KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

A Good Dad (Keefe POV)

A/N: A bonus chapter from my main story. This fits between "The Name" and "The Scare".

"So Sophie's taking a nap?" Fitz asked. He had just leapt to Aeternum, and they were sitting outside by the pond.

"Yeah, she's been doing a lot of that lately. Apparently pregnancy can make a girl really exhausted."

"I guess it makes sense," Fitz mused, taking a swig of his lushberry juice. "She's literally building another person. That's bound to take its toll on her."

"Exactly," Keefe agreed. "But when I told her you were coming over she tried to insist she wasn't tired. Seemed to think she'd be a bad hostess if she napped while we had company over."

Fitz rolled his eyes. "She needs to take care of herself."

"She is. I'm making sure of it." Keefe couldn't help but smile as he remembered the way she'd tried to fight her exhaustion, feeling embarrassed at how tired she was, and how he'd convinced her to take a nap.

All it had taken was a reminder that Fitz coming to hang out wasn't exactly the same as 'having company over', and that Keefe had managed to keep Fitz entertained without help for years before Sophie had come along.

Then he'd wrapped his arms around her, kissed her forehead, and ordered her to bed.

She'd started to cry—feeling a sudden, overwhelming gratitude—and thanked him for looking after her.

And he'd chosen to ignore her major mood swing and had given her a sweet kiss instead. "I love both of my girls very much," he'd murmured. "Of course I'm looking after you."

As he remembered all of this, he realized Fitz was staring at him with a funny expression on his face.

"What?"

Fitz shrugged. "It's just...you're still the same old Keefe who orchestrated the Great Gulon Incident—"

"I had nothing to do with that!"

"—and slipped Gurgle Gut into my lunch at school," Fitz continued, pretending he hadn't heard Keefe. "But you're also different. Married. About to have a baby. I mean...when did we grow up? Biana and Dex are married. I'm hoping to propose to Linh soon. You and Sophie are going to be parents. It's crazy."

"It is crazy," Keefe agreed.

Crazy that the son of Gisela and Cassius Sencen—the coldest, cruelest parents in the world—was going to have a child.

Keefe was ridiculously excited, but he was also a little afraid, too.

Because he hadn't had a good parenting example growing up.

And he'd already proved to himself that he was more like his dad than he ever wanted to admit.

The thought made him sick.

He'd mentioned to Sophie that he was worried about being a good father, and she'd assured him he would be amazing.

She'd admitted the same fear for herself—worried that her own experience in losing her human parents, then in being in constant danger, would cause her to cling too tightly to her kids and be overprotective.

And he'd assured her that she would be amazing.

But Keefe struggled to really believe it for himself.

"Uh, Keefe?"

Keefe looked over to see that Fitz was starting to look concerned. "Huh?" He asked.

"Why do you look panicked all of a sudden? You looked ridiculously happy a minute ago."