Feelings - A Hosie Story

Chapter 30 - "How did it go?"

It's time for Hope's fight training with her family. In their typical way, they decide to start bright and early. This leave Hope to stumble towards the Old Mill with half-open eyes as she sips from her blood bag. It's a special one from her family - most of which is animal blood, but as the days go by they'll add in more and more human blood to help Hope get control of her blood lust. After all, she'd rather not run the risk of digging her fangs into any human that she sees, not when she'll be surrounded by them for a lot of her life. All of this is without even mentioning the fact that it will help make her stronger for the battle ahead.

She finds them exactly where they said they'd be, setting up and preparing the location for an intense session. She disposes of her empty blood bag as she walks in.

"And there she is," Kol says.

"Thank god. I've had enough of Kol being a bloody idiot." Rebekah sighs in relief, having turned away from giving her brother a death stare. "But let's forget about that. I want to hear more about your date with Josie!"

"You lot couldn't even wait a minute, could you?" Hope chuckles. Despite what people may think, despite the image the Mikaelsons create for themselves and the fear they have instilled in people, they love to gossip. And in Hope's eyes, her family is all goofy and caring. Yes, they have their bad sides, but so does every family.

"Just tell us Hope...how did it go?" Freya asks.

"Spill all of the details." Davina follows up. Hope laughs to herself.

"Y'know, sometimes I forget that I'm the teenager here and not you lot." She jokes.

"You gonna tell us or not, dear?" Kol asks a question of his own. Hope sighs, having given up on messing with them. She's had her fun.

"It went well. She loved seeing New Orleans, and...I asked her to be my girlfriend..." Hope makes a dramatic pause for the sole purpose of adding unnecessary tension to wind her family up further. She can see on each of their faces how invested they are, and she does her best not to give anything away with a smile or even just a look. "And she said yes!"

"Congratulations!" Marcel smiles, happy for his niece. The room erupts with many forms of congratulations. All of them know how hard it has been for Hope, and they all want happiness and joy, and comfort for her. If she finds all of that in Josie, then they'll be on board with it. They'll take Josie in, and treat her like she's one of the family.

"We are all so happy for you, Hope." Freya knows more about Josie than the others, like when they met a short while back before anybody's memories of Hope had been returned. She could sense that Josie was a kind soul. Someone who travels all that way to bring back the memories of someone they used to know, which could potentially blow up the life they have now...that's a good person. Freya knew that. She could feel it, in the way that Josie spoke, in the way that she acted. And Freya knew, perhaps even before that interaction, that Josie would play some part in Hope's future. That she would be very special to her niece. There was just something about her, something about the way Hope used to speak about her, and how she still does now.

"Your parents would be proud," Freya adds on.

ADD A MONTAGE OF SORTS OF THE TRAINING SESSION HERE

They all sit down, desperately sipping at their blood or water, needing to cool down. Hope, she doesn't feel too bad. Her muscles ache slightly, but given her new abilities and even better healing, she doesn't think it will last long.

"Y'know I've got to say. I think this has really benefited me. I've learned a lot of things that will be useful for the fight ahead of us." She says. That's when an idea comes to her.

She talks it through with them, and they are all on board rather quickly. All that's left to do is convince Alaric. That could go one of two ways: number one, he plays the responsible adult card and says absolutely not, or two, he does the same sort of thing he has always done, ever since monsters became a problem.

Hope walks into his office, holding a confident stance, and says "We need to talk."