Loving You
So this is my first ever PLL fanfic! Up until now I have only written High School Musical and I sort of feeling like I'm cheating on HSM! But my best friend recently got me into PLL and I felt crazy inspired to write up something to share with you all!
This one is a missing moment that follows on from Aria and Ezra's scenes in 2x24
~x~
"Do you have any idea how much I love you?"
~x~
Aria scrunched her face as she began to awake from her deep sleep. It took her a few moments to realize where she was and all of a sudden it hit her.
Ezra's apartment…more specifically Ezra's gloriously comfortable bed. For such a small humble apartment, Ezra sure had gone all out on the quality of his mattress. It was firm yet soft enough that it molded to your body and allowed you to have an amazing night's sleep.
Waking up in his apartment wasn't an unusual occurrence; many a morning had been spent waking up in his bed, snuggled into his warm protective arms.
But today was very different than the other mornings when she had awoken in his apartment. Last night she and Ezra had slept together…it hadn't been planned; neither had imagined that their first time together would have started with tears and a conversation about Ezra leaving. She supposed it was the idea of never seeing each other again that had created so much passion within themselves. It didn't matter how many times Ezra had told her that he would be coming home, nothing would settle her anxieties until he was back for good.
Ezra had been amazing; she wasn't sure why she was surprised, he was amazing in every element of their relationship. He was just protective enough, just loving enough and just caring enough without it being too much.
Reaching behind her as she usually did, she searched for Ezra's warm body behind hers but she was met with cold sheets and an empty space on his side of the bed. Opening her eyes, she wondered where on earth Ezra had got to; if she was insecure about their relationship she would wonder if he had snuck out to avoid her. But the thought didn't even cross her mind; after all, it was his apartment they were in.
It wasn't long before her question was answered, just as she snuggled herself into Ezra's pillow, she felt a crisp post-it note rubbing against her cheek.
'Gone to pick up breakfast. Love you – Ezra'
She laughed to herself at how he always signed notes and texts with his name, who else would have left her that note? But it was a habit both had fallen into since they started dating, something that had always surprised her considering they had tried so hard to keep it a secret for so long.
She wasn't sure how long Ezra had been gone, or even how much sleep they had had the night before. She glanced over at the clock that read eight o'clock, her entire body ached and she had no idea how Ezra had managed to pull himself from the bed and go out of the little apartment.
The key turning in the lock woke her from her daydream, causing her to smile as Ezra walked into the apartment with his arms full of goodies.
It wasn't long before he spied Aria, smile at him and wide awake, wrapped up in his sheets,
"Hey! You're awake! I was going to surprise you." Ezra smiled a huge charming smile as she always did. There was something about his smile that made Aria's heart melt, it was one of the first things that had drawn her to him.
He put down the breakfast things in the kitchen and made his way towards Aria, who was still lying comfortably in his bed. She smiled back at him, a smile that he loved equally as much as she loved his, if not more. The night they had met in the bar at Hollis, they had smiled at each other and from that moment on they both knew they had started something special.
"Yeah…I woke up and got your note. It kind of busted your surprise idea." Aria giggled reaching for Ezra as he slipped off his shoes and sank back down onto the bed, pulling Aria into his arms and kissing her lovingly.
Ezra stared at Aria for a moment; it had a little over half year since they had met at the bar and begun the relationship they had been keeping a secret for so long. He couldn't believe that she was his, they had overcome so much in their relatively short relationship but he felt as though they were stronger than ever.
That was until Byron Montgomery happened.
When his attempt to remove him from Aria's life by arranging a job for him in New Orleans failed, Byron had taken it upon himself to advise the dean at Hollis that Ezra's course should no longer be offered and he lost his job.
Now, after overcoming so much in their relationship to get to where they were, they faced the real possibility of losing each other.
The age difference wasn't the issue, it never had been for them and both knew that it never would be. But with Byron forcing Ezra out of a job and no one else in Rosewood willing to hire him, he needed to go and find somewhere that would.
"I brought bagels, cream cheese, fruit and coffee. Soy latte, no foam…just how you like it." If there was one thing Ezra knew about his girl it was that she loved coffee. He couldn't remember a time when Aria didn't have a coffee attached to her hands, whether that be while she was doing homework or just as she had got up in the morning, time of day didn't seem to matter.
Aria smiled; she knew that Ezra laughed about her coffee obsession but there was nothing better than waking up to a steaming cup of coffee.
"You're amazing! I'm going to shower real quick while you heat up those bagels." Aria replied as she pressed a chaste kiss to Ezra's soft lips.
"Love you!" Ezra called as Aria got off the bed, wrapping the top sheet around her body as she made the short distance from his bedroom to the bathroom.
