Chapter Text
A soft alarm woke Hope from a deep sleep. If the vibrations hadn't been directly under her head, she was certain she wouldn't have woken up. She shoved her hand under the pillow to find her phone, hitting the volume button to silence it. She didn't bother opening her eyes, they burned too much with exhaustion for her to even try.
Hope stretched her legs out, not wanting to disturb Lizzie too much with her movement. She needed to get out of bed before trying to wake the rest of her limbs. As she started to pull away from Lizzie, she was quickly met with resistance.
Lizzie's arms were still wrapped around her. Hope could just barely hear her mumbled complaints as she tightened her hold.
Hope released a tired chuckle. "Baby, you gotta let me go." Hope's voice was thick with sleep. She placed a clumsy kiss to Lizzie's forehead before trying to scoot away again. Lizzie groaned louder and held on even tighter. Hope gave up immediately and relaxed back into Lizzie's arms. "I only snoozed it. You have 10 more minutes."
Lizzie pulled Hope closer as she slid one hand up the back of Hope's sleep shirt, feeling her smooth skin under her palm. She was asleep again seconds later.
The alarm startled them awake for the second time that morning and Lizzie put up less of a fight as Hope tried to roll away from her. She finally relinquished her hold on her girlfriend when Hope gave her another kiss on the head. She was too tired to put up much of a fight.
Hope flitted about in the nearly pitch black room. She had everything packed already for her trip, her bags stacked and ready to go by her door. All she needed to do was clean up and get dressed for the day. She did her best to be quiet, knowing that Lizzie was most likely going to go back to sleep at such an early hour. Her alarm had been set for 4:00 to make it in plenty of time to the airport for her 7:30 flight.
She slipped out of the room with her shower caddy and her favorite travel clothes and quickly walked to the showers. The hallway was usually freezing in the winter time, and even more so in the early morning with no sunlight to ease the chill.
By the time she made it back to her room, Lizzie was once again sleeping deeply. Hope smiled to herself as she heard her soft snores and quietly put her things away to not disturb the other girl. She grabbed her phone from where it still rested underneath the pillow and exited the room again, this time in search of the kitchens to have a quick breakfast.
Hope stared out the large windows of the kitchen as she slowly ate. The tip of her nose was a little chilly from the winter chill that the building couldn't manage to keep out. The sun had yet to rise, and it most likely wouldn't until she was already on the plane. She didn't mind the dark, though. It just didn't do much to fight off the sleep that was trying to overtake her once again.
She shot off a few texts in her family group chat, confirming her flight times and who would be picking her up when she landed. She washed her dishes and left them on the drying rack before trekking back up to her room. As she shuffled along the wood floors and yawned, she missed the two figures curled up on one of the couches in front of the large fireplace still lightly glowing with flame.
Hope was less courteous of Lizzie this time as she flipped her light on so she could see better. Lizzie didn't stir even as she started to make more noise. With a snap of her fingers, and without even looking, her luggage disappeared from sight. She had learned that spell quickly after the first few years of needing to take multiple trips up and down several staircases to bring everything to the front door.
Lizzie's breath caught only slightly as Hope sat on the edge of the bed. She hesitated for a moment, almost dreading waking her up. She wasn't afraid of any consequences, but it was so early and Lizzie wasn't the one getting on a plane so she didn't need to be up at this hour. But Lizzie had asked Hope to wake her up so they could say goodbye. Lizzie had dramatically claimed they needed to put Josie and Penlope's goodbye to shame. She said there would be "less tears and more romance". With how tired they were and how early it was, Hope was sure it would be anything but.
Hope started gently rubbing Lizzie's thigh, not wanting to startle her awake. "Lizzie," Hope called softly as she started to stir. "Wake up, babe."
Lizzie rolled over towards her as she slowly came to. Hope let her take all the time she needed to fully wake up and eventually, Lizzie was blinking up at her.
"Good morning, sunshine," Hope said, leaning down to place a sweet kiss on the corner of Lizzie's mouth.
"'Morning," Lizzie grumbled in response. She wasn't awake enough to keep her eyes open fully.
"I have to leave soon," Hope whispered. She hadn't sat back up yet.
Lizzie turned her face towards Hope's, silently asking for another kiss. Hope lingered this time. "Don't go." Lizzie's voice scratched uncomfortably against her own throat.
"I have to," Hope said against Lizzie's skin.
"Stay with me."
Hope's chest ached instantly at Lizzie's words. There was a profound difference between being told not to leave and being asked to stay. She had been told hundreds of times in her life to not leave- "Don't leave this room, Hope. Don't talk to the other students, Hope. Don't go where anyone can see you, Hope." She had never been asked to stay before, and never so sweetly. Never so genuinely.
"I could if I would, but I have to go see them. My Aunt would start a nationwide manhunt if I didn't come home for the New Year." Hope brushed some of Lizzie's hair away from her face.
