I can just feel the (happy, probably) tears I'm about to shed writing this... I hope you join me.

If you don't listen to the song while you read this just because you don't feel like it, SHAME ON YOU BECAUSE IT IS NECESSARY FOR THE PROPER MOOD XD (Trust me, it's one of the only ways I stayed on track while writing this oneshot—)

Also, shout-out to lovelynght (my fave sis <3) for giving me inspiration to finish this! And to AriaAshtri113 for making me feel guilty enough to finish in this lifetime hahaha. Seriously though, love you guys! This one's for you two. It wouldn't be here right now without you ❤️

- - -

It was just your typical spring night, for a minute. Just a normal, slightly chilly evening; the sun was just beginning to set. Sophie was making dinner with the gnomes, but honestly, being on house arrest, she had nothing better to do.

Then two very much non-gnome arms wrapped around her softly, gentle kisses tickling her neck like dandelion fluff, and suddenly... her day wasn't so ordinary anymore.

The two gnomes working with Sophie smiled at each other knowingly, gathered up their things, and moved to the other side of the large outdoor kitchen space to finish preparing. In spite of herself, Sophie couldn't help smiling, and smiling big.

"Hello, Mrs. Sencen," a teasing voice said from close behind her. The arms wrapped around her waist hugged a little tighter.

Sophie turned around, careful not to brush off his arms. She could feel her whole face glowing, and she didn't mind one bit. "Why hello, Mr. Sencen."

Sophie giggled as Keefe leaned down, warming her as he got close, and gave her a long, soft kiss that sent a glorious fluttery sensation from her head to her toes. He never failed to make her feel like the most special girl on Earth when he did that. And he did it a lot, yet somehow not nearly enough.

When he pulled away, Keefe smirked down at her and said, "Were you a good girl today? You know I'm trusting you to be good while I'm at work. I'm not letting you overdo it. You've broken the rules enough for a few more years, and I KNOW that's kinda hypocritical coming from me, but hey," his expression softened, and his fingers absently stroked her cheek, "you're my better half."
(Lol newly-weds am I right—)

Sophie felt her cheeks flush, and she nuzzled her head against his shoulder. "It was hard, but I did it! Are you proud of meee?"

Keefe raised her chin with his thumb as he looked down at her. His eyebrows were raised high, and his lips were twitching suspiciously. "So you didn't leave the property? At all?"

Sophie hid most of her face against him so he couldn't see her smile, but it was pretty hard to hide your emotions from an Empath. Keefe narrowed his eyes at her, but his lips continued to twitch more and more by the second. "Soph... what did you do? ACTUALLY, wait a second, I almost forgot!" His lips finally stopped twitching as they finally broke into a smirk. "We agreed your new nickname is Lady Wifey."

She slapped him a little harder than she probably should have, but it was worth it when he squealed a girlish "OUCH!" She hadn't gotten a good laugh in quite a few days. Mostly because of all the decompressing she'd had to do after the wedding. It had been way more stressful than she'd been expecting, but it probably hadn't helped that elvin weddings were way fancier than human weddings. And, well, Edaline— though it warmed her heart that her mom had done so much to make the day special for them. But, even though the wedding had been almost a month ago, Sophie had only just finished wrapping the things she was saving away, getting rid of anything else, etc. etc.

Not that there hadn't been plenty of time to relax and enjoy the wonderfulness of marriage. They'd gone on a two-week honeymoon to an isolated (shockingly more beautiful and more expansive than Everglen) castle in the tropics where they could just get away and enjoy themselves in peace, away from all the hassle. Definitely the best two weeks of Sophie's life, especially the first day of the fourteen. The day she became Sophie Elizabeth Sencen.

Everything else seemed to pale to that. The stress didn't matter. The hectic days didn't matter. The worry-full, sleepless nights didn't matter, even though those were extremely important to address. All that mattered whenever she saw those beautiful ice blue eyes was that they were hers.

"Pardon me, Lady Sencen," a timid voice said from not far away, pulling Sophie out of her thoughts. It only took her a second to connect the voice to Netta, one of the gnomes that had moved onto the property of Talifell -- the estate that Sophie and Keefe had built for themselves and moved into after their honeymoon -- shortly after they had themselves.

