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sophianaweek2022 · 2 years

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sophiana week day 3: au

notes: coffee shop au! Fair warning, this is 1.8K and I wrote it all today, it's late, and I dove too far into Sophie's pov. Speaking of which, this is the wildest I've gone with Sophie's characterization yet, but I think they deserve it. Basically this feels like crack and if I was sane I wouldn't be posting it this late and this unedited. Mild cursing (like. one word literally), graphic depictions of caffeine, and references that give me genuine pain.

@sophianaweek2022

Later on, there was much Sophie would have liked to say about the moment they met their girlfriend. Like that they bantered wittily over the counter as Sophie blushed and then scrawled their number on the mystery woman’s coffee cup, like in one of their favorite fanfics. Or even just that the moment Biana had walked in, Sophie had thought, oh shit, she’s the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen—and they would have, too, had they been in any normal state of mind. They would’ve settled for a typical transaction, the hint of a spark, and nothing more.

In reality it was the week before finals, and Sophie had pulled an all-nighter half on accident. In reality, they had drank several cups of coffee already without managing to gain any semblance of consciousness, and their coworker only reluctantly trusted them with the checkout counter in their current state because the coffee shop was severely understaffed and he needed to take his dog to the vet before she had another unfortunate accident.

The line was long. Well, of course it was, it was eight in the morning (a truly horrific hour, if you asked Sophie) but they were doing their best to make sense of the universe in manageable pieces. They’d flubbed two orders in the last ten minutes but had only been berated by a customer once this shift so far. That was a win, right?

There weren’t many spare moments, but Sophie made use of all the ones they got. They weren’t being paid enough to not study for finals on their phone, which rested carefully so it seemed like they were looking at the register screen instead of slacking off. Or they had been studying. Once the words had begun to swim in their brain, they’d switched to devouring Destiel oneshots on AO3.

Which, when put together, amounted to the fact that when Biana Vacker stepped up to the counter, radiant despite the early hour—hair pulled into an elegant twist, eyeliner sharp and lacy white crop top hugging her glowing sepia brown skin—Sophie blinked at her blearily and said, “How can I help you today?”.

(which—if they were in a certain kind of soulmates au—would have been exceptionally cruel of them, yet as it was, that was a shockingly coherent sentence given their sleep-deprived brain)

Biana ordered. Jasmine tea, no sugar, a hint of milk.

It took Sophie an exceptionally long moment to remember how to make tea. And what tea was. But once they did, it was a simple order, only complicated by the press of aggravated customers’ eyes on their back. They popped the lid on and handed it out.

Which, by all rights, should have been simple. Easy. By all rights, it should have been a forgettable transaction and nearly was.

But Sophie hadn’t put the lid on right. In their esteemed opinion, that was an easy mistake to make. The lids never wanted to fit. This one certainly didn’t.

Sophie’s hand slipped. The tea went all over Biana’s front, rich brown against that lacy, white top.

As it turned out, spilling a drink on a customer was an even better adrenaline rush than, well, actual coffee. Right when Sophie really, really doesn’t want to feel awake for this.

Several curses swelled beneath their tongue. A few even escaped. “I’m so sorry,” Sophie started, words fast becoming a ramble, “um, I can help you clean it off? If you want? And… oh, f—fudge, long line, I don’t think I can leave right now?”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” Biana said. Her voice was tight, but plenty of customers would have bitten Sophie’s head off by now, so they were counting that as a win.

There had never been a simultaneously worse and better moment for their coworker Keefe to walk in. He took one look around the coffee shop and stifled a laugh rather poorly. “You go. I’ll handle this,” he says, chuckling. “I can’t take you anywhere, can I, Soph?”

Sophie grumbled something out about how they worked here before Keefe and turns back to Biana. “I’ll take you to the back,” they said. “Unless… please tell me that didn’t burn you? Wait, no, it was hot, you need a hospital—”

“It didn’t,” Biana said, voice warming slowly, taking on a bit of a chuckle. “I watched you make my drink. You, uh, stuck the teabag in without ever heating up the water.”

“I did what.” Sophie took out their key and opened the back room’s door, ushering Biana into the small space. They sighed, shoving their hair behind their ears, and handed Biana a towel. It was getting long again, nearly reaching their chin. They’d have to cut it soon. “I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know whether your shirt is salvageable. Nothing ever washes out of white.”

Biana pursed her lips together. “I have to get to class in, like, twenty minutes. I don’t think I can run home.”

Sophie pressed the heels of their hands against their eyes. “Again, I am so very sorry. I never should’ve come into work today. Uh, do you mind if I make myself a quick coffee? I’m not thinking straight.”

“Now that you’ve spilled cold tea down my front, we’re practically bosom buddies,” Biana said drily. “Go ahead. This is already unprofessional enough as it is.”

“You’re not wrong, but hey.” Sophie fumbled for the coffee grounds and throws several scoops of them into the machine, then turns it on. They set an excessively large cup beneath the dispenser, wait for it to fill roughly halfway, and then top it off with four shots of espresso and a Red Bull.

With sheer horror in her eyes, Biana stared at them. “I feel like I’m legally obligated to stop you from drinking that.”

“It’s okay.” Sophie waved their hand in the air, taking their first long drink. “Not so bad. Not my worst. It’s the only thing that keeps me moving anymore.”

“How are you even alive?” As Sophie’s world slowly crystallized, the haze of sleep lifting and instead leaving an uncontrollable jitter in its place, they really took in Biana for the first time. That was probably a mistake. She was beautiful in a way not many people were, reminding them of one of their favorite passages from The Secret Histories, all sharp edges and hard lines. She was terrible as she was lovely, yet right now softness lay in the set of her features. “Do you have anything I could maybe wear? Just for now?”

Sophie glanced at the lost and found, yet just as quickly ruled that out. There was never anything decent in there if there was much at all. There were extra uniform shirts, but they’d rather not aggravate their boss yet more (Lady Galvin legitimately had it out for them), so… that left their spare sweatshirt in their bag. Which was, thankfully, clean.

They yanked it out. “Does this work?”

As far as their sweatshirts went, it was one of their better ones. Not that old, not stained. The only downside was that it was a My Chemical Romance **sweatshirt, which revealed a whole lot more about them than they’d prefer to.

Biana took it, the black fabric bunching together in her hand. “Yeah, that’ll work, I think. You like My Chemical Romance?”

“Um, yeah,” Sophie said. “That would be why I have the sweatshirt.”

“Right.” Biana blushed, though it was more like only the very tips of her ears turning a very bright red. “Um. I’m probably just gonna change real quick, so could you turn around?”

“Yep. Definitely.” Sophie turned around, trying not to listen to the rustle of fabric behind them, trying to block out the sound of their inner lesbian shrieking and screaming. They chugged their coffee concoction. It was far too early for this.

Finally, Biana said, “Alright, all finished.”

Sophie turned back around, mustering something near a smile. They were far too gay for this. Also too tired.

