(A/N): Back to Leo and the rest of the Ellwood Clan. Most of this is a repeat of the last chapter, translated for the characters that don't speak French, to catch them up to speed. Some more of Leo's backstory, and some pretty heavy handed foreshadowing. Also, about the chapter name... I had to. I'm not sorry.

Leo

"You... what? Since when?!" I stared at Lisbet for a second, wondering what would get me in less trouble- stating the obvious, which she would most likely take as me acting like she was stupid, or making a joke, which she would take as me never being serious, and perhaps trying to hide things from her. In the end, I decided to state the obvious- even if she got mad at me, telling the truth would do me more favors than anything else.

"Since... always? Since I was born, so, the 15th of August, 1960?" Lisbet looked like her brain was about to explode, and Danniel piped up from where he had been waiting patiently near the end of the table, with Jo and Herc.

"Um, some context would be nice. You know, for those of us who don't speak French." He eyed us all, particularly me, somewhat dubiously.

"Lisbet?" She looked at me, like she hadn't been expecting me to ask anything from her right now. "Would you like to explain your conversation with Greygorry and Jerremyah before I became part of it?" Something flickered across her expression- she was probably remembering exactly what that conversation had entailed, and exactly what I had overheard- before she flushed a deep shade of red.

"We all said hello to each other, and Greygorry asked when Jerremyah joined the clan. I told him last night, and Greygorry mentioned that our anniversary was coming up-" I cut her off.

"Lisbet. You know me very well- in fact, I'd say you taught me everything I know. Do you really think I would let you get away with that?" For a split second, she looked almost proud- probably at me saying that she taught me everything I knew, even if what I meant was that she had taught me how to be one of the most irritating people in existence- before her expression changed to an abashed one.

"I didn't think it was entirely necessary to translate things exactly-" I raised an eyebrow at her, and she sighed exasperatedly. "Fine." She turned her attention back to the others- Danniel, Jo, Herc and Shari, that is. "Grey-" Said man cut her off.

"Hello, my little flirt." I could barely see the curve of Jerremyah's mouth from where I was, but even if I had been blind, I would have known he was grinning.

"Hello, My Angel." It sounded just as intimate and almost reverential in English as it had in French, and as Danniel's eyebrows shot up, Jo's eyebrows shot downwards. Maybe she was thinking about the fact that anyone Jerremyah would refer to as 'My Angel' was another vampire that would stand between her and killing her sire- or, like me, she was calculating whether the fact that Jerremyah had defined Greygorry as an angel, actually meant he was secretly more akin to a demon. He certainly threw a hell of a punch, that was for sure.

"Hello, my dear Sister." Lisbet looked a little less embarrassed, now that her men were helping her out, and tossed a saucy smile in Greygorry's direction- and subsequently Jerremyah's direction, considering he was still burrowed in the shorter mans' embrace.

"Hello, Handsome." I saw Shari roll her eyes from across the table, and I was glad, because it meant she was still here, and present in the conversation, even if maybe she didn't want to be.

"When did this happen, and most importantly, why?" Jerremyah started nuzzling Greygorry's throat, clearly scenting him in return, and I silently marveled at the identical indulgent expressions that appeared on Lisbet and Greygorry's faces as he did so.

"Last night, but it's not like that." The way she said it had changed, but since it was so close, I didn't bother correcting her- she was doing well, and I hoped that maybe if I cut her some slack, the next time I needed some, she would give it to me. Either because she remembered this moment, or because of some unknown karmic entity.

"Of course, I believe you." Greygorry's wicked smirk reappeared, as he watched Lisbet's mortified expression grow as she realised what line was next.

"I bet you'll be-" Lisbet cut him off.

"There is a child present!" I was not the only one who looked at Lisbet like she had gone insane- in fact, I think Jerremyah was the only one who wasn't. Even Greygorry seemed astonished, and he glanced at me, before directing his gaze back at Lisbet.

"Lis, Leo hardly counts-" I didn't know whether I should be offended or gratified that Greygorry didn't feel the need to treat me like a child- on one hand, I hated the idea of being treated with kid gloves just because I was a little younger than most of the other members of the clan, but on the other, the fact that Lisbet wanted to shield me from things- even crude language- made something in my chest ache. I hadn't been treated like I was worth protecting by an adult in a long time, in any sense other than the physical, and it brought back memories that I couldn't afford to dwell on.

"He's fifteen!" She sounded outraged, and Greygorry looked even more confused, but pushed on anyway.

"I bet you'll be... intimate...?" He waited for Lisbet's approval before continuing. "Again in no time- Your anniversary is coming up, isn't it?" Ah, so I was right. Their anniversary was coming up- oh god, I wasn't supposed to get them a present, was I? What were you supposed to get two- centuries old- vampires for their anniversary anyway? I didn't think diamonds were going to cut it. Then again, would the anniversary present be for two vampires... or three? Greygorry had said 'your anniversary', which inferred he wasn't part of the relationship- but maybe he was, and they had separate anniversaries, based on when they had become official. And- oh god. Was this the anniversary of when they started dating, or... had Lisbet and Jerremyah gotten married at some point throughout the centuries? If anything, I was more confused about the nature of the three older vampires relationships than I had been before their anniversary had been confirmed.

"Which brings us to when Leo joined the conversation." Lisbet said, to which I rolled my eyes.

"Which showed the fact that I can understand French, which means I already heard what Greygorry said- and if I wasn't legitimately worried that your heart might restart just to allow you to have a heart attack, I'd quote him right now." Lisbet looked even more horrified than she had when she had realised that I could understand them, if that was possible, and I shook my head at her, before turning my attention back to Danniel, Jo, Herc and Shari.

