her laugh is the best melody i've ever heard

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/16688338.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings
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Category: F/F
Fandom: Legacies (TV 2018)
Relationship: Penelope Park/Josie Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson/Josie Saltzman
Character: Penelope Park, Josie Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson, M.G. (Legacies),
Lizzie Saltzman, Alaric Saltzman, Caroline Forbes
Additional Tags: Oneshot, soft, posie - Freeform
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2018-11-21 Words: 1,655 Chapters: 1/1

her laugh is the best melody i've ever heard

by josiepenelope

Summary

It's Josies birthday and she misses her mom, Penelope comforts her.

The library isn't open this late, usually, but Penelope has found a way to keep the door open so she
can make her way in and study in peace. Tonight especially all she wants is to get her homework
done so she can get to bed, but with M.G talking about nothing and everything, it seems
impossible.

She has to remind him several time why they're here and that she needs to finish her homework, so
she doesn't really feel anything when he's gathering his books half an hour to midnight. ”Leaving
so soon?” Penelope asks, plays with the pencil between her fingers.

”Yeah, I have to head back to my room and wrap the twins presents.” He says, opens his backpack
and throws his book into it.

Penelope raises an eyebrow, but the twins birthday aren't until tomorrow, so why is he in such a
rush? ”Can't you do that tomorrow?” She asks, knows that he's hiding something by the way he
scratches the back of his head. It's something she's learned that he only does when he's nervous.

M.G pulls his lips between his teeth, ”Not really...” He clears his throat. ”Some of us are doing this
suprise thing for the twins, we're going in with cake to their room and presents.” He says it
carefully, like he's scared Penelope is going to make a scene for not being invited.

And maybe she would, but instead of feeling anger for being left out, she feels a lump in her
stomach and a little bit anxious. ”Oh.” She shrugs, pretends it doesn't hurt her feelings more than it
does. ”Off you go then.” She forces a smile, tucks a piece of her hair behind her ear and lets her
eyes go back to her books. ”Don't let the door hit you on your way out.”

”I'll see you tomorrow.” M.G says, leaves her alone in the big library.

Penelope looks up from her books, follows him with her eyes as he leaves the room, and once he
does, she feels the lump in her stomach growing bigger. She shouldn't be suprised that she wasn't
invited to this suprise, everyone knows how much Josie hates her, well, how much they hate each
other, but it still feels like a sting against her heart.

The following hour Penelope tries finishing her homework, and just as she's coming to the last
question of her assignment she realizes she's missing one book. For the last question she needs to
read about the history of magic, so she gets up on her feets and makes her way to the back of the
library.

Tries not thinking about Josie and how fun she must be having, Hope probably bought her a good
present, she's noticed how close they are. She rolls her eyes, ”Stupid Hope.” She mumbles to
herself as she's searching for the book in the shelfs. She lets her fingers run through the different
kinds of book, until she hears someone pulling in the doorknob.

Fuck. Someone must've seen M.G coming out of here and now she's in trouble. Penelope stays
quiet by the shelfs, doesn't move an inch and is careful to not breathe too loud.

Until she hears a sound of someone crying and sobbing.

Not really what she was expecting, but it can't be a teacher. She carefully takes a look to see who it
might be, and it's not suprising when she finds a certain brunette standing by the entrace. Face
burried into her face and her back leaning towards the wall. She's sobing quietly, making sure
nobody can hear her.

And that makes Penelopes heart break a little, and even if she wants to stay quiet and pretend she
didn't see anything, she can't; ”Josie?” She says softly. The sound of her voice makes Josie jump a
little, and she notices how fast the brunette is to wipe away her tears and clear her throat.

”Are you okay?” Penelope doesn't even hesitate, her legs start automatically moving towards her,
and when she's standing face to face, she notices how blodshot her eyes from all the crying, how
plumped her lips are.

Penelope can feel every bone in her body stiffening, her fingers curling into a fist, getting ready to
hurt whoever made Josie cry like this. ”Who-?”

Josie shakes her head, her eyes are shiny again and a tear rolls down her cheek. ”No one..” She
mumbles, wipes the tear away. ”No one did anything to me.”

So why the hell are you crying? Is what Penelope wants to ask, but she knows it's only going to
make her even more upset, so she takes a deep breathe and lets her body relax. ”Why are you
crying?” She asks softly, notices a tear escaping and wipes it away before Josie can.

