fifty sokeefe kisses

(33) rain

"Catch me if you can!"

Sophie frowned. She caught a flash of blond hair as Keefe raced through the trees up ahead.

"It's not a competition, you idiot!" she called after him, even as she willed her legs to move faster. Sandor would probably yell at her for breaking away from the group, but maybe if she blamed it on Keefe, Sandor would at least yell at him, too.

Foxfire was on break for the holidays, and Mr. Forkle had decided it was the perfect time to get Sophie started on a physical training program—to balance out the heavy mental and emotional drain of her Ability lessons, he claimed, but in her opinion, Mr. Forkle just wanted her to suffer. She was supposed to be relaxing and hanging out with her friends, maybe cracking a mystery or two, but instead they'd all spent the last three days hiking up mountains, swimming across lakes, and—for today's specialty—jogging through a misty forest.

Keefe's competitive streak had kept things... interesting, at least. Sandor had stressed that today's training was about endurance, not speed. As always, Keefe took his word as a personal challenge. And, as always, he had to make it Sophie's business, too.

Her lungs burned as she struggled to keep up with him. She could just barely see the shadow of his figure through the misty air as the path curved up ahead, and Keefe turned with it.

Hmm. Maybe she could cut him off if she judged the distance correctly...

Sophie ducked between the trees as she ran to keep up with him. The mist seemed to blanket the forest in early morning silence. The only thing she could hear was the sound of her heavy breaths and her footfalls against the forest floor, and soon enough, the sound of Keefe's carefree footsteps as he jogged along the path.

"Boo!" she shouted, leaping out from the trees. Keefe screamed, losing his balance and falling onto his side into a pile of leaves.

He glared up at her as she doubled over with laughter. "Okay, Foster, very funny."

"You should've seen your face," Sophie said gleefully. "I thought you were going to cry."

"Yeah, yeah, you got me good," Keefe admitted. He reached a hand up toward her. "The least you can do is help me up now."

Still giggling, she took his hand to pull him to his feet—and shrieked as she found herself yanked down onto the pile of leaves beside him.

Sophie sat up and blew a leaf off of her face. "I can't say I didn't see that coming."

Keefe gave her an amused grin. "You know me so well."

She stuck out a hand. "Truce, then?"

He pretended to consider it before shaking her hand. "Truce," he said with an affirming nod.

As they stood and dusted themselves off, Sophie realized she hadn't seen anyone else in a while. "How far behind do you think the others are?" she wondered.

"Judging by how badly Tam was huffing and puffing, they'll probably take a while to catch up," Keefe answered. "We're almost at the clearing. Sandor wanted to stop there, anyway."

He was right—through the mist she could spot a break in the trees up ahead.

She gave her boyfriend a sideways glance. "...I'll race you."

Keefe looked at her in disbelief. "Do you not know what a truce means?"

In response, Sophie took off running. Keefe cursed under his breath as he ran to catch up.

The light from the clearing grew brighter as she neared. Her heart was pounding and her legs ached, but she willed herself to push on as Keefe's footsteps grew louder behind her.

Triumphantly, Sophie smacked her hand against the the nearest tree at the edge of the clearing. "I win!" she declared.

Keefe slowed to a stop behind her. "That was cheating," he whined.

"It was not," Sophie panted, pushing her hair out of her face. She paused when she felt that her hair was entirely wet. That couldn't just be from the mist, right? "Is it raining?" she asked, glancing up at the gray sky.

"Uh, don't try to change the subject," Keefe called after her as she walked further into the clearing. "I'm trying to have an argument with you here. I say we go back to the start and redo this whole—"

"No, Keefe, it's raining!" Sophie told him, feeling the droplets land along her skin. "Look!"

The rain began to pick up, increasing from a sprinkle to a shower. Water streamed down Sophie's face, soaking into her hair and the collar of her shirt and puddling into mud at her feet. After all the running she'd done today, the cool touch of the rain against her warm skin was nothing short of heavenly. 

She turned to look at Keefe. "Come here!"

He remained stubbornly parked underneath the trees at the clearing's edge, watching her with amusement. "I'm good, babe. You know how the Hair can be—high maintenance, high reward. And if I get this gel wet it's all over for—"

Sophie ran up to him. "Your hair always looks great," she said, then she leaned up and kissed him. "Now come on!"

A little dazed, Keefe could only blink and nod. "Okay. Wait—!"

She grabbed his wrist and dragged him out from under the protection of the trees and into the pouring rain. Keefe stood in front of her, open-mouthed, as his clothes grew more soaked and his hair flattened to his head.

"I'm not letting you get away with this," he warned.

She snorted. "I'd like to see you try."

Keefe widened his eyes. "Oh, I will."

Without warning, he lunged towards her. Sophie laughed as she darted out of his reach, but he  caught her by the waist and lifted her off her feet.

She shrieked and grabbed at his shoulders as he spun her around. "Okay, okay! Truce! I'll take that truce now!"

"Oh, so now you honor the truce?" Keefe shot back, but he set her back on her feet.

Sophie steadied herself against him. It was raining so hard that they were both thoroughly drenched, but she could still feel his body heat through the wet clothes clinging to their skin.

"Yes," she agreed, winding her arms around his shoulders. "Now we're even."

Keefe cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. For a moment, even the sound of the heavy downpour was drowned out by the feeling of his hands on her skin and the sensation of his lips, warm and soft, against hers.

They pulled away and Keefe's eyes fluttered open. The blue of his iris was bright against the gray sky, as if it was the only color that existed in the world. Sophie would be okay with that, she thought.

"Sandor's going to yell at us," she murmured.

Keefe pushed back a strand of wet hair that was plastered to her cheek. "I think I'll get over it," he replied good-naturedly.

Sophie laughed and leaned in to kiss him again, to which Keefe happily obliged.

The rain continued to pour around them with no end in sight.