Oneshot Collection

Lights and Kisses: Keefitz

Guess who wrote fluff!! It's a Hanukkah miracle!!

Keefe drapes his arms around Fitz's shoulders from behind, but Fitz just sighs. He doesn't even give Keefe their usual gentle head bump.

Keefe pulls back slightly, frowning. "Is something wrong?" They cock their head to the side half-teasingly, but his humor melts away as Fitz shakes his head.

"It's just... this is going to be our first Hanukkah without Alvar. You know?" Fitz twists to look at his boyfriend, corner of his mouth pulling down. "I don't know what's gonna happen."

They sit down carefully, and Fitz lays down in his lap as if it's natural, as if they are two puzzle pieces fitting together. He tilts his head up to look at Keefe's face.

"Hey," Keefe says softly, fingering a strand of Fitz's hair that has fallen from his careful style. "Alvar isn't what made Hanukkah so wonderful."

Fitz gives him a wry grin, but doesn't respond. Instead, he says, "I made the latkes with him, did you know that? We would stand there and talk and laugh while we fried them. It was our..." His voice pauses on the last word before he continues, "It was our thing."

Keefe traces the edges of Fitz's lips, and his breath catches again as his boyfriend leans down to press a kiss to his lips. "How about I be your latke buddy?"

Fitz pushes himself up on his elbows, and Keefe grins at the new brightness in his eyes. "Really?"

They laugh. "Yeah. You're gonna have to show me how to make them, though."

"Gladly." Fitz kisses Keefe again, and when he pulls away, he's smiling again, even though there's still a hint of sadness in his eyes. Keefe will do his very best to make sure that sadness is gone by the first night of Hanukkah. "And you'll stay for dinner, too? To light candles?"

No matter how bright the flames on those candles will be, there's no way they can shine as brilliantly as Fitz's smile as Keefe says, "Of course I will!"

And it's worth it, he thinks as Cassius asks where he's been when he slips in the door smelling of potatoes and oil and Fitz's laughter still dancing in his ears.

It's worth it.

...

Keefe isn't Jewish. Neither are Tam and Linh, or Maruca and Wylie, or Dex.

But the Vackers are, and so are Sophie and Stina, and they're all friends enough that they all crowd into the Vacker's kitchen when it's time to light the candles on the first night.

The second night, Sophie whispers in Keefe's ear, is for family. That's when she'll be with her parents and Stina will be with her entire extended family and the Vackers with theirs.

But this night is his to spend with Fitz and everyone else.

So here they are, arm around Fitz's waist as everyone who knows it sings along to the blessing over the candles, and there are at least six menorahs scattered across the counter since everyone who had them brought two.

Sophie's is decorated like Noah's Ark, with all the animals with fires on their heads and a giraffe as the shamash. Stina's is a basic gold-tinted menorah, but it's engraved with little leaves that make Keefe want to run his fingers down the cool metal just to feel all the little grooves.

Biana's is sparkly and pink and decorated with messy little roses and look like she painted them herself, and Fitz's is a clear glass one with streaks of navy blue running through the center like it had been injected with food coloring, and Keefe wants to keep all of them.

The most he can do, though, is light the candles and hope that they get to do this every year until they die, because with everyone laughing and singing and talking, and the warmth from the candles matching the pride in his stomach at the delicious latkes he'd managed to make...

This is just about perfect.

Fitz plants a kiss on his cheek, and Keefe grins.

Perfect is exactly where he is.

mmmm I did not proofread but whatever