Heya guys! Im not dead, and I'm really sorry for not updating sooner, but I just got my braces on last week on the top row, and I'm currently basking in my self-ugliness. But that's no reason or excuse for me to stop updating so I apologize for that. To be frank, I actually had a bit of writer's block as I'm pretty sure you all have realized that I am absolute shit when it comes to summing things up, so I apologize beforehand if the ending seems a bit rushed because to be perfectly honest, I had no idea what I was doing when I wrote that, so yeah :)

Also, I should probably inform you- or better yet;

WARNING:

MAJOR. SOPHITZ. FLUFF. AHEAD.

Yeah guys, I wasn't lying. This flashback will be full of sophitz bonding time ;) Hope you enjoy!

Sophie was pacing: That was all she felt like she could do these days. Or at least all she had the power to do. The Black Swan still forbid Sophie to go look for Fitz, and the idea of running off in the night to go search for him herself was getting increasingly more tempting with each passing hour. But either way, she knew she couldn't do that to the others. She could only imagine the anger on Keefe, Biana, and Dex's faces if they realized she went out on her own without them. If one of them had left without her, she'd be angry too. It just wouldn't be fair to them.

Sophie finally convinced herself to stop pacing before her feet fell off. She plopped down onto the nearest chair in the room and sighed. Fitz. The name itself made her eyes water with tears. She missed him so much. She could remember all those nights when she had desperately tried to reach out to him telepathically after his announced death- the hope she felt overtime she did so, the need she felt for him to reply. But she could never find his mind. She has yet to figure out how he did so, but she's not mad at him for not reaching out to them. If she were in his position, she would've done the same.

A stray tear fell down Sophie's cheek and she wiped it away, not realizing that her eyes have been watering until now. "Where are you…." She said, her voice barely above a whisper, as her mind starts to indulge with memories of her and Fitz.

-Flashback-

"It's your turn."

"My turn? I thought it was your turn?"

"Nice try Fitz, but you can't get out of this one. Your turn to answer now."

"…I'm still pretty sure it was you're turn."

"Fitz!"

"Ugh—fine."

Sophie giggled at the playful frown on Fitz's face. The two were currently at Havenfield in her room, doing some telepathy exercises that Tiergan had assigned them for the summer. They each had a set of large, square-like flash cards which contained different questions they needed to ask each other and answer, kind of like twenty questions. The ones they had done so far were personal ones about themselves, so there was no doubt that all of them were like that. Tiergan's goal with this was probably to try and get them to know each other better.

"Relax, maybe this one won't be so bad," Sophie tried to reassure him. Fitz only huffed. "Sure, it won't," he muttered skeptically. Sophie smiled and read her card. "See, I told you it wouldn't be so bad; it says, 'what is your biggest pet peeve'." When Fitz sent her a confused look, she quickly corrected herself. "What is your biggest annoyance." Realization hit the boy's face and thought about it for a moment, before smirking and saying, "I'm not allowed to say Biana, am I?" Sophie slapped him on the shoulder with the card and he laughed. "I'm kidding," he chuckled, "I love my sister. Hmm, let's see…. Okay, one of them is definitely when people call me perfect," he said, much to Sophie's confusion.

"You don't like being called perfect?" she asked. "I hate it," Fitz said, like the entire idea was a sickness itself. "Why? I mean, I would think that being called perfect is a compliment," Sophie said with a shrug, but Fitz only shook his head. "Not the way other people say it," he said. "All my life it's either said mockingly, jealously, bitterly, expectingly, generally like it's some kind of fact or something, or praisingly. The last one may not sound so bad, but it is, trust me. That just means more high expectations. Everyone expects me to be this golden boy that I'm not. If I make one mistake, I never hear the end of it," he sighed and Sophie looked at him sympathetically. All this time she thought that Fitz liked being called perfect when really it was just stressing him out. She could relate all too well.

Sophie shuffled closer to him and offered him a smile. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, there's no high expectations from me," she said and Fitz smiled back at her. "That helps more than you know," he says, flashing her that movie star smile and Sophie's heart flutters at his words: well his words and his smile. Then, he grinned cheekily at her. "Now it's your turn," he said in a sing-song tone and Sophie groaned in exasperation much to the amusement of Fitz, who laughed at her reaction.

