#keefe heslege

[the-great-gullon-incident]

Keefe: You really thought I was that kind of stupid, doc? Elwin: Honestly… yeah. I did.

[alaydabug2]

I don't think I posted this on here yet

If so oh well

(Keefe Pov)

Keefe slammed his door shut and locked it. He flopped onto the bed, grabbing Mrs. Stinkbottom and squeezing her tight.

Him and his dad had gotten into their fourth fight that week. It was only Tuesday. One in the morning. One after school. That wasn't even counting their small skirmishes.

On Monday morning, it was about him staying up all night drawing. After school, it was about him not cleaning his room. That morning, it was him not doing his empathy exercises.

Now, it was about his father saying he was just like his mother.

Keefe was able to handle a lot of his insults. But that hit too hard of a nerve.

Cassius called him useless, a burden, whiny, ungrateful, disrespectful, unworthy of love. He was able to slide off all of those things. He'd heard them millions of times.

But being told he was like his mother? Out off all them, that hurt the worst.

But...wasn't he, though?

He'd betrayed people he cared about. Done awful things.

He had her blood flowing through his vains. She was part of him, whether Keefe liked it or not.

That didn't stop him from finally snapping.

Keefe finally argued back. Tried to defend and stick up for himself. But his father knew exactly what to say to make him submiss.

He said he never wanted a kid in the first place. His mother managed to somehow convince him. He regrets ever letting her. That he never loved his son. He wished Keefe was never born.

The last one was the final nail in the coffin to make him flee to his room. Cassius taunted him along the way.

Keefe had screamed himself hoarse. That didn't stop him from pulling out his imparter.

"Sophie?" he murmured, his throat still raw.

"I'm here," she told him. "What's up?"

He sucked in a trembling breath. "I need you right now. My dad and I had another fight."

Sophie didn't need any more explanation. She simply said, "I'll be right over." And hung up.

Five minutes later, he heard a door slam open. Then, the sound of a lot of yelling. Particularly a female. Then stomping towards his door. But when he heard the knock, it was soft and gentle.

He got up. The comforter still tangled around himself, the green gulon in his hands. Slowly, he opened the door.

Sophie walked into the room. She placed a box on the desk. She quickly locked the door behind her and took his face in her hands.

She brushed the tears away from his eyes. "What happened?"

By the time he was done explaining, he was curled up on the bed, Sophie sitting beside him. She was gently running her hand through his hair, his head propped up on her knee.

As much as he complained about people messing with his hair, he had to admit, it felt good.

The box she had brought turned out to be Edaline's mallowment. After snacking on it and talking to Sophie, he felt a lot better.

But he still didn't want to stay there that night.

"I... think I'm going to ask Elwin and see if I can stay there for a night or two," Keefe thought aloud. "I know I've been there a lot, but I just can't stay here tonight."

Sophie nodded. "I'm sure he'd be ok with it. Do you want me to get your overnight bag?"

"I've got it. I need a couple more things anyway."

He got up and headed to his closet. He pulled out two uniforms and threw them into the overnight bag. He'd had one ready for the past two and a half months in case he ever needed to get away from his father for a break. And he used it a lot.

Most of the time, it was to Splendor Plains. Others, it was Havenfeild and occasionally Everglen.

Sophie handed him the imparter. He thanked her and spoke Elwin's name into the device.

Keefe glittered outside of Splendor Plains. He adjusted his bag on his shoulder and knocked on the door.

Elwin answered and hugged Keefe before bringing him inside. Nothing needed to be explained. He knew the drill. Keefe had gone there so many times in the past few months that he knew the reason.

Elwin just asked if he wanted to watch a movie as he pulled dinner out of the oven. (A/n pretend they have movies for this 😅)

They settled on the couch with the TV on. He wrapped an arm around Keefe. It felt nice. Why couldn't his father just be caring? Was it really that hard?

Elwin probably sensed something was wrong because he asked, "Everything alright?"

Keefe shrugged, taking another bite of food.

He didn't like that awnser, so he said, "You can tell me anything. You know that, right? I'm not gonna get upset."

"We just... really had it out tonight. No big deal."

By the emotions that got flung Keefe's way, Elwin wasn't buying it. But something else was in the mix, too. A combination of worry and concern and sympathy. Something he didn't know how to take in.

Elwin didn't say anything else, though, and they finished their movie and food in silence.

When it started to get late, Keefe got up and started to go to bed. He had Foxfire in the morning, unfortunately. He said goodnight to Elwin, got showered, ready to go to sleep, and into the bed.

By the time he was under the covers, Elwin cracked open the door. "Can I come in?" Keefe nodded. Elwin sat on the edge of the bed, smoothing the blanket a bit. "Are you sure you're ok? I can tell it was a pretty bad fight. Did something else happen than usual?"

"I guess you could say that. Umm... he said I was like my mom. I fought back for the first time, but he...," Keefe trailed off. He curled further into himself. "He said things. He wished I wasn't here. That I wasn't born. Turns out he never wanted a child, but thanks to my mom's 'legacy' stuff, she convinced him. So, here I am. Nothing that comes from them are good. It was inevitable anyhow."

"That's not completely true," Elwin whispered. "You did, and that's enough."

Elwin took his hand, squeezing it. Keefe scooted closer.

