Falling For His Charms

CHAPTER 34

After Sophie's mental breakdown of the last night and that morning, she decided that she would be strong from here on out. She wiped the last of her tears away, took a deep breath, and prepared herself for the day. This took much longer than usual; she re-brushed her hair, brushed her teeth, bathed herself, tried to make her smile look at least decently genuine in the mirror, and finally struggled to get changed. Dressing like a Royal was much more work than living as a peasant: you needed the corset, of course the actual complicated dress itself, and other articles that Sophie would rather chuck out the window than put on her body.

As she finished taking a major amount of time attempting to tie the back of her dark forest green dress, Sophie flung open her bedroom door, and forced a large smile as a maid walked by and eyed her weirdly. Sophie paid no attention to the strange looks, and strode out of the room, shutting the door behind her. She forced a smile to anyone who passed, waved to every guard, and yelled a great cheerful 'Hello!' to anyone she knew. She was quite certain that she had everyone convinced.

Fitz, however, was wearily walking out of his long meeting, and he ran his hand through his chocolate locks, sighing. The meeting had been long, and he was glad that it was over, finally. After checking with his father that there was nothing left on the agenda for the day - except for continuing the search for the children and the reconstruction on the town - he walked to Sophie's room, hoping that she was feeling better now that it was later in the day. At exactly 12:06 pm, the prince knocked on the hard, slightly opened mahogany door of the girl's bedroom.

No one answered.

Fitz, with his eyes furrowed, knocked once more, worry coursing through his veins as the door was pushed open a bit more by his fist. Fortunately, someone did come to the door, but it was not the face that he was looking for. Instead, it was a maid cleaning the room. She looked surprised to see the crowned prince at the door, and she hastily curtsied before him.

"Your Highness! My apologies. I wasn't expecting you to come to this very room," She said, coming out of her bow.

"It's quite alright, there is nothing for you to worry about. Although, do you happen to now where Miss Sophie Ruewen may be?"

Again, the maid looked slightly surprised; why would the prince ask for a peasant girl? She was merely staying in the castle until the town of Gloria was rebuilt.

"I have heard from some other maids that she was making her way to the hospital wing."

"Why? Was she hurt?"

"She apparently looked quite content... I don't think so, Sir." Fitz thought about that for a minute. Where they talking about the same Sophie? Only just this morning, Fitz had seen that Sophie was not doing well at all.

"All right, thank you for your time," He thanked. "Good day to you." The maid curtsied one last time and returned to cleaning Sophie's already nearly spotless room.

Fitz walked quickly to the hospital wing, and through his nerves, he tried to act normal; let me just say that he wasn't doing too well with that. He looked extremely worried, sweat lined his forehead, and he fidgeted with his fingers constantly.

As Fitz walked up to the white door of the hospital wing, he didn't even bother knocking. As soon as he flung open the double doors, his eyes sweeped the beds for a sick or unconscious Sophie. Luckily, she wasn't in a bed, but on a chair beside one, with Lex on her lap and Dex sitting up on his mattress. The relief only settled in once he saw the girl he loved laughing at something Dex said- wait, loved?

He hadn't noticed how much he had grown to like Sophie, with all the worry of war and the attacks. But now that he looked at it, he supposed that it would make sense. For example, how he held Sophie earlier in he day. Would Keefe have held her like that? The thought of him doing so made Fitz sick to the stomach. But no, Keefe would not; only Fitz. Him and Sophie had a connection that others could not say they had.

"Oh Fitz, you're here!" Sophie said. He was pulled away from his thoughts and saw that he was staring straight into her mesmerizing honey-brown eyes. "I hadn't heard you come in."

"I just thought that I'd come check on you. I had gone to your room, but you were not there, so I asked one of the maids where you had gone. I was so worried! Please, next time wait for me or someone else."

Sophie bit her lip, thinking; she was obviously slightly frustrated with her new directions to always have someone accompany her as she walked around the castle, but she didn't want to say anything. Hesitantly, the girl nodded, meeting those beautiful teal eyes.

"I don't want to be... bossy," He said. "But I worry about you. That's all that I'm trying to do."

At these words, Sophie smiled at him, and the two of them ignored Lex and Dex who one, was awing at them and whom the latter was making barfing noises.

"You two can stare at each other later," Dex grumbled. "While you can leave this room, I cannot, and I'd rather not see this."

Sophie scoffed. "Oh be quiet, you. And you will be able to leave tomorrow."

"Still; I can't now!"

"... He has a point," Lex said, with his small impish grin. Before Sophie could argue back, Edaline and Grady walked in, carrying a basket each. Sophie could tell that they were forcing their grand smiles; both pairs of eyes looked tired and red.

"What are those for?" Sophie pointed to the baskets. Though she wanted to comfort them about how they were feeling, Lex was with them, and she didn't want him to worry.

"These are for Dex's last day in the hospital wing!" Edaline cheered, but it seemed a little forced.

"Eda here had the marvelous idea to celebrate your last day here!" Grady continued, and Dex grinned.

"You didn't need to."

"We wanted to."

That was how Lex, Dex, Edaline, Grady, Sophie, and even Fitz and Elwin had a picnic in the infirmary. They laughed at jokes said, teased each other... It was strange having so much fun after the darkness they had endured. Finally, there was one last butterblast at the bottom of one of the baskets. Everyone let Dex have the honours of having it - that was the whole reason of having a dessert-picnic in the first place - but instead of a butterblast coming out of the basket, a long white piece of parchment came.

"What's that?" Lex questioned, curious. Dex looked confused as well, and read the title of the paper.

"Adoption contract..." Dex's jaw dropped, and he slowly looked up to meet his new parents' eyes.