The set of scales were still floating magically in the air as Hope, Rafael, and Monica stared at Josie, waiting for her to make a decision. "Josie, please." Rafael pleaded desperately.

"Since Landon walked through those doors, my sister, my father, and I have almost died. We don't really know what Landon is, so we can't really say if we know if he's dangerous or not..." Josie trailed off. Hope and Monica seemed to know where her argument was going. Rafael opened his mouth as though he wanted to interject, forcing Josie to beat him to the punch.

Josie looked to Rafael, "Raf, this isn't about who is friends with who or who you like. This school is family, and I'm not putting my family in danger again." She decided before she put her stone into the Landon goes dish.

Furiously, Rafael stood to his feet and violently threw his chair behind him. Monica vamp-speed to her feet and gave him a surprised look as Hope tried to verbally talk him down. "Raf!"

Monica approached Rafael angrily now, not at all helping to calm him down as her face was only inches away from Rafael's, and for a moment, it looked as though the two were about to get into a brawl. "You need to fucking stop." The blonde ordered, as Rafael's eyes blazed with rage as he looked back and forth between Hope, Monica and Josie, making it clear that he felt betrayed by them.

The Waithe took a step back from Monica, shaking his heard before he laughed darkly. "You know what? I'm done with y'all." Rafael decided before he exited through the sliding doors, leaving a guilty-looking Hope and Josie with Monica, who seemed satisfied that the vote went this way, as she had her arms crossed.

❤︎

Ruby looked at her twin in shock, as Rafael had just broke the news to her. She looked sadly at the boy, "What are we going to do?" She asked, feeling helpless. "I.. I don't know." Rafael admitted, disappointedly.

Ruby's eyes drifted away from her brother as she thought about this... for the first time in years they were going to be separated again, and it really hurt. "Rafi.. you need to stay here." Ruby confessed, looking back up to her brother who nodded weakly, "I know.."

Rafael cleared his throat before his eyes darted up to his twin, "Ruby.." He began. "Yeah Rafi?" The pinkette asked. "I want you to go with Landon." Rafael insisted as Ruby frowned, "But Rafi, I can't leave you." She assured him as Rafael nodded in response. "I'll be fine.. but please, at least until Landon is safe." The boy pleaded with his twin. Ruby looked down at her fidgeting hands. She hated that she was being forced to choose between her brothers.

"Okay." She decided, before looking up to her brother, "But you need to keep me updated, so I know you're safe too." Ruby insisted as Rafael smiled weakly, before he lifted his arm and playfully punched Ruby in the shoulder, "Of course, Ru."

❤︎

Monica stood leant up against the hard, plaster wall in the hallway, as Hope, Landon and Ruby walked by. The blonde made eye contact with Ruby, before asking "Leaving already?" The pinkette seemed surprised that Monica was speaking to her, and stopped walking as Landon told her they'd wait outside.

"What, are you going to miss me?" Ruby asked raising an eyebrow. Monica rolled her eyes, before taking a step forward, away from the wall "God no, good riddance." She huffed as Ruby laughed awkwardly in response, "Good. I thought you might have been starting to care." The wolf grinned as Monica snorted in amusement before she replied, "Can't have that."

Ruby then stepped forward to embrace the blonde who flinched at the contact. Despite hating the contact, Monica found herself reluctantly hugging the Waithe girl back. "You may be the most annoying person I've ever met... but I'm going to miss arguing with you." Monica confessed, as they broke apart.

"You're too nice for your own good... don't let the outside world ruin you, or whatever." Monica shrugged as she tried to remain nonchalant as Ruby laughed, "You do realise I'm coming back, right? This isn't forever?"

Monica rolled her eyes again, "Good. I might get bored not having anyone to argue with. Ric gets boring after a while... he doesn't really fight back anymore." She confessed as Ruby shook her head as she chuckled lightly.

The pinkette then stepped away, "Goodbye Satan." She smiled as Monica just smirked back, "Bye Mutt." She retorted before Ruby exited through the doors of the Salvatore school, as Monica's smirk faltered.

❤︎

Hope walked Ruby and Landon to the bus stop, making sure they were to get there safely. As the three crossed the street toward the bench, they talked about the day's events.

"Thanks for walking us." Landon spoke up. Hope nodded, "Yeah..." She replied awkwardly. "We had to go before Rafael tried to follow us." Ruby added, as she'd expected her brother to change his mind and come along at the last minute.

Hope thought back to the vote earlier, feeling guilty, "We didn't take the vote lightly. It was close." She said as Ruby stayed quiet. "Yeah, I don't really need to hear about that. I'm in enough pain as it is." Landon responded.

Hope internally debated whether to tell him the next part before awkwardly blurting it out, "I voted no." Ruby bit her lip, feeling uncomfortable amongst the pair now. "Yeah, didn't need to know that..." Landon added. After thinking about it for a moment, Ruby's curiosity got the better of her. She faced Hope before asking, "Why, exactly?"

Hope sat down on the bench at the bus stop, and Landon and Ruby both sat next to her. Landon looked at Hope with curiosity, "Landon, remember when you asked me to make sure that Raf didn't follow you? You did it 'cause you care about him. Because you wanted to do what was right for him, even though it was hard." Hope trailed off.

