"Wait, I thought you graduated a year before us?" Matt was sitting on her bed as he watched her put on her makeup. Hope sighed and threw down her eyeliner, grabbing a remover wipe.
"Yes, I was supposed to, but that was before my dad whisked me off into the woods and locked me in a metaphorical tower." She said, her chest tightening at the mention of her father. It's been two months since the sacrifice, since her father had tied his life force to Elena so that she would live, since Aunt Jenna was turned and also killed in the sacrifice, since she had Caroline compel her family to forget about her so she could remain in Mystic Falls and protect Elena. Elena was busy trying to track down Stefan, who had traded ten years of his life in servitude for Klaus for the cure to werewolf bites. Hope, on the other hand, has been desperately trying to gain some semblance of a normal life. Tonight was Senior Prank night at the high school, and she had let Caroline talk her into going.
"Do you think he knew that I loved him?" She asked quietly after she had wiped all of the makeup from her face. She threw the wipe away and turned around, looking at Matt as he moved from the bed and over to her. He pulled her into a hug and held her close.
"Of course he did." She wrapped her arms around his waist and sighed.
"I said those awful things to him. I didn't even get to-" He pulled back from her, his hands on her shoulders.
"Hope, your dad loved you, and he knew you loved him." She nodded and pulled away from him. She went to pick up the eyeliner to try again but he grabbed her hand.
"Don't, you look better without it." She rolled her eyes and shoved him away from her. She grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder. She briefly looked into the mirror and couldn't help smiling at herself. She wore a pair of black high waisted shorts, an old Iron Maiden shirt tucked into them and a long, grey knit cardigan that hit the back of her thighs. This time last year she was hiding behind hoodies and yoga pants. Now, she wore what she wanted and she didn't give damn that her thighs touched and when she sat down they dimpled a little bit. She didn't care that her stomach wasn't flat, or anything like that because she felt strong. That's all that mattered to her now. She pulled her curls up into a bun on top of her head, pulling down tendrils to give it a softer look. While admiring herself, because for the longest time she couldn't even look her reflection in the eyes, Matt smiled at the sight before him. A beautiful, confident Hope that had absolutely no idea that every time she looked at him with her sea-glass green eyes his heart constricted in his chest. He had never known this intensity before, and it baffled him. It was like longing after Elena, but ten times worse. It was like watching Caroline talk to everyone around him and avoid his eyes, but magnified to an almost unbearable degree. His feelings were so strong for her that it scared him, and so he didn't act on them. He kept his mouth closed and he handed her compliments wrapped up in friendship because it was the closest he could get.
"Okay, so dinner at that really good burger place in Grove Hill, and then you have football workouts." She said as she turned to him, that bright smile still on her lips. He nodded, unable to keep a grin off his own face.
"Yeah, gotta work off all those fries." He followed her out of the room and down the hall. She laughed and raised an eyebrow.
"And all that ketchup you drench them in. It still freaks me out that you eat them like that, honestly." She said as she waved to Alaric on the couch. He nodded to the older man and followed her to his truck, wanting to ask if they could take her beautiful Impala, but refraining. He opened her car door and bowed.
"Thank you kind sir." She laughed and clambered in. Matt smiled and quickly got into the drivers seat and started the car. Hope was already reaching for the cord to hook up her phone, shades already covering her eyes.
"So, 2010 or 199...4?"
Hope watched as Elena went to go mess with Ric's classroom and Matt stood adorably sheepish in the doorway. She smiled as she, Bonnie, and Matt walked towards the pool, arms full of toilet paper and minds full of strategy.
Once in the pool, they threw toilet paper up into the rafters of the ceiling and watched as the tissue sailed through them and landed in the pool or on the other side of the room. They talked and laughed, giddy on the rebellious feel in the air.
"It's crazy to think that two summers ago we were life guarding at the pool, and it was just Hope that was supposed to be going into her senior year." Matt said after a short silence, and Hope's heart sank a little at his words. Everything had changed so quickly, and she wasn't sure any of her friends would even recognize her now, least of all Marcus.
