Everything in Kol's life is a right and proper mess of late. As per usual, his family is in heaps of trouble for one thing or another at the center of this particular catastrophe: His seven year old niece, Hope. If anything can bind the Mikaelsons together quicker than anything, it's a threat to one of their own, and when the choice is the child of the family? Well. A line beyond any return has officially been crossed.
Panic, concern, uncertainty, they're all building in dangerous levels among each member of the family. Every idea comes up to a dead end with no further leads to follow just yet. The whole thing is driving Kol mad.
He wanders into the drawing room, pours a hefty glass of bourbon and downs the whole thing in one go. "There has to be something." He growls out, his words punctuated with the heavy clunk of the glass being set on the hard wood of the tabletop nearby.
So, there was this werewolf girl, abandoned at birth, tossed out of her adoptive parents home the second she transformed and tore up the entire house. She was rebellious, distrusting, and would do what ever it took to meet her own ends. She was loyal to her wolves and everyone else could kick rocks for all she cared, if they asked she'd say as much too.
A drunken tango and nine months later, her life had changed. She had changed, she'd grown a little softer in some ways, and much more savage in others more so when it came to her new family. That little thing they'd names Hope. Now that something out there had stricken the child the Mama wolf was in a state of unrest. Though not with out the grace she had gotten with age and years upon years of fine tuning.
They were banging around in the drawing room again, she had just changed Hope's clothes and laid her in bed. She knew it would be soaked from fever sweats in an hour or so but, she couldn't stand to let her littlest wolf lay in wet clothes. She still had the dress that Hope had had on in her hands when she heard Kol. Pausing by the door. " We'll find it, whatever it is, we will find it." Spoken though she'd not quite entered into the room yet.
He hears her footsteps, quiet as she is on her feet. Some part of him knows that she's right. Knows that they always do what they have to, for their own. But the promise of it feels hollow while they're still sitting empty-handed and does nothing to quell his frustrations.
"We need to find it faster," he snaps as he spins to face her. No one can possibly feel that more than the woman in the doorway, but it doesn't stop the words from spilling out of his mouth just the say. Frustration is not something Mikaelsons handle well, and this is no different. Kol feels at a loss yet, and he doesn't like being so damned unsure of things.
" Don't you think I want that more than anything in the world?" she said not pushing off the door frame. " The point is pacing around here banging on the tables and yelling at the moon isn't going to give us that." she brought a hand up to push her hair behind her ear " Look, I appreciate how much you love her too, but you're making me more anxious than I already am."
She looked down to the small purple and black dress. " She's burning up, I have tried everything I can think of outside of shoving her in tub full of ice.." her steady voice had wavered.
His mouth is poised open, as if to retaliate, but the whole intent deflates and he heaves out a sigh instead. "I know," he says softly, walking over toward her. "I just wanted to be useful for once." And it wasn't about saving the day, or being the family's hero. It was just.... his niece needed him. Needed them. And he couldn't offer one damn thing to help her.
"You and I both know that won't fix it, because it isn't a natural sickness." Normal, human methods of fever breaking can't work on a supernatural cause. Treat the symptoms, sure, but he isn't sure it would even touch it at this point.
She looked up from the little dress and to him tears etching the edges of her eyes. " You're here, Kol." there was a half smile from her. " And I know that was hard for you to do with..." she waved her hand over her shoulder a bit " Klaus being pretty high on the list for the crappiest sibling ever.. but you put that aside to be here."
" I also know that when she wakes up she's going to be over the moon to see you here." she brought her hand up wiping a tear from her cheek. " I know it won't, but I don't know what to do."
"If there is one thing that defines being a part of this family, it's that no matter how much we might hate each other at any given time, when given a reason we can set that all aside to step up when it counts." They had done that much repeatedly through the centuries. "But you're not wrong," he says, letting a beat skip before he tilts his head to look at her. "He's the worst." His lips twitch up into a smirk at the tiny jab at his brother.
