Chapter Text
The first time Lizzie noticed, it was an accident.
Lizzie waltzed into the gym, managing to dodge the attention of her sister’s sociopathic alter ego. She spotted Hope sitting on the bleachers, so she plopped down beside her.
Lizzie released a heavy sigh, but Hope didn’t seem to notice.
Lizzie glanced at Hope out of the corner of her eye, opting to repeat the sigh a bit louder. She scoffed when Hope didn’t even glance at her. She followed Hope’s line of sight to find that what Hope’s eyes were so intently fixated on was, in fact, Hot-Topic-brand Josie.
Hope raised the straw of her milkshake to her mouth without looking down at it. She missed her mouth twice before she managed to trap the straw between her teeth, refusing to let her eyes break away from Josie for even a second.
With a raised eyebrow, Lizzie stared at the side of Hope’s face, decidedly unimpressed.
Lizzie didn’t see what was so fascinating to her. Sure, satanic Josie was really creepy, but she wasn’t even doing anything. She was just standing still, watching joylessly as her minions pinned up black banners and streamers. Hope could at least say hello, Lizzie thought to herself.
So, she rather unsubtly cleared her throat to try to attract Hope’s attention.
No such luck. Hope just continued to stare, almost more intensely than she'd been staring before.
Lizzie wondered for a moment if Hope was trying to read Josie’s mind.
Lizzie rolled her eyes. She decided to try her luck at a direct confrontation. “You’d better not be imprinting on my sister right now, Fido,” she scoffed.
Immediately, Hope choked on her milkshake, her eyes swerving around to stare at Lizzie. “Imprinting?!”
For a second, Lizzie looked taken aback for once.
Hope Mikaelson was usually the queen of composure—barely anything got to her. She was normally unaffected and ready to fire back with some witty retort.
But the same could be said about Lizzie, so she quickly recovered with a roll of her eyes and a light glare. “As much as I’d love to give you the Twilight universe sex talk right now, Mikaelson, we have bigger fish to fry,” Lizzie snarked. “How are you planning to take down Morticia over there?”
Lizzie noticed the light blush that crept onto Hope’s cheeks—the way that Hope’s eyes darted around the room to see if anyone might’ve overheard them, almost in a panic.
Lizzie took note of it for later, in case it might be useful.
“I’m not going to explain my plan to…,” Hope hesitated. “My plan to take down Josie while she’s in the room,” Hope hissed in a whisper, pinning Lizzie with a death glare.
The reaction was disproportionately harsh in a way that made Lizzie suspicious.
Lizzie once again rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. “Listen, I don’t care if you explain your plan to me at all, as long as it works,” she said. Lizzie glanced at Hope out of the corner of her eye. The still-present blush prompted her to try her luck with another snarky comment. “I just want to make sure that your not-so-little crush isn’t going to stop you from coming up with one.”
Hope’s blush intensified. She stared at Lizzie with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. “My crush?!”
Lizzie was tempted to laugh directly in Hope’s face. She’d never seen Hope be so reactive before.
In fact, she rarely saw Hope speak with much feeling at all.
Realizing that she must’ve struck a nerve, Lizzie controlled herself and opted to keep poking. She maintained her disinterested act by raising her hand out in front of her to look at her nails. “Oh, please,” she said. “Don’t tell me you’re the only one who hasn’t noticed how you look at her.”
Suddenly, Hope looked like the only thing she wanted to do was escape the conversation at all costs. She shifted in her seat for a few moments, clearly uncomfortable and struggling to come up with a response. “I…,” she started, trailing off. She averted her gaze, obviously nervous. “Whatever, Lizzie,” she muttered, defeated. She grabbed her bag off the floor and got up abruptly to flee the room.
As Hope descended from the bleachers, Lizzie saw Dark Josie turn away from her minions. Josie’s eyes sparkled, almost as if she’d heard their conversation. She watched Hope walk toward the exit with a knowing smirk on her lips.
Hope stared at the floor and walked a little faster. It reminded Lizzie of a dog tucking its tail between its legs.
Lizzie felt a grin grow across her face. Interesting, she thought to herself. She’d stumbled upon something that guaranteed her the upper hand, and she intended to exploit it as much as she possibly could.