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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄.
[0𝟓]. 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐄.
【 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎 】
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❛ 𝘉𝘖𝘖-𝘍𝘜𝘊𝘒𝘐𝘕𝘎-𝘏𝘖𝘖,
𝘠𝘖𝘜'𝘙𝘌 𝘕𝘖𝘛 𝘚𝘗𝘌𝘊𝘐𝘈𝘓 ❜
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𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐋'𝐒 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐔𝐍 to ease up until Alaric informed the nephilim that he would be helping Hope administer Landon Kirby's tests to see if the annoying emo-kid had some supernatural juice in him so that he could take residence in chez Salvatore. It was like Nathaniel couldn't get rid of Landon, since he was always the one to put up with the pest when the nephilim was the first to take a distaste for the irritating human.

The universe just liked to give him a great fuck you from time to time.

As Nathaniel breathed out heavily while walking into Alaric's office, someone collided into his chest, giving him an engulfing hug and the nephilim quickly stiffened at the contact, not knowing who had their arms around him. The only thing Nathaniel could see was auburn hair, and he softened a bit, recognizing Hope as she let go of him slowly. The nephilim had expected her to be awkward about it afterwards, but she simply smiled shyly in his direction.

"You're okay," Hope stated.

Nathaniel nodded while confused. "I am. I- uh," he tried thanking her for sticking by him while the whole visiting-heaven thing was going on, honest. But the villain wasn't wired to do that. "Alaric wants me to help you with Wednesday. I don't know if he told you-"

"He did," Hope nodded, giving him a silent you're welcome in that nod, and Nathaniel just smiled a closed-mouth smile. "I don't think I can be near him without wanting to kill him."

Nathaniel chuckled. "I don't think I'll stop you if you try."

This wasn't them. Nathaniel Forbes and Hope Mikaelson didn't do positive banter, those interactions had never existed when it came to them. But Nathaniel had to admit he liked them. More than he'd ever disclose. It was nice not being at each other's throats, but at the same time it felt off. And Nathaniel couldn't stop thinking that something had, in fact, changed between them, but he couldn't exactly pinpoint where. It started without the nephilim noticing, and now that it had taken flight, he felt blindsided in a sense.

"What's got you so cheery?" Hope inquired.

Nathaniel shrugged. "I decided on giving God a good fuck you today."

Hope snorted, taking a seat at Alaric's desk and a look at the wooden stand full of test tubes before her. In that split second, the doors opened and in came Landon, appearing in the doorway as a look of shock spread across his features once noticing Nathaniel and Hope waiting for him.

"What are you two doing here?" Landon asked incredulously.

Nathaniel braced himself for the annoyance that would be having to spend a day with the Addams Family reject and a snort abandoned the nephilim at the thought, which earned a weird look from Landon. Swiftly, Nathaniel rolled his eyes at the Kirby kid while a tight smile appeared on his lips as he crossed his arms over his puffed-out chest.

"We're in charge of supernatural testing 101," Nathaniel explained, tilting his head.

Hope hummed, looking down at the desk where a file labeled 'Landon Kirby' sat next to a test tube. "Starting with some weird mystical blood analysis."

"No," Landon quickly replied, looking appalled.

Nathaniel rolled his eyes. "We're not asking."

"And I'm still saying no."

"What a brave little ant you are," Nathaniel snorted, eyes narrowed on Landon as his tongue glided under his teeth with a small smirk.

Landon ignored that. "These test determine whether or not I get to stay at the school, right? There's no way I'm putting my future in both your hands. You're biased!"

Hope scoffed. "I'm not biased!"

Nathaniel bit his lip. "I'm a little biased. Anyway, what future, Wednesday? It doesn't matter how you spin this, you're not special, snowflake."

"Not helping," Hope shook her head at Nathaniel and the nephilim opted with just shrugging as Hope turned to Landon once again. "Besides, neither one of us has a choice. Believe me, this is not how I would choose to spend my day, either."

