-Sophie took a deep breath and turned away from the mirror. This technically wasn't a date, because they were just friends, just cognates, but that didn't change the fact that Sophie was nervous. It had been a few days after Sophie and Fitz had decided they needed to do "normal" things. Fitz had insisted that they HAD to go today instead of earlier, and she had no idea why. She figured she would ask him after he picked her up.

She had spent almost an hour trying to do her hair before her mother, bless her heart, found her, and helped her make it perfect in minutes. She was actually wearing a DRESS that wasn't completely casual, and ballet flat-like shoes instead of her usual boots. The dress was a warm, sunny orange, asymmetrical wrap dress that belled out at the waist, and the shoes were a reddish brown. Her hair was in a french braid, and she didn't wear makeup, or much jewelry, not including the help signal, or reflector shield ring from Dex, but she did wear a thin, bronze, chain bracelet set with moonstones, as well as matching stud earrings. She packed a lip balm, her emergency elixirs, her imparter, the miniature blazer from Dex, and her money cube in a little black purse hung by a bronze chain. The leather of the little purse had little studs of bronze in a polka dot pattern. Unsure that it worked with her outfit, she swallowed back pride and asked Vertina, her holo-mirror assistant with an attitude. Vertina still wasn't happy with the fact that she was in Sophie's possession, especially since she had "no taste in style", but mostly because she missed her original owner and best friend, Jolie.

When Sophie stepped into the zone of the mirror,  Vertina flickered onto the screen, staring at her nails. "Whatcha want?"

"I need to know if this purse matches... and the entire outfit for that matter," she nervously fidgeted with the thick chain of the purse.

Vertina studied her for a moment, before declaring, "The purse is fine, neutrals always go together. As for your outfit... set the purse down and turn around slowly."

Sophie did as she was told, feeling like a complete and utter idiot. When she was facing the mirror again, she demanded a verdict, "Well?"

"You look fine, nothing is out of place, just two questions: who did your hair- because I doubt you can even braid- and what's the occasion?"

"Edaline," she answered, relieved that the outfit passed the fashion test. "As for the occasion, Fitz and I are going shopping."

"Fitz?" Vertina looked genuinely surprised, "Isn't Biana the shopper? Or are you two dating?"

Red faced, she answered, "We're not dating, but yeah, Biana likes shopping, but my cognate and I decided that we needed to do something less serious."

"So you decided shopping?" The hologram almost cackled.

"We're going to walk around, find a place for lunch, then look around the city."

"Where are you going? Atlantis, I hope."

Sophie nodded, "Yeah, we haven't been there in a while."

Vertina snickered, "You guys are too cute. Listen, if you needed date ideas, you could have come to me-" Deciding that she had reached her limit of Vertina rudeness, Sophie stepped out of range, and the holo-girl flicked off the surface.

Right on time, Grady called up the stairs, "Sophie, Fitz is here!"

Smiling with excitement, nerves pumping her blood in her veins, she grabbed her purse, and raced down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she saw Fitz, dressed nicely, but not so that it would be considered fancy. He wore a simple, faded red sweater that contrasted against his eyes over a simple white tunic. The pockets at the sleeves were each embroidered with the design of a bird's wing with a slightly lighter red thread, so it wasn't the focus, but it was noticeable. His pants were made of some sort of material that beared a close resemblance to jeans in weight and color. Her cognate was smiling, and waved at her a little when he saw her.
She was so busy focussing on his smile, that she didn't notice how red his ears were.

"Sophie, you look nice," beamed her father, and he gave her a quick, affectionate kiss on the forehead.

"Thanks, Dad!" She kissed his cheek in return.

"Stay safe, you guys," Grady instructed. "If something goes wrong, find somewhere to lay low and call us, okay?"

"I'm sure that won't happen," Sophie assured her father, but he only shook his head.

"You never know, you never know."

"I'll bring her home by 5:00pm," promised Fitz, "so we'll avoid night time. My parents want me home before dark, after... you know..." his voice trailed off for a moment, but he quickly got back on topic, "so you have nothing to worry about! Besides, with the minnunition Dex gave us, and Sophie's ability to dish out some nasty emotions, we'll be in good hands."

"Minnunition?" Grady asked.

"Mini-ammunition," Fitz rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "It's a slang word I made up."

"It's cute!" Giggled Sophie, which only seemed to make him more embarrassed.

"Well, we should get going so we have time before lunch to look around. We'll see you soon," Fitz waved, and they inched towards the leapmaster like you do when you're trying to leave something, but you don't want to be rude and cut off the conversation you were just in the middle of having.

"See you guys later," her father nodded, and with that, they climbed onto the platform, and whisked away to Atlantis.

They reached the crummy human beach in no time, and Sophie looked miserably at the whirl pool they'd have to jump into. Together, they climbed the rocks closer to the whirl pool, and Sophie wasn't sure if she wanted to go first or second. She didn't really like either option honestly. Fitz noticed this, and looked over at her with a small smile.

"Do you want to go first or second?" He asked patiently, and she looked up at him.

"I-" she looked down again, "I-um-uh... I don't know."

