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"Foster."
"Mhmm."
"Foster, wake up."
"Mhmm."
"FOSTER!" Keefe hissed, still whispering. Sophie mumbled something incoherently and turned on her side, only to find herself nose to nose with a well, extremely familiar nose, not that she knew anything about other noses, or this one for that matter, she just recognized the smell.
Oh god.
Sophie sat up, wide awake.
"Keefe, what the heck are you doing at my house in the middle of the night?" Keefe shrugged, plopping down on her bed and resting his head (too) close to her lap.
"Wait, how did you get past Sandor?" She asked, looking down at the blonde boy, her hair falling around his face like a curtain of gold. His eyes sparkled with mischief and he smirked.
"Even Gigantor likes a little alone time with his girlfriend," he claimed. "But in his line of duty, it's very hard to get that alone time. I just helped him out."
"You brought Grizel here?" Sophie asked incredulously. Keefe stared at her before shaking his head.
"No, I let Sandor and Woltzer switch places for one night. Woltzer looked way to happy about it though, and I plan on figuring out why." Sophie rolled her eyes. Keefe grinned, looking like the Cheshire Cat.
"You can be Alice, I'll be the Mad Hatter," she muttered to herself, remembering the song that had shown up on her recommended list.
Oh, yeah. That was the other thing. She'd been listening to music to help her go to sleep easily. Eerily, it had a similar effect as Silveny's transmissions. They just weren't as exuberant.
"Am I supposed to know what mean, or is that a code, or what?" Keefe asked, shifting his head ever so slightly. Sophie shook her head.
"No, it's a human song... It just reminded me of something."
"Oh," Keefe said. "How do you have time to listen to music?" The look on his (adorably handsome) face gave him away.
He was stalling.
"Eh, it just helps me sleep and stuff, with all that's going all and everything," she mumbled, running her finger over the pattern on her sheets. Keefe sat up.
"Nightmares?" He asked. She flinched slightly at how intense his stare was, but couldn't lie. So she offered a one shouldered shrug in response. Keefe smiles softly.
"Yeah, it's weird like that, right?" She half smiled.
"It is, but I'm guessing that's not why you're here," she said, calling his bluff. Keefe flopped back down, on her lap this time, and not right next to it, and it made Sophie's heart fill with fluttery things.
"Nah, I came here to play a game," he said, playing with the ends of her hair as they danced on his shoulders.
"A game," Sophie repeated incredulously. Keefe nodded proudly.
"Yes, a game, you don't have to repeat what I say Foster, no one else is here to listen in on our conversation," he teased.
"Uh, okay," she agreed hesitantly, because this was Keefe, and one should be hesitant when agreeing with his games or plans or schemes.
"Sheesh Foster, you don't have to sound so nervous, it's just a little game," he insisted. She nodded slowly.
"So how do we play this game of yours?" She decided to ask. His smirk made her regret it a second later though.
"I ask a question, and you answer the question. And then you ask a question and I'll answer it," he stated simply. She shrugged, leaning back into her pillows.
"That... doesn't sound to bad," she admitted slowly.
"Fosters first," he offered, flicking a strand of her hair away from his face. She gave him a look before brushing a strand of her hair away from his teasing fingers.
"What's your favorite color?" She settled on asking. He closed his eyes for a moment before tilting his ever so slightly.
"Brown, what with hints of golden, kinda glittery," he mumbled quietly, but surely. She nodded, her chees tainted with the traitorous blush and her heart swooning, but barely. He opened his eyes and blinked.
"What's your favorite thing to do, you know, outside of saving the world and being generally awesome?" He asked, the usual teasing note back in his voice.
"Huh." When she didn't say anything more, he parted the curtains of golden strands and looked at her.
"What?" He asked. She shook her head, her hair swishing over his fingers.
"I've never really thought about it, I mean, that's pretty much all we've been doing these days, focusing on Nightfall and things," she muttered. "If I had to pick, maybe-,"
"Foster, you better not say Foxfire," he interrupted, grinning. Sophie couldn't help but smile too, his grin was simply infectious, and adorably sweet.
"I wasn't going to!" She exclaimed indignantly. "I swear, I was going to say it's a tie between cognate training and trying to save the world, but now, I'm not sure."
"Nah, pick cognate training," Keefe suggested. "Fitzipooroy Vacker, stare into my beautiful brown alicorn orbs as I bare my soul to you. I can stare into your teal Vacker oceans and not blink for forever, and we can hold hands too..." He trailed off when he noticed Sophie's shoulders shaking.
