It was just after six in the evening, an autumn chill making itself known as Kol Mikaleson and Davina Claire walked hand in hand down the sidewalk, the litter of leaves off the nearby trees a carpet of reds and browns and yellows under their feet - which was very pretty and all, but did they have to stick so bloody stubbornly to the heel of his boots that he had to spend five minutes scraping them against the 'Welcome' mat since Davina was a secret neat-freak?- as he tried desperately not to sigh at his girlfriend's stubborn will.
"Kol, please," the witch pouted, looking up at him with those gorgeous brown eyes of hers. She was really pulling out all the stops.
"Davina, my darling angel, I love you more than anything in this world or any other, but I told you no the last time you asked and my answer remains the same: no, I am not going to the Halloween Party," he exclaimed as held the elevator door open for her, doing his utmost best to reign in his smirk when she glowered, yet thanked him for the display if gentlemanly etiquette.
As the elevator doors closed on them, boxing the couple in so close that her ponytail pooled on his shoulder, the witch decided a change of tactic was in order.
"Kayla and Rhys will be there," she reminded him, slyly pulling him closer by the buttons on his coat, grinning up at him with that dazzling smile of hers. Bloody minx.
*You're Kol Mikaelson, a thousand year-old vampire who can't be told what to do, and who certainly won't cave under a single smile, he tried to tell himself, but he was fighting a losing battle, and it wouldn't be long until he eventually gave in.
Luckily, the chiming of the elevator gave him a moments reprieve, and he pulled away in the guise of fishing out his keys from his jeans pocket as he remarked, "As lovely as that sounds, somehow I don't think I want to sit around for five hours while we watch them try to suck each other's faces clean off, darling." Kayla had been the first real friend Davina had made since their move to San Francisco, a fellow witch who was new to the craft and was eager to learn from someone as powerful and knowledgeable as a Claire. She also had a boyfriend, Rhys, another practitioner who Kol got along with surprisingly well, and why didn't seem too fazed by the fact that Kol was a vampire, which was always a nice change of pace.
"They're not that bad Kol," Davina protested frigidly as she walked out in front of him, leaning against their closed front door. "And besides, it's not like we've got much of a leg to stand on it that department, anyway; we're all over each other almost twenty-fours-seven."
"I know, isn't it great?" he grinned, opening the door and chucking his keys in the little cermaic dish by the door, watching on with helpless admiration as Davina stalked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door with more force than was necessary, her hair practically crackling like ozone with suppressed magic, as it often did when she got upset.
Setting a bottle of water on the counter, Davina crossed her arms and said in a small voice, "Stuff like this is part of normal life, Kol. I thought that was what you wanted. I thought that's why you asked me to marry you."
Yes, the two of them were to be married at the end of December, and while Kol couldn't be happier at the idea of making the amazing witch in front of him his forever, a sense of apprehension had settled over him as the date began to loom ever closer.
It had absolutely nothing to do with her, and everything to do with him and his family, or rather his lack of one. Technically, that wasn't quite true, for all the Mikaelson siblings -bar Finn and Henrik- were alive and doing as well as could be expected with a slice of a murderous psycho festering within them. And while the thought of living a sibling-free life had in centuries passed held a great deal of appeal, Kol suddenly couldn't bear the thought of them not being there for his and Davina's big day, couldn't imagine Elijah not being there to fiddle with his cuffs and faff about with his tie, couldn't imagine Nik not storming in and saying that Davina had finally realized what a horrible error in judgement she was making and had called the whole thing off, only for him to crack that wicked smirk of his while Kol proceeded to punch his lights out.
He wasn't used to the feeling of happiness tinged with so much bitterness and sadness; most of the time Kol had just been bitter, then angry, then violent, taking out his frustrations on the nearest possible outlet, usually some poor civilian who just happened to get caught in the Mikaelson crossfire. He was trying to be better, for Davina, for himself, and for his darling niece, but he'd always thought that if he ever chose to walk the path of goodness, he'd have his family there beside him, helping him learn, as they had been there since the very day he was born. Kol had never done anything without them, except when it came to magic, and even that he could no longer to. But he still loved watching Davina at work, and took great pride in how talented she was, how confident she'd become. Getting her out of New Orleans was the best decision he'd ever made -accept giving his heart to her, of course- and it was a joy to see her come alive here and not have the past hanging so heavily on her shoulders.
But...a part of him almost wished he'd stayed, if only to have one tiny, meagre connection to his siblings. He wouldn't have stayed there all the time of course, not when his presence would put Hope in so much danger, but it would be nice, every once in a while, to walk those halls, remember all the laughs and all the fights -the scale of those two things was by no means balanced, but that was hardly a surprise, given each of their volcanic tempers- and how much he'd taken every one for granted, every one of them, his siblings, for granted.
Kol Mikaelson guessed the saying really was true: you really don't know what you've got until it's gone.
Crossing the distance between them, Kol took her hands in his, her small palms warming away the last of the autumn chill still clinging to his.
"Of course I want to marry you, Davina. What man wouldn't? It's just...I'm still trying to adjust to this whole being on my own thing, and I'm not doing as well as I'd anticipated, that's all."
