So I just realised that I haven't been doing the disclaimer thingy so here it is,
Disclaimer: I don't own Sofia the First it is owned by Disney Studios, and I am just borrowing the characters for my enjoyment.
When they got back to the castle, Cedric all but disappeared up to his workshop; to try to figure out how to tell the princess all the reasons she shouldn't like him. Maybe then she will see sense and go for someone that could make her truly happy. Shit, I should have started to push her away when I first noticed her blossoming into a woman from the little girl she had been, he sat on his plush armchair and put his head in his hands. When did that naïve little girl change? Was it so gradual that he didn't even know it was happening until it was too late? Sighing, Cedric stood up and went over to his alchemist table to brew a potion that would show her all the wrong he has done. Maybe, just maybe, I can get her to hate me enough that it won't hurt as much when she falls for someone better suited to her. All of a sudden there was a knock on his door that snapped him out of his thoughts.
'Mister Cedric, are you in there?' The very object of his thoughts was just outside his door, and he knew if he put it off he would never tell Sofia just to keep her close if only for a little while longer. Sighing, he opened the door and ushered Sofia into his workshop then asked her to join him in his study, where it was less likely she would throw an unfinished potion at him in her anger.
'Please sit, Princess,' Cedric asked, his voice calmer than he could give himself credit for, 'you don't know me as well as I have let you think you do. I am an evil man, Princess, for years I plotted to take over the kingdom by using the very jewel that hangs around your neck. I had hoped with the power of the amulet I would be able to show everyone that I wasn't Cedric the So-So but Cedric the Great, like my father, but I'm not like him.' Turning and looking at the fire, lest he reaches out and touches her. He sighed, 'I had consistently tried to take it from you, in fact, one time I had succeeded, but I stupidly put it on, and it cursed me. That was the day I asked you to help me be good, but in the end, I had to give it back because it turned my arms into iron gauntlets. All those times I helped, quote, unquote, you, it was so that later I could take it from you. The time the gryphon got loose and took it I wasn't trying to get it back for you, I was attempting to get it for myself. You just refused to see anything wrong with me, and that is simply untrue,' Cedric stopped there to give her time to absorb the information he just gave her, unbeknownst to him he did the same thing while teaching her how to use her magic gift.
Sofia sat in silence threw out his monologue and thought about everything he had said, 'To be honest Cedric, I already knew you had tried to take it. Wormwood has a tendency to talk a lot about how you wanted to take over the kingdom using my amulet; but if you were truly evil, you would have just taken it, after all, I was just a little girl you could have easily overpowered me and taken it, but you never did.' Sofia Paused there, stood up and wrapped her arms around him from behind. 'I know that you have a darker side to you, you would be the son of Winnifred the Wise if you didn't, but you are also the son and heir of Goodwin the Great. When I lived in the village with my mum, I heard something that I think applies to you rather well.
'We all have two wolves fighting inside of us; one is all things good, and the other is hate, anger, envy, virtually all the bad things in us.'
'Which one wins?' Cedric couldn't help but ask as he moved his hands to cover hers. Sofia giggled softly into his dark purple sorcerer's robe.
'Silly it's the one that you feed, I know you have been feeding the darker one a lot but at the same time you have been feeding the good one as well otherwise the bad one would have won by now. And now you have me, and I won't let you lose to the bad wolf inside of you, but at the same time, I don't want to change anything about you. I love you for you, not for something you could be. If you change, I want you to change for yourself, not for me.' Sofia blushed as she realised she just confessed her love for him.
'I am not worthy of your love, Sofia, I could give you a whole list of reasons.' Cedric paused, merely enjoying the feel of her arms around him, 'starting with your father, he would never approve of you falling for the bumbling royal sorcerer, you are royalty, and I am just the hired help, but most importantly I am your master, and you are my apprentice. I cannot allow myself to cross that line, especially because when you were born I was already thirteen years old and had the unfortunate accident which changed my hair to what you see now.' Cedric pulled Sofia around so he could hold her as she was holding him, burying his nose into her chestnut hair. Cedric took a deep breath and continued, 'I'm a fucking fraud, I am not good, I want you all of you, but I can't have all of you. Even if you were to give me a taste of you, I would always want more I would take and take until you had nothing left to give and then, by the gods, I would continue to take more. And I know that you, being the kind good-hearted woman you are, would fucking give me everything I ask for and more expecting nothing back but I cannot let myself do that to you. Sofia, you mean so much to me that even the thought of you breaking under the weight of my affection for you is enough for me to hold it back.' Pulling back from Sofia Cedric walked over to a chair and sank into it, his head yet again in his hands. 'Just leave; please don't give these old bones hope just to take it away when you find the person worthy of your love. For if we continue down this path, that you think you would like, I won't be able to give you up, I would selfishly keep you to myself even knowing you would rather be with someone else. Don't waste your love on me.' Cedric got up and walked to the door, looking over his shoulder to the shocked princess he continued, 'lock up when you leave you do know where the key is.' With that, he was out the door and down the steps to the tower, at a quicker pace than he would later admit.
I don't belong here, Cedric thought as milled around the castle, the tower isn't even mine, it's King Roland's, and he just lets me use it. He took the long way to the little herb garden that he and Sofia had started, to keep the workshop better stocked with the essentials. Cedric sat down on the bench that was there and let himself wallow in self-pity at throwing away the one thing that he had wanted more than the kingdom, looking up at the night sky he couldn't help but think about how it paled in beauty compared to Sofia.
Sofia stood by the fire for a while just looking at the door, wondering if he was going to come back. When it was evident that Cedric wasn't going to be back anytime soon she slowly made her way out of the study to the workshop, the light of the moon caught her eyes as she walked by the window. I wonder if Cedric is looking at the moon right now too, she thought then walking over to the window she rested her head against one side, a small smile graced her face as she went over the conversation in her thoughts, he cares for me and he wants me as I want him. Now to just get him to see it's not wrong for us to love each other.