Surreptitious

Chapter 11: Crossing Wires

A/N - Thank all of you for the reads, the votes, the faves and follows, and most of all thank you for the comments! I upload this fic both on Wattpad and fanfic and I want you guys to know that I appreciate it all. As a writer it becomes much easier to write and shape my story if I know what you guys are thinking. So please do comment, good and bad, and let me know how you feel about the pieces I put up so that I can continue to weave something that you can enjoy!

(...)

"Raf, hey..." Hope was on her way to her last class of the day as she passed Rafael in the corridor, quickly pausing and taking him by the arm as she turned around to face him, her blues a baby soft hue as they observed the taller boy. They had not really had time to talk since Hope made her return and she felt like she owed it to the other wolf to share the mutual grief they were experiencing.

"Hope." Rafael grinned in that lopsided way he tended to do whenever he was faced with the tribrid, his feelings towards her never quite having diminished, though he was firm in the decision that he would not really dare act on them. Hope had been his brother's girl and he would carry that knowledge and the accompanying guilt with him for a very long time.

"I'd ask how you were doing, but..." She smiled sadly at him and he simply nodded, the both of them understanding the implication of her words.

"Yeah, but you - you must have seen some shit while you were... ya know..." He waved his hand in some sort of attempt to better explain where his words fell short, but it was easy enough to understand.

"Yeah, well..." Her voice wandered off unwittingly.

Some ways down the corridor, between all the bustling bodies of kids trying to get to their classes, Hope could spot Josie approaching, quickly distracting her, though she tried to respond to Rafael in time as best she could. It was just that Josie was so... magnetic. Hope observed as russet locks cascaded over her one shoulder, like a dark chocolate waterfall flowing into the milky skin exposed just above the collar of her white blouse.

"It's a little..." She continued, swallowing at nothing, barely glancing up at Rafael before her eyes darted back to the siphon. Josie had some books clutched to her chest and her face was creased in thought. Her rosy lips pulled easily into a pout deeper than the one she sported naturally and it caused Hope's heart to clench tightly, squeezing the air right out of her lungs.

"Complicated..." She exhaled, breathlessly. The ambiguity in the single uttered word was not lost on her. The truth was that ever since she had woken up, she had felt that something inside her had shifted. She felt it most prominently whenever she was around Josie, and she found that the younger girl was flitting across her mind more often than she usually would. Her heart seemed intent on skipping a single beat whenever Josie's face flashed through her memories, or the sound of her voice, or her flowery scent... It reminded her of the boisterous emotions that flooded her whole body during the brief period she had had a crush on Josie when they were younger.

Hope didn't understand it. She really had no clue what to make of it all.

"Well, would you like to talk about it?" Rafael asked gently, softly clutching Hope by the elbow as he looked on in concern.

"Yeah, we definitely need to talk. Maybe after class?" Hope forced her gaze back to him and smiled reassuringly.

"Yeah I need to run." He smiled in return. "See you later."

Hope gave a small wave as he walked off, then couldn't help but risk one more glance back at where she had seen Josie.

She clenched her jaw as her blood suddenly felt frozen in her veins at what she saw then.

(...)

"Jade, oh my god, are you okay?" Josie quickly stepped up to the vampire when she saw her in the hallway, not having had the chance to talk to her yet since their joint trip into her subconscious. "I'm so so so sorry, god, I didn't mean for you to get hurt like that!" Josie strung her words together at an alarming speed as Jade watched her wide-eyed, opting to simply wait for the witch to stop rambling before she answered. "I should have known you could get hurt, I should have warned you! You know, I just, I never should have even - "

"Jo! Hey! Calm down!" Jade finally cut her off as she raised her hands to rest on the shorter girl's shoulders, grinning broadly at her. The vampire couldn't help but feel warmth flush through her body at the sheer adorableness of Josie Saltzman.

"I'm just..." Josie sighed, absolutely guilt-ridden at the part she played in Jade's shave with death. "How can I make it up to you?" She asked sincerely, her voice small and her beautiful doe eyes so big and round and glistening with emotion. Jade honestly felt like she might faint on the spot.

"Well it's not like it was you who bit me." Though Jade would not mind such action in the least. The unbidden thought caused a blush to spread across her cheeks. "But I'll tell you what..." She softened her voice and gave one step closer to Josie, her hands drifting from the tops of the girl's shoulders gently down her arms. "Have dinner with me."

(...)

"Meet me in the gym after class, okay?" Hope had managed to catch up with Rafael just as he was about to enter his classroom, grabbing him rather forcefully by the arm and tugging him aside.

"Wanna work out?" He asked, confused, but she quickly confirmed with a determined nod.

"I need to blow off some steam and I'm afraid I might break Dr. Saltzman's bones if I sparred with him today." She clenched her teeth again, especially as she had to utter that surname. "You up for it?"

"Better bring your A-game, Mikaelson." Rafael grinned at her before disappearing through the doorway.