THIS IS A BIG CHAPTER!! I'm so excited to finally publish it :)

After a pleasantly nostalgic work day on Monday, Amelie walked out of the warmth of her building into the wall of chilly air outside. She immedaitely buried her head in her scarf and wrapped her arms around herself. When she turned and started walking in the direction of the t stop when she heard a throat clear behind her.

Fear gripped her heart and she tensed her muscles as she turned around, thinking of ways she could flee from The Grey Man.

It was not the Grey Man.

It was Adrien. And despite everything that had been going on, despite her revelation this weekend, her heart leapt in her chest and tingles broke out on her skin. "Adrien," she squealed and ran towards him. His arms wrapped around her waist as he lifted her into a bone-crushing hug.

His face came up to her neck and she felt him inhale. It tickled her skin and goosebumps appeared. "I missed your smell," he said, and kissed her neck. Her face warmed. She leaned back and found his lips with her own.

"I missed you," she said, and the words surprised her. How could her feelings towards this man be so complicated? There was no lie in her words when she said she missed him. But the feelings of frustration and of fear she had felt anticipating their meeting today were genuine as well.

She had planned on talking to him tonight about slowing things down, but holding him in her arms just felt so good, maybe it was not the right moment. Maybe being away from him had made her too critical of their relationship.

They walked home arm in arm and spent the night in their blissful bubble of love. The same safe little world that they had kept as children.

That night, as they lay in bed after making love, Adrien traced small circles up and down her arms, drawing goosebumps up once again.

"How was home?" she asked gently. She had been itching to ask about Moore all night, but was too weary that he would shut her down when he saw her excitement.

"Oh it was so wonderful to go back. My mom is doing well. Right now all the Night Blossom Trees are in bloom in Moore, so the Realms rolling hills are stunning," he said. He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"You never told me that Moore had hills, or special flowers. Are there any pictures?" Amelie whispered. A ball was rising in her throat just thinking about what Night Blossom Tree may look like.

"No no. Elves value experiencing the moment, so photographs and recordings are not something that we collect. I'll just have to show you one day," he said.

Amelie was silent, then "When will that be Adrien?" He stiffened. "You left me behind this time—"

"It wasn't safe for you to go with me," he cut her off.

"Wasn't safe...right," she laughed and sat up. "Why do you get to decide what isn't safe for me? I understand that you know the Realms better than I do, but I deserve to see my people and learn about where I come from."

"I know I know and you will, just not yet. It's too dangerous right now."

"How is it too dangerous? From what you've told me, the Realms sound safer than the human world. There is less prejudice and less hunger, less wars, less violence. Why?" she pleaded.

"It's just not. It won't be safe until we know where you come from. There are political issues you just can't understand right now—."

"That I can't understand or that you don't want me to understand? Is that it? Do you think I can't take it?" she demanded.

"No it's not that," he said.

"Then what is it? You know that I can do magic. I am not some weak little human anymore," she exclaimed.

"Yes you are!" he shouted.

Amelie froze.

"You still think of me as weak? As something other?" she asked, her voice eerily calm.

"No. I didn't mean that. I just meant that there are very strong people that will try to manipulate you in the Realms if they know you are naive," he said, shaking his head.

"I'm naive? Well who's fault is that? You keep so many secrets from me. After we promised no more secrets anymore. You're keeping secrets for the sake of 'protecting me.' Just because you find a way to excuse it doesn't make it right. I feel like you don't trust me."

"I do trust you, I do. It's just been a lot for me. To bring you into this world. I'm so sorry I never told you about being an Elf, baby. I know how wrong I was for keeping that from you. Please don't hold it against me forever. I already told you I will do anything that I can to try to make it right."

"This isn't even about that. I've forgiven you for that. We were young and scared. It's all the other secrets."

"What other secrets?!" he asked.

She scoffed. "How can you not see it? I've told you so many times to be honest with me, to see me as an equal. How are you missing it?" Amelie began scooting off the bed and Adrien lunged for her and grabbed her arm. He began stroking the soft, calming circles he had been drawing on her earlier in the night.

"I'll try harder, I promise." His voice lowered to a seductive whisper. "You ask me something and I will tell you. Start now, ask me. Anything. I'll tell you anything."

Amelie remained still for a moment. "Take out your contacts," she said.

Adrien's tension melted, just slightly. He raised the hand that was not holding her arm up to his face and carefully took out both brown contacts. His silver eyes met hers. She blinked and realized she had her own brown contacts in as well. She shifted onto her knees and walked on her knees across the bed to the bedside table, where she placed her used-contacts.

Adrien's arms snaked around to her stomach and the circles began there. She took a deep breath. This is okay, she thought, he loves me, let him stay here.

"What's your favorite color?" she asked, still facing away from him. She felt the slightest chuckle from behind her as he knelt behind her, their bodies flush against each other.

