Petrichor - e.mikaelson

01

"Francesca?"

"Come now Ricky," Frankie teased lightly as she stepped by her brother into the apartment, "I miss one thanksgiving with dad and Di and we're back to Francesca? I feel like a nana."

Dumping her backpack ungraciously by the door, Frankie suddenly noticed another figure in the room. Back towards the window sat a girl with long brown hair who was dressed all in black. She realised now her brothers guest must be the reason he was acting so unusual. Bounding forwards she held her hand out to introduce herself, this must be Jenna his girlfriend. She knew they'd been having issues recently and now Frankie realised that possibly she'd interrupted at an awkward moment between them.

"Hi," she approached with a grin, "I'm Frankie, the sister, you must be Jenna! I've heard a tonne about you."

"Frankie," Alaric stuttered out a weak laugh, "I didn't expect you, uh, not Jenna. This is my friend, Katerina."

The girl stood up, nervously glancing between Frankie and Alaric who still stood by the door and held her hand out, "Hi," she said dryly, "Most people just call me Katherine."

"It's nice to meet you," she smiled before turning back to her brother, "It is cool if I stay for a bit right Ric? If it's a bad time I can figure something else-"

"No," Alaric cut her off suddenly, almost desperately, before letting out an awkward chuckle, "No of course it's alright. Stay as long as you need."

There was silence between the three for a moment, an awkward tension as Katherine and Alaric stared nervously at each other, neither sure of what to do or say. Frankie figured the best thing to do would be to give them a moment of space to talk, so when they both remained silent she took charge.

"Hey Ric, I might go change if that's cool?" Alaric nodded forcing a smile on his shell shocked face and Frankie took off with her backpack.

Her brother was acting weird but she figured she had just barged into his home after six months without seeing him. When she finally emerged from his bedroom in a set of sweatpants and shirt, Katherine was gone and her brother's head shot up at her presence.

"So, Frankie," the way he said her name was odd, as though he were testing out a new name she'd given for herself rather than her moniker for the past decade, "What's going on?"

Frankie sighed, "You were right when you said Mitch is kind of a dick."

Alaric tensed in front of her, his face darkened and his hands that lay beside him previously curled into fists, "He did this to you?" he pointed at her lip and then caught sight of her wrists, his brow furrowing as he caught her hands and pulled them to him.

"It's fine Ric," she laughed off uncomfortable with the stare he was giving her, "I just need to lay low for a bit. I'm thinking I'll find a new city, not like I'm particularly attached to that shitty bar I worked at."