Chapter Text
Sophie hadn’t meant to spy on them.
She was just passing through the Archives, trailing Cleo, who had decided now was the perfect time to knock Jenkins’ chalk off a shelf and pretend it was an artifact. Again.
But halfway through, she paused. Because in the reading nook at the edge of the map alcove, her parents were… being them.
Her dad was reading aloud—something old and poetic and probably in a language no one else remembered—and her mom was half-listening, half-smiling, her hand resting on his knee, a kind of casual intimacy that came with knowing someone in every possible dimension.
Flynn’s voice softened on a line.
Eve looked at him and said, “You’re such a sap.”
Flynn grinned. “You’re tethered to a sap. That makes you sap-adjacent.”
And then they kissed.
Sophie blinked. “Oh my god.”
She didn’t mean to say it out loud. But it slipped out, anyway. She turned on her heel and walked back the way she came.
Later, she found Cassandra in the lab, elbows-deep in a tangled magical circuit puzzle.
“I figured it out,” Sophie said, out of breath.
Cassandra looked up. “The runic logic matrix?”
“No.” Sophie leaned dramatically on the counter. “My parents. They’re the most romantic people ever. Like, it’s a little disgusting. But also—weirdly cute?”
Cassandra dropped the glowing orb she was holding. “YES. FINALLY. OH MY GOD.”
Sophie barely dodged being hugged.
“You’ve seen the memory of the Tethering ceremony, right? The look he gives her when she says ‘wherever the story takes us’—”
“I’ve seen it like eight times. He kissed her at the end!”
“RIGHT?!” Cassandra flailed, almost tripping over a stool. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for someone to flail with?! That was not in rehearsal!”
From the hallway, Ezekiel’s voice rang out: “Oh no. What did I just walk into?”
“Love,” Sophie and Cassandra said at the same time before laughing at the unison of their response.
“You’ve switched sides!” he shouted. “Traitor!”
Sophie grinned and leaned closer to Cassie, eyes sparkling. “They’re ridiculous. They’re adorable. And they have no idea how obvious it is.”
Cassandra whispered, “I think they do. I think they do it on purpose.”
.