"Violet. The violet your eyes turn when we're in the sun and the sky brightens them," he replied.

"Tell me something that I don't know about Moore," she said. His hand that was on her stomach started making its way slowly down towards where her legs met.

"Moore used to be in Georgia. During the seventeen and eighteen hundreds. My father was one of the Elves that helped humans organize the underground railroad to extract slaves out of the Southern United States. He would create basements or crawlspaces in old houses of humans using tereste, solid magic. Then one of the Rentrés who was trained to manipulate minds would help the humans "discover" these spaces and realize they could hide escaping slaves."

"That's amazing," she said.

"Mmmmm," he murmured in agreement. "I wanted to be just like him as a child." His hand had now started rubbing in between her legs, at the spot he knew made it hard for her to think.

"Adrien, I don't want to right now," she said. His hand stopped its perusal and slid back up to her stomach. the calming circles began again and she leaned back into him a little in appreciation.

"Did you know that it was Elves that made Stonehenge?" he asked.

"What? No!" she exclaimed.

"Mmhmm," he said. "There was once a Realm stationed in Ireland with a Rentré who loved a human." His hand crept up her stomach towards her breasts, circling one of them lightly before squeezing her shoulder and making circles there.

"Oh?" she asked. It was all she could manage with his hands distracting her.

"Yes," he said, exhaling his breath onto her neck. "The story goes that about five thousand years ago the gates between the Realms and the human world was less strict, because humans were clustered in certain areas around the world so it was easier for the Realms to exist secretly.

"The Rentré would occasionally go into the human village for small trading purposes, and it was there that he met a human girl. He fell for her quickly, and decided to run away from his Realm so that they could live together in the human world. They succeeded and ran away together to another island nearby where there were no Elves.

"He did not believe the rumors that humans and Elves could not have children. There were too many reasons he loved this woman." Adrien kissed the spot just above Amelie's collarbone and she shivered.

"The human woman get pregnant and the two were overjoyed, but when it came time to give birth to the child, she began to shrivel. The child was sucking her life away. She died before giving birth, her bones now protruding grotesquely and her hair now grey. The Elf was devastated, but wanted to see his child. He cut open his love to try to save the baby, but what he found was a horrid creature inhabiting his love."

Amelie gasped and Adrien's arms wrapped around her and squeezed comfortingly. She nuzzled his forearm that was across her chest and she felt his erection jump up behind her. She stopped nuzzling and grew stock still.

"The demon creature was almost when he found it, thank ___________, but the legend goes that it truly was something out of a nightmare. There were lumps and bumps protruding from it everywhere, as if it did not have the correct organs to function, and the wheezing breaths that came out of it grated on your ears like sandpaper," Adrien whispered.

"In our culture, concentric circles are a sign of evil and dark magic. He found an uninhabited area and buried the demon deep in the ground, then lifted the largest rocks he could find with magic and placed them in concentric circles around the grave to ward others off from the evil ground. Then, with his love gone, eaten away by the demon child, he killed himself."

"Oh my God," Amelie said through an exhale. "How horrible."

Adrien nodded and started kissing along her neck again.

It felt so nice, but she was still so angry. He could not fix all his wrongs with lovemaking. "Stop," she said, somewhat reluctantly. This was not right.

He nodded and stopped kissing her, but his hands had started lifted up her shirt ever so slowly and were making circles on her bare skin.

"Stop," she said again.

He let out a loud exhale. "Stop what? I'm not doing anything."

"You know what you're doing," she said.

He reached down and kissed her neck again. "No I don't," he landed a kiss for every word. "I'm not doing anything."

Amelie crushed her lips together in frustration. She fell back onto her kneeling legs and turned them so that they were not kicking off the side of the bed. He was not listening to words, she had to physically do it herself.

She made to stand up and his arms tightened around her.

His hands moved so that they gripped both of her arms tightly. Tight enough to bruise.

"No, don't get up," he said, "Don't leave me. I promisee I'll stop—." he tried to say, but was cut off by a massive gust of wind that crashed into him.

She yanked herself out of his grasp at the same moment that he tumbled across the bed and hit the wall on the other side with a loud 'thud.'

Amelie sprung into a defensive position she had used while sparring and glared at Adrien, who was looking up at her with puppy-dog eyes.

"When I say stop. I. Mean. Stop," she spat at him.

He shook his head in disbelief. "I'm sorry," he croaked.

"It's not okay," she growled at him and walked to the door, careful not to turn her back to him.

She opened the door and stepped into the living room, then put up a wall of air in the doorway. "Don't you dare try to touch me tonight. I am sleeping out here. You will stay there until morning. Don't try to talk to me then either. I need time, and I think you do too." She slammed the door and walked over to the couch.

No tears came to her eyes this time. She took a deep breath nodded. Somehow, she felt good.