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Imagine for Lovemonkey97 . Sorry for the long wait. Hope you enjoy.
This an crossover imagine with The Originals and Teen Wolf.
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"Why are we here again?" Hayley asks, moving a hand over her small bump slowly as she follows the two vampires down the street. Klaus shakes his head as a car speeds by them in a rush.
"Yes, Elijah, please enlighten us." He comments, gesturing around when the trio comes to a sudden stop in front of a small art gallery. Elijah smiles.
"Curiosity." He replies simply, absentmindedly as he stares through the glass walls, remembering the way he used to picture buying this exact gallery from the previous owner. He turns back to Klaus with a faded stare. "Do you remember her?" He questions, confusing his brother instantly before he points towards the hand-painted sign to their left.
"Arica's place." Hayley reads aloud for them and then looks back to Elijah with a frown, which is met with a wide grin from Klaus.
"Arica Hale." He notes and pats his brother on the back lightly. "After all these years, brother, she still has you under her little spell." He comments, prompting an eyeroll from the well-clad brother.
"Who is she?" Hayley asks, looking into the gallery as well.
"An old lover, one could say." Klaus explains and smiles even brighter when the reply causes Elijah to roll his eyes. "Although Elijah has always been convinced that she was something more." He explains.
"But she left before anything could come of it." He says, pulling at the sleeves of his blazer. "It took me years to find her. I should've known that she'd come right back here. Back to where it all began." He explains and pulls at the glass door to open it, the little bell signaling his entrance. "Wait here." He says, a hand on his brother's chest to stop him from following.
"Don't I get to see what became of the ever-famous girl who got away?" Klaus questions, voice low as he goes to no trouble to try and hide his amused gaze.
"Niklaus."
"Very well, but I can't promise that I won't be listening in anyway." Klaus informs him and shrugs as he takes a step back. "I just want to be in the know." He adds, Elijah's reaction missed as he walks into the gallery, eyes taking in the many paintings scattering the walls, all signed with her own name and he can't help but smile.
"Derek is that you?" Her voice fills the small space as she calls out from the back room and if possible, Elijah's smiles grows larger. "You're two hours late." She adds and the sound of her shoes clicking against the tiles is the only other sound as she makes her way into the showing area of the gallery. Pausing when she sees the back of a man who is certainly not her brother, for he would quit frankly never be caught dead in a suit. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else." She says, voice shifting to sound more professional. Elijah smiles at the sound, turning around slowly.
"That's quite alright." He tells her and her face pales with the sight of his, years having passed since she last saw him and yet he looks exactly the same. From the subtle fold in the comb of his hair to the shine of his formal shoes. Elijah Mikaelson.
"Lijah?" She questions softly, voice quivering from her lips as she takes in every part of him, like he's another piece of art in the gallery, he could surely pass as such. "What are you doing here?" She asks, the initial shock fading into nervousness as she looks back to the backroom quickly, thinking he wouldn't notice.
"Is something wrong?" He asks, eyes furrowed as he steals a quick glance behind her as well, shoving a hand into the pocket of his pants as he looks her over carefully, realizing how long her hair has gotten and how much she's matured in his absence.
"No." She answers too quickly and starts fiddling with her fingers. "No, just surprised is all, it's been years." She explains and Elijah frowns when her heat beat rises just a little too much, making him frown.
"Mom, when is Uncle Derek coming?" A little voice questions, a little boy running out from the back until he stills next to Arica out of breath, smiling up at her and then at Elijah when he notices him. "Hi." He says and Elijah smiles as he looks down at the boy.
"Hello there." He starts, bending down to be at his level. "I'm Elijah." He notes and looks at the boy carefully, not being able to ignore the fact that he could be looking at a little version of himself by the way the boy shares most of his own features.
"I'm Roux." The boy replies happily, shyly taking hold of his mother's skirt, her hand moving to his hair as he looks over at the man with the same level of curiosity. Elijah nods, smiling slightly as he stands up. "You look like the man from the picture." The little boy notes and giggles softly. "Mom loves the picture." He adds, looking up at him mom when she softly plays with his hair.
"Mommy is busy with her friend right now." Arica starts and straightens the boys shirt. "Why don't you go clean up your toys in the back in case Uncle Derek comes." She offers and the boys nods with a smile, turning to Elijah and waving.
"Bye." He yells as he runs away, leaving Arica and Elijah alone.
"I can explain." She begins and steps forward slowly, the smell of his cologne surrounding her when she does and he raises a brow, looking between her and the room where the boy disappeared into.
"Arica, is that my child?" He asks and he sees the color drain from her face all over again, a sudden rush of fear changing her scent. He softens his gaze despite his unavoidable irritation and his own shock, taking the smallest step towards her. "Please answer me?" He adds as a question although it's much more of a soft demand than anything else. She swallows loudly, seeing a car pull up in front of the gallery.
"Yes." Is all she says, hands moving to adjust her jacket when the gallery door opens slowly.
