Sitting down in front of a math problem for Amelie was like an artist sitting in front of an empty canvas.

Math calmed her and gave her a certain flow that she enjoyed. When her mind was spinning and she couldn't decide where to focus, she could always get lost in math. It felt like she was dulling the other parts of her brain and focusing all the light on her math cortex.

Yesterday, she had left work still muddling through a complicated crystallography calculus problem, so she spent that morning completely lost to the world, dredging through the rest of the problem.

She only got up from her desk once for a cup of tea and immediately regretted it.

While making what she thought was a quiet escape from the closet-turned-kitchen, down the hall, she came face to face with her primary investigator, Cathy. Amelie smiled politely and ducked her head to walk away but Cathy, as usual interrupted Amelie's retreat.

"Gosh, you look like you haven't slept a wink. First time I haven't seen you come in here with all that makeup you usually wear." She said, her voice saccharinely sweet.

"I was up late with a friend," Amelie replied simply. Cathy was dressed in her habitual neutral-toned sweater and slacks, no jewelry nor makeup adorning her body.

"You didn't even both with those colored contacts today. I have to say this is the first time I've seen your natural eye color." Cathy's masked insults about Amelie's feminine clothes and makeup always bothered her, but today Amelie was having a lot of trouble keeping her anger towards her boss beneath the surface. Adrien had worn out her patience for people projecting on her.

"That is my nat—" she started to retort that her natural eye color was violet, but stopped herself. Telling the truth was not going to fill in the chip on Cathy's shoulder, nor would it make Amelie feel any less wronged. She shook her head and took a sip of tea to mask her frustration.

"Have a nice morning," she grumbled as politely as she could manage, and trudged back to her desk.

The rest of the morning passed in a tranquil peace as the math of physical chemistry sang to Amelie and she unwove its symphonies.

___________________

At lunch with Charlotte, Amelie could barely keep her focus on the conversation. She was either thinking about magic, worrying about the daunting Grey Man from yesterday, or pondering how Adrien had somehow tracked down her apartment.

Her feelings for Adrien were anything but simple. She couldn't stop the pleasant burning in her toes whenever she thought about him, even when she was working hard to use her rational mind and be angry at him for withholding magic from her. Honestly, she would have been creeped out by anyone else mysteriously tracking down her apartment, but Adrien was one of her oldest friends. She still felt a pull to trust him.

"All right, I give up," Charlotte interrupted in the middle of her explaining her project for the second time to the distracted Amelie.

Amelie looked up at her with a face full of salad.

"Whu?" she said, batting her eyes and deliberately talking through the ball of lettuce to make her friend laugh. It worked and Charlotte let out the ridiculous chortle that Amelie loved.

"What has got you so on edge, girl? I've caught you turning around at least ten times while we've been here for only thirty minutes." Charlotte asked, genuinely concerned.

Amelie had felt the burning need to look over her shoulder every five minutes in the restaurant. Next time she would have to sit with her back to the wall so she could stop looking like a mad woman.

Amelie decided to tell her a partial truth, "I didn't sleep well and have a lot on my mind. I actually ran into an old friend yesterday and he mentioned he worked in this part of town. I'm just not sure if I'm mentally prepared to see him today." She took another bite of salad.

"Yea you do look pretty tired. Your eyes look really different right now, they're darker somehow...wait....Amelie, are you wearing colored contacts?! Shit how did it take me so long to notice that!?" Amelie looked down sheepishly. "You are, aren't you? Why? What gives? Your eyes are amazing."

Amelie had been worried about this moment all throughout lunch and thankfully had thought through her answer when she put on the contacts that morning. "I went to the Optometrist and needed glasses anyway so I decided to get colored contacts for a bit to see what my face would look like with dark eyes. Why not? You know I've never even dyed my hair so I thought it could be interesting to just try it out for a while to see what people think. It's just a fun experiment."

"Yea but when people dye their hair they usually dye it from brown to a different more fun color. Your eyes already were really cool!" She noticed Amelie fidgeting anxiously in her seat, " I mean the contacts look good, Am, really, I'm just confused. You never talked about changing them before, that's all." Charlotte tried to cover her tracks like a good friend.

"It was a spur of the moment decision. He offered colored contacts and I thought, 'why not?'"

"Oh. Okay," Charlotte said, clearly still unconvinced, but, she was smart enough to know that Amelie was not in the mood to discuss it.