SK found himself blushing. This was embarrassing and awkward. Hope smirking too much did not help matters and so he decided to do the next best thing. He lied down on his bed.

He closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, but he could not. He tried to open his left eye slightly and found Hope looking at him with the same smirk plastered on his face. He closed his left eye immediately and rolled on his bed all night.

Meanwhile, Hope was feeling deeply conflicted. While the admission from SK, which was admittedly indirect, made her feel extremely happy, the albatross of warning from Elijah and Landon actually helping his uncle made her guilty. She found herself unable to even pretend to sleep like SK. His heartbeat was elevated, so she knew that he was obviously pretending. Plus, she caught him slightly opening his left eye, trying to look at her.

After about 2-3 hours, his heartbeat was slower than usual, which meant he had slept.

"Josie. Josie," Hope hissed while stirring the siphon.

"What?!" Josie whined as she rubbed her eyes.

"We need to talk." Hope whispered.

"Now? It's the middle of the night." Josie closed her eyes as she tried to sleep again.

"Josie!" Hope whisper-yelled.

"Fine! Also, why are you whispering?" Josie asked Hope.

"Didn't want to wake up SK," Hope replied.

Josie found SK asleep on his bed and Hope with reddened cheeks. She got a fair idea that something must have happened between both of them.

"Yes, we do," Josie frowned.

Hope smiled and then the witch went downstairs along with the tribrid. Both of them went to the part of the campus that was filled with trees and greenery.

"Hope, what was worth waking me up in the middle of the night?" Josie had a weary tone in her voice, like any person who was woken up from deep sleep.

"Josie, this is serious. My uncle is alive again. Landon resurrected him. I'm worried about what might have happened to him. Ken, The Hollow and Katherine are planning something very sinister in limbo and SK just admitted that he loves me," Hope panted after her long rambling.

"Hope! Slow Down! There's a lot to unpack here. Landon? Ken?" Josie's face suddenly dropped before asking, "And SK?"

"Yes. There's a lot. I have an important doubt. You have that weapon safe, right?" Hope asked Josie.

"Yes. It is safe in..." Hope interrupted Josie before she could complete.

"No, No, Josie! Don't tell me. Just keep it safe. Because Ken might come looking for it"

"Alright Hope. Also Landon?"

"Well, you said you came to Europe to find a way to make me restore my humanity but never came back to Mystic Falls..." Hope cleared her throat as Josie furrowed her brows after which she continued "...After dying, Landon who went to supernatural purgatory AKA limbo, became the ferryman. Being the ferryman, he resurrected my uncle who gave me the message on Ken."

"Who's Ken?" Josie asked again.

"You really should have stayed," Hope sighed and asked, "Did Lizzie or Caroline never talk with you about Ken?"

"They didn't" Josie frowned in confusion.

"Makes sense. They just didn't want you to worry. Ken was this God, I mean a literal God who wanted to end me only for reasons he knew, but we killed him. If he's causing troubles in limbo, we need to be prepared for the possibility of him coming back from the dead," Hope explained.

"So," Josie asked with a heavy heart, but masked it with a smile.

"So" Hope had a crooked smile on her face.

"You told me something about SK..." Josie couldn't complete the sentence as her own heart broke, but she grinned as she was happy for Hope.

"Well, he told me that he loved me." Hope rolled her eyes. "Not directly but in his own way"

"I'm happy for you Hope"

"Thanks Josie. Also, what happened to you and Finch?" Hope asked.

"Well, before coming here, I broke up with her" Josie's shoulders drooped and her face dropped.

While she liked all others like Penelope, Finch, Jade and even Landon to a certain extent, being here alone in London gave her a much needed perspective in life that she actually loved Hope since the first time she saw the tribrid in school. She could have confessed it all during that one time. Instead, she set fire to Hope's cabin because she gay-panicked, which resulted in a fractured relationship between Lizzie, her younger sister and Hope. While they settled their differences, she always felt guilty about Hope having to lose the painting she did with her dead father. Even Hope forgave her, but Josie still hadn't forgiven herself and in a way still always felt that she did not deserve Hope's love and even her friendship.

