A/n: a human/vampire christmas story. It is AU-  I am mashing up all sorts from the TVD/TO history. Hope you like it. :D

Elejah, Klaroline, Kennett, Jackbekah, Finnage.

*

************
New York

"So, did you get the invitation from Mother?" Rebekah said to her brother Elijah as he picked up his phone finally.

"For the Christmas Charity Ball? I did." Elijah responded.

"She stricktly put +1. And I don't have anyone. At least you have Hayley"

"I don't." Elijah said.

"Why not?"

"I was only hooking up with her as you would say it. She married Jackson and expecting his baby."

"Oh, right. Well, then you are no better than Klaus, me or Kol. It's only Finn who's got Sage. I wish I can find the one!"

"I am sure the one you seek will come along one day. Listen, I got to go. Call me when you land." Elijah saw his assistant walk in notifying him that it was time for his next meeting and so he cut his phone call short walking out of his office with his assistant. As he took the notes, he looked at her and asked, "Aya, would you like to accompany me to my parent's Christmas Charity Ball?"

The assistant looked surprised at her boss.

"It's a formal thing my family does and I require a +1." Elijah explained.

Aya nodded a little as a yes.

"Right. That's settled then. And can you please get all the charity donations ready for me to sign when I get back. Thank you."

*
Elsewhere

Klaus picked his phone up, "Rebekah, so how is Paris this time of year?"

"Cold," Rebekah replied,"I guess you are boiling in Buenos Aires?"

"Well, it is summer here, although not yet officially." the Original replied.

"Just spoke to Elijah. He has no +1. Did you know that bitch Hayley got married?"

"You have really not spoken to Elijah in a thousand years." Klaus shot chuckling a bit.

"I was busy. You may think that fashion world is over glorified laundry bag, but I am busy, and he is always busy. I thought he has fallen, but it turns out he was only hooking up with her."

"He is pining for someone else anyway." Klaus blurted out.

"You know something I don't! Spill!" Rebekah huffed, jealous as she was not up to speed with her brothers' love life.

"There is a mystery girl."

"What? What mystery girl?" Rebekah was stunned hearing her eldest brother had a story that sounded romantic the way Klaus' tone of voice put forward.

"I am sure he will tell you all about it." Klaus teased.

"You know he won't. How do you know about it?"

"Well, last month when I saw him we had one to many Bourbons and he shared. He met her in Italy when he was on a conference."

"Is this for real? You are so pulling my leg." Rebekah was not doubting the whole story suddenly.

"Ask him. And you will see the reaction when you say Elena to him."

"Right. Anyway, when are you flying in? I will be bored before you get home. Kol arrives on the morning of the Ball. Mother is already peeved off.  Elijah would probably be in the study all day and working till he has to appear at the Ball."

"I am flying out tomorrow actually." Klaus said. 

"Good. Ok. Oh. How about your +1?" Rebekah asked.

"I will invite the first girl that sits next to me on the plane."

"Please don't joke. Mother will kill you if you bring a total stranger."

"Like you have done last year." Klaus shot at his sister.

"It was not that bad." Rebekah remembered the fiasco of her date who got terribly drunk and called them all bloodsuckers.

"Well, we are vampires, but we are nothing like some other bloodsuckers I know."

"I have to get myself a vampire boyfriend. At least he gets me when I pour blood in my champagne"

"Marcel must have a pal or two."

"Please don't mention Marcel, please" Rebekah said annoyed.

"I thought you are over him?!"

"So over!" Rebekah exclaimed.

"Yes. Till you see him and fall to his charm like you always do"

"I am going now. My flight's just been announced" the blonde Original said, muttering a short bye and scampered  off to the departure gate.

And so it was basically every year with the Mikaelsons.

Four of the siblings lived in different parts of the world. Elijah in New York, Rebekah in Paris, Kol in Sydney and Klaus, well it depended on the asignament or his own artistic needs, as he was a photographer. Finn was the only one that remained home in New Orleans.

And as for Elena, Elijah's mystery girl, he had met in Sorrento, Italy, she was living and working in Nova Scotia for the moment, excavating a newly found viking site. She was originally from Mystic Falls, same as her friends Bonnie and Caroline, who was currently residing in Dallas. 

Christmas was about family, but friends as well. And out of the three of them, only Elena had a family member left, but since her brother and mother died in a car crash several years ago, they stopped celebrating anything, and Elena would occasionaly spend  Christmas with her friends or even alone.

Caroline picked up her phone as she saw Bonnie's name on the display, "You have got to come to New Orleans! I am not spending Christmas alone this year. I know you got time off, so don't tell me you can't be here."

"Well, Alaric and Jo are going away with the twins to Portland. And I am free for two weeks," Caroline said,"so yes."

"Great. Now, you need to convince Elena to pack her bags and leave the damn viking site and come down" Bonnie said.

"Oh, I got to do the mission impossible?! Can you spell her over the phone and just make her come?"

"Magic doesn't work that way." Bonnie reminded her friend.

"If I was a witch I would sure find one. And a love potion, too." Caroline sighed.

"That has to happen naturally"- Bonnie said.

"That's never going to happen then" Caroline puffed, frustrated.

"You just haven't met the right guy, that's all"

"I really thought Stefan was the one, but it turned out he has always been in love with his high-school flame Valerie."

"Well, it's over now. Done and dusted, right. You get here and maybe you find a guy in New Orleans and fall madly and deeply in love. You never know" Bonnie tried to pick her friend's mood up.

"Don't tell me nature has its way and the universe will make it happen - whatever you witches believe in"

"It is so. Plus a comet is going to pass this Christmas Eve - and magical books say that has effects of a cupid's arrow"

"Yeah, sure" Caroline rolled her eyes in total disbelief, "calling Elena now. I've got loads of other errands to do."

