Amelie glanced up at the clock, almost furtively, so that the room itself could not divine that she was anxious for noon to arrive. After yesterday, she felt like she was cursed not to get to practice magic again. Eleven fifty-six. So so close.

She caught her leg bouncing anxiously and froze it. Calm down, she thought to herself. It was no big deal. It was just a lunch break.

There was a creak outside her door and she steeled herself for someone to enter and assign her a task that would take up her whole lunch break. She held her breath and after thirty seconds, when no one entered, slowly let it out.

Eleven fifty-seven. One minute and she could excuse getting up. She went about closing all her windows on her computer and aligning everything on her desk at right angles before looking up at the clock once again.

Eleven fifty-eight. Time to go!

Amelie ran out of the building and to the T stop on the corner. She had reached the warehouse within twelve minutes of leaving her desk.

She ran through the crowded entry-way, almost tripping several times, and only stopped running once she had made it inside the large gym space. Running for ten minutes straight just days after having a 102 fever turned her into a panting mess and she leaned over to catch her breath.

When she looked up, she was face to face with the most startling pair of green eyes.

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed, and took a shocked step backwards. The man with the green eyes was standing three feet away from her, cocking his head. "Um...hi," she said.

"Hi?" he replied. Amelie took in his auburn hair and tanned skin and found herself scanning his toned body. She jerked her head back up to make eye contact with the green eyes. Green like a shimmering forest after a rain storm.

They stared at each other for another minute and Amelie realized maybe he was waiting for her to respond. "Oh, I'm Amelie. I'm friends with Adrien."

The man nodded.

"Are you from Prost?" she asked, cautiously. A thought occurred to her that if he was not from Prost and was from one of the less friendly Realms Adrien had spoken of, she had no idea how to proceed. Did this man know about her?

"I'm not," he said. Shit. She started backing up towards the door, cursing herself for not telling Adrien that she was going to come during her lunch break.

"I'm from Sawth but am in Prost on a diplomatic mission." He took a step forward. "Are you from Moore then?"

Amelie bit her lip. "No. Not exactly." She continued backing up until she felt her back hit the door. "It was nice to meet you but I have to...go," she said and rushed out of the gym, without looking back.

She moved through the rest of her day in a state of disconnect and was startled when Jesse came by to say he was leaving for the night.

"Already?" she replied, looking up from her distillation, goggles and lab coat still on.

"Yeah, already. It's five. I have an hour to meet my friends before happy hour ends!"

"Oh," she said, vaguely and took off her goggles. "Have fun!"

"Thanks," he said. "Go home soon. You look out of it. Are you feeling better by the way?"

"Yes, much better," she said, mustering a smile. "Just been a weird day, that's all."

"Okay, well see you tomorrow," he said and walked out of the door.

Amelie quickly finished up what she was doing and packed up her stuff. She had texted Adrien to ask if it was okay for her to come to the gym tonight about an hour ago, not mentioning her run-in with the man with green eyes from earlier today.

She had a text from him.

Adrien: Yes, come on by!

That seemed normal. Maybe this visiting diplomat had left already? Or maybe he was a friend? She remembered Adrien saying he trusted no other Realm, but the diplomat could have come from an allied Realm, if not one Adrien fully trusted.

She hoped that the green-eyed man was simply gone. She did't want to tell Adrien she had visited the gym without him. Somehow she knew he would be upset that she didn't invite him or at least alert him.

But she liked having time to try to connect with magic without the pressure of an audience.

She walked into the gym twenty minutes later. Adrien was sitting in the small waiting room where they had first practiced. He stood up immediately and met her at the door, grabbing both of her hands.

"Hey," he said, smiling. He rolled his thumbs over the back of her hands.

"Hi there," she replied. She leaned in towards him and stretched up to give him a small kiss. He let go of her hand and his arm snaked around her back in response and she let out a small sigh. She changed her mind about giving him a small peck and depend the kiss. His arm pulled her in tighter and she felt his hand bunch up her shirt.

She put her hand on his hip and teased his t shirt up with her fingers, softly dragging them over the skin just above his jeans. His body tightened in response and his arm snaked up under her shirt to the bare skin of her back.

Years of pent up energy was yearning to be released from them. But not here. Not when she could be practicing magic. She let out small breath and loosened her body from his. He did not let go immediately, and held onto her as she unwrapped their bodies.

"Well that was a nice hello," Adrien said, his arms still wrapped around her waist.

Amelie smiled and nodded.

"Shall we?" she asked and cocked her head towards the entrance to the gym.

"Um, I need one minute in here," Adrien replied, grimacing slightly.

"Oh okay, I can wait with you," Amelie said, slightly disappointed to have to wait any longer.

"Oh no, it's better if you go in. I need a minute to think about dead puppies or Donald Trump naked."

Amelie felt a laugh burst out of her. "Okay, see you in there."

She walked into the gym and went straight over to the large pools of water, making sure to keep her gaze straight ahead of her and not look around for a mop of auburn hair.

Brooks was standing on one of the platforms above the water, making what looked like walls of ice.

Amelie tilted her head back and waved up at him. He waved back and she shouted "You can do that? Change something's state like that?"

"Yeah!" he shouted back, "I'll come down and show you."

A minute later he was back on the ground and standing next to her with a small block of ice in his palm.

"Changing state is all about the transfer of energy. Solids have less energy so you have to pull the energy out of the liquid and it will turn to solid. Gases have much more energy so you have to pour energy into it," he said and his face whirled up in concentration. the block of ice melted and seconds later was a steaming pool of water. He hissed and pulled his hand back in pain and the steaming water fell to the ground.

