Title: Breaking Point
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Suspense
Summary: There is a limit to how many problems money can solve.
Word Count: 1,234
Despite all the threats, betrayals, and fighting during the 39 Clues hunt, they end up as friends when they come out of the gauntlet.
Amy, a firm believer in the old-fashioned letter correspondence, makes Ian promise to write. (After all, he already memorized her address from the first day of the Clue hunt.) He does, and they go their separate ways—she to a new home and a new family, he to an empty mansion and a pile of Lucian paperwork.
He keeps his promise for the first, oh, two weeks. His letters are ridiculously whiny and always about trivial matters—Natalie was being annoying again, this time because a certain Louis Vuitton handbag had run out and wouldn't be restocked until December; a servant had accidentally put his cotton khakis in the washer, good help is so hard to find.
After a while though, the letters stop. Amy is immediately sorry, as Ian's letters provided an endless source of amusement for her. Later, certain rumors about the Kabras circulate and Amy begins to worry so much that she finally decides to fly across the Atlantic and pay her cousins a visit.
She sends a short email alerting them in advance and then takes the next flight to Boston. She doesn't check her email again, and it is for the best—about half an hour after her email is sent, Ian sends a hasty reply: Sorry, been too busy lately to write. Natalie and I are perfectly fine, no need for you to come!
When she walks into the lobby at Heathrow Airport, she is a bit tired, but her spirits lift at seeing Ian Kabra standing stiffly against the far wall, in true Kabra-style, away from the other "peasants" in the room. She runs over to him and tells him that she's glad to see him, that believe it or not, she has missed him. She says this with a laugh, but her cheerfulness fades when he doesn't join in.
She then takes a closer look at him. The first thing she notices is that his shirt is unbuttoned at the top, revealing bronze skin and a jutting collarbone. She blushes, even though she knows she shouldn't because her crush is over and there is nothing between them.
When her eyes move to his face, she notes the faint circles surrounding his eyes and the stubble on his normally smooth chin, as if he hasn't shaved in days. His eyes catch hers. Maybe it's just a trick of the light, but the dark orbs of amber seem more unreadable than usual.
"You shouldn't have come," he tells her coolly.
She is hurt, more hurt than he knows. Briefly, she considers turning back and catching a return flight to Boston, but he sighs and takes her suitcase and starts leading her out of the airport.
Even if Ian does not want her to be here, he will still be a gentleman.
He seems to warm up to her as time passes. Her questions about him and Natalie eventually receive sentence responses instead of just a "yes" or a "no", and he even asks her about Dan and Fiske.
They push past the revolving airport building door, and Amy takes a deep breath of cold London air. However, she becomes confused when, instead of stopping by the curb and hailing a taxi, Ian turns right and walks straight down the sidewalk. She keeps pace with his long stride, however, and doesn't ask questions.
After a short walk, he stops. Before them is a downward-leading staircase. As Amy reads on the sign, it is the entrance to the Heathrow subway station. Or, as the British call it, "the Tube."
"Natalie used up the last hundred euro bill yesterday," he says grimly to her unasked question.
The tension that had left Ian's shoulders now re-holds them in a brace. They walk down the darkened stairs. When they reach the turnstile, Ian reaches in his coat pocket, from which he pulls out a leather wallet that Amy recognized from the Clue hunt, during which he had paid for her when they visited a Korean bakery.
Now, his slim, skillful fingers reach in and pull out his Travelcard. He holds the paper card at a distance away from him, as if it is a cockroach.
As he swipes for both himself and Amy, they both hear a faint roaring. The electronic system announces the arrival of the train to London.
Green eyes flicker to amber. Without a word, they run.
Amy dashes down the stairs and steps into the train, suddenly grateful that she is wearing jeans instead of that new cute skirt she had been considering. She hears the clatter of leather soles and suitcase wheels against concrete. With a violent lunge that thrusts his coat sides outward, Ian just manages to fit in before the doors close.
As the train glides seamlessly over the tracks, Amy sits down at the very end of a bench. After a moment's pause, Ian sits next to her. His face is pale, either from the cold or from the strain of the scene that had just taken place or both. His chest heaves. With a jolt, Amy realizes that it is not the movement of the train that makes her suitcase quiver, but rather the fact that Ian's long, skillful fingers on the handle are shaking unstoppably.
Moving slowly as if she was approaching an injured animal, Amy puts her hand on Ian's. He turns his face abruptly toward hers. The amber orbs are light now, and seem to be quivering.
With horror, Amy realizes that Ian is crying.
In between, sharp sobs, he tells her the full story: After the 39 Clues hunt, their parents had canceled his and Natalie's credit cards. They had had to rely on the prize money from the Clues hunt. However, a couple million dollars had not been enough to sustain the Kabra siblings' lavish lifestyle. To make it worse, Natalie had spent money more extravagantly than usual. Sensing that it was her way to cope with their disowning, Ian had not tried to stop her and instead secretly skimped on his own purchases. He had taken to using the Tube rather than taxis recently, as they were cheaper. However, the money had still run out, as he knew it would.
Natalie spent their last substantial money on an Alexander McQueen dress yesterday. As of today, the Kabra siblings are officially bankrupt.
"Everything was going downhill," Ian tells Amy, his voice breaking, "and I pretended life was just dandy. My pride, my stupid, stubborn, damn pride, kept me from asking anyone for help. That's why I eventually stopped writing to you, I couldn't pretend anymore, I couldn't write more lies…"
"I know what you're thinking," he says. It breaks Amy's heart to see his proud shoulders hunched. "Two spoiled brats who finally realize they can't survive in the real world without their parents."
Amy puts her arm around his shoulders and lets him cry on her shoulder.
"No," she says quietly. "I think you're just two kids who have lost their parents. I know how it feels, remember?"