Author's note: Extra long chapter today. It was originally 2, but I decided to just go ahead and put them together, since it covers an entire day.


Sofia and Cedric entered their homeroom together, surprised to find the class in absolute chaos. Nearly every student was gathered around Amber's desk, chatting away instead of sitting in their seats waiting for Mr Mervin to conduct the morning meeting.

"What's going on?" Sofia questioned, inching her way to her desk. Amber shot her a look that made her feel like she'd asked something stupid. The teacher called the classroom to attention, and everyone else scrambled to their seats. Amber scooted her desk slightly, leaning forward to talk to Sofia.

"Hugo's absent today, and I heard that it's because your psycho brother put him in the hospital." She whispered loud enough for Cedric to hear, too, though all he did was glance quickly in their direction before returning his attention to the front of the classroom. Sofia didn't want to respond until she had time to explain things properly, but Amber wasn't about to stop. Instead, she scribbled furiously, then ripped the paper and passed it to Sofia, giving Cedric a dirty glare when he looked their way again.

Hugo told Axel that Cedric caught you guys making out and beat him up. The note read. Sofia turned back to look at her cousin in shock, shaking her head furiously.

"Sofia, would you like to join me after class today?" Mr Mervin paused his announcements to single her out, and Sofia turned to sit properly at her desk.

"Sorry, Sir." She bit out, waiting for him to begin talking again before writing down her response.

I'll explain later. That's not true at all. She held her hand behind her back until she felt Amber take the slip from her fingers.

The sound of more paper tearing came from behind her, and she waited for a signal to get the next message. Amber lightly tapped the back of her neck, and Sofia held out her palm, but before she could deliver it, Cedric deftly reached between them and snatched the paper away, reading it over quickly despite their cousin's attempts to grab it away.

"Mr Mervin." He called out, raising his hand in the air. The teacher acknowledged him, so he continued. "Amber's trying to pass notes." He tattled, ignoring her angry reaction.

"Bring it up here. Let's see what was so important that it couldn't wait until lunch." He instructed sternly, eyeing the blonde pupil.

"All due respect, Sir, it's something that would be embarrassing to another student if you read it." Cedric lied with ease, crumbling the paper.

"Very well. Amber, I'll see you in detention." With that, he moved on to roll call.

"Jerk." Amber hissed at Cedric as he stuffed the note into his bag. He smirked back at her, but kept his mouth shut.

"Sofia-" Amber began to ask if they could push their desks together for lunch, but she was quickly cut off as Cedric pushed his own desk together with his sister's instead.

"Let's eat lunch together, Sofia." He offered casually, stretching his arm across the back of her seat. Sofia grinned up at him, excited that he would offer.

"Really? You never want to eat lunch with me." She replied, practically bouncing in her seat as she opened her lunch box. Cedric glanced over his shoulder at Amber, who was sulking away from her desk to go find someone to eat with. He was sure she'd find another opportunity to get his sister to herself, but for now, he had won.

"What was in that note earlier?" Sofia thought to ask as Cedric unpacked his sandwich. He shrugged, unwrapping the plastic and taking his first bite.

"Can't remember." He told her, talking with his mouth full. Easily convinced, Sofia moved on from the topic.

"Did you read the text from dad? It looks like he's going to be home tonight." She told him, struggling to open her can of Orangina. Cedric nodded, taking it from her hands and popping the tab up for her. "Can I still..." She stopped mid-sentence, feeling her cheeks get hot.

"Still what?" Cedric prodded, but Sofia shook her head.

"I forgot what I was saying." She avoided his gaze by pretending to be fascinated by the ingredients list on her drink. "Are we watching a movie tonight?"

"Sure." He answered, tossing his wrapper back into his lunch box before opening his bag of chips. "What should we watch?"

"I saw Kansen in your queue, that looks interesting. Or we could watch REC again, or-" Cedric scoffed at his sister. "What?" She cried defensively.

"Why do you always pick horror movies? You know you're a total scaredy-cat about them." Sofia broke out in a smile, ducking her head sheepishly.

"I have my reasons..." She mumbled. "Aren't you worried about that rumor?" She added, changing the subject.

"I protected you. I don't care what other people say about it." He replied nonchalantly, catching Sofia's eye and smiling softly at her.

After school, Cedric sat on a bench outside the main gate, waiting for Sofia to arrive. I'm going to have to tell her. It'll be better if she hears it from me instead of Amber. Still, he knew it wouldn't be an easy discussion, to say the very least.

