DUSK TILL DAWN ▹ SOPHITZ | ✓

hold tight.

a/n: AUGH. JUST LIKE LAST YEAR WHEN I FINISHED NIGHTFALL, THIS NEW BOOK GAVE ME TOO MANY SOPHITZ FEELS, AND I BASICALLY HAD TO WRITE "DUSK TILL DAWN" TO SURVIVE.

AND THIS TIME I MEAN I HAVE TOO MANY SOPHITZ FEELS, SO THIS ONESHOT IS KEEPING ME ALIVE AND GOING.

HERE'S A DRABBLE/WORD VOMIT BECAUSE I LOVE MY COGNATE CHILDREN.

augh i winged this entire thing and it sucks i'm sorry ;-;

~ ~ ~

To say that everything was a blur for the following days was a major understatement. But in a way, Sophie almost wasn't surprised by the outcome. She had known something would get in their way eventually, and she had felt deep within her all along that the match wouldn't go well.

A part of her had even considered once or twice that the Council would do exactly what they had done - deem her "unmatchable."

Months ago she would have been happy to find that out. She'd been struggling with the idea of signing up for the process, not at all enthused by the way it seemed not one bit romantic. She wanted to find her significant other all on her own, and build trust and support and love with the person who counted - not have someone tell her that if she didn't pick a person a specified list, that she'd be ruled a bad match.

And there was another reason she didn't like it. It was such an unfair prejudice to have and it didn't even make a bit of sense. So what if people didn't want to sign up to be paired? So what if they had their hearts set on a certain someone?

Months ago, Sophie would have been happy. In a sense, at least. Yes, a part of her back then had been thinking about how it would be a little fun to see who was on her list(s), and she had imagined a few flickering images of what her Winnowing Gala(s) might look like.

But now?

Sophie was. . . shell-shocked and more than devastated. She was a little numb to the fact that they had done that.

SOPHIE FOSTER IS UNMATCHABLE.

The dizzying words had been on repeat in her brain for every single day after she walked out of that building.

The Council and all their unjust, stupid ways had always seemed to find some way, shape, or form to control her life. And she thought she could deal with it and had been handling every hard situation they threw at her well until they sprung. . . this on her.

This time she felt that this was somehow more. They weren't controlling where she went or what they said—they were controlling her future life with someone. They were taking away her right as a citizen to apply for the same thing everyone else could, and they were filing her down—forcing her—to be named a bad match right then and there.

This time they had messed with the love in her life.

Just thinking about it brought stinging years to her eyes every. Single. Time.

Life would never be the same. This determined who she could love, who could learn to love her, and how people around her would treat her in her walk through life. As if being herself wasn't enough, now she was ruled a bad match by default?

But that wasn't the only thing that was bothering her: if she would cause any significant other to become a bad match, just because they chose to be with her. . . To marry her someday and spend their life together. . .

That would mean she'd drag the other person down with her.

And that also meant no one could get her on their lists: and that included Fitz.