While the sweatshirt was big enough to swallow them, it fit Biana perfectly, snug around her arms and the curve of her stomach. On her, it seemed incongruous, until she pulled out her hairtie and let her curls tumble down to brush around her shoulders.

“You—you look great.” Sophie let out a quiet, awkward laugh, and opened the door. “Again, I just want to apologize for, you know, spilling tea all over you. You’ve been way more understanding than you had to be.”

“Nah.” Biana shrugged, stepping back out into the shop. “I was kinda harsh at first. And everyone has bad days, I’m not about to make yours worse. It’s what anyone would do.”

“Last shift,” Sophie said, “I had a customer try and get me fired because I tried to tell her that if she wanted a vegan drink she should get a milk other than cow’s milk. She kept insisting cow’s milk was in fact vegan.”

“What most people would do,” Biana amended with a laugh. “Please tell me she got what she deserved.”

“If only. But sadly, my boss hates me, so she gave the customer a coupon and quite possibly an award certificate.” Sophie chuckled at their own joke, feeling oddly self-conscious. Well, maybe not oddly.

Biana’s smile spread slow and slight across her face, softening the lines of her cheekbones and the angles of her brows, before she glanced down at her watch and that happiness fell a shade. “Oh, shoot. I gotta run.” She paused. “Do you have your phone on you?”

“Here.” Sophie handed her their cell, pressing their thumb against the home button to unlock it. “Please don’t install malware or anything. My cousin just finished scrubbing it clean of the last virus. Wait, no, I’d actually rather you do that than look at my search history. So definitely don’t do either.”

“You’re a very suspicious person, Sophie Foster,” Biana said. She passed back their phone, now with a new contact labeled tea attack victim. “There. That way you can reach me, and, um, I can return your sweatshirt sometime…?” She said it like a question, and maybe it was, with all the layers of meaning it held.

“Yeah, no, that sounds good. Great.” Sophie bounced on their toes, their whole body rocking with the motion. They resisted the urge to go for their eyelashes. “I mean, I’d love that.”

“Then it’s a date.” Biana turned to go with a little wave and a wink, a giddy bounce in her step that hadn’t been there before. The door shut behind her with its usual cheery chime.

Sophie stared at the door blankly. Their brain felt like it had just been put through a meat grinder. “What,” they said slowly, “just happened.”

Running on no sleep and stress, as it turned out, occasionally worked in their favor.

#ah coffee shop aus #sophie being a flustered sleep deprived mess is a little too relatable thank you very much #but overall the whole tone of this fic was adorable and doesn't read like crack at all #one of my favorites for sure #sophiana week 2022

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sophianaweek2022 · 2 years

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Waiting for the Stars to Come Out

Word count: 7.0k. Yes, I know I got a little carried away.

TW: only mentioned physical violence, only mentioned homicide, subtle mention of life being pointless that can be read as suicidal (all 3 prev treated as /hj to /j), not-car-but-similar-idea crash injuries, infanticide laws, anti-cyborg laws that can be read as ableist esp in the original canon, misgendering, food, lmk if i've missed anything.

I know I like to be extra cautious with tws, so in my opinion, this isn't overall bad, my characters just talk like me and my friends do and apparently we talk about death a lot.

A couple notes before we get started

The title is song lyrics from "Projection of Stars" by Prishaa (@poppinspop) and you should all go listen to it. Yes, I'm aware I already put that on my art but gah the song is just so pretty

This AU is directly borrowed from the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, although I ignore the plot and just take the world. Hopefully it makes sense to someone who hasn't read it before. It's a sci-fi universe where humans colonized Luna, and then Lunars evolved to manipulate people using bioelectricity and then proceeded to have a dictatorial monarchy and some messed-up laws. Feel free to ask if you have any questions, worldbuilding or otherwise

This technically covers sun & moon, AU, and future prompts of @sophianaweek2022, although I doubt this is the future the prompt meant.

After reading, before you go, let me know if you think a fedex fic in this universe that's teased in this fic would be interesting to read

xe/xem Dex, he/him Sophie, ae/aer Biana, it/its Keefe

Taglist (lmk if you want to be added/removed!): @stellar-lune @gaslight-gaetkeep-gayboss @kamikothe1and0lny @nyxpixels @florida-fruity-frog @crystallinewalker @uni-seahorse-572 @solreefs @never-mourn-the-good @rusted-phone-calls @when-wax-wings-melt @cotyledon-tomentosa @good-old-fashioned-lover-boy7 @dexter-dizzknees @abubble125 @cherryberrybitch

On Ao3 or below the cut!

“What are you doing now?” Sophie asks, leaning over Dex’s shoulder as xe works on his broken portscreen. It’s a personal device for everything you can possibly imagine under the sun. And he needs it for everything under the sun.

Dex rolls xor eyes. “The exact same thing I was five minutes ago. Fixing your cracked screen. Because you dropped it. Again. Just like the last time you asked.”

Sophie sighs and starts pacing behind xem, trying not to think about the fact that his math test score is waiting and he has no way to find out if he failed.

He still watches Dex’s every move, who turns up xor music even louder just to spite him.

Xe’s almost certainly listening to one of his playlists. He’s the one that got xem into second-era music, after all.

Although, it was xor idea to build a gadget thingy that transmits the music directly into the brain so that you can still hear ambient noise.

When Dex gets it patented, Sophie expects a cut of the profit.

A few long minutes later, he’s decided to make himself useful by reorganizing the various current half-complete projects that are currently in a pile on a shelf. Dex probably has a system but who needs one of those when you have sticky notes?

He hears a thud coming from the front of the booth and that’s a pretty good sign that they have a new customer.

Naturally, he pops his head out to see who’s here.

And, stars above, it’s enough to make his brain stop in its tracks as his heart flutters out of his chest.

First, he notices the boy, muscular and tall, with dark hair with pink highlights and bright teal eyes like pieces of sea glass setting some sort of gadget Sophie doesn’t recognize in front of Dex.

Stars, I’m gay.

And then there’s the girl standing next to him with the same dark hair and warm tawny skin as the boy, and drawing more of Sophie’s attention than he’d like to admit to aer low-cut dress.

Stars above, I really am so gay.

The boy is smiling softly, revealing a gorgeous second era movie-star grin, and as Dex says, “Hi, how can I help you today?” Sophie knows xe’s having the same thoughts he is.

That monotone voice means one thing. That Dex’s brain has completely shut down and is in survival mode. It’s pretty obvious when you’ve known xem for this long.

“It won’t turn on,” the boy replies. He has a distinct accent Sophie can’t quite place. It’s kind of British but…crisper, somehow.

Dex has already begun disassembling the gadget, saying, “Aces, you Lunars always make things more difficult than they have to be.” The screeching sound of turning it around on the metal workbench echoes through the market. “Look at that wiring. It’s an absolute rats’ nest.”

That’s what a Lunar accent sounds like? Stars, I should go up there just to listen to them.

