Light Feeling

The sun streamed in as the morning breeze drifted through the open window. The pale curtains rustled as Keefe listened to her breathing softly beside him. There weren't many times they were allowed to feel peaceful in their lives but their mornings alone always made Keefe's heart feel a little bigger. Sophie worried a lot, which made Keefe worry about her worrying, but when she was sleeping she tended to be at peace. Her nightmares were warded away by Keefe while he gave her soothing feelings to go to sleep.

"You don't have to do that," she would say.

He knew to her it felt like she was using him so they would both be able to get a full night's sleep, but he explained to her every time that making her feel better made him feel better. And not just because he could feel her emotions. She helped him feel safe, there was no one else in the world he could trust more than her. When everything went downhill, when he was convinced he wasn't worth saving, not only was she always there to pull him away from the edge but she made him feel wanted. That he was worth something. So even though she was definitely ten times stronger than him in every way, he knew he would spend the rest of his life fighting for her happiness just as she did for him.

He often listened to her breathing whenever he woke up before her, which was often. They often stayed up late whenever he was able to sleepover. Not that he was ever technically allowed to sleepover. Yes, he was working on being a better person and following the rules, but one rule that Sophie never argued about breaking was sneaking Keefe over for the night. At first, it had only happened every once in a while, usually when one of them had a particularly rough night or they just needed human (elf) contact. Eventually, it started happening more and more often as they became more than just good friends. She had broken up with Fitz a while ago but they were both reluctant to leave their bubble until they had to. Right now, their friends were in a weird state of emotional turmoil, so many battles had been fought and some had pretty bad outcomes. They all agreed to take time to themselves to recover from the end of this traumatic period in their lives. It was after the Neverseen was defeated when Keefe started staying over more regularly. So far Sophie's many bodyguards had gone down in numbers but one usually still hung out around the house just to be sure nothing was still going wrong. Neither of them had any idea if the bodyguards knew Keefe slept over but they were pretty sure he would be hard to miss. Sure, the few times he came at the beginning they spent a long time making sure he could sneak past without being noticed. Now they stopped caring as long as none of the guards told their parents, so far so good.

He turned towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist and slide his leg between hers, kissing at the back of her neck lightly until she started to wake.

"Mmmmm," she mumbled with a smile as she turned in his arms to look at him. "Early riser are we?"

He smiled and placed a small kiss on her forehead before replying.

"I have to go soon, it's almost 5," he whispered.

She frowned and put her own arms around his torso holding him against her. "No. I forbid it. Stay with me."

His heart leaped, no matter how much she assured him that she's in love with him, every time she said something like this his heartfelt more full. He felt her emotions match her words as she started placing small kisses on his hand.

"Anything for you my love," he said and leaned over her to kiss her properly. She giggled and then muffled herself so no one would hear her. Luckily they were on a different floor than her parents so it was near impossible for them to be heard but they still whispered almost as if it reminded themselves of their defiance.

Keefe smiled against her lips as she moved her hands through his hair. Against what he liked to tell people, it was quite the mess in the mornings and he did have to spend some time taming it in the mornings. Sophie had told him that she liked it messy so he always left it alone until he had to go home or out to see their friends.

Sophie leaned back and beamed at him almost as much as he was to her. "As much as I would love for you to follow through with those orders, Grady is starting to suspect is up between us". Keefe shuttered thinking about what would happen if Grady found them together before they formally started dating in public, or if he ever found Keefe in her bed really. He climbed over to his side of the bed, he usually slept on the right, and stood up to stretch. Sophie gave him a look and he smiled.

"I see what you're doing Keefe and it won't work. This time."

He gave her a pouty face and put his shirt on from the day before.

"Alright Foster but just know that you have to live with your decision."

She stuck out her tongue and smiled. Nothing was better than waking up next to your best friend.

"See you tonight Keefe."

"I don't know if I can wait that long, I might just have to pop over for a fun 'friend hangout'," he laughed as he hopped into his shoes.

"No can do today mister, I have to help Grady and Edaline with the sanctuary today and you know Grady won't let you near the animals anymore..."

"It was ONE time," Keefe whined as he went to give her a kiss goodbye.