"Lisbet asked if I could understand them, and I said, 'Of course I can, I was born in Bordeaux-'-which is in Southwestern France, by the way- '-so French is my first language.'" Shari's eyebrows furrowed.

"You're French?" She glanced around the room, as if searching for answers. "Since when?" Lisbet held a hand out to me, gesturing in Shari's direction, as if to say, 'see? I'm not the only one with questions!'

"Again, since I was born. When my mother was close to giving birth to me, they- she and my stepfather- decided to go on a trip to France. Her mother- my grandmother, the veela one-" Jerremyah's head jerked up, clearly trying to gauge Greygorry's reaction, but Greygorry just patted his hair without even looking at him- Greygorry and I had never discussed it, and since my professors didn't know, they definitely hadn't told him, but Greygorry had also made it clear that he knew I wasn't simply a half-vampire- If he hadn't known beforehand, my relationship with Brooke, and subsequently bringing the two of them into proximity, had probably cleared things up a little bit. "-lives there, and my mother wanted to see her, before the baby came- before I was born. I came early- their portkey was meant to leave the next morning, but obviously, they couldn't transport while my mother was in labor- but it wouldn't have mattered anyway." I took a deep breath to settle myself, and I could tell Lisbet wanted to reach out to me, but knew I probably wouldn't have welcomed it.

"One of the servants-" Jo and Danniel seemed a bit bemused by this, and I remembered that they weren't quite as accustomed to the idea of me having grown up with servants as some of the others- Herc had clearly either heard more from Lisbet than I had originally thought, or simply didn't have it in him to be bothered by something so trivial at this point. "-alerted my mothers' father, my grandfather, that my mother had gone into labor, and when he arrived, he insisted-" I paused, feeling a rare ache in my chest at the thought of my mother, in that situation. "He forced her to give birth in the servants quarters, so she didn't make a mess of the furnishings." They all looked just as disgusted at the concept as I felt. It didn't matter to him that a wave of the wand would have returned the furniture to its original state- he wouldn't allow his only daughter to have the comforts of home and the company of her mother as she gave birth to the grandchild he had so adamantly pushed for her to have.

It was hardly the worst thing old Anthophilius Meliflua had done, but it was definitely something that had caught in my throat from the moment I had been learned about it- from a particular loose lipped tutor, who had abhorred me so much that he had resorted to disparaging me, and had used the fact that I had been born 'in a broom closet' as an insult- and had been stuck there ever since. The tutor had been fired not long after- at least, I think he was fired. He'd certainly been 'let go', but whether that was from my family's employ, or from one of our balconies, I wasn't entirely sure- and honestly, I didn't want to know.

"I was born just after four in the morning- they wouldn't have made it to the Portkey, even if they had been able to use it. After my grandfather had witnessed me-" As was customary in most pureblood families- it was supposed to discourage illegitimacy, but clearly it hadn't quite worked, considering the fact that I had turned out to be the very antithesis of everything that the Meliflua family, and Anthophilius especially, represented. "He begrudgingly allowed my mothers request to stay in France with my grandmother, for them to... bond over being mothers, I guess? I'm not really sure why, if I'm honest." I shrugged, and Lisbet looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but was worried that it would hurt me.

"He wasn't taking any chances with his second grandchild being born outside of England, however, and when my mother was about six months pregnant with Mia, my parents-" I corrected myself immediately, but not quickly enough to prevent everyone in the room from hearing it, and undoubtedly taking note. "My mother, and stepfather- moved back to the Joannis Manor in London." I locked eyes with Lisbet, and she dropped her gaze- she knew the house well enough, considering she had rescued me from there when my mother had poisoned me. "I've had dual citizenship ever since." Herc looked intrigued.

"So you're French." I felt like rolling my eyes, but managed- barely- to keep it to myself. It wasn't Herc's fault he was a little bit behind- I'd been taught French from birth, and while I was a little rusty from not having spoken it for a few years, I still had a leg up from learning it as a child. Herc wasn't so lucky- he had learned English a lot later in life, to be able to communicate with his father- our father- who, as it turned out, hadn't been all that interested in communicating. I'm sure it had come in handy when he had met Zachariah, though, at least.

"Oui." His eyebrows furrowed.

"I thought you were English." I did roll my eyes this time.

"So did everyone else-" He cut me off, continuing with what he was saying.

"I thought you were English, like Adelaide, but you're French, like Henrietta- which means that two out of three of Nicholai's mortal children were born in France."

(A/N): Greygorry: 'I bet you'll be-'

Lisbet: 'There's a child present!'

Leo: 'Fucking where?!'

also

Everyone: 'I thought you were English.'

Leo: 'Clairement, tu t'es trompé.'

INFO

Translation: Clairement, tu t'es trompé = Clearly, you were wrong.

In my head, the Joannis manor is located somewhere like Cambridge Gate, in London. Anthophilius Eligius Meliflua is Cipicia's father, and I made up his first name.

Anthophilius comes from the words anthophilous, meaning 'Feeding upon or living among flowers' and Anthophila, which is the latin name for bees, which means 'flower lover'.

Eligius comes from the latin word eligere, which means to 'pick out' or 'choose', and is the name of Saint Eligius, who is the patron saint of goldsmiths, blacksmiths and coin collectors, among other things. There's also a legend where he solved the problem of a horse refusing to be shod, wherein, thinking that the horse was possessed by demons, he cut off it's foreleg, reshod it while the horse watched from three legs, and miraculously reattached the amputated leg. I think that particularly legend is quite fitting of Anthophilius' character, if I'm honest.

Meliflua, of course, comes from the word mellifluous, which means 'sweet sounding', and derives from the latin word mellifluus, meaning 'flowing like honey'- which is what made me choose to derive his first name from the latin name for bees.