Short chapter is short, but still better than nothing!

Have fun!

Alex.


Somewhere in the 1700's

New Orleans. Louisiana.

Living with the Mikaelsons in retrospect was not that bad, they knew how to handle the landlords of the area and were generally in everyone's good graces. Elijah and Niklaus often could be seen helping with the building of the city that was to become New Orleans one day, playing the part of the helpful band of brothers that were always there to help. Meanwhile Rebekah and I decided to help the women and children of the village. Our combined work got us in good graces with the current governor so we had a pretty nice standing within the city.

Although extremely rare the Mikaelsons were a family and that could be seen with every thing they did. My first months with them were spent in observation as I needed to create an image of themselves as actual beings rather than TV characters. Niklaus had a short temper, that was a given, but I had realized that his short temper could probably be attributed to his fear of abandonment. Elijah was always proper, never a hair out of place and going great lengths to be just normal, or as normal as vampire could he also indulged in learning new things, what could he possibly learn I didn't knew, but he liked to ask questions about the place a lot. Rebekah was more laidback than her brothers and she took great pleasure out of living lavishly, not that I could blame her, it was probably what she deserved seeing how old she was, even thought she tended to act the age she appeared to have most times, there was something inherently brattish about Rebekah Mikaelson.

As the months kept passing and turned into years, I actually felt comfortable enough around the Mikaelsons to go back to my chatty confident self as opposed to the scared girl that Elijah had found in the forest that day, being with the Mikaelsons was not that bad after all, they tended to allow me my space and seemed to like interacting with me, although if I had to live with only my family around for as long as they had I would had probably welcomed an outsider too. My newfound confidence Rebekah found refreshing while Niklaus found it amusing. Elijah had mostly reserved his feelings about my newfound carefree attitude regarding my new life. Most of my hobbies remained the same, say reading and wondering around through the forest. I also had convinced Rebekah to teach me how to dance in the way that was done in the century as my moves were probably not permitted or decent enough for the current era, so we spent most of our evenings waltzing around in between laughs and generally just having a good time.


The fact that the Mikaelsons actually lived this kind of lifestyle for a while was an eye opener, I understood that the TV show didn't really show everything, and while it allowed people to have a general idea of the siblings, they had actually spent several years living like normal people as they helped built their city, of course their problems were there, in a sense, but it was refreshing to see how well they managed. Because despite it all they were a family that took care of their own, even if Niklaus often had a peculiar way of showing it.

"I don't think that will end well," I said as I watched Nik and Elijah arguing about something with some humans. Rebekah took a sip of her wine and shrugged.

"It rarely does" she said, I raised my eyebrows at her, but continued to sip my wine "How are you liking living with us?" she asked after a while, I smiled.

"It's nice having family again" I said softly, at that moment Elijah turned to look at us, he smiled slightly at us and returned his attention to the humans.

"He likes you," she said after a while, I looked down as I blushed.

"I'm pretty sure I annoy him on a daily basis Bekah" I answered, she laughed.

"That is not true, you've been with us for almost two years, you'd known if you annoyed him" she teased.

"He's really handsome," I conceded after a while, Rebekah smiled brightly. "But enough talking about your brother, he sure doesn't need the compliments, his head might swell, I heard that Mr. Dubois got a new shipment of books, we could find something amusing" I said as I stood, Rebekah rolled her eyes but stood too.

"Miss Laurent also got new fabrics last week" she said; I smiled.

"I could do with another dress, perhaps in green" I said; she grinned as we linked arms and walked outside.

We returned at night with several new books and the promise that our new dresses would be ready for the next week. When we returned the first thing that I could smell was blood causing me to stop abruptly and look at Rebekah, she was frowning, we walked into the house to find the two men that had been arguing with the guys slumped in chairs not quite dead yet.

"Oh, I was wondering when you two would be back, dinner is served" said Nik with a smirk, opening his arms to appear more dramatic, I looked at Elijah who was standing in a corner, an indescribable look on his face.

"What did they ever do?" I asked as I place my book bag on the couch, Rebekah wasted no time in pounding onto one of the men.

"They displeased me and Elijah, wanted to impose, you would have done the same love, now dig in" he said as he walked past me.

I approached the not yet dead man that Nik had reserved for me and let my instincts take over. Once I was over, Nik and Rebekah dragged the corpses outside so they could be burned, Elijah handed me a handkerchief so I could clean the blood off my face, I looked at him after I cleaned myself.

"Were they really bad?" I asked faintly, Elijah smiled at me.

"They surely had a few comments that Niklaus and I would have liked that they kept to themselves about you and our dear sister, you must understand that my brother and I do not take kindly to people offending our family" he explained softly as he took my hand on his, I couldn't help but to smile at him "Now, why don't you tell me about those books that you and Rebekah bought?" he said as we both sat on the couch. I grabbed my bag and started pulling several books out.

"Mr. Dubois said that I took all the good ones, but how could I not!" I said excitedly, Elijah smiled at me "I got Gulliver's Travels which is the latest book of Jonathan Swift, and also Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, there's also Fantomina and Other Works by Eliza Haywood, I'm pretty excited, I will start reading them tomorrow, you're of course welcome to join my readings if you wish so, I also fear that we will need more space for the books as my room is becoming quite clustered" I said with a smile, Elijah chuckled as he took one of the books that I had pulled out of the bag.

"If your room is getting too clustered you are allowed to move some of them to my room if you so desire too" he said as he flipped the book in his hands.

"I would not like to impose in your space Elijah" I said timidly, he lifted my chin with his finger and made me look at him.

"It is not imposing if I am giving you permission to do so Alexandra, I enjoy seeing you happy, in the past few months you've opened yourself to my family and I think that the day in which we will catch a full glimpse of the joyous young woman that you are is getting closer" he said with a smile, I smiled at him.

"I'm happy here" I said after a moment, Elijah caressed my right cheek, a strange smile on his face.

"But still scared of us somehow" he said, more to himself than to me "I give you my word Alexandra that none of us will ever hurt you" he said, I smiled at him.

"Forever and Always?" I asked causing him to smirk.

"Always and forever"