ACT TWO; TARGET IN SIGHT
SCENE TEN; THE MIKAELSONS
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THE SHATTERING OF GLASS MAKES SALEM FROWN, AND SHE PLACES THE LAST PLATE IN HER HAND INTO THE DISHWASHER BEFORE STEPPING OUT OF THE KITCHEN. Her heels click on the hard floors and she follows the commotion, brows knitting deeper on her forehead when she steps into the entryway of the small room off the hallway.

Her frown disappears into a look of pure surprise, her lips parting in a silent gasp as she takes in the chaos around her, and the gaggle of people surrounding the fireplace with Klaus at the center of it all.

"What the hell is this?"

Rebekah is the first to turn, and her eyes widen in shock before she gives Salem a bright grin. "Oh, good, you're still around. I was worried he'd killed you."

Salem steps further into the room, her eyes falling to where Elijah stands with a reserved look on his face that earns a quick glare from her. She should've known better than to not question Elijah's easy acquiesce with Damon.

A brown-haired man who holds himself like every cocky man she'd ever met eyes her up and down, and her eyes flicker to Klaus who is glaring at the boy.

"You're keeping humans on standby now, Nik?" The boy trails a finger up her arm and Salem's lip curls in a low snarl. "I can definitely appreciate a good blood bag."

In a second, her eyes flash yellow and she slams her fist into his sternum, sending him flying into the wall across the room. Yellow wisps of magic pin him there, and she glares into his wide-eyed stare. "I'm not human, and I'm definitely not your blood bag."

She drops the boy down to his feet again, ignoring the challenging glare that he gives her as she turns and looks at the rest of them. Rebekah stands near Elijah, and the two other men glare at her with so much disdain, she's shocked that the fire in their eyes doesn't turn her to a pile of ash right there on the floor.

A woman, blonde and regal looking, is staring at her with piqued curiosity and she averts her gaze from the power-hungry stare that sends a shiver down her spine.

"I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I know you've got something to do with it," She glares at Elijah who has the decency to look ashamed for only a split moment before he hides it again. "And I know that you all probably have rightfully placed issues with Klaus, but you won't be breaking things in my house to settle them."

The woman, who's now raising a surprised but daring brow at Salem, folds her hands in front of her and speaks. "I have things to discuss with my children in private. They are family matters."

Salem scoffs, realizing that this was Esther, the very woman who made all of her children's lives hell, none more than Klaus. She turns on her heel, turning her back to Esther, as she pulls Klaus off of his knees and wraps an arm around his waist.

"Klaus and I will be going to bed, it's been a long day." Her eyes shift, landing on Esther. "I'm sure you'll all have no problems making yourselves comfortable for the night."

Klaus leans against her, silent gratitude in the way she's stopped the situation from escalating. She pulls him along with her steady strides and Esther shifts, stepping in front of them.

Salem's eyes widen momentarily before they narrow into a glare and she clears her throat pointedly. "We're going to bed. You've waited this long to speak to him, I'm sure it can wait another night."

Esther hesitates for a moment before stepping away, and Salem pulls Klaus along with her, ignoring the heated glares from the Mikaelson family that burn holes into her back as she trails up the stairs silently with Klaus following closely behind her.

Their bedroom door shuts with a click and Salem turns, watching Klaus nearly collapse onto the end of the bed and bury his head in his hands. Unwillingly, her eyes soften and she sighs with pity that he resents.

She steps out of her heels and crawls to her knees on the bed behind his hunched over frame and rubs her palms flat against his back, smiling softly to herself when his tense shoulders relax ever so slightly. "What happened?"

Her voice is soft and coaxing, and it's a tone she knows will get answers without him becoming defensive and closing himself off.

He doesn't answer right away, and she thinks that maybe it's too late, maybe he's pushed away whatever was shining in his eyes downstairs, but then his voice comes. "My family," He heaves a sigh that borders on shaky and shakes his head, dragging calloused fingers across his scruffy cheeks. "They hate me."

"No, they don't," She shakes her head, voice soft. "They're just angry at you, and they have plenty of reasons to be."

Klaus scoffs, looking at her over his shoulder. "I thought you were supposed to be comforting me."

"I am," Salem grins, leaning her chin down onto his shoulder. "But I'm not going to lie and say you've done nothing wrong. I think right now, the only thing you can do is try to make up for your mistakes."

Klaus rolls his eyes, but there's an amused glint amidst the usual darkness that resides in his eyes. "Or I could keep them all daggered for the rest of eternity and never worry about it again."

"That's plan B, I guess," Salem concedes, shaking her head exasperatedly at him.