Lizzie grumbled and reached up for another kiss. "Is it already time for you to leave?"
"Yeah," Hope said softly. Her will was shattering. If she didn't move soon, she wasn't going to have it in her to get in the car to the airport.
Lizzie sighed sleepily and started kicking the covers off of her. Hope moved away so that she had room to swing her legs to the floor. Lizzie's little shiver as her feet touched the bare floor prompted a small giggle from Hope.
She watched as Lizzie piddled around the room, digging out a pair of socks before slipping them on, followed by her slippers. She threw on one of Hope's cardigans that she had stolen on Christmas and peeked into the small mirror on her dresser to fix her hair. When she was done, she turned back to Hope and wrapped the cardigan tighter around her before crossing her arms over her chest.
"If we're doing this, let's get this over with."
"Really feeling the love here, babe."
"I'm too tired for emotions right now."
Hope laughed openly at Lizzie and stood from the bed. "Here we go, I guess."
Lizzie grumbled under her breath and moved to open the door. Hope followed after her and she shut it quietly behind them.
Both girls turned and headed down the long hall for the stairs. Lizzie immediately wrapped her arm around Hope's shoulder and brought her into her side. Hope leaned into Lizzie slightly, not wanting to mess up their steps.
The front door was already open when they approached the foyer. A few lights had been turned on as the sun was still a few hours away.
Caroline came into view and was reaching for some of Hope's bags.
"Oh, you didn't have to do that." Hope detached herself from Lizzie's side and tried to help with her bags.
Caroline stopped Hope dead in her tracks with a single look. "I've got it, sweetheart. You just work on saying your goodbyes." She winked at Hope and gave no room for argument as she hauled the bags out to the car.
Hope turned back to Lizzie with a silent question. Lizzie shrugged, one that said "that's just how she is". Hope shuffled back over to Lizzie and buried her face in her shoulder, letting Lizzie wrap her up in her arms. They each took a deep breath and exhaled together, relaxing into their embrace. Hope wrapped her arms low around Lizzie's waist under her cardigan. Lizzie's shirt had ridden up slightly and she was shameless in her tracing of her warm skin.
Caroline popped back in a few moments later and stopped in her tracks for a moment to shoot Lizzie a knowing look. If she wasn't so focused on holding her girlfriend tight for a few more minutes, she would have said something snarky to her mother. She didn't want to ruin the moment though so she closed her eyes and buried her nose in the top of Hope's head.
Hope's shoulders started to shake with silent laughter.
"What's so funny?" Lizzie's question came out muffled against Hope's hair.
Hope pulled back a little so she could tilt her head up to look at Lizzie. "I used to always look for any excuse to leave this place, even just for a little while. And now here I am weighing the pros and cons of staying for the rest of break."
Lizzie's heart soared with pride. "Well, now you have a choice and no matter what you pick, there is no wrong answer."
"Stop being so supportive all the time. Can't you just shove me out the door and tell me to leave or something?"
Lizzie tightened her hold on Hope. "Yeah I'll get right on that."
Hope's smile grew as she felt Lizzie hold her closer. "I hate you."
"No you don't."
"I love you."
Lizzie let Hope's words linger in the air around them. "I love you too. Even though you're leaving me here to wither away without you."
Hope playfully pinched Lizzie's side. "Ok, you can't say that I have the freedom to choose and then try to guilt me into staying."
"Am I supposed to push you out the door or convince you to stay? What do you want from me?" Lizzie asked through her laughter.
"Can you two stop being gross for 10 seconds so we can say goodbye too?"
The pair turned to see Penelope and Josie making their way over to them, behind them a mountain of blankets had spilled to the floor from the couch they had apparently been laying on.
"Did you two sleep down here?"
"Yeah, we wanted to make sure we didn't miss you when you left. Hearing all the commotion was better than setting an alarm." Josie answered her sister's question while rubbing at her eyes. She looked dead on her feet.
Penelope didn't look much better. "Alright, let go. It's my turn." She waved her hands dismissively at Lizzie as she stepped closer for her own hug. She embraced Hope with enough force to send them toppling to one side before they swayed back into place with quiet laughter. They were talking to each other nearly the entire time, but the twins stepped back to give them a little bit of privacy.
Josie's hand came up to wrap around Lizzie and Lizzie leaned her head on her sister's shoulder. "She's going to be fine. It's just until school starts back up."
Realistically, Lizzie knew Josie was right. It did nothing to quell the deep sadness settling in her stomach. She didn't want to be apart from Hope for that long.
"It still sucks."
Josie tightened her grip on her. "I know."
Eventually Penelope and Hope pulled apart due to their raucous laughter and Hope turned towards Josie, arms out and expecting a hug as well.
Penelope slotted herself next to Lizzie. "It's not forever and she's going to be with her family so try not to worry too much about her. You can miss her, but don't worry."
