cascade | kotlc

10. Not Exactly Déjà Vu

 "I wasn't sure if Grady and Edaline would let me see you," Fitz said as he settled on the flowered carpet of Sophie's bedroom, June sitting in his lap, fitting her head under his chin and sipping lushberry juice. "Aren't you grounded?"

"Surprisingly, no," Sophie told him. "But Grady always finds more interesting ways to punish me."

June snorted. "You haven't even tried to chase a loose pterodactyl down yet. Those things are fast. And they fart. A lot."

"Is that why you smell like T. rex breath?" Fitz asked Sophie, laughing when she blushed.

June was watching her brush Verdi's teeth when Fitz showed up. She was messing with Sophie just for the fun of it; she had told her she had to lasso around Verdi's neck and hang off it just to reach her teeth. Needless to say, that was actually what you had to do, though June wasn't very helpful when she constantly blew Sophie around. She deserved it after she almost started a war without even including her.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you yesterday," Sophie mumbled, crossing her arms. "I know you tried to stop me."

"I probably should've tried harder. It just happened so fast. But I wasn't going to let him take you. I'd transmitted to Keefe that if the ground started to open up I was going to tackle the king and he should grab you and leap you somewhere safe."

June spewed out her lushberry juice in surprise, accidentally drenching Sophie. "Sorry," she apologized hastily, wiping her mouth, "but did you seriously consider tackling King Dimitar? You can't even tackle Biana!"

"That's what Keefe said too, yeah. But I told him I was still going to try. And I really thought I was going to have to. At least half the Councillors were nodding along as King Dimitar was talking. If Lady Cadence hadn't stepped in, I don't know what would've happened."

"And this is why you don't do stupid things without me, Sophie. At least I can tackle people better than my boyfriend over here." She poked Fitz's chin affectionately. "I've never fought against an ogre before," she mused. "I want to try."

"Are you insane?" Fitz asked her.

"Probably."

Sophie pulled at the edges of one of the holes in her sleeve, stretching it wider. "You must think I'm a total idiot."

"I kind of do, sister."

Fitz squeezed June's shoulder. "I am starting to wonder if you're trying to beat Keefe's record for biggest interspeciesial episode -- and if you are, I'm pretty sure you've won. The Great Gulon Incident was epic, but it didn't almost spark a war." His voice hitched on the last word.

"I don't know about that. Dame Alina looked like she was ready to declare war on Keefe when it happened," June commented. Fitz scratched her chin and she purred contentedly.

"I'm guessing you didn't learn anything, Sophie?"

"Only that I've made it even harder for the Council to investigate what's going on with the ogres. Your dad said we'd have to wait until my punishment is delivered and things hopefully go back to normal."

Fitz sighed. "Well, my dad said the punishment wouldn't be that severe."

"Knowing Bronte, it probably will be," June said. She frowned slightly. "Why does he hate you so much?"

"I don't know. There... there was an incident in one of my Inflicting sessions," Sophie mumbled.

June leaned backwards into Fitz. "Well, it's up to the Council. Hopefully..."