You Instead

Chapter 28

"I missed you," Sophie whispered. 

"I missed you too," Arina replied, a stray tear soaking into Sophie's ornate gown, but she didn't care. Sophie wiped the other tears away. "That Tribunal was much faster than the last one."

"It doesn't matter. At least we're together now." Sophie told her. The rest of Sophie's friends came to the bottom of the podium, and Sophie led Arina down to them. Linh was the first to hug both of them, and asked Arina,

"Have you been practicing your Hydrokinetics?"

"I have. But I had to hide it from my parents, or else I think they would have gotten mad at me."

"That doesn't make any sense, but I'm glad you haven't gotten out of practice." Linh said. "I'll come by soon to help you hone your Hydrokinetics even more, okay?" Arina nodded to that. 

"I can't believe I missed your Birthday party. Biana and I had been planning it for so long!" Arina complained. 

"It's okay. But it wasn't the same without you," Sophie admitted. 

"It's good to have you back, Arina." Keefe said. 

"Does that mean you and Sophie are my parents now?" she asked slyly. Sophie and Keefe both  blushed crimson red. 

"We aren't married, Arina." Sophie told her.

"You will be. Don't worry," she responded. Sophie didn't like the sound of that. 

"Um, enough of that. Let's get you home and situated." Sophie said. "Good thing Keefe talked me out of packing up your things."

"You were going to pack up my things?" Arina asked. 

"I wanted to be prepared for the worst case scenario." Sophie said. "Come on, let's go home."

"I like the sound of that," Arina replied.

"We'd best be getting home," Dex said, "I'm glad that things went well today, Sophie. Bye, Arina."

"Bye, Dex! Bye Marella," Sophie bid them farewell, as well as the rest of their friends. Wylie and Linh also leaped away, leaving their regular group of Her, Arina, Keefe, Biana, and Tam. "Time to go home, I guess." Sophie pulled out her home crystal, and joined hands with Keefe and Arina. "Aren't you guys coming too?" she asked Biana and Tam.

"We're actually going to see my parents." Biana replied. Sophie knew what she was talking about, and gave a her a small nod. 

"What are you guys going for?" Keefe asked. Biana looked uncomfortable, so he quickly said, "It's okay if you aren't comfortable telling me. I understand. It isn't really any of my business."

Biana took a deep breath, and steeled herself. Tam took her hand gently and gave her a reassuring smile. "We're going to tell my parents that I'm pregnant."

"Really?" Keefe was surprised. "Hey, congrats. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to hail me."

"Or me," Sophie added. 

"Thanks, guys," Biana said, and pulled out a home crystal to Everglen. "Bye,"

Arina waved them off, and they glittered away. 

"Come on now, let's go." Sophie held up her home crystal to the light, and pulled Arina and Keefe into the light, 

When they appeared in front of Biana's house, Arina rushed straight inside. 

"Where is she going?" Sophie wondered aloud. 

"Who know? Just let her do her thing." Keefe replied, and pulled Sophie into the house. "I told you not to worry." he said, and kissed her cheek. 

"I guess you were right. For once." Sophie teased. She ascended up a few of the stairs. "I'm going to find Ari. Could you make lunch?"

"Sure, if I can remember where all the stuff is." Keefe replied. Sophie, instead, went through the house, searching for Arina. The most reasonable place she would be was probably her room, so Sophie went there first. And there she was. Admiring her room, like she hadn't seen it in years.

"So," Sophie started.

"This place really is a sight for sore eyes. It's so colorful!" Arina exclaimed.

"What are you talking about? There doesn't seem to be anything really special about this room, to me at least."

"My mom and dad didn't let me decorate my room at all, so it was just blank walls." Arina replied. Sophie noticed how Arina didn't call them "Mom" or "Dad," but referred to them as just  . . . people with the title. 

"How was it, living with them?"

"I guess it was okay. Nova and I spent a lot of time together, but that meant I had to also spend time with Fitz." her face appeared as if she had licked something sour. 

"That won't happen anymore, I promise. This place is a no-Fitz zone." Sophie said, causing Arina to giggle. "Well, wanna come downstairs fo lunch?" Sophie said, holding out a hand. Arina took it gratefully and sped forward, causing Sophie to stumble. "Are you really that excited for lunch?"

"Yep!" she called back, and turned back to Sophie.

"Watch out!" Sophie called when she spotted Keefe, but it was too late. Keefe and Arina collided, and Sophie watched in horror as they flew down the remainder of the stairs, and heard a loud crash when they reached the bottom step. "Oh my gosh, are you guys okay?" she rushed the rest of the way down. She examined them carefully, and Arina was unscathed. Keefe, on the other hand, had his fair share of bruises. A scrape was also running down his arm, and he was clutching it gently to try and stop the bleeding.

"Ow. That hurt," he said.

"And you tell me I'm clumsy." Sophie retorted.

"Hey, that wasn't my fault! I was going upstairs to call you, since I made a really quick lunch, but then Arina comes speeding down the stairs. I wanted to make sure she came out okay and didn't end up with an Elwin visit, like her not-so-careful guardian." he replied, and raised an eyebrow.

"Well good news. Instead of her, you're getting an Elwin visit." Sophie said, and went back to her room to make a quick house call.

Elwin arrived quickly, with a satchel slung around his shoulder. "What happened this time?" he asked. These kinds of thing happened pretty often, so he seemed unfazed by it by now.

"A minor crash. Down the stairs," Sophie told him, and gestured to Keefe, who had needed two Elwin visits in less than a month. 

"Good thing I came prepared." he got to work quickly, and soon Keefe's arm had stopped bleeding and any bruises that Sophie had seen had ceased. He bid them a short farewell and leaped away soon after that.

"Sophie?" Arina tugged on her arm.

"Yeah?"

"This really feels like a family to me." Arina replied.

(A/N): Hey! I'm so excited because You Instead is almost over! I've planned out two more chapters at max, and they're both going to be set in the future. I'm going to try to do my best to finish this story and then start either a short story from Novaline's point of view, or I'm going to start a completely new story, which isn't going to be related to KotLC at all. I hope you enjoy these last few chapters of You Instead!