Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hope stands outside, it’s cold, but not refreshing, it’s threatening, a bad feeling. A small cloud of fog leaves her vicinity as she breathes out the air. She picks up light footsteps to her left, knowing the exact person who stood upon her.

 "Is this the part where you say something?” She states coldly, “or run?"

Landon stands there with pleading eyes, and a hint of guilt. 

Full of pity, but this will not help in his position.

Almost immediately, the boy rushingly walks up to the auburnette. "It's both,” He breathes out, desperately; “Can you please just wait right here? I have something that I really need to tell you, I just can't until I've had another conversation first."

He nervously makes his way inside the school leaving Hope dumbfounded. That is, until realization hit her. She knew Landon and Josie’s relationship wasn’t officially over, indicating that’s the conversation Landon needed to have.

———

Minutes later, Hope found herself slowly pacing herself around the front of the school, anxious. 

Her head snapped up to the door as it opened and there came the mop headed boy walking towards her again. His eyes were puffy as if he had cried. He swallowed thickly as he approached the auburnette.

"I thought leaving was the right thing to do." He inhaled slowly. "But I was wrong." 

Yeah, no shit.

Landon tucked a piece of Hope’s hair behind her shoulder. She tended as he rested his hand there; "That's what I came back to say." 

"I love you, Hope Mikaelson,” He started while Hope stared at him blankly; “I loved you when I couldn't remember you, I love you as I'm standing here right now."

A smile plastered its way on the boy's face.

 "Hope I loved you when I was dead." A pause. "I think I always will."

The auburn-haired girl faced a frown, mouth parted open ever so slightly, and flinched. 

 "This is the part where you say-”

“No.” She deadpanned. He was taken back. “Landon, do you know how many I needed you but you weren’t there?” 

Landon gulps messily. She backs away a few inches from him and clenches her jaw.

“Did you expect me to get right back with you minutes after you broke Josie’s heart?” She exclaimed, slowly getting angrier. 

“Well I mean-” He sputters only to be cut off with a scoff coming from the tribrid.

“I know how it feels to be heartbroken, especially by you , and this would’ve made it worse Landon.” She turned away from him quickly making her way towards the front before turning back around. “I need to find Josie, I can’t talk to you right now.” 

Aggressively opening the door, she storms through students gathering their belongings to head back up to their rooms. The auburnette doesn’t stop when she accidentally bumps shoulders with one of the students. She’s desperate. Desperate to know if Josie’s okay. 

She’s-

She’s worried. 

Arriving in front of the twins door, she contemplates whether to knock on the door. Ultimately she convinces herself to do it. She quickly knocks three times.

No answer.

Her stomach is gnawing at her to just open the door. Hesitantly, she reaches for the door knob to steady herself and take a deep breath. Slowly she turned the knob, the soft squeak of the door filling most of the silence.

The room was dark, only a few stringed lights illuminated the area. She scanned quickly until her eyes landed on a figure sitting on a bed. 

The figure didn’t look up but tightened in her position; afraid. Hope pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth before fully closing the door behind her. She didn’t want to overstep personal space, so she stayed near the door.

“Jo?” She whispered, the nickname rolling off her tongue with ease. The figure finally snapped their head up and Hope can semi-fully see her tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes. The auburn-haired girl's gaze fell softly; filled with sorrow. 

The brunette quickly tore her eyes away from the older girl and hugged her knees tighter. She still had on her candy cane socks and the salvatore sleeved jumper. 

Pure, vulnerable and fragile.

Hope felt a sting at no response, but she convinced herself that she deserved it. The auburnette sighs in defeat and takes a few steps closer. 

“Are you okay?” She decided again.

This time it earned a scoff from the siphoner. “Yes, I am perfectly fine.” She sarcastically snarks. 

Hope lowers her head and bites the inside of her cheek. The brunette looks at her and does the same.

“No,” She mumbled “I’m not.” 

Hope inhales sharply and decides to sit on the edge of Josie’s bed.

Neither of them talked. The silence was too loud to talk over. The tribrid couldn’t make eye contact, constantly blaming herself that this was all her fault, when it really wasn’t. 

“Shouldn’t you be with your boyfriend?” Josie breaks the silence. Hope’s eyes slowly meet chocolate brown orbs.

