It was about a week later, and Poppy and Elijah were sat in the Grill, the former drinking her cinnamon latte and the latter sipping on his tea. Every once in a while, Poppy would ask him some sort of question and he would answer, but for the rest of the time, they were just silent and enjoying the atmosphere. Well, the blonde was enjoying a bit more than just the atmosphere, but who knew what was going on in the Original's mind…
Now that she thought about it, Poppy truly didn't know much about the guy. She frowned as she studied his face. He was looking outside towards the park just across the street and didn't notice her curious and intense stare. She was still wondering about how he could possibly keep such a solid, cold poker face all the time. Taking a drink from her latte, she finally decided to break the silence.
"What are you thinking about right now?" she asked him.
He turned his head to look over at her before turning it back. "Always and forever…" he said quietly to himself, just loud enough for Poppy to hear.
She raised her eyebrows at him in question. "What's gotten you to thinking about that, exactly?" she asked, knowing the story about the promise that him, Rebekah and Niklaus had made so many years ago.
"Perhaps it's the inevitable doom of my brother… I can't help but remember the days where everything was much simpler," he explained to her. She frowned, but nodded, sort of knowing where he was coming from, what with all the crap that Elena had hid from her lately.
"So obviously you three were the closest." Poppy said, studying his face. He was currently refusing to look directly at her, which she didn't really like. He nodded though, continuing his stare at his tea. "What about Kol? And Finn, was it?"
He frowned and finally looked up towards her. "I've never mentioned either of them to you."
"Um… Of course you have, Elijah. How else would I know that Kol is practically a diagnosed bipolar on crack and Finn is a real momma's boy?" Poppy asked, very confused. She bit her lip subconsciously as she looked at him.
Elijah's frown deepened when he heard this. How did this girl get any of this information? He told almost no one about his other siblings, them being such sore subjects. The thousand year old looked around the room making sure that no one there would over hear their conversation. Damon Salvatore was sat at the bar and hadn't seemed to notice them yet, so Elijah left some money on the table before dragging Poppy out with him.
She sighed and rolled her eyes, nearly tripping over her own feet as her short legs tried to keep up with his long ones.
"Elijah," she groaned in annoyance, looking back sadly to her mug that was sitting half full on the table. "Where are we going?"
"We're going to your house. I'm taking you back and there we can speak more about what you know," he answered. How was it that some ignorant teenage girl knew all of these things about him? Just a week ago, she had been nothing but an annoyance, but now Poppy was basically all that he could think about. What was it about this girl that made her so special?
Meanwhile, Poppy was trailing behind him wondering what exactly was going on. They hadn't exactly gotten all of the information when they went to Jonas about her necklace… Perhaps there was something that he didn't say that related to this? She sighed when she realized that the day was a blur, especially since she found out that she wasn't a true Gilbert. If Elijah really hadn't told her anything about his two other brothers, then there had to be a reason why she still knew about them.
They both got into the car and Poppy looked towards the park with all of the happy children and couples out walking their dogs. Not too long ago, she was just as happy as they were. Just as clueless to the world around them. Just as blissfully unaware as they were now.
Poppy reached her hand up and started to mess with her necklace, tracing the 'P' softly with her index finger. The pendant was interesting in itself. It was flat metal and tear shaped, holding many imperfections that made everything work together for it to look old and be unique to any other piece like it. The 'P' itself was laid on top of that, leaving it to pop out a bit on the metal, one of the many reasons why she enjoyed tracing over it so much. All of the curves and dents and detailed marks on it only made Poppy love it more.
They finally arrived at her house after a very quiet ride, both of their minds full of questions to be answered.
Poppy entered the house and dragged Elijah upstairs to her room so they could talk without anyone {Elena} eavesdropping. She sat on her bed and Aurora immediately hopped on her lap, making her smile. Lately, she'd hardly been able to see her sweet little living creature. It seemed to be a side effect to spending time with thousand year old vampires.
"Poppy, what exactly do you know?" Elijah asked her once they were settled. She only shrugged in response. Honestly, she had no idea.
"I'm not sure, really. Ask me a question or something," she told him, now tearing her eyes from her cat and instead looking up at the man in front of her.
He paused for a moment before asking, "How many siblings do I have?"
"Six, two deceased and three unknown. The other one, being Niklaus." Poppy answered quickly without even needing to think about it. Her eyes widened when she heard what had come from her mouth. What the hell? How did she know this? She was certain that he hadn't told her about any of his siblings other than Niklaus and Rebekah…
Elijah frowned, but continued. "What are the names of my family, oldest to youngest?"