"See? Biased," Landon stated.

Nathaniel huffed, shaking his head. "Okay."

And before Landon could object, Nathaniel held onto Landon's left ear tightly and pulled at the significantly shorter boy to walk him out of Alaric's office towards the school's backyard. Landon's protests and attempts to get free did nothing but push Nathaniel into a more annoyed state as Hope walked behind them while shaking her head at Nathaniel's coaxing methods.

It was going to be a long day.

An hour and some later, Landon's testing was going exactly how Nathaniel had expected it to go. Wednesday Addams was either impressively pretending to not being able to do certain things, or actually had no abilities whatsoever. Nathaniel bet his money on the second option. No agility, no supernatural strength. Nothing. Landon was completely useless and the kid's attempts at trying to prove to them he would eventually come up with something just made Nathaniel snicker to himself.

Just then, Landon lost his balance and fell flat on his back in another failed attempt at demonstrating supernatural strength. The big log Landon was trying to lift was now crushing him as he wheezed on the ground. Nathaniel waited a few seconds before Hope called it and the nephilim used telekinesis to pick up the wood and throw it next to Landon on the grass.

"What's next?" Landon inquired as he stood.

Hope looked at Landon incredulously. "Next? You failed the vertical climb, the long jump, and you straight-up refused to swim across the lake."

Landon scoffed, panting for breaths. "Yeah, well, excuse the foster kid for not having swimming lessons."

"And here you are, going again with that damn foster kid card," Nathaniel rolled his eyes as a huffed abandoned him. "Learn to suck it up."

Landon seemed offended. "It's not a card. It's a reality. And you wouldn't understand."

Nathaniel snorted at that, thrusting a finger into Landon's chest aggressively. "It is a card, because you use it to disable yourself. That's coming from one foster kid to another. I don't let it define me. The difference between you and me, is that I dealt with it. You use it as an excuse. I can't afford to do that when humanity depends on me so stop pretending you're the only one that has it hard around here. Your lack of self-awareness and the fact that there's nothing that remotely suggests you're anything supernatural is what's keeping you back from staying here."

There was a moment of silence as Landon took that in. And Nathaniel hoped it stuck. Being a foster kid sucked, the nephilim knew that. But he had never used that as a means to incapacitate himself like Landon was doing. Sure, the Kirby kid could have had it bad, but Nathaniel did too. It just didn't define him. It never would.

"How's it going?"

Three pairs of eyes landed on Emma Tig as she watched them curiously. Nathaniel inherently stiffened at her presence, but Emma's stance didn't change. Hope noticed that, but instead of commenting on it, she pulled her old-looking timer before starting it.

"Landon was about to run sprints to the lake and back."

Without questioning her, Landon followed her order and began sprinting towards the lake. Once Landon was out of earshot, Emma turned to look at Hope with a curious expression. "What are you testing for, exactly?"

Hope smirked, eyeing Nathaniel. "His ability to get away from Nate as quickly as possible. If he's gonna stay in this school, it's a must."

Nathaniel snorted, like what had just occurred with Landon hadn't happened. "Good thinking."

"Did you run the lineage spell that I left you?" Emma asked.

Hope nodded in confirmation. "Yeah, first thing. Zero magic in his bloodline."

Emma seemed surprised. "Hmm."

"Hmm?" Nathaniel repeated curiously.

"Most humans have some trace of magical blood in their veins from far-flung ancestors," Emma explained, eyes landing on Nathaniel. "The only instance where there wasn't a trace of magic here was with you but that's because you ooze grace instead of blood. Besides, Lucifer doesn't have a bloodline."

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes before shaking his head twice. "Wednesday bleeds. And there's no way two nephilim's can be on earth at the same time. So, scratch that."

Emma nodded in understanding. "We need to learn more about Landon's past."

"I've got an idea," Nathaniel stated.