"We worry about you when you go home to your family," Lizzie pointed out.
"My family isn't Hope's family." Penelope left it at that.
Lizzie knew she meant well and that there was merit to what she had said, but she hated when Penelope was right.
"Alright, girls. I hate to cut this short, but we need to leave soon so she's not rushing at the airport." Caroline stood in the front doorway and looked sympathetically at the group.
Josie separated from Hope and gave room for Lizzie to get one last, long hug in. "Text me when you get there, please? So I know you made it ok."
Hope nodded against Lizzie's chest.
They slowly pulled apart and before Hope could let any of them see the tears in her eyes, she kissed Lizzie deeply. She pulled away a moment later and pressed a few pecks to Lizzie's lips before fully stepping away.
"Ok. See you guys in a few weeks, then."
The trio walked her out and watched her get in the passenger side.
"Try to get some more sleep, girls," Caroline commanded playfully.
They all waved as the car pulled away, leaving nothing but dust and a hollow feeling in Lizzie's heart.
She left the other two out in the cold and marched back to Hope's room to collapse on her bed. She was too tired to cry and filed that away to do later. She didn't bother with the covers, although standing outside had her nearly frozen to the bone. She fell back asleep slowly, taking in the trace of Hope's shampoo left on her pillow and wishing she wasn't alone in that bed.
She awoke sometime just before 10:00 to far more texts from Hope than she expected. Most of them were play by play updates of her travel, from arriving at the airport, to leaving Caroline at security, to her flight being delayed by an hour. She sent a picture of her sitting in her seat, right next to a window. She told Lizzie was so excited to not have anyone sitting directly behind her so she could lay the seat back as far as she wanted. There was nothing else yet after her last message.
Leaving soon! Love you!
That had been around 8:45. She knew Hope was near the halfway point of the flight and she wouldn't be hearing from her for a bit.
She responded in kind and locked her phone before stretching a bit to get rid of the aches in her body. She had quickly gotten used to waking up with another person in the bed. She didn't like waking up alone.
Eventually, she rolled over out of bed prompted only by her empty stomach. Her mother must have either read her mind or been heaven sent because she could smell breakfast cooking as she approached the kitchen. Josie and Penelope were already perched at the island eating some of what Caroline had prepared for them.
"Good morning!" Caroline greeted happily from the stove.
Lizzie groaned in response and sat on the shorter edge of the island, next to Josie.
"She made it yet?" Penelope asked through a mouthful of fruit.
Lizzie shook her head. "Her flight got delayed by over an hour. She's about halfway there."
Caroline turned from the stove to deposit the eggs she was cooking into a serving dish on the island. She turned and grabbed a plate of steaming pancakes and set them down. "Alright, eat up."
Lizzie loaded her plate and slowly started eating, trying to drown out the conversation around her and trying to ignore how heavy her phone felt in her pocket.
Hope's text came in while Lizzie was in the shower, and it took all of her self control to not get out early when she heard Hope's text tone. Hope had sent her a selfie from Freya's car. Her smiling face took up half of the picture as she made sure to include Nik in the backseat smiling excitedly at the camera.
Cute! Did you manage to get any rest on the plane?
Hope's reply took a few minutes to come in, most likely catching her Aunt up on a few things.
A little bit. I'm already looking forward to napping when I get home.
Lizzie was trying to figure out what to say to keep the conversation going. She didn't want to lose Hope to her family just yet. Another text from Hope erased all of the guilt she felt.
Is it weird I miss you already?
No, because I was just about to say that.
I'll try to sneak away as often as I can. You're getting a full tour of the compound later.
The compound?
I know it sounds weird, I'll explain it later.
Lizzie set her phone down seeing Hope was still typing. She dressed quickly and tossed her hair up in her towel and grabbed her phone. Hope wasn't typing anymore, but she also hadn't sent anything new.
The bubbled appeared before Lizzie could try and ask more questions.
Just pulled up. I'll call you later <3
Lizzie responded with a heart of her own and locked her phone. She sighed heavily as she pushed open the door of her room. She had no idea how she was going to survive the entire break without Hope.
-
True to Hope's word, Lizzie received a FaceTime call around 7:30. She slammed her laptop shut without even hitting pause on her show and answered immediately.
An upward shot of Hope greeted her as soon as the call connected.
"-ing her a tour! Leave me alone!" Hope exclaimed through her laughter at whoever she was talking to in the distance.
Lizzie couldn't make out the response, but she did pick up on a man's voice.
"Yeah, yeah. Family time and all that, just give me 15 minutes. Go away!"
"Is this a bad time?" Lizzie finally asked. She sat up a little more and leaned back against her pillows.
"Is that her?" the same voice called.
Hope was up and running away from him before the phone could pick up on anything else.
"I feel like this is a bad time," Lizzie said more so to herself.