Sophie turned to face the sweet-looking little gnome with a smile of acknowledgement, showing her that she had her attention. She did not, however, find it necessary to unwrap both of her arms from her husband's waist. "How may I help you, Netta? And please, as I keep telling you, you can just call me Sophie."

The little gnome stepped closer, seeming to gain a bit more confidence. "Ris sent me to ask you to take a little whiff of this powder, Lady Sencen. He wasn't sure if this was the correct herb that you wanted us to implement into the soup. Neither of us have ever smelled cooked egg before, I'm afraid."

"Oh, right! Okay, uh, pass me the bowl, please." She didn't stop smiling, but inwardly, Sophie cursed herself for not remembering what that dang herb was called. Even after so many years, she couldn't keep all the elf-y food names straight, and it got frustrating sometimes. She felt so troublesome to the poor, innocent gnomes.

Shaking off the thought, Sophie accepted the small bowl from Netta, and inhaled deeply, letting the scent settle into her. "Yep, this is the o-- Ooooh..."

A wave of dizziness passed over her suddenly, making her body sway along with her brain. And her stomach.

Oh. No.

Sophie started blindly, desperately tearing for the house, and the bathroom, but her wobbly legs held her back. She almost fell flat on her face at least ten times in a row. Her stomach just churned harder.

Sophie was so out of it mere seconds later, that she barely even noticed when an arm wrapped around her shoulders, and the house got closer. She was feeling mighty close to passing out, but her willpower wasn't strong enough to resist the urge to close her eyes and cling tighter to whatever was helping her up the stairs to the gigantic master bathroom. The nausea was so strong that she was losing control of her limbs.

The walk felt like an eternity. Nausea turned to something bordering on actual pain, and yet, somehow, when Sophie opened her eyes and squinted at her surroundings, the light searing her eyes, she was kneeling in front of the toilet. And just in time for her to throw up what felt like all her insides.

After several long, long minutes of what felt like dying, Sophie's mind began to clear, her stomach to become less sour and rollercoaster-like. And it was then that she realized two important things. The first was that... all she'd done was dry-heave. Like whatever the heck had just happened to her was some kind of twisted, super-strong carsickness. And the second...

"Keefe," she said softly, her voice cracking. Not because she was that overjoyed to see him, though that was definitely a part of it. It was because he was proving to be the kind of husband that would support your full body weight as he took you wherever you needed to go, and hold your hair back in your time of need.

He reached down and gently squeezed her hand, his eyes capturing hers like a tractor beam. "I'm here." He paused for a moment, their gradually-slowing breaths the only sound in the echo-y room. "But... Sophie, what just went down here? I am going to be perfectly honest with you here... that kind of terrified me out of my mind. I never knew I could be that scared."

Many feelings swelled up in Sophie's heart, but the two that were probably the most prominent were her pure adoration, and her shame. But the shame slightly outweighed the adoration. How could she adore him for being the most terrified he'd ever been? For her? And it wasn't even a big deal, as far as she was concerned. She dry-heaved. And? And, she was absolutely fine now. She had worried her everything for no reason. Netta had probably been one of the gnomes helping the Dizznees at Slurps and Burps in the afternoon. Maybe she'd been exposed to limbium, and some of it got on her. That was probably it. Sophie would just have to stay away from the little gnome until Dex could come and make sure it all came off. Maybe she—

"Hey you," Keefe said, poking her arm to get her attention. Sophie couldn't help but note how incredibly gentle he was still being; the concern still lingering in his eyes, fighting past his smirk. "You've got that look again."

Sophie straightened and automatically put on a blank expression, but she had to slump down again pretty fast. Her stomach wasn't quite as recovered as she'd been hoping. "What look?"

"That 'I'm the Moonlark, I need to be crazy strong on my deathbed' look." His eyebrows were raised comically, but there was clearly a question in there. She already knew what he meant before he asked it. "But um, Soph... are you okay? Like, are you really okay? Don't go lying to the Empath if you're not."

