#koltc keefe

[typhoonharmony]

When they started talking about how Keefe might be genetically engineered by his mom to be the Neverseen’s version of Sophie, I immediately opened Ao3 and started looking for enemy to lovers fics where they actually are enemies (I couldn’t find any).

Think about the possibilities…

[cecilyshaunts]

I would like to apologize in advance for the person I become on December 3rd.

I promise I am a very normal person, and I am especially very very very normal about KOLTC.

Any “deranged” posting is just, uh… fan girling.

[sea-nymphs-harmiony]

biggest glow up of the century

[might-as-well-make-nonsense]

Sometimes the Best Medicine is Love

A Sokeefe sickfic (Mostly fluff, tiny bit angst) Please repost w/credit.

Disclaimer: I own neither the franchise nor any of these characters.

Sophie was concerned.

If there ever was a sign that something was wrong, it was a silent Keefe. With everything that had been going on lately, she wasn't surprised, but still, it was worrying. Was he ok? Was his father being a jerk, as usual? Was he upset with her? She reached over to where he was sitting at the lunch table and gently flicked his arm.

"You ok?" She mouthed when he glanced up.

He nodded, then plopped his head back down to his folded arms on the table, his blond hair gently flopping to the side of his forehead.

She frowned. Something must really be the matter for him to not even bother with a quip of some kind. Oh well. Better to give him some space and just keep an eye out - she knew well how stubborn he could be.

She rubbed his arm in a (hopefully) comforting gesture, whispered a quiet "see you," and moved on to her next class, glancing back and biting her lip. He'll talk to me when he feels ready, she thought. Hopefully that's sooner than later.

As Sophie left, Keefe completely slumped onto the table, all pretense gone.

He felt awful.

Really awful.

Not only had he barely said a word to his girlfriend - is that what they were? - all day, his head also wouldn't stop pounding, his nose was running, and his throat felt like he was swallowing rocks. He wanted to sleep so badly. It was better this way, though; his father would have confined him to his bed and insisted on "taking care of him" in that stuffy, formal way of his that only included bringing him a glass of water every so often and pretending to care about how he felt. 

Best to just suck it up, get through the day, and maybe find someplace to camp out until he felt a little better.

Although, the way he was feeling, who knew how long that would be.

He jerked forward with a sudden sneeze, banging his head on the table. Hard. Ugh. 

He dragged himself out of his seat, rubbing his forehead, and started the long trudge to his class - way too late. Now, he'd probably have detention to deal with. It's going to be a very long day, Keefe thought.

Sophie lept home after school, her mind still fixated on Keefe. She was a habitual worrier, after all they had been through - and were going through - ever since she had arrived in the Lost Cities. As she walked into the dining room, she made up her mind. She would pay Keefe a visit, just to make sure. He'd understand. 

She zipped into her bedroom to change out of her school clothes, throwing on a new tunic and leggings in record time, then dashed out to the backyard.

"Edaline, I'm going to Candleshade to check on Keefe," she called as she ran past the pastures. "I'll be back soon!"

She opened a rift, closed her eyes, and ran into the void.

Meanwhile, Keefe flopped on his bed, just praying his father would leave him alone. Hopefully, he could remain uninterrupted long enough to sleep off whatever this was. Then someone knocked on the door. He groaned, sniffling, and draped an arm over his eyes. Never a moment of peace when I need one, Keefe thought, letting out a little whine.

"Keefe," came his father's incredibly annoying, posh voice. "Sophie Foster is here to see you."

His head jerked up. Sophie? Why on earth would she be visiting him after the way he'd practically ignored her earlier? He lept off the bed, blinking hard, straightening his wrinkled tunic and running his hand through his sweaty curls. Oh, god. She can't see me like this, Keefe panicked.

He opened his door, trying to feign alertness.

"Hey, Foster," he muttered. "What's up?"

She didn't say anything, just walked inside and closed the door.

