Prohibition

Part 1

Hope clutched her bag tightly to her chest and stepped off her train into the busiest station she had ever seen. That didn't mean much, given how she had only ever seen two in her life. People scurried to and fro all over the opulent building she found herself in. Hope pressed the hat her guardians, her Uncle Kol and Aunt Davina made her wear further onto her head. Anxious and excited nerves flooded her system as she wondered at what life in the bustling city of Mystic Falls might be like.

She would have wondered how her life got this way, but Hope knew the answer. It all started when she met Roman. He was the cause of all this and she was glad he was finally out of her life. Everything had been fine until he had knocked over one of Kol's antique vases insisting that he sneak back into her house alongside her 'to make sure she got in okay'. Her aunt had already hated how she bobbed her hair and that was the final straw.

Now, she was being sent to live with a family friend, having burnt through all of her actual family. She remembered him as being okay, stand up kind of guy. He was a good man, and Hope remembered the stories of how begrudgingly he and her father had grown to respect one another. Kol had said Alaric would send a car for her... his hardware store must have been doing rather well to foot such an expense. Hope imagined a stout, frumpy red-faced little old man waiting for her. She wound her way through the throngs of people milling about until she found her way outside.

Hope had never seen so many cars in her life. She looked over the nice ones parked nearby. The one that caught her eye most seemed to be the most expensive as well. A young man leaned against it, dressed just as expensively with a fedora, suit, and tie. Hope hoped that she didn't look as doe-eyed and naive as she felt that she appeared. He was handsome in a dreamy-eyed and distant way. While she was distrustful, a car rushed by, casting the muddy water from the road up and onto her skirt.

"Watch yourself! I'm driving here!" the man in the car yelled back at her, completely unapologetic.

"Now then, do them there legs ever stop travelin' up? That skirt doesn't do anything for them, though." Landon called out as he extended a middle finger towards the car that had splashed Hope, whipping off his hat and half-bowing from the waist. It seemed he had just finished rolling a cigarette and put it between his lips. As she watched him approach, she noticed her name on a sign propped up against the grill of the car. "So... you Hope Mikaelson?"

"Who's asking?" Hope cut back, suddenly fighting back, and alarms ringing in the back of her head.

"Landon. Landon Kirby. I will be escorting you tonight. Welcome to the grand city of Mystic Falls." He introduced himself, tucking his hat beneath his arm and offering his hand to shake. Hope couldn't help noticing that he had a nice smile and pretty eyes to go with the clothes.

"You're quite the pretty one, you know. My momma always told me not to trust the pretty ones." She smiled back at him, a charming kind of smirk reaching all of the ways up to her eyes.

"Have you always done everything your momma tells you to do?" Landon led her to the car and leaned back against it. She found the way his eyes continued to rake over her quite forward, but she didn't mind it much either. That didn't mean her natural Mikaelson sass was going to stand for the way Landon was acting and speaking to her with such obvious interest on his face.

"How might that be your business?" Hope asked all red lips and sparkling blue eyes. She knew her assets and how to play them to her advantage.

"I know that it isn't but can you blame me for my curiosity?" Landon opened the car door for her, closed it behind her, and leaned across.

Hope made a mental note that he was really interested and very pretty.

"That hair of yours tells me you don't listen much to anyone." Landon chuckled.