Amelie checked her watch again, the third time in ten minutes. Quarter-to-six. She should have been out of work forty five minutes ago but her column still had no finished running. If she left teary she would have to repeat the entire thing tomorrow and she was almost out of the material she had run through it so it was a gamble.

She huffed and swung around in her swivel chair. After her first success at magic she was desperate to go back to the gym and practice. It had taken all of her restraint not to attempt to make little whirlpools out of every liquid solvent in the lab.

She glared at the column, willing it to stop dripping so she could escape this building.

Her phone buzzed. She rolled her chair across the lab and grabbed the phone.

Adrien: Are you okay?

She groaned. There was no way she would have time for dinner and training. She had promised Adrien though and didn't want to disappoint him after how much time he had spent helping her learn.

Amelie: Yes! Stuck at work :( Hopefully will be on my way soon.

She sighed and put her phone down.

Forty minutes later she finally hurled open the door to the gym and hurriedly weaved through the cluttered entryway. She stopped abruptly at the threshold to the waiting room. She smelled french fries.

Her stomach growled and she looked around for the source of the smell. She was about to walk into the big gym when the door opened and Adrien stepped out, holding a large McDonalds.

He smiled when he saw her and stretched out his hand holding the bag. "Dinner is served."

She grinned.

"I thought you might want to just do something quick since you got stuck at work so late. This way you have time to practice," he said.

"You are the absolute best," she said and ran over to him. They sat down on the floor and spread out their feast in front of them.

"You know McDonalds sells Oreo milkshakes, right?" She said and grabbed a handful of fries.

"Oh damn, no I didn't know that. Next time?" he said and winked.

Amelie smirked, "Next time."

"How was your day?" he asked.

She had just taken a huge bite of her sandwich so she laughed and held up one finger for him to wait. He smiled and waited patiently for her to chew her food.

"My day was fine. My boss usually is pretty hard on me but today she ignored me. Successful day in my opinion. Except I started a column too late in the day and got unlucky that it took ages to finish running," she mumbled the last part, still grumpy about the column.

"Sorry about your boss. What does you do that bothers her so much?" asked Adrien.

"I don't know to be honest. I'm just different from the rest of the women who work in the chemistry department. I wear makeup and dresses and they tend to dress more masculine." She took a sip of her rink, contemplating how best to word her dilemma to a man. "They don't really think I should be taken seriously."

"That's not fair! You're smart, they should treat you the same way based on your intellect!" he exclaimed.

She smiled at his indignation. "That's not how it usually works in the human world. Does it work differently for Elves?"

He nodded. "Elves have less sexual dimorphism; that's a fancy word for meaning males and females are biologically very similar. So we reach the same height and stuff and usually the same left of strength too. It makes it much harder for sexual discrimination to occur when males do not end up being physically stronger, like with your Sapien coworkers."

She picked up the last bite of her sandwich and chewed thoughtfully. "That must be nice."

He shrugged. "Hopefully your boss will see how smart you really are and get over herself."

"Yeah I hope so. How was your day?" She felt awkward asking him that. They had never had such a casual conversation in their whole friendship. There was always something to talk about.

"It was okay. I looked forward to seeing you. Definitely one of those days I needed a fire dragon to melt my ice breath."

She let out a loud roll of laughter. "You remember that!"

"Of course," he said, "Even if I wanted to forget it you wrote it on a note that I kept."

Amelie gasped. "Do....do you still have it?"

He nodded. "Sometimes, when things got really...icy...in life, I would pull it out and think of you."

She stopped breathing. That light tingling started growing again inside her and she reached out to grab his hand.

She rubbed her thumb across the back of his. "I'm sorry things got icy in your life. Did something happen?"

He gripped her hand tighter "My dad passed away a few years ago. He was young, for our people. Elven parents don't usually die. It's very rare. He was only two hundred years old."

"Oh Adrien, I'm so so sorry." She tried to think back to when her own mother died and how that had felt but came up empty. She had been so young. By the time she understood her mother was truly gone she had very few memories of her to hold onto. "How did it happen?"

"He got sick. It was very sudden. He died a month after getting diagnosed."

"I can't imagine," she said. Unsure of how to comfort him.

"It's okay. Well not really. But I'm okay. I'm working on it."

She squeezed his hand and he smiled sadly.

"Ready to get to work?" he asked, standing up. She nodded and he pulled her up by their still-joined hands.

She spent the entire evening making whirlpools. She was still unable to lift the water or cause any intentional changes, but the energy of her whirlpools was increasing.

They were all standing around by the door at the end of the night, chatting before everyone headed their separate ways when her phone buzzed.