She tried to think of a way to word it that wouldn't exactly be a lie, but she couldn't think of anything before it was too late.

"You're not okay," he mumbled, the hand still in hers squeezing tighter again, protective this time. Keefe jumped to his feet before Sophie could blink. "I'm hailing Elwin."

"No, don't do that! I'm fine," Sophie promised. And she was so convincing, that he didn't even comment when her gag reflex made her keel forward. And, considering the events of the evening that far, her skin probably looked green, too.

It did not take long for Sophie to realize that there was no talking Keefe out of it. Before hailing the physician, he insisted on carrying her to bed, and making her ridiculously comfortable. She may hove scowled a bit, because honestly, being babied like that as an independent, hardworking woman was absolutely infuriating, but what she hated even more to admit was that she felt a little better tucked into her cushy blankets, hugging Ella close to her chest, and lying still for the first time in weeks. It only took a few minutes for her eyelids to grow heavy, and seconds after that for her to fall into a deep, restful sleep.

~~~

"Sophie."

The voice was much too loud. Who dare try to waken her from her sound nap? They clearly didn't deserve her time. She should just ignore them and hope they'd go away.

No such luck. There was a gentle jostle at her shoulder. "Sophie, it's Elwin. I need you to wake up for me so I can help you, okay? I won't rush you, but I can't promise the same from your husband."

Sophie groaned, and cracked an eye open, but quickly shut it again. The light was way too bright for her to deal with right now. "How much can you do with a half-asleep patient?"

Elwin chuckled. "Plenty."

He immediately set to work, and Sophie marveled at his underrated efficiency as she was forced to take multiple decay-wreaking elixirs. The whole check-up couldn't have taken more than five minutes. That had to be some kind of record.

As he was making her down a strange brownish-green substance that tasted like... the color yellow (as abstract as it was), he got this smug look, and asked innocently, "So, house arrest, huh? How'd that happen again?"

Across the room, she could see Keefe's eyebrows shoot up in an almost teasing way. It made her feel perfectly mature crossing her arms tightly across her chest, pouting at the floor "far" below, and grumbling, "I... can't talk about it."

Elwin's mouth twitched. "Wh—"

"It's classified!"

Keefe guffawed, but Sophie shot him such a dirty look that he couldn't say the joke that was clearly on the tip of his tongue. Because he started laughing even harder.

It all seemed to fly by after the two "men" gave it up. But then Elwin frowned. And it wasn't just a frown of concentration. It was a frown of confused concern.

"Keefe, I'm going to need you to leave the room for a minute. Don't worry," Elwin added with a chuckle when Keefe started to argue. "It's nothing super serious. Your girl's going to live another day, plus a couple million more, if she's good. I just think it would be better if she heard this... interesting news first. Give her some time to freak out and calm down, y'know?"

Sophie craned her neck, and was met with the sight of her husband scowling like a little five-year-old. For some twisted reason, she just wanted to give him a big bear hug when he did that. It was So. Flippin'. Cute. But, to her surprise, he obeyed. Not, however, before he scampered over to her side like a little puppy, knelt so their eyes were level, and whispered in her ear, "If you're on your deathbed or something and he's just being nice so the fretty husband doesn't flip out, you're telling me immediately after he leaves, right?"

"I can hear you, y'know," Elwin whispered next to them, making them both jump. He laughed at their stricken faces. "Alrighty now, out with you, boy."

"I'm twenty-four," Keefe mumbled as he was shutting the bedroom door behind him. Sophie wasn't sure if Elwin had heard that or not, but she was going to treasure that until the day she died.

The thought reminded her of what she was about to be told. She stiffened, the humor in the phrase suddenly gone. "So... what's wrong with me?"

Elwin laughed, but Sophie couldn't help noticing that it was a nervous one. "There's nothing wrong with you, Sophie. It's just, well, oh let's see..."

She waited expectantly, slowly but surely becoming absolutely terrified at what he was going to say. By the time he opened his mouth, she wasn't completely sure if she even wanted to hear it.

