Chapter 5
When Hope awoke the next morning, she was still wrapped around the brunette, pressed against her back, legs tangled together. She glanced at the clock, realizing that she had to get going if she was going to make it to training with Dr. Saltzman on time. She planted one last lingering kiss on Josie’s neck, then untangled their legs and slipped out of bed begrudgingly. She slipped into some workout clothes and pulled her hair into a quick ponytail, noticing gratefully that Josie hadn’t left any marks. She didn’t know if she’d be able to handle explaining that to the younger girl’s father during training.
Hope decided that she didn’t want to risk Josie panicking over her absence when she woke up, and it was getting fairly close to breakfast anyway, so Hope decided to wake her.
“Good morning, babe.” Hope whispered, stroking Josie’s face lovingly, brushing loose strands of hair away. Josie stirred slightly, her face contorting into a pout at being woken up, but quickly morphing into a smile when she realized that Hope had been the one to wake her.
“Hey, I’ve got to get to training with your dad, but I’ll see you in class, okay?” She said softly, pecking Josie on the lips. Josie smiled and hummed sleepily into her lips. “Oh dear god, and cover up those hickies.” Hope remarked, noticing the angry red marks she had left scattered across the girl’s neck and chest.
Alaric and Hope met by the lake as usual, working on Hope’s kickboxing skills.
Hope heard footsteps in the woods behind her, and quickly whipped around to see who they belonged to, on high alert from the recent string of monster attacks. She quickly let her guard down when she saw Josie emerge, holding a styrofoam cup. The redhead jogged over to meet her, and Josie offered the drink to her.
“Peanut butter protein shake. Your favorite.” Josie said with a small smile.
“That’s so sweet of you, thanks babe!” Hope exclaimed, taking a grateful sip. Training with Dr. Saltzman always took a lot out of her (even though he was, as Hope constantly reminded him, old and human).
“See you in class, okay?” Josie said, grabbing Hope’s hand briefly and swinging it before walking away, keeping their fingers connected until the girls were too far away to reach each other anymore.
Hope bounded back towards the wooden platform that her and Alaric trained on, and was met with a raised eyebrow from her headmaster.
“Did you just call my daughter ‘babe’?” he asked, resuming their combat.
“What? No!” Hope exclaimed, turning a vibrant shade of red and hitting her sparring partner noticeably harder than usual.
“Maybe. So what if I did?” she asked defensively. Alaric smirked to himself.
“I don’t know, you tell me.” He replied, snarkily.
“I like her. We’ve been hanging out. Nothing official yet.” Hope remarked, trying to seem nonchalant, but the dreamy smile on her face was betraying her.
“Well, I’m just glad to hear that you girls are finally getting along. You deserve someone like her in your life, Hope. You’ll be good for each other.” Alaric said, a lot more sappy and genuine than Hope would expect from him.
Hope just smiled and shook her head, taking a quick sip of her water, walking back towards the school.
“Oh and Hope?” Ric called after her, “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
“I’d like to see you try.” Hope threw over her shoulder, already disappearing into the woods.