This story takes place a few years after the clue hunt. Amy is 16, Ian 17, and Dan and Natalie, 13. This is not the first time their families have celebrated special occasions together and they are slowly becoming better friends. All characters belong to the authors. Please let me know if I should continue it! Enjoy!
Ian couldn't believe his eyes. She was sitting in the control room, her head buried in a book, hair in a bun wearing an old Yale University sweatshirt, in leggings and argyle leg warmers, and she couldn't have looked lovelier.
Her back was to him so she didn't notice his silhouette framed in the doorway when she glanced up to looks at the monitors surrounding the room, checking for who-knows-what like she had been for weeks. So he didn't move; just took in the image of her enjoying herself and her book and her cup of hot chocolate. For a moment he imagined himself walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her and kissing her cheek.
He blushed and silently chastised himself for thinking those thoughts. He was a Kabra, and should not be thinking those thoughts; especially about Amy.
"Amy," he said clearing his throat, his cheeks flaming. "Dinner is ready and Dan and Nat are very close to killing each other so I would recommend you come quickly."
She turned around at the sound of his voice her eyes taking a moment to adjust to his dark silhouette in the bright door way. She smiled at him, any trace of her shyness erased from years of practice.
"Just give me a few more minutes; I'm almost done this chapter."
He smiled to himself as she turned back to her book and buried herself back into whatever world she was exploring.
Pausing, he allowed himself to see how absurd this picture was. Here he was with Amy Cahill, in a control room covered in monitors that tracked every room and every blade of grass outside, a week before Christmas, in her house. A few years ago he would have gotten rid of her for good if he had the chance, and now he was about to celebrate Christmas with her and her brother, not for the first time, either.
Instead of leaving the control room like he should have, he walked deeper into the screen-filled room and examined them one by one.
"What are you looking for, Amy?" he asked as she placed her bookmark in her book and set it off to the side. "You spend all of you time in here now."
She sighed. "Nothing, I guess. It was just a hunch and now it's turned into paranoia."
"Well if you think it's something, it must be. I highly doubt its paranoia." His own voice surprised him. Did I really just say that?
She blushed. "Well, um, thanks."
He stood there for a moment watching her as her eyes traced the floor then dart up to meet his. Not all of her shyness is gone, he thought, his lips spreading into a smirk.
They stood there for a moment, neither one saying anything. Ian could feel his cheeks burning as the silence spread on between them.
Amy's eyes darted away, her cheeks flaming too, and he stuttered "I should probably get down there…"
"Yeah, I'll be right down," Amy whispered at the floor and waited until the door closed behind him to finally breathe out a shuddering breath as she leaned against the control panel for support.