Forever Original | Alaric Saltzman

Chapter 68

For three months, Hilda and Alaric resided in the Armory.

It wasn't because they thought their house was unsafe, and it wasn't because they liked the place (because they didn't, not as a home). Rather, it was due to the fact that Hilda was certain Alaric would have gone insane if he had to leave behind all the artifacts before cataloging them.

"What?" he had asked three months prior, when she'd suggested they remain there for a bit. "Are you serious?"

"I know that look," she said pointedly as she held the sleeping twins up against her chest. "Your mind is in overdrive and you won't get any proper sleep unless you get the chance to look through things at a good pace and organize everything."

Moments like these were what made Alaric feel thankful that he had Hilda by his side. No one else had ever understood his love for history this much. Jo, Jenna, and Isobel had all respected it, but they hadn't tried to indulge in it for his sake. When it came to Hilda, he could talk to her for hours about one topic and he'd find that at the end of his makeshift lecture, she'd still be listening and would be ready to ask clarification questions as if she were his student. She never looked bored, in fact, her pupils dilated the most when he was talking about something he enjoyed. It made her happiest to see him in his element.

Once, he had kept her up until past two in the morning ranting about how excited he was for a certain lesson to come up for his students. Despite feeling tired, she'd propped her head up on her fist and gazed at him like he was serenading her, and when he realized the time and apologized profusely despite the fact he was still not tired out, she started to note the interesting parts to show she'd been listening, and they hadn't ended up sleeping at all.

Thus, they had decided to make the Armory their home for the next months. Caroline and Stefan had gone off on a proper, relaxing vacation, while Valerie had gone to meet with Nora and Mary Louise, who were making plans to get legally married. Enzo, Bonnie, and Damon had come to be their 'roommates,' since Enzo technically owned the building, and Damon and Bonnie were using its resources to try and figure out how to wake Elena up, which involved heavily consulting Hilda to figure out the best spells to try. They had to take it little by little, because they feared that any slight mistake would leave Elena permanently dead.

Hilda was thankful to have Bonnie there, because not long after they had settled in, the twins had begun having trouble with their magic.

It had been gradual, at first. Things had started to float near the girls and follow them around wherever they went. Crayons became like ducklings that trailed along behind their mother, and sippy cups stopped obeying the laws of gravity. Hilda and Alaric hadn't been concerned until one morning, they'd heard a tremendous crash, and they'd run into the twins' room to see that their beds were now floating, too, and had slammed into the ceiling.

"Girls!" said Hilda, scooping them up and pulling them back before the beds fell back onto the floor, creating another loud crash. "What happened?"

"We didn't mean to!" said Lizzie immediately, her blue eyes filling with tears, thinking she was in trouble. "I-I just wanted to show Josie t-to..." she started to cry.

"Oh, princess, I'm not mad at you," said Hilda, pulling her into a hug as Josie began to cry too.

Alaric picked Josie up, rubbing her back. "Just tell us what happened," he said soothingly. "We're only worried because the beds could have hurt you. You remember the story about monkeys jumping on beds? They got hurt. It would have been worse if the bed jumped onto you."

Lizzie sniffled, pulling away from Hilda and wiping her eyes. "I-I got mad," she whimpered as Hilda brought her sleeve up to dry her tears. "I-I wanted... wanted a bunk bed..."