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Josie watches her reflection through the mirror as she ties her hair up in a loose ponytail. Now that her hair is no longer hiding them, the brunette has a clear view of the hickeys that were left on both sides of her neck. She tilts her head to the left to get a clear view of the big one Hope left near her collarbone. Josie lifts a hand and lets her fingers gently touch the skin that looks red and angry. All she feels as she sees it is contentment. She remembers vividly the moment her girlfriend left it there the night before, and when the thought crosses her mind, her whole body shivers. Thinking of how Hope touches her tends to have that effect on her.
The Saltzman girl quickly shakes her head and walks out of the bathroom. She's gonna have to scold her girlfriend. They need to be way more careful if they don't wanna get caught. Because being caught means they'll have to stop seeing each other. Josie's father would never accept this relationship, and she knows that. The way he talks about Hope tends to make Josie's blood boil, and sometimes she even almost tries to stand up to him for the girl she loves. She never does though. She's not brave enough.
Hope Mikaelson and Josie Saltzman are total opposites.
Hope is a loner, a rebel, a troublemaker. The auburn haired girl is defiant, and she refuses to follow the rules. She's everything Alaric Saltzman despises. The thing is, she's also the daughter of the richest man in town, and the Salvatore School would not stay around for long without Klaus Mikaelson's generous donations. So, Alaric tolerates Hope and her bad attitude. He doesn't have much of a choice.
As for Josie, she's quite the popular kid in school. She's a straight A student, president of the student council and captain of the soccer team. She's everything her father wanted her to be. Lizzie and her are Alaric's greatest pride.
That's why Hope Mikaelson and Josie Saltzman were certainly not meant to be. However, they've been defying the odds for a little more than 8 months now. It started with a stolen kiss in a dark room during a party, and quickly became a full blown secret relationship. The only people who know about the relationship are the Mikaelson family. They offered a safe space for the two girls to live their love story, and made Josie feel loved and supported like never before.
Josie sighs as she walks into her bedroom. She knows thinking about Hope and their secret relationship isn't the best thing to do before her most important game of the season, but her auburn haired girlfriend has been plaguing her mind lately. It's been more and more difficult to hide their growing relationship in the last month or so. Josie has a hard time ignoring Hope when she passes by her in the hallways of their school. She can feel Hope staring at her during their shared classes. They end up making out in empty classrooms, or even in the janitor's closet more and more often. All of it is slowly driving Josie completely insane.
She also can tell it's been frustrating for Hope. The Mikaelson girl often finds herself victim to Alaric's harsh words, and she seems to be looking out for Josie's reactions a little more every time. On those days, the brunette often finds herself pinned to a wall, or a door and roughly kissed. She's been wondering if it's Hope's way to get back at her, or if Hope is simply trying to make sure that what they have is real. Josie never complains, never wishes Hope would be more gentle in those moments. Instead, she makes sure to be the one that's gentle, and it always manages to ground Hope. To make the Mikaelson girl slow down her kisses, to make her touches less rough.
The Saltzman girl groans as she lets herself fall face first on her bed. She knows that now that she started thinking about her girlfriend, she probably won't get much sleep. Her feelings for Hope are kinda insidious sometimes, but Josie wouldn't have it any other way. The brunette reaches for one of her pillows, fully intending on screaming her frustration into it, but a weird noise coming from outside suddenly stops her. Josie freezes for a moment, and the noise doesn't stop, in fact it only gets louder.
Josie quickly gets up from her bed and walks the short distance to her window. What she sees on the other side of the glass makes her heart stop and her eyes go as wide as they can. Hope is currently in the process of climbing her house. Josie quickly opens her window, making her girlfriend immediately look up. Hope offers Josie a sheepish smile that the brunette can't reciprocate.
"What the fuck are you doing, Hope?" Josie angrily whispers. "You're gonna injure yourself!"
"Did the golden child just curse?" The Mikaelson girl says with a smirk. "Stop worrying and keep the window open. I'll be with you in a second."
Josie wants to argue. She wants to tell Hope to stop climbing, and to go back home, but she knows her girlfriend way too well to do that. Hope won't listen to her. That's one of the things Josie's father finds infuriating about Hope, her stubbornness. Sometimes, Josie finds it endearing, and at other times… she tends to agree with Alaric.
It takes Hope a handful of seconds to get to the brunette's window. When Josie sees her girlfriend is close enough, she quickly grabs her arm to help her up. They manage to get Hope through the window, but not without efforts. The Mikaelson girl ends up stumbling into Josie's room with a barely contained laughter. The Saltzman girl does her best to shush her girlfriend as she kneels next to her, but this time she can't fight the growing smile on her face.
"Hope, please… My parents are sleeping in the room next door."
The auburn haired girl quickly places a finger over her lips as she does her best to stifle her laughter. Josie smiles fondly as she looks at her girlfriend laying on the floor of her bedroom. Hope sits up after she manages to calm herself down. The two girls look into each other's eyes for a long moment, neither willing to look away. It's Josie that ends up breaking their staring contest. The brunette looks down and clears her throat.
