Rebel Just For Kicks: Kol Mikaelson [1]

36: Know Yourself

a/n: The first half of this is bonding time, not an episode. Hope you enjoy

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MJ was making the best of her new situation.

It was hard to complain about being moved into a mansion.

The house wasn't the problem, though. Carol was. Adapting to Carol constantly checking in on her was going to take some time, especially in comparison to Ric's more subtle pseudo-parenting. He made sure she knew his place was a safe space, and he made sure she knew he was looking out for her, but he also respected her boundaries. He never forced her to do anything other than drink magic tea.

Carol?

Well, Carol wasn't doing that.

Carol wanted answers; Carol was missing her son; Carol had rules.

She had it in her head that if MJ wasn't in the house, she was sneaking around playing vampire hunter. Neither she nor Liz were comfortable with that idea, so they wanted proof that MJ was actually going to work, and school, and all her clubs. They wanted pictures of her there.

MJ didn't like feeling watched, she didn't like being displaced, and she didn't like being stressed about Tyler, or Elena, or the whole Klaus sacrifice ordeal.

Despite the size of the property, she felt trapped. The claustrophobia anxiety crept up her throat every night. To stop herself from losing it, MJ would sneak off to one of the more private studies and summon her mum.

She'd lie on a far too soft sofa, listening to her mother hum songs as she fell asleep. When she'd wake up, her mum would've faded back into the necklace, but knowing she'd been there? Still having the pillar of support she'd been leaning on her entire life?

It made the entrapment easier.

Ana had made it crystal clear she'd seen the exchange between MJ and the moonstone witch, and it was also clear that she wasn't happy about any of it. She was dead, and she was worried, and she was being extra vigilant around MJ to make sure the witch didn't find a way to try to kill her again.

Talking to her mum was usually what caused spirits to pop up, so they needed to be careful.

Other than being worried, MJ could tell her mum was feeling pretty down. She'd taken one look at Elijah's Grimoire page, and her face had fallen. Talking MJ through the pronunciation was the closest she'd ever get to teaching her daughter magic in person after her death, and it didn't really count. She couldn't even demonstrate the spell.

After the first three nights, MJ started to get a little more comfortable. She made a video diary for her brother, choosing not to explain the change of scenery, and she'd managed a casual conversation with Carol about her day. One that didn't feel like she was stepping on eggshells to get through.

Then Carol asked to hear her play the violin.

The violin...

MJ was allowed to use the ballroom to practise the piano whenever she wanted, but walking into the space with the violin was different.

She hit an emotional bump she hadn't even realised was there.

Placing it under her chin, tuning it, then experimenting with the bow caused time to slow down. When she actually started playing, it was like her brain fuzzed over. Her body seemed to be on auto-pilot, slowly working its way through a cheery piece written in the seventies, but the second she hit the change in pace (the folk tune doubling the number of notes she needed to cover in a bar) her breathing started to pick up too.