Heyy! Bet y'all didn't expect to see me back again so soon! And I probably won't make a habit of it, so don't keep your hopes too high! Especially cos I'm procrastinated on two assignments to write this. But what can I say, when the muse is motivated, it's motivated.
Anyway, a couple things. Firstly, I don't watch Legacies. I have no intention of watching Legacies as of right now and I doubt I will in the future as long as Plec is in charge. I simply can't trust her to give me a good story and consistent characters. I did look into the direction the show was going and, in all honesty, it did not seem very appealing. Hope is, as expected, a loner/outcast and treated accordingly. The twins are apparently the same age as her, which makes no sense because they should be two years younger based on the shows' timeline (yes I was one of those annoying people who kept in touch with both the vamp diaries and the originals respective timelines) and on top of that, both twins seem kinda psycho? Like seriously, very much in need of therapy? But I could be wrong in my impressions. I just wanted y'all to note that I don't really care what Legacies is doing, in my fic, Caroline is a responsible headmistress and mom.
Moving on, Marcel hijacked this chapter. I know I've spoken about my feelings on his character in other fics, but I'll probably discuss it a little bit more at the end of the chapter. There isn't much Hayley this chapter and I'm sorry about that, but hopefully she'll be more prominent in the next chapter! Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this chapter! Please leave a review because I need those like I need air and also, where else do you think I'm getting my inspiration from?
Read, review and enjoy!
"What's the world coming to when you can't even expect your own family to tell you when they're in town?" Klaus rolled his eyes as his adopted son's voice rang out through the courtyard, taking another sip of his coffee and silently thanking whichever deity it was that had him spike it with blood. "Seriously man," Marcel continued as he walked in, "I gotta hear from Vincent that you're back?"
"To be fair, I was a little preoccupied with spending time with my daughter," Klaus rebutted lazily. "You know, the one I've been separated from for years?"
He had a point, but - "you know, there is this amazing little thing called a phone," the vampire remarked sagely. "You might have heard of it."
"And pray tell, would you have picked up if I had called?" Marcel shrugged and Klaus smirked at the younger's quick 'maybe' before continuing pleasantly. "Besides, I'd have thought myself to be the last person you'd wish to speak to at any given point."
"Not the last person, pretty sure that position's currently reserved for Elijah," he corrected, making a face as he thought over it. "But it'd have been nice to have been given the option. Or a heads up at the very least."
"Now, where would the fun be in that?" Klaus asked, raising an eyebrow and smiling innocently, and Marcel wondered offhandedly what it would do to their tentative truce if he punched the hybrid in his face. He figured it would be amusing at the very least.
Unfortunately, before he was able to test it out, they were interrupted by the loud clicking of heels on stone, Hayley walking into the courtyard with a margherita in hand, glaring at both men from over the rim of her sunglasses. "Once you both are done," she began, seating herself on a chair as she spoke, "I think we have slightly more important things to worry about."
"Such as?" Klaus pressed for her to elaborate.
"Well, for one, I don't want to be cooped up in here when I could pretend to be getting drunk at a bar instead and maybe even distract myself enough so that I'll stop missing my daughter so much." She paused to sip at her margarita delicately, taking a moment to enjoy the looks of incredulity she was faced with. "Oh and then there's also the small fact that Vincent thinks some of those sad excuses for vampires might still be in town and spreading their elitist bullshit, but, you know," she paused to smile up at them, "only slightly more important things than the two of you going at each other."
Waking up in her dorm room, it almost felt as if the past week was a dream. But the new charm on her bracelet was warm against Hope's skin and she could easily smell the cookies they'd made from where they sat on her desk and, all at once, the thought of school seemed much more bearable than it did before. Forcing herself to get up and get ready, she laughed as she checked her phone to find a picture from her mom of her dad holding a plate of pancakes and looking lost, because according to the caption, he'd made them for her 'on autopilot'.
Stuffing a cookie into her mouth as she grabbed her backpack and ran out the door, Hope felt like she was floating. Shooting a grin at her classmates and even calling out a greeting to some as she passed them on her way to class, she ignored their looks of confusion, far too caught up in her own exuberance.
"Was that Hope Mikaelson?"
"Is she ok?"
"I think it's to do with why she wasn't here last week…"
"I didn't even know she could do happy…"
Whispers floated past her, following her to class and the young witch was well aware of the fact that the gossip mills were churning with her name, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Even Lizzie Saltzman's snide question of what was wrong with her wasn't able to bring down her mood any. Instead, she smiled sweetly at the other teen in a way she knew would set the witch's blood boiling and replied with a bright 'nothing'. She figured she was successful when she caught the glare Lizzie sent her way. Yes, today was a good day.
"Ok, so I probably wouldn't have picked up." They were sitting in a bar, waiting for Hayley to finish talking to Vincent when Marcel spoke up. "You know, earlier?" The hybrid simply raised an eyebrow, humming questioningly as he took a sip of his drink and waited for the younger to elaborate, the vampire groaning at how he was being deliberately obtuse. "Fine. I'll be the bigger man about it and, I'll admit, even if you had called, I probably wouldn't have picked up."
"And yet, you still would have preferred for me to have called."