Luna’s newfound independence from the dictatorial Queen Gisela has been all over the recent news, but if they hadn’t neglected to mention that fact, maybe less Earthens would be against the new laws allowing immigration.

“Because I was the one that built it.”

More screeching. “Never said you did. But your people need to figure out how to build things without redundancies. I have standards. The bar is on the floor, and yet people seem to enjoy digging. What do half of these wires do anyway? Nothing?”

Without waiting for an answer, Dex starts ripping wires out.

“Stars, I hope this isn’t a software problem,” xe mutters.

“Why? Do we not indent our lines enough for you?”

Dex considers for a moment. “I mean, yeah, but also you people use a lot of useless, archaic code and, surprise, surprise, I don’t enjoy trudging through all of that.”

“Hm I wonder if it’s archaic because it’s been preserved from when Luna first got its independence.”

Sophie hears another thud, the familiar sound of Dex’s palm hitting the corner of a metallic object.

“Hey, just because you have an issue with Lunars does not mean you are allowed to destroy our stuff.”

“I’m the mechanic here, not you. I know what I’m doing.”

Sophie makes eye contact with the girl standing silently beside our newest client and they almost have a telepathic conversation to go and talk to each other elsewhere while these two fools argue with each other in a desperate attempt to ignore the fact they’re both into each other.

Sophie guides her to some nearby picnic tables that are always empty for whatever reason.

She says, in such a beautiful Lunar accent, “Hi, I’m Biana, I use ae/aer pronouns and I will fight you if you have a problem with that. I apologize in advance if Fitz accidentally kills your friend back there.”

Sophie laughs, updating his mental pronoun dictionary. “Hi, I’m Sophie and I use he/him pronouns,” mimicking Biana’s introduction. “Xe is technically my cousin, and I apologize in advance if Dex kills your friend.”

“He’s more of a brother than a friend but it’s fine. I have to at least sort of tolerate him dragging me around Earth.”

Biana’s gaze flickers over to their booth. “Weird question.”

“I can’t promise I’ll have an answer but ask away.”

“Is xe gay?”

Sophie weighs the pros and cons, before realizing that Dex really does not care who knows the answer to that question. “If you’re asking what I think you’re asking, Dex is barely keeping the drool in xor mouth. So, yeah, just a little bit.”

Biana snort laughs. And Sophie can’t keep himself from thinking about how cute it is. “I knew it. That level of rubbish is not straight.”

Sophie smiles. “I’ve got a weird question for you.”

“Ask away.”

“What about Fitz? Is he gay too?”

“Well…”

“That sounds interesting.”

“Please don’t tell him or anyone else any of this.”

“I’m not sure why you trust me that much already but okay.”

“Me neither. Maybe it’s because I’m a malfunctioning bi lesbian. But to answer your question, as far as he knows, he’s straight. But, as his sistaer, I can pretty confidently say that he’s m-spec. I can’t say which label under that, but there’s been some super obvious signs of mlm-ness. Like how he’s flirting with Dex.”

“That’s him flirting?”

Biana smiles. “Yeah, he is really bad at it. Guess he’s just gonna smile at people to make them fall at his feet instead of having social skills.”

Sophie snorts in a very unladylike manner. “Sounds like they’re more similar than either would want to admit. Except Dex likes hiding from people instead of having social skills.”

“Aw, it’s too bad Fitz is going to block all of this in a maximum of forty-eight hours. He has a terrible memory when it comes to meeting people.”

“Dex will either block all of this before Fitz does or internalize it forever. There is no in between.”

Biana laughs.

“You laugh but it’s true. Xe’s so competitive it’s not even funny. Whenever we’re playing Kahoot in class xe just has to win. It’s absolutely hilarious to watch.”

“Forgive me for being an idiot, but what is a Kahoot?” Biana asks in aer beautiful Lunar accent.

“It’s a second-era multiple choice review game with a point system and a leaderboard. It’s recently gained a bunch more popularity for reasons Dex will have to explain to you. Don’t get xem rambling about anything. It may never stop.”

“Sounds like Lunar government propaganda,” Biana jokes before becoming serious. “Stars, living under a dictator was so wonderful.”

“Gisela was a bitch.” Sophie doesn’t know the entire extent of it, but what he’s gleaned from the news is more than what he ever needed to know.

“Cheers, I’ll drink to that.”

“It’s not even noon yet.”

Biana makes eye contact with Sophie as ae knocks back a swig from a water bottle. “Time zones.”

Sophie pauses. “Does Luna have time zones or how does that work when a day is a month long?”

“Don’t mind me having a whole explanation for this. The domes are all programmed with pseudo-sunlight to give the illusion of a day/night cycle. But there’s no comparing real sunlight with the fake stuff they try to use. I’ve never been to the outer sectors, but I think all the domes are all in sync. Although the sunrise will be at different times so I don’t know.”

“Cool. Do you have twelve hours of sunlight all year round too?”

“...yeah? Does Earth not…do that?

“Stars, no. The equator is pretty constant but the poles,” Sophie takes a breath. “They’re really messed up because of the tilt. Think weeks of constant sunlight in the summer if you can call it that when it’s barely above freezing and then weeks of constant night in the winter.”

“We don’t even have seasons.”

“But wait, there’s more. The fun part is the Southern Hemisphere has opposite seasons compared to the Northern Hemisphere. So it’s winter here, but summer down in, like, Australia and Argentina. Because, again, the Earth’s got a tilt. And I thank Luna for not making it even worse than it is.”

“That’s so weird.”

“And after you’ve gone through all that chaos, you get Dex ranting about the times it’s snowed in April.”

“I’ve actually never seen snow before, believe it or not.”

“Well, San Diego is not the place for that. Hang on one second.” Sophie pulls out his port, checking the radar. “Now, Toronto on the other hand, is buried several inches deep because of all that lake effect. Gag. That does not sound pleasant.”

“Just wait. Fitz will want to drag me there next.”

“Remember, you’ve lived in controlled climates your whole life. So imagine putting yourself in a freezer with twenty mile an hour winds. Not pleasant.”

“Hm. I wonder if Fitz checked the weather before, you know, actually going to Earth.”

“Unlikely. But at least it’ll be pretty as you freeze to death in the middle of a blizzard. Although if you ask Dex, xe’ll just say it’s a light dusting of snow and a soft breeze but don’t listen to xem. Xe grew up in worse conditions.”

“Worse? How does it get worse?”

“Even farther north. I know. It’s pretty much past the point of human survivability. Or this southern California human’s survivability at the very least.”

Biana laughs, making Sophie smile.

Aer gaze drifts from him to behind him, and Sophie doesn’t have to look back to know it’s his Mom’s stand, Lattea Da.

“You want one?” he asks.

“What? No-- I-- sorry. Are they good?”

“It’s a family recipe. I legally can’t say no.”

“Oh.”

