KOTLC One Shots

1

"I..." 

But Fitz turned to Keefe and Ro. "Can we please have some space?"

 Ro snorted. "No." 

Keefe shifted. "See, Fitzy, your girlfriend..." 

The teal-eyed boy shook his head. "In case you don't know, I and Sophie are not officially dating yet." 

The emphasis on the last word kinda made it up for how much the words stung...

He immediately noticed. "And I don't mean that in... a bad way, it's just that..." 

"I needed time," said Sophie quietly. 

He nodded, flushing.

 Ro placed her hands on her hips. "Wisest decision you've made, Blondie. Take all the time you want," she glared pointedly at Fitz. 

He met her look levelly. "Can we have some space?"

"I thought I already said no."

"Why?" 

"Because we all know you'll started shouting at poor Blondie and blaming her for things she can't control, and she'll be an emotional mess and poor Funkyhair would have to calm her down again." 

He crossed his arms. "I promise you, that will never happen. And that's one of the things I actually came here to talk about," he turned to Sophie. "I've been a complete jerk lately, and even though it'll never justify how I've been acting, I wanted to apologize." 

"You don't have to," she said quietly. 

He smiled sadly. "Yes, I do. You forgive people far too easily, Sophie."

"Before you go all that's one of the countless reasons I'm hopelessly in love with you," cut in Ro. "You mentioned you wanted to apologize." 

"Yeah." 

"Name three good reasons why she should forgive you, and we'll give you some space," the ogre princess made sarcastic air quotes on the last words. 

Fitz looked away. "There's a human quote, never ruin an apology with an excuse. Excuses don't make the apology real. I've learned it the hard way. An apology that goes I'm sorry BUT my reasons blah blah blah isn't an apology, it isn't at all sincere. An apology is admitting your wrongdoing and promising you'll never do it again, and sticking to that promise. So if I started making excuses it means..." 

Ro cut across him again. "Before you go all philosophical on us, Captain Perfectpants..." 

Keefe crossed his arms, eyeing Fitz. "Anything else you wanna say, Fitzypoo?" 

"Yeah, but I mean to say it in privacy." 

Ro feigned a yawn, plopping on Sophie's desk chair and propping up her feet. "We're not leaving. Get over it." 

Fitz shrugged his impressively broad shoulders, which looked even broader in his tailored dark blue jerkin. And very pointedly turned his back on Keefe and Ro, coming to crouch on the carpet beside where Sophie sat on her bed. "Do I have permission to open my mind to your thoughts?"

 She nodded. 

He'd gotten really fast at slipping past her mental barriers, because less than a second later he transmitted, How are you holding up? 

What do you mean? 

Biana told me about everything at the Seat of Eminence, he gently twined their fingers together. And I figured maybe you'd like someone to talk to. If I knew Keefe was already... he sounded slightly bitter.