"Hurry up, we're going to be late late!" Amelie called to Adrien from the living room.

"You're always saying that, Amelie. On time does not mean late, honey," he replied. "I need just two more minutes, I swear."

Amelie rolled her eyes and slowly lowered herself to the couch. She was still sore from sparring today with Theo and needed to use her arms to support herself whenever she bent her legs. Despite the fatigue and soreness, she felt like her body was glowing and strong. Strong. It felt so good to think that word about herself.

She and Adrien walked into the bar ten minutes late. To him that meant on time, but to her that was horrifyingly late. Adrien kissed her on the lips, patted her butt and said, "I promise I'll make it up to you later," when he recognized her sour face and grumbling.

"Mmmmm, okay," she replied, and winked at him. She could suffer being late if it meant that Adrien owed her sexual favors.

Their group sat around a low coffee table in a cluster of arm chairs. She and Adrien walked up and Brooks immediately stood up and put his hands up. "Amelie," he exclaimed, "You came!"

He pulled her into a hug and she grinned. "Of course I came. I'm so exited to see everyone."

Brooks let go of her and stood in front of his chair. "I know, it's just been so long..." he trailed off and turned to Adrien. They did the strange double hug thing and Adrien slapped his hand on his friend's back. Then he flicked his chin at Brooks and Brooks laughed and nodded, then scooted around his chair to stand behind it.

He looked at Amelie and winked. "For you, my lady," he said and stretched out his hands towards the chair.

She giggled and slid into the chair.

After about thirty minutes, when they were both on their way to drunk, Adrien put his hand on Amelie's shoulder. She turned to look up at him and smiled. "I love this song. Do you want to dance with me?"

"Always," he said and followed her to the dance floor.

The bar became much more crowded as they danced and when they returned, they had to fight their way back to the group through a throng of bodies.

They were almost back to the group when someone to Amelie's left stepped on her foot. "Ow!" she exclaimed and fell forward into someone's back. "Oh God I'm so sorry," she said as they turned around.

Her heart caught in her chest as she met the eyes of the stranger. Theo stared back. There was a second when the world stopped spinning and all Amelie could see, all she could recognize were the green eyes that stared back at her. He smiled softly and her insides melted. "It's okay."

She shook her head just as Adrien's arm slid around her back and he kissed her cheek. "Are you okay, babe? You were right next to me one second and then you were gone."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just ran into this guy." She gestured to Theo. His beautiful green eyes were suddenly darn and narrow, the soft smile all but erased from his face.

"Adrien," he said and tilted his chin up in a slight greeting.

Adrien's arm tightened around Amelie's waist. "Theo," he said. "I didn't realize you would be here tonight. I thought you left this morning."

"Well this is my send-off party so it would be a bit of a waste if the guest of honor was not present," Theo said, smirking.

"I thought it was more of a celebration of you leaving," Adrien said. Amelie gasped and turned to look at him. His face showed no signed of remorse.

Theo simply nodded and walked away from them, as if he had not heard Adrien's comment. Amelie had seen Theo frustrated or spent enough times to recognize the furrows in his brow he got when he spoke of something sad. It was the way he looked when he talked about Taeneth wanting to eradicate humans.

Adrien guided her back to the group. There was once again only one chair left, but this time Adrien sat down and pulled Amelie down onto his lap.

Cassie sat to their left and she and Amelie became engrossed in a conversation about whether one could use water magic to control the weather and make it snow.

Cassie bit her lip and looked up as she contemplated Amelie's question. "In the Realms it's completely forbidden because our crop schedules are so important, but here on Earth I imagine it could be done. Although it would take a huge amount of energy."

"Awesome. That's my new magic goal," Amelie said with conviction. Cassie snorted but smiled at Amelie.

"Why snow?" she asked.

"As a kid I always wanted to have a snow day on my birthday. It was the dream birthday. Go sledding with my friends, drink hot coco and read a book by the fire, et cetera. Unfortunately, I was born in late October so it was never possible, but now that I know I may be able to control the weather...." she grinned mischievously.

"Babe, don't tell us your evil plans," Adrien interjected, "What if I feel really guilty about all the kids who can't trick of treat on a snowy Halloween and rat you out."

"Of course I'm going to tell you," she said, "You'll obviously be helping me realize my dreams, honey." She turned around and kissed him on the lips.

