fourteen

~By now, Fitz should be use to the looks of Sophie's parents when he brought her home early from school, but it never seemed to get any easier. Grady and Edaline were sitting at the kitchen table, talking over a cup of tea. Immediately, when the two parents saw them, they shot up. Edaline was pale and hurriedly ran over to them while Grady opened the door with no expression on his face. "What happened? Is she okay? Where's Elwin?"

"Hi Edaline," Fitz explained, "she'll be okay, there was just an odd, blurry memory that had to be suppressed, but Elwin wanted me to bring her home to watch over her just in case."

"Oh my! I wonder how that could have happened! She has a photographic memory- are you sure she's okay?"

"Mom, I'm okay, I promise," Sophie took her mother's hands carefully.

"If you were okay, you would be at school right now, walking on your own," Edaline argued.

"I can walk," she protested, "Fitz just won't put me down."

"-because you passed out. You shouldn't be walking yet," He defended.

"Fitz is right. Do you need help carrying her upstairs?" Grady asked as he made his way over to him.

They locked eyes for a second, and Fitz could have sworn that he saw guilt lurking in his eyes. Why would he feel guilty? Grady didn't have anything to do with this, he wasn't even there He brushed it off as a dad-thing and shook his head, "no thanks, it's no trouble."

"Alright, I'm going to pull out some mallow melt of the fridge." Grady patted his shoulder with a smile, "Edaline, try not to worry. I have full faith that she'll be just fine, especially since one of the greatest telepaths here with us!"

Edaline smiled, though it was a little forced. Her eyebrows were creased with worry, "yes, you're right. Thank you Fitz. I'll help Grady, then I'll be up in a second, okay? Is there anything you guys think you'll need?"

"Could you also pour lushberry juice, please?" Sophie asked politely.

"Of course, you guys go get yourselves settled." Edaline nodded and kissed their cheeks before turning around to see Grady shove a huge piece in his mouth. "Grady!" She sighed, "now you'll have to help me make more."

As Fitz carried his cognate up the stairs, they could hear Grady laughing and Edaline scolding him. On the way up, Sophie looked up at him and asked, "how crazy is your exercise routine?"
Confused, he could only manage a "what?"

"You've been carrying me for like, ten minutes, nonstop."

"So?"

"I can't carry any of the triplets for five minutes straight, much less myself!"

Fitz laughed and opened her door, "trade secret."

"Deal. What do you want to know?"

He thought for a second as he set her down on her bed gently, her head against her pillow. "How you can clean your room so fast. I heard you cleaned up burst vegetables before I got here the other day."

Sophie blushed, "honestly, mom conjured them into the verminion pens."

He laughed again, "seriously? That's awesome, but seriously- I know you're not telling me all of your mad skills."

She laughed along with him and patted the bed next to her for him to sit. "I mean, I do use telekinesis to move the covers and push things under my bed."

Fitz stopped laughing. "That's- That's genius, Sophie! Why haven't I thought of that?!"

"Probably because your room doesn't get as messy as Sophie's," Edaline laughed from the door. She walked in and set the tray of juice and mallowmelt on the side table. "I think the Black Swan gave her that ability as well."

"Moooom!" Sophie groaned, "it doesn't get that bad!"

"Tell that to the verminion pen."

"Oooh! Zing!" Fitz laughed with Edaline and Sophie pouted.

"I thought you were on my side!"

"I am," he defended, pretending to be hurt, his hand on his chest. "I've just also seen your locker."

"Oooh! Zing!" Edaline gave him a high five. Goals.

"Hey Edaline, can you come help me with Verdie? She's throwing a tantrum again." Grady called up the stairs from the kitchen.

"That's my cue, call if you need anything. Oh, and don't forget to take off your shoes, Sophie, the gnomes just washed your sheets." Edaline waved and closed the door behind her as she left.