Klaus hums, searching her eyes as a small smirk grows on his face. "You certainly made a good first impression with my mother."

Salem grins sarcastically, her eyes rolling as she lays down on the bed, making Klaus shift and hold her legs on his lap. "I'm great with parents. I bet she loves me."

The hybrids laugh to themselves, knowing that Esther likely had nothing but horrible things to say about their meeting. His crystallite eyes search hers for a moment and his humor dissipates into a resigned look of defeat she knows he wouldn't let anyone else see.

"I assume you're no longer mad at me?"

Salem sighs, a wane smile on her face as she nudges Klaus's stomach with her foot. "We've got bigger things to worry about right now, don't we?"

Klaus narrows his eyes briefly. "That wasn't an answer,"

"It's the only answer you're going to get," Salem shrugs, her head propped up with an overstuffed throw pillow. "We need to work together right now, especially with your unexpected family reunion."

Klaus nods in agreement and heaves a sigh. "I need to speak to my mother,"

Salem raises a brow, silently urging him to elaborate.

"She said she wants to make up for the wrong she did when we were children."

"It's, like, a thousand years too late for apologies, Klaus." Salem watches his eyes shift and shade with the flurry of emotions flooding through him and she silently surrenders what would be a losing fight to try to convince Klaus not to trust his mother.

She knew that no matter how much disdain Klaus preached for his family, he would do just about anything to please them.

"I at least need to hear what she has to say. I owe it to her for everything I did."

Salem simply nods, and sends him on his way with a small smile and farewell. She waits for the door to shut behind him before her face falls and she sits up, shoulders tense with the sudden defensiveness she feels.

Klaus was going to blindly trust his mother, that much was obvious. But Salem was not going to turn a blind eye to whatever it was the Original witch had planned for her family, because it was obvious that Esther had not planned for Salem's presence, which only meant she threatened whatever the witch may have planned.

All Salem had to do was figure out what Esther was up to, and try to save Klaus from falling too far into a trap that will only end with him hurt.

It'd be easy, if it were anyone else.

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Salem lets out a small, serene sigh as her sleep-blurred vision clears and focuses on the sunshine coming through the windows of the bedroom. Klaus shifts as she does, used to her being an early riser because of her job. He's used to moving alongside her, even if it means waking at the break of dawn right as the sun shines light onto the dust particles floating around the room.

He heaves a sigh, turning over and draping his arm over her middle where the silk camisole she wore to bed has risen up with her morning stretch.

Salem hums contently, turning into his hold as her eyes blink out the last remnants of sleep as Klaus continues to pull her towards him across their bed, rumpling sheets carelessly as he finally abandons his calm facade and yanks her flush against him.

Her eyes bolt open and she laughs breathily, the early morning innocence still fresh. "Good morning,"

He hums, running his hands up and down her back, resting them right on the curve of her spine. "It will be. You know, we haven't gotten to actually–"

"Salem!" Rebekah's shrill voice screams out, breaking the still silence that the morning had brought, interrupting Klaus's sentence.

Salem sits up abruptly, her eyes wide in alert as Klaus mutters a string of curses that involve his sister's name.

"She's going back in a coffin for another ninety years, I swear to–"

"She's looking for me," Salem smiles, breathless as she slides off the bed. "We have a busy day ahead of us."

"Salem?" Klaus looks at her incredulously, his blue eyes wide and abrasive. "Salem, you can't just leave, we were in the middle of something!"

She grabs a pair of pants and a t-shirt she thinks is Klaus's, and stops for a moment to lean over him and kiss him on the cheek, her lips pressing on the corner of his mouth. "I'm sorry, baby. We can talk later tonight at the ball, yeah?"

She heads for the door, laughing at the calls of her name that follow her down the stairs.

Rebekah looks at her with an affronted glare and takes in her disarrayed state, heaving a sigh. "Was I interrupting something?"

"Actually, yes,"

Rebekah shoves her, irritation in her eyes alongside fondness. "Go get dressed, you harlot. We have a ball to get ready for!"

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Salem hums, examining her freshly painted nails that shine red underneath the lights above her and Rebekah.

"Rebekah, tell me how handsome I am,"

She raises her bright eyes, narrowing them at Kol's smug stance in front of the mirror as the tailor adjusts his suit.

"Oh, Kol, you know I can't be compelled,"

The hybrid huffs a laugh and Rebekah rolls her eyes at her brother's antics. The somewhat calm atmosphere is broken when Klaus bursts into the room, a glare on his face as he sets his sights on his sister.

"You went after Elena? What is wrong with you?!"

"Oh, here we go,"

Salem sits up, sending an apologetic look to the woman painting her toenails. "I left you unattended for an hour to get my dress, Rebekah, how did you manage to go after Elena?"