"Keefe, what's going on? You've been acting strange all day, and I want to make sure you're ok. Really ok," she amended before he could interject.

He took a second, seemingly trying to decide what to tell her, before apparently giving in. "Don't feel good," he croaked, sitting back on his bed and directing a pathetic sneeze into his wrist.

She watched the facade drop before her eyes, and the confident "Hunkyhair" she was so accustomed to dissolved into a lanky, pale, shivering boy. Poor Keefe.

She noticed, now, his bright, glassy blue eyes, and the sweat beading on his forehead - he must have a pretty high fever. She reached out and gently brushed his damp curls away, laying a hand on the blond boy's forehead and quickly withdrawing it at the heat.

"Keefe! I'm bringing you to Elwin right now. You can't stay here like this," Sophie decided. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Just didn't," he mumbled, coughing. "I was tired, and my throat hurt, and I didn't want word getting back to my dad. He's even more annoying when I'm sick." He mustered a weak grin at that, showing his exhaustion. Even sick, though, he could never pass up an opportunity to bash his lousy excuse for a father, Lord Cassius.

Sophie hummed in agreement. She knew Keefe didn't have a good relationship with his father, which made all the more excuse to take him to Elwin. Elwin had a certain way with Keefe, a gentleness and concern that his father lacked. And he really could use some gentle concern right about now.

She opened the window in Keefe's bedroom, crawling out first and dropping to the ground, then gently helping the sick boy out of the window. He was shivering too hard to stand, so she managed to hoist him onto her back and, once more, ran into the void as Keefe passed out, lulled to sleep by the combination of exhaustion, fever, and Sophie's warmth seeping into his own tired, freezing body.

He awoke in the Healing Center, with Elwin standing over him and flashing various glowing lights around his body and frowning.

"Hi," Keefe croaked, sitting up slowly and blinking hard. He suddenly snapped forward with a harsh sneeze, managing to catch it in his hands. "...Ugh." He groaned, sniffling and rubbing his hands on his tunic. "Gross." 

Sophie winced but said nothing, sitting on the edge of the bed. 

“How are you feeling?” Sophie asked gently, brushing his curls away from his face. 

“Eh. Could be better,” he mumbled, giving her a wry grin. It was the truth, after all. He still felt pretty awful, but both getting out of Candleshade and whatever Elwin had been doing seemed to have helped some. 

He coughed, then looked at Elwin. “What are you thinking?”

Elwin pushed his goggles onto his head and sighed. “Keefe, you have quite the knack for getting yourself into trouble, one way or another.” He chuckled. “This time, however, it’s thankfully not too serious. Some kind of flu, but I’d like to keep you here for a few days, if you don’t mind?” Elwin met Keefe’s eyes, waiting for his answer.

Keefe knew that, like it or not, he’d end up staying anyway - Sophie would make sure of that. However, he actually found himself wanting to stay. Anything was better than Candleshade, especially feeling like this. He nodded, then sneezed again. Ow.

“Wonderful! Stay here, and I’ll go get some elixirs for you to take. I’ll be back in a moment.” Elwin dashed back to his office, leaving the two alone.

Sophie watched Elwin leave, then looked back at Keefe. He had sunk back into the pillows, apparently relaxing now that his fate for the next few days was decided.

“Promise you’ll tell me next time?” Sophie asked, meeting Keefe’s tired blue eyes. “You had me worried for a bit there. You were out for a while.” She smiled softly.

Keefe grinned. “Best sleep I’ve had in a while.”

Sophie laughed, then raised an eyebrow. “But do you promise?”

Keefe sighed, which quickly turned into a short coughing fit. When he could breathe again, he smiled weakly and shrugged. “Yeah, I promise.”

“Good.” Sophie kissed his forehead. 

“Stay with me?” Keefe whined.

Sophie glanced over at Elwin’s office door, but saw no sign of him coming back soon.

“Of course,” she agreed, snuggling in next to him on the bed and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. 