"No!" The camera had stopped shaking so Lizzie assumed Hope had slowed down. A moment later it was flipped around to show Lizzie a warmly decorated room. "We've got to do this quickly before they all bombard me again. So this is my room!"
Hope spent a few minutes really showing off her room and Lizzie could tell she was both proud of it and a little embarrassed to be doing what she was doing. Hope had even more art supplies in her home than she did at the school and Lizzie could tell it was Hope's favorite part of her room.
"So I can't exactly show you everyone else's rooms but I can just point to them. I guess I can show you Nik's room." The camera shook as Hope walked down a hallway and stopped to point out a few things, like the old banisters and artwork on the hall that she said her father had painted. She pointed to ornate closed doors and told Lizzie whose room was whose.
Nik's room was like entering another world at first seeing such old architecture overtaken by children's toys and decorations. Lizzie couldn't help but smile fondly as Hope tidied up a few things before exiting his room to continue the tour.
Hope flipped the camera back around and smiled playfully at the camera. "Luckily they all are humoring me and went out on a dessert run so that they won't be in the way but this is the main entrance slash gathering place. We eat dinner here most of the time and they hold impromptu meetings here. Which means a lot of people are just walking into my house without permission so that's fun."
"Can't you put wards up or something to help with that?"
Hope shook her head. "Nope. We tried that, Aunt Freya and I did a lot of work on it and they did their job but that almost sparked some turf war because- openness is supposed to- I'll tell you later it's a long story. This is the library!" The camera flipped back around and Lizzie's jaw dropped seeing the dark shelves piled high with books.
"Oh my god, I could live in that room forever."
Hope's hand came into view as she pointed at one of the chaises. "I have fallen asleep on that thing so many times. It's the most comfortable piece of furniture I've ever sat on."
"Does anyone ever fight you for it?"
Hope groaned loudly in annoyance. "My Aunt Rebekah does. God, she always seems to just come out of nowhere when I'm sitting on it and tries to kick me off of it." Hope left the room and started walking down a long hallway as she grumbled about her Aunt.
She showed Lizzie the kitchens, then the wine cellar and the attached room with the harder alcohols, then back up to the upper level.
"Give me just a second. This part is a little tricky." Hope flipped the camera back around and smiled down at her phone. Lizzie was quick to screenshot that moment, wanting to save the goofy look on Hope's face.
Suddenly, the phone was thrown and landed face up and Lizzie was greeted with the night sky. Hope stepped over the camera and then knelt to pick up the phone. Her face was aglow from lights that Lizzie wasn't able to see. She wanted nothing more than to be able to kiss Hope while she looked like that.
"So, the compound is really old and a few years ago I noticed there was an extra window on the roof that we couldn't see from the inside. So we knocked a wall down and put up some safety measures and now we have this little rooftop area that I love to come to." Hope flipped the camera to show Lizzie the string lights that her mom helped her put up and some old benches she thrifted with Davina. She then stepped up to the balcony to show Lizzie the street view and Lizzie fell in love with the way Hope was in love with her city.
Lizzie asked a few questions here and there, but was more than content to let Hope ramble on and on about her home. Eventually Hope called down to someone that Lizzie hadn't heard and she knew it was time to let her go.
"I feel super clingy. We just saw each other this morning but all I want to do is stay up here and talk to you." Hope's small pout was killing Lizzie.
"Go spend time with your family. We can talk later before we go to sleep if you want to."
"That sounds good." Hope set her phone somewhere flat and leaned on her hand. Her cheek squished up adorably. "I miss you."
"I miss you too," Lizzie said sincerely.
"I love you."
Lizzie smiled wide. "I love you too."
They lingered for a short moment before Hope finally ended the call, and Lizzie was left alone in her dim room.
-
Lizzie wakes up for the next few days to a picture of Nik in his high chair with his breakfast all over his face. Hope usually attaches what she made for him that morning, unsure if Lizzie could make out the remnants of the food on his face on her own. He sure was spoiled with his blueberry pancakes, french toast bigger than his head, and chocolate crepes.
The first day she woke up to no picture of him had her a little more upset than she expected.
Where's my picture of Nik?
Good morning. My day's been great so far thanks for asking.
Yeah yeah where is he?
His moms took him out for breakfast, they were gone before I woke up.
:(
Hope sent back a picture of her biting into a beignet. She had brushed some powdered sugar onto her cheek to make her look a little messy like Nik usually does. Lizzie saved it immediately and made it her new wallpaper, changing it from the one she had taken of Hope sleeping on the couch in the Mill.
Lizzie was still smiling softly at the picture, trying to figure out how to respond to extend the conversation when her phone started ringing. She swiped to answer Hope's FaceTime call.
"Hi beautiful," she answered.
Hope smiled and finished chewing. "What are you up to today?" she asked before taking another bite.
