Nineteen

Ethan

12:06AM. Are you up for a movie? I am thinking Kill Bill.

12:07AM. Can't right now. I am out of the town for a business, but I will be back by the evening today. Though, I do have a little something to do with her then too. So I am thinking around ten pm? Is that alright with you? We can watch the movie then.

12:08AM. Of course. I'll pick you up from your school?

12:11AM. How about we meet up by the bus stop?

12:13AM. That's fine by me.

12:15AM. Ethan, I have something very important to tell you. So, can we maybe talk before the movie?

12:16AM. Of course. Anything you want, Josie. So, I'll see you later?

12:17AM. You can count on it.

"Boyfriend?" It was Freya Mikaelson standing over her with a warm, teasing smile as she held a cup of soda towards her.

Josie bit into her lip hard, hesitating. "Maybe." She shrugged her shoulders. "It's complicated."

"Aren't they all?" Freya chuckled as she sat down across her at the table. "How's Nik?" Josie really didn't wish to talk about her future step father right now. After all, due to a very obvious reasons, he wouldn't approve of her seeking Freya's help here. He wouldn't appreciate Freya helping her, wouldn't even appreciate that Freya had let her in.

He was far too sensitive for someone who had ruled over the entire supernatural community with iron fist for whole centuries. The whole thing he did whenever Professor Valdemus was around her, eyeing him suspiciously, really got on her nerves. And just yesterday, he had willingly let Lizzie drag him around the shopping center, buying her everything from a pretty jewelry she could flaunt around the campus to a comfortable looking sweaters, because he was fully aware of the episode her twin sister recently had.

He was always looking after the two of them, which of course, was much more than her own father tried to do these past few years. And knowing what she did now about Hope Marshall right now, Josie was even more determined to cast the spell to return everyone's memories of Hope. Nik was a good father and he deserved to have his daughter back. "Look, Freya, I came here for a reason."

"So, you mean you didn't just come here to take a look at my son?"

"Of course I want to see little Elijah, Freya, but I need your help with this spell I am having a bit of difficulty casting."

"Can't one of your teachers help you with that, Josie?"

"An ancient Japanese black magic purge spell?"

"You should go home, Josie. Nik wouldn't want you messing around with such a spell."

"Freya, it's very important that I cast it successfully. It would help me — all of us to remember someone we al have forgotten. We have photos in our homes of someone we don't recognize. Feels like you should know them, but you don't?"

"Josie." Freya sounded as if she was giving in, ready to help her out with the spell. She just needed the final push in the right way.

"We've all forgotten people. It doesn't matter what I say. The spell that I need is the only way that you're gonna remember for yourself."

"Can I join?" Josie jumped in the surprise, gasping hard and almost fell down the floor, all thanks to her future step uncle. "That sounds like such a fun."

"Kol, how many times do I have to tell you to not do that? I will have a heart attack one of those days, I swear." By the looks of it, it happened very often.

Kol rolled his eyes dramatically, as if he couldn't see why they were making such a huge deal out of this. "I really don't want to sound like a broken record, but you really haven't left with me any other choice. Can I join you guys to Mystic Falls?"

"Why?" If there was anything her mother taught her, it was don't drag a possibily psychopatic original vampire back to your hometown. From what she had heard, he had almost ripped Uncle Jeremy's hand off the last time he had been there.

Kol looked at her as if he thought her incredibly stupid. "Because I am feeling very bored, little witch." He said. "And I need a source of an entertainment."

"The source of an entertainment being?"

He sighed. "Your mother." Josie glared at him, feeling not very amused right now at his answer. "You may not know, but your mother has the best reactions. It's different every single time I tease her about something. No wonder Nik was so bloody smitten with her from the very first meeting."

"Kol, you want our brother to dagger you again? Because he would, if you bothered Caroline."

Kol rolled his eyes. "Of course not. Nobody likes being put in a small coffin that barely even fits your body. Honestly, if he was going to dagger me for centuries, the least he could have done was to get some flowers for me to sharpen my ever lasting beauty." Freya rolled her eyes dramatically at her brother, apparently resisting the urge to snap his neck. "But that's not why I am going to bother Caroline. Aside from her very amusing reactions, she also promised me to look after my daughter, see if she turns up in Mystic Falls. I need to ask her if she finally found her."