But of all things, what he said was the absolute last thing she expected.

"Alright, alright. Ugh, I'm getting too old for this," he mumbled to himself, dragging a hand through his already messy hair. "Sophie, you're pregnant."

Her eyebrows shot up. Her first instinct was to laugh, but that instinct was smothered when she realized that he wasn't laughing. "Wait. You're actually serious—?"

A cascade of emotions crashed through her like a flood. She wasn't ready to be a mother! Sophie didn't even know if Keefe wanted children. He had slickly dodged the subject on the few occasions she'd felt confident enough to bring it up! This was crazy in the most terrifying, ill-timed way! And yet, a spark of uncertain, yet intense excitement appeared in the back of her mind. Which only made her head spin faster.

Sophie's nerves nearly exploded when a light buzzing noise interrupted her panic. It was Elwin's Imparter. She was still trying to get her breathing under control when he answered it.

He held the small silver gadget up to his face, then pressed a button and held it up to his ear. Sophie was still too out of breath to be surprised that one could make an Imparter call private like that. "Hello? ... Oh dear, what has he done to himself today? ... Now? Are you sure? I'm kind of in the middle of— ... OKAY, now that you've said that, I'm kind of obligated to get over there as soon as physically possible. I'm on my way. Tell him not to touch the purple puss!"

As he hung up, the disgruntled physician looked up at her with guilt in his eyes. "I'm very, very sorry, Sophie, but I have to go right away. I have just been alerted to an urgent situation in Mysterium. I'll save you the details, but--"

Sophie rubbed her temples, her mind continuing to implode against her will, her energy beginning to fade. "Dex exploded something again, didn't he?"

Elwin gave her a sheepish grin. "Dex and Bex, actually. Now, I really need to get over there. Do you want to get Keefe in here real quick so I can give him the news--"

"NO."

It took Sophie a second to realize that the word had come out of her mouth, and another to realize it had come out way too forcefully. "Ugh, I mean..." She sighed, leaning back heavily into the pillows. "Look, I appreciate your offer, but I've barely come to terms with what you're telling me myself. I think I need to tell him myself when I have. Okay?"

She held her breath, hoping he wouldn't push the subject. He might try to remind her that it was unfair to keep something like this from the father, and he would be totally right, and she could not handle that right now.

But all he did was smile, nod, and hand her an extra elixir for her headache, for when the one he'd already given her wore off. Sophie was too touched at his understanding to echo his goodbye as he held up his pathfinder, but she did manage a little wave as he glittered away.

Sophie was so lost in thought that she had to bite back a scream when Keefe timidly tapped her shoulder. Her suddenly heavy breathing was clearly giving her away, though.

He smirked, but his touch was ever so light as his fingers brushed her cheek on his way to sit on the edge of the bed beside her. "When I didn't hear you and Elwin anymore — and I PROMISE you, I wasn't eavesdropping! All I heard were some muffled voices. But right! Anyways, when I didn't hear you talking to Elwin anymore, I figured I'd come in to check— to make sure—"

He stopped himself, inhaling slowly. Sophie felt a tiny smile spread across her lips. He was so cute when he got all tongue-tied. It momentarily averted the flood of emotions she was trying to stifle, the emotions she was trying her best not to let him feel.

After a fraction of a second, he seemed to recover a little, and he cupped her cheek in his hand almost delicately. The concern in his eyes would have knocked her back a step if Sophie had been standing. "Are you okay? Like, actually okay?"

All she could manage was to stare at her husband blankly for a moment. The sincerity, the intensity in his words wouldn't let her lie to him. So she pulled it together and told him a half lie.

"I've been better, but I'm not sick or anything," Sophie said, offering him what was probably a pretty pathetic reassuring smile. "I just need to rest, that's all."

Keefe snorted. "Ha, heard that one before. But okay, we'll play it your way. For now. But only because you actually need the rest," he clarified, giving her a playful smile, and raising his eyebrows in such a way that Sophie couldn't help but snicker into her blankets.

