9.
Faith didn't go with her mom to drop off Hope the next morning. No, in fact the next time they saw each other was the Founder's Day Ball as Hope elected to spend her entire spring break monster hunting with the Saltzman's. Over that spring break, Hayley and Klaus took Faith to Russia (for reasons unknown until they got there), but grumbled about Hope nonstop.
Still it was nice to see her fathers painting at the Hermitage museum and see the beautiful architecture the country had to offer. The saltiest part about it had to be the fact that Faith spent all her life learning French as a second language only to go to freaking Russia, where she did not, in fact, speak the language.
They got home just before the break was over and while Faith enjoyed being an only child for a time, it was time to get back into Hope's nonsense. Her sister has been texting her about all the crazy stuff that had been happening. There was a unicorn and mind-screwing slugs, a mummy over spring break and then her boyfriend died but also not really. Hope texted her sister stories about these things but it was mostly one-sided conversation. Faith only texted back when Hope said her boyfriend died and that text consisted of the word 'oof.'
Now Faith and her mother were at the founders ball in the background watching Hope dance with her boyfriend while the judges got together to pick the next Miss Mystic Falls.
"Y'know I went to one of these when I was your age." Faith pushed her curls over her shoulder with a manicured hand in order to see her mother. It was still a little difficult since the copious amounts of hairspray pretty much blinded her. Faith took a deep breath trying to get as much air in as her champagne colored deathtrap would let her. She thought she'd be getting away with something with the high slit but there was obviously some karma involved.
"Did you compete?" Her mother scoffed, giving her her answer.
"I was mostly there for the unsupervised drinks."
"Looks like they learned from their mistakes, I probably couldn't get five feet close to a glass before I receive some death glares." Faith blinked and tried not rub her eyes as her make-up took way too long to have redone.
"Hmm, yeah as a parent It was probably not in my best self interest to tell you about that." Said Hayley regretfully, Faith chuckled.
"I'm gonna be brutally honest with you, Mom. It's probably not a good idea to leave a teenage girl alone in a castle with a bottomless wine cellar. Honestly, you guys leave your drinks around on the regular and a bitch get thirsty y'know?" With that rhetorical question and reminder of bad parenting, Faith fled the ballroom scene and found herself in the library.
Apparently she wasn't alone. One of Hope's friends, the werewolf, seemed to be just hanging out all on his lonesome. Faith probably should know his name but of course she doesn't.
In her simple champagne colored dress she carried herself across the room and plopped down in the seat across from the werewolf boy. He glanced up at her expectantly which prompted her to speak first.
"Hey." She greeted simply.
"Uh, hi?" It was more of a question than a greeting but a greeting nonetheless. "Faith, right?"
"Yeah, and you're werewolf boy."
"Rafael." He corrected.
"Are you sure? Did you change it?" Faith questioned jokingly, earning a grin and a chuckle from Rafael.
"No, it's always been Rafael."
"Okay then Rafael, what brings you here? You'd rather stare at the books than all the girls in their pretty dresses?" Faith made a mental note that Rafael was not, in fact, dressed for the occasion happening down the hall.
"Uh, something like that. I'm just kinda avoiding a few people." He admitted, scratching the back of his head as he thought about it.
"Ooh, spill the tea!" Faith prompted, getting comfortable in her seat and kicking off her absurdly tall shoes.
"It's uh, actually not something I should talk to you about." Faith raised an eyebrow at that.
"Hm, well from my experience that either means you have a problem with me--"
"That's not it!" He insisted.
"--Or it's about me, and since this is the first conversation we've ever had i'm going to assume you mean my sister." She concluded.
"Look, it's better if we don't talk about it." The way he said it made it seemed like he believed the lie he was telling himself.
"Tsk, tsk, keeping it buried. This is going in a more romantic route am I right?" She questioned with a squint.
"Faith--" The warning was pitiful enough for her to keep going.
"Oh, so I am. Well, not that i'm surprised that yet another person has a crush on my sister, I am surprised that you're burying it so deep. Most people, like Gorgeous-- or Josie as you call her, keep their crushes right below the surface." Gosh, being as observant as she was never really paid off like this, she should really give herself a pat on the back.
"Landon is my foster brother, Hope makes him happy and he makes her happy so i'll be damned if I let my own feeling's get in the way of that." Awwkkwaarrrdd.
"That's...pretty noble of you. Though I can't imagine you can keep that in forever." Rafael sighed deeply. "My uncle Elijah was the noblest of his siblings but as soon as he fell for a girl who his brother fancied there was war. I imagine he tried the same thing you're doing before it got to that point."
"Yeah, the secrets kinda already out. Freaking magic slugs ruined it."