Sophie smiles. “What flavor do you want? We have custard, chocolate, cinnamon entirely due to Dex’s begging, strawberry, cherry, and some rotating seasonal one I can’t seem to remember right now. Maybe peppermint. It’s winter. That would make sense. Let’s go with that.”

“Whichever is your favorite,” ae answers.

Sophie mentally jots that down as he stands up and walks over to his Mom.

“Hey, kiddo. Who’s your new friend?”

Her voice lifts in such a way so as to imply that she’s been watching them talk. Which means exactly one thing.

“Don’t, Mom. Ae is just a friend. And ae desires custard bursts, so I will be stealing two chocolate ones before running away once again.”

He does as he said and presents Biana’s to aer, preparing himself to get his stolen.

Ae takes it, hesitantly, and as ae tries it, ae melts almost as much as the glob of filling onto the top of aer dress.

“You got a little,” Sophie says, gesturing to his own shirt to demonstrate the location without turning his brain to mush.

Biana glances down and wipes the chocolate up with aer thumb, and Sophie blushes.

“Eh, good enough,” ae says, taking another bite.

“That’s never coming out.”

“As the actress says to the bishop.”

Sophie laughs, a little bit at the unexpectedness and a lot because that’s the origin of the ‘that’s what she said’ joke that took over the entirety of middle school.

Why does he know this?

He’s been spending too much time with Dex and the internet. Mostly the internet.

Fitz interrupts their moment by trying to wave Biana back over, and ae inhales the rest of the custard burst, leaving crumbs and smears of chocolate around aer mouth as ae walks back to him.

Sophie follows, his custard burst still in hand.

Once he’s within earshot, he can hear Dex saying, “It’ll probably be a couple of days. I’ve got a lot of things going on and my brain cell refuses to do things.”

Sophie glares at xem, having seemingly lost all of xor gay_shutdown.exe social skills in the short time he left xem alone.

“What xe meant to say is that we have a lot of clients, but xe will do xor best to get it fixed in as little time as possible and we apologize for any inconvenience.”

“Yeah, that,” xe says halfheartedly, head already down on a different project. Maybe it’s his portscreen.

Sophie shakes his head, giving Biana their business card, which uses his personal port code so they don’t have to pay for two different lines. “We’ll call you when it’s all done, although it’s a bit difficult with school. Hopefully you’re still in town.”

“Well, he’s booking hovers to the next city based on how long we want to stay, so I’m sure we can make it work.” Biana says, leaning against aer brother.

Sophie nods. “We’ll see you two later.”

Preoccupied with his current work, Dex waves in their general direction. “Bye.”

As soon as they’re safely out of earshot, Sophie sits down, deflating. “We really need to work on your social skills.”

“There is a reason my job is fixing things and yours is talking to our clients. If I could just hide in a cave all day I would.”

“You do realize that’s a major part of the issue, right?”

“Yes. And I have no desire to fix it.” Dex smacks the corner of the portscreen and tries the power button to success!

Sophie has no clue how xe does this.

But, as xe hands him his port, and he signs into his school gradebook, xe says, “You might want to call Stina. You two should probably get to work on your chem project.”

“I will be procrastinating until the last possible second, and I won’t bring Stina within three hundred feet of you sitting here. I do not trust you anywhere near enough to not start a fistfight with her in the street today.”

“But that would be so entertaining.”

“No, Dexter.”

Xe looks him dead in the eyes.

“That won't be good for my marketing of this place.”

“Beating the everloving crap out of the biggest bitch in school isn’t good for your marketing? When did that happen?”

“You have the strength of a paper bag. How are you so confident--?”

Dex interrupts, “Spite.”

Sophie rolls his eyes.

“You underestimate my power.”

“Actually, I think I underestimated how many fumes you’ve been inhaling.”

“No, according to WebMD, it’s called gay brain and it happens when I see a hot guy and it makes my brain hypoxic. Hypo- meaning low, ox- meaning oxygen. Low oxygen presence in the brain. You may experience it too, you might want to check it out.”

“So you admit he’s hot?”

“Just because he’s hot does not mean he isn’t a jerk so stop planning our hundred fifty thousand word slowburn enemies to friends to lovers fic right now.”

I didn’t even specify who I was talking about. Interesting you assumed it was Fitz.

“You’re just saying because you’re mad he’s straight.”

“Shut up. You were drooling over both of them. You don’t get to feel superior.” Dex snaps.

“Yeah, but I’m not getting all worked up about it. Which makes it fun.”

Dex doesn’t bother with a response and tries to pretend like xe’s working while, in reality, xe is just taking the battery in and out to make it look like xe’s being productive.

I was right.

“Fitz was really hot though. I understand completely.”

“Fitz?” Dex snorts. “That’s his name?”

“Yeah, I managed to get some information out of Biana while talking to aer, thank you very much.”

“Surprised you had that much presence of mind.”

“I didn’t have to try that hard. It was one of the first things ae said.”

“Ah, it all makes sense now.”

Sophie crosses his arms. “You’re almost as bad as I am.”

“Never said I wasn’t.”

He doesn’t have an answer, so instead he changes the subject. “Do you think any Lunars are actually straight?”

Those two are so gorgeous, I don’t see how that’d be possible.

“You mean other than Fitz, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Not even a chance. But you can have both of them all to yourself while I sit here with my gadgets. I should just buy myself an escort droid and program his personality chip myself.”

“Oh, come on,” Sophie says, looking at Dex who is now just turning the volume up and down on the side of xor newest portscreen project. “Just because you and Jensi broke up doesn’t mean you’re doomed to be forever alone.”

“Don’t bring Jensi into this.”

Hah, so I was right.

“I mean it, Dexter.”

“I do too, Lord Fosboss. My relationship or lack thereof with Jensi has no effect on how hot Fitz is and oh my spades and aces I’m going to stop now before I turn into even more of a gibbering mouther than I am on a regular basis.”

You know it’s getting serious when xe starts throwing around DnD references.

“You do have to admit that it is nice how we can drool over the same guy though.”

“Yes. You have expressed this sentiment before. Several times.”

“And I blame you for that. If you would stop being so good at fixing things, it would increase by like fifty percent.”

“You just picked that number out of nowhere.”

“Actually, it came from my brain, which is located in here,” Sophie smacks his own forehead. “I understand the confusion, as consciousness is difficult to explain scientifically.”

“Why do you sound like me?”

“I spend more time in Elwin’s office than in class. I’ve picked up a few things.”

“That reminds me. What time is it?”

“Almost four. Why?”

Dex stands up and starts packing xor box of projects for this evening. “Do you know what that means?”

Yes. “No.”

“You can’t wear your binder for much longer today. That means we should probably be getting home.”

“Every single day I regret putting you in charge of reminding me of that fact.”

“That’s why you did it.”

Sophie huffs and makes himself useful by closing the roll-down door on their booth.

The next day proceeds as normal, a couple new clients and more work for Dex and xor already too-full schedule between school and watching netdramas and sleep.

