after unlocked: a sokeefe fanfic

Chapter 67-Sophie

Sophie was going to kill Forkle.

And no, she was not kidding.

Okay, maybe not kill him, but she wanted to.

Ro and Bo had both been silent on the walk to their little designating training center. She could practically see the tension in the air, but she had made no move to lessen it. Inflicting had lessened that growing knot in her gut, the one that had been building up even after she and Keefe had... confessed.

It had been a lot of raw emotions though. She was surprised it hadn't given them worse than the sucky migraines Ro had started complaining about three minutes into their training session.

Walking back to their camp, in silence, alone for once, she sighed.

The sky was a pale blue, the weak rays of the sun barely warming her back. To her right, the few shrub like bushes Keefe insisted on calling trees. Behind her, the looming stone structures they'd been using as a training ground.

Ro and Bo were still there, probably bickering as they cleaned up the mess of weaponry they'd made.

Faint sounds of arguing reached her as she drew closer tot heir campsite. The fire still crackled in the mid afternoon daylight, a stream of smoke drifting into the sky. The tent flaps stirred in the light breeze that brought even more raised voices to her.

She entered the camp, greeted by possibly the strangest sight she'd seen in the past three weeks.

A furious Forkle stood extremely close to the fire, so close that Sophie wondered if a spark was going to light the seat of his breeches on fire. Cadence stood next to him, her expression almost amused. And Keefe and Dex stood in front of them, both looking a bit... unkempt. Dex's shirt had gross looking stains on it, and one of Keefe's boots were missing.

And Elwin lay curled up in a ball in front of them, groaning and making other noises that reminded Sophie of a dying bear.

"You two will be confined to your tent together for the next three years!" Forkle raged. "And when those three years are up, you'll be forced to spend time with the people who annoy you the most for the following seven years!"

Both boys looked liked toddlers being scolded by their mother, though Dex elbowed Keefe and mumbled, "I get to be locked up with you for ten years. Seems unfair."

Keefe elbowed him back. "Seems like a reward for you to me. It's not like you'll have to look at Bangs Boy's bangs for seven years. At least you'll have something pleasant to look at."

"Uhhhhh."

They all swung around to her—the boys giving her sheepish looks.

"What is going on?" Sophie asked, wondering whether she actually wanted to know.

"Um." Dex and Keefe looked at each other. "Not it!" Dex said instantly, finger going to his nose.

Keefe winced. "Well, you see, Foster..." he cleared his throat. "We may or may not have kidnapped Elwin."

Sophie stared at them in disbelief, switching from Elwin to them to Elwin to them—and to Elwin to them again.

Then she started laughing: delirious, wild laughter that made tears stream from her eyes and made it hard to breath.

Forkle threw his hands up in the air as he watched her crack up and walked off. "Teenagers," he muttered.

Cadence let out a snort. "I counted seven new wrinkles." She disappeared into her tent, and Keefe and Dex stared at Sophie, a little bit of fear in their eyes as she continued laughing.