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“Why am I being punished?” The auburn haired girl asked from where she rested on her bed, her torso propped up by the pillows strategically placed there by Josie earlier on. Her legs and her arms are covered in white casts, and there’s a pretty ugly split in her lips that definitely hurt when she spoke.
That view, naturally, is not enough to get Lizzie to stop her scoff and eye roll at the implication that spending time with her was anything but a blessing , thank you very much.
“Stop being so dramatic.”
And, okay, yeah — Hope’s pretty broken up. Literally speaking. Like, in actuality. But still. Lizzie doesn’t know why Josie and her dad give her those looks. It’s not like Lizzie’s to blam— okay. Alright. Maybe she was a little to blame. Whatever. She didn’t push Hope, so. Definitely not all her fault.
“Are you serious—“
“Girls, please,” Alaric sighs, exhausted. He’s been dealing with Hope’s family and the local PD and the principal of Mystic Falls High School ever since the little… incident. Adding another one of Lizzie and Hope’s banters that lead to nowhere was definitely not on his list of things to deal with today. “Hope, I’m sorry, but you’re not exactly able to go home now, as you quite literally can’t move without screaming bloody murder — which we have proved to be true twice already, haven’t we? So don’t make that face — and Lizzie, well…” Alaric sighs again, his tired eyes turning to his tallest daughter. Lizzie frowns and pouts, also not happy with this situation, “Lizzie is responsible for this situation, even though she’s not exactly the person who got you like this. So, this is um, well… her punishment.”
“Fantastic,” Hope exhales, her tone stating the complete opposite, and Lizzie rolls her eyes again.
Okay, so here’s what happened — Lizzie had convinced the boys that they should steal the Timberwolves mascot before their big game that weekend. The head bitch, Dana, had totally rubbed her last brain cells together and pretty much figured out who’d done it and had decided to crash the Salvatore Boarding School’s party at the Old Mill with her few (and incredibly annoying) friends.
She had totally gotten drunk on the alcohol that was not meant for her, and had totally seeked Lizzie out to chew her out for the robbery. Lizzie, a little buzzed herself, had been instantly annoyed by the sight of the other blonde and their usual bickering and arguing had quickly become more intense — pretty intense, actually, because Lizzie doesn’t usually take a swing at other people, so that was kinda new. The people around them gasp, and Lizzie barely notices it when auburn hair steps in between her and Dana — Hope is like, tiny, and she’s like, drunk, and it all happened so fast —
She remembers the swing, remembers auburn hair, remembers Dana growling at her like a rabid dog and quite literally going at her, and then she remembers side-stepping and a scream and then Josie and Landon were screaming at Dana for pushing Hope off the balcony and killing her.
(She hadn’t like, killed Hope. But Hope was pretty broken, turns out. Arms, legs, a split lip, bruised ribs — the whole shebang.)
Then she remembers the paramedics, remembers her dad literally almost losing his entire mind, remembers the police coming and taking Dana — which was kind of incredible — and then she remembers being dragged to the hospital and sitting in the waiting room for a few hours until they told her that no, Hope was not dead, but for like, maybe two weeks, she’s going to wish she was.
Anyways. TL;DR: Dana was doing community service and forbidden to play soccer, Kaleb and MG had to return the mascot and were also stopped from playing, and Lizzie, well. Her dad had totally flipped shit when he’d heard the whole story, and Dana had totally tried to throw her under the bus by mentioning the author of the glorious black-eye she was sporting on her right eye, and Lizzie was also not allowed to play the big game. Or any games, at least for a while.
And, well. Now she guesses she’s also doing community service. (Kind of.)
“Elizabeth. If you hadn’t done what you know you did, none of this would’ve happened. I don’t take robbery lightly nor do I approve of your drinking while underage and fighting , so, please, I really hope you weren’t thinking that just because you may not have been sent to pick-up trash like Dana, you would not be punished for your little scheme.” Alaric says seriously. Lizzie licks her lips. She guesses it makes sense — it’s not like this is exactly uncalled for. Dana had broken in for a reason.
“Fine,” Lizzie exhales. “What do I have to do?”
“You’ll be taking care of Hope for the next two weeks or so. We’ll see how long she takes to be able to walk with her crutches, but the doctor said it’d be two weeks, max,” Alaric informed, pointing towards the two metal crutches that were leaning against the wall on the side of Hope’s wardrobe. “You’ll help her with whatever she needs, with her medication, everything. I want you to understand that your actions have consequences.”
Lizzie sighs.
“And that your actions have consequences as well, Hope.” He said, surprising the two girls. Hope raised her eyebrows and Alaric continued, “if you hadn’t decided to step in to fight Dana, you wouldn’t have been pushed and Lizzie wouldn’t be your nurse. See how that all works?”
Josie giggled while Lizzie and Hope sighed and rolled their eyes, and Alaric smiled — the first smile of the night. “I’ve talked to your professors. Josie and your friends will be responsible to grab your school work and bring it over for you guys so you don’t miss everything, and I’ll definitely see that you two have private catch-up classes with whatever you need. This is an unusual situation, but one we’re thankfully equipped to deal with.”
