return

Hope is walking through the hallways of Mystic Falls High when she hears a voice that makes her freeze in her spot and her heart race, its beat thumping in her head like a drum.

"I'm telling you to either keep your students busy with class or send everyone home. Don't do what you used to do at Salvatore and call for a fricking meeting." Sosuke says annoyedly as he's walking into the same hallway Hope is standing, looking at him like deer caught in headlights while tears well up in her eyes.

"Hey, you shouldn't be running around during classes. So... beat it." He tells her.

"Uh yeah except I'm not a student here. I was... just looking around since I might go here soon." Hope tells him, turning away to rub her eyes quickly.

"Well, still it's not a good time to be running around here right now. There is something loose in the school... Uhm rats!" Sosuke tells her, awkwardly coming up with the lie.

"Are you sure what you're looking for isn't big green and stinky?" Hope asks knowingly.

"Who are you?" Sosuke asks her, caught off guard.

"Hope." She replies holding out her hand.

"I'm Sosuke. Now listen to me, I don't know what you think you're gonna do here but just... walk away, I got this." He tells her shaking her hand and she notices that he has her necklaces wrapped around his left wrist jingling quietly.

"Don't underestimate me." She says and uses her powers to make the necklaces come flying into her hand.

"Give those back!" Sosuke says angrily and snatches them out of her hand, hanging them around his neck carefully.

"Why are they important?" Hope asks, hiding her hopes that he might not have forgotten everything about her.

"I don't know. I lost someone OK, I need those to try and figure out who it was. Argh why am I explaining myself to you? Just don't touch my stuff and stay out of my way." Sosuke tells her annoyed before walking past her into the boys locker room, where the trail of dark blue fluid that dripped onto the floor leads.

"As long as you won't get into my way." Hope replies and follows him inside.

"You are both getting in my way." Another familiar voice suddenly says from the locker room entrance as soon as the two tracked the trail to a gutter in the locker room.

"Dr.S." Sosuke sighs, turning around to face the man, Hope doing the same.

"Both of you. Come with me to my office." He says and brings the two teens to his office.

"Excuse us for a moment?" Alaric then tells Hope while he steps into a side room with Sosuke while Hope listens in on them with her werewolf hearing.

"What do you think you're doing and who the hell is that girl?" Alaric asks.

"I'm after a monster. And apparently so is she. I didn't get much more than that." Sosuke replies.

"Yeah well, I told you that if you're living under my roof that you'll have to got to school like everyone else. And it doesn't matter that you already graduated. You need to keep up appearances." Alaric berates Sosuke.

"I am at school aren't I? And how was I supposed to know that there is a monster on the loose on the first day I got here?" Sosuke replies.

"Fine. You have a point. Now wait outside while I talk to the girl alright?" Alaric tells Sosuke, who nods and leaves the side room with Alaric, nodding to Hope before leaving the office.

"Now who are you?" Alaric asks, leaning against his desk while she is sitting in front of him.

"Uhm I'm Hope Marshall. I'm a vampire hunter and was tracking a monster. It's hiding in the school I think." Hope tells him.

"So where are you going to school?" He asks with his arms crossed.

"Nowhere. I... I just got here." She answers.

"Well then you're at the right place because if you're gonna stay in Mystic Falls then you'll need to go to school. So, who are your parents?" He asks, getting out a paper to write it down.

"Tom and Kathleen Marshall." Hope lies unconvincingly.

"What about a school transcript? And what grade are you in?" Alaric asks.

"11th and sure I can get that." She lies quickly.

"Great then you can go with Sosuke to class." Alaric tells her and waves Sosuke inside.

"What but what about the monster? I'm pretty sure it's a troll and they are supposed to be nocturnal. So now is the time to strike." Hope protests.

"I got this. You two head to class. I won't put kids in danger again." Alaric tells them.

"That's pretty stupid. You know what I was doing over the break so why send in the cheap copy when the real deal is available?" Sosuke asks cockily.

"Just do as I say and get to class." He tells them and pushes them out of the room.

