*Me looking at the unnecessarily long ass list of all the people having dinner at Ostara and Melissa's house*: "Surely I can make this shorter and easier to digest..."
(Don't worry all, lots of these people won't be here for the full family reunions. They just get their little cameos and get the see the beginning of the family drama. The rest they will read from the pack group chat XD)
Because of the excessive amount of people, here's a bit of explanation for where everyone is seated. Table has two people at the 'head' of the ends. Then six people on each side. Here's a visual of placement!
...
Present, Beacon Hills
"You know, she was right by here the last time I saw her. Normally she doesn't stay in one place for so long. Our parent's death must have put her more at ease," Kol told Freya. He was driving the car, Lucien in the passenger seat. Behind them were Freya, Keelin, and Loki. Kol had forced the rest of the family to go to a hotel in a nearby town first. The last thing he wanted to do was overwhelm and upset his sister.
"That doesn't explain why she was so careful with her location," Lucien said deep in thought. In more recent times it was easier for Lucien to keep in contact with Ostara through letters or phone calls when the landline was created. However, after Kol sought out Lucien and they went off together for a few years, Lucien lost contact with her. And so did Kol. At first, it wasn't too weird, the heretic always had protections in place. Eventually, though, it was clear that something was different.
"Henrik's not alive too, is he?" Freya questioned. Slightly bitter, though the tiniest thread of hope was apparent. If her twin sister was alive, surely the rest of the siblings could be as well. Freya was well aware she didn't spend hundreds of years with her siblings like the rest of them. Hell, she wasn't even around for Elijah's birth and everyone that came after. Still, it hurt a little when they kept major things from her.
"What? No," Kol said right away. He couldn't tell if she was joking or not. Which was unsettling for him. Normally he's good at picking up on bullshit.
"Finn?" Freya further implored. Kol looked back at Freya in disbelief long enough for it to be uncomfortable. After all, he was the one driving. When Lucien decided driving in the opposite lane with their child in the car was becoming too dangerous, he slapped his boyfriend's arm to get him to snap out of it.
"You were... you were literally around! You know he's not."
"I'm just making sure there aren't any other major family-related things that are being kept from me."
"Well, there's not, at least on my end. I'm... sorry I didn't tell you, Freya. I wanted to ease ma into everything so she wasn't stressed. I didn't tell you until I needed your help and that was unfair," Kol said with mild difficulty. He was trying to acknowledge his wrongs. Because he was better than Niklaus, damn it!
"Thank you. I'm not mad really. I just- If you didn't say anything... would anyone else have?" Freya questioned hesitantly. That was what was bothering her the most. All of them never acted like they were hiding her much-alone twin sister. Would that have continued forever if Kol didn't intervene?
"I don't know. Niklaus never could quite get that stick out of his ass. Maybe Amelia could have made him if he ever told her that is," Kol said. He couldn't speak on behalf of Elijah and Rebekah. Kol didn't know them well enough, not since they were human.
"As far as we know she hasn't met up with anyone else in the family since Finn was originally daggered over nine hundred years ago. When Kol told her about Finn passing shortly after Elijah woke him, she was devastated," Lucien added. Technically Ostara would not say anything about meeting other siblings if they asked her to lie. But she seemed too detached and upset to have been visited by anyone else.
"Ma used to keep an eye on us all religiously. When Mikael was around still hunting Klaus. After I talked to her about the ongoings of Mystic Falls, she must've thought major threats had been dealt with. Which they had, the ones we knew of at the time that is."
Loki and Keelin were watching the conversation the same way one would watch a tennis or ping pong match. Keelin was very excited to meet her wife's twin. She had mentioned Ostara to Keelin on several different occasions. She had seen Freya's grief for her younger twin firsthand so she was, quite frankly, mad on her wife's behalf. Being in the family long enough she knew of their frequent petty arguments. But this whole situation seemed to be the worst Keelin knew of. And it impacted Freya the worst as well, which Keelin did not appreciate, to say the least.
"Are we going to talk about what Uncle Nik said that made Ostara so mad?" Loki questioned. Butting into the conversation with his main curiosity about this whole situation. They briefly said it had to do with Niklaus first daggering Finn. But they didn't give the details.
