fifty sokeefe kisses

(16) collarbone

"And just like that—good, Sophie!"

She whirled around, surprised at Sandor's rare praise. "Thanks!" Sophie replied, right as something hit her in the shoulder with a loud thwack!

"OH my gosh I'm so sorry," Dex stammered, dropping his wooden training staff. Before Sophie could assure him she was fine, Sandor cut her off. 

"It was Sophie's fault for letting her guard down, not yours," the goblin told him. "But you've both made significant improvement. Go on and take a break for now."

He waved them off and Sophie slumped her shoulders in relief. Sandor had recently incorporated basic defense lessons into Sophie's schedule—"Better safe than sorry," he warned—and as valuable as his instruction was, it was brutal work. They started off with wooden staffs instead of weapons for now, but it was still tough to work through. Not to mention their elvin aversion to violence. 

At Sophie's insistence, Sandor agreed to include her friends in his lessons. However, she was beginning to have second thoughts as to whether that made them better or worse. 

"I'm sorryyyy," Dex pouted at her for the twentieth time. "Are you sure you're okay? I didn't hurt you?"

"I'm fine, really," she insisted, smiling at him placatingly before taking another swig from her water flask. Thankfully, Dex's anxious expression seemed to fade.

A bout of laughter erupted from behind them.

"Oh please, Dizznee, as if that was enough to knock the superpowered Foster out of commission." Keefe taunted from where he leaned against a nearby tree. "She's a lot tougher than you think." He winked at Sophie. She rolled her eyes, smiling softly.

Dex snorted. "Believe me, I know that better than anyone." He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt briefly before dropping his hand, but in a flash he took up a smug grin. "I'm positive Sophie could kick your butt any day."

She frowned in between sips of her water. "I think my abilities would give me an unfair advantage." 

"Even without abilities," Dex corrected. 

"Is that a challenge I hear?" Keefe sprang up. "Foster! One-on-one me! Stick sword style!"

"I don't think that's a great idea—" Sophie started, but Keefe was already sprinting towards Sandor's pile of training tools, presumably in search of their training staffs. "...and there he goes."

Dex plopped down on the grass next to Sophie, leaning back on his hands. "So," he said casually. Too casually. 

She sighed inwardly. With all the chaos in her life, she'd hardly had one-on-one time with Dex since the... sleepover incident. It made sense that he'd take any opportunity to get some answers out of her.

Not that Sophie didn't want to tell him everything. It was just... this was the first time she would be acknowledging the significance of her and Keefe's relationship.

"So...?" she replied, winding her fingers through the grass. She resisted the urge to tug on an eyelash. 

"Keefe...?" Dex pressed, eyes bright with curiosity. "Are you guys... a thing?"

Sophie cleared her throat. "Um."

"If you don't want to talk about it, I understand!" Dex blurted. "I just—suspected for a while—Biana and I had this bet—and then at the sleepover the other week—and you know you can tell me anything, right? And I—"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Sophie interrupted, grabbing at Dex's hand. "Look, I'm really sorry I didn't tell you about—us. It just... happened, and I didn't want to cause drama or anything—I didn't want things to be weird."

"And, yeah, we're kind of a... thing, I guess" she added lamely.

Dex stared at her a second too long. Sophie began to panic—and then he threw his arms around her. "I'm so happy for you!!" he crowed. "Thanks for telling me. Oh, and you know if he tries anything I'll beat him up, right?"

Sophie just laughed in relief, delighted that her best friend wasn't mad at her. "Thanks, Dex. You're the best." She hugged him back just as hard, but frowned as something occurred to her. "Wait. Did you say you and Biana were betting on—"

"You better square up, Foster, because I just found the ultimate stick sword. Prepare to—why are you guys hugging?" Keefe stopped mid-sentence. 

"No reason," Sophie muttered, noticing that Dex was now deliberately avoiding eye contact. She'd have to grill him for details later.

Keefe shrugged, then resumed his exaggerated pose and waved the staff above his head. "Sophie Foster! I accept your challenge!"

"Technically, it was Dex who challenged you for me," she scoffed, picking up her own wooden training staff. 

"Details. Now are you going to fight me, or are you too scared?"

Sophie narrowed her eyes, hating that he knew exactly how to push her buttons. "Bring it on."

Keefe made the first move, jabbing to Sophie's left. She dodged and whirled around, lashing out with her staff—and meeting his head-on.

"Come on, Foster," Keefe taunted with a cocky grin. "I know you can do better than that."

Sophie smirked. "Me too."

She shoved his staff away and lunged with all her might, swinging down towards his torso. Her staff landed with a satisfying whack against something solid—and was instantly followed by Keefe's pitiful "Oh, ow" as he fell backwards onto the grass.

A sudden wave of shame swept over her. "Oh god Keefe, I'm so so sorry," Sophie squealed, throwing her staff aside to assess him. Even Dex jumped up and ran over.

"Man, I could hear that hit from all the way over there!" Dex exclaimed excitedly. "Sophie's a much better fighter than me."

She recalled Dex's excessive apologies for bumping her shoulder and she immediately felt a thousand times worse. "Keefe?" she whispered, laying a hand on his arm. "Are you alright? I'm really really sorry—"

He rolled over to face Sophie. "Dang, Foster," he murmured with a dazed grin. "You took my breath away. Literally."

They groaned. "I guess he's fine," Dex declared.

Sophie's relief was cut short when she caught sight of something below Keefe's neck. "What is that?" she asked, and before he could protest she pulled his collar to the side. A bright, purpling bruise bloomed across his skin, staring them in the face.

She barely registered Dex's remark of "I'll go get Edaline" before she was overcome with a wave of guilt. "I'm so sorry, Keefe," she whimpered. "I really didn't mean to—"

"Okay, Sophie—number one, that guilt you're hitting me with is just suffocating," Keefe winced, fanning the air between them. "And two—don't feel bad, I totally had it coming. Besides, now I'll get to show it off as a battle scar." He smiled up at her reassuringly.

Sophie tried to smile back. "It still doesn't feel great knowing I gave you such a nasty bruise. Does it hurt?"

"It would hurt less if you kissed it better." Keefe blinked up at her innocently.

She snorted and almost gave him a friendly hit to the shoulder, but stopped. "Okay," she found herself saying, and leaned down to lightly feather her lips against his collarbone.

"Is that better?" she whispered. Keefe, red-faced, nodded vigorously.

"Yep. Definitely." He replied. "You can probably add healing kisses to your list of abilities now."

"Oh, shut up."

"You know, I think next time we should practice sparring as partners, not opponents."

"I'd like that," Sophie said.

Keefe grinned impishly. "Team Foster-Keefe kicking butt, but ten times more coordinated."

She laughed and leaned down again, this time to kiss him properly on the mouth.