Freya turned to her brother with a pitiful look on her face. "You've searched for Cassandra all those years and still haven't found her, Kol. What makes you think she could do what you had not?"

"I have to know, Freya." He pressed his fingers hard on the wood of the table. "It's my daughter we are talking about."

Freya sighed. "So, it seems we are going to Mystic Falls, after all."

Look.

Klaus Mikaelson wondered about the well being of his siblings every now and then. He wondered how Rebekah was doing with her marriage, wondered if there was any need to make Marcel's life a living hell. He wondered if Freya was happy with her wife and baby Elijah Mikaelson. But most of all, he wondered if Kol was doing fine with the impending divorce and all. Kol had always been more broken than all of them.

Kol had always been the one to make Klaus feel guilty about most of all. Without intending to, he had let his little brother out of many things. And Kol in return, hadn't even bothered to tell him about most things in his life. He had only found out about Cassandra long after she had gotten kidnapped by the men looking to avenge their familes, long after Kol's lover at the time had been forced to turn due to the state those men had left her in. But regardless of how much guilt he may feel about him or any of his other siblings, it didn't actually mean he wanted them here.

"Josie, you say you need them, but what spell could be so bloody important that you had to drag them here?"

"I am insulted, brother, that you think so lowly of me!" Kol faked a scandalized look on his face. "But worry not, brother mine, I am not here for you. I am here for Caroline. I have a reason to believe she might have a certain information that I would need."

Klaus blocked his path. "And what makes you think I would let you anywhere near her?"

"Klaus." It was Caroline Forbes standing over the entrance with her arms crossed across her chest, a disapproving look on her face. "Honestly?"

"Sweetheart." He greeted with a smile.

"I've asked him here. So, don't you dare go all alpha on him now, Klaus."

Klaus sighed, waving his hands dramatically in front of himself. "Fine." He said. "But you two, I don't want you doing any dark magic around here."

"But it's very important that I cast it successfully! The fate of this whole family depends on it."

"Our family is just fine!"

"Nik, don't you ever feel like you have somehow forgotten someone very important? This spell I will cast, can make it possible for you to remember, for all of us to remember! So, please, just this one last time."

Klaus regarded her with curious eyes, sighing in the defeat. "Alright. You work on that spell, but promise me it would be the last time you would do any sort of a dark magic."

Josie nodded her head, quick to smile. "It's a promise."

Maya Fell stood between Elizabeth Saltzman and Hope Marshall with a somewhat awkward stance, feeling like she was intruding here, in this school. "When are you supposed to start, Maya?"

"Next week." Maya replied. "You would do well to expect me here by next week."

Lizzie nodded her head. "Jed told me what happened." Of course he did. "And I just want you to know that he's — he won't push you into anything if you feel uncomfortable with it. He's a good guy, regardless of the fact that he may not appear so at first."

Maya nodded her head. "I know." She cleared her throat. "So, what are we waiting for?"

"For Nik to come here."

For some reason, Hope tensed ever so slightly at his name. "We are hoping to catch this creature named Croatan."

"Malivore?"

At Hope's questioning look, Maya explained. "Jed filled me in." He said. "Including the whole details about how your ex boyfriend turned out to be his son looking to help him find a new body he could reside in, which I am not really sure he should have told me."

"He's looking to use Landon's body to do whatever evil thing he is seeking to do once he is free of the endless hole he is." Hope explained, looking rather bothered by the fact that Maya knew about her dramatic love life. "And Ryan, he's been helping him to do just that." Hope sighed. "I have done very questionable things since, things I shouldn't have done and — how's Ethan?" Hope cut herself off with a small smile, turning towards her.

"He's fine." She replied, happy enough to let Hope change the subject. "Thanks to Josie, of course."

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Don't even get me started on this little dance they've been doing since this summer. They should just hurry up and do the deed somewhere already. Or kiss at least. It kills me having to watch them."

Maya nodded her head in the agreement. "Couldn't agree more."

It was during that moment that a very tall, dirty blond haired man entered the room, followed by a a slightly short, blond woman and a brown-haired, rather off looking younger man. "So, what's the monster of the week?"