To his surprise, Elwin never left. At least not until he was asleep, because he stayed sitting on the bed. Not talking or waiting for any answers, just being there with him.

Yeah, definitely different than just several hours earlier. At some point, Keefe fell asleep.

"You should come over after school," Sophie prompted.

It'd been two weeks since Keefe's major fight with his dad. He'd had to go to Elwin's place three times in the short amount of time. The abuse just kept getting worse. So he had zero hesitation in agreeing.

He walked through the door, trailing behind Sophie. When he saw the living room, he got an uneasy feeling. All of his friends were there. Their parents. Elwin. Livy. Mr. Forkle.

That couldn't be good news.

"Is something going on?" He asked.

Sophie got a mischievous grin on her face. "We have a surprise for you."

"Uh oh. I don't like the sound of that."

"Calm down." She pushed him down to sit on the couch. "It's good."

Edaline snapped her fingers. A box about the size of a donut box appeared on the table in front of him. Everyone gathered around in a semicircle.

He pushed the box away. "This is something to get back at me for all of my pranks over the years, isn't it." He looked at Biana. "Is it glitter?" He looked at Dex. "Will it explode?" Linh. "Shoot water at me?"

"No, but we should do that," Tam suggested.

"I'm not going to trust Bangs Boy," Keefe told them.

"It's fine," Fitz said. "Just open it already."

Keefe eyed them all. "If this is a prank," he warned, "you are all going to regret every single decision in your life that led you to this point."

Everyone just stared expectantly at him. He pulled the box back to him. He slowly raised the lid. He braced himself. Nothing happened. Slightly more than confused, he opened it completely.

Inside, there were three items. He wasn't able to see what the other two were because his gaze fixated on the open scroll.

It read, 'The official and legal adoption of Keefe Sencen by Elwin Heslege has been approved. Keefe will now permanently reside at Splendor Plains. Lord Cassius Sencen has no legal rights over Keefe Sencen.'

Keefe gasped. He looked up at everyone. They had smiles on their faces. "You all knew?" Everyone nodded. Keefe's gaze shifted to Elwin. He stood in the corner of the half circle. He had a soft grin on his face.

Keefe fell back onto the cushions. Incredulous to the paper in front of him, he murmured, "This is a prank. It's not true," with his hands covering his crying face. Weight shifted on the cushion beside him. He turned his head to see Elwin beside him. "You're joking."

Elwin moved the hands away from Keefe's face. "I'm not joking, I swear." He held out his hand, challenging him.

Keefe swiped his hand across Elwin's. He was telling the truth. He accepted Elwin's open arms.

Elwin's hug was crushing, but Keefe didn't care. It was warm and comforting. Everything he wanted during his childhood. Everything he needed. It felt like home. Another sob escaped.

He sniffled as he finally pulled away. Elwin reached for another item from the box. A family crest. A Heslege crest. He unpinned the Foxfire crest from his cape and replaced it with the new one. He made sure it was secured on.

Keefe choked on his words. He reached up and clasped the pin in his hand.

"Your part of the family now," Elwin told him. "Only seemed fitting."

Forever Keefe had wanted to be truly part of his family. It never felt legit. No matter what he did or said, his parents never made him feel part of his own family. He wasn't able to earn his own crest until he was fourteen, and it was a tracker. Now Elwin was just giving him one. No strings attached.

Maybe something wasn't wrong with him, after all.

He had no words. Although he did start crying again once Elwin pulled the last item out of the box. It was a home crystal. He told Keefe it was his.

He hugged Elwin again. "Thank you," he murmured. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Of course," Elwin said softly. "I couldn't stand seeing you stay there any longer."

Keefe glanced at Sophie. She has holding into Grady and Edaline's hands like a lifeline. This must've been how it felt for her to finally get adopted by them. Like something finally clicked into its place.

When it was finally time to leave, Elwin let Keefe do the honors with his new home crystal.

Keefe froze when he got to the doorstep. Elwin gestured for him to go inside. "It's like it always was. Just more official now." They hesitantly stepped through the door. "Come on, I want to show you your room."

"My room?" Keefe asked.

"The room you've been staying in is my guest room. This will be your permanent room." They trailed up the stairs to a door they'd never been in before.

Keefe stopped in his tracks. The room was a pale yellow. In one corner was a desk. On the wall beside it was shelves full of art suplies. By a bay window was a few bean bag chairs and a rug. Several stuffed animals were strewn about. Against the wall  in the center of the room was the bed. He couldn't help a chuckled when he saw it had batman bedsheets. He was confused to see that Mrs. Stinkbottom was already on the bed. He turned around.

"Got permission from Magnate Leto for your friends to skip class to help me move your stuff today," Elwin explained.

"Wait... does my dad know?"

He laughed, "He will tomorrow when he gets the scroll. He was at Atlantis when we were there."

His jaw dropped. A smirk spread across his face. "He's going to be ticked."

He looked at the room. Then back to Elwin. He practically tackled him with a hug. His eyes started to well up again

"Don't worry," Elwin murmured. "You never have to go back there again, Keefe. I promise. You're wanted here. You're going to be loved here.

Keefe wanted to deny it. Say it wasn't possible for that to happen. But being an empath, he knew he wasn't lying. It was going to be ok.

More than ok.

He had a parental figure to care for him. For the first time in his life. He was wanted.