"Damn, that sucks... You wanna make out?" Rafael spluttered at the suggestion.
"I- What?" Well that wasn't a no, and so Faith went on to explain.
"Well, when I got kidnapped that one weekend and came here I missed my girlfriend and I's anniversary and gave her no follow-up about it so we broke up. You on the other hand are hopelessly in like with my sister and seeing as her boyfriend is a freaking phoenix your chances are pretty slim and you gotta move on. So. Meaningless rebound make-out session and maybe more. You in?"
The pitch itself was crafted so carefully the only reason Raf would say no is if he really didn't want to, but the younger Mikaelson twin, looking as gorgeous as she did, was offering a mutual rebound experience. Plus it was clear it wouldn't mean anything which isn't the clarification he had with Lizzie. So really as long as no one important found out about it, it was a win-win. With a lick of his lip, Raf responded.
"Yeah, I'm in." Faith's face lit up in delight.
"Good, now let's go somewhere my mom won't be able to hear from where she's standing."
/ Gets pretty steamy here folks
Now that Faith thinks about it, she's never made out with a werewolf before, nor any supernatural creature really. You could count the clingy-crazy-witch-bitch girlfriend from kidnapping number seven but she was more of a demon from the depths of hell. However, that's besides the point. What she's really loving about this is the werewolf strength that came with the whole ordeal.
Faith had initiated the whole thing by pressing him against a random leaning tree, that he'd taken her to for reasons unknown, and pretty much attacking him with her mouth. Of course only one of them was the alpha and it wasn't Faith so she got turned around pretty quickly.
Rafael wasn't rough as he pushed her against the tree, much to Faith's discontent, but he did make her pretty happy as he picked her up and her legs went around his waist. She knew the slit in the dress would come in handy. Her dress was unzipped in the back now and she could finally breathe again. Raf moved to kiss her neck and the girl was almost wondering if she'd need to explain a hickey or two sometime soon.
"Mmmm... sorry for the interrogation." Faith apologized halfheartedly. Rafael stopped kissing her neck, much to her displeasure, only to kiss her lips again before saying;
"Stop talking." A shiver went up her spine when she saw the faint yellow glow in his eyes and she dove right back into the werewolf's mouth. Rafael turned away from the tree and instead laid Faith on the ground which, of course, hadn't been very ideal, so she flipped them over so she'd be on top, straddling his torso. They continued until Rafael just stopped all of a sudden.
"Wait, do you hear that? That sounds like Landon." Questioned Raf. Faith, who did not have triggered werewolf hearing, rolled her eyes.
"Okay, now you're being paranoid." She said, pushing her hair aside and going back in for a kiss, but stopped as Raf propped himself up on his arm and looked in the direction to his left.
"Wait, wait, wait!" He hissed, and with a sigh Faith stood and helped Raf up. The mood was officially ruined.
"Why would your brother be all the way out here? He's supposed to be at the school dancing with my sister." Asked Faith, wondering for a moment if the possibility of Landon being out here were possible. She turned and gestured to the back of her dirty dress which Rafael zipped up distractedly.
"I don't know." As Faith looked for the heels she abandoned as soon as they set foot on the grass, Rafael started walking in the direction he heard his brothers voice. Faith caught up, wincing at the various rocks under her bare feet. She thought about asking for another piggyback ride but it didn't seem like the time. When they finally made it to the road, seconds later, Rafael hushed her as he saw Landon conversing with a woman in a car.
Offended at being hushed and not even saying anything, Faith glared at Rafael before turning her glare to Landon who interrupted what was probably gonna be a pretty good time. She couldn't hear what was being said but everything became a bit clearer when they saw Landon being stuck with something and then collapsing. Faith held Rafael back and pulled him down into a crouch to avoid exposure. The lady didn't seem to be some pedophile, she actually knew what she was doing.
The trunk of the car opened up on it's own and the woman dragged Landon's unconscious body towards the trunk.
"I have to get to him!" He whispered to Faith angrily.
Faith with her eyes still on the car questioned him rhetorically. "What are you gonna do, Wolfie? Eat her? Look she has a gun." She pointed out quietly.
"I could still take her." Rafael insisted but Faith fixed him with another glare. "She's with Triad, it'd be worth the risk."
"Are you sure she's with Triad?" Questioned Faith, her mind working a mile a minute as she did.
"The phone call she just had-- hey!" He whisper shouted as Faith ran to the trunk of the car and jumped in before it closed automatically. Raf was frozen in place and didn't miss the reassuring smile Faith gave him just before he couldn't see her anymore. The car pulled off and Rafael was left on the side of the road with a pair of sparkly pumps. "Everyone is gonna kill me."
___