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Chapter Text

Ever since Keefe had run off to human land, Ro had declared herself Blondies's glorified roommate.

Though it was clear the Sophie didn't want any one else hanging around, Ro didn't give her much of a choice. The Ruewen's -bless their tired hearts- didn't put up much of an argument either.

And because she was spending so much time around her, it was only a matter of time before Ro began to pick up on the young girls...habits.

After living with an angsty teen boy, she hadn't expected anything Miss Oblivious could do to surprise her. Oh how she was wrong.

The first ting she noticed was the salt.

Ro had been up for hours 'harassing everyone' as Sandor put it. Grady and Edaline had gone out to feed the animals, leaving just the three bodyguards in the kitchen by the time Sophie wandered down.

"Well don't you look dandy," Ro smirked, her eyes sweeping over the girls disheveled hair that had likely never seen a brush and the dark bags under her eyes that remained even after hours of sleep.

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Thank you so much."

Ro chuckled, filling her nails with a small dagger. "Looks like Blondie's got some sass this morning. Or, should I say afternoon?"

"Ro, seriously, I can't right now." She watched as forge girl walked across the kitchen, her eyes closing briefly when the light filtering through the window hit her.

"Headache?" The Nome -Flori or something wasn't it- asked with concern, sliding off of the stool she had been perched on as she mixed a bowl of plants.

Blondie gave a bitter chuckle. "More like intense, skull crushing, migraine."

Florie winced and brushed her hands off on a towel. "I'm going to the garden to get some stuff," the small Nome declared, heading out the door.

Sophie walked over to the cabinet and grabbed two things. A cup and...salt? Ro sat back, watching with interest to see where this would go.

She filled to the cup with water from the sink and then tipped the box of salt over, the white crystals falling into the glass and disappearing like a waterfall. That just kept going. Ro wasn't sure how much water was left in the glass by the time Sophie finished.

Her eyes narrowed and she sat forward in her chair, dagger forgotten as she then watched as Sophie DRANK it.

Weird was Keefe's hair. Crazy was her dad sending her to elfy land. Insane was...she would think of that one later. But chugging a glass of pure salt water? That was just plain PSYCHOTIC.

And she didn't. Even. Flinch. Sure, Sophie's face scrunched a little, but she kept it down. Then, the girl simply turned and walked out of the room.

"What the F was that?" Ro asked, blinking in disbelief as she watched Blondie ascend up the stairs.

Sandor shrugged, rearranging some throwing stars along his belt. "She says it's some 'human recipe' to help with headaches. I've learned not to question the ways that are Miss Fosters."

He clipped a sword in place and stood. "I'm going to to check on the patrols." He gave her a withering look that was cute to her. He still didn't like her, even after all this time. "If anything happens to Miss Foster-"

"You'll roast me over a campfire and then feed me to the Gorgodon?" She inquired innocently.

His eyes narrowed and his glare hardened. "I can think of FAR worse things."

A devious look spread across her face and she twirled her dagger in her hand. "What? Like making me watch you and Grizel 'flirt'?"

He ignored her and left, closing the front door a little too hard to not be angry. Chuckling, Ro slipped her dagger back into it's sheath and stood up. She stretched her arms above her head and cracked her knuckles, the noise sounding like the 'Pop Snaps' Keefe once put in his teachers office. The look on the mans face had been pure gold.

She shoved the memory out of her mind and started heading up the stairs as a distraction. Where had Blondie gone?

She wasn't even half way up the stairs when her ears picked up the sound of gagging. She moved faster. She was near the top of the stairs when the smell of bile reached her nose.

She flung open the bedroom door, prepared to fight off some sort of intruder, but was met with an empty room. Her eyes scanned the room, taking motors of every detail before she noticed the open bathroom door, light seeping out.

Slowly, Ro approached the door. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief and lowered her raised knife when she saw the only person in the room was Sophie. The girl was on her knees, bent over the toilet, her body shaking with the remnants of throwing up.

"Blondie?" Ro asked, her voice almost soft. Almost. Ro had seen Keefe get sick before, but this didn't look like regular sick.

