Who: Lydia and Kol (feat Aiden) What: Lydia runs into Kol while being ‘Haunted’ When: Oct 30 Where: Outside Starbucks Rating: low
After having woken up naked next to Theo and having the ghost of Aiden saying all his thoughts about that, Lydia was trying her best to function today. On the one hand, she was glad to know what her premonition earlier in the month had been about. On the other hand, she was still being haunted by Aiden who refused to leave her alone.
Lydia was torn. She missed Aiden deeply and she had loved him. On the other hand, she had moved on and it hurt knowing he was hurt that she was with someone else. Or rather, he said that it hurt she was dating Theo.
It was like Stiles all over again.
Lydia was walking out from the Starbucks without a coffee in hand, having abandoned it. “If you think I want to stand in line while you talk about how hot the barista is, you have another thing coming to you.”
Aiden ghosted through the glass door. “What? I thought we were moving on.”
Lydia rolled her eyes. She had no idea she was on a trajectory course for someone else.
Something was certainly going on around Madison Valley. While Kol was gratefully not affected, he knew others around town were. Not that he cared about any of them. There were only a select number of people in this place that Kol gave two shits about and as long as they were okay, Kol could care less about anyone else. Besides, most things that happened in Madison Valley were temporary. Whatever was bothering those poor souls was bound to disappear eventually and then everyone would be complaining about how boring this place was again.
Kol wasn’t one for coffee, but he happened to be walking by when Lydia made her grand exit from Starbucks. He barely caught her statement (something about a hot barista) before she was practically crashing into him. Instinctively, Kol reached out, hands catching her arms to steady her despite both of them having good reflexes. There was a brief moment, a flash of his hands being in roughly the same position from their little Renaissance excursion, before Kol shoved the thought aside.
It didn’t help that she smelled good. Quickly releasing her, Kol stepped back. “Easy, darling.That smoldering barista in there got you that hot and bothered?”
She blinked. Before she could even think about how it was strangely nice of Kol not to just tell her to watch where she was going or how it might have felt familiar, Aiden was talking about.
“Did he just call you darling?” The ghost werewolf scoffed. “Who does he think he is? Prince Charming?”
Lydia rolled her eyes without thinking about it and then realized belatedly that Kol couldn’t hear or see Aiden. Great. “I - not the barista.”
Aiden looked between the two of them. The former Alpha werewolf had a sudden realization flood his face and he walked up to stand next to Kol. “Wait a minute. Do you know this guy?” A streak of jealous claimed Aiden’s face. “Have you slept with him too?”
Lydia’s shoulders tensed. It was really more the ‘too’ that bothered her about his comments than anything else. She turned her head so she was sending daggers to Aiden which looked, no doubt, from Kol’s perspective that she was glaring at an empty space. “No, I did not sleep with him! Is that all you can think about?!”
Seriously. She shouldn’t have been surprised that the man she loved came back and all he was concerned about was who ‘had’ her rather than spending any time just being with her. Men’s egos were so damn fragile and even more so when they were supernatural ‘bad boys’.
Given that Lydia rolled her eyes around Kol constantly, the gesture didn’t surprise this ‘supernatural bad boy.’ It would have been more surprising if she didn’t do it. Still, it felt like Lydia was off. Like something was distracting her and clearly it wasn’t the hot barista. Or Kol. The original vampire knew the redhead despised him as much as he despised her. Was whatever was happening in town happening to Lydia?
“Okay…well, then.” Kol decided the best thing he could do was leave. If she was dealing with weirdness, him being present was bound to make it worse for both of them. Plus, the original vampire didn’t want the headache. However, before he could leave, Lydia exclaimed she wasn’t sleeping with him. And is that all he could think about. What?
Kol briefly looked confused. Okay, he’d said nothing about sleeping with Lydia. Plus, she’d glared daggers at air. There was someone else she was talking to. The pieces fell into place and while Kol didn’t deal with ghosts so much himself, he recognized the signs of being haunted. Some witches were capable of seeing ghosts and Kol preferred the company of witches back home.
