~Fitz walked through the halls of Foxfire during lunch, looking for Keefe. It was the second day in a row now that the prankster hadn't shown up to school. Actually, no one had been able to contact him after the failed confession incident. Sophie was getting worried about hurting him badly, which made Fitz all the more determined to find him. Biana refused to talk about him, and changed the topic when he was mentioned. His parents and Edaline were upset, wondering why Keefe would do such a thing, but Grady was furious. He had just locked himself in his room, mumbling how he always knew that kid was trouble and how he should have erased Sophie from Keefe's mind from the start, whatever that meant.

Surprisingly, Keefe was right where he expected for him to be, in his ditching spot, like nothing had ever happened. Fitz frowned, and made his way over. "Hey, Keefe, where've you been?"

Keefe rolled his eyes, "I know why you're here."

"Oh, yeah?" He raised an eyebrow at his best friend.

"Yeah, you're here to scold me about hurting your sister, and making a move on your cognate before you."

He was taken aback, "I don't own either of them, but what you did to my sister was-"

"Terrible, cruel, maybe even inhumane? Listen, I get it, I know."

"You know?" He started to raise his voice a little, "If you know, then why did you do it?"

Keefe stayed quiet.

"Well?" Fitz demanded, trying to be patient. "Why did you do it? What's gotten into you lately?"

"What's the point in this, Fitz? Confronting me. Do you expect for me to apologize? To somehow make up what I've done? What do you get out of this? Closure? Glory? Her attention?"

"Keefe, I don't know what you mean-"

"You're not the only one who loves her you know."

"What?"

"Sophie," Keefe spat, "you're not the only one who loves her, and I don't mean platonically." Fitz stiffened, his heart slamming against his ribs full force. "Do you know how many guys would easily fall at her feet for just one chance to go on a date with her?" Fitz knew that many, many guys had crushes on Sophie, but even so, he clenched his fists. He hated the idea. "Do you know how it feels to see her, giving everyone that smile, the smile that steals hearts on a daily basis, the smile that everyone thinks is her best smile. Do you know how it feels to be wrong? That the smile she gives us, breaks our hearts with, isn't her best? And that she gives her best smile to one guy, who parades around with her almost every day, keeping us all away from her? To make matters worse, he doesn't even know it's her best smile! He blends it with all the rest he receives every day."

His heart sank. Sophie was in love with someone? She had told him that there was no one in particular she admired, had she been lying? Why wouldn't she tell him? Did Sophie not give him her best smile? Did she only give it to a guy who didn't even notice? Fitz's face fell, "What?"

"She knows it too," Keefe's voice cracked. "She knows, yet she stays too."

He shoved those painful thoughts aside. "Biana did the same thing with you, so why couldn't you just let her down easy, and leave her alone to let her heal?"

"I needed her. I needed her support."

"So? What about her? You could have gotten help from someone else-"

"No," Keefe glared at him. "I needed her, and I knew that eventually, she would give up on me, but that Sophie won't give up on him, not without help. You don't understand, you can't understand, Fitz."

"Let me try to, there had to have been a better way than that-" he started, but Keefe cut him off, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"THERE WAS NO BETTER WAY."

All eyes in the hall turned to them, and Fitz swallowed nervously. He hadn't wanted to make a scene.

"There's always a better way," he spoke as calmly as he could, trying to get Keefe to do the same. "You could've talked to Dex, or I-"

Keefe told him how he thought by punching him in the face, hitting him square in the cheekbone . Onlookers gasped with horror, violence wasn't an elvin thing. Fitz blocked his next attack, trying-no-failing to shove the confusion and hurt a aside, but didn't fight back. He would protect himself without hurting his friend in the process. He was good at defense, but Keefe was better at offense, and busted his lip. Blood went everywhere, and Fitz only looked at his friend with surprise.

Keefe looked like he wanted to punch him again, when a mentor that he didn't recognize grabbed him, holding him back. Another mentor came up, and forced Keefe's mouth open, pouring a cup of what Fitz assumed to be slumber berry tea down his throat. Within seconds, Keefe was asleep, but the angry expression on his face remained. The first mentor, the one that was now carrying Keefe, took him away, the crowd parting for them with ease. Fitz watched them go, unable to get the shocked expression off his face. It was like it had frozen there.
The second mentor put a hand on his shoulder, "You should probably get to the infirmary. We'll take care of him. He'll probably get detention, and as for you..." The mentor looked him up and down briefly, "unless we get a student report that you provoked him, you won't be joining him there, which, from the looks of it, is probably a good thing." He could only nod, and watch as the mentor followed their colleague down the hall.

