KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

It's You (Tam POV)

"So...I'm pretty sure Sophie and Keefe are dating." Biana confessed.

She'd shown up at Marella's house, where Marella and Linh were currently working on merging their abilities.

Tam had initially come along with Linh because he was working to stay in Linh's good graces and wanted to keep close. She'd finally let him back in after he brought Rayni into their midst, and he didn't want to risk losing his sister. So naturally, he came along just to be able to spend time with her.

And he was not at all upset when Biana showed up a few minutes later.

And actually, it was fascinating, watching them work fire and water together--keeping each other in check, balancing out two volatile powers.

Tam already knew what happened when his Shade ability mixed with a Flasher's--either really cool illusions, or really devastating traumatic experiences.

But he chose not to dwell on that. He chose to dwell on the unbelievably gorgeous girl sitting next to him.

"I can't say that I'm surprised," Tam said with a shrug. "He's obviously been into her for ages."

"I suspected, sometimes," Biana admitted. "And it used to make me jealous."

"Used to?" Tam asked before he could stop himself.

Great. Ever since he'd met Sophie, all those walls he built to protect himself--to protect Linh--had started to fall. He was making friends. Trusting people. Getting to know them.

Spending too much time thinking about this really pretty girl from a really fancy, famous, important family.

That made him vulnerable.

Biana smiled at him. "I liked Keefe for a long time but...I've moved on. I like someone else now."

Tam thought she might be blushing, a little, but wasn't certain.

"So it doesn't bother you, the thought of them together?" he asked.

"Yes and no. As far as Keefe is concerned, no. But...I thought she liked Fitz. I know she liked Fitz. And he's been crazy about her for a while now and I thought...well, my whole family thought...I thought she'd wind up my sister. I want Sophie to be happy, but I also hate that my big brother is getting hurt in the process."

Tam wasn't great at these kinds of things. Talking about feelings and crushes.

Crushes weren't things that happened to him and Linh back when they were at Exillium. They rarely spoke to anyone other than each other.

But...that meant he did spend a lot of time talking about feelings. Linh's feelings.

And Linh's personality was very bubbly, very sweet, like Biana's.

Maybe he could handle talking about those things with Biana.

"So what makes you think things have changed?"

"Fitz has been...really sad the last few days. I'd have expected him to be happy after what happened with Elysian, we're finally winning. But he's been really down. Usually when things upset him, he lashes out, gets angry. But he's just been sad. And then Sophie and Keefe have been acting differently...like, almost too casual when we're all together. And I heard Keefe asking Fitz if they could 'have that talk soon', and Fitz told him that they needed to, but that he needed more time to process everything first. So to me, it seems like a safe bet that Sophie has moved on to Keefe."

"It does sound like that," Tam agreed. "But again, I'm really not surprised. They're obviously really close. It's like they have this strange connection—and I know she has a strong connection with Fitz too—that weird Cognate thing they're always going on about—but it's just different between her and Keefe. Though what she sees in him I'll never understand." Tam rolled his eyes. "I don't understand it, but it's undeniably there."