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After the last few weeks things finally got back to normal. That was something Hope Mikaelson was really glad about. Jumping into a huge black pit, sacrificing herself and being forgotten by everyone she loved in the process was a lot to take in for one person but after coming back she had to find out that her boyfriend and her friend Josie were a thing now hurt a lot. Of course, that wasn´t enough bullshit because soon after everyone getting their memories back, thanks to the brunette siphon witch, they had to learn that Josie had used black magic and was now in danger. When Hope heard that there was something wrong with Josie, she got really worried. She tried to find a solution for the problem, something that would keep the brunette witch safe, but life had other plans. Of course, that stupid sand clock had to break and release all that black magic. From that moment on Hope did everything to get the old Josie back, her Josie, because she couldn´t live without her.
After that whole “Dark Josie” thing seemed to be over and learning that Raf had stabbed Landon with that golden Arrow and killed him for good, Hope needed some time alone. She thought that the pain would never go away after losing another person she loved but one day Josie appeared in front of her door. She hadn´t said much, she just pulled the auburn-haired girl into her arms and held her. Hope didn´t knew it back then but just being hold was what she needed and after that day she and Josie started to spend more time together. Slowly Hope started to heal and when she was around Josie she stopped thinking about Landon and his death. She just felt some sort of peace deep within her. When she was with the brunette witch, she felt happy.
At one point Hope started to realize that she was falling really hard for Josie. She tried to convince herself that her feelings for the other woman were wrong and that she would never reciprocate them but that still wasn´t enough to stop herself from feeling guilty.
Landon wasn´t dead for long and she already was falling for somebody else. In fact, Hope had really believed that Landon could be her always and forever but then every time she had to choose, she never picked him. Especially when Josie was involved. Maybe her heart knew all along that it didn´t belonged to the dark-haired boy and Hope was just not ready to face that reality.
All she knew was that Josie managed to let her heart skip a beat every time she walked into a room. That she had the power to always put a smile on Hope´s face and make her laugh. Josie was Hope´s safe haven and that meant a lot to the auburn-haired girl.
Before, she only felt that when her family was around, especially her parents. After they died she lost that kind of feeling but now that she got it back she realized how much she had missed it.
Today was one of that days Hope wanted to be alone. She had to deal with her guilt, with the fact that she was not just falling for Josie anymore and the exhaustion she felt. She barely slept or ate. She tried to avoid everyone, especially Josie. She even started to train on her own every day and every night she shifted into her wolf and took a run through the woods in an attempt to free her mind and find some peace but unfortunately, she never did.
Hope wanted to tell Josie how she felt for her so bad it hurt but she knew she couldn´t. The auburn-haired Tribrid just couldn´t take the risk of losing Josie so she decided that she would keep her feelings private and love Josie in silence. What was more important for Hope was that Josie was safe and Hope couldn´t protect her if she wasn´t in the brunette´s life just because she told her about her feelings.
As soon as her last class of the day ended and she successfully avoided everyone, again, Hope quickly left the Salvatore Boarding School and made her way into the woods, heading for the old mill. She liked how quiet it was there and nobody went there except there was a party, so it was a pretty good hideout. She actually had started to draw and paint again.
When she arrived, she went inside and walked upstairs, straight to the place where she had hidden some art supplies. She took everything she needed and made her way outside again. It was a decent day. The sun was shining, it was warm, and the birds were singing there song happily. Hope smiled slightly and took a deep breath before she made her way over to a big tree. She sat down looking at the blue sky, taking in the moment of silence before she grabbed her stuff and started to draw.
Just like every time she lost track of time, too focused to even notice that the sun had started to go down and that it got colder. She kept drawing until someone sat down next to her. She looked up startled only to see a pair of brown eyes looking worriedly at her.
“What are you doing here?” Hope asked.
“I was worried about you. I haven´t really seen or heard from you in a few days so I went looking for you but I didn´t find you. After not seeing you at dinner as well I got even more concerned.”
