AN: So, all grad apps are done, now I am in the midst of my last quarter of school, post-grad plans, including a teaching sponsorship (across the world) AND my job related/church related spring showcases. Busy, busy, busy, BUT I will be more consistent. I will try to update every Sunday (give or take a day) and that is a promise. =] Enjoy!


The food had been eaten clean from the take out containers by the time the movie came to an end and Johnny lay sleeping across both Amy and Ricky's laps. Feeling stuffed Amy tilted her head to the side to find Ricky looking back at her, his half-lidded eyes mirroring her own with a lazy smile. He patted his stomach, "Whew," he said, leaning his head back against the couch as Amy had, "I am sleepy now."

Amy giggled and nodded her head, "Same here," she glanced down at Johnny and ran a hand through his hair. "But Johnny beat us to it," she laughed. "I better get him off to bed before Helen comes home."

"You go ahead," Ricky said, gently lifting Johnny's legs and setting them down on the couch. "I'll clean up in here." Amy nodded, too lethargic to argue, and lifted Johnny's head up so she could slip off the couch. Once standing she turned to pick up the boy and hoisted him up into her arms. With a smile she nodded at Ricky and headed toward Johnny's room. She was thankful that halfway through the movie they had paused it to let Johnny change and brush his teeth, so now there wasn't much left to do than tuck him in. She slid Johnny between the sheets and slipped him his stuffed dinosaur, pulling the comforter over him as he shifted into a comfortable position. He stayed sleeping, looking content with even a hint of a smile, and Amy couldn't help one of her own, glad he had enjoyed himself. Leaning down she kissed his forehead and then switched on his nightlight.

When she reached the kitchen she found Ricky filling two mugs with hot liquid, the sweet smell of chamomile wafting through the kitchen. "Hey," he said, seeing her in the doorway, "I found some tea, thought you'd might like some."

"Yeah," she sighed, leaning against the frame of the door, "Sounds good. And thanks," she crossed her arms. "I still can't believe you're here." Ricky glanced over at her and smiled, shaking his head as he walked over to the counter.

"Don't have to thank me," he said, "Really. I just wanted to see you tonight." Amy bit her lip, feeling her face heat up as he pulled a packaged fortune cookie from his pocket. "Now," he smiled, "open your fortune cookie."

Amy squinted at him, noting the glint in his eye and knowing that her head was screaming for her to get out of this situation, but took the cookie anyway as well as the steaming mug of tea. 'You can do this Amy,' she said to herself, 'You can do this.'

"Did you open yours already?" she asked as he followed her to the couch. Ricky shook his head and held up his own cookie, pulling at his tie as he sat down. They settled their mugs on the table and turned to face one another.

"Do it on three?"

Amy smiled, "One,"

"Two," he gripped his own cookie in one hand as she held two sides with both of hers.

"Three!" They cried out together, Ricky squeezing so that his wrapper popped open and Amy ripping hers. Cracking the cookie in half Ricky popped a piece in his mouth and carefully fingered the paper, turning it over so that he could read it properly.

"You will be rewarded for your generous acts of chivalry." Glancing up at her he wiggled his eyebrows and Amy giggled with a roll of her eyes. He smiled, "What does yours say?"

Amy took the small cut of paper while placing a piece of cookie between her lips. She sucked the end that was in her mouth as she read and furrowed her brow, "Wha-?" She nearly dropped the cookie from her mouth, but caught it in time to pop it into her mouth. She giggled in confusion.

"What?" Ricky asked. "What is it?"

Amy met his gaze and held the piece of paper out to him, "It says," she laughed, "Don't kiss an elephant on the lips, today."

"What?" He laughed. "No it doesn't." But as he took the paper from her and read it's words he shook his head, "That has got to be the craziest fortune I've ever seen."

"That's the best fortune I've ever had," she laughed. "And the best advice."

Ricky shook his head at her, her laugh infectious, "I didn't know that kissing an elephant was an option for you."

Amy sighed and shrugged, "You never know."

Ricky laughed, holding out the fortune to her, "Or maybe it's a metaphor. Maybe you're going to have the option of kissing someone who is…gray, big, and wrinkly."

Amy made a face before taking another sip of her tea, "No, you're right. That doesn't sound like my kind of thing." They laughed once again together before slipping into a comfortable silence. She took the time to study him from over the brim of her cup, her hair falling just in front of her face. Ricky Underwood was quickly becoming more and more of a mystery to her as the days passed. She knew now that she had misjudged him, assigned him, too soon, to the twinkle in his eye and the dimple in his cheek. She had pegged him as a charmer, which he was, but had not foreshadowed his sweetness or his sincerity and it made him all the more intoxicating to her. "So how was your day? Tough day at the office?" she asked, reaching over to set her cup down and brushing her hair out of her face. "I'll admit, you don't seem like a suit and tie kind of guy."

Ricky laughed, looking down at his clothes, loosening his tie even more. "Yeah, well…" he set his cup down also and turned to face her. "When I was younger I never thought corporate would be my uniform either, but, dreams change, just like people." He sighed once again before throwing her a smile. "And today was a good day. My uncle is a higher up in BB and I'm like…his personal intern. He's teaching me the ropes and I don't get to see him very often, so it's nice being able to spend time with him."

"Aw," Amy cooed, pulling her knees to her chest, "That's sweet. So is he the reason why you want to work at BB?"

