~Fitz shook off the embarrassment of saying 'best BEST color' and walked over to what had caught his eye. He had to remain in perfect focus for this. If he succeeded, he would basically be considered the world's best cognate and friend. If it was what he thought it was, he had to somehow keep his mom from finding it, which would be a struggle. She had an eye for spotting two things: fashion, and her family.

As cooly as he could, he shifted the dresses on the rack until he saw it. It was a red dress that seemed to be sleeveless, but in fact had coralish-reddish-pink constructed like a V-neck shirt underneath. The tip of the steep neckline was hidden a few inches under the decorative seam of the red dress, making it modest, but classier than just wearing a shirt under a dress. It belled out at the waist, and after Fitz took it off the rack proved that it also had nice movement-

Fitz gasped and put his hand over his mouth. His sister and mother had been rubbing off on him lately. Why was he so... unlike himself? A year ago, he wouldn't've thought all that much about a dress much less pay attention to the details of it. Fitz sure wouldn't've said 'best BEST' in a million years. What was happening to him? Was this some messed up form of puberty or something?

Fitz thought over what could have caused this sudden... weirdness until he was interrupted by an employee of the shop. "Is everything okay?"

Fitz turned, and awkwardly said, "yeah, thanks."

The employee, who's badge read 'Celeste' winked at him, "looking for the perfect dress for your girlfriend?"

He immediately flushed deeply, "what?- She's not my- what?"

"That's how it always starts," the employee laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck," she said before walking away.

Fitz blinked, and just stood there, flustered, wondering what the lady had been trying to say. What was she talking about when she said: 'that's how it always starts?' Did she somehow know about Sophie? Wait- why did he think of Sophie first? Fitz was very confused, but saw his mom walk over, and shook it off.

"Oh, did you find another dress for Sophie? Do you want me to go buy it with the rest of them?" Della asked.

"No, thanks okay, I wanted to get this one for her myself, if that's okay with you."

Della frowned, "of course it's okay with me, though I wouldn't've initially picked it for her myself... but you know her best."

"Yeah, I am her cognate after all. Is there anything else you want to get here, or do you want to pick something out for Biana?"

"I've already done that, now it's time that we look for things for you!" Great.

---

Fitz was exhausted by the end of it, and groaned internally when his mom lead him to a park. She silently sat down on a bench and motioned for him to join her. Once he did, she wrapped an arm around him, and rested her head on his shoulder. "I miss him," Della whispered quietly. There it was. Alvar. 

Dozens of emotions flooded through him in an instant, but he pushed them all but one aside. Fitz wrapped his arm around his mom, "I do too." There was a pause. "It's not your fault you know."

Della looked up at him with tears in her eyes, the purposefully used excitement for shopping gone. "I could've paid him more attention, he did mention something about-"

He cut her off, "no. It's his fault that he made those choices on his own, no matter what he said, no matter what we did. We couldn't've changed the outcome."

She sighed, "you're right." For a while, there was silence until she asked, "When did you become so grown up? It's like just yesterday you were going on and on about going to Foxfire one day."

Fitz cracked a smile, "I was pretty obnoxious about it, wasn't I?"

"No, you were- yeah, you were." They both laughed and Della stood. "Alright. No more feeling guilty. No more shopping. Let's go home."

Fitz nodded and stood, as he did, a sign caught his eye. Cognate rings. "Wait, one more store please? There's something I want to get Sophie."

"Oh of course! I know she's the most important lady in your life." Fitz flushed after his mom's remark. "Is it another dress or-" Della stopped when she saw where he was looking.

"It's perfect right? I've heard about them before, they're suppose to help with concentration or something like that. Most cognates have them, and for are all of the greatest do."

"I don't have her ring size, do you?" Della asked.

"That's okay, they go on the thumbs. It should just come in a general size, so it shouldn't be a problem." Fitz nodded over to the store, "shall we?"

The door chimed as they walked in, "welcome. How can I help you?" An elf with long pointy ears asked them. He was short with a long sandy beard that had a name tag clipped to it, reading: "Mark".

"Hi, I'm looking for a set of cognate rings?" Fitz walked up to the counter while his mom looked around the store curiously, which was neatly set up and filled with items that varied from snow globes to lie detector potions.

"Ah yes. They take a little while to make and a hair from each cognate is needed to complete the process."

"Why do you need the hair?" Della asked curiously from across the small shop.

"Well, when you and your cognate put them on, if you concentrate on them, they snap together. The DNA helps guide the rings together, cool right?" The shop keeper said proudly, "I make them myself!"

"That's so cool! Fitz, do you have one of Sophie's hairs?"

Mark squinted at Fitz's tunic for a moment before plucking a long blond hair off him. "Does this look like her hair?"

He blushed, "it has to be, she's the only blond girl I know."

"Excellent!" Mark reached over and plucked one of Fitz's hairs out of his head.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, sir. I'll also need both of your initials." Mark put a piece of paper and a quill, "all three names if you will."

Fitz scribbled down Sophie's (S.E.F.) before scribbling down his own (F.A.V.) and pulled out his luster cube.
After he paid, he asked, "when do I come pick them up?"

"This little card will glow green when they're done- and when I mean glow, I mean seriously glow. Seriously, watch out because it may cause a small fire. Expect them to be ready by about next week."

"Alright, thanks. Let's go Mom."

"See you back next week!" Mark waved them goodbye and Della linked her arm through Fitz's.

"So, when do you plan to give them to her? Immediately? Or is there a special occasion?" His mom asked curiously.

Fitz thought for a second, "I hadn't really thought about it, but I've been wanting to give her a present for her human birthday. I know we have a day where we celebrate everyone's, but I think it would be nice for us to also celebrate her human birthday. After all the stress that she's been through, especially recently... it might help her out."

Della smiled, "you're very sweet Fitz, but we don't know what human day it is, or her human birthday."

After a moment of thought, Fitz replied, "her human birthday is October 24th, and I'm sure Tiergan knows how far away it is." Fitz smiled, feeling confident about this plan.

"Perfect! Talk to him alone at your next session, and I'll plan a surprise party for her at Everglen."

"Sounds good!" Fitz smiled wider at the card in his hand before tucking it into his pocket for safe keeping. "Shall we go back for dinner?" Della nodded and they stepped on to the leap master. "Everglen," he yelled right before they were whisked away into the light.