KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Bed Rest (part 1)

A/N: This is an alternate ending of sorts, wherein Sophie goes to visit Keefe while he's on bed rest after his sparring match with King Dimitar. It'll be told in two chapters.

It had been a couple of days since their journey to Ravagog.

And Sophie kept having nightmares reliving every moment of Keefe's sparring match with King Dimitar.

She had almost hailed him multiple times. Almost reached out telepathically.

She needed to hear from him, needed to know he was okay.

But...she was still so angry with him. Plus, Elwin would have told her if Keefe wasn't okay. He was checking in on Keefe every day and said Keefe was slowly healing.

And it wasn't like they didn't have a lot of other things to focus on.

Her parents hadn't been in Nightfall. Turned out there was more than one. She needed to find them.

Panic was trying to take hold.

And she really needed the one person who seemed to help keep that panic at bay.

The one person who repeatedly proved capable of calming her down.

She missed him more than she wanted to admit.

It was a little bit like him still being with the Neverseen—and she's only just gotten him back.

So finally, after another night of restlessness and nightmares, she hailed Elwin and asked if she could go with him to visit Keefe that day.

Elwin hesitated. "Isn't he trying to keep his location a secret?"

"I don't care," she said fiercely. "He gave up that right to privacy when he put me through the sparring match the other day. Unless..." her stomach twisted at the thought. "Unless he doesn't want to see me."

Elwin laughed. "I very much doubt that. It's taken both me and Ro to stop him from trying to escape and come back to you. He's having trouble accepting that he needs bed rest and that he's not much help to any of you in his current state."

"So can I come?"

This time, Elwin agreed.

And it turned out Keefe's secret hiding spot was Alvar's apartment.

She didn't love that—what if the Neverseen showed up looking for Alvar's things? Elwin assured her, however, that the Council would've been watching the apartment ever since Alvar's betrayal became known.

And...why did it smell so weird?

So she followed Elwin into the bedroom and watched as Keefe realized she was there. His eyes widened in shock.

"Foster?" He said in disbelief. "I didn't expect to see you." Then he suddenly looked frightened. "Oh no, what happened? Did my mom do something?" He tried to get out of bed but Ro stopped him.

"Everyone is fine," Sophie assured him. "I just..." but she wasn't sure how to say 'I just really needed to see you' without it sounding wrong.

Keefe reached up to run a hand through his hair—and Sophie definitely didn't miss the way he had to brace himself first and still sucked in a breath with the motion.

Then he seemed to remember his hair wasn't fixed and Sophie couldn't help but feel a slightly vindictive pleasure when he blushed.

Never mind the fact that even with bedhead, he still looked really good.

"Are you here to yell at me some more?" He asked in a softer voice. "Because I'm totally ready to grovel. And start buying you lots of gifts as apologies. And whatever else you want."