"Yes." The word was out before he could stop it and Marcel frowned. "No. I don't care either way, man. I was just saying, earlier, that it would have been nice." Klaus just looked at him without saying anything and somehow his gaze seemed a little too piercing, the younger looking away and mumbling into his glass, "whatever. When does Hayley get back from wherever she and Vincent have disappeared to?" Klaus shrugged, that entirely too perceptive look still in his eyes and Marcel had had enough of it, deciding to remove them as far from the subject as possible. "How'd you get rid of the Hollow, anyway? I thought Freya couldn't find anything."
The hybrid blinked, his grip on his glass tightening almost imperceptibly as he took another sip. "She didn't. I'd forgotten how witches love to complicate things unnecessarily." He shook his head slightly, thinking it over. "Then again, it isn't as if any of the witches here would have been truly helpful in any case."
"Still doesn't answer the how," Marcel pointed out and Klaus chuckled.
"No, I don't suppose it does." He paused and Marcel revisited the pros and cons of punching the hybrid. Before he could force anything resembling an actual answer out of the other, Klaus stood, draining what was left of his drink. "Hayley's back, let's go." Before he could follow suit, he was stopped by the hybrid's hand coming to rest on his shoulder for the briefest of moments, his voice barely audible in the noise of the bar. "And Marcel? I should have called."
Getting out of class to find a missed call from Marcel, Hope hadn't realised her mood could improve any further. Calling him back, she couldn't help the way her lips quirked up into a grin as she quickly made her way to a more secluded part of campus and casually flipped the bird at a few classmates who were staring and obviously gossiping.
"Hey kiddo, it's been a while." Marcel's voice filtered through the receiver, smooth as always and that little part of her that always tensed up at having to interact with her classmates calmed as it always did when she was able to speak to her older brother.
"Yeah, it has been," she breathed out, settling down among the roots of a tree near the edge of campus. "How've you been, how's Aunt 'Bekah?"
"Me, I've been good, but, uh, Rebekah and I…" there was an awkward pause as the vampire grappled for words. "Well, she and I aren't really together anymore. Haven't been for a while now."
"Wait, really? Since when?"
"Um, since before your last visit to New Orleans, I guess." He clicked his tongue then, swiftly changing the topic. "Speaking of which, why didn't you tell me when you came last week?"
Hope recognised the conversation shift for what it was, but unfortunately, her brother did have a point. "Are you kidding me? After my last visit home went so disastrously? I just figured staying low key would be better. Besides," she frowned, figuring she could probably bullshit her way through a better excuse, "I didn't even know you were in town."
"I wasn't," Marcel told her easily. "But I would've considered stopping by. It's been a while since I've seen Hayley. Might've even said hi to you on my way out," he teased as Hope yelled in indignation.
"You're so lucky I didn't get time to ask Dad for more blackmail material on you!"
"Woah, woah, woah," the older gasped dramatically. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves now. But," he drew out the word, feigning a casual tone, "out of curiosity, what blackmail material did you get out of him?"
"Well," Hope began, "let's just say I have a very vivid image of you as this adorable little kid in like, seven layers of clothing, being force fed spinach soup."
"It was five layers," the vampire corrected with a laugh. "Get your facts straight. And besides, that's nothing compared to what I have on you."
"Oh, I know," she replied assuredly. "I'm just getting started. I'm gonna have so much dirt on you, I won't even know what to do with it," she threatened.
"Guess I'd better start being nice to you then," Marcel teased and Hope grinned happily.
"Yeah, I guess you should."
Me again! So, I'm not gonna lie, especially after watching the Umbrella Academy, writing sibling scenes is a lot of fun. I really hope I did Marcel and Hope justice so do let me know what y'all thought about that! But besides that, I wanted to talk a bit about Marcel. OK, rant. Sue me. So Marcel is an interesting guy, but his character arcs are very cyclical and, with the exception of season 1 with Davina, often very selfish. It's literally "I hate Klaus, I don't hate Klaus." Beyond that it's often very difficult for me to see much growth. It's interesting to me how he canonically sees Hope as something of a little sister, every now and then goes to Klaus to find comfort/get advice almost like he is his dad and yet stills claims to not be a part of the family. It's almost childlike, as if he's a teenager who wants attention but doesn't know how to go about it.
His standards for Klaus are ridiculous, demanding he change at a rate that is simply not possible and yet also very much refusing to believe he is capable of that change, kind of like how a teenager would treat a parent, yelling at them when they don't understand why the teen is upset but at the same time complaining to their friends, oh my parent is never gonna get it. This really stood out to me when they showed pre series how Marcel and Rebekah were getting together and they were like, Oh Klaus is never gonna let us stay together, when after some time Klaus does actually give his blessing. Then in season 3 when Klaus was going around literally doing everything right and doing his best to make sure the family stayed together, Marcel blamed him for everything that went wrong in a manner that didn't make sense to me. There is a great deal of respect I think from both parties, respect from Klaus for the man Marcel became and from Marcel for all that Klaus represents for him. Because even with the trauma and whatnot, there was still a lot of love and acceptance for Marcel and I think somewhere deep down Marcel knows that even if he doesn't want to accept or recognise it. Does he want acknowledgement of his trauma? I think so. He often referred to feeling left out and as if he wasn't really part of the family, when he was more part of it than certain members like Kol but that's a discussion for another day. I think he's afraid of admitting that maybe his view is prejudiced because it means accepting the fact that Klaus doesn't hold as much blame as he would like for him to but I also feel like that is rather typical of a parent/child relationship but right now both need to learn to see the other as an equal first.
Sorry, this got really long but it felt important to say it. If you got through all that, thanks and drop a review telling me your thoughts/what you wanna see next!