You Don't Know What I'd Do For You (Love you like oxygen)

Final Notes (Part Two)

*A/N* Alright, here is the part two, the very last chapter of this book. Once again, I will be giving trigger warnings for individual notes as needed. Please enjoy!

But still, Elijah was everything that a father was supposed to be, everything that I had hoped for a long time that Mikael would some day become, everything that I hoped to one day be for Hope. - Klaus POV about Elijah, chapter twenty-nine
*A/N* I found that last line to be especially meaningful since, in the series, Elijah can see that Hope is changing Klaus for the better. I feel like the brothers' relationship got better when Klaus could understand what it was like to love something more than he loved himself, it gave him a new appreciation for what Elijah had done.

All of the love that he held for us, all that he had gone through for us, that he would burn the whole world down to get to any one of us if we needed it, all of those things that were bigger than himself, so heavy that he almost couldn't fathom them, were all of the things that he could only ever express in those three words. Always and forever. - Klaus POV about Elijah, chapter twenty-nine

He hadn't been more than 7, but he had been the one to make sure that I never went to bed hungry. He wasn't a parent, but he had been the one that had helped Kol take his first steps. He had never gotten credit, but he had been the one that had carefully brushed and braided Rebekah's hair every morning. It shouldn't have ever been up to him, but he had been the one that had rocked Henrik to sleep night after night until Esther eventually remembered to be a mother. He shouldn't have been, but he had been all the same. - Klaus POV about Elijah, chapter twenty-nine
*A/N* If anyone has any good parentified Elijah fic recommendations I am all ears because the show did not give us enough soft Elijah moments.

But I knew that in the wake of that neglect, abuse, labour, and injustice, Elijah also found duty, and belonging, and comfort in the knowledge that we had grown up loved because he had grown up too fast. I knew the pain that lay behind those deep, brown eyes, I knew how he hid behind masks of elegant speeches, and fine silk, and perfect suits, but I also knew that he loved us, loved us like the moon loved all of her stars, like the birds loved the morning sun, and like the rivers loved the rain. I knew that that love was the light at the end of his tunnel, the prosperity through all of his struggle, his beautiful trauma. - Klaus POV, chapter twenty-nine
*A/N* I can hear the fangirls screaming in the background.

It was during one of such pacing rounds that, in my unfocused state, I wandered down the hall that led to Elijah's room. It was a familiar route, it was where my body carried me in search of someone with whom to share the weight only for my mind to refuse to ask for help and send me back on my way. I know that he would never turn me away, or slam the door in my face, that he would never ridicule my weakness, that he would never shame me for being unable to carry the burdens that he seemed to bear so effortlessly. But, I still always got cold feet whenever I got too close to actually going through with it. - Kol POV, chapter thirty

I had never lost my parents, I had never watched Esther and Mikael change after Freya had been taken. An abusive father, and a neglecting mother, and a distant eldest brother, and a cold, lonely household was what I had always known. But I had also known Elijah, comforting, and caring, and safe, and all the things that he readily provided so that I never felt the emptiness in my life that had been meant to be filled by loving parents. But because I had known him like that, I know that I could never cope with ever watching him change and grow distant or watching him leave and give up on all of us. No matter how much we all deserved it. - Kol POV, chapter thirty

Even as I pushed the door open, I was convincing myself that he wouldn't send me back into the hall, that he wouldn't refuse me, that he would never be upset that I had come to see him. He promised, my mind supplied, repeating it over and over, although it sounded more like a desperate plea, he promised he would stay. - Kol POV, chapter thirty