Secrecy (Hosie)

Part 8: Passion

Hope spends the early part of the day helping her aunt pack her things, sending her off early in the afternoon. She expects to have the house to herself for a few weeks, which is a little bittersweet. Hope loves being around the family she has left, but she also loves having time to herself during the week and having her friends over on the weekends.

Remembering she has to be back at the Salvatore School soon to spar with Dr. Saltzman, she gets dressed in some of her workout clothes before getting in her car to make her way there. Josie said if she was impressed by Hope's training, they could go out to dinner during the week sometime, and that was motivation enough for her to bring her A-game. Arriving at the school a little earlier than anticipated, she tries to find Josie before heading to the dock. She asks a student where she could find her, being told that she was in a classroom, working on some sort of project for Ancient Incantation class. Hope makes her way to the classroom, opening the door to reveal Josie running her hands through her hair in frustration, "Project not going well?"

Josie turns around and immediately feels the stress she was previously feeling leave her body. She grins widely as Hope takes a seat next to her. "I've been working on this healing gel for hours now. I'm not sure what I did wrong..." Hope looks over the items on the table: the spellbook, the gel, herbs, chemicals, a potted plant. Josie watches as the wheels begin to turn in the other girl's head.

Hope reaches to touch the plant, "Any reason you chose this particular plant?" Hope turns her head to look into Josie's eyes.

"Well the spell was written in an ancient language, but I think this is what it translated to. It's Camphor," Josie looks back at the page in the book, brows furrowed in confusion. She honestly has no idea what she's looking at.

Hope follows her eyes, reading over the spell. She recognizes the language as Somerian, chuckling as she reads over the words, "Here..." Hope waves her hand over the plant, Josie looks confused when it turns into a completely different plant. She looks at Hope, silently asking for an explanation, "The plant you need is Kandahar root. Easy fix." Josie tilts her head, wondering where Hope learned to read whatever language this is. Hope practically reads her mind, "One of my aunts taught me almost everything I know about magic. She grew up learning spells like this, so I guess I kind of picked up a few things over the years." Hope shrugs as if it wasn't impressive at all. Josie admires how humble Hope always seems to be about her magic.

Josie nods her head. She'd been wondering if anyone else in Hope's family practiced magic. That answers that question. "Okay, let me try again." She mixes the herbs and chemicals again, this time adding the root instead. She does the incantation perfectly. The gel steams up for a moment. When the steam is gone, Josie looks to Hope, "Mind if I test it out?" Hope shakes her head before doing her own nonverbal spell to stop her supernatural healing. Josie makes a small cut on Hope's cheek. She puts a generous amount of the gel on her index finger, scooting closer to Hope. She places one hand just above Hope's knee to steady herself.. Hope is observing every detail of Josie up-close as she gently rubs the gel onto the cut she made, smiling proudly when the cut disappears. Josie then glances up, locking eyes with Hope. Her breath catches in her lungs, realizing how close she'd gotten the girl, but she doesn't pull away. She watches as blue eyes dip down, gliding over her full lips. Josie does the same when Hope lifts a hand, running it through the hair framing Josie's face. Hope's eyes look back up meeting Josie's, silently asking for permission before doing what she's wanted to do for a while now. Instead of answering verbally, Josie leans forward, catching Hope's lips with her own.

There's barely any contact at first, a simple brush of lips, just enough to give both of the girls chills down their spines. Then Hope closes the little space between them, fully capturing Josie's lips. It isn't rushed or messy, instead it's short and full of passion. Josie can feel the tension between them from the past week reach a peak. She slowly peels herself from Hope's lips, only to crave the feeling again. She's already lost the breath from her lungs, the thoughts from her mind, the control of her body...the only thing she's aware of is Hope and her desire to be as close to the girl as possible. It's that desire that pushes Josie forward again, with more intensity than before. A single kiss turns into an abundance, a tug of war between mouths. Hope swipes her tongue across Josie's bottom lip, which Josie eagerly responds to by putting a little space between her lips. There's no fight for dominance, both girls' emotions equally matched–a balance that neither has ever felt before. Hope finds herself standing, lifting Josie with her and placing her on the table as they continue to map each other's mouths. Josie reaches back pushing the stuff she was so concentrated on before to the side. The two lose track of time in the kiss, which grows more and more heated by the second. Josie wraps her arms around Hope's neck, Hope's hands firm on her waist, body positioned between her legs. As Josie tangles her hands in Hope's hair, there's suddenly a sound, the door to the classroom swinging open. Both of the girls quickly pull away from each other, out of breath and dazed. They look over toward the door as it closes behind none other than Lizzie Saltzman, her jaw practically to the floor and eyes widened, "Josette Saltzman! When were you planning to tell me about this?"