Lizzie gapes.
“We’re not parents. You can tone down with the responsibility selling act. Landon is gonna bring me my homework. Landon.” Lizzie rolls her eyes, “God, it’s like you hate me.”
“You should be very thankful that your rooms are on the same floor. You won’t have to walk too far to get your things before returning here to babysit on your favorite broody friend,” her dad says, and by his tone Lizzie can tell that he’s mocking her and Hope. So, definitely, her dad knows damn well that this is maybe, probably, quite definitely, the worst idea he’s ever had. But, you know, it’s not like bad ideas aren’t a normal occurrence around these parts. (See: Lizzie’s robbery plan, for starters.)
“I just hope you know this is a terrible idea,” Hope mumbles after a moment. Lizzie takes offense, even though she wholeheartedly agrees with that sentiment.
“I’ll come by once a day to check up on you,” Josie assures her, speaking up after being silent for a while. That seems to dissuade Hope’s worries a little, and Lizzie’s as well, if she’s completely honest.
But still, she says, “Oh, relax, you two. It’s all gonna be fine.”
Josie’s forced smile looks as forced at that statement.
-
“Do you need any help?” Lizzie asks after a while, her eyes watching the other girl struggle to reach for her water bottle on her bedside table. It seemed as though Hope was refusing to ask for help, even though pretty much the entire reason why Lizzie was even here to begin with was exactly for that, but, you know, suit yourself, Mikaelson.
“No,” Hope responds, her lips forming a thin line as she tries her hardest to not break her arms again as she tries, and fails, to reach for the bottle. She humphs, and then she all but slams her back against the head of her bed. “Yeah.”
Lizzie smirks in victory, and she uncrosses her legs and stands from where she’d been sitting on Hope’s studying assigned table at the corner of her single room. Hope was pretty much the only student in the entire school that didn’t exactly have to share a room with someone else -- a perk of being the daughter of the man who’d given a small portion of his fortune to build this place. Lizzie doesn’t see what the fuss is all about, honestly. She likes sharing her room with her twin. Plus, having a room all to yourself meant you were the only one responsible for cleaning and, judging by the clothes strewn about around here, that was clearly a struggle.
“Okay, does anything hurt?” The blonde asks as she walks towards the side of the bed that Hope’s lying on. She reaches for the girl’s water bottle and hands it to her as she waits for a response. Hope merely eyes the cap and sighs, and Lizzie rolls her eyes. Honestly. She unscrews the cap. “Do you need me to feed you this water?”
“Don’t be a bitch,” Hope grumbles. She takes the water bottle with her only arm that’s not broken but still pretty bruised and takes it to her lips.
The blonde checks the time.
“Are you in pain?”
“Yeah,” Hope murmurs, handing the bottle back. Lizzie nods and takes the small bottle of liquid Advil from her jacket pocket, and -- “Are you stealing my medicine?”
“No, asshole,” Lizzie rolls her eyes, because honestly -- “Now, how do you wanna do this? Spoon? Drops on your tongue?”
“Um, could you mix it with water in that glass?” Hope asks in a small voice, as if she was humiliated that this was something she had to ask. And, yeah, Lizzie thinks it’s pretty embarrassing that Hope can’t swallow pills easily. But she decides that she’ll be the bigger person right now, and she won’t comment on the request. She prepares the medicine as asked of her, and she hands it to the young Mikaelson.
Hope makes a face at the taste and Lizzie switches the empty glass in her hand to the water bottle, and while Hope washes the foul taste of the medicine from her mouth, she walks into the girl’s bathroom to wash the glass.
“If you need something, ask me, okay?” Lizzie says when she walks back in the room. Hope makes a face. Lizzie rolls her eyes, “That’s literally the whole reason why I’m even here.”
Hope exhales but nods.
“Fine.”
“Okay,” Lizzie nods, sitting back down on the desk chair at the corner of the girl’s room.
There’s a moment of silence, and then Hope speaks up.
“Lizzie, can you get me my book--”
“I literally just sat down.”
-
Lizzie’s crushing Hope’s antibiotics and mixing them with her yogurt the next morning, annoyed that Hope is basically like a puppy dog who refuses to have their medicine the right way, when Hope speaks up.
“You didn’t have to bring me breakfast in bed, you know.”
Lizzie rolls her eyes -- her eye sockets are getting kinda sore from how much she’s been doing that -- and says, “Yeah, you know what, you’re right. Let’s go downstairs and join everyone else for breakfast. Can you help me with this tray?”
There’s a pause, and then an annoyed sigh.
“You’re an asshole.”
Lizzie smiles, and then she turns her attention back to the breakfast and the medicine she’s supposed to be crushing. She’s pretty sure this yogurt is going to taste absolutely awful by the amount of things Lizzie had mixed in.
Her own breakfast had been eaten an hour before, while Hope was still asleep and Josie had given her an out to shower and eat before she had to come back to nurse duty.
“Alright, breakfast is served,” Lizzie says as she sets the wooden tray down next to Hope on the bed, and the auburn haired girl gives her a small smile in thank you.