"Yeah, I don't even talk to people from home anymore." Nobody knew what she did except for Caroline, and she had made the blonde vampire swear on Matt Smith's life that she would never tell a soul about it.
"What about Marcus? Is he still trying to talk to you?" Bonnie asked, and Matt tried to keep his body language relaxed as Hope laughed mirthlessly and picked invisible lint off her sleeve.
"Well, he kept calling me and leaving me messages, asking to see me. I don't...I can't be with him. It doesn't feel right anymore. Anyways, I got Jeremy to act like he was my boyfriend one time and he hasn't called me since." She smiled softly at the memory and Matt tried to keep the smirk off his face as he threw another roll of toilet paper into the air.
"Okay, I'm going to go grab some more rolls, we're running low." The two girls watched him go.
"So, how are you on the Matt front?" Hope's cheeks blushed and she laughed nervously.
"Bonnie, I told you about that after one night of too much wine and spellwork. There's nothing going on between us, even if I wanted-"
"You so want it."
"Hush! Even if I did, it would never happen." Bonnie scoffed and looked at her friend. She had grown so much since finding out about her powers, they both had, but Hope still...doubted herself in ways that infuriated Bonnie. Sure, Hope wasn't a runway model, but she was still absolutely gorgeous and kind, passionate, and clever. And obviously blind for not seeing the way Matt looks at her as if the sun rose and set on her shoulders.
"Please, Matt is so into you he's-" Bonnie laughed as Hope covered her mouth, the blush deepening on her cheeks.
"Bonnie Bennett, please keep your dirty jokes to yourself!" Hope cried.
"Bonnie's making dirty jokes?" Matt said as he entered the pool again. Hope jumped away from Bonnie and busied herself with taking the rolls of tissue away from him and wrapping the lifeguard's chair up. They worked in silence for a while before the new rolls, too, were gone.
"Let's head into the gym, see if they need anymore people elsewhere." They left and were walking down the halls when Matt wrapped an arm around Hope's shoulders and she smiled, her and Bonnie's earlier conversation returning to the forefront of her mind. Was there a possibility that maybe, just maybe...? She shook her head. Even if he was into her, she could never go there. She would be breaking about a hundred girl code rules, both her sister and her best friend had dated him, and it didn't matter that his eyes were as blue as the sky and that he made her feel like she could conquer the whole world, because even if Caroline was dating Tyler...she couldn't do that to either of them. It would be weird.
They walked into the gym, smiling, before seeing what was actually going down. Hope's stomach dropped and she immediately shifted into hunter mode, moving in front of Matt as her eyes settled on Klaus, who had just shoved Elena into the arms of a tall, blonde, girl.
"Bonnie! Hope! No!" Hope snapped her fingers and every single bone in the vampire's hand that was clutching Elena broke and the sisters met each other, Hope bringing Elena behind her. The blonde girl snarled at her and bared her fangs, and faster than any vampire Hope had ever seen, sank her fangs into Hope's shoulder. She cried out and shoved the vampire off of her, throwing her magic into a punch that broke the vamp's nose.
"ENOUGH!" Klaus bellowed. The blonde girl wiped the blood off her mouth and Hope held a hand to her wound. Klaus watched her with calculating eyes, and Hope's stomach plunged. Did he know? Did he know about her being a necromancer? Or did he just think her a powerful witch?
"Anyone who can get the drop on Bekah is alright in my books. We'll talk more later love, but right now I have a hybrid problem that requires my immediate attention." He turned back to Bonnie, who jutted her chin up at him in defiance, moving in front of Matt, who stared in horror at the blood drenching Hope's shoulder. Elena tutted over the wound and Hope waved her off, holding her hand to the bleeding mess but keeping her stance ready, weight shifting to the balls of her feet as she readied for a fight.
"Let's make this simple. Every time I try to turn a werewolf into a hybrid, the process goes a bit awry. It's quite terrible, honestly, so here's what your going to do. You, and you delicious nameless friend, are going to find a way to help me make my hybrids." He bit his wrist and shoved it into Tyler's mouth briefly before snapping his neck, the crack echoing through the gym. Hope held back a cry as she watched her friend drop. "Better make it quick." Klaus said as he shooed them along. Hope pried Elena's hands off her arm.
