*whips out megaphone* Finn deserved better. From the writers and from his family. If any of you are looking for a really good Finn/OC I recommend Tainted by sprintingfox Ao3 (might be here on FFN, too, idk), it's completed and it only took me a couple days to get through last month.

-8-

Finn

Since he'd woken from that box Finn had only the companionship of his mother to stave the loneliness he'd felt by being the most hated Mikaelson. Compounded by his nine hundred years of consciousness without any form of contact his mother had become a lifeline. The only one in his family even willing to look at him, let alone touch him.

After last night, his mother refused to even look at him with anything other than scorn. His brothers ignored his entrance to the kitchen that morning and acted like they didn't hear him attempt to contribute whilst they spoke of Isolde and how to proceed forward with their bond.

The clawing, aching, and bitter sensations in his chest grew with each passing hour yet he was invisible . Forgotten, just like he had been whilst daggered in his coffin for nearly a millennium. Just like he had been when alive. None of them could ever understand, and they didn't want to because if they tried they would realize how badly they had wronged him.

Mistreated and abandoned by his own family. For daring to speak on how unconscionable their existence was. Left to rot in a box for the crime of being dull . His hands gripped the sink in his ensuite bathroom until the porcelain began to crack.

He didn't understand why they found him so reprehensible. Why no one greeted him with so much as a smile, let alone even the briefest of embraces. The only positive contact he'd had in his life had always come from his mother. The slide of her hand down his cheek when he'd done well and that was all. He'd take a beating from his father or a brawl with Niklaus over this limbo he hanged in.

And now he'd failed his mother. His jaw tightened remembering how he'd so easily betrayed her. None of them deserved to be alive. He had one job, and yet they'd been saved from death once more which seems to be the unceasing (miss?)fortune of the Mikaelson brood. Finn wondered what further struggle would crash down upon them for cheating death this time. As ever, there were going to be consequences.

The new question that haunted him was where Isolde would fit between them. Broken as they were, would she not become some sort of glue they unconsciously tried to stretch between them and fit into their shattered pieces? His mother's warning flashed through his mind. Even should Isolde be the monster his mother claimed, and he was indeed certain she could be, wouldn't stretching her between them eventually destroy her, or possibly crack whatever stability she had so she'd become just as unstable as the rest of them?

Finn didn't want to hurt her . That much he knew.

The soul bond seized that lonely, bitter, endlessly angry part of him and caressed it, affection spreading like a balm over his mangled emotions. The look in those gorgeous green eyes when he'd decided to admit the secrets he'd been keeping about Freya… that wasn't fake.

She cared, and then she'd decided to help , for no reason other than because she could. It was the most kindness he'd ever seen in his abominably long existence and he treasured that brief glance like it was the most valuable thing in the world.

Isolde had given him hope that he might soon see Freya again. That was enough to stay his hand from attempting murder upon his family, for now at least. Despite how angry his mother was about it.

Finn had only seen two examples of a soul bond, having lived longer in a box than he had out of it. They had been… intense, and unyielding; both in different ways. The two vampires had eventually been killed by Elijah for having lost sight of anything but each other; they'd become reckless. But the wolf mated pair he'd met… they'd been perfectly complementary, and the male had even calmed the volatile female wolf, they then became the alphas of their pack and led it to prosperity.

'Which will Isolde and my family become? ' Finn wondered. 'Prosperous or tainted?'

Uncertainty warred within him. What would Isolde become for him ?

Elijah and Kol had made it clear that morning they wanted everything she had to offer them.

Niklaus, Finn could tell, was enthused at the prospect of adding more power to his arsenal but that didn't say anything about the hybrid's personal opinion on Isolde's standing in his life.

Niklaus was always after more power.

Finn thought carefully of what he wanted, temporarily ignoring the fact that his brother's were a part of this equation. Unlike Kol and Elijah and Niklaus he wouldn't force his presence upon her. But he knew, deep in his center where he'd pushed that cloying sentimentality that had never served him well before, he knew he wanted her companionship. In whatever capacity she was willing to give it.

He was so desperately lonely that it ached . Finn looked up at himself in the mirror, seeing his glassy bloodshot eyes, his throat stinging as he swallowed past the ever expanding painful lump in his chest. He closed them and looked back down, releasing a weighted sigh.

