True to his word, Kit returned the next morning. The night hadn't been particularly productive for Klaus in terms of sleep, but the few hours of rest he had managed to get left him in a somewhat calmer headspace than the day before.
He and Clara had stayed up talking after salvaging what they could of their meal preparations and clearing away the rest. Thanksgiving didn't look like it was happening this year, but at least they wouldn't have to worry about cooking any more for a couple days. They needed the energy elsewhere anyway.
There wasn't much to be done about Azalea. As Klaus had explained to Kit, they would have to see what happened in the morning and go from there. If there was no improvement, they'd restart all their efforts from scratch, maybe pull her out of school and her other activities for a little bit while they worked to build her trust again. It worked once; they could only hope it would work twice.
Only after Kit left did Klaus admit his reservations about Clara's ultimatum. If Kit was going to come back to negotiate over breakfast the next day, they needed to have a solid plan - and, while taking Azalea away from him was a powerful gesture, it was riddled with logistical complications that would need to be tackled. Not to mention, now that Kit was out of the room, Klaus could concede that he had a point. Stability may be the best thing for Azalea at the moment, and that was not something they could promise her if they took her away from her home. The other option of convincing Kit to leave still didn't sit right with Klaus, and it probably wouldn't happen without a fight anyway. Removing Kit from the picture just didn't seem possible.
Perhaps a path of less resistance would be ideal in this case.
Perhaps it was time to revisit the idea of taking Kit's security blanket away.
The discussion with Clara the night before had been long and hard, but Klaus knew what he needed to do. Neither of them would particularly like it, but he figured they had both probably known for a while that it would have to happen at some point. They just thought they'd have more time to prepare.
Now at least they were on the same page as they sat down to talk with Kit.
Breakfast was a tense affair. Just as Klaus had predicted, Azalea was in much the same state as she had been the night before. She accepted the scrambled eggs that Clara held to her lips, but she did so mechanically and without acknowledgement. She didn't speak when Klaus woke her up, or when Kit greeted her as Klaus brought her downstairs. She didn't do anything except sit in her chair, eyes unfocused as she chewed and swallowed her breakfast.
The rest of them sat and ate in awkward silence, apart from the occasional one-sided attempts at conversation with Azalea. When they finished, Klaus cleared the dishes, sending a meaningful glance at Clara as he did so. Someone needed to get this conversation started before they all died from the tension in the air.
by 
