Book Two: KOTLC One-shots and More

You Took Me By Surprise (Marella POV)

A/N: This is a Tam/Marella one-shot that fits in the Matchmaking AE/AU I wrote.

"I can't believe you're going to attend Keefe's Winnowing Gala," Tam grumbled when Marella showed him her match list.

Marella shrugged, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "What? If you host one, I'll go to yours, too."

"Ugh." Tam pulled his bangs further over his eyes, as though they were in a crowded room full of people staring at him instead of just the two of them alone outside by the firepit at Fluttermont."If I wanted a bunch of girls staring at me but too scared to actually approach me, I could just...well, I do that almost every day when I go to Foxfire. That's basically my life."

"Good," Marella retorted. "Those girls better keep their hands off." Tam was hers.

Tam's lips twitched in a smile. "And yet you're standing there looking all smug and telling me you're going to another guy's Winnowing Gala. And not just any guy," he added. "This is Keefe we're talking about."

"If Fitz were on my list, I'd go to his Gala too," Marella assured him.

He scowled. "That's not much of a comfort," he replied. "But it would still be better than Keefe."

He mumbled something under his breath about fraternizing with the enemy.

Marella just rolled her eyes at him. "He's not the enemy."

"I believe the term that he and I mutually agreed upon was 'frenemies'."

"Besides," Marella continued. "You know why I'm going--and why his is the only one I'll attend--and why I wish Fitz was on my list too--and it's not because I'm interested in either of them."

"Because you're one of the few girls in the world who isn't, and you are irresistibly drawn to the drama and gossip?"

Marella leaned in closer. "Exactly. There will be so much drama! Plus," she added contemplatively, "Dex told me that Keefe has asked Sophie to come to his Gala, claiming he just wants a friend there. But it's no secret that she's...having a hard time deciding what--who--she wants, and Keefe's Gala might be harder for her than she's thinking it will be. Might be nice for her to have an ally there."

"She's been dating Fitz for over a year," Tam told her. "If you ask me, Keefe screwed up one too many times and he lost his chance with her. I told him that would happen, but did he listen? No. Of course he didn't."

"I'm not so sure," Marella argued. "I honestly think there's still something there."

"Sophie's crazy, then," Tam muttered. "Keefe? Seriously?"

Marella shrugged. "Everything you find annoying about Keefe, she seems to find...endearing."

"Gross."

"Hey, the same could be said about you and me," Marella pointed out. "Everything Keefe doesn't like about you, I find pretty awesome."

"Like what?"

"Like...your hair," she pointed out. "Or your ability to stand there looking all hot and broody and pouty."

"I'm not pouty."

"You were when I told you I wanted to go to Keefe's Gala. Don't tell me you're jealous."

Tam laughed and sat in one of the flaredon fur-covered beanbag chairs that Marella's parents had placed around the firepit. "Of Keefe? Definitely not." He held out a hand, and Marella immediately moved to sit with him. His arms snaked around her waist as he murmured, "I know I'm the one you want."