"That's okay, do you need a second?"

She nodded, "It's been a while."

He laughed a little, "Yeah, it has... Do you remember when you came here for the first time?"

"I bet it'll be the same... but it's been awhile... I shouldn't be worried about this. I've battled rebels and fixed broken minds. I jump off of CLIFFS to teleport."

"Need me to show you how it's done?" Fitz smirked playfully, and hesitantly, she nodded. He chuckled, "here goes nothing," and jumped in.

"Get it together, Sophie," she told herself, and closed her eyes before she jumped in. She opened them halfway down, looking around fearfully for a moment before remembering she was okay. She watched the water stream around her as she went down, and smiled. She bounced off the giant sponge, and prepared to land, but Fitz, smirking, caught her.

It was a little awkward. Her knees were on either side of his ribcage, and she towered over him. His arms were wrapped around her thighs, and held her firmly. She blushed, telling herself that she had jumped down too soon, and she would have knocked him over if he hadn't caught her.

Fitz seemed unphased by this, and chuckled a little as he looked up at her, the ends of her hair brushing against his face as she looked down at him. "It's kind of fun, right?"

She nodded, and stammered, "y-y-yeah. It was kind of fun." They stared into eachother's eyes for a moment before Sophie said awkwardly, "um, you can put me down now."

Her cognate blinked, and Sophie couldn't get over how cute he was. "Right, sorry." She rested her hands on his shoulders as he set her down. Once her feet were on the ground, she gave him a shy smile as she slowly took her hands away.

She looked around, and saw the beauty of Atlantis striking her again. The winding streets, the soft glow of the buildings and balefire, the scorpion carriages clacking along the street. When she looked back at Fitz, she saw that he had offered her his arm. Smiling, she accepted it, and together, they walked down the street.

They weaved in and out of stores, pointing things out, looking to see what gifts would be best for Biana for her upcoming Winnowing Gala. They picked out a cute pair of heels that Sophie knew she had been looking at for ages, but could never justify buying, and a scarf that softly shimmered different purple and blue hues. Along the way, Sophie managed to find someone selling an old human photo processor/printer for parts, and immediately bought it, explaining to Fitz that Dex needed one for the necklace he had promised Biana. Though Fitz wouldn't let her carry it, he had the guy who sold it secure it with rope so he could carry it like he was wearing a human backpack. She only agreed that it wasn't really that heavy, really only bulky, but only because she carried the bags holding Biana's presents from them. Sophie figured this was because he couldn't dote on his sister, whose injuries still weren't fully healed yet. Fitz had been a little wound up since Biana's run in with the Neverseen, and his emotions were still pent up, this was a way to release some of them, by taking care of others. Sophie knew that sooner or later, her cognate's put together face would crumble, and the rampant storm inside would be released one way or another. It made her a little anxious for him.

Once they decided they were done shopping, they walked to a small park, and sat on a hill, underneath a lamp post. She sighed happily, and rested her head on his shoulder. "Today was a good day."

"Yeah, it was," he agreed, and she noticed that he wa smiling softly, which made her smile. She could have sworn that he was blushing, but she figured that it was the light from the lamp illuminating his face. "Thanks for suggesting this, we should do something else sometime soon."

She nodded slightly in agreement, "Yeah, we should."

"You know... this made me realize how we don't spend many times like this without talking about something... heavy."

"It's a little weird," she agreed, "but it's nice. It's nice spending time together like normal people."

"Like real cognates."

She blushed and agreed, "Yeah, like real cognates." A few seconds ticked by. "Are you scared? About being cognates I mean."

Fitz thought for a second before replying, "No, not really, are you?"

Sophie didn't hesitate, "No, I'm not, for some reason. It's kind of weird."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're going to try to do something that do few people can do, that some people never forgive afterwards, or die for, and we're not scared."

He chuckled a bit, "I guess that is weird." A heartbeat passed, "I think that it's because that because it's with you, I know that we can do it. If it was with anyone else... I wouldn't be so confident."

"Really?" Butterflies came alive in her stomach, "why is that?"

"Because you're the strongest person I know, and you make me strong to. I'd never doubt for a moment that you could do become a cognate but me... If I wasn't with you, I probably would doubt myself completely, but you make me feel like I can do it."

Wide eyed, she stared at him, mouth agape, blushing wildly. She did all that for him? She hadn't done anything at all! He did that for her. "Are you sure that you're not confusing me with someone else" Sophie asked so suddenly that Fitz blinked in confusion.

"What? Why would you say that? Of course I'm not, unless you're not Sophie Elizabeth Foster-Ruwen," he sounded hurt, and she couldn't meet his gorgeous teal eyes.

She looked away, suddenly more nervous than she had been before, "Sorry I just... You do the same thing for me, I just thought..."

Tenderly, his soft fingers guided her chin in his direction, forcing her to meet his gaze. His teal eyes were shimmering with tears, a rare, and terrifying sight. How could she have torn him down like that? Did she really have that much of an affect on him? It broke her heart. She knew that he wasn't crying just because of her, the stress of everything with the Neverseen and Biana was finally crashing down for good. She looked down, and for the first time realized that there were tears in her own eyes. "What did you think?" His voice was even and gentle, but she knew that it was only the calm before the storm.

