Erotomania
Chapter 7
The following morning was a bit crazy. Ryan tried to get Hope alone for a moment, just to follow up their conversation from the night before, but he didn't get a chance. Lizzie and Josie kept whispering something to Hope every time he took a step in her direction, and Kaleb and MG kept him close. He had no idea why their friends seemed so adamant to keep the apart, but he eventually stopped trying to get Hope alone. He trusted their friends, and he was sure that they had their reason for keeping him from going to her. But when they got to his house after Seylah and Landon left for the University, there was a brief moment when he thought that he would have Hope helping him pack up his stuff in his room, things got switched around, and he, Kaleb and MG ended up packing his stuff from around the rest of the house while Hope, Lizzie and Josie packed up his room.
Once all of the boxes were packed up, the guys worked on getting Ryan's furniture taken apart and loaded into the back of Ryan's SUV before piling as many boxes in as they could. And then all of them headed back to Hope's house. It took a couple more trips to get everything from Ryan's house to Hope's, but once the guys returned with the last load of everything, the group got to work with getting all of the broken down furniture and boxes sorted neatly into the storage space. It was only after that was done that Ryan had a chance to take Hope's hand in his and lead her away from their friends. Once they were out of ear shot, Ryan turned to face Hope and opened his mouth, but no words came out. Instead Hope wrapped her arms around his neck, pushed herself up onto her toes and pressed her lips to his.
"You're officially out of that house, Ry." Hope muttered against his lips.
"Now I need to find my own place... which I probably won't be able to afford." Ryan replied with a sigh.
"You and my Dad made a deal, remember? As long as you help him get his old car fixed up, you can stay here." Hope said.
"I took a look at the car last night, Hope. From what I can tell, it's just a few cosmetic things that need to touched up. Your dad said that it runs, so I don't see it taking us very long to fix it up." Ryan said.
"Maybe we can ask him to cover some of the cost of an apartment for you?" Hope suggested.
"Hope, you and your dad have already done so much for me over the last few days, I can't ask him to do that, and I can't let you ask him on my behalf." Ryan said.
"So what are you going to do?" Hope asked.
"I need to sit down, figure out how much I'm paying for things already, and see what I can afford in the ways of an apartment. Even if I have to have a roommate that I split rent with..." Ryan trailed off. "Maybe moving out was a rash decision." He muttered.
"No, Ryan, it wasn't. You didn't feel welcome there, and you should always feel welcome in your own home. Please, Ryan, let me see what I can do. Maybe my dad will let you stay longer so you can save some money." Hope pleaded.
"Hope, I'll be okay. Really, I don't want to be a burden to you and your family." Ryan said. "Especially since the rest of your family already thinks I shouldn't be anywhere near you."
Hope pulled away from Ryan at that and wrapped her arms around herself. As her eyes filled with tears, Hope turned her head away from Ryan. She had no idea why she was crying. Maybe it was the fact that Ryan didn't want her help anymore, or that he had brought up what her family had said about him, or maybe it was something else entirely. But whatever the reason, her eyes were filled with tears and she couldn't stop the tears from falling. When Ryan saw her lightly shaking and wiping at her eyes, he kicked himself before pulling her and pressing a kiss to her temple.
"Please don't cry, Princess." Ryan muttered as he rubbed her back.
"I want to help you, Ryan. Why won't you let me?" Hope whispered.
"Because I already have no way of repaying you and your dad for your kindness and hospitality. I don't want to take any more favors from you without being able to repay you." Ryan replied.
"You don't have to repay us, Ryan. I care about you, and my dad sees you as a part of our family, despite what my aunts and uncles say. Please, let us help you as much as we can."
Ryan sighed. He didn't like it when Hope cried and sounded so broken. He down right hated it that he had been the one to make her cry. Especially since this was not the conversation that he had been wanting to have with her all morning. And if he didn't fix this, and fast, she might not be open to him asking her to be his girlfriend anymore. Because that was what he had taken away from her comment the night before. That if he asked her to be his girlfriend, that she would say yes. But if she felt that way, why hadn't she asked him the night before?
"What can I do to make you feel better, Princess? I hate that I made you cry." Ryan said softly.
"Will you let me talk to my dad and see what we can do to help you?" Hope asked as she tilted her head back to look up at him.
"We can talk to him together." Ryan said with a small nod. "Is there anything else that I can do?"
"Don't try to push me away again. You are one of the most important people in my life, Ryan. And if I see that you are in a tight spot, in any way, and I offer my help, it's because I truly believe that there's something that I can do to help."
"I don't like feeling like a burden, Hope... so while I will do everything in my power to not push you away, I have to ask that you be patient with me."
"Deal."
Tilting Hope's chin up, Ryan pressed his lips to hers in a soft kiss before pulling away and spinning her around. Wrapping his arms around her waist, Ryan rested his chin on the top of her head and glanced over at their friends. After all of the packing and moving and sorting, Josie and Lizzie were sitting at the edge of the pool with their feet in the water, while MG and Kaleb had moved over to the basketball court and were shooting hoops. With Klaus having let all of their professors know that none of them would be in classes that day and moving everything had only taken half of the day, they had the rest of the day to do whatever they wanted. With a smirk, Ryan scooped Hope into his arms, causing her to squeal, and then she was landing in the water, breaking the surface a second later with a glare on her face.
