3/3
Warning: Talk of Mistreatment/Abuse
There are a couple of things about the last chapter I want to point out immediately just in case I have any young, impressionable minds reading this story.
First and foremost, you should never stay in an abusive relationship just because the person promises to change. They are lying. They will NOT change.
The Mikaelsons are the ONLY exception to this rule because they are FICTIONAL, they can change because I say they do, because they are magical, eternal, centuries old monsters trying to find their humanity again. Real human nature isn't like that. Abusers will remain abusers, to you and everyone else.
On Kol and his relationship with his family
The Mikaelsons are canonically abusive to each other (always fighting each other, lying to each other, plotting against each other) so I decided to go a little deeper with that aspect of their relationship in this story and assume that if they were abusive to each other in those areas of their relationship, they'd probably be abusive with each other when it came to corporal punishment as well - hence, the hunting trips.
I know that there are gonna be people who argue that Klaus would never knowingly torment his brother like that since he promised he wouldn't in the show. And I think that's true but I also think Klaus and Elijah maybe unknowingly 'tormented' him in this case. Siblings in real life often abuse each other. I have two bio-brothers and two step-brothers and we used to torment each other for fun growing up but never with the intention of leaving any lasting physical or emotional scars (which I hope we didn't).
(Not to say that siblings can't actually leave lasting long term physical, mental, and emotional damage on a person. I do believe abuse can come from all kinds of people. I just also think we are more likely to forgive our siblings for abusing us than our parents because we hold them to different standards. I could probably write a dissertation on this topic but I'm not gonna write it here lol)
I also think of Kol as suffering from Middle Child Syndrome and as a result he puts up with the abuse his siblings dish out because at least then they're paying attention to him. He's learned to establish relationships outside of his siblings that he can lean on (like Josh and Davina) but deep down he also wants to feel like his siblings to love him too.
Kol is also canonically someone who doesn't want to bother people with his own death so I don't think it's a stretch to think that he would hide the pain of the hunting trips for a thousand years behind jokes and a smile.
This is my reasoning behind why Kol puts up with his siblings' abuse and I know it is all deeply problematic but the Mikaelsons are deeply problematic (and that's why I love them) and it is also fiction.
The Klaus and Elijah in my story are viewing their relationship with Kol through the lens of ignorant, arrogant older siblings. Also, because Klaus was also prone to daggering Kol more than Elijah or Rebekah, the three of them didn't spend enough time around Kol to actually get to know him beyond his wild, roisterer exterior to get to know the damaged boy inside.
Klaus and Elijah instinctively knew what not to do to cause Marcel harm because they viewed him through the eyes of parents taking care of a child that depended on them to be strong, stable, loving parental figures. But since they only ever saw Kol as their 'annoying' little brother for the first 1000 years of their lives, they never considered giving him the same TLC.
Now, however, they're realizing that they're going to have to change the way they interact with their youngest brother if they're going to have a sustainable, healthy relationship with him.
On the future of this story
I am in the process of exploring my dreams of becoming an actual published author so updates to this story and others will be sporadic, sorry about that but that's just how it has to be. I'm putting most of my energy in my WIP but whenever I feel overwhelmed with Mikaelson love and feel moved to write about them, I come back to this story.
This story was originally just supposed to focus on Marcel (aka my fictional son) but it's starting to grow lol so I will probably be wrapping this story after I wrap up the main plot and do a spinoff that focuses on the Mikaelson family as a whole.
*SPOILER*
(I've been holding this back for a while now but I'm actually really excited about it and wanna gauge you guys response to it.)
The spinoff story to 'Marcy' will be set in Caroline's New Orleans School for The Young and Gifted. Marcel will still be one of the main characters, of course (he is my muse) along with the other Mikaelsons but I will also be moving some of the characters from Legacies over to the New Orleans school because they are adorable and I love them.
(Also, the plot to the spinoff will probably be all over the place like this one because I generally enjoy writing more when I can just write what I feel like without strict structural guidelines and since I have to follow strict guidelines in my academic papers and in my future published work, I'd rather not be controlled by it in my fanfic, sorry lol)
P.S. I should also note that idk how many chapters it's gonna take to wrap this story up yet lol. Could be 10, could be 40, it's all up in the air at this point.