“Aren’t you gonna eat with me?” Hope asks when she realizes there’s only one of each. Lizzie shakes her head.
“This entire breakfast has been heavily medicated, so, not really, thank you though.”
Hope looks at her with this look on her face and -- Lizzie sighs and takes a grape out of the little bowl.
“Here,” she makes a show out of taking the small fruit to her mouth, “happy?”
Hope doesn’t answer her vocally, but the small smile on her face as she begins to dive into her food is enough answer.
-
Josie comes by Hope’s room a little before dinner with Lizzie’s homework and updates on what they’ve missed. It isn’t much -- mostly, Kaleb had just spent most of the day obsessing over finding a replacement for Lizzie at the next game. Lizzie was somewhat flattered that her banishment had caused such a response, but decided not to voice it as Hope was in this situation as a consequence of the situation that had caused the banishment in first place.
“And then there was this pop quiz in Chemistry that I’m not so sure if I went well or not, and, um, oh, yeah! Penelope played a prank on MG that made him cry, but I think they’re okay now,” Josie shrugs, her legs crossed at the ankles as her body is turned towards Hope on the other side of the bed. The girl with auburn hair is listening to her friend talk as she sips on the tea that Josie had brought with her. “All in all, it was kind of a boring day. We missed you guys.”
Hope gives Josie a small smile while Lizzie mumbles a “missed you, too” from where she sits, skimming through the papers her sister had brought her.
The brunette twin seems to take her sister’s distraction as a green light, and she leans down a little closer to Hope so she’s not heard by her blonde sister, “Is she treating you alright?”
Hope smiles at the question -- Josie’s brown eyes are serious and concerned, and that’s definitely one of the things Hope adores the most about her friend. Her concern and care for others is definitely unparalleled, even if a bit problematic at times.
“Yeah, actually,” Hope answers in the same level, “She’s... making an effort.”
“Really?” Josie sounds shocked, “She is?”
“Mhm,” Hope nods, taking another sip carefully. The bruises in her unbroken arm are beginning to turn lighter. “She’s even carried me to the bathroom and helped me get in the bath.”
“Oh, my God, ” Josie gasps, and that causes Lizzie to look up. In the blink of an eye, Lizzie is standing next to the bed, her eyes trained on Hope as she fishes a small orange bottle of painkillers from her coat’s pocket.
“What? Are you in pain? Is it hurting again -- Josie, did you do something? I told you giving her a mug of hot tea was a bad idea --”
“Lizzie, I’m fine,” Hope interrupts her, and Josie watches the scene before her with wide eyes.
“Oh, my God.” Josie repeats, her mouth open in shock.
“What?” Lizzie asks. Her patience has definitely run out, and Josie was damn near being on the end of one of the blonde’s bad moods. The blonde’s face was scrunched up, clearly frustrated, and the auburn girl was looking between the twins trying to understand what was going on.
“You’re taking care of her!” When she sees that Lizzie is about to reply, she says, “Don’t even give me the whole you have to thing, because we all know if you didn’t care --”
“Josette, shut up. ” Lizzie says menacingly.
“You care about her, you’re even carrying her --”
“I can’t walk on my own, Jo, and Lizzie’s kind of obliged to take care of me, remember?” Hope says, because well, Lizzie seems like she’s two seconds away from setting this room on fire and Josie seems to be having way too much fun with… whatever this even was.
The twins can be weird, sometimes.
“Josette, I think you should go now. Hope has to take her medicine before bed and you like, need to leave before I kill you for real.”
“You wouldn’t --”
“Josie, I swear to God --”
“Okay, fine, damn,” Josie mutters under her breath. She gets off her friend’s bed and her deep brown eyes glance at Hope, “Have a good night, Hope. I’ll stop by tomorrow.”
The auburn haired girl smiles one of those trademarked soft Hope Mikaelson smiles and it makes Josie kind of glad and relieved to know that her sister is actually doing a good job -- even though this is definitely a little bit… odd.
She was totally expecting to find Hope like, well, not dead, but --
“Josie, you know where the door is.”
“You’re being mean,” Josie notes as she walks with her sister. The taller girl shrugs.
“Can’t exactly be mean to Hope. I need an outlet.”
“You are being mean to me, though --” They hear from behind, and that sort of relieves Josie a little bit. At least now she could go to sleep knowing her sister hadn’t turned into a completely different person overnight.
Lizzie ignores her and gives her sister a small smile when Josie opens the door.
“Night, Liz.”
“Night, Jo,” Lizzie leans down and lays a kiss on her sister’s forehead, “Love you.”
“Love you too,” Josie smiles, and then she glances from over her twin’s shoulder, “and night, Hope. Careful for the bedbugs -- ah, what am I even saying,” there’s that smirk that makes it so obvious that she’s related to the blonde, and then, “Lizzie’s definitely going to check if yo-”
Josie is cut off by the sound of the door slamming shut and Lizzie rolls her eyes when she hears her sister’s giggling from the other side of the door.
