With the first light of dawn, Emily rose up from the bed, carefully sliding under the sheets without waking Alison up. Emily occasionally liked to wake up first thing in the morning. She considered herself more of a morning person, unlike her girlfriend, who was definitely the night owl type. Emily figured she liked waking up early because she had been following in her father's traits ever since she could remember herself, and Wayne was definitely one to rise along with the sun.
The girls had left them in the middle of the night with the only explanation being that they wanted to be with their boyfriends. Emily and Alison couldn't blame them, they didn't like sleeping without each other, either.
"I guess it wasn't really a sleepover after all," Emily had mused out loud as she shut the door behind her previous the previous night.
"Emmy?" Alison called out from the bedroom. She had woken up a few minutes before, and had convinced herself to slide out of bed and drag herself to the bathroom, but the second she was done brushing her teeth and fixing her hair, she found herself tiredly crawling back under the covers. Emily was already in the kitchen, making coffee for her and the blonde, stopping dead in her tracks when she heard Alison call.
"Did you just call me Emmy?" Emily chuckled, walking in her pajamas back to the doorway of the bedroom. Alison picked her head up from the pillow and smiled softly at her girlfriend.
"I think it's cute," Alison shrugged simply. The blonde knew Emily hated when people called her that, wanting to tease her. Teasing Emily had become one of her favorite hobbies ever since they'd began dating
"I thought it was cute too, but then again, I was seven. Ugh, I can't believe they still call me that," Emily groaned, referring to her parents. She narrowed her eyes at her half-asleep girlfriend, "And now you too."
Alison laughed wholeheartedly at that, finally rising up and revealing herself from under the covers. She was wearing her usual PJs - a tank top and shorts - which she wore even in the coldest days of winter, and Emily smiled at the sight.
The brunette didn't think that she could ever consider the sight in front of her as "usual". She would never get used to the feeling of seeing Alison rise from their shared bed in the morning, looking beautiful as ever. She didn't think she could ever even get used to the fact that she was dating Alison. Emily was still at times in shock from their whole relationship. Even though a considerable amount of time had passed since they'd started dating, she still just couldn't quite process the whole ordeal. She considered it a good thing, though; she would never ever get sick of Alison, and she hoped that the blonde never got tired of her, either.
Alison padded lightly towards Emily, rubbing her eyes sleepily in the process. Emily just wanted to embrace Alison right there, she found the blonde to be absolutely adorable.
"Hi, baby," Alison cooed lazily, hugging Emily close to her and inhaling her mermaid's sweet scent.
"Good morning," Emily replied, kissing Alison's forehead softly.
"Mmm, what time is it?" Alison parted from Emily, looping both her arms around the brunette's left arm as they walked to the kitchen.
"About time you woke up," Emily joked lightly. Alison pouted at her and the brunette couldn't help but smile at her girlfriend's cuteness. To think that that sweet girl was once considered by many a "harsh Queen Bee" almost made her scoff. "It's 9:30. We're leaving in 50 minutes," Emily finally supplied.
Alison nodded as she took a seat on one of the barstools and rested her forearms on the cool, polished marble counter and her head on top of them. She heard a clinking sound and lifted her head to see that Emily had placed in front of her a plate with a pile of warm chocolate-chip pancakes topped with maple syrup. The brunette went ahead and also placed a mug filled with coffee next to the plate, for good measure. It's a good thing they'd gotten groceries for everyone yesterday on their way back from the mall.
"Em, what-"
"Eat up," Emily prompted and smiled warmly.
"Emily, you didn't have to do all of this," Alison answered as her eyes lit up, finally awake enough to stand up and walk around the counter to Emily's side. She wrapped her hands around Emily's waist and nuzzled her nose against the brunette's, giving her a chaste kiss. It reminded the blonde a little of her first kiss with Emily in her own kitchen, only this time they were in Paris, their dream destination, and they also didn't need to worry about someone interrupting or walking in on them.
"I know," Emily smiled as she parted from Alison. "I wanted to," she explained cheerfully. She couldn't remember a time when she was this peaceful, without a care in the world.
