A/N: A series of one-shots in which Katerina and Elena are children and Elijah is their father.

Jeremy's Crib

July 14th was both the happiest and most devastating day of Elijah Mikaelson's life. Happiest, because it was the day that his two children- Elena and Katerina- came into the world. He had no fonder memory than holding them for the first time, so small and fragile, looking up at him with their big brown eyes. He could not help but cry with joy as he looked down on them. But joy was not the only reason Elijah cried that day. July 14th was also the day that his wife- Tatia Petrova Mikaelson- passed away. Elijah never blamed his daughters for their mother's passing. How could he? They were not but innocent children. One might think it would be hard on him, seeing as the two girls were the spitting image of his late wife (it was supernatural, really, the way they resembled her so perfectly), but if anything it only made him love them more.

Katerina and Elena were so identical that people often had trouble telling them apart, but never Elijah. From day one he always knew one from the other. However, as they grew older and began to develop distinguishable mannerisms and traits, it became easier for everyone else to tell them apart as well. For the first two years, their brown hair fell in soft waves down their backs, as Tatia's once had. Once they neared their third year, however, Elena's hair began to naturally straighten out, while Katerina's began to curl into perfectly sculpted spirals. It also became obvious from their behavior, even at a young age. Elena was sweet; Katerina was sneaky. Elena followed the rules; Katerina made up her own. Elena was the sun- bright and cheerful. Katerina was the moon- mysterious and intriguing. Both equally beautiful. But despite their differences, their bond was unbreakable.

Once, when the girls were four years old, Elijah took them to visit his sister-in-law, Isobel. She and her husband Alaric had had a son, Jeremy, and Elijah had yet to meet him. Between his job and being a single father, he did not have much spare time to travel from Mystic Falls to New York (where Isobel and her family lived). Once there, Elijah made the mistake of leaving the twins in the living room with Jeremy (who was in his crib), in order to go see Alaric's knife collection. He figured leaving them in the living room was the more favorable option, as he did not want them anyway near a room full of deadly, sharp objects. Unfortunately, Elijah forgot to account for Katerina's constant need to get into places she knew she should not. So when Alaric and Elijah ran into the living room at the sound of a bawling Jeremy and Elena shouting "Papa!" repeatedly, the Mikaelson trio made their first trip to the hospital since the twins' birth. As it turned out, Katerina had broken her arm.

When Elijah first ran in to see her sprawled on the floor and asked what happened, Elena said she pushed Katerina. Later, once everything had calmed down and they were at the hospital, Elijah took Elena to the cafeteria, making sure Katerina was under Alaric and Isobel's supervision, and asked her again what happened. "I-I told you, Papa. I pushed her and she fell over." She stuttered.

"You tuck your hair behind you ear when you are being deceptive, Elena. You lied to before and you are lying to me now. So I will ask you one more time. What happened?"

Elena stumbled on her words for a moment before sighing in defeat. "Kat tried to climb in Jeremy's crib and fell." She mumbled, looking at the floor. Elijah nodded in understanding and pursed his lips in the way he would whenever he was frustrated. "Are you mad at me, Papa?"

Elijah kneeled in front of Elena and brushed her hair out of her face. "Of course not. You did nothing wrong. I just wish you would stop trying to cover for your sister all the time."

"I know," Elena shuffled uncomfortably, "I just didn't want her to get in trouble." Elijah chuckled. "What?" Elena looked at him with confusion in her big, brown eyes. She thought she was being scolded, and now her papa was laughing?

"I just wonder if Katerina knows how lucky she is to have you for a sister."

Elena smiled, but it faltered as another thought occurred to her, "Is Kat gonna' get in trouble?"

Elijah sighed. He knew that Katerina should be scolded for trying to climb into Jeremy's crib, but with the way Elena was looking at him, he wasn't sure he would able to bring himself to do it. Some might argue that the broken arm was punishment enough, but knowing Katerina, it was unlikely that that would be enough to teach her a lesson. "How about Katerina gets no desserts for a week?" He said, knowing that Elena would just end up splitting her treats with Kat when he wasn't looking, but it didn't really matter. Elena thought about it for a moment before deciding that the punishment her papa proposed wasn't too severe and nodded in agreement.

Elena held her father's hand all the way back to the hospital room, but as soon as she saw Kat sitting up on the bed, she broke free from him and jumped up to join her sister, who happily scooted over to make room. "Look at my cast," Katerina said, showing it to Elena, "isn't it cool?" Elena nodded in excitement and the two went on talking and giggling about the whole incident as their father stood on the other side of the room watching them in adoration. Even when Isobel joined his side, he did not take his eyes off the pair. "I don't know how you do it," she smiled. "You're so good with them. God,"
she sighed, "they look so much like Tatia. She was so excited to be a mother, you know." Elijah glanced at Isobel through the side of his eye and recognized the reminiscent twinkle in her eye. Tatia's death had hit Isobel hard, but the Petrova's prided themselves on being survivors and Isobel was no exception. She made it through the ordeal just fine, and though she stilled missed her sister, she was now able to think of Tatia and smile, instead of cry. "She would be proud of you, you know," Isobel added, "for being such a good father." With that she walked back to where Alaric was sitting beside the girls' bed showing them a card trick.

People often asked Elijah how he did it- being a single father and CEO of a large company. But he never knew how to answer that. How could he explain to someone that it isn't something he "does"? That everything he did for them was guided simply by his love for them? And even then, how could he put into words just how much he loved his children? Every time he tried he came up blank; there was only one way he could think of to convey how dear they were to him. To Elijah Mikaelson, those two girls were everything.

A/N: I know that Katherine's birthday is June 5th, and Elena's is August 22nd. So since I wanted them to be twins I made a new birthday and put it in between their real ones. I love Kalijah as a couple, but after I saw that post about Elijah scolding Katherine for stealing Elena's cookies I couldn't deny how cute he would be as a dad and how adorable their family would be. And I decided on Katerina instead of Katherine because how can you not just love the way that names rolls off Elijah's tongue. (Also, seriously considering turning this into a series of sneak peaks into their life as a family. Not a full fic, just a collection of one-shots).