Chapter Text
Josie was walking to the mill in the early morning when the sun was barely peaking over the horizon. When she was restless or couldn’t sleep, waking up early from nightmares or never falling asleep at all she tried to do anything to distract herself. One of her favorite things to do was play her ukulele but for obvious reasons she couldn’t play it at 5:30am in her own room. So she would take a walk during the early hours in the woods and play at the old mill.
As she approached the worn down building she suddenly froze, the faint sound of a piano filled the air. She knew they had a piano at the mill, it was a bit old and had a few broken keys but it still worked. What caught her off guard was hearing someone playing it this early in the morning.
Josie approached the source of the music with caution, still unsure who could potentially be playing the instrument. As the Jazzy melody rung thru the air, Josie felt a warm and calming feeling take over her, it was as if the song itself was making her soul happy. As Josie took the final steps into the old mill she spots the source of the beautiful music and the musician in the back corner of the mill, their back turned to Josie. Immediately Josie stops dead in her tracks, she would recognize that auburn hair anywhere.
Before Josie could even think to stop herself, she calls out to the older girl, “Hope?”
Hope freezes at the sound of the familiar voice, she lifts her head up from the keys of the piano and without even turning, responds back, “Josie?” Josie starts to make her way closer to Hope when the girl finally turns around with a look of confusion plastered across her face, “what are you doing out here this early?”
“I could ask you the same question.” Josie states standing only a few feet away from Hope who had now fully turned around on the bench to completely face Josie. Hope just raises her eyebrow at the younger girl waiting for her to answer her question. Josie releases a sigh as she caves to answer the question, “I couldn’t really sleep and usually playing music helps so I come out here so I can play freely.”
A small smile crosses Hope’s face as she gives Josie a simple nod of understanding and approval. “What about you, why are you out here?” Josie asks taking another step closer to Hope.
“The same reason actually, couldn’t really sleep so I came out here. Well, first I went for a run which helped but my brain was still running a little bit so I decided to try and see if playing could help a little more.” Hope answered back, turning for just a moment to let her fingers run across the keys.
“I didn’t know you played.” Josie comments as she closes the distance between her and Hope, now standing on the right to the bench the girl sat on looking at the piano.
Hope shifts on the bench so she is facing Josie again, looking up at the girl standing beside her, “Yeah my uncle Elijah taught me and I mean my whole family loves music, they were raising me in the city known for Jazz so it was only natural I picked up some sort of instrument.” She answered nonchalantly.
“God what can’t you do?” Josie asks still looking at the piano, it takes her a second to realize she actually said those words out loud, she turns her head towards Hope who has a smirk on her face, “shit did I say that out loud?”
All Hope can do is laugh at Josie’s realization, Hope notices the slight tint on Josie’s cheeks but doesn’t address it, “Ha yeah, yeah you did but thank you I’ll take that as a compliment. But trust me Jo there is a lot of stuff I can’t do.”
“I doubt that.” Josie speaks softly, again not meaning to say those words out loud but this time she tries to play it off like it didn’t happen praying to god Hope didn’t notice. Of course Hope noticed, and of course she noticed how Josie had quickly bit her lip after those words escaped from her mouth. Trying to change the subject Josie asks, “So um what were you playing if you don’t mind me asking, it sounded so beautiful.”
Hope smiles at Josie’s question as she turns back to her original position sitting right in front of the piano letting her fingers fall onto the keys. She starts to play the melody again before she speaks, “It’s one of the first songs my uncle taught me on the piano, God Bless the Child.” Hope plays a few more notes before she stops moving her fingers against the keys, “you should hear it as a duet though I think it sounds even better.”
“Do you think you could teach me?” The question catches Hope’s attention as she shifts her gaze from the piano up to the younger girl, a little unsure if she heard Josie correctly. So Josie continues with a bit of a shy smile, unsure if she might be over stepping, “…you know the duet part.”
Hope’s small smile turns into a full on wide smile from ear to ear and Josie could swear she saw a bit of a gleam in her eye at her request, “Yeah sure.”