[elwin-at-your-service]

Will you adopt me

Yes.

Forever and always, I will say yes - whether our Elvin legal system allows it or not!

[moonlarked]

Keefe Sencen + found family makes me cry

[stargirl-evie]

“Are you staying or leaving”Keefe x reader

um hello, im Evie and I’m not an experienced writer, but I like imagining scenarios with the characters and stories I like, so I figured I’d try to share them, so maybe you could enjoy them too!

I typically imagine myself in these scenarios so I apologize if the reader presents feminine or is described in any way that might exclude another reader… uh, anyways, basically this is a short one shot/ head cannon/ prompt…? (I’m honestly not sure) about Keefe Sencen meeting and sort of falling for (human) reader while in the forbidden cites. It didn’t really follow the plot or timeline of stellerloon, it’s implied that he’s in the forbidden cities much longer than in the book and that he struggles way more with adapting and it’s probably very ooc…anyways I love Sokeefe but I just though the idea was interesting :]

oh this also isn’t proofread and it’s probably really cringy but yeah, there isn’t enough x reader fics in the Kotlc fandom so I figured I’d try, feedback and constructive criticism are welcome and encouraged :))

…

⭒ …

To put things simply, he was lost, hungry, confused, and currently short on cash. Turns out walking around with the money from his mothers jewelry in his pockets…wasn’t the safest plan. He’d lost a good amount of it, and probably been scammed out of most of it. He’d considered sneaking back to the lost cites to steal borrow some more of mommy-dearest’s stuff, but the idea of getting caught and possibly facing his friends caused him to quickly scratch that plan. Besides, if he could get away with it the fist time, then it would probably be even easier to take some things from one of the fancier human houses he had paced by in his travels.

So here he was, standing outside the biggest house he had seen in the neighborhood, if you could call it that- all the houses were so far apart that of you tried to walk from the first one to the last one, you might need to stop and camp before continuing to the end.

He had planned it all out-making sure to use the weird human invention called a phone- to look up the owners, make sure they weren’t very good people, or that they’d be home that particular night. He could easily levitate to one of the higher windows since no one would be around. The (l/n) family would be in their vacation home, far from here, and no grounds workers or servants would be back until the owners were ready to return.

It would be easy, slip in, grab a few valuable things, maybe some food too, then slip out and continue on his way to London. What he didn’t have a plan for, was you.

His plan had been going smoothly, he was inside and sifting through your mother’s jewelry box, when you walked in.

For a moment you both stared at each other. You, at the seemingly your age and incredibly handsome boy in black jeans and a Batman hoodie that was currently holding a pair of your mothers diamond earrings- and him at a girl, probably a little younger than him, standing in a soft pink nightgown, and holding a metal baseball bat in both hands.

That seemed to snap him out of his initial shock, and quickly throw his hands up so you wouldn’t hit him with it.

Braking your own trance, you pulled the bat back, and demanded, “Who are you? Why are you in my house? How did you even get in? Wha-”

He was quick to back up a bit before interrupting your questions, “I’m Keefe, I swear I’m not here to hurt you, I just needed to make some money real quick,I thought your family was away, I wouldn’t have come if I’d know you’d be home!” He internally smacked himself for his stupid mistake.

“Oh yeah ‘cause that makes it so much better” you said while rolling your eyes and lowering your arms and ignoring the strange feeling you got about him not wanting to be there while you were, even though it made no sense for you to be upset by that. You decided to blame it on the fact that it was 2:47 am and he just happens to have really nice hair.

You pitched your voice lower to mimic his before adding, “I swear I’d only steal from you if I didn’t think you’d be home to catch me (y/n) sorry ‘bout that.” and then swung the bat around to place the head on the floor and lean your weight against it while smirking at him.

His eyebrows shot up, surprised that you were almost joking with him right now, instead of clobbering his head with the bat, like he thought you were about to. He cleared his throat, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that, I just-actually I don’t know what I was trying to achieve with that..” He brought his arms down to wrap them around himself, before deciding that he probably looked stupid standing in front of you like that. Especially since you seemed so calm.

“Um, I should go,, I don’t, this was a mistake, sorry, I-I should probably go now-God I sound like an idiot right now. No wonder you aren’t scared of me. Not that i wanted you to be, of course i didn’t. Who would want a pretty girl with a weapon to be scared of them? Not that I think you’re pretty. I mean you’re not, not, pretty im just-“

It was time for your to cut him off, “hey! Relax ok, im honestly not sure what your rambling about right now, but you look like you haven’t eaten in days, and im going to ignore the fact that you called me ugly and pretty just now and offer you some food so you stop trying to steal from me.”

He took a step closer to you, confused as to why he was being so unlike himself right and even more confused as to why you were now offering him kindness. He focused on the emotions coming from you, trying to figure out if you were only helping him out of pity, but only finding empathy and a few more frantic vibes.

You shifted under his suddenly intense-and very close (seriously when had he backs you up against your mothers vanity chair)-gaze, the moonlight steaming through the open window highlighted his eyes and you could see in your proximity the striking ice blue and the darker flecks of azure, cobalt, and royal blue. but you shook your head and forced yourself to ignore his stunning eyes to push him back and question why he had gotten so quite and intense.