“Given I said nothing about banging you, love, I’d say someone is being haunted by a clearly jealous ghosty,” Kol replied smoothly. “And judging by the way you glared at air and your shoulders tensed, I’d say this one has given me a run for my money in holding the honor of getting under your skin.”
For a brief moment Lydia was suddenly glad Aiden and Kol couldn’t be in the same room together to actually talk. She had a feeling they would either kill each other or, perhaps worse, get along in a way that would be so entirely insufferable that Lydia would have to scream. Thankfully it was not the case, though Lydia felt bad for being thankful even in some minute way that Aiden wasn’t actually here.
She paused. It was at least nice that Kol didn’t think her crazy - at least about this.
Exhaled, her shoulders slumped a little like she was acquiescing some bit burden. “A former boyfriend. He died, back home.” To save Scott. To prove he wasn’t a bad guy. In doing so he had left a vivid mark on Lydia’s heart she buried away most of the time. Theo had helped a lot in healing the mark to something less bright and fiery hot.
.
No, Kol didn’t think she was crazy because she was being haunted by a ghost. In his mind, she was crazier for other reasons. And not even crazy really. Just annoying and insufferable in her own right. But he was certain she felt much the same way about himself. Their moment in that different reality was just that…a moment.
Kol watched as the redhead’s shoulders slumped and he knew she was about to tell him exactly who her jealous ghost was. The vampire could not help the smirk that tugged at his lips as she admitted it was a boyfriend who died back home. Oh, he was good. Then again, it was pretty obvious after her whole declaration that Kol was not banging her.
“Explains the jealousy,” Kol replied. “Then again, what former boyfriend wouldn’t be jealous at the mere thought of a handsome bloke like myself sleeping with their former girlfriend?” Truthfully, Kol said it because he knew exactly how she’d respond. No doubt there was another eye roll in his future, but he was starting to find them amusing if nothing else. He couldn’t fathom someone being that envious of who Lydia was sleeping with. She was beautiful, but the equation was never that simple where the heart was concerned. His comment was in mere jest and nothing more.
“How long has your paranormal pal been bothering you?” He added.
Lydia did, indeed, roll her eyes and it was timed so well she was able to catch both Kol’s comment and Aiden in her gesture of rebuke. Aiden clearly took offense to Kol’s words and let out a lame “You’re not that handsome.”
Men.
“Since yesterday. I got a premonition about this a while back, but like usual I had no idea what the premonition actually meant.” Which was annoying. She almost mentioned Elijah too, but she didn’t want to ruin whatever potential friendship she might actually have with the other Mikaelson… unless he started to talk to his family. “At least the two of you can’t see each other otherwise I’d have to bear witness to a ridiculous fight.”
Aiden started to protest that it wouldn’t be much of a fight at all and Lydia was sure Kol was going to do the same thing. It would be curious to see how a vampire from Hope’s world would fare with a werewolf from hers, but since Aiden had died an Omega and not an Alpha, it wouldn’t be the same sort of competition. Lydia wasn’t curious enough to wish a fight that Scott had to bear either.
Lydia couldn’t take Aiden’s yammering and snapped, looking to the side of Kol again. “He’s a vampire, you idiot.” A pause. “Yes, I know you’re a werewolf. And you’re a ghost.” She felt a pang of hurt in her chest and for the briefest of seconds the hurt flashed in her eyes before Lydia’s typical veneer came back.
“Like usual? Does that mean you always have premonitions in which you have zero idea about what they actually mean?” It amused Kol that she actually had a rare gift and yet couldn’t put the pieces together for what any of it meant. Plus, because of that, she couldn’t avoid this annoying boyfriend Casanova.
“Though I am almost always itching to kill something, you wouldn’t bear witness to any fight, darling.” Kol had no idea that Aiden had said he wasn’t handsome. Instead, he figured Lydia was talking about Aiden and him fighting over her. Obviously, Kol had no interest in fighting for Lydia in any capacity…even if her former boyfriend was being a dick. “Your ghosty friend isn’t worthy of my attention let alone my fist colliding with his face. As fun as it may be. Hell, you might even thank me if I could do it. Shut him up for a while.”
