10 | ticking time bomb

Hope

I was practically breathing magic.

Every breath I took was stinging my throat, pounding my head, clenching my heart. Even if I was just walking around the house, there's this ringing at the back of my head, a high-pitched one that was subtle but whenever I walk past the room where my dad is trapped in, that ringing gets louder and the next thing I know, I've shattered the light bulbs.

I've felt this before. With the amount of power I have as the firstborn child of the Mikaelsons, accompanied by my vampirism, and my lingering werewolf temper, I've always been bound to lose control every now and then. One of those is now.

"Are you sure we should even be training now?" I asked Tony as I stood on the balcony, watching pick up the fighting sticks.

He shrugged. "How am I supposed to help you destroy Triad when I lack the skills to do so?"

At his statement, I cocked an eyebrow and curled a smirk. Since when has he been so honest about his shortcomings?

"Am I dreaming or did you just admit that you lack something?" I teased.

Based on my observation these last few days, Tony's a rich, egotistical, and stubborn prodigy who does not like being told what to do and will do anything to preserve his precious ego...until today.

"It's either I admit that now or we find out later when I'm six feet under." Tony responded.

I shrugged my shoulders and pushed my lips into a thin line before replying. "Fair enough." I said. "But let's not use fighting sticks today."

Tony scrunched up his face in confusion, averting his gaze from me and towards the pair of fighting sticks he was holding before swinging it around.

"Why not?" He asked as he neared me.

"Well, you're gonna need to learn how to fight without those. Hand-to-hand combat." I explained.

He pouted while holding up the two sticks with his two hands. "But I'm really good at this." He whined.

"That's why we're moving on, because you're already good at that." I said, agreeing with him.

Although I wish I hadn't because I just basically fed his ego.

"My ego thanks you, Spunky." Tony simply said with a playful smile as he pointed one fighting stick at me.

"Mine despises you, Snarky." I retorted.

Tony and I both simply smiled before he threw the sticks aside and crunched his knuckles.

"No Dracula tricks yet, okay? Oh, and nothing on the face. Ladies dig the face. You like the face, right?" Tony said.

"I hate the face."

"You like the face."

"No, I don't."

"It's irresistible."

"It's...very not."

"It is."

"Tony, training." I reminded him.

He pushed his lips into a thin line and nodded once. "Right."

Tony stood in the middle of the wide porch and I walked to stand in front of him while I pulled my hair up in a ponytail. Just when I thought that we were done with the topic, he spoke again.

"I just wanna know—"

"Do you want me to break the face?"

"Don't like it, got it."

God, this man is so stubborn. It's always a challenge to shut him up. It's a miracle that I've lasted this long without purposely hurting him in annoyance. I gotta give my tolerance around him more credit.

"Ready?" I asked him.

He craned his head from side to side to stretch his neck then shook his hands before clenching them into fists.

"Actually, no—" I didn't let him finish what he was about to say and immediately came after him with my right fist that was inches away from making contact with his jaw and I would've hit him if it weren't for the fact he moved away just in time, letting my fist punch the air near his head.

"I said nothing on the face!" He complained.

"Temptation got the best of me." I simply said.

He squinted his eyes suspiciously at me with a mere tilt of his head to the side, giving me a dubious look. He's up to something.

"Well, then, if we're talking about temptation..." his face was serious at this point and for a moment, it made me nervous. Not because I thought he was actually going to defeat me, because I know that's not possible, but because I have a feeling that I just opened up something really complicated by mentioning the word 'temptation'.

I didn't give him a chance to strike first. I threw my left fist towards him but considering my concentration was off, and I admit that, he easily grabbed my wrist and he spun himself around until my arm rested against his shoulder. He pulled me over his body and down to the ground, feeling the harsh contact of my back against the mat-covered floor, vibrating the entire porch.

I groaned slightly at the contact before Tony hovered above me, his knees on both sides of my body and his rough hands pinning my arms above my head.

The next thing I knew his deep brown eyes were looking into my blue ones. Our faces inches apart, our bodies almost closing the gap, our breathing mirroring each other. I could feel my chest brush against his as we caught our breaths.

And I felt something inside me break when his eyes landed on my lips. The high-pitched ringing at the back of my head grew louder, the shallowness of my breath worsened, and my body felt like I was floating in a pool.