That smirk turns into something more genuine when she says that. "You think so?" He catches her wrist between his fingers and pulls her hand down, gently brushing his thumb under her eye. "It'll be okay, I promise. She will be okay." It isn't much, but at the moment, assurances are all he has.
She cocked her head fixing him with a little 'come on now' smile. " Look at you, playing coy. You know she adores you." though the humor was lost some where between his hand on her face, and the way he was reassuring her.
Kol had such a reputation for being ruthless, blood thirsty and taking the party way way too far, but some how he could be so gentle. It was enough to make her heart skip a beat. " I know, she's a strong girl. we'll get her through this."
"Does she? Or is it the idea of me?" How well does Hope truly know him at this point, anyway? He hasn't exactly been here for her entire life or anything-- he was dead for part of it, in all honesty. Still, the fact that Hayley says as much means more than she probably realizes. She's not one to mince words or spare feelings in place of the truth, and if she truly thought otherwise, there's little doubt that she would say so.
Every monster has their moments, apparently. "You should rest... let someone else take shift with her for a bit, okay?"
Kol takes up that shift, sitting at his niece's bedside, pressing a cool rag to her forehead as she sleeps, still uncomfortably feverish. They'll find a way, he knows they will.
As he goes to re-wet the rag, there's a sudden scorching sensation at his wrist, as though he's being burned from the inside out. He hisses and the rag drops to the sink, which is still running as he jerks his hand up to inspect whatever is causing it, only to see what appears to be ink, slowly spreading across the inside of his wrist.
He doesn't know what to make of it, even if he knows what it means. Soul-bonded tattoos weren't exactly new, so he knows instantly that his match has been found. Who it could be, he isn't sure.
He shakes his head and goes back to tend to his niece again.
Well, she's seven. So, of course Hayley would keep a lot of the ugly truths from her for a little while at least. Eventually, she would need to know it was there, she was a tribreed after all.
Hayley was apprehensive about taking a break, but she knew he was right. She needed rest, and relented with a nod. " If anything changes...come get me." she said before turning down the hallway to her room.
She had gotten a little sleep before that burn woke her. " Ah!" came from her before she sat straight up grabbing her wrist. " what the hell?" asking to no one as the ink spread forming that mark on her inner wrist. Most things wolf she knew, but this? This wasn't something she was familiar with, and after all the bullshit she'd been through regarding the witches, a curse mark is the first thing that comes to her mind.
She is out of bed and coming down the hallway, if a curse was what it was... well shit, she couldn't be around the people she actually gives a crap about. Not until she found the witch and the why. Klaus would be too irrational to speak with, Rebekah was no where around... Elijah... well Elijah was Elijah and she would rather no one else was involved.
He hears her footsteps before she speaks and he's in the hallway when she calls for him. "What is it?" His eyes are wild, his voice concerned. He's hardly the one Hayley would come to for most matters, after all.
She moves toward him " I'm sorry to ask this, but .." she swallows turning her eyes to him. " I need you to watch over Hope." she said turning away. " I have to go..."
"What?" A frown crosses his features. "What are you talking about? Where are you going?" He can't imagine any reason she would want to leave Hope right now. She wouldn't. She'd never, especially not at a time like this.
"What hex? You didn't have one earlier, or did you just fail to mention it, at the time?" He can't fathom what could have happened in such a short time. Surely they would have caught wind of something like this before...
"Hayley, wait." He frowns and reaches to grab her shoulder and spin her around, inspect the mark left by the hex and at least get an idea of what what they're dealing with.
" I was asleep, it woke me up burning into my skin." she's pretty confused as to who she pissed off this time. Why they would pick *now* to enact their revenge.
He reached out to her shoulder and it was like electric, this warmth and when he spun her around she had this dumb founded look on her face. " I don't want to hurt anyone here, except Klaus sometimes but this is deeper than that." but she did pull up the sleeve of her shirt showing that mark on her wrist.
