A/N: This is how I imagined Aria and Ezra's first time together if Ezra had stayed at Rosewood High. Enjoy! More coming soon...

A brunette in the front row raised her hand to interrupt his class.

"Yes, Aria," Ezra called.

"Ariel," she corrected. "Ariel Peterson."

Ezra froze, did a double take, and backtracked. "Sorry, Ariel, what's your question?"

He could be forgiven for not getting her name right - she was a new student who had just moved to Rosewood the week before - but the mix-up had nothing to do with how well he knew his students' names. He and Aria had had sex for the first time last night and he couldn't stop replaying the scene over and over in his head, even while he was teaching.

He tried to focus, but blocking out images of her sweet, trusting face and pin-up girl curves was nearly impossible. Besides, he was teaching his freshmen, his least favorite class. They all seemed so young. Right now, the majority of the class was slumped over their desks, eyes on the clock.

"When is the extra-credit assignment due?" Ariel asked. With her laser-focused, intent eyes and ramrod-straight posture, she reminded him of Spencer. The other students groaned.

"Tuesday," he said, just as the bell rang. As students scrambled to close their notebooks and leap up from their desks, he announced, "And remember, be prepared to discuss chapters eight and nine tomorrow in class!"

The class scrambled out of the room. They weren't normally so quick to leave, but he couldn't blame them - it was last period on a Friday and the forecast for the weekend was supposed to be beautiful. When the last of the kids had left, he sat down at his desk and pulled out a stack of essays to grade. He uncapped his red pen and pulled out the first one, but he was lost thinking about Aria.

The night before, Ezra had been flipping channels on his couch when the doorbell rang. Groaning, he got up from his comfortable, reclining position and opened the door.

Aria was leaning against the doorframe. "Hey, there," she said flirtatiously, eyes bright.

"Hey! I didn't know you were coming."

She stepped in close, pressed her palms to his chest, and greeted him with a long, full kiss. He braced her hips and savored the kiss, running his tongue in a smooth circle around hers.

"I had to drop off Mike at a friend's house and I was in the neighborhood. I figured I'd stop by to see if you were here," she explained, her voice trailing off into an impish grin. "And my parents are out of town, so it's just me."

"Who's funeral? Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, everything's fine - it's some distant relative of my mom's. He was in his nineties. My parents didn't want me missing school, so they had me stay home."

"Oh, so this is home now?" Ezra smiled. With all the hours Aria spent here after school and on weekends, it might as well be.

She planted a playful kiss. "My home away from home," she said.

He loved that she felt at home here. The little apartment was far from glamorous, but it was the one space where their relationship was truly allowed to blossom. Even when she wasn't here, the place was packed with her presence and her touch. How many times had they curled up on the couch, tangled up under the same blanket, fingers intertwined? How many times had they cooked dinner and played music and laughed right in this room? He swelled with pride that she felt like the apartment was home - their apartment, in all but rent.

Before long, they were spooning chocolate chip ice cream into their mouths straight from the container. Aria sat on the kitchen counter, legs wrapped around Ezra in front of her. They were trading stories about their days.

"You wouldn't believe what I overheard during gym today," Aria gossiped, eyes wide.

"What?"

"You have Taylor Montucci in one of your classes, right?"

"Yeah, she's a great student. She just turned in one of the best essays I've seen on Hamlet in a long time," Ezra recalled.

"Well, I heard in the locker room that she got pretty wild over spring break. Apparently she went to Cancun and had made out with a different guy every night for a week. Can you imagine?"

Ezra raised an eyebrow. Hearing gossip about his students was always jarring, especially when he had to face them daily in class.

"C'mon, Ar, it's not that crazy. That sort of thing tends to happen in Cancun," he reasoned. "And it'll happen a lot more often once she gets to college."

"That's at least five or six guys!" Aria protested. "Not something you'd expect from her, is it?"

"Well, no, I guess not…" Ezra began, but he wasn't too convinced. As much as he loved Aria, she tended to be on the innocent side. Hooking up with a new girl at every party had been Ezra's favorite hobby during his first few years of college. He was away from home for the first time and couldn't resist the sea of girls he had wandered into. Looking down at the beautiful brunette in front of him, he realized he was still irresistible to a girl's charms - but this time, it was more than just a fleeting attraction.

Aria narrowed her eyes. "What's your number?" she asked shyly.

"My number?" he repeated, stalling for time.

"Yeah, you know, your number. How many girls have you slept with?" Aria nudged his shoulder playfully.

"You think Taylor is bad?" Ezra met Aria's eyes and paused for a beat, trying to gage what her reaction would be. "Twelve."