"Mikael, Esther, Freya, Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah, and Henrik," she answered again. Poppy couldn't believe her own ears when she heard it. Her hands covered her mouth for a second, looking wide-eyed. How was this happening?
"Elijah? What exactly is happening to me?" Poppy asked, biting her lip nervously. He had a look of concentration on his face as he was trying to understand what was happening to the perky blonde in front of him.
"I have no idea…" he said. Then he turned away from her and walked around the room. The walls were white and so was almost everything else, but all of the throw pillows and picture frames and such were coral and mint green. Just above her light, unstained wooden headboard was a huge photo gallery, so full you couldn't see the paint on the wall, that went all the way to the ceiling. She had a window seat, completely covered in throw pillows, but still tasteful. In the corner of the room, Elijah could see a tower for the cat. The dresser was the only colored piece of furniture in the room, and it was light mint green, to subtly match with everything. In another corner was a desk that let you look out a window into the small town of Mystic Falls.
Poppy sighed and looked at her phone, already bored with this. Unfortunately, none of her friends seemed to be as bored as she was and found that there weren't any new messages. Wonderful.
"Hey Elijah?"
"Yes, Poppy,"
"If you could survive on any planet other than Earth, which planet would you want to live on?" she asked.
He frowned, thinking of all of the planets in the galaxy and stopped his snooping. He truly had no idea how this girl came up with these strange questions, but he'd learned from the past few days to just go along with it.
"Neptune, probably. It seems very quiet when comparing it to the rest. Not only that, but it's the furthest from all of the pointless nonsense that is happening on Earth," he said. She nodded. Honestly, she'd guessed that he would choose Neptune – he seemed very Neptuney in her opinion.
"Yeah, I thought you'd say Neptune. Personally, I'm more of a Venus girl," she told him. "Did you know, that even though it's second closest to the sun, it's still the hottest planet? That's because the atmosphere traps in the heat. It's sort of really badass."
Elijah chuckled. "You just called a planet badass, you do realize this, yes?"
Poppy rolled her eyes. "Whatever, dude, it's more badass than frigging Neptune," she said back to him, holding back her laughter as well. She dropped her back onto her bed, making her jump a little before staying on her comfortable mattress. Laying there, she turned her head over to Elijah who was to the right of her, still on the other side of the room, looking at her. "So, what exactly are we going to do about me? I mean, I don't really want to do anything tonight, but should we, like, go back to Jonas and Luca's apartment next week? "
Elijah walked over and sat at the foot of the bed, right next to her. "Yes, it would be wise to meet with him again. We never did get all of our answers. Hopefully this next time we will be able to without you finding out any other important information that your sister just happened to withhold…" he said. Poppy rolled her eyes, but nodded her head in agreement.
"I hope for that as well, but who knows what else that idiot has up her sleeves? Next she's going to tell me that we're mermaids or something. Which would actually be pretty cool, other than the fact that she wouldn't have told me about it until then… But back to the topic, I wonder what's going on with me. There obviously has to be some type of connection between me and your family, and there has to be some reason why other people can't take off my necklace. I'm guessing so far that the necklace is what gave me the information about your family, because what else would? And I'm completely blank as to why it won't let anyone take it off. Maybe it was just sort of backing me up on it, or something. Like, it didn't want to be taken off because I didn't want it to be taken off, or something like that…" Poppy said, thinking out loud.
Elijah listened and actually considered most of what she was saying. He nodded and ran his hand through his hair, thinking. The blonde couldn't help herself from thinking about what an attractive look the messy hair was on him, but she chastised herself before she could think anything more.
"Perhaps you are actually correct about something…" he said quietly. Then he quickly turned his body towards her laying form. "I need you to let me take your necklace off. And don't resist whatsoever, in your thoughts or in your words or actions."
Poppy frowned, but she trusted him. The Original sitting in front of her had actually gained her trust – enough trust that she would be completely fine with her beloved necklace being in his hands. His beautifully sculpted and slightly calloused hands… Throughout all of the annoyance and kidnapping and playful arguing, something inside of Poppy made her want to trust him, so she did.
She sat up quickly on the edge of the bed. "Okay, go ahead. Take it," she said to him.
