KOTLC: Finding Sophie, Fitz's POV

Fitz's POV

Fitz leaned on the fossil display, re-reading the front page of the newspaper he was holding for what must have been the thousandth time that day. He focused on the big, black-and-white picture on the front of the paper to distract him from the beginnings of a headache prickling at his consciousness. He gathered himself and pushed an invisible shield around his mind, blocking it from unwanted human thoughts. He let out a breath of relief as the voices rampaging around his head faded until he could no longer hear them. Fitz's gaze wandered across the expansive room until his eyes landed on a giant model of a dinosaur. Or he assumed it was a dinosaur. He let out a snort of laughter as he stared at it, in all of its lizardy glory. If only humans could see what dinosaurs really looked like.

 A large group of students, primarily teenagers, were standing in front of the model, watching a large man, who must have been their teacher, yell at a slender blond girl, who appeared to be much younger than the other children surrounding her. The girl seemed so... separated from the rest of her class. Fitz leaned in and heard her perfectly recite the 3 paragraph opening card from the front of the museum. Nobody looked like they liked that. The teacher and the other students started to grumble and moved on to the next room. The girl hung back, leaning against one of the walls, taking deep breaths. Fitz then realised. He glanced down at his newspaper, and back up at the girl. She was the one in the photo. His eyes quickly ran over the first couple of sentences. Sophie was her name. He had to go and talk to her. Fitz chanced another look, only to find that Sophie was staring straight at him. But what he focused on were her eyes. They were a light brown, peppered with flecks of gold. They were actually quite pretty, but that didn't matter. He had the wrong girl again. He toyed between leaving and talking to her anyway, just to be sure. This long-lost elf, whoever she was, was sure to be unusual. 

With some hesitation, he shrugged off the glass box he had been leaning against and started to approach Sophie. Maybe he imagined it, but Sophie looked panicked. Fitz flashed a smile and decided to start with a simple question. "Is this you?" he asked, pointing to the picture on the newspaper he was still holding. She nodded, looking scared to speak. "I thought so." He didn't know what to say next, so he stupidly blurted out "I didn't realise your eyes were brown." He wanted to smack himself after he said it especially since Sophie started to look a bit suspicious. "Uh... Yeah," She replied apprehensively. "Why?" Fitz shrugged, trying to keep cool and look natural. "No reason." Sophie fidgeted with her hands for a moment before she asked him "Are you in this class?" She blushed right after. He grinned at her before replying. "No." His eyes scanned the room before coming to rest on the giant, green dinosaur model resting just in front of them.

Fitz pointed to it before asking Sophie "Tell me something. Do you really think that's what they looked like? It's a little absurd isn't it?" "Not really," Sophie said, squinting at the Albertosaurus. "Why? What do you think they looked like?" Fitz thought about it, a little voice in his head telling him they were nearing a dangerous conversation. He decided to listen. Sophie wasn't the girl he was looking for anyway. He laughed casually. "Never mind. I'll let you get back to your class. It was nice to meet you, Sophie." He turned around, heading to the exit, the familiar feeling of disappointment filling his body. Was he ever going to find the girl? Did she even exist? He loved sneaking away to the forbidden cities, blending into humans as though he was one of them, but he was sick of coming home every time with another story of failure. 

At that moment, a massive wave of 6-year-old children entered the museum, running, screaming, shrieking. But that wasn't the problem. Their mental voices stabbed Fitz's brain like knives, digging into his consciousness. He wasn't concentrating, so his shield was weakened enough for those thoughts to slip through. He fought through the headache and rubbed his temples, reinforcing the mental barrier around his mind. He removed his hands from his aching head, and then remembered he wasn't alone. Fitz panicked, turning around to see if anyone had noticed, and he locked eyes with Sophie, who was wearing his same pained expression and she had her hands to her head, rubbing her temples, just as he had a moment before. 

Fitz's brain raced, his mind jumping to an unlikely conclusion. No. It just couldn't be true. She had brown eyes anyway. It was just the screaming kids. He decided to chance it anyway, telling himself that if he found any evidence it wasn't true, he would leave. "Did you just... hear that?" He whispered to Sophie, half hoping she wouldn't hear him. Sophie stumbled backwards, turning pale. "Who are you?" She said in reply, her voice shaking. Fitz took that as a yes. He couldn't believe it. "You did - didn't you?" Fitz leaned in, whispering "Are you a Telepath?" Sophie said nothing, instead, she flinched. "You are!" Fitz breathed. "I can't believe it!"