I was homesick.

I didn't know what I missed about the Forbidden Cities. I didn't even know if I could call it homesickness; it wasn't my home. It never was. My home was here, in the Lost Cities.

So why did I feel so homesick?

The Neverseen was defeated, my abilities were under control, and I had the chance to live a peaceful life. I had everything I'd ever wanted.

Maybe that was why. Maybe because life was boring now, and if I just went back to where it all started, life would be full of meaning and adventure again.

But that probably wasn't it. I definitely did not want to face the Neverseen ever again.

I sighed and walked over to my closet, having a sudden urge to look at something from the forbidden cities. Aside from Ella, it was the only connection I had left with the human world. I last used it a few years ago, I didn't even know if I had it anymore.

I pushed past racks of frilly gowns, most of which I had never worn, and decorated tunics that would have made heads turn if I wore them in the Forbidden Cities. The back of my closet was dark, dusty, and unfamiliar. As you can probably tell, i did not spend much time in my closet.

At the very back, laying forgotten on the wooden floor, was a backpack. The legendary backpack that I left the forbidden cities with, travelled to the blackswan's hideout with, It was there, laying at the top of one of the cardboard boxes as if waiting for me to find it.

I zipped it open and peered into it. I had put it there, inside this bag, along with all my human clothes. It was too dark to see clearly in my closet, so I walked out and plopped onto my bed.

The bag contained my old, torn, human clothes. Twelve-year-old Sophie had a terrible fashion sense. But I wasn't looking for the clothes, I was looking for my iPod. Dex had fixed it for me, but after the big fights with the Neverseen and everything, I had stashed it in here.

I had to dig through clumps of t-shirts and leggings before I finally found it. There it was. The familiar little rectangle that had accompanied me throughout my human life. I eagerly snatched it out of the bag and plugged in the earphones.

I turned it on and swiped through playlists after playlists until I found one of my favorite songs. The familiar tune started blasting in my ears. I closed my eyes and sunk down into my bed, bobbing my head along to the heavenly music.

♡ 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚙 ♡

"Foster?"

Something interrupted the music.

"Foster? Helllllooooooooo?"

I slowly pulled the earphones out of my ears and reluctantly opened my eyes, and found Keefe's face inches away from mine, staring at me curiously. I jumped back and may or may not have let out a little yelp.

"Woah, didn't know I scared you that much," He chuckled, making himself a little too comfortable on my bed. I pressed pause on the music and glared at him.

"You don't scare me at all. I was just surprised to see you here," I told him, shifting closer to him.

"And why is that? Are friends not allowed to see each other?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, I just didn't know you were here."

Keefe took the earphones from my hands and examined them. "Oh, are these the human phone things? What were they called, air-phones?" He asked excitedly, slipping one of the buds into his left ear.

"Earphones, but close enough. I was listening to music, wanna hear some?" I asked, grabbing the other earbud and putting it into my right ear.

He nodded eagerly.

I turned on the iPod, and pressed play on my favorite song.

(You can imagine any song you want, but I'm using Way Back Home by SHAUN)

Remember when I told you
No matter where I go
I'll never leave your side

We stayed there for the entire song, silent for a few minutes, and just enjoying the music. Finally, the song ended.

"Wow, so that's... human music?" He said.

I nodded, remembering that Elvin music was quite different.

"It's... really nice. That dude is really good at songing!" He exclaimed.

I giggled. "Singing, Keefe. It's called singing."

He rolled his eyes. "Well, it was close enough."

For some reason, the song was on repeat; not that I was complaining. It was a good song. The song seemed to whisk me back in time to when I was twelve years old again, before I even knew that elves existed. Life was so simple back then.

I wished I had somebody who would sing this song to me. It sounded stupid, I know, but I wished there was somebody who loved me like the lyrics of the song, someone who wouldn't let death separate us, someone who I could always find my way back home to.

But I never would, and that was the harsh reality.

"So, why are you suddenly listening to this?" Keefe asked softly, after the fourth repetition of the song ended.

"I don't know. I mean, I feel like I'm..." I stopped myself before I could admit that I was homesick. Would he think that I still thought of the Forbidden Cities as home? I didn't. And I didn't want him to think I did.