"It's late, Hope." She softly says. "I should already be in bed." She looks back into her favorite ocean eyes. "What are you doing here? You know we can't-"
Hope smirks. "I'm not here to take away your virtue, Miss Saltzman." Josie's mouth drops and she slaps Hope's arm, making the Mikaelson girl chuckle. "Besides… I already did that last night."
Josie quickly hides her face in her hands, feeling a dark blush quickly creeping in. She doesn't get to hide for long though, because Hope quickly, yet gently, forces her to put her hands down. The soft look with which the auburn haired girl is looking at Josie is enough to make the brunette's heart melt completely.
"Don't hide your pretty face from me. You know how much I love to see it."
"Stop making me blush then."
Hope's smirks magically reappears. "No promises. Red looks good on you."
"Hope…" Josie whines.
The Mikaelson girl's smirk slowly turns into a soft smile. Hope leans in, intending to place a soft kiss on her girlfriend's lips, but Josie places a firm hand on her shoulder, keeping the shorter girl at a safe distance.
"Hope, seriously. I have to be up at 6AM tomorrow." Josie says.
"Fine. I'm here to give you-" She quickly gets a small golden bracelet out of the pocket of her jacket. "This! You see this little four-leaf clover? Well, it's supposed to be a lucky charm, or something."
Josie's eyes shine as she looks at the bracelet and the little charm attached to it. It always amazes her to see just how thoughtful Hope Mikaelson is. She's built this image of the bad girl with a harsh personality and a mean glare, but all Josie can see is a puppy when she looks at her girlfriend. A very cute puppy.
"Would you put it on me please?"
Hope nods and quickly does as she's asked. Josie watches as her girlfriend ties the bracelet around her wrist with careful fingers. It probably takes a little more time than it should, but it has to be because the Mikaelson girl's hands are shaking a little. When they are like this, and that nothing burdens them, Hope's touch gets nervous. The auburn haired girl has a tendency to touch Josie like she's made of glass. Like she could break if Hope made the wrong move. Or even worse, run away and leave her.
"Do you like it?" Hope asks, her voice soft and uncertain.
"I love it." Josie says, making sure to sound as sure as she is.
Hope grins and nods. "Good."
Josie lightly shakes her head with a grin of her own before reaching for the collar of Hope's jacket with one of her hands. As she pulls Hope closer, Josie doesn't miss how her girlfriend's grin changes into a proud smirk. She barely has time to roll her eyes before closing them as their lips touch. She takes a sharp intake of breath when the familiar butterflies appear in her stomach, but she quickly regains control over her feelings. One of Hope's hands cups Josie's face and she gently caress the brunette's jaw as their lips move together.
It doesn't take long before Josie feels completely overwhelmed with the kiss and tries to deepen it. She tries to ask entrance into Hope's mouth with her tongue as her hand moves from the collar of her girlfriend's jacket and gently tries to take it off, but Hope stops her. The Mikaelson girl does just like Josie did a couple of minutes earlier. She places a soft, yet firm hand on the brunette's shoulder and very slowly pushes her away, effectively breaking the kiss.
"It's late." Hope says as she breathes heavily. "You have a very important game tomorrow, so I should go home."
"You could stay for-"
"No." Hope cuts Josie's sentence. "I'm leaving."
The auburn haired girl slowly gets up from the ground and immediately goes to the window. Josie's movements are quicker, and she's on her feet in the blink of an eye. She quickly walks to the window and stops Hope's departure.
"Kiss me one more time."
Hope sighs. "Josie…"
"Please."
"Fuck." Hope mutters under her breath.
Josie has learned pretty quickly that her girlfriend absolutely can't say no to her if Josie says "please". The brunette still hasn't figured out why, but it seems to be Hope's weakness. She doesn't use it unfairly though. Just when she really needs to. Like now.
Hope moves closer to Josie with that hungry look in her eyes the brunette knows so well. It's a look that makes Josie's knees go weak as she's being pinned against the wall of her bedroom. If Hope's kiss was slow and gentle when they were on the floor, it's now hungry and messy. The Mikaelson girl's hands are everywhere, and so are her lips. It's only when Hope is sucking on Josie's pulse point that the brunette realizes she didn't talk to her girlfriend about not leaving such visible hickeys. She can't seem to care at that moment though. It always feels heavenly when Hope kisses, sucks and bites her neck.
When Hope is done leaving her mark on the soft skin of the brunette's neck, she leaves a gentle kiss on the bruised skin. A silent and unnecessary apology. Their bodies stay close for a while after they're done kissing. Josie runs her fingers up and down Hope's back in a soothing motion as the shorter girl's face is still buried in the crook of the brunette's neck.
"I should go." Hope mumbles after a while.
"Yeah, you should." Josie agrees even though her heart aches as she does so.
"Okay."
Hope pulls away slowly. She looks into Josie's eyes when she's far enough to do so, and then she leans in to leave a quick peck on the Saltzman girl's pouty lips. Then, Hope is gone before Josie can manage to process it. The brunette leans her head out of her window just in time to see her girlfriend perfectly land on the ground. Hope looks up at Josie with a smile, and she waves before she starts making her way down the street. The brunette leans her elbows on the windowsill and places her chin in her hands. She looks at her girlfriend until she disappears down the road.
Maybe Hope Mikaelson and Josie Saltzman could be meant to be after all.