Fitz's peers stared at him as he trudged down the hall to the infirmary. He kept his eyes trained on the floor, thinking about what had just happened. He barely acknowledged his sister, who stepped out of the crowd silently, and clutched his arm, walking with him. Together they walked to the infirmary, not even exchanging a word. Fitz glanced over at his little sister once, and saw that tears pricked in her eyes.

"When did things between us go so... wrong?" He asked himself mentally as he opened the door. "Hey Elwin," he called quietly into the room.

Elwin had his back to him, rummaging through cabinets. "Hey Fitz, what happened to her this time-" He turned, and his eyes widened in surprise. "What happened? Come sit down."

Biana tugged his arm gently, and lead him over to a cot, the one Sophie usually used. They sat down next to one another, and Fitz explained what had happened. Elwin carefully cleaned the blood up, and decked his injuries out with salves before handing a few tonics to drink.

"I always knew Keefe was a wild one, but this..." The doctor frowned, concerned.

"I know. I can't believe it either." He nodded, and hugged his sister.

She sniffled a little, and hugged back, "you shouldn't have confronted him like that, I'm fine, really, now you're hurt, because of me..."

"Biana, it's not your fault," Fitz sighed. "You can't control Keefe's actions, no one but he can. My friend made a series of bad choices that hurt the two most important people in my life, of course I had to confront him."

"Two most important people in your life? Sophie and-"

"You."

"Oh," Biana said quietly, and smiled. His heart ached a little for his sister. Did she not think she was important to him? She changed the topic, "When do you think Sophie will get here?"

He raised his eyebrow in confusion, "She's coming?"

"Well duh, word gets around fast, and you're her cognate. Of course she's coming."

"She'll be here in the next half hour," Elwin bet with a chuckle.

"No way," Biana countered, "The next ten minutes."

"Are you sure? She gets stuck in her head sometimes."

"Yeah, but she'll snap her head up if she hear's Fitz's name."

Fitz blushed, "It's just a bruise and a little blood. Elwin can fix those easily."

Elwin chuckled, "tell that to the footsteps coming down the hall."

Sure enough, the door of the infirmary flew open to reveal Sophie, panting and frantic. Biana pulled away from him, smirking knowingly, and Fitz could feel his face redden. "Fitz," Sophie whispered, and dashed over.

"Hey, Soph," he smiled a little. She now stood in front of him, so close, that her legs brushed against his. Gingerly, she took his face in her hands, and tilted her head up to look at her. Her fingers were cool against his skin, and he focused on the small frown on her face that matched the slight furrowing of her eyebrows. Neither could compare to the worry in her enchanting brown eyes. "Brown eyes that are loved by dozens of other guys," he reminded himself wordlessly. For about a minute, he stared up at her as she examined his injuries.

When she was finished, she tentatively hugged him, and he pressed the unharmed side of his face against her shoulder. As he felt her take a deep breath, his closed his eyes. Her hair tickled his face softly, and he would have smiled if it didn't hurt. Fitz knew what she would say next, and at the same time she apologized, he told her, "It's not your fault." Then they were quiet.

"Keefe made his own choices," Biana said faintly after a few moments. "Fitz told me that before you came in, and after thinking about it a little... I... I think he's right. We didn't make these choices, he did."

Fitz tensed a little when Sophie took an arm off him, but relaxed when he felt Biana slide next to him and join the hug. He wrapped an arm around his sister as well. They stayed that way for a good few minutes before Elwin cleared his throat.

"I hate to break this up, but you guys should probably get back to class. Finals are coming sooner than you think, and even closer for two of you." Everyone was well aware of how Sophie and Fitz were going to train to be cognates more intensely so they could take the test.

They pulled apart, and Sophie nodded, "You're right. I have my first final tomorrow."

"Multispecial studies, right?" Fitz asked. "I have Metaphysics tomorrow."

"Well then, you guys better get off to class. I've written you each a pass." Elwin handed them each a small slip of blue stained paper.

Fitz half smiled slowly, "Thanks Elwin, you're the best."

"I try," he smiled, "now shoo! I don't want you guys to get detention for lingering here."

With that, they headed off to class. Biana left first with a wave, but Sophie hugged him before they parted ways. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm sure," he smiled.

"Let me know if something is wrong, okay? Even if it's in the middle of class."

"I promise."

She looked up at him doubtfully before squeezing him tighter one last time before she pulled away. "I'll see you at lunch."

"See you at lunch," he waved, giving her a reassuring half smile. She smiled back, and it warmed his heart. How could she have a better smile than that? Fitz couldn't help but watch her walk away, feeling smitten, trying to keep the words Keefe had said out of his head. "Do you know how it feels to see her, giving everyone that smile, the smile that steals hearts on a daily basis, the smile that everyone thinks is her best smile. Do you know how it feels to be wrong? That the smile she gives us, breaks our hearts with, isn't her best?"

As he walked back to class, he wondered who she gave her best smile to.