"Sophie?" Keefe asked, staring into her eyes with a kind of wild electricity.

"Yes?" Meeting his eyes breathlessly, she found the air knocked out of her again when she beheld the fiery joy in Keefe's blue eyes. She felt a smile creep over her face.

He seemed similarly breathless. "Um, I—um. I can't believe that just happened. I can't—yeah." He smiled sheepishly at her. "Um. What do we do now?"

Sophie blushed. "I don't know, Keefe. What do you want to do?"

"Well…I want you to be my girlfriend. But I don't know if that's okay with you, or if it's too soon after you and Fitz…"

Sophie dropped her gaze thoughtfully, considering. He had a point. She and Fitz were trying to be friendly, but she didn't think that immediately dating Keefe would go over so well. And she didn't know if she was emotionally ready for another relationship when she was hurting still over Fitz. But she did know one thing: when she was healed, she wanted to be with Keefe.

"Keefe, I really like you. And I want to be your girlfriend. But I think you're right. It's very soon after we—broke up. And I want to be sure that I'm not an emotional wreck, so I can be the best girlfriend ever for you. Also, Fitz and I—I don't want to make it weird between you and Fitz because we immediately start dating right after I ended things with Fitz. I think I should probably wait just a little bit before we become official. But we can totally hang out a bunch, and do more of this—" She stepped towards him, blushing a bit while she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him quickly.

"Is that okay with you?"

Keefe smirked. "It's more than okay. Sophie, you'll be the best girlfriend ever just by being my girlfriend, but I understand what you mean. Whenever you're ready, let's make it official. In the meantime…"

He held her face in his hands and kissed her again, smoothly and lovingly, almost chaste, but still fiery and passionate and joyful. When their lips parted, he leaned his forehead against hers, both of their eyes shining.

That was the thing that stood out most to Sophie about all of this. Being with Fitz had been passionate and sweet, but Keefe—Keefe was different. He was passionate. He was fun. And completely loving and giving, where sometimes Fitz had been stressful and pushy. The biggest thing that stood out, though, was the joy. Sophie felt such an overwhelming joy, even through her heartbreak, even though this was all so sudden and new. She was so happy, and she could see an equal or even greater happiness in Keefe. It was written all over his face; it was in the way he held her hands; it was in the way he smiled at her. But she could read it most plainly in his eyes: where he often held some sadness or stress, disguised by smirking and teasing, or longing (she now realized, for her)—now the only thing she saw was the greatest happiness Keefe had ever felt.

-LATER-

"Well…it looks like I might be losing that bet to Ro after all. But she won't get to do what she's been threatening me with in bets for so long after tonight!" Keefe smirked cheerfully at Sophie, while he pushed his pile of blankets next to hers on the floor.

"What's that?

"Tell you that I like you." Keefe laughed, and Sophie looked at him in wonder. He was so cheerful, so joyous, more than she'd ever seen before! She was amazed by the number of times she'd seen him laugh or smile at her, love and joy glowing in his eyes, just over the course of the hour since they'd first kissed.

And of course, they'd kept that up. On occasion they'd just look at each other, and he'd sweep her into his arms and kiss her. Sometimes they'd quickly share a brief kiss in the middle of a conversation. Once they were pillow fighting and she toppled over onto the pile of pillows on the floor from a blow to the side. He'd followed quickly, apologizing as he fell onto a large cushion. She forgave him with a kiss, and that one turned into a longer one, until they were kissing passionately in the cushions. And so forth and so on.

"So that's what Ro's been holding over your head for so long!" Sophie laughed. "Oh my goodness, I am so oblivious! How did I not figure it out?"

"I don't know, Foster, but I sure am glad you did now," Keefe replied, laughing again.

She threw a pillow playfully at him. "Let's hope Ro doesn't inflict any permanent damage on you in future bets instead," she said, winking. "I like my boys unmarred by ogre enzymes."

Keefe yawned, pressing pause on the human movie they were watching sprawled across their beds, which were now one big pile of blankets. "What time is it?"

"Hmm…11pm. We should probably go to sleep." Sophie smiled sleepily at him.

"Yeah…that'd be a good idea." He dumped the remainder of a box of Prattles into his mouth, crunching down. "Brush teeth first?"

"Sure," Sophie replied, standing up and offering a hand to him, which he grabbed, getting up as well. He followed her into the bathroom, pulling out a spare toothbrush from the cabinet and offering it to her.

Brushed and sleepy, they climbed under the covers, snuggling up together.

"You know," Keefe drawled sleepily, "Since I'm going to have to call Ro 'Mighty Warrior Queen' for the next month, I only think it's fair that you participate in that, considering that you played a significant part in getting me pulled into that." He smirked at Sophie, who blushed, curled up in his arms.

"That sounds fair," she said between yawns. "Goodnight, Keefe."

"Goodnight, dear Mysterious Miss F." He pressed a kiss to her forehead as she fell asleep in his arms. And Keefe didn't think there was ever a time when he felt happier than falling asleep beside Sophie Foster, the girl of his dreams, as her almost-boyfriend. He thanked whatever powers that be that led him here, as he fell into dreams of brown eyes sparkling at him