Shouting, from downstairs, interrupted his introspection and he was planning to ignore it until he heard a voice that didn't belong to his family. Not his family; hers . So he flashed down to the living room where Niklaus had Theon Alexander held against the wall by the throat, the Alexander smirking sardonically whilst Elijah stood on, holding Rebekah back.

"Niklaus, release him!" Finn bellowed, trying to rush past Elijah to stop Klaus, only to be thrown back by his noble brother. Were they that dense? To attack their soul bond's brother was tantamount to attacking her !

Rebekah was fighting against Elijah's hold.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Finn Mikaleson." Theon laughed joyously, raising a hand to Niklaus' head. "Though it is completely unnecessary." He flicked the hybrid right in the middle of his forehead.

All Mikaleson's ceased their movements with wide-eyed wonder as Niklaus flew backward, through the living room wall and into several trees behind the house.

Theon just straightened his jacket. "See? All good. He's fine," the man waved his hand dismissively, "he'll be up bellowing about whatever's got him upset soon. Perhaps a bit discombobulated. I just hit him with a nasty illusion of being flayed alive for a few minutes." He pointed at Elijah with a sharp, sadistic looking grin. "I suggest you unhand your sister before you join him, mate. Wouldn't want to undo the positive relationship we worked on building this morning, right?"

Elijah released Rebekah without hesitation. Immediately, Rebekah was in Theon's arms with her face buried in his chest. Theon brushed a hand down the back of her head with a small smile.

"Don't worry, beautiful, try as he might, he can't kill me." Theon smirked at them. "None of them can. Now, do you lot have any coffee? Call it a hunch but I think your brothers have something they want to talk to me about and I'd much rather do this civilly than have to create more holes in your lovely home."

Rebekah pulled back with a laugh as she grabbed Theon's hand to drag him into the kitchen. "What is it with your family and coffee?"

"We're from Africa, honey." He laughed, planting a kiss on the top of her head before taking a seat at the island bar. Elijah and Finn, utterly bewildered, followed them. "Egypt is close enough to Ethiopia that we knew the coffee bean existed and all of it's uses millennia before the rest of the world caught up. Coffee for us is like tea for the Asian countries."

As Rebekah began brewing some coffee for Theon, Elijah turned to Finn. Acknowledging the elder brother for the first time since the night before. "Where is Esther?"

"She remains in her room. I'm surprised she hasn't come down with all the commotion." Finn responded.

"Vera put a silencer spell on her rooms last night." Theon said, twirling the sugar spoon in his hand as he looked at them with carefully detached eyes. "She figured you would rather not have her eavesdropping on your conversations. I agreed, considering what the context of many of your future discussions would be. I'd rather not have an enemy of Isolde over hearing literally anything about her. My family's safety is paramount."

"If that were the case then why is Isolde terrified of being entombed ?" Niklaus growled from the hall, brushing debris off his jacket as he stalked into the kitchen with murder in his eyes.

Finn felt his stomach drop at that. Niklaus clearly spoke true, because immediately Theon spun on his bar stool to face them all, eyes blown wide and his eyebrows nearly reached his hairline.

Flummoxed, Theon took a sharp breath before responding. "She actually told you about that? Already? "

"She reacted adversely when we took her to the tunnels we used to hide in as children this afternoon." Elijah informed.

"You didn't take her down there, did you?" Theon's expression dropped along with the sugar spoon and nobody reacted to the way it clattered to the floor. "You fucking did . Holy shit."

"Thinking it was the run-of-the-mill claustrophobia type of fear, I did take her down there."

Theon's face blossomed with rage. "You dragged my sister underground against her will?" Finn was beginning to brace for a spectacular fallout but Theon surprised him. The man just closed his eyes and took an exaggerated, deep breath, the tension releasing. His eyes glittered dangerously when he opened them again. "You didn't leave her alone, did you?"

"Kol took her home, I'm sure he's still with her." Elijah nodded.

"Text him and tell him to stay there until I get back."

"I want to know the bloody story, Theon. I've never seen such a strong reaction to something so benign in my life." Klaus yelled, the veins in his neck straining and face going red while Elijah pulled his phone out to send a message to Kol.

Remaining calm, though his eyes told a different tale, Theon scowled. "I'd say not. Especially if you're calling it benign , you monumentous fucking douchebag . I should've literally flayed you instead of just sending that illusion. You probably have no fucking idea what it's like to be trapped somewhere against your will. Let alone for fifteen hundred years ."