"Klaus told her that we didn't need her protection, he didn't care if she left, and he refused to undagger Finn or get rid of the remaining daggers," Kol explained. Being one of the only ones who heard some of that conversation. Elijah, Rebekah, and Kol only listened in when it got particularly loud. With Niklaus having intense hallucinations from the witch's curse, there was an abnormal amount of noise often enough that a little ruckus went unbothered.
"I didn't even know she turned," Freya whispered, mostly to herself. Keelin grabbed one of her wife's hands and squeezed reassuringly. Freya always held onto her hope to reunite with her remaining siblings when she was trapped by Dahlia. She had never even fathomed being able to see her twin again, not until death at least.
"He still hasn't talked to her since all that? He's going to have some serious grovelling to do..." Loki said to Kol. This got Loki thinking about the rest of the family that awaited them at the hotel. Ostara must not know about Keelin, Hope, Amelia, or even Loki himself. This is a lot to drop on one person, along with the fact their dead twin sister is very much not dead. Loki was already pitying his poor aunt who had no idea what was headed her way.
"... Are we all going to just ignore the huge magical supernatural pull that surrounds this town?" Loki asked after a few moments of contemplative silence.
...
Ostara had to pull out the large table extender for their already big table for when they have guests. Considering there were over fifteen people in the house, they desperately needed the room. Ostara insisted that everyone who could come should. After all, it was hard to get everyone together now that the pack scattered more around the world. Yesterday was their first dinner all together. They were having another one today.
Mostly everyone sat around the table chatting while the serving dishes were being placed on the table. Liam and Stiles had a long argument about there being a 'kids' table for the ones still in high school. It lasted almost ten minutes before Noah got Stiles to drop it. Stiles couldn't help it when Liam was so easy to tease, even now!
Melissa was more than a little worried about feeding so many people at once. She cooked seventy percent of the food, as she's not the best cook this isn't normal for her. On top of that, being a vampire now her tastebuds were all out of whack. Meaning she couldn't even taste test things, instead having to get one of the humans or non-vampire people to try it. She knew she wasn't a top chef but she still wanted everyone to enjoy themselves. Yesterday she did the most basic spaghetti and garlic bread recipe. It seemed to go well, but food with more steps just was incredibly daunting.
Ostara went between setting things up and trying to calm Melissa's nerves. This was supposed to be the reunion of the year. Which didn't help with the pressure at all. It also didn't help that Melissa was consistently denying anyone doing more than a little work. Many of the people over were on vacation, most were guests at the house. Melissa couldn't let them do things she could handle herself.
"Are you positive you don't want help on anything else?"
"Nothing in here Star, just get the vampire's glasses filled, please. And help me bring out the food in five minutes," Melissa said while shooing Ostara out of the kitchen. With a fond shake of her head, Ostara went to the dining room to collect all the glasses from the immortal guests, including Melissa and herself.
Using inhuman speed, Ostara went down to their basement where they kept their cooler of blood. The basement itself was kind of cliche, but it was out of the way and colder than the rest of the house. Their boys had made the area into a game room of sorts. So it wasn't creepy by any means. Walking down there unknowingly, one would assume the cooler was filled with energy drinks and cans of soda. They had a mini fridge for those things though.
The blood bags were ripped open by Ostara's fangs, as delicately as she could manage. She used the puncture holes to carefully fill the glasses with a large amount of blood. Each cup was almost filled completely. Ostara went back upstairs with the four cups, this time at a regular human speed.
"Pineapple on pizza should be a criminal offence!" Ostara overheard Stiles say passionately.
"We are not actually going to rehash this conversation, are we?" Lydia asked. Yet she received no answer. The boys were too into it now it seemed.
"You can't use your messed up tastebuds to make a real point," Liam said. Like usual, Stiles was again teasing Liam. Sure, Stiles liked to tease and joke around with everyone. But he took to Liam like he was his own little brother to annoy. And yes, Stiles has Scott and Isaac. Neither of them indulged him the same way Liam did, they also didn't have Liam's raging anger issues.
