The Originals One-Shots

Esther Mikaelson #3 (Sequel to #s 1 and 2)

  It's been a few months since that first date you and Esther had. You've been out together several more times since then. The two of you have actually had a lot of fun together. It's made things a little weird between you and Finn, though, since you were already friends when you met Esther. You've met her other children a few times, and besides her son Elijah engaging you in interesting conversations, the others don't seem to really care that you've been hanging around. They've acted pretty indifferent, in fact. It seems like Finn is the only one that's particularly close with his mother.

 As much as you enjoy spending time with her, there begin to be more and more times when you don't see her. She seems to disappear often, and none of her children have any idea where. Eventually, you feel like you should ask her about it. You trust her, but you've actually begun to wonder if she could be cheating on you. You haven't talked about being an exclusive couple, but it still hurt if she was.

~~~~~~

 The two of you are walking in the woods together. During the day, of course, because you're a little nervous about what exactly appears in the woods around Mystic Falls at night.

 "So...how are you?" you ask.

 "All right, I suppose," Esther answers. "What about you?"

 "I'm good. Um, Esther, I...started to notice that you seem to go AWOL a lot."

 "AWOL?" she repeats.

 "I mean you disappear a lot. There are times when Finn doesn't even know where you are. So, I just wanted to be sure that nothing's wrong."

 "Oh, that." She looks away. "Well, I know I've never talked about it before, but I have always had difficulty adjusting to being a vampire. When I first performed the spell, I didn't really know what I was getting us all into. My children-well, all of them except Finn-enjoy vampirism. I don't. I go off on my own sometimes, just to think."

 "Oh," is all you can think of to say. All the times you have seen her, she always seems happy. You had no idea she's been going through any emotional problems. "Have you talked to anyone about this?"

 "Not until now." She sighs. "I'm sorry. I must seem rather depressing."

 "No, don't be," you say quickly. "If you ever need someone to talk to about this, you can talk to me. I'm not going anywhere, Esther." 

 She stares at you for a long moment, and you're not sure what she's thinking. Then she wraps her arms around you and hugs you.

 "Thank you, Y/N," she says. "And if you ever want to talk, you can always come to me." She takes you by the hand. "Come on, let's get out of these woods. We can go into town and find something to do."

 "You sure you're up for it?"

 "Yes, if you'll be there, I will be."