"You're going to make such a good wife," Alison muttered under her breath as she shook her head playfully and returned to her seat.
"What?" Emily asked honestly, not hearing what the blonde had said.
"Nothing," Alison brushed it off easily. "Thanks for this, Em." Emily nodded with a gracious expression. "What about you? Where's your food?" the blonde asked worriedly once she noticed Emily wasn't eating.
"Right here," Emily grabbed own her plate and piled it with pancakes, taking a seat next to Alison.
Alison ate her pancakes and sipped her coffee, warmth settling in her heart as she glanced every now and then at Emily who was pretty focused on her plate. Emily looked amazing in the natural light coming from the wide balcony glass doors. Every feature of her face was highlighted and accentuated, and Alison couldn't help but fall more and more in love with the girl as every minute ticked by.
A faint knock on the door disturbed their quiet quality time. Alison stood, slightly bothered by the interference, and walked lightly over to the door, looking for a second at Emily who was frowning her eyebrow a little. She reached out a hand before opening the heavy, fancy-looking door.
"I smell pancakes!" Hanna stated in a sing-song kind of voice as she brushed past Alison and walked towards the kitchen, only directed by the delicious aroma.
"Sure, Han, come in. Good morning, by the way," Alison mumbled sarcastically as she closed the door and walked over to the two girls.
Hanna was already munching on some extra pancakes Emily had made with a satisfied smile that showed her dimples.
"Where's Caleb?" Emily asked her blonde friend who was too busy finishing all of their food.
"Asleep. He always wakes up like, five minutes before we have to leave," she chuckled. "It's amazing how he's never late," Hanna muttered in awe.
The girls giggled as Alison took a seat between Emily and Hanna, finishing her meal, this time, without any interruptions. They talked amongst themselves to keep the bubbly blonde entertained until they finished and cleaned the dishes.
"Thirty minutes!" Hanna called out as she exited the hotel room with a half-eaten pancake in her hand, leaving the two girls to change and get ready.
XXXXX
"How do you guys feel about Supertramp?"
Ezra turned in question to the people in the car with a hopeful face as he pulled out the vintage band's CD from his backpack. They all shot him a questioning look and he took the hint, turning down the option begrudgingly.
"Who?" they all asked in unison.
"That's what I thought."
The group was sitting in their rented vehicle on their way to their third-day destination - Arc de Triomphe. Everything seemed in place and they were having a good time, but the only thing they were still struggling with was the song choice.
"I still don't get why we can't play songs from my music library," Emily grumbled. Alison had disqualified Emily's playlists after the brunette had offered to pick songs to play during the ride, making Emily dizzy with confusion.
"Babe, no offense, but you have the gayest playlist I've ever seen."
"And that means...?" Emily trailed off, truly not understanding Alison's point.
"It means absolutely all of your songs are about girls on girls," Alison explained as if it was obvious. Emily gave her another puzzled look and she sighed, holding her hand out in front of her. "Give me your phone, I'll show you."
Emily handed her the device and Alison quickly turned on the music player, hurrying to prove her point. She scrabbled through Emily's playlists.
"See? Here, this is what I'm talking about," Alison started. "'Girls Like Girls', 'I Kissed a Girl', 'She Likes Girls', 'I Found a Girl'... Seriously Em, I have nothing against any of these songs, but this goes on through your entire playlist."
"That's hilarious," Hanna cackled, "she's kinda right, Em. I mean, these are the only songs you listen to. I can't believe I hadn't realized you were into girls sooner."
"Shut up, Hanna," Emily rolled her eyes.
"How 'bout you let the master handle this?" Hanna challenged playfully, already prepared to plug her phone to the car stereo.
"Right... I remember how 'the master' was the first one in line to see her boy, Justin Bieber's new movie," Caleb scoffed mischievously.
"First of all, it's not just a movie, it's his real story," Hanna corrected her boyfriend with a grave voice.
"About what? His hair?"
"You know what? Just don't talk about the Biebs, okay? You don't know the Biebs, you don't understand the Biebs. Or his hair." Hanna finished, dead serious.
"Okay, what about my music?" Spencer chimed in.
