Keeper of the Forbidden Cities {rewriting}

Seattle

Sophie scanned her surroundings as her friends glittered into view. She had light leaped to the base of the Space Needle, which was crowded with snow dusted people in heavy coats. She absentmindedly fiddled with her warm, white sweater. When the Council had approved their trip, they had bought the group human clothes. Keefe, of course, had requested a Batman t-shirts, which the Council had grudgingly bought. 

The Chihuly (A/N He's a glassblower from Seattle, look him up) Museum was in the distance, and people were crowded everywhere. Fitz pushed through the crowd, followed by the rest of the group. Dex took an obscurer out of his pocket and flipped a switch on it, turning it off.

"Okay, so I've got about ten million dollars--" Fitz started.

"What?"Sophie asked. "Why in the world would you bring ten million dollars to America? We're going to get mugged! And why would you bring ten million dollars here, period?"

"Relax, this is just ten lusters. Dex made this miniature ATM thing, so whenever we want money, we can change them out," Fitz explained.

"Anyways, what's that?" Biana asked, wrinkling her nose and pointing at the Space Needle.

"The Space Needle," Sophie said. "Was built for the 1962 World's Fair. It's 605 feet tall in total, has an elevator that travels to the very top in 43 seconds, contains a rotating restaurant, and--"

"We get it, Foster. The Space Needle's big and cool. Now stop showing off!" Keefe said, rolling his eyes. As the group began to head towards the entrance, he leaned over and muttered in her ear, "I like it when you ramble like that, though. It's cute."

Sophie blushed.

As the group entered the base, Tam began shake. 

"What's wrong?" Sophie asked.

"Tam's a little scared of heights," Linh explained, stifling a laugh. Sophie had to keep herself from doing the same. 

"Linh!" Tam exclaimed, starting to sweat. Keefe laughed out loud.

"This. Is. The. Best. Thing. EVER!" Keefe said excitedly. "You always act so cool, but now look at you! You actually have human emotions! Congrats, you should be proud!"

Tam gave Keefe an ice-cold glare. "Bet you won't be laughing when we get on the elevator."

And surely enough, by the time the group had exited the elevator, Keefe was standing still, eyes open with fear. Sophie giggled. "Batman's not so super now, is he?"

"Shut up," he muttered, clutching the rail on the viewing deck.

"Whoa, look at this view," Biana exclaimed in awe. "The humans may make a lot of stupid things for no reason, but all of these buildings look so cool!"

"They're called skyscrapers," Sophie said. "And for good reason, too. From up here they look like they could really touch the sky."

"They do, don't they?" Dex said, staring down fondly at the snowy city.

"Hey, guys, look at this!" Linh said, drawing the two from where they were huddled near the doors. She waved her hand and lifted the snow to form various shapes.

"Wow," Fitz breathed. Fitz had admitted to Sophie in one of their telepathy sessions that he had a slight crush on Linh, and while he tried to hide it, sometimes he just couldn't.

Keefe cautiously walked over to Sophie, who was looking out the window. Sophie snickered and said, "I still can't believe you're afraid of heights. You're always all 'I'm so tough, I'm so brave, I'm so cocky,' but you're actually visibly scared of something! Anyways, why didn't you tell us before?"