Hard to Hate You // Michael Langdon

Part XXV - The Beginning

I look around, making sure nobody's watching before I take her hand.  "Let's do it," I nod.

As soon as I clasp her hand, we disappear from Venice Beach and reappear on the sidewalk of a street.  I quickly look around to recognize the house in front of us as Michael's grandmother's house and the house next to it as the infamous Murder House.

I turn back around just as a younger version of Michael runs across the sidewalk, not even noticing us or the large black car barreling down the road.  "Michael!" I gasp as I run towards him.  He barely has time to process me or the car speeding towards him as I tackle him and we go rolling towards the sidewalk.

I quickly sit up as the car honks at us, speeding by.  I scoff as I send it a glare; that asshole has the audacity to honk after us after they almost killed us.  

With a flick of my wrist, a tree at the end of the road falls over and lands on top of the car.

"Valentina!" Mallory scolds.  "You can't just total a car because the driver was being an asshole!"

"They almost killed Michael!" I argue.  "Fair is fair."

I turn my attention back to Michael as he gasps from on the ground next to me.  "You know, you may want to pay more attention before you cross the road," I tease.

"Valentina!" he gasps as he sits up.  Before I can respond, he catches me in a kiss.  I smile, melting into his arms.

I slowly pull away.  "Wait, how the hell did you get your memories back?"

"As soon as I touched you," he responds.  "You know, when you tackled me."

"I really just saved your ass," I scoff.  "Imagine, the Antichrist dying by getting run over."

He rolls his eyes.  "Okay, but imagine dying because you got yourself locked in a bathroom with a snake."

"That was your father's fault!" I protest.  "Besides, I didn't have magic yet to protect myself."

"Excuses," he jokes.

"Says the one who technically killed himself by killing me," I retort.

He chuckles.  "You've got me there."

"How are you already making jokes about this?" Mallory asks jokingly, although I can tell that she's slightly shocked.

"Oh, sorry Mallory, I forgot you were there for a second," I chuckle as I stand up, Michael standing with me.  "Honestly, Michael and I got into so many fights that I don't think we would ever move on if we didn't learn how to forgive and forget, you know?"

"I think it was more of I forgave and you forgot.  You were too stubborn to forgive," Michael inputs.

I roll my eyes.  "If that's the case, then there was no forgiving going on at all."

"Well, at least you two aren't trying to kill each other," Mallory interrupts, attempting to wrap up the banter.

"Yet," Michael and I add on at the same time.

She rolls her eyes.  "Listen, we need to get to the witches.  I've had an exhausting day, time travel and all considered."

I sigh begrudgingly.  "Okay, let's get going."

Mallory nods and walks towards one of the cars parked on the street, most likely going to hijack it.

Michael wraps his arm around me and begins walking down the sidewalk.  I sigh and wrap an arm around him in return.  "You know, I like the long hair more," I remark.  "It feels unsettling to see you with short hair."

Michael chuckles as he turns to me.  "Looks like I'll have to grow it out."

His smile fades slightly as he looks behind me.  I turn to see the Murder House staring down at us, the evil presence emanating off the walls.  

I turn back to Michael and take his chin in my hand, turning his attention to me.  "Listen up, Michael," I state.  "All the evil in that house has absolutely no effect on you.  In this timeline, you haven't lived in the house yet.  If you for one second let that house have power over you-"

"No, no, I wasn't thinking that at all," Michael shakes his head.  "In fact, I was thinking the opposite."

"Which is?" I question.

He smiles warmly, gently brushing a strand of hair out of my face.  "How lucky I am to get the opportunity to make everything up to you."

I chuckle.  "I like that more."

He gently kisses my cheek before turning away from the Murder House.  We both walk away, leaving the past behind in the evil of that house.  The truth is, we're both entirely different people in this timeline, and we can learn from our past mistakes in the old timeline.

Mallory gets out of a car that is sitting on the street and motions for us to get in the car.  "Come on guys!  I'll drive us to LAX!"

Michael chuckles as he releases me to open the car door.  As he's getting in, I send one last look over my shoulder at the Murder House.  Who the hell could've guessed that a house could kickstart all the shit that went down in the old timeline?

I turn back to the car when Michael takes my hand.  I realize that everyone's waiting for me to get in.  "Coming?" he asks jokingly.

I chuckle.  "Move over."

Michael smiles as he moves over and I slide into the car.  Mallory sighs as she puts the car in drive.  "It's finally time to move on from the shitshow that was the old timeline," she states, basically summing up everyone's thoughts.

"Where do we even go from here?" Michael asks.

Mallory smiles as she turns to look back at us.  "Home - Miss Robichaux's."

She turns back to focus on driving as I take Michael's hand.  As I look between Michael and Mallory, I suddenly realize that this is most certainly not the end; it is only the beginning.

End of Hard to Hate You

a/n: Thanks for reading Hard to Hate you!  My Wattpad likes to glitch a lot and not let me respond to and/or see your comments, so I'm really sorry for not responding to most of your comments.  If you have important questions or anything you can dm me.

I'm going to be adding a short epilogue after this chapter, but in the meantime you can read my other fanfic if you haven't already (Dark Moon).  Thanks again for reading besties!