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I. The talisman
What they are is complicated.
They’re friends, but they’re also… not friends.
They’re strangers with an intimate, decade-long knowledge of each other. Josie’s heart clenches with an underlying crush every time she sees her, even as it breaks a little when she watches as Hope and Lizzie go at each other. She knows every tone and every expression of the other girl, even if they hadn’t talked much the last few years. She does dark magic with her as if it’s the most natural thing to do, even though Josie can count on the fingers of one hand how many times they’ve done that before.
They’re not really friends, and aren’t not friends, but Josie wants to be, and maybe the talisman is just that - a way for the other girl to reach out with that same want.
Josie smiles, softly, when she puts it on, fingers tracing the cool metal resting on her skin, and the subtle power thrumming within it teases her senses.
She doesn’t smile, when she’s pulled out of her shallow grave, when she gasps desperately for breath, her heart beating out of her chest.
“What does it do?”
“It makes quiet things heard.”
And Hope looks at her so softly, when she says that. She says that in such a way that makes Josie believe the other girl sees her in a way no-one else does, no-one else bothers to. Maybe she always had, and the talisman is just the symbol of that.
Chest heaving with panic, Josie clutches onto the talisman like a lifeline. It ends up saving her, in the end, in more ways than one.
II. A necklace brimming with power
Josie almost dies.
It’s during a fight, with some enemy of her father’s or whatever, and Josie’s depleted of magic. All she can do is run, and then cover herself as the blows keep coming, coming, coming, darkness creeping at the edges of her vision.
She’s fine now, but a shiver runs down her spine when she remembers how helpless she felt. How scared.
Josie slips out of Lizzie’s embrace, careful to not wake her sister and not disturb any of her bandages, and walks onto the hallway. She takes two steps, and knocks on Hope’s door. The other girl opens instantly, as if she wasn’t sleeping herself.
“I can’t sleep,” she explains when surprised blue eyes meet her own, and Hope pulls the door open, a silent invitation Josie gladly takes. She settles awkwardly on the made bed, and notes the canvas and fresh paints near the window - Hope must’ve been painting in the moonlight.
But Hope ignores both the canvas and the bed, and walks up to one of the shelves, pulling something out from a drawer. “I have something for you.”
That something is a necklace, Josie learns. It gleams in the moonlight, the design relatively simple, but beautiful nonetheless. She can feel the power emanating off of it, but doesn’t know why.
“What is it?” she asks, gently taking it into her hands. It’s light in her palm, but the magic swirling inside of it adds a comfortable weight to it.
“A Dark Object,” Hope explains. “A magic battery, basically. I made it a few hours ago, and meditated on it for a while, so it should be full of my power.” She points towards it. “And if you happen to deplete it, it’ll pull what you need directly from me and then replenish the supply.”
Josie’s gaze snaps from the necklace to her, and the implications sink in. It’s a battery of power, yes, but also a connection to Hope’s magic, and to Hope herself. An intimate, potentially dangerous way to share power. A sign of trust, deep and honest.
And a way for her to never feel that terrifying helplessness ever again.
Her heart is so full of emotion she thinks it’ll burst, but instead it merely sends a single tear from her eye. Hope catches it delicately with her thumb on her cheek. “I…” she starts, unsure what to say.
“I just want you to be safe,” Hope explains.
Josie pulls her into a hug and she finds that it’s in Hope’s arms that she feels the safest. She mutters a thank you onto the skin of Hope’s neck, the other girl clinging onto her, and it’s only then that Josie realizes how her near-death must've impacted the other girl.
Silently, Josie tightens her grip, not wanting to let go. They stay in an embrace until they both fall asleep, only to wake up entangled in each other the next morning.
III. A bracelet for Christmas
They spend Christmas together.
Well - for the Mikaelson family, the holiday is a mixture of Christmas and Yule, traditions from different eras mixed in with their own. The compound in New Orleans is beautifully decorated with plants, lights and a huge tree. The twins and Caroline get an invitation a week before, and Josie immediately says yes before even consulting with the others.
Hope’s wearing a dark red dress, and her hair is in an elegant updo and she looks so pretty Josie gasps when she first sees her. The other girl is talking quietly to Marcel across the courtyard, and Josie can’t get her eyes off of her, even as she hears Lizzie snicker beside her. Their gazes meet, and Hope quickly gets up and walks up to her, without looking away for even a moment. Lizzie excuses herself with something Josie doesn’t bother to catch, and Hope takes her place on the couch next to Josie.
“I trust my family hasn’t scared you off?” she asks, amusement dancing in her eyes, and out of the corner of her eyes, Josie can see Rebekah frown, slightly offended at the comment she shouldn’t even hear.
“I don’t scare easy,” Josie responds with an easy smile, and her hand creeps closer to Hope’s on the couch. “But no, everyone’s been wonderful. This whole day has been wonderful, really.”
Hope smiles widely, and it lightens up Josie’s day. It has been wonderful because of you , Josie wants to say, and she does. Hope’s blue eyes shine in the lights, and she shyly takes out a box from behind herself. “This is for you.”
Surprise is swimming around in her mind, but she takes it gratefully. “We exchanged gifts already,” she asks, and Hope shrugs. Hope gave her a beautiful painting she made herself, and Josie gave Hope a low-maintenance but very beautiful magical plant.
“Maybe I want to spoil you?”
