𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 ━━ HOPE MIKAELSON ll

6

 JAXON RETURNED TO HIS house where he knew Hope would be. When he entered his room, he was not surprised to find her standing on the balcony there which gave a perfect view of the large yard of the house.

Hope kept her eyes fixed on the moon which was reflecting in the water of the pool. It was a beautiful thing. She was aware of Jaxon's presence but said nothing as he neared her and stood next to her. She knew what he was going to say and she had a feeling that it would not end well.

Jaxon let out a sigh, placing his hands on the railing of the balcony as he clenched them around, his mind replaying the her words from earlier in his head. He didn't get a chance to speak to her about it but now he had and he was going to.

"So..." He began, not bothering to look up at her, "were you just shit talking about the whole leaving thing or are you—"

"—I was." She cut him off, "but I'm not going to."

"Good."

"You said you'd find a way to restore everyone's memories once we'd return from France." Hope voiced out her thoughts. It had been a while since she's been thinking about this.

Why hasn't he contacted Freya yet? What was he waiting for?

"Right," he muttered, not looking at her as he fixed his eyes on the railing.

"Why haven't you?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.

"I've been busy."

"You're lying." She said almost instantly making him look at her. "You don't want them to remember me, do you?"

"It's not that."

"Then please do share." Hope questioned, feeling anger rising up, "why the hell don't you want them to remember me?"

He stayed silent.

Part of him wanted to be selfish. He was the son of the god of the underworld, after all. He finally had the chance to have her all to himself with no Landon or Rafael coming in between them. With them not remembering her, he didn't have to deal with the jealous part of him.

But he knew he was being selfish. It wasn't fair to Hope yet he could not bring himself to care.

He didn't know what to say to her so he settled on keeping his mouth shut as he stared at the yard.

"Jaxon," Hope's voice was stern, "answer me. Do you have any idea how it feels to watch someone you've known your entire life looking at you as if you're some stranger? It hurts. I hate that. I don't—" she paused, shaking her head, "— I know it was my choice to throw myself in the pit... I knew what I was gonna get when I did that, I knew everybody were going to forget me but I had hope that it wasn't going to be permanent— you gave me that hope. Now you're the one who doesn't want anyone to remember me. I deserve to know why."

"It's just that everything is going great at the moment," he blurted out without thinking, "Josie is finally settling down with some guy, we don't have malivore to deal with, Alaric isn't in constant danger—"

"— So you're saying that it's great that I'm out of their lives?" She cut him off, asking as she ignored the pain she felt in her heart at his words.

"No, no I'm not saying that!" He quickly defended, "it's that— I'm afraid if we give them their memory back, things would go wrong again."

"I get it," she muttered, looking away before clearing her throat, "I'm gonna go out for a while. I need a walk."

He didn't say anything as she walked out of the room. “shit. I'm sorry,” he thought before sighing out loud, he let out a string of curses under his breath before taking off his shirt and jumping off the balcony. He landed on the perfectly trimmed grasses before shifting into his wolf form.

The huge dark wolf with red eyes set off towards the large gate, jumping over it and running into the forest, needing to calm himself down. He was fucking up and he knew that. But he didn't want to screw things up with Hope for he loved her too much for that. He didn't know what he'd do without her. Losing her would mean losing a part of himself.

Meanwhile, Hope walked into Alaric's office in the mystic falls high school. She walked the whole way there, feeling as if someone crushed her heart. Tears wouldn't stop flowing down her cheeks, small sobs escaping her every now and then.

She loved Jaxon, she really did. He was the only one who made her feel like herself. She cherished every moment they spent together. But she couldn't deny the fact that sometimes he was not the nicest person out there. He had his dark side. He was so much like her father. He reminded her of him sometimes. He was the son of the God of the underworld, what was she expecting? But she loved him nonetheless. He was being selfish, she knew that. Deep down, she knew of his reasons. It just did not make sense to her.

Alaric stood up upon seeing the familiar face again. "Hope?" His face morphed into confusion when he saw tears sliding down her face, her eyes red and puffy.

"My name's not Hope Marshall. It's Hope Mikaelson," she admitted, standing there while he listened, "I'm Klaus and Hayley's daughter. And I know you don't remember this, but, um you're the closest thing I have to a father now. And the entire world has forgotten that I exist, and I don't know what's going on with the boy I love, so I have absolutely no idea what to do next." With that, she threw her arms around Alaric, hugging him as she cried.

Alaric wrapped his arms around her comfortingly as he sighed, "it's okay. We'll figure it out together."