Immediately, Sophie tried to sit up and take off her boots, but clearly, she was forcing herself to do it. As soon as he saw her eyes start to close, Fitz caught her and laid her back against the pillows. "Not yet," he said quietly, "your mind is still trying to relax."

"But my shoes-" Sophie started, but he cut her off.

"I'll get them, don't worry." He unzipped her boots for her and set them on the floor by her bed frame.

She sighed, "thanks."

"What's wrong?" Fitz took his shoes off too.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Sophie tried to wave him off, but he pressed for answers.

"It's not nothing, seriously, what is it?"

She frowned and turned away from him. "It's just... It's just that you had to carry me and take my shoes off for me, like a little kid, again. I'm just tired of being a burden to everyone, especially you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. You're always watching out for me and taking care of me, but you never need to be taken care of yourself."

Fitz was shocked. He had never even thought about her feeling this way before. Didn't she know how she helped him feel validated? Like he didn't need to be the best at everything to be important? Like he had an anchor when his mind started to spiral out of control? She was his voice of reason, his rock, and she didn't even know it?

He walked around the bed so she could see him, and laid down next to her, his eyes on hers. "Sophie, I always need to be taken care of. When I mess up, when something I do is wrong, I just start spiralling downwards. I crumble in on myself unless I talk to you. You make me feel better after I mess up or I wasn't strong enough to do something. I'm so sorry that I haven't told you this before. I'm so use to being perfect Fitz, that I don't let most people see my imperfections. I promise, from now on, I'll show them all to you."

"Fitz... You don't have to do that." Sophie's eyes were watery.

"I want to, I need to. I want you to be the cognate of the real Fitz, not the front of one." Fitz smiled softly and tucked back a strand of her hair from her face.

Sophie smiled back and took his hand, "I already am cognates with him. He just didn't know it until now."

He smiled, and stayed quiet, just gazing into her sparkling brown eyes. They laid there for a while until she interrupted the silence. "Let's write that note to the Black Swan before we forget."

Fitz blushed and nodded, "y-yeah, of course. I'll get a paper. Do you want to direct it, or would you like for me to write it?"

"You write it, please. I'll just tell you what I'd like in there." She smiled tiredly. Fitz could tell that she was probably going to fall asleep soon and handed her one of the glasses of lushberry juice.

When everything was ready, he read what he was writing as he went so she could hear too.

"Black Swan,

Sophie has passed out again, this time because of a painful blurry, blob memory that has no sound, taste, scent, or feel. I managed to suppress it, but I don't know if that's a permanent fix. I also found that when I touched it, it hurt me too, but in a smaller amount seeing that I didn't fall unconscious. I've never seen anything like it, and Elwin said that it's a mental thing. We were wondering if you could look into it just in case it comes back, or another one appears.

Sincerely,

Fitz and Sophie"

"Sounds good. Do you want to ask Edaline to conjure it over or should I go down myself?" He asked her as her eyes started to close.

"Let's worry about it later and eat some mallowmelt now." Sophie handed him a plate and a glass with a smile, "you've worked hard today, you need a break."

"Well... I can't turn down mallowmelt. I'll ask Edaline later, sound good?"

Sophie replied with a bite of mallowmelt in her mouth, which made "sounds perfect" sound more like "smarfhs furfeq."

They laughed loudly, all tension gone. They kept eating and making jokes about the little things in life, that they usually didn't get to enjoy because of the craziness of their lives. But at the end of the day, they were still just kids. Sometimes it was hard to tell what you needed in life, but when you found it, you just wanted more. Simplicity. That's what the two cognates needed. No threat of war, no secret organizations, no friends betraying them, just a cliche moment in a life that's anything but predictable.

When Fitz started to notice Sophie's eyes drooping, he moved the dishes aside and stood. Gently, he tucked her in, then sat next to her, placing his hands on the sides of her head. He couldn't let her sleep without monitoring the suppressed memories, so he closed his eyes and entered her mind, ready for anything that might come in the time that passed while she slept.

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