*Just a friendly disclaimer. I don't own any rights to Sofia the First. Sofia the First and the characters herein is/are the property of Disney and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

~Sorry for the long wait for this update. I was out of state visiting family and although I was gone, I did manage to fill almost an entire composition notebook with an outline for this story. To be honest though, I struggled a lot with this chapter. It seems writing about Sofia and Cedric's interactions comes to me a lot easier than Sofia's interactions with everyone else. lol

CHAPTER 7

THE VERY THOUGHT OF YOU

Sofia poured the washbasin half full and splashed her face with the refreshing cool water. She sat down at her vanity and began brushing the curls out of her hair. She looked at herself in the mirror; she could see bags under her eyes and the whites of her eyes were faintly red from lack of sleep and her bouts of crying. It reminded her of what the day would have in store for her. She'd much prefer to go back to Cedric's tower than have to explain to her father what happened with Hugo.

There was a rapping on her door accompanied with the familiar voice of Baileywick. "Princess Sofia, breakfast will be served shortly."

She glanced at herself in the mirror and shrugged. Well this is as good as it's going to get today. She opened the door with a forced smile. "Hi, Baileywick, I was just about to make my way there. Would you like to accompany me?"

"Thank you Princess but I have some business to take care of."

"Oh, alright, see you later then." She said waving bye. She made her way to the dining hall, dreading how breakfast was going to go over. It didn't occur to her until now if anyone else knew what happened. Would the twins know? She sighed with frustration. They were years ahead when it came to being intimate. Both, James and Amber, had secretly been promiscuous with other royals the majority of their teenage years. James chased after Clio for a while, then moved on to Maya, then Zooey, now though he was courting Hildegard as crown prince. Amber had been involved with Zandar, then Hugo for a while, last Sofia knew Amber was courting Hugo's older brother Axel. Even Vivian and Desmond had fooled around some, although the two were to be wed in the not-so-distant future. She felt humiliated at the thought of her siblings knowing.

Reluctantly she entered the hall to accompany her family for breakfast.

"Oh, Sofia I was wondering if you would make it to breakfast or not! That was quite a party wasn't it everyone? I thought maybe you would sleep in after last night." Amber prattled on as Sofia took her seat. She felt her cheeks flush and tried to avoid making eye contact with anyone. "I do admit I was rather disappointed when Axel had to leave though, I still don't understand what got his father in such a tizzy that they all had to leave."

Sofia was overcome with relief; Amber didn't know then, thank goodness. She glanced up at her mother and father. She could tell they were uncomfortable with Amber's choice of conversation.

"But there were a lot of cute new Princes to meet, wasn't there Sofia. You disappeared so early, I figured you must have found one of them very interesting and swept him off to keep him to yourself." Amber tittered.

"Oh, Amber." Sofia forced a laugh. "it was a very nice party, and I have you to thank for it." She forced herself to say, which wasn't really a lie, it was a very extravagant ball. "I just retired to my room early; too many people and too much dancing gave me a headache. I've not really been to such parties while I was gone. It'll take me a while to get used to things again."

"How are you feeling now Dear?" Miranda asked with worried eyes.

"I'm a lot better, but I'm still rather tired. I think I might just skip breakfast, if everyone doesn't mind, and go lay back down for a bit."

"Go right ahead, Sofia." Roland told her, he had barely touched his breakfast himself.

"Thanks Dad, if anyone needs me I'll be in my room." She stated making eye contact with her father, so he understood that she was ready to talk and get things over with. She stood up and curtsied slightly "Excuse me."

"Sofia, what on earth are you wearing?" Amber interjected, an appalled look on her face.

"Umm, why what's wrong with it?" Sofia looked down at herself, she still had on the purple dress Cedric had made for her. She felt warm and fuzzy all over, thinking that it was made from his robes. Come to think of it, it vaguely smelled of him; like musty books, various herbs, and smoke.

"What's wrong with it? Oh Sofia, after that gorgeous gown you wore last night I thought finally you had developed a taste for fashion. Seems I was wrong though." The girl pouted.

"I happen to really like this dress, Amber." Sofia declared with a bit of attitude towards her sister. Amber scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"It looks fine, Sofia, it must be from your travels, right?" Miranda intervened.

"Uh... yeah." Sofia nodded. "I'll see you all later." She made a quick exit, not caring to look back at Amber.

