Lost and Found

Time: 12:30,  5-6 2020
Outfit: Link + she has her wedding ring in a necklace around her neck.
@Alexander <3
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It had been a month longer than Hope first thought they would stay here. But there was still royals to make alliances with. Veronica Emerson and Rebekah Sinclair were on the to do list, and Hope knew especially Rebekah would be a tough nut to crack - at least that was what she heard. She had also heard of another Queen travelling around in Gaia, perhaps it would another chance for another alliance. It was a weird game and she hadn't quite come to understand it now. But she had dressed for the evening. She knew her Queen preferred when she blended in nicely. Catarina was at a meeting with Alexander Mikaelson, as the new king of Gaia she had to be sure of his intentions and making sure everything worked just fine. She waited by the closed door so she could attend her job. Hope looked at her watch, and not a second to late the door opened. "My Queen," she said as Catarina stepped out. "Your majesty," she bowed to the king before looking up. Her baby blue eyes met with Alexander's. Hope froze for a second, which was odd. She never did that. She always seemed to be one stepped ahead or all knowing. The demon looked so confused and surprised, then followed with a rush of emotions that finally washed into shore. Hope blinked, and for every blink a flash of memories stormed through her mind. "Alex," she confirmed in a low whisper as she now knew. She couldn't believe it. Her entire body suddenly felt so weak like everything that had held together was falling to the ground. It seemed unreal. Hope tried to figure out how to act, but she had no idea how to handle this situation. How had she forgotten him? Had he been suppressed these memories for survival? The nervously ran a hand though her hair and looked back at Caterina shortly before looking back at Alex. She felt vulnerable and that was her most feared feeling.

Alexander
- Clothes: Link
- Color: Link

Catarina
- Clothes: Link
- Color: Link

It had been planned, he and Catarina should meet and talk, originally one would think she should have made the alliance through his father, but Sebastian had the idea it would be good for the king to be. Though now he did have the crown, and while it was scary and exciting all at the same time, he knew he had to do everything he could for his country and his people. While he still did enjoy partying, he couldn't do it in the extend that he had before, after all, he had a responsibility and this was nothing like anything he had tried before. one thing was to be taught how to be perfect, now he had to use alliances, connect bonds with other countries and put Gaia before his own needs.
The meeting with Catarina went well, they wanted mostly the same things, and it seemed they were on the same page, with what to expect from this alliance. And now as the meeting came to an end, it was time for Catarina to get back, so he followed her out of the castle. However, on the way they met, what he assumed was Catarina's personal security. She seemed familiar though, and it all came back, as he heard her voice "Hope?" he seemed surprised and took a step towards her, while Catarina stayed back.

Everything rushes through her. Emotions, memories and this overwhelming feeling was almost soul crushing. It was a feeling of wanting to reach out, touch his face to make sure he was alive and real. It was a feeling of what she has lost the second his memory had left her mind. Hope had lost herself a long time ago, but for the first time in forever she felt that part of herself turn around inside her. It was awake. She breathed out as he said her name, funny how she hated when everyone else called her Hope. She liked others to call her by her middle name, but Alexander calling her by her first name seemed right. He took a step closer to her, and she didn’t step back. Her piercing blue eyes just looked at him, feeling up with tears as she finally locked her emotions up. Hope had been closed off for so long. “Hey,” she spoke with a weak voice. Her voice was usually strong and hoarse, and not even Caterina had heard it this vulnerable before. Hope blinked a little and felt one single tear one down from her eye and down her cold cheek. She was a demon now, a monster like creature and not the witch he knew.

He never forgot her, and though he may have loved again and again after her, it still hurt sometimes thinking back to her, thinking back to the time, when they were together and how he had lost her before he even wanted to. But now, here she was, standing in front of him like nothing had ever happened...but everything had happened all at the same time. He walked all the way over to her, as she said hello, and gently he removed her tears from the cheeks, and his eyes never really left her "How? How is this possible? We all thought you were dead...I searched everywhere for you," he said, with his voice shaking. Alex had always been a man who showed his emotions, but he felt quite a lot and much of it, so a shaking voice and all this showing in his eyes, wasn't really something new. So here he stood, standing in front of a woman, he'd loved for so long, and had mourned for even longer.

