Drawn to Love

Chapter 21

After keeping the urn hidden somewhere else in Mystic Falls for the week, well away from Nik, Landon and Hope had agreed that now that the exams were over and they could prioritize on the urn and getting it out of the town that put the littlest Mikaelson in grave danger, they would go on yet another trip with a new destination this time.  New Orleans.  it was a place Hope hadn't gone to since her parents died there. Part of her was worked up over the mere thought of going back there, but the rest of her was just glad she was getting to take the man she loved there, and he would get to see the place that had once been considered her home.

Hope and Landon were in their bedroom at the Malraux-Mikaelson household, bags on their bed. Hope was putting their things in the bags while Landon pulled out another shirt from the drawer. It had been mostly silent as they packed their belongings, but finally Landon spoke the question that had been lurking in his mind since he woke up this morning.

"Are you sure you want to do this? Going to New Orleans?"

Hope turned to face Landon, a curious frown on her face. "I thought you wanted to go to New Orleans one day."

"I do. I have for a long time. I just know it's not generally easy for you to be around your family that isn't Freya and Keelin and Nik. And I know it was the last place you- We don't have to bring the urn there"  Landon said concluded, looking at the girl he loved.

"It's the best place for it. Besides, showing you around the city sounds like a good idea to me" She walked closer to Landon. "It'd give you a chance to meet Marcel"

"Marcel is your brother that married your Aunt Rebekah, right?" Landon questioned, wanting to make sure.

A small chuckle escaped her lips, and she nodded.  "Yes, that's Marcel."

"I've known your family tree since you drew it out for me, but I just wanted to make sure since we are going to meet him"

"Thank you for being considerate on how I feel, but I'll be okay. I promise. Besides, we don't have much of a choice about the urn. I can't keep putting Nik in danger by having this urn anywhere near him. It's bad enough you're in danger being around it."

"It's my fault it's attracting monsters anyways" Landon said, hating the thought of anyone getting hurt because of him.

"Landon -"

"I know what you are going to say" They had this conversation several times before. "But I activated it by touching it, and now monsters are coming after it, hurting anyone that tried to stop them."

The tribrid shook her head slightly as she reached over and took his hands in hers, a small frown on her face at the thought of Landon blaming himself for this. She didn't want him to suffer if anyone got hurt any more than how she felt blaming herself for when she hurt people. He had no idea that touching it would cause this, and he didn't even remember taking them in the first place. This wasn't his fault. He hadnt made a conscious decision to do this. There hadn't been a choice. He had been unexplainably pulled towards the artifacts to activate them so monsters could return them to Malivore.

She looked up at him, watching him as she tried to figure out something to say that she hadn't said a thousand times already. "You didn't know. It's not your fault that someone else made it so that you would be drawn to the artifacts without realizing it and activating them. You shouldn't be blaming yourself for this."

"And you shouldn't be blaming yourself for a lot of things you blame yourself for. Yet you do it, every single day. So much so that you're scared that by getting close to someone, you could get them killed. And yet I'm still here. You're stuck with me. So if I can't convince you not to blame yourself, then you can't convince me. Because while you're right I didn't know, whoever made me attracted to the artifacts, they still used me as their pawn."