Chapter One

She sees him first. She's just escaped Professor Hammond and is about to get dinner at her favorite diner where she knows she has a cozy booth waiting for her, when she sees a face so familiar, she can't help but do a double take.

She edges a little closer to where he is talking on his cellphone and inhales sharply when his eyes suddenly make contact with his.

She speaks first.

"Ian?"

"Amy," His smile is as warm as the sun but she feels a shiver that has nothing to do with the briskly cold weather in New York.

"It's been..." She trails off as he walks in step next to her.

"Too long," He finishes. "Tell me, how are you?" He looks at her with his amber eyes, gleaming in the streetlight, and she can feel herself being drawn in once more, because after all these years, she hasn't forgotten the crush she had on Ian Kabra. Back with they were fourteen and so silly, he had stolen her first kiss from her in Korea, and from that moment, she was hooked. In her eyes, he could do no wrong, with his beautiful eyes and quick mouth and sarcastic drawl.

She'd been obsessed, but he'd been obsessed right back.

She was blind if didn't remember the way he laughed loudly, throwing his head back and dimples showing, every time she made a (admittedly not very humorous) joke, the way he when he looked at her, she was the only girl in the world.

The only girl for him.

"I'm good," She hears herself say. "Just coming back from class."

"You attend Columbia then?" Ian asks.

"Yeah," Amy says and smiles, because despite everything, it's been the best three years of her life. "I assume you're not here to go to school?" She eyes him curiously.

He sighs heavily. "Afraid not. I'm here on branch business, if you can imagine."

She tenses at the casual mention of the life she left behind, but manages a somewhat sympathetic, "I can't imagine how it must be, branch leader at your age."

He looks at her strangely, "I'm sure you would know. You shouldered more responsibility than any one of us."

"Yeah," She says distantly, looking anywhere but those eyes, "Yeah, I did." For a moment, she is assailed by memories, ghosts really, of the past she's tried so hard to escape. It is as though she can see them all once more: Grace, her mom, dad, Irina, Evan, William McIntyre- And oh God, she can see them, like she used to all the time, with glazed smiles on their faces, mocking her because she knows what happens to them when they don't-

-Suddenly, as quickly as she left, she's back on the busy streets of New York, with one Ian Kabra looking at her with concern.

"Are you quite alright, Amy?" He asks.

"I'm fine," She says, brushing it off like it never happened. She looks up at him, determine to downplay this whole thing, and besides she's starving, so she asks, "Listen, I'm going to get some dinner. Do you want to join me?"

She's internally amazed that they can carry on like nothing ever happened between them, just having a normal, adult conversation.

It seems so normal: them sliding into a booth in the corner with such ease, it's like they've been doing it for years, and once they've ordered and she's teased him a sufficient amount about slumming it in a New York City diner with her, they fall into catching up with each other's' lives.

It's going quite well, really, until-

"You know, you were my first crush." The words slip out before she knows it, and she's blushing, hard, like she's fourteen once again.

So much for normal, adult conversation.

But he takes it in stride, softly chuckling and saying, "We were so young and different back then, it's almost ridiculous."

"Do you remember after the clue hunt, I decided to get us all together in Attleboro?"

"And Dan and Hamilton nearly blew up the house when they "accidentally" set off fireworks indoors?" He asks, and her lips curl upwards into a grin.

"Please," She rolls her eyes, "We all know you were involved too. Between Dan and Hamilton, I don't think either of them knew how to actually light a match."

"You can't prove anything," He points out, smirking, and for a moment, it feels like he's fourteen again too. It comforts her to know that not everyone in the world she left behind changed.

"Still sneaky as ever, Lucian," She comments, swiping a fry from his plate.

He snorts and says, "And you my dear Madrigal, are as elusive as ever."

She laughs heartily at that, and this time, he joins too.

After their laughter dies out, they lapse into companionable silence, each focused on their food.

"And Amy?" Her eyes snap towards his, and emerald makes contact with amber. The unspoken question lingers between them for a moment, until he speaks.

"You were my first crush too."

This idea popped into my my mind weeks ago and I hope to be able to update this as soon as possible, so let me know what you guys think, and be sure to comment and follow!

Thanks!