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"NOW, THIS IS A SICKENINGLY ADORABLE SIGHT."

Flora startled, a hand outstretched for no particular reason, like she'd swat away whoever was disturbing her. She squinted, being greeted by dyed blonde hair and cat-like eyes, "Ezra?" She tried, voice slightly croaky.

"Good morning," Ezra Knox greeted with a smile. "I just came by to grab Eric's sword." She grabbed it from it's stand by the window.

"What's sickeningly adorable?" Flora questioned as she tucked her wild curly hair behind her ears before trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

"Well," Ezra stepped over something on the floor, chuckling as she did so before sitting beside Flora. "Your hand was outstretched to dear Sawyer's hand on the floor here." She gestured with her foot. Flora glanced down and smiled at the sleeping girl. "Are you two... "

"Work in progress, I'd say," Flora whispered to the young girl with a cheeky grin. Ezra smirked, patting her shoulder. "She's the exact same as she was then."

"Awh, don't reminisce your old moments like grandma, Flo," Ezra lightly pushed her shoulder before getting up. Just as she was about to leave, she doubled back. "Oh, and could you wake Sawyer up soon? Something about the Alumni Banquet."

"Will do, bye bye, now," Flora got up and stumbled forward, shutting the door and kicking the girl out. She laid back down, collecting her thoughts and letting her body fully wake up.

Sawyer helped with that. The girl had jumped up and onto the bed. "Jesus Christ," Flora said, her heart beating a mile a minute. "Chill, please, Sawyer."

"Can't. Alum Banquet means my dads are coming," Sawyer shrugged, standing up and stretching her arms. She knew that Flora would stare, and when she did, all the air fairy did was smile. "Also, there's a chance that I can slip a bottle of champagne away from the crates. Eric and I did that at the last one."

"Oh, yeah," Flora said, finally realizing what memory she was referring to. "I remember talking Ezra out of barging into the bathroom where you were holding Eric's hair out of his face while he threw up."

Sawyer flopped onto the bed beside her, smiling, "Oh, that was fun." Flora smiled at her, and comfortable silence blanketed the room as they simply smiled at each other.

"I am entering the room! If you two are doing anything, jump apart!" Eric's voice came from outside the door. Flora scoffed so loud that Sawyer burst out laughing.

"Even if we were, we'd probably ignore you," Flora playfully said, making Sawyer's eyebrows raise. Without looking, Flora lightly kicked her from under the sheets since she was still in her bed.

Sawyer got up, rolling her eyes playfully as she opened the door, Eric walking in and examining them. He nodded, seemingly satisfied. "C'mon, you two. Get ready, they want our help with things. Terra's asking for you, Flor."

"Shame we didn't have time to make out," Sawyer said loudly on purpose, making Eric's eyebrows raise and Flora laughed despite the butterflies that burst into life in her chest and stomach. 

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Eric and Sawyer carried crates of alcohol into the Banquet hall, setting them down on one of the tables where they would then be opened and put aside by the dinner staff. Eric swiped two bottles from the pile of champagne that had already been unboxed and set aside, walking past Ezra, who had conveniently left a duffel bag behind a plant situated near Flora and an unaware Terra.

Sawyer dusted off her hands, walking towards Terra and Flora. Kat had just walked past as Terra was making a plant grow, making the Earth Fairy giggle. "You modelling that on me?" Kat asked jokingly, touching her hair. "Not bad."

Sawyer's brow furrowed and she glanced back to find an overgrowing plant rapidly growing more. "Whoa, are you growing a rainforest or... " Flora took a step back, and Sawyer grinned mischievously to herself.

Magic is often easily influenced by emotions.

"Oh dear, sorry," Terra quickly refocused on the plant, taming it and shrinking it to a normal size. "My mind's in a million places."

The three of them turned as a student dropped a tray with a glass ornament on it. "Philip, just go," Professor Harvey instructed.

"Seems different this week," Terra mumbled before turning back to them and the plants. "It's difficult working under Rosalind but usually he has a spark. It's like it's gone out."

"Because of Devin?" Flora blurted nervously. "What I did?"

"Hey, you didn't know that that would happen, okay?" Sawyer said, leaning on the table.

"What Rosalind did," Terra corrected her cousin. "No, I mean, it's bigger than that. I overheard him on the phone to someone from Malacoy."

"Malacoy Academy?"

"They offered him a job a few years ago. He said he'd never leave Alfea, but... " Terra trailed off, glancing at her dad. "I dunno. I don't know what it'll mean for me and Sam."

"Sam and I, Ter," Ezra Knox came walking by with Aisha by her side, both carrying trays of silverware that needed to be polished.

"Er, Sawyer?" 

She turned around, finding Beatrix standing behind her, "What's up?"

"Stella wants to talk to you, something about your uncle. She's up there," Beatrix pointed at the walkway above them. Sawyer glanced at Stella, who was holding a clipboard and facing a white board. They made eye contact and Sawyer's eyes narrowed.

"Deuces," Sawyer said to Terra and Flora before jogging to the walkway, finding Stella and Bloom there. "Look, you and I both know that he is a jack ass and he's not even my actual uncle."

"Actually," Stella cleared her throat. Sawyer crossed her arms as she waited for Stella to continue. "I wanted to tell you that your dads are coming." Sawyer nodded bluntly, internally jumping for joy. "I thought you'd be stoked."

"I am. Internally. I'll save that for the banquet," Sawyer shrugged, making Bloom snort and Stella crack a smile.

"D'you think I could... you know... talk to them later?" Stella asked sheepishly, scratching the back of her neck.

