"Last one up has to wear the santa hat!" Rebekah yelled, grinning evilly as she arranged the four santa hats on the coffee table. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.
The microwave dinged, and the vampress flitted swiftly to check the temperature of Hope's morning formula. The baby sobbed, frustrated and hungry, lying back in her baby seat. "I mean it, you three! It's Christmas morning!" she yelled again, pouring the formula into a bottle and shaking it gently before finally giving the impatient Mikaelson Princess her breakfast.
Rebekah pouted for a moment before realizing she knew exactly how to get her brothers and Hayley up and ready.
Hayley first.
The wolf girl's bedroom was on the first floor near the makeshift nursery. Rebekah gathered baby and bottle in her arms and snuck down the hall, silently opening Hayley's door and slipping inside. She held a finger to her lips, looking down at Hope as if to say shh, now, don't wake your mommy! It'll ruin the surprise!
Damn her Hybrid senses - Hayley seemed to sense that someone was in the room and she rolled over in her bed, hiding her face in the pillows and grumbling incoherently.
Rebekah gently laid Hope down on the bed next to her mother, and let the little princess work her magic.
Hayley's eyes were open in an instant, and Rebekah stood, smug, watching as the wolf girl snuggled around her daughter, kissing her hands and feet and nose. "Good morning," she whispered to the baby before giving Rebekah a dirty look. "This was a dirty, dirty tactic," she accused. Hope began to cry for her bottle again.
"You said you didn't want to miss out on feeding her!" Rebekah feigned innocence, but she made no attempt to hide her devious and triumphant expression.
"Your Auntie Bex is an evil mastermind, baby girl," Hayley said, taking the bottle from Rebekah and cradling Hope in her arms so that the greedy infant could drink.
"Merry Christmas to you, too…" Rebekah said, prompting.
Hayley stuck her tongue out at the Original. "Don't you have two brothers upstairs to con into waking up?"
"As a matter of fact…!" Rebekah beamed and practically skipped out of Hayley's room.
Never one to knock when her brothers were involved, Rebekah bounded into Elijah's bedroom. "Eliiiii-jaaaaaaah!" she sang, closing the door a bit more loudly than necessary.
Something that faintly sounded like "sister, please" came from the mound of comforters that encased her brother.
"It's Christmas morning, big brother, stop being such a lazy-arse!"
A scruffy-haired head emerged from the blankets. Elijah's eyes were hardly even open as he glanced at the nightstand. He flopped back down immediately. "It's six o'clock in the morning."
"That's true," Rebekah said – too sweetly – and advanced towards the bed. She pulled her phone out of her pajama pants pocket and sent a quick text message before pulling up the camera app.
When Elijah heard the first faux shutter click of a picture being taken, he flinched nearly to the other side of the bed. She had only gotten a shot of the top of his head, but he didn't know that. "Rebekah, what are you doing!"
"Documenting the holiday for posterity."
Click click click "And Hayley. Just in case she hasn't seen what your hair looks like in the mor-"
Rebekah's phone was plucked from her fingers with supernatural speed. Rebekah wasn't upset – Elijah's glare sent her into a fit of giggles.
He was sitting up in bed now, his blankets thrown aside. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but he wore long dark blue pajama pants and rather ridiculously thick socks. His hair was a complete and total disaster, his rather long scruff yet to be trimmed into a tasteful five o'clock shadow.
Elijah tried not to smile, he really did. But the longer Rebekah laughed, the less resolved he was to try and be dignified in this situation. He sighed through his nose in defeat, running his fingers through his hair as he deleted the photos Rebekah had taken.
He threw her phone back to her as he rolled out of bed, pointing a finger at her in warning.
Rebekah gave him a toothy grin. Right before he turned to close the door to his bathroom, though, she snapped just one more photo.
"Rebekah!" Elijah growled from the other room. She heard the shower start up.
"Quit whining, Elijah, your arse looks great in it! The dress code is strictly pajamas, by the way! No brother of mine will open his presents on Christmas morning in a suit and tie!"
Two down, one to go, the Original vampire sister thought to herself as she rifled through Elijah's suitcase, made a selection, stalked confidently to Niklaus' door.
There was only one way this was going to go down.
In an instant, the door was flung open and Rebekah's hands were around Nik's throat.
The Original Hybrid instantly awakened, roaring and ready to fight.
By the time he had his attacker pinned against the wall, his hands at their throat, he recognized the blonde curls and snarky grin.
He relaxed his grip on her wrist and throat, but only slightly.
"Merry Christmas!" Rebekah said, as cheerily as she could with her limited air supply.
Klaus rolled his eyes and released her, furious, "Merry Christmas, says my bitch of a sister! Merry fuc-"
"Nik, watch your language around the baby!" Rebekah cried.
Klaus turned to see Hope and Hayley standing in the doorway. The little girl cooed into her bottle when she saw him, and he immediately put his hand over his mouth. "Bekah…" he growled like the wolf he was, hot anger building in him.
"And we wouldn't want her to see too much violence at such a young age," Hayley added.
Rebekah's eyebrows rose challengingly as she waited for Klaus' response.
Klaus dropped himself on the bed, groaning. Rebekah winked at Hayley, who returned the gesture gleefully. The vampress pointed to the bundle of Elijah's clothes she had dropped on the bed before throttling him. "Time to wake up and get dressed, Niklaus, we're opening presents in fifteen minutes."
"These are pajamas."
