A/N: I don't even know why this happened or where it came from but here it is. This is just gonna be a little two-shot because there was and is no plan behind it. I clearly own nothing, if I did, Hannily and Sparia would be canon.

This borrows from canon but doesn't necessarily follow it.

There was a time, not long after Ali disappeared that Emily thought she might have a crush on Hanna Marin. It was when she was making her transition into Ali 2.0 and the group had splintered off into their own directions. Emily had thought that it was probably transference, due to the similarities and the ambiguous loss of Ali. She avoided Hanna, not wanting to repeat her old mistakes that she'd made with Ali. Not wanting to get hurt again, especially if Hanna was as much like Ali as she looked.

But what Emily didn't expect was A. Before then, the group had dispersed and Emily had no real reason to be around Hanna any more. The group had been brought back together because of A and in turn Emily had gotten to know the new Hanna; and she was nothing like Ali.

Hanna was protective and impulsive, and sometimes crass, but she wasn't cruel like Ali, or manipulative. She looked the part but she wasn't Ali. She was real and Emily was falling.

It was hard not to. It was the way Hanna didn't see how beautiful she really was and the way she was so protective of Emily in the little things as well as the big, against friend or foe.

They would fall asleep together watching movies, heads on shoulders and hands entangled under the blanket that Hanna threw over them. Emily thought nothing of the closeness, all four of the girls were very affectionate with each other, but sometimes the way Hanna would trace patterns in her palm would make her wonder.

On this night, they had fallen asleep in Hanna's bed watching one of the zombie movies that Emily loved so much. Emily just knew that Hanna wasn't fond of them and would bury her head in Emily's shoulder during all the bloodiest scenes (so basically the entire movie). Emily awoke in the middle of the night to feel Hanna's arms tightly around her waist, holding her closely from behind with her face in the brunette locks that cascaded down Emily's back. Emily relished in these little moments where Hanna showed Emily the affection that Emily was too scared to instigate. She knew that Hanna's affection was platonic but she thought that Hanna may doubt Emily's intentions if she were to act the same way towards her. So she let Hanna do whatever she was comfortable with and Emily was fine with that.

Mostly.

The first time Emily really came close to making her feelings known was on New Year's Eve. Her and the girls were at a party and had been drinking (except Spencer, who had appointed herself designated driver and so was on the receiving end of a lot of "I love you"s from her drunken friends).

They were on the dance floor, moving in time to some random pop song while the countdown to midnight approached. They danced for a while, the four of them occasionally breaking into pairs due to the bustle of the crowd. As the countdown began, Hanna and Emily were partnered up, separated from Aria and Spencer by a group of boys who had gathered together to join the count down.

10, 9, 8...

People bustled to face the television as it counted down.

7,6,5...

Hanna had had a few drinks by this point and was hardly steady and she stumbled into Emily clumsily. Emily caught her with strong arms, pulling her in close, and helped her regain her balance.

4,3,2...

In the close proximity, Emily could feel Hanna's breath lightly on her cheek. Her eyes were fixed on Hanna's lips, and she thought if she just moved a fraction of an inch, she could capture them with her own...

But she didn't and as the clock hit midnight and the crowd cheered Hanna had moved away again to share a kiss on the cheek with Aria who had just finished doing the same with Spencer. Hanna was completely oblivious to the internal struggle Emily was enduring, stood motionless as the dancing started up around her again.

What Emily hadn't seen was Hanna staring right back.

The second time was at the dance where Emily was drunk and she confronted Hanna about dancing with Lucas. Emily knew that there was probably a good reason - an A reason - but that didn't stop the waves of disappointed at seeing Hanna treat Lucas the way Ali had treated her. Emily had to wonder if she was wrong when she thought Hanna wasn't like Ali. She thought Hanna was different and this was the shattering realisation that maybe she wasn't. So Emily - in an attempt to quiet her over-active thoughts - had taken Hanna's flask and gotten drunk, ending up alone in the courtyard with the blonde. If Emily had been sober, she would have noticed how sad and ashamed Hanna already looked before Emily even said anything.

She also would have noticed the sparks between them when they held each other's gaze, and the way Hanna's eyes had kept flicking down to Emily's lips.

The next time was not long after Hanna and Sean had broken up. Emily had gone to Hanna's house to cheer her up and keep her company. They had ended up in Hanna's room, watching chick flicks and eating junk food. Hanna had nuzzled herself into Emily's shoulder, with one arm draped over her waist, Emily's arm wrapped supportively around Hanna, holding her close. Hanna had drifted off part way through the third movie and Emily hadn't noticed until Hanna had stirred and breathed out Emily's name.

"What is it, Han?" She said softly, turning her face into the blonde's hair.

"I love you, Em," Hanna murmured sleepily.

Emily's heart skipped. She knew Hanna was simply thanking her for being a good friend, plus it was debatable whether Hanna was even conscious, but it still caused Emily's heart to swell a little bit in a futile hope of returned feelings. She knew it was silly, and in that moment she had to restrain herself from telling Hanna that she loved her too, as more than a friend and certainly more than Sean ever did. Instead, Emily kissed her sleeping friend's forehead and said "Me too, Han", not trusting herself to repeat the sentiment.

Another missed chance occurred the day that Emily came home to find Hanna sitting alone on her porch steps, looking defeated (and beautiful, Emily couldn't help but think). Hanna teased Emily about Texas being the beauty queen capital of America, and how it might not be so bad.

"If that's your type," Hanna had said.

"It's not" Emily said with amusement.

"So you have a type!" Hanna exclaimed, as though she'd just solved some incredibly difficult riddle.

Emily gave Hanna a look to tell her to stop, trying to ignore the thought that had come to mind that she did indeed have a type and Hanna fit it to a T. But Emily kept her mouth shut and simply sighed dejectedly as Hanna linked their arms and rested her head on Emily's shoulder. After all, Hanna was here because she was upset that Caleb was gone, not purely to see Emily and Emily was moving to Texas, and everything was a mess. But when the feel of Hanna's body pressed against her side almost made her forget all these things and confess right there.

Almost.

The last time was in the creepy motel when Hanna asked Emily to be her date to the masquerade ball. Part of her desperately wanted the date to be real but the rest of her kept reminding herself that Caleb was still in the picture - despite his frequent absence - and Hanna loved him. Emily knew that. But that didn't quell the aching in her chest at the idea of being Hanna's date, for all intents and purposes, but not really getting to be her date. It was probably worse than just seeing her go with Caleb, the fact that it was so close to being true and still so far from it. She turned to Hanna, who was lying beside her on the bed, propped up on her elbow and looking up at her happily.

"I'll be your date..." Emily paused, deciding what she wanted to say next, thinking that maybe this was the perfect moment to tell Hanna how she felt, "but I'm not dressing like a dude." Emily finished jokingly in an attempt to raise her own spirits.

Hanna's smile succeeded where Emily's joke had failed and she felt a spark of affection in her abdomen, fluttering inside her ribcage.

Real date or not, at least she was getting to go to a dance with someone she loved for once...