little mikaelson ⚜️ the originals

22

"Why does Rebekah refer to you as her little moon?" Klaus asked as he sat on the edge of Darla's bed.

The festivities had died down and after many hugs and tears from her reunited family, and Darla decided that it was finally time that she go to bed. But Klaus would be damned if he just let her go off without a proper goodnight. But then that proper goodnight turned into getting to know one another, and that turned into rapid fire questions.

"That?" Darla asked, chuckling lightly. "It's nothing. An embarrassing little nickname, really."

"Tell me," Klaus urged with a smile, nudging her slightly as she felt her cheeks heat up. "Now you've really gotten my interest."

Darla groaned, tossing her head back in embarrassment, as every sixteen year old did when their estranged father asks about a nickname that humiliated the crap out of them.

"You're going to find it pathetic."

"Nonsense."

Sighing, Darla shook her head, knowing that there was no way out of what they were doing.

"Okay," She began with a shy smile. "I was around five or six years old, growing into that stage where I began to notice things. How I was different than the other kids, you know? That age where you're suddenly aware of your own existence. Which, growing up in a small town in remote Arkansas, meant that I was having an existential crisis in the first grade."

Klaus listened intently, staring at his daughter as she ran her fingertips over her small chess piece lightly, not making eye contact anymore.

"Basically I was the opposite of everyone in that whole town. Everyone there had this... cookie cutter life, you know? Small house, two biological parents, an older brother or sister, and a cherished family pet. Not to mention the fact that they're all human. Whereas I was the adopted girl from out of town who lived with her Original Vampire aunt in a three story mansion secluded from the rest of the town because we couldn't risk anyone finding out about us. This came to be when we had to do a project on our families, and when every word that came out of my mouth was a lie. And I knew it. I told the class that I was Darla Smith, who lived with my widow mom in the mansion that was left for us in my grandpa's will. I told them that I was born here right after my "firefighter dad" died saving some kitten's life or something like that. But I knew the truth. I knew that I was Darla Mikaelson, born in New Orleans, and my dad wasn't a firefighter. I knew all of this, as I never let myself forget. But I still wondered why my life wasn't like Samantha Burke's. More importantly, why I didn't have a dad. When I asked auntie Bex, she just told me that he couldn't be with me because he was watching over me, always there and protecting me from all the bad things in life. So in my first grader mindset, that translated to the moon. Anyways, I'm rambling. Long story short, I thought my dad was the moon, and that I was a moon princess and that is how I got my mortifying nickname."

Klaus was silent, now feeling the overwhelming guilt of abandoning his daughter just before her life even began, all due to his selfish desires to rule the city.

"But, if it's any consolation to you, it turns out that Samantha Burke's parents are raging alcoholics, and she is on her way to becoming a drug lord, so my life isn't too bad." She offered up with a small grin, noticing her father's sudden melancholy. "And I wouldn't trade it for anything."

"What better life might have awaited you were another man your father?" He found himself asking, glancing at her briefly before staring back down at his intertwined fingers. "All those who have loved me have lived to regret it... But I promised you something, when you were a baby, and nothing will bring me to break that promise. That I will do right by you."

Darla smiled slightly, feeling a sense of pride for her father. He had done everything over the span of her life for her and to ensure her safety in a world full of instability. He had sacrificed his own happiness and relationship with his own daughter for her, and in Darla's eyes, that was the greatest example of someone doing right by her that she'd ever seen.

"If it weren't for you finding me in that dark alley that night I wouldn't have a life to do wrong by." She said simply, with a little chuckle. "In fact, you have never done me wrong. Not once, in all of my sixteen years. Granted, you weren't there for about fifteen of them, but still, you were doing it for me. And that's all a dad is supposed to be. Someone who puts their children before themselves. That's also what makes you the best father I could ever hope for."

Klaus looked at his daughter, taking in her words. It was hard for him to believe that the little girl he found in that alley was sixteen years old, and the most beautiful and wonderful thing to ever come into his life. She had only been back a day and she had already had him wrapped around her finger, just as she did the day she was brought home.

"Thank you," He said quietly. "But it's been a long day, and you need rest."

"But I just got you back―"

"I'll be here when you wake, I promise." He chuckled, pushing her shoulders lightly so that she was now laying down. "I love you, my little Darla. Happy birthday."

Darla smiled softly as her father pulled up the covers a bit and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"I love you too, dad."