can you blame me for wanting a little bit more?

Rejection

"Higher!" Alaric yells when Hope's foot lands in his hand instead of his ribs.

Hope's foot lands on the ground, and she glares at her mentor. She knows where her kick was supposed to land. She faints an attack, before turning on her feet and landing a kick right where it's supposed to go. Alaric lands on the ground, clutching his ribs, clearly in pain but with a satisfied smile playing on his lips.

"See, I knew you could do it." The man says.

Hope rolls her eyes and moves closer to him. She offers him a hand to help him stand again, and he immediately takes it. The man stands but not without wincing.

"Are your training sessions always this harsh?" 

Both Alaric and Hope turn as soon as they hear Josie's voice. The brunette is walking closer to the training duo with a shy smile. Alaric smiles at his daughter, and Hope forces herself to look away from her soulmate.

"Good morning sweet heart." Alaric says before hugging his daughter.

"Mornin' dad." Josie scrunches her nose in disgust. "Ew, you're all sweaty."

"Sorry." He gave her a little smile. "Were you looking for me? Or…"

Josie's cheeks take a light pink color. "I agreed to meet up with Hope here last night." 

Alaric look between Josie and Hope, after a couple of seconds, his eyes land on Josie one last time.

"Of course, I'll be in my office, if you ever need me."

The man gives one last warning look to Hope before walking off towards the school. The Mikaelson girl takes a large sip from her water bottle before putting it back in her gym bag. It's only then that Josie dares to move a little closer.

"Thanks for last night. It was all kinds of perfect."

Hope smiles. "It was the least I could do. Do you wanna sit down with me?"

Josie nods, and then she follows Hope as the tribrid sits on the deck, her legs hovering above the water. As soon as they're both sitting, Josie's eyes fall on Hope. She suddenly remembers just where Hope's soul mark is situated, and she quickly tries to get a look at it. The tribrid is wearing a tank top and if Josie's lucky, maybe she could get a little look at it.

"I can show you my mark, if that's what you're looking for." Hope suggests with a playful smirk. 

Josie blushes hard and look away. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Hope's smirk turns into a soft smile before she pushes the part of her tank top that's covering her soul mark. "You can look if you want to. It's nothing special, just your name written in what is apparently your handwriting."

Josie hesitates, but then her curiosity gets the best of her. When her eyes land on the black ink on Hope's collarbone, they grow bigger. It almost felt unreal. Her name was tattooed on Hope Mikaelson's body. Hope was hers, and she was Hope's. 

Suddenly Hope's quickly covers the mark and lifts a hand to Josie's cheek. "Why are you crying?"

It's only when Hope's thumb gently wipes away her tear that Josie realizes that she's indeed crying. The emotions were just so overwhelming that the tears had started to spill without her realizing it. Josie smiles through her tears and shakes her head. She looks away and wipe her own tears away.

"I didn't mean to get emotional." Josie says, and it sounds a lot like an apology.

Hope nods and gives her a comforting smile. "It's okay."