Ryan: Last night was fun.

She bit her lip and looked around the crowd. Adrien stood frozen watching her, a frown on his face.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"No one," she said.

Her phone buzzed again and she looked down at it.

Ryan: Are you free to meet up sometime, maybe grab coffee?

She smiled lightly. It had been a fun night. The boys Maggie met had turned out to be really nice and the groups had spent most of the night together. She had ended up making out with Ryan at the club.

She shoved her phone in her pocket. She would respond later.

Adrien walked over to her. "Can I walk you home?"

"Sure," she said and linked her arm with his. She waved to the rest of the group and started off in the direction of her apartment.

"What are you doing this Saturday?" he asked suddenly.

"Nothing that I can think of. Why?" she replied.

"There's a fair going on at Harvard Square and it seemed like it might be fun. Do you want to go together?"

"I'd love to! Do you want to meet up around noon so we have an excuse to eat corn dogs and funnel cake for lunch?" Amelie exclaimed.

"Why do all of our dates have to do with junk food?" he said.

Dates.

She had assumed, but it hadn't been said out loud. An awkward silence descended as Adrien realized she was freaking out.

"I guess because I first gained your trust by teaching you how to eat Oreos like a junk food pro," she said. She knew it was a lame joke, but she needed to break the tension.

She was going on a date with Adrien. Her heart warmed.

"It's true. I would have lived my whole life in ignorance if not for you," he replied.

She smiled at the irony of that statement, thinking of who really would have lived in ignorance without the other.

He nudged his body lightly into hers at the moment she felt her phone vibrate again. It was in the pocket sandwiched between their bodies so she pulled it out and switched it to the other pocket, without checking the screen.

"Aren't you going to see who it is?" Adrien asked.

"Um, no that's okay. I'll check when I get home," she answered, quietly. She felt him angle his body away from hers slightly, like he was hurt.

If they were dating now, or at least going on dates, she should try to be honest with him. He would just assume it was much worse than the reality if she didn't come clean.

"It's just some guy I met in the bar last night. We talked for a while and I was drunk so I gave him my number. I need to come up with a nice way to let him down." She turned her head to face Adrien, and winked.

He blinked a few times in surprise but did not smile at her essentially admitting she was icing out a boy to be with him.

"You said you were with Charlotte and Maggie last night," she could see he was fighting to keep his voice even.

"I...I was," she stuttered. "Look I only told you so you would know it was not a big deal. If it was something I really wanted to hide from you I wouldn't tell you."

"What kind of thing do you want to hide from me, Amelie? I want to know everything about you. I want you to know everything about me. You shouldn't have to hide anything," he exclaimed.

"I don't want to hide things. I'm sorry I upset you by telling you about it. I promise it's not a big deal. I'm ending it with him because of you. Don't you get that?" Amelie spluttered. She had not anticipated they would do anything but laugh about this poor boy she was going to dump. Maybe Adrien was the jealous type?

"Why would you give him your number if you weren't going to talk to him?" Adrien asked, "Did you guys hook up?"

"I was drunk and I get friendly when I'm drunk. We'd been hanging out all night and it seemed like the right thing to do." Amelie stopped talking, having realized she had no reason to need to defend her actions. She had done nothing wrong. "But Adrien," she stated calmly, "it's not really your business to ask that."

Adrien's breath hitched and his jaw clenched in frustration, she could tell he was struggling to stay silent and racked her brains for a way to change the conversation quickly.

"I just don't like the idea of you giving your number to a stranger. That's dangerous. You're smarter than that," he said.

Amelie sighed. He was just being a stupid overprotective man. She grabbed his arm and gave it a squeeze. "You're sweet, and I know you mean well, but you've known me almost my whole life. You know I can take care of myself."

"Just tell me, did you hook up with him?" He asked.

Amelie's eyes widened in shock. "I don't want to tell you. Not because I care about the answer, but because I don't like that you're forcing me to tell you."

She noticed a T stop up ahead and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm going to take the T the rest of the way home. I'll see you later," she said, and pulled herself out of his grasp.

He lurched forward towards her but she jumped out of his reach. "I didn't mean it like that, Amelie. It's just, you're better than that. You don't need to throw yourself at a guy or be that girl who has casual sex."

"Oh my god, Adrien. I don't understand what you are saying." He started shaking his head and reached for her once again. She jerked herself away. "I'm walking away now, do not follow me," Amelie hissed and ran to the underground T station.

She arrived home later than she would have walking, but the extra time in motion helped to clear her head.

How could the sweet boy she had once known said things like that? Thought things like that? Did she really know him anymore?