~Fitz sighed, laying in bed, face down. Sophie Foster was the most beautiful, smart, and talented elf he had ever met. She was just so... so... amazing! The way she kept everything under control, the way she cared about the people she loved, the way she cared about him... it made his knees jelly. Better yet, they were going to be COGNATES! When he realized what was happening, he sat up, coughed, and hoped that no one had seen that. He didn't usually show this much emotion.

He didn't really know what to do, because he had finished all of his homework, so he decided to take a shower. "Why?" you may ask, well, the answer is simple: it's called personal hygine, okay? What are you, super secret spies who read WAAAAAY to into things? Weido.

He was in the middle of enjoying his waterfall shower (as most elves have), as you do when you shower, when Sophie called on his imparter. Great. He loved Sophie, but man, did she have bad timing. Carefully, he stepped out of the water, and wrapped a fluffy orange towel around himself, because not EVERYTHING had to be the same color of his eyes.

He answered the call, trying to hold the device closer to his face than normal. "Hey Sophie,  what's up?" He frowned as she dropped her imparter.

"Sorry," she picked it back up. "Your face was really close to the screen."

"Oh, sorry." Awkwardly, he held it back a little. "What's wrong?"

"I need help with... uh... something?"

"Something, something?" He looked at her pointedly, she must be talking about the spy thing.

"Yeah, something, something. We should go out to talk about this something, something." Sophie's eyes wandered as she mouthed: 'parents watching and listening lately.'

"Alright, meet me at Vesta Vita's cafe in about ten minutes?"

"Yeah, okay, sounds good, see you then." She smiled, though it seemed a bit worried, and the call ended.

Fitz sighed, and climbed back into the shower, thinking of suspects to talk about. "Maybe it was... Linh? She did arrive late, after we heard that Biana's locker was left open... She's a possiblility. There's also Marella... she looked at me funny today. She was... weird... I really don't know... I feel awful." He didn't want to accuse any of his friends of being a spy. It all just felt so wrong.

When he was done, he dressed in a white tunic and tan pants, making sure that none of his pockets were turned inside out. He slung his leather satchel over his shoulder, filled with his telepathy books, a notebook, pens, and an emergancy first aid kit. Before he headed out the door, he grabbed his key ring, which had all of the medicines needed for Sophie's allergies and other super special medical emergencies, plus his money cube, and clipped it to his belt loop. You can never be too careful.

As he hurried down the stairs, he called to his mom, who was reading fashion magazines in her favorite arm chair. "I'm going to meet Sophie at Vesta Vita's, we'll eat when we're out, so don't wait for me for dinner."

"Alright, call if anything changes." Della called, not looking up from her magazine.

"I will, see you later!" They exchanged 'I love you's' as Fitz climbed onto the leap pad. "Mysterium!"

When he arrived at Mysterium Square, he pushed through the crowd, looking around for his cognate. He kept catching glimpses of golden hair fluttering by, and his eyes would follow the trail to see if it was her. To track her, Fitz focused on Sophie's smile mentally, and saw her walking off a leapmaster. He stepped off to the side of the river of people flowing into the city, and waited a moment before diving back in, making his way over to her.

"Hey," he tapped her shoulder once he was behind her.

She turned, and gave him a small smile. This whole spy thing was bothering her, a lot. "Oh-hey! Excited for dinner?"

"Yeah, Vesta Vita's is my favorite."

"I know-" She was cut off by the crowd splitting them apart.

It was dinner rush, so everyone was pushing and shoving, trying to get their way through so they could get a table sooner. The two cognates looked at each other hopelessly as they were seperated, but quickly got back together. Once they were walking side by side again, Fitz took her hand, and held it tightly, guiding her through the crowd. Being seperated wasn't that big of a deal, but it was just easier for them to stick together. It saved them both time they would have spent worrying. Once the crowd died down, Sophie walked beside him, but they didn't let go of one another's hands.

When they reached the restaurant, Fitz opened the door for his cognate before following her in. "I'd like a table for two please," he told the seating waiter.

The elf nodded, and lead the two to a table, not mentioning anything about their intertwined hands. Vesta Vita's reminded him one of the human diners Sophie had described. It had a counter, with little stools, tables with booth seating, tables with chair seating, and oddly shaped lighting. He loved it because it reminded him of finding Sophie for the first time, and being in the human world.