"Ok. Talk to you later" Bonnie signed off.

The Bennett witch inherited a house from her great- aunt in New Orleans and upon seeing the place decided immediately to move in and stay in the city.

Her love life was no better than those of her friends. Her heart was actually sad as she had dated Jeremy, Elena's brother. And even though she thought she had worked through her grief, her heart didn't allow her to move on and let herself fall in love again.

So, we are left with Elena. A human, but not an ordinary one. A doppelganger. A supernatural occurence. And she hated it. Unlike Caroline, who embraced her vampire aspect.

As for her love life or the significant other, well, she gave her heart away twice. and both times it ended with her heart bruised badly. So, she gave up on the whole love thing and concentrated on work, her degree, becoming the in a very short time the expert on everything Viking. She would travel the world presenting on different sholarly conferences. And so she found herself some six months previously in Sorrento, Italy, but not for a conference, but to meet he father and actually have a mini holiday.

Flashback

Sorrento, Italy

"Yeah, tomorrow I am catching a plane from Rome to London and then straight to Halifax, Nova Scotia, have to prepare everything for the excavation." Elena said to Caroline.

"I hope you had three normal days. An actual holiday where you didn't sit in front of a coumputor." Caroline said.

"Semi" Elena admitted.

"OMG. That means the time you didn't spend with your dad, you were not done any sightseening, went for a drink, met a guy, enjoyed the romantic Italy, I would kill to be there where you are right now, and you are wasting it. Go, put a dress on, do you hair and go out and do something crazy. What happens in Italy stays in Italy!" Caroline literaly yelled in the phone.

"I've got so much to do before I get to Nova Scotia" Elena made a lame excuse.

"Listen to me- this is an order- go have fun. Do it for me."

"How does doing it for you makes sense?!"

"I don't know. I don't care. Just do it. I am sure you can go and buy a dream-like dress on every corner, get your hair and make up done and just go out and have a drink on one of those dreamy terraces looking out in the seas as the breeze blows so gently and you will see a guy that would give you that look - and he will whisk you away into the moonlight and- the rest you know"

"The romantic you is killing me right now." Elena joked a little.

"Once upon a time you were romantic, too" Caroline said. 

Elena made a little sigh. It was true. But that was high-school- she thought. When dreams had different colours. 

Caroline now shot in,"I want the full report and pictures of the dress you chose. Ok. Josie is calling me, so got to go"

Both women hung up and Elena thought for a moment.Her father had left that morning, and stayed on because her flight had changed. She glanced at her computer, and then as if something invisble pushed her, she took her bag and went out. Caroline was right. She should let herself go, at least for a night. 

And so, she bought a dress and went to the hairdresser and went to one of those restaurants by the sea. It was a wonderful June evening. Everything about this part of the world was like magic. Like it was not the real world. Like you slip through a shimmering curtain into a fairy land. Elena let go. She let the atmosphere of the place take her. And after the dinner she took a walk by the sea, enjoying the sweet sea air. 

And as if she was in Caroline's little romantic novel. There, a man walked alone as well, and stood not far from her to soak the potent sea air. She had seen him around the hotel. They looked at one another at one point. They kind of smiled and walked away, each into the opposite side of the promenade. But some twenty minutes later, they both ended up in the hotel. In the bar. 

And this is what Elena would later retell their friends what had happened.

"I ordered a cocktail and sat outside, it was so great and he was there drinking by himself. And we were both kind of - I am on holiday here. He is on a business conference and we talked about nothing- well, Napels and the Romans and the vulcano eruption. I don't even get how we got into it"

"You don't?" Bonnie teased her as loved everything about history.

"And got another cocktail," Elena said,"And from talking at one moment we were kissing. And I let go. Why the hell not- I thought. He was charming and I know it is not a clever thing to do. And it is so not me, but I let go."

"Tell me it was good?" Caroline said.

"It was so good!" Elena exclaimed.

"Why did you leave  just like that. I would have stayed for breakfast if it was so good" Caroline said.

"It's one of those things. What happens in Italy, stays in Italy. It was clear that he wanted it like that as well. He probably hooks up with women like that everywhere he goes on a conference." Elena sighed a little.

"Probably" Bonnie concluded.

Elena would at times go back to that one magical night she spent with Elijah in Italy. Closing her eyes evoking his kiss. The way he pulled her into it. The way his hands played upon her back. They way he nipped her neck with his mouth. They way he just made her forget about the world letting her self get lost in him. 

And as it would be, Elijah on occasion, would think of Italy and his mystery woman.

****

It is that time of the year, again. 

Mrs Esther Mikaelson was in full swing with preparations for the Ball, awaiting her children to return. This was the only time in the year she would bring them all together. They all pledged before leaving for college that, no matter where they were, they would always be there for the Christmas Charity Ball, which was held on the 22nd of December at the Mikaelson's Mansion. And they never went back on that promise. Vampires, witches, werewolves or doppelgangers, humans even, she didn't care, she wanted to see her children be happy and form some kind of a family. 

*

There's a million faces smiling in the streets
And a quiet hum sing winter melodies
Seems funny how this season brings a tear
And I'm longing for the snow to disappear

Hey now
If I close my eyes now
Shut all the world out
Just you and me

I'd give all the snow and sleigh bells, all the Christmas lights
I'd give all the cold and mistletoe, all the cozy nights
I'd give all the love this time of year, all that festive cheer
I'd give anything this Christmas, anything this Christmas
I'd give anything this Christmas to have you here

There's a taxi driving someone home tonight
And a Christmas card that I will never write
Wish I had that river I could skate away on
Wish I had you in my arms, where you belong