"I'm here!" Sofia announced, bounding to a stop in front of him. Cedric forced himself to smile at her greeting, feeling oddly relieved to see her.

"Do you want to stop somewhere, or should we just go get your purse?" He asked, rising to his feet. Sofia chewed her plump bottom lip while thinking it over, drawing his attention to her mouth, which only served to remind him of that kiss. He tore his eyes away, pretending to be extremely interested in a nearby puddle.

"Could we get an ice cream?" Sofia suggested, already taking steps in the direction of the nearest sweet shop. Cedric caught up and walked along side her.

"I feel kind of guilty..." Sofia admitted as they walked.

"About what?" Cedric questioned.

"Well, Amber got in trouble, but I was passing notes, too." She explained, jumping over another small puddle blocking her half of the side walk.

"Yeah, but that was all her idea." He reassured her, still agitated by what he'd read in the note. I've got to stop confiding in James about that sort of thing.

Sofia's hand reached out, wrapping around his, and he stopped to look down curiously as she intertwined their fingers.

"What are you doing?" He demanded. Sofia shrugged at him, but kept her eyes trained on the sidewalk.

"I just wanted to hold hands. Like when we were little." She stated simply.

"I only did that because you were always wandering off and mom said I had to." He insisted, though it wasn't completely true. Winifred did tell him to hold Sofia's hand sometimes, but there were other times when he risked suffering those aching feelings just for a chance to touch her. "It's not like I wanted to do it, or anything weird like that." Even though he said that, he tightened his grasp before moving again.

"That's ok. It still makes me happy." Sofia brushed off his comment, beaming up at him.

They walked like that until they reached the shop. Cedric recognized some of their classmate through the glass doors as they entered, so he hastily shook free of her grip. If she minded, she didn't say anything to him about it.

"One ube waffle cone and one spumoni in a bowl." Cedric ordered. The shopkeeper set about filling their order, and Cedric leaned against the counter watching his twin flit about from one display case to another. "And a piece of Baklava." He added when the employee returned, since he'd noticed Sofia taking particular interest in the sticky pastry. He caught Sofia's attention, waving her over to take her cone. When his order was finished, Cedric dug through his pockets, forking over the very end of his allowance to fund the trip.

He joined Sofia at the two-top she'd chosen, wordlessly sliding the Baklava into the center and watching as her eyes lit up with excitement.

"How did you know?" She giggled, crinkling her nose up as she smiled at him.

"Please, you were practically drooling over it." Cedric replied before tucking into his ice cream. Sofia stuck her tongue out, then returned to her cone. I should tell her now, while she's in a good mood. One look around the crowded dining area and he decided against it.

As they were finishing their ice creams, the bell over the door dinged, and Cedric looked up just in time to see their cousin walk in.

"Cedric, Sofia!" James greeted them, hurrying over to their table. Sofia returned the favor with an enthusiastic hello, but Cedric was too annoyed with being interrupted, even though they weren't discussing anything particularly important, to muster more than a nod in his direction. "Hey, are you guys doing anything?" Cedric wanted to point out that they clearly were, but he didn't get a chance to before Sofia broke in.

"We sort of had plans..." She informed him. Cedric smirked, glad he didn't have to be the one to turn James away.

"Really? What are you up to? I'm kind of bored without Amber pestering me." He told her, emptying his pocket contents onto the table until he found some dosh. Cedric badly wanted to tell him that the plans were for just the two of them, and he should leave, but he kept quiet. Unfortunately, Sofia seemed dumbfounded by the questions, and had taken on a rosy colour to boot.

"We were just gonna watch a movie is all." She shrugged, wiping her mouth and hands with her napkin.

"Great! Let me just get a snack first." James hurried off with his money, leaving Cedric and Sofia alone at the table once again

"If you don't want him to come, you should say so." Cedric grumbled, hoping he could convince her to speak up in his place. She shook her head, avoiding eye contact by staring at the table top.

"I don't mind, really." She whispered. Even though she said that, Cedric couldn't shake the feeling that she was acting strangely. James dragged a chair over from the nearest empty table, plopping down in it and dropping a handful of wrapped candies on the table.

"All I could afford was a few Maltesers." He complained, unwrapping a foil and popping one into his mouth. "Is anyone going to eat that?" He asked while he was still chewing, pointing to the baklava.