The human world was filled with people with malicious intentions, but those who weren't, Fitz admored. They were filled with love, life, art, and innovation, kind of like elves but... simpler. They didn't have any special abilities, and they had governments who knew how to deal with rebel groups. Their life spans weren't long, so everyone worked hard to make there mark on the world, good or bad. Not to say that elves didn't work hard to leave a mark, they did, but for humans... they don't have as much time as elves do. Some die at 93, others at 56, others at 21, others at 12, some before they're even out of the womb. Life is more precious for them, easier to lose. Quietly, he smiled to himself, thinking about how he had developed such opinions in the years he had known Sophie, because of Sophie.

Once they were seated, they looked through their menus, silent until Fitz cleared his throat. "So, um, what did you want to talk about?"

"The spy thing," Sophie transmitted, looking into his eyes. He only just noticed how tired she looked. The worry lines across her forehead were visible, and her eyes were a bit red, like she had missed a good few hours of sleep, but he suspected that it was probably from crying. The thought of her crying stabbed Fitz in the heart, because he wasn't there to help, or anyone else at the very least. "I don't want to think of who it could be, and then they turn out to be innocent, and it's someone else, or if we're really close, or-"

As her big brown eyes started to fill with tears, he took her hand across the table, giving her a small, reassuring smile. "I know, me too. Why don't we talk about the theoretical potential spies?"

Sophie nodded, and broke the silence with a deep breath before continuing it. "Okay."

"Good. Let's start with... Linh. She came in late yesterday after Biana's locker was open, and she's one of the only people who knows her favorite lipstick. Plus, she bruised her arm, and came up with a pretty bad lie."

"Tam helped her cover up, so he might be a suspect too. She wouldn't be able to be a spy without her brother joining her, they do everything together."

"Agreed. Who else do you think?"

"Marella, maybe. She's pretty upset about not being able to manefiest, and the whole thing with her mom... "
He nodded, "she's not as tight in the group as Dex, Biana, and Keefe are, so it would be easier to be a spy. Also, she's been acting weird lately."

"Weird? Like how?" Sophie frowned.

"Weird like always listening my conversations with other people, especially ours. She gets this weird look on her face and it's really weird and-"

She laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. She was always cute when she laughed like that. He got her to laugh, good. If he could get her to relax, even just a little bit, that would help her a lot.

"What are you laughing at?" Comically, he raised an eyebrow, pretending to be confused. It wasn't hard, because he was in fact VERY confused.

"You don't notice, do you?"

"Notice what?"

"She likes you."

"Well she kind of has to at least tolerate me, we both hang out with you at lunch."

"No, I mean like, LIKE likes you."

"Oh," he said dumbly, as it started clicking into place in his head. "I'm sorry, I don't like her back."

"It's okay, you like who you like." Sophie shrugged casually.

"And I like you," he thought to himself, smiling a little.

After a moment, their drinks came, and they ordered. Soon, silence came between them. Sophie was running her finger along the rim of her glass when she broke the quiet between them. "Do you like anyone?"

"I-uh-I-um- what?" He immediately felt his ears start to burn, along with his cheeks.

"It's the one question we've never talked about in our training, I mean, we're on the topic, and we're going to start elevated training so we can take the cognate test sooner... If you're not comfortable-" She started nervously, but he cut her off.

"No, of course I am, we're cognates, I trust you with anything and everything. I'm sorry, you just surprised me." Oh gosh, was he really going to do this? Was he really going to confess to her right now?

"You don't have to name a name, I just want to know what the person is like."

A wave of relief washed over him. "Alright. Let me see... She's really nice, and smarter than she thinks. We kind of have a history, which is nice. She's really good at basequest, and she's good with animals. She's amazing, but..." His blush deepened.

"But what?" Sophie asked, clearly hanging on his every word. That made him nervous.

The look she was giving him made him feel like she was disecting everything he was saying. He was scared that she could see right through the vagueness of what he was saying, and that she would find out that he liked her. He was scared, because...

"But I don't think she likes me back." There was a small pause, and he laughed a little. "It's okay though, it happens."

"Was she on your list?"

"Yeah,"  he scratched the back of his neck. "She was pretty high up too." He saw something flash in Sophie's eyes, but he didn't know what it was. "It's no big deal."

His cognate looked appauled. "Fitz Avery Vacker." His full name, oh boy. "Fitz Avery Vacker, you are literally the coolest and smartest guy I've ever known, if she doesn't like you back, then she's the most idiotic elf in all of the lost cities."