-
Hope takes this one painkiller that makes her very sleepy, so that late afternoon, when a sneeze makes Hope quite literally bawl her eyes out and causes Lizzie to practically shove two pills down the other girl’s throat -- quite the scene, really --, the auburn haired girl spends maybe half an hour trying to pretend she wasn’t as loopy as Landon had been that one time they all went to the amusement park and the boy had decided to go on the same rollercoaster ride twice and had to be carried out by MG and Raf, before she gives in and lets herself fall into the arms of Morpheus.
And she’s dreaming exactly of rollercoasters and Lizzie’s hair in neon lights -- for whatever reason -- and she opens her mouth to tell Lizzie something but is confused when the sound of a knife being sharpened against whetstone comes out, replacing the sound of her voice.
She wakes up with a jump, and her breathing is fast when her eyes adjust to the golden hour lit room and fall upon the girl hovering over her.
“Lizzie?”
“Yeah?”
Hope glances at the small tray set on her bedside table and her eyes widen when she notices the box cutter, the pizza rolling knife cutter, and the small power saw that Mr. Saltzman kept in his toolbox in his office.
“Lizzie, are you really trying to kill me?”
“Huh?” Lizzie glances at her with a frown, stopping her movements with the knife. Then, when she follows the other girl’s line of sight, she rolls her eyes in understanding, “Grow up.”
“Grow up? Lizzie, you’re sharpening a knife --”
“I have a reason ,” Lizzie interrupts her with another eye roll, as if she thought Hope’s breakdown was a nuisance.
“Yeah, you’re going to kill me --”
“Hope, do you really think if I were going to kill you I’d do it with kitchen supplies? Please.” The blonde scoffs, and weirdly, that does comfort Hope a little.
“Then what are you doing?”
“I’m trying to open your cast,” Lizzie says, “But this stupid knife hasn’t been sharpened in like, forever, and it won’t even do a dent --”
Hope’s eyes widen and she tries to sit up but ends up wincing in pain. Lizzie sighs and shakes her head at her.
“Calm down. It’s just -- ugh, when Josie broke her wrist a few years ago and she had to get that cast, she kept complaining about it being itchy, and it was just a small portion of her arm. You have like, both of your legs with this stuff so I don’t wanna be stuck shoving clothing hangers in there to try and help you itch on top of everything else I have to do,” Lizzie explains, way too serene for someone who had just been busted sharpening a knife next to her frenemy’s bed. “There’s this cream for itching that MG found in the nurse’s room that I was gonna put in there to see if it would help and then just… super glue the cast closed or something. I don’t know. I was gonna Google it when I got to it.”
Hope blinks.
“What?” Lizzie asks, her eyes going from Hope to the knife in her hand to check if it was sharpened enough.
“You do care about me.” Hope says, remembering Josie’s claims the prior night.
Lizzie -- not surprisingly -- rolls her eyes at the statement. She doesn’t dignify it with a verbal response.
“Josie was right.”
“Josie talks too much.” Lizzie mumbles.
“So do you.”
“I’m holding a knife right now and you can’t walk,” The blonde threatens. Hope shuts up even though she knows those are empty threats. Lizzie smiles and goes back to her task. Hope watches her, feeling comforted by the way the girl works with care and attention and decides that maybe, just maybe, this whole thing wasn’t the punishment she thought it was.
(That is, until Lizzie completely fails to find a good way to close the cast back together and they end up having to use a whole tube of superglue to make sure the cast stayed put together. That definitely did feel like punishment.)
-
“Lizzie dots her i’s with hearts,” Landon comments suddenly, the smile evident in his voice. Hope looks up from her book and frowns, confused by the statement. Landon notices her confusion and clears it up, “Her signature on your cast. The lowercase i’s are dotted with hearts. I didn’t know she did that. It’s cute.”
“Lizzie signed my cast?” Hope asks, clearly not hung up on the same fact that Landon had been. Landon nods, his sharpie hovering her cast as he took a pause from writing down the little poem he had created for Hope that morning.
“What did she write?”
“Just her name,” Landon responds, going back to what he’d been doing, “but it’s pretty large. Her handwriting is pretty.”
“It is,” Hope agrees, because she’s noticed that before. Landon smiles as he writes. Before long, he’s finished, and then he caps his sharpie back and puts it back in his jacket’s pocket.
“So, what do you wanna do?” Landon asks, that familiar boyish spark in his eyes as he stares at his best friend. He’d been busy practically all week with school work and tonight he’d finally had had time to spend with Hope and give Lizzie a break to go downstairs and sort her own life out a little.
“I don’t know. What do you wanna do?”
“I asked you first.”
“Well, I still don’t know.” Hope shrugs. Landon chuckles.
“Do you wanna watch The Office while we eat dinner?”
Hope thinks for a second and then smiles, “Yes, actually, that sounds great.”
Landon grins, proud of himself for coming up with a great idea and Hope chuckles.
—
“Out, Elmo,” Lizzie states when she comes back into the room later that night. She has on her pajamas, her hair is braided and she’s carrying her computer in her arms. Landon and Hope look up from the computer screen on the boy’s lap and Landon sighs.
“What, why?”