Hope pats the spot beside her to her right on the bench as she moves over a little so Josie could take a seat. Josie smiles back at Hope as she places her ukulele against the couch next to them. As Josie settles into her spot next to Hope, the older girl grabs Josie’s right hand without even a second thought, wow hope has soft hands. How have I not notice that before with all the spells we’ve done together?
Hope places Josie’s hand onto the keys moving the girls fingers on top of the specific ones she will need to play. Once she’s satisfied Josie’s hand is where it needs to be, Hope rests her own hand on top of Josie’s, pressing down on her fingers showing the younger girl which keys to play. Josie could feel her cheeks heating up by Hope’s actions and how closely they were seated to each other. Hope looks up at Josie with a sweet smile and Josie is pretty sure her face is getting even redder by the second as she smiles back at the older girl.
Hope keeps their hands there for a few more moments letting Josie get comfortable with the first few notes of the song. After a few more times of letting Josie play the keys on her own Hope’s hand moves to Josie’s wrist as she moves her hand down to a new set of keys. Again she places her hand on top of Josie’s teaching her the next few notes of the song and once she thinks Josie has got it down, Hope lets her practice the notes on her own. Once she is confident Josie has mastered this part she switches things up on Josie. Hope slips her hand under Josie’s hand so hers was now resting on top of Hope’s. Josie gives Hope a bit of a confused look and Hope just smirks back at her as she moves their hands back to where they had originally started. Hope plays the notes and Josie quickly understands what she was doing, letting Josie feel the timing of the melody and how quickly she needed to transition between the first set of notes she learned to the next. Hope repeats this processes with Josie for the next few parts of the song, helping her get comfortable with the notes for each section then guiding her thru the melody and the transitions. Slowly building it up as they put the pieces together.
Neither one of them really speaks much, just letting the sound of the piano fill the silence between them. It’s not like an awkward silence, there just isn’t this need for them to speak, they are both comfortable and even at peace with the others presence. It was like they were in their own little world and nothing else really mattered but them playing this piano.
Josie is pretty sure at this point her face is just going to stay a permanent shade of pink from how much she has been blushing during this little piano lesson. The two of them have never really shared such an intimate moment like this, yeah they have done magic together and held hands while casting spells but this was something completely different. This was a side of Hope Josie has never seen, a side she’s pretty sure no one else has ever seen either besides her family. Maybe she’s shown Landon this side before but Josie isn’t so sure.
They haven’t really shared that many moments when it was just the two of them, now that Josie thinks about it, the last time it was just the two of them was when they were picking up trash together after the football game incident. That was actually a really good day, up until her sister and dad were almost killed by a Gargoyle. Then Josie shut Hope out, after they had finally started opening up to each other and they actually felt like friends, Josie turned away from Hope. A bit of guilt sinks in as Josie thinks about what happened again, Hope had stated to open up after so long she was actually letting Josie in and how did Josie thank her, by pushing her away.
“Jo, you okay?” Hope asks with a look of concern on her face. She had noticed the subtle difference in how Josie’s hand felt on top of hers, she could tell something was troubling her and the smile that had been on her lips was now a pout.
“Yeah, sorry just kind of zoned out,” Josie answers with a slight nod, looking Hope in her ocean blue eyes. Josie can feel those butterflies in her stomach again, like the ones she used to get when she was younger when she first had fallen for Hope.
“We can stop if you want,” Hope offers still a little unsure if Josie was okay.
“No, it okay I promise I’m fine Hope,” Josie answers as she squeezes the older girls hand, “Besides I want to get this down. You mind playing your part, I want to see if I can hear how my part blends into the duet.”
“Okay,” Hope responds with a soft smile and a gentle squeeze back of Josie’s hand as she almost reluctantly pulls it away from the younger girl to place it on the piano keys in front of her.
