10 YEARS LATER
"Love, you do this every time."
"I'm sorry," Veronica sniffed, "I just get so emotional watching her leave, I don't know why. We've done this same routine for years."
"Mom," Hope groaned, her preteen mood swings kicking in, "Please stop crying, it's embarrassing."
Klaus laughed, ruffling the top of Hope's head before giving his wife a kiss on her temple.
"Welcome back, Hope!" A cheerful voice said, walking up to the trio.
Josie Saltzman, one of Caroline's daughters, smiled brightly at Hope as she held her backpack straps in her hand.
"I'm sure Caroline has the same reaction every year, right Josie?"
"Sorry, Auntie Roni, you know my mom stopped crying after the first year."
It was true. Caroline was only emotional because it was her twin daughters' first days. After that, she didn't shed a tear and encouraged the rebellious twins to go to school. But unlike Care, Veronica loved her kids' antics.
"Why aren't you crying over Henrik? It's his first year here," Hope questioned, looking over to where her brother was playing soccer with a group of boys his age.
"Trust me, she cried plenty last night. But Henrik ran off before she could even shed a tear."
"Whatever," Hope sighed, "I should probably get going. I'll call you later, promise."
"Okay, sweetheart," Veronica smiled softly down at her firstborn, the eldest of her children. Before Hope could protest, she drew her in for a tight hug and kissed the top of her head.
Hope groaned, cheeks flushed in embarrassment; which only deepened when her dad did the same goodbye.
"Love you both, bye," Hope murmured, dragging a giggling Josie by the arm and towards the entrance of the boarding school.
Klaus rubbed Veronica's back, seeing the sad look on her face.
"She's growing up too fast. I don't like it."
The original hybrid snorted, "You can't reverse time, love."
Veronica let out a small hmph and leaned her head on Klaus' shoulder, now watching her son play his game.
"We should say goodbye, he's going in soon."
Wanting to cheer his wife up and embarrass his son at the same time, Klaus smirked mischievously before shouting across the field, "Henrik Grayson Mikaelson!"
Unfortunately for Klaus, Henrik isn't one to get embarrassed easily. At ten years old, his ego is much larger than it should be; which Veronica blamed Klaus' genes for. Instead of blushing, the kid smiled and told his friends he'd be back, now running up to his parents.
"Promise to facetime your mother and I every day?"
"Pinky promise," Henrik held out his pinky, which Veronica gladly looped with her own.
"We love you so much. We understand if you're not ready for this, you can come home with us and try again next year-"
"Mom, you're gonna have to do this two more times, and you know if you offer Hera this when it's her turn she'll say yes. And I promise, I'll be okay here."
Veronica sighed, leaning out of Klaus' embrace before giving her son a tight hug, the same one she gave Hope.
"Go have fun with your friends, you know we're only one phone call away."
"Love you guys," Henrik waved, running back to where his friends were and resumed playing.
"Come on, we should start heading back. Hera looks bored with your friend and I don't want her to start a tantrum."
While she was blessed with Hope and Henrik being quiet babies and kids, Hera Rebekah Mikaelson, the very sassy six year old, was much different. Ever since the first week of her birth, the two knew they were in for a lot of trouble with her.
She was named after Veronica's favorite Greek Goddess and Klaus thought the name was fitting. His children were practically supernatural royalty, it only made sense that at least one of them was named as such.
Hera was, of course, a tribrid. Only this time, she was a vampire, witch, and banshee combination. Being a witch and banshee, this meant Hera would be much more spiritual than her other siblings. She had yet to tap into any of her powers, seeing as she was too young to actually care much for them, but she was meant to be powerful.
Walking over to where Caroline was sitting on a bench with Hera and a baby in her arms, Klaus swept his daughter up in his arms, talking to her as he carried her over to the car.
"You gave birth, what, two months ago and you look stunning. I get we're vampires and all, but you lost the baby weight incredibly fast."
Veronica laughed, shaking her head and gently taking her son out of Caroline's arms.
As if it were some kind of blessing, Veronica got two mini hers and two mini Klaus'. Of course, gender didn't matter, but it was nice that each kid had someone they could spend time with when they were sick of their opposite gender sibling.
Veronica looked down at her son, Hugo Elijah Jeremy Mikaelson. The name had many different stories behind it.
It began when Veronica was reading one of her favorite books, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. She admittedly has a crush on the main character, Evelyn, and jokingly told Klaus they should name their son Hugo. Klaus, however, took the idea very seriously and researched the name's meaning. When a quick Google search told him that Hugo means mind and intellect, Klaus thought it was great. Of course his kid would be a genius. I mean, with his self explanatory genes and Veronica's booksmart genes, it was a given.
The middle names, however, caused a bit of tension.
Since Veronica had honored her late dad in Henrik's middle name, she thought she could honor her brother in Hugo's. Klaus disagreed, claiming he had nothing against her brother, but Elijah should be his middle name. When Veronica argued that they'd already named two of their kids after his siblings, Henrik's first name and Hera's middle, Klaus argued back that she picked the names of Hera and Hugo and got Henrik's middle name.
The argument lasted for weeks and came to an abrupt stop when Hope told them they could just use both names.
Why they didn't think of that to begin with, who knows.
The order of the middle names wasn't discussed yet, but when Hugo was born, Klaus secretly put Elijah's name on the birth certificate first. Veronica was just too happy that her son was born to care at that point and let it slide.
Looking down at her son, Veronica glanced at the ring on her left hand.
A couple of months after Henrik was born, Klaus proposed to her.
It wasn't really romantic, seeing as Klaus said "You better say yes" and Veronica said "No" with a straight face, but it was them and it was perfect.
They got married a year later. It wasn't a big ceremony, only family and close friends, but it was one of the best days of Veronica and Klaus' lives.
They hadn't really planned on having two more kids, but Veronica likes to think it was fate. That somehow, the six of them were meant to find each other in this life.
But Klaus knew it was just because they forgot to cover it up a few times. And maybe in the future, they'd forget some more. I mean, it wasn't like they were aging? But he'd discuss that in the future. For now, he was just content with his four children.
"Have a safe ride, I'll text you later," Caroline smiled, kissing her best friend's cheek before wandering into the boarding school.
Meeting Klaus at the car, he had just finished strapping Hera into her carseat. Veronica noticed the lollipop her daughter was sucking on and assumed Klaus had bribed her, but candy seemed like the only thing that would calm her down.
After securing Hugo in his own car seat, Veronica slid into the passenger side and looked over at her husband, a sad smile on her face.
"I know you're sad with two kids out of the house, but you still have two little hellions."
"Daddy, what's a hellion?"
Klaus tried to hide his smirk from Veronica, her face going from sad to annoyed.
"I love you," Klaus said, trying to butter his wife up.
It worked, Veronica's shoulders instantly relaxing as she sent him a small smile, kissing his cheek.
Taking her hand in his own, he pulled out of the Salvatore Boarding School and began their drive home.
And after a thousand years, Klaus had gotten his happy ending.