"Would you like a cookie?" Finn offers, while shyly nudging the plate of cookies he had decorated towards his mate. He was carefully gauging her reaction, hoping that she would like them. If she didn't, he was going to burn them later tonight, to never be reminded of this failure again.
"Oh, I don't think-" Daisy says, before her eyes land on the plate. "They are adorable! Did you make these?" Daisy asks while eagerly looking up at Finn, smiling broadly.
Finn nods, blushing slightly under his mate's praise and bright smile.
"I'm actually full, but now I have to try it." Daisy picks up a cookie, inspecting it closer before almost pushing it in Niklaus's face. "Look how cute!"
Niklaus scowls slightly before putting a smile on for his mate.
"They're very...adequate." Niklaus compliments, trying to sound sincere. Daisy was being quite a bit more enthusiastic about Finn's flawed work than Niklaus's masterpieces. Of course, she had complimented him, but he had hoped for a bit more praise, maybe a kiss to the cheek. As soon as Daisy turns her head back, Niklaus glares menacingly at Finn.
Finn only smirks smugly at Niklaus, clearly enjoying his victory.
• • •
"Wow, you can start your own clothing store!" Daisy gasps when walking into Rebekah's closet. She touches one of the dresses, enjoying the feel of the silk fabric.
Rebekah had offered to show her bedroom to Daisy. According to television, this was an activity most teenage girls seemed to indulge in.
Rebekah's brothers had wanted to protest, Daisy was here because she was their soul mate, not Rebekah's future girlfriend. But Rebekah thought she deserved some socializing with Daisy after the dreadful conversations she had with Jason.
"We can try some outfits on another time?" Rebekah offers shyly, watching Daisy from her bed. Daisy was currently admiring the dress Rebekah had worn in the '20s, before getting daggered. Rebekah had it cleaned and repaired and kept it as a souvenir of that time.
"I would love to. This is amazing, is it an heirloom?" Daisy asks, carefully touching one of the beads, afraid she would damage the dress. It wasn't hard to see that this dress was authentic and not a cheap Halloween costume.
"Something like that. Do you like old-fashioned clothes?" Rebekah asks, trying to steer the conversation away from the vintage dress.
"Yes, I really like those big Victorian or Baroque dresses, you know? The princess kind." Daisy admits, blushing a little. Daisy was a big fan of historic movies with beautiful costumes like Anna Karenina. "I mean I can imagine that they aren't very comfortable to wear, but they sure do look gorgeous What about you? Any favorite eras?"
"I liked 1000's...particularly south of Europe." Rebekah admits bashfully.
"The middle ages? Knights and damsels?" Daisy teases. She didn't take Rebekah to be one of those girls who would appreciate the unsanitary methods of the middle ages, but she could get on board with the romantic aspects of it.
"Yeah, it's silly but everything was about chivalry and honor. Men were pigs surely, but there was a certain code of honor amongst the bravest of them." Rebekah sighs, thinking back to Alexander.
"It's not silly it's romantic. Chivalry and honor? That sounds a bit like Elijah and Finn." Daisy blurts out while inspecting a dress that looked even older, the rough fabric looked like something from a different millennium.
"What makes you say that?" Rebekah asks, sounding a bit harsher than she had intended to. Rebekah hoped dearly that her brothers hadn't been so careless and lovesick that they had already spilled their secret to Daisy.
"Sorry, I mean- I don't know them very well, but I think they would fit in that era pretty nicely. The way Elijah and Finn sometimes speak or act, makes me think of noblemen." Daisy explains.
"You have no idea." Rebekah mutters.
• • •
The Mikaelsons are all in the living room. Elijah was letting Daisy look through his photographs, cherishing each compliment that his mate had made so far.
Kol was occasionally making a rude comment on a photo or providing unnecessary criticism. Elijah had growled slightly at this, but Daisy had laughed at it. As an only child, she has never experienced a family like this and the bickering was very entertaining to her.
"Seriously Elijah, what were you going for? 'Blurry expressionism'? 'Photo failures on purpose'?" Kol rants, looking unimpressed at a particularly vague picture of an unconscious lady.
Niklaus stand up from the other couch, standing behind Daisy to look at the picture to give his opinion as an artist.
"Isn't that Jasmi-" Rebekah blurts out, before getting an elbow to her rib from Niklaus. The last thing they needed was for their mate to learn that this picture was taken right after Elijah had drained the girl in the photo of all of her blood. Rebekah had taken the picture to pester Elijah later on and it had accidentally ended up in this pile.
"What do you think of this one, dear?" Elijah hastily asks, handing Daisy another photograph, stealthily giving Niklaus the murder photo, which Niklaus deposits in the fireplace.
Daisy merely nods, she didn't pay much attention to the photos after the thirtieth picture, she was more interested in Elijah's hands. Whenever he handed her a new picture, their hands touched briefly, which cause the weird tingling sensation from the ball to reappear.