Landon's smirked at the Mikealson. "Is that way of admitting you care about me?" He asked as Hope smiled sweetly and shrugged. "Maybe I'm a little biased."

Hope then handed Landon and Ruby their bus tickets in envelopes, and when they opened it, they were shocked to see the destination. "New Orleans?" Ruby blurted out with surprise. Hope turned to Ruby and nodded, "I have a family friend there that's expecting you. I asked him to help you find your birth mom." Landon seemed genuinely shocked by this news, "What?"

"I couldn't get you the answers that you wanted, but he can... With this." Hope held out a bag with a folder labelled Landon Kirby. "I put the results of your lineage spell in there." She said. Hope, nervous about saying goodbye to the pair, began to ramble nervously. "And, um, some money... And sandwiches... I hope you guys like ham."

Ruby smiled kindly at Hope, grateful for what she'd  just done for them. "Thanks Hope." The wolf smiled as Hope smiled back weakly, not wanting her to leave.

Hope and Ruby stared at each other in silence for a moment making Landon feeling like a massive thirdwheel, before Hope remembered her last surprise.

"Oh, and, um... and this." The tribrid blurted before she pulled out a leather wrist cuff with a glowing blue stone that seemed to be the same substance as the lie detector orb and fastened it around Landon's wrist, much to Landon's confusion. "What is this?" Both Landon and Ruby asked.

Hope shrugged before saying, "Think of it like a click your heels together three times, kind of thing. If you ever need me, just press it, and my bracelet will lead me to you." With a smile. Hope pointed at her own wrist, where she wore a similar leather wrist cuff, only hers looked like it has a compass built into it so she could locate him.

"I should go." Hope decided as Landon seemed happy to end things on good terms and tried to play it cool. Unfortunately the tribrid wasn't paying much attention to Landon now, and was looking at Ruby sadly as she began to walk away. She'd gotten used to her company, and she wasn't ready to be alone again.

Not sure how to best say goodbye, Hope continued to awkwardly ramble, "Bye. Bye, Ruby, Bye Landon." She called out as the as started to walk across the street. Before she could get far, her bracelet lit up and the compass aspect span until the pointer was aimed back at Landon.

When Hope turned to give him a look, she faced Landon who stood awkwardly as Ruby (who'd grabbed onto her foster brother's arm and tested out the watch) wore a grin on her lips. "I wanted to see if it worked." Ruby called out as Hope smiled a wide, genuine smile before running back towards the pair just as the bus began to pull up.

Hope then stopped in front of Ruby, cupping her face with her hands, before she crashed her lips into Ruby's. Ruby was shocked, but closed her eyes and began to kiss back. The two kissed for several long moments as Hope moved her hands down to around wrap them around Ruby's waist.

Landon stood away from the pair, his mouth hanging open in complete shock. They eventually break apart, Ruby with a wide smile, as she gazed into Hope's eyes. Hope shared the same look, before she reluctantly let go of the wolf.

Ruby walked over to Landon, completely lost for words. "Take care of eachother!" Hope called out, waving to the pair as Ruby just waved back, grinning through her flushed cheeks.

❤︎

Monica paced into the gymnasium to blow off some steam, as she was mentally arguing with herself. She halted as she found Lizzie in tears, sitting on the mat in the middle of the room. The punching bag was laying in pieces next to her, as sand covered every flat surface.

Thinking that Lizzie wanted privacy, Monica immediately back pedalled. "I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone." Monica spoke as she turned to leave. Lizzie stood to her feet and turned to call out to the blonde. "No Mon, wait."

Monica reluctantly stopped and turned around, as Lizzie wasted no time in trying to keep the conversation going, "What are you doing here?" The Saltzman asked. Monica crossed her arms, "I wanted to beat the shit out of that punching bag but um... there's kind of no bag left." The girl stated.

Monica turned to leave again, but after a moment, Lizzie seemed to gain the courage to run after her. The Saltzman grabbed the vampire by the arm and spun her around so that the two were face to face.

Monica was still inside her own head at this point, thinking about why she was unhappy and needed to let off steam— it had to do with Ruby. She was arguing with herself mentally because she'd come to terms with the fact that she cared for the werewolf.

Monica Montgomery cares for Ruby Waithe. Not in a romantic way, but the blonde would be disappointed if the wolf didn't return to the school. Who else was she going to butt heads with?

The taller blonde frowned, not wanting to think about the wolf anymore. She didn't want to care, and realised as Lizzie stared into her eyes in a pleading yet lustful manner, that this was a good chance to use Lizzie as a distraction.

Monica made the first move, edging closer to Lizzie to place her lips on her. Lizzie closed her eyes and kissed back, though very quickly it became heated between the pair.

Monica wrapped her arms around Lizzie, before she picked the girl up in her arms. The siphon wrapped her legs around Monica's waist before the vampire sped over to the mat with her super speed. Monica laid Lizzie down and they broke apart for a moment, as Monica removed her shirt. Lizzie was surprised this was even happening and struggling to believe it, though she began taking off her clothing too.

Monica and Lizzie's lips collided again as they began to make out once more. Lizzie took Monica's hand in her own, lacing their fingers together before the vampires pinned them at Lizzie's side. Things consensually progressed between the pair, and the bothered blondes felt like they could finally let their minds be at ease, as they focused on eachother.