"Forgot about temperature so you could impress my girl with a party trick, did you?" Adrien said, coming up behind them. He snaked his arm around Amelie's shoulder and she leaned into him automatically.

Brooks grimaced, "Not my proudest moment," he said. He held out his hand to inspect it, thankfully it was just slightly red.

"Looks okay. Good thing for you, Adrien. I would have asked Dr. Amelie to nurse me back to health," Brooks said and winked. Adrien growled at him and tightened his hold on her shoulder.

Amelie laughed and reached out to take Brooks' hand. "Looks fine to me. But seeing as I'm not a medical doctor, nor do I work in medicine, I literally have no idea how to diagnose whether you're going to get to keep your hand or not."

"I thought you worked at a hospital?" Brooks said.

"I work in a research lab associated with a hospital. I do physical chemistry research, I wouldn't know the first thing to do with a needle," Amelie said.

"Oh. Good to know. I thought we had an in residence human doctor now," Brooks said.

"Definitely not. Please do not inflict any mortal injuries and think that I can save anyone," Amelie said. "Now leave me alone, I'm going to try to turn water into ice." Brooks walked away and she turned towards the big pool and reached down to cup some water into her hands.

"Are you sure you want to try to do that?" Adrien asked, putting his hand on her back. "It's a pretty complicated process and is most useful for defensive measures."

"Well I want to try, it looked really cool. Besides, what if I need to magically defend myself?" Amelie replied.

Adrien laughed, "There's nothing that you would need to defend yourself from that I couldn't get rid of for you. You don't need to worry about that," he said and kissed her on the forehead.

"Why don't you try to make the water turn into animal shapes or something? That's still cool but won't be as difficult to learn."

Amelie stiffened but nodded.

"Okay. I'll let you know if I get anything," she said. "Why don't you go work on something else, I'm just going to be staring at this pool all night."

"Okay," he said, and kissed her cheek before he walked away.

She knelt down next to the pool and scooped up some water in her hands. It felt cool to her touch and she imagined it warming. She tried to send energy down the thread that connected her to the water but couldn't find hold onto the thread today.

Next she poured some water into a small bowl and was able to get the water to whirlpool. She smiled. At least she hadn't lost that. she kept playing with the bowl of water and before long was able to pull small droplets of water out of the bowl. They were simple misshapen amebas, not the dogs and lions she was trying to make, but it was something new.

Adrien came over after an hour and asked to see if she had made any animals yet. She proudly showed him the balls of water she was producing and he grinned.

They left the gym arm in arm at eight pm and he offered to walk her home.

"Sure, do you want to stay for dinner, actually? I was going to make curry," Amelie said in response.

"I would love to. Let me just tell Brooks he's on his own tonight," Adrien said and walked over to his friend and roommate.

When he came back he had a grim look on his face. "Brooks just told me that starting tomorrow a visiting diplomat from Sawth will be training with us at night. I'm not sure why he's here in the first place. Sawth hasn't had dealings with any Realm in North America in centuries."

Amelie linked arms with him and started walking in the direction of her apartment. She didn't acknowledge what he said about the diplomat, fearful her response would somehow give away her secret.

"I've met Theo a few times during my training and I just don't trust him not to say something to others about you. Is that okay with you?" he asked.

"Is what okay with me?" she said, picking up their pace, as her anxiety about what he was asking grew.

"That you stay away from the gym until Theo leaves?" he said, gently.

She stopped walking and let go of his arm.

"Stop learning magic?" she whispered.

He nodded solemnly. "Just until Theo leaves. I doubt he will be here for more than a month....It's safer for you this way."

Amelie frowned. "I don't want to stay away, Adrien. Can we just hedge our bets and tell him?"

"I don't think that's a good idea. I just can't be sure where he stands on security issues like this and I'll just spend the whole time worried about you or worried that he lied."

She bit her lip and looked away from him.

"Please, for me. Stay away from the gym for a while. As soon as he leaves you can come back, I promise. I'm not going anywhere," he said and reached out to take her hand. She let him and her face softened slightly when his thumb ran over the back of her hand.

"Okay. But once he leaves can we start looking into who my birth parents might have been?" Amelie had been trying not to let the question of her birth mother and father bother her out of respect for her adoptive parents, but the truth could open doors for her in the Elven world so it was becoming unavoidable.

"Of course. I've already been asking around a little. Brooks has also been looking into it. I promise, we'll really start searching once Theo leaves," Adrien said.

She nodded. He pulled her hand slightly and she walked over to him, allowing him to put his arms around her.

"I'm sorry, Am," he said, running his hands through her hair. She leaned into his touch, nuzzling him slightly. "I'm just worried. If I lose you again....I don't know what I'll do." His face fell into a kind of darkness she had only seen on her father. In the years following her mother's death his face had been shadowed in pain like that for days at a time.

"I understand," she said, reaching up and cupping his face in her hand. He gave her a soft smile and turned his face to kiss the inside of her hand.

"Amelie, I..." he said and abruptly stopped, sucking in a breath. "I care about you so much," he said.

She reached up and kissed him softly on the lips.

They walked back to her apartment together, arm in arm.

That night, she and Adrien cooked dinner together and spent the rest of the night talking like old friends. Amelie brought up Urgen Von-Pretzelscieger while they were cooking and the rest of the night was spent having a conversation between the zucchini and the tomato.

After the tomato had been at the zucchini's apartment for three hours, the zucchini shyly asked the tomato to spend the night for the first time in eight years.