All Nighter

Summary: Roland and Miranda are away on royal duty. During a rather strong storm one night, Cedric reluctantly takes it upon himself to keep the prince and princesses both safe and preoccupied. He doesn't expect the outcome.

Disclaimer: I don't own "Sofia the First."

A/N: So I've had a few "all-nighters" myself, more when I was in high school and my friend and I would stay up watching movies or doing homework. Lol. And the one instance I vividly remember was when I was an undergrad in college. My friends and I (all in the reading block) stayed up all night to noon the following day to finish our final project…and then the professor pushed the deadline back a few days. I'd never been so aggravated, but at least it was done! Haha. Well, here goes a different sort of "all-nighter." Have fun!

*BOOM! CRACK! BOOM!*

Cedric made an annoyed face as he glared up through the window at the top of his tower. "How can anyone focus with all that ruckus thunder?" he complained with a sigh. He rolled his eyes and looked back at his book, which lay open to a potion for curing hiccups. Apparently a young prince in a nearby kingdom had been hiccupping for two days nonstop, and King Roland had asked Cedric to see if he could help (since the other kingdom didn't currently have a royal sorcerer). "Hmm, I think this is what he wants." He wrote down the ingredients and yawned, shutting the book. "I think that's enough for one day. Bed time, Wormy." He held his hand up to Wormwood, smiling as the raven stepped onto his gloved hand and held on.

The poor raven was beyond tired. Wormwood had admittedly stayed up the previous night, but it wasn't entirely his fault. It'd been storming nonstop the past couple of nights, and really…how was he supposed to sleep with all that noise? The rain he didn't mind; it was the intrusive thunder.

"All right, I've made something to help you sleep. I can see you're not quite as spirited as you usually are." Cedric walked into his bedroom, placed his feathered friend on another perch, and turned to his chest of drawers. He pulled out an interesting contraption from his top drawer and walked over to Wormwood. "Here, try these." He placed what looked like ear muffs onto the raven's head, the ear pads covering the sides of his head.

Wormwood yawned. "If I weren't so tired, I'd complain about the horrid bright yellow color scheme you've chosen," he remarked in a snarky tone, though it came out a bit slurred as he was exhausted. "But for tonight, I guess anything will help…"

"Right then. You get some rest. I promised the king I'd check on his children, and then we can get some sleep." He smiled at Wormwood, who gave him a pointed look. "I know… It's more of Baileywick's job, but since he's got his hands full, it has to be me. I'll be back soon." He left the room, leaving behind a raven who was too sleepy to argue or even care that he was no longer in the room.

Cedric peered around the corner while stealthily observing the hallways. Evidently, no one was around. A rather explosive crash of thunder made him yelp in surprise, sending him running down the hallway. He paused and leaned against the wall, holding his hand over his chest and breathing deeply to calm his pounding heart. "It's fine," he panted, looking out the windows at the massive downpour. "It's just rain…and thunder…and possibly a tornado. Mm! Oh, no, Cedric, don't jinx it." He looked up when he realized he'd made it to Sofia's room without even realizing it. "Oh! How convenient."

He lifted his hand and knocked a few times, eventually hearing a call for him to come in. When he entered, he had to laugh. "What are you three doing?"

The Enchancian children were currently hiding under the covers of Sofia's bed, and all one could see were their heads poking out.

"We heard a loud BOOM!" James explained as he loosened his hold on the covers to gesture grandly. He then regretted that decision as he slipped off the bed and collapsed onto the floor. He laughed sheepishly. "I meant to do that."

Sofia and Amber sat up, moving the covers back.

"That was just thunder, right, Mr. Cedric?" Sofia asked worriedly.

"From what I can tell, yes. There's no need to fear, Sofia. It's just bad weather. It will all pass over soon." He shrugged. "Well, I just wanted to check on you three to make sure you were all right, so now I—"

Amber looked at him with a slight whine. "You're not leaving us here by ourselves, are you?"

"Princess Amber, I still need to finish up something before I turn in for the night…" Okay, so now he was sort of lying since he'd shut down his research for the night, but he was not about to be guilt tripped into staying with the kids when he was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep.

"Please, Mr. Cedric," Sofia pleaded, hoping he would change his mind. "We really could use a guardian to protect us tonight, especially with Mom and Dad on their business trip and Baileywick being so busy…"

"I just told you girls that I was busy, yet you still want me to stay while dear old Baileywick gets to do all the work he pleases?" Cedric shook his head and folded his arms. Inside, he'd mentally slapped his forehead. That had to be the strangest comeback he'd ever made.

James grinned as he stood up and hopped on Sofia's bed again. "Come on, Cedric. Relax and have some fun for a change. You spend so much time up in that tower of yours that you're starting to become a bit standoffish."

"He's always been a bit standoffish," Amber reminded her brother with a smirk.

"Right," Cedric agreed before shooting the princess a pointed look. "Hey!"

"It won't be for long, Mr. Cedric," Sofia assured him as she stepped onto the floor and moved over to her mentor, grabbing his hand. "Please?"