"One too many for him"

Sophie gave him a long happy look and then let go of his hands. "Tonight!"

He returned her look, "Tonight!"

Keefe got more and more used to navigating his way through the dark as he appeared night after night as Sophie was already sleeping. What he wasn't used to was Ella being right next to his side of the bed on the floor and slipping into the side of the bed.

"Shit, sorry Soph," he whispered as he carefully removed his shoes and shirt before climbing in.

That's weird, no reply.

He felt around for her only to find nothing, well nothing but a mess of blankets bunched around. He bolted up and ran for the light. As his eyes adjusted he found a very strange sight in front of him. Not only was Ella on the ground and the bed messy, but the room looked like a tornado had blown through it. He came to the realization much later than he knew he really should of but part of his brain didn't want to allow him to feel that much pain at once.

"SOPHIE" he screamed as he ran for the door to find her bodyguard.

He tore through the house and down several flights of stairs running like a crazy man. No, not again, this could not be happening again. Shit. Fuck. His mind was keeping him from fully processing what this meant. For all he knew she was just outside, maybe her parents needed her to work extra late. Don't be an idiot Keefe, they would never make her work at one in the morning.

He couldn't find the bodyguard anywhere, what the fu-

"Keefe! What are you doing?" Edaline called out behind him in a very confused voice.

He whipped around to look at her. "I-" he started but was cut off again.

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SHIRTLESS!" Grady yelled from behind Edaline. "I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU WERE-"

It was his turn to cut him off and shouted, "Sophie's missing!" His eyes were brimmed with tears. Edaline gasped and ran upstairs to check for herself. Keefe ran after her and Grady to show them. After confirming what he said Grady called the council and the Blackswan so they could try to figure out what happened. Person after person arrived and tried to find any evidence of what could have happened. After a few hours of debate, they made a plan to get everyone checking different places and using different devices to try to find her.

"Ok, it's simple. For now, the council and the Blackswan are working on tracking her along with trying to find her bodyguard. We'll all split up in pairs and look for her in her usual spots just in case there has been some kind of a mistake. Biana you go with Linh, Tam you go with Wylie, and Keefe you'll come with me," Dex announced in an unusual act of leadership.

"Okay sounds go-" Keefe was cut off a third time. His eye twitched.

"Keefe should stay here," Edaline said quietly but firmly.

"No! I want to help, I need to help!" he almost shouted. He couldn't sit still and do nothing while everyone else was looking for her.

"Keefe," Biana said softly, "Edaline's right. You should stay here. Everyone, go ahead with your groups, Dex go with Lihn for now. I'll catch up." The group nodded at her and light leaped away.

"Why did you do that! I need to find her! I... I-"

"You love her," Biana finished for him. For once Keefe didn't mind being interrupted and nodded sitting down.

There was a pause and then Keefe asked, "How did you," he turned to Biana and Edaline, "how did you both know?"

"Well," Edaline said simply, "for one thing we found you bounding through my house half-naked trying to find Sophie at one in the morning. It's pretty clear that your shirt is the big green one next to Sophie's bed on the floor".

Keefe blushed harder than the day he confessed his feelings to Sophie. He noticed for the first time that night, morning?, that he wasn't wearing a shirt or shoes. Edaline conjured a shirt and gave it to him to cover up.

"It's one of Grady's. Hopefully, it's not too big"

It was a little on the baggy side but he didn't care.

"That," Biana started, "and the fact that you have been in love with her pretty much since the day you met her."

The tears started to spill over onto his cheeks and his eyebrows were pushed together. "I can't...I was supposed to protect her. I was supposed to be there but I was late. I... I love her. I just... what do you do when your heart is shattering? Your world?"

"Keefe, if anyone can survive whatever it is that Sophie is going through right now it's Sophie. She kicks butt remember?" Biana smiled and gave him a reassuring pat on the back as Edaline held his hands as she sat across from him. He didn't know how they were both staying so calm.

"We were supposed to be done with all of this. She was supposed to be safe. She was suppose to be happy"

"Oh honey, she has never been happier than she has been these past few months with you" Edaline reassured him.

He felt his cheeks heat up once again. "...you knew? and you weren't mad?"

