"So… I'm an elf."
"Right." Fitz smiled at her, making her heart jump.

Izzy sighed as she took another piece of mallowmelt Della had freshly baked while Fitz attempted to explain.

"…And you're an elf."

"Correct."

"But you don't wear pointed shoes, or make cookies?"

Fitz laughed. "No. We've gone over this, now and in the past."

Izzy took a bite, letting the Mallowmelt melt on her tongue, coating the sour taste in her mouth with oozing amazingness before she replied. "So, why was I hidden in the Forbidden Cities?"

"We never found out."

Izzy pulled on an eyelash as she sighed. This was all so complicated. It just, didn't seem real. And yet there was still something they weren't telling her. She could feel it. But, maybe it was better this way. To try and process it so she wasn't overloaded. She already felt like falling asleep in the chair.

"Sweetie, if you never kick that habit, how will you ever wear masquera?" Della sang as she pulled Izzy's hand away from her eye. "And they frame your eyes so well! They really make them pop! Don't you think Fitz?"

Fitz glanced over, staring into her eyes as her cheeks burst into flames. He shrugged and took a long slurp of his lushberry juice.

That's great for confidence.

Della took Izzy's arm and put it next to a line of color swatches on the kitchen table. Izzy was used to being part dress up doll, though she was never this willing to with Maria… Maybe if she had known…

"So do you still have any questions?" Fitz asked.

"Umm…" She had a million, no a billion, but where was she supposed to even start? She pulled out another eyelash with her free hand, flicked it away, and focused on the one she had struggled with her whole life.

"My parents… are, are they really, dead?"

Izzy's arm dropped, causing her to jump.

"Who would tell you such a thing?!" Della cried, fury in her eyes.

Fitz who had jumped just as much as Izzy, shifted in his seat before refocusing back on Izzy. "No, they-"

"You poor thing! Of course they aren't dead!" Della interrupted as she dashed around the table and swooped up Izzy up into a hug. "Well, I guess with where you've been, you wouldn't know. But still!"

"Mom…" Fitz started as Izzy smiled brightly back at Della, her heart swelling with emotions as she forced tears back.

"Yes, yes, I know. Questions." Della rolled her sky blue eyes and smiled at Izzy before releasing her and making her way back to her cloth pile.

"You're parents are alive." Fitz said in a very serious manner. If she wasn't repeating the words over and over in her head, trying to soak them in and actually believe it, she would find his demeanor rather funny in contrast to his mother's dramatics. "How much do you remember about them?"

Izzy rummaged into her pockets, quickly pulling out the crumpled picture. She carefully took it, laid it on the table, and gently flattened it out.

"This is all I know. That and what my aunt told me, though I know now that was all a lie…" Her voice caught as the end, a sting in her heart still making it's way through the joy.

Fitz looked at her, putting his hand close to it as if to ask permission. She nodded and he gingerly picked it up, gasping when he saw it.

"What? What?!" She panicked. A sickening thought crossed her mind, that it had all been a lie too, or maybe even a photo taken out of an old picture frame. But she couldn't believe it. The thought that they could be alive, out there searching for her, it had kept her going through the chaos. And after all the late nights staring at it, pretending they were there, memorizing their faces… If her parents weren't them…

He nodded his head and sat the picture back on the table, interrupting her thoughts. "Nothing." He tried to smile nonchalantly, but there was something there…

"Let me see." Della walked over from her piles of colors, her dress swishing along the way. When she picked it up she gasped, nearly dropping the picture.

"What?!" Izzy cried, desperate to get her picture back so she wouldn't have a heart attack if was injured in any way.

"Nothing dear." Della fake smiled as she handed Izzy back her picture. "I have to go make a call, I'll be right back."

Izzy watched her leave before snapping her attention back to Fitz.

"You know something."

He hesitated, as if he wanted to pretend it wasn't true. Sighing, he got up from his chair. "I do, but I can't tell you, not yet. But the people in this picture, they are alive and well. I promise."

Izzy sighed in relief, until she noticed the error with his wording. She tried to swallow her next question down, wishing it could free the lump in her throat that made it feel like it was closing in, but it didn't help.

"Are, are they… my parents?" She whispered, the room spinning as the realization that it was probably was just another lie sunk in.

One again he hesitated. It felt like the room would be split apart by the silence, like her life would end if she heard the answer. But she was stuck at a point of no return, and now she wasn't even sure if she wanted to know.

And then he opened his mouth, and she knew everything would be ok.

"Yes."