"Sorry I'm late." The large brown-haired man announces as he stills at her side. "Crisis at the high school." He adds and frowns when his eyes lock with Elijah's. "Everything okay in here?" He asks the woman next to him, yet not removing his gaze from the vampire's.
"Everything is perfectly fine, Derek." Elijah answers and shoves his other hand into his pockets, moving his blazer to the side in the process. "No need to bring out the claws just yet." He adds and Arica rolls her eyes, knowing that he's trying to rile Derek up and also knowing that he'd succeed quite easily if history had taught her anything.
"Don't start, Elijah." She says and he watches her amused as she takes a key from her pocket and hand them to Derek. "Roux is waiting for you, go out the back, I'm pretty sure Klaus is roaming my parking lot." She says and Derek moves to object, she scoffs. "Just go, I have this handled." She adds tiredly and Derek reluctantly obeys, making sure to get in another cold stare towards Elijah on his way.
"I see the shock has passed." Elijah notes and almost smiles when the girl turns back to look at him, her nerves from earlier clearly not in control anymore as she looks him over slowly.
"You're very calm." She notes in return, heart beat rising a simple beat when their eyes lock. "I'd thought you'd be angry." She comments and he nods.
"I certainly have questions. I'd say most could be answered by speaking to the right witch when I go home." He tilts his head. "I'd admit that if I had known I would've liked to be apart of his life, even in the smallest way. But I'd be foolish to think that he would've been save anywhere near my family." He admits and her gaze softens.
"You would've had to be around us twenty-four-seven." She adds softly and looks away. "Besides, we were merely fooling around at the time, I couldn't ask that of you." She attempts to hide the blush creeping onto her cheeks as a reaction to Elijah's laugh. A melodic sound that has been but a distant memory for so long.
"I'll admit, in my life I had many encounters with beautiful woman that only wanted to provide one thing." He says, removing one hand to move it around as he talks. "Then again none of them had been around for nearly as long as you had. "He says and softly grips her hand when he stills in front of her, the actions causing her to take in a slow breath. "And I certainly wouldn't have travelled cities over just for the mere possibility of seeing them." He admits and she slowly raises her head to look at him, smiling when she is met with a delicate smirk on his lips.
"You mean you cared for me?" She asks and he all but rolls his eyes at her statement, not knowing it was possible for him to have been so unclear with his intentions that after all these years, she still had no clue. He moves his hand upwards on her arm, delicately folding his fingers around the side of her neck, shivers forming through her spine as a result.
"I was in love with you, Arica Hale." He announces simply, voice like velvet as her name slips over his tongue. "You think I'd have let you go if I wasn't? You think Niklaus would've let you live if he hadn't known that killing you was as good as injecting white-oak right into my veins?" His eyes darken as he looks at her, face inches from his own as he allows every feature to sink in, rebrand itself into his brain just in case.
"Elijah..." She whispers, not trusting her voice to do anything else. She folds her fingers around his wrist desperately. He smiles. "I thought I was the only one who felt like that." She admits a little louder voice shaky at the thought of finally coming clean. He shakes his head slowly, hand moving to mimic the other as he holds her close.
"So did I." He rests his forehead against hers. "What a fool I've been." He says and kisses her softly before pulling away. "I will not be making the same mistake again." He announces in the calming commanding tone he does and she smiles as they separate from each other completely.
"You mean, you'll stay?" She asks and smiles with joy at the pure idea of having him here in her small town, void of any of his enemies.
"For as long as you'll have me." He admits staring at her for a moment before looking over the gallery with a smile. "We'll discuss the rest when we have to, but for now at least, I'm not letting your slip from my grasp ever again." He announces simply and Arica laughs softly at the determination.
"You can meet Roux properly." She says and her eyes almost sparkle from excitement.
"I can."
"And we can go back to the distillery where we met."
"We can." She giggles lightly, linking her hands in front of her.
"We can be happy, Elijah..." She announces and he retakes her hand in his, smiling as well. "You can have the family you've always dreamt of." She adds and he nods, the moment interrupted when the gallery door swings open.
"Well, look at that!" A loud voice exclaims, words diluted by his English accent. "Arica Hale." Klaus says with a laugh and looks down to where his brother's hand hangs entwined with the girl's. "It was love after all." He says and looks up to meet the pairs gaze. "Remind me that as soon as I undagger Rebecca, she owes me twenty bucks." He says with a shrug and the room fills with soft groans as well as Klaus's soft chuckle. Hayley rolls her eyes as she softly hits the hybrid's shoulder.
"Shut up, Klaus."
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Wow. It has been a literal year since I last wrote for Elijah and as Elijah for that matter, I'll admit it was a slight struggle getting back into his shoes. And I don't know why, but my brain instantly slips into narrator mode when I'm writing for this little vampire family, so that was a little adjustment moment as well. Anyway, I hope you liked it, Arica. Be sure to tell me what you think and sorry again for the wait.
Lots of love. Mxx.
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