KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Christmas (part 1)

Keefe had genuinely seemed to enjoy the Christmas movies they watched, in spite of how inaccurate the elves were.

He especially seemed to get a kick out of the elves being so short.

And one evening, he asked Sophie if she understood that while elves were real, Santa Claus was, in fact, actually a myth.

"I actually figured as much," Sophie told him with an eye roll, "but honestly, nothing would surprise me anymore."

Keefe grinned. "Do you miss celebrating Christmas?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "I miss...family traditions, yeah. But my life is so much better here. I loved my family--and still do--but it's so much easier to live without everyone's thoughts bombarding me all the time. That was...agony."

"I don't doubt it," Keefe agreed. "And I know you're happy here. I just wondered how you'd feel about maybe still celebrating Christmas."

She looked at him, curious now. "How so?"

Keefe shrugged. "Come for a walk with me and find out."

So she took his hand and they began walking downstairs.

Edaline greeted them at the base of the stairs and wordlessly handed them each a mug of cinnacreme. Keefe gave her a grateful wink as they sat at the table to enjoy their drinks.

"According to my extensive research, hot cocoa is a Christmastime tradition. I thought for tonight, we could enjoy the slightly more traditional Elvin treat of cinnacreme."

Sophie laughed. "Works for me."

After finishing their drinks, Keefe took Sophie's hand and led her outside and straight for the Panakes. They normally sat near the trunk, but this time, Keefe merely stopped under one of the branches and silently pointed upward.

Sophie looked and saw that something had been tied to one of the branches and was hanging down above their heads. "Are those...lushberries?" She asked.

Keefe shrugged. "I didn't actually have access to mistletoe."

"Oh," Sophie said, comprehension dawning on her at last. "How did you even know about that? Is mistletoe in one of the movies we watched?"

"I've done some research on my own," he admitted with a smirk. "When I read about how you have to kiss someone if you're caught standing with them under mistletoe I knew I had to add it to my plan for this evening."

Sophie rolled her eyes at him, though she could feel her lips curl up into an indulgent smile. "Because we don't already kiss whenever we want?" she asked, shaking her head. "It's not exactly like you had to resort to tricking me into standing under mistletoe."

Keefe simply smirked and wrapped his arms around her. "I know, I can pretty much kiss you as much as I want because you find me so irresistible," he agreed, leaning in to kiss her. "But tradition is tradition," he whispered against her lips before kissing her again. "And you know how much I love following tradition."

He had her until that last part. Once again, he'd crafted a moment so sweet that she found herself almost dizzy from euphoria. Once again, he'd made that moment grow into something that made her tremble.

And then once again, he'd burst the little intoxicating bubble he'd created, making her laugh.

"You are far from a traditionalist," she told him.

He grinned. "Oh well. It's still fun to kiss you under the fake mistletoe." Then he pulled away and took her hand again. "You're going to have to forgive me for not being able to keep this one quite as close to typical tradition," he explained as they walked through the pastures. "It's something akin to a sleigh ride but with no horses or snow. Or sleighs. There's only a hyperactive mama alicorn who loves you almost as much as she loves me."