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The day Landon Kirby turned eleven years old, his soulmate mark finally appeared on his right forearm.
This was the way it had always been with those born into the supernatural community. Soulmate marks depicted something significant about the other person, and when you came in contact with them, the mark would begin to glow. Unfortunately, since Landon had no idea he was a supernatural, this was a rather startling thing to wake up to. Especially as a child.
His mark was of three triangles, each a different color, all intersecting at one fixed point. It was definitely one of the stranger soulmate markings out there. When he saw the peculiar design, that he would later learn now permanently marred his arm, he had been overcome by confusion and a number of questions. How did he get it? Where did he get it? And just what the heck did the mark even mean?
It was a lot for the young boy to handle, and in his panic, did the first thing he could think of. He rushed to the bathroom, ran his arm under hot water and scrubbed at it vigorously to the point where his skin was practically raw, in hopes of getting rid of it. But to no avail. Terror had started to settle into his bones at the fear of his foster parents finding out about it and what they might do to him.
He did his best to conceal the marking for as long as he could, wearing long sleeves or hoodies tended to do the trick for awhile. But when the brutal heat of summer emerged, suspicion started to kick in, even amongst his usually neglectful foster parents. When they eventually found it, they were absolutely livid, thinking the mark was actually a tattoo. Landon found himself on the receiving end of a painful punishment that night and quickly afterwards, wound up getting the boot once more.
Potential new foster parents weren't all that keen on taking in a kid with a “tattoo”. They immediately deemed him a troublemaker, and given the strangeness of the marking, thought him to be in some sort of cult or gang. From then on out, his foster parents only seemed to get worse and worse over the years.
But Landon had developed a bit of a love/hate relationship with the marking over time. On the one hand, it had caused him all sorts of trouble. But at the same time, he started to find whenever he was scared or lonely, that his thumb would subconsciously rub at the mark and doing so somehow brought him a strange sense of comfort.
Eventually as time went on, he grew to accept that it was a part of him now, and he gave up on purposely trying to hide it.
Little did he know what that mark would someday lead him to.
When Hope was little, a small part of her feared that given her unique heritage, that she would not receive the soulmate mark when the time came like all the other supernaturals. After all, she was the only one of her kind. The exception to a number of rules. Perhaps this would be no different.
She'd often considered herself a cosmic mistake that shouldn't even technically exist, and she wondered how on earth someone out there could possibly be her soulmate. Maybe her punishment for even existing meant she was simply destined to be alone.
But lo and behold, when she turned eleven, much to her surprise the mark did appear. A beautiful orange-gold feather scrolled its way across the top of her left hand on her birthday. It turned out there really was someone out there for the little tribrid. The promise of a soulmate made her feel almost normal for the first time. It filled her with a sense of optimism she hadn't realized she'd been needing in her life.
When she got older however, she felt very different about the soulmate mark. It no longer brought her the hope it used to, it instead brought her nothing but dread. By this point in her life, Hope Mikaelson had already experienced a lot of loss. The people she cared about in her life had a tendency to die, often in an effort to protect her and she blamed herself for what happened to them.
Hope feared if she found her soulmate, she would just be dooming them to a similar fate. She refused to let anymore people be hurt in the name of keeping her safe. Now it was her turn to protect someone.
Determined to keep her soulmate out of harms way, she made sure to do everything she could to prevent them from finding each other. She embraced the loner persona to keep people at a distance. She even went as far as lying about not having a mark and often donned gloves to help conceal it from view when in the company of others.
It was a rather lonely endeavor, if she was being honest. But she just couldn't risk it. In her mind, this was the only way. And though she didn't care to admit it, maybe deep down this was also a little bit for her own protection too. She couldn't bare anymore heartache.
But even in spite all that, much like her unknown counterpart, she too often found herself instinctively reaching for the marking in times of stress or hardship. Seeking out the solace it always offered.
It wasn't until a crisp fall night in the woods of Mystic Falls that these two individuals would finally realize what they were to each other.
On a night where she was feeling restless and he decided to take a shortcut through the forest to get home.
Landon barely saw it coming, the large grey beast hurdling its way straight towards him. Its incredible power and speed took him down in a instant, his body crashing into the dry mounds of leaves that littered the ground. Two paws had pinned him in place, and he could feel the creature's hot breath on his face as it bared its teeth at him.
This was it. This was how he was going to die, he was certain of it. As some tasty midnight snack for a hungry apex predator. He couldn't believe it. Heck, he didn't even know there were wolves in Virginia.
His sad life flashes before his eyes and a million different thoughts run through his mind. Some crazier than others, like maybe he could actually try and fight this thing off. But a quick cursory glance around showed no signs of a stone, or anything else that might be even vaguely useful in this situation. Yep, this was the end of his story.
