Before:
"I'm not sure," Keefe admitted softly, his grip tightening on her fingers. "I don't know which one I'd rather go with. Or what the other will do if I choose them. But either way, I'll be in the Elite levels in a few years. Then I'll get a place of my own. And... they won't matter anymore."
Sophie smiled sadly, knowing that he wasn't telling the full truth.
They'd always matter to him. And he knew it.
But she allowed their eyes to meet.
There wasn't anything else to say, so she simply nodded.
"But it's okay! Because as soon as it actually happens and they split, I can prank my dad all I want without catching my mom in the crossfire! And better yet, if they leave Candleshade, he'll never find his favorite cape!" Keefe's smirk looked forced.
"The one you hid behind the door rigged with gulon gas?" Sophie remembered, grinning at the thought of Cassius engulfed in the green smelly cloud.
"That's the one!" Keefe smiled. "Don't worry, Ruewen."
Sophie laughed at the nickname he used to use all the time.
"I'll be fine," he promised.
And Sophie believed him.
"Marella and Linh went public," Sophie whispered in Keefe's ear as soon as she found him. Maybe she shouldn't be trying to be close to him after all the drama, but she figured that he'd want to hear this very important information.
Not that she was looking for an excuse to talk to him.
"They... came out? Both of them?" Keefe blinked in surprise.
"Well, not to everyone of course. To Tam and a few of their other friends. Don't go spreading it around, obviously. Linh doesn't want her parents knowing yet, and I get why," Sophie clarified quickly.
"How is Bangs Boy taking it?" Keefe's smirk was back on his face, natural in a way it hadn't been in ages. "Grouchy as usual?"
Sophie pointed to the side of the courtyard, and standing in the shadow of the building was Marella and Linh. They weren't holding hands or showing affection, but Sophie would have been able to tell by the way they held themselves that something was happening between them.
Or maybe she was reading too much into it; she'd been overly oblivious to everything thus far, after all. Maybe it was only because she knew that she could tell.
"Ha! Bangs Boy looks so annoyed! I can help him with that," Keefe started, smirking at Tam glowering not so far away.
The shade looked like an intense struggle had taken over him; big overprotective brotherly prerogative- or happiness to see Linh with such a huge smile on her face.
"No, Keefe," Sophie snorted, grabbing his arm. "You do not want to make Tam mad today... he'll take out all his pent up annoyance on you."
"Psh, like he doesn't already do that. It'll be fun! Just one comment about his abysmal supply of hair products and-"
The bells chimed, signaling them to go to class. Keefe smirked at Sophie, flippantly winking at her before turning and running into the building.
Sophie was willing to bet her favorite tunic that he was going into the building ditch rather than for class.
Shaking her head with a small blush on her cheeks, Sophie followed, hurrying to get inside before the late bells rang. Elementalism was first, and she did NOT want to make her mentor angry.
...
"Fitz." She caught his arm, and he stiffened. "Fitz, please. We need to talk."
He stayed silent for a second before exhaling in a burst of air and responding, "I know."
She blinked in surprise. She'd been working up the courage to speak to the brunette all day, rehearsing a detailed speech explaining why they needed to talk things out, expecting him to refuse.
"With Keefe," she added hastily, slightly off-balance as she realized she was still holding onto his arm and dropped it quickly. The feeling of touching him again was... strange.
Everything had changed.
"I know," Fitz repeated, his eyes flicking to the spot on his forearm that Sophie's hand vacated.
She wondered if he felt the same sense of... wrongness. Of familiarity but not, of the utterly empty feeling that struck her when she touched his arm. Not bad, but not good either; simply, normal.
Sophie realized with a jolt that she'd been expecting the same warmth that spread through her whenever she touched Keefe.
And it wasn't there.
Yet, her stomach still flipped instinctively as Fitz raised his head to meet her eyes. "Now?"
"Um. Yes. I- I think it has to be," she blinked, trying to reorder the mess of thoughts tangling in her head. "School's over. Let's... um, where should we...?"
"He can come to the meadow," Keefe appeared next to her. She didn't know how long he'd been standing there.
She couldn't resist a small smile curving her lips at his presence, and he smiled back.
Fitz looked away.
"Um, are you sure, Keefe?" she asked, a thread of guilt rising. This wasn't fair to Fitz, she knew that. But to take him to the meadow... obviously, she trusted him not to give away the secret.
But a small, selfish part of her wanted it to be her and Keefe's spot. Their haven. For only them. Biana had been there, but she wouldn't go back and...
Maybe it was just different with Fitz.
"Yeah," Keefe said quietly. "I- I think it's time."
Sophie heard the unspoken words. She knew what he meant.
"Okay," she agreed. It was time for them to stop hiding.
