"We need to have a serious talk."

Lizzie looked up from her book in surprise. She hadn't expected a visitor at this hour, much less ever-exhausted Hope Mikaelson. She closed her book slowly, marking the page with a spell. She wasn't ready to have this talk. She wasn't sure she'd ever be ready, but morning was the earliest she had thought it would come.

She smiled like she wasn't panicking inside. "Of course."

Hope sat across from her, eyes glued to where the mattress and Lizzie's soft blankets sank around her knees instead of looking at Lizzie herself.

"Look," Lizzie said, eager to break through the awkward silence. "I came to kill you, you killed me, and then I killed you. Let's just ... call it even, okay? No apologies. No resentment. No debt. Just ... even."

Hope glanced up, eyes wider than usual. "That's actually not what I came to talk to you about."

"It's not?" Lizzie wrinkled her nose. What else serious would have they to talk about if not their twin murders? If not them being immortal, bloodthirsty vampires now, who had also done some seriously messed up things together?

Hope shook her head, a tiny smile appearing on her lips. "No." She adjusted where she sat, drawing her knees closer to her chest as she looked at Lizzie. She suddenly seemed so small, curled up on the big bed like that. Lizzie wanted to reach out and hold her, but she felt like if she did that, they'd never go through with having this serious conversation Hope wanted.

So, Lizzie kept her hands to herself. "Then what?"

"I heard that MG kissed you today."

"Oh." Lizzie dropped her gaze, suddenly grateful that she hadn't touched Hope. So that's what this was about. Although, she failed to see why this was considered serious by Mikaelson standards. Serious was usually reserved for life or death situations, not who Lizzie was or wasn't letting kiss her.

"And I'm guessing we're the only two who know ... what we know." Hope couldn't bring herself to say it out loud. They hadn't spoken about it yet. In fact, Lizzie had never said it to Hope again after she turned her humanity back on.

"Right." Lizzie nodded slowly.

"So ... why?"

Lizzie blinked a few times. "Why what?"

"Why would you kiss him if you're in love with -" Hope swallowed heavily, choking out the words, "- someone else?"

"I don't know," Lizzie admitted honestly. It was something that she'd been thinking about a lot ever since MG told her for the seventh time that he liked her. I hoped that it would be me, because it has and always will be you, Lizzie Saltzman. That was a lot of pressure to spring on someone who just came back such a changed person. How could she not give in to that? How could she hear that her best friend had been waiting years for her to like him back and not at least try? "I guess I thought I owed him a shot."

Hope reached out, doing what Lizzie wouldn't, and wrapped her fingers around Lizzie's. "MG deserves better than that."

"I know." Lizzie's face crumpled, that familiar guilt rushing back in. She was manipulating him, again. It seemed like no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't win in this situation. She always came out the bad guy because she just couldn't make herself love him back, even though he was perfect , even though he was way more than she deserved , even though he was her best friend in the entire world , she just couldn't make herself feel more than gratitude towards him. "He told me he loves me."

Hope's grip loosened a little, and for a moment, Lizzie was filled with fear that she was going to pull away, but she didn't. "Did you say it back?"

Lizzie shook her head. "I couldn't. I just told him how awesome he is and then I ... ran away."

"You ran away ?" Hope fought the urge to laugh at the image of Lizzie sprinting away from a completely serious and probably more than a little confused MG.

"Yes." Lizzie sighed. "I just chickened out."

"Because you didn't want to tell him the truth."

"Because I didn't want to break his heart." Lizzie pressed her lips into a flat line. "I've done that to him enough already."

Hope nodded. She tried to understand. She really did. But MG did it to himself by believing he could win her over if he just kept trying despite her repeated rejections. She couldn't wrap her head around how Lizzie could feel bad for him. Hope squeezed Lizzie's hand tighter. That's why Lizzie was and always would be a better person than her. Her compassion knew no bounds.

"Can we talk about the other half of it?" Hope asked finally, her words quiet.

Lizzie tilted her head. "The other half?"

"The part where you told me you love me."

"Do we really have to?"

Hope finally took her hand from Lizzie's, leaning back like she needed some fresh air. "We really have to."

Lizzie waited. A long, long moment passed before Hope startled, realizing she was going to have to start the conversation she wanted to have herself.

"You, uh, gave me ..." Hope stumbled over her words. "I mean, it was really a nice ... It was a beautiful speech, Lizzie."

But Hope didn't feel the same. Message received. Lizzie physically recoiled, disguising it as adjusting in her bed. "We really don't have to -"

Hope reached back for her hand, but in all Lizzie's squirming, her fingers ended up wrapping around the other girl's leg. " I have to."

"Okay."

