Chapter Text
“Wow,” Fitz breathed out, staring up at the brilliant night sky. “The stars are so beautiful tonight.”
Keefe laughed from where he lay beside Fitz. “You know who else is beautiful?”
“Sophie Foster.” Fitz Vacker, Keefe Sencen, and Dex Dizznee all simultaneously said from where they lay on the grass. Three boys. One girl. This isn’t going to end well. At least, no one thought it would.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” Tam Song was usually quite good with keeping his cussing at a minimum, something he found hard to do at times, but today and right now were particularly specific occasions where he had an excuse. Before he could be noticed, Tam ducked behind a shelf of small plushies, hoping he hadn’t been seen. The Shade placed a hand over his heart, begging it to calm down. He needed to have a clear head to think of a way to escape the scene without being spotted.
On the other side of the shelf was none other than Keefe Sencen, the smart and talented Empath, the one placed second best in his Foxfire Level, and the guy Tam had been pining over for at least a year now. There was no way Tam was going to risk getting caught in this shop of all places. Cute plushies, glittery stationary, custom jewelry… Keefe was never going to let him live this one down.
Taking a deep breath, Tam peeked over the side of the shelf, checking to see if Keefe was occupied. If he was quick enough, maybe he could dash away without being spotted. Tam, however, was met with a much more concerning sight. Keefe was nowhere to be found. The blond had been browsing through the painting supplies just a minute ago, but now he had disappeared. Shit.
“Oh, hey, Bangs Boy,” a voice called from behind Tam, causing the boy to freeze from head to toe. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” Tam whipped around to face Keefe, trying hard to keep his face from flushing up.
“Just some… girls…,” Tam squeaked out. “…stuff,” he added quickly after realizing how weird that first statement would have sounded. Wow, real smooth, Tam. Talk about girls to the guy you like. When Keefe didn’t respond, Tam continued on. “Actually, I’m here to get Linh a, like, hair clip or something. She gave me some real good dati – life advice and I thought I should repay her. Besides, she’s always brushing her hair out of her face and when I tell her to stop, she splashes water in my face and tells me that I do the same thing.”
“You do do the same thing.”
Tam scowled. “Well, I’ll be off,” he said, starting to turn away. He was quite glad this conversation had been quite civil, not resulting in either one of the two blowing off over something stupid.
“Wait,” Keefe said, “can I come along?”
Tam frowned. “Um, why?”
“Just an excuse to delay going back to my dad’s weird beach house,” Keefe forced a smile. “And besides, I already did all my shopping!” Keefe held up his bag full of paint supplies.
“Please tell me you aren’t going to draw some more stuff and give them to Sophie,” Tam sighed.
“Hey, don’t insult the Gift Master,” Keefe retorted. “Anyway, I think I saw some really cool barrettes near the back of the store once.” He gestured to the far right with his free hand.
“Well then, consider us reluctant shopping partners,” Tam mumbled, following Keefe as the blond led him around a few aisles towards the back.
Keefe was right. They really did have cool barrettes here. Tam picked out a small glittery one from the piles.
“No, dude, get her this one,” Keefe held up a clip with a small murcat design glued to it. Tam frowned.
“Oh god, no,” he groaned. “It’s bad enough that she has a real live one at Tiergan’s house just waiting to eat us all alive.” Keefe laughed, placing it back onto the shelf.
“So, you still haven’t settled in, huh?”
“What?” Tam turned to look at Keefe, but the other boy continued digging through the stash of hair clips and pins.
“You called it ‘Tiergan’s house’, not home,” Keefe pointed out.
“Well, it isn’t home,” Tam said bluntly. “I know I live there now, but I’m just staying over until we’re able to find a better solution. It doesn’t really matter anyway. In a few years Linh and I will be off to the Gold Tower and then it’s onwards through life.” Keefe didn’t respond and Tam wondered about why he had just revealed one of his insecurities to someone who probably didn’t even care. No matter how long he lived in the Lost Cities, Tam doubted that he would ever call it home.
“What about you?” Tam asked instead, shifting the conversation over to Keefe. “I don’t hear you calling your dad’s beach house a home either.”
“Yeah, well, y’know…” Keefe didn’t elaborate. He didn’t need to. “And to me, home isn’t a place. It’s a person. Oh, get her this one!” Keefe reached towards the back of the shelf, grabbing a barrette with a small green dragon attached to it. “Because she’s a Level Four at Foxfire.”
“That’s actually… not a bad idea,” Tam said, taking the pin from Keefe. They headed towards the front of the shop to buy the barrette. “By the way, where is your bodyguard? I doubt she’d have let you come in here all on your own.”
“Ah, well the door was a bit too small, and I told her I wasn’t going to pay for property damage, so she’s probably out there scaring half the elves on the street with her glaring.”
Tam smirked. “Good for her.”
Dex brought a huge stack of books over to the table where he and Fitz were sitting at, making sure to glare extra hard at the back of Fitz’s head. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Just before midterms, Fitz had decided that they should hold a studying session and help each other suffer through till the end. And Dex had only agreed because Sophie was going. And if she needed help, he was definitely going to score some points – right in front of this jerk.
At least, that was the plan. Sophie had cancelled on them just minutes before Dex arrived at the library.
