...look I saw a prompt online and it fit sokeefe perfectly so I had to write a quick thing, don't judge, I did it in like 10 minutes--
word count: 775, sorry its short
tw: none? uh, other than a brief mentioning of school i think
"Sophieee."
Sophie sighed, running her hands over her face as she ignored Keefe's incessant pleads. She felt him braiding her hair into a smooth pleat--he loved braiding hair for some unknown reason and often did Sophie's for fun.
"Keefe, let me work," she said half-heartedly.
In all honesty, she didn't actually want to do her math homework-- who did? But her teacher had gotten even stricter the past few days and she was pretty sure she couldn't afford another missing assignment.
Of course, "pretty sure" wasn't the same as "sure"...
Sophie shook her head, trying to clear it. Hunching back down on the paper filled with equations and formulas, she twirled a pencil between her fingers.
"5x... 75%... 6xy..." she mumbled under her breath. She scribbled down the answer to an equation, only to immediately erase it. Leaning back in defeat, she sighed. "This is hopeless."
"C'mon, Foster, no need to look so down," Keefe said, only half-teasing. He wrapped his arms around Sophie's neck and she laughed despite herself.
"Keefe, stop distracting me."
"You weren't doing your homework anyway," he pointed out, bringing his arms back to himself-- strangely, she missed the warmth of his presence so near her, but she didn't focus on that.
"True," Sophie admitted with another sigh. She scowled at her homework.
"Quit looking so defeated," Keefe told her. "Come on, do something else."
She ignored him, picking her pencil back up with a resigned groan. "I have to do my homework, Keefe, you know I do."
"No, you don't. You need a break, Foster."
Sophie wrinkled her nose in disgust. "A break?"
"Yes," Keefe said, nodding wisely. "Like a pause, or rest, from the mind-numbingly boring torture called math."
Sophie shook her head. "Keefe, I can't take a bre--" She was cut off as Keefe tickled her and a giggle burst out her mouth. "Keefe!"
"What?" he asked innocently, his eyes shining with glee.
She was laughing so hard now she couldn't breathe. "Keefe... you... can't... Keefe."
The bad thing about being best friends growing up was that Keefe knew almost all her secrets, one of them being the fact Sophie was extremely ticklish. Which meant Keefe would take every possible opportunity to torture her into laughing.
Sophie was wheezing at this point, almost falling off the couch she was sitting on before Keefe reached out and smoothly caught her. "Clumsy as always," he teased.
"You... jerk," she laughed. On impulse, she pulled him over and onto the cough with her, determined to make him suffer with her.
Keefe yelped in surprise as he was yanked on top of Sophie, only to grow deadly silent when he realized how close they were.
Sophie quickly silenced too, her breath catching when Keefe's tousled hair brushed her ear slightly and she caught a whiff of something sweet and comforting. His face was over hers, lips slightly parted in surprise as his blue eyes stared right into her brown ones.
And it was back, the same feeling that had been lingering in the back of Sophie's mind for months, ever since she'd one day looked at her childhood friend and realized maybe not all people wanted to kiss their friend on the lips, that maybe she was feeling something more than friendship for Keefe Sencen.
And god did she want to close the final distance between their lips, want to run her fingers through his hair and feel fluttery exhilaration rush through her blood.
They were close, so close--
But now it was too late, Keefe was scrambling away as fast as he could, apologies rushing out of his mouth and tumbling over one another. "Sophie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm so sorry--"
"It's fine," she said, her voice hollow.
Keefe paused and for a moment Sophie thought she saw a mix of wistfulness and regret and something softer, more fragile, flit across his face. And then resignation washed across his features as he mumbled, "Oh. Yeah. Okay."
Sophie slowly eased out of her stunned state, hesitantly picking her paper and pen back up. She returned to her hunched position from before, trying to solve the series of math problems in front of her.
It was exactly how it had been about five minutes ago.
But at the same time, it wasn't.
The tension stretched between them, so suffocating Sophie felt like she couldn't breathe. Between solving problems, she sneaked hesitant looks at Keefe who was simply sitting in a chair, obstinately avoiding her eyes. And it was so silent, frosty cold and still and Sophie just wanted it to go back to how it was before.
But the quiet stayed, only the dull scratches of the pencil against paper sounding in the air as both of them avoided looking at each other, the moment broken and only shards of awkwardness remaining.