"Well, I didn't know you were sleeping over. And once we have her back I'll be giving you both quite the talk which I didn't think I'd have to do for a while from now." His cheeks went even brighter. "But honey, her nightmares went away. She was getting sleep and beaming every morning from what I had assumed were talks on the phone with you the night before. The few times you came over during the day she was so at ease around you, you made her a teenager again. She didn't have to be anything for you, not a leader or a moonlark, she was totally at ease. That's love if I've ever seen it. You might think you've done nothing to help her but darling, you saved the very best parts of her. I could tell how much of a toll it was taking on her to be the best version of herself for everyone. It chipped away at her to know she was part of a plan that caused people pain and how she never believed she was good enough to save anyone. Around you that all went away. I could never be mad at the boy who brought my daughter back to me."

He was crying again, for more reasons than one, and leaned his head against Edaline's shoulder while Biana rubbed circled against his back with her palm. "It's going to be okay honey, it is. She's strong." Edaline whispered.

The group reconvened when the Blackswan sent out a message saying they had a lead. Keefe had taken up pacing around the room as Biana tried to keep him calm. When Grady returned and saw Keefe wearing his shirt he glared and went straight for him until Edaline pulled him aside and gave him quite the whisper yelling.

"It looks like she is somewhere in the Mysterium but her signal is being blocked out by something" Forkle reported. "We are trying to find a better way to find her but it seems unusual that she would be in that area unless someone took her there"

"Wait," Fitz said, "She was taken by a regular elf?"

"Hey golden boy!" Ro said picking at her nails with her knife. "I think we are all pretty use to elves being the cause of many issues here."

Fitz went slightly pink, "No I meant if she's in Mysterium that means she was probably taken by a talentless. How come she could fight off a talentless?"

"This is why she dumped you," Dex muttered. Keefe gave him a small fist bump.

"What?" Fitz said, not hearing Dex.

"I said," Dex cleared his voice, "Talentless doesn't mean stupid. There are plenty of 'talentless' that are way smarter than you."

If this had been any other situation Keefe would have cut in and given his smirk as he joined in on bashing Fitz's intelligence.

"Let's get back to the point," Biana said. "How are we going to find her. We can't knock on every door until someone happens to reveal where she went."

"We're working on that but the technology is tough to override. Even with Dex, it's going to take a while."

"Why don't I go walk around until I feel her respond to my telepathy?" Fitz suggested. "It could work since we're-"

"COGNATES WE KNOW" everyone shouted back at him.

His face was now turning more red than pink. "Still, it could work".

There was a pause, "it wouldn't hurt anything to try I guess," Forkle said.

"Keefe should go too," Tam said, "Can't he feel her emotions without touching her? He could try to feel around for her like a metal detector"

Lihn and Biana laughed but Keefe agreed. This could work. He could help.

"I'll do it, let's go pretty boy." He gestured at Fitz to go but was stopped.

"You might want to put your shoes on first," Fitz said.

Keefe paused realizing that his shoes were up in Sophie's room. Then, with the whole group watching, slowly made his way to the stairs to go grab them.

"Wait-" Fitz started but was cut off by Lihn.

"Why don't you go program the leapmaster so you guys can go as soon as he comes back"

Fitz had a confused face but shook his head and walked to the other room to do as she said.

Everyone let out a breath.

"I swear to god I'm going to kill Keefe as soon as we get Sophie back," Grady grumbled and Edaline patted his shoulder with a smile.

"No you will not," she put simply. "Or no more mallowmelt."

The streets were still pretty empty with the sun still waiting to rise. It was cool and Keefe was back in his own shirt, which happened to be short-sleeved. Fitz and Keefe decided to split up to go faster. They were supposed to text each other if they found her, but with their track records, he found it doubtful they would be going into any kind of heroics together. God please, she has to be okay. I'll give anything, please. I need her to be okay. Somehow he felt responsible. It seemed like anytime he loved someone, they got hurt. Does it make him a bad person? To love her? He thought back to Edaline's words. Maybe not, maybe this was just their luck. Maybe they were just going to have to fight for the rest of their lives. He knew that if that's what it meant to love her, if they both had to fight no matter if they did or did not love, then it was better to love and fight by her side then to fight without something to fight for. Please-

He felt something, but he couldn't quite tell. It was small, a light feeling. He stood in the middle of the street, eyes closed.