Rebekah looks at her and Klaus in horror. "Dear God, you're worse than our parents,"

Klaus ignores her comment, fixating his glare on her indifferent stature. "Do you want another dagger in your heart?"

"Again with the dagger threats?" Kol huffs at his brother, giving him a look over his shoulder. "Don't you have any other tricks?"

Klaus rolls his eyes. "Oh, go back to staring at yourself,"

Kol smirks widely. "I wasn't only staring at myself, how could I when the lovely Salem is in my reflection?"

Salem sighs, not looking up from her magazine. "Not gonna happen, Kol,"

Kol continues on with Klaus, unperturbed by her retort. "And who are you, my father?"

"No, Kol, but you're in my house,"

"Then perhaps we should go outside," Kol stares his brother down unwaveringly, cocky stance widening when he sees Klaus's barely restrained anger.

"Enough!" Esther's voice startles Salem and she jolts in her massage chair, narrowing her eyes at the matriarch of the Mikaelson family. "Niklaus, come."

Salem watches as the Original hybrid follows after his mother, leaving a smug Kol and an indifferent Rebekah.

Finn, the eldest, stands near the corner of the room adjusting his cufflinks for his suit and Elijah's seated on the loveseat, leg resting neatly on his knee while he flicks through a magazine Rebekah had thrown at him with a demand to be quiet.

Though the tension between the siblings was obvious, it was interesting for Salem to see what any sort of resemblance of family looked like. She never had any sense of that, what with her mother ripping her away from the only family she had and never telling her anything about them.

The Mikaelsons certainly weren't the healthiest of examples, but she'd take what she could get.

She could sit and curse her mother for how she turned out for hours on end, but instead she chose to use her experience wisely and observe the behavior she already had an idea of from Klaus's explanations of their family– specifically, Esther's behavior.

Salem's mother was never as assertive or cold as Esther seemed, but in that same sense, she was strict. Her mother sat and watched Salem grow distant, knowing she could just give her the answers she needed and everything would be fine, and Esther had done the same with Klaus and Mikael.

It wasn't hard to see the woman was practically a walking nightmare, but she also understood that there would be no reasoning with Klaus until his mother made a mess of something that caused him to see she hadn't changed.

No matter her general distrust, there was something about the woman's apparent forgive and forget attitude that set her on edge.

"Are you excited for tonight, Salem?"

Rebekah's voice breaks her from her revelry and she drags her eyes from the spot on the floor they'd zoned out on, a small smile on her face. "Yeah, it should be fun,"

Rebekah huffs a laugh, rolling her eyes presumptuously. "With the entire gaggle of idiots in attendance? Fun isn't the word I'd use."

The woman at Salem's feet dismisses herself easily when she's done and the hybrid stands, gathering her cellphone and her water bottle. "You could always go for a different approach instead of taking out Elena. Dismantle them from the inside out and they'll end up tearing themselves apart."

Salem's words draw the three sets of eyes waiting in the wings, and she straightens her spine at the sudden heat of their gazes.

Rebekah raises an eyebrow, though, her curiosity piqued. "How so?"

"Think of it like a pack of wolves. You'd think to go straight for the leader of the pack, but all that would do is make the rest of the pack hate you. Their loyalties would stay with their leader, right? Well, you just need to make them question that loyalty. Go for the second in command, the one who's just shy of having everything."

Salem huffs a laugh and shrugs a shoulder at Rebekah. "If you plant a seed of doubt, they'll do all the real work for you."

Rebekah's eyes widen with every word and she smirks widely at Salem, making the woman mirror the look. "You're far more diabolical than I took you for, Salem,"

Salem shakes her head, pushing her hair behind her ears as she grabs her shoes and begins to walk out of the room.

"What about you?"

She stops at the sound of Kol's voice, and gives him a confused look over her shoulder. "What about me?"

"Niklaus was the first of his kind, in any pack he'd be the leader. He's horribly dominant." Kol smirks at her, searching her face for something she can't seem to place her finger on. "Why did you go for the alpha?"

Salem huffs a laugh, amusement shining in her eyes as her lips part in a hungry grin. "Oh, no. I'm the alpha, Kol."

She shuts the door behind her with a punctuated slam, and Kol looks away from where she stood, meeting Elijah's wide-eyed stare with one of his own.

Rebekah laughs at the awestricken looks on her brother's faces, shaking her head in wonder at the woman that was Salem Kenner.

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author's note; this chapter is SO short compared to the others but i wanted the ball to have it's Moment :))

edited and published; 5.10.23.

- liz