Subconsciously

"You trash-heap!" a red-faced Amy shrieked. The "trash-heap" in question simply gave his trademark smirk. The outward calmness seemed to make Amy even more upset. Amazing, really, because she was already shaking in her anger. Ian, the aforementioned "trash-heap," took a step forward.

"I don't 'have' to do anything," Ian said, jabbing a finger in her face. "We may all live with your grandmother, but the fact that our parents all died in the same accident when we all were kids doesn't stop you from being a loser. Which you always have and will be."

"Points for originality, Kabra," she spat. "Calling me a loser. 'Cause no one's heard that one before." The other "Cahill" kids (They were only called because they were all under the legal custody of Grace Cahill. They all kept their parents last names.) watched the two arguers like a tennis match.

"You suck, Trent." Ian mentally scolded himself for not having the best comebacks. Although, he knew he made up for it with calling her "Trent." For some reason she preferred her mother and grandmother's name over her father's. Meanwhile, Amy raised an eyebrow.

"You wish." It was softly spoken, but everyone heard it nonetheless. She spun on her heel and left in the direction of the living room, leaving a speechless Ian. As the cheers for Amy's burn filled the dining room, only a tiny girl in the corner seemed to notice the emotion that crossed Ian's face before the mask of disgust settled in. (But we don't care about that girl right now.) Ian soon left the room to go upstairs, no doubt upset that he didn't get the last word.

"Why can't they just get along?" Sinead asked Ned and Ted. This was the one problem her genius mind couldn't understand. Even with her genius brothers' help.

"Probably because they never did," Hamilton replied for the Starling brothers. The exercise buff looked at his equally atheletic sisters, Madison and Reagan. "You know, I think they're worse than us."

"That's because you guys just destroy furniture," Jonah commented. The Holt siblings simply shrugged. Jonah then shot his fellow Wizards a glance. Phoenix looked concerned. Alexis, however, was a different story.

"You know what?" she laughingly asked her brother and cousin. "I'm pretty sure Amy's first words were, 'Ian's so annoying!'" The tiny girl's eyes danced with amusement. Unlike everyone else, she seemed to find the arguments entertaining. "And Ian's were probably 'Amy's a dork!'"

"How did they even start fighting this time?" Phoenix asked.

"I believe it had something to do with Ian dropping a dinner roll in Amy's soup and refusing to apologize," Natalie said, shaking her head.

"Oh yeah right," Dan said, glaring at the untouched breadbasket. Dan and Natalie, as much as they loved their respective siblings, both agreed that the arguments could be a bit much.

Ian laid on his bed seething. Natalie thought she had to lecture him on his treatment of that Trent girl. But he couldn't control how she acted. If she wanted to lash out about everything he did, how was he supposed to be civil in return? Besides, it was her soup that ruined a perfectly good dinner roll. He was grumbling about how soggy that roll was when he felt himself falling asleep. And he let himself do so, hoping to get the infuriating girl out of his head.

Ian was sitting on an abandoned dock, which led out to a lake. It was peaceful there and he felt more relaxed than he ever thought he could be. He laid down there, just breathing in the fresh air and listening to the river and the rustling of the bushes.

Wait… the rustling of the bushes? Ian sat up and looked around, blinking his eyes open. It took him a minute adjust to the sun. Out from the path in the surrounding forest appeared none other than THE Amy Trent. She didn't seem terribly surprised, or even upset, to see him there. In fact, one side of her lips curved up into a smile. And he didn't feel upset that she was there. In fact, he felt... happy? ...To see her?

Ian found himself distracted by her clothes. She had on a dress. Strange, because she almost never wore dresses. And she was barefoot. Ian couldn't help but stare at her feet, convinced that she was not the Amy Trent he knew, but instead some woodland fairy.

Without ever really making a conscious decision to, he stood up and began to move towards her, looking at her face now. Had she always been that beautiful? For now he noticed the redness of her lips, the sparkle in her green eyes, the wildness of her free-flowing hair. Ian drew Amy to him and kissed her on the lips. It was not the rough, lust-filled kiss that he gave all the girls he dated. It was full of...love and passion? He reached up and stroked one of her cheekbones, reveling in how smooth and soft her skin felt. At this point, the real world/conscious Ian started to awake. And panic.