"I'll be fine." She promised her, kissing her cheek before hurrying after Bonnie. She caught up to them as they hurried down the hall. Matt turned to her and stopped, trying to look at her neck.
"Oh my God, are you okay?" She pushed his hands away and turned to Bonnie.
"What's the plan." Her voice was hard.
"I don't know, the curse is a thousand years old and my grimoires don't go back that far." Bonnie said, her voice breathy and panicked as she ran a hand through her hair and bit her lip. Tears sparkled in her eyes and Hope tried not think of the sickening snap that Tyler's neck had made. She swallowed as she tried to think of what they could do when Matt offered a solution.
"Can't you just ask those dead witches?" Bonnie perked up at that.
"Yeah, I can try." Bonnie closed her eyes. Hope turned to Matt and jabbed a thumb in the direction behind her.
"Okay, I always keep a grimoire or two on me, my bag's in Alaric's room. Maybe there's something in there." She hurried off before either of them replied, tracing her steps back into the history classroom, summoning the book with a snap of her fingers and cracking it open on the teacher's desk. She thumbed through it, trying to get a read on the date, but couldn't find one. She closed her eyes, raised her hands over the books, and chanted. She hurried the flurry of pages and soon the back cover of the book flapped down, and she knew that there was nothing the grimoire. She cursed and started to look through it again, slowing down, hoping that her magic had just missed something that she might be able to connect with the damned curse.
A few minutes passed and she had nothing. She kicked a desk in frustration and looked up just in time to see Bonnie blur past. Hope darted out and followed her.
"What's going on?" Bonnie didn't stop as she sprinted faster, only one word leaving her lips.
"Matt!" Hope asked no more questions as she pushed herself faster, dread spiking her heart as she followed Bonnie to the pool, and spreading down into her stomach as they both exploded into the pool house, Bonnie running straight for the edge and diving in. Hope's heart froze at the sight under the water.
Matt floated lifelessly at the bottom of the pool, anchored down by weights. Words stuck in her throat as Bonnie kicked to the surface, and with shaky hands controlled the water to propel both of them onto the side of the pool in front of Hope, drenching her in the process. She dropped to her knees beside Matt, her powers building inside of her, her eyes already shining with an electric blue, the same color of the water, the same color of Matt's eyes. Bonnie watched in awe as a repeat of what happened at the Grill the day Hope saved Jeremy played out in front of, except the color was blue. The water around them began to run red from Hope's bleeding shoulder, but the girl paid it no attention as her glowing, unseeing eyes searched the Other Side.
Hope's heart pounded as she searched the souls of the Other Side, her mind concentrating on a pulsing blue light freshly crossed over. Frantic, she turned in circles as she searched for it, her palms sweating and her throat aching at the attempts to keep the sobs at bay. Matt, she thought, please, where are you? I don't have that much time. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted him. She surged through the crowd, pushing souls aside as she bounded towards him.
"Matt!" She called, her body colliding with his as he turned towards her, his arms catching her as she steadied herself. She could barely see the soul right behind him, a dark mahogany color that barely registered in her brain, as she grabbed the tops of his arms and began to chant.
Hope's eyes were closed as she soundlessly chanted, Bonnie watching in awe as the electric blue light swallowed her two friends in a light so bright it burned her eyes, and then it receded until it circled Matt's head, and then sank into his skin. He didn't move for a second, and Bonnie's heart sank as she readied herself to mourn for yet another person, but Matt coughed and rolled onto his side, water spilling from his mouth.
Hope heaved a great sob as Matt took shaky breaths. He lifted his head, a small smile on his lips, and she could think of nothing else, that he was alive and that he had been dead. She had to bring Matt back from the dead, her Matt. Her mind went blank and she did the only thing she could think to do.
She surged forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, collapsing against him as their lips met in a kiss so searing, so urgent, that she thought that any kiss to follow would never be able to compare. He wrapped himself around her, grateful to be alive and grateful to feel her against him, warm and humming into his mouth as he kissed her with a reverence akin to worship.
Dying had made him feel so alive.
Can you say FINALLY?
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Much love to all!