Josie blushes lightly, and opens up the box to reveal an absolutely stunning diamond bracelet. It’s thick, but not too thick, and it compliments Josie’s other jewelry perfectly. She raises it slightly to look at the inner part, and sees ‘Always and Forever’ carved on the inner wall.
Before Josie can protest, because the gift looks more expensive than the whole building, Hope’s fingers are grazing her wrist.
“May I?”
Throat dry, Josie nods, and lets Hope clip it on. It fits perfectly. She thanks her, surprise still thick in her voice, and Hope shrugs, as if it's not a big deal at all.
Lizzie laughs at her later, when she joins her sister in the kitchen to grab something. “Sure, giving your friend a five carat diamond bracelet is a very platonic thing to do,” Lizzie shakes her head when Josie tells her about it. “Gifts are clearly her love language. And she’s not exactly subtle about it.”
Josie pouts, and Lizzie interloops their arms and pulls her towards the bonfire. Josie’s eyes immediately find Hope’s, her heart skipping a beat. “Neither are you. You two fit perfectly,” Lizzie adds with a knowing look in her eyes.
She decides against throwing a wish into the bonfire, despite Rebekah’s urgings. Being here with Hope, sharing this moment - it was already more than all she could wish for.
IV. A matching set of rings for her and Lizzie after the Merge
The Merge looms over them more and more as they near 22. With Malivore and the monsters and Triad gone, it’s all they focus on for the next few years.
Hope fights.
Knowing that she’s so involved, that she intends on standing by the twins - both of them - till the end and fight, knowing that she’s as desperate as they are is comforting. And terrifying, because as good as it feels to know she’ll always have her, no matter what happens after they turn 22, Josie doesn’t want Hope to lose yet another person she loves. And she cares about both of them.
She cares about both of them, even if she has a bit of a preference. But she doesn’t ask Josie to win, doesn’t try to get her to win.
Hope goes as far as creating a hybrid army to aid with the research, goes as far as following in her great aunt’s footsteps and creating a new branch of connection magic, goes as far as threatening and torturing and paying off anyone with even the slightest hint of information.
And it’s all for nothing.
The Merge can’t be stopped.
Josie and Lizzie turn into Heretics a week before their twenty-second birthday. They hold hands as their heartbeats slow down, unwilling to spend eternity without the other. They die with Hope’s blood in their system, the first non-werewolf hybrids she creates.
Exactly three months and two weeks after their twenty second birthday, Hope takes both of them onto one of her private jets and flies them off to a tropical location Josie doesn’t remember the name of.
“A long overdue vacation,” she explains.
It’s only after she spends a few hours in the sun, lying on the beach, away from all the stress and pressure and death threats that Josie realizes exactly how overdue the vacation was. And the sight of Hope in a bikini is definitely not an unpleasant one, even if it doesn’t exactly help her relax.
Two days after landing, when they’re lounging on a private beach, Hope gives them the rings.
They’re reflective, colors changing every time they look at it. Her own is pleasantly cool, and fits perfectly onto whichever finger she tries it on. And most importantly - Josie can feel her sister’s heartbeat all the time now, reminding her that she’s alive, that both of them are alive, and that even if there are still a thousand enemies they inherited, the Merge no longer looms over them.
Hope looks at them, sometimes, like she thinks the Merge will come back with a ‘sike’ and steal them both away. But the Tribrid wouldn’t leave even if they didn’t turn into Heretics or turning wouldn’t stop the Merge. She'd stay and she’d fight and she’d bear the weight of another lost person if it came down to it. But it’s not a scenario Josie even wants to think about, because Hope had lost enough, and she could never add to it.
Thankfully, it’s not a scenario any of them need to worry about anymore.
So it’s only then that she allows herself to love Hope Mikaelson.
They kiss on the beach three days after landing, and Josie finds her paradise pressed up against Hope, her lips caught onto her own.
+
V. A wedding band
The day is absolutely beautiful, with no clouds in the sky and the sun shining bright above them. And yet, it’s the sight before her - endless love in blue eyes, Hope’s brilliant smile dimming the appeal of all the stars in the Universe, the softness in her expression - that catches her breath.
Freya led Hope to the altar, and Caroline led Josie and now Kol is officiating and Josie’s hands are trembling from emotion. Hope catches them in her own, and the warmth of her skin settles her like nothing before.
The wedding band is beautiful, though a bit blurry, because Josie has tears in her eyes when Hope slips it on her, the one Josie already put on Hope a breathtaking sight.
“I do” ties them officially together for life, though Josie knows her fate was bound to be intertwined with Hope the moment the two met.
It’s been ten years since Hope gave her that talisman, and that has been ten years since they met.
And sure, it’s the “I do” that ties them officially together, but what makes Josie certain of the Forever before them, is the promise shining in Hope’s eyes, too grand for words, too deep to be spoken.
So Josie kisses her, and she can’t help but smile, especially when she feels Hope’s own smile on her lips.
-
It was Hope who had Josie’s heart when she gave her the talisman, the magic necklace, the bracelet, the rings and the marriage band. It was Hope, who never gave up on her, who fought for her harder than anyone else, who saw her when others refused to. It was Hope, who gave Josie her heart, and of all the things the other girl gave her, this one will always be Josie’s favorite.
It’s Always been Hope. It Always will be Hope.
Forever.