A/N 1.0: so I had this grand idea to write this beautiful Klelijah montage after the "Because I failed you" scene and...well the idea seemed cool at the time and I really have no idea what this is/why I'm posting but oh well. so enjoy, I guess.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Originals. or the Vampire Diaries for that matter.

"As will I," he agrees, slowly walking up to his younger siblings and tentatively taking his brother's hand as they all stand in the destruction of a place they'd called home. There's so much to mourn, so much to apologize for, so much to forgive but somehow, those three words are the only ones he can make fall from his lips.

He finds it doesn't matter when Niklaus grips his hand.

"I'm here, Niklaus." he promises. "I'm here."

He utters this promise as he cradles his weak and weary brother in the interim between his fits.

They tumble from his lips like a prayer as he sits against the wall outside of his brother's room and listens to Niklaus' agonized screams and tortured yells with a tear of his own sliding down his cheek.

He says them even as he begs his brother to forsake his humanity if it means these visions that plague him won't cause him anymore pain.

And he says them as the stake his brother has pointed at their sister falls from his grip, clattering as it hits the floor and he takes his first shuddery breath as the mental fog he's suffered under for the past fifty-two years lifts.

"Family above all," he says, their glasses clinking together.

He returns his brother's wide smile with a small smirk.

Elijah knows what is said about the best laid plans of mice and men so why he ever thought this plan would go smoothly is beyond him.

He ventures to guess that if their mother hadn't shown up, he wouldn't have felt guilty as they banded together against Niklaus, vowing an 'always and forever' of their own as the hybrid watched on the sidelines.

His brother leaves the room in a rush once their mother's had her say and Elijah follows. He finds Niklaus off by his lonesome, licking his wounds and bandaging his pride in silence.

Unsure of what to say, he places a gentle hand on his brother's shoulder only to have it thrown off.

He meets the hybrid's glare to find so much more than anger in his vibrant and expressive orbs.

It's not the first time he's betrayed a promise or gone against Niklaus out of spite but in the wake of the hybrid's emotional confession- a long and drawn out conversation that took place in this very room- about their mother, Elijah can't help but feel ashamed.

Whether it's for himself or the wayward man he calls brother, he doesn't know.

"I will not let you go. I will never let go," he insists, tightening his grip on the hybrid, tugging his brother back against his body with a forceful jerk as if to prove his point.

Just as he's come to doubt his brother over the years, Niklaus has come to do the same with Elijah's promises- words that had once come from a sincere place of love and loyalty.

And whether it makes him a sentimental fool or not, Elijah wants his promises to come from that place once again, he wants his brother to have that undying faith in him as he once did.

Niklaus laughs, callous and unfeeling but he expected nothing less.

Not this time.

He won't fail him again.

A/N 2.0: write/ship klelijah they said. it'll be fun they said.

psht. yeah right. more like a shit show of feels.

anyways, sorry for wasting your time with this. I have a couple other things in the works (including an epilogue to a certain fic that took 30K words to get to the point) but writer's block and school really suck so idek when I'll get anything else out. just thought you all should know.

thanks for reading, I appreciate it!