But this was Keefe. If I couldn't tell him, I couldn't tell anyone.

"It's like I'm homesick, even though what I'm missing isn't home. Does that make any sense?" I marvelled.

"I miss the Forbidden Cities, though I'm not sure what about it I miss," I admitted.

Keefe nodded, apparently deep in thought. The fifth repetition of the song started.

Finally, after the song ended, Keefe stood up from my bed.

"Then why don't we do something about that homesickness?  Let's go to the forbidden cities!" He exclaimed, excitedly pumping his fist into the air.

The thought cheered me up for about two seconds. Then I sighed. "We can't, Keefe. We don't have a leaping crystal or anything."

Keefe smirked. "The Black Swan gave each of us a leaping crystal to the lost cities, remember?"

"So?'

"We can use them!"

"Mr Forkle said they were for emergencies."

"Yeah, and this is an emergency. C'mon, it'll be fun!" He said eagerly, already reaching into his cloak for the crystal.

My sadness was not an emergency. I wanted to say no. Wasn't it against the council's rules?

Keefe held his crystal up to the light.

Unfortunately, I wasn't one to follow the council's orders.

A grin spreading across my face, I stood up from my bed and stepped into the light.

When I opened my eyes again, we were in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. Humans ambled around the mall. There were a few groups of teenagers, a family of 4, some couples and even some elderly people.

No one had seen me and Keefe arrive, thankfully. However, our strange attire earned us a few stares and gasps.

"Keefe, we need human clothes! Regular humans don't usually dress in tunics and boots," I hissed urgently, pointing towards the nearest clothing store.

"Okay, let's go!" He started speed-walking towards it. I quickly followed behind him.

Once we reached the clothing store, we quickly bought and changed into normal-looking clothes.

"So, Foster, where to first?"

I shrugged. "I kinda wanna get a Starbucks."

"A what?"

"They sell drinks and stuff, c'mon!" I had spotted a Starbucks earlier when we first arrived. I tugged his hand and started walking towards the Starbucks shop, located near the clothing store.

"But what kind of name is that? Are their drinks made of stars? I didn't even know humans knew how to catch stars..." He rambled. I grinned but ignored him, too excited to speak.

When we reached it, I was delighted to find that there was close to no line! There were only two teenage workers in the shop; two teenage girls that looked around my age.

I immediately walked up to them and ordered my usual- or what my usual had been three years ago.

"Hi! Can I please get a caramel frappucino?" I asked politely. The teenage girl with long black hair and dark brown eyes nodded, smiling. The other teenage girl, with short blonde hair and light blue eyes, was busy staring at Keefe to even notice me.

For some reason, I felt angry.

I pushed that feeling aside; today wasn't the day to be mad.

"Umm," Keefe muttered, looking slightly uncomfortable. He leaned over and whispered to me, "What do I order?"

I giggled. "Oops, sorry. I forgot you've never tried it before. Well, you see the menu up there?" I instructed, pointing at the giant menu sign hanging above the cashiers.

"Pick anything from there. I would recommend the caramel frappuccino though, that's my favorite!"

Keefe nodded and looked towards the dark-haired cashier. "I would like that, too, please!"

The cashier smiled warmly at us. "Okay!" She turned away to start making coffee.

"Ava, stop! I'll do it!" The blonde-haired girl screeched as Ava's hands scraped two cups. The blonde girl paused and composed herself before continuing.

"I'll get his order." She spat, nodding towards Keefe. "You can get her order." She turned and glared at me, wrinkling her nose.

Ava rolled her eyes but only grabbed one cup, while the blonde girl grabbed the other. With the cup still in her hand, the blonde girl turned back to Keefe.

"So, you from around here?" She flirted. She said it in such a sickly-sweet voice that I wanted to puke all over her.

'Uh, no. We're just visiting," Keefe told her, somehow managing to look even more uncomfortable. He shuffled closer to me.

"Ah, well, how long are you visiting for?" The blonde girl continued conversationally , pouring some coffee into the cup.

Ava glared at her over her shoulder. "Clara! You're not supposed to flirt with customers, can't you see that they're..."

