More Than Defiance

Coffee, the breakfast of champions and the saving grace of every college student before a big test, but she couldn't say that her beverage of choice was for the latter. After all, she was no longer a worried and tired college student. Now she was a tired and excited intern drinking her preferred breakfast. She had always been addicted to the warm, brown liquid, but coffee shops all around had put a permanent indent in her bank account, like a lover would in her bed, if she had a lover that is.

So there was she at a little place called Heaven, literally, with her new roommate as she waited for her best friend to show up. It had been a year since her last trip to London. The last time she was there she had been in her senior year of college and had decided to spend it abroad there. To say that her parents were more than happy about their daughter's decision would have been the understatement of the century. They were pleased that she enjoyed England so much, but her preferred major and current internship were a completely different matter altogether. Needless to say she was only able to please them so much.

As she waited she sat curled up against the arm of the couch holding her book in one hand and her coffee in the other. Every so often she would take a tentative sip of her drink or flip the page with a bit of struggle due to the fact that both hands were currently preoccupied. It was her fifth time reading the book and she still found new things in it every time. She had seen the movie that accompanied it and made it a point to read the book at least once a year. Thanks to her extensive library, she had more than enough reading material to last her through the next six months.

Thanks to her non-supportive parents she'd had to wait a year before she was able to accept the internship she was promised at the end of her senior year of college. She was more than thankful that her uncle in Italy had been able to pulled a few strings for her and get her the internship she so rightfully deserved. Now after waiting longer than necessary she was able to pursue her dreams, and her parents could shove, so to speak, because it most definitely was not their money that she was currently living off, it was her own and she planned on keeping it that way.

Taking another sip of her coffee she heard the bell above the door 'ding' signaling that someone had just walked in. Glancing up she saw just the girl she had been waiting for. The woman with platinum blonde hair and dark blue eyes glanced around the room searching for her. Still she made no move to indicate where she was. As the woman's blue eyes looked in her direction she saw the brunette sitting there with book and coffee in hand. She almost passed the other girl over, but stopped when the girl sitting down raised a brow as she closed her book and sat her coffee down on the end table next to her. A smile almost broke out on the blonde's face, but was quickly hidden by a look of boredom as she strutted over to the brunette.

"You know, you could have let me know where you were instead of making me look like an idiot," the blonde chastised.

"Now where would the fun be in that, Becks," quipped the brunette as she raised her brow with a smirk taking a sip of her coffee.

The blonde just rolled her eyes as she grabbed hold of the other girl's arm hauling her to her feet. In that moment she was thankful she had set her cup down before she was yanked to her feet.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming," she said as she stood up grabbing her now book marked and closed book, and coffee, before turning to her friend on the other end of the couch. "You coming, Elise?"

The girl in question glanced up from her magazine blinking a few times to register that her friend had just asked her a question. "Oh yes," she said when it finally clicked and stood up with her own coffee tossing the magazine back on the small table between the two couches.

"Right, where are my manners? Rebekah, this is Elise. Elise, this Rebekah," said the brunette as she glanced at both girls. When Elise held out her hand to shake the blonde's the other girl barely even spared it a glance to which Elise withdrew her hand immediately.

"Yes, that's all well and good, but you must meet my boyfriend, Izzy," Rebekah grabbed onto the brunette's arm dragging her to a rounded booth across the café. Izzy glanced back at her friend apologetically before turning back to the booth with three extremely attractive men and Elise following close behind. At the table Rebekah finally let go of her arm before beginning more introductions. "I'm sure you remember Elijah," she stated, which she was right. Izzy had met the older Mikaelson sibling the last time she had been in England at one of their mother's galas. Ever since then it had been a race to see which parents could get the two hitched first.

"Hello, Isolde," he nodded politely up at the younger girl.

"Hello, Elijah," was her reply before Rebekah snapped her fingers signaling that the reunion was to end so that she could continue to the introductions.

"Enough of that and back to what I was say---," she had barely finished her sentence when she looked over at the man sitting in the back of booth who was paying more attention to what was going on outside than what she was saying. "Niklaus," he barely glanced at her for a second before looking out the window again. "Niklaus Mikaelson," she scolded the man who continued to pay her no mind at all.

"What sister? I'm busy."

"Clearly, while you're sitting their day dreaming, I'm trying to introduce you to my best friend. Now would you please pay attention long enough to meet the girl," Rebekah whined.

"Don't whine, Rebekah, it's quite unbecoming of you," drolled the man named, Niklaus, as he rolled his head to look up at his sister to which she glared at him. With a sigh as if it were some kind of burden to be paying attention to anything other than what was going on outside, or lack thereof, he turned his head and attention to the ladies in front of them.

"Now that that's settled, Niklaus this is my best friend, Isolde, and Izzy, that is my oh so charming brother, Niklaus." Rebekah received a glare from the man for her comment, but she paid him no mind as she continued, "And this is my boyfriend, Stephan." The man who the blonde indicated as her boyfriend gave Izzy a small wave to which she returned with a small and a nod. "Now both of you move," ordered Rebekah using her hands to indicate that she wanted both Stephan and Elijah to move over to give the girls some room. Once that was done, Rebekah slid in next to Stephan, while Izzy sat next to her, which left Elise to sit next to Elijah.

Once they had sat down Rebekah immediately zoned in on her friend. "So, what brings you back to good ole London?"

