thisismybar | Elijah

"Please do keep that out of your head, yes." Elijah had burned what few pictures there were from that decade. He glanced over at Ric, smiled slightly. "There's nothing wrong with t-shirts and jeans."

Not when you wore them like Alaric did.

"Yeah, well, tell that to your-" He stopped himself and grimaced. "I'm sorry. That... wasn't fair."

Elijah, having no idea what Klaus had or hadn't said about Alaric's wardrobe, just looked confused. "...It wasn't?"

"Just... go with it," he suggested, with a wry smile. "It was a dick move on my part, even if you don't get the reference. Below the belt, Klaus, not you, don't know where it came from, etc. etc."

Elijah gave him a measuring look for a moment, trying to decide if pressing was worth it, but took him at his word and nodded.

"All right."

Ric reached out and squeezed Elijah's arm, right above the elbow, before returning his hand to his pocket. "Thank you."

The touching was likely to surprise him for a bit, but he just nodded and fell silent until they got to the cave entrance. "The flashlight is really going to be far more helpful than the torches."

"Less smoke and a much reduced chance of me knocking my skull in or landing on my ass. My pride and my lungs are grateful for the foresight...." He flipped it on, and handed it to Elijah. "I'll stay right behind you."

There was no appreciable preamble or transition. "Do you dislike being touched?"

Elijah took the flashlight and moved in, even though he didn't really need it. He could light the way for Ric just fine. The question made him pause, look back at the man, though.

"...No?"

Lighting the way for Ric was the idea. Yes, it made things shadowed, but it kept Ric's hands free, in case he needed them. Why he would need them, he didn't know.

He shrugged, a little. "Then what's with the reaction, every time you are?"

...He wasn't always the most subtle man around, okay?

Elijah started to ask what reaction, but he considered before he said anything, then just shrugged and moved to head back down the path.

"I guess I'm just not used to it anymore. I'm not really someone people reach out and touch these days." Not even with his siblings. Which possibly explained his obsessive touch fetish--always touching things.

Ric thought about that, as he walked. He thought about Elijah's challenge and the kiss and the way Elijah was always touching, stroking, or straightening some inanimate object. He even thought about his own perception of Elijah as 'asexual', or celibate.

The last thing he thought about was Elijah's age, and how long things had been going 'on' with Klaus, at least so far as he knew.

He waited until the path widened a bit, then moved up beside Elijah, and... slung an arm across his shoulders, heavy and warm, and with an utter lack of fuss.

He was Damon's best friend. If he couldn't figure things out, he wouldn't be.

Elijah didn't stiffen at the move, though he did give Ric a slanted look, still a little surprised, before darting his eyes away after a moment to hide a sudden wetness in them. He didn't pull away, and he didn't go so far as to snuggle into him or anything, but.

He did lean a little, shifting the flashlight more to Ric's side so he could see where he was stepping.

With Ric so close, the tension that he was feeling as they got nearer the cave was probably palpable, no matter how serene his expression.

Ric knew if Elijah wanted away from him, he could damn well get there. He could feel the tension, yes, but he was also aware of the subtle lean and the change in where Elijah was pointing the light. He kept his arm in place, knuckles dragging back and forth over Elijah's bicep a bit, and walked with him.

Just that. No muss, no fuss, nothing fancy or romantic or dramatic. Just kept touching him, provided a little physical comfort (he hoped) and walked. "You ready for this?" he asked, when they were just outside.

It was the sort of casual touch that he and his siblings had exchanged, once upon a time, when their well-oiled dance around each other, the ways they stayed in contact, still worked, wasn't broken the way it was now. Even as he relaxed into the touch, he still found his stomach twisting a bit as they got to the cave entrance.

He stared beyond it for a moment, then nodded, taking a breath he didn't need in an effort to steady himself. "I'm ready."

He pointed the flashlight in and then stepped through, nothing holding him back this time.

Ric let Elijah step through before him, breaking the contact between them briefly, but he didn't send Elijah in alone. He thought about it, but ultimately decided, fairly firmly, against it. And while he only had a few minutes experience to really draw on, he didn't leave Elijah without touch, either. He simply moved in behind him, put one hand lightly on his shoulder, and kept it there. Too light to be more than a reminder of his presence, but not intended to be any more than that, either. Grounding in the presence, and some pretty solid human heat.

Elijah was grateful Ric was there--if only because it kept him from breaking down. And he...couldn't break down right now. If he did, he didn't know when he'd stop. He'd been numb for a century--letting other things in might break him for longer than he could handle.

He shone the light around the cave, finding the familiar marks, the names they had carved into the stone first. Not trying to shake Ric off, but unable to resist, he moved to them to slowly trace his fingertips over his name....then Klaus's, before lightly touching each of the others.

Ric didn't feel shaken off and he didn't retreat, but he didn't follow Elijah, either. He simply parked himself near the entrance, and watched Elijah, as much as the light allowed. He was reminded of what he'd heard about Isobel's death, for some reason. From Elena. The return back to her grave, and it wasn't the same, but.

Ric shook his head to shake it off, or try to. He slid quietly down the wall and kept watching Elijah. He didn't want to break in, or interfere. He didn't even want to interrupt. He wanted to be present for Elijah, but let him have his time.

Elijah was glad he was there, even if he was quiet. After a few moments, he moved to the cave paintings, able to see them far more clearly here than from the phone pictures. He found the beginning, and worked to decipher what he had.

"These over here, at least, are telling our story. How we came to be vampires..."

"Tell me," Ric suggested, softly and from his position in the ground. "Read the story." They'd talked about it some, to begin with, but somehow he thought getting Elijah to keep talking and saying it aloud was a good idea. Or a horrible one, but he was pretty inclined to go with his first instinct.

Which was, admittedly, why Elijah had ended up daggered to begin with, but.

Elijah glanced back at him, a little uncertain. Then he turned around, and read slowly through it, leaving out the more personal details that weren't on the wall, but going with what was there: the land of the wolves, the people who came from across the sea; the death of the child; the grief of the mother; the violation of nature; the creation of the cold, fanged ones; the boy who was also a wolf--a new symbol there, the hybrid; the curse laid on him by his mother... Elijah's voice faltered once or twice near the end. He stopped, coughed, kept going.

The rejection of the village and the witch and her mate. The...He stopped completely, stepping back from the wall in shock, looking like he'd been punched in the gut.

Ric stood up when Elijah stopped and stepped back with that look on his face, and crossed slowly to him. He put both hands on Elijah's shoulders and tried to turn him around to face him. "Elijah," he prompted, quiet but firm. "What just happened?"

Elijah was too stunned to fight him on the turn, shifting around to face him, still looking like his world had taken a detour into a not very good place.

"Our mother," he said, feeling like he was in a dream. "We thought...he told us...Father killed her for betraying him."

Ric was trying to follow him to wherever the detour had taken him, kept his hands on Elijah and head tilted down to watch Elijah's face. "Who told you? What actually happened?" He felt like an ass, on some level, for pushing at Elijah, but he didn't think he had much chance of getting an answer if he waited for Elijah to recover.

Elijah was almost trembling--not quite, because he was him, but there were occasional trembles there, the calm facade clearly shattered. "Klaus. Klaus told us. Father slaughtered her lover's family, then came for her. Ripped out her heart. He's been trying to kill all of us for the past thousand years, always hunting us, driving us...But..." He turned and looked blindly at the wall for a moment, then reached out and touched the symbols.

"This is the hybrid." His fingers moved. "This is the witch. My father's not there."

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