Nuna
The very first object of his youthful affection.
Wild eyes peeking out from underneath her frayed curls, she asked why he never ventured further than the brush along the river bank. Elijah droned "Father would not like it"
Father didn't like very much
He had picked the twigs from her hair as she meticulously listed the things his conservative nature was depriving him of. Clearings, meadows, even a pack of coyotes that resided in a place close to her village. Though Elijah knew very well he would never test the parameters of Mikael's lenience, he still entertained her - and himself - with "perhaps one day"s.
Perhaps one day he would step foot outside of the safety of his family's land, test the waters in Nuna's world, which she promised was free and welcomed anyone with arms wide open. Until then, he lived vicariously through his restless companion and her endless stories.
The stories came to an end after a toddling Rebekah unwittingly divulged the information of his visits with Nuna to their father. Mikael had spluttered as he hurled his ax to the ground, going into one of his episodes where he was completely unreachable. He yelled about 'abominations' and 'filth' until his voice scratched his own throat.
"My son, loitering with animals"
Eventually Esther had managed to coax him into their home, as Elijah shushed his child sister and silenced Kol's exhorting with a withering look. He hadn't the time to ponder his own emotions when he tended to his siblings
The subject of Nuna was far from over, for Mikael believed in and relied heavily on belabor to get his point across. Elijah was told to never associate with "feral girls" - the ones that toss aside order and run with the wolves. Mikael had declaimed the words like an extremist's hymn: avoid those that reek of defiance, those 'worth less than the dirt caught beneath their nails'.
The notion rooted in his mind and he followed the paradigm with religious dedication. When he was born anew, he raised himself as steady as dead legs could manage, straightened high enough to reach the pillar of impossibility and found himself a god among men.
Orderly, imperious, dignified - he choose to accept the paradox of his existence as poetic: Elijah Mikaelson, the highborn monster, defender and patriarch of his family.
But a title cannot keep you warm at night, the epiphany dawned on him after centuries of a self-imposed emotional exile. He and all of his morals were dragged out into the sweltering heat of reality, or rather, a new reality, by a girl his father would've dismissed as filth.
"Tell me I have a choice" now you have a choice
His mind ran until he had no more reasons, no more metaphors, no more excuses to hide behind. The guise of unwavering nobility had allowed him to thrive for a thousand years and now, due to a sudden malady known as Hayley Marshall, it had failed him. A thousand years of tried and true regulations gathered in the back of his throat, threatening to stifle the life from him.
How could he return to his tragically poetic lifestyle of depravity when love herself stood in front of him, arms already around him, offering bountiful amity and intimacy?
- no more starvation
He didn't care that she was a feral girl, with twigs in her hair and an air of defiance - no, that was a lie - he adored the truculent pull of her muscles, her scent marked by earth. Rebellious, temerarious, free.
He had always appreciated wild things.