"I got the internship," she nonchalantly stated as she sipped her now warm coffee.

Rebekah seemed taken aback by that. "Your parents finally let you take that internship?"

"Not so much they let me take it. It was more like my uncle finally got fed up with them, pulled a few strings, and here I am." She spoke as if it wasn't a big deal, but in truth it was a big deal. This was a once in a life time opportunity and she couldn't be more excited than she was then.

"Well, that's brilliant. We'll have to celebrate. When's your first day?"

"Tomorrow, I'll be up at about 7 am, ready by 7:30, here by 8, and then on the train by 8:30. It's about a thirty minute ride on the train from here, which puts me at about thirty minutes early." She'd had it all planned out. The day before she had tried out that exact schedule and found it worked for her. If she was going to do this, she going to do it right. There was no way that she was going to screw this up on her first day, or any day for that matter. This was a once in a life time sort of deal and it was the best thing that had ever happened to here. However, before she was able to delve further into that Rebekah spoke up again.

"How many days is it? So I can know when to take you to this fantastic club I know of about twenty minutes from my house."

"Monday to Friday, I'm off on the weekends. So, Friday night would be the best night for me."

"Good," she clapped her hands together. "Now that that's settled, what are the plans for today?" Everyone's attention was drawn back to Rebekah then. While the two friends had been chatting Stephan and Niklaus had talked amongst themselves, as had Elijah and Elise.

"I don't know about you sister, but I was planning on heading back to my apartment and getting some painting done." It was Niklaus who had spoken up.

"But…," Rebekah was stopped before she was able to continue by Elijah speaking up.

"I have some business to attend to across town in a few hours," he said as he took the last sip of his coffee. "So I'll be heading out now." Elise got up to let him out of the booth. With his jacket draped over his arm he took her hand in his as he kissed the knuckles lightly never looking away from her eyes, "It was a pleasure meeting you, Elise; I do hope to see you again." The girl blushed madly at his completely as she squeaked out a 'me too' before he let go of her hand to wave to the others and walk out of the shop. Even after he had left she was still in a bit of daze.

"Elise, love, weren't you going to visit your cousin today?" Izzy stood up to stretch as she asked the girl.

"Oh yes," she said as she snapped out of her daze and turned to the small group. "It was really nice meeting all you. I'll see you at the apartment later tonight, no?" Her French accent became more noticeable the more she spoke.

"Yes, tell Kolby I said hi, okay?" The girl nodded her head in response before she too left the café.

"Why don't we just spend the day together, Beks, just the two of us?" Stephan asked his pouting girlfriend who seemed to slump down in her seat further feeling quite dejected by everyone's sudden departures.

"But I wanted to hang out with my best friend today. Who, mind you, I haven't seen in a year," Rebekah hissed as she glared up at Izzy.

"In person that is," she added to the other girl's statement who just rolled her eyes. "Beks, take today to hang out with your boyfriend and next weekend we'll have a girl's only weekend, okay? I'm sure you can handle one more week without me. I know you love, but you have someone else in your life and I just can't please you the way he can." Rebekah's face went beat red as she smacked her friend's arm playfully. "So, it's a deal, next weekend?"

"Yes, yes, next weekend," she huffed as Stephan placed a kiss on his girlfriend's forehead.

"Well, now that that's settled, I think I'll be leaving," said Klaus as he stood up from the booth. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Isolde." Much like his brother he took her hand in his and kissed the knuckle, but unlike her friend before, she knew how to resist a Mikaelson. "Until next time, love," he said with a wink before heading off as well. The look shared between the couple at the booth had gone unnoticed as the brunette's green eyes were watching as the man walked out. She might be able to resist them, but she was still able to find them attractive, or at least find Niklaus attractive in a delicious way.

Rebekah coughed to get her friend's attention. Snapped out of her own daze she looked over at the blonde, "yes?"

"What are your plans for today?"

"A whole lot of nothing, and probably sleeping, since I am still trying to get used to the time change, again. So I guess I'll leave you two, and I'll see you next Friday, Rebekah." It wasn't a question as she backed away before leaving the small coffee shop as well. Just as she was about to walk out of the door she ran straight into someone. After stepping back she saw that it was none other than the guy she had been openly checking out only moments ago.

"I forgot my…," he was cut short as the black jacket was thrust in his direction from behind him.

"Jacket," it was Rebekah's voice that finished what he was saying from behind Izzy. As he took it she added, "Well, Stephan and I are heading out now." Not waiting for a response the couple left them standing there looking like a couple of idiots.

After an extremely awkward pause it was Izzy who spoke up. "I guess I'll be leaving. It was really nice to finally meet though," she said with small wave as she walked around the man who followed her out.

"Are you heading back to your apartment?" The question came as a bit of a surprise once they were outside as Izzy spun on her heel to look at him.

"Yes," she said a bit warily wondering where this was going.

"Maybe I could possibly walk you back?" It was more of a question, as if he were unsure of himself, which was weird. No one in the Mikaelson clan was unsure of themselves, ever.

"No, that's fine," she said a bit confused.

"Ah, well, I guess I'll see you Friday then." Okay, there was that Mikaelson trademark smirk. For a second there she thought he was actually unsure of himself, weird.

"Yep, see ya then," with that said she turned on her heel and walked off towards her temporary home. Maybe the day would be less weird if she just stayed inside for the rest of it.