KOTLC After Stellarlune-A Sokeefe Story

Painting (part 3)

A few hours later, Sophie's chores were finished and she was curled up under the Panakes tree dozing lightly, feeling the warm sun on her skin and a gentle breeze keeping her from getting too hot. But she opened her eyes when suddenly something was blocking the sun, casting her into shadow. And there was Keefe, standing over her with laughter in his eyes.

    "Sleepy much, Foster?" he asked with a grin, moving to sit next to her.

    Sophie sat up, stretching. "I had some free time and I honestly don't remember what people do in their free time, but then I also don't really remember what it is like to be well rested either, so I guess it was inevitable."

    Keefe leaned in and lightly kissed her before whispering "I'm glad you're getting some sleep." Then he leaned back and smirked.  "But don't even try to deny that you were dreaming about the Keefester. I mean...how could you not?"

    Sophie rolled her eyes in response, shoving him away. "You wish." Then she took in his appearance. Grady was right, Keefe did look tired. "Are you okay? Did you not sleep last night?"

    Keefe shrugged. "I just stayed up really late finishing something," he said evasively. "But I didn't want to sleep in, I wanted to help Grady with some chores before going to see Fitz."

    Sophie was happy to see that, apart from looking tired, he seemed perfectly cheerful, peaceful even. "How was it?" she asked.

    "Well," Keefe said, taking Sophie's hand and leaning back against the tree. "It was actually really good."

    "When I told him, he was really, really hurt. I was afraid I'd ruined your friendship." Sophie admitted.

    "Nah, Fitz is way too cool for that. We just had to have the hard conversation. I had never told him I liked you. So at first he thought I had sort of snaked you away from him. So I explained that I've liked you from day one, and tried to ignore it because I knew you liked him. But as time went on, I could tell that you had feelings for me too, but not enough for you to even acknowledge it. So sometimes I would hint at it, trying to see if I even had a chance. But then Fitz's feelings for you became obvious and I didn't want to get in the way. He actually felt kind of bad when I admitted all that."

    "He did? Why?"

    "Because here he was thinking his best friend stole his girlfriend's heart, when really, I had liked you all along. So then he felt like HE had made things harder on ME by pursuing you. He turned beet red when he remembered paying me to make that painting for you. He felt so bad."

    "Oh, yeah!" Sophie remembered. "Oh, that must've been awful for you!"

    "You have no idea," Keefe muttered darkly. "So Fitz obviously still has feelings for you and thinks he pushed you into my arms by being a jerk about the unmatchable thing, but he told me he wasn't going to let it ruin his friendship with either of us. He told me he's trying to keep from losing his temper so easily. And then we set some boundaries."

    "What kind of boundaries?"

    "Nothing much. I promised I wouldn't talk his ear off about you when we hang out, and told him you and I had already decided to not act too couple-y around him. But then he actually told me that while he appreciates that and is glad we won't make things hard for him, he also wanted us to not hold back because of him."

    "Hold back?"

    "I think it was just his way of giving us his blessing? Like, he could tell this wasn't some idle, silly flirtation." Keefe's eyes were on their clasped hands, his thumb tracing the back of her hand while he spoke. Sophie detected a light blush on his cheeks. "I mean, we haven't really talked much about this, but..."

    "But what?" Sophie asked, her heart flipping to hummingbird mode at the intensity of the moment.

    Keefe's eyes found hers. "I told Grady that I'm serious about this, about you. I didn't have a good example of a good relationship growing up, but I don't want that to be my story. So I'm not interested in just frivolous dating." He squeezed her hand. "Fitz knows me really well. Once I told him everything, he wanted me to know he would find a way to be happy for us. That's all."

    He hadn't actually told her, yet, that he loved her, but Sophie felt that this confession was enough for now. She squeezed his hand back and leaned in to kiss him.

    After a moment, Keefe's lips curled up into a smile as he broke the kiss. "Now...I have something for you," he said mysteriously, jumping to his feet and pulling her up with him.

    He led her into the Grove, reached into the tree he slept in and pulled out a painting, holding it behind his back. "You were wanting to see what I was working on. But I wanted it to be a surprise. Since you caught me working on it yesterday I knew I had to get it finished. So I kind of stayed up half the night to finish it." He looked slightly flustered. Sophie knew he didn't have a lot of confidence in his artistic ability since his parents had never been impressed, but she thought he was incredibly talented.

    So she knew she would love it. But when he held out the painting to her and she saw what he had done, she still gasped as tears sprung to her eyes.

    It was a painting of the two of them, standing among the vines and the glowing toadstools. His photographic memory had enabled him to perfectly capture the moment, after their first kiss, when his forehead was pressed against hers. Their eyes closed, locked in an embrace. She was immediately taken back to that night--was it really only a week ago?--and his quiet declaration that he didn't want to mess things up between them.

    She flipped the painting over to see that he had written "finally" across the back. She didn't realize the tears had started to spill over until they blurred her vision. She impatiently wiped them away and looked up at Keefe. His face looked relieved and very pleased. "I love it," she whispered before throwing her arms around him.

    Keefe hugged her tightly. "Good," he breathed. Then after a moment, he added "but, Foster?...I've grown rather fond of breathing."

    Sophie held on just a second longer before loosening her grip and leaning back to look him in the eye. "Sorry," she said with a laugh. Then she looked down at the painting again. "Keefe, this is...perfect."

    "Yeah, I can feel that," he responded with a slightly shy smile. "I can't tell you how good it feels to know I'M the one making you feel this happy. Or, if we're being honest, this SWOONY," he teased, recovering his usual smirk.

    "It's my new favorite. You definitely give the best gifts. But I'm afraid you've set the bar awfully high. I don't see how you could ever top this," she said playfully.

   

Keefe's face was affectionate as he leaned in and kissed her, but with a hint of mischief he muttered "challenge accepted" against her lips before gently placing his hands on her waist and kissing her again.