this is survival

[interminably]

WHO: Klaus Mikaelson interminably and Tim Gutterson snipedt
WHERE: New Beijing
WHEN: Starting this month on...
WHAT: Getting away, getting involved, getting into trouble
NOTES OR WARNINGS: It's Klaus, so any kinds of open threats, mentions of child abuse mentally and physically, family abuse, family death, patricide, matricide, fratricide, violence, strong language. It's Tim, so mentions of the war, death, sniping, emotionally closed off behavior, violence, guns, the desert?

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[snipedt]

[ In any other place, he actually wouldn't mind having this conversation right now – it's been long enough by this point that he's about equally split between that hard, unpleasant fear of intimacy fighting tooth and claw with his desperation to be close to someone in a way that he really has missed. But they're on a train. Anyone could be listening.

His reluctance to engage with that is maybe obvious, as he drops his gaze and turns to squint out of the window again. He knows, objectively, that this is a different world, that anyone with half a brain here has let go of their more bigoted beliefs, and it's making him realise that maybe the problem here isn't fear of coming out, since Klaus obviously knows he's that way inclined, but some sort of shame. And that makes him feel like shit, because he's never thought of himself as being ashamed about this before. ]

Yeah, you got it, [ he says. Well, it was always going to be a short-lived game, and since he's decided he's not engaging with anything else Klaus just said, he looks down and frowns a little, before he says, ] Why did you have to send her away?

[interminably]

( Tim doesn't meet Klaus halfway. He knows Tim's background, how subtle Tim thinks he's been, except for that first night. He doesn't expect confirmation, maybe in his eyes alone. But, Klaus can't blame him. Klaus is acting out of character, really, and isn't this right, something not working out in his favor. He should stick to directly confronting his prospects or not saying a word about anything for years.

He falls back into the silence, his once enticing look dissipating. )

At the time of her birth, our entire family was in danger. And a group of the quarter witches who listened to the ancestors believed they had to sacrifice her. They'd kidnapped Hayley, her mother. They cut her out of her. Hayley was reborn, a hybrid like myself, and our family exacted the revenge we intended to. After, we didn't believe it safe for Hope to be in the quarter. That proved to be true.

[snipedt]

[ Of course, it all sounds completely reasonable when Klaus explains it like that, but the fact of the matter is that none of it makes a whole lot of sense – so much of this is so far beyond his comprehension. It's times like this that he reminds himself that Klaus isn't anyone, just some guy – there's a whole millennium behind him. ]

I keep forgettin' how old you are, [ Tim says, a little softly. ] Until I remember.

[interminably]

And that wasn't a hundred or a thousand years ago. Only fifteen.

( But, there is a great divide between he and Timothy. He knows this. The train nears its' destination, New Beijing coming into view before them. )

But, even in a single year, much happened. The life of the only living hybrid.

[snipedt]

Most interestin' thing I ever did is shoot a guy with a gun on a pregnant woman, [ Tim says with a wry little smile. ] Feelin' kinda inadequate here, Klaus.

[interminably]

Nothing about you, Timothy, is inadequate. And, by your definition, you're a hero. Did you or did you not save that pregnant woman's life?