"So... You're my guide I guess." Hope says a small smile playing on her lips, happy to spend some time with Sosuke.

"Yeah well, that's not gonna happen. That fool is gonna get himself killed." Sosuke tells her, walking away.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Hope asks following him.

"You're doing nothing, little witch. I am handling this. Our class would be physics, that room over there. Now go." Sosuke says, pointing out the classroom.

"Little witch really?" Hope asks challengingly and levitates him against the ceiling.

"Don't make me angry." He warns her.

"Or what?" Hope asks challengingly.

Sosuke shoots 4 tendrils at her, the small electrical ropes wrapping around her wrists before he shocks her and she yelps.

"Now do as I said. I don't want to have to hurt you." Sosuke tells her, landing on his feet with her spell over.

"No way. I'm coming." She insists, not backing down.

"Why won't this get in your head? I'm not putting anyone in danger." He growls annoyed.

"But it's OK to be in danger yourself?" She asks challengingly.

"I'm immortal, I can handle it." He grunts and moves behind her to choke her out, only for Hope to toss him over her shoulder and into the ground.

"What the frick?" He groans looking up at her while she smirks down at him cockily.

"Like I said, don't get in my way." She says and follows the trail of blood from the creature with Sosuke following after her grumbling annoyed.

As the two head down to the steam tunnels they hear fighting and see Alaric get flung on his ass courtesy of the troll.

"Hope." He yells, tossing her a crossbow bolt which she telepathically accepts and sends flying into the green monster's heart.

"Nice." Alaric compliments her with the monster falling over.

"And now to class you two!" Alaric yells, making them go to classes until they clean up the monster mess after school.

"So, Why didn't you want to let me fight?" Hope asks two hours later, sitting in a class with Sosuke, the two doing their assigned chemistry experiment bored out of their minds.

"I... I told you I lost someone. No one else should feel this emptiness." Sosuke tells her, rubbing over the necklaces.

"What are you doing to fill yours?" Hope asks, looking at him worried.

"Getting revenge." He says, the lights in the room suddenly flickering before he calms himself.

"Revenge on who?" Hope asks.

"Everything that deserves it." Sosuke tells her and leaves the class upset, Hope following him despite their teacher's protest.

Hope follows him to the locker he was assigned to and sees him leaning against it tiredly.

"Leave me alone." Sosuke tells her when he hears her approach, tears dripping onto the floor in front of him.

" I have something to confess to you and Dr. Saltzman." Hope tells him, touching his back nervously and feels him tense.

"Will you finally leave me alone afterwards?" He asks.

"Yes. If you still want me to, after my confession . Then I will." She promises quietly.

"Why would you bail on class on your first day of school?" Alaric asks them disappointed while the two walk into the principal's office.

"She wants to tell us something." Sosuke cuts off Alaric and the two men turn to Hope expectantly once they are in the office.

"My real name is Hope Mikaelson. I am Klaus and Hayley's daughter. And I know you two and the whole world has forgotten about me because..." Hope starts to explain, getting emotional.

"You were in Malivore." Alaric says in realization.

"Yes. We were fighting to safe Landon when Malivore's third lock was broken and I jumped into the pit to stop Malivore from rising." Hope informs them, clutching her pants with shaky hands.

"I got out of Malivore two days ago and spent that time fighting the monster. And I really need you two to say that you believe me right now because you are the most important people I had in my life." She says, breaking down crying.

"I believe you." Alaric tells her and gives her a supportive hug after a short pause.

"Then..." Sosuke says looking down at the necklaces he was wearing.

"Yes. Those are mine. You ripped them off me when I trapped you under the rubble." Hope answers, tears flowing down her face while Sosuke pulls the necklaces over his head.

"Why would you do that if I was so important to you?" He asks confused.

"Because we were in love and you wanted to go with me into Malivore and I couldn't let you sacrifice any more for me." Hope says sniffling while facing him.

"In love?" He asks, taken aback.