And sure enough, Landon, Hope and Nathaniel were sat on the dock, overlooking the lake by the school, twenty minutes after their encounter with Emma. Nathaniel sat between Hope and Landon as the nephilim pulled out a glass orb and set it in on the dock above his jacket. Landon watched curiously.

"What's your name?" Nathaniel asked.

"Landon Kirby."

The glass orb glowed bright blue and Hope gestured to it slightly. "That's the truth. Now, lie. What's your favorite food?"

"Rabbit," Landon responded with a snort and the orb glowed bright red. "So, it's a supernatural lie detector."

Nathaniel smiled sarcastically. "Safe to say you won't have a problem with it, huh?"

Landon rolled his eyes. "Bring it on."

"Where were you born?" Hope asked.

"I don't know," Landon shrugged and the orb turned blue, indicating the Kirby kid was telling the truth.

Nathaniel huffed. "Who are your parents?"

"My mom's name is Seylah. That's pretty much all I know. She gave me up for adoption when I was young."

The orb maintained its blue color.

Hope sighed. "And your dad?"

Landon shook his head. "Never met him."

Nathaniel was becoming irritated with the despised blue color. "Why can't you be compelled?"

Landon laughed nervously. "I have no idea. A couple of days ago, I didn't even know what compulsion was."

"Why'd you take the knife?" Hope asked when the blue didn't falter.

"I don't know. I remember doing it, but I don't remember why," Landon, who up to that point had been calm, finally began to be a little defensive with his answers.

Hope sighed in frustration before standing up. "It's not good enough. If we can't figure out what you are, then you can't stay at this school."

"Landon Kirby doesn't belong here, yet everyone keeps ignoring the obvious," Nathaniel rolled his eyes while following suit and didn't even flinch when Landon's hard stare landed on him. "You might want to look somewhere else, Wednesday. Just because I can't kill you doesn't mean I can't burn your eyes from your sockets."

Landon huffed exasperatedly. "I need answers!"

"And we ain't got any to give you, Kirby," Nathaniel shot back. "Sometimes God likes to give us a big fuck you to remind us of our place. This is one of those moments. So, boo-fucking-hoo, you're not special."

Something crosses through Landon's eyes. "Why do you hate me so much? I've done nothing to you. I even apologized for taking the knife."

"I'm a dick!" Nathaniel spat like it was obvious. "I hate everyone. It doesn't matter how many times you apologize, Wednesday. I won't ever be able to stand you."

"Why?"

Nathaniel scoffed. "Because you don't belong here."

Landon quickly pointed at the orb as it glowed a bright red color. "That says you're lying."

"Fine," Nathaniel played along, his frustration oozing off of him. "Because you lie, you're a pain in the ass and I have to keep worrying Hope will let you in and I know you'll ruin her."

Hope was stunned as she looked at the glowing blue color on the orb and Nathaniel didn't even blink.

Landon narrowed his eyes. "So, what? You're jealous?"

Nathaniel snorted. "Jealousy would imply you have something I want. What I want is what's best for the people around me and I know damn well that isn't you."

"Oh, and who's better for Hope? You?"

"You're growing a spine there, Wednesday," Nathaniel chuckled humorlessly, nostril's flaring as his gold eyes shined. "You might want to be careful who you talk to like that around here. In case you weren't aware, I make peoples lives here miserable when I want to."

Landon seemed to get the message as he nervously coward before Nathaniel. Hope on the other hand, gave the nephilim a worried look once Nathaniel's gold eyes landed on her. In a second, the gold was replaced by a hard green as embarrassment for what he had confessed seeped into Nathaniel.

And before anyone could speak, Nathaniel walked away with a rough huff, leaving behind Landon and Hope.

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unedited.
i already have the next chapter panned
out and it's going to be so hard! prepare
yourselves for hope/nate feeling revelations.
OH, turns out this book is eligible for the
wattys, but i don't know if i should apply.
still, it's cool to be recognized.