"Well of course they are, you idiot. I can't very well have you spreading Christmas cheer in your bloody boxers, now, can I?"
Klaus glared as his sister and Hayley snickered. He pulled on the pajama bottoms, but held up the button-down matching shirt with aversion.
"Fine, wear a tee shirt," Rebekah allowed, and she swore she saw a look of gratefulness in his frustrated expression.
"Thanks for getting my text," Rebekah smiled at Hayley as she left the room, letting Hope latch on to one of her manicured fingers.
"I would have come up when I heard crashing regardless, you know," the Hybrid woman laughed. Hope was almost done with her bottle.
"Yes, but you might not have brought our secret weapon with you!" Rebekah gave Hope's fingers a dramatic kiss, wiping off the pink lip balm after. Yes, she was still in her pajamas, but she would not caught dead or undead without looking fabulous on Christmas morning.
As the two women and the baby began to walk down the stairs, Rebekah yelled over her shoulder: "I'm making tea! And remember, last one down has to wear the santa hat!"
Twin groans answered her.
A few minutes later, a very smug immortal diva set two steaming mugs of tea in front of her sleepy-eyed immortal brothers. Hayley yawned, putting a few spoonfuls of sugar into her tea – herbal, not black like the others'. Rebekah gave Elijah a prompting nod, as if to say it's Christmas, you don't have to pretend to like it black.
With a sigh that only she noticed, her oldest brother ('oldest' of the ones she still cared about) discreetly splashed a bit of cream and sugar into his mug. Rebekah tried not to giggle when he immediately flashed a look to Hayley, as if she might have noticed – or cared.
But the Mama Wolf was entirely engaged with her pup – now a happy, well-fed baby girl. Everyone watched as Hayley danced her fingers – gripped tightly by Hope's own – around Hope's head, singing All I Want for Christmas is You in a slightly pitchy croon.
Elijah seemed to just now notice that Klaus was wearing his nightclothes. The elder brother gave the younger a quizzical look, and the Hybrid shrugged in Rebekah's direction, rolling his eyes.
"Now that everyone has their cuppa," Rebekah declared, "it's time for presents!"
All in all, it wasn't a terribly memorable batch of presents. At least, not compared to the pricelessness that was spending time with Hope.
Rebekah got Hope a designer wardrobe – as if she didn't already have one! "she'll grow out of what I have for her now and we can't have her crawling around in diapers."
Klaus and Hayley, though they hadn't known it at the time, had also prepared a gift for their baby girl. Hayley had brought an old rocking horse from Eve's shack to put in Hope's nursery months ago. When Hope was born, Hayley hadn't cared to notice that the little rocker disappeared. Klaus had repainted it with delicate realism, after sanding and finishing some of the worn edges. He had thrown it into the car right before telling Hayley they were going on a road trip. Hope seemed to approve – she put the handle in her mouth when they showed it to her. It wouldn't be long before she could put it to use.
Elijah had not been so lucky, though, and he promised his niece on bended knee and with many adoring kisses that his (many) gifts would find their way to her as soon as he could arrange it.
Neither of them would find out until later, but Hayley and Elijah had gotten each other the same thing – first editions of The Count of Monte Cristo, English for Hayley, and the original French for Elijah. Both remembered their long conversations about Elijah's friend Dumas, and how well he understood revenge. And it had not gone unnoticed to Hayley that Elijah's ancient copy had not survived the plantation fire.
Klaus laughed, almost embarrassed, as he ripped open the wrapping on a box set of The Sopranos on Blu-Ray. "Bekah," he smiled. "You have something to say about this?"
"Nothing whatsoever!"
Rebekah got Elijah a new special-occasions cologne – because "You smell like an old man!" "If I remember correctly, Rebekah, you were the one who got me what I use now" "IN NINETEEN-ELEVEN!"
Rebekah's gift to Hayley was a sterling silver wolf pendant, stylized in a chic origami-like silhouette.
"And I'm letting you all off the hook for presents, because this was unexpected and I cannot hold you accountable for not being fabulously prepared for everything, like me."
She crossed her arms and smiled. "But I expect damn good birthday gifts."
Everyone assured her that they would, indeed, make it up to her.
"You can start making it up to me right now," Rebekah's sculpted eyebrows rose, and her gaze fell upon the santa hats on the coffee table.
"Suddenly I find myself missing Mother's torture," Elijah quipped as a fluffy red hat was thrown into his lap.
"Sweet of you to say, darling," Rebekah stuck her tongue out. "Now be a good boy and make yourself useful at the piano."
She shooed Elijah into the next room, as Hayley took a chance and tugged a santa hat over Klaus' head when he was looking down at the baby in his arms. Rebekah cheered the wolf girl in her head – Hayley was probably the only one who could have done that without getting bitten.
Elijah was richly embellishing traditional holiday songs in no time. Rebekah and Hayley didn't notice at first, since they were standing at Elijah's shoulders, but Klaus had begun to sway and swing to the music, dancing tenderly with his little girl. When Hayley felt Rebekah's tap on her back, and turned to see, it was as if a weight was lifted from her. All week she had been witness to it, but it was only now that she let herself believe that yes, Klaus really is in this with me. He really is in this for her.
A few Christmases ago she had lured twelve people to their deaths at this man's ruthless hands. His hands were so gentle, now, though, and his smile so desperately loving, as he held his daughter.
He was even mouthing the words to the carol. Both women took note of his rather sacrilegious adaptation…but it could not have been more appropriate.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till she appeared, and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of Hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn…