25- Fitz's Confession

SOPHIE STEPPED OFF the steps of Everglen, sitting down in the grass cross legged. She gazed meaningfully into the cerulean blue sky.

"We'll get them back."

Sophie whipped her head around only to see a very familiar teal-eyed boy with ruffled dark hair kneeling down beside her.

"We will," he says softly, tentatively reaching a finger out to brush aside a lock of Sophie's hair but lingering mid-touch. He quickly pulled it away as if electrocuted.

"Fitz?" Sophie asked, blinking.

"Yeah?" Fitz's eyes burned into hers.

"Why are you so distant now?" She pursed her lips and looked down at the grass, examining a pretty flower.

Fitz hesitated. "I don't know, Sophie," he finally said, his brows furrowed but gaze sad, resigned. "I don't want to push you to pick now, I guess," he shrugs. "I don't want you to feel like you have to choose me. I want you to pick who you love more, not who you feel would hurt more if you rejected."

Sophie nodded, her hair sliding down her shoulders. "I guess that makes sense. But-" She paused, interlocking her fingers with Fitz's and beaming up at him, "-no matter who I choose, I want you to stay my Cognate. Okay?"

The ends of Fitz's lips tugged into a small smile.

"Okay," he answered reluctantly, leaning his head back to study Sophie from a better angle. "You've changed," he murmured quietly, raking his free hand over his hair to straighten it.

"Yeah," Sophie nodded, "the Neverseen kidnapping your creator and people who sacrificed so much for you does that to a person."

Fitz's eyes shot wide open in alertness. "That's- not what I meant, Sophie-" he started tersely.

"Relax," chuckled Sophie, tracing a finger over Fitz's tense thumb. "I know that's not what you meant, Fitz."

His tense jaw loosened and he grinned. "Good." He bit his bottom lip anxiously, teal eyes cloudy as if in deep thought. "Sophie," he said, his voice ragged and weak, "I think I'm in love with you. Deep, deep love."

Before, when Sophie had been Fitz's girlfriend, they had only been starting to love each other.

They only just barely brushed the tip of the iceberg.

But now, Fitz was claiming to love her. As in, married couple love her.

Sophie's jaw slackened and a thin line of drool escaped her mouth, trickling down her chin. Fitz wiped it with his index finger and hopefully stared at her. "I'm not expecting you to say it back, Soph, I know things've changed and... we're not the same as we used to be now."

He elongated his sigh. "But I know Keefe loves you like that, too, he has for a while now.

"And I hate knowing I probably just won your heart for that week we were together. But- Sophie, I just wanted you to know that. That, I love you so much..."

His pitiful gaze made Sophie's stomach flip and churn.

"And that all I want is for us to be a couple again," he finishes, letting his hand slip out of Sophie's, grazing her arm for a mere moment before he withdrew it.

A/N: I know it's been like forever since I updated- *checks fanfiction page for a specific amount of time* *gasps* OMG, how could I? A WHOLE MONTH! *scolds self* I mean... ah well. I updated! I know it's not much, mostly a filler, but I was kinda missing the romance that I had to skip for a few chapters... also, if you've gotten this far in Through the Cracks, I applaud and thank you! A few months ago I was a new writer, only just starting to write fanfictions and stories and stuff, and now that I have (slightly) more experience, I can see how horrible this fanfic really is. Plot holes and mostly just make out sessions to fill up the chapters, lol. Maybe I should change the title to Who Do I Love or something, XD. Despite the crappiness of this story I wanna see it complete so I'll probably slowly update until it's finished. THX SO MUCH FOR READING AND HAVE AN AWESOME DAY! :)