Josie is sure her face is burning red at this point. She takes a deep breath, getting down from the table and straightening out her clothes, "Lizzie, it literally just happened okay." She didn't want Lizzie to think she was keeping secrets. Those have never ended well for the twins' relationship.

Lizzie raises an eyebrow at the two of them, arms folding across her chest, "Uh-huh. Well I'm so sorry to interrupt, but dad's looking for you, Hope. I can go let him know you're in here if you want..." She smirks as Hope steps away from her sister.

The auburn haired girl's cheeks are tinted a light shade of pink, trying to regain control and her composure.

Hope clears her throat, "You know what? It's fine, I was just about to head out there anyway..." She glances at Josie, "See you out there?"

Josie nods reassuringly and Hope makes her way past Lizzie and out the door. Both twins follow her actions with their eyes, Lizzie turning her gaze toward her sister once the older girl is out of the room, "Tell me everything, sister."
________________

Josie sits with Lizzie near the edge of the woods, facing toward the dock where Hope and their father are having their sparring session. Josie informs Lizzie of the tension she's been feeling between herself and Hope. She tells her about the constant flirting, the near-kiss in the pool.

"I mean, I knew you were drooling over her all the time, but I didn't expect you to actually make a move on the girl." Lizzie teases her. Josie's grateful that her sister isn't mad that she hadn't told her about her crush sooner, it makes all of this a lot easier.

"As a matter of fact, I asked her to go to dinner with me...if she impresses me today with her sparring." Josie hasn't peeled her eyes from the dock, watching Hope as she dodges every swing and jab. She really is impressive.

Lizzie looks out toward the dock, "Well looks like your incentive is working, she hasn't taken a single hit from dad yet." Josie smiles, knowing that Hope had definitely earned herself some praise, and a date to go along with it.

She can see Hope casually having a conversation as she moves her body around, dodging left and right. They've been training for a good bit of time now, and Josie wonders how Hope hasn't tired herself out. Her dad's energy has visibly diminished since they started.

Down at the docks, Alaric and Hope continue taking swings at each other, none of Alaric's make a landing as several of Hope's make an impact. The two have been talking the whole time as they fought, Alaric asking about her aunt leaving, football starting, her feelings on Raf enrolling at his school. They actually shared a decent conversation. "Are you ready to call it a day?" He asks as he takes another swing– blocked once again.

Hope uses a bit more strength to force the stick from Dr. Saltzman's hands, dropping it to the ground. She uses her momentum to knock Alaric off his feet, sending him to the ground too. She does a backflip, landing with her knee pushed to his chest, successfully pinning him to the ground, "Sure. You're getting a little old for me to be breaking your human bones, you know?" She brags, standing up and reaching a hand out to help him up from the ground. He takes it, making his way back up to his feet.

"Cheater." Hope just smirks as she grabs her water bottle.
"I need to cancel training on Wednesday afternoon, got plans."  She begins to walk back up toward the school, her eyes landing on Josie and Lizzie, who were clearly watching the entire time.

"Care to enlighten me?" He asks in response. Since her family is all out of town, he wants her to know that he is still looking out for her too.

"Don't worry about it." She continues her walk, making her way to the twins. She addresses Josie immediately, the smirk still plastered across her face, confidence oozing from her voice, "So I'll see you Wednesday?" She knows Josie was impressed, she can tell by the look on her face.

Josie's mouth is gaping, and she slowly nods. Lizzie answers for her, "That's definitely a 'yes.' And you even earned yourself some praise from me. Well done, Marshall."

"Then my work here is done." She winks at Josie before making her way to her car, leaving the Salvatore School until Wednesday when she'll pick Josie up for their date.