KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Christmas (part 3)

The next gift was a familiar looking collection of the Lord of the Rings books.

"Are these...mine?"

Keefe nodded. "I remembered that you'd gone with Councillor Terik to Mysterium where they were keeping all of your belongings from your human home, back when Alden's mind was broken. So I asked Alden to get me in touch with him and asked if it was all still there. It is. He agreed to take me, and I got your old books. I thought maybe you missed these things more than you let on, and thought it might mean more to get your copies instead of just new ones."

"Wow," she breathed.

As she opened the other gifts, she saw he'd grabbed not only Lord of the Rings, but also Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia.

"There were others," he said. "You had a bookshelf full of books. And you didn't bring any of them with you when you came to the Lost Cities. I left them on the shelves, only grabbing these since we've been talking about them, but Terik said to reach out anytime if you want the rest of them."

Sophie felt the tears rolling down her cheeks as she looked at the familiar book covers. Inside the first book of the Narnia box set was her dad's handwriting. 'For our little soybean. A book series as magical and wonderful as you. Happy birthday, Sophie. Love always, Mom and Dad.'

Her heart somehow swelled and broke at the same time. This loss of her first family was a grief she knew she'd always carry.

"I don't think I realized until this moment, how much I've missed these books," she choked out. "How did you know?"

She felt Keefe's fingers hook under her chin and tilt her head back up to look at him. "Because I know you," he said simply. He gently wiped the tears off her cheeks. "And the way you so adamantly insisted that the book is always better than the movie adaptation, I figured you'd enjoy reading them again. And I also figured...I could read them too. That's another way Dex and Fitz helped me. Dex transferred lusters to dollars and Fitz used Alden's pathfinder to go to the Forbidden Cities to buy the books. I have my own copy of each of these books. I thought we could spend the rest of break reading them together."

Sophie looked at him, but couldn't think of the words to say.

But he seemed to understand. He leaned in, slowly, and kissed her.

"Thank you," she said thickly when they pulled apart. "And you're really willing to read them with me?"

He nodded. "Of course. And then someday, when we're married, I can give my copies away. We won't need two sets of them. I doubt Fitz is interested, but Dex might be."

Sophie didn't know how he did it. Every time he gave her a gift, he managed to blow her away with his thoughtfulness, his kindness. With how well he knew her.

Sometimes she felt terribly out of balance, because she didn't give him such amazing presents.

As if he knew what she was thinking, he shook his head. "Foster...you love me. That's the best gift anyone has ever given me." He reached for her hand. "You're wearing my promise ring. You want to marry me someday. Have kids with me. Even the fact that you've been quietly worrying about me moving to the Gold Tower soon, refusing to tell me that it makes you sad, but very obviously feeling it--I can't tell you what that means to me."

He was right. She hadn't said anything to him about it. She liked him living on Havenfield grounds. He was always right there. They saw each other at every meal. They leapt home from Foxfire together. They were able to say good morning and good night every single day.

That would change when he moved to the towers. She knew he'd still be around, he'd come over and eat with her, Grady and Edaline, and he'd still be there many evenings to kiss her goodnight before leaping back to Foxfire, but still...things were changing.

She couldn't quite explain, even to herself, why it mattered so much. It would cut into their time together, especially since his studies during the elite levels would be more rigorous and take up more of his time, but still.

He loved her and would come running any time she needed him. It shouldn't bother her, but it did.

And he'd picked up on it.

"I know you're sad about me having to move," he continued in a soothing voice. "I'm sad about it too. But I thought maybe this would give us something to focus on during the rest of our break. And then we could pick other books, if you want. Other ones you'd liked. Or other classics you never got around to reading before. Something for just you and me to read and talk about together, even when we're not living on the same grounds anymore."

"That sounds perfect," Sophie whispered.

And then she leaned in, weaving her fingers into his hair again and pulling him toward her.

This time he didn't stop her.

He just held her close and kissed her.

She expected him to pull away after only a moment, cracking some joke about her overwhelming emotions. But he didn't. He continued to kiss her, pressing her into the back of the couch, and the moment went on and on.

And on.

When he finally did break the kiss, he was breathing faster than normal and the fire in his eyes was apparent. "Do you have any idea," he muttered in a husky voice, "how hard it is to have self control with you when your emotions make it painfully obvious you don't even want me to?"

She let out a shaky laugh. "Sorry." But she knew they did need to rein it in or they'd cross those careful lines they'd agreed upon. When he wasn't kissing her until she was half out of her mind, she knew she wanted to wait. It was only when he drove her crazy like this that she would start to forget it. So she grinned coyly at him. "I guess I'm irresistible too."

He chuckled. "Unequivocally." He got up to stoke the fire, but Sophie thought she heard him mumble "you'll be the death of me" under his breath.

But it was with a sweet smile on his face that he curled up on the couch, pulling her against him and wrapping his arms around her. "Let's just enjoy the fire a little while longer before we need to leave."

Sophie smiled, staring at the fire. "Merry Christmas, Keefe."

His breath was warm on her cheek as he pressed his lips softly to her temple. "Merry Christmas, Sophie."