Chapter Eight

After almost a year of being busy, suddenly changing her schedule to be more open and not have as much work seemed more stressful. Being used to working all hours of the day, suddenly only having to work for a short few seemed weird. She felt like she was forgetting a bunch of work even though she knew she had done everything. How could she forget? She had a photographic memory. 

She sat at her desk, a finished copy of the document she would be handing in to turn into a scroll in front of her, and she had no idea what to do next. She wondered if this is what Keefe felt, being that he had even more free time than she did. Thinking of Keefe brought a smile to her face, as she thought of the date they had the day before where they had their first kiss. And a few others after that. Subconsciously her fingers traced her lips when there was a knock at the door. 

"Oh, I didn't know you were coming over today," Sophie said, frowning at Fitz as he walked through the door and collapsed on her bed. "Thanks, now I have to change my sheets."

"So you don't mind if I do this?" He shoved his face into her pillow and let out a frustrated scream. 

"What happened to you?" She asked, frowning and twisting her chair around to face him completely and ignoring the the part of her that wanted to yell at him for being on her bed. "Is this to do with job?" 

"No," he said, his tone bitter. "I'm stuck. I don't know what to do." His face was back in her pillow. "Help," he muffled. 

Sophie couldn't help the snort that escaped her lips or the way her mouth twisted up into a smile. "I can't help you if I don't know what's going on. What happened?" she questioned. 

"Linh, that's what happened," Fitz replied, bringing his face out of her pillow and sitting up. "I've liked her for a while now and I was about to get the guts and ask her out, but then I hear something about her and Dex from Biana?" 

Sophie's eyes widened. "Fitz, Dex and Linh were together for two weeks a year ago," Sophie stated. "There's barely history for them to have." She shrugged. "Besides, Dex is dating Biana." 

Fitz sat up, eyes wide. "What?" 

"They didn't tell you? They've been together for weeks now." She frowned. "Remember my double date with Keefe and Dex?" 

"I didn't know who Dex's date was!" Fitz cried. "That creep is so going to get it! I never gave him permission to date my sister." His eyes narrowed. 

"The only permission he needs is Biana's, besides the two are actually really happy together." Sophie shrugged. "And, just so you know, for the other topic, Linh is completely smitten with you."

"How come they didn't tell me?" Fitz asked, ignoring what she said about Linh. "I feel so disconnected from the group. It's been a while since I've even been at your house and we used to hang by here everyday." 

She gave him a gentle smile. "It's fine, I've been the most busy out of all of us and that's made it hard for all of us to get together, but recently my workload has lightened by hours giving me time to be with you guys again." Her stomach rumbled and she hid a blush as she stood up. "Let's get some lunch downstairs. We can fill each other in on what's been going on since we've last talked. I know I'd love to hear about this crush on Linh."

It was his turn to hide red cheeks as he followed her downstairs, and immediately the two teamed up to make some food while telling each other stories. "So you had fun?" Fitz asked, after she gave him a run down on her date with Keefe the day before.

She grinned. "Yeah, it was a lot of fun, and it was just the breather I needed away from my stressful week at work. I actually considered the pros and cons of early death when my meeting finished." 

Fitz went to reply as the door opened and Biana made her way inside. She stared at Fitz in surprise, "Oh, hey. I didn't know I'd see you here." She moved and gave him a small hug before looking at what they were doing. "Ooh, can I help? It's been so long since I've cooked anything." 

"Be my guest," Sophie told her, gesturing to the plant she had been slicing at that moment. Biana took her place and Sophie decided to sit at the table so the kitchen wouldn't be too crowded, grabbing a bottle of some weird liquid with a sour, almost lemonade, taste on her way. "How are things with Dex?" Sophie asked Biana. 

Biana's eyes widened and she stared at Fitz in alarm, who coughed awkwardly. "She let it slip," he told Biana. "I'm mad at you for not telling me, by the way."

She sighed and her attention was back at Sophie as she answered, "Pretty good. Our stores are right next door to each other so it makes it easier on us. Yesterday we hung out in his lab and he showed me all these cool projects he's been working on." 

"Anything really interesting?" Fitz asked. 

She shrugged. "I didn't really understand it all, but he's been working to help Tam and Linh with their special missions. He also mentioned doing something for you?" She frowned. 

Fitz nodded. "Yeah, it's apparently a surprise. I was just trying to rat it out of you," he replied. 

Biana turned to Sophie, who was taking a sip of her drink. "So, words out that you and lover boy kissed last night?"

Sophie almost choked on the liquid in her mouth and had to take an extra second to swallow. "Who told you that?" She asked, stunned. The only people she had told were her mom and-

"Dex," Biana confirmed. "How come you told him and not me?"

"You don't even know if it's true," Sophie responded, frowning. 

"It's true, she just told me," Fitz told Biana. 

