Chapter Text
Hope let out a big sigh as she threw herself onto her bed it, closed her eyes and gave in to her fatigue. It had been a week since she and her 'super squad' took down Triad Industries and now everything was back to normal. Well, 'normal' wasn't exactly the right term to describe how Hope was feeling. She'd be getting so used to fighting monsters and being in life-threatening situations that she almost forgot what 'normal' felt like.
With the enemy defeated, everyone's back to worrying about their grades, how they look and who they should date. Hope just felt exhausted and uneasy and she didn't understand why.
She should be happy with her life right now. She made new friends who were all still alive and her and Landon had nothing standing in their way anymore after he was rescued.
Two immortal beings in a relationship at a school for supernaturals... This all should make her feel very happy and content but it just ... didn't.
If anything, it made her feel anxious.
Hope was used to her life being threatened. She was also used to the fact that the people she loved would eventually leave her. And therefore this week, this awfully quiet, peaceful week was torture for her. The thought that her current situation was too good to be true and that something terrible was bound to happen kept her awake at night. And the worst part of it all was that she secretly missed the danger, the thrill of solving a mystery and fighting for her and other people’s lives. She didn’t really know how to be herself without it.
On top of all that was the whole ‘Merge' situation with the twins.Thanks to her aunt Freya, Hope learned information about the terrible Gemini coven curse Alaric had been keeping from his daughters.
Josie and Lizzie’s world had been turned upside down ever since their father told them that only one of them would make it past twenty-two. It was not an immediate threat seeing as the twins were sixteen and Caroline & Alaric were doing everything in their power to stop the Merge from happening but still, Hope felt uneasy about it. They had been searching for years and have yet to find a solution. She feared that she could not help them either. What if ‘the great Hope Mikaelson' could not save Lizzie or Josie? That thought made her feel sick because in the midst of all the craziness they had been going through, her and the twins grew closer than ever and she couldn’t bear the thought to lose one of them.
She had been so relieved when Josie came clean about the whole fire situation and starting that rumor about Lizzie. It all made sense when Josie explained she did all that because she had a crush on her at the time and didn’t know how to deal with that and how to take responsibility for her actions. They were so young when all that happened and Hope was glad they had put it behind them.
To her surprise, she and Lizzie became fast friends after Josie’s big reveal. Hope loved spending time with the blonde girl because she had a way of making her feel calm and happy during times of chaos and danger. She made her laugh and sometimes pushed her out of her comfort zone but she didn’t mind that because Lizzie somehow made her feel like she could take on the world with her by her side.
Hope smiled, thinking about how the development of her and Lizzie’s relationship might just be one of the best things that happened to her in a long time.
She almost drifted off to sleep when she heard someone knocking at her door. After forcing herself out of bed to open it, she smiled when she saw her boyfriend standing in her doorway with a rose in his right hand and a picnic basket in his left.
“It’s a beautiful Friday afternoon. There’s no monster or Triad threat in sight so you and I are going on a very cheesy, romantic date.”
****
Hope lied down on the picnic blanket and closed her eyes, soaking in the sun. Landon really was an amazing boyfriend and this date was perfect. They couldn’t leave campus so he picked out a perfect spot for their picnic in the Salvatore School’s gardens. He went through a lot of effort to make this date special and it made Hope forget about everything for a while.
But as soon as she closed her eyes, that familiar feeling of uneasiness came rushing back in.
“Landon, can I ask you something?” she asked as she sat up again.
“Sure babe… anything!” He responded as he put a stray of hair behind her ear.
Hope didn’t really know how to explain to him how she was feeling but she felt like she had to try anyway. She wanted to be honest with him.
“Do you ever feel like this whole situation we’re in is kind of too good to be true? That at any given moment Alaric comes running at me, saying that Triad Industries isn’t closed, that they’re coming for us or that there are more monsters out there we can’t defeat or something?”
Landon clearly didn’t expect this kind of question and took a moment to reply.
“To be honest… yeah, I do feel like that. But I think that’s completely normal, Hope! Just think about what we’ve been through. I almost can’t remember a time where I didn’t have to worry about monsters or those Triad guys. I guess it will take time to fully believe that we can finally live our lives without having to worry about stuff like that but I’m positive that we will be able to stop looking over our shoulders and let it go in time. And we have each other, there’s nothing standing between us anymore.”
Hope wished she could believe what he said. But right now, she was sitting on a picnic blanket staring at her fellow students having fun on a beautiful Friday afternoon and she couldn’t imagine she would ever be as carefree as they were. She didn’t want to kill the mood any more than she most likely already had so she just looked him in the eyes and smiled.
“Thank you for saying that. And thank you for this amazing date, it was just what I needed.”
She gave him a quick kiss and wanted to lie down again when she saw MG approaching them with a worried look on his face.
“Guys, I’m so sorry to ruin your date but I really need Hope to come with me right now. Lizzie is on the verge of having one of her episodes and Alaric is taking Josie to the airport to visit Penelope… I couldn’t think of anyone else to get.”
“It’s okay MG, Where is she?” Hope asked with a firm voice.
MG responded by grabbing her arm, ushering her to go with him. Hope gave Landon an apologetic look as she followed him into the school.
Lizzie had been weirdly calm after she found out about the merge. It was like the meaning of it all just hadn’t sunk in with her yet and Hope could imagine it finally did once her father and sister were gone.
There was no doubt in her mind that Lizzie felt very alone and scared right now so she needed to get to her as soon as she could.