"Oh, shut up already," Clara rudely interrupted.

I was suddenly hyper-aware of how pretty Clara was. Almond-shaped eyes in a shade similar to Keefe's, full red lips, long lush eyebrows, and perfectly styled hair...

I knew elves were 'more attractive than humans or whatever, but I couldn't help feeling jealous. Why did a human have light blue eyes, and I didn't? And she was really, really pretty. She could be a model...

Clara began putting whipped cream on top of the coffee, and so did Ava. While Ava was practically fuming, and Clara kept staring at Keefe.

I stepped closer to Keefe. I didn't know where this overprotectiveness was coming from, but I was badly tempted to hug Keefe and give Clara a sucker punch in her obnoxious little face.

The next few seconds passed in awkward silence. Keefe kept shooting me uncomfortable glances whenever Clara stared at him for too long as if pleading for help. I kept my eyes trained on the floor, but each time Keefe looked at me, I could feel Clara's burning stare transition from him to me. Every time she did so, she would let out an annoyed little "humph" and turn away.

"Here's your drink!" Ava exclaimed, handing my drink to me. I thanked her and handed her some cash.

Clara was still taking her own sweet time getting a napkin. Why she needed a napkin? I didn't know until I saw her grab a marker and scribble something on it. She handed the napkin and the drink to Keefe with a smirk.

She did not just do that.

"Enjoy!" She said, somehow making that one word sound seductive. Keefe nodded awkwardly and speed-walked out of the store, me trailing behind him.

I wanted to throw a hundred ninja stars at Clara and break her mind. Did she seriously just give her number to Keefe? Obviously, Keefe and I weren't dating or anything, but any human that saw us would've assumed we were. Oh, the nerve of that stupid little-

Sorry. Off-track.

Once we were a safe distance away from the store, Keefe came to an abrupt halt next to a dustbin. He threw the napkin in, without even looking at the numbers written on it before doing so. "Where to now, Foster?"

I bit my lip, thinking for a moment.

"Good question. Let's go to a park!" I answered. We quickly took a map of the city from the mall's information counter and started walking to the nearest park.

As we walked, Keefe took the first sip of his drink. His eyes sparkled and he looked excitedly at me, an adorable smile making its way across his face.

"Woah! I... Woah!" He stammered, taking another sip. He seemed to be at a loss for words. "This stuff's really good!" Another sip. "I can't believe you kept this a secret from me!"

I giggled. "Yeah, I know! It's delicious. And no, I didn't keep it a secret from you, you just never asked about human foods."

"I did, actually! Remember E.L. Fudges? Those are human foods. You could've brought it up! Anyway, thanks. This is amazing!" He took a big slurp of it.

"No problem. Thanks for coming here with me, by the way. I... really appreciate it."

"Yeah, well, I'm glad we came. I hope we come back!"

"Mm-hmm! Though we'll probably have to bring the others with us, too."

"Well, sure, but that doesn't mean we can't come here ourselves. Just the two of us. Alone."

I felt my cheeks heat up. Obviously, with such a big friend group, there was nothing wrong with hanging out with just Keefe. But the way he said it, it almost felt like...

Nevermind.

"That sounds... nice," I admitted.

We had just reached the middle of the park. It was beautiful; there seemed to be endless fields of bright, colorful flowers surrounding us. Surprisingly, there was no one else there. It was almost like the universe wanted us to be alone together...

There was a wooden bench next to an especially vibrant flower field. I walked over and sat down, patting the empty space on the bench next to me, signaling for Keefe to sit.

We sat close to each other, so close that our legs brushed against each other's. There was some space next to me on the other side of the bench, I could shift so that we wouldn't be so close...

But I didn't want to.

I didn't want to bring the topic up, but the annoying voice at the back of my mind kept pestering and nagging at me to do it.

Sophie! Don't you want to know?

I bit my lip, telling the voice to shut up.

"Hey, are you okay? You usually only bite your lip when you're nervous," Keefe asked me, taking another gulp of his frappuccino.

My heart melted. Did he pay that much attention to me? And then I mentally slapped myself. No, idiot, he has a photographic memory. I gave him a fake smile; I smiled so wide my cheekbones ached.