So they joined the line for the leapmaster together. Biana spotted them (she was standing in line with Dex) and raised a quizzical eyebrow at Sophie. The blonde nodded back nervously as she cast a glance at the two boys, who were standing as far apart as they could possibly get.
Biana grinned, mouthing, "Hail me if you need me, but it's your problem now."
Sophie scowled, tempted to shout something about Dexiana back, but then she was at the front of the line.
It was awkward figuring out their positioning (Keefe didn't want to grab Fitz's hand and Fitz didn't want to touch Sophie and Sophie didn't want to make Fitz feel bad by holding Keefe's hand-) until Fitz just grabbed Keefe's arm and grumbled at him to get on with it.
They glittered away, and Sophie winced as all three of them immediately stepped apart as they reached the meadow, placing distance between them.
For a second, they all just stared at each other.
Keefe tried to break the ice. "Hey, I know I'm hot, but there's no need to stare."
Fitz and Sophie both snorted at the same time. Sophie glanced over at the brunette to find him looking at her, and they both blushed and looked away at the same time.
"Maybe we did need a mediator," Fitz grumbled. "Just to start the conversation."
"I think... the first step here," Sophie racked her brain. "Is to establish how we actually reached the point where we needed to have the meeting to fix our friendship."
"Isn't it obvious?" Fitz asked, not meeting her eyes. "It started when you and I started dating."
"That's dumb," Keefe put in. Sophie resisted the urge to slap him, and she was willing to bet Fitz felt the same way. "I mean, this thing has been... brewing, heading to this point, since Fitz first started liking Sophie. No, scratch that; since I first started liking Sophie."
Keefe blushed as he said the words, and he fumbled them a little as the awkwardness intensified.
"Because that was when this whole... thing started," Sophie mumbled. "Because I- I liked Fitz and then Fitz liked me and Keefe... um. Keefe... liked... me too and yeah."
It was hard to force out the words.
It was all so... new. So awkward.
"Do you want to be friends again?" Fitz asked suddenly, his eyes growing intense.
"Yes, of course!" Sophie exclaimed, while Keefe nodded. "Do you?"
Fitz nodded. Hard.
"I know you both tried to... fix things. But it... didn't go so well," Sophie started.
"Actually, it went really well. We made up. But then I learned that"- Fitz took a deep breath and rearranged his face into something calmer- "That you went behind my back. And now we're back to square one."
Sophie bit her lip.
Keefe shuffled on his feet, shaking out his hands slightly, and Sophie could tell that he was feeling her and Fitz's emotions. She wrapped her arms around herself instinctively, attempting to block her feelings from being as strong.
Keefe glanced over, and she knew it hadn't worked (it never did, but she kept doing it anyway).
"Fitz," Sophie began, blinking hard. "I am... so sorry for what I- we- did."
"No, you aren't," Fitz said immediately. "You're sorry for how it made me feel. Not that you actually did it."
Sophie hesitated.
"It's true," Fitz continued. "And don't even try to deny it. I know that you two... like each other. But I just... I don't want to think about it and every time I look at both of you I see it and I can't stand it."
"I know-"
"No," Fitz interrupted Keefe. "You really don't."
"I really do, actually," Keefe gritted his teeth, taking a deep breath. "I had to think about that every day. When you two were dating."
It was Fitz's turn to pause.
Sophie could practically cut the awkwardness in the air with a knife, and she knew her face was bright red.
"It's not the same," Fitz said quietly. "Because you hadn't broken up an hour before."
"I know," Keefe answered, twisting his fingers together tightly in a nervous motion, the movement unfamiliar on the usually confident boy. "But I get where you're coming from. And I'm sorry."
Fitz nodded, his teal eyes fixed on the ground as he ran his finger in a circle on his thigh. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have blown up at you. Or Sophie. I shouldn't have... done anything or been jealous or... I don't know. Maybe things would've been different."
"Maybe," Sophie whispered, even though she knew that wasn't true. They were always going to end up here; she would've found out about Keefe's feelings eventually, and she would have figured out she liked him back.
Maybe she would've stayed with Fitz for longer, though. A few more months. Maybe even years, before she realized she didn't want to be with him as much and he realized there wasn't really a spark.
Fitz glanced up and met her eyes. He smiled sadly, and she knew he knew what would've happened.
He knew that there had never really been a chance for them.
She reached out and grabbed his hand, and he stared at it for a second before giving it a squeeze.
"Thanks," he said softly, letting go after a minute, as if it was a struggle to separate their skin.
"Do you... forgive us? Are we good?" Keefe asked hesitantly. Cautiously.
"I don't know about good," Fitz answered. "But we're better. I think we'll be okay."