"Stel, just because I find you a good 75 percent irritable doesn't mean you're banned from talking to anyone related to me," Sawyer told her. "Are we done here?"

Stella bit the inside of her cheek, but moved on nonetheless. Ezra had told her it was a steady 95 percent for months, so this was a development, "My uncle's probably going to try talking to you, so be warned."

"Don't worry. I'll probably smell the hair gel from the school gates anyway," Sawyer joked, somewhat smiling before walking by, patting Stella's shoulder. 

"I thought you two didn't.... ya know... " Bloom said, snapping her fingers once Sawyer was out of earshot. "click, get along, all that jazz."

"Unified irritation brings people together, it seems," Stella glanced back at Sawyer's retreating figure, following her all the way down to where Flora and Terra were growing plants. She had started to notice small changes in the way Sawyer acted around the Earth Fairy. It was weirdly cute. Stella then would've never thought Sawyer would be like that around someone she was smitten for.

Then again, she did once think she was incapable of love or anything that involved happiness since she was a giant academic and athlete.

Flora insisted that Sawyer get ready in the suite with them, and to her surprise, she denied her every time, fumbling an excuse that Andreas needed her and Eric out front greeting the alums. "Am I technically an alum?"

"Well, you have graduated within the past 50 years," Terra said in a tone, causing Sawyer's brow to furrow.

"You sound surprised, Ter," Sawyer feigned a pout, making Flora snort. "Okay, now I'm actually hurt."

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Dresses were not Sawyer Knox's favorite thing on Earth. She'd much rather have a sit-down meeting with her 'mother' for an hour than put one on, however, the she-devil herself had sent down a dress that her 'uncle' had gotten tailored. When she had initially opened the parcel it was in, she didn't completely hate it.

She was stunned at how good it looked on her. Eric was beyond gagged when he walked into their room. "Jesus, did you roll around in glitter and gold? In a dress too?" His eyebrows raised. "It looks great."

"Really?" Sawyer asked sheepishly, suddenly feeling quite vulnerable as her hands smoothed out the dress. It was almost a rose-gold color with a bunch of gold colored sequined details of what she (and the author) can only assume were flowers. "I feel like it's too much. I don't even know why I decided to put it on--"

"And you're spiraling," Eric sighed, walking towards her and putting his hands on her shoulders. "Look, it honestly looks stunning on you, and hey, Flora is going to lose her mind. That's a bonus, no?"

"Yeah, but... god, this feels weird!" Sawyer glanced at herself in the mirror again. "It came with this." She held up a gold hand-chain that could be unraveled as a hook with it's anchor shaped pendant and a bracelet that looked like a bunch of golden leaves. 

"That might be the actual bonus," Eric took a closer look. "Should I wear a dress?"

"Not this one, get your own," Sawyer said defensively, hands on her hips. "This is my one dress exception and you're already in a dark navy suit." Eric tossed her the hand purse Ezra had shoved into Sawyer's hands as soon as she heard they were attending the banquet. "Let's greet the shit out of this banquet, brother."

"Agreed, sister," Eric offered his arm and she took it. They walked out of their room, arm in arm. "Hold on, my ass is itching." Sawyer untangled her arm from his.

"I did not need to know that."

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Sawyer's vocal chords were sore by the time majority of the important alums had arrived at the hall. She had never smiled so much in the space of an hour and a half. "My face is sore," Eric said, massaging his jaw. "I need champagne."

"I need something stronger," Sawyer sighed before putting on a smile as she extended her hand to an older woman. She let Eric do the talking and once the woman and her husband walked into the venue, the two of them beamed at who climbed out of the next car to pull up.

"Sawyer wearing a dress? I must be hallucinating," Oliver, or rather Oli, Knox held his arms out wide, a proud smile on his face as he greeted his children. Sawyer appreciated his warm hugs, they were arguably the best she's ever had. "How are you? Rosalind hasn't been a pain?"

"Oh, Oli, you know that's physically impossible," Aaron Knox snorted as he got out of the car, smoothing out his suit and hugging Sawyer after him, placing a tender fatherly kiss on her hair. He pulled back, fixing the gold hair clip that Ezra had put in Sawyer's hair. The girl initially wanted Stella to do her hair, but she wanted to see what she'd be wearing so... Ezra it was. "Wow, hair accessories too?"

"Yep, it's hell on Earth," Sawyer said with a sweet smile.

"I don't doubt it," Aaron retorted after he greeted Eric. "Andreas is like her little puppy, then and now. All bark, no bite." They began walking them into the venue, even talking to their parents' fellow alums with a hint of genuine interest in their voices.

"Whoa, Sawyer's pulled out all the stops. That dress... " Aisha trailed off of her Duke Hammerström facts rant as she gawked out the window.

Stella's eyebrows raised and her eyes widened before she mumbled, looking away from Terra momentarily, "That's why she changed her mind about me doing my hair." She walked off with Terra to find something.

"Sawyer's wearing a dress?!" Flora exclaimed, nearly slipping as she practically sprinted up to the window where Aisha stood. "Oh, my God." Bloom snorted and stifled a laugh at the look on Flora's face.

"You alright, Flora?" Terra asked her while Stella painted her nails as they sat on the couch in the living room. "Don't drool all over your robe."

"I'm not... just shush, Ter," Flora shot her a brief glare that didn't quite hit, if anything, it only proved Terra's point. She reluctantly backed away from the window to get ready. If Sawyer looked that stunning from a distance, Flora might just pass out if she was right in front of her.

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