"We'll see. I have to also follow the laws, and messing with weather in the human world almost definitely does not fall within the bounds of what is allowed." He leaned down and kissed her on the temple. "I will always help you with your dreams that are acceptable within the bounds of the Elven laws though, honey."

"What about as a birthday present? Just help me get snow for one little afternoon." She wiggled in her chair and looked up at Adrien with eyes that he usually cannot resist.

He chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "We'll see. Maybe you can make a trade to get my silence."

Brooks came over shortly after and pulled Adrien over to play a round of pool with him. Cassie had turned to talk to someone Amelie did not recognize, so she simply listened politely.

"Amelie," she heard someone say behind her. She sat up straight in shock and turned around. The space surrounding her chair was completely empty.

"Look to the back door," the voice said. This time she recognized it and was not surprised when she locked eyes with Theo's bright green eyes at the back door. He had Pushed his voice to her.

He nodded towards the door and then walked outside. Amelie pinched her lips together and looked around the bar. Cassie was still engrossed in her conversation and had not noticed Amelie's change in temperament. Adrien was nowhere to be seen.

She stood up to get a better look around the bar and found him laughing with Brooks and a few other guys in front of a dart board, one empty and one half-drunk pitcher of beer in front of them. He would not notice her absence for five minutes. She slunk to the back of the bar and let herself out.

"Hey," Theo said as soon as the door slammed shut behind her. His shoulders slumped shyly and his hands buried in his front pockets.

"Hey yourself," Amelie parroted.

Theo snorted. "What?" Amelie asked.

"It's just, North American English is so strange. Hey yourself doesn't mean anything to most English speakers around the world."

Amelie leaned against the brick wall and looked up at the sprinkling of stars that could bloom through Boston's light pollution. "Aren't all languages like that? Like the actual sounds you make have no correlation with what meaning you're trying to get across." She tilted her head back down to look at Theo. "Like why does aqua have something to do with water in most languages? Not because water sounds like the word aqua, but because thousands of years ago, some guys looked at a lake and a river, realized they were the same and randomly chose that sound to mean the thing they were seeing."

Theo nodded and crossed his arms of his chest. "You're right. Although in Chinese and there character languages, the letters are supposed to look like the thing they represent."

"But we're just talking about sound."

Theo smiled and leaned against the brick wall beside her. "Then you're right."

"How many languages do you speak?" she asked suddenly curious.

"Ten," he replied. "But, two of them are dialects of Chinese so I'm not sure I should really count them as separate languages."

"Oh."

"I didn't want to talk about languages when you came out here. I wanted to say that I'm going to look into your birth parents. I'm traveling through the rest of the Realms this year and will try to inquire in all of them. The only one I can't access is Prost since I'm already leaving. But if you'll let me help I want to do it."

"Why do you want to do all that? You could get caught snooping in something that you shouldn't be."

Theo sighed. "I just can't stop thinking about our conversation on Thursday. How shitty it must be to constantly have to fight against the idea that your parents abandoned you. I don't think you actually want to believe that. It's just not fair for you to know nothing but you're so new to this world you can't do it on your own. I have plenty of friends who would be willing to help me figure this out. I've run through about ten different scenarios of why they might have left you in the human world, and most of them involve your parents being good people in a bad situation."

Amelie was stunned into silence. Could she really agree to let him put himself on the line so that she could get answers?

As if Theo read her mind, he started speaking again. "If you're wondering what I'll get out of this, I'm also very curious how someone could sneak out of the Elven Realms without alerting the authorities. How you could have lived just hours from a Realm entrance and no one ever knew. Finding answers might prove a few theories I've been working on. This is advantageous for me as well."

Could she handle the truth if it did in fact prove some of these theories he had? What if some of these theories involved her parents as criminals? Did she want to know if they were horrible people who really did abandon her?

Amelie sucked in a breath to respond when the back door slammed open to reveal a frazzled looking Brooks. He took in the scene in a millisecond of shocked silence, then called over his shoulder "Adrien, I've got her. It's okay, she's out here."

Seconds later Adrien flew through the door and wrapped Amelie in his arms. "Oh my God I was so worried," he cried and kissed her up her chin. Amelie stood stock still, suddenly incredibly embarrassed that Brooks and Theo were seeing this.