“Oh... I´m sorry. I guess I lost track of time.” the auburn-haired girl said apologetically.
“I´m just glad that I found you.” Josie said with a little smile.
Hope wasn´t sure what she should say so she decided to just be quiet and looked at the now dark sky. The auburn-haired girl could feel that Josie was looking at her and she had to say that she was surprised how long the brunette managed to hold back her question.
It was silent for a little bit longer before Hope could hear Josie´s soft voice say
“Why are you avoiding me Hope?”
“I´m not…” Hope tried to say but was interrupted by Josie.
“Don´t lie to me. You should know by now that you can´t lie to me. I know you… so tell me what is going on, please? Did I do something wrong? If it´s that just tell me so that I can fix it, please Hope just talk to me… I can´t stand it when you avoid me.” The Siphon witch said and looked pleadingly at Hope.
“You didn´t do anything wrong, Jo.” Hope said
“Then why are you avoiding me?” the siphon witch asked curious.
“I… it´s nothing. Just let it go Josie.” The auburn-haired girl said pleadingly.
Hope could feel Josie starring at her, waiting for the brunette to say something, instead the young witch stood up abruptly and began walking up and down in front of her. Looking angrier with every second that passed. Even thought Hope saw the rage on Josies face she wasn´t prepared for the outburst that was about to hit her.
“You know what, Hope? No, I won´t let it go! You avoided everyone the last few days, especially me. You barley ate and by the look of it you haven´t slept at all. The first two days I thought to myself that you needed some you time. That it didn´t mean anything but then you kept doing it. That´s the moment when I started to get a little worried but still I kept my distance and let you have the time but then my dad told me that you stopped coming to your training sessions or more like you told him you wanted to train alone? That was the moment when I got even more worried. I really tried to give you time, but it has been over a week now Hope. I need to know what is going on. It took a lot of courage to come talk to you and all you´re giving me is let it go Josie? Hell no. I won´t let you get away with such a bullshit answer. Not this time, Mikaelson. I won´t leave until you tell me what the fuck is going on with you!” the woman in front of Hope said angrily but all Hope could do was stare at Josie with her mouth open.
After a few minutes Hope sighted defeated. She let her gaze drift away from the brunette, trying to find the right words to explain what was going on inside of her without telling Josie to much. She started to collect her stuff and stood up, walking towards the old mill. She quickly went upstairs to put away her things and got back outside. She found Josie sitting on the steps of the entrance to the old building waiting for the Tribrid.
Hope sat down besides Josie with a sigh. She knew that she had no other choice then tell the young woman the truth, or at least half of it.
“Ever since I came back from Malivore I felt out of place, like I didn´t belong here anymore. Trying to get my life back, to make it feel normal again, was far from easy. Of course, I wouldn´t have made it without you by my side but then everything escalated again. That whole thing with you and your evil self, me being in your subconscious for a while only to find out that Landon had died for good once I woke up was just a lot for me, you know? One moment I was getting used to being back and the next everything had changed again. I guess I just feel guilty because of what happened to Landon and this is my way of dealing with it..” the auburn-haired Tribrid said.
“You know that it wasn´t your fault what happened to Landon right?” the brunette said with a soft voice.
“What if it was my fault? I mean I wasn´t there to protect him. Maybe if I would have been here I could have saved him.” She answered.
“You couldn´t have done anything, Hope. Nobody knew that the Necromancer was in control of Raf. Don´t blame yourself…” Josie answered with a sad smile.
“No, I think you don´t get it. All I could think about was that I had to find a way to safe you. I even used Landon for my plan in order to get inside of your head. I only cared about saving you Josie. My Plan involved killing Landon but still I only thought about you.” Hope said getting upset.
“Hope…” Josie wanted to say more but the Tribrid didn´t let her.