As the creature inches forward, the wolf's left paw suddenly began to emit a faint warm glow that slowly became brighter. At the same time, Landon's forearm did the exact same thing.
"Well that's new." He murmurs, entranced by light, momentarily forgetting his current predicament.
The wolf appears startled by the sudden strange occurrence, eyes wide as something shifts inside the animal. Hope's mind starts putting the pieces together and she slowly backs up off of the young man. She transforms back to her human form, nicks his baggy fallen hoodie from off the ground and uses it to quickly cover herself up with.
"Are you crazy!? I almost killed you!" Hope shouts at him as he stares at her with wide eyed confusion.
Upon a clearer mind and further inspection, she realizes that she recognizes the young man in front of her. It appears he remembers her too from the looks of it. Landon, she thinks his name is. He's served her milkshakes at the Mystic Grill a couple of times. He's the one that always remembers her drink order; peanut butter blast, whip cream on the bottom. She'd always liked him, he was sweet. But just like everyone else, she'd made sure to keep him at a distance.
Landon rubs at his eyes as he stares at the cute customer he's secretly had a crush on for awhile now, who was just a wolf less than a minute ago. He must have eaten or drank something strange because there was no way this was happening. Or maybe he was dreaming, that was another possibility too.
"I'm seeing things, right?" He asks, more to himself than to her really. But Hope isn't paying him much mind as she swears under her breath, angry with herself as she paces back and forth. She couldn't believe this was happening. She'd been so careful. All of her effort gone completely to waste.
He can't be, there's now way he's her soulmate. It's not possible. Their marks would have reacted to each other already. But then she recalls his long sleeved work uniform, paired with her gloves, that likely prevented either of them from realizing it at the time. She can't believe he's been right under her nose this whole time.
"Um, hey. Sorry to interrupt your uh, displeased rumination. But do you have any idea why exactly we're glowing?"
This finally breaks Hope out of her thoughts and she whips around in surprise at his question.
"Wait. You don’t know?”
Landon stares at her with a very puzzled expression.
"Know what?"
She couldn't believe it. This was perfect. He didn't know what the soulmate marks were. This meant she could come up with some BS excuse about everything he'd just seen and he'd be none the wiser about the whole thing. He'd have no idea they were soulmates and he'd be able to go safely about living his life.
Hope let out a sigh of relief, but she couldn't help feel the nagging sense of guilt in what she's about to do. And if she's being completely honest, maybe even a little disappointed too. She'd essentially be dooming them both to a life of always feeling a sense of something missing, of incompleteness. But at least he'd be safe. And since he didn't even know about all this, maybe he still stood a chance at finding happiness with someone else. Someone who wouldn't get him killed.
But fate has a funny way of interfering when you try to go against.
She's so caught up in her plans that she doesn't even notice the sound of a tree branch snapping under foot off in the distance, and a large deer dashing by a couple of yards away. It all happens so quick. Because the next thing she knows, Landon is yelling for her to watch out and tackling her to the ground.
He groans as he rolls over onto his back and finds an arrow from a crossbow sticking out of his abdomen. Hope lets out a gasp, hands flying up to her mouth as she sees the crimson colored stain on his shirt growing in size at an alarming rate.
'No!' Her mind screams out in anguish. This is exactly what she had been trying to avoid. Her worst fear playing out right before her very eyes. She'd failed. It was her fault. Again.
"Why did you do that?” She demands, eyes teary, her voice a mixture of anger and concern at this dumb boy who just risked his life for her.
"It was going to hit you, I couldn't just stand there and let that happen. I-"
Landon winces in pain and Hope's mind frantically tries to think of something to do to help him, save him. She knows some basic healing spells, but given the damage he sustained, it obviously won't be enough. She contemplates screaming for help, but she knows there's no way to get him care in time. There was always one option, turning him. But she wanted his permission before taking such a drastic step.
"Look, there's a way I can save you. But that would require me turning you into a vampire."
Landon made a face. "This blood loss must really be making me delirious, because I swore I just heard you say vampire."
Hope stared at him for moment, trying to decide if he was joking or not, but realized he clearly wasn't. Not only did he not know about the soulmate marks, but it appeared he had no clue about the supernatural world either. Things suddenly seemed way more tricky than before. If she turned him, would he want this life? Or would he hate her for turning him into what some might call a monster?
"Hey." The boy grabs her hand, which she hadn't realizing had been trembling, and looks her in the eyes. "Hope, it's okay." He tries to reassure her, but she shakes her head. This was all her fault, she doesn't deserve his consoling. Not a single ounce of it.
He's got a lot of questions and not a lot of time, he suspects based off the size of the blood stain. So he goes with the first question that tumbles out of his mouth.
"So uh... What was that by the way, that light?" He asks her, voice growing more tired and his eyes struggling to stay open.
