little mikaelson ⚜️ the originals

9

And as promised, Klaus waltzed right through the door the next morning, Rebekah right behind him, both wanting nothing more than their little Darla to hold.

"Brother!" Klaus called with a smile. "I have arrived!"

"I can see that," Elijah smiled, walking down the stairs with Darla in his arms. "And so can she."

And Klaus wasted no time going to his daughter and scooping her out of her uncle's arms. He smiled and held her to his chest, finally feeling at ease knowing that she was safe in his arms again. It made the other two Mikaelsons silently wonder what things would be like when she was older and became less dependant on her doting, over protective father.

"Hello, little one," he smiled, looking into her big brown eyes. "Still as beautiful as ever, I see."

Darla giggled and placed a chubby hand on his face, causing his grin to widen.

"I missed you too, darling."

And then Darla did something that surprised everyone in the room. She spoke.

"Da!" She squealed, causing the Mikaelson siblings to freeze. "Da!"

"Y-Yeah," Klaus said after a while. "Yeah... That's me."

The remaining siblings froze in shock, both having tears brought to their eyes. They never thought they would see the day in which they all felt content and happy in the presence of each other, let alone listen to the sound of their own brother ― the monster ― have his little girl say her first word.

"Well," Elijah spoke, being the first to break the silence. "This is a huge milestone!"

"Well of course it is, brother!" Rebekah said, following in suit, happy tears in her blue eyes. "She's just uttered her first proper syllable!"

"This isn't just a syllable, Bekah, she said―"

"My name..." Klaus interrupted, staring down at his daughter intensely. "She spoke my name."

Then the silence ensued once again. It was a silence filled with happiness, love, and nervousness. They weren't nervous about her talking, although Elijah had decided that he was going to relish in the moments of silence before she became fluent with it, the feelings of anxiety were caused by thoughts of what was to come.

Their little baby was growing up. It was not a little something that they had concocted up for the fun of thinking about the topic, but a fact that they didn't want to ever have to face. It seemed as if just yesterday Niklaus had brought her home in nothing but a thin sheet to keep her tiny body warm. Now, six months or so later, she was saying her first word. It literally passed within what felt like a blink.

It then dawned upon the vampires that that was all six months was. A blink of time that was practically nothing. They had been alive for over a thousand years and would live for thousands more. Time meant nothing.

But now it did. They had all simultaneously decided that they had no interest in Darla becoming a vampire ― they didn't want her damned to the life they hated, no matter how much they loved her. But that also meant that she was going to grow. She would age, she would grow old, hopefully live a good life, and then she would die. That's how the lives of humans worked. Their lives are so fragile in their own, the littlest thing having the potential to end it within seconds.

But it was a problem because once she was gone, they would never see her again. She was just an ordinary little girl. She had no werewolf, witch, traveler, doppelgänger, vampire, or any other supernatural creature in her. When she is dead, there is nothing that they can do to bring her back without some massive repercussions. They wanted their Darla to find peace and that was what they would die giving her. The only down part was that her days were already numbered.

Most parents and family members view their young as invincible, an endless number of days ahead of them. That wasn't the Mikaelsons.

Darla's very own father was counting down the days until her death. Her aunt was wondering about what lie Darla would have to tell about them when she passed their age in looks. And her uncle was wondering about the possibilities of having some tragic scenario happening where in which she ends up perishing even sooner than planned.

And this was all caused by a six month old saying her first word.

"I-I think she needs to be changed," Klaus said in a hushed tone, even though he knew that his siblings knew he was lying. "I'll be back."

But they all knew that he wasn't going to come back down to socialize with the remaining Mikaelsons. He was going to go back up the stairs, go into his room, and lay with Darla. Like he always did when he thought about her future.

"Is it bad that I want you to stay this way forever?" He asked quietly once they arrived in the sanctity of his room. "I know it's a bit ironic, seeing as your 'da' is over a thousand years old and can't die, but it's true. I want you to remain this way forever."

"Da!" Darla screeched in return, smiling and making little gurgling sounds. "Da!"

"You're so pure, my littlest Darla," he said after a while of smiling. "How did I end up so lucky, hm? Could you explain that to me?"

But as he suspected, he got more baby sounds out of her. He laughed as she grabbed fistfulls of his Henley, laying on his chest like she always did when they napped together.

"You're always going to be daddy's princess, no matter how old you are. That is a promise, my little one."

"Da!"

n// god bless the henley