"No, Stiles is completely right. Fruit doesn't belong on pizza," Corey added. Liam glared over at him for his betrayal. You think you know a guy...
"Babe, it's Hawaiian! Can't have the experience without pineapple," Mason said. Corey scoffed with a shake of his head. But he didn't bother commenting. He didn't actually care, but Corey liked to egg them on. Their meaningless fights were entertaining, sue him!
"This is why you're my best friend," Liam declared. Stiles gave an exaggerated pouty face in response. Mason just gave Liam a high five from behind their chairs.
"Maybe we should switch the subject... Enzo and Stefan are new! And it's been years since Derek's been in town. I, for one, would like to know what everyone's been up to," Kira said with a nervous smile. No one could deny her adorable charm.
"I agree! I need to know how everyone met," Lydia said excitedly. She's been so busy with school and apprenticeships that she's only got the bare minimum details from her pack. Which sucked because Lydia especially loved the juiciest details!
Ostara finished handing out the blood glasses to the few vampires and sat herself down. Waiting for Melissa now, just enjoying the moment quietly. Ostara even loved hearing the mindless bickering. Talking was so much more bearable than the silence she was often subjected to, away from her family for so long.
"I am Stiles' mechanic, actually. I met Scott when he picked up his Jeep for him," Stefan spoke. Everyone paid attention, curious about the new people.
"You have to be real good with cars if Stiles lets you work on his baby," Noah said. Truly, he was still hesitant about his son's relationship with Derek. It made him happy though, that his son seemed to keep some nice company. Stiles wasn't changing, just growing. And Noah couldn't be any more proud.
"I got some experience," Stefan replied humbly. Noah seemed satisfied enough. He knew the young man was a vampire. Meaning he had the time to learn from such experiences. Stefan didn't need to clarify that.
"I'm curious how you ended up in this little town?" Stefan continued. Directing his question at Enzo. The vampire kept a smug resting face that reminded Stefan of his older brother. Though Enzo would've probably fought him if he pointed it out.
"I decided to travel a bit after leaving Virginia. Was just passing through but what can I say, my interest was immediately peaked," Enzo responded easily. Throwing a wink at both Theo and Isaac. Theo winked back cheekily while Isaac tried to hide his blushing face in a subtle enough way.
"Gross. How did Stiles find Derek again? I doubt it was the other way around," Malia said. She rolled her eyes exasperatedly. Derek raised his eyebrows but nodded along. She had a point.
"He was on the cameras in one of my classes for recently cited criminals... because his name hadn't been fully cleared of charges!" Stiles said happily. He always found this amusing. After all, Stiles was the only reason why Derek didn't have to fight his way out of prison. For that reason, surely he could look back on those moments fondly.
"Tough luck, save the human and supernatural world alike a few times. Then all you're left with is criminal charges," Theo teased. Isaac gave his leg a little kick from under the table. Just because he was too familiar with how messy the law system got when mixed with the supernatural. It was not funny, as far as he was concerned. Derek grunted unamused but made sure to give Isaac a little proud look. Everyone heard that thump, super hearing or not.
"I think it's sweet that you found him to help out," Kira told Stiles. For a while, Kira had no contact with anyone from the pack. Now that she's back, more or less, she's loved hearing about all the things going on. While she was away everything was repetitive and monotone.
"That's my boy. All this supernatural stuff doesn't mix well with the law," Noah said with a dismissive wave of his hand. He's learned that fact the hard way the last ten or so years in the field.
"Is Parrish still working with you?" Lydia questioned curiously. She wouldn't mind seeing him again, that's for sure.
"Yes, he is! One of the best I have," Noah said proudly. Despite trying to not pick obvious favourites when it came to his subordinates, everyone could tell Parrish was Noah's favourite employee. The sheriff wasn't deterred by the man's hellhound nature, he'd seen enough at this point it had little effect on him.
The conversation came to a close as Melissa started bringing over the serving platters to place in the middle of the table. Ostara got up to help carry some over. Melissa threw an oven mitt at her wife for getting up, but Ostara expertly dodged it with a laugh. The amount of food was a lot, but the vampire couple made quick work of putting it on the table. Once everything was brought over and the women took their seats side by side, everyone began serving themselves. The handful of vampires purposefully only putting a bit of food.