All noise ceased. The sinking feeling that had settled in Finn's chest at the start of this became more of a sharp, gripping pain. Like someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed as hard as they could.

He was likely the only one who could understand what that felt like.

"What?" Elijah breathed, seemingly involuntarily as his eyes widened.

Rebekah placed mugs and the full pot on the counter and Niklaus was the first to grab some for himself, also snagging some kind of amber alcohol to dump into it.

"Yeah, fifteen hundred years. Let that sink in." Theon hissed, snatching a mug and the pot when Niklaus was done. He thanked Rebekah with a smile, and she smiled back at him despite the situation. "That's five hundred years longer than you've been alive ."

"And you didn't bother to save her?" Niklaus growled accusingly.

"You can't say anything, you absolute prick." Rebekah admonished sharply. "You've kept every member of this family in a box at one point or another," she gestured to where Finn stood, " Finn , for almost the entire time we've been alive. Now that you hear your soul bond was hurt the same way you think you stand upon the moral high ground? How's that medicine taste, Nik? Like your own?"

Niklaus opened his mouth like he would speak but closed it, looking away from them all. The fight seemed to have left him and he sagged ever so slightly, if Finn hadn't been paying attention he wouldn't have noticed.

"Despite that," Elijah began, pouring his own mug, "I would like to know why and by whom."

Theon's sharp gaze landed upon Elijah. He put his mug down after a long drag. "A little background: back then Isolde was the weakest of us. Still is, on an average day. Her power lies in her ability to go unnoticed and manipulate shadows, it's how she gathers intel. For those of you who weren't with us at my sister's house this morning- Isolde is a master spy and informant."

"And an assassin." Rebekah chimed with a cheeky smile. A small, warm glance passed between his sister and Theon.

A moment later Theon's smile was gone and he rubbed a hand down his face and rested his elbow on the granite counter. At that moment Finn thought that he could see Theon's age in the way the man sagged. "In our fourth century as immortals, Isolde had a child."

Elijah shifted, like he wanted to ask something but Theon shot him a look. "Don't interrupt me." He glared at the Mikaleson's a moment then continued. "None of any of our children ever chose immortality, and therefore every one of them has died mortal. We, unlike some parents, don't force our children to endure an extended existence because it hurts us when our kids die." That was a dig at their mother if Finn had ever heard one. "Unfortunately Isolde's first born was murdered in the streets of lower Egypt during a routine inspection of that year's potential crop yield."

"Understandably, she fucking lost it." Theon paused, looking each of them in the eye. "You know of the biblical plagues? All were true, and they'd been happening that year, all scientifically explainable; but Isolde ... she was only responsible for two."

"The death of the first borns." Elijah said on the end of a breath, wide-eyed.

"Poetic, isn't it? The Nile didn't turn to blood, Isolde flooded it with the blood of the first borns. A great cry rang through all of Egypt and Pharaoh, Emeric , was furious. Vera and I thought Isolde had fled. We started to get worried after a couple centuries. Then we got real worried when Emeric mentioned that Isolde was gone, as in gone gone. Never to return. We searched all of Africa, Europe, and Asia. The known world. We couldn't find her."

Theon took his hair out of it's sloppy bun and fluffed it, making to put it back up again. "Eventually, some of Isolde's still-living spies (her most trusted, even today) came to us with knowledge of a continent unknown. They'd been searching for their Empress all that time, and they'd stumbled upon South America in their quest. We found her trapped in a Mayan temple. It took us a hundred years to work out how to un-seal her. Vera and Me. You have no idea how insane it is that it took the two of us that long."

He sneered at his coffee mug, but it wasn't the coffee he was upset with. "We truly can't die, you know? Even if we don't eat we just end up a little weaker. We don't desiccate like vampires." He lowered his arms from behind his head and stared at them all. "She was certifiably insane when we finally made it to her. She'd been wandering that maze for fifteen hundred years , running into traps that crushed her, impaling herself on spikes, solving weird puzzles to open doors that would shut behind her and lock her in, getting lost on her way back to the main antechamber and breaking her neck on a ninety degree drop just for something to do, communicating to herself... Fifteen hundred years of daily self torture as her only form of stimulus."

The weight in Finn's chest got worse as he realized that even he, in his extended time daggered, couldn't understand the magnitude of his mate's imprisonment. He'd been conscious, yes, but he hadn't been walking around a maze with no way out. He hadn't physically tortured himself to pass the time.

