princess | kol mikaelson

03 | dangerous liaisons (part I)

"No, he deserved it," Nik placed the lazy corgi on the bed beside him and stood up. "Now, are you ready?"

"I'm hungry," Anastasia said. "So I guess I'll suffer through some conversation if it means I'll get to eat my breakfast."

With that the two made their way downstairs. Automatically, Anastasia positioned herself behind Niklaus. Nearly a century had passed since she was a Grand Duchess of Russia, yet some things remained in her muscle memory. Rebellious or not in her youth, Anastasia knew how to behave when she wished to and ever since she learned how to walk on her own, she knew to always let her father, mother and older siblings enter before her.

Now that action also served the purpose of allowing Nik to protect her should any of his siblings – most likely Kol – decide to attack her. One ability her magic didn't offer her was the inhuman reactions she needed to block a vampire before he sank his fangs into her neck. Especially one fast enough as an Original.

When they entered the kitchen Rebekah, Kol and Elijah stood around the counter, blood bags and glasses with whisky in their hands. All eyes were on Anastasia the second she set her foot in the kitchen; if they had not heard her footsteps the vampires probably smelled her blood.

"Anya, I am happy to see that you are well after last night's – incident," Elijah said. She didn't know if he was referring to his own betrayal or his little brother's anger issues. "Please forgive me for-"

"Betraying Nik?" Anastasia finished for him, narrowing her eyes at the 'noble brother'. For as long as she had known about the Original Family, Elijah was always described as the loyal and good one. She had not expected him to plot with Nik's enemies - and neither had Nik apparently.

One trait shared between Anastasia and Nik was their general distrust in people.

She didn't see the wide smirk Klaus sent his brother, loving how she came to his defence. Hopefully, Elijah would become even more guilty.  Shame crossed Elijah's face for a second before he covered it up. Anastasia had always been skilled at getting people to feel bad about their actions. Something about her innocent blue eyes could make even the coldest heart feel guilt.

"Wonderful, brother, you've found another witch to sit in your lap and give you compliments," Kol said snidely from the counter, glaring at Anastasia. The second she used her magic against him, she got onto his bad side and the amount of people that could anger Kol and live to see the next day were few – in fact, all of them were immortal and related to him.

Rolling his eyes, Nik said, "Ignore him, Nastya. That's what the rest of us do."

"I have not seen you here before," Rebekah looked her up and down with narrowed eyes. "Where did Nik find you?"

"I'm not a stray cat," Anastasia deadpanned, having no issue meeting the blonde's gaze. "He didn't find me."

"Technically, I did find you," Nik pointed out, "under my bed."

"Details," Anastasia said dismissively. That's when a fifth Original entered the kitchen. Finn Mikaelson scanned the room and his cold eyes landed on her.

"Does mother know there is another witch living under her roof, Niklaus?" Finn asked, pretending like she wasn't even there as he addressed his younger brother.

"This was Nastya's house long before it was mother's – or any of yours for that matter," Nik responded, moving to stand in front of her. "She will have to live with it."

With a scoff Finn left them again. "Niklaus, may I suggest you try to not aggravate our brother-"

"You may not," Klaus retorted. His demeanour softened when he turned to Anastasia, "What do you want to have for breakfast?"