They were sitting quite closely next to each other now. Poppy couldn't help but notice, but she felt so strangely comfortable that she didn't say anything. Even feeling his breath on her skin didn't make her back away, though she knew that she probably should have. She vaguely noticed that he smelled of sandal wood, jasmine, and aftershave – a heavenly combination, in her personal opinion. So there they sat as Elijah's hands slowly reached up to the necklace. He had also noticed how close they were, but he couldn't deny at this point his feelings towards her. The girl had managed to connect with him in some way since she had burst into his life and he knew that she was obviously a friend of his now, but judging from this scene, anyone who walked in would have said otherwise – they might have even considered them to be much more than friends.
Especially Aunt Jenna.
The door opened with a loud bang and Jenna entered, clearly not knowing of the company.
"Hey, Poppy, I was just wondering where you put my-" her words were cut off by her own surprise. The girl in question quickly scooted back, but not quick enough apparently because her aunt's eyebrows shot right up. "Whoa, hi there. Uh- this is sort of awkward, I'm gonna just go downstairs now… And leave the door open, while I'm at it."
Poppy blushed a deep red and Elijah held back a chuckle as she awkwardly tried to explain what had just happened to her aunt.
"Jenna, it was nothing. He's, like, ew. I'm grossed out you would even think that, I mean… Yuck, no thanks, I'd rather not. We were so not doing what you may have thought we could have been doing, and therefore there isn't any reason in the first place for you to leave the door open – but I mean, you could anyway because you will soon learn that we aren't doing anything. At all. Ever."
"I think she understands, Poppy," Elijah said before the girl could possibly say anything more than she already did. It seemed that him speaking, however, just made the blush grow darker. She ran a hand through her hair in frustration that her pale skin was unable to mask her embarrassment.
Jenna just watched the both of them and nodded slowly, crossing her arms across her chest. "Yeah, right… Whatever you two want to believe," she said with a wink, but then she turned over to Elijah. "I've heard that you are a bit of a history buff… I was thinking about going out on Thursday to look at some of the historical sights of Mystic Falls, if you want to come with. And I suppose since you two have been inseparable lately, Poppy you can come too."
Poppy glared over at her aunt. "We are not inseparable…" she muttered under her breath, knowing that both would hear and no one would reply.
"Thank you for the offer, Ms. Sommers, I would be delighted to join you." Elijah said politely. Jenna smiled at him.
"Please, call me Jenna. And Poppy? I'm sure you'll be joining us…" she said to her niece. The blonde gave a warning glare to her aunt, but nodded.
"Yeah, why not?" she grumbled in reply.
Jenna smiled, ignoring Poppy's attitude. "So, what I was coming here to ask was where you put my black heels? You borrowed them two weeks ago or something," she said.
The blonde looked confused for a second, but then remembered. "Right, those are in my closet," she said as she got up to get them. Making her way back with the shoes she asked, "What do you need these for? Got a date or something?"
"If you must know, Ric and I are going out tonight. He's taking me to a French restaurant – yes, French food," she said excitedly.
"That really is how you know if a guy likes you or not – French is the real deal, Jenna." Poppy said to her, holding back her laughter. She handed her the shoes while pushing her out of the door. "Okay, have fun with Alaric! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
Jenna laughed. "That goes for you too!" she said before waving goodbye to Elijah and leaving.
Poppy stood looking in the direction her aunt left at until the finally gathered her courage to look back to Elijah. The 1,057 year old Original vampire. The Original vampire who she sort of had a crush on. The Original vampire that she almost just kissed.
She ran her hand through her hair for what must had been the tenth time in that situation and sighed. "So, um. I guess you could try again," she said to him. Then her eyes widened at how he might have taken this and tried to repair her words. "I mean, with the necklace… You can try with the necklace again. With, like, taking it off and stuff. Not with- um, okay yeah I think you know what I mean…"
Elijah wasn't able to hold back his chuckle now and shook his head before standing up next to her so he could try to take it off. When he touched the clasp again, the necklace itself seemed to be debating about whether or not to hurt him again, but it wasn't long before it started to sting and burn. He yanked his hand back and held it with his other one while Poppy looked up at him in concern.
"I take it that it still doesn't like you?" she asked, trying to lighten the mood. It seemed to have worked because his face relaxed at the sound of her voice.
"No, it does not… but I wonder if it would like a human more," he said to her. Poppy raised an eyebrow at him.
"Maybe it would. Or maybe it just really dislikes you in particular. I would totally understand it if that were the case, I mean, I don't even know how I consider you my friend. Yeah, that still sounds weird I don't like it…" she said, shaking her head and holding back a smirk.
Elijah rolled his eyes at her before walking out of the room, knowing she'd be quick to follow him.