He apologized and stepped even further back. “ I guess I was trying to see why you were being so nice to me.”

“And you thought the best way was to push the limits of stranger danger and stare into my soul all intensely with your snowstorm eyes?”

You had meant to be teasing him, but the words came out quieter then you meant them to be, and he seemed to pick up on the later half more than the first.

“So… you were staring at my eyes?” There he was, flirty and teasing and giving you a smirk that had your insides doing weird flippy-floppy things they didn’t usually do.

You felt your face get warm, and you prayed to whatever higher powers there might be that your face wasn’t nearly as red as it felt.

Not that it mattered of course.

He gave you another smirk before letting out a laugh that would have the best choir angels embarrassed by their singing abilities. And that had your betraying face warm even more.

“C’mon, let’s get you something to eat before you push me into this mirror” you quickly turned to the door to lead him towards your own room.

He followed you down the long hallway while teasing you about the pink hue that still refused to let up, particularly due do his continued torture.

You grabbed a coat from your closet and pocketed some cash before leading him out the front door.

“So where are we going (n/n)? I didn’t see anything down this way to eat while I was stalki-er, uh, looking up this place.” He cringed at himself for reminding you about the circumstances of your meeting.

You ignored the word slip and the little nickname in favor of describing a little town with plenty of back alley restaurants that you often snuck out to eat at when your parents were actually home.

He caught the shift in your mood when you mentioned your parents and decided to risk asking about it, besides, how much weirder could this first meeting get?

“Sooo…. I’m kinda confused about something.” “Yeah? What’s up?” You slowed slightly to look at him while he spoke, noticing his slight shift in tone.

“Well, you don’t have to answer or anything, since you don’t really know me-”

“Oh wow, uh sorry to interrupt, but it feels like I do, given how easy it is to talk to you, strange that we only meet what? An hour ago?”

He stoped walking completely to stare at you. “Really? Only an hour? Huh it does feel like we’ve know each other longer…”

The both of you fell quite for a moment before walking again, this time with your destination in sight.

“Uh anyways, why are you here, if your parents and staff are away?” He focused on you emotions to make sure he hadn’t seriously overstepped.

“Oh, well, we don’t really agree about much, or anything really. They’re jerks that only care about money and showing off to other people about how perfect they are. My mom is always taking about how young men approach her about leaving her husband because shes so ‘naturally’ beautiful and my dad is always bragging about how incredibly smart he is and how good he is at handling his business. They like to talk about how well they raised me, even though they never spent time with me or did any of the parenting stuff, and they like to parade around like they’re better than everyone when really, they’re miserable together and they’re always doing shady shit behind the scenes of their business. When they said they wanted to go on a cruise around one of their vacation homes I refused to go with them because they’d just ignore me and force me to play along with their stupid charade.”

By now you were standing in front of a tiny Italian restaurant with low lights and tall booths, very warm and inviting, the perfect safe space that just so happened to smell amazing. And Keefe was more than ready to eat whatever smelled so good. Even if it meant more of the god-awful human water.

But he couldn’t help but stop to watch you for a minute. It was insane how easy it felt to be around you, and safe. He had been in the forbidden cities for months and this was the safest he’d felt in a very long time. Everything about you felt like a complement to him. Even your shitty social status obsessed parents were another way you were similar.

You looked at him, and for a moment he wondered if the weird emotional flurry around you meant you felt the same way. “Keefe? We should head inside, and you can tell me about whatever led to you breaking into my house.”

You giggled at him, it was soft and sweet and he absolutely believed that you could bribe any of the councilors to do your bidding if you wanted to with that laugh.

The rest of the night (or rather, incredibly early morning) was spent sharing every detail about both his and your lives, even when he confessed that he was an elf you barely bat an eye, and he could tell that you genuinely didn’t mind that his mom had done all kinds of weird shit to his head.

You shared your own secrets as well, and you marveled at how accepting he was. Everyone and everything faded away, and for a few hours you were simply two teens that could really understand each other, and it was you best either of you had felt in a very long time.

As the sun came up you took him to the roof of a flower shop that had yet to open for the day. Together you sat and shared the desert from the restaurant while you described your passion for drawing, and he described his. Everything just seem perfect and both you and him wished it could last forever.

Of course things could never be that easy, after all, he explained why he was in the forbidden cities, and you understood that he would probably return to his world eventually, but that did nothing to stop the overwhelming desire to kiss him and run away together.

Even as he explained how his empathy worked and you tried to get your emotions in check so he wouldn’t think you were insane for developing such strong feelings in the span of a few hours, nothing could shadow them.

And when he looked at you, even more intensely than that first time he read you in your mothers bedroom, you couldn’t help but feel like he felt the same way.

He leaned forward slightly and you met him halfway, there was a hairs space between you, and you could feel his warm breath, see all the different blues in his eyes, and smell his soft skin…

“Wait Keefe.”

He froze and his eyes opened so wide you almost worried they would crack like real ice.

“Yes (y/n)? Is something wrong? Did I say something or-”

You cut him off before could spiral, trying to make your emotions clear so he wouldn’t worry so much.

“ I have to ask, after everything you’ve said, are you staying or leaving?”

