A Cognate Thing-a sophitz story

thirty two

“Are you sure this is where we are supposed to be?” Sophie asked looking around, trying not to visibly shivver. They were standing outside the doors of the sanctuary where they kept all the animals extinct to humans.

“Yes, my dad helped me arrange a visit where you could see all the animals. I know you have seen some of them at Havenfield but I wanted you to see everything.” The excitement visible across Fitz’s face was enough to make Sophie's heart flutter.

“Wow, it's like visiting an exotic zoo of imaginary creatures.”

Fitz nodded and laughed at the reference to the zoo. He could see the excitement in her face as her eyebrows went up and the gold flecks sparkled. A few minutes later Jurek had greeted them and told them the basics of where everything was and sent them off to explore.

“Fitz this is incredible,” Sophie said as they made their way to the wooly mammoths. Sophie had read about them in books when she lived in San Diego but seeing the herd of them felt like she was in a fantasy. Together they walked hand in hand all over the sanctuary spending hours visiting the more recent animals to go extinct to the humans. Some looked familiar like the great auk and pinta island tortoise others like the Tasmanian Tiger, quagga, and Dodo bird looked like experiments gone wrong. After seeing those they headed to see the ancient extinctions that included the dinosaurs that were so incredibly different from Sophie's childhood.

“I know I see Verdi everyday but I still am amazed at how wrong the humans are when they think about dinosaurs. You probably thought I was the biggest idiot that day in the museum.” Sophie said as memories of meeting Fitz danced across her mind.

“It was all you knew, plus I didn't realize you were really one of us at first. I was too busy checking out your eyes.” Fitz said a hint of pink creeping across his cheeks.

“Well I am glad you found me.” Sophie quietly added.

“Me too.” He said as he gave her hand a little squeeze.

“Fitz this has been incredible. I don't know how you made this happen but thank you.” Sophie wrapped her arms around Fitz and gave him a huge hug. “I seriously feel like the luckiest girl in the world to see all these amazing creatures.”

“You're welcome, are you ready for the next part of our date?”

“There's more?” Sophie's eye grew wide as she broke away from the hug she was still giving him. This had been so wonderful she couldn't believe Fitz had more things planned.

“Yes, we just need to stop by Mysterium first and pick something up.”

“Ok.” Sophie said as she grabbed his hand. They made their way back to the gates of the sanctuary so Fitz could use the Pathfinder to leap them away. Once in Mysterium they stopped by a small bakery and went inside. Fitz made his way to the counter and picked up the basket that was waiting for them. Seeing all the amazing food in the bakery made Sophie realize it had to be getting close to dinner time.

“Are you ok with a picnic dinner?”

Sophie nodded looking up at Fitz.

“Good, I have the perfect place set up for us.”

He pulled out the Pathfinder and a few seconds later they were standing in an amazing valley that was filled with the most beautiful flowers. The colors were incredible and it felt like you were standing in a rainbow of every color she had ever seen. In the middle of the field was a clearing with a rug piled high with pillows and blankets.

“Wow! I've never seen anything this beautiful.”

“I have,” Fitz replied looking at Sophie.

It was totally cheesy, but it still brought a blush to Sophie's cheeks. Fitz calling her beautiful made her heart soar and she was excited to sit and talk with him, talking with Fitz was one of her favorite things to do. They walked over to the rug and sat down getting comfy and Fitz started pulling out the delicious smelling food that was in the basket. Fitz sat there for a moment before remembering he hadn't told Sophie the story from last night.

“Oh my goodness I have to tell you about last night! It was hilarious! So a last minute reservation became available at Chez Aqua for the Chef's table which is the most exclusive restaurant in Atlantis. We had to rush to get ready because it was right when school got out.”

Sophie looked up from the food she was eating wide eyed, Fitz was telling her about his mystery dinner last night.

“Anyway we were running there and Keefe had decided to tag along because he didn't want to hang out alone in the towers. So when we finally arrived, they took us back to the table which was set, not realizing we brought Keefe. The chef's table is basically in the kitchen and space is a premium so squeezing in an extra chair was next to impossible but Keefe insisted that he was pretty much family and we might as well just go ahead and adopt him and that he would be the kid we didn't know we needed.”

Sophie tried to listen but her thoughts kept going back to the knot of emotions, was Fitz really telling her about another date? Who was he with? Why was he telling her about it?

“It was also so annoying, here we were trying to have this incredible dinner, and Keefe was going on and on about how awesome he was. Well after dinner we were walking out of the restaurant and who do we see walking in, Lord Cassius and Lady Belva are on a date. Keefe knew his dad was starting to see someone but had no idea who it was. The look on his face was priceless, my dad practically had to carry him back to Everglen because he was in shock!”

“Why was your dad there?” Sophie asked her voice had the hint of worry and the confused look on her face as to why Alden was going with Fitz on his date didn't make any sense to her.

“It was a family dinner, why wouldn't he be there?”

Fitz paused and Sophie could see in his eyes he was trying to figure something out in his head. “Wait did you think I was out with someone else?"