Ricky tilted his head toward her and nodded, "Yeah, him and my dad. My dad works at BB back home. You could say that my brother and I grew up being believers in the company."

He eased into their conversation, enjoying the company in a way that he never did with Adrian. Amy bit her lip and perked up, "So you have a brother? That's cool. Younger or older?"

"Younger," Ricky replied, "but only by a year. And we're adoptive brothers. His parents adopted me when I was thirteen, though they never mention it. In their opinion, I've always been part of the family."

Amy smiled and leaned her head onto her fist, "I have a step-sister and brother who live with my dad out of state; he got remarried last year. But I also have a younger sister, Ashley, and she's two years younger than me, though she acts like she's fifteen years older."

Ricky laughed, "Ben's the same way. He acts like an old man sometimes, dresses like one too, but he's a good guy and he's hard not to love.

Amy rolled her eyes and shook her head, "Well, Ashley's a handful. She's fourteen and she's really smart, but she also thinks that she knows everything."

"What fourteen-year old doesn't?"

At this Amy laughed, "Yeah, that's true. It's just that Ashley's…I don't know; kind of anti-social? I know she means well, but sometimes…she can be a little off."

Ricky smiled and leaned toward Amy, "Well that's the age we usually are. I mean, me at fourteen was a nightmare." He laughed with her this time before leaning back, watching her steadily as she brushed her hair back once more. "She'll grow out of it, eventually."

"Let's hope so." Amy sighed and smiled up at him, "So tell me something else, something…more."

Ricky shrugged, "What do you want to know?"

Amy tilted her head, "I don't know…anything."

He took a moment to think, folding his hands in front of him and scooting just a bit closer to Amy. "Well," he sighed, "I sometimes look for parks that have baseball fields and sit nearby so I can hear the commentator and the cheering. I like to close my eyes and fall asleep listening to the games. At home, I don't like sleeping with the door closed, but my brother Ben needs it shut to fall asleep. So when we were younger and shared a room I had to wait for him to fall asleep before I could open it. History is my favorite subject in school, but I'm really good at math and I like Italian mobster movies because the accents are really cool." He looked at her with a grin and motioned to her, "Your turn."

Amy laughed and nodded, taking in all the information before raising her own eyes to the ceiling. "Okay," she began, "Um…I like to listen to jazz music when I run, usually upbeat big band pieces because it gets the juices flowing. I need to have a cuddle pillow when I sleep or else I feel too cold and wake up grumpy. I suck at math, but love English and Science and I adore British television, mostly because the accents sound cool."

Ricky smiled and crossed his arms, sinking back into the couch. "I love big band music. When I was younger that was all I listened to: Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Bill Richmond. You know," he said, smiling just a bit wider, "Bill Richmond wrote some of the Jerry Lewis movies. I love Jerry Lewis."

Amy made a face and laughed, "Really? I never got into Jerry Lewis."

"What!" He turned to face her completely, "Come on, you're pullin' my leg." Amy scrunched up her face and shook her head, and Ricky playfully mirrored her expression.

"Three stooges?"

"No," Amy scoffed.

"Marx Brothers?" He offered, but she responded the same, a beat of silence following as they appraised each other.

Finally Amy rolled her eyes and smiled, "How about Dumb and Dumber? I loved that."

Ricky smiled and nodded, dropping his gaze, just to peek back up at her. "Yeah, like, when he hit her with that snowball?"

"Yeah!" Amy laughed, the two relishing in the shared bond as Ricky shook his head.

"I am going to make a believer out of you. Jerry Lewis was a genius."

Amy again rolled her eyes and shrugged, "You're welcome to try." Picking up both hers and Ricky's empty mug she stood from the couch, heading into the kitchen. Ricky stood as well, following her in and finding her washing the mugs by hand.

He leaned against the counter and stuck a hand in his pocket, "So," he sighed, "was that an invitation to a second date?"

She snorted and tilted her head toward him, "This was not a date remember?"

He nodded, holding his hands up in mock surrender, "So you say, but…you're still willing to see me again? Right?"

Amy regarded him for a moment, biting her lip as she lathered the mugs in soap. "Maybe…" She wanted to say yes right away; she, actually, almost did, but that fact, in it of itself was more alarming than she could express. Dropping her gaze to the mugs with a sigh her hands reached up instinctively to brush her bangs back, but stopped suddenly seeing her hands full of suds. She paused, letting a few bubbles fall back into the water before a gentle touch brushed passed her forehead and swept her bangs back, her face following it to find Ricky suddenly a breath away from her.

She felt her throat close up as his hand ran through her hair, his fingers softly brushing her scalp as it went and causing her heart to flutter. She looked into his eyes and got lost, the look he was giving her one that she could define, but was intoxicating, none-the-less. She let out a heavy breath and realized he was moving closer, his hand cupping just behind her ear and his thumb tracing against her cheek. "Ricky, what are you-?"

"I don't know," he responded, whispering back just as she had whispered to him. She was rooted in place, watching as he came so close that he could feel his breath on hers. Her heart was pounding so loud that it drowned out the screams of protest from her brain, but as she looked up at him, eyes wide and clearly confused he paused and softened his gaze. "Ames…" She closed her eyes and stepped to him, brushing her nose against his, feeling as though there was no going back.


AN: Dun dun dun! 'Till next time lovelies. I hope you enjoy the Ramy fluff, but just a bit of a warning, it's not going to be THAT easy for the OTP. That's just how the drama is.