"Not much. Probably going to help Mom start taking the Christmas decorations down."
Hope's brow furrowed. "It's not even the New Year yet."
"Yeah but it's in four days and I guess she's tired of it all being up."
Hope hummed. "Our stuff stays up until like halfway through January sometimes."
"Well that makes sense, because you always had to go late for the holidays. Maybe they leave it up for you." Lizzie could see some of the intricate decorations behind Hope. Hope had sent her a picture of their tree in the front area and Lizzie's jaw dropped, taking in what had to be an almost 30 foot Christmas tree.
Hope shrugged and took another bite. "Maybe," she mumbled through her food. "My Uncle Kol is also weirdly into Christmas. He's the one who usually-"
A sudden rush was heard and someone appeared behind Hope. "Is that her?"
"God!" Hope screamed. Her beignet went flying off to the side as she flinched. She looked up at the blonde woman leaning down into the frame. "What is your problem?"
"Hi! I've been wanting a chance to finally talk to you. I'm Hope's Aunt Rebekah." The woman completely ignored Hope's question and smiled widely and waved at the camera.
Hope was looking off in the direction her breakfast had flown. "That was my last beignet," she said, quiet and extremely pitiful.
"Um, hi," Lizzie said meekly back. "I'm Lizzie."
That seemed to snap Hope back to attention. "No. No this is not happening right now. Go away." Hope started to shove her Aunt out of frame. "Stop talking to her."
Rebekah put up a little bit of a fight, trying to say more things to Lizzie but eventually she let Hope push her away. She came back into frame to walk behind Hope's chair and off to the left. "She's gorgeous, by the way."
"Yeah, I know."
"Thank you!" Hope and Lizzie said simultaneously.
"She seems fun," Lizzie said after a few seconds of silence.
Hope rolled her eyes but Lizzie could tell she agreed with her. She thought it was cute how much Hope loved her family.
-
Along with daily pictures of Nik, Lizzie started to actually have chances to talk to the young boy. More than once he had run up to Hope while they were calling, interrupting what they were talking about to either show Hope something, or ask her to do something with him. When he finally realized he could talk to the girl on Hope's phone, and she could talk back, he wanted to sit in on their calls with them.
He would clamber into Hope's lap and ask Lizzie random questions from "What's your favorite animal?" to "Did you know that Power Rangers can turn into robots?". That second one wasn't true in the slightest but Lizzie knew she couldn't correct him, not when he was so excited to tell her all about his favorite Power Rangers robot.
Sometimes he would sit and color on his own, he just wanted to be able to look up occasionally and wave at Lizzie. He even once fell asleep on Hope and they lowered their voices to not wake him up. That was Lizzie's first glimpse at Nik's other mom, Keelin. She bent down about 30 minutes into his nap to take him from Hope and smiled at the camera. She heard her whisper to Hope to introduce her to Lizzie properly later.
Lizzie's favorite part of talking to Nik was when he would say either of their names. His 3 year old mouth hadn't quite figured out how to say them just yet. So Hope was "'Ope" and she was "Izzie" and she couldn't be happier about it.
Sometimes Hope would text her and say Nik wanted to say goodnight to her too. Sometimes he was satisfied with just a text that Hope could read to him, but a few times he wanted to call and say it. He always looked so cute fighting off sleep while they quietly talked. He had fallen asleep both times they had called and one of his moms would cart him off to his room.
A few times, Hope would randomly text something that Nik had said that she thought was funny. It was mostly him confusing words and saying the wrong thing. Sometimes Nik himself would tell Hope to text Lizzie something he thought she needed to hear. It was all pertinent information so far, like how he loves Dogs and he's going to own 10,000 of them some day. Or how to properly feed a duck, which is to not give it bread and to throw the seeds really softly on the ground to not spook them.
Or her personal favorite so far, which is that "Hope's rainbow flag is broken, it's only got three colors on it." Hope handed him back to Freya, saying it was her job to explain what her Bi pride flag stood for.
So Lizzie would say that talking with Nik was always a highlight of her day.
-
Lizzie got to "officially" meet the rest of Hope's family in pretty much one sitting. What had started as Freya popping in to placate Nik so Hope and Lizzie could talk turned into Lizzie and Freya catching up while Hope tried to keep up with them. Freya only managed to wrangle her son away when Keelin popped into frame to take him, only for her to sit down and chat with Lizzie for the first time too.
Rebekah was starting to feel left out so she squished into her sister's side to talk with Lizzie more. She was mainly there to embarrass Hope though, and she did a thorough job of it by telling stories of Hope as a child.
When Keelin and Freya left to put Nik down for a nap, Cami blinked in out of nowhere to gang up on Hope with Rebekah. Marcel came looking for his wife and lingered to introduce himself and say a few things but he left without Rebekah, knowing she wanted more time to chat.
