Who: Elijah and Finn What: Sibling Time When: Backdated to shortly after Elijah's transition Where: Local restaurant Status: Completed Rating: Low
Having a witch for a sister allowed marvelous things. Such as the fact that he hadn’t needed to avoid the sun for more than a day or so before Freya had provided him a daylight ring. And it was glorious to be able to roam freely, experiencing the world with such heightened senses.
Freya was worried about him, he knew that much. And perhaps she was right to be so. Whatever Elijah had said about his ability to maintain self-control dreaming and actually experiencing were two very different things. But he was determined and, as with all Mikaelsons, when his mind was set on something he usually got it. So, when Finn had reached out about having lunch, Elijah had readily agreed. A perfect chance to test himself.
Arriving at the restaurant first, Elijah was shown to a table and sat, studying the menu as he waited for his brother’s arrival. Not that he actually needed any food but that didn’t mean he wasn’t still able to savor the taste.
Since Elijah had come back to town, Finn had wished that he had seen more of his brother. However work and the dreams had been keeping Finn rather busy. Freya was the only one of their siblings that he’d seen most often, because on occasion she would stay at his place, but once things had begun to settle down, Finn called his younger brother to set up a time to get together for lunch.
Arriving at the restaurant, Finn was shown to the table where Elijah was already sitting, a smile spreading across his face as he saw his brother, “I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
“Not very long, Brother,” Elijah assured him, lowering his menu to offer a warm smile in greeting. “I only just arrived, but I was trying to decide what would tempt me most on the menu.” But that could wait a bit longer.
“How have you been? You seem to have kept yourself busy as of late.”
Finn returned his brother’s smile, happy to see him after so long. There had been the occasion meeting in Paris, when Elijah had been in town, but aside from that it had been a long time since they had been in the same city to stay. “I’m good. I have, yes. It hasn’t been intentional, but unfortunately some things have come up that I’ve needed to deal with as of late.” Gaining control of his blood lust had been one of those things, but as he’d dreamt and the years had gone by in his dreams, he’d begun to gain the control that his dream self possessed so he was now able to be out amongst humans without getting the overwhelming urge to feed. “And what have you been up to recently?”
“Spending quite a bit of time with Freya, actually,” Elijah answered. It had started even before the onset of Elijah’s dreams but the memories and then his recent transformation had necessitated a witch’s intervention. And Elijah was quite grateful for that. It would have been quite hard to deal with this transition whilst also being cut off from his family.
Elijah hesitated a moment, gaze lowering to the hand so nonchalantly resting on the table, and a ring with a blue stone. Then he glanced back up at his brother. There had been a rather significant development as of late.
“It seems that Freya is the one we all spend the most time with,” Finn could understand that completely since Freya didn’t seem to judge any of them for any of the things they did or would tell it like it was if they were doing something stupid.
Finn’s gaze followed Elijah’s to the ring on his finger before his own gaze did the same, spotting the ring on his brother’s hand. Of course before he could say anything, their waitress appeared to ask if they wanted drinks.
“A glass of the 2010 Francois Leclerc, for me,” Elijah requested, leaving Finn to order his own drink. But from the expression on his brother’s face, he had already figured it out. Which was fine, it just wasn’t something that should be discussed so openly. Undoubtedly the waitress would think vampirism an odd topic.
“Freya has made it one of her missions, apart from her non-profit work, to ensure that her younger siblings are well cared for.” That, at least, was an innocent enough statement. And a true one.
Finn hadn’t been sure what he was going to order, but Elijah’s choice sounded like a good one, “I’ll have the same. Thank you.” Vampirism certainly wasn’t something to talk about in front of the waitress; even if they could simply compel her to forget.
“She certainly has.” Like Freya, Finn had also grown up making sure that their younger siblings were well cared for, but somehow it always seemed to work better for Freya, “So...how long?” He asked, gesturing towards Elijah’s ring. If Freya knew, he had expected that she would have told him that Elijah had turned, but at the same time, he suspected she may have wanted to leave it up to their brother.
“Not very long,” he promised. “Not months or I certainly would have mentioned it before now.” He didn’t intentionally keep secrets from his siblings, after all. But they were a rather busy lot and announcing one’s change didn’t seem quite an appropriate announcement to make via text.
“Freya also cautioned me to be careful during the transition as emotions are heightened. It I seem to be controlling it rather well, if I do say so myself.”
“You seem to have more control than I did when I first transitioned.” Finn was reminded of the man he’d accidentally killed just after he’d turned when he had been unable to control his bloodlust. While he didn’t quite despise what he was, like he did in the dreams, he hated the fact that he had ended someone’s life because he hadn’t been able to control himself. “I wasn’t quite so lucky.”