Aria blushed. "Twelve?"

Ezra forced himself to hold her gaze.

"Twelve isn't so bad, actually. That's, like… what, two a year since you were seventeen?" Aria guessed hesitantly, calculating it out in her head.

"There was Samantha, the girl I dated my senior year of high school. I think we only did it a couple of times before we broke up. And then things got a little crazy in college for awhile… and then there was Jackie. And then just one more after her, which wasn't the best decision - it was in a bar bathroom in Philly," he said sheepishly, running a hand through his hair.

"That seems to be your thing," Aria commented dryly. Suddenly, she sat up straight. "Name them all."

He laughed. "Right now?"

"Right now, Romeo," she insisted. "Carpe diem."

"Okay, well, I told you about Samantha, and then Lauren, Natasha, Jill… Kaitlyn, no, Kaitlyn was before Jill. There was Hannah, my roommate's girlfriend's best friend; we dated for almost a year in college. Alyssa…" he paused, counting. "How many is that? Seven?"

"Losing count?" she teased.

"No, I got this. After Alyssa was Sydney. Do you know Evan Rombauer, he goes to Rosewood High?"

"Yeah, I think so. Tall, blonde, plays football?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, Sydney's his older sister. We went to Hollis the same year. We hooked up for awhile in college."

"Okay, you're up to eight," Aria pressed.

"After Sydney, there was this one night where I got really, really drunk and I don't even remember the girl's name. That was bad, I know," Ezra winced. "She was number nine."

He glanced at Aria. If she was uneasy, she didn't show it.

"Then there was a girl one summer when my family went to Cape Cod, Jessica." Ezra laughed, "My dad came so close to walking in on us one time, I'll never forget how scared I was."

"Oh my God, really? What happened?" Aria asked, her hand clapped to her mouth.

"I could hear his footsteps coming, and just as he knocked on the door, I shouted, 'One minute!' and we both threw clothes on. He was coming to get me for dinner. I couldn't look him in the eye all night," Ezra explained, blushing.

"And then there was Jackie," Aria prompted.

"Right. Followed by the bar bathroom incident - her name was Elizabeth," Ezra filled in.

"The first bar bathroom incident," Aria reminded him, trailing a finger down his chest.

"How could I forget?" Ezra asked, grinning. "But God, that seems like too many when I count them out like that. It was college, I was horny and… well, not very good at self-control."

"Twelve is a lot to live up to," Aria admitted. He hated how nervous she looked, biting her lip and fingering the shoulder seam along his t-shirt. Didn't she know how beautiful she was? How much he loved her?

"Hey, hey, it doesn't matter. I just have a few years on you, that's all," Ezra said, trying to soothe her. He smoothed his fingers over her hair and gently kissed her forehead. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she said tenderly, looking up at him.

"There's nothing to worry about," he said, stroking her hair again. "We can wait as long as you want, until whenever you're ready. Months, years, I don't care - I'm not going anywhere."

A glimmer of a smile brightened Aria's face. "You know what that'll make me?" she asked.

"What?"

"Lucky number thirteen," she said, her eyes bright.

They both laughed, his low and throaty, hers melodic and light. Moonlight streamed through the window; somehow, hours had slipped by since Aria had first arrived. The light cast a pretty glow throughout the apartment.

"Tell me about Samantha," Aria said, suddenly serious again.

Ezra grasped for the right words. "Awkward… Terrible. I had just turned eighteen and was scared out of my mind. I had no idea what I was doing was afraid I'd come too early and ruin it."

He hadn't thought about that night in years, but he felt his chest swell with pride thinking about it now. Back then, he had worried that he couldn't go off to college as a virgin and was only concerned with finishing too soon. Now, the only worry on his mind with Aria - whenever that may be - was that she was comfortable and cared for and felt safe with him. His priorities had changed, that's for sure.

"You were scared?" she asked.

"Yeah, I was," he nodded. He wanted to ask her if she was scared of losing her virginity. Would talking help? But before he could ask, she spoke up.

"I'm not. Scared, I mean," she said, meeting his eyes. "I trust you. I love you, and I always will."

Ezra's heart skipped a beat. He felt a stirring in the pit of his stomach as he began to get hard at the thought of sleeping with Aria, but ignored it. "You don't have to say that if you're not ready, you know. It's your decision," he said, meaning each and every word of it.

"I'm ready, Ezra," Aria insisted fiercely. As if to prove her point, she leaned into a kiss, sliding one hand up the back of his neck to tangle her fingers into his hair, and the other hand to the small of his back to pull him closer towards her.