Keefe melted into her warmth, and his eyes turned heavy as he burrowed into her touch, sleep quickly claiming his exhausted body. Sophie smiled, laying her head on top of his and stroking his damp curls. She, too, closed her eyes, and all the stress of the day melted, pulling her, too, down into sleep. 

Elwin walked back into the room just then with the elixirs, but stopped quickly when he saw the sleeping pair. He smiled and grabbed an extra blanket, draping it over Keefe and Sophie. 

Sometimes the best medicine is love, isn’t it?

[3potatoesinatrenchcoat]

Keefe: Do you think different paints have different tastes?

Sophie: They do.

Bronte: ...Why did you say that with such certainty?

[arcadialedger]

It was the summer of blond trauma boys…

[cecilyshaunts]

Keefe really be dividing the fandom the same way he divides the characters in the books.

[cecilyshaunts]

I desperately need to give myself motivation to write so here Keepblr, this is the first chapter of probably the most intricate fan fic I’ll EVER write regardless of fandom. This fan fic really is a passion thing for me and you’ll figure that out quick.

Hope you guys enjoy it at least a little.

Four Of a Kind: Prologue

November 29, 2021. 5:37 PM. Universe 0.

Friendship is a funny thing when you're a teenager. One minute you can be sitting at a Chick-Fil-A table eating dinner like perfect little angels, the next you're about to beat your best friend's ass over a petty betrayal in a game. But hey, that’s just being a teenager. Isn’t it?

“Okay, okay,” Cecily muttered, still pacing in a small circle. She lifted her gaze once more to make eye contact with her group of friends all huddled around the Chick-fil-A table definitely not meant for eight people. She had to push her glasses back up as she turned away. With her phone pressed up to her left ear, she couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

“What happens if he says no?” Elise whispers, snatching one more fry from Shannon’s tray.

“Then we sulk,” Brooklyn said, poking at the rest of her fries.

“Or we do it anyway,” Kemi interjected, taking a small sip from her water.

“Then we all get in trouble and don’t get s’mores,” Sulybel pointed out, looking up from her phone for a moment to smirk.

“Noooooo!” Cori hollered, her hands clutching the sides of her stylish, poofy mohawk.

“So what, we get picked up in like ten minutes and get driven there,” Shannon added, tapping away at her phone and swearing when she was dealt another plus four, “Damn it, Catherine!”

“BWAHAHA!” Catherine cackled.

“How long has this round gone on?” Brooklyn asked with a slight frown, peering down at her phone where no one had noticed she only had two cards left. Both being green.

Nearly everyone aside from Cori, and at that moment Cecily, were busy playing Crazy Eights on there phones with one another. Cori certainly would if she were able too, but with a different kind of phone than everyone else in the group there was no way for her too. Thankfully though she could still retain some sort of enjoyment by messing with whoever was fortunate, or unfortunate depending on how you looked at, enough to be seated next to her. In the round before, Cori had shamelessly sabotaged Sulybel by telling Kemi her last card was red. Giving Kemi enough time to deal Sulybel four extra cards and change the color to green.

“Alright, okay, bye—!” Cecily hung up as quickly as she could and walked back to the table, her shoulders tight as she admitted. “Okay, so my dad said we could walk to Barnes and Nobles, so long as we use the cross walk.”

“Yes yes yes!” Cori shouted with excitement, being hastily shushed by everyone else in the group.

Kemi rolled her eyes before turning to Cecily and saying, “Of course we were gonna use the crosswalk, we don’t have a death wish.”

Shannon snorted, “Death wish or not, the cross walk is like… right there.”

The group looked around before wordlessly agreeing to clean up their table. After having cleaned everything up the group walked out of the fast food place whispering about homophobia.

“It’s called destroying them from the inside out,” Cecily said with a slight smirk.

Their group didn’t really advertise themselves as being queer, but it wasn’t like it wasn’t at least a little obvious that there weren’t straight. At least for Cori, Cecily, and Elise. Cori and Cecily with there short hairstyles and slightly masculine clothing, and Elise with her artsy makeup and loud proclamations about how amazing any and all women alive were.

