Sokeefe - Until She Was Ready For More

Chapter 4

What kind of kid wants their parents to kiss?! And I can't kiss Keefe! I don't even like him!, Sophie thought. Both Sophie and Keefe were looking at each other wide-eyed stares. 

"Kiss!" Alora shouted again. When they both failed to move any closer to the other, Alora ran around them to push on the back of Keefe's legs. 

"Move!" she yelled. 

"Umm, sweetie, not right now." Keefe said when he finally came to his senses. 

"But why notttt?!" she asked in a whiny voice. 

"Just 'cause. Now let's leave mommy alone and go play outside."

"Yessss! Can we ride Luna?"

Sophie furrowed her eyebrows. Luna was too little to ride. She was only a baby. Wait, she thought. If they were older, then the alicorns would be too. 

"Sure. Have fun you two!" Sophie said as they started to walk out. Keefe lifted up Alora onto his shoulders and continued to walk as she squealed in delight. 

"Be careful, Keefe! Don't drop her!"

"Will do, Foster." he said as he shot a wink at her over his shoulder. She rolled her eyes playfully and went to sit at the end of the bed. After a few minutes of staring into space, she sighed and flopped down onto her back to stare at the ceiling.

What do I do now? We still don't know where we are and more and more suprises keep coming, Sophie thought. 

Sophie suddenly bolted up, startled by a ringing sound coming from a desk on the other side of the room. 

"An imparter?" she said to herself quietly. She walked over to the desk and looked down at the device. A name that she recognized flashed across the screen. Sophie answered the call and saw the familiar face of one of her favorite elves. Granted, she did look a lot older than when Sophie had last seen her, but her silver-blue eyes that matched the silver at the ends of her black hair were unmistakable. 

"Hey Linh." Sophie said unsurely. 

"Sophie! How are you?" Linh said excitedly.

"I'm good. How about you? What's been going on?" 

As Linh began to ramble on about her recent activities, Sophie had a realization. 

"Then we all went to Atlant-"

"Sorry to interupt you Linh, but I need to ask you a question." Sophie said, cutting off Linh's sentence. Linh smiled and nodded for Sophie to continue.

"Does anything seem... strange lately? Do you feel any older, per say?" Sophie asked, careful to word her questions so that, if their Linh hadn't come to this dimension too like Sophie thought, she wouldn't sound insane to this Linh. Linh gasped. Sophie snapped to attention.

"How did you know? I didn't tell anyone but Tam and Wylie!" 

"Oh thank goodne-" Sophie started.

"I don't know how you figured out that today is my 'birthday' as the people in the Forbidden Cities call it. Since we elves don't make a big deal of it, I didn't really tell anyone. I don't really feel that much older, but these kids add another year everyday, it seems." Linh said. Sophie's face fell and she sighed. 

"Wait... kids?" Sophie said once Linh's last sentence had registered in her brain. 

"Yeah. Jamin and Emaline. You've met them about a hundred times." she said while shooting Sophie a quizzical look. 

"Right. Sorry. I guess I'm just a bit tired, that's all." 

"It's all good. Did you and Keefe still want to come over for dinner tomorrow night or do you need a raincheck?" 

"Right. Dinner. Tomorrow? Umm, I think that's fine." Sophie said, very confused.

"Okay. I think Biana said that she and Tam were still good with it. Oh, and Dex said he would watch the kids. I better go ask him. I'll talk to you soon!"

"Yeah. Okay. Bye." Sophie responded, still trying to take in all the information currently being spilled forth by Linh. 

"Are you sure you're okay? Did you and Keefe get in a fight?"

"No! No, nothing like that. I'm just tired and confused. Really, I'm fine."

"Alright. If you say so." Linh said and smiled. Sophie smiled weakly before Linh ended the call and the screen went black. 

Maybe Biana is in this mess with me and Keefe, too. I'll try asking her, she thought. However, before she could even say Biana's name, she heard a girl scream from outside. She ran down the stairs and out the door. What she saw, though, caused her to hault to a stop. 

A grown-up, female alicorn that she assumed was Luna, was soaring through the sky with Alora and Keefe on her back. Alora was screaming in excitement and Keefe was wearing a bright, real smile, not a smirk, and hollering and laughing. Keefe was holding onto Alora's waist to keep her secure on the alicorn while Alora held onto Luna's mane. 

Sophie smiled at the sight and was reminded of another alicorn ride with Keefe so long ago. The feeling of his arms around her waist and wind whipping her hair came rushing back. She remembered feeling... different around him that day. She started to blush and shook her head to clear away her thoughts. You like Fitz, Sophie! Stop it!, she said to herself. 

She looked back up into the sky to see that Keefe was looking at her curiously. Oh no! What if he can read my emotions from up there?!, she thought, dread filling her.

"Stop freaking out, Foster! We're not going to fall!" he shouted down to her, smiling. 

"Right! I knew that!" she yelled back. "But, for once, you read my emotion wrong." she mumbled under her breath so no one could hear her. 

"You can't lie to an empath. I thought you'd have learned that lesson by now." Keefe said while making a tsk sound while Luna started to fly closer to the ground. Sophie rolled her eyes and made sure he saw it. He laughed.

Once Luna had landed, Keefe dismounted the alicorn and helped Alora down. 

"Again! Again!" the little girl shouted. 

"Maybe later." Sophie said from a few feet away.

"Mommy! Can I have a snack?" 

"Mhmm." she said as she led her inside, Keefe following closely behind. 

As they walked, Keefe came up behind her and whispered in her ear: "What were those emotions I was feeling from you a few minutes ago when we were on Luna? Can't keep keep your eyes off of the Keefester, can you?"

Sophie's ears started to burn and she blushed. Hard.