"Daisy?" Elijah asks, while gently waving his hand in front of her face, trying to snap her out of her daze.
"Hmm, I'm sorry. What did you say?" Daisy shakes her head, looking up at Elijah who was looking questioningly at her.
"We were wondering if you wanted to stay for supper?"
"That's very kind but I don't want to overstay my welcome." Daisy smiles, not really wanting to decline, but knowing it was the polite thing to do.
"Nonsense, come you can sit with me!" Kol cheers, dragging Daisy off the couch, leaving his siblings to do the cooking.
• • •
"You must excuse my younger siblings. We are all delighted to have you over and they tend to act a bit blunt in their excitement." Finn whispers to Daisy after Kol had flung a spoonful of rice towards Niklaus in retaliation to a rather rude comment from the hybrid.
Kol rolls his eyes, he thought he had countered very politely. Kol could have also kicked Niklaus or stabbed him or snapped his neck. The options were endless really.
"It's perfectly fine, I would love to have a big family like this. It's usually just me and my mother at home." Daisy assures.
"May I ask what happened to your other parent?" Elijah asks carefully. He didn't want to hit a nerve or broach a sensitive topic, but curiosity got the better of him.
"He ran off when he heard that my mother was pregnant. My father wasn't ready to be a parent, but my mother was."
"And are you... happy?" Finn asks. He was not yet familiar with modern-day family dynamics.
"Yes, I'm perfectly happy, but it would have been nice to have a bit of a bigger family like this one, to be able to rely on one another," Daisy replies while poking in one of the vegetables on her plate.
A feeling of envy crept over her, Daisy was incredibly grateful for what her mother had done for them, but the feeling that something was missing never left her completely. Maybe that's why she was staying with Jason. She loved his family, his lovely parents, and adorable brothers and sister. Whenever she was there she was received with such warmth that the longing feeling in her chest subsided.
"You are always welcome here Daisy." Elijah promises.
• • •
"Of course, you just had a first edition of The Great Gatsby lying around." Daisy deadpans, looking up at Niklaus in disbelief.
"Perhaps." Niklaus shrugs, smiling innocently at his mate. "It's yours."
Daisy carefully hands the book back to Niklaus before wringing her hands together, occupying her hands so Niklaus couldn't hand it back to her. "Niklau-Nik, you have to stop giving me rare books, I might start thinking you're trying to court me." Daisy jokes, thinking back to her conversation with Rebekah about chivalry and noblemen.
"My dear Daisy, as I have said before, I will never be able to enjoy it as much as you and it would be a pity for the book to gather dust." Niklaus coaxes, gently taking on her hands and placing the book inside of it.
Niklaus eyes Daisy curiously as he feels a sudden tingling sensation in his hand. He wonders if she also felt it, but she seemed too focused on the book that she was now holding.
"You have already gifted me Salome. I don't want my mother or you guys to think I'm a gold digger or a book digger in this case."
Niklaus scoffs softly, even if Daisy was a gold digger, he wouldn't mind. He would give her the moon if that was what she desired.
"I can read it here If that's alright with you." Daisy says, thinking back to Elijah's offer.
"Yes! I mean-of course. You can come by anytime." Niklaus nods, showing his willingness and enthusiasm for this idea. His house would always be open to his mate, and now she also knew that. "All the time. You can read all our books."
"All your books? I think that I'd never be able to leave then." Daisy laughs, looking pointedly at the big book cased along the walls.
"Good. Great, you can do that, I won't mind." Niklaus shakes his head absently, the words came out wrong. He wondered how a human girl could leave him so bewildered. "I meant, you can come by whenever you want, and borrow any book you like. And always come by." Niklaus rambles, already pulling several books from the shelves, he was sure his mate would appreciate them.
"Thank you, Nik." Daisy replies, looking amusedly at the growing pile in Niklaus's arms.
• • •
"Mom! I'm back!" Daisy shouts as she enters the house.
"How was your date?" Daisy's mother shouts from the kitchen. She was busy making herself a sandwich before heading out for her night shift.
"It was great! They insisted that I brought you some dessert." Daisy smiles brightly at her mother, who had a smear of mustard on her cheek, while holding up a big bag, filled with multiple food containers.
"I love them already!" Daisy's mother exclaims, promptly throwing her sandwich away and tearing a random container open.
"How many people were they expecting at this thing?" Daisy's mother asks when she sees the abundance of biscuits pastries and tarts.
Daisy giggles as she sees her mother stuffing a cupcake in her mouth.
"Just me and Jason. Oh and believe me, this isn't even half of it. Their entire dining table was stacked with food as if they expected the queen and her entire court." Daisy laughs.
"If being friends with them means free treats, please be friends with them." Daisy's mother urges when she had finally managed to devour the cupcake.
• • •
"Hello?" Jason's voice sounds a bit groggy and Daisy wonders if he had been sleeping.