He removed her tear and Hope held her breath shortly. She wanted to be in this, to feel everything but also feared it. All this time training herself to be numb had lead her back to him. She was so disconnected from her emotions that she felt utterly helpless in finding her way in them right now. “I guess I kinda did,” she replied and gasped a little for air as she took a sharp breath in. Her hands started to shake slightly. Not even Caterina knew what had happened to her before she had given Hope a second chance. “I’m sorry. I tried to get back, I tried so hard,” her voice cracked and she removed her gaze to the ground. She was ashamed of herself, that she hasn’t been strong enough to get back to him. That after she came back from the fire world that she had forgotten. Hope slowly let her hand to the ring handing around her neck and looked back up. She folded her lips together and tilted her head to the side. Her heart cried out to her as it was bleeding from all the sewed up wounds she carried. Hope looked into his eyes, wondering how many questions that formed in his head. Her scent must be so different to him now, she was so beautifully broken and yet still looked at him the same way she always had.

Catarina had by now left, feeling as if this was too intimate for her, and while she did enjoy intimate things, this wasn't really something for her to watch. Alex hadn't even noticed when she left, as his attention was only left on Hope, and her sudden reappearance, something he hadn't been quite ready for, and yet here the situation was. How could he prepare for this, one could have thought after Gabriella and Jordan had returned from the dead, that he would have an easier time with this kind of thing, yet he didn't know what to do, whether to cry, laugh or just leave. He wasn't even able to leave, as he felt trapped to the floor, unable to leave her presence.
As she turned her face down, he gently lifted it up, by grabbing her chin "it's okay," he had always been quite forgiving, possibly why Abigal potentially felt so protective over him, because he loved easily and he forgave amongst all, almost everything. Before he could say anything or she could, he pulled her into a hug, holding her in his arms, as he had done the last time, before she so suddenly disappeared and they forced him to believe she'd died.

Funny how she usually was aware of every moment and move her queen made, but didn’t even realize she had left the room. Alexander lifted her face up making her look into his eyes again. He wrapped her arms around her, and it took a her a few seconds for her body to realize. Hope ended up wrapping her arms around him and just held herself close to him. It seemed like forever ago and it was forever ago he had held her like that. Hope had forgotten what it was like to feel home, to feel safe but the feeling slowly returned to the surface. She closed her eyes but it was still dark in her mind, making them open again to hang on to his scent, to the feeling of his embrace that seemed to ground her. “I’ve missed you so much.. I can hardly believe that you are real,” he must have been feeling the same if he had thought she was dead. “I really did try, but I wasn’t strong enough.”

He didn't say anything, he just held her in his arms, not knowing where this would go to or if it would lead anywhere, years had after all passed by and they were both different people. So no matter how he just wanted to jump back in time and let everything be as it once was, it couldn't and he knew that. But that didn't mean he didn't care for her, because he did and in some ways, he always would. She had a special place in his heart, like so many others had and would. As she started talking, he looked down at her "I missed you too," he said while looking at her, slowly letting go of her body again "It's okay," he smiled gently at her, as he'd done so many times before, trying to be strong for her.

She took a deeper breath in as she felt he slowly let her go, she did the same. Hope wrapped her arms around herself after almost as if she tried shielding herself from more emotions. It warmed her heart that he had missed her as well. Her missing him had been the greatest loss she had faced. She looked around and then back at him, “is there any chance we can go and sit?” She then asked and took another sharp breath in. Hope wanted to explain what has happens, and the whole reason why she couldn’t return. There was a reason she wasn’t fond of being back and that secret was buried in the woods. However she felt like she owed him that answer, and perhaps it was time to lift the burden off her chest.

She nodded feeling short for words, and followed him. It was weird, with her memories returning to the surface, the walls of the castle seemed now so familiar. She had spent so much time here when she first saw Alexander back in the days, before tragic events had torn them apart. Hope took a sharper breath in as she stepped outside. It still smelled so beautifully, all the flowers left a scent that made her smile. It was refreshing, feeling the small innocent breeze tenderly caress her cheeks. The sun warming her arms with a gentle touch. She closed her eyes for a moment, found herself back in a memory of pure happiness. She had once been so magical once, and now she was just filled up with darkness. "It still looks so beautiful," she spoke and opened her eyes. She moved her blue eyes over to Alexander as he sat down on the bench, and she took a few steps closer and sat down next to him. "I haven't really talked about what happened, with anyone, so I don't really know how to start," she confessed and looked away from him back at one of the rosebushes. They bloomed so beautiful this season, so filled with color and hope. "So I guess, I will start at the beginning," she took a deeper breath in and filled her heart skip a beat. "I woke up in some sort of pit. Like a giant field of blood, corpse, yelling.. People fought for their lives for others entertainment," she closed her eyes to remember the past more clearly. "I was suddenly in the middle of it, and there was no way out," she took a breath in and clenched her left fist. "A woman, shapeshifter found me and made sure I was safe. I learned to fight, take care of myself," she then confirmed in a small sigh. Then she opened her eyes and turned her gaze to him. "The next part might be the worst, and I hope you won't judge me to hardly for it," she already hated herself for backstabbing the people who had saved her life.