He paused before pulling back and letting out a deeply emotional sigh. “I have to go, there’s still so much I don’t know or understand, and I still haven’t made it to London to look for those people and, wait! What if, and I know this might sound crazy but…”

He trailed off looking afraid to continue. You could feel your heart beating faster than ever before, and you tried to not get your hopes up. Gently, you urged him to continue, especially since these next words could change everything for you.

He said your name in a way that made your soul tingle and your stomach knot, “Would you be willing, to leave with me?”

You stared at each other for a moment, before you closed your eyes and quickly but softly pressed your lips to his. For a moment, your were scared, for a moment, you considered pulling back, for a moment, you thought you read all his teasing and flirting wrong and completely ruined the best night of your life, and then? He was kissing you back. He was wrapping an arm around your waist and cupping his hand around your face. He was blushing and nervous and probably feeling everything you were feeling.But he was kissing you back. And everything felt perfect.

Slowly you pulled apart and he reseted his forehead against yours while closing his eyes.

The two of you sat there, on the roof of the flower shop, bathed in soft light of the rising sun, practically glowing in each other’s arms.

It would be risky, but leaving everything behind for him seemed worth it, not that there was anything really keeping you here. Maybe you were crazy, but leaving with him felt like the best idea you had ever had, and you were not going to give that up.

He could only hope that none of this would put you in to much danger, but he’d do anything to protect you now, and keep you by his side. Maybe he was crazy, or maybe his mom had truly screwed his head on wrong after she messed him up, but this was the best thing that ever happened to him, and he was not about to give that up.

[rusted-phone-calls]

what if we. put our hands in ice water together to test our endurance against the cold? (flirting

[keeper-of-the-lost-dadwin]

The pain of remembering is worth the danger of forgetting

@creetchure I was your secret Santa

Elwin was forgetful. He had been since he was born and would continue to be until his wanderling had sprouted. He could forget just about anything.

He would forget whether or not he had grabbed his schoolbooks. He could misplace things resting in his hand. He would repeat actions over and over again, caught in an endless cycle. He had tried to overcome it; little scribbled notes had once surrounded him. Alas, they weren’t much help when he ended up putting off and consequently forgetting to write down his reminders.

So, he went on being as forgetful as ever, gradually adjusting to it. He resolved to look on the bright side, there was no harm in double checking after all. He had an eternity to live, five minutes searching for a tunic was merely a blink of an eye.

When moving to splendor plains, it was easier to manage. His official doctor stuff was organized throughout the manor. His personal belongings were kept in a separated, homier wing. This meant nothing traveled too far.

One thing he still forgot about was food. He forgot to eat most nights, usually spent refining some remedy or other. This habit was quite enabled by the arrival of one Sophie foster. Even if he ate three meals a day, his food would spoil long before he had reached the end of it.

Food wasn’t sold to be eaten occasionally by questionably healthy bachelors. It was sold to be eaten by families with many stomachs to fill. So he let it rot, only getting rid of it once the odor became unbearable. As neglected as anything else in his home.

Then came a certain Keefe Sencen. He was just a kid, no more than a baby really. His seventeen years were nothing compared to Elwin’s centuries. Yet those 17 years had been filled with so much pain.

None of which he deserved. He was a great kid, as full of mischief as he was. He was kind and smart, despite what his parents had told him. He deserved the world, but Elwin couldn’t give him that, despite how much he wanted to. What Elwin could give him was a gentle, loving home.

And so he did. A home filled with soft words of praise, filled with love and safety. A home where Keefe wouldn’t need to worry about being good enough, where he could just be himself.

Part of that included giving him good food. Fresh fruits and pastries that would fill him up. There would be no more days of forgetting to eat, not with a kid to take care of.

He had come home early one evening, not having to tempt bullhorn from anyone that day. It was the least stressed he’d felt in a while, without the looming threat of death hanging over one of his kids.

He passed keefe getting a snack as he went to his room to change. He glanced at his plate and immediately knew something was off. He ignored it, thinking it was nothing urgent.

He took off his work clothes and put on comfy pajamas. He had no expectation of going to bed anytime soon but getting comfortable a bit early never hurt anyone.

He went to the kitchen to make himself a snack, willing to put off making dinner that much longer. He sat down with his food and greeted his son.

He took a better look at what he was eating. There were bits of mold on the edges of his food. Keefe wasn’t eating with his eyes closed, so he had to have known it was there.

Elwin felt queasy. How long had keefe been eating rotten food? How much had he eaten? Even if he hadn’t gotten sick didn’t mean there wasn’t a risk now. How horrible of a parent did he have to be not to notice it? Why would Keefe be eating rotten food even after Elwin had made sure there was always fresh food in the house?

He realized he had zoned out for too long. He shook himself out of his stupor to actually fix the problem. Worrying wouldn’t help Keefe, wouldn’t make him stop.

“There’s mold on that, darling,” Keefe finally looked up from his plate, startled by the sudden breaking of the comfortable silence. 

“You’ll get sick if you eat that”

He looked like a cornered animal, a guilty expression painted on his face. “I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to eat the rest of the food in the pantry. The kind that wasn’t rotten. I thought you would get mad,”. He looked sheepish, as if this was in any way his fault.

Elwin couldn’t believe it. Keefe thought that Elwin would get mad at him for eating. Eating the food Elwin had specifically gotten for him. How could Keefe believe that? Who had made him believe that taking care of himself was something bad? 