Hope closes her eyes and sighs. What was the hurt in telling him now? It's not like it really mattered anymore at this point.
"Believe it or not it means we’re uh, soulmates." Her voice unexpectedly breaks a little at that last word.
He lets a small pained laugh of disbelief, thinking that she's clearly messing with him again. But when he notices her expression remains serious, it gives him pause that maybe it isn't a joke. "Wait, for real? That's uh, really a thing?" He exhales a disappointed huff. "Of course. Just my luck. Leave it to me to meet my soulmate then proceed to die right afterwards.”
The corner of Hope’s lips twitched at the irony. Seemed like they both shared the same sort of luck, she thought to herself. Guess they really were soulmates after all.
Landon’s breathing becomes more labored with every passing second, but even in spite all that, he was still able to manage a soft smile. “But hey, I... I must have done something right... to get paired with you.”
Hope quietly scoffs. ‘More like cursed.’ She thought to herself. How could he even say that? How could he possibly think her being his soulmate was a good thing? He was dying because of her.
“Sorry... That I uh... I couldn’t stick around. Not that you're really missing out..." He jokes weakly, in a poor attempt to somehow lighten the mood.
She stares at him with an expression he can't fully grasp, but in the moment, something about her looks terribly fragile. Even with his strength rapidly fading, he still manages to brush his fingers over the top of her hand in an attempt to comfort her.
Hope swallows hard and shakes her head with a new sense of determination. She'd made her decision, she wasn't going to let him die.
"Listen Landon, I- I know none of this really makes sense right now but... There’s a way I can help you. You just have to trust me, okay?”
But unfortunately for Hope, her question is met with a deafening silence that makes her blood run cold and she realizes she's too late.
"Landon? Landon!?" She cries out, shaking him desperately but to no avail.
Deep in her chest, she feels as if something inside her has broken and that a part of her has died along with him. The guilt washes over her so strongly that it's almost suffocating. Hope rests her forehead against his, tears silently streaming down her face, blood on her hands in more ways than one. Would death ever stop knocking at her door?
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She whispers over and over, her hands wrapped tenderly around his. That's when Hope sees it, the mark on her hand beginning to slowly turn gray in color, signifying the death of one's soulmate. She scrunches her eyes shut, unable to watch it play out. Just another painful reminder she didn't need.
But then an immense heat like she's never felt before begins to emit itself from Landon, forcing Hope to unwillingly separate herself from him. His body suddenly catches fire and Hope staggers back in shock at the strange turn of events.
Panicked and confused, she tries to summon up her magic to put him out, but it doesn't work for some reason. When the flames eventually clear, it leaves behind a pile of ash in the form of what was once Landon's body.
Cracks then start to form in the encasement surrounding him and Hope notices movement from underneath it. She doesn't understand what's happening. Fragments begin to chunk off and a hand pushes its way through, then an arm, followed by the rest of a body.
“What’s going on?” Landon asks sitting up, ashes drifting down off his curly locks as he looks around in confusion.
He's alive.
A speechless Hope's mouth hangs open as she tries to comprehend what just happened. Her brains scrambles for some kind of answer to his question. "I- I honestly don’t know.” She admits. Hope Mikaelson was used the craziness that was the supernatural, but this was a whole new level even for her.
She reaches her hand out to touch him, to make sure that he's real and that her eyes aren't just playing some horrible trick on her.
It's really him.
A sense of relief like she's never known causes her to momentarily gasp for air.
Hope looks down and notices her gray mark has now returned to it's warm orange hue that she remembers so well. She had always wondered what kind of bird the feather on her hand belonged to, and given the fact there were over 10,000 plus species, she'd never really been able to figure it out. But it's in this moment that the pieces magically came together and she somehow knows exactly what it is. A Phoenix feather.
Her mind thought it impossible at first, phoenixes don't exist. But then again, neither had tribrids until she came along. No wonder the universe had thrown them together. A girl cloaked in death and a boy who couldn't die.
"Ever heard of the legend of the Phoenix?" She asks, and the utter bewildered expression on Landon's face causes her to quietly chuckle. This particular conversation was probably something better to be had later, when things were a little less chaotic.
"So... Soulmates, huh?" Landon muses, looking over at her and trying his best to hide the smile tugging at the corners of his lips at the thought.
"Yep." Hope replies, attempting to sound nonchalant but she can't seem to conceal the look of fondness she has for him in her eyes.
Landon bobs his head and sticks his hands in his pants pockets. "Cool. Cool."
He then brings one hand up to rub at the back of his neck sheepishly. "So... does that mean you might like to go on a date some time?" Just because they went from zero to eighty on the whole soulmate thing, doesn't mean she didn't still deserved to be courted.
Hope laughs warmly in surprise at his approach, but nods contently. "I'd like that."