Hope Mikaelson watched patiently as they looked for the creature, hoping to start some conversation, but what did someone to say to a man who wasn't aware she was his daughter? "So, you're the infamous Niklaus Mikaelson. You haven't told me last time we've met."

He chuckled slightly. "Because people generally don't have best reactions when they find out. I haven't exactly done things that would earn me a good reputation."

"Well, are you off killing people randomly now?"

"I try not to." He began to explain, "But after centuries of a bloodshed and murder, it's a difficult habit to get rid of. Especially when one's centuries old original hybrid. You don't just wake up one day and find out you wish to drink animal blood instead like some pathetic creature."

"Stefan Salvatore drank animal blood."

"Stefan Salvatore was a ripper, which means it's harder for him to control the blood lust than the most."

"It used to belong to him, didn't it? The house?" It seemed that despite what she had previously thought, her father wasn't actually delighted at his death, after all. Caroline did tell her they used to be very good friends. Maybe she had misjudged exactly how good of friends they really were.

"Stefan was one of the kind. It wasn't just that he tried to better like many others I know of, but that he was genuinely good person. He had a humanity in him that many others would have mocked him for. He was so — undeniably human. Even after he had been turned, he hadn't lost it. I only know two other people who were like that."

"You must miss him awfully a lot."

He turned to her with a smile. "I do." He said. "Now, shall we continue our search?"

She nodded her head.

There was a very angelic looking blond woman standing by the front of the rooftop, looking down the ground with glassy look in her shining blue eyes. "Cassandra, what do you think you are doing?"

"If I jump right now, do you think I will die?" Cassandra asked him, looking like she didn't know whether or not she wished to jump. "I don't think I will."

"Cassandra." He growled her hand in a warning, glaring at her.

"My Mama always told me I should always keep my head in check, to not let anyone to let me forget what was important. But lately I keep forgetting what's important."

"And what's important here?"

Cassandra turned her head to look at him. "To survive."

Sebastian suddenly awoke with a start, groaning under his breath. "Well, hello there, my dear turnip."

Klaus Mikaelson walked through the entire boarding school for the sign of his daughter, of his darling Hope. "Hope." He breathed hard, shaking vividly as he stared at her. "Sweetheart."

Hope turned towards him with tears in her eyes and let out a loud gasp of cry, falling into his arms. "Dad." She cried against the crook of his neck, her arms grasping around his neck tight. "Daddy." He hugged her back fiercely, wishing to not have to let go of her ever again. If he let go of her now, who's to say she wouldn't disappear on him again? How could he have been so blind? A simple spell was enough to let him forget his own daughter and he wasn't even aware of it?

"Never again, Hope. Never again."

"I am so sorry, Dad. I wanted to tell you so bad, but I never quite knew how to do it." He should have known there was a reason why she had felt so bloody important. Should have known.

"It's okay, sweetheart. It's going to be alright." And hugging him even tighter around the neck, she cried even harder.

"As I have told you in the text, I have something very important to tell you." Josie began with a heavy breath, the memories of her sister running through her mind rapidly, every memory of Hope freshly remembered. But the reunion with her had to wait for the moment. "But you have to promise me to not freak out, to not run off because you are scared."

Ethan glanced at her uncertainly. "Josie, whatever you might have to say can't be too bad than that time when my ex girlfriend told me she was pregnant as a joke."

She chuckled, moving to touch the edges of his face softly, with trembling fingers. "Ethan, I am a witch." She said, letting the magic out of her fingers, sending sparks of magic around them flying like a firework.

Ethan gasped in the surprise around himself, looking quite uncertain. "A witch?"

She nodded her head, biting her lips hard. "Ethan." She caled his name tenderly, with shaking shoulders. "I know it might be hard to believe right now, Ethan, but it is true." And then before she could convince herself out of it, moved towards him and closed the distance between them, the soft, gentle feel of his lips making her feel like a whole for what felt like the first time in years. Slowly, she pulled away and stared at him, feeling vulnerable. "Ethan."

"I believe you." Ethan smiled at her softly, pulling her for another kiss. Josie giggled against the kiss and pulled him closer towards her, putting her arms around his neck. At that moment, Josie felt more fine than she had in a very long time.

Does anyone wanna join my hopan discord server? If so, PM. I will send u guys link.