can you blame me for wanting a little bit more?

The pain

"Josie, I'm not sure it's a good idea." Alaric says, looking between his daughter and Hope. 

"Yeah, this is a terrible idea." Hope says as she crosses her arms clearly not pleased.

Josie frowns. "Dad! You always said you'd train Lizzie and I if we're willing to train with Hope. Now I'm willing to train with Hope, so train me."

Hope rolls her eyes. "The situation changed, and I'm way too powerful to train with a human now."

Josie glares at Hope, so angry that the older girl refuses to spend time with her. Hope glares back, frustrated that Josie refuses to keep her distance. Alaric feels trapped between them. He wants his daughter to be happy, but he can't force Hope to be with Josie. 

"How about, we try today, and if it doesn't work, we don't do it again?"

"That's fine with me." Hope says with a sigh.

"Yeah, with me too, but only if you keep in mind that I never did this before." Josie says.

Alaric looks between the two girls, runs a tired hand over his face and sighs.

"Let's do this."

To everyone's surprise, Josie handles herself fine. She's a fast learner, she listens and do as she's told. Hope can see the brunette is quickly getting tired though, but endurance comes with time. When the session is done, Hope hasn't break a sweat but Josie is visibly tired. The Saltzman girl is kinda out of breath, and looks relieved that it's over.

"So…" Josie says, and pauses to catch her breath. "Can I come back tomorrow?"

Her question is directed to Hope, and the auburn haired girl quickly looks elsewhere. The auburn haired girl busies herself with drinking huge sips of her water bottle. 

"You're welcome to join us tomorrow morning, right Hope?" Alaric says, directing a glare at his student.

Hope stops drinking and looks at the man. "I guess."

"Good, now I'll head back to school. Be civil girls, okay?"

"Yes dad." 

Hope forces a smile and nods. The man leaves, and then Hope quickly puts her things back inside her bag, determined to leave as soon as she could too. 

"What did you think? It wasn't that bad, right?"

Hope turns to her right and is kinda startled to see Josie so close to her. She gives the brunette a little smile and a nod, then looks back down to close her bag. From the corner of her eyes, Hope can see the smile on Josie's lips, and it makes her want to turn around so bad. Fighting herself and staying away from Josie proved to be harder than she thought it would be. The thing is, Josie doesn't accept to be ignored. 

"Could you at least talk to me? We agreed to be friends, didn't we?"

"You did good Josie." Hope sighs out as she puts the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

The Mikaelson girl starts to walk towards the school, quickly followed by Josie. The brunette walks to Hope's side, and the tribrid can actually feel the younger girl's eyes on her. 

"Can you stop that?" Hope asks, irritated.

"Stop what?"

"Looking at me."

Josie rolls her eyes. "Oh, I can't ever look at you now."

"Not like that!"

"Like what?"