KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Elves

A/N: I'll be taking a few chapters to explore the concept of Sophie educating Keefe on humans' various myths about elves. These will be set in my main story, between "Promises" and "Moving Day", during the break between school years.

"That was...interesting," Keefe told Sophie as the end credits began.

"I've watched some of the human movies my mom watches and this one was much cooler than those," Dex pointed out.

"Oh I liked it," Keefe agreed. "'Lord of the Rings' was a good gift, Foster."

"There are two more, you know," Sophie pointed out.

Keefe sat up straighter. "Seriously?"

Sophie laughed. "Didn't I tell you that? It's a trilogy."

"Well no wonder it ended so weird! Okay, we gotta get the other two! Is Legolas in the others more? Is Rivendell? Are there more elves? I have so many questions!"

Dex grinned. "We have all day," he pointed out. "And the DVD isn't really necessary. Give me a minute and I can find the others."

"Fitz and Biana are crazy for not wanting to watch," Keefe commented while Dex fiddled with the laptop they'd managed to get their hands on. Apparently Dex had gotten a lot of human tech to practice on after he manifested.

"They don't seem as drawn to my human upbringing as you are," she pointed out.

"That's because they're not as drawn to you as I am," Keefe murmured in a low voice. He was leaning in to kiss her when Dex made a gagging noise.

Keefe smirked and looked at Dex. "Don't start with me, sir," he said, pointing a finger at him. "According to Fitz, they can't go anywhere at Everglen anymore without running the risk of walking in on you and Biana having a smooch fest."

Dex blushed and tried to suppress a grin, but otherwise pretended not to have heard Keefe.

Troublemaker, Sophie transmitted to Keefe.

Hey, he kept me from kissing you, and that's a tragedy. I was provoked.

I'll make it up to you later, she promised.

They watched both remaining movies back to back.

And both boys had a great time pointing out everything the humans had gotten right--and wrong--about elves.

"Of course they gave them pointy ears, talk about a cliché," Keefe remarked.

"And they're immortal, and their homes seem idyllic, but...they don't seem to mind the killing, so much," Dex added.

"I don't think the dwarves, the goblins or the trolls would be very happy with how they were represented," Keefe added. Then he snorted. "We should totally make Sandor watch. I can hear his squeaky sigh already."

Sandor stuck his head in the door. "I can hear you, you know," he said. "And I could hear the movie. Humans don't get much right, so I'm not surprised that to them, goblins would be the stuff of nightmares. They have no idea how noble, and fierce, and strong, and intelligent—"

"To humans, elves are myths," Sophie reminded them, cutting Sandor off before he could launch into a speech. "Some of it may be grounded in truth, but it's been millennia so obviously the details get iffy in that time."

Sandor looked like he was about to sigh, but looked at Keefe and suppressed it, merely moving back to his post outside Sophie's bedroom.

"Yeah, I guess they make more sense than the elves I saw on those E.L. Fudges," Keefe agreed. "Or that stuffed elf I gave you," he added, grabbing it off Sophie's bedside table.

Dex took one look at it and snorted. "That's supposed to be an elf?"

"Hey," Sophie said indignantly, taking the elf from Keefe and holding it tight. "I love this little elf."

Keefe smirked. "Only because I got it for you."

Sophie just smiled at him. "And when you gave it to me," she added. "After you'd been gone and I'd missed you so much."

"And pining for me, I know," Keefe said with a wink. "But honestly, who could blame you?"

Sophie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Only a little." She hadn't really been pining for him, and he knew it.

But he was just so adorable.

And he knew that, too.

Dating Keefe meant a lot of laughter.

And a lot of sighing and eye-rolling, too, but that was more than okay.

Dating Keefe was easy.

However, dating a powerful Empath came with a price.

He could feel her rush of emotions and rarely refrained from calling her out—loudly—for swooning over him.

But she didn't mind too much. He hadn't had much affection growing up.

Dex stood up and stretched. "I need to leave. I told Biana I'd come over for a bit this evening. Thank Edaline for conjuring lunch and dinner to us for our movie marathon, will you?"

"Of course." Sophie smiled at him.

"Yeah, go have fun making Fitz uncomfortable some more," Keefe told him with a smirk.

Dex rolled his eyes. "Keefe, you're one of my best friends, but I honestly don't know how Sophie puts up with you."

Keefe just shrugged. "She knows quality when she sees it."

With one last eye roll for Keefe and smile for Sophie, Dex held up his crystal and glittered away.

"Alright, Foster, we—"

But Sophie cut him off, taking his face in her hands and kissing him.

"Sorry, what was that?" She asked after a moment.

But Keefe just shook his head, looking slightly dazed, and drew her in closer, kissing her again. When he finally pulled away, he murmured, "you are way too cute to resist, Foster, you know that?"

She grinned. "Good. I just had to make up for that almost kiss from earlier."

"Feel free to make up for all the missed kiss opportunities that we could've had while I was pining for you and you were totally oblivious," Keefe said, raising one eyebrow at her suggestively. "I won't complain."

"So you were pining for me, not the other way around."

"I guess I was. I just didn't think I should say 'hey Foster, you're totally in love with me even though you don't see it. Trust the Empath, I understand emotions!'"

Sophie laughed. "Even though you would've been right?"

Keefe shrugged. "It was your emotional journey and you had to take it, wherever you ended up. I'm just glad it was with me."

Sophie couldn't help it. She leaned in to kiss him again. "Me too," she agreed sweetly. "Now...what were you about to say earlier?"

Keefe leaned back against her pillows, but reached for her hand. "Just that we need to make a list of the other human movies with elves so we can watch them."

"There are so many," Sophie mused. "The fantasy ones are at least slightly more accurate. Well...except Harry Potter. Hmm. Where to start?"

"What exactly is a 'hairy potter'?"

Sophie sighed. "Okay, maybe we should wrap up fantasy before moving on to Christmas."

"Hey, Foster?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't get irritated with me, but...what exactly is Christmas?"