“ Because, Kermit,” Lizzie rolls her eyes, as if explaining to Landon that he had to leave was too much of a hassle, “I’m tired, and Hope needs to get ready for bed and take her medicine. And also, MG has been looking for you.”
“Why? What does he need?”
“I don’t know, Big Bird,” Lizzie sets her computer down on Hope’s desk.
“Alright, then.” Landon mutters under his breath. Hope chuckles and watches as he closes his laptop and gets up from where he was on her lap, knowing that there wasn’t much fighting when Lizzie had her mind set on something.
“Bye, Lan.” Hope smiles up at him. “Thanks for dinner.”
“Thanks for the company,” Landon smiled back and bends down to press a light kiss to Hope’s head. “Now, good luck.”
Hope chuckles and Lizzie squints. “What does she need good luck for?”
“‘Night Lizzie,” Landon grins, his pearly whites appearing, and Lizzie hums as she watches him leave from where she’s leaning against the desk in the corner. “Night Hope.”
As the boy leaves and Hope responds to his goodnight wishes, Lizzie grabs the medicine and walks over to Hope’s bed, half-kneeling on the mattress and handing Hope her pills.
“Did Muppet boy at least help you brush your teeth?” Lizzie asks while she fluffs the pillows behind the auburn haired girl. Hope nods, gulping down the water exactly when Lizzie pushes her back a little too hard and some of the water escapes her lips and runs down her chin.
“Lizzie!”
“Don’t be so loud, Mikaelson,” Lizzie tuts as Hope brings her good arm’s sleeve to her face to dry the corner of her mouth. “Sorry. Did I hurt you?”
“No, it’s fine.” Hope mumbles. She leans back against her fluffed pillows and relaxes, “Thanks.”
“Sure,” the blonde takes the glass back from her friend and sets it down on the bedside table. “Do you need your painkillers?”
“Yeah.” Lizzie hands them over silently and then she sits down on the empty side of Hope’s bed and watches as the other girl takes her medicine. Hope’s bruises have been fading pretty nicely, her skin now looking a little more like it used to before. Hope just wished that she could just get the cast removed from her arm soon, because having her movements restricted so heavily for so long was beginning to tire her out.
On the bright side, her relationship with the taller Saltzman twin was slowly but surely improving. Sort of. Well, the silences between them weren’t uncomfortable anymore.
“So, what were you and Landon doing before I got here?” Lizzie’s tone is unbothered, curious and friendly. It still makes Hope squint, though.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” Lizzie asks, squinting her own eyes. Hope frowns, not understanding the suspicion.
“Nothing, dude,” Hope repeats.
Lizzie hums, not convinced, and Hope decides that there’s just nothing she could do about the girl’s suspicion. Besides, Hope was practically (and literally) unable to move, so she’s not exactly sure what Lizzie thought she might’ve been doing that was so scandalous that she has to lie, anyway.
Lizzie is just weird like that.
“Well, whatever, do you wanna finish watching that movie?” The blonde asks, already standing up to retrieve her computer and showing that they would be finishing the movie no matter what Hope’s answer was. Hope smiles and nods and Lizzie gets comfortable by her side.
“Do you need the blanket?” Hope asks before Lizzie sets the laptop down on her legs, mirroring Landon’s prior position, and the blonde nods. Hope tries her best to cover the other girl with her good arm, and Lizzie chuckles amusedly when she fails. “It’s mean to laugh.”
Lizzie ignores her and adjusts the blanket on her legs before she sets her computer down and then she opens the movie they’d been watching earlier backup on the scene they’d paused.
It doesn’t take long for Hope’s medicine to kick in, and Lizzie finishes the movie by herself as Hope sleeps softly by her side, her head on top of the blonde’s shoulder as she dreamed of whatever it was the youngest Mikaelson liked to dream of.
The screen goes black after the movie ends and Lizzie frowns when she catches sight of her and Hope’s reflection on the dark screen of her computer - Hope looks angelic, deep in her sleep, and Lizzie has this dumb, totally uncalled for smile that she really didn’t know what the hell was doing there. She’d hated the movie and its ending - so what the hell would she be smiling about?
Hope sighs and Lizzie closes her eyes in annoyance.
Stupid Mikaelson, she thinks, and stupid me, too, she adds, because if she hadn’t been the one to start yet another brawl with Dana, none of this would’ve happened and Lizzie would’ve been in her bed right about now - and every other night before that. Not that she was like, sleeping on Hope’s bed. No, God no, absolutely not. That was too much.
And it’s not like she hates spending time with Hope - she’d hate to admit it out loud, and she probably wouldn’t, but, well. Hope’s actually kind of cool. In a charming way. But like, in a completely unnerving way, sort of. And it doesn’t matter what Josie says - she. does. not. care. about. Hope.
Not now, not ever.
Just in time, Hope makes a sound at the back of her throat, as if knowing where Lizzie’s thoughts were and the blonde immediately looks down to check if she was alright. When she catches herself, she winces and rolls her eyes and wonders how the hell she’d let herself fall for Hope when she’d been (punished) designated to take care of Hope after her own nearly fatal fall. Maybe it was a long time coming; maybe not. (Parts of Lizzie were always convinced that Hope had a little radar in her system to find her whenever she least needed her to show up. Parts of Lizzie wondered why the hell Hope had bought a fight that was Lizzie’s, not her own. Wondered why Hope had let herself fall - literally - instead of Lizzie.)
