Black Castle 🖤 E. Mikaelson

Chapter Thirty•Five. All Fights & No Tears

Chapter Thirty•Five. Fights & Tears
ELIJAH
{River Of Tears By Alessia Cara}

🖤
Go ahead and wish me well
I'll cry a wishing well
I'll fly before I fail
I'll set sail and drift away
So I won't need you here
Love sinks and hope floats
In a river of tears
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Year One without the Mikaelsons

The twins were born at the beginning of June, even when they were due in July, they were both eight pounds and two ounces and nineteen inches long. They were identical and they were both born female. Elise Olivia Mikaelson was first, then Arielle NiKol Mikaelson was born one minute and twenty-nine seconds later. When Arabella held them for the first time, she cried so much because she couldn't imagine wanting to kill either of them, like her parents wanted to do to her. She loved them so much, the second they were born, and now they were there and crying in her arms, she was way more in love with them than she could ever imagine.
Derek was right by her side through it all as well. It was only a couple of months since they were in New Orleans and since that night, he made sure that he was there for Arabella in every way she needed. She didn't want him to get attached to her because he wasn't the father of her daughters, and he knew not to interfere because he was young, and she didn't want to set that responsibility on his shoulders if he didn't want to be around when they were born. But as soon as her due date approached, he knew that he couldn't just leave. He wanted to be there in every way, and if that meant helping her take care of her babies then that was what he was going to do.
The benefits of being in a relationship with her were fantastic. After she was cleared to go about her normalcy, roughly after eight weeks of healing, Arabella was showing Derek exactly what Elijah was missing. And for a long time, she was enjoying herself.
In the events leading up to her due date, several things had gone on, Scott had become a true alpha, whatever that meant. Stiles had been injured pretty badly on several occasions, a kitsune had come to Beacon Hills after Scott had lost his then ex-girlfriend to some supernatural beings. Then there was a phoenix or something of the sort that worked for the police department. Lydia was a banshee and found herself being locked up in a psych ward for some time. Arabella tried to stay out of the way for as long as she possibly could, but even she couldn't resist fighting off anything that stood against them.
Her due date was around the corner and although she was due in the middle of July, her doctor did warn her that she would most likely deliver way before that because she was carrying more than one child. It was uncommon but not impossible if someone made it to their due date.
  Derek thought they were together, and they were together. Just, neither of them put a label on their relationship, and if someone asked, they would say they were a couple. Arabella was happy for the most part, and half of the time she was guilty of her relations with Derek because often she thought about Elijah. That would be what caused Derek to leave.
They often walked together while holding hands, Derek opened doors for her, kissed her forehead, and hugged her when she felt overwhelmed, he even helped pick out everything the girls would need before they were born. He was involved, and he was more than ready to step up and help Arabella raise them if he felt like she wanted him to.
She couldn't ask that of him, but he was there when her water broke, he was there holding her hand when she needed support before she started pushing. He was also there to hold Arielle while Arabella held Elise. Giving them both the same amount of attention, equally.