He knew the answer to that of course. He knew all too well how Keefe’s “parents” had treated him. It sickened him to even think of anyone willing to do that, especially to their own son. 

“Did Cassius and Gisela make you eat spoiled food?” He spat out the names, as if that would fix all that they’d done. 

“Yes,” Keefe whispered, as if to keep Elwin from hearing. He curled in on himself, as if trying to hide himself from Elwin’s fury. That only made him angrier, how could Keefe believe he was the one Elwin was mad at? As if Elwin could ever actually be mad at him.

“My dad made it clear that whenever I was grounded, I wasn’t allowed to take food from the pantry. I would keep a small stash of food hidden under my bed. I didn’t know if you would be okay with me taking your food, I figured you wouldn’t care about what you couldn’t eat.” 

Elwin was horrified. “Your parents let you starve?”

“Well, not really. I was smart enough to learn how to get food anyways. Besides, I was only ever grounded for a couple weeks at a time.” He blurted it out so quickly he almost tripped over his words. Whether he wanted to explain it to defend his parents, or just to make Elwin less angry, he didn’t know.

“That’s not okay honey, no matter how easily you were able to actually get food. Your parents can’t starve you. They can’t just not let you have food.”

Keefe nodded, apparently finally understanding. "I’m sorry for worrying you”. 

And back to square one. 

“You have nothing to be sorry about. I should have made it clear that you were welcome to everything in my house, what’s mine is yours.”

Elwin invited Keefe to join him on the couch to watch a cheesy human movie and eat some popcorn. Once the movie finished, they went to bed, having forgotten what had transpired just a few hours earlier. 

That was the end of their food struggles, they managed to fix one of the kinks that came with building your own family. And if Elwin made sure to throw out any food that had gone bad from then on, well, it never hurt anyone to be on the safe side.

@song-tam

[elwin-at-your-service]

And I am the latter, not the former!

There’s two kinds of people- the ones that think Elwin is Sophie’s bio dad and the ones who want him to adopt Keefe

[crumpetsandbiscuits]

Biana made so much sense in the first book

Let’s say you were Biana in the first book.

Before the events of KOTLC:

Your brother and your dad are always disappearing and leaving you out. You find yourself picking out flaws that your brother never had a problem with. “Am I always going to be the bronze to his gold?” Naturally, you start to turn to your friends for entertainment, including your best friend and your brothers’ cute friend who skipped a grade. You quickly become the most popular girl in school, everybody at your feet. “Do they like you because of you, or your status?” One day, you invite some friends home. They seem really giggly, for whatever reason. The second your brother walks in, they all flock to him. “Did he really make it about him today?” Your mother and your two best friends are the only ones who understand. Your mother tells you to be nice, because he doesn’t have many friends. It’s ok, at least your brother’s back.

When Biana is first introduced:

A dress suddenly disappears in your closet. When you ask your mom what happened, she says they’ve picked up some girl your age. It’s why they were doing all those errands, and they took your dress instead of buying a new one. “Another kid for my parents to love more.” You finally can’t take it, and you and your mom get into an argument. She uses her powers to disappear. “Classic. Always running away from conflict.” You hear your father’s voice. Oh. That girl is here. The epitome of everything your parents love more. Secrets, leaving you out, and your brother. Whatever.

The Elwin scene:

Is the school nurse in your house today? In taking a closer look, he is. You go to investigate when you see a ‘moment’ shared between your brother and that girl. She’s scared of the doctor. Yeah, right. The worst thing in the doctor is the medicine. You have a fun little chat with your brother and then go back to your room. It’s ok. You can always ignore her. It will be hard, but not impossible.

[nowjumpinthewater]

Kotlc characters as my phone autocorrects them

Fitz- Fits

Dex- See

Keefe- Keefe

Biana- Bana

Marella- Marcella

Tam- Ram

Linh- Long

Wylie- While

Stina- Sting

Elwin- Spain

Cassius- Chassis

Mr. Forkle- Mr. Forums

[winter-rossie]

Have you heard of Keeper of the Lost Cities? (KotLC) It's an amazing series with lots of characters, although the books are massive and there's 10 and counting

Hello, @oopsies-i-did-a-thing AHHHHH, I'm so sorry for never replying. I only just found out you could do this. I am so sorry. For forgiveness thee shall reward thou with memes. Keefe: "Wait, Mr. Forkle, how many identities did you just say you have?" Mr. Forkle: "Yes." Another bc i love this fandom Elwin, Giving Sophie another elixir Sophie, exasperated: "What will this one do?" Elwin: "Hopefully, fix everything. If not, it’ll just taste awful."

[the-great-gullon-incident]

Elwin: In order to have control over your powers, you need self confidence.

Keefe: I have self confidence!

Elwin: No, you’re just loud.

[alaydabug2]

Here's a nice oneshot for once ☺️

(Keefe Pov)

Keefe slammed his door shut and locked it. He flopped onto the bed, grabbing Mrs. Stinkbottom and squeezing her tight.

Him and his dad had gotten into their fourth fight that week. It was only Tuesday. One in the morning. One after school. That wasn't even counting their small skirmishes.

On Monday morning, it was about him staying up all night drawing. After school, it was about him not cleaning his room. That morning, it was him not doing his empathy exercises.

Now, it was about his father saying he was just like his mother.

