop.” At least he remembered who he was this time. “What brings you here on this fine evening?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Tyler said. He wasn’t sure if Klaus had already managed to forget his name again, but he swollowed back his annoyance. It would be better if Klaus couldn’t remember who he was anyway. “Same thing as you, I imagine. Scotch.” The last he said to the bartender, who’d approached them as Tyler took his seat.
Klaus actually had forgotten his name. Why would he remember the name of some random guy he met in a coffee shop and on the internet. It wasn’t like they had some deep meaningful conversation. “Did your nemesis randomly appear?” Because that sure as hell was why Klaus was drinking. Well, Marcel and dreams but he wasn’t about to discuss that with a stranger.
Tyler couldn’t help the short laugh that escaped his throat, though he tried to cover it up by clearing his throat afterward. Klaus would definitely not appreciate thinking that Tyler was laughing at him. But the irony of hearing that question from that mouth was so unexpected that Tyler hadn’t been able to control it. “Yeah,” he said. “You could say that. You have a nemesis?”
“Is that so shocking?” Klaus spat. There was that anger flaring up. He took another sip of bourbon to calm his nerves. “It seems as though you have one as well.” He had agreed with Klaus’s statement after all. Drinking thanks to a nemesis.
“Not even a little,” Tyler said, not quite being able to keep the humour from his voice. He knew Klaus - or at least a Klaus - and he’d frankly be more surprised if he found out that Klaus had no enemies at all to speak of. “But yeah, mine’s a real piece of work. What did yours do?”
“The man that slept with your girlfriend,” Klaus concluded. He may not remember the guy’s name but he did remember him mentioning that. Probably because it was of more interest to him. What Marcel had done was a lot worse. But Klaus wasn’t about to share that. No one knew what had happened back in New Orleans, well no one besides his sister. “That’s not really any of your business, is it?”
“Among other things,” Tyler said, but the rest of it didn’t need to be shared. “But no, I guess it’s not.” Still, was probably an interesting story. Or just Klaus being Klaus, making enemies everywhere he went.
And if this whole conversation was going to be like pulling teeth, Tyler was fine without it. It wasn’t like he’d come to the bar to chat to his arch nemesis. He was perfectly content to drink in silence next to him. Or relative silence, at least. With the drunk, rowdy guys in the booth behind them, it was hard to call it silent.
Klaus wasn’t much for small talk. Especially with people he didn’t know or trust. Not that Klaus trusted anyone but that was beside the point. At least the man seemed to get the hint and finally stop asking questions. Klaus was left to enjoy his drink in silence.
Or not.
He turned his attention to the rowdy group of boys behind him. They looked like a bunch of fraternity douche bags. “Don’t you know how to behave in public?” Klaus growled at them.
“Shut up!” one of the douche bags shot back.
“Thanks for proving my point,” Klaus replied bitterly standing up from his seat. Clearly it was time to take his services elsewhere.
Klaus may have been looking to relocate, but that’s not what the guys in the booth thought when he got up. “What, you want to go?” one of them asked, quickly sliding out of his seat. If he was a frat bro, he was clearly one of the ones who played football or some other sport. His shirt was pulled tight over his broad shoulders and pecs. Taking their cue from him, his friends also stood up, though they were much smaller than him.
Tyler took his whiskey and turned on his bar stool. He leaned back against the bar, one of his elbows leaning on the bar behind him. Oh, this was going to be good.
“Yes,” Klaus replied coolly. “Now if you would kindly get out of my way.”
“I don’t think so buddy,” the guy said stepping directly in front of him. This is where he made a mistake. It had been quite awhile since Klaus had gotten in a fight. A physical one at least. Not since his early twenties. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t hold his own. At least against one or two assholes. Still he wasn’t one to back down from a fight no matter how outnumbered he was.
Niklaus immediately swung into action. Throwing the first punch getting the guy square in the jaw. That was when one of the other douches jumped up throwing a punch at Klaus. He managed to dodge it, barely. Klaus’s eyes fell on the man who had been talking to him earlier. Just sipping his drink watching the fight. “Get up and help!” he growled at the man. He didn’t care if Klaus barely knew the guy or not. He knew the man was just as annoyed with these assholes as Klaus had been.
Tyler stood up. As entertaining as watching Klaus get his ass kicked would undoubtably be, it wasn’t like this was a fair fight. Besides, Klaus practically begging for help and then Tyler swooping in to take all three of them out without breaking a sweat would definitely show him who was boss.
As soon as he stood up, one of the guys swung at him, but he easily sidestepped the blow and then laid him out with a punch to the gut, making sure to rein in most of his strength. The guy dropped like a sack of potatoes, groaning. The other two looked toward him, and then the big guy swung at him. Tyler caught his fist in the air, and then gently squeezed it until the big guy cried out. “You guys are going to get your asses kicked,” Tyler said, looking directly into the man’s eyes. He didn’t actually want to hurt them, and who knew if they’d see sense and walk away on their own. “You should pay your tab and find another bar to drink in.”
The big guy swallowed and nodded. “Yeah,” he said, turning toward his friend who was already helping up the other guy. “Fuck this bar, boys. Let’s find somewhere less douchey.”
What the hell had just happened? Klaus hadn’t expected the man to be that effective in the fight. Hell, he scared them all away. Klaus was impressed to say the least.
Once the assholes scattered leaving the bar, Klaus turned his attention to Tyler. “Impressive,” he commented with a smirk. “Remind me to always have my fights around you,” he added jokingly. “But for now, I’ll buy the next round.”
“I’ll do that. So long as you make sure not to end up on the wrong end of that fight,” Tyler said, shooting Klaus a friendly smile that belied his words. Klaus really wasn’t so bad when he wasn’t a blood-thirsty, power-mad, sociopathic hybrid.