"You are dead, Clarke." She said, but Ryan didn't hear any malice behind her words. He did, however, see a mischievous glint in her eyes, causing him to swallow hard.
"What are you going to do, Mikaelson?" Ryan asked as he moved to squat at the edge of the pool.
"Help me out?" Hope asked innocently.
"I'm not falling for that, Hope. You are deceptively strong for your size, and I know that the second I offer you my hand to help you out, you're going to pull me in, instead." Ryan said with a smirk.
"Fine. Be that way." Hope said as she placed her hands on the edge of the pool and lifted herself out.
Once she was out, Hope feigned losing her footing, and when Ryan reached to catch her, she pushed him in.
"Clever girl. But you do realize that it's on now, right?" Ryan asked when he broke the surface of the water and pushed his hair out of his eyes.
"Think carefully before you declare war on me, Ryan. You wouldn't want to underestimate me, would you?" Hope asked as pulled her wet clothes off so that she was in her swimsuit.
"Okay, that's not fair, Hope." Ryan said with a groan.
"Everything's fair in war, Ryan. Are you sure you still want to go up against me?" Hope asked.
Ryan looked Hope up and down before glancing over his shoulder at their friends. When he realized that none of the others were seemingly going to help him, Ryan sighed and climbed out of the pool. Striping down to his boxers, Ryan closed the distance between him and Hope and wrapped his arms around her before giving her a kiss. When he felt Hope smirk into the kiss, Ryan smirked back before breaking the kiss, tossing Hope over his shoulder and then jumping into the pool. When they came back up from the water, Hope was wrapped tightly around Ryan, and she had a determined look in her eyes. One that Ryan mentally catalogued as one of the sexiest looks that he had ever seen Hope have.
"You're move, Mikaelson." Ryan commented with a smirk.
"Do you really think you can best a Mikaelson in a water war, Clarke? Because if you do, you are sadly mistaken." Hope replied in a low voice.
"Do you want to know what I think, Princess? I think you're all talk. You say that you can best me, then prove it." Ryan replied before pressing his lips to Hope's neck.
With Ryan trying to distract her, Hope smirked before pushing him under the water and swimming towards their friends. Before she could reach the others, though, Ryan managed to grab her ankle and lightly pulling her back towards him. When she turned in the water to face him, all the playfulness from a moment ago was gone, and Ryan's pupils were blown wide. In a matter of seconds, Ryan had Hope pinned between his body and the wall of the pool.
"I think we should up the fun." Ryan said loud enough for the others to hear him, but never taking his eyes off of Hope.
"How so?" Lizzie asked slowly.
"Girls vs guys. We each come up with a water game to play, and whichever team has the most wins once all 6 games are finished gets a prize." Ryan replied.
"Why are you trying to pull us into your little war?" MG asked.
"Because you're our friends, and it'll be fun." Hope said.
"Does it have to be 6 different games? Or can we play one game that has teams?" Josie asked.
"What game do you have in mind?" Hope questioned, breaking eye contact with Ryan to glance over at Josie.
"You have a net for water volleyball. Best 2 of 3 games wins." Josie commented.
Once everyone agreed, the others went inside to change, leaving Hope and Ryan alone to set up the net. As soon as it was set up, Ryan pulled Hope into his embrace and pressed his lips to hers.
"Ryan, why did you throw me into the pool?" Hope asked.
"We needed something to do for the rest of the day." Ryan replied with a shrug.
"And you thought throwing me into the pool was the solution?" Hope questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"It gave me a chance to see you soaking wet." Ryan replied and Hope gasped.
Unfortunately, their friends had really, really, really bad timing, and chose that exact moment to return from the house, and Hope didn't get a chance to respond to Ryan's comment. But it never left her mind. Ryan wanted to see her soaking wet. Had that been a reference to sex? Hope tried, multiple times, for the rest of the day, to catch Ryan's eye to see if his words had held a double meaning, based on how he was looking at her, but every time she tried to get his attention, Ryan purposefully looked elsewhere. Even when they were playing volleyball. And after the match was over, with the girls winning, and the guys agreed to watch whatever movie the girls wanted to watch, and Hope and Ryan ended up sitting in the same position as they had been in the other night, Ryan would not meet Hope's gaze.
Part way through the movie, Hope grumbled something under her breath and stood up before walking out of the living and heading towards the stairs. She hadn't thought she would get out of the room, let alone almost to the bottom step. But that was the exact place that she was stopped by Ryan. When he spun Hope around to face him, Hope folded her arms across her chest and looked up at him expectantly. She wasn't about to be the first one to speak when he had been more or less avoiding her for half of the day.
"Hope..." Ryan said slowly.
"Ryan."
"Why are you upset with me?" Ryan asked.
"Figure it out." Hope said before turning around and continuing to walk upstairs before Ryan grabbed her hand to stop her again.
"I honestly don't know what I did wrong, Hope. Please, talk to me." Ryan begged, his eyes pleading with her.