"That is not what we do," she giggled, lacing her fingers with his. He smirked.
"You mean you guys think that's not what you. To everyone else on the other hand..." He trailed off again, giving her time to contemplate a response. She rolled her eyes.
"Why are we talking about this anyway?" She asked, before a teasing smile made its way to her lips. She bent down, close enough that she could see the fractals of ice in Keefe's eyes. He felt his mouth go dry and shrugged.
"Is it because you're stalling," she began, her voice dropping lower. "or is it because you're jealous?" Keefe's eyes widened.
"Of course, Foster. After all, don't all your other boyfriends get jealous whenever we hang out?" He smirked, knowing that he'd turned the tables. She scowled and sat back again, never letting go of their intertwined fingers.
"Fine, if you had to kiss any of us, who would you kiss?" She challenged. His smirk softened to an unbearably sweet smile.
"You," he admitted calmly. "What about you?" But Sophie was too much of a mess to comprehend the question.
"What? How? Why? I mean, yeah, why?" She asked, blushing and flustered, pulling her fingers out of his grip to pull her hair in front of her face, but he had captured them again swiftly, like opposite poles snapping back together.
They were a magnetic flare, going out in a blaze of brilliant colors as they painted the sky.
"Relax," he said. "Bangs Boy? Uh, I don't think you've noticed but I kind of don't like him. As for Dex or Fitz, not my type. And either way, I wouldn't want to lead Biana on." He had explained it simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, but he'd left Sophie a nervous wreck.
"What about Linh?" She reminded him. Keefe shrugged.
"Not my type? Plus, Bangs Boy would probably try to kill me if I ever tried anything, and I like being alive," he admitted, as if he'd shared a huge secret. "And that leaves you. But who would you choose, the Fitzster?" She shook her head.
"Dex, actually," she decided softly. Keefe's eyebrows practically shot off his face.
"What? Dizznee?" He asked incredulously. She tilted her head, a resigned look crossing over her face.
"Yeah, I mean he's my best friend, and even if things go wrong, we'll always have each other," she mumbled quickly.
"Ouch, here I was thinking that we were friends," he muttered, clutching his chest with their intertwined hands. She rolled her eyes.
"You know what I meant. Besides, sometimes I wonder if-," she stopped abruptly, as if realizing that she wasn't in her mind anymore. She was significantly surprised when Keefe isn't pester her about what she was going to say and instead, nodded.
"But I can see why you'd say that. Doesn't mean I'm going to go about kissing Fitz, but it makes sense," he agreed.
"So why are you really here?" She asked, him, leaning back over so she could see his face better. "And don't tell me it was to play this game, you could've asked me this anytime, and I mean it Keefe."
"I don't know," he admitted. "I guess I just didn't feel like being alone tonight."
Sophie wasn't sure if Woltzer had knocked something over outside, or if her heart had actually shattered at his thoughtful words. She squeezed his hand tightly, before whispering to him.
"You'll always have me," she promised. "Always." He nodded, blinking quickly and looking away for a moment. Sophie found herself doing the same.
A gust of wind blew through the open window, and the curtains rippled across her room, and Sophie shivered ever so slightly. Keefe did too, but didn't say anything.
"Get up." She told him, letting go of his fingers to pull the covers back so she could slide her feet back in. He sat down on the edge of the bed awkwardly, and Sophie found herself stifling a laugh as she curled her fingers around his arm and pulling him back to her.
"Hey, we're friends right?" she said, turning to face him, her hair grazing the pillow and billowing around her head like a halo. Keefe lay down next to her, pulling the sheets up carefully. Sophie pulled him closer, and he swallowed.
"Don't go falling of the bed, am I right?" She asked. He shook his head, a smile dancing on his lips.
"Always, Foster, always," he whispered, his eyelids fluttering to a close for the first time in weeks. Sophie smiled softly as he shifted and ended up even closer than she planned. She sat up and pulled the covers over him fully, not leaving them in that uncomfortable position he had. And when she'd looked out the window, she seen the streams of the purple and green mixing and dancing on the horizon as she curled under the covers.
They mirrored each other, when one rose, the other sank, and when the other rose, one would sink.
And when Grady found them in the morning, smiling and blissfully asleep, he decided to leave the door closed and let them be.
They'd both been through a lot, more than other kids their age, and they'd bonded. And really, there was nothing wrong with that.
I want to touch the northern lights.
We could leave the world behind.