Who: Jeremy Gilbert & Tyler Lockwood When: Backdated: End of June Where: Tyler's House What: Hanging out; Tyler doesn't react well to news of Jeremy's new boss Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly Status: Complete
Now that Jeremy was finally finished with school, he had been really thinking about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He’d gotten out of the restaurant and was now working at Klaus’ gallery, which was a little surreal considering how many times Klaus had tried to kill him and his family and friends in the dreams, but Jeremy actually enjoyed the job so far. It wasn’t too difficult and Jeremy knew a good amount about art so that also helped.
Art however wasn’t something Jeremy wanted to do as a career and it hadn’t been until Elena started going to medical school that he’d ever really started thinking about doing something in the medical field himself. He knew that he didn’t want to be a doctor like their father, but there was still a lot of other things he could do and recently one of those things he had been thinking about looking into was becoming an EMT. He knew there would be a lot of studying, but as far as he was concerned, it didn’t hurt to check into it.
Currently thought, Jeremy wasn’t giving his future much thought as he was on his way to hang out with Tyler. He hadn’t seen his best friend in a few weeks so they had made plans to hang out and this time Jeremy made sure that he went to the right house so as not to randomly drop in on Caleb again.
Had Tyler known that Jeremy was working for Klaus, he definitely would not have approved. Tyler hated Klaus more than he hated - or loved - anything in the dreams, and while he didn’t feel quite so strongly about him here, he still hated the man. Klaus had made his life a living hell for near a year and a half, until Tyler had inadvertently broken the sire bond when he turned off his humanity at the beginning of the year. He didn’t want anything to do with Klaus, and he definitely didn’t want people he cared about getting near him.
But he didn’t know, and so he was just pleased when he heard Jeremy come up to his door. His mom was out on a shopping trip, and so it was Tyler who got up to open the door. “Didn’t get lost this time?” he asked, teasingly.
Jeremy laughed as he walked into Tyler’s house, “Haha. Hey, at least I made a new friend out of that.” That day that Jeremy had ended up at Tyler’s old house, only to remember that his friend was subletting his place, he hadn’t expected to make a new friend, but he had wound up staying and playing video games with Caleb after that, “So what’s up?”
“And now I have a spy on the inside,” Tyler joked. He liked Caleb, and thought he could maybe trust him not to trash his apartment, but Tyler sometimes wondered if he shouldn’t have compelled him to take good care of the place.
“Not a lot,” Tyler said, making his way to the kitchen so he could grab them both a couple of cold beers. “I was just playing some Grand Theft. How about you?”
Jeremy followed Tyler into the house and into the kitchen, “What is it with everyone playing GTA?” Caleb had been playing the same thing when he’d accidentally dropped in on him, “Same. Just settling into my new job and getting ready to be done with school.” He was very much looking forward to having some time to himself and not having to worry about homework anymore.
“Well, actually stealing cars might wind up getting me in trouble,” Tyler said, grinning over his shoulder at Jeremy as he grabbed a couple of beer cans out of the fridge. He tossed one underhanded at Jeremy.
“New job, huh?” Tyler asked. “What are you doing?”
Jeremy laughed and nodded, easily caught the can Tyler threw at him, “That’s probably true. Then again, couldn’t you just compel anyone who caught you?” Not that Jeremy thought that was a good idea either, but Tyler did have that ability, “Oh, I’m actually working at Klaus’ gallery.” He rolled the beer can between his hands as he watched Tyler, waiting for his response.
Tyler laughed that Jeremy seemed to read his thoughts, and was about to answer that Caroline didn’t exactly approve of compulsion and so he was trying to avoid it when he could, but Jeremy’s next statement threw him for a loop, and his smile disappeared. “Klaus? You mean Klaus Mikaelson?” Tyler asked. “That’s not funny.”
There was no way Jeremy would actually be working for that Klaus, was there? It had to be some sort of terrible joke.
Jeremy had had a feeling that Tyler wouldn’t react too well to finding out that he was working for Klaus, but he also couldn’t exactly keep it from him either. He’d figured that hearing it from him was better than hearing it somewhere else, “Yeah, Klaus Mikaelson. Last month I made a post about possibly looking for a new job and Klaus replied. I know he’s done some pretty awful things, but it pays a lot more than the restaurant and it’s only temporary while I figure out whether or not I’m going to enroll in EMT training.”
“Yeah, ‘he’s done some ‘pretty awful things’ is a bit of an understatement, Gilbert,” Tyler spat. Maybe he wasn’t as bad as he was in the dreams - for one, Klaus had yet to kill Tyler’s mother - but Tyler wouldn’t have put it passed him. He’d killed a lot of people, and he’d dragged Tyler along for the ride back when Tyler couldn’t say no.
But, Tyler realized through his anger, he hadn’t filled Jeremy in on half the things that Klaus had done. The realization wasn’t enough to make Tyler stop seeing red though. “I can’t believe you’d even consider working for Klaus, even if he was paying you better.”
Jeremy sighed as he opened his beer can; he could understand why Tyler was upset, but at the same time taking the job from Klaus was going to benefit him a lot more than working at the restaurant would have. “Look, if he was anything even close to the dreams, I wouldn’t have even considered it, but right now I don’t have a whole lot of well paying jobs knocking on my door and I wasn’t going to get anywhere if I stayed at the restaurant.”
Tyler deflated a little. “He might be closer to the dreams than you think he is,” he said after a moment, but he’d leave it at that. “Just so long as you’re careful, Jeremy. Klaus is dangerous. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be extra careful around him,” If the dreams had taught Jeremy one thing, it was to be extra aware when crazy things were happening or when he was around people who might be potentially dangerous. He had no intention of dying in the waking world because he was stupid enough to let his guard down. “Anything seems off and I’ll quit.”
Tyler frowned, wondering if he really should let it drop there. But that was about all he could ask. It wasn’t like he could make Jeremy quit, even if that was what was best for him. Tyler would just have to keep an eye on the both of them to make sure that nothing happened to Jeremy. It wasn’t that he didn’t think that Jeremy could handle himself, but Klaus was… well, Klaus was something else. He was the one enemy from the Dreams that they’d never been able to beat.
“Anyway, I’m pretty sure you came over to play some Mortal Kombat,” Tyler said grinning, tilting his head toward the living room.
Jeremy was glad when Tyler decided to drop the topic of his employment and turn it back to one of the reasons he’d come over, “I think Mortal Kombat sounds like a good idea.” He took a sip of his beer as he followed Tyler into the living room, “Get ready to have your ass kicked, Lockwood.”