KOTLC Oneshots Cause Why Not

Healing Center Hugs

a while back i saw a tumblr post that said not to delete old shitty works because they might be someone else's comfort, but i very much can reorder my shit going from best to worst, so its only gonna get worse from here. also i changed the cover. i used to be paralyzed of canva because i was so sure it was going to take my information and splay it over my dash. clearly I've never learned tech stuff before now. also kindly ignore the AN inaccuracies because of the reordering, I'm too tired to fix them

Keefe had no family. At least, none he cared about.

Well, that would be a lie. His mother wasn't awful. Fitz said his bar was set far too low. Keefe didn't quite believe him. Fitz had everything handed to him. He was a Vacker, after all. 

Either way, he didn't care for his mother or father as much as he'd like to. It was frustrating. Why couldn't they be like Alden and Della? 

Sometimes Keefe wished he had siblings. That way he would be able to feel some sort of love for his family. Even if it wasn't his parents, he'd be content.

Keefe met Fitz on the first day of school. Well, not so much met as glimpsed. 

That glimpse had been jostling around his head for the rest of the day. Why couldn't he have a relationship like Biana and Fitz?

They loved each other. They would do anything for each other. Keefe could see it in the way Biana glared at the gaggle of gossiping kids that followed Fitz. Keefe could see it in the way Fitz wouldn't leave his sister's side, much to her annoyance. 

Keefe went home that night, wondering if he could have someone in his family like that; Someone who cared enough to be close to him, emotionally. His hope had been shut down with a resounding no when he looked at his house. Grand as it was, the hallways were cold and vast, in a lonely way. It left an isolated feeling in his chest, one that he wished he could get rid of.

Keefe fell into a routine. Show up at school, listen to the announcements, and walk to his first class, all the while smiling at the girls that stared at him. He wasn't sure what they saw, but maybe that was because he wasn't them.

That was his first mistake; Indulging the girls. He hadn't necessarily meant to; It seemed polite at the time. However, that soon became a crowd of girls following him. 

Well not quite. But their faces mixed, and they became one huge mob. He couldn't distinguish one individual from another. At first, he'd reveled in the attention; They liked him! They really liked him! He made an effort to style his hair; A ridiculously time-consuming effort. His arms had ached because of the strain, but it was worth it because the school seemed to like it. Keefe took to styling his hair every morning. He built a reputation for himself; he was the prankster bad boy; people loved his antics, and he even managed to get into Dame Alina's office and absolutely wreck it with his newly recruited gulon helpers. They'd been taken away after that incident, which the entire school dubbed 'the Great Gulon Incident' but it had been worth it to see the school laugh at his jokes and pranks.

Slowly, though, that became suffocating. Soon, it was what was expected of him. Soon, whenever he stopped being humorous, they thought he was sick, and brought him down to Elwin's office. That's how they'd met; Keefe had been tired that morning after getting yelled at by his father. He hadn't spent as much time on his hair, and everyone had noticed. They'd been asking him if he was okay at every step and turn. He would nod and say he woke up late. They wouldn't believe him if he told them the truth. But his mentors even got concerned about his behavior. Sir Revim had finally sent him down to Elwin when he didn't make a snarky remark all lesson.

Keefe had just walked numbly to Elwin's. He'd hoped the school's normal routine would cheer him up, but that clearly hadn't worked out.

Elwin had seemed to be bored. Or at least, uninterested in the empty Healing Center. The physician had sat idly in a chair, every once in a while checking and rechecking the shelves to see if anything needed reordering.