“He’s actually not my boyfriend,” She reassures hurriedly as if she wanted to prove something. “I came here instead.”

Josie furrowed her eyebrows but sent her an apologetic look, which Hope then returned. 

“How are you feeling?” Hope asks. She feels as if she’s being too pushy asking her these questions, but Hope wants to know if she could do anything to make the brunette feel any better.

The siphoner shakes her head and lets her knees fall from her chest. “I feel as if I've been stuffed in a small box while the walls are slowly closing in on me.” A voice crack surfaced.

Hope wants to reach for her hand, an urge wanted to tell her it’s okay, that she’s here for her. Knowing it could make the brunette uncomfortable, she didn’t. It took all of her strength to hold herself back. 

“I feel like I’m slowly suffocating,” Josie huffs out a forced exhale; “I just want to breathe Hope, I can’t-”

Tears threaten to slide down as her breathing gets heavier. Hope’s eyes betray her and panic quickly searching and thinking for any solution.

She reaches out to touch Josie before she backs away. “Can I, um, can I show you something?” 

The siphoner blinks a few times before nodding her head. The auburn-haired girl scoots closer. Hope reached out to caress the side of Josie’s head—not before searching Josie’s eyes for consent—gently placing her hands on the brunette’s sides. Their eyes fluttered close. Josie leaned into the touch. 

Hopes heart rate picks up as she murmurs a quick spell. A breeze flew past them as Hope finished the phrase. The auburnette added a little space for Josie to notice the sky. 

The brunette stared in awe as she gazed over the night sky filling the ceiling. Millions of stars illuminated as the brunette’s breathing eased. The rims of the sky painted dark purples and blues. 

“Hope,” The siphoner breathed out, amazed. “Th-this is beautiful.”

“It’s a spell my aunt Freya taught me.” Hope mumbled as her eyes lingered at a mesmerized brunette.

The tribrid brought down one hand and left the other on the side of Josie’s head. Josie took this opportunity to grab Hope’s hand. Every urge the auburn-haired girl had was now gone. 

“I’m sorry you had to experience that.” Hope whispered. “I wish there was more I could do for you.”

“I just need some time, what are you going to do about him?” Josie asks, curious of the future.

“I don’t think I’m going to get back with him,” Hope mindlessly plays with Josie’s fingers; “We aren’t meant for each other I guess.” 

“Oh.”

Hope looks at the nightstand and sees it’s almost curfew.

“I should probably go.” The auburnette pursed her lips. Josie nodded as she watched Hope stand up. Before she could walk away, the siphoner reached up and grabbed her hand.

“Thank you, Hope.” 

The tribrid squeezed the siphoner’s hand and smiled sweetly. “Of course Jo.”

It felt like slow motion as they let each other’s hand go.

Hope glanced over one last time before leaving the room.

Chapter Text

Over the course of a few weeks, Hope and Josie found themselves having out more. 

After officially breaking up with Landon, Hope felt free to do whatever she could want. 

The Risk, adrenaline, the surge.

A stuttering mess called Hope Mikaelson.

One look at the brunette endearing her to lose control of herself and internally panic. 

How golden she looks standing almost anywhere . 

Brown orbs so inviting, luring the auburnette for a closer look for herself.

The spell she gets out under for each stare. 

She looks so hypnotized.

As they lock eyes, everything slows down, intentions lowering.

Hope thickly swallowing a acquiescent knot

The urge to reach for her paintbrush set off a blissful flutter roaming in her stomach

Butterflies.

She couldn’t get that one siphoner out of her head. And it was messing with her...badly.

Once they got locked in a library after staying too long.

Or something like that.

“Hope, open the door.” Josie groaned. She won’t admit it, but she was definitely a little grumpy since it was late at night and she wanted nothing else but to sleep. 

“I-it won’t open.” The tribrid trudges at the door. 

“Hope you’re a tribrid!” Josie quietly exclaimed. 

“Oh right.” She felt dumb, she had magic, of course. She tries a spell, but it doesn’t work. “It didn’t work.”

Josie placed her books on a nearby table to give her hands more room.

“Can you siphon the spell?” Hope suggested eagerly.

She glared at the auburnette. “That’s what I was gonna do.”