Josie lets the melody fill her ears, as she tries to piece together where her part fits in, once she figures it out she lets herself listen just out of pure joy. As she continues to listen, her mind starts to drift again to thoughts of Hope as her gaze moves from Hope’s hands playing the piano to the older girls face. Memories of their recent spring break trip coming to the forefront of her thoughts.
It had been about two weeks since her big confession not only about how she had been the cause of her sister and Hope’s constant feud, but that she had once had feelings for the older girl. Josie would be lying if she had said she wasn’t terrified about how Lizzie and Hope were going to react, but both girls actually took her big reveal a lot better than she expected. Yes Lizzie was upset at her for keeping such a big secret and for basically being the cause for her and Hope never being friends but Lizzie felt horrible once she realized how she had made her sister feel. How her own actions had pushed Josie to go to such drastic measures to keep something like this from her.
Then there was Hope’s reaction, Josie was ready for Hope to hate her, to yell at her for literally destroying half of her room but she does none of that. She just looked at Josie with almost disbelief and maybe love? Or maybe Josie was just imagining that, maybe it was more like admiration, Josie wasn’t quite sure. Whatever it was, it was the exact opposite of what Josie had anticipated and it was like Hope didn’t even care about the fire as she had just simply asked her, “you had a crush on me?”
Josie wasn’t sure about anything between her and Hope anymore. It wasn’t in a bad way, nothing was awkward and they weren’t avoiding each other but there was just this new vibe between them since Josie told her about her old crush on her. Josie had no idea how to describe it. They were friends and they were definitely a lot closer now than how they were before, but it was just different. Thinking about those old feelings again, Josie is starting to remember why she had fallen for Hope in the first place and if she’s being completely honest she can tell those feelings are starting to resurface once again. She hadn’t looked at Hope in that way for a long time but after confessing those feeling and seeing Hope’s reaction, all the what ifs had started popping up in her mind.
Josie’s attention is pulled away from that rabbit hole of “what ifs” by the sudden silence in the room as Hope finishes the song. She turns back to Hope who is already looking at her, a bit of a smirk of her face when she asks, “You good?”
“Yeah let’s keep going.”
Hope decides it would be a bit much to teach Josie the entire song in just one sitting, so she teaches her a few more notes before she has Josie practice everything she’s learned so far.
She let’s Josie practice on her own, just simply watching the younger girl as she attempts to play the correct notes at the right time. Hope sits in silence letting Josie try and remember or figure things out on her own, only making a comment when Josie asks for help.
When Josie starts to get frustrated because she can’t get this one sequence down, Hope simply laughs at the girls agitated sigh.
“Jo, you’re over thinking it.” Hope tells the girl beside her with a small chuckle.
“Ugh I don’t know why I can’t get this one part down.” Josie states clearly frustrated.
“Stop over thinking it just listen and feel the melody thru your fingers.” Hope tells her, as she moves her finger in front of Josie’s face like she was playing a piano that was floating there. Josie practically turns her full body towards Hope, a very skeptical look plastered on her face.
“Just humor me Jo, would you please” Hope tells Josie, once Josie turns back to the piano, Hope bumps Josie’s shoulder with her own.
This causes a small laugh to escape Josie’s lips, taking the edge off of her just a little bit. She takes a breathe and places her fingers back on the ivory keys. This time she tries not to over think it and just let’s her fingers dance across the keys like how Hope taught her. A smile forms again on Josie’s lips as she plays, letting the music flow. When she gets to the notes she been struggling with Josie doesn’t think she just lets herself play, and as she makes it to the next section of the song with no mistakes that smile gets a little wider. She turns to Hope, proud of her little achievement, and hoping to get a nod of approval.
With a smug smile on her face, Hope proudly states, “I told you.”
Josie just shakes her head at her, and bumps Hope with her shoulder, “Shut up.” Both of them starting to laugh at one another.
Hope has Josie practice her part a few more times and it seems Josie gets better with every attempt. Hope just watches as Josie plays her part on her own, she can see the confidence grow as Josie perfects her movements. Hope just smiles at Josie with a bit of pride as she finishes playing. Josie turns to Hope with her own smile on her face, happy with herself, but Hope just keeps staring at her without saying a word.
