"Sophie?" Fitz called out to her from the other side of the door to her room.

Sophie sighed, she figured she better talk to someone sooner or later, otherwise she might start to go crazy.

"Come in."

Fitz slowly opened the door and stepped inside. Sophie didn't care that he saw her messy bed hair and in her wrinkled turquoise tunic with black leggings that she was going to wear to school before she chickened out, way too tired and depressed from thinking too much about her human parents.

She looked up towards the door from where she was sitting against the side of her bed as the Vacker walked into her room looking as good - if not better - as ever.

Fitz closed the door behind him before he joined Sophie by sitting beside her, leaning against her bed with his hands propped up on his knees.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Sophie asks, staring ahead of her to the wall, trying to start a small conversation before he talks to her about 'getting out of her room and be with friends' like everyone else has.

"I was," he says, staring out into space like Sophie. "But I noticed my cognate missing so I ditched after the morning announcements."

Sophie lets out a short chuckle. "I think Keefe may be rubbing off on you, ditching is not your style."

He shrugs. "Maybe."

They sit there for a couple more moments in peace and quiet before Fitz initiates the conversation Sophie was expecting.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Sophie responds, turning her head to the right to face Fitz. He turns to look at her too as Sophie continues, "How sad is it that my parents - my human parents - were kidnapped by the Neverseen, the people that have made my life anything but easy, just so that they could use them as leverage against me or the Black Swan, and I can't even shed a single tear?"

Sophie meets Fitz's eyes as he says, "I think that we've been through so much, you've been through so much, that you've become numb to the feeling of losing the people you care about."

"I just . . . ," Sophie sighs. "I just wish that I wouldn't be numb, that I could feel something."

"We all deal with things differently," he answers.

They stay silent for a few more moments, going back to staring at the wall and just thinking.

"I think I just need to stop thinking about my parents, Amy, the Neverseen, the Black Swan, just everything that makes me abnormal."

"So you just want something a 'normal' teenager girl would think about," Fitz clarifies.

"Exactly."

Fitz turns his whole body to face Sophie and uses his arm to prop his head up against the bed. "You could always tell me that secret you've been hiding from me."

Sophie tugs out an eyelash as she processes what her next words should be - definitely not trying to think about anything else. "Why do you want to know so badly?"

"Because as cognates, we should share all of our secrets with each other."

"And if I don't want to?"

"Then I'll wait until you do."

Sophie drags out a long sigh, contemplating whether she should say her next words or not as she looks straight into Fitz's beautiful teal eyes.

"Hypothetically, what if I told you I loved you?"

Fitz smiles. "Hypothetically, I would tell you that I love you, too."

Hope flares in Sophie's heart for just a second before she realized that Fitz probably meant in a sister or friendly way.

"Hypothetically, what if I told you that I loved you as more than just a friend or cognate?"

"A lot of girls think they love me, Sophie," Fitz admits. "But you're different."

"Different as in you actually know me, or different as in, I don't hypothetically love you?"

Fitz brushes a strand of blonde hair behind Sophie ear, but keeps his hand on her cheek as he leans in really close and looks from his own aquamarine eyes into Sophie's honey brown ones, making Sophie's heart start beating extremely fast.

"Different," he answers, before closing the distance between them and placing his lips on hers.

The kiss was soft, sweet, and shorter than Sophie would've liked.

Then Sophie realized what had just happened.

Fitz Vacker just kissed me, I repeat, this is not a drill, HE JUST KISSED ME!!

He slowly pulls away after a few short seconds, before smiling in his dazzling way. "I should probably go now."

"Wai - wha - what just happened?" Sophie stutters as Fitz stands up.

He smirks. "Think about it," he tells her before leaving her room.

Sophie gently touches her lips with her own fingers, trying to wrap her mind around what just happened, telling herself that she wasn't dreaming.

Her thoughts were racing, but for once, it was about a boy - not one who disappeared, but one that kissed her. Her very first kiss.

Sophie's thoughts were far from the Neverseen and her parents now, just like Fitz had hoped it would've been.

*~*~*~*
Written: 8/24/17
Edited: N/A
Words: 831

Thank you for reading!
Nuela <3