Lizzie ended up talking with Davina the most, mainly about school and magic and receiving a lot of tips about witchcraft from her. Kol stood behind her for a while, butting in the say hi and share a few sentences, but he was content to just be there for a while before walking off on his own.
Hope tried to be embarrassed, not including everything Rebekah and Cami said that did embarrass her, but it was obvious to Lizzie that she loved her family and she loved how much of an interest they were showing in her girlfriend.
They were all talking for so long that Nik had woken up from his nap just in time to say goodbye to Lizzie before she had to go do a few things around the school with her mom.
She got a text from Hope almost immediately after hanging up.
I love you.
Lizzie smiled at her phone and responded in kind. She was sure Hope wanted to say more and just didn't know how. She left it at that, unsure of how to convey that she was so happy that Hope was so loved.
She happy to find that the next day, she got to see just how loved Hope was, especially by her aunts.
Hope was hiding out in the library, saying it was one of the few places she could privacy for an extended amount of time from all of her family. Wanting to feel even just a little closer to Hope, Lizzie gathered up some blankets and headed to the library in the school and settled in on her preferred couch. It was nowhere near as comfortable as Hope's favorite couch looked, but it would do for the moment.
Lizzie could tell Hope was going to fall asleep long before Hope ever yawned for the first time.
"You don't have to fight it, baby. You can take a nap if you want to," Lizzie had softly said.
Hope shook her head and shuffled further down the couch to lay more comfortably. "No, I'm good. I'm not that tired." The way she curled up into the back of the couch was doing nothing to help her case.
Hope's speech slowly turned to mumbles, lowering as the minutes went by. It was unfairly attractive. She was breathing evenly before 20 minutes had gone by since she tried to fight her inevitable nap.
Lizzie had no desire to hang up on her and instead pulled a random book off the nearest shelf to keep herself occupied. Luckily for her she grabbed a book on werewolves, it was interesting enough to not seek other entertainment. She'd have to ask Hope about some of the things the book was saying, especially if the transformation process was as painful as the book was making it out to be.
She had only been reading to herself for about 15 minutes when she heard a door opening on her phone's speaker. Glancing up at the screen, she could see that Hope hadn't moved at all, but she could see Freya coming into frame and looking down at the sleeping girl.
Freya reached over for a blanket on another chair and unfurled it to place over Hope. She took her time to tuck the edges in and to keep the frills away from Hope's face. Once she was done, she braced a hand on the back of the couch to place a lingering kiss to Hope's forehead.
Lizzie did her best to hide the hitch in her breath, and the stinging in her nose at the loving gesture. For a split second, she felt as though she was intruding in a part of Hope's life she wasn't allowed to see yet. She wasn't going to deny it made her chest feel full, near to bursting with love. She was happy to see it seemed all of Hope's family felt the same way, and treated her as such. Lizzie was only regretful that Hope hadn't seemed to have that at school until recently.
Freya never noticed the phone, nor the still connected call, and Lizzie watched her walk off camera and listened for the door to close. Hope slept for almost 2 hours, obviously having needed it. When she woke, she grinned at the camera and waved to Lizzie adorably.
"Where you watching me sleep the whole time? You creep," she croaked.
Lizzie met her sarcasm with the same force. "No, I got bored quickly. Started a good book about werewolves though. Found out some embarrassing grooming habits they have compared to regular wolves."
Hope glared at her, almost believing her until Lizzie couldn't keep her composure anymore. She picked at the blanket before throwing it off her shoulders to free her arms. "Did Freya get this for me?"
"Yeah. She tucked you in too, it was really cute."
Hope nodded. Obviously it wasn't the first time that had happened. "She's always finding me asleep somewhere and making sure I have a blanket."
"Well, good. Can't have you catching a cold."
Hope was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, but Lizzie could still the grin on her face. She didn't move for a bit making Lizzie think she was falling back asleep, but she jolted a few minutes and blinked wide a few times. "I feel like I need another nap."
Lizzie laughed. "Then go take one."
Hope stretched, groaning quietly as she did. "I might. But I want my bed."
Lizzie grinned like an idiot the entire time Hope shuffled up to her room, blinking blearily as she did. She watched Hope fall asleep again, this time face first in her pillow. She watched her breathe evenly for a few minutes, before hanging up in an effort to save them both some battery life.
Really she just knew if she watched Hope sleep again, she'd never leave the library and get anything else done that day.
-
Lizzie sighed, eyes trained on the ceiling above her. She was bored out of her mind.
Hope was out with her family, taking a day in the city to walk around, window shop, and eat good food. Hope's words, not Lizzie's. She knew more than likely Hope was only consuming her favorite beignet's.
She wanted to talk to her but she didn't want to disturb her family time.
She sighed again.
"My god, you mopey bitch." Penelope's voice cut through Lizzie's silence.
"Go away," Lizzie mumbled.
"Where would the fun in that be?"
