KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

The Louvre

A/N: A bonus chapter from my main story, fitting between "Announcement" and "Full Circle".

Kenric had been back in the Lost Cities for about a week. Sophie and Keefe had gone to see him at Oralie's castle, and the change in both of them was palpable. Kenric had always been cheerful, but anytime Sophie had been around the both of them, she mostly remembered the wistful way he would stare at Oralie.

Oralie had been fairly stoic in public, but Sophie had never once seen Kenric's name mentioned without it making Oralie's eyes fill with tears.

But now?

Kenric kept staring at her.

Oralie kept tearing up.

But they were stares and tears of wonder and joy instead of longing and grief.

And that made a huge difference.

"He's so proud of you, you know," Oralie said to Sophie quietly while Kenric and Keefe chatted about the changes Kenric planned to make to ensure their next home was a bit less pink. "Of everything you've done while he was...gone."

Sophie smiled. "I'm glad. Though pretty much everything I did was only done because of all of my friends. I'd have died without them--a long time ago. If Keefe hadn't shown me how much better it was if I let my friends help me..." Sophie thought back to the way Keefe had insisted he be included in her plans to heal Alden. "Well. I owe a lot to Keefe."

Keefe looked over at her then. She wasn't sure if he heard her or if he just felt her emotions shift as she swooned over him, but either way, he gave her a sweet smile and winked at her before turning his attention back to Kenric.

Oralie laughed lightly. "He obviously loves you very much."

Sophie felt her smile widen. "I love him too. He's..." she searched for the right words. "He takes care of me."

Well, that didn't do him justice. How could she easily convey all the ways, big and small, he'd looked after her over the years?

Even in their friendship...even when it really cost him something, like when she was trying to find her genetic parents in order to save her relationship with Fitz.

When she had that nightmare about his planting and he'd stayed with her, holding her while she cried, comforting her. And then he kept her very close after that, even closer than usual.

And just recently, when she'd freaked out over his mom's memory break and he'd done the very same thing. Reassured her, comforted her, loved her so thoroughly she had no doubt in her mind how much she meant to him.

She hoped he could see how much he meant to her, too.

She looked over at him, engrossed in his conversation with Kenric.

They were discussing Keefe's artwork, because Kenric had apparently been very impressed by the paintings he'd seen at Aeternum.

Sophie had made sure everything he'd painted for her was prominently displayed in their home.

Well...almost everything.

There was that one sketchbook...

But everything else was hanging on the wall in the living room. The most recent additions were a trio of scenes from their wedding—one of her walking down the aisle to him, her arm looped through Grady's, her eyes fixed straight ahead as she stared at Keefe. The second was a sight Sophie had shown him from her own mind—Keefe standing at the altar, tears in his eyes as he watched her walk toward him.

The final one was of them sharing their first kiss as husband and wife, Terik in the background.

Each of the paintings—not to mention the memory they captured—were perfection.