The sorcerer sighed heavily. "Oh, fine… No more than an hour though. I've left Wormwood by himself, and he tends to get a little loopy when he's exhausted. I've found him using my wands to throw himself his own little party."

"Cool!" James quipped as Sofia hugged her friend.

"Not cool," he retorted, still managing to return the younger girl's hug. "You've no idea how long it takes to get jiggly-wiggly pudding out of a raven's feathers."

"Hey!" Amber gasped as she sat up straight. "Now that we have four people, we can finally play that game we were talking about."

"A game?" Cedric looked at each royal, expecting some kind of explanation.

Sofia smiled. "Yeah! Mr. Cedric and I can be partners." She looked up at her friend. "We were playing Go Fish, and it's a lot more fun with partners. What do you say, Mr. Cedric?"

"Hmm, I suppose." He watched as the kids retrieved the box of cards. He then followed their example of sitting on the bed, waiting for the cards to be distributed. Once he'd received his hand, he smirked and gave Sofia a knowing look before looking back at the twins. "Be prepared to lose, Your Highnesses."

"That's the seventeenth time you guys have lost," James bragged as he grinned at his opponents. "Face it: we're better at this game."

"I'll never surrender!" Cedric announced as he shoved his cards toward the blonde-haired boy. "Last time, and if we win, we get bragging rights."

"And if we win," Amber spoke with a mischievous smile, "you have to do all of our sorcery homework next week."

"Isn't that cheating?" the sorcerer inquired, folding his arms.

"Not if we win," James replied with a grin.

Sofia sighed. "Isn't it getting a little late for all of this?"

"Just one more round, Sofia," Cedric encouraged, smiling at her. "We have to win this time."

"We're behind seventeen times, Mr. Cedric. What makes you think we'll win this time?"

"We're due."

She giggled and nodded. "Fair enough. Okay, one more time."

A few minutes later, Amber gasped in shock.

"They beat us!" she complained to James, who looked even more disappointed than she did.

Cedric grinned. "You know what that means!" he goaded, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Ugh, just get it over with," James lamented, folding his arms. He really hated losing anything, especially a simple card game.

The sorcerer smiled down at his apprentice. "Shall we?"

She returned the smile. "You go ahead. I'd feel bad for picking on my own siblings."

"Have it your way." Cedric waved his wand, producing two cone-shaped hats and lowering them onto James's and Amber's heads. "So as one of the winners, I hereby decree that you both shall wear these hats all night!"

"We're about to go to bed soon," Amber reminded him with a roll of her eyes.

"…For five minutes then!" The sorcerer chuckled.

James actually grinned as his sour mood dissipated. "Looks like you're having fun, Cedric."

"Well, I do enjoy a good game of cards…and winning, naturally." He smiled proudly.

"And opera music," Sofia added, making her mentor sputter and look at her in surprise.

"Sofia!"

"What? It's the truth!" She giggled. "I've heard you reenacting a lot of them from your workshop. You've got a nice voice, Mr. Cedric, but it's kind of funny listening to you singing about being a young schoolgirl in 'merry, merry May.'" She yelped with a large smile as he lunged forward, trying to silence and perhaps tickle her. Either way, she wasn't going to sit still long enough to find out.

"Come back here, young lady!" He pulled out his wand.

Sofia grinned and picked up her own wand from her vanity.

"Why do you have that in here?"

"It's my old one, remember?" She smiled cutely and held it out. "And I keep it just for occasions like this."

James raised an eyebrow at her. "You knew this day would come?" He grinned.

Sofia giggled. "Something like that." She squealed when Cedric threw a few harmless magic blasts her way, and she ducked each time.

Amber blinked. "Should we help her?"

"Nah. Sof's got this."

A few minutes later (and after a draw between mentor and student), Cedric had grown tired and decided it was really time for him to head back to his workshop. With the kids all piled in Sofia's bed (in their own sleeping bags, because according to James, 'It would be so much cooler'), he bid them all goodnight.

"Night, Mr. Cedric!" Sofia called from somewhere in the middle of the pile.

"Night, Cedric!" the twins echoed.

He chuckled. "Good night, you three. Sleep well. And no kicking each other out of the bed."

"No promises," Amber giggled as she snuggled into her sleeping bag.

Cedric rolled his eyes and left, heading back to his workshop. He was strolling at a leisurely pace but yelped and hurried just a bit faster when he heard the next loud thunderclap. "I'm going! I'm going!"

The end

A/N: Hope you liked it. I wanted to bring some fun and happiness after the "Shadow" story. I know some of you were a bit shaken (in this case, pun intended, haha) with some of the things that went on in the stories. Yeah, it was a bit dark. The next story to follow "Shadow" will be a bit lighter ("Lavender Legend"), although the one following THAT will be a bit darker again ("Obscure"). So suffice it to say that there will be a back-and-forth of different types of stories. ;) Trying to get a little something for everyone. :D My next story that will be coming up soon is a story I've been excited about writing: "Woven Bond." And I'll see what will come next. Till next time! ~AquaTurquoise