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“Do you have a pencil I could use?” Lizzie leans over, nearly touching Hope’s shoulder with her own, her voice is low, to justify such proximity.
“Yeah.” Hope nods, leans over to grab one out of her bag and hands it to Lizzie. Lizzie lets her fingers graze over Hope’s when she takes it.
“Thanks.” she says, holding eye contact a little too long to be just thanking her for a pencil.
“No problem.” Hope shrugs, then turns her attention back to the front of the class.
“Hey Lizzie.” Hope smiles at her.
“Hey, I’ve got a spell I need to do for a class, and I could use an extra pair of hands. Wanna help?” Lizzie asks with a smile.
“Sure? What kind of spell?”
“Nothing complicated. Just transformation of an object.” Lizzie says. She places a hand on Hope’s shoulder and smiles. “Meet in your room after class?”
“Sounds good.” Hope nods, then heads off through the halls.
Several hours later they’re in Hope’s room with a small circle of dried leaves around a white marble. There are three lit candles placed evenly around the circle and Lizzie and Hope sit opposite each other, connected by their hands. Lizzie runs her thumb over Hope’s fingers and then tightens her grip as they start to chant. They’re probably supposed to have their eyes closed and be concentrating on changing the shape of the marble, but Lizzie keeps her eyes open and fixed on Hope, who in turn holds her gaze.
There’s a glow from the marble— probably it melting and changing— but all Lizzie sees is how that light reflects in Hope’s eyes and she wonders if Hope can see it in hers, too.
When the spell is complete Lizzie holds on to Hope’s hands just a moment longer, holds her eye just a second more. Hope’s hands slip from hers and Lizzie looks down at the marble to see it’s now a wolf. She picks it up and examines the still warm glass.
“I think you’re going to get an A.” Hope says as she starts to pick up the leaves and candles.
“If I do, I’ll have you to thank.” Lizzie bites her lip and looks over at Hope from the corner of her eye and she says, “I’ll have to find a way to repay you.”
Hope shakes her head and stands up to put everything away. “You don’t have to thank me for this.”
Lizzie rolls her eyes and stands up as well to walk over to Hope and lean against her desk in a way that makes her skirt ride up a little. Lizzie makes sure to extend her long legs out prettily and obviously to draw attention to them.
“But I want to thank you for it.” Lizzie says.
Hope throws a smile her way and says, “Then we can go out for a smoothie or something. If you really have to thank me for helping with homework.”
“Great!” Lizzie says. “It’s a date.”
“If you get an A.” Hope points out.
“You know I will.” Lizzie winks.
“Why don’t you ever wear this?” Lizzie holds up a little black dress that she finds in the back of Hope’s closet.
Hope rolls her eyes and takes the hanger from Lizzie and shoves it back into her closet. “Because it’s impractical to fight in. And with monsters attacking every other day, I can’t afford to be caught in something impractical— fighting in a ballgown once was enough for me.”
“Well, impractical or not, you would look totally hot in it.” Lizzie winks.
Hope shakes her head and laughs. “Shut up.”
It’s not the reaction that Lizzie wants. And after so many attempts at flirting, Lizzie is starting to think that Hope isn’t simply ignoring it because she isn’t interested, but that she actually just doesn’t get that Lizzie is flirting with her. It’s starting to frustrate Lizzie.
Okay, so she didn’t know she was in love with Hope for probably longer than was appropriate to not realize such things, but she got there. That’s what mattered.
Lizzie gets an A for her project. She presents it to Hope with a smile and a red lipstick stain she’d pressed next to the grade. She looks Hope up and down as obviously as she can and says, “Guess I’m taking you out tonight Mikaelson.”
Hope smiles. “You really didn’t need me to get that grade. You know that.”
“Yeah, but I wanted your help. I’ll pick you up at seven?”
“Sounds great.” Hope nods.
Lizzie knocks on Hope’s door at 6:59 and Hope opens the door looking like an angel of death. She’s wearing the black dress Lizzie found along with a black leather jacket, ripped tights, and her usual black heals. Lizzie has to pick her jaw back up off the floor.
“You’re wearing the dress.” Lizzie’s brain cycles through does she actually know I’m flirting with her? Did she wear it because I said she’d look hot? Did she wear it for me? and back again until she doesn’t know if she can trust herself to come up with the right answer.
“I thought it’d be funny.” Hope says, then clarifies; “Not, like, ‘haha’ funny, but more ‘you joked this was a date so I’m wearing this’ funny. I can go change. . .”
“You don’t need to change.” Lizzie says, stepping out of the way to walk with Hope down the hall. She thought it was a joke. . . this would all be very cute if it weren’t so goddamn frustrating. Lizzie shakes herself. She’ll just have to amp up her efforts. “You look hot. Just like I said you would.”
“Thanks.” Hope says as if Lizzie said it like a best friend would. She definitely didn’t.
Lizzie pays for their smoothies and the two of them sit down outside at one of the tables. Lizzie pulls her chair over to sit next to her and for a while she just jokes around with Hope. Lizzie likes the way she laughs. How her smile will reach her eyes and she’ll sometimes throw her head back.
“Can I try your smoothie?” Lizzie asks.
Hope shrugs and nods and tilts her cup toward Lizzie, who leans over, places her hand on Hope’s thigh in a daring and blatant move, and holds eye contact while she wraps her lips around the straw and sucks. When she’s done, she licks her lips and says, “Delicious.” She leaves her hand on Hope’s thigh.
“Can I try yours?” Hope asks, completely unaffected by Lizzie’s moves.
“Sure.” she says, removing her hand now and giving Hope her smoothie.
They’re in Hope’s room and Hope is painting and talking about. . . something but Lizzie isn’t listening. She’s laying on Hope’s bed, too busy chewing on the inside of her lip and wondering if there’s anything she could possibly do to make her feelings more obvious to Hope.
“Lizzie? Are you alright?” Hope’s voice breaks through her thoughts and Lizzie looks up.
“I’m in love with you!”
She surprises herself with that. She didn’t mean to say it, to just blurt it out. But it’s out there now, and Hope looks shocked and confused with one hand holding a paintbrush in midair. Lizzie freezes, just looks at Hope and waits.
“You’re in love with me?” Hope asks.
“I’ve been trying to flirt with you for weeks now to let you know.” Lizzie tells her.
“You’ve been flirting with me?” Hope puts the paintbrush down now and seems to take a mental step back. Lizzie can tell she’s going over all their interactions in her head now.
“Yeah.” Lizzie says. “You didn’t seem to be getting it.”
Hope blinks. “I thought. . . I didn’t want to read into any of it! I thought you were just joking because we’re friends.”
“What friends of yours take you on dates and make suggestive comments?” Lizzie counters.
“I don’t know?” Hope says.
Lizzie sits up on the bed and smiles. “You didn’t want to read into it? Does that mean you were hoping I was flirting with you?”
Hope looks up at her. “Well, yeah.”
“Hope Mikaelson do you have a crush on me?” Lizzie says with a gasp.
“Shut up.” Hope says and throws a paintbrush at her.