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twenty one years old

"You could die."

"I won't die."

"But you could."

Cedric heaved a heavy sigh as he latched his case closed. He looked to Sofia. She was running the dangling fabric of her trumpeted sleeve between nervous fingers. Weeks before, she had been more playful in her pleading for him to stay behind. But now, the day upon him, she was filled to the brim with genuine concern.

"I really wish you hadn't read the Guidebook. It ate on your fear, you know. Told you things it knew would bother you."

"True things," she said sotto voce.

"True possibilities," he corrected. "If they come to pass, it will be because I deserved them, because I wasn't prepared the way I should be. Merlin insists that I'm ready." Cedric hoped that the confidence of his words would blur his own unease. Mild though it may be, it was there, waiting in the back of his mind for fear to open the door and let it in with a roar. And Sofia's concern was doing very little to help keep the door shut.

Cedric threw his traveling cloak over his shoulders and lifted his case off the workbench to hold it at his side. There was nothing left to do but go. He looked to the door and then to Sofia, his gaze somewhere above affectionate but just below longing. Sofia looked back at him, still nothing but nerves about his departure. Her gaze, wrought with fear and worry, boring back into his own. Whether or not she knew she was blocking the tower door, he couldn't be certain.

"Well," he said, bowing his head deeply in respect to her station, "be sure to leave the window open for Wormwood when you leave." He looked at her and she back at him. The silence was awkward, filled with unspoken tension. "Farewell."

Cedric took in a steadying breath and looked away from her and walked past her to the door. Sofia grabbed his free hand as he walked by. He stopped, the warmth of her hand holding him still. Her hand was clinging to his, as if she could keep him alive by holding him there. She didn't move, still looking towards his abandoned workbench, so Cedric, facing the door, didn't move either.

"You are my favorite, favorite person, Cedric," her voice was somehow both adoring and ferocious. She slipped her fingers to lace in between his and pulled him closer to her. Sofia looked up at him, drinking in the details of his face like she might never see them again. She lifted her chin, timid though determined, and leaned closer. Cedric, in a motion that felt almost out-of-body, dipped his head to hers. Her lips were warm and the kiss was chaste.

When they parted, Sofia didn't smile. Her eyes fluttered up to his with an intensity she usually reserved for fencing practice.

"Come back."

It wasn't a request. It was an expectation, one that Cedric was determined to meet. He planted a second, quicker kiss on her lips.

"I will."

He squeezed her hand once and then he was gone.

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A/N: I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed the engagement stories that y'all posted in your reviews. Hooray for love!