Breathing ∞ Kol Mikaelson [1]

[58]

Refusing to look like a normal person, Emma found herself lying on the couch in her living room. Legs propped up on the back rest, she watched a rerun of some random true crime show experimenting to see whether it would be better watching it upside down to gain a new perspective. In conclusion, she was bored out of her mind. And since she promised her mother she'd be home at least for lunch that day, it was too late to go out and do something.

She'd tried to invite Rebekah over to keep her some company, however, despite buying a whole house to avoid him, the blonde had once again been roped into something by Klaus. Emma offered her help, but apparently all Rebekah needed was her memories of the early 12th century. Nothing Emma could help with.

And Kol, who Rebekah had suggested Emma should call instead (the pointed tone going ignored but not unnoticed), well they already had plans to have another magic lesson later that evening. Emma didn't want to bother him. And also, they had their own lives outside of each other, she didn't want them to turn into one of those couples who spent every waking moment together.

The last of her thoughts had Emma pausing for a moment, her brows scrunching up as she realized what she'd done. Could they really be called a couple? They never talked about what they were. Emma never felt the need to as she'd never let herself get that attached to anyone she'd been with before. Not to the point where she was looking for labels. She didn't need one now either, but the fact that one had so easily passed through her mind... Well, she didn't like that.

"Idiot. Murderous supernatural creatures or magic and you're chill, but labels make you panic?" Emma questioned herself with a shake of her head, starting to return to a normal position on the couch as the blood rushing to her head started to become too annoying.

However, in the process of doing so, the sound of the door bursting open and then slamming closed again seconds later, made the girl jump in surprise, legs tangling together and making her nearly fall off the couch. "Mom! You scared the crap out of me." Emma scolded her mother as she saw Marissa rush through the hall on her way to the kitchen. But the sound of her daughter's voice made her pause.

"Oh, good, you're home. Good, good." Marissa mumbled, her wide eyes scanning around the house as if she were expecting something to jump out of the shadows any second. When it didn't, she continued to move towards her bedroom.

"Mom?" Emma called out after her, easily noticing Marissa's odd behaviour and following after the woman to find out what had caused it. "What's going on? You're acting weirder than usual." She tried to joke, knowing she'd get scolded by her mother for calling her weird, but the expected reaction never came.

"Where is it? Where is it?" Marissa questioned as she started to dig through the drawers of her nightstand. Emma watched her from the door, brows furrowing in confusion. Eyes turning to look at her daughter, Marissa had a debating look on her face for a moment which was soon switched by realization. "Right, right, I gave it to you." She muttered to herself, starting to move again.

But Emma didn't let her. Taking a couple of steps into the room, she put her hands on Marissa's shoulders, forcing the older Park woman to come to a stop as Emma levelled her with a demanding look. "Ok, what the hell is going on?" She'd seen her mother in this kind of state only a few times and it was making her worry.

"Nothing, I don't think it's anything. I think I'm just imagining things. A forty-eight hour shift can do that. It wouldn't be the first time." Marissa started to calm herself, her mind running through all the reasons why she could have been wrong in believing it was real. There were more supporting the idea of it being her sleep deprived mind than those in favour of it being true. But then she looked back to Emma.

"It would be the first time we're both seeing things though, wouldn't it?" Emma asked. She could count the times she'd seen her mother acting like this on one hand. And both times it led to a sudden move, caused by a dismissal at work or new job opportunity on the other side of the country. Back then, Emma got no more explanation than that. But this time she knew everything. And it wasn't hard to gather what the cause of panic was.

"You too?" Marissa's face paled at the realization. There were dozens of things she could try and tell herself to calm down, but if Emma had seen the same as she did, then it was much harder to deny.

"Okay, one way to be sure. Come on." Emma announced, her mind quickly coming up with an idea that she should have thought of much sooner. Taking hold of her mother's hand, she dragged her in the direction of the kitchen, but not before making a short stop in her own bedroom.

Emma snatched the rolled up map from her desk carrying it to the kitchen and making quick work of spreading it across the table as her mother watched curiously. The map was cleaned up since the last time she'd used it, magic making getting blood off of it much easier than it would have been by hand.

"Do you know how to do it?" Marissa asked curiously, stepping closer once she saw Emma pull the obsidian stone out of her pocket. She wasn't about to complain against the idea, it was a smart one indeed.

"I've done it before." Emma revealed, seeing the raised eyebrow on her mother's face, she elaborated a bit more. "I've been learning, all kinds of spells really. I'd like to think I've passed the clueless newbie stage and entered the beginner stage."

"On your own?" Marissa sounded amazed. It was rare that witches grasped magic so quickly without a guiding hand. She'd considered being that to Emma once she made her intentions to learn clear, but her daughter never asked for any help when it came to magic.

"Kol's been teaching me." Emma said while pulling out a knife from the block and digging through the cabinets for the alcohol to pour over it. Vampires might not need to worry about using a clean blade to slice their hand, but she did.

"A vampire teaching a witch magic. Talk about oddities." Marissa chuckled in amusement, Emma laughing too. She knew that it would seem a bit weird in the grand scheme of things, considering most witches weren't too fond of vampires.

"He used to be one, before they all turned." Emma explained shortly, walking back to the table with the map once she deemed the knife clean enough to be used on her own skin.

"Here, let me, you don't want to make it too deep and need stitches." Marissa offered, placing a roll of paper towels on the table next to the map before taking the knife from Emma's hand. She gave her daughter a warning look before she pressed the blade into the skin, Emma not even bothering to flinch as she rushed to pour some of the dripping blood onto the map.

Once she deemed it enough, she let her mother take her hand again, wrapping it up in a kitchen towel and tightly pressing it into the wound to stop the bleeding. While Marissa did that, Emma took hold of the obsidian. "I'll charge it up again later." She promised her mother, knowing that the magic inside the stone was limited. But this... Well this time she could definitely class it as an emergency.

She siphoned some of the magic, not all, but enough to do the spell. And then she focused, just as Kol had taught her before starting to speak the incantation. She repeated it a couple of times, feeling the magic work through her and fuel the spell. And then she felt it end soon later.

Opening her eyes, Emma wasn't sure what to look at first, the map or to her mother. She chose to look at Marissa's face, knowing whatever emotion it held would reveal what she'd see on the map. Only after taking in the horrified look on her mother's face did Emma think looking at the map first would have been better.

Turning her head, she let her eyes scan over the line made in blood, leading to one specific location. It wasn't directly in Mystic Falls, but it was too close, right on the edge of town. Neither of the women could deny it any more, and Emma felt a wave of emotions hitting her. Both angry and sad about what she knew would have to come next.

"Sweetie..." By the tone of her voice, her mother knew it too.

"We have to go, don't we?" Emma asked, watching as he mother nodded her head in regret. For a moment she thought about saying no, testing her luck and seeing how it goes. But she knew she couldn't. Not when her father was after them both.

Marissa would try to force her to leave, but if Emma didn't relent, she knew her mother would stay back too. She wouldn't leave if Emma didn't. And the younger Park couldn't take that risk. She couldn't put her mother in danger because she was being selfish and stubborn.

"I'll go get the boxes." And so she gave in without a fight.

-----

I mean... They've been happy for a bit too long if you ask me hehehe