Team Foster-Keefe one shots!

#51: Stay With Me

Sophie is absolutely exhausted.

She can barely keep her eyes open, and she's pretty sure her brain is physically turning into mush and is about to pour out of her ears, even though she would never admit it. There's way too much work that has to be done, and even after a few hours of working and investigating, and with the work of two people who both have photographic memories, they still are nowhere near close to done. This is definitely a project to span over the course of a few days, and she probably shouldn't have chosen seven at night to start this stupid thing. It's now past midnight, and Keefe looks just as tired as she feels.

"Foster, my eyesight is going blurry," Keefe whines, ruffling through the pile of scrolls in front of him. Mr. Forkle had dropped off a daunting amount of scrolls for her to look at to piece together what had really happened all those years ago with Vespera, and of course Keefe had been there when she received them, because when is he not there in the most convenient moments?

"I know what you mean. I think all of these letters are starting to become one giant smudge," she agrees, throwing the scroll into the trunk it had come in. It was mostly just reports for missing people, which were incredibly horrifying to read, considering all of those people had gone through the terrible torture that went down in Nightfall. It's a sick, twisted thing, and even thinking about it makes her shudder. She doesn't know why she had even agreed to look at the scrolls in the first place, but if she didn't, who would?

"We've been at this for five hours, maybe it's time to call it a night," he declares, looking up from his scroll to her, and the look on his face makes Sophie's heart go into hummingbird mode. She doesn't even know why anymore, but it's fairly inconvenient, especially because she can't even hide it from Keefe. She could never convince him that she doesn't like him, Keefe is just always thinking whatever he wants to think.

"You're probably right," she says, rubbing her temples, trying to get rid of the buzzing headache threatening to surface. "You're sure your dad won't care that you're coming home late?" she asks, biting her lip, hoping that she hasn't gotten him in trouble. There's no telling how angry Lord Cassius will be when Keefe shows up after midnight, and she'd just beat herself up if she's the reason he got punished.

"I'll be fine, Sophie. My dad isn't home tonight, he's on Council assignment," Keefe explains, helping her put the scrolls back into their rightful place. It seems silly, but every time their hands touch, Sophie's heart stutters.

"You know, it always sounds kinda weird when you call me Sophie," she tells him, standing up and dusting off her pants, closing the lid of the trunk. Keefe stands up after her, picking up the trunk and putting it out of the way under Sophie's desk. She stays standing in the middle of the room, just watching as she claps her hands to open the curtain of the giant window.

"Does it? Maybe I call you Foster too much then," he chuckles. Sophie crosses her arms over her chest, kicking at the petals in her carpet as she laughs with him, not really feeling very funny. She's starting to feel lonely even though Keefe is still there.

"I like it, though. I've never had a nickname before, it's kinda cool," she says, biting her lip awkwardly as Keefe turns to face her. Usually she'd find a smirk on his face, but all she can see is a sweet smile that says nothing but sincerity.

"Oh yeah? Maybe you just hadn't met the right people," he tells her, walking closer and making her breathing stagger. But then she's yawning, covering her mouth with her hands and looking out the window, realising that it's so pitch black she can't even see Calla's panakes.

"You know I never had friends in San Diego. I was the weird twelve year old high school senior," she says, pulling out an eyelash and flicking it to the floor. Keefe's eyes trail the fallen eyelash, then back up to her eyes, his smile widening as he makes eye contact, and Sophie can feel her heart just melt.