KOTLC After Stellarlune-A Sokeefe Story

Ro (part 4)

Keefe jumped up off the couch. "Tomorrow?" He looked so hopeful. It was very sweet and very adorable.

Grady smiled. "Yes, tomorrow. Sophie, that means you'll have to miss a day of classes, but I assume you don't mind."

Sophie shook her head. "No, this is more important."

Grady smiled. "I'll let Magnate Leto know and he can pass that on to your mentors."

"Oh, wait," Keefe said. "Master Cadence will be at Foxfire. How do we even go without riding her houseboat?"

"Believe it or not, they are willing to allow Sophie to teleport you there. Then you'll have an escort to take you to where Ro is being cared for." Grady took a step closer to Keefe and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You need to prepare yourself for how she's going to look. The good news is, she is stable, for now, and they are starting to be more hopeful that she will survive it. But they tell me she is still unconscious and her injuries are extensive. She will look pretty beat up."

Keefe nodded. "I was already prepared for that." He stole a quick glance at Sophie. "We saw Mr. Forkle's injuries that day in Lumenaria and were with him when he died. It won't be pleasant, but we can handle it."

Grady gave his shoulder a squeeze and nodded in understanding. "Yes, you can handle yourselves." There was a pause during which Grady looked directly into Keefe's eyes. "I trust you."

Keefe's face lit up at that. "You see, Foster, I told you I'd slowly wear him down!" He said with a smirk, though Sophie could see the happy tears causing his eyes to shine a bit brighter than normal.

Grady removed his hand from Keefe's shoulder as he rolled his eyes. "They want you there early so they don't have to wait around to escort you in. You should probably go to bed now." He reached out to give Sophie a quick hug. "Goodnight, kiddo."

"Goodnight, Dad." She squeezed him tight for a moment. "Thank you." He smiled at her one more time and then left.

"Alright Foster, guess we should go to bed too. Tomorrow is going to be...well, I don't really even know."

Sophie inched closer to Keefe, placed her hands on his face, and kissed him. "Neither do I. But we'll handle it together." 

"Together," he agreed.

The next morning, Sophie and Keefe stood outside in the pastures, hand in hand.

"You ready for this, Foster?"

She looked at him. "The teleporting, sure. After that...we'll see."

He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Together," he reminded her.

And with that, they were off.

Just as Grady said, there was an ogre escort waiting for them. "Okay," he said with no preamble, not even a simple introduction. "This way."

Sophie squeezed Keefe's hand as they started walking. She remembered the last time they were here together. Seeing Keefe bleeding so badly. Being so angry with him and so scared for him at the same time.

Of course, Keefe could feel what she was feeling and said quietly "calm down, Foster. This isn't like last time. No arrogant plan changes this time, I promise. Unless of course, you're dying to see my abs again," he said with raised eyebrows and a playful smile on his face.

Sophie blushed slightly at the thought but chose to ignore that last part. "Good, because I don't see how getting into another bloody fight would help the ogre princess."

As their escort brought them up to a closed door, he stopped them. "I will leave you here. Our people will be coming in and out to check on her and administer medicine, but you have been given permission to stay all day as long as you don't get in their way."

With that, he left them. They entered the room and immediately found her lying in bed. She was covered in multiple bandages and the rest of her was bruised and swollen. But still, she looked like Ro. Pigtails, bright pink (rather sharp) fingernails and all. They sat down in the empty chairs by her bedside. An ogre was there, changing the dressing on one of her nastier looking wounds.

"How is she?" Keefe asked.

"Much better than I would have expected, to be honest. Her breaks have been set and her wounds have stopped bleeding. If she continues on this path, I think her wounds will fully heal. The question now is whether or not she will wake."

"Who knows," Sophie said quietly as the ogre left the room.  "Maybe hearing our voices will help wake her."

"Yeah, maybe. Even an unconscious Ro would want to know I'm here. You know, so she could try to use what strength she has to smack me."

Sophie laughed, then turned serious. "Ro? Thank you for our last conversation. You don't know what you did for me, giving me Hope...and giving me hope. I didn't understand what I was feeling until after we talked. Please wake up so I can tell you again."

Keefe leaned over and looked at Ro. "Hey!" he said as loudly as was comfortable in such a serious setting. "I need you to wake up! I took your advice and it totally worked! My amazing kissing skills totally won Foster's heart! She's madly in love with me now." He smirked at Sophie.

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to him. After we found Keefe, I was dropping hints over and over, trying to see if he still liked me. I had actually decided he had to have gotten over me and was trying to figure out how to not be heartbroken about it until I worked up the courage to tell him. Only THEN did he kiss me."

Keefe looked at her with raised eyebrows. "So you agree I have great kissing skills?"

"I'm just saying if Ro's advice was to just grab me and kiss me, then I'm not sure you really took it. At least not without a lot of encouragement. But also...yes." Sophie winked at him. Then she turned to look at Ro. "She doesn't seem like she's waking up yet."

"Nope. But we are here all day, by her side, whether she does or not." Keefe reached over to take Sophie's hand and they sat in silence for a while, watching Ro's steady breathing and quietly begging those eyes to open.