Chapter Text
Across the museum, Sophie caught sight of a tall, dark-haired boy reading yesterday’s newspaper with the embarrassing black-and-white photo of her on the front. Then he looked up and stared straight at her.
He started walking toward her, stopping about an arm's length away, and Sophie started taking in the details. His curly hair was a cola brown, his skin a bronze color. He looked a couple years older, in jeans and a light gray zip-up. His eyes were the most interesting part about him. She’d never seen eyes that particular shade of blue before—teal, like the shade of sea glass she found on the beach. “Is this you?" The boy had an accent: British, but somehow...crisper, like stepping on fallen leaves in autumn. He showed her the magazine article with her picture in black and white.
"Uh, yeah. I'm Sophie."
The boy gave her a movie-worthy smile, and her heart spluttered. "I'm Fitz, nice to meet you. I would have thought your eyes were blue.” He hastily added, “I mean, it looked like it in the picture. Brown's good too, though. I like brown."
She moved her bang piece hair to hide her flushing face.
Fitz’s eyes settled on something behind her. "Do you think that's how dinosaurs really looked?" He pointed at the model Albertosaurus behind her.
Sophie barely bit down on a smile. She happened to have a little passion for accurate dinosaur representation. "Well, realistically, we know they're closely related to dinosaurs, so I think that the lack of feathers on any of these models is stupid."
Fitz gave her another silver-screen grin. "I couldn't agree more. Like, where are they?"
"I know, right?" They stared at each other awkwardly for another few moments, and Sophie wasn’t sure what to do. Then her brain felt like it was being stomped by combat boots into gray-matter Jell-O, and she doubled over clutching her head. A group of kindergartens rushed in, and their excited, loud thoughts were killing her slowly. She remembered in a panic that she wasn't alone.
She looked up to find Fitz in a similar pose. They stared for a few more moments, before he pointed at her. "You're a Telepath." Only then did it occur to her that she couldn't hear his thoughts as well.
Sophie had to keep a level head. He knew. How did she know it was safe to trust him? How did she know he wasn’t from the government, or maybe MI6? He must be like her, too. Was he a double agent? An escapee from an experiment?
Sophie did the only logical thing and took off running.
Fitz shouted, "Wait, Sophie!" and was on her heels. He started catching up, and she willed her legs to go faster.
In her panic, she hadn't bothered to look before darting through the street. A car came careening toward her, and she narrowly avoided it as it swerved into the telephone pole. She gave a breath of relief for a moment before the pole started toppling toward her. She felt a tug in her stomach and thought 'Now is not a good time to throw up.' The pole stopped falling, and she stared at it, shocked.
A voice behind her said, "It’s okay, you can put it down."
Startled, she turned to look at Fitz, crouched slightly, hand out like he was trying to tame a feral animal.
He ran and grabbed her, pulling her out of the way as the pole crashed down where she had been standing.
The impact sent them sprawling. Sophie was lucky to have landed on the grass. She heard a small grunt of pain and looked over to see Fitz getting up from where he was curled around a fire hydrant. She shot up and walked over to him. "Are you alright?" she asked, reaching a hand out to him.
Fitz grasped it, and she pulled him up. He winced quickly. "I'm fine, you?" When she nodded to affirm, he continued. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to---I shouldn't have spooked you. We need to talk, but not here. Any ideas?"
She sized him up for a moment. Finally, she hedged, "Follow me."