Hope tried to stay upset. She tried to glare at him. But she couldn't. She had never been able to stay upset with Ryan for very long. Even before she had realized that she had developed feelings for him. There was just something about him that made it impossible for her unable to stay mad. So with a sigh, she stepped back down one stair so that they were eye level.
"You made a suggestive comment, and then avoided looking at me for the rest of the afternoon. Even when you pulled me into your lap to put us in the same position as the other night, again, you didn't actually look at me." Hope said with a frown.
"Because the second I made that comment, I regretted saying it, Hope. I was embarrassed, and I couldn't look at you." Ryan replied with a sigh.
"You could have pulled me aside when we came inside and told me that. Instead of basically half avoiding me all afternoon." Hope whispered.
"I'm sorry, Hope." Ryan said as he stepped up onto the stair that she was standing on and leaned against the banister while pulling her to him. "I hate making you upset, yet I've unintentionally done it twice today." He said as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Can you forgive me, Princess?" He muttered.
"Of course I forgive you, Ry." Hope said as she tilted her head back to look up at him.
"Will you come watch the rest of the movie with us?" Ryan asked.
"I'm exhausted, and I really just want to go to bed. It's been a whirlwind weekend." Hope replied with a sigh.
"Do you want company until you fall asleep?"
"Yes please."
"Go upstairs and get ready for bed, and I'll let the others know."
With a nod, Hope headed upstairs and Ryan watched her walk away from him with a sigh. They weren't dating, she had cleared the up for him the night before, but he felt like, at this point, it would just be a formality to ask her to be his girlfriend. But it was a formality that Hope clearly wanted. She wanted that semi-traditional step of being asked to each other's boyfriend and girlfriend. She wanted that title officially. But watching her walk up the stairs, Ryan still didn't feel like he deserved to be her boyfriend. She was the best thing in his life, and he had already made her upset twice in one day. How was he going to keep her happy if they started dating if he couldn't even last a day without having said or done something that made her upset? With a groan, Ryan ran his hands over his face once he heard Hope's bedroom click shut behind her and turned to the living room, only to find their friends standing in the doorway.
"We heard pretty much everything." Kaleb said as he rested an arm on Lizzie's shoulder.
"Way to sugar coat it, Kaleb." Ryan commented dryly.
"Ryan, you know that Hope has never been able to stay mad at you for an extended period of time, right?" Josie asked.
"She hasn't?"
"No, she hasn't. She's tried. But it never lasts. I think the longest time was clocked at... what would you say, Liz? An hour?" Josie questioned, turning to her sister.
"Yep. An hour is her longest time of being mad at you. She's frustrated over you pretty much 24/7, but... OW! What the hell, Jo?"
"Stop talking, Liz. Right. Now." Josie warned.
"Right, sorry." Lizzie mumbled.
"The point is Ryan; you would have to do something extremely horrible to get Hope to not forgive you. Saying one inappropriate comment that you instantly regretted saying, and then being too embarrassed to tell her that, that's nothing." MG explained.
"Well, doing something extremely horrible, or just acting your brother, that would make her not forgive you, too." Lizzie commented. "OW! Why did you hit me that time?" She asked, glaring at her twin.
"Stop. Talking." Josie repeated.
"Go be with your girl." Kaleb said over his shoulder as he turned Lizzie back towards the living room and guided her back to the couch that they had commandeered.
"Yeah, we'll see if Klaus can drive us all home." Josie said as she took MG's hand in hers.
With a nod at his friends' retreating backs, Ryan took the stairs two at a time to reach the landing and then knocked softly on Hope's door. She opened it almost instantly, and when she did, Ryan's breath caught in her throat. She was wearing an overly large t-shirt that fell to mid-thigh... and it had been one of his. Specifically one that he had thought he had lost on one of his family's very rare vacations. Seeing Hope wearing it, and guessing she wasn't necessarily wearing anything underneath it, it was a huge turn on and Ryan was pulling her in for a kiss. Hope jumped up into Ryan's arms and wrapped her legs around his waist and Ryan walked the short distance to her bed. When they landed on the bed, Ryan ran his hands slowly up Hope's thighs under the hem of the shirt and had to curse mentally to himself when his suspicions were confirmed of her not wearing anything underneath. When he went to push the shirt up her stomach, Hope's hands fell on top of Ryan's and stilled his movements.
"Not tonight. I'm too tired to do anything more than kiss you right now." Hope said.
"Okay. But I have to tell you... I thought I lost this shirt on a family vacation. How do you have it?" Ryan asked.
"You left it here after my birthday party last year. Are you mad that I kept it?"
"Absolutely not. Just glad that it's being worn by the prettiest girl I know."
"Good, because I had no intention of giving it back now."
With a smirk, Ryan pressed his lips to Hope's one last time before pulling the covers back on her bed so that she could slide under them. Once she was situated, Ryan draped his arm over Hope's waist and held her close. But Hope wasn't having that. Moving over, Hope lifted the covers and gave Ryan a pointed look. Not wanting to risk upsetting her once again, Ryan slid under the covers and pulled her close. With a kiss to her forehead, both of them were asleep within minutes.