"I found a way out, a spell of some sort and broke free. But I couldn't risk going back and breaking them loose," she looked down at her hand. She had never wanted to be a killer, a murder. "What happened next.. I'm pretty sure I had it coming," she breathed out and moved her right hand up towards her heart. "Someone stabbed me with sword, some magical sword, and I thought for sure I was in Hell," she took a sharper breath in and looked back at him. "I turned into a shadow. I don't know what I killed to survive, but it turned me into something dark. This," she reached her right hand a little bit out. The dark manner from it formed like a shadow from her hand. "I lost my magic and everything that was bound to it in there, but I came out. Some demons found me and was forced to serve them. Till they wanted to kill Caterina, and she gave me a second chance. Me being here is simply owned to her mercy."

She looked so collecting speaking of it and she realized just how shattered she really was. Hope was closed off in her own bobble of emotions and they had been forced back for so long, but she still was to afraid to let them all out. It wasn't till he asked her if she was okay, that the shoe dropped on her mind and she realized she wasn't. The game of pretending was getting old and she took a sharp breath in. It felt like there was a fork in her stomach just twirling her insides around. "I don't know," she replied and looked back at him, "but I'm alive." Hope had found herself some purpose in keeping Caterina safe, but perhaps it was just a distraction from facing whatever void there had been left inside her. "I might not have realized it for some time, but you have always been right with me," she picked up the ring that still hang around her neck and looked down at it shortly before looking back at Alexander. "What about you. Are you okay with everything going on?" She could imagine it being weird times, suddenly having become king. Things couldn't possibly be seen from the same old perspective anymore.

He nodded as she said, she wasn't sure if she was okay, but that none the less she was alive, and he knew how that felt. When his mother vanished, he couldn't really mourn her, when he'd lost his children, he'd had to be strong for Zabrina and for her loss. When Felicity's mother Diana had died, or Elisabeth died, it had hurt and he couldn't really mourn them either. So having to just live on, even though he'd experienced all this pain, was something he knew better than anyone else. Having been taught how to be perfect from a young age, and having to always be ready, having to mourn the loss of his children og those he'd loved, wasn't something he was allowed to. He raised an eyebrow, as she said he'd been there with her, and a little smile emerged upon his lips. It was nice to know she in some ways had thought of him as he'd thought of her "Well I'm alive, and dealing in my own way." And by dealing, it wasn't really dealing. Though he may be over 3.000 years old, he was never really taught how to deal with pain, but rather just act like this perfectly charming man.

Hope took a sharp breath in and placed her hand on his knee, looking at him with a little smirk. "Us dealing in our own way sounds incredible lonely and dangerous," she concluded with a softer chuckle. Bottling up emotions wasn't something she usually would recommend anyone else, but here she was saying it was her own ideal plan. Hearing Alexander saying he was dealing with it somewhat the same way as her, or at least thinking they were alone in their emotions - seemed to open her eyes just a little bit wider. "I'm glad that you are alive."

He chuckled, and then looked at her "But we are who we are," he said pointing out the fact, that with all the trauma they had been through, it may not have fallen them that easy to talk about whatever that may have happened. As it was now, he didn't really talk about the pain he went through, not only as a vampire, but also as a person, having lost so many people over and over again. One should think he was used to it by now, but he really wasn't and the pain of having lost Asher, a promise for a better life, still was over him, as it had only been a few months ago. He may have acted charming and seductive towards others, wanting to have sex with them, but it was just his way of dealing with everything.
He looked at her, having had his face facing nothing for a few moments "I'm glad you're alive too," he smiled a tiny bit as if he was somehow showing a tiny bit, of all the chaos he felt inside, but it quickly disappeared again, as he looked at her.

She had lost her sense of time for the time being, almost forgotten that she actually had been waiting on Catherina. She was back to being lost in his eyes and just feeling the nice calm feeling she got from being around him. Hope had closed herself off, almost completely removed all forms of love from her life after losing him. Even when she had thought she had found a little something, it just hadn't been right. "It's odd, being here right now - feels like no time has passed, and yet we both know it as," she confessed and took a sharper breath in, still looking into his eyes. "I think we will be in Gaia for a while, so.. if you want, we have time to catch up. This country has changed a lot, and I have been sneaking Cat around back home. I'm sure I can keep you out of the spotlight for a few hours," she then suggested with a hopeful smile. It was weird, being so soft around him - again as if no time had past. As if she still was the same young witch with love and warmth in her heart.