Lizzie squeezed her eyes shut for a long moment, trying not to snap at Penelope. "Please go away."
"I'm glad you remembered your manners but I'm still not going to leave."
Lizzie huffed before leveling Penelope with a glare. "Go bother Josie."
"She's working on her winter Bio assignment and kicked me out. Told me to come bother you." Penelope looked far too pleased.
"I don't want to entertain you right now."
Penelope walked over to the couch Lizzie was lounged on and perched herself on the other end. "Well seeing as how you're doing nothing but staring at the ceiling and sighing, you're not the most entertaining at the moment."
Lizzie closed her eyes. Maybe if she couldn't see Penelope, she would disappear somehow. "I miss my girlfriend." Penelope didn't say anything at first, so Lizzie let herself voice a gnawing thought aloud. "I don't know how she did this every time you left for break."
Penelope exhaled, deep in thought for a second. "It was a lot of her texting me her every waking thought and calling whenever I could escape my mother's grasp."
Lizzie slumped further into the couch.
Penelope laid a surprisingly gentle hand on Lizzie's shoulder. "She's coming back. I know you want her back now, but she's going to come back to school."
Lizzie nodded and turned to look at Penelope. "Thanks."
Penelope retracted her hand and stood up. "I'll leave you alone to wallow in peace. I suppose I'll find other ways to entertain myself."
Lizzie could hear the teasing tone in her voice, but let her go without argument. She picked up her phone and sent Hope a quick text. Feeling needy be damned, she missed her girlfriend.
-
New Year's Eve was uneventful as it usually was. Josie and Lizzie always spent the day leading up to the countdown lounging around and watching movies as their dad never wanted to celebrate with them.
This year, however, Caroline was trying to put effort into properly celebrating. She had champagne cooling in the fridge, several finger foods arranged on the island in the kitchen for them all to pick up, and cheesy party store decorations strung up.
The day itself was still relaxed as they all lounged around the common room together. At one point, Josie and Penelope excused themselves to go take a nap in preparation for staying up late that night, giving Caroline and Lizzie a few hours to just talk.
"How's Hope doing?" Caroline asked after a few minutes of silence between them.
Lizzie checked her phone, seeing no messages from the aforementioned girl. "She's good. She's really been having a good time at home with her family. She's probably binge eating beignets with Nik again."
Caroline nodded. "When's she coming home?"
"Uh, the 4th, I think."
"Oh, that's soon! That's good. I'm sure you miss her a lot," Caroline teased.
Lizzie rolled her eyes at her mother's knowing look, trying to hide her blush as she did. "I got too used to seeing her nearly everyday, I guess."
Caroline hummed and looked at her daughter knowingly. "I get what that's like." She got this far off look in her eye and Lizzie could only wonder just who her mother was thinking of in that moment.
The rest of the day passed slowly as they all awaited midnight to hit. Josie went on a 20 minute rant sometime just after 9:00 about how lackluster the ball drop is in the real life and how it's always more impressive on screen than it is in person. She showed them a few articles that people had written, providing video and pictures of their experience with the ball drop. Caroline made her stop talking about it so she didn't ruin the wonder for her.
Tipsy on champagne and full off of almost an entire charcuterie board, Lizzie managed to slap a party hat on her head just in time for the countdown. Josie and Penelope slurred their numbers around the noise blowers in their mouths and Caroline was taking a video of the three of them.
Five!
Four!
Three!
Two!
One!
Josie and Penelope each gave one loud blow into their plastic toys before abandoning them for a long kiss, one far too inappropriate given that Caroline was still standing in the room with them.
"Happy New Year baby," Caroline said before pressing a long kiss into the side of Lizzie's head. She did the same to Josie and Penelope after they had both pulled away from each other.
Lizzie let Josie sprinkle a bit of confetti over head before hugging her twin with one arm. Josie wished her a Happy New Year as her phone buzzed a few times in succession and she fished it out of her cardigan pocket as she mumbled her response in turn.
Hope had sent her a selfie of as many of her family as she could squeeze into one picture. She could tell that Cami was the one taking the picture, with Hope squeezed between her and Davina. She could only manage to see the barest hint of Marcel on the side and Kol's forehead was cut off, but the rest of the Mikaelson's beamed at the camera.
Happy New Year.
Sorry I wasn't there to kiss you.
Lizzie was trying to think of how to cleverly word her response to Hope, wanting to tell her to kiss her as much as she wanted when she got back. Her phone lit up with Hope's contact picture as she was trying to Face Time her. Picking up instantly, the roar of a crowd greeted her as she watched fireworks explode in the New Orleans sky.
Lizzie lowered the volume so the cheers weren't deafening them anymore and set the phone on the island, letting the other three gather around the watch as well. The connection was fuzzy at times and Hope had to try different angles if people stepped in front of her, but they watched nearly the entire spectacle and they were able to take in the rapid succession of the finale.