"Elena, I know you are here," he said loudly. Sure enough, the girl walked out of the kitchen, her face showing nothing but fear.
"What do you want from me?" she asked, obviously trying to seem brave. It wasn't working out for her very well.
Poppy caught on to what he was trying to do. "Can you take my necklace off for me? I'm lazy and Elijah has been having… Problems, I guess you could say," she said. This only confused the older twin, but she obliged, reaching up to take it off. Before she could, the clasp burned her as well. She pulled her hand back and held it to her chest, very confused as to what had just happened.
The Original frowned. "Interesting. Thank you for your time."
"What? So, you aren't going to give me any reason why this just happened or anything?" she asked.
Poppy put on a fake 'thinking face,' teasing her sister with a finger on her chin. "You know? I don't think so. And before you say anything about it not being fair, remember that you were the one who completely shut me out of most of your life for about a year."
With that, Poppy left, dragging Elijah behind her.
"So I guess it effects everyone… For some reason, my necklace is spazzing… And we won't find out why for the next few days, probably, because knowing Luca, he'll be busy, and I honestly don't want to go over there with just you and Jonas... No offense, but that just doesn't seem like a good time. We can't go on Thursday either because of Jenna. So maybe the next day? Jeez, my schedule has been really full lately. Maybe I need to start a planner. I don't think I'd keep up with it, though…" she babbled quietly to herself.
"I will inform Jonas, but until then I'm sure you have some catching up with school, yes?" he said to her.
Poppy only rolled her eyes. "Please, I could teachmy classes. Doing homework at home is for the weak. And why would I waste my time doing that when I could be watching Grey's Anatomy instead?"
Elijah sighed. "I'm sure that this is yet another one of your shows that you enjoy?"
"Elijah, this isn't just another show. This is the show. I could watch Alex Karev save babies' lives all day, every day. He's like a teddy bear, it's adorable," she said, smiling a little at the thought of the show. Her friends would make fun of her because all of the shows that she watched, but she honestly couldn't care less.
"What else do you do with your time, other than watch television?" he asked her. She gave him a glare, but didn't really mean it.
"I read. I read a lot. Shakespeare, Poe, Dickinson, you name it. I finished Les Misérables by the ninth grade. 1,463 pages. I am brilliant," she said to him, smirking.
He raised his eyebrows. "And not at all modest. However, it is impressive. Throughout my time in the 1600's, I was able to meet William Shakespeare. I suggest that you don't meet your idols, and I speak from experience." Elijah said.
Poppy couldn't believe her own ears. "You freaking met Shakespeare? Are you kidding me? Damn, consider me jealous… I was definitely born in the wrong century. But I'm guessing that it didn't go well? Considering that you believe it isn't a good idea to meet your idols, it can't have been good."
"Let's just say that he's much more articulate in writing than in speech," he said in his classy way. "It was rather disappointing. However, he still was incredibly intelligent. Thankfully, none of my siblings ever got to him – Kol had always had a… taste for the theatre."
Poppy grimaced at the image that came up. "Yeah, okay, I get it. It wouldn't have been pretty. Either way, I don't only watch movies and television. It's just that I normally have nothing better to do with my time. But I guess that since you kidnapped me-"
"Must I remind you that I didn't kidnap you? That was a desperate act of forgiveness by two fools."
"Whatever. Ever since they kidnapped me, I've had more to do. But all of this talk about old English writers is making me want to read, I must say. I have three copies of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, if you'd like to join me…" she suggested, smiling and knowing the answer before he even opened his mouth.
He gave her a small smile in return. "I'd be delighted."
Awww I can't deal with how adorable this is getting, even though I'm the one who's writing it… They're becoming pretty close friends, so who knows how Poppy will react when the stupid Scooby Gang daggers Elijah? The next chapter will consist of Jenna, Elijah, Poppy, and Alaric all exploring the historical sights of Mystic Falls, so that will be very fun as well.
You're getting a taste of my juicy subplot as well! It will be a while until all of those answers are revealed, but until then you can search for the clues I'm dropping everywhere – some very obvious, and others not so much.
This chapter is probably my favorite out of all of them. Although it's shorter, it's still really cute and has a lot of Elipy interaction and just a bunch of small moments. I'm still trying to figure out a celebrity to match the Poppy in my mind, so send me names of actresses you think would fit her well!
Please review, as I do love reading them very much! Thank you for all of the feedback I've gotten!
Until next time!
~Alissa