Unfortunately, revenge has no timecard, and people generally do pick the worst moments to lay it upon you.
He's about to say something, probably snarky or charming or that weird combination of both only Kol can manage, when she pushes her sleeve up and shows him.
Now it's Kol's turn to have a dumbfounded look on his face as he blinks and stares at it in confusion. "I don't...understand." Except, that he does. He does rather instantly, and he doesn't know what to feel about it. He shows her the inside of his own wrist, bearing the same mark. "It's-" He sighs and shakes his head, "It's not a hex, Hayley... it's the mark of a soul bond."
" I don't either." she said quickly " That is why I have to..." her eyes move to his wrist and in a rare moment the wolf with a mouth is gob smacked. Lips parting as if they really want to say something, but nothing comes.
Her eyes pull from the ink on his arm that matches hers and look to him. " Kol..." finally comes out. Almost breathless, part of her was screaming that is was nothing like that, that magic didn't exist. Yet, she knew it did. Hell, she'd been bonded to Sofie. Her eyes shifting awkwardly " So, So what does that even mean?"
"You don't know?" His eyes slide up to her face again as he realizes she has no clue the meaning of it. Well, this is awkward.
"It's leftover from a ritual done centuries ago. It's a soul bond, Hayley, as in soulmates." He drops that and leaves it and lets it sink in before anything else is said at all.
Awkward indeed to have to be told about magic's equivalent of the birds and bees like this. She'd heard somethings like this about Stephan and Elena but even then thought it was just a lot of crap, that was before everything though.
" I won't pretend like I don't have an attraction to you..." she began " But we don't have to fall in love and all the other stuff, nor are you obligated to me in any way. No, not just because some witch had a bag of bones and some herbs and said so."
The supernatural world is made up of a lot of fucking bullshit, Hayley.
"No, it's not... necessarily the start of a love story," he admits. It's easy enough to avoid that aspect, but there are other things, as well. "But it might draw us together in other ways. I've heard before that there's a possibility of a sort of... emotional tether in the whole thing? I don't know much about that, it was half-rumors and centuries ago... whatever we do with it, we're linked, in a way."
She looked thoughtful for a moment. " so, not much will change. " I am Hope's mother and she is a Mikaelson, we're all in this crap show together." she said.
" Emotional tether? Don't we already sort of have something like that?" she didn't understand that it went deeper than just the bond they all share as family esc unit that they were.
"No," he shakes his head slightly. "it's more literal than that. I don't know how to explain it, but if it's true, then you feel it soon enough." He doesn't know if that comes with time or it's more instant, he's never seen a soul bond happen in all his years. It's been little more than something of a rumor for centuries. Not that he ever really doubted it, but he didn't think anyone would spark it appearing in him.
"I can't imagine feeling the emotions of two people at once is pleasant." He says, unhelpfully, his tone a bit flat. That's hardly the least of their problems right now.
" I've..." the brunette started before shifting her head up to look at him. " I've felt an attraction, like a pull towards you in the last few weeks." there is a soft smile. " I thought it was just the way you are with Hope, and how you've made time to call her and talk with her."
Hayley is quiet for a moment mulling over what he's said. " It sounds like an advanced type of linking spell." a small step towards him. " The bigger question is what are we going to do about it?"
"She's my niece, of course I'd make time for her." He says it like it's obvious, a given and not something that ever had any other possible outcome.
"More or less, yeah." He nods a bit at her summation. That point earns a small, half-hearted smile that falls just a little flat. "I don't know... What do you want to do about it?" He tips his head a little. "I don't like the idea of being someone's obligation." A necessity. A prophecy. Only chosen for the soulmark.
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{Every story begins somewhere
Date: 2020-06-03 11:53 pm (UTC)Panic, concern, uncertainty, they're all building in dangerous levels among each member of the family. Every idea comes up to a dead end with no further leads to follow just yet. The whole thing is driving Kol mad.