She groans again and wonders if this will end as badly for her as it did for Hope.
-
Lizzie had managed to get used to sleeping in an inflatable mattress - whenever they’d go on camping trips (which she hated, but was forced to go as Josie Saltzman was her twin and Lizzie has trouble in saying no when Josie gives her those puppy dog eyes and asks her to come with), she would pretty much complain for the entirety of the weekend that inflatable mattresses and her were not an agreeable pair. And obviously she had complained when her dad had brought in the inflatable mattress she finds herself lying on right now, but apparently Hope’s comfort was priority, so her suggestion of her taking the bed and Hope taking the mattress fell on deaf ears (as most of her complaints usually went).
But she digresses. The thing was that Lizzie had finally managed to get some sleep, and then she’d been (rudely) woken up by an actual kick in the ass and then the sound of something practically meeting furniture. She opens her eyes, eyebrows in a frown, and turns her head slightly.
“What the hell?”
“Go back to sleep, I’m fine.” Hope grumbled from where she sat back in her bed, position askew. Lizzie sits down on the mattress and studies the scene before her with a frown and annoyance coloring her pretty, sleepy face.
“May I ask what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Hope snaps back, trying to rearrange her position and failing. She huffs in annoyance.
“It looks like you’re being a complete moron, that’s what it looks like. You have broken bones, genius. Why do you think I’ve been helping you move everywhere? Because it’s fun for me?”
“Okay, I got it, Jesus,” Hope snaps again, stopping her movements and releasing a deep breath. “I just… wanted to see if I could.”
“Well, you can’t. Now, let me get your painkillers so you’ll calm down and just go to sleep until it’s late enough for me to deal with you.”
Hope’s lips form an unintentional pout and Lizzie’s heart does an unintentional flip. She throws her blankets off her body and stands, padding over to the medicine on top of the desk and grabbing the orange bottle. She grabs two pills and walks over to Hope. Once that’s done, she busies herself with the hard task that was moving a loopy and broken Hope Mikaelson to the right spot on the girl’s bed and helping her lie down.
“Thanks, Lezzie.” Hope mumbles sleepily before she falls asleep.
A beat.
“What the hell did you just call me?”
-
When Hope woke up again later that day, it was already 10AM and Lizzie had already showered and eaten and was now back in Hope’s room, the other girl’s breakfast set neatly in the desk for when the auburn haired beauty awakened again.
(Not that like, she thinks Hope is beautiful. She is, but that’s not what’s important. You know. Whatever.)
Her dad had approached her during her breakfast with Josie and the She-Devil (an appropriate nickname that Lizzie had lovingly given to Penelope, Josie’s girlfriend, who was a She-Devil) and told her that Hope’s doctor would be paying the girl a visit to check on her rehabilitation -- Klaus Mikaelson, Hope’s dad, had asked that they checked on Hope’s progress to see if she would be healed enough to be able to travel back home and spend the rest of her healing process with her family. Lizzie couldn’t help but feel a little weird about it - God knows why - but her dad had told her she’d managed to pay her dues brilliantly, and Lizzie couldn’t really lie and say she wasn’t kind of glad she would get her life back.
Lizzie’s scrolling through her social media when Hope stirs, and she rolls her eyes when Hope’s awakening is followed by a groan, no doubt from her adventures earlier that morning. “You better not have broken another bone.”
“It’s not like it’s your body that’s broken,” Hope mumbles. “Why do I feel like I’m drunk?”
“Probably because you’re still stoned from the painkiller. I gave you the strongest one to see if you would just be quiet and let me sleep,” Lizzie says as she sits down near Hope and checks for her temperature, just because. Hope frowns a little at her hand but leans against the touch anyway. “You need food.”
“I need to die.” Hope grumbles.
“Sorry, I’m not allowed to let you do that. Remember? That was the whole point of me being here. But I can give you some food. I made you pancakes.”
Hope eyed her, “You made me pancakes?”
“Okay, I stole them off Landon’s plate, but I spread the maple on top of it, so I kind of made it.”
Hope chuckles in response and her eyes are doing that thing that they do sometimes when she looks at her - that thing that makes Lizzie want to look away, makes her blush. “So, um,” Lizzie clears her throat, “dad told me the doctor is coming to see you today to check up on you.”
“Mm,” Hope hums, her attention on her food. Lizzie takes it as a sign to continue.
“Your dad called. He wants to know if you’re healed enough to like, travel back home and spend the rest of your healing progress there.”
“In New Orleans?” Hope frowns. Lizzie blinks.
“That’s… I mean, you know where your family is, right?”
Hope rolls her eyes. “Shut up. You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I mean…” Lizzie shrugs, “It’s better, right? You’ll be with your family, bigger space, people to boss around…”
“I’m not bossing you around.”
Lizzie blinks again, and Hope sighs. She shrugs, “I suppose it would be better.”
