15 comments!
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Hanging upon the walls of Lilah and Josh's shared apartment, on the walls at Rousseau's, and even on the walls in the Mikaelson compounds were photos of the dearly departed.
Photos of the Mikaelson siblings. Photos of Lilah with Elijah hanging in the apartment, in small frames because Lilah had a thing for polaroid photos, his classy manner being able to come across in photos by how straight he was standing, his lips barely lifted up at the sides.
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1 7
Y E A R S
A G O
"Oh, hey, Elijah!" Lilah greeted, skipping down the staircase of the Mikaelson compound, where she had been upstairs with Davina, after Marcel had moved her there from the attic at the church.
"I got something for you," Elijah informed her, his hands behind his back to conceal whatever it was.
She looked at him with a quirked up eyebrow.
"What is it?"
"You're quite fond of using that Polaroid camera of yours, the fancy one you got on clearance at... Target, was it?" he asked, and she nodded.
He brought his hands in front of him, "It's quite old, but... I found it within some of my old things, thought maybe you'd like it. It's from the 80's. A Polaroid Impulse."
In his hands was an old Polaroid camera, a dark blue color.
"I think they might use the same film as yours, it's from the 600s film series. I put film in it already."
She grabbed it from him and looked up at him with a look of happy surprise. "What's this for?"
He merely shrugged, "Do you like it?"
"I love it, Elijah."
"Shall we?" he asked, grabbing it from her and looking over as Hayley walked through the entrance of the Mikaelson compound.
"Hayley, do you mind taking a photo of me and Lilah Rae?"
"Sure," she nodded, walking over and taking the camera from Elijah's hands.
He posted next to her, barely smiling as she beamed for the photo.
When the photo came out, Elijah kept it flipped upside down on the table, and Hayley went upstairs, saying she had something to talk to Davina about.
"You know, you remind me of what I liked about being human," Elijah told her.
She quirked up an eyebrow at her father, who had no idea who she was to him.
"I'm a vampire, Elijah," she laughed.
"I know," he replied. "But still."
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She even got Klaus to pose for a picture or two with her. The original hybrid would always refuse to smile, but she knew that he loved being in the photos either way.
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1 7
Y E A R S
A G O
"Yes, Lilah, I do have dashing good looks," Klaus said as the girl followed him through Rousseau's. "But I do not want them to be captured on your little camera that Elijah got you. You bring that thing everywhere, love, and one of these days, someone is going to throw you, thus breaking the camera."
"C'mon Klaus!" she continued to badger him. "You know I'm not gonna stop asking you to take one with me until you just do it."
"Jesus, woman," he said, turned around, but the small smirk on his face didn't match his irritation. "Joshua, be a dear and take a photo of me and Elijah 2.0, will you? Always right behind me, whispering irritating things, just like Elijah. You're like a little miniature, female version of my brother."
"Thank you," Lilah smiled.
"Wasn't a compliment," Klaus said with a smile, standing next to her and holding still while Josh snapped a photo.
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In the three locations, there were also photos hanging of the family and family friends with a special wolf: Hayley Marshall. She was also Hayley Marshall-Kenner at one point, but she was originally Andrea Labonair. The young wolf first came to Mystic Falls almost two decades prior in search of Tyler Lockwood.
She had then met Klaus briefly when the Mikaelsons were still in Mystic Falls. She didn't stay long before leaving on a mission to find her birth family because of a tip Klaus left her about her birth mark.
That mission brought her to New Orleans in search of the wolves in the bayou. Klaus had told her that the birthmark she had was unique to the Louisiana wolves there. She learned of her true lineage: Cresent Wolf Royalty, her birth name being Andrea Labonair.
With the faction war that was brewing, she soon became reacquainted with Klaus Mikaelson. It was obvious from the minute she met Elijah that there was some spark there, but the troubles in New Orleans always came in the way. She would soon be wed to Jackson Kenner because of a birth betroval, both being considered Crescent Royalty.
When Lilah got involved with the Mikaelsons through her friendship with Josh and Davina, she and Hayley become mere acquaintances. Slowly, Rebekah began to look out for the girls in New Orleans: Hayley, Davina, even Lilah, always preaching how girls had to look after one another.