"No thanks, Spence, I'm not really in the mood for Mozart," Alison laughed.
"What makes you say that?" Spencer tried her best to show a hurt face, even though they all knew was caught. She really did appreciate classical composers such as Mozart. Typical Spencer.
Alison merely snorted.
"Okay, fine, not classical music. How about songs from 'Grease'? Ever since we saw that movie the other day, I can't get these songs out of my head," Spencer offered optimistically.
The people in the car exchanged a few looks before nodding slowly. "That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea, Spence," Aria smiled at the tall brunette.
Spencer smiled in return, plugging her phone to the stereo, and pressing play on her "Grease" playlist, starting with "Summer Nights".
XXXXX
"Ugh, how much longer are we going to stand here like sitting geese?" Hanna complained. They've been standing in front of the Victory Gate for the past hour or so.
Hanna thought angrily to herself that it was an hour too long as she adjusted the designer sunglasses on her face.
"Ducks," Spencer corrected quickly.
"What?"
"You sit like lame ducks, Hanna, not geese," Spencer explained further.
Hanna gave Spencer a look that said seriously? and sighed hastily. "Okay, well, whatever. They both quack," she pointed out.
"Geese honk," Spencer fixed again, making Hanna roll her eyes. "And to answer your question, Hanna, not too long. Aria just needs to take a few more pictures and then we can go," the witty brunette said and they all nodded. "Fun fact, did you know-"
"Spencer, could you not!" Hanna groaned loudly.
Spencer huffed in frustration and mumbled something under her breath that sounded like, "I guess this is what I get for trying to educate."
When Aria was done, they observed her photos over her shoulder. "Aria, those are amazing!" Emily complimented, impressed.
"Thanks, Em," Aria smiled gratefully at her taller friend.
"Could you make me a copy of that one?" Alison asked the short brunette, pointing at a photo that showed the Arc de Triomphe in black and white from where they were standing.
"Sure, Ali," Aria answered easily and then went to show Ezra the photos.
When they were done by the infamous gate, getting quite tired of the sun beating down at them after a while, they went back to the hotel to eat lunch at the restaurant downstairs.
"So, what do you guys wanna do tonight?" Caleb started.
"On the way over here, I saw a ton of posters for some party. Must be pretty awesome if they have this much budget," Alison told with an anticipating grin.
"Well, should we go to it? I mean, we could use our fake ID's." Hanna offered excitedly.
"A party in France? Can't see why not," Aria said enthusiastically.
XXXXX
"Emily, come on, I wanna see," Alison begged from outside the bathroom door.
"Ali, are you sure we should even go to that party? There'll probably be a lot of older people-"
"Em, stop worrying so much! We'll blend right in, okay? Now, let me see your dress, gorgeous," Alison persuaded.
Emily opened the door slowly and revealed herself, and Alison's jaw instantly dropped. The theme of the party, as was written on the poster that Alison had taken a picture of, was the color black and since it was such a popular color, everyone in the group was lucky enough that they'd packed along or had bought during their stay in Paris something to wear.
Emily stood in front of Alison in a tight black dress that reached just above her knees, emphasizing her curves. The blonde was hooked on Emily and she's never enjoyed it as much as she did now.
"Em," she whispered as she edged herself closer to her stunning girlfriend. She wrapped both of her arms around the brunette's torso and just took a moment to appreciate her beauty. "I can't believe I'd ever convinced myself that my feelings for you were platonic," Alison mumbled, scanning Emily's body up and down.
Emily shyly blushed in response under the blonde's appreciative gaze. Alison smiled warmly at her girlfriend before moving a few strands of hair from her face. Emily melted into her touch, placing her arms around her waist affectionately as the blonde wrapped hers around her girlfriend's neck.
"You are so beautiful," Alison merely let out, her tone as genuine as it got.
A small smile covered Emily's face and she stared into the blonde's eyes, blushing furiously. "You're beautiful too, Ali. The most beautiful person I've ever seen."
"Yeah, yeah, we're all super attractive, now can we go?" Hanna groused as she entered the room, startling the two girls and affectively popping their personal bubble.