"Who invited you over my house, anyways?" Sophie looked to Fitz as a reply as Biana let out a loud squeal. 

"After my brother leaves you are telling me everything. Nothing left behind." Biana smiled. "I promise to tell you something in return!" 

"As part of our being cognates, anything you tell her she has to tell me," Fitz told Biana, grinning. "It's the only reason I know about the whole Keefe and her kissing. No secrets between us. Keeps the bond tight." He and Sophie shared a grin. 

Even though they weren't able to meet each other as often, Sophie was surprised to learn they still had their cognate bond. They worked years to achieve it, and she was hoping one day it could pay off. Originally she was set to become a keeper, but because of their cognate bond there were no secrets she could keep from him making it impossible for her to hold secrets for everyone else. 

"You guys don't even use it," Biana complained. 

"Actually, it works well with both our jobs," Fitz started to explain, but was cut off by Biana waving him off. 

"I don't care for details," she told Fitz, frowning. 

Eventually the evening went on and Fitz had to go back to his house to rest since he had to wake up early to complete a mission for one of the councilors. Biana was able to stay back for an extra hour but it was late and she needed to close her store, which Marella had been watching for her while she took a day off. 

"Please stop by the shop soon, I just made this really cool bracelet that I think you'll like and I've got stocks of it there." Biana continued to talk about her bracelet while Sophie thought of a time where she was free to go back to Atlantis. 

"I'm more free than I've been for a while, but going to Atlantis is like a thing I have to plan so I'll have to see," Sophie told her after she finished. "I go back to work tomorrow so I'm not exactly kicking you out, but..." 

"I have to go, I get it. I have to be at the shop to close off. Bye Soph!" They quickly hugged before Biana walked out the door. Sophie went to clean after her and her friends when Grady and Edaline stepped through the door, exhausted as they had been working with a really rough animal lately. Sophie hadn't asked much about it, but she knew it was rough. She offered to help but they told her that it wasn't her job. 

"Hey guys," Sophie greeted them, smiling. 

They smiled back. "We just saw Biana leave. Was she here all day?" Edaline questioned. 

Sophie shrugged. "Her and Fitz have been here for a few hours," she replied. "Fitz came earlier and left earlier than her."

"Fitz? You didn't mention he'd be coming over," Grady commented. 

"Nice surprise," Sophie replied, finishing cleaning up the dishes. "I'm tired and need to catch up on sleep. I'll see you in the morning." She gave them quick kisses goodbye and then made her way upstairs. 

She got to her room just in time to see Keefe calling on her imparter. "Hey," she answered, smiling. "What do you need?" 

"Well, I knew you'd be going to bed so I wanted to say goodnight," Keefe explained. "How was your day off from life?"

"Good," she replied, laying back on her bed. "Fitz and Biana came over and we just hung out and talked."

"Wow, Fitz has been off the radar lately. I haven't talked to him in maybe two weeks." 

Sophie nodded along. "Yeah, it was a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting him. Apparently he's been talking with Dex, though."

"Yeah, Dex mentioned it," Keefe replied. 

"So what did you do today?" Sophie asked. Because he didn't have a work schedule, everyday was different for Keefe. One of her favorite things was when he'd call her before bed and tell her about his day. It made her feel like more a part of it. 

"Actually, work for once," he said. "Someone paid me to do a portrait of them. They thought it'd be cool, or something like that. Photographic memory works wonders." 

"Don't I know it," she replied, grinning. "Do you know what you're doing tomorrow?" 

"Actually, I do for once," he said, making her laugh a little. "I'm just gonna go back to the person's place and finish off the painting for them. After that I'm going to hang out with Dex, Tam, and probably Fitz."

"I thought you said you haven't talked to Fitz?"

"I haven't, but Dex has. We've sort of organized hanging out at Tam's and Linh's place for a guys night since we haven't had one in a while. Linh is going to be staying with Marella from what I've heard." 

"Well that sounds like fun." Sophie yawned, which reminded her that she had come up to her room to sleep. "Well, I've got to sleep before tomorrow. Goodnight, Keefe."

"Goodnight, Foster."

---

NOTICE: I WILL NOT BE UPDATING UNTIL NEXT TUESDAY THE 16TH. 

tomorrow i have a rehearsal since they canceled school for a snow day and on friday, saturday, and sunday i'll be at ITS conference (aka theatre nerd heaven). actually my show that i'm in is performing for the first time on saturday and i'm really nervous about it. i've had lines in classroom productions that i've performed in front of a critiquing class, but i've never had a whole two page monologue to perform in front of hundreds of people who actually care about theatre. i actually want to puke thinking about it. 

chapter questions:

1. what's your favorite musical/play? 

2. not a question just want to apologize for not updating. ig i thought i did but then realized i didn't lmao. 

3. is there any characters I haven't brought in yet that you would like to meet?