"Nothing-" She started to say, daring to look at him, but she changed her mind after she saw his eyes again. Sophie sighed, and danced around the fact that she had a crush on him, "I just thought it was more one sided, I'm sorry."

"You mean you don't..." She looked up at her cognate after she felt the first tear fall on her arm.

Her breath sharpened, she knew where this was going, "No, no no, I meant that I didn't think you cared about me as much as I care about you." She pressed her hand against his cheek, slowly moving it up his face into his hair, smoothing it down soothingly.

That wasn't the right thing to say either, because more tears slid down his cheeks, "Why would you think that?" Did he like her too? Her heart started to race with anticipation.

"You're just so amazing, I didn't think anyone as good as you could think so highly of someone as... troublesome as me."

"You're not troublesome, you're Sophie, you're my cognate, and I'm not... I'm not that great. You have five abilities, and you're always creating new advancements in those abilities..."

She started to smile, "But YOU'RE Fitz Vacker, the super cool telepathy prodigy, one of the most popular guys in the Evlin world, and one of the best."

"Okay, so we both think our cognate is awesome," Fitz smiled a little, "glad we cleared that up."
Sophie only laughed and wrapped her arms around him affectionately. "It all seems a little silly now that I think about it."

Nodding, she agreed with a giggle, "Yeah, it does, and we cried again, are you kidding me? This was suppose to be a time to hang out and not hug each other miserably."

"It wasn't about the Neverseen or relationship problems, and it was at the end, so that's a start," said Fitz optimistically.

"I guess you're right, we just need practice."

"Want to go out and do something again tomorrow?" Fitz suggested eagerly.

She blushed, "Sounds good."

"Great-" a timer went off in Fitz's pocket. He pulled out his imparter, which read "4:52pm".

"I guess we better get going," Sophie stood up, and started to walk away, thinking her cognate was doing the same, but stopped when he grabbed her hand.

"Wait, there was something I wanted to give you before we left."

"Oh my gnome, am I missing a holiday, occasion or something?" Immediately her mind started running through all the possible holidays or occasions it could be, but couldn't think of anything.

Fitz stood, laughing slightly, and took her worn hands in his soft ones, "I can't believe you forgot it."

Dread settled in her stomach briefly, "What? What did I forget?"

"Your birthday, silly."

Her birthday. She turned sixteen today. "Wait, but elves don't celebrate individual birthdays, they have one big birthday for everyone."

"I know, but you're from the human world, and in cognate training a few months ago, when you finally told me when it was, what it was like to celebrate it, I thought that it should at least be mentioned. The little something I got is kind of for both of us," Fitz explained, and dropped her hands gently so he could rummage in his pocket for a moment. When he finally found what he was looking for, he pulled out long box, that was probably for some sort of jewelry, smiling proudly. He opened it carefully to reveal four silver rings, two engraved on the inside with the letters S.E.F.R. and the other two engraved with the letters F.A.V. on the inside. Sophie Elizabeth Foster-Ruwen and Fitzroy Avery Vacker. She gasped, and he smiled. "They're called Cognate rings. We each get two, one with our initials, and one with our cognate's. They don't interfere with most other rings because they go on your thumbs. The one with your cognate's initials goes on your left thumb, and the one with your own goes on your right thumb." He took the rings out of the box, holding them in his hand as he set their containment facility aside, and separated them into two sets. One for each of them.

Carefully, he took her hand, and slid on one of the things. The butterflies in her stomach flurried up to her chest, circling her heart. Sophie prayed that he didn't notice her blush, and smiled like an idiot, tears running down her own face now. After he put her rings on for her, he handed her the other two, and held out his own hands. She met his eyes briefly to see them overflowing with love, though she wasn't sure what kind. She decided to take what she could get. Slowly, she took one of the rings, and slid it onto the appropriate thumb. Not meeting his eyes again, she put on his other one for him, and almost as soon as the ring was around his thumb, their hands snapped together by some mysterious force, their fingers lacing together like they knew what to do. She looked up at Fitz with wonder to see that he hadn't taken his eyes off of her.

"If you focus on your cognate a little, it leads you to them, and your hands snap together. They also help channel cognate energy, as well as enhance it. All the big time cognates have them," Fitz was clearly proud, and rightfully so.

"You're so sweet," Sophie moved her hands away from his so she could hug him, "thank you. You're the best."

"The best what?" asked Fitz teasingly, "Friend? Cognate?"

"The best everything," normally, she would have barfed at the cheesiness of a line like that, but heck, this was a cheesy moment, so it didn't really matter. Without thinking, she said, "I love you."

A heartbeat past before his arms tightened around her, "I love you too."

Sophie immediately blushed. "He must have thought it was a more friend thing," she told herself mentally, and held back a sigh. Smiling, she pulled away, and suggested, "Let's go back home."

Later that night, she laid in bed, staring up at the ceiling, hugging Ella, her traitorous heart wondering if he liked her back, or if she was just kidding herself. She didn't fall asleep until she decided that only time would tell.