"How the hell did you get in here?" Alison asked in dismay as she stepped away from Emily.
"Walked," Hanna shrugged plainly.
"No, Hanna, how-"
"Are you guys coming?" Aria shouted from the hall. With all of the noise they'd made in the past few days, Emily was astounded that they hadn't been kicked out yet.
"Come on, lovebirds, let's go get our 'fête' on!" Hanna hollered as she walked over to where Caleb was standing in an elegant black button-up and laced her arm with his.
"Fête?" Emily asked, turning to Alison with a raised eyebrow.
"It means 'party'. I'm actually kind of impressed that she remembered that," Alison chuckled.
"Of course the only word Hanna remembers in French means 'party'," Emily shook her head playfully as she exited the door with a laughing Alison.
Their driver dropped them off shortly later at the destination of the party, which, they noticed, was definitely within walking distance from their hotel, so they informed him they wouldn't need a ride back. The eight-people group was laughing and joking as they entered the large, impressive building, but all noises halted in their throat as they were greeted by a sight that shocked them all.
It seemed to be much more elegant than the poster had led on. It was the most grandiose and stylish party any of them had ever attended, including Alison and Spencer, who were used to being dragged by their parents to charity balls of all sorts. There weren't a lot of people their age in sight, and most of the guests were grown ups and elders.
Alison looked like a deer caught in the headlights as she turned to the group. "Okay, what the hell?" she asked wide-eyed.
"Did the posters happen to mention the fact that this party is for senior citizens?" Ezra whispered heatedly.
"Right, because I would've brought you here if I'd known we were going to be surrounded by golden-agers," Alison shot back and rolled her eyes at him.
"Whatever, let's just go," Aria suggested, slightly embarrassed.
"No, let's stay! Come on, if we try, we can blend in," Alison tried, only wanting her friends to let go and have fun.
"It might be fun," Emily backed up her girlfriend supportively.
The group only relented hesitantly as they followed her inside the huge ballroom. It was quite funny to watch from the outside, how a group of fifteen and sixteen-year-olds tried to seem like they belonged there, but Alison didn't care. She knew they would have fun if they tried. There was no party Alison DiLaurentis couldn't handle.
There were small round tables covered in white table cloths at the very back of the large room, which were occupied by bottles of champagne in ice buckets next all sorts of other drinks. Additionally, the front of the room served as a spacious dance floor, filled with couples dancing to a lively beat.
"Let's get something to drink," Alison suggested. Emily nodded and the blonde grabbed her by the hand as they walked to the tables at the back. They filled two tall champagne glasses with the bubbly liquid and walked around the large room, talking as they drank. Alison only noticed the DJ had switched to a slow song when she felt Emily halt beside her.
"May I have this dance?" the brunette asked charmingly, an excited grin covering her face.
"You may," Alison laughed, guessing the alcohol had turned her girlfriend a bit bolder. Emily placed both of their glasses down on the nearest table as they headed to the dance floor.
"Em, I have no idea how to waltz," Alison muttered as she looked around them at the dancing couples.
"Don't worry, Ali, it's easy. My dad taught me when I was really little," Emily stated absentmindedly as she grabbed Alison's hands. The brunette placed her one of Alison's hand on top of her shoulder and one her own hands on the middle of Alison's back, pulling their bodies closer together. They both grabbed each other's free hand in mid-air near their shoulders as they started swaying along to the music as the brunette softly instructed her girlfriend.
"See, you got it," Emily smiled proudly. Alison grinned back as they both got lost in the music. Emily gave Alison a spin and the blonde let out a cute little giggle that made Emily's heart swell.
"You're really good at this," Alison complimented lovingly.
They continued dancing to the melody and couldn't even bring themselves to notice that there was a crowd slowly forming around them. They only stared into each other's eyes as they trod along to the soft music, until Emily dipped Alison gently, making the blonde release a disbelieving laugh at her so-called "shy" girlfriend. When she brought Alison back up, their faces inched closer until they were nose to nose. Any traces of laugher died down as they both edged forward.
The brunette didn't have time to think before Alison's lips were already on hers. They kissed softly and longingly, every liplock lasting. They couldn't have picked a better location to show their love.
