Elijah found Marcel staring out of the balcony of the abattoir over the decorated streets of New Orleans, clearly enjoying the season recently welcomed.

"You seem unprofessionally eager for spring break to arrive, Marcel?" Elijah said, joining his once adopted nephew on the railing, getting Marcel's characteristic pearly white smile in reply.

"You may be the one in the suit Elijah, but I'm the businessman around here. Spring break is good for business. Brings in a lot of tourists. A lot of young, college aged tourists, breaking away from college stresses and the like for two whole weeks. Just partying and letting lose."

"And how do you maintain the balance around here if you have...visitors?" Elijah's stressed word did not go misinterpreted by the King.

"You're implying outside vampires and all? Well, since they will be in my region, they'll have to follow my rules. Vamps will have to check in with me before they do anything else, and the weres and the witches, they have their own protocols." Marcel pushed with one hand and spun around to face the Original.

"Why, Elijah? Are you expecting someone? Perhaps for Mystic Falls?" Marcel's mention of the supernatural infested Virginia town got Elijah standing more straight, his blood running faster, if it still ran.

"And how exactly do you know of the town, Marcel?"

"Klaus just comes back to town after abandoning it, me, and you don't think I won't have an eye, or ear on him?" Marcel scoffed, returning to his original pose over the railing.

"You are aware that Niklaus was not the only one who left New Orleans, after you decided to summon Michael." Elijah scoffed in his own eye rolling way and continued, "it appears to me that father-son issues are inevitable in the Michaelson family."

Hearing the word father put Marcel on edge, who burst out in reply.

"He...is...NOT my fath-"

"Marcel?" the vampire king's rant was interrupted by Thierry, who whispered in his ear, pointless in the presence of another vampire. Apparently, two college kids had been found in the woods, in transition.

"Well if you excuse me Elijah, I'm sure you can show yourself out." Elijah stared into the room from which the two vampires had left, reminiscing the old days. He had flashbacks of when he was trying to get his nephew to apprehend classic lecture on the desk now in the shadows in the corner in the room.

Those had been better times. They had been a better family.