KOTLC After Stellarlune-A Sokeefe Story

Another Graduation (Keefe POV)

"Stop fussing, you look incredible." Keefe couldn't help but laugh a little bit at Sophie's aversion to sparkles. He walked up behind her and put his arms around her, his hands coming to rest on her growing belly. "I bet if Emma could see you right now she'd say the same."

Sophie sighed. "I guess. At least we don't have to wear the cap and gown that humans always wear at graduations."

"Oh, I've seen those. Those caps are super weird."

"Yeah, because nothing the elves ever do is weird."

"I don't see why anyone would want to wear a hat at all. And those things would wreak havoc on The Hair."

Sophie grinned as she turned to face him, bringing her hands up to his face. "You don't mind too much when I wreak havoc on your hair," she pointed out playfully.

Oooh, wow. He loved it when she flirted with him like that.

"Yeah, well, you're a lot cuter than a graduation cap," he muttered, kissing her. After a moment he pulled away--conveniently right before her hands found their way into his hair. "But you'd better stop talking to me--or looking at me—like that or I'm going to make you miss your own graduation. And Grady and Edaline would kill me for that."

"True," Sophie agreed.

After leaping to Foxfire, Sophie went to join the group of graduates. Keefe gave Grady and Edaline a quick hug before going to find Fitz.

"Alright, dude, tell me all about it. How did it go?"

Fitz grinned at him. "Well, I took her to the pet store, because she loves looking at all the animals. Thankfully she didn't buy another one—her murcat is enough to be dealing with."

"She does have a thing for animals. I guess maybe living with Tammy Boy for so long left her starved for the warm and the cuddly."

Fitz grinned. "Maybe that's why she fell in love with me. I'm super warm and cuddly. Anyway, after we wandered Atlantis for a while, we wound up by the statue they made of you, her and Sophie. And I said all kinds of awesome romantic things about how amazing and smart and beautiful and strong and brave she is, and I proposed."

"And considering I can see the glare from that massive ring we picked out even from across the field, I'm guessing she said yes."

"You absolutely can't see her ring from here, we can't even see her," Fitz said, rolling his eyes. "But yes, she said yes. We'll get married as soon as we can get the wedding planned, so in the next three months or so. We don't want to wait very long. She's worried about Sophie having to miss the wedding because she's in labor or something. Which would be pretty bad, because I want Sophie there too. And because you'd miss too, and I definitely need you up there with me."

"Absolutely," Keefe said. "That's what best friends are for. Who is Linh asking?"

"Marella."

"Not surprised. Hey, have things gotten any better with Linh's parents? Will you invite them?"

"Ehh. She and Tam are both trying to be more willing to be around them, but it's hard, even though it's clear that they want Tam and Linh in their lives."

"It can be really hard to forgive and forget the past mistreatments, no matter how much the parent seems to have changed," Keefe told him. He knew that better than anyone. Cassius had been trying to behave like a normal person, and Keefe still struggled to accept it. It was hard not to get suspicious or angry any time Cassius asked how he was, or how Sophie was feeling, or how Mentoring was going.

"I knew you'd understand," Fitz said quietly. "But, they'll be invited to the wedding. And thankfully, the fact that I'm a Vacker makes it less awkward all around, no one is surprised to hear she's taking my name. I think Tam and Rayni are both wanting to ditch their family names one day."

Keefe snorted. "So they'll have to pick a new one. It'll have to be something musical," he mused. "A Song marrying an Aria. They'll have to call themselves Interlude or Melody or Jingle or something."

"I seriously doubt it," Fitz laughed.

Keefe and Fitz sat together during the ceremony--surrounded by the Ruewens, the Vackers and the Dizznees.

"Okay, now I can definitely see the ring," Keefe whispered to Fitz as the ceremony started. "Sophie would've killed me if I'd tried to give her one that big and sparkly."

Fitz's shoulders shuddered with silent laughter. "As clumsy as that girl is, she'd hurt anyone around her with a big ring. One absentminded hand gesture and she'd totally take out someone's eye."

Keefe laughed, not managing to stay quite as silent as his best friend. "Oh, but I love her, clumsy and all."

Pregnancy made Sophie, if anything, even more beautiful than before. Or maybe it was just that her belly was growing with his daughter. Either way, he couldn't keep his eyes off her, and couldn't wait for the ceremony to end so he could wrap her in a big hug.

Which is exactly what he did the second he reached her. Fitz reached Linh a second later, reaching out for her and kissing her. Linh brought her hands to Fitz's face as she kissed him---and wow that ring was sparkly.

"Wow, dude, I'm going to have to shield my eyes anytime Linh's around now," Keefe joked. "That ring is bright! Oh, hey, maybe Tam could do his creepy shade thing and keep the ring cast in shadow for us."

Tam, who stood nearby, rolled his eyes at Keefe's joke but said nothing. Linh pulled away from Fitz and stuck her tongue out at him.

Sophie, predictably, smacked him on the arm. "Play nice," she said with mock reproach in her eyes.

Keefe raised one eyebrow as he looked at Sophie. "I'll be nice, but I'll save the playing for when we go home later," he murmured, ignoring the gagging noises Tam was making at his comment.

"Seriously, congratulations," he told Linh. "For the graduation and the engagement." He gave her a quick hug before moving on to embrace Dex and Biana.

Grady and Edaline had made it to Sophie by then, and wrapped her in a big hug.

"We're so proud of you, sweetheart," Keefe heard Edaline tell her. There were tears in her eyes, and Grady had his arm around Edaline--also looking tearful.

Keefe thought he understood why. Jolie had died before she graduated. And given the number of times Sophie almost died, they probably worried they wouldn't reach this point with Sophie either.

And, though he hadn't admitted it to Sophie (he'd forced himself to stay strong, for her), her scare at the beginning of the pregnancy had freaked him out pretty badly too. For a few minutes, he was as worried as she was about losing the baby—losing his daughter. He shuddered when he remembered the pain that came with just the thought of losing his child.

The pain Grady and Edaline had endured at Jolie's loss must've been unbearable.

Keefe felt a deep rush of affection for his in-laws and was grateful that he and Sophie would be spending the evening celebrating with them.

They deserved every minute of happiness that had been stolen from them by Brant.