Book Two: KOTLC One-shots and More

Must Be Dreaming (Keefe POV)

A/N: Just FYI, I will be potentially out of cell phone range for the next few days. I generally update between 6-8 AM central time, but I have no idea if I'll have cell coverage at that time, so Monday's update could come through later than normal.

Kissing Sophie...there was absolutely nothing like it. Everything he'd ever felt about her, every idle imagining of how amazing they would be together, all proved to be completely true. He felt a sort of heightening of sensation, everything in him coming alive as he circled his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. She felt like warmth and kindness and loyalty and passion and love.

And home. She felt like home.

He could feel that same sense of belonging from Sophie as they shared this incredible kiss.

They eventually broke apart and Keefe looked at her, completely in awe of this amazing girl. He was a little breathless, but that didn't stop him from emphatically whispering, "I love you," at the same time she did.

She let out a little laugh when she realized they'd both spoken. But Keefe was just too amazed, too overcome with joy to do anything other than duck his head down and hold her face in his hands, kissing her again.

She loves me, he kept telling himself. It was almost too good to be true, after so long of her denying it to herself, to hear her say those words to him at long last.

He felt tears burning his eyes as he pulled away and looked at her. "I was starting to think it would never happen," he told her. "Even though any time you enhanced my empathy I could still tell that your feelings for me were there. But you were getting closer to Fitz and totally ignorant about your feelings for me. I was losing hope. But now? I hate that Fitz is hurting, and I dread how much this will hurt him even more, but...I'm so happy at the same time."

She studied him for a moment, and he felt her small flicker of guilt before she even spoke. "I'm sorry for all the pain Fitz and I caused you by being together. I had no idea. And...I'm really glad you didn't give up on me."

"Dex told me not to," Keefe told her. "He could see, he could tell. And he insisted that he wasn't going to get in the way, and wasn't going to stir up trouble, but he was convinced that you had feelings for me too."

"So he told you not to give up?"

Keefe nodded. "Obviously he kept it to himself, didn't want to put himself or Biana in the middle of something, but..."

"When you first told us you had a date with Anabel, and I overheard you arguing..."

Keefe smirked at her. He should've realized she'd been close enough to hear them. "You heard that, huh?"

"Only part of it. And then again at Slurps and Burps."

"Well, he'll be happy for us when he finds out," Keefe said. But then he frowned. "But how on earth do we tell Fitz? Maybe we should keep it quiet for a while."

"Maybe. Except...well, he asked me about you today. When we broke up, he asked...he asked if I had feelings for you. I couldn't lie to him, I had to tell him that I did."

"So you're saying...when he sent me to you today...he knew you liked me?"

"You're right," she said, comprehension dawning on her face.

It would also explain the anger Fitz had been battling this morning—realizing that his best friend was the one Sophie really wanted had to have angered him, and then Keefe had shown up outside his door.

And yet...Fitz had fought his anger, he'd still let Keefe in, still talked to him, and then even insisted Keefe go see Sophie.

Fitz was kind of amazing.