"Josie, look at me gloating," Hope admonished herself.

"No, Hope, I'm sorry for being a drama queen. I feel like Lizzie now," Josie chuckled while wiping a stray tear drop from her left eye.

"Ok, Josie, would you look at that? It's 3:30 AM already. I am going on my wolf run." With that, Hope changed herself into her wolf form.

There were so many things that happened on a single day and she had to release her bottled up emotions. So, she ran as she felt the cool morning breeze over her face. While the initial process of turning herself into a wolf would be very painful for her as she has to break a lot of bones in her body, she would reach an almost bigger state of bliss as the feeling of running around a wolf is something which had been unmatchable for her other than falling in love.

"Hello, You"

The voice caught Hope off guard. It was from SK. What the hell was he doing here at this time? It was early by his standards.

"It's been a long time. How are you?" SK continued the greeting.

Hope wasn't sure how to react. Instead of disappearing like the last time this encounter happened, she just froze.

SK smiled at the wolf. It's been weeks since she last saw the wolf. He knew it was the same wolf as the eyes were very familiar.

He found himself extending his hands towards the wolf's face. While he studied in kindergarten not to engage with strange animals, in his gut, he seemed to know that this wolf would not harm him.

But a voice suddenly snapped him out of his daze. Hope, meanwhile, came out of her entranced state and ran away in a swoosh as she mentally thanked Josie.

"Hi SK!" Josie grinned widely.

"Josie?! What are you doing here at this time?" SK asked.

"I could ask the same of you," Josie returned.

"Well, I couldn't sleep," SK confessed.

"Why may I ask?" Josie asked with a smirk.

"Heh..." He squirmed.

"You're Hope's friend and all..." He hesitated.

"Didn't we three agree together just yesterday that all of us were friends?"

"Yes, we did." SK affirmed and asked, "That reminds me, where is Hope?"

"I'm here," Hope announced as she came to stand near Josie with sweat beads glistening on her face in full black tracks and a black tee. It hugged her figure tightly with all the sweat.

SK averted his eyes from her body to look at her eyes. Her ocean blue eyes stared back at him intensely. He felt himself swallowing saliva in his throat. He scratched his head with his right hand as Hope adjusted her hair with a sweet smile.

He started hearing this background music from an 80s Tamil romantic song. Great! More signs of him going to the deep end and becoming a nut job!

"Do you hear that music, too?" SK asked both the girls.

"Yes, we do," they replied in unison.

He sighed but internally he was a bit disappointed, but he never knew why. As his hands landed on the right pocket of his tracksuit, he understood that this cellphone must have started playing the music by mistake.

He smiled awkwardly as he turned off the music.

After this, Hope and SK looked at each other intensely.

"Get a room, you two!" Josie's remarks snapped both of them out of their daze as Josie averted her face from both of them to wipe her tears.

"Josie, are you okay?" Hope asked with concern laced in her voice.

"No, I'm fine. Just some dirt fell into my eyes," Josie lied and smiled with her smudged eyes.

While Josie looked a little off, SK did what he does best and kept his thoughts to himself.

SK cleared his throat as he said, "Alright. I'm going to go back to my room"

And with that, he jogged back to their room.

"Hope, that was close." Josie remarked.

"I know this sounds corny, but it was almost like the world stopped and it was just the two of us there at that moment" Hope's face suddenly dropped as she continued, "But I don't think this feeling can last. With Ken, Hollow and Katherine coming, it is too dangerous for him to be involved with me."

Regardless of anything, Josie always wanted Hope to be happy, but the siphon can see that whatever the tribrid had planned was going to cause a lot of hurt.

"What are you gonna do?" Josie asked.

"I'm gonna compel him to forget about me," Hope said with tears threatening to drop out as she hugged Josie.

A/N: Search "Ilaiyaraja Sarvam BGM" and you'll get it if you're curious about the 80's Tamil romantic music. There are going to be some very dark, violent chapters with lot of deaths and handling sensitive issues in the future. I might have to change the rating to M if that was the case. Just requesting you to change your settings to allow M fics. Again, still there would absolutely be no smut. Just some innuendo. Let me know what you think of this chapter and making this fic M in general.