“No, Josie. It is my fault! Everything is my fault. Landon was my boyfriend and he got killed and I thought it would destroy me but it didn´t. Yeah, it hurt finding out that he got killed but the truth is that I cared more about you and that you were okay. So yes, I isolated myself and avoided everyone, especially you, because I had to figure out what all this meant. I can´t sleep, I can´t eat not without all of this guilt I´m feeling inside of me and it only gotten worse once I figured it out…” the Tribrid stopped talking, realizing that she might has said too much.
“What did you figure out Hope?” Josie asked whispering.
“Please stop Josie. I can´t tell you without destroying everything. I´m begging you to leave it alone…” Hope answered pleadingly.
“Tell me, Hope” Josie said, voice louder and with a demanding tone.
The Tribrid just shook her head no and kept silent. Not daring to even look at the brunette in front of her. Hope backed away from the siphon witch, trying desperately to create some space between the two of them. She needed to get away from Josie so she wouldn´t tell her that she was in love with her. That she wanted to be with her. She couldn´t tell the brunette, not without destroying their friendship.
Of course, Josie quickly realized what Hope was trying and she knew that if she would let her she would never get her answer so without much thinking she made a step forward, taking Hope´s hand stopping her from backing away any further.
Josie could she the distress in Hopes eyes, the panic she felt, but she couldn´t just let it go. She needed to know what was going on with the girl in front of her, the girl she secretly loved.
“Tell me, Hope!” she said once more, pleadingly.
Josie could see the moment Hope broke. She saw it in her eyes but she certainly wasn´t prepared for what the auburn-haired girl had to say.
With tears in her eyes and a broken voice Hope whispered
“I figured out that Landon was never my Always and Forever. That I was kidding myself the whole time. I denied myself to see the truth. I loved Landon but not in the way I should have. My heart never belonged to him. This whole time it belonged to somebody else and deep inside of me I always knew but I was too afraid to accept the fact that I fell in love with my best friend. I was too afraid of losing you…”
“You were afraid of losing me? Hope are you saying that…” Josie said but couldn´t finish the sentence.
“I love you Josie. I loved you since I was fourteen, probably even before that and my love for you only grew through the years. I tried to fight it, I tried to ignore it and lock it away but deep down I always knew that you are my epic love.” Hope said sobbing.
She allowed herself to look at Josie for a second before she turned around and began walking away, leaving the brunette behind.
Before she knew what was happening, Josie was standing in front of her breathing heavily and looking pissed.
“I´m sorry. I told you that you should just let it go. I told you it would destroy everything. I´m…” Hope was interrupted midsentence.
“You can´t say all this stuff and then just walk away from me. NEVER do that again. You can´t just tell me that you love me and then leave me. Don´t you want to know what I have to say about this?” the brunette said angry.
“Why would I want to hear that you never want to see me again? That I destroyed our friendship? I already know that, Josie. It´s already painful enough, I really don’t need to hear it out of your mouth. I´m sorry, I really am…” the Tribrid said.
“Stop apologizing for saying something I dreamed about hearing so many times. Stop punishing yourself for having those feelings because you´re not the only one who has them okay?” Josie said while taking a step closer.
“What do you mean…?” Hope said breathlessly.
“I love you, Hope Mikaelson. I always have and I always will.” The brunette said with tears in her eyes.
“What?” the Tribrid whispered unbelievably.
The brunette took another step closer to the Tribrid, interlacing their hands.
“I love you, Hope” Josie said again with a huge happy smile.
Without thinking about it twice Hope closed the last distance between the two and placed her lips gently on top of Josie´s and for the first time in a really long time the Tribrid felt whole again. She felt like she finally found a place where she belonged. Right in this moment, with Josie in her arms, she felt happy. She had the feeling that she was finally home. When she separated from Josie´s lips she placed her forehead against the brunettes and whispered lovingly
“I finally found it…”
Josie buried her face in Hope´s neck before asking confused
“You finally found what?”
Hope just laughed quietly and replied
“I finally have found my Always and Forever because you are it for me Josie. You are my Always and Forever…”
“You are my Always and Forever too, Hope…” Josie said before kissing Hope again.