      ...It wasn't until the twins were four months old that he decided that he couldn't handle being a father figure for the girls. Arabella was broken by his leaving, and although she knew that it was bound to happen at some point, she tried to think about it. So the crying only lasted about two months, he moved on to someone who didn't have children and that was okay.
She could never hate him, he showed her nothing but respect and he treated her like a queen. She was thankful for everything. Derek did love those girls though, but somehow he felt that Arabella was pulling away from him because he could tell that Arabella was always thinking of Elijah. It was the way she would blank out when she looked at the girls, or if she was doing something simple like making their bottles to lay them down for a nap. At night, he would hear her crying, and although he would pull her into him to make her comfortable and feel at ease, he knew why she was crying. And it wasn't because she was overwhelmed, it wasn't because she thought she was doing something wrong, it was because she would think about Elijah and she would think about him so much she pushed herself to start crying. And as much as Derek was falling in love with her, he knew he couldn't compete with a man who had a thousand years with her, and he knew he couldn't compete with someone who wasn't even there.
Vera stayed with her for about a month after Derek left, and she was a big help also.
It was also the first night Vera came to stay when she decided to tell Arabella what was going on back in New Orleans, how she changed for the first time, and how she killed Kingsly, Adhemar, and Saga. How she let Isadora start a new life because of how much she deserves. At first, Arabella stared at her sister as if trying so hard to believe what Vera was telling her was a joke, then when Arabella's eyes glowed a menacing maroon color, Vera matched hers with bright golden yellow ones. Arabella wanted to bounce up and down, obviously overjoyed, but she didn't want to wake the girls up. She wasn't alone, she finally wasn't alone! She wasn't the only Lycanthrope anymore. She engulfed her sister in the tightest hug, and together they cried, Vera didn't know what she did to trigger her curse, but she was glad it happened because she felt better, she was more confident. Her only downfall was that she didn't know how to control herself as Arabella did.
And it was a problem, Vera couldn't control herself, and her drug of choice to kill her hunger wasn't vampire like Arabella's was. Hers were werewolves, and Hayley was convinced that it was Arabella finding her way into New Orleans without being detected and taking out the members of her wolf pack one by one. So eventually Hayley would be at Vera's door trying to knock it down and she didn't know how to fight or defend herself like Arabella had trained so hard to do, and hear that, Arabella wasn't going to leave her sister in the dark. She was going to help her in every way she could. And she was going to start by visiting New Orleans herself and putting Hayley in her place. As long as Vera was okay with staying with the girls for a couple of days. She agreed and when Arabella came back to Beacon Hills then she would begin to train Vera for as long as she needed so that she wouldn't have to be afraid to live in New Orleans where vampires and werewolves alike wanted to kill her. Instead, they would all start to fear her like they feared Arabella. Because what's worse than one lycanthrope? Two.
It took only a day for Arabella to be in New Orleans, in the bayou looking for Hayley. When she did, Hayley already seemed like she was on edge, wondering why Vera was coming out there at all when she wasn't bothering anyone for months. Hayley knew to confront her eventually but she didn't expect to do it so soon or have Vera come to her. She hadn't realized it was Arabella because she didn't estimate when exactly she would have the babies, so she didn't know that Arabella would have gotten her pre-pregnancy body back but either way, she was no longer pregnant.
When Arabella stormed up to what was left of the pathetic wolf pack, Hayley approached her thinking that she was going to pull one over on her just because she thought she was Vera. As soon as Hayley looked like she was going to get in her face, Arabella cocked her hand back, balled it into a fist, and decked her straight in the nose. Hayley stopped immediately and brought her hands up to cover the bloody mess, it took a second but she was sure it was broken and she needed to adjust it before she'd let it heal.
"I hear you were planning to go after my sister." Arabella was casual as she stuck her hand in her pocket.
"She's been killing werewolves." She threw her head back and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. When she was finished she scrunched her face and then looked at Arabella again. "We don't care what she's going through, we don't condone that crap anymore."
"And what were you planning to do, kill her? She'd just come back like I always do." Arabella snapped her hand at her, and it didn't dawn on Hayley until that moment. When she remembered, her chest rose and fell harshly, completely forgetting that if Vera was anything like her sister then she was just as immortal. "I would like to see you try."
"You've become bold since you had those babies." Her head jerked to the side while pursing her lips as she tried to act hard for the members of her pack. The ones who knew who she was were older, for the new members, they knew who she was, they just never saw her in person. Arabella stood tall, prepared for anything if she had to take on Hayley or any of her pack members. She assumed that it wouldn't be hard to do.
"You're stupid if you think that I waited to have them, just to find an opportunity to tear you apart." Her eyes glowed. The others didn't know whether to jump in or stay back but the older members seemed to know to stay out of anything that involved Arabella in any way. They lost so many people going up against her and they weren't looking to lose anymore. The newer members had no idea what they'd be sacrificing if they even thought about it.
Hayley tried to remain calm, and not stoop down to Arabella's level, and though it wasn't Hayley that started it, it was one of the werewolves who came from behind her and tried to lay her hands on her shoulders. Arabella's reflexes were quick when she grabbed the arms of the person behind her and flipped them over her shoulder. Once on their back, she didn't hesitate to shove her hand into the man's chest and rip his heart out. In one quick move, she extended her arm out, away from her, looked Hayley dead in her eyes, and dropped the heart without any regard to the other werewolves coming to attack her. They each saw that as a sign to start a war although they underestimated that Arabella could kill all of them if she wanted to, and she wanted to.