“Whatever you say,” Kemi snorted.

Stepping into the darkness of late autumn sent a shiver down each of their spines. It was colder now than ever, and unfortunately the only people in the group with a winter coat were Cori, Cecily, and Catherine. The rest merely pulled their sweatshirts tighter around them.

“See Cecily, we’re fine.” Kemi said, as they walked across the small parking lot.

There was a tiny, but absolutely terrifying, road that separated the smaller restaurants and stores from the main large shopping centers. The road tended to be sped down and in the darkness Cecily couldn’t help but worry that somebody wouldn’t see them.

Which was a silly thought because the street lights were bright. Besides, they were all responsible, respectable, perfectly reasonable—

“SULY WHAT THE HECK?!”

Sulybel felt the need in the moment to do a cartwheel near the edge of the parking lot. To make it even more nerve wracking it was right at the entrance between the smaller parking lot and the small road.

The group was hysterically laughing by that point. Their knees weak and their lips aching.

“Uh oh,” Elise said, glancing down at her phone and pressing her lips together.

Catherine peered down at the phone and cackled loudly, “Oh lord,”

“What?” Shannon asked, she looked down at the phone and burst out laughing. “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god—“

Brooklyn looked around and said, “I’ll take a guess and say the cross walk is on the other side of the parking lot?”

“Yep!” Catherine practically screeched, nobody even bothered to hush her because the of course.

Cecily grimaced and looked at Shannon, “I thought you said it was right here?”

Shannon shrugged and said, “I thought it was. I mean, I haven’t used it but I still thought I saw it here driving by.”

The group stood on the grass in front of the road for a moment, no one having the courage to cross it until Sulybel ran across. The group burst into a fit of laughuter yet again, half out of hysterical worry and half out of genuine amusement.

A car honked.

The rest of the group hesitated.

The car honked again.

And the group finally decided maybe they should run too.

“Ya’ll do realize they were trying to tell us to cross, right?” Sulybel asked with a smirk.

The group was still buzzing as they strutted across the larger parking lot. Barnes and Noble was the farthest store to the right, and they were much closer to Target which was right in the center. They decided to calm down and make it to the sidewalk rather than go through the dim but mostly empty parking lot.

“What if, theoretically speaking, one of those cars was my parents?” Cecily asked. No one could tell if she was being sarcastic or serious, as sarcasm was second nature for everyone in the group.

The group was still heaving and giggling when they finally reached Barnes and Noble. Before they could even walk in they slumped against the walls to catch their breath.

“Okay, ground rules before we go in,” Kemi paused for a moment waiting for everyone to at least glance in her direction. She grinned and said, “We’re about to enter an environment that is more or less a paying library. Meaning, we all have to breathe for the next ten minutes so we’re not screaming.”

“O-oh, yeah,” Shannon was still giggling as she said it.

Another moment with nothing but the soft sounds of their own breath. The group managed to be wordless as they pushed the heavy doors open, Cori giggled again causing everyone else to hush her.

“Okay wait,” Cecily said before the group could go off on their own ways, “Everybody keep your phones out so I can text immediately that my parents are here.”

Everybody nodded and then split up.

Brooklyn, Elise, and Cori went to the manga section in the left corner. Kemi, Sulybel, and Shannon went to the YA section right in front of the manga section. Meanwhile, Cecily just wandered.

Nobody was looking for anything in particular, they were just looking to kill some time.

Cecily hadn’t intended to find herself back in the kids section, especially given that she had started high school a few months prior. But she couldn’t help but feel curious.

She glanced around at all the series that she had spent her middle school life fantasizing over. Most readers called home a place like Hogwarts or Camp Half-Blood, but her?

Her gaze settled on the brightly colored covers of a familiar series. Keeper Of The Lost Cities. Cecily stared at the glossy covers and without thinking reached for the first one. She flipped through pages without much thought, just listening to the sound of the pages and glimpsing some of the familiar character names.