"Hey, babe, it's okay. I'm right here. I walked out for some fresh air. What's wrong?" She reached a hand up to cup his face in her hand but pulled back, remembering they had an audience.

"You just disappeared. And Theo was gone as well so I just thought..." he trailed off, probably realizing in that moment that Theo was in fact out here with her. He pulled away from her, but secured his arm tightly around her waist. He turned to Theo "What are you doing out here?" His voice was as cold as ice.

"Same as her. I came out for some air. I didn't even know Amelie was with our group." Theo said, his face impassive. Amelie felt a stab of sorrow at how his cold tone sounded with her name.

"Good," Adrien said. He seemed satisfied with Theo's apathy and lead Amelie back inside, Brooks trailing behind them.

As soon as they were back in the club he hurried his face in her neck and peppered her with soft kisses. "My mind just went straight to what happened with the man from Taeneth," he whispered in her ear.

Amelie's mood softened and she gently pulled up Adrien's chin to look him in the eyes. "I'm so sorry I worried you, love." She kissed him and then rested her face against his cheek, donning little butterfly kisses on his skin.

She pulled back slowly and looked at him with sincerity in her eyes. "Doesn't a small part of you think that you would have been less worried about me if I knew how to do defensive magic?"

Adrien shook his head and started pulling her back towards to group. "We're done talking about that."

"You said you'd think about it," she accused harshly.

"I've thought about it and I think it's a horrible idea. Now let's go back to our friends." His hand came down and gripped her wrist to pull her towards the group.

"No," she said. "You freak out over me being gone for five minutes. With Theo of all people. He wouldn't hurt a fly and yet I disappear for a few minutes with him and your first thought goes to him hurting me."

"Why do you think you know Theo?" Adrien growled out. "He is horrible and a scheming liar."

"It doesn't matter. I just think it would really put your mind and mine at ease to know that I can defend myself if it ever comes to that." She rested her other hand on his that gripped her arm and stroked up and down lightly. "Right?"

"You don't need to learn it, Amelie. We've already fucking talked about it. Stop bringing this up!" He pulled her once more towards their group. She dug in her heels but still felt herself losing the physical battle. She needed to get him to just listen to her.

"Adrien I already know I can do it. I'm strong. I've made an ice wall before and have started learning ice daggers," she said confidently.

He stopped and slowly turned around to face her. "What? I must have misheard you. You have been learning anyway when I specifically told you not to?"

"It's my choice, Adrien, not yours. You're not the only one who can teach me magic." Amelie pulled back her hand from Adrien's grip while he was distracted by shock. Her wrist hurt and she gently massaged it between her other hand.

Adrien looked up at the ceiling, shaking his head. "Theo. I knew you knew him." He looked down, staring daggers at her. "You wanted to be out there with him, didn't you?"

"So what if I did, Adrien? I can make my own choices about my friends."

"You're friends now? How long have you been lying to me?" Others in the bar were starting to stare from all his yelling.

Amelie looked around frantically, then grabbed his hand and led him back outside. Thankfully Theo had vacated the spot.

"I will tell you everything you want to know. I'm so sorry for lying. You have no idea how sorry I am. I never wanted to hurt you by this. I love you so much. I didn't even mean to meet Theo or become friends with him. I was trying to respect your wishes and stay away but we met before you could tell me to stay away."

"Oh that's rich. It's like you guys had a secret romance behind my back. Like I'm the bad guy in this shit."

"No, Adrien, never. You're my Elven knight in shining armor, my ice dragon. You're never the bad guy to my story." Adrien's face changed from one of anger to intense sorrow and Amelie reached up to hold his face in her hands. She swept her thumbs over her love's cheekbones and whispered words of comfort to him.

"You were pulling away from me. Do you want to be with him?" he asked, his face shattered.

"No. Never. I only want you. I'll only ever want you." Tears began to slide down Adrien's cheeks and Amelie's heart broke in half. She had caused this pain with her secrets.

"I only want you, Amelie. I only ever had wanted you. Please, please don't leave me," he whispered.

"Never," she said and pulled his lips down to hers.

They remained outside in each other's arms for minutes, hours, Amelie was not sure. She had calmed down Adrien enough to tell him the whole story, aside from Theo's continued promise to help her find her parents. Adrien seemed to take it well, even if he was rather silent. When his tears and apparent anger had both subsided they decided to go inside for one more drink before they left the party.

