KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Consolation Prize (Keefe POV)

A/N: This Keefe POV would take place between the events of Flashback and Legacy

Keefe's fingers were getting stiff from the hours of drawing his memories.

But what else was there to do?

Things seemed to be quiet on the Neverseen front after what happened at Everglen--and after his mom coerced Tam into coming with her.

He had to admit he was a little--just a little--worried about Tam.

What would his mom do to Tam once she no longer had any use for him?

He supposed Foster would find a way to rescue Tam before it came to that.

And apart from hanging out with Fitz, which there'd been a fair amount of, there wasn't much else to distract him. Not even school--though he was definitely working on some epic prank plans for when Foxfire resumed.

Plus he just had to try to recover as many memories as possible.

So he pressed on, though his hands were aching and his eyes were burning with exhaustion.

Not to mention Ro's constant bored sighs.

He'd been doing his best to ignore her, but it was starting to get really irritating.

And Keefe wasn't generally irritable.

Not hearing from Foster for several days probably had something to do with it--though at least he wasn't the only one. No one seemed to be hearing from her and she wasn't answering anyone's hails.

So finally, when Ro let out a particularly loud sigh, he took the bait. "Do you have to do that?" he snapped at her.

"I don't know," she challenged. "Do you have to do that?" She pointed to the notebook and the paintbrush in his hand.

"It's helping me make sense of my memories," he explained for about the millionth time. "But don't worry. If I don't get another breakthrough, I might be up for taking more fathomlethes."

Ro grinned. "That'll be way more fun than watching you draw for hours on end. But you know what would be even better?"

Keefe sighed. Not this again.

"You could leap to Havenfield and insist that Blondie talk to you. And then you could tell her that you love her, and that she should choose you over that teal-eyed Wonderboy, and then you could grab her and pull her close and smooch her to your heart's content."

"No. I can't do any of those things."

Ro let out an even more irritated sigh. "You can. You just won't."

"You're right. I won't. I won't do that. Fitz is my best friend, Ro. And Foster is...she's important too."

"Yeah, I know how important she is to you. That's what this is all about. You're giving up, after promising me that you wouldn't. After all those times you told me that she wasn't sure what she wanted, that you knew she felt the same about you as you do about her, and yet here you are, giving up without even trying to help yourself."

"I'm not giving up. I'm still hoping that she'll change her mind eventually. But Fitz is who she wants right now and I'm not going to get in the way of that. Why do I have to keep explaining this to you?"

"Because I don't get it! You claim that your weird elf ability allowed you to see how much she cares about you, but that her head and heart don't agree, and yet you do nothing to help them bridge the gap. It makes no sense. You're letting yourself be in constant pain, when you could just tell her and get it over with--for better or for worse. Plus--"