Sophie looked up at her before quickly looking away, pushing herself up to her feet and turning on the sink faucet. "Im fine," she mumbled.

The ogre scoffed. "Yeah, sure you are." She swept her eyes over the bathroom and then the young girl who looked so pale and small, before finally landing on how Sophie was holding her stomach with her free hand.

Ro thought back to the cup of salt water the young girl had chugged moments before. Maybe the psycho was realizing what a bad idea that had been. But...she had drunk it on purpose. Taking a step into the room, Ro closed the door behind her.

Blondie tilted her head down to catch the water in her mouth, swishing it around before spitting it back out. Turning off the tap, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and went to walk past Ro to the door.

Ro held out an arm, blocking her. "Not so fast. I want to know what in the world you're thinking."

Sophie ignored her, effectively avoiding the ogres gaze. But she couldn't quite hide the desperation in her eyes.

"Look Blondie, I'm not letting you out until you tell me what's going on. I WILL tie you to the shower and break out my bacteria if I have to."

"I just don't feel good, okay," the blond snapped. Ro's eye widened slightly. The sass was back.

Ro crossed her arms and positioned herself in front of the door. "No. Not okay. Either I can go get Sandor and your parents, or you can tell me right now."

Sophie flinched and relented walking across the room to sit down against the shower. "Fine." She looked...tired.

Ro sat down across from her. "Okay. Spill it Little Miss. What's with the salt and the suddenly throwing up."

The girl sighed heavily. "I..." She let out a long breath. "It's something I learned in the Forbidden Cities. Salt water makes you throw up." Ro watched with curiosity, waiting for her to continue. "Throwing up just...helps."

"Helps how?" The idea of making yourself throw up to help seemed incredibly stupid to Ro.

Blondie picked at her pant legs, resting her chin in her knees. When she spoke, her voice was almost a whisper. "It just does. What my heads pounding and everything is spinning, it just makes it all feel...less bad. Less...overwhelming."

Now that, Ro could understand. When she needed control, she threw daggers. Or cleaned them. Or drastically changed her hair style. Keefe had often take to painting, or taking weird scrap that made him remember his past.

Everyone needed control. She was just surprised it had taken her this long to figure out Sophie's method. "Kid..."

Blondie finally looked up, meeting her eyes. "I know it's... Stupid. But it works. It helps. Please don't tell my parents."

Ro took a deep breath. "I'm not going to tell." She saw the relief flood the girls eyes. "But, we make a deal."

Sophie's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What kind of deal?"

"The kind wear, you stop drinking salt cause, one it's creepy, two it can't be healthy, and three Keefe would kill me if he comes back to find out you died of malnutrition or something dumb like that." She stated firmly.

Blondie gave her a look. 'And what do I get out of this deal?"

"Well," Ro mused, "I won't tell your parents and maybe, just maybe, the next time you feel the need for control again, I can teach you how to meditate."

"Excuse me?"

"Ogres have a form of meditation that calms the brain. It'll cure those head aches and that dizziness." Ro explained.

"Oh," Blondie whispered. "...thanks."

Ro pushed herself to her feet and reached out a hand that Sophie to after a moment of hesitation, rising to her feet. "No problem Little Missy. That's your knew nickname by the way."

Sophie gave a fake chuckle. "Oh yippee." Opening the door, the ogre was about to leave the bathroom when the girl spoke up again. "He is coming back...right?"

Ro didn't need to ask to know who she was talking about. She felt a lump form in her throat and she quickly cleared it. "Yes. He's coming back, Blondie." She turned and gave her a reassuring grin. "Even if I have to drag him home screaming bloody murder."

The elf before her smiled sadly. "Noted."

He was coming back. But for now, the most Ro could do was look after Blondie here. And after this morning, it was pretty clear the girl needed her too.

She just hoped this was the only -slightly concerning- habit the girl harbored.

Chapter Text

Ro had never once objected to bullying in her whole life entire life. Until now.

When she was younger, bullying was considered normal and fighting was the literal point of the class. You were graded on how hard you could punch and how many bones you could snap.

But elves were very different. She had learned quickly during her time with Lord Hunkyhair that if you even tried to trip someone, they would probably cry and tell the principal. Which was extremely babyish if you asked her.