Keefe was able to handle a lot of his insults. But that hit too hard of a nerve.

Cassius called him useless, a burden, whiny, ungrateful, disrespectful, unworthy of love. He was able to slide off all of those things. He'd heard them millions of times.

But being told he was like his mother? Out off all them, that hurt the worst.

But...wasn't he, though?

He'd betrayed people he cared about. Done awful things.

He had her blood flowing through his vains. She was part of him, whether Keefe liked it or not.

That didn't stop him from finally snapping.

Keefe finally argued back. Tried to defend and stick up for himself. But his father knew exactly what to say to make him submiss.

He said he never wanted a kid in the first place. His mother managed to somehow convince him. He regrets ever letting her. That he never loved his son. He wished Keefe was never born.

The last one was the final nail in the coffin to make him flee to his room. Cassius taunted him along the way.

Keefe had screamed himself hoarse. That didn't stop him from pulling out his imparter.

"Sophie?" he murmured, his throat still raw.

"I'm here," she told him. "What's up?"

He sucked in a trembling breath. "I need you right now. My dad and I had another fight."

Sophie didn't need any more explanation. She simply said, "I'll be right over." And hung up.

Five minutes later, he heard a door slam open. Then, the sound of a lot of yelling. Particularly a female. Then stomping towards his door. But when he heard the knock, it was soft and gentle.

He got up. The comforter still tangled around himself, the green gulon in his hands. Slowly, he opened the door.

Sophie walked into the room. She placed a box on the desk. She quickly locked the door behind her and took his face in her hands.

She brushed the tears away from his eyes. "What happened?"

By the time he was done explaining, he was curled up on the bed, Sophie sitting beside him. She was gently running her hand through his hair, his head propped up on her knee.

As much as he complained about people messing with his hair, he had to admit, it felt good.

The box she had brought turned out to be Edaline's mallowment. After snacking on it and talking to Sophie, he felt a lot better.

But he still didn't want to stay there that night.

"I... think I'm going to ask Elwin and see if I can stay there for a night or two," Keefe thought aloud. "I know I've been there a lot, but I just can't stay here tonight."

Sophie nodded. "I'm sure he'd be ok with it. Do you want me to get your overnight bag?"

"I've got it. I need a couple more things anyway."

He got up and headed to his closet. He pulled out two uniforms and threw them into the overnight bag. He'd had one ready for the past two and a half months in case he ever needed to get away from his father for a break. And he used it a lot.

Most of the time, it was to Splendor Plains. Others, it was Havenfeild and occasionally Everglen.

Sophie handed him the imparter. He thanked her and spoke Elwin's name into the device.

Keefe glittered outside of Splendor Plains. He adjusted his bag on his shoulder and knocked on the door.

Elwin answered and hugged Keefe before bringing him inside. Nothing needed to be explained. He knew the drill. Keefe had gone there so many times in the past few months that he knew the reason.

Elwin just asked if he wanted to watch a movie as he pulled dinner out of the oven. (A/n pretend they have movies for this 😅)

They settled on the couch with the TV on. He wrapped an arm around Keefe. It felt nice. Why couldn't his father just be caring? Was it really that hard?

Elwin probably sensed something was wrong because he asked, "Everything alright?"

Keefe shrugged, taking another bite of food.

He didn't like that awnser, so he said, "You can tell me anything. You know that, right? I'm not gonna get upset."

"We just... really had it out tonight. No big deal."

By the emotions that got flung Keefe's way, Elwin wasn't buying it. But something else was in the mix, too. A combination of worry and concern and sympathy. Something he didn't know how to take in.

Elwin didn't say anything else, though, and they finished their movie and food in silence.

When it started to get late, Keefe got up and started to go to bed. He had Foxfire in the morning, unfortunately. He said goodnight to Elwin, got showered, ready to go to sleep, and into the bed.

By the time he was under the covers, Elwin cracked open the door. "Can I come in?" Keefe nodded. Elwin sat on the edge of the bed, smoothing the blanket a bit. "Are you sure you're ok? I can tell it was a pretty bad fight. Did something else happen than usual?"

"I guess you could say that. Umm... he said I was like my mom. I fought back for the first time, but he...," Keefe trailed off. He curled further into himself. "He said things. He wished I wasn't here. That I wasn't born. Turns out he never wanted a child, but thanks to my mom's 'legacy' stuff, she convinced him. So, here I am. Nothing that comes from them are good. It was inevitable anyhow."

"That's not completely true," Elwin whispered. "You did, and that's enough."

Elwin took his hand, squeezing it. Keefe scooted closer.

To his surprise, Elwin never left. At least not until he was asleep, because he stayed sitting on the bed. Not talking or waiting for any answers, just being there with him.

Yeah, definitely different than just several hours earlier. At some point, Keefe fell asleep.

"You should come over after school," Sophie prompted.

It'd been two weeks since Keefe's major fight with his dad. He'd had to go to Elwin's place three times in the short amount of time. The abuse just kept getting worse. So he had zero hesitation in agreeing.

He walked through the door, trailing behind Sophie. When he saw the living room, he got an uneasy feeling. All of his friends were there. Their parents. Elwin. Livy. Mr. Forkle.

That couldn't be good news.

"Is something going on?" He asked.

Sophie got a mischievous grin on her face. "We have a surprise for you."

