The bonds of family

14

Arkyn had come back an hour later, and walked to his siblings.
"So what did Finn say?"
"Finally." Rebekah said. "I expected you half an hour ago."
"Have you tried talking Lex out of something she really wants to do?"
"Oh, please. Alexis listens to you. All you have to say is no and she won't."
"Not when it's something she's passionate about like going to visit Kol, of whom she grew very fond before his death."
"She spent two days in his presence." Klaus scoffed.
"He spent a couple months with us, actually, after Denver."
"So that's where he went."
"I believe it's time for a story. What's this about Esther having a sister?"
"A thousand years ago, she had an older sister- a witch, like her. Our mother had stopped practicing for a time when she fell in love with Mikael. They got married, but months later and she still wasn't pregnant, so she went to her sister for help. Desperate for a child Esther made a deal with Dahlia. Dahlia would grant her wish for a price. A curse on all firstborns, it seemed. The first child in every Mikaelson line was promised to her."
"A curse on the firstborn? What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?" Rebekah asked, continuing to gather wood.
"Well, according to Finn, our sister Freya didn't die of plague. She was taken as payment by our aunt Dahlia, who then cursed all Mikaelson first-borns for eternity."
"Is any of this true?" Hayley asked.
"It is if we are to believe Finn, who learned it from the bastion of truth." Elijah said. "Our mother."
"Well, no wonder Finn hates us. He lost the sister he adored, and instead got a judgy pack of siblings who found him unbearably dull."
"Great." Hayley said, sarcastically. "So, is there any chance of us running into your loony aunt Dahlia any time soon?"
"The fable's over a thousand years old. Dahlia is long dead."
"...Like Esther?"
"No one's going to hurt Hope, because no one's going to find her." He looked at Rebekah, annoyed. "There's enough wood, Rebekah. You'll burn down the whole bloody state of Arkansas." Rebekah walked back to where her siblings were standing, excitedly.
"Well, we're just missing a key ingredient!"
"No, we're not." Klaus said.
"Yes, we are, Nik! Back me up Ark, Elijah!"
"You're on your own." Ark sighed.
"I suspect Niklaus would rather choke on the ashes."
"What are you all talking about?" Hayley looked between the siblings.
"Well, before we light it, we write down our wishes for each other to burn for luck! It was Kol's favorite part, your favourite part." She turned to Arkyn. "When we were kids."
"It's further evidence as to why we should ignore it!"
"Hope's first bonfire season. I like it! We're doing it!" Hayley rushed inside for paper. Rebekah, pleased, turned to her brothers and smiled smugly.
"Yeah, no. I'm out." Ark shook his head. "But you guys have fun." He walked back in to the house. He headed up to find a room, passing the study where Hayley awkwardly searched for paper.
"Try the second drawer on the right." He said and she did, opening it to find an empty journal.
"Thanks." She said.
"Three centuries, and Elijah's still the same. He always kept an empty journal in his desk, and always in the same spot."
"I'll keep that in mind." She smiled. He nodded and turned to walk away. "How comes I haven't heard about you?"
"I never really got along with most of my siblings."
"But Klaus trusts you."
"I've refrained from attempting to kill him for a thousand years. I guess he knows if I won't kill him, there's no way I'd bring his daughter into our drama."
"I'm sorry... that no one told you Kol was back." She said.
"Thanks."
"Rebekah said you have kids of your own."
"They're not biologically mine. Unlike Klaus, it really is impossible for the rest of us. But I was friends with their mother and she was a single mom ever since they were young. I've been around, and watched them grow, helped raise them, and when their mother died, they stayed with me until they went off to college. They don't call me dad or anything, well Lex does sometimes to joke around, but I've always been around and they're my children in all but blood."
"Oh." She was silent. "So you spent, like, three centuries away from your siblings, right?"
"Yeah, up until Mystic Falls, I guess."
"Right. But why so long? I mean, Rebekah and Elijah and Klaus always seem to find their way back to each other."
"Yes, well, I'm not them. And I wanted a life of my own, so I left and managed to keep from getting sucked into family drama."
"But for so long?"
"Well, the last time I saw them, I'd lost the love of my life at the hands of Mikael. So we parted ways, and I chose that a life just away from anything that might remind me of her."
"Didn't you miss them?"
"We had our issues, and it made it easier not to look back." He said. His phone chimed and he frowned. "Oh, god." He turned to leave.
"What is it?"
"I have to go." He said walking away, dialling Alexis's number.
"Hey, Ark. I can't really talk right now- I've got class in, like, five seconds and-"
"Alexis!"
"You know, you sound kind of mad. So... I'm going to call you back right after this lecture."
"Tell me you are not getting on a flight to New Orleans right now."
"Okay. I'm not getting on a flight right now."
"Why don't I believe you?"
"Probably because I'm lying."
"Get off that plane and go straight back to campus."
"No way. I'm going to see him."
"Alexis, New Orleans is a war zone right now. With my mother and my father, both of them up to no good. And Finn on mother's side and Kol possibly on her side too."
"Yeah well, you taught me not to run scared of anything, so if you think about it, this is your fault. You taught me not to be a coward and to follow my heart and right now, my heart is telling me to go visit Kol."
"I know you care about him. I do too. But Alexis, there's running scared and then there's running into a burning building. New Orleans is a battleground, and need I remind you the last time you crossed paths with my mother, you almost died?"
"I fainted. I didn't almost die."
"If Kol hadn't fed you his blood-"
"Yeah, if Kol hadn't fed me his blood, I would've been worse off. He saved me, and he's family, Ark."
"Give me some time to come up with another plan? I will bring Kol to you if that's what it takes, just stay away."
"He died once already, Ark. I have to see him. Plus it's a little late. I have to get off the phone now. I'm sorry." She hung up.