His thoughts conjured her kind eyes once more, and he wondered how she wasn't filled with hatred and rage, like him.

Theon heaved a sigh. "Isolde's mind was sundered when we got to her, and we theorized that it made her mind and body vulnerable enough that something else was able to attach to her down there. She confirmed the theory, but she's never revealed to us what it is. We're not even sure she knows."

This caught Elijah's attention and he shifted. "You're saying something lives within Isolde?"

"That thing is what causes void tendrils to lash out from her body to strike her enemies, she hadn't had those before. It's what causes her eyes to glow golden when that power is at the surface. It's what makes the temperature change when she's pissed off. Whatever it is, it wasn't with her until the tomb. Always remember this: If the eyes are gold, it's not Isolde. Just a flash is controlled, longer she's deposed."

Theon drained his mug. "When she lets the monster out she's stronger than all of us. Most of the time we can't stop it, we have to wait for it to be done rampaging. You-" he pointed an accusing finger at Niklaus who was looking deeply ashamed of himself, "-are so bloody fortunate she's apparently got enough control not to let it lash out. Had you taken her down there without her consent even a couple hundred years ago the monster would have surfaced and slaughtered you and the town to protect her from perceived danger. Because whatever the fuck the monster is, it adores Isolde. It won't let her be harmed unless she consciously forces it down."

Finn felt like he'd missed a lot in the last few hours. A large part of him wanted to track down Isolde and ask her if she was alright after Niklaus had caused her such anxiety but the other part- the more rational part- wanted to examine this new information before he reacted. From what Theon said, Isolde was every part the monster Esther had warned them about.

She'd murdered all of the first borns in Egypt in cold blood. Granted, it was over four thousand and six hundred years ago. Yet still, to be capable of it in the first place...

"That's why Emeric sent her away in Italy when he wanted to bring slave labor into Rome, then?" Elijah asked. "He couldn't fight her, and he knew she wouldn't agree, so he found a different way to get rid of her."

"Yes. I'm surprised you got to that topic, too. But yes. Like I said, we often can't fight the monster off. Fortunately, it seems to understand that she doesn't want us truly harmed so it just toys with us like we're rag dolls. It's fucking embarrasing, but in fairness we usually deserve it."

Niklaus left in a blur of motion. Likely off to find ways to internally justify the things he'd done. Finn couldn't stop the small feeling of triumph that bubbled within him, even at the expense of Isolde, at how badly Niklaus had just messed up.

Finn made a move to leave, as the conversation had trickled to a stop but Elijah caught him by his arm and slipped him a napkin. "This is Isolde's phone number. She's extended an open invitation of communication to all of us, as well as an invitation to her home whenever we'd like. It's hidden in the woods at the uppermost eastern corner of the county. Not difficult to find, it's north of the old werewolf burial grounds."

Finn's chest squeezed and he looked down at the folded paper in his hand. Isolde was reaching out. In that moment, part of him cracked open just a sliver and he felt… joy .

Isolde

Kol was looking at her in utter shock.

"So… yeah. That's why I hate tunnels, caves, anything that resembles a tomb. It'll make me panic. I can't panic, that's when shit gets real."

They were working on their second bottle of wine now. Kol had slipped closer to Isolde and dragged her legs over his lap, one hand grasping her shin while the other laced their fingers together on her lap.

He squeezed her hand in his and brought the back of it to his mouth, pressing a lingering kiss to it that caused that swooping sensation in her stomach. She'd just barred her number one most horrific life experience to this man, and her greatest evil. His response was not to run away screaming that she's a monster, but to give her affection.

Gods, she'd gotten so fucking fortunate with this one, she was certain.

She looked away, but spoke in a quiet voice. "I killed those people with my bare hands, Kol. Not just adults, either. Every. Firstborn. I regret it so profoundly I can hardly explain, their screams haunt me. The whimpers of the children echo in my ears. I avenged my son, and I learned that vengeance isn't worth the price. I murdered children ."

"As have I." Kol whispered. He maneuvered so he could pull her into his lap so she was straddling him. It wasn't sexual, but it was incredibly intimate. His hands cupped her cheek and urged her down until their foreheads rested against each other. "What's important is that you carry your regret; that it haunts you. It keeps you from ever repeating it. I know, because it's how I have controlled myself. I still have issues, even now, but never with children. Not anymore. Have you harmed a child since?"

"No, no. Never again." Isolde confirmed, her hands sliding over Kol's on her face. "Never."