He wanders into the drawing room, pours a hefty glass of bourbon and downs the whole thing in one go. "There has to be something." He growls out, his words punctuated with the heavy clunk of the glass being set on the hard wood of the tabletop nearby.
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Date: 2020-06-04 12:09 am (UTC)A drunken tango and nine months later, her life had changed. She had changed, she'd grown a little softer in some ways, and much more savage in others more so when it came to her new family. That little thing they'd names Hope. Now that something out there had stricken the child the Mama wolf was in a state of unrest. Though not with out the grace she had gotten with age and years upon years of fine tuning.
They were banging around in the drawing room again, she had just changed Hope's clothes and laid her in bed. She knew it would be soaked from fever sweats in an hour or so but, she couldn't stand to let her littlest wolf lay in wet clothes. She still had the dress that Hope had had on in her hands when she heard Kol. Pausing by the door. " We'll find it, whatever it is, we will find it." Spoken though she'd not quite entered into the room yet.
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Date: 2020-06-04 01:14 am (UTC)"We need to find it faster," he snaps as he spins to face her. No one can possibly feel that more than the woman in the doorway, but it doesn't stop the words from spilling out of his mouth just the say. Frustration is not something Mikaelsons handle well, and this is no different. Kol feels at a loss yet, and he doesn't like being so damned unsure of things.
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Date: 2020-06-04 01:30 am (UTC)She looked down to the small purple and black dress. " She's burning up, I have tried everything I can think of outside of shoving her in tub full of ice.." her steady voice had wavered.
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Date: 2020-06-04 01:54 am (UTC)"You and I both know that won't fix it, because it isn't a natural sickness." Normal, human methods of fever breaking can't work on a supernatural cause. Treat the symptoms, sure, but he isn't sure it would even touch it at this point.
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Date: 2020-06-04 10:59 pm (UTC)" I also know that when she wakes up she's going to be over the moon to see you here." she brought her hand up wiping a tear from her cheek. " I know it won't, but I don't know what to do."
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Date: 2020-06-09 11:18 pm (UTC)That smirk turns into something more genuine when she says that. "You think so?" He catches her wrist between his fingers and pulls her hand down, gently brushing his thumb under her eye. "It'll be okay, I promise. She will be okay." It isn't much, but at the moment, assurances are all he has.
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Date: 2020-06-10 01:58 am (UTC)Kol had such a reputation for being ruthless, blood thirsty and taking the party way way too far, but some how he could be so gentle. It was enough to make her heart skip a beat. " I know, she's a strong girl. we'll get her through this."
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Date: 2020-06-10 03:42 am (UTC)Every monster has their moments, apparently. "You should rest... let someone else take shift with her for a bit, okay?"
Kol takes up that shift, sitting at his niece's bedside, pressing a cool rag to her forehead as she sleeps, still uncomfortably feverish. They'll find a way, he knows they will.
As he goes to re-wet the rag, there's a sudden scorching sensation at his wrist, as though he's being burned from the inside out. He hisses and the rag drops to the sink, which is still running as he jerks his hand up to inspect whatever is causing it, only to see what appears to be ink, slowly spreading across the inside of his wrist.
He doesn't know what to make of it, even if he knows what it means. Soul-bonded tattoos weren't exactly new, so he knows instantly that his match has been found. Who it could be, he isn't sure.
He shakes his head and goes back to tend to his niece again.
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Date: 2020-06-10 11:07 pm (UTC)Hayley was apprehensive about taking a break, but she knew he was right. She needed rest, and relented with a nod. " If anything changes...come get me." she said before turning down the hallway to her room.
She had gotten a little sleep before that burn woke her. " Ah!" came from her before she sat straight up grabbing her wrist. " what the hell?" asking to no one as the ink spread forming that mark on her inner wrist. Most things wolf she knew, but this? This wasn't something she was familiar with, and after all the bullshit she'd been through regarding the witches, a curse mark is the first thing that comes to her mind.
