Archer Mikaelson wasn't completely unaware of how supposedly "weird" his family was. He heard the talk among the other Crescent kids, he wasn't deaf. But his sister Hope always told him to ignore them and that they were just stupid and jealous that he had a huge family who cared for him.

How that was a load of bullshit.

And he came to realise that on the day of Carlos Montague and Finn Mikaelson's wedding.

Alcohol, a deteriorating marriage and a sidepiece all at one place was never going to end well ever.

(He could only imagine how Niklaus Mikaelson of all people would react to being referred to as the 'sidepiece')

Archer was ten, Hope was twelve. Hope also seemed to be far more aware of the situation going on between Hayley, Klaus and Jackson than any child should be. But she always had been far smarter than most people would give her credit for.

Archer had been mulling about the courtyard where other guests were dancing, including his headstrong sister strictly trying to teach her uncle Henrik how to dance with the elder teen failing hilariously.

His father had been drinking, as per usual, and his mother had seemingly disappeared, as per usual. Along with Hope's father Klaus.....as per usual.

Maybe it was their wolf hearing, Archer wasn't sure, but in an instant Hope and Henrik's faces fell into deep frowns as they suddenly stood to attention, looking like they were listening to something or someone.

Archer glanced around at some of the other members of Hope's family, and it looked like they all heard whatever it was as well - her aunt Rebekah even winced slightly.

It was then that Archer began to hear it too - faint noises of shouting and screaming, the volume increasing bit by bit until he could make out not only his parents' voices, but also the voice of Hope's father Klaus.

He recognized the rage in Jackson's voice - he had been on the end of it a lot lately, unbenknownst to Hayley - and he knew exactly how violent Jackson could get if he was mad and drunk enough.

Of course young Archer was terrified for his mother - not really taking into consideration that Hayley was one of the few werewolf-vampire hybrids currently walking on the planet, and that not only did she absolutely eclipse Jackson in terms of not only strength and power but popularity - it seemed like the whole city adored the "queen of the wolves."

Hayley Marshall also took shit from absolutely no one, least of all her bitch of a husband.

Wolves were reknowned for their tempers, obviously, but none could compare with the seething rage that coursed through Hayley's veins when she discovered Jackson had been abusing her son. Klaus was fully prepared to have to dispose of Jackson's dead body the second he heard the sound of glass shattering and was met with the sight of Jackson lying in a heap, head spilling blood, surrounded by a million sharp shards, and Hayley hyperventilating and shouting with tears streaming down her face.

Klaus immediately wrapped his arms around her, expecting her to fight back with how angry she was, but instead Hayley just collapsed into his arms sobbing, and he pulled her down to the nearby couch.

The sound of the glass was obviously impossible for the rest of the family to ignore, and soon they all came rushing into the room, though Hope quickly grabbed Archer and held him back at the door.

Elijah and Kol wordlessly went over and grabbed Jackson's half-concious body and dragged it away out of the room, Archer merely watching the bloodied body leave while frozen in place under Hope's grip.

His father wasn't dead, he could see his chest rising and falling slowly. But little Archer was far more worried about his sobbing mother than dick of a father.

"Momma?"

Other than Hayley's sobs the room had been relatively silent, Rebekah and Freya were trying to give her comfort along with Klaus, Marcel had left to help Elijah and Kol deal with Jackson, and Carlos was siphoning from Finn to do a spell to clean up the glass.

Hayley immediately broke away from Klaus at the sound of the ten year-old's voice.

"Archie-" Hayley reached her arms out towards her son, who instinctively ran straight into them. "I'm so sorry I should've noticed-"

Archie closed his eyes and buried his face into his mother's shoulder. Klaus wasn't sure what she was talking about until he noticed an ugly purple-ish bruise creeping out from under his shirt collar, and he began to put two and two together.

He sat up slowly from his seat, and rushed over to where his daughter was still standing worried at the door. Klaus put his hand on Hope's shoulder and guided her outside to next room - which just happened to be her bedroom - and sat her down on the edge of the bed.

"Hope sweetheart you have to be completely honest with me.....has Jackson ever hit you or have you ever seen him hit your brother?"

Archer sat silently, watching as Hope drummed her fingers on the table, full to the brim with impatience. Apparently she had a date with her girlfriend Blair Bergankamp (god Archer despised the girl) and was in one of her particularly bitchy moods about the potential of her missing it in favour of the 'very important conversation' that their mother Hayley and Hope's father Klaus had warned them that they were having.

What Archer would give for the conversation to be about how they disapprove of Blair and that they want Hope to break up with her. But he knew that their parents would never do that to Hope, no matter how much they didn't like the girl. And Archer knew they did not like Blair one bit.

But Hope, despite literally being potentially the most powerful supernatural to exist, was going through her rebellious teen phase and what better way to do it than to date and proclaim her love the daughter of the leader of a notoriously anti-vampire witch cult known as the "Garden Witches"?

The only reason they even met in the first place was because Klaus and Hayley decided to offer Blair and her sister Mabel free spots at the Mikaelson Academy as an attempt at an olive branch to Shawn Bergankamp, the leader of the Garden witches, but from what Archer could tell it wasn't making much of a difference.

Hope let out an annoyed huff and reached forward, grabbing an orange from the fruit bowl that was sitting in the centre of the table. Archer's eyes followed her other hand confused as she fished into her jacket pocket and retrieved her switch blade, flicking it open to begin peeling the orange. Why his sister couldn't just use her fingers like a normal person Archer would never know.

Then again nothing about Hope Andrea Mikaelson was normal in any definition of the word.

