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Tweak says, "Time isn't made out of lines"

abby has been twelve for a very long time (becauseihaveto) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2012-06-01 11:45:00

Entry tags:

abby, elijah mikaelson

WHO: Abby and Elijah
WHAT: Elijah has a thank you gift for Abby for her help while he was human.
WHEN: After the sun has set, following this. [Backdated]
WHERE: Elijah's apartment.
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

Although Elijah had insisted that he needed to thank her properly for her help when he'd been turned human, Abby was still hesitant to actually show up and accept whatever his gift might be. It wasn't that she didn't trust the elder vampire. She did. It wasn't that she thought the gift wouldn't be something nice. She was sure it would. She just felt slightly uncomfortable accepting something from him when all she had done, in her opinion at least, was what he would have done if the situation had been reversed and she had turned back into the girl she'd been before her life had been so irrevocably changed.

However, the fact was, uncertain or not, Abby was still going to show up as he'd requested. Not only was he someone she considered a friend, and therefore would never intentionally stand up, he also was far older than she was. And while the rules from her own reality didn't necessarily govern her behavior here, it had been ingrained into her from early on that she was to respect her elders no matter her personal feelings. It was part of what terrified her so much about the thought of the vampire who had created her showing up her, because if he did she would feel almost compelled to return to him despite her best efforts over the last century staying as far away as she could.

Of course, Elijah wasn't the vampire who had turned her. He wasn't anything like him at all. Which meant if she really wanted to cancel their meeting, she probably could with no real repercussions. But, once again, he was a friend and therefore she had every intention of showing up. Her feelings were a bit mixed on the subject, true, but she was fairly certain she would be fine with it by the time she arrived at his door.

And, sure enough, about an hour after the sun had set, she showed up at his doorstep and realized she'd been right. Her hesitation had slowly begun to give way to curiosity as she raised her hand and knocked, shifting from foot to foot as she waited for him to open the door and invite her inside.

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amanofhisword
2012-06-02 08:44 pm UTC (link)

Elijah did not have the words to express the depth of his gratitude for Abby's assistance during his time as a human. And, for a thousand year old vampire who always seemed to have a way with words, this was a sharp departure from the norm. Instead, Elijah had chosen to show his thanks through actions rather than words. Actions, he had found, were rather more honest than words in any case, even for someone who made a point of holding to what he said.

He hadn't really expected the Bennett witch to assist him, so he was hardly surprised when she tried to place unnecessary and frankly impossible conditions on her acceptance of his request. He had simply thought it best to ask her first, before moving on to seek assistance from someone not of his own world. Still, Loki's help had proven invaluable, and now he had the perfect gift to express his thanks to his young friend.

Abby was important to him, and he felt that their relationship worked because she was younger than him, both in terms of her physical form and her actual age. He could only imagine how difficult it must be for her, to be treated as a child by those centuries her junior. That was not the case with them. Giving her this means to move more freely, and to have back something stolen from her centuries ago, was but a small way of showing how much her friendship meant to him. He only hoped that she would appreciate the spirit in which the gift was intended.

He was on his feet before Abby had even knocked, opening the door mere moments after she had done so. To some, the action might have been off-putting, but he hardly had to playact at being human around her. She knew what he was and those slight oddities would hardly faze her. "Hello, Abby," he said, stepping aside so that she could enter his flat. "Please, come in."

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becauseihaveto
2012-06-04 02:38 am UTC (link)

Smiling when the door opened and she was invited inside, Abby stepped through the doorway and pulled her hood away from her head. Just as she didn't feel the cold, she also didn't really feel the heat, and more often than not wore her jacket out even when it was summertime. It earned her odd looks from time to time, of course, but she found it much easier to travel under cover of darkness with her head covered than to show the entire world that she appeared to be a child, on her own, well past whatever bedtime she might be assigned.

With Elijah, though, she didn't have to worry about things like that. He didn't look at her and see a child - at least, not the way others did. If anything, she imagined he saw her as being young in his eyes but also was able to keep in mind that she was hardly as young as she appeared to be. It was nice, to know people who didn't treat her as a wide-eyed, innocent twelve-year-old all the time. And it was especially nice to know that anytime he might treat her as being younger it was because he actually was older than she was and didn't just appear that way.