Not much was said as everyone dug into the food. Melissa smiled proudly after seeing everyone enjoying the meal so much. She may have taken a few cooking classes when she originally planned for this to happen. Ostara was always the one to cook for everyone. Even before they were married, Ostara regularly cooked for her and brought her food at work. Melissa wanted to at least partially give back, and take some of that responsibility off her wife's shoulders. Ostara didn't want Melissa cooking alone for the weeks everyone had on break. But she did agree to let Melissa do most, it made Melissa happy to do so even with the stress.
"This is even better than yesterday's dinner, Melissa!" Lydia said happily. It's been a long time now since Melissa and Ostara both insisted everyone use their names. Noah doing the same outside of police settings. Ostara didn't mention it, but she wasn't fond of her real last name being regularly brought up. It made her nervous. Luckily Scott and Isaac chose to hyphenate their last names, so they usually just went with their original one that was also in legal documents. Melissa was the only one aside from Ostara who used her full last name.
Seldom has trouble in Ostara's life has come up. Not since both of her parents died a second time, that is. Still, she's more than well aware of the amount of people her family has pissed off over time. Even more, knew legends and scary stories within supernatural circles. Ostara didn't want any of that baggage impacting her haven.
"Thank you," Melissa said gratefully. A bashful smile covered her lips as she ducked her head, curly hair curtaining her face and shielding it from view. Ostara made a point to tuck one side chunk of Melissa's hair under her ear.
More compliments, praises, and appreciative thanks were thrown Melissa's way as everyone started reaching the end of the first serving. Well, apart from the vampires who finished their small portion a while ago and were just drinking small amounts of blood. Perhaps the pack has become more than a little desensitized to the consumption of blood. Steel water bottles never hid the smell from all the ones with enhanced senses so they didn't bother in their own homes. Most still got nauseous seeing someone drinking from the vein, Ostara and Melissa didn't like to feed that way.
A firm knock cut through the air, Ostara already standing up to go check on it. Scott went to stand too, but Ostara waved him back down. Scott wasn't finished eating, Ostara could open a door, she wasn't physically old. Honestly, Ostara wasn't expecting much. Maybe Parrish had been able to make it today after all. Maybe someone else out of the country wanted to come visit as a surprise. Maybe Peter was trying to weasel his way into pack dinner.
Nothing prepared her to see her little brother again though. He stood there with a nervous smile on his face. Ostara blinked a few times before stepping outside, pulling the door and closing it behind her. Then she immediately pulled him into a hug. She missed Kol a ton. But she wanted to give him some quality time with Lucien. By the time she tried to get ahold of him, he seemed to have changed contact information. So had Lucien. Ostara figured Kol would seek her out when wanted to see her again, just like he's been doing for hundreds of years. Sure, the wards were significantly stronger than any in the past, but she felt Kol would get through them as always.
Continuing to squeeze Kol until he patted her back indicating he was done with the hug, Ostara took a step back. Looking on either side of him, Ostara asked the first question that came to mind.
"Where's your partner in crime, then?" Ostara asked. Normally Lucien was there with Kol to greet her together. Last she saw Kol he was going to Lucien, so she logically assumed he was still around.
"Lucky? Yeah, he's back in the car. So are a few other people I need you to meet," Kol replied.
"Funny, I was going to say the same thing!"
...
A little silly secret, I actually forgot I started the dinner last chapter💀 That's how long it's been, yikes. By the time I realized I already had over 2.5k words for this chapter, so I just went with it being next day. Mostly everyone has been in Beacon Hill on break for a couple days any how XD
Here's my meme offerings... uh I love you all!! Not abandoning this story or my account, just being brutally dragged through life😎
Kol supervising Ostara and Klaus' reunion:
The entire pack when the Mikaelson's show up at the door:
Majority of the pack after having to leave because of family drama before they got to eat dessert:
Kol at all times:
Freya after learning about the thousandth Mikaelson family secret:
Kol after meeting Melissa, Ostara's first ever true relationship: