Secrets - A KOTLC story

Chapter 8

Sophie's POV:

Exhausted.

That was the only thing Sophie felt.

It clung to her like a veil, encircling her, not allowing her to escape.

She fought against it, her mind telling her there is somewhere important she needs to be, though she doesn't exactly remember where. Her memories from before she fell asleep were somewhat blurry, and she didn't have the energy, nor patience, to go through them.

The more she fought, the more the exhaustion grew, until she decided to just let it be, and fell into a dreamless haze of sleep.

The next time she regained consciousness, her head felt like it had been knocked over by a hammer, and she groaned, instinctively bringing a hand up to rub her temples to try and relieve the feeling. She felt light pressure in her other hand, which she realized was by her stomach, so that meant she was probably lying down somewhere.

Soft fabric pressed against her head and elbows, and Sophie concluded that she was lying down on a bed.

But why? Did she fall asleep? What happened?

Her memories were still slightly blurry, and it took her brain a few minutes to catch up on them.

Glimmer. Inflicting. Shadowflux. Extract. Tired. Ice blue eyes.

Sophie's eyes shot open as she bolted upright, but regretted it when blood came rushing to her head. She gasped, squeezing her eyes shut and focused on sucking huge gulps of air to try and calm the flurry in her mind through the flaring headache

She remembered extracting the shadowflux from Keefe and feeling it slowly leave her body too as Tam worked with his shadows. Then the consuming tiredness she felt and giving into it as she closed her eyes, but not before she caught a glimpse of the ice blue ones she so yearned to see.

Keefe. He was awake.

Keefe was awake!

Her eyes flew open again, and she almost cried out in relief when she saw two familiar ice blue eyes staring back at her.

She did it!

Forgetting her previous headache, she threw her arms forward, wrapping them around the blond boy's neck as she buried her head in his shoulder.

She sighed contentedly as she breathed in his familiar scent of vanilla and sunflowers (idk dude just roll with it) and felt him gingerly bring his arms around her waist too.

"Hey Foster" his words were muffled from the position of his face buried in her hair, but she heard them, and nearly laughed in relief when she heard his smooth voice, clear as day.

"Don't ever do that to me again" she hated her voice for slightly hitching in the end, but she was honestly very very scared when she saw his crumpled form on the floor in the Grand Hall at Loamnore, his eyes that usually glimmered with mirth now pale and lifeless, staring off into nothing. All common sense had left her at that moment, panic coursing through her as she desperately hoped that she hadn't lost him.

But he was here now, sitting in front of her, holding her in his arms. She pulled away slightly to face him, wiping her palm against her eyes to wipe away a few tears that had escaped.

At the back of her mind, she registered that she was still in the healing center, on her bed above which hung the very embarrassing photo of her in the hilarious mastodon outfit while Keefe sat on the edge of her bed.

She studied him, noting his blond hair back in its usual artfully styled state and him wearing a freshly ironed cyan blue jerkin and dark pants with a cream-coloured undershirt. His bright blue eyes held a slight trace of worry as they looked at her.

"How are you?'' he asked, his eyes scanning her too. Sophie felt her face heat up as she realized that she must look like quite a mess while he was so neatly dressed, but couldn't find it in herself to care much about it right now.

"I feel fine, just a little woozy. How are you?" she redirected, at which he just merrily shrugged

"Foster, you shouldn't have done that. You know how big of a risk that was" he whispered, looking at her intently.

"I know Keefe, but I had to" she replied, squeezing his shoulder lightly "And besides, Team Foster-Keefe won't be Team Foster-Keefe with no Keefe, right?" she joked, trying to extract even a glimpse of a smile out of him. She hated the worry lines etched onto his face.

"But you still shouldn't have risked yourself for me" he insisted, looking at the tiled floor of the healing center.

She slid her finger under his chin, prompting him to look back up at her only to see tears welling up in those stunning blue eyes. "Keefe? Look at me" she asked in a hushed voice.

He looked up at her fully, and the moment the blue eyes met hers, he burst into tears, pulling her back into his arms as he gripped her tightly, as if scared of letting her go.

Sophie's surprise from the sudden action wore off quickly, instead morphing into concern as she wrapped her arms around him too. His sobs were muted against her shoulder, and she slowly lifted one of her hands to his hair, stroking it gently as she muttered comforting words to him.

His body shook with tears, and Sophie sat there with him, letting him take it all out as she continued stroking his hair and whispering things to him.

Her heart cracked as she watched all his walls fall away, letting her see the broken, vulnerable boy. She hated that he had to go through years of verbal abuse by his parents, hated that he had to go through the transformation his mother forced him through, hated that he had to go through so many terrible, awful things before, hated that he had to go through them alone.

He had put up a front to hide his true emotions, had hid behind that mask of a boy who was carefree, always joked around, was playful, etc because he was scared of revealing who he truly was.

She rarely caught a glimpse of how he truly felt, and whenever she did, she felt pain to see him like that, and angry at everyone who had caused him to feel like that.

At that instant, Sophie vowed that she would be there for him through everything that lay in front of them, and help him through it all. 

Soo....I think the last part needs perfection, but eh, my brain is a teensy bit mushy at 11pm

oh, and  a big thanks to @Annabeth-Jean-Ruewen for helping me out with this chapter :)

anyways, tell me watcha think bout it!

and tysm for reading

~ booknerd0110