DISCLAIMER: I wish i did own the lot of them but Skins characters belong to the wizards of E4. This is a short scene after Katie dragged Emily out of the club in episode seven. This is how I think it might have gone. Enjoy.

ALLEYCATS

By Heligenagirl

Katie dragged her sister out of the door onto the concrete.

"Jesus, what the fuck are you doing. With Cook!?!... The walking sexual diseases clinic."

"I didn't want you to feel lonely when you went to the VD nurse." Emily's voice sounded slurred even to her. "Get off me."

She pushed her sisters hands off her angrily as they stopped in the alley behind the club. "You're not the only one who can make do with Effy's cast-offs." She smiled fiercely. "Nice one, by the way."

Katie opened her mouth in shock. Then anger.

"So what is it, trouble in paradise with your lezzer girlfriend?"

"Don't talk about her like that." Emily replied raising her voice. It came out even huskier than usual and she tried to clear it.

Katie just swung her bag higher on her shoulder and shook her head .

"Always the moral high ground eh Ems. Seriously, doesn't it get windy up there?"

Just as she said it, a couple of guys in undone shirts stumbled out of the fire exit and stared at them for a second. A burst of Sweet Child of Mine filtered out behind them then faded as the door swung shut.

Katie stared at them, furiously. "You'd better get back in there, they're playing your song."

The two lads backed off and skulked their way inside.

And then they were alone again in the gaudy orange light. Emily's strappy top was pulled backwards awkwardly at the shoulder underneath her cardigan. Katie didn't want to think about how Cook had managed that in the space of a minute. Perv.

She felt her sister's eyes burning into her and hardened herself.

"So let me guess, you professed your undying love for her, she looked right into your eyes and saw you. The real you, the one the world doesn't understand. And then she ran screaming for the hills."

The memory of the woods brushed against Emily's face and she felt Naomi's hand on her neck. Softer than she had thought it would be but at the same time umoveable.

Emily's big brown eyes started to tear up and she wiped at them furiously with her sleeve.

Standing there, against the far wall Katie almost broke and went to pull her into a hug but for some reason she held her muscles in check.

"What did you think, you loser." She said softly. "She's a fucking weirdo but people have limits, you know."

Emily watched as the tarmac seemed to lurch upwards for a moment, and grabbed at a signpost to steady herself.

"We're a pair. Do but don't feel. Or feel and don't do." Whispered Katie half to herself.

"Are they putting pearls of wisdom on the back of condom packets now. " Emily sniffed.

"Oh wait, you wouldn't know."

Feeling the weight of her sisters immediate anger she backed up against the rough wall, felt it scraping painfully up her elbow but didn't say anything else.

"It doesn't have to be like this, Ems." Katie moved closer to her, and surprised her a little when she reached over and smoothed a rogue hair off her forehead. "You don't have to make it so hard."

"I don't make it hard Katie," she said. "You do. You and your petty crowd pleasing ideas of normal."

Emily shivered a little as a gust of wind blew down the alley and tryed to cover it with a yawn. She knew it wouldn't have slipped her twin's notice though.

"Didn't you bring a jacket?" asked Katie, tightly as if she'd read her thoughts. "You can have this one if you want."

Emily shook her head. Didn't show the surprise coiled in her stomach though.

"That's my jacket. But you can keep it." She said tiredly. "You take my clothes. The limelight. Why stop now."

For a passing remark, it looked like it had hit home. Emily was shocked to see Katie seem to consider that for a moment. Then did something even more unexpected; took a step forward and held Emily's hand.

Katie bit her lip. "Look, maybe it's just a passing thing. How do you know, right, I mean if you've never done it with a..."

"I know, all right. I just know." Replied Emily, burning beneath the acid buzz. "And maybe I just wanted a break. A moment where i didn't have to think about how sure I am, what I was saying, who was listening. And he may be a prick at times but at least Cook knows how to just be."

Katie felt Emily slide her hand away and hers was left heavy in the cold air.

"Do you care about Freddy at all?"

Katie paused again. "...He's sweet."

"And in love with someone else."

Katie swallowed when Emily said that, suddenly feeling almost shy in front of her. How could she know so much and be so... stupid? It seemed like a moment for truth though, so she braced herself and looked Ems in the eye.

"Sometimes I'm with him and he's thinking of her but it doesn't...it's not...if you block it out, you could almost swear he was thinking about you."

Emily wiped some warm mascara off her cheek quietly. "Is that enough?"

Katie laughed then, "Jesus Ems, what's the alternative. Being with a nobody you have to big up whenever you're talking to people. Or worse, walking home after a bender with nothing but the sound of your own heels."

Emily blinked, trying to make her eyes focus in the dim light.

"You wouldn't be alone. .."

"And where has love gotten you, eh?" Katie threw her hands up. "Dancing like a whore, pilled out of your head it seems."

Touche, thought Emily as disembodied images of Naomi's skin floated across her eyeline. Her hair. Her blue eyes that laughed at you, even when her mouth said nothing.

"Well I never said I had all the answers," she replied.

"No." Katie said.

They fell into silence, both aware that somehow the conversation had come to an end. The strains of some club beat pulsated from the wall behind signalling the dj changeover. Katie, a little unsure of what to do pulled her leather jacket round her and fumbled in her bag for her phone. She cradled it in her hand and it left a strange blue glow in her palm.

"Freddy booked us a taxi, it's probably already waiting. Do you want to share?"

She left the offer hanging there and watched as Emily pulled herself up and raised her chin. "Thanks but I think I'll leave it a bit."

Katie nodded neutrally, even though she all she desperately wanted to do was drag her twin with her, to make sure she got home safe.

"Well," she conceded, " give us a ring if you need...stuff. Any stuff. Ok."

Emily smiled then, a watery grin. "My sister, the stuff pimp. I will."

And with that they went off their seperate ways. Both fighting the urge to check over their shoulder.