A pool which I can only assume is filled with magic. Because what happened next explains that.

I felt the wave of power vibrate through my veins before it was exerted out of my body. A power so great, it almost left me unconscious. A power so great, that it sent Tony flying away from me and off the porch. I heard the loud thud of his body against the sand as I remained laid on the floor, my chest heaving up and down before my vampire strength returned and enabled me to get back up my feet.

I ran towards the end of the porch, leaning against the railing to see Tony groaning in pain as he laid on the sand, his face scrunched up into a grimace.

"Don't like it, got it." He grunted.

"Are you okay?" I asked in worry. I knew we shouldn't have trained today.

"Physically, yeah, kinda. My pride? Not so much." He answered.

"Do you want me to—" I was going to offer him some help, get him back on his feet and all, but he interrupted me before I could finish.

"Nope. I got it. I'll just...I'll—uhm...lay here for a couple of minutes." He responded, giving up on pulling himself and just let himself sprawl across the sand.

Maybe, I should just let him be for now.

—

My magic is out of control because my emotions are out of control. It all became harder to handle when I saw my dad again. It's like every minute of every day, I'm on the verge of breaking down.

And then there's Tony who, for some unknown reason, makes me feel nervous. And I know it's not because I fear him.

This is the most tempting thing for a vampire, being aware that you can shut it all off. If I just flip my humanity switch, those said out of control emotions wouldn't bother me anymore. I'd have my magic more grounded and more within my control. But the last time I shut off my humanity, I almost killed the closest thing I have to a dad.

And I will forever hate myself for that.

I threw the blood bag past the threshold of the room Klaus is trapped in. He was standing in the middle of the room, staring at the blood bag I just threw on the floor, before an offended look flashed across his face.

"I'm starting to think that you really have a death wish." He growled.

I felt my hand twitch and at the corner of my eye, I saw one light from the hallway flicker—which was brand new. Tony had to buy new sets of lightbulbs given my recent episodes.

"Just drink so you won't desiccate." I said, trying to get him to oblige. But who am I kidding? None of the Mikaelson like being told what to do. It's what makes my family dysfunctional.

Klaus sped towards the doorway, his blue eyes looking straight into the ones I inherited from him before he spoke.

"Let me out of here." He compelled me, or rather, tried to.

"I don't think so." I answered.

His eyebrows furrowed, bewilderment plastered across his face as he narrowed his eyes at me, surely wondering whether or not I'm on vervain.

I'm not.

"When the time comes that I've escaped from this ridiculous spell of yours, I will rip your heart out and make it my supper." He snarled, his gaze turning to a glare.

If looks could kill, I'd already be six feet under.

"Is that a threat?"

He leaned away from the door and his vexed expression slowly changed into a presumptuous one. His signature devilish grin tugged on his lips as he looked at me with his eyes glinting with wickedness.

"It's a promise." He answered.

The lights around the house flicker on and off, the sound of the electric current zapping echoing in my ears. I balled my hands into fists, burying the wave of magical energy travelling chaotically through my veins, gradually going out of the rails.

Klaus looked around as he noticed the abnormality of the electricity around us, amusement evident on his face before he returned his gaze back towards me.

"Glad to see you've taken my promise to heart." He said, his smirk not faltering.

With that, I turned around and walked away before I could do or say something that I can't take back.

—

"What did the punching bag ever do to you?"

I felt Tony's presence the second he entered the room, and I mentally prepared myself for his presence while he was just walking down the stairs. I'm in the basement of the house where Tony has the gym. There was a lot I could do with the many pieces of equipment in the room, but I only used one. The punching bag.

"Nothing." I just said, my tone dismissive.

I continued to throw punches at the bag as I heard Tony's footsteps walking towards me.

"Okay, what did I do to you?" He asked.

That's just it. I don't know. I don't know what you did that made me feel so nervous or what you're doing right now that's making me lose focus.

"Nothing." I repeated, my punches growing harder by the second.

"Are you sure it's nothing?" He asked again, this time, his tone more concerned.

"Easy there, Snarky, I might actually think you care about me." I joked.

"So what if I do?"