"It doesn't justify what was done, but as long as we continue forward in remembrance and never repeat it… I don't know. It's horrifying. It can't be justified." Kol said on a long, emotional exhale.

"I know, and it shouldn't be."

They remained silent, Kol releasing her face and gripping the back of her neck to pull her face in between his neck and shoulder. She sagged into his embrace and snaked her arms between him and the couch while his arms circled her back.

"I'm glad I met you, Kol."

She could hear him inhale sharply, felt his arms tighten and his mouth pressed against the side of her head, he trembled a little but she didn't mention it.

His voice was thick, and a bit raspy when he spoke. "Darling you have no idea how glad I am to have met you, too. I've prayed to every conceivable god for you for so long I thought myself too damaged to deserve you, that I deserved to be alone."

"Please don't say that." Isolde pulled back to look him in the eyes, seeing those dark chocolate orbs glassy and a bit bloodshot squeezed at her heart and she removed her hands from his back to slip up and cup his face. "I know we just met and we don't know each other that well yet but nobody deserves to be alone. I'm not going to leave you. You're never going to have to suffer by yourself again, I promise."

Something shifted in his gaze. His eyes, locked on hers, grew darker, more focused. He brought his hands up to remove hers from his face and laced his fingers with hers in one hand. The other he dropped to his shoulder. The hand he'd dropped on his shoulder slowly, without her permission, traced up his neck and circled to the back of his head where her fingers sank into his soft hair.

One large hand slid up her arm, over her shoulder and cupped her head. His gaze traveled down to her mouth and he inched forward, bringing her down to meet him.

When her lips met his, Isolde was hit with a near heart stopping wave of desire. Tilting his head further back his lips melded with hers in a gentle, unrushed fashion. Isolde sucked his bottom lip into her mouth with a soft bite, his grip in her hair tightened as he shuddered with a groan.

As Kol dipped his tongue between her lips, she let her legs relax and drop her gently against his erection. Kol made a strangled noise and bucked. Isolde moaned, breaking the kiss and throwing her head back with a startled gasp at the shot of pure pleasure that wracked her body.

Without thinking, she dropped the hand she'd entwined with his and wrapped it lightly around the base of his throat. Kol gasped, his free hand clenching tightly at her hip and pushing her down while he ground his hip upward in a slow, controlled movement that set her insides alight.

Her eyes met his and he was looking at her with so much desire that it almost hurt. She couldn't recall the last time anyone had looked at her like that, if any one ever had. The heat in those chocolate depths banished all reason, all thought that they hadn't even known each other a day.

"Isolde." He murmured, the golden lighting of the basement casting a glow over his eyes that made them smolder and she shuddered. "I'm so painfully hard that if you don't stop me, I'm going to fuck you right here, right now."

She raked her finger nails through his hair and leaned down, kissing first his forehead. "Then." Lowered her head to slide her tongue along one side of his neck. "Do." She switched sides and nibbled at his ear. Kol released a gasp, gripping her hip and hair tighter. "It. Bedroom is on the second floor, the last door on the left."

Kol surged upward and met her lips with bruising force, her hand on his throat fell to his well sculpted chest as he stood.

They heard the front door open and stopped short as Theon's voice called out for Isolde. Kol broke their kiss and rested his head in the crook of her neck. Isolde lowered her legs from where they'd ended up around Kol's torso.

"Fuck." Kol rumbled against her throat. She smoothed a soothing hand down the back of his head.

"Look at me," she commanded, and he begrudgingly pulled his head back, " later ."

At his nod, she dropped her arms from him but met his lips for one last searing kiss. Kol pulled her flush against him by her waist and she groaned just as Theon opened the basement door.

"Later." Kol promised with a smirk at the way her face was flushed, brushing his thumb over her bottom lip before releasing her.

Touch-starved Finn is my head cannon. All of the Mikaelson's are but Finn to a higher degree for obvious reasons. MY BOI NEEDS OXYTOCIN.

Hope y'all don't hate Isolde knowing what she did to get locked up in that temple. You do the crime, you do the time. But like.. 1500 years of confinement and self torture? Then possessed? I think she paid her due, right?

I think this pace, for Kol and Isolde, is good. I set them up like this because of Kol's extreme desperation for love/someone to care about him in canon. Even though Kol/Isolde (Kolde!) got started fast, that doesn't mean we aren't gonna slow burn others. Like Klaus and Finn.