Memory-

Two years later I was ten and he was turning 13 in a few days.

I had told him to meet me at the rock, it was near the waterfall which was my favorite place. There was even an old shack out here that we would play in. Never house though, I didn't care much for that game, and he was a boy so I don't think he did either.

I tiptoed carefully around brush and twigs, careful to not snap anything to alert him to my presence. I snuck up behind him and decided to yell in his ear.

"Happy Birthday Finnegan!" I shouted as loud as I could without being too loud to draw anyone out here.

He didn't even jump, "Oh hey Sage." he said glumly.

"Why do you sound so sad?" I ask as I take up a seat next to him.

"Because I can't play with you anymore."

"Why not?" I can't seem to understand what he means, does he not want to be my friend anymore?

"Because I am to be a man in a few days, and it is not good for me to associate myself with a girl. Unless I am going to court and marry her."
"Nobody knows we come out here, so why can't we still be friends?" My mood is starting to sour as well, I don't want to loose my friend.

"Because Niklaus knows, and he is threatening to tell father that I am friends with a gypsy girl, and then I will be in trouble. Father won't trust me with anything ever again!"

"But he wouldn't really-" he cuts me off, "Yes he would! Don't you understand? I don't want to be your friend anymore! Just leave me alone!" he nearly shouts and me before getting up and storming away from me. Leaving me all alone in the forest.

The next time he spoke to me was six full years later, when I was about to turn 16 and was allowed at the firelight dance, where I would eventually be showed off as If I was some sort of object a man could buy.

I smoothed my dress out again only to have my mother glare at me for seeming uncomfortable. "Stop that." she hissed, "You have to seem impassive to anything except what your partner says to you. He is the only thing that will matter and we need to display you as a good match, you are already a disgrace with your hair and stubbornness."

I nod, not wanting to cause a scene. I had almost always felt that my mother hated or resented me. Wanting a distraction from the pain of that undesirable fact I looked toward the area where the people would dance and hoped against hope that at least a respectable man would ask me to dance.

As I glanced about my eyes landed on my old friend, Finnegan Mikaelson. He had grown into his looks, he was always handsome, but he continued to look even more handsome as time went on if possible. I was becoming one of those useless girls with a crush on a boy who wouldn't even spare them a moment or glance, oh how I hated it. But I was far beyond hope, and I was trying not to stare longingly at him, laughing with a group of girls. They were my half sisters, I was not welcome in my fathers house because I was born of his gypsy wife and not his normal wife. I was seen as dirt, and not a real daughter in his eyes, just another new servant. Eventually, if I was not married off by then, I would be signed away with one of them. The first to be wed, I would be their maidservant and I dearly hoped none of those skanky whore girls got their claws into my Finnegan. They didn't deserve him, he was a true gentleman, and always tried to do right by everyone.

All of the sudden he seemed to sense my eyes on him and turned to look at me, his dark eyes piercing my very soul and I held my breath. Hoping against hope that he would come and ask me to dance, or even speak to me like he had when we were children, Oh I'm sure he has forgotten about that.

I am taken aback as he waves off my half-sisters and begins to walk towards me. I stand up straighter, if even possible, and raise my chin slightly to show elegance and dignity.

Out of the corner of my eye I see my mother's eyes widen slightly and she looks at him with approval before stepping away, towards father and his whore daughters. I couldn't believe he didn't notice them sneaking around and sleeping with men, most of them were awful. But he still thought I'd done those things, when I hadn't. I was an outcast by birth, and the only person who'd really bothered to talk to me and not insult me had been Finnegan.

He smirked at me slightly before taking my hand and bowing slightly to kiss the back of it. "Now, I don't believe we've met before. I'm Finnegan Mikaelson, and what name has been bestowed upon a beauty such as yourself?"

"Sage, Sage O'Riley." I breath, watching for a hint of recognition , any at all but am slightly disappointed when I don't find any.

"Well, Miss O'Riley would you care to dance?" he smiled and offered me his arm, which I took almost immediately.

I could see my father watching me, his face reddening with every step I took on the arm of Finnegan Mikaelson.

As I looked at my father, I could see his anger beginning to simmer down, maybe realizing he could fetch a higher price for me if Finnegan Mikaelson wanted me than he would if he simply tacked me on with one of his other daughters.

Suddenly the music began and I was pulled flush against Finnegan's chest, I could feel my cheeks redden ever so slightly and I willed it to stop. I looked up slightly to see him smiling down at me, "I've missed you Red." he whispers and I can't help but grin up at him, "I've missed you too Brit. He'd given me the nickname because of my fiery red hair, and I'd given him his because he said that his father claimed his family had come from some place called Britain. Whatever that was, I guess it was the Old World our parents always talked about.

"Why did you ignore me all these years?" I was bursting with questions, and this, I think, was the one I wanted an answer to the most.

"Well, Red, I didn't want to hurt you. Just by me being around you would not only threaten your reputation, but my father would have eventually found out about our friendship and I don't want to even imagine what he would have done to us if he'd found out."

I frowned, "You never cared before, why then?"

"You ask a lot of questions." he said with a laugh, "And you always find a way to make me forget that you never answered them." I laugh back.

And I wanted this to never end, to just keep dancing the night away and continue to banter heartily back and forth just like we would when we had been children. I finally felt happy again, at least for the rest of the night I hoped.