As a few weeks progressed, acquaintances went to close friends, and she started to hold Hayley dear to her heart. When Klaus had turned her into a hybrid like himself, Lilah helped Hayley control her hunger, her vampire rage.
As Lilah brought Roman through her apartment, placing a finger on her lips to tell him to be quiet not to wake Josh with their giggling, she looked at a photo of her and Hayley behind him, an awful one taken with the flash since they were in the dark. but she hung anyways.
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1 7
Y E A R S
A G O
"I know you're older than me and all, by like hundreds of years or whatever, but I feel like I'm being watched over by a child," Hayley laughed, looking at Lilah as they sat in the bayou in the dark.
Lilah had just found Hayley feeding, stopping her before she went too far and did something she would regret when she came to. Now, they sat in the bayou together, looking up at the stars through the sky.
"My body is only like... five years younger than you," the older vampire replied.
Lilah chuckled at her comment, looking at the wolf as she asked, "So, Jackson?"
Hayley moved her hair out of her face, shrugging as she said, "That's what my pack seems to want."
"What do you want, Hales?"
"Well, I want to do right by my people," she started off. "And Jackson has been such a great help to me, to all of us, yanno? And he wants this, and he's an amazing guy."
"I'm sensing there's a 'but' coming soon," Lilah commented. She eyed her carefully. She knew her dad had a soft spot for the wolf, not that anyone knew Elijah was her dad.
"I don't even know how I can possibly have feelings for him, yanno," Hayley said, knowing she didn't have to same Elijah's name for Lilah to know who she meant. "He's supposed to be one of the big, bad Mikaelsons, the Original family, the ones everyone fears."
"He's a big softie," added Lilah, laughing. "But you have to do what's right for you, your wellbeing, your heart."
"Am I really getting love advice from someone who had a crush on Josh?" Hayley teased.
"Hey!" Lilah exclaimed. "I didn't know he was gay, you guys have to let that go sometime."
"Never," Hayley stated, shaking her head. "And that's a promise."
"Come here, meanie," she said, taking her phone out and turning on the flash. She held it backwards so that the flash would work, the two of them smiling as the light practically blinded them.
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Lilah shook off the memories as she led Roman into her bedroom.
Not even twenty minutes in, Josh opens her bedroom door.
"Oh gOD!" he screamed, turning around quickly but remaining in the doorframe.
Lilah and Roman scrambled to get her blankets over themselves, Roman rolling off of the brunette.
"Mr. Mystery Blond," Josh acknowledged Roman, a slight irritation in his voice along with the embarassment. "I thought I heard sounds, thought Lilah needed something, but she seems taken care of. Okay, goodnight."
He reached behind him to grab the door, shutting it.
"YOUR DOOR HAS A LOCK FOR A REASON!" Josh shouted from down the hall, followed by the sound of his bedroom closing.
Lilah and Roman both looked at one another, cracking up in laughter.
"Mood ruined?" he asked with a knowing smile.
"Just a tad," she chuckled, moving so she could collect her clothes. "You can stay the night, though. It's late."
He hadn't moved from his spot on her bed anyways, and he also wasn't planning to. Instead, he moved his hands behind his head, her blanket still draped over him. She wandered to her closet, rummaging through the drawer she had in there. She grabbed a pair of her oversized sweats and a huge shirt, but before she could turn around to give it to Roman, she paused.
She was feeling the same deja vu feeling she had been getting. She stopped for a second and took in a deep breath until it surpassed, but the goosebumps along the arms seemed to be there to stay. She closed the drawer and turned around with a feigned smile, rubbing her upper arms before extending the clothes out to him.
"Isn't it usually the guy supplying the girl with clothes?" he asked, her smile faltering at his words. "Sorry, was that too gender norm conforming?"
She shook her head furiously, snapping herself out of whatever trance as she was in. She walked over to the bed, placing the clothes between them. "No, no," she said. "It's uh... I'm sorry, I'm justr tryna figure out where I've heard that before. I feel like someone's said that to me before."
"Ouch," he teased as he slipped off the bed and started to put on the clothes she handed to him. "Not the only dude who gets to wear your surprisingly baggy clothes?"
"Oh, shut up," she replied, laying down on her pillows.