Fitz smiled, feeling warm and fuzzy inside. Partially because she had complimented him so, but mostly because she didn't realize she had just called herself the most idiotic elf in the lost cities. "Thanks, Sophie."

Their food arrived, and they continued their conversation telepathically.

"What about you?" He asked.

"What about me?"

"Do you like anyone?"

"Oh..." She hesitated, "no, not really, I guess."

His heart sank, and he looked down at his food. She didn't like him. Well, to be fair, she didn't like anyone, but still, she only saw them as friends, and as cognates. They were good friends, and better cognates. Was it selfish to ask for something more?

"Let's continue talking about the spy thing, could it be an adult we know?" Sophie changed the topic hastily.

"Maybe, but we don't really discuss what's going on with them. Unless one of us talks to our parents..." Fitz thought of Keefe and his mom, and how things had turned out for her.

"It couldn't be Keefe talking to his mom, you know how bad of a relationship he has with his parents, and how ever since she's been brought back to the lost cities..."

"You're right, it couldn't be him. Do you think it could be our parents? Or Dex's?"

"Maybe, but I don't think so. Grady doesn't fully trust either rebel group, while Edaline, like your parents, are supportive of the Black Swan."

He nodded, "and Biana can't be talking to Alvar, because of the whole lipstick incident."

"Agreed. I hate to admit it, but it could also be someone like Tiergan or Elwin."

"They are pretty invested in our affairs."

She paused. "This feels wrong."

"I know." He replied, looking into her eyes, and their conversation sped up.

"We're suppost to trust our friends and family, to get closer to them, but we can't."

"They've already meantioned that we don't spend enough time with them."

"I don't want to hurt anyone."

"Me either, but what can we do?"

"Hide it? Fake it? Keep it between us? They'll be upset when they find out, no matter what we do."

"We can't risk letting the spy slip through our fingers, at some point, they'll have to understand."

"But how long will it be until they find out?" Sophie's thoughts were sorrowful, and laced with fear.

"I don't know." He said honestly, "all we can do now is try to keep it a secret, and support one another as best we can."

"We can't let them think anything is wrong, we should have a code word for things like 'we need to talk about spy stuff later', or 'this could be evidence'."

He laughed aloud, and transmitted back, "okay, but you do realize that we can, I don't know, speak telepathically."

"Sometimes things happen really fast, and besides, people can tell when we speak telepathically now." Sophie argued, but was smiling softly.

"Alright, you win, any ideas?"

"Some of them can be gestures too, if not all. So maybe... when we need to talk about spy stuff, one of us reminds the other that we have to go out to a certain place for telepathy training, Tiergan's orders."

He nodded, "That sounds like a good idea, and when we have a new suspect, we can kind of hold our chins, like this-" Gently, he place his pointer finger across the crease of his chi, and his thumb directly behind it.

That made her giggle, "okay, but won't that be a little weird?"

He smiled, keeping his hand where it was,"hmmm... I don't know, do you think it's a little weird? What about this instead?" Fitz pulled his hand upwards, tilting his head back drastically, keeping his thumb in place, and sliding a couple fingers onto his face. He didn't stop until he heard her laugh more.

"You're ridiculous. Joking at a time like this," Sophie said affectionately.

"Hey, it lightens the mood a little." He defended aloud, and pulled out his green money cube as the waitress came back. Quickly, before she could barely finish asking for them to pay, he swipped it against her payment pallet. The waitress thanked them, and walked off.

As the walked out of the store, Sophie commented, "I can pay you know."

He knew that in the human world, money was the force that drove people crazy with wickedness, and that it was a big deal if you paid for dinner, especially on a date. He also knew that some people didn't think that girls could pay the bill, and there were often disputes about it. Fitz's heart skipped a beat when he realized that he had basically compared their little meet up to a date.

"I know, but sometimes, you have to let your cognate pay for you." He offered her his arm this time, and blushed when she accepted it.

She looked up at him, giving him one of her dazziling smiles. "Thanks Fitz, I feel a lot better now."

"Anytime." He smiled back, basking in the feeling of more warmth in his heart. He wasn't quite sure what caused it, but he knew it probably had something to do with liking Sophie. He was slightly confused, because he had had that feeling all through dinner, and even before then, even when she had told him that she didn't like anyone. When they reached the leap pad, he let her go first, and as soon as she was gone, he figured out what the warmth came from, being around her. Now, Fitz felt a cold loneliness inside of his heart that would remain until he saw her again the next day, just like it always did.