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Lizzie would be concerned for herself if she weren’t already dead. Can vampires get frostbite? At this point, she’s too afraid to know the answer, because her teeth are chattering and she’s actually violently shaking, and she’s sure her lips are some shade of blue that probably isn’t healthy. Of course, these issues could be fixed with a simple fire spell, but Josie had instituted a strict no magic rule because “we are going to live like normal humans for one day, dammit!”
Oh yeah, and the car’s broken down and they’re in the middle of nowhere and Hope’s still asleep in the backseat and Josie doesn’t know how to fix cars, but neither of them dare wake Hope up because she deserves as much rest as she can get after everything.
TLDR; they’re fucked. And did Lizzie mention that it’s fucking cold?
Great road trip so far.
“Josie!” Lizzie whines for the nth time. “You’re going to make things worse!”
“Shut. Up,” Josie growls, enunciating each syllable with a crank of a wrench. “I know what I’m doing.”
The car makes a noise. Something creaks, and Josie sighs and flops into the snow. Lizzie decides that Josie does not, in fact, know what she’s doing. Whatever creaked wakes up Hope, and oh great. Now we have to deal with a cranky tribrid. Lizzie grabs Josie’s hand to help her up and-
“Josie!”
Josie pulls away quickly. “Nothing, what?”
Lizzie gapes. “You traitor!” She tackles her twin right back into the snow, which melts at Josie’s touch. “You’re doing a heat spell! What happened to no magic?!” They roll around in a scuffle, and when Lizzie looks up next, Hope’s leaning against the car. She’s a whole three inches taller than normal in her Docs, rubbing sleep out of her eyes and looking half grumpy, half amused.
“You guys are children,” she remarks.
“That’s funny, coming from someone who’s still three whole inches shorter than us even in platforms,” Lizzie shoots back. Josie gives her a glare, which Lizzie thinks is a bit hypocritical but she’ll let it slide.
Hope rolls her eyes. “Do you want me to fix this car? Or do you want to be stranded in the snow until some poor hitch hiker finds a frozen heretic and siphoner?”
“Fine, fine,” Lizzie huffs. “Make it quick, Mikaelson.”
Hope turns around and bends over, inspecting the wheels, and Lizzie promptly faces the other way. Josie wiggles her eyebrows at her, and Lizzie resists the very strong urge to bury her sister in six feet of snow.
“We’re gonna walk this way!” Josie says to Hope, totally not suspiciously, and she grabs Lizzie’s arm and starts walking.
“Why?” Hope calls back.
“No reason!”
Lizzie stumbles over something and falls on her face. She gets up and spits snow at Josie, who gently kicks Lizzie back down. Now, obviously, Lizzie could kick Josie’s ass right here, right now. But out of the brilliant kindness of her heart, she doesn’t. She really should get an award for the amount of self-restraint she’s utilizing at the moment.
(And maybe she doesn’t feel like having her hair burned off).
“What are you doing?” she hisses at Josie, not bothering to get up from the snow because at this point she’s so numb she can’t feel anything.
Josie squats next to her. “What’s going on between you and Hope?”
“Oh my god,” Lizzie groans. She would flop around for dramatic effect, but she has no energy left and as aforementioned many, many times, it’s fucking cold. “Don’t freaking ask me, dude. I’ve been wondering that for two years now.”
“I’ve been wondering that for four,” Josie mutters under her breath. Lizzie, of course with vampire ears, could hear it.
“What?”
“I mean, it’s like the reason that fire started, remember?”
Lizzie gapes. “I guess?”
“And now that Ethan and MG are out of the picture, and Landon too…” Josie has a shit eating grin spreading on her face. “All I’m saying is that I’m noticing this weird tension. That’s it.”
“She killed me, Josie,” Lizzie states flatly. “Is that the fucking tension you’re noticing?”
Josie snaps her mouth shut. “Shit. I’m sorry.”
“It’s just, ever since we brought her back I’ve been feeling things. Like, stuff I’ve never felt before. I can’t tell what it is, and I’m afraid it’s something bad. Like I’ll hurt her. But what I’m feeling isn’t anger, at least I don’t think it is. It's something warm and… complicated, I guess.”
Josie smiles. “Lizzie, baby, you’re in love with her.”
Lizzie finally shoots up, more out of shock than anything. Snow flies everywhere, including her sister’s face, but Lizzie could not care less. “But I was in love with MG! And Ethan, and Sebastian, but I’ve never felt this way before. You’re thinking of something else.”
