𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐄, Stefan and Damon

11

Astrid's POV

Every day with them was lovely, really. I got the chance to bond more with my little girls. Stefan decided to take them while I managed the Coven and other matters that had gone to the wayside once I was too pregnant to do much of anything.

To be fair, we were still quite unsure of how I'd managed to have the girls. Caroline had Aric now, too, which made no sense since she was a full-blown vampire. It created issues for the rest of the family now, having to worry about protection when they hadn't for so many years.

Some things can be blamed on me being a Heretic, others just can't. Why did I nearly die? Will they end up needing blood?

I should have done some of this work when I was pregnant, but I was just... too busy.

Mystic Falls, the Quarter. I still haven't gone in and met with any of those witches myself because deep down, I have a sinking feeling that they won't forgive me for who I am. I've killed plenty of witches in my time and their ancestors surely know that. This family doesn't have the best reputation. I can't even blame them. Marcel, as much as he is my son, he really ran the name of vampires and the Mikaelsons through the dirt. His reign wasn't a peaceful one. I'm going to have to do something to change that.

What the Hell?

"Kol, what are you doing?"

He gave me a confused look and pushed something into a nearby desk.

"Nothing, Striddy, I was dusting the desk," he insisted while visibly grabbing a piece of paper to presumably hide in the same drawer. "Laurel said she was taking you out today."

What?

"You just put something in that desk, Kol," I gave a pause to see if his reaction would change, "What are you hiding from your little sister?"

He shook his head and looked to the door, "Laurel wants to take you out, Striddy!"

"You're not good at this at all." I crossed my arms like a child and stared into his anxious eyes. "Laurel and Caroline left three hours ago to go compel some clothes for our little bitty babies."

Kol had been caught red-handed, but he would still go on and on before he would actually say what he'd been hiding. Honestly, no use in playing those games with him. I'm the one who can use magic, not him. Quite easy to make a brother say what they're hiding when the full force of a car is crushing their... you know.

Before he could even respond I was out of the door. Better to leave Kol hanging, wondering what I would be telling Nik or Finn or dare I say... Davina? She was very helpful with the babies, especially my twins. Turns out she'd taken a liking to them the second they stopped screaming every three minutes. But I'm pretty sure that's when the whole family took a liking to Helga and Sigrid. Otherwise they were nearly unmanageable, pleading for food every five minutes while also not understanding that they need to burp to make their tummies stop hurting. I guess you have to be a baby at least once, be weird once, and get on with your life.

My brothers are still weird, though.

I caught Jeremy and Henrik making out outside yesterday. They think they're so slick.

They're not. I'm just fond of Henrik and don't want to embarrass him in front of the entire family. That would be terrible no good big sister of me and I'm not willing to be that when he's been pining over Jeremy for months with very little to show for it. When did that even happen? Do we have video footage? Is that an invasion of privacy or do I get to do it since it's my house? Am I the only one who knows?

I don't even know, I'm just wondering when they're going to fess up about being together.

Luckily for me, Kol wasn't dumb enough to follow me out into the living room, where Damon was lazily watching some unnamed Spanish soap with Helga in his arm. I went over to the pair and gave each a little kiss on the head.

"Do not wake," Damon whispered, "Must nap."

I suppressed my small giggle and quickly left the two of them to their own devices. If Helga wanted to sleep, she would sleep. She seems to be following the human route of development, thank goodness, so I'll have a lot of time to spend with her. Same seems to ring true for Aric. I'm lucky to be able to raise my girls at the same time as Caroline and Nik are raising their boy. The cousins will be able to be close and hopefully, will go to school together. How they'll go to school is still a complete mystery. I will figure that out later.

My little way around the house should have ended already, but I just had to find a blood bag from somewhere. I knew the fridge upstairs was out because... Well, I'd been super hungry after giving birth and I couldn't control myself at all. Then everyone was fussing over the babies and Aric had a little magical mishap in the fridge after he threw two blood bags at the wall for no other reason than he was angry. Bless him, the mess would have been horrible to explain to the police.

So the only option was in the small Heretic kitchen close to the back door to our large house.

Inside there were plenty of blood bags and I took my pick. Wasn't the best thing in the world, but was much better than going hungry and losing my mind at someone. Most likely one of my brothers or Kai, who in his endless love for my leadership, managed to poke the hangry bear one too many times already.

Before I could finish the bag I heard a knock at the door. I shuddered. Who the hell was knocking at the door? The police? The mail people?

Everyone knows to walk on in. Everyone whose allowed to be in have a key. There are so many goddamn keys to this place now that so many people live here. Even people who split their time between here and Mystic Falls or the surrounding New Orleans area... have a key.

I wasn't answering that door. No way. Not risking getting caught drinking from a blood bag.

"We kept the spells up in this place, right?" Kai asked from my right, snagging one of the bags I planned on eating. "Yeah, I think we did."

"Should I be worried about something, Kai?"

"No, no," he gave me an awkward smile.

"So it happens that I ran into your mate today," I began with and watched as the color drained from his face, "and he was acting even shiftier than you. He was hiding something and some papers."

"Right-"

"And I'm wondering if these two things you don't want to tell me about and the knocking on the door right now are connected," I said with sarcastic flair that would have raised hairs of anyone in the house. "Kai what the fuck haven't you been telling me."

"The Coven have been dealing with it," Kai only began to explain, "and Finn and Elijah."

"Not Nik? Not Marcel?" Kai shook his head. "Do they even know about the things you've been working on?"

"No..." Kai gave one of those apologetic smiles. "I didn't want to upset you when you were supposed to be giving birth. Now it matters a bit more than ever."

I gave him a glare as he sucked on his blood bag. "What the heck are you talking about? Do you know who is knocking at the door?"

He hummed.

"Do you or do you not, Kai?"

"It's probably the witches who want to get rid of Aric and Sigrid."