Meant to Be: A Sophie X Tam Fanfic - KOTLC

The Deal

Fitz Vacker? Why would Tam need to apologize to Fitz?
Sophie thought, puzzled. She didn't really have time to figure that out, though, because Tam and Linh started freaking out.

"You want me to apologize to Fitz?!" Tam roared, beating his chest like an angry gorilla. "How could you? You know what he did!" Sophie stepped closer to Linh, who was now holding her face in her hands, and carefully put an arm around her shoulders to comfort her.

"We know what you say he did, Tam," Quan said calmly. "But the Council revealed the truth long ago. You need to stop pretending."

"I'm not pretending, Dad," Tam snapped. "Why won't you believe your own children?"

"Because you two have a history of being untrustworthy!"

Tam opened his mouth to start arguing again before Mai cut him off. "The truth doesn't matter. All that matters now is ou—your reputations. You don't want to get yourself kicked out of the Lost Cities again, do you Tam?"

"I couldn't care less!"

"What about Linh and Sophie, then?" She asked, a glint in her eyes. "You and your sister, miserable at Exillium. And who knows what will happen to Sophie? I imagine it won't be good if they figure out that that murderer immediately returned to the Lost Cities after being banished." Sophie shrank behind Linh. They wouldn't... do anything to her, would they? She glanced at Tam, who seemed to be at a loss for words.

Quan spoke instead. "Listen. Either you apologize to Fitz-regardless of what you believe-or you and Linh will go back to your 'shabby' camp and we'll inform the Council of Sophie's illegal return. Then they can decide what to do with her."

Silence spread for a moment. He then whispered something in Linh's ear quickly and she nodded, eyes downcast. Sophie's worm-brows twisted upwards in worry, but after a split second of hesitation, Tam said "fine. We'll follow your stupid rules and I'll apologize to Fitz. Just—don't hurt Sophie."

"Tam, you don't have to do this for me," she blurted. "I killed Councilor Bronte. I'm clearly ruining your life! Please, I'm not worth it." She bit her lip, trying to keep the shimmery water droplets from falling out of her eyeballs. I just ended up hurting him more.

Sophie blinked rapidly to clear her misty sight. It didn't really seem to work, though, because Tam stepped forward in what seemed to be a hazy glow. He looks like a superstar...

"Sophie, that's not true," he muttered, but was staring everywhere but her. He reached his hand up towards her face but quickly dropped it and spun around. Sophie noticed Linh had finally looked up, and was staring at them. Sophie's face flushed red. What was that about?

"We agree. We agree to your rules. So, what? You'll 'let' us go back to Foxfire with Sophie?"

"A few things will need to arranged first," replied Quan, Mai violently nodding along. "But we can discuss that in the morning. Linh and Sophie can stay together in the twins' room, if that's more comfortable for her. Tam, find somewhere else to sleep." Quan and Mai spun around and fled the room like speedy cheetahs, leaving Tam sputtering in confusion—and their dust.

Everything was quiet for a second. "Thank you," she said finally. "I don't deserve it, really. But thank you."

"Sophie," Linh said quietly. "None of this is your fault. You didn't ruin Tam's life, or mine. Our parents did that-and Fitz, I guess."

"Thanks, Linh," Sophie said, feeling relieved they didn't blame her. "By the way... what did Fitz do to you guys? And why do your parents blame you? He didn't really seem all that bad to me."

Both Tam and Linh paled. "I'm sorry Sophie, I'd really rather not talk about that right now," she barely whispered. She cleared her throat and stood straighter. "Come on. Let's go to my room—Tam, how about you stay in the guest room tonight?"

"I was already going to," he said, grumpy again already. Sophie smiled lightly at his teenage moodiness. "See you guys in the morning." With that, he walked off.

"Follow me," Linh said, leading Sophie to the hallway her parents had came from earlier. Every part of the wall was covered in slow moving, falling water. It looked similar to glass waterfalls that Sophie had seen in the Forbidden Cities, except it seemed to shine with glitter and sparkles. She glanced around, admiring the beauty.

Sophie noticed Linh had started running, her arms wrapped around herself. "Wait up," Sophie called out, struggling to keep pace on her small stub legs. She gasped for air and leaned over, trying to catch her breath. I really need to exercise more, she thought as she looked up to see a huge, looming figure somehow step out of the water on the walls.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!" Sophie shrieked, raising her fingers above her head in self-defense as the shadowy figure stepped closer.

"Shhhhhhhh," Mai whisper-hissed, putting a finger to her lips. She furrowed her eyebrows at Sophie and wrinkled her nose. "Be quiet. I need to speak to you quickly."

"Sure," Sophie said, clutching her shirt and breathing a lot. "But did you have to scare me like that?"

"I didn't mean to scare you—you're just weird. Anyway, I need to talk about you and Tam."

"Tam?"

"Yes. And I'm warning you." Mai leaned closer to Sophie and narrowed her eyes, seeming suspicious."Stay away from my son."

Sophie gasped. Then, she recovered... "Kind of hard if we're going to be living together," she retorted, blushing at the thought. Why did I have to say it that way?

"I mean it," the tall woman snapped. "Don't joke with me. The last time someone got close to one of my children, it did not end well. And I don't suspect that a troublemaker like you," she said, scanning Sophie up and down rapidly, "will be any different. So stay away from Tam. If you fail to do so, I will turn you in so fast your head will spin around in ovals." With that, Mai turned around and skulked back into the water like a gremlin.

...

...She thinks Tam and I are close?! She gasped, red spreading across her face like smushed cherry pie. Sophie grabbed her cheeks and pulled to get them to stop blushing, but it didn't work. She looked bloody from ear to ear. What could I have possibly done to make her think that?! Aeugh!

Mentally, she whacked herself in the face to get her thoughts straight. No... no, no, no! We don't even know each other! I'm not even his friend, I'm an... an acquaintance! Yes, that's all. An acquaintance. She clasped her hands over her face, waiting a few hours for the blush to slowly fade before finally straightening and putting her game face on.

"Alright, enough of that," she said aloud. "Time to get moving."

With that, she raced down the hallway, searching for Linh's bedroom and trying to keep thoughts of the cute emo boy and his cute emo bangs out of her head.

She definitely wasn't doing a good job.