“I can be quite determined when I wish to be,” Elijah answered. “Not that it has been easy but I will not take an innocent life.” He had a thousand years of memories in his head and through all of it he had been called the honorable brother, the one who was fair in his dealings. It was something he had taken pride in. And, though the two worlds were not the same, he could not lose that core of his identity.
“Did it get easier for you to control as the dreams progressed?” Finn didn’t quite know if he had simply gained more control on his own or if it was the dreams, but considering hundreds of years had passed in his dreams, he highly suspected that the time and control from the dreams had had a hand in it. “You should know that I, accidently, took a life shortly after I turned.” Finn still felt guilty over that incident.
“It happened almost overnight for me,” Elijah confessed. “I dreamed of life in what became Mystic Falls, when we were human still, and happy...the next dream that I had spanned a thousand years. I suppose I woke with the control that my dream self developed over the centuries.”
Still, his gaze wasn’t unkind. “I am sorry, Brother. I know that is not something you would ever wish.”
“You’re lucky. Mine came in bits and pieces.” The waitress returned to their table with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order. Finn had barely even glanced at the menu and asked for a few more minutes. Once she left, he spoke again, “Have you dreamt about Italy in 1114?” If a thousand years had passed then surely he must have bypassed that time by now.
A short nod. “I remember it quite well,” he assured Finn. “And of Niklaus’s decision to keep you daggered after he woke the rest of us.” A decision that had stood for the better part of a millennium.
“At some point in the intervening centuries he disappeared, becoming paranoid to the point that he no longer trusted even me. The last that I dreamt, I had feared you and our other siblings were gone forever. Niklaus daggered you all, advising me that you were scattered across the sea floor.”
Somehow it didn’t surprise Finn that Klaus had undaggered everyone and not him. It also didn’t surprise him that he’d then redaggered Rebekah and Kol. “Paranoia. That sounds like Niklaus.” Part of him believed that Klaus would dump them all into the ocean, but at the same time he didn’t think Klaus could do that to his family. After all, they’d made a vow; Always and Forever. “I have a feeling he has us stashed away somewhere.”
“If you have dreamed farther than I have you may well be right,” Elijah answered. “It was 2009 in my last dream but I had no hope. Niklaus had thoroughly convinced me that it was futile.” He sincerely hoped that Finn was correct, though.
“No, I have yet to reach that point. The last thing I dreamt was being daggered by one of The Five.” Finn could only imagine what had become of Sage after he’d been daggered. She had accompanied him to Italy after all and he only hoped that she had made it out safely and had lived on without him. “He likely wants to see if you’ll simply believe him or challenge him.”
“Niklaus is controlling,” Elijah admitted. “At one point or another he daggered most of our siblings for any transgression on their part, real or imagined. And if he imagined that a threat to our family would inspire submission on my part he was very sadly mistaken. I was at his side for centuries, Finn, hoping that our brother could be guided to the goodness I thought resided within him.”
Finn nodded in agreement, “You can say that again.” As Elijah spoke about guiding Klaus to the goodness inside him, Finn was reminded of the last time he had seen their brother, when he had come back from whatever trip he had gone on and no matter what Finn had said, about caring about him, Klaus had rebuffed him each time. He knew that Klaus had been upset about something that night, but he still wished he could have gotten through to him. “I think it’s there. It’s just buried very far down.”
“I am glad you see it, too.” Elijah offered Finn a small smile. “Else I would have thought I was on a fool’s errand.” Not really but it had been trying, being at Niklaus’s side for a thousand years and continually pushing him to be the better man Elijah could see within.
Finn knew that Klaus could be a better man, both in and out of the dreams, but their brother needed to want it for himself first, “I think we all see it and want that for him. We’d be lousy siblings if we didn’t want that for him.” While Finn had always been closer to Freya and Elijah, he had always tried to be there for his younger siblings, Klaus especially, but sometimes he hadn’t been able to and he knew that that was where his and Klaus’ problems were.
“We may not always be the best of friends, but we are always there for one another.” It was true, even before Elijah had begun dreaming of always and forever. But it resonated all the more strongly with him now. His dream self had applied that logic mostly to Rebekah and Niklaus but in the real world, it applied to all of his siblings. All of them had high priority.
They may have all been in different places for the last couple of years, but they always came back together, considering Freya, Finn, Elijah and Klaus had all come back to the OC within weeks or a few months of one another. All they were missing was Rebekah. “Always and forever.”