Yes

It was definitely Sophie. She was alive.

He ran, faster and faster until he felt as close to her as he could. He opened his eyes and found himself looking at a house. It was small and looked like it was loved at some time but had been left to the elements without repair for too long. It was a faded blue and one of the shutters had fallen onto the ground. There were overgrown bushes and a small broken tricycle underneath one of them. He approached the door and felt her below him. She was scared but there was something else he couldn't quite decipher. He was careful to enter the house, using the training the Blackswan had taught them. No one seemed to be here. He found the door to what he assumed was the basement and opened it slowly. He heard a small voice.

It sounded like crying, but not Sophie's.

He entered steadily and crept down the stairs.

"You're the reason he's gone!"

It was a woman's voice but it was unfamiliar. He could see the back of the woman speaking, she was holding a blaster wildly and shouting at Sophie who was tied to the chair in front of her. His heart sped up as he took in the situation. He wanted so badly to just rush over and grab Sophie, to hold her and save her, but he knew he had to be smarter than that. It looked like Sophie's tracker was gone, she bound by some metal and she had a small gadget attached to her arm.

Something must be preventing her from using her powers otherwise she would have taken down this woman easily. All it looked like the woman had was the blaster in her hand.

"You killed him. It's because of you my daughter doesn't have a father anymore. You ruined our family!"

He could tell Sophie was trying to come up with a plan, her face was calculating and he could feel that she was less scared than she was when he first found her.

Sophie was looking around the room for something useful when she spotted Keede peaking around the corner. It took all her strength to look away to make sure the woman couldn't tell she saw anything. He found her. She felt confident and tried to think of a plan. If only she could communicate with him.

He felt her relief when noticed him. He needed to get her out, now. If she was relieved he was here it meant she knew she needed help, she almost never needed help from something that seemed this trivial.

He closed his eyes and ran for the woman's blaster. He managed to grab it but even though she was surprised, she didn't let go. He managed to get it pointed away from him but wrestled her for advantage. Man this woman was strong. He could feel Sophie panic and noticed the woman had slowly pulled out a knife with her other hand.

He kicked her in the gut and managed to grab the blaster. He backed up huffing, but the woman went to Sophie and put a knife against her throat. Keefe stepped forward but the woman just said: "tut tut, one more step lover boy and she gets what I nabbed her for".

He put his hands up and cried, "No! Don't hurt her. Please! I'll do anything!"

"Don't make promises you can't keep! You think I'll let her go because you love her? She killed the love of my life. He was part of the rebellion, he was going to make the world better and she killed him. He was there when you guys attacked their headquarters, he was guarding the leaders when she inflicted on them and he hit his head when he fell."

Sophie's eyes were watering and he wished he could hold her. He knew that even if they did survive this that she would beat herself up over the woman's husband and his death, even if he was part of the Neverseen. He wanted to take all of her pain away and hold it for her so she wouldn't have to feel it.

"It's not her fault." He tried to sound calm as he talked to the woman, his eyes never straying from the knife. "She was trying to protect her family too, the leaders your husband worked for had taken her parents. Tell me you wouldn't do anything to save your daughter from someone who took her."

The woman looked at Keefe, he could tell without looking that her anger was fading slowly to pain, it was working. "She never intended to kill anyone, that's why she inflicted. Inflicting doesn't kill people. She could have, she has four other talents that could have easily taken them out, but she did as little harm as she could to get her parents back. I'm an empath, I can feel how sorry she is."

The woman was cracking but her hold on the knife was still too strong for Keefe to confidently make any kind of move to disarm her. The woman was too unpredictable.

"Your daughter," He murmured but he knew they could still hear. The woman tensed and took a tighter hold. "I can feel her hiding in the closet, she scared. Really scared. She can't be more than, what, eight years old. Do you think killing Sophie in front of her will make up for your husband's death? She's sad, I can feel that, but she more scared than sad."