“Sorry.” Hope mumbled. The brunette gave her a small smile in return. Josie attempted to siphon, it worked...for the first five seconds before she suddenly couldn’t anymore. “It’s not working either.”

“Someone spelled us in here.” Hope mumbled a bit panicky. 

Josie worried her bottom lip as she scanned the area for anything that could help them escape. 

“Whoever did this must’ve been powerful enough so you wouldn’t be able to siphon.” The tribrid pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Hey Mikaelson!” A muffled voice from the other side of the door popped up.

Josie furrowed her eyebrows, finding the voice so familiar until it clicked. “Lizzie?”

“Uh duh.” The blonde stated boldly. “It’ll be an hour before you guys can leave, I was helping someone with their spells and it got out of hand, bye.” 

“What,” Hope stammered. “Lizzie!”

No answer. 

Both of them groaned in response then turned to each other.

“What now?” Hope asked.

“I guess we can talk for now?” It came out more of a question than a statement.

The auburnette seemed to tense up unnoticeably. Recently she’s been getting weird feelings. More specifically when she’s around Josie. It’s different from anything else. It’s almost… frightening.

“Yeah, okay.” She gives a tight lipped smile.

They decided to sit on a dark red couch near the corner (since it was the most comfortable) if they were gonna stay in there for an hour. 

“So,” Josie drawls out. “Seeing anyone new?” 

Hope starts coughing drastically as Josie has to run her hands down Hope’s back to calm her down. As soon as she calms down Hope looks over to see the concerned pout she so adores.

“No I am not,” She manages to choke out. “That was just unexpected.”

“I’m sorry.” The siphoner apologizes with a giggle. Hope just scoffs playfully and nudges the brunette’s shoulder. They’re sitting relatively close. The auburn-haired girl's breath hitched once when the brunette knee hit her own. 

For what felt like eternity they spoke about nonsense topics. One of them being about how the school needs to get a different shampoo cause it is not treating their hair right. Not surprisingly, they both agreed about that. 

After some time, comfortable silence fell upon them. The space between them felt as if it were getting smaller and smaller by each passing second. 

Hope had gotten herself into a daze when something brushed against her hand. She tensed slightly as another graze caused her pinky to twitch up. 

She gulped messily as she realized it was Josie’s hand next to hers. Hope didn’t remove her eyes from in front of her. The siphoner breathed in deeply and proceeded to link pinkies with Hope. 

Josie felt as if she’s taking the biggest risk ever. This could either go very badly or passingly good. She’s had feelings for the auburnette for as long as she could remember. Though she never thought to admit it, she hoped that these small hints could at least do something. 

Taking it further, the brunette slid her hand on top of Hope’s. She didn’t bother to look over either, almost afraid of the older girl's reaction. She almost jumped back slightly as the auburn-haired girl hesitantly but swiftly flipped her hand up to give the siphoner more access. Slowly—in synchronization—they interlocked their fingers. Once set, the both let out a sigh in content.

Sure they’ve held hands before...while doing spells. This was different. More personal, intimate, private. It felt right, but also like she shouldn’t. Like it was a crime, one she’d gladfully take all chances for. Forbidden, but the risk is 100% worth it. 

Sitting there in the silence was dreadful but held so much meaning. Hope was about to speak up when the door practically flew open. 

“It’s been an hour!” It was Lizzie again. Has an hour already passed? “You can come out now.”

Both girls untangled their hands so quick it was unnoticeable. Hope didn’t hesitate to pick up her belongings and rush out of there. 

Josie felt a pang in her chest seeing how quick Hope left.

———

It was the week of christmas. Two weeks after their small library incident. 

Long story short, Hope had been avoiding Josie. It’s not like she wanted to, she forced herself to. Recently her ‘small feelings’ have scared her enough that they’ve grown and become uncontrollable. 

Hope was cautiously walking down the school hallway. She noticed the christmas decorations being put up with all the lights and even soft music. The auburnette was about to turn when she was suddenly yanked into a nearby bathroom. Before her was standing Lizzie. The tribrid eyes widened still in shock by the sudden movement. 

“Um Lizzie?” She put all her wait on one foot as she calmed down. “Why?”

“What did you do?” Lizzie snarled passive aggressively. “My sister had been moping around for weeks.” 

