sleeping beauty [the originals]

lviii.

Isla sat on her hotel bed, going through pages and pages of the grimoires. She needed to find something, anything on prison worlds. She assumed since her mother had met the Gemini coven, she would have known something. But after looking through them all night and finding nothing, she thought a walk would clear her head. She locked the door to her room and headed to the lobby of the hotel.

As she passed by the front desk, she briefly noticed someone checking in. Thinking nothing of it, she headed for the front door. She was about to open the door when she heard a familiar voice. Is that who I think it is? She stopped in her tracks, turning around. As she got a better look at the person checking in, her jaw dropped.

"Oh my god." She muttered. It was him. "Kai?" It was as if time stood still. Their every interaction from 1990 replayed through her mind. She shook her head to get back in the moment. Now was not the time for reminiscing. The man at the desk heard her and turned around. He looked just as shocked to see her.

"Isla? Isla Mikaelson? Is that really you?" Isla's heart skipped a beat.

"Yeah, it's me." The man smiled, chuckling.

"Wow. You're alive, and... pretty much the same as when I last saw you." Kai said the last sentence with a confused expression on his face. Isla folded her arms, smiling.

"You're one to talk. You don't look that much different. A little older, maybe, but not too much." He chuckled.

"How did you end up here, in McKinley, Virginia? Last time I saw you was in Oregon." Isla nodded, unsure of how to word the situation. She wasn't sure how he'd react to her telling him Damon Salvatore asked her to come up here to free Bonnie Bennett from the prison world the two shared with him. She had a feeling it wouldn't go well.

"Yeah, I owe a friend a favor. Long story, like really long, but basically. I'm here for a little while. What about you? Why are you here?" He looked around, less happy for a moment before the smile returned.

"Well I always wanted to visit a small town in Virginia." He said with mock enthusiasm. The blonde laughed. "You want to grab a drink and catch up?" Kai asked. Isla thought about it. A part of her was screaming at her to listen to what Jo said at Thanksgiving. Getting drinks with a man who had been locked in a prison world for killing his siblings was probably a bad idea. But on the other hand, every member of her family has killed hundreds of people over the last thousand years and Klaus had daggered/killed every other person in the Mikaelson family besides Isla. It would be a bit hypocritical of her to judge him for one set of murders. 

And another part of her couldn't stop thinking about how four years and twenty years in a prison world had left him looking very good. Isla sighed, nodding enthusiastically. 

"Sounds like fun." She replied. Kai grinned.

"Great, well let me just get my stuff up into my room and I'll meet you back down here in five minutes." Isla nodded, watching him carry a backpack into the elevator. With nothing else to do but wait, she sat down in one of the chairs in the lobby. Should she tell Damon about this? Why was Kai here, in the same town as three of his siblings? Was that a coincidence or was he here to finish what he started back in 1994? She didn't have too much time to think about it because before she knew it, there he was, getting off the elevator.

"You ready?" She asked, standing up. Kai nodded and went over to hold the front door open for her. Isla chuckled at this, leaving the building. As they walked away from the hotel, she tried to think about where to go. She probably should avoid the bar where Liv works, as it's probably not a good idea for the curly blonde witch to see her with Kai. Luckily, there were plenty of other bars, especially one on the other side of town where no one she knew went.

Perfect. That's where they would go. She unlocked her car and they both got in. It was best to take a car so that they didn't accidentally walk by Elena or Damon. Isla knew that it was probably not a good thing that she was hiding from the people she came here to help, but seeing Kai again brought up feelings she thought disappeared back when Esther took away her memories. It felt good, and Isla wanted to keep that feeling for as long as she could.