Winter Wonderland

Disclaimer: I do not own Sofia the First nor the characters.

Outside her window, Sofia saw the snow piling up fast as the snowflakes continued to fall steadily in a mesmerizing dance. She glanced toward the royal sorcerer's tower and saw a soft glow in the window and smiled. Standing up she made her way out of her bedroom and down the hall as she pulled her robe tighter over her. It was chilly in the halls during the winter months. Soon she was making her way up the steps towards Cedric's door. Sofia knocked quietly and waited for him to open the door for her.

A moment later he stood there and looked at her, "Sofia, what are you doing here at this hour?" He asked her.

"I was watching the snow fall out my window and noticed your light on. So I thought maybe you'd like some company." Sofia said shrugging. Cedric continued to just look at her like she was crazy. So she finally asked, "Are you going to let me in or just stand there looking at me?"

"Interesting logic, Sofia." Cedric finally answered as he chuckled and opened the door further, gesturing for her to enter.

"I thought so." She smiled at him as she walked inside. "What were you doing up so late?" She asked him.

"I couldn't sleep so I was working on a potion." He explained, pointing to a table in the corner where he was set up.

Sofia walked over to the table and examined his ingredients and the instructions to see what he was working on. Behind her, she could feel him looking over her shoulder at her examination of his work. She'd been his apprentice for many years now and always found his magic fascinating.

"Is this really necessary right now? I think we have this aplenty at the moment." Sofia said as she turned around to face him. "It's freezing outside if you haven't noticed."

Laughing, Cedric agreed, "Yes, I've noticed. That's what inspired me to learn this spell. I became curious and it made me want to learn how to make large bodies of water freeze over with one simple drop of this potion without harming any animal or plant life."

"Yes, then we could go ice skating in the summer!" Sofia exclaimed excitedly, clapping her hands.

"Right. That's exactly why I want to perfect this spell. So I can go ice skating." Cedric responded sarcastically.

"What? You don't like ice skating?" Sofia asked.

"I've never tried ice skating. I'm already considered a bumbling, clumsy sorcerer… I don't think it'd be wise to put me in shoes with thin blades on the bottom and put me on slippery ice."

"Oh come on, you can't be that bad. I'll teach you! You've been teaching me magic all these years. I'll teach you how to ice skate."

"No." He said as he continued to work on his potion without looking up at her.

"Please. It's fun. You'll love it." Sofia pleaded.

"No!"

"Come on. Quit being a party pooper." Sofia said, smiling teasingly.

"Excuse me? What did you just call me?" Cedric asked her, slowly turning to look at her, raising his eyebrow.

"A party pooper." She responded, putting her hands on her hips. "You are acting like an old curmudgeon."

Huffing, Cedric pushed his chair back, standing quickly and walked towards her. Once he was standing in front of her he began to shift uncomfortably, huffing and scowling trying to think of a comeback but he was too shocked.

"Just get dressed in something warm and let's go ice skating. I'll meet you back here in a few minutes." Sofia said.

"Fine. But only to prove I'm not an old curmudgeonly party pooper." Cedric said as he stomped off to his bedroom to change.

On the walk through the snow towards the lake, the snow began to let up slightly making it easier to see their way in the dark. However, the snow was so deep it made the trek slow going and tough work. Sofia refused to admit it and kept up with Cedric's longer strides.

Wrapping her scarf tighter around her neck, Sofia continued walking beside Cedric until suddenly she fell through what felt like a sink hole. It became dark and cold and she couldn't move she was so packed in with snow. The next moment she felt a hand wrap around hers and begin pulling her up. It was Cedric. He was digging her out as he was trying to pull her out.

"Leave it to you to fall through snow." He said laughing at her until he noticed how scared she looked. "You're okay Sofia. You just stepped on a chunk of deep soft snow and fell through." As soon as she was out she wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight.

"Thank you Cedric." Sofia said quietly as her heartbeat slowly returned to normal.

"No problem." Cedric responded. He stood up and taking her hand in his pulled her to her feet. "You feel okay, you still want to continue or do you want to return home?"

"I'm okay. You're not getting out of this that easily." Sofia smiled at him.

Cedric smirked, "I had to try one last time." And they continued to walk not letting go of each other's hand. Sofia was thankful. She was still a little shook up after that experience.