She is out of bed and coming down the hallway, if a curse was what it was... well shit, she couldn't be around the people she actually gives a crap about. Not until she found the witch and the why. Klaus would be too irrational to speak with, Rebekah was no where around... Elijah... well Elijah was Elijah and she would rather no one else was involved.
" Kol?" she called from the hallway.
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Date: 2020-06-11 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-11 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-11 02:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-06-11 09:00 pm (UTC)She took a breath, " It's okay, I'll find the witch." she nodded more to her self. " Might be able to find something to help Hope too."
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Date: 2020-06-12 11:10 pm (UTC)"Hayley, wait." He frowns and reaches to grab her shoulder and spin her around, inspect the mark left by the hex and at least get an idea of what what they're dealing with.
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Date: 2020-06-12 11:36 pm (UTC)He reached out to her shoulder and it was like electric, this warmth and when he spun her around she had this dumb founded look on her face. " I don't want to hurt anyone here, except Klaus sometimes but this is deeper than that." but she did pull up the sleeve of her shirt showing that mark on her wrist.
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Date: 2020-06-12 11:44 pm (UTC)He's about to say something, probably snarky or charming or that weird combination of both only Kol can manage, when she pushes her sleeve up and shows him.
Now it's Kol's turn to have a dumbfounded look on his face as he blinks and stares at it in confusion. "I don't...understand." Except, that he does. He does rather instantly, and he doesn't know what to feel about it. He shows her the inside of his own wrist, bearing the same mark. "It's-" He sighs and shakes his head, "It's not a hex, Hayley... it's the mark of a soul bond."
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Date: 2020-06-13 12:07 am (UTC)Her eyes pull from the ink on his arm that matches hers and look to him. " Kol..." finally comes out. Almost breathless, part of her was screaming that is was nothing like that, that magic didn't exist. Yet, she knew it did. Hell, she'd been bonded to Sofie. Her eyes shifting awkwardly " So, So what does that even mean?"
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Date: 2020-06-13 11:58 pm (UTC)"It's leftover from a ritual done centuries ago. It's a soul bond, Hayley, as in soulmates." He drops that and leaves it and lets it sink in before anything else is said at all.
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Date: 2020-06-14 02:17 pm (UTC)" I won't pretend like I don't have an attraction to you..." she began " But we don't have to fall in love and all the other stuff, nor are you obligated to me in any way. No, not just because some witch had a bag of bones and some herbs and said so."
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Date: 2020-06-16 10:38 pm (UTC)"No, it's not... necessarily the start of a love story," he admits. It's easy enough to avoid that aspect, but there are other things, as well. "But it might draw us together in other ways. I've heard before that there's a possibility of a sort of... emotional tether in the whole thing? I don't know much about that, it was half-rumors and centuries ago... whatever we do with it, we're linked, in a way."
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Date: 2020-06-18 01:52 am (UTC)" Emotional tether? Don't we already sort of have something like that?" she didn't understand that it went deeper than just the bond they all share as family esc unit that they were.
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Date: 2020-06-23 05:01 am (UTC)"I can't imagine feeling the emotions of two people at once is pleasant." He says, unhelpfully, his tone a bit flat. That's hardly the least of their problems right now.
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Date: 2020-06-23 05:21 am (UTC)Hayley is quiet for a moment mulling over what he's said. " It sounds like an advanced type of linking spell." a small step towards him. " The bigger question is what are we going to do about it?"
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Date: 2020-06-26 03:08 pm (UTC)"More or less, yeah." He nods a bit at her summation. That point earns a small, half-hearted smile that falls just a little flat. "I don't know... What do you want to do about it?" He tips his head a little. "I don't like the idea of being someone's obligation." A necessity. A prophecy. Only chosen for the soulmark.
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