Although Sophie isn’t allowed to complain. His sleep schedule is even worse.

Dex can finally get around to Fitz and Biana’s device about halfway through the week. Xe’s explained what it is and what it does many times and, yet, Sophie still has no clue.

And that really doesn’t bother him.

Friday night, Sophie sends Biana a comm that their gadgety thingy is ready so that he doesn’t have to talk to aer and make a fool of himself. Today is not the day to talk to attractive people.

“Sophie, you need to calm up,” Dex says, as he paces behind xem, watching the crowd for Fitz or Biana’s face.

He doesn’t respond.

“I’m going to put you in time out if you don’t stop.”

He paces louder out of spite.

“Fine. I’ll turn my music up and then you get to explain why I’m ignoring everyone.”

“Yeah, but this time it’ll be your fault.”

“I’m just a convenient excuse for you.”

Dex considers for a moment. “One that I’ll be utilizing as much as possible.”

Sophie slows down his pacing to check if he has any incoming comms, reloading the page every few steps as he slowly speeds up again.

The last time he did this, he tripped over Dex’s chair’s leg. It was embarrassing to say the least.

Five long, long minutes and several false alarms later, Biana sees the booth and waves.

Smiling, Sophie waves back so hard he nearly dislocates his wrist.

Dex senses the disturbance in the force, looking up to find Fitz and Biana, which turns xor brain off for at least the next few hours.

Biana watches Fitz as the transaction of univs via his id chip Sophie didn’t know Lunars could get and the gadget thingy occurs, and when he notices, he says, “Fine. You and your new girlfriend can go sit and talk. I’ll wander around here and pay for another year at our hotel while I’m waiting.”

Sophie blushes, cold sweat prickling at the back of his neck. It’s been a while since someone suggested he was someone’s girlfriend. Might’ve been Maruca in eighth grade.

Ze’s aroace and he’s trans now. Oh, how quickly things change.

“I’m not--.”

“Yeah, yeah, you two are oblivious sapphics who won’t be aware you’re dating until a week before your wedding. I know. I’ve lived with Biana for long enough.”

You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried.

But it’s not worth the fight.

Dex’s focus comes off xor current project for a moment. “You two go talk. Fitz, I’ve got a couple technical details I’d like to discuss before you wander off.”

He looks confused at the sudden change in plans, as, just a minute earlier, Dex said it was good to go.

Sophie studies Dex’s face, finding the well-hidden signs that xe’s going to probably end up in a fight with Fitz before he leaves today.

He weighs his options for a second. “Okay,” he gestures to the tables from last week. “Shall we?”

As they’re settling into their seats at the exact same table, Biana asks, “What was all that about?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“I think it’s a little more than nothing.”

Sophie sighs exasperatedly. “Like, I know I’m short as sweet rot but I do my best to present masculine and I think you can fill in the rest.”

“Oh, sunshine.” Ae stretches aer fingers like ae’s gonna reach over and grab Sophie’s hand but doesn’t. “I’m sorry he’s such an ignorant jerk sometimes. He inherited it from his father.”

“It’s fine. It’s just been a while, that’s all.”

“It’s absolutely not fine and how long is ‘a while’ since you’ve been misgendered? Three, four days?”

Quietly, Sophie admits, “Last Sunday.”

“Do you know what I think we need?”

“Hm?”

“A copious amount of custard bursts.”

A slight smile tugs at Sophie’s lips as Biana gets up to by so many ae can barely carry them all.

When ae returns, Sophie takes an oozing chocolate in one hand and a cinnamon in the other. “Did my mother assault you with relationship questions?”

“She’s your mother. What do you think the answer is?”

Sophie swears.

“Don’t worry, mine is very similar in that regard. I just started rambling about how wonderful the custard bursts are and that seemed to be just enough of a distraction to take them and run.”

Sophie laughs, snorting loudly in the process. He notices Biana watching him, and stars, ae’s so pretty.

They hold eye contact for a second before it breaks and their focus goes back to the custard bursts, which are downright uninteresting compared to aer.

Softly, Biana says, “I wish we didn’t have to leave so soon.”

Sophie doesn’t quite know how to respond as he takes another bite of his custard burst.

“Maybe if I stuck around--no.”

He tilts his head, a silent question.

“It’s just--I can’t stop myself from wondering what might happen if I didn’t have to leave as soon as possible. Like what might happen if I asked you out.”

Sophie blushes.

There’s no way--ae’s messing with me. Ae’s gorgeous. And I’m just your average Earthen. Ae could have anyone ae wants. So why me?

“I--I don’t know.”

“In a hypothetical universe, what would you say?”

“...Okay.” A shy smile works its way onto Sophie’s lips. “What would you propose for this hypothetical universe’s date?”

“Watching our new favorite netdrama,” ae gestures to Fitz and Dex, standing and arguing over stars know what, “and eating so many custard bursts it’s probably raising my blood sugar just thinking about it.”

“Sounds good to me.” He takes another bite of his custard burst and licks the oozed chocolate off his other hand.

They watch Fitz and Dex fight for a few seconds. “Do you know how to turn the volume up?” Biana asks.

Sophie laughs. “I’d have to ask Dex. I’m so technologically useless it’s sad.”

“That’s because everyone’s technologically useless compared to xem.”

“Why the sweet rot are you so right? Stop it.”

“Not my fault,” ae takes another bite of aer custard burst, either strawberry or cherry. It’s hard to tell which.

Another minute later, Sophie suggests, “Do you want to place bets on who punches who first?”

They make eye contact, and in unison they answer the question. “Dex.”

“Is this a Lunar thing where you know what I’m thinking or are you just a genius?” Sophie has to ask.

“I’m not getting any bioelectricity off of you so clearly your,” ae wiggles aer fingers, “anti-bioelectricity thingy is working.”

His hand flies to the back of his neck, and Biana, ever observant, asks, “What?”

“I…I haven’t gotten an implant. And Dex hasn’t duct taped xor version of one that probably doesn’t even work on me in weeks so I doubt it’s a residual effect of that.”

Biana studies his face. For what, ae doesn’t know. “Either you’re an incredibly lucky Earthen that just so happened to develop Lunar resistance naturally or you’re an incredibly lucky shell that somehow survived the infanticide. Stars, some days I love Luna.”

I didn’t know a sentence could contain that much venom.

“You really think so?”

“Yeah. I’m honestly surprised it took me this long to pick it up. It’s actually kind of weird after being able to feel everyone’s presence long before I even see them my whole life. And then you’re sitting there, and I feel nothing. I mean, I feel gay thoughts but that doesn’t count.”

Sophie blushes. “Well, you’re welcome for me being a weirdo.”

The conversation fizzles out as they go back to watching Dex and Fitz fight. It’s kind of fun to try to do a bad lip reading of it.

“Should we maybe pull them apart before we’re witnesses to homicide?” Biana asks.

“Probably.”

“Are we gonna do anything about it?”

Sophie snort-laughs. “It’s way too entertaining to stop them now.”