My punches stopped mid-air at his response. I looked over to him and saw the sincerity on his face. There were no traces of humour or teasing in his eyes or his lips. There was no smirk or grin, no wink or a wiggle of his eyebrows. Nothing. He was downright serious.

"I'm fine, Tony." I said, making my dismissive tone more obvious for him to catch. But I'm starting to think that he has already noticed that, he just doesn't care.

"You don't look that way to me." He contradicted.

"Goddammit, Tony, I said I'm fine!" I shouted, but my magic betrayed me.

At the same time I shouted, I accidentally loosened my grip on my magic which caused me to exert a wave of energy strong enough to shatter the mirrors around us and the light bulbs above, bend the metal gym equipments, burst the punching bag open, and send Tony against the wall before he collapsed down to the ground.

"Yeah...I can feel that." He groaned, while lying face down on the floor.

I tangled my hands in my hair, clutching my head as the high-pitched ringing began to swallow other sounds, letting me hear only that one deafening ringing. Closing my eyes, the feeling of my magic vibrating through my veins was clearer. I could practically see it going out of control. But I just couldn't do anything about it. The magic inside me was too much that it was begging for a release.

"Andrea." Tony placed his hands on my arms.

"No, stay away from me, I might hurt you again." I said, pushing him away but he only tightened his grip on me.

"Just trust me. Come on." He said.

He led me outside, where the sun was already setting. The view in front of me looked like it came straight out of a painting. The sky was bleeding colors of yellow, orange, and scarlet. The texture of the water was so posterized and the vibrancy of the cool blue of the sea complimented the warm colors above.

"I have an idea." Tony said.

I looked towards him and waited for him to explain what we are doing outside.

"As much as I enjoy being your human punching bag, I have a feeling that fourth time's a charm. One more and I'm officially done for." He said then he moved out of the way. "So, let it out while I'm still out of the way."

I looked at Tony with my eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Let it out. Scream. Punch the air. Abracadabra some shit. Just let it all out." He explained.

I was suddenly reminded of Lizzie, and how she took me to the forest to help me when I wasn't in control of my powers. I was a danger to the school with my powers all over the place that she took me outside and told me to let it all out. And I did.

A couple of seconds earlier, I felt fine again.

I hope this works for the second time.

I clenched my hands into fists then drew a deep breath, getting ready for a scream that would let me release everything that I've kept buried inside the past few days.

The next thing I knew, the high-pitched ringing in my head was replaced by the ear-piercing scream I was letting out. The sea before me was almost divided in the middle as some of the sand floated around me.

I could already feel it working. The magic that was previously trapped and shaking inside me was flowing out of me like my scream was. The heaviness on my chest was starting to subside.

By the time I stopped screaming, there was a moment of silence as everything around me went back to normal. And I thought even I was back to normal. But that's when I realized that while I was keeping my magic trapped inside of me to stop it from getting further out of control, I was also preventing my emotions from sinking in.

Now that I've released that magic, I've also let my emotions rush in. And it only took a few, quiet seconds before the only emotion I could feel was pain.

I knelt to the ground, gasping as my heart broke and tears welled up in my eyes.

I miss everything. I miss everyone. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my home. I miss everything that's familiar to me, everything that I've been with. Nothing about this place was making me feel better and no matter how much I pretend that I'm doing fine, I'm not. Not when I'm stuck in a timeline where no one knows the real me, where no one knows how to actually help me.

"Andrea, hey, shh." My whole body felt numb but I saw Tony wrap his arms around me as I cried. My tears were already staining his shirt while my sobs grew louder.

I couldn't feel anything. I felt numb over everything except pain. It's like it's the only emotion I know. Grief. Hatred. Longing...Love. Every emotion that is supposed to have their individual meaning and effect becomes summed up into one whole painful feeling.

"I'm here." I heard Tony say.

And it's the only two words that I needed to hear. I just needed to know that someone, anyone is here for me.

We both pulled away from each other. I was already sitting on the sand while Tony was kneeling in front of me. He took my face into his hands, lifting it up to meet my gaze.

It's like we're back in that same position again.

Faces inches apart, bodies almost closing the gap, breathing mirroring each other.

Only the difference between now and then, was the when he looked down on my lips, there was no magic that threw him away.

And I actually felt his lips touch mine.

—

I'm cackling just thinking about Tony's POV in this chapter.