Josie sighs deeply, tucks a piece of her brown hair behind her ear, ”It's so silly, you're going to
laugh.” She says, drags her foot on the ground.

”Maybe so.” Penelope says, and it makes Josie giggle, putting a smile on Penelopes lips. ”But tell
me, you've seen me crying over so many stupid things.” It's something she hates to admit, because
she rarely cries infront of people, but Josie has been the only one she's ever been comfortable
enough when it comes to feelings.
She even let herself fall in love with Josie, and something tells her that she's not over her.

Maybe she never will, but it's something she's okay with.

”This is my first birthday without my mom..” Josie says, her cheeks turning into a soft color of red,
her eyes staring down at the ground as she folds her arms.

Penelope feels slightly offended that she would think that she would be laughing because of her
absent mother, she might be cruel to her at times, but even she has her limits. ”Oh, Josie..”
Penelope doesn't know what to say, so instead she wraps her arms around her and pulls her closer.
Rubs her back gently as Josie sobs into her shoulder, her arms holding her tightly. ”You know she
loves you and your sister.” She runs her fingers through her hair.

Josie lets go off her, ”I'm sorry, I'm such a mess.. I..”

Penelope shakes her head quickly, ”You're not a mess. Don't say that.” She says, if anything. Josie
is acting like a human being, letting herself feel things. It's something Penelope hasn't been able to
do since their break up. ”Your feelings are valid, and I'm sure your mom is going to come by either
tomorrow or sometime during the week. She wouldn't miss her only daughters sixteen birthday.”
She says it with confidence, because she just happened to over hear a conversation Alaric had with
Caroline earlier this week. Josie smiles softly at her, and it creates a warm and fuzzy feeling inside
of her.

”Trust me, okay?” Penelope places a kiss on her forehead. ”I have some hot chocolate with me, do
you want some?”

Josie nods, ”I'd love some.”

Penelope smiles at her, feels relief fill her body when she smiles back at her. Her eyes going from
sad and dark to bright and big.

Just like that, they start talking about everything, stupid and fun things, filling the empty library
with giggles and smiles. It's something that feels so right, something that they've both missed about
each other. The way every problem they have seem to disappear as soon as they're with each other.
It makes Josie wish that Penelope could be like this more often, that she could be that nice ex
instead of being the ex that torments her almost everyday. But she knows Penelope too well,
knows that she's hurting too much to be kind.

”So, did you have the birthday cake?” Penelope asks, she didn't get the last question on her
homework done, but some things are more important than others. ”No, they shoved it up our
faces.” Josie says, shakes her head. ”Why didn't you come?” She asks, bits the bottom of her lips.

Penelope is almost ready to say because she didn't feel like it, but she doesn't; ”No one told me that
they were doing a suprise for you two.” She says with all honesty.

Josie looks confused for a moment, leading Penelope to believe that maybe some part of her
actually wanted her there, and although she shouldn't feel happy, a part of her does. ”But you're
coming to the party tomorrow?” Josie asks.

Penelope nods, ”Invitation or not, I wouldn't miss it.” She says, blinks with one eye, making Josie
giggle again.

Her giggle is better than any melody she's ever heard. ”We should head back to our rooms, it's
late.”
”We should. I'm sure Lizzie is asleep.” Josie gets up from her seat, together they walk to the
entrance and Josie holds the door open for her, while she's talking about her outfit for tomorrows
party.

It doesn't really matter, Penelope thinks she looks gorgeous in what ever she would wear. ”You
look pretty in what ever.” She says, doesn't care if it sounds too cheesy. She notices how Josies
cheeks, once again, turn into a red-rose color.

When they're standing outside Penelopes room, both girls wish that they would've stayed longer in
the library, because they know once the sun rises, they'll go back to being enemies and tonights
activites will be a memory forgotten.

”Thank you for tonight.” Josie says, smiles softly at her.

Penelope doesn't return the smile, ”Goodnight, Josie.” She says, her voice toneless as she opens
the door.

”Goodnight.” Josie mumbles, watches Penelope walk into her room and close the door shortly
after. She thinks it's crazy how she's still in love with this girl, and no matter what Penelope does,
she'll always have a soft spot on her. No cruel prank could ever make her hate her, and she hates it.

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