No wonder they needed Goblins to fight their battles for them. They couldn't even handle her artistic criticism, let alone war. These prisses could stand to be knocked down a peg or two.

But every now and then, there would be a student at Foxfire who would snap back with a little more bite then bark. It had been amusing the first time she saw a student grab another kid by the cape and drag them to the ground before a teacher sent them both to the Deans office with their tails between their legs.

But what wasn't amusing, was seeing this behavior directed at Blondie.

The first time she noticed it was during lunch one day. She was standing with the other body guards, not so subtly threatening Woltzer with the promise of putting microorganisms in his gear while their charges were all absorbed in their own conversation at the table.

Suddenly Sophie's hand flew up to her cheek. "Ow," the girl complained as all heads turned to her.

"What happened?" Dex asked as Sandor took a subtle step towards the table.

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but before she could answer, something whizzed through the air, hitting the hand covering her cheek.

Sophie hissed, and shook her hand. "What the heck?"

"What's going on?" Ro questioned, her eyes scanning over the young girls frame. Her eyes landed took in the spots on her hand and cheek that were a bright red, like someone had shot a rubber band at her and the blood was rushing to the surface.

Another spark whizzed through the air and barely missed Sophie's head, skimming over the table and hitting the sparkling wall behind them. A small whisp of smirk em!order from the slightly charred crystal.

Grizelle in crossed her arms, looking over the table of young teens. "Cut that out," she warned, her voice firm.

"It's not us," Marelle argued, as she and the others all looked at each other, thoroughly confused.

Ro scoured the room of unbothered students, trying to fine the source of the sparks. Her ears perked at the sound of snickering and snapped over to two girls a few tables away. One had bleached white hair and the other short black, both failing to hide their amusement as they blatantly stared at their table.

Before she could point them out, one of the girls stuck out her fingers and another spark flew through the air and nearly hit Sophie in the face, who managed to duck down with a small, "epp," before it could.

Tam scoffed as his eyes landed on the girls who were laughing now in entertained amusement. "Stupid flashers," he grumbled, sending them a withering glare.

"Like seriously," Stina said with an eye roll, " do those two have nothing better to do?"

Ro narrowed her eyes. "You know them?"

"You could put it that way," Fitz sighed, standing to gather his things along with the others who were all packing up. "They've been terrorizing Sophie all school year. It's quite pathetic if you ask me." Ro didn't miss the way he muttered, "even if you deserve it," under his breath.

Choosing to ignore the last part, Ro watched the other all start walking away from the table. "Wait...your just going to leave?"

Sophie nodded, rubbing her cheek as she slung her satchel over her shoulder and pushed away from her seat, the chair scratching against the floor, before the blonde followed Sandor towards the door with her head down.

Ro threw her hands up. "Where's the justice?"

Flori shook her small head from next to her, the Nome watching as the two girls across the room continued to snicker and whisper with snarky grins on their faces. "I tried to convince her to tell someone, but Sophie always says there are far more troublesome things going on then some harmless teasing."

Sighing heavily, Flori started after Sandor and Sophie. Ro stared for a few more moments before finally heading after them. For the rest of the day, as the day dragged on, Ro couldn't seem to shake off the earlier incident. And every time she saw Blondie absent mindedly rub the back of her hand, she felt a strange form of protectiveness that she had only felt for one other elf before.

---

Throughout the week, Ro noticed other frequent 'incidents' during school that were all targeted at her new charge. All by the same two girls.

One day it was 'accidentally' bumping into her while walking through the hall, causing her to spill her books across the carpeted flooring. The next day someone slipped Sniv Root into her launch. The plant was known for its extremely spicy purposes and caused Sophie to start hyperventilating and scratching at her throat as her face turned blood red.

But the dose was small enough to ware off in under a minute, so by the time they were rushing her to the Healing Center, she was completely fine and assuring them it was no big deal.

But it was a big deal. To Ro at least. Because these weren't just harmless pranks, and Blondie didn't even try to fight back! There was no retaliation! No vengeance! It was intolerable.