Almost out of nowhere, though, his face fell again. He no longer looked her in the eye; instead, Keefe opted to stare at the floor. "Look, Sophie, I know this whole marriage thing has been a huge adjustment for both of us as well as a huge blessing, but... we've both still got lots of stuff to figure out, right?"

The turn in the conversation shocked her into momentary silence. They had never openly talked about this before, in all the craziness that had been going on. They had talked about a lot of things, but somehow, not this.

When Sophie found her voice, it was so much less steady than she would have liked. "Yeah, of course we do. Why?"

Keefe fidgeted with the sleeve of his tunic. "I'm just trying to figure out how to remind you that I know when you're keeping stuff from me." He glanced up briefly; so sad, so uncertain, so careful, so hopeful.

Oh, Empaths...

She wanted to tell him. She wanted to be honest with him, to give him everything and not look back.

But she couldn't tell him this until she had planned what to do about it.

So instead, Sophie changed the subject. "I'm sorry, but I... ah, I can't focus on anything when my head hurts like this..."

They were both silent for a moment as she rubbed her temples in slow circles, trying to massage the now-dulled pain away. And maybe some other things, too.

He looked at her for the longest moment, like he was searching for her secret in her eyes. She didn't know if the butterflies it gave her were from the unwavering intensity of his thoughtful stare, or nerves. Maybe it was a little bit of both.

"Okay," Keefe said finally, leaning a little closer, "I have a proposition for you."

Sophie tried to remain calm, she really did. "Oh?"

"If you promise not to keep this mysterious secret of yours from me any longer than you have to, I'll watch that Hallmerk thing with you. It's only fair, but remember, if I don't make it, my will is somewhere in that beautiful mess of comissions on my desk."

Sophie sat up, probably a little faster than she should have. She didn't even bother to correct him and tell him it was Hallmark. "You mean it? Because I can tell you right now, you'll like the one you're referring to if only for the chocolate." (a/n: The movie is called Love, Romance, and Chocolate lol.)

He perked up at this. "Chocolate, you say?"

She couldn't help but grin rather wickedly. She totally had him there. "Indeed I did say."

"Alright, this might not turn out to be as bad as I originally thought," Keefe admitted, already rising to find their small collection of movies.

As a wedding present, Keefe had somehow "obtained" (she was still uncertain of his methods) a TV, and tracked down a few of her favorite movies from her twelve years in the human world. Upon receiving it, Sophie had actually cried. His sweet thoughtfulness still got her every day.

He was more than she could have ever asked for. More than she deserved. And yet she felt it deep in her soul: he was made just for her, and no one else.

Maybe that was what made the idea of a little soul inside of her increasingly more sweet than terrifying. Because this baby was going to be theirs, not just hers.

At least, if Keefe wanted this.

She was pleasantly dragged out of her worry by a familiar, stereotypically cheerful tune. Sophie hadn't even realized that he had put the movie in.

Looking up from the human technology, Keefe gave her a sideways grin, hopped up from his crouch next to the DVD player (careful to bring the remote with him, for there is no greater evil than having to get up after getting comfortable to retrieve a remote), got comfy under the covers next to her, and hit play.

The movie was exactly like Sophie remembered it: Safe, cute, and filled with tons of chocolate at every possible opportunity to bring up chocolate. Which always made her want chocolate. And did not fail to meet that expectation, yet again.

By the middle of the film, Keefe admitted that the main guy wasn't so bad, was singing along with The Way You Look Tonight (which he somehow seemed to know), and close to tears, though the scene wasn't super emotional. Sophie never knew he was a sucker for the cliché, but she kind of loved it.

When the final scene rolled around, the dancing scene, Keefe's arm — wrapped gently around Sophie's shoulders since the beginning of the movie — held her closer still. His other arm was soon wrapped around her as well, cradling her in a safe little cocoon of an embrace. And he didn't let go when the movie was over, and it went back to the Menu automatically, either.

"Did ya like it?" Sophie asked, prodding his half-hidden face with her finger. It was like he was afraid to ever let go.