The woman glanced at the closet and they heard a whimper. She rushed over and dropped the knife on the floor. Keef turned the blaster to stun and struck the woman so she was unconscious. As soon as he was sure the woman wasn't a threat he ran and grabbed Sophie, chair and all, and carried her through the house to the street. Once he believed they were far enough, he ungagged her and tried to rip off the gadgets. He managed to get the cuffs around her arms and feet that tied her to the chair off but the arm piece wouldn't budge.

"I think it's some kind of talent blocker, the best I've ever seen," she said as she tried to take it off herself unsuccessfully.

Keefe grabbed her face with both of his hands and whimpered, "I thought...oh god. I thought I'd lost you Sophie". He fell to his knees and put his head against her stomach. She fell, just as exhausted, to the ground next to him, putting her hands around his body as she maneuvered them so she was sitting in his lap and he was holding her.

She cried against his chest, finally letting out how scared she had been. "I thought she was going to... I thought I was going to ..." She hiccuped, tears streaming into his shirt.

" Shhh I know, I've got you. I've got you". He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head until she was able to calm down.

"We should let the others know your okay," he whispered once they had both had a moment to stop crying.

"Okay," she whispered and lifted her head to face him.

He could tell she was still tired so he carried her bridal style and leaped back to her house. As soon as he got there, Edaline and Grady ran out to hold Sophie. Keefe smiled at the family reunion and sent a message to everyone explaining what happened. The council went to help the woman and her child while the Blackswan came to try to get the blocker off of Sophie.

"Keefe," Grady said gruffly as he hugged Sophie and Edaline.

Keefe went pale, he was about to get majorly in trouble for earlier.

"Keefe, get in here." Grady grabbed Keefe by surprise and pulled him into the hug.

After a long series of relieving assurances that Sophie was home safe and that this was a one-time rouge kidnapping, Edaline suggested they all get some rest. Sophie and Keefe looked at each other and Keefe saw her blush, knowing that they both wanted to go up together but her parents knew what was happening and would most likely put a stop to it any way they could.

"Keefe," Edaline started, "you might want to start bringing more than one set of clothes when you sleepover. It's unclean to wear the same clothes twice in a row." She gave him a wink and dragged Grady upstairs behind her.

"DON'T THINK WE WON'T HAVE THAT TALK SENCEN!" Grady shouted as he was pulled.

Sophie giggled and turned to Keefe, "I'm guessing we were caught?"

His face turned pink once again as he cleared his voice, "Oh yeah, about that. I may have run through your house shirtless yelling your name when I couldn't find you..."

She gave him a shocked smile and stood up, slowly making her way towards him. He looked up at her like she was a goddess approaching. She carefully slipped one of her hands into his and lead him behind her. Once they were in her room he could tell they were both energized despite the day they had. They had done this so many times, he had been sleeping over pretty consistently for the past six months that he knew this shouldn't feel any different than it had before, but he knew it was.

He sat on the bed and pulled her between his legs as she leaned down, still standing, to kiss him.

Something about the high emotions from earlier mixed with the relief of her safety made the moment electric. They hadn't bothered to turn the lights on, the room memorized, and made out like they were never going to see each other again.

She slowly pushed him down against the bed, he held her face between his hands and deepened the kiss. She pulled at the hem of his shirt, asking permission, and he broke their kiss momentarily to pull it off.

"I love you Sophie Foster," he whispered in her ear.

She kissed his jaw and leaned over to his ear, "I love you more."

"Not possible," he returned. He flipped them over so he was on top, "Nobody in the world could love anyone more than I love you." He kissed her temple, "You are my world, Foster, when I thought I lost you my world was gone. Without you," he kissed the tip of her nose, "I have nothing. You are my happiness."

She looked at him, tears of happiness brimming her eyes, "You fool, how could I be the world when you are my universe. Nothing, nothing, can make me as happy as you make me. If I am your happiness Keefe then know this, you are in every way mine. Never forget that."

They spent the night in bliss knowing that not only were they alive and well, but they were loved the way that every person hopes to get a glimpse of, if not a moment of it themselves.

The next morning Keefe woke up, once again, to Sophie's slow peaceful breathing. This time when Sophie asked him to stay, neither of them had a reason to disagree.

A/N: Wowza, that was my longest fic yet I believe. Let me know what you think, I love feedback :)

This was suggested by SoKeefe17, thanks for suggesting!