Chapter Text
The first time Rebekah notices something is wrong with Klaus, (or at least, more wrong than normal), he's in a fight. A fight against the people who typically care about him, if he hadn't been even more of an asshole than usual lately. Rebekah and Marcel watch as Klaus rips through his forces, and it gets to the point where Rebekah is concerned Marcel is next. Before she can tell Marcel to pick up the coin and pledge his loyalty however, Klaus starts to cough.
Vampires didn't get coughs.
He's still coughing even as he rips a vampire's head off, until he bends over in pain. Rebekah almost starts forward, concerned despite herself, when the cause of Klaus's cough reveals itself. He coughs up a flower, stares at it for a few moments, even as Marcel's lackeys bludgeon him, before whirling into action, decapitating half the remaining vampires.
"What the hell's wrong with you, Nik?" Rebekah asks, shocked.
Klaus wipes some blood off his face. "None of your bloody business, Bekah. Now pick up the coin, Marcel," he says, advancing on them slowly. "I'd prefer not to kill you, but I will."
Marcel bends down and picks up the coin. "Will you tell us what's wrong now?"
"You two just tried to chain and desiccate me, you both can rot in hell," Klaus spits out, even as he starts to cough into his sleeve again. A yellow rose, complete with thorns, comes up and he stares at it again, before shaking his head. "I expect to be ruling my city by tomorrow morning, Marcel. And Rebekah," he pauses on his way out the door, "don't bother coming home." He starts coughing again before he whooshes away.
Hayley and Elijah had noticed sooner. When Hayley was kidnapped and Tyler revealed the baby's ability to sire hybrids, Elijah and Hayley had immediately suspected Klaus of having bad intentions toward his child. So he bit Elijah in retaliation, and immediately started coughing, eventually resulting in a pile of bloody sunflowers littering the ground. “Flowers, Niklaus? What have you done this time?” Elijah sighed, inspecting his bite. The hallucinations would set in soon.
“I didn’t do anything, just like I’m not going to use the baby as a blood bag, not that either of you believe me,” he growled out before speeding off.
When he threatens Tyler in the woods, Klaus is about to rip his impertinent head off before he coughs, resulting in a pile of yellow lilies. Rather than be confused, Tyler smirks. “Worth every cent I paid that witch.”
“What did you do?” Klaus growls out before he’s taken over by hacking coughs again.
Tyler circles him, gloating. “I was trying to find a way to kill you. The witch I found instead promised something that would make you wish for death. Personally, I think the witch is into some freaky online shit, but she’s engineered a few spells inspired by her reading.”
“Get to the point.” Klaus says between coughs.
“Ever heard of Hanahaki disease?” Tyler smirks. “I hadn’t, but apparently it’s the witch’s favorite trope. She managed to make a curse that mimics it.” Tyler bends down to look Klaus in the face. “The cure is something that’ll never happen. The person you love actually returning your love. Every time you think: ‘Caroline would love this’ or ‘Caroline would never approve of this’, you’ll feel the effects. I’m assuming it’s Caroline, but who knows with you. I’ve been promised you’ll be coughing up flowers for the rest of your eternity. Have fun explaining that one,” Tyler sneers before flashing away, Klaus unable to follow him due to his hacking coughs. By the time he has his breathing under control, he’s surrounded by yellow flowers, all splattered with blood.
Klaus’s symptoms seem to abate the more he behaves himself, which often causes him to lash out more, until Hope is born. Hope makes playing nice with his family worth it. He’s gotten better at hiding the symptoms too, few people know he still coughs up flowers on occasion. Elijah knows, Hayley probably does as well, though he’s confident it’s a secret to everyone else. The witches he tried to threaten into curing him couldn’t help without the source spell, and he hasn’t had time to track down Tyler’s witch.
Kol laughs at him, the moment he finds out, and Klaus needs to remind himself he can’t strangle his brother when Kol is inhabiting a fragile witch’s body. “Kol,” Klaus grinds out through gritted teeth, “Can you fix it or not?”
Kol laughs heartily and Klaus moves to backhand his brother, only to start coughing. Kol only laughs harder at that, scarcely able to breath when Klaus finally hacks up a yellow sunflower. “Not without the source spell, no. I’d never even heard of this. But, I’ll make you a deal,” Kol says, once he’s calmed down a smidge, “if you find the spell, I’ll reverse it, so long as I get to keep the spell.”
“Why?” Klaus growls out.
“For mischief, obviously,” Kol says, rolling his eyes. “I’m thinking of dosing Hayley so dearest ‘Lijah has to finally admit he loves her.” He suddenly turns thoughtful. “Though you know, there is an alternative solution. The witch wrote a cure right into the spell.”
“No.” Klaus snaps at his brother, whooshing out of the room.
“Davina!” Kol exclaims happily when she comes back into the room. “How do you feel about causing my brother pain?”
She cocks an eyebrow at him. “It’s my one goal in life. Why? What’s your plan?”
“Hmm, well, there’s a chance he’ll be better off in the long run if we do this, but we’ll get to watch him squirm for ages. No way he makes the necessary moves to cure himself.”
“He’s cursed?” Davina asks eagerly, leaning into Kol’s personal space.
“Oh, in more ways than one,” he replies wickedly, “we should bring the cure here. He’s incapable of taking it.”