"Hmmm?" He mumbled through the fabric of her sleeve. "Oh, yeah, it was better than expected."

"Huh, I expected a little more after you almost cried all over the comforter somewhere near the end," Sophie said teasingly.

Keefe propped his chin on the tip of her shoulder, and she couldn't help but lean close enough for their noses to touch. Warmth fluttered through her like a summer breeze. "Don't get me wrong now, the movie was cute. But I was tearin' up 'cause you're way cuter." He smiled a little, his eyes glinting with the kind of adoration that would make any girl blush. "You're beautiful."

Her cheeks warmed — pleasantly, at last — and she nuzzled her head into the crook of Keefe's neck. "I'm not sure if I want to take that as a compliment for myself or an insult to the movie."

He shrugged his free shoulder playfully. "Doesn't matter to me, as long as you don't leave out the part about how beautiful you are. The universe might explode or something if you don't accept that almighty truth!"

Sophie rolled her eyes. Boys didn't lose those corny joke-like things they said when they became men, did they? But maybe that was okay. She certainly wasn't upset about his motives.

But . . .

"Hey, um, sweetheart?" Sophie asked quietly, more solemn now. She waited for his eyes to meet hers, biting her lip. She hated to think that she might be about to shatter this moment. "Is everything okay? Between us? You just seem a little . . . off."

He raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Off? I have no idea what you're talking about, Lady Wifey. I'm amazing, as always!"

She wanted to believe him, she really did, but... he wasn't fooling her with his sudden little façade. Keefe wasn't alright. And, heart sinking, she admitted to herself that she knew why. "Keefe, I'm fine, I promise. Elwin cleared me as all healthy. You don't have to worry about me."

He sat up slowly, and perched on the edge of the bed, facing away from her. Sophie could only barely see a sliver of his face. "But I do worry, Sophie."

The silence was charged. So many unspoken words had piled up in such a young evening.

Finally, without her permission, Sophie's mouth started moving in raw, emotional form. "I want to tell you what's going on, more than anything, but if I do, you'll hate me. It's too much right now! I can't—! I can't . . ." Her voice was thick, and the tears were being held back by a thread. She was starting to lose track of what she was trying to say. "I- I can't do this alone."

"Honey," he whispered softly, tenderly, locking his eyes with hers across the bed, "you're not alone. You can't think like that anymore. You have me, unconditionally." He scooched closer again, taking one of her hands that Sophie hadn't realized were shaking. "This isn't an empty phrase, darling. I love you, no matter what happens. It's me and you until death do we part. From now on. Stop acting like you have to handle every single thing on your own!" He cleared his throat, and Sophie noticed her tears mirrored in his dampening eyes.

She couldn't look away.

He slowly tiled his head back toward the ceiling, his eyes scrunching together painfully. It physically hurt her that this was her fault. "Keefe, I . . ."

That sentence didn't have an end to it. Not in that moment. It simply slipped through her fingers, away into oblivion.

But maybe that was because it wasn't the sentence that she knew needed saying. It had only been a few hours since Elwin had been there. What would happen if she just let him worry like this any longer than she had to?

It wasn't right. It was selfish.

She opened her mouth, feeling like she was in slow motion, to say the words that would change their young marriage. But she was too slow. Too hesitant. Too close to procrastination. Because Keefe beat her to it.

"I trust you, Foster. I won't force this out of you. And I won't hold anything against you. We can just go back to normal, if that's your comfort zone. I just need you to realize that, whatever this is that's freaking you out so much that you think it would break our marriage, it won't. You know why?" He paused like he was waiting for an answer, so she managed to shake her head meekly. "Because I don't abandon the people I love. I am not my parents, I am not your biological parents, and I am not any of the idiots out there that would give up what we have without a second thought. For anything. Are you getting this into your oblivious little brain yet?" He said the last part so endearingly that she had no need to be upset with him for it.

