Always and Forever: a new life.

little bit of spying, little bit of coffee.

“Are we like best friends or what?” Hope snorted into her coffee, it had been a full week since she had been living with Slater, a full week since she arrived in the past. They were sitting on a bench outside ‘The Block’ bathing in the sunlight, Slater had his arm resting on the back support of their bench the other one raised to the sky, gleaming softly on his hand was the blue stone of a daylight ring, he held it out between them to admire it, again, he’d been doing so every five minutes Hope noted smiling.

They had become friends, somewhat in Hope’s opinion at least despite her promise to herself to not make connections here in this time, she broke her rule just a little bit. She had learnt that Slater was just a guy who loved to study, he’d been in college since the 70s, he loved trashy movies and Mariah Carey a little too much to the point it was unhealthy.
“Hey, do you wanna go to the beach?” he asked out of nowhere, taking off his sunglasses. She laughed ‘We could go to Bali, or Bora Bora. I swear it’ll be fun.”  She smiled “Hm, maybe some other time. Right now I really think I should get back to the spell problem.”
He sighed “Right.” Furrowing his eyebrows “You never explained what that was all about?” he preyed lightly, expecting the same response he always got “You know I can’t , it’s my problem I need to deal with it myself.” “Yeah I know but I just want to help you, you know?”

“Hey ….Slater I think it’s time I go.” She said with complete seriousness that he had grown accustomed to “Wait what? Are we breaking up?”
She gave him a disapproving look “Don’t joke, I’m being serious. I need to get back to fixing my problem and I think being where it happened might help me figure out how it happened.” He leaned forward “ Look I know you said I can’t help, but I want to. You don’t know how much this means to me, being able to walk in the sun? I haven’t know how that felt since the 70s, I just want you to know that I’m here, and if you ask I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

Slater didn’t understand Hope, that was what he thought when he first met her, there was this certain cloud of grief around her that followed, some days it was more visible than others. Slater didn’t know her but he knew she was just a girl who’d been through a lot and survived despite it. He couldn’t help but wonder who she was, why she was like this, but he had grown accustomed to it, accustomed to lip-gloss stains on dirty coffee mugs and accustomed to waffles and pancakes for breakfast. He got accustomed to her. It felt like having a having a friend who laughed at his every joke, no matter how bad it was, who listened to him ramble on about ‘some movie from the 89’ someone who genuinely seemed to care for the people around her. Slater had lived for decades and he knew how rare it was finding someone like this.

This silent friendship or understanding or whatever you want to call it, ment something to him. He cared about Hope. She was his friend.
Hope smiled at him, he felt that wave of grief again, that always surrounded her, despite her bright attitude and happy demeanour. He sighed expecting what she was going to say next. “I have to do this alone. And you’ve done enough for me already, I can’t thank you enough for it. Really.” He leaned back into the bench “Okay.. okay, then I think you are going to need this.” From his back pocket he pulled out her new drivers licence.
“It came? Oh gosh thank you!” “That completes the set.” He added cheerily, not to show her how he felt about her leaving. Her licence was the last piece of document she needed, she looked up “Thank you really.” “Ah it’s cool, just promise me you’d visit once in a while.” He half smiled.

Hope thought about this moment on her way to Mystic Falls in her new 2008 grey metallic Ford Escape. Slater had wanted to get her a more newer model, but she reminded him she was trying to keep a low profile.
She needed to fit it, in all aspects of life as a regular townie among a wave of regular townies. That’s why she picked an apartment fifteen minutes away from the Grill in a small complex. It was close to all the supernatural activity spots, from what she remembered reading in Stefan’s diary and it was convenient for her.

Pocketing her keys, she started her way up the stairs. Most her stuff was already set up there, few compelled movers had came in yesterday. Again, she had Slater to thank for that. She needed to come back to Mystic falls to keep a close eye on the Scooby gang and fix her own problem, she tried to- “oh shit, sorry I didn’t see you there.” “it’s fine, you didn’t hit me.” “Yeah lucky,” he chuckled “these boxes are blocking everything in front of me.” She recognised the voice, she couldn’t tell from where. “let me help you with that.” Taking the top one from the stack, she divided the weight between them. “Oh you don’t need to do that, it’s fine.”

Feet planted on the ground Hope felt like she couldn’t move, the light brown hair that looked like they hadn’t been combed in ages, grey blue eyes that were framed by smile wrinkles and a stubble chin was all to familiar to her. Hope looked at the young face of her teacher as Alaric Saltzman extended his hand out to her, “Hi, I’m Alaric Saltzman. I live on the third floor.” I know, she wanted to say. She was freaking out she hadn’t known where Dr. Saltzman lived here back before the school was formed, he was the last person she expected to run into here.

Missing a beat, she shook his hand “I’m Hope. I just moved here.” “Oh really? I didn’t know anyone was moving in I was out of town yesterday” she smiled weakly “Yeah we moved in most the stuff yesterday before coming.” “Who are you living with?” “My dad, although he’s always away. He’s a truck driver so he rarely comes home.” “Ah, how are you handling the move?” he left the subject alone “Good actually, someone told me it could be a good opportunity.” “ That’s good.” He smiled kindly at her, they made their way down the stairs. “it was nice to meet you Hope, I’ll see you around.” Loading the boxes in his car he turned to look at her “Yeah.. you too.”
“Thank you for the help.”
She waved.

Hands in her pocket she took a long breath to calm herself. Hope couldn’t help but wonder, if coming back had been a good idea?

The next day Hope woke up to the alarm beeping loudly in her ear, groaning she flicked her hand to make it stop, automatically it does. Hope loved magic, she couldn’t help this thought. But she needed to get out of bed “ I hate my life.” Throwing off the duvet she got up.

Breakfast was a simple chocolate waffle with black coffee and ‘kenyning’ spell to stalk Alaric. It was a spell her great aunt Dahlia invented centuries ago, and taught to her by a reluctant Freya. 
Hope chewed her breakfast as she sat on the kitchen counter watching. Her red hair in a messy braid over her shoulder. The white of her eyes completely obscuring her blue jewel toned eyes. Her thoughts elsewhere.

“Is the plan on then? He’s coming?” “Jenna said he’s happy to be invited. They haven’t hung out since school days” Alaric shrugged “Can please not look so gleeful at the thought of killing this guy? He’s Jenna’s friend.” “oh come on, they haven’t hung out since school it’s not like she’s gonna miss him.” Damon Salvatore took a swing of his drink, Alaric sighed in frustration “Look she already gave me shit for inviting you. Just don’t try anything inside the house. Okay?” “I’ll see you at the barbeque.” Said Damon coyly. He smirked when Alaric just picked up his bag in response.

Blink. The cloud of white disappeared from her eyes. Hope figured out the next part of her plan.