A/N: Please make sure you've read the author's note I wrote before this story arc before proceeding!
After ushering them into his hotel room--which was much larger than Sophie had assumed, it looked more like an apartment with multiple rooms--Keefe turned to survey them again.
They were all dripping rain water onto the carpet, and Sophie, at least, was shivering.
And trying very hard to keep her emotions at bay. Though the way Keefe was looking at her told her he could tell something had changed.
"I'd ask if you guys missed me, but I know Tammy Boy didn't, and I assume Dex did a little, and I can definitely feel how much Foster missed me," he smirked, beckoning them to follow him into another room. "I also assume you're here for a reason, so why don't you change into some dry clothes before we talk?"
"Oh, yes please," Dex agreed. Tam shrugged but looked like he'd love to be wearing dry clothes, even if he did have to borrow them from Keefe.
"Good, because Foster's practically turning blue."
He wasn't wrong, she was freezing.
Though his thoughtfulness made her feel just a little warmer.
Keefe glanced at her and quickly away again, looking slightly confused as he checked the clothes.
"Jeans are super uncomfortable, so I'll just grab some pajama pants and t-shirts. Foster, I'm sorry, they'll be a bit big on you, but if you don't mind wearing mens' pajama pants you'll be a lot warmer."
Keefe let Dex and Tam take turns using the bedroom to change, but showed Sophie to the bathroom.
Sophie changed as quickly as she could. She felt weird wearing human clothes again—especially since they were big on her. She had to really tighten the drawstring of the pants and the t-shirt was big and baggy. But at least she was warmer and didn't look like she'd been dunked in a lake.
Not much she could do about her hair though.
When she stepped back out, Keefe was holding out a laundry basket for her rain-soaked clothes. He stared at her for a second, for some reason flushing slightly at the sight of her wearing his pajamas.
He cleared his throat. "We can go to the laundry room and toss these in a dryer," he explained. "So when you leave again--" a spasm of pain crossed his face--"you'll have dry clothes."
She didn't want to leave.
Not unless he came back too.
He must've sensed her downward mood shift, because he set the basket down and stepped closer to her. "I've really missed you," he whispered.
And then, despite her best efforts, her heart began to race and she felt very fluttery as she whispered back, "I've really missed you too."
Keefe was looking at her with a hint of shock and hopeful disbelief on his face. "Sophie?"
"Okay, where's this laundry room?" Tam called out, disrupting the somewhat confusing moment they were having.
Keefe sighed and stepped back. Tam and Dex—looking strange in human clothes—were both heading over to dump their wet clothes into the basket.
"It's in the basement of the building. I could have the front desk come get it, I pay for laundry service, but elven clothes might attract their attention, so we'd better do it ourselves. Not that I know how. And I think you need human coins to put in the dryer to get it to work."
"I can handle that!" Dex said. "Human tech is pretty easy to manipulate."
"You need Foster to show you how to work a dryer?" Keefe asked, smirking at Sophie.
"Way more fun if I figure it out on my own," Dex said cheerfully.
"Well I'm coming with you," Tam said. "I gotta see this. I don't even know what a dryer is."
Sophie giggled and made to follow them, but Keefe reached for her hand. "Can you hang back with me?" he asked quietly. "They'll only be gone a couple of minutes and then I assume you'll get to whatever it is that brought you here."
The door closed behind Tam and Dex.
"But first..." Keefe stepped close to Sophie and put his arms around her, hugging her again.
Almost like he was testing the waters.
And Sophie hugged him back, making no effort anymore to hide the warmth she was feeling.
She was feeling a lot of other things too, some of them far less pleasant, but she was trying very hard to focus on the fact that right now, Keefe was here and she was getting to see him again and she was very aware of how good he looked and how much he meant to her. And how good it felt to be in his arms.
And now...Keefe knew it too.
He pulled back slightly, looking at her in wonder. "Sophie..."
And then...
He kissed her.
All those times she'd yelled at herself to stop imagining it, but it had been so amazing that her mind kept revisiting it anyway...
...they hadn't done it justice.
Everything in her screamed "finally!!!" as he drew her in closer, and her arms tightened around his neck.
Minutes that felt like mere seconds passed, and then there was a knock on the door.
Tam and Dex were back.
So they broke apart, and Keefe barely managed to tear his eyes away from Sophie as he opened the door. They all went to sit down and Sophie--trying and failing to keep a blush out of her cheeks--filled him in on what they had learned.
And Keefe explained that while his Empathy seemed to have settled back down to its usual level--he could feel Sophie's emotions without contact but couldn't feel Dex's or Tam's--his newer abilities seemed to have sort of gone numb.
And Tam removed the shadowflux from Keefe's heart.
And they were talking like...like they would dump the shadowflux somewhere and go.
And leave Keefe here.
And he was taking her hands in his, trying to make her promise not to hold on to any of the mysterious power source.
It sounded like he didn't plan to come back with them.
Grief and disappointment shook Sophie to the core when she realized this.
Somehow, she had assumed that the kiss earlier had been the start of something. Like he wouldn't have kissed her if he hadn't intended to come home.
But then what? Even if he came home, it wasn't like they could just...date.
Could they?
They were too busy fighting for their lives.
Gisela wasn't done with Keefe. He had to stay away, didn't he?
Except...was he really any safer here? If she got the power source first, she could still find a way to track him down.
If he came home, he could be with Sophie when she found the source, and they could use what they needed and destroy it all before Gisela could get her hands on it.
He would be safer at home.
And they could be together.
But she thought she saw the determination in his eyes--determination and sadness.
And he was looking at her now--she knew he could feel her despair--with sympathy and something like an apology on his face.
And now anger was mixing with the disappointment.
And Dex noticed.
Keefe got up--somewhat reluctantly, because he had to have noticed her anger too--and showed Tam where his trash can was, had Tam put the shadowflux in an empty water bottle and put the trash out in the hall.
While they did that, Dex leaned over to Sophie and whispered, "are you okay? You look like you might cry. Or kill someone. Or...cry while killing someone."
Sophie let out a soft laugh--or it may have been a sob. "I don't know. I need more time. I need to say goodbye."
Dex surveyed her, thinking hard, as Tam and Keefe walked back over.
"Well...I guess we're done," Tam said. "As soon as our clothes are dry we can get out of here."
"Yeah...thanks again for the weird Shade tricks," Keefe mumbled, not looking at Tam.
Instead, he was looking curiously between Dex and Sophie.
Dex, without taking his eyes off Sophie, asked Tam if he wanted to go sneak in to watch a human movie rather than just sit around waiting on their clothes to dry.
Tam looked skeptical. "It's not like we'll understand what they're saying," he pointed out.
"Oh, yeah, I know English, but I guess you don't. But...might be fun anyway." Dex looked pointedly at Tam, who glanced at Sophie--who was actively fighting tears--and Keefe, who looked, for some reason, like he was in pain.
Probably, Sophie thought, because he was hurting her and he knew it.
She knew Dex was trying to give her a chance for a goodbye without an audience, which she'd just said she needed, but now she wasn't sure it was a good idea.
All she'd do was cry, and Keefe would think she was trying to guilt him in to coming home.
But Tam had agreed, and told Keefe they'd be back for their clothes in a couple of hours.
Dex, in a would-be nonchalant voice, said "Sophie, you should stay here, tell Keefe about everything else that's been going on."
And then they were gone, out the door again.