"No, it's fine," I lied, taking a sip of my own drink. Everything was definitely not fine. Every cell in my body wanted to know the answer to my question, but what would he think if I asked him?

"So, this is what you missed from here, huh? Coffee?" Keefe chuckled.

I frowned. "Well, yeah, I guess. I missed coffee. But I think why I felt so homesick was the memories."

Keefe cocked his head to the side curiously. "Memories?"

I blushed. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, because there was no way he'd understand. It was stupid, anyway. But Keefe was a master of prying, so there wasn't any going back now.

"It's just... I miss my old life. I miss my old family, my cat, my simplistic lifestyle, and I don't even know why. I have everything I want in the Lost Cities, and I wasn't even happy when I lived here, but I still miss this place."

Keefe didn't reply.

"I'm really, really happy in the Lost Cities, but I still miss living here. Or, well, I miss the happy memories of living here. Don't get me wrong, I would never want to live here again, now that I have Grady and Edaline and so many more important people to me in the Lost Cities, but I guess I miss the happy memories."

And it was true. I missed the old movie nights my old family used to have, the off-key karaoke nights, the family dinners, petting Marty, and even quarreling with Amy. I missed everything.

"I kind of get what you mean. I miss the time before the whole thing with my mom and the Neverseen. I even miss when I was a kid, when I still followed my dad's rules and orders. It wasn't fun, but itwas so simple back then; I just had to follow what my parents said, and I would be fine."

He paused for a moment, and I took the oppurtunity to let his words sink in.

"But I'm glad I'm not that kid anymore. I'm glad I can be myself and not bow down to my stupid dad. Heck, I'm even glad I know the truth about my mom. I'm glad things changed. I mean, think about it, Sophie. If you hadn't moved to the Lost Cities, we would never have met. If I hadn't stoped following my dad's rules, I wouldn't be the me that I am now. Sometimes, things have to change to get better."

I sighed, mindlessly drumming my fingers on my now-empty cup. Keefe was staring intensely staring at me, his ice-blue eyes fierce. He was right...

And he had called me Sophie.

And then I blurted the question that I had been resisting asking.

"Do you think she's attractive?"

Keefe's serious expression twisted into one of confusion. "Umm, who?"

Dammit, Sophie. Why'd you have to ask?

My voice was shaky as I replied, "Clara. The girl just now."

"Nope," He answered, without missing a beat. His face flushed red as he stammered, "Well, actually she's pretty good-looking for human standards... if that's what you meant. I'm not trying to be rude or anything. But she's just not attractive to me. Why?"

Our faces were both tomato-red. Say you just wanted to see another elf's reaction to that kind of question, or something like that. Anything but the truth.

Naturally, I told him the truth.

"I just wanted to know," I confessed.

"And why would you want to know that?" He asked me. The way he said it almost made it sound like a challenge, daring me to answer his question.

"I..." I hesitated. Should I tell him the truth? How would he react?

Would he still want to be friends?

I liked being his friend, and I didn't want to ruin our friendship. But it was worth a shot, wasn't it? Some things had to change. Otherwise, life would never get better.

"She was flirting with you. And I, umm, was a little jealous. Because I like you. A lot. Like, a lot a lot." I mumbled. I lowered my head and focused on staring at my empty cup instead of into Keefe's eyes.

"And I know you probably don't feel the same way about me, and that's okay, but can we still be friends? Please? Because I..."

My mouth snapped shut when I felt his gentle fingers lift my head up. My eyes darted straight to his.

"Yeah, I was sick of being friends, anyway," He told me, his lips twisting into a playful smirk.

I felt my heart shatter. Grief overwhelmed me, and I wanted to punch him, but also kiss him, and punch him again. Maybe I could just do the punching, since he obviously wouldn't kiss me back?

"I was hoping we could be more than friends. And, for the record, I like you a lot, too," He continued. His smirk disappeared as he leaned forward...

And kissed me.

Things were always going to change, for better or for worse, and there was nothing I could do to change that.

I missed my human family and life, but I was glad I moved. I had so much more now. And sometimes, things had to change in order to get better. There's rain before every rainbow, right?

I kissed him back.

Because I would always miss those happy