“So right you are.”

At that, Dex flips Fitz off as xe stomps over to the table that Sophie and Biana have claimed for their own. “Sorry to bother you, I just can’t stand to be within a hundred feet of Fitz right now.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Sophie says, not really given a choice as xe sits down.

Looking at Biana, xe asks, “How do you let him be such a bigoted jerk?”

Ae sighs. “There’s a lot of internalized queerphobia I have to unravel. Trust me, I’m working on it. I know I shouldn’t have let him out of the house but he was just so insistent.”

Dex takes this as a good enough answer, and proceeds to glare at nothing in particular.

“Someone’s gone to crabbytown so I should probably bring xem home. But it was nice seeing you today, Biana.”

“It’s not the end of our shift yet,” Dex argues.

“Leave a sticky note saying you’re too busy so you’re closing early. It’s not a total lie.”

Dex huffs as xe walks back to the booth to pack what’s necessary and close it up, and, thankfully, Fitz has made himself busy by looking at the stall across the street.

Sophie tries to follow xem when Biana says, “I will be talking to Fitz about gender and all of its complexities tonight. Hopefully I don’t have to resort to physical violence to get through to him. But he does have a very thick skull.”

“You don’t have to worry about it that much.”

“Dex cares more than you do!”

Sophie’s voice drops low. “You see, xe’s just kind of mad at everybody right now because Fitz is, objectively, of course, really hot but he’s also straight, to his knowledge, at least, and that’s not a good combination for xem. Fitz just so happened to be in the way when xe found a reason to be angry.”

“And you wonder how I know Fitz is m-spec. You don’t just have level of rubbish with your objectively hot best friend I totally didn’t have a crush on and also manage to be straight. That just doesn’t work.”

Sophie sits back down, ready for more details.

“Oh, stars. I’m gonna lose another one to it, aren’t I? How does this keep happening?”

Sophie laughs. “How hot are we talking?”

Biana swears.

“That good?”

“Well, it does already have a boyfriend who just so happens to be Emperor Tam of the Eastern Commonwealth, so…”

“Wait, you’re telling me that Fitz’s best friend is the Monarch of Luna?”

“Yeah. It and Tam are on again, off again on account of the long distance. So there is a chance with that relationship when you’ve had enough of me.”

“Hey, let’s not plan too far ahead. I barely know what I’m doing tomorrow, let alone my future.”

Biana glances to Dex, who has xor hands on xor hips and is staring them down, and sighs. “Looks like someone’s waiting for you.”

Sophie leans back in his chair. “I shouldn’t leave xem. Xe’ll find someone else to argue with if xe isn’t kept busy.”

“I guess that means I’m going to have to find Fitz and whoever he’s fighting in an alley.”

“Yep,” Sophie agrees.

“We’re probably going to be heading out early tomorrow so I don’t think I’ll be able to pop over here and say goodbye.”

An unexpected wave of emotion washes over Sophie. “So this is it?” It’s half a question, half a statement of fact.

“So it seems.”

Sophie swears softly.

“I really do wish I could stay here and see how this plays out, but I really do not trust Fitz to navigate Earth by himself.”

“Yeah, I understand. I’ve only interacted with him for like five minutes, but I wouldn’t trust him either.”

Biana laughs.

Aer laugh is so pretty. I’m gonna miss this.

Oh, Sophie, you’ve only had two conversations with aer. How are you this spellbound already?

“I’ll call you when we get to our next destination.” Ae says. “It might be San Francisco but I don’t know, and I don’t really care anymore.”

“Just know, it’s way colder than you think it’ll be there. Like Mark Twain said, ‘The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.’”

“Do you quote second era writers very often? Because you and Fitz may share a brain cell if that’s the case.”

“I have one quote and I have almost no opportunities to use it.”

“So you can’t recite the Picture of Dorian Grey? What’s the point anymore?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think there is one. But I have to know. Is your brother aware rhat Oscar Wilde was gay?”

Biana laughs. “How on Luna do you know these things?”

“Side note: technically he had a wife and kids so mlm is probably more accurate. Thanks, history project three weeks ago. Screw you, Mr. Meyer.”

“That’s absolutely amazing.”

“Exactly my reaction when I found out. If only he wasn’t imprisoned for two years because of it. I am still mad all these centuries later.”

“Yeah, piss off, England.”

“Wait, you know England is at fault for all of this?”

“Well, he was Irish, which was under the control of England at the time--oh my stars, I sound like Fitz. I better stop now before it consumes me completely.”

“Oh no.” Sophie stands again. “I better go to Dex before xe comes and drags me home xemself.”

“I’d say goodbye, but that feels too permanent. Farewell, Sophie.”

“Farewell, Biana. Remember to call me when you get to San Francisco or wherever Fitz is taking you tomorrow. I’ll worry if you don’t.”

Biana grins. “That sounds like a threat.”

“Don’t make yourself find out if it is or not,” Sophie responds, smiling amusedly.

“Don’t worry. I will.”

Sophie waves as he walks backwards back to Dex, still smiling until he turns to xem. “You couldn’t have delayed fixing their gadget any longer, now, could you?”

“No, I completely exist to make your life more difficult,” xe responds sarcastically, closing the stall’s roll-down door.

The next day, Biana is in San Francisco like ae thought, and has found Fitz’s list of the places they’re going just so Sophie doesn’t have to worry.

He still worries.

They also make an agreement they probably should have before ae left that they’ll try to do the long-distance thing but if either meets someone and outside circumstances dictate it, there’ll be no hard feelings if they choose to call it off.

At least, that’s the idea.

Although they spend so much time sending each other vidlinks there isn’t really time for that agreement to even have a chance of invocation.

And since it’s the line Sophie and Dex use for their business, Dex is kept up all night by their notifications buzzing on xor phone.

Sophie’s pretty sure xe would’ve been awake anyway, but xe will still find a way to complain. Xe’s just mad because he won’t let xem forget about Fitz.

Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and homework slowly gets more and more ignored than usual, but that’s just because Sophie has a valid excuse to ignore it. The photographic memory also helps his grades not plummet.

So when spring break rolls around, and despite its centuries-old origins, it’s still a much-awaited respite from school, and that means Sophie can talk to his--yes, they’ve made it official--girlfriend.

They had a very long discussion on terminology because of aer neopronouns, but Biana eventually settled on equal use of girlfriend and partner whenever Sophie wants to refer to aer. A pronoun pun was in the running for a bit, but as wonderful of letters ae are, it just didn’t feel right in this context.

So, on the first Saturday after Sophie and Dex return from the market with a bunch more projects for xem, because of course they do, Sophie doesn’t waste any time before settling into his bed and sends Biana a vidlink.

Ae answers immediately. “Hey, stranger. How are you doing?”

“Horrible. How about you?”

“Well Fitzroy is in a bit of a mental breakdown because of your cousin but other than that I’m not doing too bad.”

“Oh. Do you want to talk about it or…?”