Dream Ian bent down on one knee, while inside Ian was screaming, "What? No! Wake up!" But instead in the dream he began to speak.

"Amy, I love you with all my heart, you're all I've ever wanted and I will always want you. " At this he pulled a velvet black box out of his pocket. The part of Ian that was awake couldn't help but stop and watch. And he felt a strange bit off happiness from the scene… NO! That wasn't possible.

His lips were moving and saying the words he both dreaded and adored. "Amy Cahill, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

Instead of saying yes or no, Amy opened her mouth and a familiar beeping sound came out of it. What the...? Ian thought… and then...

...He jolted awake.

Ian sat up straight, not even bothering to silence his alarm clock that had somehow managed to go off at midnight. His hair was in disarray from him nervously running his fingers through it, and his amber eyes were wide with both frustration and relief that the dream had ended. But most of all, he was freaked out, because he had actually wanted to words out of dream Amy's lips to be "yes."

On the living room couch, Amy counted sheep in her head, losing track almost immediately. Because her mind was still hyperactive way, the way it would when she had just argued with Ian Kabra. She always tried to find points in it where she could've had better comebacks. It was no use after the fact, but she couldn't seem to stop herself. She did have to admit that she was pretty proud of herself for having gotten Kabra with that last statement; the look on his face was priceless! But the thought of him still made her blood boil. Dropping his bread roll in her soup, leaving the crumbs everywhere! She just knew it wasn't an accident! She turned over on her side and concentrated on sleep.

Amy lazily blinked her eyes, breathing in the salty air. A slight wind tugged gently at her hair, but even in only her bathing-suit and cover-up dress, she wasn't cold. A faint smile played across her lips and she squished the sand beneath her toes, feeling the surf rise up and tickle them. She admired the sky across the water, it was filled with pinks and golds and oranges, then at the horizon, it was fading to a deep purple. Amy was all alone on the beach. Well, almost all alone.

She felt a hand take hers, but for some reason, she didn't start in surprise. She just turned her head to look at Ian, who she somehow knew would be the one next to her. Despite the beauty of the beach at dusk, he wasn't looking at the sky, he was only looking at her, as if he could never get his fill of the sight of her. She blushed, a beautiful reddish tint spreading across her cheeks. Amy longed to raise her hand and run it through Ian's black hair, but she somehow didn't want to stop holding his hand. So she let it be.

Ian pulled her closer and Amy snuggled into his side, somehow feeling quite content. It felt as if nothing could go wrong with the world. She brought her lips up to Ian's and lightly kissed them. Ian gently pulled away to nuzzle his face in her hair, breathing in softly the scent of the strands.

"I love you," she whispered in Ian's ear as the dream began fading. She felt herself falling away. Then...

...She was on the floor below the couch with a sore behind, fully awake. And confused. Very confused. How on this good green Earth could she love him of all people? He was her life-long rival. A stunning, handsome rival, but a rival nonetheless. Wait...where had that come from? She didn't know, and she was too confused to try to figure that out. What confused her the most was the words. She actually meant them, and it freaked her out that she actually wanted to hear him say "I love you too."

Ian was walking toward the dining room for breakfast in a daze. He was unaware, however, that Amy was also walking towards him in a similar fashion. That is, until they collided in the dining room doorway. Everyone else was waiting for them, and they braced themselves for as bad a scene as yesterday. To everyone's shock, they both turned tomato red upon seeing the other. Then they hurriedly moved away from the room in opposite directions. Amy was muttering something about getting maple syrup from the kitchen, and Ian headed toward the bathroom muttering something about washing his hands. The room was silent. Until:

"That was weird," Madison observed aloud.

"I know," Reagan said. "Has Ian ever been that red before?"

"I don't know," Ned replied. "But I was expecting them to-"

"-explode?" Ted finished. Everyone continued making confused observations. Except for tiny Alexis. In fact, she just sat there with a knowing expression.

"If only they knew..." she thought to herself. She knew that Ian and Amy didn't really hate each other. In fact, their true feelings were over the thin borderline between hate and another strong, common emotion, whether Amy and Ian knew it or not. But no one would believe her. Which is why she was more than willing to wait for the day when everyone found out what she figured out so long ago. By complete accident.

(A/N: This one-shot was inspired by Perpetually Amused's Twilight one-shot "Fireflies." Just thought I'd say so in case anyone saw the similarities.)