ᴡᴀʏᴡᴀʀᴅ ⤕ ᴛᴠᴅ ³

four

A scoff fell from his lips. "Please, it's Ricky these days. I thought it held a little more pizazz."

"What are you doing here? Last I recall, you were somewhere big and flashy."

"New York." 

"Sounds about right."

Billie stood to the side, leaning against a tree with her arms crossed, watching an interaction she never thought she'd witness. "You have got to be kidding me."

Klaus smiled warmly, standing to his full height and extending a hand to Ricky as he answered the question. "I came to collect a missing employee. Shame what happened to her."

The pair began to walk and her friends shared cryptic looks before reluctantly following, unwilling to interrupt the two seeing as they were both ridiculously old. 

The original hummed in agreement, going rather quiet at the mention of the clairvoyant and her fate. Ricky tossed him a glance, looking back at the vampires behind them and then to his phone once again, leading the way. "I assume you and your merry band of toddlers had something to do with it?"

Klaus sent him a deadly glare, warning the man of pushing it any further. 

Ricky put his hands up in surrender, keeping his tone light knowing that he couldn't best the original hybrid. "No judgement here. Maybe it's for the best. However she kicked it, at least she never had to go through transition like the last one." Billie walked beside them, a tinkling laugh escaping her dead lips. "Boy are you in for a treat, Ricky."

The businessman scrunched his face up in thought. "Oh, what was her name..."

"Mickey." The hybrid answered flatly.

 She really would have preferred to go through the agonising transition surrounded by the people she loved, at least so it wouldn't have felt so cripplingly lonely. She figured they would discover that as soon as they caught a glimpse of her charred eyes.

Harper briefly wondered what Mickey would have thought if she'd still been around and hadn't found peace when she did. Would she be disappointed in her for not getting out of this life?

It was a little jarring seeing the look on Nik's face when he said her name. He seemed to age in his features and a frown appeared between his brows, unrelenting in it's worry.

Ricky looked between his phone and the path for a moment, diverting into the treeline, surrounding the group in towering barks.

A chill pulsed in her chest. It beat where her heart used to, the echo surprising her enough that if she could have tripped in her steps, she would have.

They were close.

Damon shared a cautious look with his brother, ignoring the way Elena clung to him and scanning his surroundings.

The suit clad vampire paused in his tracks, taking a deep breath and pocketing his phone. Klaus threw his arms out at his sides. "Why have we stopped?"

Ricky pursed his lips together slightly, addressing them all. "We're here."

⤕

Stefan had pulled her aside, hands cupping her shoulders as the patch of dirt was being dug up primarily by Damon seeing as Ricky didn't want to soil his suit and Klaus wasn't about to dig a hole in the middle of the forest, the pretentious ass.

"You don't have to stay for this, you know. We can meet you back at the house and-" Elena cut him off, squeezing his hand reassuringly. "I can't Stefan... she was our friend. I owe it to her."