“Just a little bit of realizing his m-spec-uality. You know, normal everyday mental breakdown things. We may finally be able to explain why we can’t breathe when we see a FedEx drone.”

“Thank the stars. On to our second order of business. Where are we today?”

“Either Bangkok, Thailand or the middle of the Earth. I’m convinced there isn’t much of a temperature difference.”

“Air conditioning was invented for a reason, Bi.”

Ae rolls aer eyes. “Yeah, that works until I go outside because Wonderboy--please thank Dex for coming up with that--refuses to stay inside because ‘we could’ve done that back on Luna’ and I sweat my eyeballs out and then I have to get the rust off of my elbow joint because of all this humidity and--” ae groans.

Sophie stops for a second, something’s not quite processing.

“Biana!” Fitz yells off screen, muffled as though it’s through a closed door.

Ae swears.

“Think about what you just said.” The muffledness is gone, and Sophie chooses to imagine that Fitz has stuck his head in the doorway.

Ae says to him, “Do you think I care?” before turning back to Sophie. “Yeah, I’m a little bit cyborg. I get it if you want to run away screaming.”

“I didn’t know Lunars could also be cyborg. Other than Monarch Keefe, of course. But it lived on Earth for most of its life, so it isn’t quite the same.”

Biana peels aer skin graft off, something Sophie didn’t know was possible, to show him the metal underneath aer left arm. “Yeah, it’s a lot rarer than Earth, but it still happens sometimes. Like when you get cut to shreds in a terrain-speeder accident. Just as an example.”

“That sounds horrible.”

“Eh, I get to whack Fitz with my skin whenever I want, which makes it all worth it.”

So that explains why ae’s flapping aer arm around just barely offscreen.

“I’m almost certain he doesn’t think of it that way.”

Ae stops, apparently successful in getting him to go away, placing the skin back into its proper place. “Which is exactly what makes it so entertaining.”

Sophie laughs.

“But in all seriousness, you’re okay with your girlfriend being partially titanium?”

“Yeah, of course. Just because Earth has anti-cyborg laws that they aren’t repealing nearly fast enough doesn’t mean I’m anti-cyborg.”

“Really?” ae asks, avoiding eye contact.

“Yes, really. Dex spends so much time fixing things, xe’s basically an android at this point. Also, why should I care? You’re convinced I’m a shell and you come from a country with anti-shell infanticide laws and all that wonderfulness.”

Biana blushes. “I legit forgot about that.”

“So we’re almost equally weirdos, at least according to our countries’ laws.”

“I guess. But I remember a time before cyborgification.”

Sophie argues, “And being a shell has had absolutely no impact on my life aside from, you know, being drop shipped onto Earth and I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t told me. Your point?”

“...I don’t know. I don’t think I have one.”

“Okay.” Sophie smiles, and changes the subject. He saw a pretty girl at the market today for about a second and that merits a whole conversation.

Ah, the joys of being bi4bi. Well, bi4bi lesbian if you want to be technical about it.

And all is back to normal.

Well, at least as normal as Sophie and Biana can manage to be. Which is almost nonexistent.

More months pass, and more cities go with it. Each one seems to take longer than the last.

Sophie survives finals because of course he does. He’s an honors student, anything less is unimaginable.

But the thought of the long summer hours being away from Biana? That’s almost enough to ask Dex to teach him about gadgetry.

They’re already spending many hours outside in the summer here at the market every day, which is easier since Sophie can tell Dex to hide his port somewhere so he isn’t tempted to refresh his comms every quarter of a second.

The amount of time they spend is directly proportional to the outside temperature and, to a lesser extent, the humidity.

Xe’s talking with a new client with a malfunctioning netscreen about some technical thing because xe’s going to have to do a house call for that issue. It’s not ideal, but, hey, a job is a job. Especially if it’s a fast one.

Sophie is keeping himself busy by doing inventory of the parts they have for the fifth time this week, like it’s changed significantly since last he checked.

But he hears a familiar voice from behind him, and, involuntarily, he looks around, expectations lowering with every passing moment.

But then--he sees aer. Biana. Right there. Not through a screen. Not a million miles away.

A smile breaks across his face and butterflies swarm in his stomach as he runs to aer.

His arms wrap around aer, and he buries his head in aer shoulder, breathing aer in, entire body tingling with aer closeness.

“Hey, stranger. How are you doing?” he whispers into aer ear.

Biana pauses, obviously trying to pretend like ae doesn’t recognize him, before breaking down and laughing. “I’m pretty good actually, how about you?”

Sophie pulls back, still holding onto aer shoulders. “Better now.” He pushes a rebellious strand of hair out of aer face.

Biana’s gaze flickers beyond Sophie to Dex for the briefest moment. “So, uh, do you want to go get some custard bursts? Dexter here is desperately trying to telekinetically get rid of us.”

Sophie laughs. “If you’re willing to tolerate my mom, I’m not gonna say no to a custard burst. Especially not with you.”

He drops his hands, intertwining one’s fingers with Biana’s, gently leading aer to their table.

“Avoiding all of your mom’s questions is a risk I’m more than willing to take.”

Sophie smiles softly.

Instead of sitting down when they reach their table, Biana takes Sophie’s other hand. “Do you know what other risk I really want to take?”

He makes an inquisitive sound.

“I really, really want to kiss you right now.”

“Within view of my mom?”

Biana leans closer, and Sophie can’t breathe anymore. “That’s why it’s called a risk, sunshine.”

His smile slowly grows as he presses his lips into aers. His eyes flutter closed, and a thousand stars supernova behind his eyes.

Ae is the sun, bright and beautiful, and he would gladly revolve around aer. And he is the moon, silently powerful, and always there whether ae needs him or not.

The sun and moon have always been associated with one another, each a perfect contrast for the other and, yet, perfect for each other.

#i love love love the interpretations of both prompts #this definitely counts as future!#all the pronouns were incredible #'sunshine' you don't understand my heart is melting #honestly i think edaline is too #but this was so interesting #and also makes me want to read the lunar chronicles #the fedex was so >>>> let alone the sophiana as well #great job with all of this #sophiana week 2022

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sophianaweek2022 · 2 years

Text

Wax Wings

sophie & biana are packing up biana’s room together, but come across aer old journal. commence pining lesbian poetry. (do me a favor and ignore the fact that this is probably impossible in the elven world, okay? why do they not just get a conjurer to move their shit for them? nobody knows. it took enough self restraint to use proper capitalization, alright, give me this.)

written for day two of @sophianaweek2022: sun & moon. :)

Biana was absolutely addicted to the sound of Sophie’s laugh. That much hadn’t changed, since ae had heard it for the first time, something like five years ago. Ae remembers it more vividly than anything else from that time - it was the first time Sophie had come over to Everglen, and the two of them had been sitting in aer room, an awkward silence filling the atmosphere. Sophie made a comment on aer house, and then Biana had made some stupid witty remark, and Sophie had laughed in surprise. The sound had filled aer bedroom, and ae succinctly thought, “this is bright enough to burn me.”

