One Month Later...

"I didn't want to leave my bed, Mags," Amelie said, although through a mouthful of salad it sounded more like ee wooden eve my beh.

Maggie burst out laughing and Amelie finished chewing so she could annunciate a full sentence.

"I didn't want to leave my bed. I had to be at work in thirty minutes! I never do that," she said.

"Seriously," Maggie said, "You're the most punctual person I know. It's honestly annoying to always know you'll be at least five minutes early."

Amelie broke off a piece of bread and tossed it at her friend, groaning. She had been having this argument with Maggie since they were nine.

"How have you put up with me all of these years?" Amelie joked, "With you always running five minutes late. We're a terrible match as friends."

"Opposites attract," Maggie said and winked.

Amelie took another bite of salad and started to speak, "Anyway—" but stopped herself. "Sorry," she mouthed and pointed to her full mouth.

"Don't worry. I speak Amel-ese at this point. Go on," Maggie said and waved her hands in front of her.

Amelie snorted. "Well anyway, Adrien stayed over again last night, like he usually does and I just never want to get out of bed when he's there with me. Is it terrible I'm whining about this? This is such a silly problem."

"No hun, it's not terrible! It's cute. You like him," Maggie said reassuringly.

Amelie blushed and smiled. "I do....Mags I think I love him."

"Already? Wow, that's so serious for only a month of dating, Am," Maggie said.

"I know...but it feels like I've known him my whole life," Amelie said.

Maggie looked at her friend skeptically.

"It does!" Amelie said, defensively.

Maggie looked down at her food.

"Looks Mags, I didn't tell you this before because it's kind of weird but....I sort of have known him my whole life," Amelie said, shrugging her shoulders.

Maggie looked up and cocked her head, "What do you mean?"

"I mean," Amelie said, "He's kind of an old friend. We met when I was ten and hung out like once per year until I was fifteen. It's hard to explain because he didn't grow up near us, he went to a boarding school in Lancaster and hardly ever had time off so we met very infrequently. But, in some capacity, he has been in my life for over ten years."

Maggie gaped at her friend, "Why did I never hear about him? I knew you when you were ten through fifteen too." She tilted her head down and raised her eyebrows, "Did you guys like....do stuff when you were that young?"

"What? No, nothing like that," Amelie spluttered. "We kissed once at fifteen but that was it. He was a ... friend outside of school... I just never thought to mention it to you since I hardly ever saw him."

"Wow," Maggie said, nodding in a small circle. "Okay, that changes things." She put down her fork and scrunched up her face. "But I still don't understand why you didn't tell me weeks ago about knowing him from before."

Amelie froze. What to say to that? She should have just told Maggie a modified truth from the beginning, why hadn't she? Suddenly she remembered. "When we first met as kids I kind of kept him from you because I liked having a secret friend. I think some of that bled over to now. I just liked having my secret all to myself. You know?"

Maggie laughed. "Of course, I understand. Sneaking around and having secrets is fun. It's sexy."

Amelie chucked then looked down at her watch. "And with that, I've got to go. You need to too, right? It's ten to one."

"Shit," Maggie exclaimed and shot out of her chair. "Good thing we paid up front. I'm gonna run. I'll see you Friday for lunch?"

"Yes see you then!" Amelie said.

The next morning, as Amelie's alarm trilled at seven am she groaned and covered her face with a pillow. She felt the bed dip next to her and then a warm body hover over her own. the alarm noises stopped and the tension in her body released.

"Thank you," she muffled, through the pillow still covering her face. The warm body hovering over her collapsed on top of her and she felt Adrien chuckle. "You're welcome," he said, into the pillow.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and squealed, "You're swishing me!"

Adrien rolled off of her onto his back, but snaked his arm around her and pulled her so that she was now laying flush on top of him.

"Better?" he asked.

"Mmmhmm," she said and kissed him sloppily on the lips. Then she shifted her weight and began to rise.

"Where do you think you're going?" Adrien asked, sliding his arm back around her waist.

She turned to look at him and stuck out her bottom lip, "You know I want to stay, babe, but I need to get up for work. Not all of us can stroll into work at ten am." She grazed his jawline lightly with the backs of her fingers and shifted to get up again.

"No," he said, "stay in bed for ten more minutes." His grip on her waist tightened and he reached up and kissed her.

She smiled. "Okay, one more minute."

They cuddled and when she was sure she had almost been four minutes she lifted herself back up. "Time to adult," she said.

"No," he cried and tightened his grip. Amelie laughed softly and pried his hands off. She rolled over, stood up, and walked around to his she of the bed.

She leaned over to kiss Adrien and his arms encircled her waist, once again dragging her back down to the bed.

"Stay here," he said, in a last attempt. She shook her head, "Come on, I'm serious, I really need to get up," she said.

"Fine," Adrien mumbled, pouting.

"Such a baby," she laughed and ran her hand through his hair.

They left the apartment and parted ways at the door to the building. Adrien held her face in his hands and looked down at her, a smile in just his eyes. "Have a nice day," he said, still looking directly into her eyes.

She leaned in an gave him a soft, sweet kiss. "You too, say hi to Brooks for me."

He nodded and grazed his thumbs over her cheeks one last time before he walked the other direction, towards Prost's human liaison center.

Amelie bit her lip and turned to start her walk to MIT. She spent the entire walk with a blush on her cheeks, thinking about how to tell the magical boy from her childhood that she loved him.

Amelie's morning passed by uneventfully with no run ins with her dragon-boss, as she had taken to calling Cathy in her head.

The clock was hovering at ten-to noon and Amelie's foot was involuntarily bouncing on the ground again. The anticipation she had in those few weeks of training during her lunch hour had yet to fade away and residual excitement at practicing magic lingered.

It had been one full month since Adrien had sent her away from the gym. She had probed him a few times but apparently the man from Sawth, Theo had yet to determine when he was planning to leave. Adrien wasn't even sure what the man's diplomatic mission was in Prost.

What if she went to the gym and no one was there again, as it had been every time she had gone before this man from Sawth showed up?

There was no harm in stopping by to see if it was empty. She could enter from the waiting room and look through the one-way glass easily enough.

If someone was there, she would simply leave.

The clock struck noon and before she could convince herself otherwise, she stood up and walked out the door.

On the T, she pulled out her phone to tell Adrien of her plan, but her finger froze over the send button. What if he replied that she shouldn't go?

If this was something else they disagreed on she would probably do it anyway, but this was his world, not hers. He had the power to block her from the Elven world entirely.

It was best if he believed that she completely agreed with him on this point.

Amelie ran by the McDonalds on the corner and tried to be clandestine as she snuck into the side entrance to the gym. She held the door behind her and cautiously guided it back so it did not slam when she closed it.

She walked into the waiting room. Empty.

Careful not to disturb anything, she walked over to the gigantic glass window and peered into the gym space. Empty.

She breathed a sigh of relief and walked into the gym.

Working for just thirty minutes on harnessing her magic again felt like stretching after a long nap. It was so relaxing and refreshing that she almost lost track of the time and missed the end of her lunch break.

At quarter-to one she stood back up from her seat near the pool and turned to head to the door. Only to lock eyes with the green-eyes man from Sawth.