A bit curious but still happy with herself Josie releases a “What?”
“Nothing you’re just really good Jo, I think you’ve got it down.”
“Thank you Hope but I mean I’m pretty sure I’m no where close to how good you are.”
“Give yourself a little more credit Jo, you really are an amazing musician, it’s not really a surprise to me that you could pick this up so quickly.”
“You really think I’m amazing?” Josie asks sheepishly.
“Of course I do, do you not remember how loud everyone cheered for you at the talent show, you were incredible Josie.” Hope says with such confidence and so sincerely, Josie can feel her heart start to race.“Now, you think you’re ready to try it together for real.”
“Yeah let’s try this out.” Josie answers with a smile and a bit of determination in her voice.
They both get set, placing their fingers on their starting keys and once they were ready Hope simply nods at Josie to begin. Josie starts to play the first few notes and Hope seamlessly fills into the duet, creating such a beautiful sound. Josie just smiles wide as they continue to play, Hope was right, this does sound even better as a duet. They keep playing until Josie reaches the final notes Hope had taught her so far but Hope doesn’t stop. Josie had turned to see Hope’s eyes were shut as she starts to hum along to the melody. Her fingers gracefully stroking the keys as she plays. Josie just looks over at her in awe watching as Hope basically looses herself in the song. As Hope plays the final note, her hands remain still on the keys as her eyes slowly open.
“Wow,” Josie whispers in pure amazement still looking up at Hope.
Hope looks over at Josie a little embarrassed, she got so lost in the song she practically forgot she wasn’t alone, a slight blush making its way onto her face. Hope lets out a bit of a nervous chuckle shifting her attention down as she starts to fiddle with her fingers, “ha um sorry I got a bit carried away I should have stopped-“
Josie quickly cuts Hope off, “No Hope that was amazing.” Josie slips her hand between Hope’s hands catching the older girls attention. When Hope looks back up at her Josie, she’s met with a sweet smile on the younger girls face, “Thank you for sharing such a special song with me.”
“It’s not a problem Josie, I’m actually really happy I could share this with you, I’ve missed being able to play that song as a duet. So thank you.” Hope replies with a genuine smile, in this moment Hope was really happy and grateful the both of them had made their way to the mill this morning.
Josie just smiles back at Hope, as the two sit in silence, Hope’s gaze falling back to her hands where Josie’s hand was still between her own. A small smirk made its way onto Hope’s lips as she started to absentmindedly play with Josie’s hand. Once again Josie could feel her cheeks getting warm by Hope’s actions and the sudden realization at just how close they were sitting next to one another. “Hope?” Josie lets out almost as if she was taking a breathe.
Hope raised her head and turned her attention back to Josie, the two now only inches apart. All Josie would have to do was lean in just a little bit, Josie’s breathe catches when her and Hope lock eyes. Josie swears she noticed Hope was starting to lean in when all of a sudden the sound of both of their stomachs growling at the same time surprises them. The two had jumped back a little at the noise and once they looked back at the other the two girls bust out laughing.
“Umm I think it might be time for us to head in for breakfast,” Josie comments still laughing at what just happened, trying to ignore what else could have just happened.
“I think you’re right I mean it’s,” Hope starts as she looks at her watch, a bit surprised by the time, “Oh wow it’s 9:15am” the two of them had been playing the piano together for over 3 hours.
“Wait seriously?” Josie questions a bit shocked they had been out at the mill for so long.
“Yeah we’re lucky its a Saturday or your dad would be pissed we missed out first class,” Hope comments as she gets up from the bench,“You ready?” Hope asks reaching her hand out to Josie, a small smile on her face. Josie smiles back up at Hope as she grabs her ukulele with one hand and takes Hope’s hand with her other. Hope pulls her up from her seat effortlessly.
“Yeah lets go,” Josie answers as the two start making their way back to the school. Neither one really noticing they were still holding hands, not that either one of them would want to let go.