The girls even went as far as to 'not so anonymous' notes in her locker. Ro would catch glimpses of words like 'go back to human world' 'you ruined out world, rot in Exile' and 'Kill yourself' before Sophie would quickly skip them into her bag and brush it off as a note from one of her friends.

The breaking point came on one random Thursday afternoon.

Ro, Sandor, and Flori were called to talk with some of the Goblins in charge of Foxfire patrol. Apparently they were having trouble covering all of the vantage points in the event of an attack and the needed some insight.

Ro lasted about a full thirty minutes before she abruptly stood up and declared. "Even Blondie is more entertaining then this." With that, she had turned to go find the young elf. It was between classes, so she would be at her locker.

When she turned the corner, she stopped in her tracks.

Sophie was pinned against the locker by the girl with bleached hair who was smirking, a hand pressed firmly against her mouth while the girl with black hair held her finger tip against her color bone, smoke swirling as the smell of burnt flesh stung the air.

Sophie squirmed in their grip, her eyes wide with pure terror. Ro saw red.

Without hesitation, she stormed over and grabbed both of the girls by the color and yanked them away hard, effectively choking them in the process. Both girls shrieked as they stumbled back.

Ro's eyes darted over to Sophie, who had slid down her locker onto the ground, her knees drawn up to her chest. She was trembling.

Reluctantly, Ro released the two girls and watched as they sprinted down the deserted hallway, fighting off the urge to throw something at them. She would deal with that later.

Turning her attention back to Sophie, she crouched down. "You okay, Blondie?" She was surprised at how soft her own voice was.

Sophie's chest heaved with uneven breaths, her hands buried in her hair as she rocked slightly. She opened her mouth but all that came out were pathetic noises and she shoved her face into her knees.

Ro watched with growing concern, unsure of what to do. Maybe she could go find Flori, or one of Blondie's friends? She looked around the empty hallway, all the students having gone to class by now.

"Blondie, it's okay. Their gone now," she tried to reassure the young girl to no avail. Oh. OH. Keefe had mentioned once that both Foster and Dex had a wanderling planted for them because a couple years back they were both captured by the Neverseen. And that both had a fear of fire because they had been tortured with it.

Blondie was freaking the freak out because she had a fear of fire. Because she had been burned before. And those girls had triggered that deep seated fear within her by scorching her neck.

She took a deep breath. This was so far above pay grade. Though, she didn't actually get payed. She silently cursed her father. Go the the Elf cities he said. It will be fun he said.

The sound of Sophie's ragged breaths snapped her back to the present. Blondie slowly raised her head, eyes darting around the room as she managed to get her breathing back on track. "Sorry," she mumbled, not meeting her eyes.

Ro shook her head firmly. "No. Don't say sorry. You didn't do anything." She stood up and grasped Blondie's wrist, pulling her up next to her. The girl let herself be dragged.

"Let me see," Ro instructed, peeling Sophie's small hand away from her neck. The skin beneath was red and speckled with little black spots. Luckily, it was only a first degree burn. "You need to get this checked out."

Sophie nodded and turned on her heel, about to walk off, but Ro wasn't done with her yet. She tightened her grip on the girls wrist and pulled her back. "Hold it there Blondie. I'm not done yet."

Sighing in resignation, the elf stood still, eyes trained on the ground as she waited for some sort of lecture. "Kid," Ro began, crossing her arms. "You can't just let them walk all over you like that. You have to stand up for yourself."

Blondie looked away, stubborn tears picking her brown eyes. "Ro, I can't...I can't just...It doesn't matter. We're at literal war with the Neverseen, getting pushed around by-"

"The Neverseen have nothing to do with this." She cut the girl off. "What they're doing is just wrong, and if you don't put a stop to them it's only holy to escalate."

Sophie reached up and tugged out an eyelash, still not meeting her eyes. "....I just.... Im used to it Ro. In the Forbidden Cities, I was the weird smart girl. Here, I'm just the freak human girl who ruined everyone's lives and just seems to keep screwing up and im probably going to get some one killed one of these days and...and-"

Ro cut of her ranting with a shake of her head. "What makes you think that's what people think of you?" She asked, slightly dumbstruck. She knew Blondie had a habit of blaming herself for things that were out of control, but something told her this was different.

