You and Your Rainbows

Summary: Cedric reluctantly obliges Sofia when she wants to do some finger painting to create unique art for Amber's and James's upcoming birthday. What he doesn't expect is to have more paint on himself than on the actual canvas.

A/N: I don't know what I was thinking when this came to me. I was minding my own business, trying to focus on my work, and BAM. "Inspiration" struck. It probably didn't help that I'd recently watched a Bob Ross video. Lol Enjoy!

"Mr. Cedric," Sofia sang happily as she skipped into his workshop one Saturday. The door was open already, which was kind of unusual, but she ignored it. She clutched her case and a canvas as she blinked and looked around. "Mr. Cedric? Where are you?" She adjusted her cream and purple play dress before sighing.

"He's still asleep," Wormwood answered as he flew down and landed on the table in front of the princess.

"He is? But it's 10:30!"

The raven sighed with a roll of his eyes. "Yes, well, he had a 'stroke of genius' as he called it very late last night and only went to bed about two hours ago, and even then he'd fallen into a sneezing fit. Probably from working with those new chemicals…"

"Oh. Well, I guess…he probably wouldn't want to help me with this project then."

"Probably not," Wormwood responded swiftly, gesturing with his wing toward the door. "See you later, Princess."

"Hmm… Oh, Wormwood, why was the door open if Mr. Cedric is asleep?"

"The lock is damaged and he spent all of his energy trying to work on his potion that he ignored the door completely."

She giggled. "Mr. Cedric has a lock? Then why was it so easy to get into his workshop all this time?"

"I ask myself that question every day. Now, Princess Sofia, if you don't mind…"

"Well, maybe I'll just check on him real quick before I go. Just to make sure he's not sick or anything."

The raven hopped onto her shoulder as they walked into Cedric's room. "And what if he is sick? Wouldn't that put you at risk of getting sick?"

She giggled softly. "I'll be fine, Wormwood." She glanced over at her mentor, who had—in the process of sleeping—cast two pillows to the floor, lost one sock to the 'blanket monster' as she called it, and curled into the covers as tightly as he could. She shook her head. Even if he wanted to get out of the tangled mess, it would take a while. "Now…I've seen hard sleepers in my day, but Mr. Cedric should win an award for this."

"Indeed… Well, you've seen him. He's alive…messy and sockless, but alive."

"Mummy, please tell the parakeet to stop squawking," Cedric muttered in his sleep, sighing.

Sofia giggled as Wormwood scoffed. "Parakeet indeed! I'll show him parakeet!"

Cedric moaned as he heard his raven's squawks become louder. He raked a hand across his face. "Wormy, how many times must I ask you to-?" He paused as he opened his eyes and saw his apprentice standing before him. "Princess Sofia!" He gasped and felt himself falling before he could stop. He landed with a 'thud' on the floor, blankets and sheets (and his missing sock) falling on top of him in a heap.

Sofia placed her canvas and case down before kneeling beside the sorcerer. "Are you all right?" she asked with a smile as she pulled the covers from his head.

"What are you doing here, my dear? Did I miss a lesson?"

"No, no lesson… I just came to see if you wanted to help me with a project. But since you're, eh, 'all tied up,' I can come back later."

Cedric groaned in slight pain from his fall before reaching up to his mattress and grabbing his wand. He aimed it at the sheets and muttered a spell before being freed and slipping his sock back on. He sat up to his knees and dusted off his pajamas—purple, of course. "What kind of project?"

"Well," she began playfully, pulling him to his feet once more. "Amber and James will have their birthday soon, and I wanted to paint a picture for them. I know what I want to do—an amber stone with a crown on top—but I needed some help getting the picture just right. Since I can't ask them, and Mom and Dad are busy…" She picked up her canvas and case.

"Oh, so I'm a last minute choice now, hmm?" Cedric joked lightly, making her laugh. He moved into a side room and changed into his robe before he led her back into the workshop. "I see how it is."

"You're not last minute, Mr. Cedric! I came to you first, actually." She smiled as Wormwood cawed and flew back to his perch. She placed both of her items onto the table and opened the case, displaying lots of finger paints.

"Hmm, yeah, I don't mind helping you, Sofia… But I can't do finger paints." Cedric waved his hand slightly, emphasizing his fingerless gloves. "It would be rather impossible."

"Well, couldn't you take off your gloves for once?"

The sorcerer looked surprised. "Take them off? No, I can't do that… Tell you what. Let's use a levitation spell for the paints, hmm? That way we don't get messy, and the picture may look neater."

"Okay!"

Wormwood eyed the princess dubiously. "Yes, what could possibly go wrong? And how did you talk him into such a childish thing as painting anyway?"

Sofia just smiled gently at Wormwood and whispered, "Because that's what friends do."

The bird blinked before sighing and yawning, deciding it was time for a nap.

Cedric cleared his table of everything and propped the princess's canvas up as she spread her jars of paint along the wooden surface. He handed her the practice wand she often used when working with him and smirked. "Repeat after me."

Sofia nodded and lifted her wand.

"Obiectum praevolo!" He nodded as she mimicked his movements and repeated his words. Soon, the paints were lifting into the air. "Now watch this." He pointed at the small jar of red paint. "Red jar of paint, do as I say; release your content and prepare to display." Upon completing his incantation, the red jar of paint relinquished some of its liquid and flew toward the canvas, covering a few sections where jewels on a crown would be.

"Neat!" Sofia smiled excitedly. "We should do spells with paints more often."

"And we're just getting started…" He winked and waved his wand around again. "Now for the yellows…"

About ten minutes later, the picture was nearly done. Unfortunately, some misspoken spells and lack of coordination on both parts had led to their clothes being splattered with rainbow splotches—not to mention their hair and skin. At one point, a rogue flying jar of blue paint had knocked Cedric back to the ground, and he got the wind knocked out of him a bit.

"Mr. Cedric!" Sofia called, rushing over to him. "Are you okay?"

"You and your rainbows," he muttered, wincing as he sat up. "You just had to have a rainbow in the painting, didn't you?"

She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." She took his arm gently and pulled him up to his feet slowly. "Maybe we should call it a day. Their birthday won't be for another few days anyway."

"Quite right… And I believe we could both do with a proper cleaning." He brushed a few fingers on a section of her hair that had green splotches of paint starting to dry. "See what I mean?"

Sofia laughed. "Yes, you're probably right. I'm going to go get all this paint washed off and change back into my princess dress."

"And I'm going to do the same—er, minus the princess dress of course." He chuckled, making Sofia giggle harder. "See you later, Princess Sofia."

She grinned and nodded. "Yes, I'll be back soon…and we can practice that new light bending spell you were talking about yesterday." She waved and left.

Cedric sighed. "Not sure we need any more spells today, eh, Wormy?" He paused when he heard snoring and smirked at his raven companion. "Some guard bird you turned out to be."

The end