Amelie lightly sipped a vodka soda while Adrien convinced Brooks to do a round of shots with him. That round turned into three rounds and it was an hour later before they finally made it out of the bar.

She was happy to wait so she could search for a pair of green eyes among the crowd. It was only as Adrien went to the coat room to retrieve their coats that she finally glimpsed Theo. As fast as she could, she directed her energy outwards and reached for the Threads that always surrounded her.

"Yes," she sent. A simple message, but Theo would know. She caught his minute nod towards her and immediately turned back to the crowd.

They walked home in silence, at a pace far too fast for her drunk legs. Amelie was also still sore from sparring with Theo this week but she was absolutely not going to tell Adrien that. He kept his hand on the small of her back and she felt slightly as if he was pushing her along.

After they walked in the door he pulled away from her like she was on fire. She walked back to him and slid her hands up his arms, comfortingly.

"Are you okay, baby? I don't want—"

"It's okay," Adrien cut her off suddenly, his voice slurring. His arms moved up to come around her torso and her hands slipped off of his arms.

"It's okay," he repeated. He pulled her close and started making out. His hand moved down to cup her butt. His hand squeezed and he deepened his kiss. She kissed him back, trying to gauge his sudden change in mood and match it.

"Babe, let's go to bed," he said. She nodded silently, glad for this night to be over.

He picked her up suddenly without looking in her eyes and carried her to the bedroom. He stumbled a bit and her shoulder smacked into the doorframe.

"You're drunk, baby," she said.

"I'm fine," he growled. Her eyes widened and she didn't say anything else. She was the one in the wrong here, if he needed to let out some anger at her, that was okay.

He walked them over to the bed and set her down roughly. She felt like a rag doll. Amelie was suddenly conscious of her spread legs and revealing shirt and scooted up the bed to get under the covers. No need for pajamas.

"No," Adrien growled and grabbed her foot. He pulled and she was dragged back to the edge of the bed so that her legs hung off the bed in between Adrien's standing form.

She looked up and him, searching for his beautiful eyes, but he refused to meet hers. She tried to scoot back again and his hands came down on her thighs. "No," he said, forcefully. "You were going to let me make it up to you tonight. Now you need to make it up to me."

Amelie's breathing quickened as she realized what he meant.

"No, I don't want to." She squirmed under his arms, but he just tightened his grip and started kissing her. Kissing. She could do kissing. She kissed him back, trying to channel soft love and sweetness into her kisses.

His possessive mouth claimed hers and squelched any softness. She could not lose herself in this kiss like she usually did. Her drunk mind was racing, trying to figure out what she wanted, and what she could do to end this.

She kissed him more deeply. Adrien lifted his mouth just centimeters from hers. She felt his breath float over her lips as he said "That's it, baby, make it up to me now." He immediately dove back to her lips to mark them as his.

She squirmed and pushed against his shoulders with her hands, but it was as if he did not feel her pushing back. She was pushing against a wall. Her weak arms could not even register to him as a force to notice.

Amelie was powerless. Her mind travelled to that horrible day the Gray Man had followers her and her breathing quickened. She began to feel lightheaded and the thought crossed her mind that she might be having a panic attack.

His arm slipped around to her back and carried them up the bed while his other hand moved to the button of her pants and began playing with it. She stiffened and felt a ball rise in her throat. Her panic over and self-defense instincts kicked in. He undid the button.

She turned her head forcefully away from his. "Adrien, stop. I don't want to," she said, with as much strength as she could force out of her. While she could not physically overpower him, maybe with words she could win.

His hand came up and grabbed her face from her chin. "Yes you do. You were willing to back at the bar when I said I would make it up to you." His hand stroked up and down her leg and she clenched in fear. "You owe me now. Come on baby. You owe me." He began kissing her again.

She did owe him, for so many things. He had shown her magic. He had protected her from the bad people in his world. He loved her. And she had betrayed his trust and gone behind his back.

She closed her eyes and reached up to kiss the man she loved. She could give in this once and give him what he wanted. In return for her secrecy and lies she could do this to make him feel better.

"I just want to show you that I love you," he whispered against her hair. She could make it end quickly, she knew how their bodies worked together.

Amelie closed her eyes and let her imagination take her away as his hand continued its pursuit down her leg, her pants in tow.