XXXXX
"Emmmmmm," Alison slurred. "I think, I think you're pretty." she giggled as she touched the tip Emily's nose.
"Yup, she's drunk," Spencer confirmed from beside Emily.
"Yeah, drunk in love!" Alison attempted to sing the popular Beyonce song, but failed miserably and people around her gave her funny looks.
"I better get her back to the hotel," Emily said and looked at Alison, who was playing curiously with the little umbrella that was in her cup like a little kid. Emily couldn't help but love drunk Alison, the blonde was so carefree and child-like, it was enchanting.
"And then you can put me to bed?" Alison asked mischievously as she wiggled her eyebrow suggestively and elbowed Emily lightly, making the brunette chuckle.
"Come on, you goof," Emily wrapped one of her arms around Alison's torso, keeping her steady, and with the other, held Alison's arm around her own neck, supporting her weight. Alison walked sloppily and her lips tilted into a dazy smile.
They passed by Hanna and Alison pointed at Emily enthusiastically, winking over-dramatically at the other blonde with a sly smirk, letting her know that she was liking the position her girlfriend was holding her in. Hanna laughed and gave her a thumbs up.
"Yeah, Ali, get some action!" Alison heard Hanna shout from behind, not needing to turn to Emily to know that the brunette was rolling her eyes playfully at Hanna.
"This is so much fun!" Alison shouted abruptly as they neared Aria.
"God, what has gotten into you?" Aria scolded playfully with a chuckle.
"It's not a what, it's a who! Emily's gotten into me," Alison threw carelessly with a drunk giggle. She bit on her fingernail and gave Emily a sultry gaze as she flirtatiously watched the flustered brunette from the corner of her eye.
"Okay, off you go," Emily rushed with burning red cheeks as she helped Alison saunter out of the building.
They'd almost gotten run over three times, Alison had given Emily some of her best lustful comments, and the blonde had even thrown someone the middle finger for looking at her strangely, and all of it happened in a distance that could be counted as ten minutes, had Alison not been so drunk. The best thing was, the brunette has never seen Alison so at ease, laid back and radiant, and Emily just wanted to melt from the amount of love in her heart for this "hot mess in a hot body" girl in front of her.
It indeed took a while, but they ended up inside their suite, and even then, just barely.
"Babe, who was Hanna's first kiss? She didn't say," Alison stated lazily as she stumbled slightly in the doorway of their bedroom.
"It was Mike, Ali, she'd already told you that. Only Aria doesn't know. But Han told me she'll tell her soon," Emily said breathlessly as she dropped her purse on the bedside table. Alison might've not weighed much, but it sure was hard for Emily to get her back to the room safely.
"Wh-where are you going? Babyyyy," Alison groaned childishly when Emily disappeared into the bathroom.
"I'm just getting you some ibuprofen. I don't want you to have an enormous hangover tomorrow morning," Emily explained as Alison sat on the bed and nodded in understanding.
"M'kay. I love-" Emily sat next to Alison and the blonde pointed her finger at Emily instead of the wall. "-You," she finished with a small smile.
"I love you, too." Emily smiled at the beautiful blonde girl on the queen sized bed next to her. "Now let's get you to bed, you need to sleep this off."
Alison nodded and resisted the need to yawn, the alcohol coursing through her veins making her quite fatigued. She lay down on the bed and Emily pulled the blanket on top of the blonde and then went around the bed near Alison's legs, taking off her heels.
"Wait, actually, before you lie down, you should change clothes. You can't sleep in that, it'll give you a rash," Emily remarked, recoiling once she realized how motherly that must've sounded.
"Okay, mother," Alison sarcastically uttered, knowing it'll make the brunette roll her eyes. She tried to get up twice but kept falling down into the bed with a frustrated thud. Finally, Emily helped her up, getting her out of her clothes and pulling the pajamas on her. She laid Alison on the bed gracefully.
"Goodnight," she kissed the top of Alison's head and the blonde felt a tingly feeling rushing through her body, but she knew it wasn't from the alcohol. Alison was well aware that feeling was one particular four-letter word.
Love.