Who was she to deserve this man? This wonderful, wonderful man?

In spite of everything, Sophie smiled. "I think so."

Okay, she officially wanted to kiss him so bad. But, Sophie realized, a wave of what was best described as grief washing over her, she still needed to tell him.

She didn't hesitate this time.

"I'm pregnant."

(Theee eeend— OKAY OKAY I'M KIDDING I'M SORRY XD )

A few seconds passed. Sophie's eyes were trained like a laser beam to her lap, at the hand that was still cupped by both of Keefe's. Her brain felt like it was freezing over, and her body was beginning to lose function. If he were to just say something, just one word . . .

At last, Sophie couldn't take it anymore. Her eyes, the only things left functioning, peaked through her lashes to see what was happening. She almost let out a sob when she realized with a flood of relief that not only was he smiling, but tears were rolling down his cheeks. One of her arms spontaneously coming back to life, she reached up and tried her best to wipe them away.

"Really?" he asked, voice cracking with something that could only be described as admiration. Awe, even. Sophie felt immediately humbled. "You're really . . . ?"

All she could do was smile, nod repeatedly, and cry.

They cried on and on, clinging to each other for dear life. It was all so huge, so new, so . . . wonderful. For the life of her, Sophie couldn't not feel all of that. And it didn't seem like her husband could, either. Because neither of them were ready to let go of the other.

And that's when it all came out.

"I'm so sorry for trying to keep this from you, honey. So, so sorry. I was just so scared and excited and confused and a-and I thought maybe that you wouldn't—"

The words inconveniently stopped coming.

Keefe watched her, eyes still glistening with tears, waiting. "Wouldn't . . . ?" Suddenly, he paled, the color simply draining from his face like paint from a crusty old brush. "Sophie, please tell me I'm interpreting this feeling wrong. Please. Because I would never— Oh my word, I need to add 'communication skills' to my theoretical list of things to learn," Keefe mumbled, rubbing his eyes with a vengeance. "I would never, under any circumstances, hate you for being pregnant. I know that you get insecure sometimes, just like all the other completely amazing people on this planet, and I get it. You've got a lot of pressure on you, and some of it I'll never understand, I guess. But why would you ever think...?"

Sophie felt her cheeks flame as hot as fire. Her mind couldn't seem to decide if she should feel uncertain, or ashamed.

But, in all honesty, the shame quickly ate up the uncertainty. And it only got worse when she realized that the uncertainty wasn't actually gone. How could she not trust what he was saying, after all the years they'd shared, trusting each other with their lives, their hearts?

They might have been newly-married, but the love had been there for so much longer than that.

The atmosphere in the room was cold, almost clinical-feeling, or fake. Sophie felt like she was simply a picture in a little frame hug on a wall: having the appearance of life without being alive. It was frightening. But, her mind reasoned, one couldn't really feel fear if one couldn't feel, could they?

"—Sophie!"

It took Sophie a second to realize that her ears were ringing. That someone was calling her name, shaking her shoulders. But her eyes were too out-of-focus to make out the face.

All she could feel was the numbness.

"—Sophie!" the voice called again, cutting past the ringing so sharply, and with such a familiarity this time, that it dead-stopped, leaving her head to spin, spin, spin.

Keefe was clutching her shoulders urgently, eyes wide with such a raw panic that it was almost physically sobering. Sophie, in all her years of knowing him, had only seen him look this way once before.

And that was in a memory. A memory that she had retrieved from Lord Cassius, of the day that Sophie and Dex had been reported dead.

"I..."

"Sophie Elizabeth Sencen, I have been trying to bring you back for almost three hours, you know that?" Sophie covered her mouth with a wobbling hand, worry taking over everything. Keefe was a mess. "You almost... you almost broke."

It took a second for his words to sink into her mind, and another hundred after that for them to sink into understanding.

Keefe meant that her mind had almost broken.

Without even thinking twice, even as she felt her eyes welling up like hot springs, she flung her arms around him and clung as tightly as her weakened body would allow.

"Honey... I'm so sor—"

