Elysian (After Stellarlune)

14. Sophie's POV

 When Keefe came back a few minutes later, Sophie was pacing nervously. "How'd it go?" she asked him. "Was it super awful?"

"Actually, it wasn't that bad." Keefe replied. "Do you want to see my memory of it?"

"Sure," Sophie replied, hoping it wouldn't be as bad as she was envisioning.

—

After seeing Keefe's talk with Grady, Sophie sat down and asked, "Are you ok?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Keefe inquired.

"Well... Grady said that he's had to watch me cry over you a lot, and I could hear your thoughts on it. Why would you think I didn't cry over you?" Sophie looked at Keefe, who had sat down beside her.

"I don't know. I always assumed you didn't have any feelings for me, because, you know, you were dating Fitz. So I didn't think much about you crying over me, because I didn't think you cared about me. Back then, I didn't think anyone cared about me."

"Keefe," Sophie said, almost chiding him. "Do you remember what I said a while ago? 'Lots of people care about you, Keefe.' And it's true. So many people care about you. So many that I can't even name them all! I can try, though. There's me, obviously, Fitz, Dex, Biana, Linh, Tam, yes, I said Tam, Grady, Edaline, Marella-"

"Alright, alright, Sophie, I get it. I've got a bunch of people that care about me- blah blah blah, mushy stuff, whatever." Keefe said teasingly. "What are you going to do now? Write a poem about how much you love me? Wait, I know! It'll be called 'The Ballad of Sophie and Keefe!'"

"Yeah , yeah whatever." Though teasing, Sophie felt the tension from Grady's talk lift off of them. She took a deep breath and moved forward a little, towards Keefe. It took all of her courage to close most of the distance between them, until she and Keefe were so close Sophie could feel his breath on her face.

"This again, Foster? You must be infatuated with me. I mean, I get it. I would be in love with me too. Plus, third time's the charm, am I right?" Even though he was joking, Sophie could see the excitement in his eyes. She assumed her eyes looked similar.

"You know," she whispered. "The first time wasn't so bad either."

"Foster," Keefe said, also whispering. "I completely agree."

Then, he kissed her.

It started out as their last one, with nervousness and fragility, at least on Sophie's side. But, slowly, it morphed into something better.

Something new.

And that's when Sophie's brain caught up to her body, and it screamed, I'm kissing Keefe Sencen! Again!

Sophie was exhilarated, and out of breath, and everything was perfect. So perfect, in fact, that Sophie half-expected someone to come and interrupt them, like last time. But it never came. And Sophie, for the first time in a long time, felt happy. She wasn't sure she'd ever been this happy.

The kiss lasted a minute or two, and Sophie's head and heart were racing. She was so close she could feel Keefe's heartbeat as well. It was racing just as fast, if not faster, than Sophie's.

Until, suddenly, it was over, and Sophie longed for more. She looked up at Keefe, who was grinning recklessly.

"I'm so sorry, but I should probably get going." he said, a little sheepish.

"Why? Where are you going?"

"Well, I talked to my dad before we left, and he asked me to come back to the Shores of Solace, since I'm more confident in my powers now. Also, since we're together now, Grady probably doesn't want me staying here anymore. Actually, that reminds me, are we telling the group about us, or are we waiting, or what? We never talked about it earlier."

"Well," Sophie said. "If you're ok with it, I'd like to tell them. I'm trying to be more transparent, and telling them about something harmless like this is the perfect way to start."

"Ok, then, it's settled," Keefe said, his grin spreading once again. "We tell the group about us, asap. How about tomorrow?"

"Um, yeah, ok. Tomorrow sounds great." Sophie said, giving Keefe one more quick kiss as he held up his leaping crystal. "Oh, and by the way? You're welcome here anytime. I mean it. I don't care how mad Grady gets, if you get fed up with your dad, or he continues being a depreciating jerk, you can come straight back here. Oh, wait, that reminds me. One second."

Sophie raced back to the house, and reached into a drawer in the kitchen. When she came back out, she was holding a leaping crystal.

"This is a Havenfield home crystal. If you ever need anything, ever, or you need a break from Cassius, or you just need to talk, I'll be here." At the look on Keefe's face, Sophie reassured him that it was fine. " Don't worry, I'll tell my parents I gave it to you and that they should-" Sophie was cut off by a huge bear hug from Keefe.

"Thank you," he whispered in her ear. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

Sophie smiled into Keefe's shirt. "You're welcome. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok." Then, stepping back, Keefe held up his home crystal and glittered away.

A reason why I love switching between Sophie and Keefe's POVs- we get to see their parallel thoughts! Earlier, Keefe said that he gathered up his courage as he took a step towards Sophie. Now, Sophie had to do the same thing! 

Also, OMG, actual, true SoKeefe! I'm so happy that I got to write basically a whole part about SoKeefe! I'm so excited! Also, I just realized that I am totally fangirling about this and I'm the author! I find that kind of ironic in a way.

K, I want to start a thing where I ask u guys questions and you answer. So, first question, what's ur fav ship in KOTLC? It doesn't have to include Sophie. Mine is SoKeefe, cause you know, that's what this whole part was about, but I'm also a fan of Linhella (Linh + Marella) and Tiana (Tam + Biana). What's your fav, and why? Thx!

Also, also, I know this one was really long. I am trying to make the parts longer, so I don't have 500 of them at the end of this. Don't worry, I've got a plan :)

One more thing: Usually, I would say that this is one of those mellow times, but even I'm super excited about the next part *hint: confession part!* At the time of writing this, I haven't written it yet, so I really want to see what happens. Also the fact that I don't exactly know what happens is kind of weird cause i should have a storyboard or something by now but i don't so we'll go with it.

(Dang, this A/N is long! I just love talking about things I love (or writing about them in this case) And I'm just making it longer by adding this. Oops :)