These Feelings Inside (How Deep Do They Go)

Chapter 11- If I Believe

Word count: ~3.2k words

New chapter <333. Getting to the ending stretch-ish, current estimation for chapter count is 17, but I haven't properly separated my outline into chapters, I'm just going off vibe

Warnings: One singular swear

Sophie felt like an idiot. A huge one. She just... left him there and ran away. On his birthday, no less. What was she supposed to do from here? She couldn't go back to his place, and she couldn't go home either because it would inevitably result in her running into him. Or maybe the same thing could happen to her parents.

His heart. She'd seen his heart. This whole time, she hadn't been to see hearts because she was still too human. So what... did that mean she was now officially more siren than she was human?

Her stomach grumbled. What was she going to eat? She didn't have her wallet to buy anything, and she was too afraid to go back in the water. The cave was away, and she was still on land. But if she went back in the water and went home, would she still be human?

Another sob was ripped out of her, she didn't know what to do.

"Foster, breathe, okay?"

Oh great, she should've known that somehow they'd follow her here.

"Don't wanna talk," she mumbled, drawing lines in the sand. She could feel their presence behind her, but she didn't turn to look at them.

"You'll be fine, it'll all turn out okay."

"Easy for you to say!" She snapped. "You're the one who gets to stay human and have a happy ending!"

"If the curse is transferred to a kiss..." a new voice said, and she jolted, her arms flailing as she turned around to see impossibly teal eyes.

Those eyes were the last thing she wanted to see right now, as her hands pushing against the ground she needed to stay back she needed to stay away—

"Shh, it's alright," Fitz whispered, kneeling down in the sand as he stayed at his position. "Breathe, Sophie."

"You shouldn't be here," she said, wanting to rub her eyes to clean off the tears but she didn't want sand in them. She settled for turning away.

"I'm not afraid of you."

She tensed. "You should be."

"Sophie, look at me." When she didn't respond, he added, "Please."

She turned without thinking. He was looking at her, and for a moment, she thought his heart flashed red-orange. It wasn't one of the emotions familiar to her, but she thought that maybe it'd be something like bravery.

"I will never be afraid of you."

She couldn't see his heart again. She felt like all the air had left her, she could only watch as he slowly crawled closer, but stopped about a half-metre away.

"You should be afraid of me. Mad that I almost ruined your life."

"I was mad," he said. "I still hope that this is just some nightmare, it's hard to believe this is real. I don't know what to think, but right now, I'm not mad. And I definitely wasn't mad at you supposedly ruining my life. I was mad at the secrets... and other stuff." He jerked a thumb in Keefe's direction, and she could see a bruise starting to form on their arm.

"I offered," they shrugged. "Didn't help that I revealed that it all started because I kissed you. The guy packs a mean punch, but the way. Almost as surprising as his—"

"Shut up, I didn't want to get my binder wet," he grumbled. "Sophie... What happened that day?"

She blinked. "What?"