"Beks! Klaus," I call the siblings down to one of the sitting rooms.
"Penny! Are you okay?" Bekah asks worriedly while vamp-speeding into the room.
"Yeah, is Klaus here? I just need to talk to you two," I explain.
She sighs, "Yeah, he's here. Should be down any-"
"Someone called?" Klaus asks, suddenly in the room.
"Yes. Can you two take a seat?" I ask politely. They comply, Bekah sits in a chair and Niklaus sits on one of the sofas. I take a seat on the sofa opposite Klaus. Breathing in deeply, I start, "Klaus, you may not like what I'm going to say. Rebekah, I don't think you'll have too much of an opinion." They furrow their eyebrows but motion for me to continue. "In the 1920s and '30s, I was staying here for a good amount of time. During that time, I met Marcel an-"
Klaus cuts me off, looking very angry. "Did he hurt you?" He roars.
"No, we became friends. Now, I visited him this morning." I can see that Klaus is about to cut in again, so I spoke quickly, "Snuck out, I know: 'don't ever do it again.' Anyways, I told him that I am not taking sides, this is a fight between your family and Marcel. I also told him about the baby, and he said he would try to help find someone to unlink Sophie and I. He also said that he would make sure his vamps knew not to hurt me because I was his friend. He promised not to tell anyone about the baby-"
I'm once again interrupted by Niklaus, "WHAT? You didn't even talk to me before? And you aren't going to support the father of your child? I can find a witch to unlink you and Sophie on my own." He's throwing a tantrum and raising his voice.
I sigh as he leaves and call after him. "When you can sit down and talk with me like a mature adult, I'm here. Until then, I think we'll have enough tantrums of the child's to deal with, I shouldn't have to deal with yours too." I huff and hear the front door slam. He needs to blow off some steam. I just hope he doesn't go try to rip out Marcel's throat.
Bekah gets up and sits down next to me on the lounge. "Are you okay?" She asks softly. "Do you feel up to explaining the rest to me? Also, ignore Nik's childish behavior." She places her hand on my back and rubs small circles on my shoulder blade with her thumb.
I nod and send her a small smile. Leaning on her shoulder, I explain the rest, "It's a good thing. No matter if Niklaus wants to be 'King', Marcel is currently the leader. I could potentially get Elijah back and I can, as much as possible, have the baby protected. I don't have to worry about Marcel's vamps going after me unless one goes rogue. I trust Marcel. I've been friends with him for just under a hundred years. Please trust me on this one. Also, I know you are only really here to make sure Elijah's alright, but I do enjoy your company," I say quietly.
"I was actually thinking about staying. I want to be here for you, my niece, and my family. You make me feel content and calm when you're around, and I don't think Mystic Falls is turning out to be the place for me." She pauses for a few seconds. "I trust you on this. It's good that you don't have to worry about Marcel and his vamps, it makes me feel better about you being here."
We sit in silence for a bit, her hand now on my lower back, and mine tracing random patterns on her thigh. I can tell that she has something on her mind, so I ask her what it is.
"I'm gonna sound like a bitch," she mutters before continuing. "Did you and Marcel ever... you know..." She asks, implications clear.
"No," I say quickly with a laugh. "I've um... I've actually never..." I trail off and look up at her.
She looks confused for a second before raising her eyebrows and widening her eyes in shock. "You've never slept with anyone? In basically 200 years you have never..." I nod. "How? Did you just kiss a lot or something?"
I chuckle and shake my head. "The only person I got close to sleeping with was my partner, Isaac. We were together for over 30 years before he got staked about twenty years back. We messed around, but never actually really did anything... too sexual. As for kissing, my list only has 5 people. My first was in the 1850s or so with my first crush, a girl from when I was human, nothing ever happened beyond that kiss though. The second was Isaac in the late 1950s. Damon was my third, we were pranking Stefan and Lexi." A smile forms on my face from the memory. "Next is you... you know about that," I nudge her slightly and she blushes. "And lastly- and I know I should've told you earlier, but you were busy- is Niklaus..."
"What?" She asks, pulling away a bit to look at me. "Do you have feelings for him?"
"I do-" She's about to interrupt, so I continue quickly, "but I also have feelings for other certain people. I need to figure stuff out because I doubt you and Klaus would be okay sharing and I'm trying to figure out what I want. I don't want to get between siblings. If you don't want to wait, which I understand, please tell me. I need the time and my hormones, with being pregnant and all, aren't making it easier."
I prepare myself for her to say that she won't wait, but to my surprise, she says, "I'll wait, I'm immortal, sweetheart." I smile at her response and she lays down on my lap. I play with her blonde hair as we continue to talk about simple things.
⇢⇢⇢⇢
I get up at 6:45 A.M. and take a shower. I haven't seen Klaus since the fight yesterday, but I know he's here and is avoiding me. Stepping out of the shower, I dry off, wrap my hair up in a towel, and exit the bathroom in my undergarments. I walk over to my walk-in closet and pick out and outfit: a dark patterned tank top, brown shorts, green converse, the silver heart necklace given to me by Nik, some bracelets and rings, heart earrings, black sunglasses, and a messenger bag.