"No," Keefe cut in, gently moving her face to where she could see his. "No more sorrys. I forgave you before you told me a thing, missy."

"Oh my gosh, stop it! I'll cry myself out!" Sophie cried, a giggle cutting through the thickness in her throat.

Tension seeped out of the room faster than you could say "gone."

Words weren't needed anymore. They clung to each-other, and everything was okay. Everything was right.

Sophie's voice had been swept away, but... there were still things to say. So, gingerly reaching up and pressing her fingers against Keefe's temples, she showed him instead.

She showed him her excitement at finding out she was pregnant, her joy upon realizing that she would be able to share this new life with him, and he or she would be theirs. Then her terror, when she realized that maybe Keefe didn't want that. His parents had put him through legitimate trauma. Would he really want a baby of his own, that he could help flourish, or destroy? She had had no doubt in her mind that he would be the most amazing dad. But she had also known that it was too possible that the baby, even possibly herself, could be rejected.

She felt her joy and pain seeping into Keefe's expression against her fingertips. But she couldn't help but notice that there was more pain than joy.

That needed to change. For both of them.

So, when the memories ran out, she took him in a different direction.

She took him up, up, up into the sky, and sat them down on a cloud that she made solid within her memory, how she'd wished clouds could be when she was little. Their consciousnesses, with a little concentration, became solid as well.

A gentle melody played through the air, almost as if it was coming from far below their feet. Sophie glanced up, and saw, smiling, that Keefe had decided to dress himself up in what she imagined one would wear to a Winnowing Gala. He smirked in return when he caught sight of her flowy red gown (that just so happened to match his jerkin), its rhinestones catching the moonlight.

A soft breeze flowed past them, tousling their hair; but it was warm, rather than frigidly cold. It seemed to circle them, making the clouds dance in pretty little swirling motions.

As if of one mind, Keefe held out his hand hand and asked with an impish grin, "May I have this dance?" just as she was about to ask him the same question.

Chuckling, Sophie extended her hand with an exaggerated flourish, placing it in his, and replied with a wink, "I'd be honored, good sir."

They danced and danced, late into the memory's night, as well as the true one. And, as their consciousnesses danced in the clouds, melodies and winds twirling around them in beautiful symphony, Sophie and Keefe still clung to each-other in their bed, and after a while, dosed off into sleep, the promise of better still swaying in their minds.

- - -

Okay, I cannot thank Issy, Aria, Lizzy, Pastel, or Lynn ENOUGH for helping me get through this oneshot (and my mom for giving me a ridiculous amount of extra screen time lol). As I've told all of these LIFESAVERS many times before, I have been writing this oneshot LONG before Christmas. It has caused me a LOT of suffering/anxiety, so you can NOT imagine how liberating it feels to be FINISHED, to listen to the beautiful song that I attached at the beginning of all this and know that I can FINALLY relax. 

I am SO proud of how far this story has come, and I am so thankful that I have people that I can count on to get me through the hardest ones to write.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO YOU GUYS FOR BEING PATIENT WITH ME AND WAITING, ILYSM ❤️❤️❤️

Also, enjoy the new cover hehehe ;)

Bonus: my very sophisticated outline for this oneshot lol.

OKAY, SO, GAME PLAN ME BOI. ~~~
POINT GROUP OF ONE: BABYNESS. SOPHIE DOESN'T KNOW YET. SHE IS ON HOUSE ARREST BECAUSE SHE DID SOMETHING SUPER ILLEGAL THAT EVERYONE SAYS "I... CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT" FOLLOWED BY "WH—" AND "IT'S CLASSIFIED" ABOUT. ~~~
POINT GROUP OF A LONELY TWO: KEEFE GOT SOPHIE A TV AS A WEDDING PRESENT AND THEY GONNA WATCH LOVE, ROMANCE, AND CHOCOLATE ONCE KEEFE CALLS ELWIN TO CHECK ON SOPHIE AND ELWIN TELLS HER SHE PREGNANT AND HE PUTS HER ON BEDREST BUT SOPHIE BEGS ELWIN NOT TO TELL KEEFE WHY SO SHE CAN TELL HIM ON HER OWN TIME AND IT GETS ALL AWKWARD AND HILARIOUS. ~~~
POINT GROUP OF THE THIRD WHEEL: MUST ALSO BE ROMANCE-Y, BUT ALSO DANCE-Y AND SWAY-Y AND DRAMATIC— Basically a newly-weds soap opera with that tender embrace moment and dancing in the clouds tying it all together. (...#chatnoirinmiraculousawakening) ~~~