"Hey. It's me." Daisy greets before putting the phone on speaker. Daisy starts to clear her desk, which was a mess, she always felt a bit more at ease if she was rummaging a little while calling. Although she was calling her boyfriend, she still preferred face-to-face conversation, that way she could read body language.
"How was it?" Jason asks, clearing his throat a little.
"Great, they're very kind, I think I'm friends with Rebekah." Daisy comments, smiling a little at that prospect. Rebekah and she had gotten along quite well, the blonde was far less intimidating than Daisy had originally thought.
"About that, I think that Rebekah girl has a crush on me, she kept laughing incredibly loudly at my jokes, even when they weren't jokes." Jasons says, trying his best not to sound too smug about this. When Rebekah had joined their high school a few months prior he had definitely noticed her, but she never seemed interested in him, so he dropped it and started dating Daisy instead, knowing his parents would be pleased.
Although Daisy wasn't a founder, she was well known as a 'sweetheart' which would be good for his reputation. In that department, he had one up-ed Tyler Lockwood.
"I'm, sure she was just nervous." Daisy replies while holding back a giggle. She had seen the way Rebekah had rolled her eyes and knew that she hadn't found Jason as interesting as she pretended to.
Daisy wondered why Rebekah kept talking to him but assumed these were just good manners seeing as the conversations between Jason and the Mikaelson men did not go too smoothly.
• • •
"Why did you promise her that we would enjoy the pie?! I'm not enjoying it! I'm nauseous!" Rebekah complains, chewing reluctantly on the dessert while glaring angrily at Elijah.
"No one forced you to eat that entire plate of brownies, Rebekah." Niklaus pesters, smirking up at his sister. He had been busy drawing Daisy a portrait, it was of her at the high tea table, surrounded by cupcakes and other treats almost as sweet as herself.
"Do you think she liked the date?" Kol asks, frowning a little at the coffee table. As soon as Daisy had left he had been looking a bit gloomy, already missing her presence
"She seemed to enjoy herself, she told me so repeatedly during the car ride." Elijah assures, smiling at his little brother. He was relieved that his siblings had managed to behave well around Daisy so far. Apart from Kol's mishap at the ball, everything had gone well. He hoped they could keep this up long enough until Daisy was ready to learn the truth.
• • •
"I saw you with the Mikaelsons today." Matt comments, glancing briefly at Daisy's wrists and throat. He wasn't sure what was going on but he hadn't discovered any bite marks, which was good.
"Yes, they invited me and Jason for tea." Daisy replies, smiling at Matt.
"Really? What for?" Matt looks confused, wondering why the Mikaelsons would want to have tea with two high school students.
"To get to know each other, I think? We had a high tea, talked, they gave me a house tour, and I even stayed for supper." Daisy replies, carefully placing a glass in front of Damon, who was seated at the bar, listening in.
"Why did they invite you?" Damon asks, deciding that this little interrogation off Matt was taking too long. Stefan had called him to tell him about the new fascination of the youngest Mikaelsons.
"I...don't know? Maybe to be polite? Make friends? I only met them at the ball, but they were very nice." Daisy replies coolly, before walking to the other side of the bar to help another customer.
"Do you have any holes in your memory?" Damon asks when Daisy passes him to grab a rag.
"I'm sorry?" Daisy asks, looking a little offended at Damon. She wonders if this was one of the lines Damon uses on girls, if it was, she was thoroughly underwhelmed.
"Did they hurt you?" Damon asks now looking intently into Daisy's eyes as if searching for an answer.
"What? Why would you think that?" Daisy asks. She was getting a little annoyed with Damon's questions. Before now she had barely spoken with Damon, which she preferred over his prying questions.
"I'm just getting a bad feeling from them." Matt interjects, looking worriedly at Daisy. His eyes flash over to Damon, who mouths 'vervain' to him.
"He's right." Damon adds, smiling at Daisy while tapping his glass. "The Mikaelsons are bad news."
"How would you know?" Daisy asks while pouring Damon another drink.
"Had a few run-ins."
Daisy looks skeptically at Damon, as far as she knew Damon was usually the trouble maker. She couldn't imagine the Mikaelsons being anything but pleasant.
"They were perfectly kind and polite." Daisy snaps. She didn't understand why she felt a sudden need to protect and defend the Mikaelsons.
"You shouldn't trust them." Alaric adds, also joining the bar.
"I think I can decide that for myself, Mr. Saltzman." Daisy comments dryly, setting a glass with bourbon in front of the history teacher.
"Daisy, I'm only trying to help-"
"We're not in school right now, you don't have to help me." Daisy snaps before shaking her head. "I'm sorry, it's just they're kind and they haven't done anything to deserve my hostility." Daisy smiles apologetically at her teacher before walking to the back, escaping further conversation with the three men.
"Yet." Matt mutters, sharing a dark look with Damon.