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She woke up the next morning to light coming through her window, hitting her face. She groaned, turning to the side, unable to feel the blond she invited into her apartment the night before. Before she could scold herself for how reckless that was deciding to let a stranger know where she lives, a smell of something cooking clouded her senses, and she looked at her open bedroom door.
She slipped away to the bathroom, brushing her teeth before making her way to the kitchen. She heard soft chitchat. She leaned against the archway to the kitchen when she saw Roman and Josh standing next to each other, cooking away.
"Morning, boys," she said with a laughing scoff, crossing her arms. "This is interesting to wake up to."
"Yeah, Mystery Blond and I did some bonding since we both woke up before you," Josh said, peering over his shoulder at you. "I guess he's cool."
"Standing right here, dude," laughed Roman, turning around to place a nicely plated dish onto the table. He looked at her with a smile, and then averted his eyes back to the plate.
"For me?" she asked.
"Duh."
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When Roman had left, Lilah and Josh were still sitting on their dining table. They both gave him smiles and waves, and the blond vampire was out the door.
Lilah got up, grabbing the plates and bringing them to the sink. It was an unspoken rule in her and Josh's apartment that if one cooks, the other cleans.
"Did you mean what you said? About him being cool?" Lilah asked, looking over her shoulder at him.
"Uh..." Josh trailed off, his voice getting higher at the end. "Creepy timing of him and Lorelle showing up aside, he can make a mean omelette."
Lilah rolled her eyes at him.
"But you seem like you like him," Josh stated, giving her a side smile as he stood up and leaned against the counter near the sink. "Which is new. You haven't had a crush on anyone since like... me."
"God, you guys are never going to let me live that down, are you?" Lilah asked.
"Hayley wouldn't have," Josh responded, and they both shared a sad smile.
"Maybe if we can figure out how Lorelle came back with all of her vampire-siphonerness, we can also bring back Hayley," Lilah said softly.
One of the things they found out when they talked to Lorelle at the Mikaelson compound was that she did indeed have magic. She had hardly practiced when she was alive, so when she woke up, she used the basic spells like locating to try to find remnants of anything familiar.
"Davina and I actually discussed that on the ride home without you yesterday," Josh said. "If she's right and this White Oak coven brought Lorelle back from the dead, than we all know Hayley and Elijah wouldn't want people to die just so they can be alive again."
"And Klaus?" she asked.
"We both know he might be cool with it," Josh joked. His face turned serious. "But no, seriously. Klaus and Elijah chose to die because they lived long enough, and it meant that Rebekah can be human and have a family, Kol's married, Freya got to live with her remaining siblings and have her own family. Hayley... Hayley was gone too soon, but she wouldn't want people to die for her."
After a moment of silence, Josh said, "So, back to this new development in the Lilah Love Life show..."
"Shut up, Josh."
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15 COMMENTS!
and here's some more of lilah's fake memories, a representation of what her life & the mikaelson's lives would've been like in a world without hope.
the scene with lilah and elijah taking the photo, and he told her that she reminded him of what he liked about being human, is a line that Daniel Gillies (Elijah obvi) talked about in an interview. he said that it was a deleted scene between him and elena, and while that scene was probably meant to be a bit romantic (daniel believes elijah had been in love w elena) i made it not romantic here. to find the interview just search up 'Vampire Diaries' Stars Candice Accola & Daniel Gillies On Nina Dobrev | MTV News
aftermath focused on lilah trying to take back her teenager days that was ripped away from her, and ofc the salvatore school is a safe place so there's no dark magic, no vampires feeding on human blood, so it's nice to write her back in new orleans where she's able to embrace the parts of her that—for a lack of a better word—alaric seems to withhold from the salvatore school supernatural in an attempt to protect them and offer a safe space. as much as i love lilah's story with hope, it's really fun writing this "fake" world. what's going to suck is when josie gives everyone their memories back and the mikaelsons remember two different versions of lilah, and she remembers two different versions of herself.
also, the scene with her and roman and the clothes is a parallel to the scene from side character, after klaus and hope tried to torture roman and lilah was giving him clean clothes! the "isn't it usually a guy..." line is exactly what he had said to her two years prior.