"Hello," she replied softly as she shut the door behind herself. Her hands automatically slid into the pockets of her jacket as she peered up at him. "How are you doing?" she asked, honestly a bit concerned. It couldn't be easy, shifting from a time-displaced human back to himself like that. She didn't even want to think about the way she would have reacted, in his situation. It definitely wouldn't have been pleasant though.

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amanofhisword
2012-06-04 06:12 am UTC (link)

Elijah watched with a small smile as Abby made herself comfortable. He understood, of course, why she covered herself the way she did - it couldn't be easy to be trapped forever in the body of a child - but he was glad that she felt at ease enough around him to forgo the protections she used with most people. Then again, he wasn't really most people. To be honest, he felt rather removed from most of humanity, though he supposed that was something of a consequence of both his age and the fact that he was not human and had not been for quite some time.

Looking at Abby, he saw a young woman who was certainly his junior, but not the child most people saw. In many ways, she reminded him of Rebekah, and he supposed that was part of the draw for him. Yes, his sister had been a fair bit older than Abby, both physically and mentally, but there were certain aspects of the girl's character that were shockingly reminiscent of Bekah. It made him smile just to think of it. For all her flaws, he did love his sister and miss her dearly. Being around Abby gave him back something of that, and it helped to stave off the loneliness of being once more without his family.

"I am...much better than I was," he said carefully. He always chose his words carefully. He wasn't precisely good, and he wouldn't lie and say so, but he was better than he had been as a human. "And you? I hope you're doing well? I apologise...I would offer you something, but I hardly have anything here that you would be able to have." He paused a moment. "I do have the gift I spoke of though. I do hope you'll like it. I just wanted to do something to repay your kindness and show you how truly grateful I am."

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becauseihaveto
2012-07-04 03:53 am UTC (link)

At the mention of the gift he'd gotten for her, Abby once again felt her curiosity vie with her desire to ensure him that he didn't have to get her anything. She managed to bite her tongue on the last bit, having already said as much before and knowing that to say so again wasn't going to have him react any differently than the first time around. So instead she continued to smile, considering his question about how she was doing for a moment before answering.

"I'm glad I can lie again," she said honestly. Abby wasn't one for lying outright anyway, and especially not to those she trusted, respected, or cared for, so she wasn't about to start now. "I don't do it often, but it definitely makes feeding easier." Not that others hadn't been great with helping her hunt while she'd been forced to be brutally honest with everyone she encountered, but Abby had finally gotten used to hunting on her own - rather than relying on humans in her life to do it for her, as she had back home - and she was loathe to give up that bit of independence now that she'd found it.

"And you don't have to offer me anything," she tacked on as almost an afterthought. Her eyes shone with amusement as she added lightly, "I'm not sure I'd know how to react if you had a human waiting for me to feed from, really. It would definitely be a first, even for me."

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amanofhisword
2012-07-04 05:33 am UTC (link)

"I can only imagine how a compulsion to be honest must have limited your ability to fulfil your needs," Elijah said, considering her situation. "There are not many who would stand by and allow themselves to be killed. In that respect, it is easier for my kind. Compulsion is quite a useful tool when it comes to stopping our prey from fleeing." Because, for all that he was more controlled than many of his kind, he could still acknowledge that humanity was, first and foremost, prey.

"I am glad you have regained your ability to lie," he told her with a small smile. "I certainly did not mind helping you when you needed it, but I don't expect you enjoyed having to rely so heavily on others." He knew that Abby was fairly independent, or as independent as she could be, and being forced to rely on other people just to get by could not have been easy for her. "Still, if you ever wish for company, I would not be opposed to coming along."

He was quiet for a moment, then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a box. Holding it out to her, he gave her a small, fond smile. "I cannot promise that it will work for you," he said, "but I wanted to at least try. I imagine you will have an easier time taking advantage of certain prey if you are not limited by the presence of the sun." If Abby opened the box, she would find a delicate ring set with lapis lazuli, the same kind of ring vampires from his own reality used to ward off the sun. He hoped that it would work for her, and he hoped that she would appreciate the spirit in which the gift was intended.

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