"What are you looking at? You want some or something? Or have you seriously never seen my knife before?"

"None of the above," Archer responded, "If I wanted an orange I'd get my own and then peel it with my fingers like a normal person."

Hope scoffed. "I'm not normal. Neither are you. No one in this bloody family is, hate to break it to you."

Silence fell between the pair of teenagers again until Klaus and Hayley entered the room and sat down opposite their children, faces blank of any particular emotion.

"Did you seriously use your switchblade to peel an orange?" Klaus raised an eyebrow, humor evident in his tone and a hint of a smirk on his face.

Hope resisted the urge to roll her eyes, she wasn't in the mood for this shit. If this conversation was about what she was 99% sure it was going to be about, she didn't need her dad's poor attempts at lightening the mood to piss her off even more.

"I could've used it to stab myself in order to avoid this bloody conversation if."

Hope immediately regretted her words as her father's face fell and her mother's eyes eyes went wide.

"Hope Andrea Mikaelson if you keep talking like that you won't have another knife until you're thirty."

Hayley's voice was stern, and her words immediately put the girl in her place. Hope sunk a little in her seat, mumbling a quick apology as she stuffed the knife back in her pocket and folded her arms across her chest, leaving her orange half-peeled on the table.

Hayley cleared her throat, and Klaus placed his hand on top of hers on the table and squeezed it. "There's something very important we have to admit to you two, but it primarily concerns you Archie."

Archer sat up a little straighter in seat and shot a glance at his sister, who seemed to remain completely unbothered by her words, as if she already knew about everything that was about to be said.

"As I'm sure both of you two know, your mother's former husband Jackson Kenner was banished from this city four years ago, due to the abuse he inflicted on Archie."

Archer swallowed, he hated even thinking about Jackson. He looked over at Hope again, noticing how she suddenly tensed up at the mention of his name. She certainly wasn't his biggest fan either.

"Jackson isn't Archie's father, Dad is." Hope suddenly blurted out, much to the shock of both her parents and Archer. "Sorry, but you two were killing me. Besides, at this point it's not exactly much of a secret."

Hayley gave her daughter an incredulous look. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh please," Hope scoffed. "Arch and I could pass for twins, and he has blue fucking eyes. The two of you also didn't exactly do a good job with the 'secret' part of your 'secret' love affair."

Klaus' mouth opened and closed, the hybrid unsure of how exactly to respond to his daughter's bluntness.

"Is she....is she right?"

Hayley sighed and leaned back in her seat. "Yes, apparently your sister knew everything all along."

Archer turned towards Hope, still trying to process the information. "Why didn't you tell me...?"

"Personally I thought it was quite obvious. Dad spent ten times as much time with Archie as be-who-shall-not-be-named did, and ten times as much time in bed with Mom-"

"OKAY Hope that's enough we get it you know everything and we weren't as discreet as we thought, no one needs you to delve into details." Hayley quickly cut her daughter off.

Klaus simply sat there with a smug grin on his face, resisting the urge to laugh. He shouldn't be surprised, Hope was a lot like her mother.

"Well then....that went slightly better than expected." Hayley let out a laugh of relief as Hope's phone pinged, notifying her of a text from her girlfriend.

"Shit!" Hope pulled out her phone and scanned her eyes over the message that popped up on the screen. "Since all the important shit is over with, can I finally head off for my date now? I'm already twenty minutes late."

Klaus and Hayley shared a look before they both nodded simultaneously.

"Just no stabbing anyone." Hayley commented as Hope practically jumped up out of her seat.

"No promises!" Hope responded as she took off.

"Have fun!" Klaus called after her. Hope stopped at the door and looked back at three of them with a bright smile on her face. "Thanks Dad."

And with that the girl was gone out the door, and Hayley chuckled. "What are we going to do with her?"

"That I do not know little wolf, that I do not know."

Hope snuck up behind the Blair and wrapped her arms around, catching the blonde off guard.

"Hope! You scared the shit out of me!"

"My sincerest apologies." Hope mumbled against her neck, where she had begun to litter butterfly kisses. "For scaring you and for being late. My parents finally decided to tell Archie that Jackson isn't his father. I managed to cut the conversation even shorter than it could've been though, so that's a bonus."

Blair turned in her arms so that she was facing her, though Hope's grip never loosened. "Typical you. Let me guess, it had something to do with your brutal honesty?"

Hope grinned. "You know me so well."

Blair giggled before cupping her face and pressing her lips to Hope's, who only tightened her grip, taking in the taste of Blair's orange flavoured lip balm that she loved so much. (Yes, Hope Mikaelson has a thing for oranges, sue her).

"Don't you dare start tickling me, Miss Mikaelson-" Blair playfully warned as they pulled apart, ever so slightly out of breath. "Or things might get ugly."

"I don't know how they could, considering you're the opposite of ugly when you laugh," a wide grin spread
across Hope's face, "Besides, you're the one who's giving me ideas."

Blair finally broke away from her, and grabbed her hand instead. "Oh come on, we should probably head to the Cafe du Monde before the evening rush sets in, then we can get to the arcade before all the 'normies' take over."

"Are we seriously calling the humans 'normies'?"

"Yes, we are. Now come on."

Sorry if this chapter feels a little rushed, I kind of got writer's block when it came to how Klayley were going to tell Archer but I wanted to get this chapter out so this is the best I could come up with🤪

Hope you still enjoyed it though! Only about two (maybe three, but unlikely) chapters left in this act, then we can get to the good stuff ;)

Don't forget to vote & comment if you enjoyed it!!

I also want to give a quick thank you to the amazing darthvvderr for this stunning gift they made me a little while back!