And now, here ae was, listening to it echo around the same room that had always felt empty without the familiar warmth of it. Sophie turned her head to look at Biana, lacing their fingers together, grinning.

“So.”

Biana smiled back at her in turn. “So.” Ae flopped back on the bed, studying the canopy for a minute, trying to find some feeling of nostalgia for the room that ae had grown up in. Ae quickly gave up, letting out a breath. “God, I can’t believe I’m finally leaving this hellhole.”

Sophie laughed again, bright and warm. “I take it that means you’re ready to start packing?” Biana groaned and pulled Sophie back onto aer bed, burying aer face in her shoulder. “Nope,” ae mumbled. Ae could feel Sophie’s smile as she pressed a kiss to aer hair. “You know that the sooner we finish packing, the sooner we get to move in together, right?” Biana pulled back to glare at her without much heat behind it. “Unfair. Playing dirty,” ae said, even as aer heart seemed to be making a valiant attempt to beat its way out of aer chest at the reminder. Sophie just smirked. “Up, Bee.” Ae relented and let aerself be pulled off the bed by aer girlfriend. It wasn’t exactly a hardship, as long as aer fingers were tangled with Sophie’s.

Biana glared at the top shelf of aer closet as ae stood on aer tiptoes, trying to reach it. Stupid tall shelves, designed for stupid tall elves. Ae was average height, okay, and it should not be this difficult to reach things. The world was an unfair place.

Ae heard a snort from behind aer. Sophie watched aer, arms crossed, an expression of amusement on her face.

“Need some help there, love?”

“Fuck you, Foster.” Biana hated the smile tugging at aer lips.

Aer girlfriend wordlessly crossed the room from where she had been helping to pack Biana’s clothing into boxes and patted aer head. “It’s okay, I get it, you only love me for my height,” she teased. “I’m sure being a short gay is difficult. Couldn’t be me,” she said, effortlessly pulling a box off the shelf. She didn’t even have to go up on her tiptoes. Biana absolutely despised all six feet and two fucking inches of her.

“I am average height!”

“Mhm, keep telling yourself that. We both know you’re rounding up.” She paused to lean down and kiss aer nose, shoulders shaking in a silent laugh.

“You’re a terrible person and a menace to society.”

“Yeah, about two thirds of the entire elven population agrees with you on that one.” Biana broke aer glare to let out a startled laugh.

Sophie pulled the last of the four boxes off the shelf, setting it next to the others on Biana’s floor. She sat down next to them, and ae did the same, crossing aer legs over hers. Ae pulled one of the unlabeled boxes towards them and opened it. It was mostly old Foxfire things - graded papers, awards of achievement that Alden had convinced aer ae didn’t deserve, essays on history that ae had poured aer heart and soul into making accurate as possible instead of the bullshit that the nobility taught. Aer fingers brushed something smooth and leathery near the bottom, and ae pulled it out.

“Oh,” ae breathed. The small, thick notebook was achingly familiar, well-worn with aer miscellaneous doodles of mushrooms and flowers on the cover. Ae flipped open the cover, seeing aer name printed in neat cursive on the inside, with “Vacker” crossed out in a different pen than it had originally been written in. Ae flipped open to a random page, a wave of nostalgia hitting aer at the scent of the pages and aer old handwriting.

Sophie read the date. “This would have been from… our fifth year, right?” She asked quietly, seemingly not wanting to break the atmosphere of the moment.

“Yeah. About a year before we started dating, huh? When…”

“When we were both in love with each other, and I was a fucking idiot and didn’t realize,” Sophie finished for aer sheepishly.

Biana looked at her and smiled slightly. “Yeah.” Ae continued skimming the page, and groaned. “Oh my god, no, not my shitty lesbian pining poetry-“ ae said, just as Sophie shrieked in delight, saying, “you wrote poetry about me?” It quickly devolved into the two of them scrambling to battle for the journal. “Don’t you dare, Foster-” Biana was stronger than Sophie, but she managed to hold the journal above her head. Ae despised her with all of the rage in aer average height, raging lesbian body.

“I only knew the dark, before I met you,” Sophie read quietly. The words quickly dissipated the playful heat of the moment, and she brought the notebook back down to their legs.

“I don’t think I knew who I was,

Before you.

Would I have lived my life like that,

Being what the world wanted from me?

Would I have convinced myself I was happy?”

Biana remembers writing that entry, curled up under aer covers past midnight with a bottle of moonlight and a pen and too many emotions for the night to hold.

“But then you stumbled into my life,

Something bright and new and so so alive

And you made me realize

That I had never really been living,

The entire time.

You stumbled into my life,

And you brought all of your warmth and your brightness with you

And god,

You were more than the sun.”

Sophie’s voice sounded choked up, a bit. It wrapped around the syllables in a way that made the words seem like more than they were. She gave them meaning, somehow, impossibly.

“I guess that makes me the moon.

I’m a reflection of your light,

Of your blazing existence

The proof of just how far your sunlight reaches

The life that wasn’t there until yours was.”

Biana wondered how absurd it would be to show this moment to the girl that had written this. Sitting here, listening to someone else read the words that ae had sworn never to let anybody see.

“I’ll only ever get a part of you,

I remind myself over and over again.

It will never be enough,

But that’s alright.

(It has to be.)

You can’t look the sun dead in the eyes without burning yourself,

Can you?

Icarus fell for a reason.

The golden wings on the family crest

That I used to wear so proudly on my chest

Are made of wax.”

The rest is written in the journal in messier handwriting, as if it had been written in the dark, an afterthought.

“I’m not supposed to love you,

Am I?

I’m not supposed to be like this.

But really,

In the end

Can even a planet keep the moon

From orbiting the sun?”

The two of them sat there, staring at the pages in silence for a moment, each of them with their own thoughts running through their heads. Finally, Sophie wordlessly turned to Biana, wiping a tear from aer cheek. Huh. Ae hadn’t realized ae had been crying.

Sophie wrapped her arms around aer, pulling aer impossibly closer. The two of them breathed in sync for a moment.

“You can have me,” Sophie whispered into Biana’s ear. “All of me.” And just like that, something inside Biana melted.

Ae pulled back just enough to pull Sophie into a kiss. The two of them fell into it easily, Sophie’s lips feeling like laughter and sunlight and an unspoken promise. The moon and the sun, Biana thought nonsensically. Home.

“I love you,” Sophie said into aer lips, because that’s just something they could have now. Something they could be.

“I love you,” Biana said back fiercely, because somehow, the words were more important than anything else.

super out-of-date taglist (let me know if there’s anything i can fix/ add or remove!): @a-harmless-poison @an-ungraceful-swan @when-wax-wings-melt

#so incredibly cute!#i’m loving alll of the sun and moon entries #this is so fluffy and adorable and your height agenda is totally working #sophiana week 2022

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