Rolling her eyes, Sophie huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine," she said and Fitz picked up his card. "Oh, this one's for both of us; 'describe each other in one word:'"

"Cute,"

"Pretty,"

Sophie's face flushed bright red while Fitz smirked at her. "You really think I'm cute?" He asked her with a grin, laughing when her face flushed even brighter. Sophie desperately tried to calm her racing heart. "You think I'm pretty," she countered. Fitz flushed a tiny bit but it quickly went away and he shrugged. "Yeah, but that's a given," he said like it was obvious, making Sophie blush even more. "Y-yeah, well it's a given with you too," she retorted, cursing herself for stammering, "you're Fitz Vacker—everybody finds you cute."

Fitz shrugged a little. "I guess," he said, "but it's better coming from you." This made Sophie's cheeks burn even redder than before. It also made Fitz smirk even wider than before. "Shut up..." Sophie muttered, pathetically trying to hide behind her hair. Fitz raised his arms up in defence with a chuckle. "I didn't say anything," he told her.

Sophie decided to change the subject quickly before her whole entire head became scarlet red. "Okay, next question!" She said hurriedly, shoving a card from Fitz's pile into his hands. She didn't even care if it was technically his turn to answer—she just wanted to stop blushing. Fitz chuckled as he read it aloud; "Name one thing that disgusts you." "Nyros," Sophie answered immediately, "I hate nyros." She shivered a little, picturing the hideous looking bug they had in the Elvin World that looked like a black caterpillar with single hairs sticking up all over it, probably a thousand little feet, and two hooks spiked on the end of it. It was a truly disgusting sight to see, and sometimes, when or if they would crawl into her bedroom, Sophie had to get Grady or Edaline to get them out.

Fitz looked down a little ways away from her knee, which was resting on the bed. "You mean like that one right there?" He asked, pointing nonchalantly towards it. Sophie's eyes widened, and when she caught sight of a small black figure on her bed, that was all she needed to have her screaming, waving her arms frantically as she tumbled off the side of the bed. "Ew, ew, EWW!" Sophie exclaimed, backing away from her bed as far as possible. It was only when she heard an immense amount of laughter coming from Fitz that she realized something was wrong.

Cautiously, Sophie crawled back towards her bed and looked around for the bug she was sure was at her knee a few seconds ago—only to see the "nyro" in Fitz's hand and soon discover that it wasn't a nyro at all, but really a black feather that Fitz had twisted up to make it seem like it was a nyro. Sophie felt her cheeks flush red again and she glared as Fitz nearly doubled over in laughter. "Fitz Vacker, I will so get you back for this," she threatened, gritting her teeth in annoyance.

Once he calmed down from his wild amount of laughter, Fitz looked at her with a smug grin. "And how exactly are you going to do that?" He asked her confidently. Sophie wasn't about to admit to him that she actually had nothing in mind, so she kept the stern look on her face. Suddenly, a random idea occurred to her, and she decided to take her chances with the odds. Smirking deviously, Sophie lunged at Fitz before he had a chance to react, and started to tickle him mercilessly.

As she had hoped, Fitz turned out to be extremely ticklish, as the boy reacted the minute her fingers touched his sides. When she tickled him, the most melodious sound she had ever heard came from Fitz's lips and she had to bite her cheek in order not to sigh at the sound of it. 'Even his laughing sounds perfect,' she thought. Sophie grinned and soon found herself chuckling along with him as Fitz's laughter was so contagious. It's was so— mesmerizing. She swore that she could listen to his laugh on repeat and never get tired of hearing it. She decided right then and there that it was her favourite sound she had ever heard by far.

Fitz was laughing harder and harder by the second. "Have... mercyyyy..." he begged between his laughter and Sophie smiled and shook her head. "Nooo... ssstopp... pl-pleaaase..." Fitz begged again and at one point, laughed so hard that he fell backwards onto the bed, bringing Sophie with him. The two rolled around on it briefly, coming to a stop with Sophie above Fitz. Sophie could feel a blush working to her cheeks—after all, they were in somewhat of a- suggestive position—but the sound of Fitz's chuckles pulled her from her embarrassing thoughts and she grinned, continuing to tickle him.

Fitz laughed even harder (if possible) and finally grabbed ahold of her wrists. "Sophie, Sophie, stop, please," he pleaded between heavy breaths, a large grin spread onto his face as he chuckled softly. "I'll do anything." Sophie smirked (well, tried to at least) and pretended to think about it. "Hmm..." she said, tapping her chin. "Anything at all?" She asked and tickled him a little more just in case. The teal eyed boy immediately laughed again and nodded vigorously, frantically trying to catch ahold of her wrists. "Yes, anything!" He exclaimed and sighed in relief when Sophie came to a stop. She smiled down at him. "Okay," she said, her smile turning into a smirk. "Say 'Sophie Foster is the Best'." She knew it wasn't the best or a very unique deal but she really couldn't think of anything else.