“Mmkay,” Josie nods. “Keep telling yourself that.” She snaps her fingers and disappears. Lizzie sits there, staring at the air that was just occupied by her obnoxious twin, catching snowflakes in her mouth because it’s hanging open.
Josie thinks I’m in love with Hope. Am I in love with her? Is this how it’s supposed to feel? No. This is dumb. I can’t be in love with Hope. She’s my best friend! And she killed me, for fuck’s sake! No. No. Maybe. Fuck. I’m totally in love with Hope.
… What now?
“Is your rampant lesbian denial over?” A voice whispers in her ear. Lizzie flails her arms around, but it collides with no physical object. “It’s telepathic communication, you idiot. I- oop, wait no, your girlfriend’s coming. Bye!”
Josie leaves Lizzie’s brain with that, leaves Lizzie sitting pathetically in the snow for Hope to find her. She scrambles desperately, doing a heat spell to warm herself, only to find herself staring at the top of Hope’s Docs.
“So, good news,” Hope says, helping Lizzie up. “The car has been fixed.” Her cheeks are flushed red with cold, and Lizzie feels that warm feeling again. Uh oh. Hope blows a strand of red hair out of her eyes and continues. “Bad news, there’s a blizzard warning.” She shows Lizzie her phone, and sure enough, there’s supposed to be a snowstorm in their area for the next few hours.
“Fuck.”
“We have two options,” Hope says, leading Lizzie back to the car. “We sit in this car and wait it out, or we can just vamp speed back to school.”
The light snow is already starting to turn heavy, and it would be a bitch to run through snow. Plus, people would see them. It’s kind of hard to be careful when snow’s shooting up six feet into the air from supernatural beings dashing through it.
“I say we wait it out,” Lizzie says.
Hope shrugs. “Okay.” She pulls the passenger door open, motioning for Lizzie to get in. Once they’re both comfortably in the car, Hope speaks again. “I heard your entire conversation, by the way.”
Lizzie turns her head so fast she gets whiplash. “What? Whatever happened to privacy, Mikaelson?!”
Hope shrugs again, but Lizzie can see the miniscule shake in her shoulders. “For the record,” the redhead states, “I’m kind of in love with you too. Or whatever.”
Lizzie’s brain is going a million miles an hour, but somehow she manages to squeak out a pathetic “what?”
Hope lets her words sink in for a good five minutes, until Lizzie has her breathing under control. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I thought you wouldn’t feel the same,” Hope says. “And I was kind of right, considering you didn’t even know you were in love with me without extensive help from Josie.”
“Shut up,” Lizzie scoffs. “You look like you’re barely holding it together.” She pokes Hope’s shoulder, and before she second guesses herself, lays her hand there. Yeah, Hope’s definitely shaking. And it’s not from the cold. “You’re secretly very nervous, aren’t you?”
“No,” Hope lies.
“Ugh, Mikaelson! We can’t have this talk unless you’re gonna be emotionally vulnerable.” Lizzie throws her hands up in exasperation before crossing them over her chest, catching Hope’s disappointed look.
“Fine.” Hope stomps out the car and Lizzie sits there, patiently waiting for whatever dramatic action Hope will do next. Suddenly, the clouds clear and the snow turns back into a light dusting, falling from the sky, and Hope basically drags Lizzie outside. “Is this vulnerable enough for you?” Then she pulls Lizzie in, Lizzie stumbles and braces her hand on the car, to the side of Hope’s head, and Hope’s grabbing at Lizzie’s face and-
Yeah. They’re kissing. Okay. This is a thing that is happening. It’s nice, actually. It feels… right. Whenever Lizzie kissed MG or Sebastian it felt like she was doing it because she had to. But this? Lizzie thinks her only purpose in this world is to kiss Hope.
When they break apart, both their cheeks are flushed again, this time not because of the cold. Lizzie takes in her surroundings, the soft flurries of snow flying around, the sun beaming so bright she has to squint. It looks like a freaking Christmas postcard.
“You could do that this whole time?” she asks Hope. “Why didn’t you do that sooner?”
“I wanted to spend time with you,” Hope shrugs.
“Ew, sap,” Lizzie teases, before pulling the shorter girl back in. Oh yeah, Lizzie thinks. I’m definitely gay.