Agent Moonlark

Chapter Three

Sophie

Sophie spent a few more hours in the training room. Linh and Biana had left after the first hour, talking excitedly about something Agent Forkle had said. Sophie didn't bother listening. Filled with guilt at lying to the Collective, she refused to even think about Agent Forkle.

She was outside in the hallway, walking to her room, when someone tapped her shoulder. Her head snapped around, ready to glare at the person. However, as soon as she saw who it was, she threw herself into his arms.

"Fitz!," she yelled. "I haven't seen you and Tam in months! That mission took so long!"

Fitz leaned back from the hug and smiled warmly at her. "I missed you, too, Sophie."

"What about me?," a new voice asked. Sophie's eyes widened, and she turned to hug Tam.

"Why were you away so long?!," Sophie demanded. "I need my cognate, you know!" In the Black Swan, cognates were people who were usually paired together for missions. Sophie and Fitz became cognates three years ago. Since then, they were practically joined at the hip - until Fitz's most recent mission. He had been sent to New York with Tam to protect a rich and powerful family from Italy visiting the U. S.

"Sorry," Fitz apologized. "But the Basile family tend to prolong their vacations."

"It was horrible," Tam added. "The kids, Alessandro, Armando, and Caterina, had all read the Percy Jackson series. They kept on calling me Nico, as in Nico di Angelo." He blew his dyed silver bangs out of his eyes.

"No," Fitz disagreed, "that was hilarious. They would crowd around Tam asking him to summon skeletons. Caterina, the oldest, was 13 years old. She pretended to be Bianca di Angelo, and insisted that she was older than Tam, now that she was Bianca."

Tam rolled his eyes. "It was funnier when I snuck black hair dye in your shampoo, and they started calling you Perseus Jackson. Caterina then pretended to be Annabeth Chase and told you to kiss her because in Percy Jackson, you two are dating. Alessandro even tried to get you to propose to Caterina." Sophie started laughing. She was imagining two little boys pushing Fitz and a thirteen-year-old girl up the stairs, and telling Fitz to 'kiss the bride.'

"Fitz," she said, gasping for air between laughs, "when can I meet your wife?"

"I didn't end up marrying her," he grumbled. "For Granite's sake, she's four years younger than me."

'For Granite's sake' was an inside joke Sophie, Tam, Linh, Biana, Dex, and Fitz had made up a few months ago, right before Fitz and Tam left to watch over the Basile family. They had been in a meeting with the Collective, the meeting where Agent Forkle told Fitz and Tam about the Basile family. Out of the blue, Biana had asked if anyone thought Agent Granite and Agent Physic would make a good couple. Agent Granite's face had turned pink, then red, then purple, then blue, then green. It had been so funny, it had Sophie and her friends howling with laughter. Dex had been the first to calm down. He had then said "For Granite's sake, stop laughing!" That only had them laughing even more, for some reason.

"Remember when Biana asked if we shipped Grysic (A/N: Granite and Physic. I don't actually ship them, though.)?," Sophie asked. "Speaking of Biana, she's gonna freak when she sees you two!"

"Is she dating anyone?," Fitz asked. Tam looked bored, but Sophie could tell he was secretly interested in the answer. "I mean," Fitz continued, "knowing Biana, she'll have started dating some random guy the second I'm gone."

"That's because you're overprotective of her. Besides, if she were dating anyone, it wouldn't be my place to tell you." Sophie gave Fitz a friendly shove. "It's not my fault she doesn't keep you in the loop. After all, you're her brother."