(A/N) Hello readers, welcome to my first fanfiction on this site! I've noticed that there aren't a lot of KOTLC stories on this site, so I'm trying to get some started! I also have a Wattpad account called keeper2Of5Oylmups, so feel free to check that out. I will be posting more regularly on this site though. Also, sorry if the grammar is a bit off, or it doesn't flow, I'm not the greatest writer, and I apologize. Thanks for reading and enjoy!

The first time that it had happened, Sophie, Keefe, Fitz, Tam, and Linh were at Everglen, mallowmelt filling their plates. Bianas scars healing up nicely, though still hidden beneath smooth skin elixirs. Two days ago, Biana, Tam, and Linh had been told about Alvar's memory … problem. Two days of Fitz locking himself away, of random outbursts whenever they did see him. Until finally, Sophie had finally gotten sick of it and called them all to Everglen.

So here they were, glumly picking at the sticky treat in front of them. Eventually, after a prolonged awkward silence, Sophie mustered up the courage to speak out.

" So, uhm…" she started, the speech that had been prepared earlier slipping from her mind. Biana looked up, giving her a pitying smile, before going back to looking at her mallowmelt. Seeing this was going know where, Sophie took a deep breath and continued. "You all know what happened, so I'm not going to pretend that you don't, and I'm aware that we will have to sort this out, but right now is not the time to do that. We haven't had the time, in, god, forever, to just relax, and be teenagers!" Sophie exclaimed. And, it felt good, to finally say what everybody had already realized. Yet, she still realized that, what seemed like a thousand years ago, she had been told something similar. Back then, it seemed like an impossible task. Pft- be a teenager? She couldn't do that, she didn't have the time to do that! She-she had to save the world, to save everybody. She had to find the Black Swan, she had to stay alive. She wasn't allowed to be a teenager.

And now Sophie, and everybody else, had so, so much riding on their shoulders, and they needed to be spending time on that! But they also had their own lives, and they were still young, and they should be able to enjoy that while they could.

"She's right." Keefe started, dropping his fork and looking up, "We've had to do so many things, that we've forgotten to live our lives, outside of the Black Swan. We should be out there, doing fun stuff-"

"No, no we shouldn't, we have to-to" Fitz interrupted Keefe, throwing his silverware down on the counter, Keefe flinching away from him as he stood up. "We have stuff to do, people to help! We have things to do, we-we have to make things right!" Sophie almost gasped as she saw how sickly Fitz looked. He had dark purple bags under his eyes, and his once bright iris had gone dull. His skin looked almost translucent, sweat causing hair to stick to his forehead.

With the rest of the table now looking attentively at him, he took a deep breath before continuing. "I can't just stand here and not do anything! My-my," he paused, deep labored breaths heaving his chest up and down. His foggy eyes staring at his feet, and Sophie had to stop herself from reaching out. Right now he was unpredictable, and she couldn't risk anything.

"Hey, man, maybe you should step back for a moment. I-I know what it's like to have, things, wrong with your family, but-" once again, Fitz madly cuts of Keefe's voice, turning to look at him. Rage set fires in his eyes and volcanoes burst in his steps.

And Keefe, he visibly slid off his chair, taking a step back, panic shaking through his frame. Sophie just passed it off of an instinct after the war, but looking back, she wished that she had questioned it more. Because Keefe wasn't someone who stepped back from a fight, didn't hesitate to run into battle. Old scars on his stomach would prove that.

So that was the first time it happened, nothing more than a step. That was it. Nothing more. Or so she thought

(A/N) So... There it was! Please leave reviews and comments! Thank you and have a good day!