"I feel like it was wasted on me. I didn't have feelings. I couldn't ..." Hope shook her head, mouth opening and closing as she reached for the words.

"You couldn't return feelings if you didn't have feelings," Lizzie finished for her.

Hope nodded quickly. "I couldn't appreciate it. In the moment. But I appreciate it now. Maybe even more now than I would've before."

Appreciate it. I think you're ... amazing. God, it really did suck being on this side of the rejection. This was why she'd tried so hard to spare MG's feelings. This feeling was awful. She couldn't live with herself if she ever put someone through that.

Hope took a deep breath and continued. "And if you still feel that way about me ..."

Of course I still do , Lizzie wanted to say as quick as she could possibly force the words out, but her cheeks burned just at the thought of blurting out something so vulnerable and idiotic. She just kept her mouth shut instead. Hope wanted to have this conversation, so Hope could do the talking. But I still love you.

"... then I'm finally in a position to be able to respond." Hope waited, her breath held, turning stale in her throat, for Lizzie's response.

"Okay."

"I ... thought you were a total bitch," Hope blurted. "For, like, ten years. I thought you hated me."

Lizzie's shoulders drew up. "I didn't."

"I know. Now." Hope lowered her knees as she slowly moved closer. "But for ten years, I worked so hard to bury any feelings I had for you, because what kind of an idiot wants to be friends with the girl who clearly despises her? And it took me a bit to shake that instinct, even after I found out that the entire thing was a lie. It's made ... figuring out my feelings for you a bit complicated."

"You can say it," Lizzie said, hoping her voice didn't betray her and tell Hope exactly how close to tears she was. It was one thing to know, deep in your heart, that the girl you love didn't return your feelings, but it was another to sit in your own bed and hear her say it to you. She wanted Hope to just get it over with already. Then Lizzie could cry herself to sleep and wake up tomorrow morning firmly in denial and pretending like it had never happened.

"Landon died."

Lizzie had to blink a few times, reeling from the unexpected and sudden change in the conversation. I know? I'm sorry? How did someone respond to that? What did Hope want her to say?

"Like, right as I was figuring it out. And that made things even more complicated." Hope sighed. She looked exhausted. This time, Lizzie did reach out and touch her. She tucked that stray piece of red hair behind Hope's ear. A small, careful gesture. Anything that felt like it could maybe ease Hope's seemingly never-ending suffering, even just a tiny bit. She didn't expect Hope to lean into the touch as she kept searching for her next words. "You, uh ... When you slept with Rafael -"

This time, Lizzie burst out laughing. Hope had gone from MG's unrelenting feelings to Lizzie's confession to Landon dying and now to her losing her virginity to Rafael Waithe two years ago? She had never wished she could see what was going on in the tribrid's mind more than now.

"I'm - I'm going somewhere, I swear," Hope said, fighting her own bout of laughter. "After you and Rafael slept together, he talked to me a lot about what it was like to try and start a new relationship so soon after losing Cassie. He told me about his grief and how it felt like he was letting Cassie down if he moved on too fast but he was letting you down if he didn't move on fast enough. It was a lot like that."

Lizzie nodded. She almost felt bad for laughing now, but that smile still lingered on Hope's face and it felt like a little bit of the awkward tension between them had dissipated.

"If I said I loved you back, I felt like I was dishonoring Landon's memory. He was my first love, and he died, and I ..."

"Felt like you owed it to him." Lizzie leaned back against the pillows. Funny how much they had in common, even when their situations were nothing alike.

"Yeah." That was exactly it. "But Landon wasn't the kind of guy who would want me to miss out on something great just because I was mourning. He wasn't ... he would've wanted me to be happy. He always wanted me to be happy."

"And I ...?"

"You make me happy, yes."

So did that mean ...? No. Nope. Lizzie couldn't even think it.

"So, um, it's not as spectacular as your speech, but I'm sorry for everything I did to you and your family when my humanity was off, I'm sorry for not being there for you when you needed someone the most and everyone else left you, and mostly, I'm sorry for taking so long to tell you that I love you too, Elizabeth Saltzman. I love every single part of you with every single part of me."

Lizzie's mind went blank, her ears ringing. Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Finally, she managed out, "Come again?"

"I love you, Lizzie."

Now that she'd said it once, she never wanted to stop saying it.

She finally understood why Lizzie had brought it up at every chance she got after telling her for the first time.

It was like the floodgates had opened, and now Hope couldn't stop it from pouring out. She'd said it out loud, and now it was real. Too real. So real that the chance to bottle it up and stuff it down deep inside had passed.

She undeniably loved Lizzie Saltzman.

And now Lizzie Saltzman knew it.