Sophie kicked the toe of her boot into the carpet and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know," she mumbled.

The ogre scoffed. "Yeah sure. I've got all day kid, so I suggest you spill it."

Blondie took a deep breath and tugged out another eyelash. Ro had to keep herself from reaching out and smacking her hand. "Well...Fitz...Fitz may have said something." The words were so quiet Ro almost missed them. Almost.

Of course he did. That arrogant stuck up teen had been acting extra snotty recently, particularly to Blondie. Of course he had to go and say something to her.

"What exactly did he tell you?" Her voice was laced with barely contained anger at the thought of him making Blondie doubt herself more then she already did.

Sophie opened her mouth but then shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I'm going to be late for class, Ro."

"Then it's a good thing your friends with that Leto dude, because we aren't done yet," She told her.

The blonde girl in front of her finally looked up and met her eyes. The mix of resignation and pain was the same one she had worn on the bathroom floor less then a week ago.

"Look," Ro told her, twirling a finger through her pink pig tail, "I'll make you a deal." She waited a moment to let that sink in before she continued. "I'll handle those two girls a d anyone else who tries to mess with you. But you have to learn to stand up for yourself. Okay?"

Blondie stared at her skeptically. "Why. Why would you help me?"

Ro blinked, trying to come up with something besides, 'because I care about you.' She cleared her throat. "We need our Moonlark focused if we're gonna kick those Neverseen people in the but. If taking care of a couple dumb dumbs helps, then so be it."

Sophie seemed to accept that answer, nodding her head. "Okay. Deal," she agreed, holding her hand out.

A big grin spread across Ro's face as she shook the small elf's hand. "Deal. Now, lets get you down to the doctor man."

As she turned to walk down the hallway, Blondie said one more thing. "Thank you Ro."

---

The next day, Magnate Leto got report of three different incidents around Foxfire. Two girls developed rashes caused by skin eating bacteria in their lunch, and Fitz Vacker's locker was filled with some bright green sludge that smelled so bad that the whole hall had to be closed down for cleaning.

No one knew exactly who was behind these 'incidents'. But when he caught a glimpse of Ro giving Sophie Foster a high five after class, he had a pretty good idea.

Sophie's smile was a little brighter that day, and so he turned a blind eye, telling the three kids he would 'look into it.'

Chapter Text

 "Do not, and I repeat, do not, let her leave this you house chasing some kind of lead on that boy while we're gone. Understood?" Grady said lowly, pointing a finger at Ro who was leaning against the front door with her arms crossed and a bored look on her face.

 She rolled her eyes with a huff. "Yes, I understand the basic rules of grounding a child."

 Edaline cringed. "We're not grounding her," she argued, fiddling with the lacy hem of her fancy dress. "We're just forcing her to rest for a little bit while we're in Atlantis."

 Ro raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly was it you two are doing there again?"

 The two elves looked at each other. "It's classified," Grady finally said.

 The ogre hummed. "Mmmm, let me guess. You're following your own lead." The two just stared at her, their silence offering the answer they didn't say.

 She pushed off the door frame and waved her hands at them. "Go, go, run along now, I can watch the girl just fine thank you very much."

 Relentlessly, Grady finally pulled out his leaping crystal. He had spent the past twenty minutes giving her a list of what to do and what not to do, as if she hadn't spent the past two years watching over a teenage boy. Seriously, Blondie was nothing compared to him.

 "Just...be careful," he muttered, raising the crystal as the two stepped into the beam of light and disappeared.

 "Finally," she muttered. Now it was just her and her charge. Flori was down in the grove wit the other nomes and Sandor was visiting his queen for some monthly check in, so the Ruewens had been very reluctant to leave her alone with their daughter for the day.

 She turned on her heel and trained back inside, pushing the door closed behind her. Ro rubbed her hands together, a twinkle in her eyes. There was a room, at the end of the second floor hall that was always locked. Sophie had mentioned that it was Jolie's old room and they just handed gotten around to cleaning it up yet. Either way, now that no one else was around and the blonde was still sleeping, their was plenty of time to go snooping through it.

