after unlocked: a sokeefe fanfic

Chapter 47-Sophie

She nodded simply.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know..." she trailed off. "Like, think we fell behind on a lot of homework?"

The tenseness in his shoulders fell away, and he glanced sidelong at her with a half smirk. "Homework? Really, Foster? You're asking me about homework?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. "You're at the top of your classes. You're really smart, plus you have photographic memory."

"Thanks," he grinned, nudging her shoulder gently.

There was a undercurrent of tension between them still, but Sophie could feel it melting away but by bit as they continued talking quietly.

"Ditching doesn't help your grades though," Sophie said, attempting to calm his brimming ego.

Keefe only wrinkled his nose. "I only got to ditch twice this year, thanks to you and Forkle."

"Speaking of Forkle," Sophie said, "how do you think he reacted when we disappeared?"

"I mean, it's Forkle, Foster. He probably went all Fork-jitsu and went immediately to working to bring you back."

You.

Not him.

"You too," she said.

Keefe shook his head. "Compared to you—compared to anyone, really—I'm  expendable. A liability," he added a bit quieter than before.

"No, you're not," Sophie objected, "and Forkle knows how important you are to us. To me."

"Foster, Forkle's great and all sometimes, but we all know his soft spot is you. So yeah, maybe if you were there, you'd be able to convince him. But you're not. And, and you're important to the cause, I'm basically the opposite. I'm important to this cause. My mom's a villain—and, I don't know, your mom's probably part of the Black Swan."

Sophie ignored the "your mom" part. She still didn't really think of Oralie as her mom, and it was easier to think about her biological parents as nameless elves somewhere in the world.

Keefe was still talking.

"Maybe he wants to change the system and everything but," he shrugged, "that doesn't necessarily mean he does everything the right way. Sometimes you do the right things for the wrong reasons and vice versa."

Like your mom, Sophie thought.

"What did you think about the system?"  Sophie asked, caught on the first part. "Did it bother you at all?"

"I mean, I never cared one way or the other. I think, as a kid, I didn't really have many crushes, so the matchmaking thing was never a big deal. The whole, manifest thing, that was different. When I was little, y'know, and I still wanted my dad's approval, my mom's approval, so I wanted to manifest. I wanted to make them proud. Then... once I did, I wished I hadn't. Then my mom wouldn't have gotten this—" he gestured to himself, "—my stupid power, and I mean, another way to screw my dad over."

From his face, though, Sophie could tell a small part of him, the little kid in him, still wanted his dad's approval.

He shrugged, and smiled wanly. "My view of the matchmaking system changed eventually though. I guess, when someone close to you is affected by the system, it hits closer to home. You had way too much stress, and anxiety about the the whole thing, and I guess..." he trailed off. "I guess I kind of wanted to punch the matchmakers and Forkle for making you go through that."