After their talk in Ezra's apartment, Aria stayed quite a while longer. Some point around her second drink and piece of pie Ezra got from downstairs, she decides to just come right out and say it, it was Ezra after all.

"Ezra?" She says hesitantly, yet determined.

"Yeah?"

"About what you said earlier, about us." There's a pause for a second before Ezra speaks softly, carefully.

"I wasn't aware there still was an us." He asks questionably, a little taken by surprise.

"Ezra." She says, giving him a knowing look.

"Go on. I'm listening."

"What you said about…about me thinking you killed Charlotte…to protect me. How did you know I still thought of you that way?"

"Uh…" Ezra doesn't quite know how to answer that.

"I just mean, it's been so long, and even with all we've been through, I don't know, I guess I just thought maybe we lost some of that these last few years."

"Aria," Ezra says softly, resting his hand on top of hers, "I never once stopped loving you and caring about you just as much as I always have. And you were right to think I would go to such lengths to keep you safe, even if I didn't. You're not wrong about that."

Aria suddenly feels like she hasn't felt in five years. Here, with Ezra, in his apartment. Sure, it doesn't hold the 'if these walls could talk' history that apartment 3B always will, but that doesn't matter. What matters right now is here she is, a grown woman, looking at Ezra Fitz the same way she did when she was 16 years old, with that same pounding deep in her chest.

She acts on impulse; the same impulse she always has when it comes to Ezra. No matter how long it's been, this, them, it's always been so natural, and Aria is so happy it hasn't gone away in their time spent apart.

"Ezra." She breathes out quickly, before launching the few inches in front of her where Ezra is sitting, crashing her lips onto his in a way she hasn't in five years, not since she said goodbye to him that summer in front of The Brew, when a part of her never wanted to let go, but knowing she had to.

Ezra kisses her back, on instinct, and he has to admit, it feels like their years apart had never happened. His hands tangled in her hair like they always did, her hands finding their way over his shoulders and down his back. It was still a routine for them, an instinct, something that no matter how much time had passed, they could always fall back into with ease and comfort of knowing the other was there.

"Aria." Ezra says just as Aria's hands were finding their way underneath his shirt.

"What?" Aria asks, a little doe-eyed and surprised.

"What are we doing? We can't do this…I mean…we don't, you don't have to. I'm not worth it anymore. You deserve better than this shell of Ezra Fitz standing before you."

"Hey," She says softly, lifting his chin up from his chest to meet her eyes, "let me be the one to decide that."

They spend a moment, just looking at each other.

"And I think this Ezra Fitz is more than worthy." She finishes before placing another kiss to his lips.

"So what does this mean?" He asks.

"I let you go before so many times when I shouldn't have. And I'm not going to let it happen again. Let's take it slow for now, get reacquainted, see what these new versions of us have to offer, and a few weeks, or months down the line…who knows. I just know I want to do this with you, Ezra. You've always been the one. And that is never going to change."

They weren't perfect. They both made that perfectly clear. But as long as they were willing to work at it when things were less than perfect, they knew in their hearts that they would be perfectly fine.