The blonde nods.
(It would be better, sure. But Lizzie is pretty sure it would feel kind of… you know. She doesn’t have to say it.)
By the way Hope finishes her pancakes quietly and with her eyes down, Lizzie thinks she knows.
-
“So, dad said your dad will be flying here tomorrow morning to come pick you up and he should be here by 10-ish.” Lizzie comments while she helps Hope get settled back on her bed after she’s showered. The doctor had dropped by earlier and declared that Hope was in better position to travel home -- and Klaus, Hope’s dad, had taken no small measures to ensure that his daughter was comfortable enough during the travel - he’d told Alaric that the private jet was already taken care of.
(She swears, sometimes Lizzie forgets how fucking loaded the Mikaelsons really are. Hope definitely doesn’t dress like it, so. You know.)
“Okay,” Hope says, resting her back on the wooden headbed, her injured arm now held up by a sling instead of covered in a cast, “I need to pack some things.”
Lizzie huffs in annoyance, but it sounds more playful than actually upset. She fights a small smile when Hope chuckles at her reaction. “Okay, walk me through it, Mikaelson.”
“The duffle bag is in the back of my closet,” Hope tells her, “Just pack a few essential clothing items, I don’t know. I have clothes back home. Whatever you think it’s important.”
“Are you really giving me free reign on this?” Lizzie asks, shocked. She drops the empty duffle bag on the bed, mindful of Hope’s legs. Hope gives her a small, cryptic smile.
“Well, believe it or not, I trust you have my best interest at heart, Lizzie.”
“Okay, calm down, I’m just packing your shit, not donating an organ.” Lizzie deflects, turning around and walking towards the other girl’s closet so she wouldn’t see the blush that had risen to her pale cheeks at the sentiment. She doesn’t want Hope to know that she has that effect on her -- she has some dignity, damn it. Just because she’s like, into Hope or whatever this is now, that doesn’t mean Hope gets to know she’s genuinely affected by the shit she says to her every once in a while. (Lizzie remembers something about her mother commenting on the Mikaelson charms. It must be that.)
But because the sentiment is nice and because she was her mother’s daughter, Lizzie felt compelled to say something nice back. So, she does, but she doesn’t turn back to look at Hope when she throws the words her way, “I don’t think I want you to leave.”
“What?” Lizzie didn’t need to look to know that Hope had her eyebrows raised. She could just tell by the tone of her voice -- she knew Hope well enough to know that her confession had surprised her. She instantly regrets voicing it.
“I mean - nevermind.” Lizzie focuses on the overwhelming amount of sweaters that Hope had in her closet instead.
“Someone’s grown attached, huh?”
Lizzie doesn’t turn to look, because she doesn’t want Hope to see her, but she thinks that Hope probably knows , anyway. She doesn’t say anything, letting her silence speak for itself, and she hears Hope laughing quietly behind her.
“I get it. I, um - same.”
That makes Lizzie turn around with an eye roll, “You same?”
“Shut up. You know what I mean.”
“Right, yeah, can’t have the Big Bad Mikaelson getting all mushy and sentimental,” Lizzie jokes. She walks over to the duffle bag that’s on top of Hope’s bed and sets a few items of clothing in. She sees Hope opening her mouth to say something, and her eyes are doing that thing, and suddenly Lizzie really does mean what she’s said.
“No, seriously, don’t get all mushy and sentimental on me. You know we’re not like, friends or whatever.”
“Right,” Hope laughs softly and then bites her bottom lip. Lizzie knew what that Hope-Mikaelson-Lip-Biting road led to, so she turned around and walked back towards the closet so she wouldn’t have to deal with it.
“We’re not friends.” Hope repeats, and her tone is unfamiliar to Lizzie. For the first time, Lizzie’s not quite sure where this is even going.
“Nope, because I hate you, remember?”
The sound of Hope’s laughter makes her turn around. Hope meets her eyes, “Really? This is still going on? Even after what I did for you?”
Lizzie frowns, “I didn’t ask you -” she stops. Sighs. Rolls her eyes. “You were the one who just went all Hero Hope mode on me and got all broken up. It’s not like I made you do it.”
Hope looks down at her lap for a moment and it makes Lizzie feel guilty. She groans internally. This whole talking thing was so not for her. She sighs and walks towards the bed, sitting down and resting her hands on her lap.
“I, uh… I never thanked you for it. For, um, going all Hero Hope mode, I mean,” Lizzie licks her lips. Hope doesn’t break eye contact, and it makes Lizzie continue, “Like, any of the times, really. And it’s been… quite a lot of times,” Lizzie chuckles softly and shakes her head. “Uh. Thanks. And sorry for getting you in this situation, even if accidentally. Or whatever happened that night. I don’t really remember much.”
Hope chuckles and her smile is so soft - Lizzie licks her lips. “You don’t need to thank me, Lizzie, seriously. Or apologize. You’re right. No one forced me to do what I did.”
The blonde bites her lip. That doesn’t sound right -- “I do need to apologize, though. I’ve been a raging bitch to you and you’ve helped me out so many times. It’s not fair. I’m sorry.”