"Uh oh. I don't like the sound of that."

"Calm down." She pushed him down to sit on the couch. "It's good."

Edaline snapped her fingers. A box about the size of a donut box appeared on the table in front of him. Everyone gathered around in a semicircle.

He pushed the box away. "This is something to get back at me for all of my pranks over the years, isn't it." He looked at Biana. "Is it glitter?" He looked at Dex. "Will it explode?" Linh. "Shoot water at me?"

"No, but we should do that," Tam suggested.

"I'm not going to trust Bangs Boy," Keefe told them.

"It's fine," Fitz said. "Just open it already."

Keefe eyed them all. "If this is a prank," he warned, "you are all going to regret every single decision in your life that led you to this point."

Everyone just stared expectantly at him. He pulled the box back to him. He slowly raised the lid. He braced himself. Nothing happened. Slightly more than confused, he opened it completely.

Inside, there were three items. He wasn't able to see what the other two were because his gaze fixated on the open scroll.

It read, 'The official and legal adoption of Keefe Sencen by Elwin Heslege has been approved. Keefe will now permanently reside at Splendor Plains. Lord Cassius Sencen has no legal rights over Keefe Sencen.'

Keefe gasped. He looked up at everyone. They had smiles on their faces. "You all knew?" Everyone nodded. Keefe's gaze shifted to Elwin. He stood in the corner of the half circle. He had a soft grin on his face.

Keefe fell back onto the cushions. Incredulous to the paper in front of him, he murmured, "This is a prank. It's not true," with his hands covering his crying face. Weight shifted on the cushion beside him. He turned his head to see Elwin beside him. "You're joking."

Elwin moved the hands away from Keefe's face. "I'm not joking, I swear." He held out his hand, challenging him.

Keefe swiped his hand across Elwin's. He was telling the truth. He accepted Elwin's open arms.

Elwin's hug was crushing, but Keefe didn't care. It was warm and comforting. Everything he wanted during his childhood. Everything he needed. It felt like home. Another sob escaped.

He sniffled as he finally pulled away. Elwin reached for another item from the box. A family crest. A Heslege crest. He unpinned the Foxfire crest from his cape and replaced it with the new one. He made sure it was secured on.

Keefe choked on his words. He reached up and clasped the pin in his hand.

"Your part of the family now," Elwin told him. "Only seemed fitting."

Forever Keefe had wanted to be truly part of his family. It never felt legit. No matter what he did or said, his parents never made him feel part of his own family. He wasn't able to earn his own crest until he was fourteen, and it was a tracker. Now Elwin was just giving him one. No strings attached.

Maybe something wasn't wrong with him, after all.

He had no words. Although he did start crying again once Elwin pulled the last item out of the box. It was a home crystal. He told Keefe it was his.

He hugged Elwin again. "Thank you," he murmured. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

"Of course," Elwin said softly. "I couldn't stand seeing you stay there any longer."

Keefe glanced at Sophie. She has holding into Grady and Edaline's hands like a lifeline. This must've been how it felt for her to finally get adopted by them. Like something finally clicked into its place.

When it was finally time to leave, Elwin let Keefe do the honors with his new home crystal.

Keefe froze when he got to the doorstep. Elwin gestured for him to go inside. "It's like it always was. Just more official now." They hesitantly stepped through the door. "Come on, I want to show you your room."

"My room?" Keefe asked.

"The room you've been staying in is my guest room. This will be your permanent room." They trailed up the stairs to a door they'd never been in before.

Keefe stopped in his tracks. The room was a pale yellow. In one corner was a desk. On the wall beside it was shelves full of art suplies. By a bay window was a few bean bag chairs and a rug. Several stuffed animals were strewn about. Against the wall  in the center of the room was the bed. He couldn't help a chuckled when he saw it had batman bedsheets. He was confused to see that Mrs. Stinkbottom was already on the bed. He turned around.

"Got permission from Magnate Leto for your friends to skip class to help me move your stuff today," Elwin explained.

"Wait... does my dad know?"

He laughed, "He will tomorrow when he gets the scroll. He was at Atlantis when we were there."

His jaw dropped. A smirk spread across his face. "He's going to be ticked."

He looked at the room. Then back to Elwin. He practically tackled him with a hug. His eyes started to well up again

"Don't worry," Elwin murmured. "You never have to go back there again, Keefe. I promise. You're wanted here. You're going to be loved here.

Keefe wanted to deny it. Say it wasn't possible for that to happen. But being an empath, he knew he wasn't lying. It was going to be ok.

More than ok.

He had a parental figure to care for him. For the first time in his life. He was wanted.

[elwin-at-your-service]

Do you think you’ll be in the upcoming book?

I sure hope so, though I don’t know for certain.

While you don’t see enough of it in the series, Keefe and I have quite a close relationship which predates Sophie’s entrance to our lives. It would be marvellous to see some of that explored on the page.

A little more of it (during early Keeper timeline) is explored in Vildefol’s works, should you be inclined to check out their AO3 offerings.

[moonlarked]

We should do dadwin week

[elwin-at-your-service]

Indeed, I have posted about this a number of times. I would absolutely adopt Keefe if it were legal to do so, but the Council do not recognise him as being in need.

adopt that kid elwin i triple dog dare u see now u HAVE to do it