KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Flashback 8-10:part 3 (Keefe POV)

Foster's hand was outstretched, reaching for him, but he couldn't take it.

He didn't deserve it.

He was too much of a screw up. Everything he touched was ruined, tainted.

She was disappointed he didn't take her hand, but didn't seem offended by it. She seemed to understand.

She merely asked Magnate Leto if she could have a few minutes with Keefe. Ro, of course, was all over that, insisting that Keefe needed a pep talk—little though he deserved it—and ushering everyone out and forcing Keefe to sit next to Foster's cot.

But before she could push Tam or Dex out, he called after them. "I forgot to say...thanks. For helping her. And Fitz." He stole a quick glance at Fitz, wishing his best friend was awake.

Dex tried to make light of it—standing there with his arm in a sling—but Sophie and Fitz would have died if Dex and Wylie hadn't shown up.

And Keefe shifted his focus to Tam, too, because they'd still have died if it hadn't been for him.

But when Keefe couldn't help but point out that his only role on their team seemed to be that of designated loser, Ro grew impatient and rushed the other boys out.

Elwin refused to go until he'd given Foster her medicine.

Once Ro had forced Elwin out too, she told Keefe, "it's time to listen to your girl. No arguing—she's smarter than you. And remember what you and I have talked about."

She's not my girl, Keefe thought bitterly.

"What have you and Ro talked about?" Foster asked him.

"It doesn't matter." Keefe couldn't bear to look at her, so he mumbled it to his feet instead.

She sighed. "Look at me, Keefe."

He just..couldn't.

He didn't deserve to.

But she kept repeating his name, demanding that he look at her, so finally...he did.

And he knew she could see how broken he was.

He felt how sad it made her. It was one of the things he loved about her. She didn't pity him, but she hated when he was miserable—it made her sad—because for some reason she believed he deserved better.

"Do you trust me?" she asked.

Everything but your judgment if you're still talking to me.

"Of course I do—that's not the problem."

Sophie was nearly always the solution, not the problem.

"Yes, it is. If you trusted me, you'd know I'd never hold something like this against you."

"You should." He pointed to her cocoon of bandages.

And she just wouldn't let him take the blame, she insisted that all the ways his mom had manipulated him weren't his fault.

And he might've believed her if he hadn't made so many mistakes even apart from his mom's influence.

"The Neverseen don't get to control who I care about," she told him. "And neither do you. Even when you make mistakes, that doesn't change how I feel about you—and you're an Empath. You know I'm not just saying that."

She wasn't.

And it was...confusing.

He let out a bitter laugh and said, "trust me, Foster, if I could understand your feelings, life would be way easier."