Chapter Fourteen

Time went on and eventually it was the one year anniversary of Sophie and Keefe's getting together. It didn't take much begging to convince Forkle to give her the day off, being he was going to suggest she take it off anyways. He was a big supporter of the two's relationship, finding Keefe annoying but perfect for her. 

"Hey, what time do you think you're going to head out?" Edaline asked as Sophie made her way down to the kitchen that morning. "Your dad and I were going to take advantage and have a date day of our own."

Sophie shrugged. "I'm just grabbing breakfast and he's gonna pick me up eventually." She thought for a moment. "I might also crash at his place, if that's good with you."

Edaline nodded, waving her off. "That sounds good, just don't get into any trouble." She handed Sophie a random fruit off the counter and asked, "Do you know what you guys are doing?"

"Yeah," Sophie replied. "We planned together. We're going to his dad's beach house and then we're going to walk through Atlantas and look at all the shops and maybe get some food somewhere. Then we're going to go back to his apartment and watch a few movies." 

"That sounds promising," Edaline commented just as Grady made his own way down the stairs. "You and I have the house to ourselves until possibly tomorrow, let's go crazy," Edaline told him with a laugh. 

Sophie and Grady joined her in the laughter. "Wow, that's enough time to do stuff together that isn't shoveling dinosaur poop," Grady replied with a grin. 

"Well, while you two-" Sophie's reply was cut off by a knock at the door. "Come in," Sophie shouted, knowing it was Keefe. 

"Hey, how are my two favorite in-laws this evening?" Keefe grinned as he walked in, stopping by Sophie's side. 

"Not your in-laws, so I wouldn't know," Grady expertly replied. "But I can say Edaline and I are doing just fine."

Keefe ignored the first half, it wasn't the first time he called them his in-laws with no indication of proposing to Sophie soon, but Sophie hoped it would be close to the last. While she made him promise that he wouldn't propose that day, being that she just wanted a low-key and chill day with just him and nothing else special, she still had that little flicker of hope that it would be soon. Of course she knew she could surprise him and propose first, but she also didn't have the guts to do it. She wouldn't put it past Biana to propose to Dex, though. 

"Well, we have to skedaddle." He looked to Sophie expectantly. "You ready?" 

She nodded and replied, "Let me go grab my bags first. I have more than one, so you gotta do some work." 

"It's only a day," he complained as he followed her out the room, both of them nodding towards her parents. 

"Yes, well I have the stuff for the beach house which takes up a bag and then I have my extra last minute, if needed, stuff. That takes up its own bag." She nodded to him to grab the beach house stuff. "Before we go to Atlantas we're going to have to go to your apartment to drop everything off. I don't wanna carry this stuff more than I need to, and I'm sure you don't either." 

"Sounds peachy. Let's go." They made their way out, waving goodbye to her parents on their way, and eventually leaped to the beach house, where they made their way inside to put the stuff down. "Can you believe we have a whole day to ourselves?" Sophie commented, grinning. 

Keefe nodded along, "Happy one year anniversary, love of my life." She grinned as she let him pull her in for a quick kiss before she bounced towards one of the bags. "I'm going to get into my bathing suit if you want to get started on the food." She pointed to where the food was before quickly running to get dressed. 

She grinned as she came back to Keefe attempting to make a human meal. After one of her meetings in the Forbidden Cities she decided to explore a little before going home and considering she had wanted to do something special for their one year anniversary, she decided to look up a vegan meal that was easy to make. She was able to buy all the ingredients needed thanks to Dex, who came with her to a human store and hacked an ATM machine for the human currency. She felt slightly bad considering it wasn't her money to take, but she hoped that, considering she'd be living for almost forever anyways at this point, she would make it to a point where humans and elves lived together once more so that she could pay someone back for anything she might have stole. 

Until then, she would just enjoy her meal and full day with her boyfriend. "Sophie, I don't understand this," Keefe stated when she made her way out. 

"Go get into your shorts, I'll do it," she told him, humor in her voice. She worked silently, cutting into vegetables the same way she used to watch her human mother do. She found herself in thought, thinking of the woman who raised her up until she reached the age of twelve and joined the elves. She wondered what would have happened if Fitz hadn't of found her. Would she have ever told her parents of her ability? How would her parents react if they knew how her life was now? She wondered if her parents would've liked Keefe. 

Amy did, she knew that for a fact. She found a small ache in her heart, realizing how long it had been since she visited her sister. Visits were extremely rare, only every few years, and they always had to meet up in a safe environment, protected by too many people for Sophie to count. 

"Sorry I couldn't do it, I've never really done that before," Keefe apologized as he came back from changing. 

Sophie barely glanced at him, but was glad he took her away from the thoughts swirling in her head. "It's all good," She replied, giving him a tight smile. "Grab the pan, I'll pour it all in." Eventually a half hour passed by and Sophie finished making the meal and the two sat together at the small table, eating silently. 

Breaking the silence, Keefe said, "So one year down. Forever to go." He gave her a large grin, which she matched. 

"Let's just focus on year two for right now," she replied, chuckling slightly. "When you mention forever it makes my head hurt thinking of just how long I'm going to be living." She suddenly frowned. "Am I tied down to the job I'm doing for that forever?"

