Summary: Request for Anon on Tumblr. Bonley fic AU/AH On Hayley's first day at the local aquarium, she finds herself being tortured by her best friend's brother/her new boss, Klaus Mikaelson, and a mystery girl who likes go skinny-dipping with the mammals who live there. What is this mystery girl's story and why does she love water so much?
Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries or The Originals that would be Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson, Warner Bros. and the usual suspects…
Hello, my lovely readers. So, I had no idea what to write here until Sebastian—the crab, not the Legacies character—kept signing "Under the Sea" in my head. Hope you enjoy. On with the show…
Any time it's the first day of a new job, your nerves can fray, but Hayley Marshall felt pumped. She'd spent a lifetime looking forward to becoming a marine biologist. Now she would be working at a local aquarium in which she could study the mammals of her dreams on a daily basis, and work to finish her degree. So lifetime might be a stretch since Hayley was only twenty-three and might have taken a little longer to finish her bachelor's degree because her best friend, Rebekah Mikaelson, talked her into backpacking through Europe for a month…which turned into a year and six months… Oops. But now Hayley was back on track. No distractions. Not this year.
"Hayley!" a shout made Hayley spin around. She gulped at the sight of her bestie's older brother, Niklaus Mikaelson. Jackass-of-the-Year. No, make that century. "Where have you been?" Klaus shouted, storming toward Hayley who glanced at the entrance to the aquarium and then at her—dare she say it—gulp—boss. Internal shiver.
Thanks, Bekah, for getting me a job where your bro can torture me, on a daily basis, Hayley groaned internally.
Gritting her teeth, Hayley offered Klaus a big, fake smile. "I thought you said come in at eight."
"I said: 'Come in at seven-thirty,'" Klaus snarled, narrowing his eyes at Hayley.
Inhaling, Hayley felt the urge to snarl back at Klaus. He loved to bully people. Maybe Bekah would put up with his crap. And Elijah. And Freya. And sometimes Kol. But Hayley was not a Mikaelson and did not have to deal with this shit. "Get out of my face, Klaus! Go harass a shark! Maybe it'll mistake you for something edible and none of us will have to pretend to enjoy your modern-angst-induced-art-therapy-showing!"
Instead, Hayley nodded and tried to be meek. She really, really, really wanted this job. Therefore she could force herself to tolerate Klaus. Most of the time, he'd be busy and she could find places to hide from him. She could go hang out with the dolphins for hours.
Klaus continued to glare, his hands on his hips. For a moment Hayley thought Klaus was about to say: "You're fired," when he rolled his eyes and said: "Don't make a habit of it." Turning his back on her, he strode forward. "Shall we?"
"Okay." Hayley felt excited as Klaus led her through the aquarium. They went down a side staircase and arrived at a dark room with a large glass partition. Hayley saw nothing but water; then a shape appeared and a seal swam toward the partition. Grinning, Hayley moved closer to it. She placed a hand on the glass as the seal examined her with its wide eyes before it began to swim in slow circles.
Turning to smile at Klaus, Hayley found him looking at his cell. "You'll be cleaning this room. When you're done, come and find me and I'll set you on your next task."
"Oh?" Hayley felt her throat constrict. "I thought I would be working with the animals. Studying them. Feeding them. That kind of thing…" Her voice came out far too low and Hayley hated that she sounded like she might cry. She didn't take this job to play the janitor.
Lifting his head, Klaus smirked at Hayley. "You're on probation. Until you prove yourself." Turning away, Klaus made his way to the staircase.
"Where are the cleaning supplies!" Hayley shouted at him.
"In the closet!" Klaus called back.
"Really!" Hayley shouted, going to the stairs, but Klaus was gone. Hayley heard a sound from the glass partition. The seal waved at her and Hayley wiped a tear off her cheek. "Whatever," she muttered. Inhaling and exhaling, she steeled herself. She would make this room shine. And then she would do whatever other crummy jobs Klaus wanted to make her do. When she was done, he'd better let her do the work she'd signed up for or she would plot her revenge on him.
After five hours of work that made her shins scream, her back spasm and her feet lose feeling, Klaus told Hayley she had half an hour for lunch. "Where?" Hayley asked him.
"I don't care," Klaus replied.
"Fine." Hayley went back to the room she'd been in at the beginning of her shift. The room where she'd made her first friend and opened her bag. Opening it, she pulled out a tuna on rye sandwich and a bottle of Coke. "Hey there," she called to the seal.
The seal slapped his fins together and made a sound that carried through the glass. Hayley grinned, taking a bite of her sandwich. As she ate, she noted how the seal would follow her every motion. "You want some?" she asked, holding up the sandwich. The seal made an excited sound through the glass. "Okay. Be there in a minute." Collecting her lunch in the paper bag she brought it in, Hayley hurried to the stairs and ran up them.
Going to the edge of the pool in which her friend swam, Hayley took a piece of tuna and tossed it to the seal. The seal leapt upward, splashing Hayley, who let out a laugh as he swallowed the tuna and then came to beg for more. "More? Good thing I brought more than one of these today," she muttered.
Something caught Hayley off-guard as she tossed more tuna sandwich to the greedy mammal. The sight of another person. Head rotating, Hayley stared at a pair of feet that disappeared into the pool. "Ma'am! Ma'am! You can't swim with the seals!" Hayley shouted. The woman did not respond as she darted further and further under the surface.
"Hey! You saw her, too, didn't you?" Hayley demanded of her seal. He jerked his head up and down. Shaking her head in disbelief, Hayley tried to see the woman who was too far down to see from here. Shaking her head, Hayley went running for the stairs. She was so not losing her job over some lunatic who decided to go swimming in their tanks.
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