And, right on cue, Lydia snapped at Aiden again. Something about Kol being a vampire and this boyfriend being a werewolf and now a ghost. Kol was about to say something snarky again, but then he noticed the hurt flash in her eyes before her typical veneer fell back into place. However this bloke died, it clearly was bad. Not surprising. He sensed her world was just as dark and dirty as his own. And for a moment, Kol felt bad for her. A sliver of that person he’d been once upon a time in another version of Madison Valley came through.
“Lydia, darling. There are spells that can keep ghosts from speaking to you. Unfortunately, being a vampire, I can not cast them, but Hope can. Perhaps if you reach out to her, she can at least ward your home so you can sleep at night without him breathing down your neck. You and your boyfriend,” Kol replied, surprised at how gentle his response was.
She never thought she’d see two men try to assert their dominance while the other one couldn’t respond back, but here she was. She didn’t have time to dwell on what that meant for society or the male gender in general as the talk about Hope made her blink. She looked at Aiden and she felt her chest squeeze. Sure, he was being ridiculous about things, but did she want him to go away? Would he go away completely? She worried her bottom lip a little, mulling it over. She wasn’t sure. Maybe what she’d need to do was ‘sit’ Aiden down and give him some ground rules. She got that him having to see her with Theo was hard, but this was her life now. She was happy. Even if he’d be upset she wasn’t happy with him, he had to still be glad she was happy, right?
She’d like to think so anyway.
Lydia sighed and she rubbed her forehead. Later she’d realize Kol was being a little nicer than usual, but right now she was simply swept up in the whole what-the-fuckery to notice too much. “You’re right… I’ll think about it.” That made Aiden huff, but maybe it would help to make him actually listen.
“There are worst ghosts that I could have, so I guess I should be thankful. I guess you got out of this whatever it is unscathed then.” Which was probably lucky for Kol since he lived a lot longer than Lydia and she was willing to bet had a lot of ghosts who could haunt him.
Kol watched her chew her bottom lip as she mulled over his suggestion. Given that it had come from him, Kol highly doubted she’d take it. After all, they did despise each other. Even if this suggestion had actually come from a place of no malice, Lydia had zero reason to even consider it. Still, the vampire considered it a win for himself. He’d managed to be decent to the one friend of Allison’s he despised the most. It was progress.
“Fair enough, love. The option is out there. Maybe the threat alone will be enough for him to mind his manners a bit more,” Kol replied smoothly. Though, given Aiden sounded a lot like him, maybe it would only succeed in infuriating the ghost even more. Kol hated when someone threatened him and attempted to control him. Given how Lydia hinted they were alike, Kol guessed it was a real possibility that Aiden would feel the same way.
Kol shrugged. “For the moment. Given I’ve been alive a lot longer than you and pissed off a lot more people, I’ll take the reprieve.” And even if they decided to haunt him, Kol would have Hope set up wards around his place to keep them from being able to reach him. He wasn’t willing to listen to any of them. They had every reason to despise him and anything he said wouldn’t change their minds. Many of them he’d killed because he could.
“But I’ll leave you two alone. It sounds like you have loads to catch up on. Unless you decide to take me up on the offer. In either case, I wish you the best of luck. Try not to lose your sanity, love.” Of course, in Kol’s mind, Lydia probably already had.
It was a bit weird, she'd realize later, that she had an interaction with Kol where Kol hadn't reminded her he hated her or Lydia gave some sort of snide remark about his fragile ego. While there still had been jabs and eyerolls, they had been relatively tame. Maybe Hell was truly freezing over.
Somehow more unbelievably, Lydia answered with a "Thank you." And she didn't mean it sarcastically. "If I do, I'm sure you'll be one of the first to know." Though she had to wonder idly if Kol knew about her stint in an actual insane asylum, thanks to Theo, though not because she was actually insane.
She signed. "Come on Aiden. We need to talk." She turned and walked toward the park where maybe they'd have some privacy for a bit.