𝙰𝙽𝙶𝙴𝙻𝚂 & 𝙳𝙴𝙼𝙾𝙽𝚂 | 𝙺𝚘𝚕 𝙼𝚒𝚔𝚊𝚎𝚕𝚜𝚘𝚗

→ ｆｏｕｒ

Angel didn't see Elijah the following few days.

She was slightly confused, as he had seemed rather interested in catching up with Klaus and curious about her. Instead of pondering about it for too long, Angel simply shrugged it off and went back to her normal routine. 

Every morning, she arose to the sound of Klaus banging on her bedroom door as he yelled for her to get up. Angel often found herself rolling out of bed quite ungracefully as she fell to the floor in a wild heap of sheets and limbs. When she finally dressed herself and headed downstairs for breakfast, she would pass by Elijah's door which remained as shut tight as the day he was undaggered.

Angel would force herself to ignore it as she pushed her feet to carry her down to the dining room, where Klaus would be waiting for her with his usual annoyed look. She would never apologize, something she had learned from Klaus, as she sat down beside him with a teasing grin that would only annoy him further. During his routine lecture on being late, she would eat her breakfast as she tuned him out. When he finally realized she wasn't listening, Klaus would lean back in his chair in a mixture of disbelief and humor, realizing Angel was more like him than he realized. 

He would ease up on her, only for a few hours, but it was enough for Angel as they made their way to the study for Angel's first lessons of the day. They would start off with her favorite as Klaus pulled out a map of the entire world for Angel to admire. She would point at any country that caught her eye, marking it the topic of discussion for that day. 

Often, she would find herself pointing at Spain no matter how many times she had learned about it before. Klaus never understood Angel's fascination with the particular country but he always complied and taught her everything there was to know about Spain. She memorized their language, literature, the food and everything there was to know about their culture. Her dream was to one day visit Spain. That is, if Klaus ever let her.

In exchange for their morning lessons, Klaus would force Angel to learn math and science no matter how much she protested. Compared to learning about the world, it seemed like dull and useless subjects to learn. Angel's distractions only served to let the lesson dragged on longer than necessary. 

By the time the lesson was over, it would be time for lunch. Angel made her way down to the dining room where Klaus had compelled his little minions, at least that's what she liked to call them, to set up lunch for the two. That week, however, she noticed a third plate at the table that had already been eaten by the time they arrived. Angel wondered if it was the first time Elijah had left his room or if he had been sneaking out since the very beginning.

After lunch, Angel would be forced into one more lesson before she was free for the day. Klaus insisted she learn as many languages that she possibly could and they were already on her ninth one. Currently, Klaus was trying to teach Angel how to speak Aramaic. Angel personally thought it was a ridiculous language to learn but she hadn't said anything. She had gotten to choose most of the languages she had wanted to, such as Spanish and French, and it was her father's time to choose.

When the lesson was finally over, she was freed from her lessons and free to do whatever she pleased. More often than not, she found herself outside in the garden they kept in the back. It overflowed with flowers of all colors and trees that protected her from the harsh sun rays. 

The garden was the one place she found herself in complete peace as she pondered over everything. Despite their discussion the other day, Klaus still hadn't undaggered any of his other siblings. Angel found herself slightly disappointed as she had been looking forward to meeting the rest of his siblings but she assumed Klaus was waiting for Elijah to come around first before having to deal with them. It made sense in Angel's mind but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"You like to travel," Elijah appeared next to Angel as she pulled away from the flower. She didn't appear startled by his sudden arrival as her heart kept its steady beat. Elijah remained puzzled by the younger girl, briefly forgetting she had grown up with Klaus and his vampire abilities. 

"I would like to travel," Angel corrected with a soft smile as she turned to face Elijah. It was the first time she had seen him in days and she noticed he appeared much more composed than the previous time they had met. "And you've been eavesdropping."

"I like to think of it as finding the answers to my questions," Elijah replied as he watched the girl pick a flower from a bush before placing it in her hair.

"You could've asked," Angel shrugged as they began walking through the garden. While Angel continued to admire the flowers around her, Elijah's gaze never left her as he tried to discern her. "Are you going to keep staring at me all day?"

"Oh, I-" Elijah seemed at a loss for words for once in their life as they reached the end of the garden where a table with a chessboard on top rested.

"Would you like to play, Elijah?" Angel questioned although she seemed to already know the answer as she sat in one of the chairs. Elijah was relieved at the change of subject as he was unsure how he was going to answer her question.

"It would be my pleasure," Elijah sat across from Angel as she set the chess pieces in their correct positions. "I do warn you though, I have been playing chess for over three hundred years."

"Is that suppose to impress me?" Angel teased the older vampire, who released a small chuckle at the girl's teasing manner. 

Although she shared none of Klaus's physical qualities, which wasn't a surprise considering she wasn't his biological daughter, Elijah recognized his personality in her. It wasn't Klaus's current personality that Elijah saw though. Instead, Elijah could see his brother from three hundred years ago in the young girl and it gave him a sense of hope for Klaus.

"White goes first," Angel pulled the older vampire out of his thoughts as she gestured to the chest board, singling for Elijah to go first. "Let's see how good you really are."

Elijah smiled at the young girl as he reached out and moved the first piece, prompting the girl to raise an amused eyebrow at him. This continued for several turns when Elijah moved every piece, making him wonder what the younger girl was thinking.

"I thought you were supposed to be good at this," Angel muttered as she moved another piece and taking his queen off the board. 

"I am," Elijah replied as he moved his knight across the board so it was next to her king. "Check."

Angel laughed as she moved the king away from him. This went on for several more turns as Angel would alternate between moving her king to avoid losing and moving her pieces to try winning. Eventually, she moved her queen sideways and a smug expression graced her face as she pulled her hand away.

"Checkmate," Angel laughed as Elijah stared at the board in disbelief, his eyes narrowing at her cleverness and quick thinking. He remained speechless for several moments as Angel bathed in her victory. "Rematch?"

"I would like that very much," Elijah agreed, happy that someone was finally challenging him in a game he had dominated since he had three hundred years of practice. "But I warn you, this time I won't go easy on you."

"Really? Neither will I," Angel replied as they reset the chessboard.

From the back doorway to the manor, Klaus watched over the two with a smile as they played their game, laughing and bonding like he had always dreamed they would.