Fitz rose an eyebrow. "Well that's easy," he said, much to her surprise. He cleared his throat and proceeded to say, "Sophie Foster is, by far, the Best," before adding, "obviously," and winking at her. Sophie blushed slightly. "Really?" She asked shyly, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Fitz snorted. "Duh," he said like it was obvious—which Sophie could not possibly imagine why he would think it was—and said, "what other person your age is as talented, smart, brave and thoughtful like you? You're like the coolest elf I know." Sophie blushed madly and tried her best to hide it from him until Fitz leaned his head up and looked side to side as if he was looking out for someone, before he whispered in her ear, "just don't tell Keefe I said that."

Sophie laughed and Fitz grinned up at her. "Wow," he said, grinning wider, "who knew little miss Sophie Foster had a bit of a dark side?" Sophie blushes slightly as he castes her a teasing look. Trying to fight of her slight embarrassment, she shrugged and sat back. "Who knows? Maybe it was always in there, just waiting to come out," She said with a smile.

Fitz sat up as well and smiled back at her. "Well at least it shows people not to mess with you. I certainly learned my lesson," he said and Sophie giggled. As Fitz laughed along with her, Sophie looked at him and smiled appreciatively. 'How did I ever live without him?' Sophie wondered to herself as she and Fitz continued their telepathy lessons.

-End of Flashback-

It was a question Sophie had wondered about for a long time. It wasn't until now that she realized she felt the same that she did when she was living in the human world—lonely, empty, lost, and sad.

In fact, everywhere she went, she saw empty, lost, and sad faces. Dex had been mega-tinkering ever since the recent news about Fitz, his form of coping with heavy topics, Biana had been gathering every single photo she had of Fitz and herself, or just of Fitz in general, and was crying herself to sleep looking at them every night. And Keefe; Keefe was the one Sophie was most worried about.

He almost never left his post in front of the woods. He refused to eat, not even when Della or Squall left some food there for him, he didn't talk or interact with anybody. The only times he would leave his spot is when he needed to go to bed, only because the Black Swan didn't allow him to sleep outside—and even then, he wasn't sleeping. At all. They got an update from Dex every day.

Anytime Sophie would try to transmit to him or read his mind, she would hear any of his thoughts for there wasn't any to hear—and all she say were tons and tons of memories of Fitz. Seeing his smiling face in the memories would be too much for Sophie and she retreated every time.

These were all signs that something needed to happen—and that it needed to happen now—and by what she was observing, it seemed like she was the only one who had a state of mind to do so. Without a second thought, Sophie raced down from her tree house and marched her way towards the main room where she was sure the Black Swan would be. Enough was enough—people were hurting, and if they weren't going to let them do anything about it, Sophie would grill them until they did something about it themselves.

Sophie stormed into the room, where it appeared that the Black Swan were having a staff meeting. Every head raised and turned to look at her, and Mr. Forkle drifted from the group. "Sophie—" he started, but Sophie cut him off by raising her hand. "Save it," she said angrily. She was just about done sitting around and doing nothing but waiting. It was time to take action.

"We need to go find Fitz," she declared with her head held high. The Black Swan all shared a look before Granite slowly raised himself out of his seat and approached her. "Sophie, I know he's really important to y– " but Sophie shook her head firmly. "No," she said, "I'm sick and tired of doing nothing while we know Fitz is alive and out there on his own. I don't care if you think he's dangerous, no one cares, he's our friend and we want to do something now—" Sophie stopped herself short when a distant cry of triumph broke out in the air. She and the Black Swan both turned their heads as Dex stormed into the room, Biana close behind him.

"Dex...?" Sophie said, tilting her head at her best friend, who was currently bending over and breathing heavily like he had just ran a 5k marathon. Dex looked up at them, grinning at all of them widely. "I did it! I finished it!" He exclaims proudly, and Sophie raised her eyebrows, hoping that he was talking about what she thought he was talking about.

She wasn't disappointed. Dex raised up his newly-fixed invention, a confirming smile on his face. "The Twiggler is complete."

So, how was it? I hope y'all enjoyed that bit of Sophitz fluff there ;) I promise you all from here on out there's gonna be more action! In fact, I can't wait to start typing up that new chapter! Soooo many ideas, my brain's about to explode! Hehehee

Anyways, I hope you liked this and I'll try to update more frequently!

-Someonewhodoesntcare