Keefe shook his head. "No, of course not. Why?"

"Well, because while I love doing it now, I can't imagine spending this much time on my job when we eventually have kids." She shrugged. "I love doing it now while I'm young and single on paper, but have you ever thought about what we're going to do when we get married and have kids?"

"Let's just focus on year two for right now," Keefe mocked, which she replied with a deadpanned look. "I mean, it's not like elves get jobs for money. We all have enough, we do what we do because we love it. Professor's teach because they get to talk about their favorite subject and force it upon young people who might grow to love it too. I paint because the only times where I feel truly at peace is when I'm either with you or with a brush in my hand. Dex mans the shop with his dad because he loves to create. Biana owns her jewelry store because she loves when she looks good and can make others look good." Keefe shrugged. 

"I work for the council and Black Swan because they made me into the person I am and I feel like I owe them a dept," Sophie replied. She took a bite of her food, and realized that it was her last. She grabbed her dish, and grabbed his too when she noticed it was empty, and made her way to the sink. "I love my job, don't get me wrong, but I don't have this job because I love it."

"Well, you just have to think about what you love doing."

Sophie looked at her feet, trying to think of what she loved to do. "I don't know... I love working with the animals with my parents. I love using my abilities. I love you." 

Keefe rolled his eyes at the last one. "Well, you don't have to make any decisions as of right now. But I definitely recommend you think about it, Foster. An unhappy Sophie Foster is an unhappy Keefe Sencen." He kissed her cheek and reached for her hand. "Ready to catch some totally tubular waves?"

She rolled her eyes, not even questioning who taught him what surfing was. "Gnarly," she replied simply. 

The two swam for almost two hours before deciding to dry themselves off and go to Atlantas, first stop being Keefe's apartment. "What is all this stuff anyways?" Keefe questioned as he opened the door. They dropped the bags on his couch before making their way back out. 

"Human movies, other random things. Clothes if I spend the night and all my toiletries." 

"Spending the night, hmm?" He wrapped his arms around her waist jokingly. 

She laughed and smacked his chest. "You can take the couch if I do, you dork."

The two joked as they walked down the street and reached the most popular point of the city, and they decided to go through as many stores as they could, even making a bet on how many they could get in and out of within two hours. Around an hour in they stopped in front of Slurps and Burps, which was their thirtieth store, and took a ten minute break. "Hey guys," Dex greeted when they stepped inside. "I thought you were hanging around each other for the day."

Sophie nodded. "Yeah, we made a bet on how many stores we could get in and out of within two hours."

"Does mine count?"

"Thirtieth," Keefe replied. "I bet we could go sixty but Sophie thinks at most we'll reach fifty."

"Honestly, I didn't even realize there were that many stores," Sophie replied. "Atlantas gets bigger and bigger each time I come here."

"How long are you going to chill here?" Dex asked. "If you both want to reach your goals you're going to have to start going again."

"The longer we wait the more likely it is I'll win," Sophie informed, grinning. That immediately led to Keefe and Sophie bickering over when they should go. 

"Well, not to be that guy but... while I love you, I kind of have customers." Dex smiled sheepishly. 

"It's all good, we'll get out of your hair," Sophie replied immediately, feeling slightly guilty. "See you around, Dex!" He waved the two off and they started to go through the stores once more, even stopping by Biana's for a minute but leaving quickly since hers was much more busy and they didn't want to stress her. By the end of the two hours they had gone through fifty-five stores and decided to call it a tie after arguments about rounding numbers. 

When they reached Keefe's apartment once more Sophie immediately laid back on the couch. "That was super tiring," she remarked. "I didn't realize that would make me feel so tired."

"It's a good thing now it's just us chilling and watching movies," Keefe replied, grabbing the bag. "Can I pick the movie?"

"Go ahead, I only put movies I liked in there anyways." After a few minutes he popped in a random mystery movie that Sophie recalled watching when she was around ten years old with her human father. 

After that movie ended they decided to put on another and eventually the two fell asleep in the middle of their third-maybe even their fourth, Sophie lost count-movie, cuddled against each other on the couch. 

---

what's that? is that...? oh my! it is! I UPDATED!! 

the last time i updated (or maybe it was just that author's note) i was stressed for the first rehearsal for my show and now i'm knee deep in rehearsals almost everyday until 6 and it's finE and i'm slowly remembering why everyone who does shows complains and hates themselves because oh lORDY are my insecurities coming back but it's finE. 

anywho i recently got my inspo back and i'm holding onto it as much as i can because ya girl needs it rn. between rehearsals and school i'm slowly sinking into oblivion and realizing why i wrote so much my freshman year lmao. 

chapter questions:

1. still predict when you think Keefe (or Sophie c;) is going to propose. 

2. since i last updated not only has the next book been announced as FLASHBACK, but the cover has come out. i wanna hear your thoughts and conspiracy theories. also can i just mention how good my girl looks on that cover. she's so fierce i love her sm. usually she looks pretty scared or nervous or confused on covers but on the FLASHBACK cover she just looks ready to take over the world and i'm excitED

3. what did you think about my comeback? i tried to make it very emo so you guys wouldn't hate me as much for taking so long xoxo