A few minutes later they came upon a clearing that they assumed was the lake but it was covered in a few feet of snow. Sofia's shoulders sunk as she leaned against Cedric. Although he would have loved to take this opportunity to return home and not have to ice skate he hated seeing her upset and disappointed. So instead, he pulled out his wand and said a spell to make all the snow move to the sides of the lake.

With a gasp Sofia turned to look up at him. She smiled brightly before wrapping her arms around him, "Thank you, Cedric!" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah… you owe me." He told her.

"Anything!" She said as she began to tie up her ice skates. "Now hurry, put on your ice skates."

"Yay…" Cedric said in a false excited tone as he sat beside her to put his skates on.

"Oh stop pretending like you don't enjoy spending time with me." Sofia teased as she finished lacing up her skates.

Cedric blushed before answering, "I've never denied that. It's having to endure spending time out here in the cold and snow learning to ice skate."

Kneeling down in front of him, Sofia helped him finish putting his skates on and told him sincerely with a smile on her face, "Well I appreciate you enduring my many misadventures just so you can spend time with me."

They both smiled as Cedric tried to stand unsteadily with Sofia's help.

"This is going to be so mortifying." He muttered.

"No it won't. I promise not to laugh… too much." Sofia promised, giggling already.

Sofia began to lead Cedric around slowly, showing him how to move his feet and hold his body to learn the basic moves to simply skate forward. Then to show off a little she took off skating quickly and began to spin around backwards and forwards and all around him. Cedric was mesmerized by her smooth skillful skating around the icy pond and wasn't paying attention to his own feet; one blade got caught on the other as he slowly continued to glide on the ice and he ungracefully fell forward on his face.

Ice sprayed him in the face as Sofia came to a sudden stop beside him. She knelt down and asked, "Are you okay?"

Spitting the ice out of his mouth, Cedric sat up and said, "Yes. I'm fine. I will go sit down for a while." He was embarrassed, he had been so busy watching Sofia he had fallen on his face.

"No, please. Let's continue to skate together." Sofia begged, grabbing onto both his hands and beginning to skate backwards pulling him back onto the ice with her. "Everyone falls many times when they first learn. I still fall sometimes. I'm sure I'll fall at some point tonight." She reassured him, touching his cheek thoughtfully. He closed his eyes leaning into her touch slightly.

"Okay." He relented. Cedric let Sofia lead him around the icy pond by hand, her skating backwards. After a while he was able to move his feet more on his own. He smiled at this revelation. It felt good to learn something new, though he didn't want to admit it. Sofia caught his self-satisfied smile however and smiled back at him.

Soon the snow began to pick up again and they decided to take a break. Cedric conjured a cup of hot cocoa for them both. They sat beside each other with a warm blanket wrapped around them sipping hot cocoa as the snow fell silently around them.

"This is nice." Sofia said softly as she leaned against Cedric. He wrapped his arm around her pulling her closer.

"Yes, it is." He agreed.

Once he noticed her eyelids begin to close he gently nudged her awake, "Sofia, we should really head home. It's almost morning."

"Just a moment longer. I don't want this moment to end." She responded sleepily snuggling closer.

Cedric smiled to himself at her sweet statement. "We can always come back again. But next time don't wait until the middle of the night to suggest it."

Sofia looked up at him and said, "Hey, don't tease me. I saw your light on and wanted to see you. I could have simply gone back to bed and left you all alone in your cold, dreary workshop. But isn't this more fun? Spending the night out in the snow ice skating with me?"

"My my, someone is sure conceited… assuming everyone enjoys spending time with them." Cedric joked with her.

"Fine. I see how it is." Sofia said, standing up and leaving Cedric on the bench alone. "I'll see you at home. You obviously don't want to spend any time with me."

In the next moment, Sofia was grabbed around the waist and pulled back against Cedric. He stared into her eyes for a moment before leaning in and kissing her on the lips. With his other hand, he brought it up to gently caress her cheek before pulling away and looking at her tenderly.

"I want to spend every moment with you. I don't care what I have to endure to be with you, Sofia… As long as I'm with you." Sofia smiled when he said this. He leaned in again, more slowly this time and kissed her passionately.

When they finally came up for air he took her hand in his and began to lead the way back towards the castle. The sun was just beginning to rise as they arrived back home where Cedric bid Sofia goodnight with a sweet kiss even though they both knew they'd see each other in a few short hours.