She reached up on her toes and placed a loving, tender kiss on his cheek. "But you're not alone," she reminded him in a steady voice. "You have me, remember? That's what it means to really love somebody, and what marriage is about, having a partner to do things with and to support each other. I know how hard this is for you; don't think that I don't, that I haven't noticed. It's why I wanted us, wanted you to go to this dumb party in the first place, in the hopes of just getting out of your head for a while and having some fun."
"I do like a good bit of fun," he agreed with one of his endearing smirks before growing serious. "And I'm really, truly sorry if I've made you feel forgotten about or neglected-"
"Hey, no, Kol, you haven't. You don't have to apologize for loving your family, for missing them. I miss them, too."
Kol snorted, not believing her for a second. "You're saying you miss Nik threatening you every five minutes and using his magic for his own ends? Or Elijah acting all moral and righteous yet performing the Harvest Ritual again on innocent girls?"
"Fine, maybe I don't miss that stuff," Davina admitted with a guilty smile, "but they weren't all bad, not all the time. Rebekah always made me feel welcome, and she's kinda a package deal with Marcel now, so of course I like her. And while Freya did let me get taken by the ancestors so that she'd have the power to kill Lucien, she does give really good apology hampers, complete with chocolate and super complicated spells."
"You're easy to love, Davina Claire. And," he added with a cheeky smile, "apparently very easy to please."
She smacked him in the arm. Hard. "Shut up, Kol!"
"Fine, fine, I take it back."
"Good." Grasping the sleeve of his coat, she dragged him into their bedroom, closing the door behind her. "I think I've got something that might change your mind when you see," Davina teased shamelessly, and while he admitted her seductive efforts immensely, he was determined to not be swayed.
"Sweetheart, I love you, but you could be dressed up as as a bloody lollipop and I still wouldn't go."
Riffling through their closet, Davina plucked a garment bag from the rail and made her way to the bathroom, but not before tossing over her shoulder with a wink, "You'll be saying otherwise in five minutes, I think."
And indeed, five minutes later, he was.
Because...because
"Do you wanna be my co-pilot in the Invisible Jet, Mr Trevor?" Davina asked, dressed in none other than a Wonder Woman costume from the most recent film, complete with flowing hair and golden lasso and sword and the boots and the armour and...
Kol's jaw dropped to the carpet, and just kept falling, likely all the way through the building to the basement.
Man, was he done for.
Clearing his throat, he answered in a voice that shook only slightly, "Well, Steve was a spy for the British so technically that'd be Agent Trevor..."
"Kol!-"
He chuckled, pulling her towards him into his lap, his arms coming up around her as he kissed her lightly on the forehead, "But yes, I'll be your co-pilot any day, Wonder Woman."
"Really?" she asked brightly.
"Really really," the vampire nodded.
She threw her own arms around him, almost knocking him off the bed. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise, well have lots of fun. And if not, we'll drink lots of alcohol and therefore won't notice that we aren't having fun."
"A Wonder Woman after my own heart."
"Ever the smooth fox, aren't you?" Davina teased him. "Maybe I should have gotten you a fox costume instead; I bet you'd look good with a tail."
"Darling, I look good in everything," he purred as began leaving a trail of kisses along her bare shoulder, her hair ticking his cheek.
"Hey, stop that," she whined, trying to move out of his reach. "If you keep doing that, I won't want to leave."
"Now, we can't have that now, can we?" He let her go, sighing as she thrust his costume at him. "Did you get me the one with the flying cap?"
Davina rolled her eyes. "And have to listen to you complaining about your ruined hair all night? Of course not. But, there may or may not be a Captain's hat in there."
"You know me so well."
"Well, I'd hope so, given that I'm going to marry you in a few weeks and all. Oh, by the way, I enchanted both our outfits so that they're stain-proof, among other things."
Kol waggled his eyebrows at her. "Sounds exciting. What other things?"
"Wanna see if this lasso really makes you tell the truth?" she asked him, that hint of adventure dancing in the corners of her smile that he'd come to cherish so much.
"Absolutely."
She twirled it around his hand, pulling him towards her in the process. "What's your favourite colour?"
"Red, but you already knew that. Next?"
"Least favourite movie?" Davina asked.
"Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire. I can't watch it without laughing at their hair. Were all the hairdressers closed that year?"
"Who's your favourite person in the world."
Kol rolled his eyes fondly. "Come now, darling, you don't need a magic lasso for that: it's obviously you. Now, my turn," he demanded, wrapping the rope around Davina's wrist lightly and asking her the same question
"My crazy, annoying, complicated, dashing, sweet and amazing fiancee, Kol Mikaleson," was her answer, the one that warmed his heart and set him smiling like the former maniac he'd been.
"Best Halloween ever."
Sure, he knew he'd have his bad days in the years to come, but he also knew that he wouldn't have to suffer through those days alone, that to him, Davina really was a Wonder Woman, his personal hero, pulling him out of the darkness, his darkness, and into the light.
Living with her was so much better than living on any Paradise Island... because, to him, loving her was paradise.
Author's Note: Hello, everyone! Here's just a little one-shot I wrote instead of sleeping, when I was listening to BBC Radio 2 and I heard a Pet Shop Boys song with the line, 'A love like paradise,' and it made me think of Wonder Woman, then how much I've always wanted to dress up as her fir Halloween, then that Davina has dark hair and could totally rock that costume...then I wrote this.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and if you enjoyed, please leave a review and share your thoughts.
All my love, Temperance Cain.