“You seriously going to read all of that?” Fitz asked, looking up from his paper. His eyebrow was arched in a snobbish way, and Dex had the sudden urge to punch it off his face. Of course, resorting to violence was never a good thing, but thinking about it never hurt anyone, right? “Dex, I can assure you Level Four studies aren’t that hard.”
Dex rolled his eyes. “You’re only saying that because you were the top of the grade when you were in Level Four. I bet you didn’t even have to study to pass with one hundred.”
“Yeah, well – ” Fitz was suddenly cut off by a hail from his Imparter. Keefe.
“When are you getting here?” Fitz demanded the moment Keefe’s face popped up on the screen.
“Woah, chill, dude. Do you really miss me that much?” Keefe rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at the floor. “Actually, um, I’m going to have to cancel on you guys today. I’m helping Bangs Boy with his shopping.”
“Shut up!” Tam’s yell could be heard from somewhere offscreen. Keefe tilted his Imparter to reveal the Shade sulking beside him. He threw an arm around Tam, ignoring the murderous look in the other boy’s eyes. “We’re best buds now, sorry dude.”
“First Biana cancels on us, then Tam and Linh, then Sophie and now you, too?” Dex complained from beside Fitz. “And you cancelled on us to hang out with each other!”
Keefe grinned. “You two look fine on your own. Well, see ya.” Without waiting for a response, Keefe ended their chat, leaving the screen blank.
“I’m going to clobber him.”
“Or we could sneak something nasty into his food the next time we see him,” Dex grinned. He momentarily forgot about his rivalry with Fitz as he began planning on how to get back at the others.
Fitz laughed. “Are you really willing to prank your pranking buddy?”
“Anything for you.”
There was an awkward silence as Dex realized what he had just said. “Augh! That’s not – uh, I didn’t – um, yeah, uhhh – that, uhm, really came out wrong,” he stuttered, most likely glowing all different shades of pink by now. “I promise I’m not using a pickup line on you or anything…”
Fitz smiled. “You’re all good, man,” he replied, making Dex crave the sweet release of death. Now Fitz was going to think he was some dumb underclassman trying to hit on him. Not that Dex cared what Fitz thought. A small bud of anger began to blossom in Dex’s chest.
Fitz suddenly crumpled up the paper he had previously been writing on, tossing it into a nearby bin. “How about we ditch, too?”
We. As in, they ditch together. Dex couldn’t deny the thought sounded tempting. Not the together part, that he was less than happy about, but he definitely wasn’t in the mood for studying anymore. Not after Sophie bounced and after what had just happened.
“Wonderboy ditching?” Dex feigned gasping. “What a scandal! They’re going to be talking about this for generations and generations to come!”
Fitz’s gaze darkened, and Dex knew he had hit a sore spot. The Vacker boy was not very fond of being inferior at anything, even something as irresponsible as ditching. When he spoke again, there was an edge to his voice, “where did you say you hid those pranking elixirs, again?”
Sophie and Linh were on a date. At least, Sophie thought it was a date. She couldn’t really tell with the way Linh had worded their outing. She hadn’t exactly said “date”, but she hadn’t said it was just a hangout either. But Sophie wasn’t about to ask her, so it remained a mystery.
She was pretty sure hanging out didn’t mean giving the person a bundle of flowers or offering to pay the whole entire meal. But she was also sure that dates didn’t mean casually walking around Atlantis and window shopping. Sophie had never actually been on a date though, so there was no way of knowing for sure.
What Sophie did know for sure, however, was that her heart was racing mightily quickly for some simple handholding, and that was definitely not just a hangout thing.
“Aww,” Linh gushed, pulling Sophie over to a nearby shop. Through the glass, Sophie could see small house pets roaming around in their cages. “They are so precious!”
Sophie smiled, feeling her heart squeeze at the way Linh’s eyes lit up as they trailed over the various species behind the glass. “Yeah, they really are.” But if she was being honest, she wasn’t referring to the animals when she said it.
There was a grunt from behind them, making Sophie kind of hate the fact that she had a full-time babysitter with her on this sort-of-date. Her thoughts were pushed aside, however, when Linh straightened up and they began walking again.
“It’s our day today,” Linh said softly, giving Sophie a soft and sweet smile. “We can do whatever we want.”
Sophie tightened her grip around their intertwined fingers, wishing she could hold them without the need of her gloves. This was definitely better than sitting in a stuffy library for the entire day and studying with her friends.
Linh stopped short, pulling Sophie back by their connected hands. “Sophie, look at that shop!” The Hydrokinetic was pointing at a small boutique with flowery designs on the window. There were beautiful summer dresses on display. “Shall we check it out?”
Sophie nodded, and Linh pulled the both of them in with Sandor following behind. It took two seconds for Linh to grab a dress, shove it into Sophie’s hands, and then push her towards the Dressing Rooms. Biana’s influence towards the Hydrokinetic were really starting to show.
It was a simple red dress with thin straps and gold buttons in the front that went from the top to the waist. Had Linh really just come in here so she could make her wear this dress? She put it on in a hurry and ignored the way her heart pounded as she stepped out of the small room and out into the open.
Linh’s eyes widened when she caught sight of Sophie. A light pink tint dusted over her cheeks. “They were right,” she said softly, “red suits you very well.”