"Yes. We weren't together long but the time we were, was the best time of my life. Despite how annoyingly selfless you were all the time." She tells him, staring into his eyes for any sign of hope.

"I'm sorry. I don't remember." Sosuke apologizes and places her necklaces in her shaky hands carefully, causing her to cry even more while he closes her hand around the necklaces.

"I hope you are willing to tell me about it though so I can get to know you again." He then adds and Hope throws herself at him, wrapping her arms so tightly around his neck he'd be struggling for breath if he didn't have super strength.

"I can't promise you anything of course. But I will listen." Sosuke tells her while patting her back gently.

"I hate to interrupt. But this is my office not your guys' bedroom and it's almost time to deal with out troll corpse." Alaric tells the teens, Hope slowly calming down, still clinging onto Sosuke while shaking like a leaf.

"You OK?" Sosuke asks her worried when she finally let's go of him.

"No. But at least I have hope that I can be again." She answers with a smile while still shaking.

"Hello? Earth to hormonal teenagers. How do we get rid of the troll?" Alaric says, waving his hand between the two.

"Don't we have a furnace in the school?" Sosuke asks as a suggestion.

"Could work." Alaric agrees and the three head down to the steam tunnels again, only to see no more troll, only its blood and Alaric's Bolt.

They then follow the new blood tracks to the town center where they lose the trail.

"What now?" Hope asks.

"We wait till the sun goes down." Alaric says and they head back to school to wait for the right time to fight the creature.

While Alaric is in his office Sosuke brings Hope onto the school's roof, sitting down against a wall up there with her.

"Why are you and Dr. Saltzman no longer at Salvatore?" Hope asks Sosuke.

"I was dismissed because of my actions against TRIAD. And Dr.S. let the council vote if he should stay or not after he confessed that he put a magic blocking device underneath the school as a safety precaution in case we turned out evil." Sosuke explains.

"How'd the vote go?" Hope asks.

"1 outta 4 voted for him to stay." Sosuke says.

"Ouch." Hope sighs.

"Uh-huh. Well he kinda got lost then. He focused on the Malivore hole and I got roped in for obvious reasons..." Sosuke says, tapping the necklaces she put back on herself.

"So how'd he end up here at school?" Hope asks curiously.

"Josie stayed to take care of him during the summer break. And she beat him into shape as best she could I guess. As much as I'd like to say I helped... I didn't. I only made things worse when I started bounty hunting and monster hunting again." Sosuke tells Hope.

"Now it's your turn to tell me about yourself." Sosuke says, looking at her intensely.

"We started out as frenemies when we were 10 then became friends for 5 years. And when Landon and the monsters showed up everything became messy and changed over and over. But after a lot of sorrow and mistakes on everyone's side, mine most of all though we just stopped beating around the bush and started dating." Hope tells him as a short version.

"How did you think you became your powers by the way?" Hope asks curiously.

"I can't remember. I was hit by lightning for some reason." He answers.

"Well the truth is, you got shot to protect me and then got hit by lightning." Hope tells him with a shy smile which makes his heart flutter.

"I got shot for you?" He asks surprised.

"You did so much for me. More than I could ever repay." She tells him with teary eyes.

"Well I don't remember any of it, so no need to feel indebted anymore." Sosuke tells her with a carefree smirk.

"Well then, can I start getting a new debt?" She asks him sweetly and scoots closer to him, caressing one of his hands.

"I know it won't mean the same for you as it does for me, but I really want you to kiss me right now." Hope tells him, looking at him with a shy smile and a small blush.

Sosuke gently caresses her face before moving in for the kiss, feeling Hope shudder and gasp happily in response.

"Oh I am that good huh?" He jokes, stroking through her hair.

"Yeah. You are the best thing that will ever happen to me." She replies smiling, caressing the back of his neck.

"Time to get to work kids." Alaric tells them arriving on the roof just as Sosuke was about to kiss her again.

"Good to see something stayed the same.

He is the proverbial cock blocker of our relationship." Hope says half amused, half annoyed.