She hadn’t noticed Cori coming up behind her.

“Looking back?” She asked wiggling her eyebrows

If Cori had been trying to scare her it didn’t work.

Cecily merely shrugged and put it back, “Just feeling a bit nostalgic, I guess.”

Kemi walked over as well and scrutinized the covers, pouting. “Still annoyed there’s no new book this year.”

“Missing Keefe?” Cecily taunted with a smirk.

“Missing Tam?” Kemi retored immediately.

Cecily shrugged, unable to bite back a smile, but it quickly faded as she frowned. She didn’t know why but suddenly her throat burned and her eyes were welling up. She shook her head and glanced up at the door to see both her parents coming, hastily texting on there group chat to gtfo to the middle of the imposing store.

“I’m assuming judging by the fact that they don’t look mad that they were not one of the cars,” Cori whispered to her.

Cecily giggled before saying, “Thank God.”

But she couldn’t help but steal one last glance back to the covers from her childhood. Unable to ignore the small tug she felt in the back of her heart.

♧⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞♧

Their group split up evenly into Cecily’s parents cars as soon as they left Barnes and Nobles. With Cecily, Catherine, Shannon, and Sulybel being placed in her dad’s car. And Kemi, Cori, Brooklyn, and Elise being put in her mom's car.

Meanwhile, all Cecily could really do was stare outside at the inky black, sky - well - relatively black sky. The shopping center and it’s surrounding businesses made sure that the nights were never truly dark here anymore. Cecily would always have the words her parents told her pinned in her brain about this place.

“When I was your age there wasn’t even a single store here. It was all farm land.”

And while many of Cecily’s friends would argue that like… over thirty years had passed and that was ages ago, she still recognized that in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that long ago. It was strange to imagine that a place she had been coming to as long as she could remember hadn’t even existed a decade or two before she was born.

“So what movie are we watching when we get back?” Catherine asked curiously, her face lit up by her phone.

“Something from the MCU? I dunno.” Shannon said, gritting her teeth and resiting the urge smack Catherine beside her.

Suly looked up from her phone to nudge Catherine, “I think Spiderverse was just added back to Netflix.”

Catherine shrugged, “Will we still have time to make smores then?”

“Making smores doesn’t take that long,” Shannon argued.

Cecily smirked from up at the front seat, “Maybe smores don’t take long, but how long are we going to sit there and listen to Kemi’s gossip?”

The roads were clear, and while part of the road went through the hills they inevitably had to pause for a family of deer to cross, but for the most part, the drive went in a peaceful haze. When they did finally reach home, Cecily could make out the blazing glow of the fire pit in her backyard and the other half of their group already sitting around it.

“Damn,” Catherine muttered, “I was really hoping we would make it back before them.”

Cori grinned and whooped, holding up the metal rod the marshmallow on the top. Brooklyn was shivering and leaning closer to the fire. Elise was rambling about something on her phone (most likely related to her current obsession with all things Robin Buckle and Nancy Wheeler). Meanwhile, Kemi was eating a plain chocolate bar because unlike the others she’d never been a fan of marshmallows.

The rest of the group had to get lawn chairs to sit on because the wood benches set around it were full and usually only ever managed to fit two people.

Once everyone was settled with there marshmallows over the flames, Sulybel said, “Okay, so, we were thinking we watch Into The Spiderverse.” She glanced around the fire and said, “Raise your hand if that’s what you think we should put on later?”

Everyone raised there hand, and with no opposition the choice was made.

So their group finished up and headed up the stairs to the deck, opening the doors to the dining room. Cecily’s dog barked from the lower level and Catherine and Sulybel quickly jogged down the stairs to the first level to pat it.

