~last one i'm going to write for this story. when you finish this, it will be considered COMPLETED

So he was back.

Sophie sighed, turning her head to look at him. Keefe was sitting next to her, his face furrowed with concentration as he tried to remember...something. Something important.

Sophie had a feeling that they had already gone over every moment that he had been with the Neverseen, from the first second to the last, and they wouldn't be finding anything new in his memories.

They were sitting under the panakes-the same spot where Keefe had told her that her human family may have been taken.

That spot had almost lost it's magic touch in raising her spirits. It was so easy to be sad, to fall into that depressing black hole and never come out. But she couldn't, because for the best reasons they wouldn't let her forget what happiness felt like.

She met Keefe's eye when he looked at her.

"Anything?"

"No," he said, like a sigh mixed with speech. He flopped back into the soft grass.

"It's okay," she answered, trying for a smile. Her lips felt so heavy. "You don't have to keep doing this, you know."

"Stop trying to get rid of me, Foster." Keefe smiled for her. "We've already missed out on so much Team Foster-Keefe time."

"And who's fault is that?" She whispered it, already knowing it was wrong before the words had come out of her mouth.

His face shifted the tiniest bit, but Sophie caught it.

"Sorry."

"Me too," he said, looking away and closing his eyes.

Sophie sighed again. Her gaze moved to her right, into the grass where a glass sphere that reflected the sunlight into a rainbow sat beside her.

She almost wanted to break it.

She didn't even know why she'd brought it out with her. The spyball was close to useless at this point, just there to mock her and make her remember how much she didn't know what she was doing.

Sophie grabbed it, rolling it in her hands. She could still feel it's dead coldness though her gloves.

"You know," she began, slowly, unsure, "I used to watch you."

He turned his head slightly.

"With the spyball. Just to make sure you were still..." She swallowed. "I was so scared of what I'd see. What you were doing. What they were doing."

Keefe sat up, his eyes not moving from her face. When she didn't meet his eyes, he just smirked and let out a little laugh. "A stalker? Add that to the list of the things I didn't know about you and we've reached our one thousand mark."

Sophie rolled her eyes in spite of herself.

"But you're not the first, so don't be embarassed." He sighed happily. "Those were the good old days, huh? So much has-"

Sophie reached out and hugged him.

Keefe almost immediately wrapped an arm around her, and after a few seconds he pulled her closer.

"I wish there was something else I could do," he said, low, talking into the crook of her neck. "So I could help you find your family. And fix everything."

"What about..." Sophie started. She pushed herself away from the little nook he had made for her under his arm, finally looking at him straight on. "What about your family? Your mom isn't going to come out of hiding so easy." Sophie felt her gaze slide again to the spyball. Her hand slowly started to follow. "We could fi-"

Keefe's hand reached the ball first. He used his other hand to tilt her face to look back at him. "My family's right here. Everyone I care about is right in front of me." He smiled, that sad smile that she couldn't stand. "Where they belong."

Sophie blinked. She felt herself get hot; she would never be able to get used to the feeling of heat spreading across her skin and her heart stopping and lurching into hyper-mode at the same time.

Or the feeling of her fight or flight instinct kicking into action.

She kissed him.

When she pulled away, he wrapped her in a hug again.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

She felt him laugh. "Just being you."

~thank you for voting on this story and commenting. it still made me happy to see people wanting more of this and asking for it. this was for you guys (and partially for me; it refused to remain incomplete and it wasn't letting me sleep at night ~-~)