“Lizzie, stop apologizing. It’s okay. I’ve been just as bitchy to you.”
“Okay, but I copied your homework for like, months without you knowing.”
“Well, I stole your jade butterfly clip in 5th grade.”
Lizzie gasps, “I loved that clip!”
“I had a crush on Josie for a week when we were fourteen,” Hope blurts out, and Lizzie frowns.
“And what the hell does that have to do with me?” Hope shrugs, and Lizzie hates to say it -- it does kind of bother her. In like, an intense way. In a way that makes her admit that -- “I accidentally killed your hamster and then made you think you killed him by overfeeding him when really I had just sat on him without knowing.”
Hope gasps, her eyes wide, and Lizzie winces. “Sorry.”
The auburn haired girl stares at her for a moment, her eyebrows meeting in a frown at the center of her forehead, and Lizzie thinks that this is it, this is the moment that will break the camel’s back, the last straw - but Hope surprises her by throwing her head back and laughing. Lizzie doesn’t want to look away -- partly because of surprise, and party because she thinks that Hope just looks insanely pretty when she laughs.
“So, I’m right, see? I told you we -” Lizzie begins to say, but Hope cuts her off, a smile still on her face.
“No, shut up, don’t say something witty and mean and incredibly charming to ruin this moment. Just admit that we get along, and that we’re not so different. That there’s...” Hope trails off, trying to find the right words.
“Something between us?” Lizzie offers, unsure. (But oh, she’s sure.)
Hope blinks. Then, she licks her lips.
“I… I was gonna say that there’s qualities that we see in each other. But you’re right.”
Lizzie doesn’t know what to say. Hope’s face breaks into the sweetest smile Lizzie has ever seen and she frowns confusedly when the smile is followed by Hope asking her to come closer, as if to tell her a secret. She leans forward by instinct and is surprised when Hope leans forward and rests a peck on her cheek.
Lizzie jumps but stays in place. “What was that?”
“I believe those are called kisses,” Hope teases, and Lizzie rolls her eyes. She’s annoyed because she knows she’s red in the face and Hope can see it. “But that was because you were here for me. I know it was a punishment,” Hope adds when Lizzie opens her mouth, no doubt to say just that, and then she continues, “but you like, really took care of me, so, thank you.”
Lizzie nods.
“Sorry, I tried to keep it as un-mushy as possible.” Hope wrinkles her nose. Lizzie turns to mush on the inside.
“You failed, but it’s okay.”
They stay in silence for a moment, Lizzie staring down at her lap and Hope staring at the corner of her room, both waiting for the other to say something. As usual, Lizzie is the one to break the silence.
“So, what now?” At Hope’s questioning look, she continues, “You go home tomorrow and then we just act like nothing’s changed? Like, when you come back and stuff. Or, I don’t know. When you’re over there.”
Hope shakes her head, “No, I wouldn’t say that. I say I go home tomorrow, and then we use the blessed gift that technology has given us to you know, talk like normal people do, and then when I come back we just take it from there.”
Lizzie nods. Then, a thought strikes her. She wrinkles her nose, “We’re not gonna like, hold hands or whatever in public, right? I don’t want people to think -”
“That we’re friends.”
Lizzie frowns, “No, Hope, I don’t want people to think I’m some soft princess or whatever. I’m this school’s head bitch, and if we’re gonna do PDA, it better be done right.”
Hope’s amusement turns into surprise and then into laughter again in a matter of seconds. Lizzie smirks. “You know what you’re implying, right?”
“I don’t think I’m implying anything, Mikaelson. I think I’m being pretty clear, here,” Lizzie raised an eyebrow. Then, she adds as an afterthought - “and you gotta take me on a date.”
“Wait, what happened to seeing where we go there from when I come back?”
“Ah, not happening. I decided that was a stupid idea, so we’re just gonna go from here, right now. You have to take me on a date.”
“Why is it stupid?” Hope frowns, a little offended. Then, her frown deepens, “And why do I have to be the one to take you on a date?”
“One reason: because you have a crush on me.” Lizzie says simply.
“Who said I have a crush on you?” Hope asks, her eyebrows raised and her tone inquiring. Lizzie almost looks uncertain, but it barely lasts because Hope breaks into smile almost instantly. “Besides, you’re the one saying I need to grab your ass in public.”
“Okay, that’s so not what I said --”
“Weird, that’s what I heard.”
“It must be all that medicine you’re in.”
“Or it must be because I hit my head, you know… falling for you,” Hope teases, winking exaggeratedly, and Lizzie scoffs, rolls her eyes and stands up to go back to packing. “Hey! Come back!” Hope pouts, laughing, and Lizzie ignores her.
“You’re ridiculous. I don’t know why I want to date you.” It just stumbled out. Really. She could hear the delight in Hope’s face at the confession - the little bitch . She knew Hope would use that against her later.
“Sure you don’t, Lezzie.”
A beat. Lizzie turns to find Hope smiling that cute, sweet, charming, absolutely infuriating smile that made Lizzie want to like, you know, whatever - so not the point.
“Seriously, what the hell did you just call me?”