Sophie smiled, and Keefe moved in for a hug, wrapping both of them in his arms. She hugged them both back and felt Fitz do the same, leaning their foreheads in gently.
"Thanks," Fitz repeated.
Sophie simply smiled in response.
They were going to be okay.
(Keefe's POV)
"I'm sorry."
The words didn't register at first, and Keefe had to blink twice before they made it into his brain.
"You're... what?"
"I'm sorry," Gisela repeated, her eyes flashing dangerously before she took a breath and composed herself. "For... everything."
"Excuse me?" Keefe felt temper rising, and he did nothing to stop it. After everything. After his entire childhood, where she stood to the side silently while Cassius yelled and shouted and hissed and reprimanded.
After she ignored the pain rising on Keefe's face, just barely suppressed.
After she'd done- been- nothing and everything for all those years.
"Now you're sorry? Tell me, what exactly are you sorry for?"
Gisela gaped at him for a second. As if she thought her apology would just be enough.
As if he hadn't been bracing himself for some disappointed comment when she came into the living room where he sat and asked to speak to him.
As if he hadn't come to expect the biting words and slicing criticism.
His nerves were already frayed from the talk with Fitz earlier that day. He couldn't handle this, too.
"You heard me. What, exactly, are you apologizing for?" Keefe resisted the urge to fidget. He made his chin stay high in the air, despite the urge to tuck it into his chest meekly. To stare at the floor instead of his mother's cold eyes.
"For your father," Gisela stood up straighter, her nails tapping against her side. "He never meant for this to happen."
"For what to happen? For me to turn out like- like this?" Keefe scowled, gesturing to himself.
"Keefe," Gisela strode forward, taking one of his hands. Her fingers were as cold as ice. "He never meant for you to hate him."
"Then I guess we're both failures," Keefe snorted bitterly. "Stop speaking for him. You don't have to make excuses for him."
"Fine. Then what about an excuse for me?" Gisela hissed, her voice lowering dangerously before she seemed to remember herself and stepped back, her voice turning almost warm. "I'm sorry that I didn't stop him. I'm sorry that I let this happen to you. I'm sorry that you hate me too. But soon, your father and I are filing a match fail. You have to live with one of us. You'll have to choose."
Keefe gritted his teeth, opening his mouth to respond before Gisela continued,
"Let it be me."
The air was stolen from Keefe's lungs in a second.
He simply blinked, the words rippling by on the wind as they swirled around him, everything he'd ever wanted from her.
Then he laughed, the harsh sound slipping out of his throat. "I'm good."
Gisela turned red with annoyance and surprise, her eyebrows knitting together. "Why in the world can't you just cooperate? If not with me, where are you going to live? How will you live with your father?"
"I won't," Keefe responded, feeling a swell of victory rise up in his throat as he looked at his mother's surprised face.
It had been too long since she'd looked at him with any emotion at all other than anger.
And indeed, there was a tiny voice in the back of his head telling him to take her offer. (She must love you after all! You're not a disappointment if you go with her! What harm will it do? You can prove you're more than what they've always thought!)
But he ignored it.
"I'm going to move in with the Vackers." Keefe relished the shocked look on Gisela's face. "I'll live with Fitz and Biana until the Elite Levels. Then I'll get my own place. My stuff is already all moved out of my room. Edaline came by after school, conjured it all away. It's waiting for me at Everglen."
The words freed something in him. A weight in his chest lifted, a heavy heart lightened, he finally drew in a final breath to finish off the news. The words he'd anticipated and dreaded for so long.
The words it had taken him sixteen years to say.
"I don't need you anymore."
"I..." Gisela's voice trailed off, and she simply stared as he fixed his trademark smirk on his face and saluted her, striding past his mother to the door.
Fitz had offered, and Keefe had accepted. Without a second thought. Because that was what best friends were supposed to do, what Fitz had done.
Because Fitz had always been his best friend. His brother.
The door closed behind him with a snap, and he left Candleshade behind forever.
Well, that cleared up a few things.
Namely a few random plotlines that were lying around.
I actually didn't plan to write the whole thing with Gisela. I planned to end the chapter with the three making up, but then it was too short for the second-to-last-chapter and I added the Gisela redemption/rejection thing, because I'll always want Cassius/Gisela/Quan/Mai redemption followed by the rejection from their kids.
Which brings me to my next point.
This is... the second-to-last-chapter.
Let that sink in for a second because I sure haven't processed it yet.
I'll say more in the A/N for the next chapter about, you know, everything (this incredible wild ride) but I just wanted to let you know. The next chapter will be the end.
Anyways, on THAT wonderful note, comment, tell me if you liked it, constructive criticism, all that good stuff! I love hearing your thoughts and comments!