Sofia found herself standing outside her bedroom before she knew it. Her thoughts had been preoccupied by Amber's words and her own reaction. She supposed that she must have true feelings for Cedric if something as simple as that upset her so much. She sighed as she entered her bedchambers and knew she had to distract herself from her thoughts of Cedric for the time-being. She sat down at her desk, pulled out a pad of monogramed paper, slid the inkwell closer and began to pen her account of the altercation. She took her time; trying to keep her tears from falling on the paper. She paused when recounting Cedric's arrival; vividly remembering the feeling of looking up to see Cedric there, his wand at Hugo's neck, his voice firm and steady. It gave her fuel to finish her work. If Cedric, of all people, could be that brave then she could pen down the account and draw up the truce papers as well.

She filled two pages with her account then pushed them to the side. She took in a deep breath and began to draw up an agreement with Hugo and King Garrick. She knew that either country couldn't afford to lose the partnership of the other. So she mustered up the skills she had learned during her time as ambassador to draft an agreement that the incident would be forgotten, if Hugo apologized and kept his distance from her for a short time. By the time that she had finished she heard a knock upon her door. Just in time.

She folded the agreement in half and sealed it magically with the Enchancian crest and then sealed her narrative with her own emblem. She opened the door to find her mother waiting for her.

"Your Father thought I should check on you before we had our meeting. How are you doing Sweetie?"

"I'm fine, for now, it helped to write everything down." She said flashing the documents to her mother.

"So you wrote down your side of things? And what's the other one?"

"I drew up a sort of treaty… in case King Garrick gets out of hand, I'm prepared."

Miranda smiled at her daughter. "I'm very proud of how you are handling the situation and yourself, Sofia. You're doing much better than I would be, that's for sure… You've grown a lot while away, and are putting what you learned to use as well. I know it must be hard for you to put your personal feelings aside to keep our allies strong, Dear. Your Father will be very proud of you…We're both so sorry you have to go through this though, Sweetie." She said hugging her daughter.

"I'll be fine, I have a great support system." Sofia beamed at her mother, doing her best to stay positive. "And I know that either countries can't afford to lose the other over something like this… Don't get me wrong, I want Hugo to see what he did was wrong, but I also know that the country is more important than an apology or punishment."

"Well said, Sweetheart."

"Is everyone else ready then? He'll be there won't he?" Sofia asked hesitantly. Miranda nodded a forlorn look cast upon her face. "Let's go then; I'm ready to get this part over with."

Sofia took in a deep breath as she entered the conference room. She channeled Cedric's strength from the night before, to make her way to her seat next to her father. She glanced around the room and saw Cedric standing off to the side of her father. She blushed slightly when they made eye contact, she could see the concern in his eyes and it gave her the comfort and support she needed; she felt a newfound connection with the Sorcerer. She laid her paperwork down before her and decided that if she were to survive this with her dignity she had to face Hugo. She sat up straight and made eye contact with the young man. He shrank back into his chair when his eyes met her icy blue gaze. Sofia was pleased with the reaction. Good, he realizes I'm not afraid of him and will not lie down for his nonsense. She broke her gaze with the Prince to eye his father, who sat opposite of Roland at the far end of the table, beside his son. Miranda took her seat across from Sofia and gave her daughter a supportive smile.

"We all know why we're here. We'll give each party a chance to tell their side if they wish. But I think we all know what really happened and can agree that Sofia is level minded enough to decide what should be done. Sofia, I've giving you the reins on this, proceed however you deem fit." Roland declared placing a supportive hand over hers. Garrick and Hugo crossed their arms and scoffed.

"Thank you Dad." She took in a deep breath and began. "I've written up my account of what occurred last night, although Hugo and I both know what really happened..." She said turning her eyes to the prince. "And if you're willing to apologize, it stays between the two of us... My other request is that you give me some space for the time being. We've been friends since childhood, and I don't want to loose that... I want what's best for both our countries, and I don't want anything rash to happen over something so... trivial really... If you agree to my terms this document entails just that, both of you sign it and we all will move on from this." She stated, sliding the paper towards the two men at the end of the table.

Garrick held Sofia's gaze a moment longer before turning to his son. Hugo looked from his father, to the paper, to Sofia, to Roland (or was it Cedric?) before returning his sight back to his father. He was seeming to contemplate her proposal. "Fine." He said leaning back in his chair.

"You're sure you don't want to defend yourself son?"

Hugo glanced over at Sofia once again, then Roland (or Cedric; Sofia couldn't tell) his eyes narrowing momentarily. "Yeah, whatever she wants. Give me a pen and we're out of here." He shrugged. Roland nodded and gave Sofia's hand a triumphant grip. A quill and inkpot appeared on the table in front of Hugo and Garrick. Sofia knew it was Cedric's doing, although he never moved, his arms crossed hiding his wand from sight. Both king and prince shot a dirty look in Cedric's direction; although again Sofia couldn't tell if it was at her father or her sorcerer.