From there the group went up two flights of stairs, one to the room that contained all of the bedrooms, and a smaller flight of stairs to take them to the decently sized attic. The attic had old yellow carpet, two small blue couches pressed together to make one medium couch, and new but simple coffee table with books beneath it. On the right side of the room when they walked in was an overstuffed bookcase, and a light stuffed with more books in the compartments. To the left were two gaming chairs, with stacks of books hidden behind it.

“Please tell me not all of those are yours,” Kemi commented with a slight grin.

Cecily stiffened and sighed, “Look, I can’t read Ebooks. They give me a headache.”

Kemi hummed and slumped onto the left couch, along with everyone else. Sulybel and Elise grabbed the two gaming chairs and sat on them. There was a mellow thump as Elise’s gaming chair hit a small but thick paperback book resting atop one of the couches, slipping it behind the couch.

Kemi reached for it as Cecily stood up swiftly and opened her mouth to speak. Kemi stared at the bright red cover for a moment before smirking, “Rereading KOLTC, or something?”

Cecily shrugged and took the book back, sliding it back into the lowest shelf of the bookcase. There were nine other books there, three of them being well-worn hardcovers, the rest being bent but slightly new paperbacks.

“A KOLTC shrine,” Cori whispered melodramatically.

Cecily slapped her shoulder, scowling.

“Seriously though,” Brooklyn interjected. “I feel like I haven’t even touched them in forever.”

“Me either,” Cecily admitted.

“I just reread all the SoKeefe moments,” Kemi said.

Cori grinned and added, “I remember… well, nothing. EXCEPT for this really funny meme involving fire and cookies and--”

Sulybel looked over at all of the books and interrupted with a, “Oh hey, my little sister read those.”

That only made Cecily’s heart jump. She could feel every bit of embarrassment crawling acorss her skin and screaming at her to never touch the books again and leave the past in past in the past. You’ll be fifteen in like five months, her brain scolded. Never touch those again, never think about them again, don’t even think about all of the fan fics circulating around your stupid brain right now.

But she couldn’t.

As cheesy as it was, those books had gotten her through a lot. And sometimes rereading them felt like stepping back home.

Elise stood up and giggled, “Oh oh oh! Didn’t I make you a picture of it for your twelfth birthday?”

Cecily grinned and said, “Yeah,, that was when I was a hardcore SoFitz shipper.”

Shannon laughed, “Didn’t you switch to shipping SoKeefe just a few months later?”

Cecily face flushed, “To be fair, not my fault the eighth book totally changed my perspective.”

Kemi shook her head, “I’ve been a SoKeefe shipper since day one.”

Cecily rolled her eyes, “And I got you into the series in the first place.”

Didn’t you try to write a fanfic for this back in seventh grade?” Catherine asked with a giggle and a smirk.

“OH YEAH!” Cori exclaimed, “It was like… we were sucked into. But like… ritual style.”

Cecily rolled her eyes, “I was twelve, quarantine was coming up… WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!”

The group giggled and argued for a few seconds, until there was another (albeit louder) thump. The group all quieted down and glanced back at the bookshelf. The book had fallen again, this time all on its own.

“Your bookshelf sucks, Cec,” Cori said.

Cecily rolled her eyes and went to reach for the book, but reaching for it felt like being tugged by a powerful magnet. She tried to pull her hand back to no avail.

“Um, guys--!” She started.

The group only noticed when the book flung open and the pages glowed brighter than the sun. Cecily used her other hand to reach for Cori, who didn’t hesitate to grab Cecily’s wrist because being Isakaieded into a fantasy world? Um hello? Yes. Although Cori herself was not anticipating the strong pull of the magic. Cori reflexively reached for Brooklyn who was yanked forward and grabbed Kemi.

Then the four vanished with nothing but a flash of colorful light and the sound of a snap of a rubber band.

♧⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞♧

♧⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞⌝⌟⌜⌞♧

Anyway, I guess this is kind of like a preview so give me some feedback guys. Again, this is a passion fan fic for me that I’ve been wanting to write for years and just need the drive too. Hope you guys enjoyed the preview.