Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Second Moonlark (a KOTLC/MLB crossover)

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Sophie

"Easy, Glitter Butt," Keefe teased as Silveny whinnied a little, watching as Luna was closely inspected and given a small vial to drink out of.

"Here," Sophie said, hold out several stalks of swizzlespice, which the alicorn took quickly. It always seemed to cheer Silveny up, the bright blue stalks.

"Everything looks good," Livvy said, having also been called to administer the check-up. "And you two did a good job keeping Silveny and Greyfell calm as well."

"What can I say?" Keefe shrugged. "Glitter Butt loves me."

Sophie rolled her eyes a little, but she couldn't blame him. She reminded herself that she once thought that she would never see Keefe again.

The time when they got back to Havenfield was pretty weird. Neither of them could find the courage to say anything,

Sophie did notice that Adrien and Marinette were sitting under the Panakes tree, deep in conversation.

She wouldn't be surprised if those two started dating in the future. Considering that they appeared to be good friends as civilians (and Keefe said they would be openly flirting as Ladybug and Cat Noir), it seemed normal that they were both laughing as their Kwamis fought over a piece of mallowmelt.

Seriously, how did Adrien say Marinette was "just a friend?"

She had zero idea, considering there had been several instances where he'd see him with moony eyes around the bluenette.

Sophie tucked her hair behind her ear as she heard Grady call her name to help out with feeding Verdi. That stinking T. Rex still hadn't adjusted to her vegetarian diet, not to mention she still had a small limp from when the ogres attacked Havenfield. Sophie couldn't forget that, even if she wasn't there. Brielle, Grady's bodyguard, had been killed. And Verdi had a permanent limp.

She wasn't heading to the Sanctuary anytime soon.

"So I've noticed Adrien's got a good friend," Grady said, trying in vain to get Verdi to eat the vegetables. "Marinette, right?"

"Yeah," Sophie said, offering Verdi a squishy veggie, feeling like the disgusting curdleroots she had to peel during a detention with Lady Cadence back in Level Three.

"She reminds me of you," Grady grinned a little. "Both of you have a certain spunk. Pretty fierce as well."

Sophie had never thought about that. She hadn't really been able to get to know Marinette all that much.

"In fact, Eda was thinking that you could get the other girls here so you five can have a girls night or something," Grady added.

"No doubt Biana would try and sneak me into a fancy dress and a complicated hairstyle," Sophie snorted.

Sophie and Adrien didn't say much during the first leg of their journey to Tiergan's room.

"So... you and Marinette, huh?" Sophie asked.

Hanging out with Marinette and the other girls last night had been a good call. It was a nice break from all the conspiracies and mysteries and connections and their war against the Neverseen. From last night, she learned a lot about Marinette's human life, even including her life as a heroine. As Ladybug, she was always saving the city from their own villain, Hawkmoth. But as a civilian, she was a designer, her parents were one of the more famous bakeries in Paris, she once designed an album cover for a famous musician, was friends with Alya (who had been trying to figure out who Ladybug was; Sophie couldn't believe no one had figured it out before now), babysat for a famous news anchor's daughter...

So why did she call herself a normal girl? She clearly wasn't.

"Oh, uh..." Adrien nervously rubbed the back of his neck, and Sophie could see his cheeks redden a little. "She's just a friend."

"Sure," Sophie snorted as they entered the room, noticing the three silver chairs in the large space. Tiergan was busy on an Imparter with Mr. Forkle, who was Magnate Leto at the time.

"Ah, here's our two moonlarks," Tiergan said, clicking off the Imparter and setting it on a small table in the corner.

Sophie could see Tiergan could notice the confusion in the two teenagers.

"So... is there a reason Fitz isn't here anymore?" Sophie asked.

"Partially because I've noticed that there's a chill between you two," Tiergan explained, and Sophie couldn't argue. "I'm worried that you are losing your Cognate connections. However, you and Adrien? Only a little less than a week but you two already have a pretty strong telepathic connection."

The teens shared a look between each other.

"However, no bond between Cognates can fully be established without trust," Tiergan said.

"Quick question," Adrien raised his hand a little. "What exactly is a Cognate thingy?"

Sophie tugged out a couple loose lashes.

"Yeah, sorry, forgot you didn't know," Tiergan said. "Come sit, you two. I have a feeling it's going to be an interesting session."

"What are you doing?" Dex asked as Sophie scribbled in her notebook.

"Trying to get homework done," Sophie shrugged. "For once, I wanna get it done ahead of time."

"Come on, Foster, breathe a little," Keefe wrapped an arm around Sophie. "I mean, work in the middle of lunch? Get some muscle in there."

He playfully squeezed her skinny arm.

Sophie tugged out more loose eyelashes before taking a swig of lushberry juice.

"I guess I just don't want to take Elementalism right now," she sighed.

She wasn't ready to admit that the colors light blue and green weren't exactly helping her focus all that much. And her Mentor had been having Sophie bottling whirlpools before the hiatus, and since water was normally associated with blue... and the bottles they captured whirlpools in were normally tinted green...

She tugged out more eyelashes.

She really had to get her feelings in check.

Ooh, does someone have a crush?

Sophie turned to see Adrien smirking at her.

Hush, she mentally rolled her eyes.

Please, Adrien transmitted back. I can feel and see your cheeks getting hot with Keefe's arm on you.

Sophie responded by gently shoving away Keefe's arm.

"So how was your session?" Fitz asked, but Sophie could hear the cold edge in his voice.

"It was... okay," Sophie shrugged. Tiergan mostly had her and Adrien ask each other a bunch of basic questions like favorite color (Adrien's was green, Sophie's was between ice blue and teal), favorite human subject (Sophie always liked history, Adrien preferred literature), favorite Lost Cities food (Sophie's was between custard bursts and mallowmelt, Adrien was in love with mallowmelt), favorite ability they had (Sophie loved Telepathy, Adrien wasn't so sure since he only knew about them for less than a week), favorite human food (Sophie: chicken Alfredo, Adrien: croissants; Plagg cut in and said he loved Camembert back in Paris). It seemed interesting, getting to know Adrien a little better, even if it was just the normal icebreakers. In fact, by the end of the session, they were already laughing at each other's jokes (even though Adrien mostly knew lame cat puns, probably because he had been Cat Noir).

"Hmm, your emotions are telling otherwise," Keefe shrugged.

"Oh, hush," Sophie playfully shoved him away before digging her spoon into her bowl and actually eating her lunch.

so we got a little sokeefe and adriphie in one chapter. huh. but seriously, while adriphie is cute, i'm still leaning more towards sokeefe. what about you?