Hope’s steeled look faltered into a concerned gaze. “Is she okay, has she been taking care of herself at least?” A tinge of worry hit the tone of her voice. 

The blonde huffed. “Barely, she’s lucky I was there for her.” She eyed the older girl suspiciously. “First you guys were all hanging out and it suddenly stopped, why?”

The auburnette swallowed a thick knot, knowing this was all her damn fault. 

Lizzie suddenly gasped, startling Hope. “Something happened between the two of you didn’t it?” 

Hope avoided the tall siphoner’s gaze, proving her more correct. “What is it?” 

“I don’t want to talk about it, it was a private moment.” Hope mutters crossing her arms.

“Oh my god,” The blonde exasperated. “You have feelings for my sister.” 

Hope snapped her head up. “W-what no I-I don’t.”

Lizzie raised an eyebrow and the auburnette sighed in defeat. 

“Lizzie I don’t know what to do.” The tribrid practically whined. “I’m afraid that if I tell her, she won’t feel the same and everything will be awkward.” 

“Oh please,” Lizzie scoffs. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed Mikaelson, but any chance she gets Josie stares at you like a piece in a museum.” 

The older girl stammers. “W-what, no that’s just a coincidence.”

The siphoner groans and heads for the door. “You’re difficult to deal with, tell her .”

———

Hope didn’t tell Josie.

Instead, Hope had been trying to build up the courage to talk to the brunette, but just couldn’t get the guts to do it. 

She’s afraid.

And that’s how she found herself outside, at the front of the school, pacing back and forth breathing in the much needed air. 

“Hope.” A voice from behind startled her. She quickly turned around to be faced with Josie. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“I know and I’m sorry I just been trying to figure out something I just-” Hope starts desperately only to be cut off.

“Figure out what Hope? And you never know I could've helped you, whatever it is.” She pleaded, like if she was blaming herself for everything. “ Hope you know I trust you and you trust me, but you have to let me in.”

Hope takes a minute to register her voice. She bites her tongue to stop herself from speaking and letting the tears flow free.

“I can't- I can’t talk to you about this.” 

“But you can still talk to me, anything I’m here for you.” Josie hopelessly mentioned.

Hope does, she really does want to talk about this, but not with her. God it can’t be with her. 

“But if I do it’ll just make my situation worse-”

“Hope please don’t shut me out, you avoiding me is killing me ,” A voice crack threatened to surface. “and I’m starting to think I’m the problem. You could’ve- I thought you liked being friends and hanging out.”

“I do please trust me.” Hope rushed to reassure.

“Then why doesn’t it feel like it?” Josie walked closer, a few inches away from Hope, her eyes a vulnerable glossy texture. “You push me away when I was worried about you and all I wanted to know if you’re okay, now I can barely see what’s wrong because-”

The auburnette lunged forward and captured Josie’s lips with her own. The siphoner was taken back, but once registered what was happening she reciprocated the kiss. Miserably, Hope tilted her head to gain more access, pouring all the words she could never say into that one kiss.

The brunette placed her hands on the back of Hope’s neck for stability, while the auburnette placed her hands on the brunette’s hips.

Hope noticed the soft lips and the washed out taste of peppermint and chocolate. It was addicting, euphoric even. The head splitting need for more.

With their lungs betraying them, they had to part. Breathing heavily next to each other. Hope finally had the courage to look at the brunette in the eyes.

“Oh.” The younger girl breathed out.

“Mhmm.” The older girl hummed, obviously still dizzy from the kiss. 

“Is that why..” Josie trailed off.

“Yeah.” Hope whispered as their foreheads connected. The siphoner’s hands were still around the tribrid’s neck for support. 

“I um, I really like you, I’m sorry for avoiding you, it’s just been hard figuring out my feelings for you .” The auburn-haired girl managed to word out.

“I like you too, Hope.” Josie spoke softly like she meant it. 

“Really?” Hope double checked quietly.

“If me kissing you back was not enough to convince you,” A pause “yes I really do like you, Hope Mikaelson.”

Heading those words transformed Hope's unsure look with the biggest grin someone could have. Something catches the older girls eye.

“Hey, look up.” 

A soft gasp came from the brunette when she saw the item above them. She looked back down to those blue ocean orbs she loved. 

“A mistletoe.”