 It was almost a full hour later, and Ro was currently going through a draw of nail polish, being careful not to !I've a single thing out of it's place. She had almost finished a full sweep of the room, deciding that their wasn't much here and she would have better luck convincing Sophie to let her go through that box of old human things she had.

 Just as she was inching the draw closed, she heard the distinct creak of a floor board from behind her. She wasn't worried. It was easy to recognize Blondies familiar walking pattern.

 But as the wood finally clicked into place, she realized that these steps seemed heavier then normal. Like the girl was stumbling around and bumping into things. She rose to her feet and turned around, leaning back against the wall and watching the door intently. 

 "Whatcha doing?" Sophie asked, nearly tripping over her own two feet as she appeared in the bedroom doorway.

 Ro narrowed her eyes. "I thought you were sleeping?" Her gaze swept over the girl as she straightened herself, using a hand to support herself against the frame. Sophie didn't necessarily look as bad as she did when she was sleep deprived, but their was definitely something... Off.

 "I wassa sleep." Sophie stated simply, leaning over slightly which caused her thick hair to curtain over her face. "But now 'mnot."

 Ro tipped her head to the side, watching in pure amusement as Blondie continued to lean further and further forward. Just as it looked like she was about to fall flat on her face, she snapped back up, using a free hand to brush the hair from her face.

 It had no effect, the long strands falling right back into place over her face in a wild mess that was quite frankly - though Ro would never admit it - cute. But nothing about b this seemed normal. "And what exactly happened to you?" She inquired, a small hint of warmth creeping into her voice. 

 Sophie gave a lopsided smile, making no move to fix her hair as she straightened herself, tugging on the bottom of her shirt. "N'thing. Notta thing." The words came out slurred, like she was taking through a mouth full of honey.

 Yeah, something definitely wasn't right. "And you expect me to believe that? How dumb to you think I am Blondie?"

 The girl thought for a moment, as if debating whether or not to answer that question. Suddenly her eyes snapped back up, barely visible through her hair. "I'm hungry."

 Ro snorted. "And that's my problem how?" Her smile faded slightly as she watched Sophie sway on her feet. It looked like she was doing all she could just to stand up straight.

 For a moment, she caught her balance. Then, she mumbled the words, "uh, oh," and went crashing forward towards the carpet. Ro swore under her breath, shooting forward to catch the edge of the girls shirt, not stopping the decent but softening it enough to keep her head from smashing into the floor.

 "Blondie? What the fu-" she was cut of by Sophie's giggle. Ro crouched down, and brushed the hair clear from her face. She took a moment to look her over again. The slightly red tinge to her eyes, the curl of her lips, and the smell of her breath.

 It was something she had seen quite a few times in Keefe's father. "You're drunk."

 Sophie grinned. "Mayyybeeee."

 Ro took a deep breath, trying not to laugh. "Why? How? Aren't you like, twelve?" This caused the younger girl to pout. "Nu, uh. Im like....... Older then that. I think."

 Ro slid down onto the floor, slowly easing Sophie's head down onto the carpet. Blondie immediately turned her head so her cheek was smashed against the ground, apparently not able to keep her head up anymore.

 "Your parents are going to have my hide for this, you know." She chided. Sophie scrunched her nose. "Not if they d'know."

 She thought this over. "I like how you think." Silence fell over the room for a moment, interrupted only by a hiccup from the tipsy girl.

 She knew she should have a serious talk with her about this, scold her. But it wasn't likely that Sophie would remember any conversation they had right now, so it was better for her to wait until she had...sobered up. Preferably long before any one else got home.

 "What are ya doing in here?" Ro looked down at the girls brown eyes, staring at her intently. "...Top secret. Now lets get you down to the kitchen and find something to sober you up." She rose to her feet, dragging Blondie with her.

 The girl whined in protest, leaning her full weight on her bodyguard as they made their way down the hall and towards the stairs.

 "Where did you even get alcohol?" She asked suddenly, looking down at the mop of blonde hair. 

 Sophie looked up at her, a twinkle in her eyes as she reached up and held a finger to her lips. "Shhhh, top secret."