ɢʀᴇᴇɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ

t h e r e t u r n

Sophie

Great.

Now she and Keefe were in an awkward place.

Sophie was pretty sure Keefe thought she didn't know he was unmatchable. But he wasn't saying anything.

Then again, neither was she.

They'd gone back outside in an awkward silence, all too ready to make it back to the large group of people.

"Are you all right now, Keefe?" Alden asked, placing a hand on Keefe's shoulder.

Keefe nodded mutely, avoiding Sophie's gaze.

"Good," Mr. Forkle said, walking over. "You'll need to be." He held out an imparter. "Your father would like to talk to you."

~~~

Keefe

Keefe felt his jaw drop. "B-but--I thought he was--"

The imparter crackled with static, and then there it was--Lord Cassius's voice.

"Well, well. Glad to see my son is worried about me."

~~~

Dex

Dex saw Keefe's mouth fall open for the second time.

"Oh, don't look so surprised," Lord Cassius snapped. "Is it so horrible for me to want to see my son?"

"It's not horrible, it's weird," Dex muttered.

"What was that, Dexter?" Lord Cassius asked sharply.

"Nothing," Dex snapped back.

"Okay," Keefe said, finding his voice again. "Where are you?!"

"Why does it concern you so?" Cassius asked dryly, flicking an invisible piece of lint off his tunic.

"Uh, they all just told me you were missing," Keefe told him. "And now you're back? Why are you even hailing?" He gripped the sides of his head and groaned. "I'm so confused."

Sophie moved closer and took his hand, and he shot her a grateful look. Once upon a time, Dex would have felt a jolt of jealousy at seeing this exchange--but things were different now. And that was fine.

Sophie was the one who didn't know what cute was.

"Oh, how sweet," Lord Cassius drawled, jerking Dex back to the present. "The little moonlark comforting my son. Have you two become a thing yet?"

Sophie and Keefe jumped about ten feet apart. Dex saw Fitz's jaw clench, but no one said anything.

Actually, Dex wish someone would say something. The silence that followed was incredibly awkward.

"Well, I assume that means something happened between the moonlark and Vacker boy," Cassius murmured. "But we're getting rather off track, aren't we?"

"Um, yeah, we really are," Keefe snapped, his cheeks still red. "You didn't answer my question! Where are you, and why did you call?!"

Dex was actually curious himself. Lord Cassius had only hailed a moment before Keefe and Sophie had returned, so he hadn't told them anything.

"If you are so concerned," Lord Cassius said, "take a look for yourself."

The scene on the imparter's screen shifted--Lord Cassius must have moved it--and this time, not only Keefe's jaw dropped.

Dex gaped. That--how was that--what?

"Hello, son," a sickeningly familiar voice purred.

Keefe opened his mouth, and then shut it.

Finally, he managed to choke out, "Mom?"