I throw my hair up into a messy high ponytail. Walking downstairs, I walk into the kitchen and grab a piece of paper and a pen, writing a note. It reads:
Good morning Beks and Nik,
I am heading out to meet with Marcel. I don't know when I will be back, but feel free to text if you need anything. Have a good day!
-Aspen
With that, I walk out the front door, locking it behind me and speeding to the compound.
Walking in, I yell, "Hey Asshole!" Marcel along with some of his vamps come into the courtyard.
"Hey dumbass," he replies, "you ready?" I nod and he walks over to me, taking my hand as we walk towards Rousseau's.
I pull out my phone and give one earbud to Marcel. He takes it and places it in his ear as I press play. The song You Can Call Me Al by Paul Simon starts to fill our ears.
I swing our interlocked hands back and forth as we take steps down the street. Marcel starts to hum along to the song and it makes me smile. "How have you been?" I ask him.
"Alright, really confused as to the intentions of some people," he explains. He turns his head to look at me. "What about you?"
"I had to deal with a Niklaus tantrum when I told him about our meeting yesterday... so that was tiring. He didn't bother you about that, did he?" I ask warily.
He laughs and shakes his head, "No, he didn't, but I did receive a ambiguous threatening text from him so..."
"Hm," I hum shortly. I nod, "Sounds about right." We both chuckle and as we turn I see the bar and restaurant down the street.
"Oh! I wanted to let you know that, if you ever need it, there's a room for you set up in the compound. I'm not trying to drive a wedge between you and Klaus, I just know that sometimes you need a safe space. It's also spelled, so no one can hear you from outside," he informs me. I appreciate when he does small things like this that aren't necessary, but show that he cares.
I stop and turn, giving him a hug, which he returns. "Thank you, Marcel. I really appreciate it," I tell him earnestly.
He nods and smiles as we pull away from the hug, our hands interlocking again. "Of course, Pen. I care about you and just want you to be happy." He brings our hands to his mouth and he places a small kiss on the back of my hand. Some people might think of this as a romantic gesture (which it can be), but my relationship with Marcel is platonic. We have mutual trust and care for one another.
Marcel spins me as we approach the restaurant and holds the door open for me.
We order two blueberry muffins, two coffees, one non-caffeinated tea, and one bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich. Once that is bagged up for us, we speed to St. Anne's Church, trying to avoid anyone following us. When we arrive, we enter and Marcel takes me up a flight of old wooden stairs in the back.
"If you're planning on kidnapping me or killing me, think again," I joke. He turns around and raises his eyebrows looking unimpressed. "What? Creaky old flight of stairs in the back of an old church? It's something that could be in a horror film," I defend.
He walks to a door which he knocks on. A teenage brunette girl opens the door slowly at first, but quickly opening it and smiling when she sees Marcel. "We brought breakfast," I say, holding up the bag.
"V, could you invite her in?" Marcel requests.
She does so and I walk in, observing my surroundings. She closes the door and I introduce myself, "Hi, I'm Penny, it's nice to meet you. Marcel has said only good things about you, so I'm happy to meet someone so important to him."
She smiles and holds out her hand. "I'm Davina. What did you guys bring for breakfast?" She asks after shaking my hand.
A smile appears on my face. "We brought you a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich with a latte," I tell her, setting the bag down on a table. She immediately grabs her sandwich and her coffee from Marcel.
I spot a coffin off to the side and immediately guess that Elijah is in it.
"We can't undagger Elijah right now Pen, I trust that you won't try to pull anything," Marcel says in a serious but soft tone.
"Of course not, your trust in me is important to me," I state.
"V, this was the vampire linked to someone that I'm trying to get you the spell for to unlink them," Marcel informs her. A look of recognition appears on her face and she nods. He turns to me, "I didn't tell her anything else, since you didn't say I could tell her."
I nod and start to tell her what happened and how I got pregnant. After explaining, I can tell she's happy that I'm having a child. She must like babies. All three of us are smiling and I turn to Marcel, remembering what he said about the spell. "I have a bunch of old grimoires I can look through. I collect them only from witches who's lines have ended. I could bring some over later and you and I could read through some, if you want?" I offer Davina. "I could also lend you some books so you could learn more... if that's okay with you Marcey?" I ask him.
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea. It's fine by me," he says.
"Really Marcey?" Davina asks, obviously excited about the new nickname that Marcel clearly gets annoyed by.
"Look what you've done," he told me in a joking tone. I laugh and shrug.
"I also have a empty grimoire-type book if you want me to bring that so you can copy some spells and have your own grimoire?" I offer, happy to have a witch who's friendly and is okay with my interest in witchcraft.
She nods really fast, "Yes!"
⇢⇢⇢⇢
It's three hours later and I'm sitting on Davina's bed with her, skimming through grimoires to find a spell that might work. I also tell her to put a book in a special pile and mark the page with a sticky note if she is interested in a spell.
We talk and I get to know more about her and her family (who are asses), the harvest, and her hobbies and interests. I share with her some of my stories and pictures of myself and some of my friends since she seems to really enjoy hearing about them and listening to my stories. Davina and I are becoming wonderful friends.