The crowds cheers grew so loud the audio kept cutting in and out. The camera froze as it tried to turn but a few seconds later, Hope and Nik's smiles greeted them as they looked into the camera. Nik was fighting sleep as hard as he could, but they could tell he was at his limit.
Hope's words were cutting out, too quiet to be picked up over the phone, but Lizzie could just make out "blow" and "kiss" before the duo were blowing kisses at the phone.
Caroline, Josie, and Penelope all waved and yelled a Happy New Year to her, and they watched Hope repeat the sentiment, still unheard by the camera. They waved and backed up, giving Lizzie space to take up the whole screen.
They knew they couldn't say anything to each other just yet, but Lizzie repeated their gesture and got more kisses in return. She hung up the call as they both waved and received a text seconds later that Hope would call her when she got back home.
Lizzie helped Caroline clean up the kitchen as best as she could before she was shooed away, just as she had Josie and Penelope.
True to her word, Hope called Lizzie once she was curled up in bed and they fell asleep on call, each of them reaching towards their phones.
-
Lizzie woke sometime early in the morning, overheating. Her eyes burned even behind her still closed lids and she made no attempt at opening them. She pulled her arm up, though as she did she felt an odd resistance. Something heavy was laying across her torso.
She flung the covers off of her and tried to roll away, only to be pulled tighter to the source of burning heat. Too tired to process what was happening, she acquiesced and settled back into the bed.
After a few minutes, she wasn't cooling off and took to trying to pull her sweatshirt over her head. In her sluggish movement, she knocked her elbow against something next to her.
"Ow. Jesus, Liz."
Lizzie finally managed to remove the arm that was across her and pulled her sweatshirt off, flinging it somewhere to her left. She ignored the voice and settle back into bed, hoping to get back to sleeping soon. She mumbled incoherently and rolled onto her side, facing the middle of the bed.
A warm hand landed underneath Lizzie's sleep shirt, resting on her side. Lizzie tried to brush it off, waving her hand as if it were an annoying gnat.
"Lizzie."
"Wha-" she mumbled. "'m sleep."
"Mm wake up," the voice teased.
Lizzie exhaled a few times through her nose, unable to process what she was hearing with sleep still fogging her mind.
The hand moved from her side to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. Fingers slowly trailed down her jaw before resting lightly on her cheek.
"Lizzie. Look at me."
Lizzie forced her eyes open, only to immediately shut them again. Light was streaming into the room from a gap in the curtains, but it was still too early in the day to get out of bed, especially still on school break. After several attempts of trying to clear her vision, she finally registered who was laying in her bed.
Hope smiled at her, humor evident all over her face. "I was starting to think you didn't care that I was here."
Lizzie furrowed her brow, confused on how Hope was here. "I thought you weren't coming back until later tonight."
"I came back early. Drove overnight."
"With who?" Lizzie leaned up into Hope's palm, soaking in the contact. She was still wondering if her brain was playing a trick on her.
"Myself. My Christmas present was a car."
Lizzie nodded slightly. "That's... cool."
Hope's smile widened and she quiet for a moment. "So are you going to kiss me or not?"
Suddenly wide awake, Lizzie sprang into action immediately. She pulled Hope closer and rolling atop her before kissing her solidly. Hope hummed against her lips, pleased that she got what she wanted. She carded her fingers through Lizzie's hair and pulled her closer, as close as she could get.
Lizzie, still a little lethargic from sleep, sank into Hope and kissed her languidly. They had all the time in the world now that she was back in her arms. "I want to hear everything you didn't tell me about your trip," she said as they separated for air.
"Later," Hope said before pulling Lizzie in for another kiss. She tugged at Lizzie's sleep shirt, trying to hoist it up over her head. Lizzie whipped the garment up and over and flung it into oblivion to join her sweatshirt. "Right now you need make up for lost time." Her hands were immediately on Lizzie's abs, slowly moving upwards towards her chest.
Lizzie laughed against Hope's mouth, having to pull away because she was smiling too hard. "I missed you," she whispered into the air between them.
"I love you," Hope responded. She kissed Lizzie lightly several times in succession.
Lizzie leaned down to kiss Hope's pulse. "I love you too," Lizzie whispered against her skin.
"Josie's not going to walk in on us, is she?"
Lizzie continued her descent, helping Hope shrug out of her own shirt. "She's been staying in Penelope's room this entire time. If she chooses to come back now, I'll kill her."
Hope laughed at that, her chest shaking beneath Lizzie's lips. "I'd put a lock up but she could just siphon it out." One of her hands carded through Lizzie's hair again as Lizzie traced Hope's abdominal muscles with her tongue.
"Hope?"
"Yeah?"
"Stop talking about my sister when I'm about to go down on you."
"Yeah. Got it. Sorry. Keep going."