"It's for Sofia." Cedric bit out. His sister surprised him by passing the small plate to James.

"I'm not as hungry as I thought." She said it like it was no big deal, but Cedric was sure now that something was bothering her, because her lip gave a slight but telling quiver. "I better use the washroom before we go." She excused herself, abruptly leaving the table, as James finished off his last truffle.

"What's up, you guys have a fight?" James asked, ignoring the fork and instead picking the baklava up with his fingers. "Things seemed a little tense just now." Cedric shook his head at the older boy's lack of perception. Everything was fine until you came along.

"No, we're good." Cedric kept his eyes trained on the last place he'd seen Sofia as he answered. He knew perfectly well why he was upset, but couldn't for the life of him figure out what was bothering his twin.

"Movie night, movie night!" Sofia sang as the three of them entered the house. On the surface it would seem she'd made a complete recovery, but to Cedric her happiness was clearly forced, and it was making him all the more agitated.

"There's my little princess!" Goody called out, rounding the bend from the kitchen to scoop Sofia up. She hugged their father and gave him the first genuine smile Cedric had seen in the last hour or so as the boys said their hellos. "Did I hear you say something about a movie?" They filled him in on their plans as he set Sofia down, and he went back into the kitchen with promises of 'making real popcorn, instead of that bagged nonsense'. Sofia started to head for the stairs, but Cedric caught her arm.

"There's too many people for the laptop. We should watch in the den." He reminded her quietly.

"Oh, of course. Don't know what I was thinking." She responded with more saccharine before dashing off into the other room.

"What were you guys planning to watch?" James questioned as the boys followed suit.

"A Japanese horror film." James made a face as Cedric spoke.

Sofia was already sitting on one end of the sofa, so Cedric made it a point to sit as far on the opposite end as was possible. He didn't miss the disappointed expression she made, but he couldn't help but keep his distance with James around.

"Let's watch something funny, instead." James countered, claiming both the remote and the seat between the twins. "Look, you have Hot Fuzz queued." He started the movie before anyone agreed.

"It's pretty late. Is it okay if I spend the night here, Uncle Goody?" James asked as the three children sat at the table drinking hot cocoa after the movie ended and dinner was had.

"Course you can. You'll sleep in Ceddy's room." Cedric caught Sofia's attention and rolled his eyes exaggeratedly, but failed to get a response from the worn looking girl.

"Can I be excused?" She asked, standing from the table and heading towards the stairs without an answer.

"What's eating her?" Goody mused as he collected the dinner plates.

"She's been like that all day." James responded, waving a hand in her direction. Yeah, wonder why. Cedric kept the sarcastic remark to himself, even though his patience had just about vanished.

Cedric dug out his old sleeping bag and laid it out on the floor in front of his bed for James to sleep in. Climbing up on his mattress, he couldn't shake the hint of loneliness he got from facing the spot Sofia had slept in the last two nights.

"Hot Fuzz was so funny, wasn't it? Remember that part where-" James began, but Cedric had reached his limit.

"I'm really tired. Can we talk about it in the morning?" He cut him off, rolling so he faced away from the empty space.

"Oh, yeah. 'Night Cedric." James replied. Cedric pulled the cord to his nightstand lamp, making the room go dark.

He was only half awake when he felt the bed dip, followed by someone climbing over him.

"What are you doing?" He hissed out, careful to keep his voice down, as he lifted the duvet so she could wriggle under. Sofia claimed her place between him and the window, snuggling up against his side.

"It's fine, no one else is awake." She reassured him, matching his volume. "I couldn't sleep in my room."

"Don't tell me... you're afraid of the bogeyman now, too." Cedric teased, fully earning the silent swat on the shoulder he received. "I couldn't sleep, either." He confessed, turning to drape an arm over her stomach. He was just drifting off when something occurred to him.

"Psst, Sofia... What about the morning? With both James and Dad here, we'll get caught for sure." He observed.

"It's fine. I'll hide under the covers, and you can distract them." Cedric nodded sleepily against the top of her head. He knew it was wrong for her to be there, that they shouldn't be sleeping together at all, and especially when it was so risky, but it really was much easier to fall asleep with her in his arms.


It's worth mentioning that rumors of Hugo's 'hospitalization' are exaggerated. He went to the ED and got 2 stitches in his cheek, then sulked until his parents called him off from school.