She beamed as she entered the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror, life was amazing…well, as amazing as it could be when you have a psycho killer blackmailing you. She quickly frowned, she hadn't thought about 'A' since arriving at Ezra's the previous night. She had been so caught up in her relationship that for a split second she had forgotten that 'A' even existed and it had felt amazing. But the reality was that he/she wasn't gone, and no matter how perfect life seemed on the outside, Aria knew on her inside, she would always be plagued by 'A'.
As she stepped out of the shower and dried off, she reflected on how lucky she was that Ezra was such a kind, incredible, loving man. Any other guy would have run a mile from the things that seemed to follow her around, but this man, he came to her rescue on multiple occasions.
There was no way she was going to let the distance between Pennsylvania and New York pull them apart.
She couldn't believe her dad had done that to her…to Ezra, she couldn't believe that he had been so hypocritical through this whole situation. Ezra continuously told her that she shouldn't be splitting up her family for the sake of their relationship, but what else was she supposed to do?
"Babe? Are you alright in there?" Ezra called through the thin bathroom door, it wasn't unusual for Aria to take longer than planned in the shower, for some reason it was the place that she spent the most time analyzing and evaluating her life.
Ezra's words broke her from her thoughtful moment, quickly she replied and climbed out of the shower, wrapping herself in a towel and opening the door. She smiled when she saw him leaning against the door frame; all it took was a smile to make all her fears melt away.
"Let's go eat." Aria smiled, taking Ezra by the hand and leading him to where he had set up breakfast on the coffee table between the couch and the chair.
Aria smiled at Ezra once again, pausing for a moment just to look at him…It didn't matter what the next few days and weeks brought them, all that mattered was right now.
~x~
Aria had left Ezra's apartment to allow him to pack up his things, they had agreed that she would return later that day to say their goodbyes. It was too difficult for her to be there while she watched him pack up his life in Rosewood, the life that they shared together, ready to transport it all to a new life in New York. It didn't matter that he said he was coming back; the possibilities of him finding a great teaching job in New York and never returning to the troubled streets of Rosewood were extremely high.
She had told Ezra that she would be meeting the girls at Spencer's house, but she couldn't face them today. She couldn't face their questions; when the girls were set on finding something out, a friendly chat could quickly turn into an interrogation. So instead, she decided she was going to go home and discuss matters with her father…everything that Ezra had warned her against doing.
She knew that Hanna and Emily had been out searching for 'A' the previous night, and a huge part of her was desperate to know if they had found anything, but her anger towards her father was overwhelming her.
As she approached her house she saw her dad's car in the driveway. For a minute she had hoped that he wouldn't be home, that she could just mope in her bedroom until it was time to go back to Ezra's, but it looked like that wasn't going to be an option.
Opening the large wooden front door, she stepped in, slamming hard behind her to make her presence known to anyone who was in the house.
"Aria is that you?" Byron's voice called from the large lounge area that also played as an informal office for her father when he needed to do paperwork away from Hollis.
Aria stood still waiting for her dad to enter the hallway, she knew if she didn't say anything his curiosity would bring him to her. As soon as she spotted him, her anger and frustrations towards him began to boil over.
"How could you do that?" Aria jumped right into the conversation, not bothering with pleasantries, "who's life are you trying to ruin? Mine? Ezra's? Because you're doing a pretty good job at ruining both!" Aria screamed at her father, throwing her overnight bag down onto the floor in the hallway with a thud.
Aria didn't shout often but when she did she meant business and Byron knew that today was not an exception to that rule. Byron supposed he shouldn't have been surprised that his actions elicited such a reaction from his daughter, but he hadn't imagined it would be anything so fiercely extreme.
"I'm just trying to protect you Aria! That man shouldn't be allowed near you! The relationship is completely inappropriate and I should have taken forceful action sooner. Clearly my trusting you to break it off with him wasn't enough." Byron retorted, now fully invested in a shouting match with his only daughter.
Aria fumed in front of him, taking several steps closer to him until she was mere inches away from his face.
"Oh, you want to talk about inappropriate relationships? Shall we talk about Meredith? You were sleeping with her while she was your student weren't you? Whilst you were still married to Mom?" Aria seethed, watching her father's face falter slightly as she brought up a subject that would always be sore to her family.
It angered Byron when his children used his mistakes to try and support their arguments. He knew it would always come back to bite him and he wished he had a way of making it stop, but for the time being his only retort was to respond with an equal amount of force.
"That's completely different Aria! Meredith was not a child!" He shouted back, unconsciously taking a few steps back from his seemingly aggressive daughter.
Aria couldn't believe he had just used that as a justification for his actions, the situations were exactly the same in her eyes, at least her relationship with Ezra wasn't crushing anyone's' marriage.
"So the fact that you were married with kids doesn't matter? The fact that your relationship with her tore this family apart? The fact that I went half crazy lying for Mom and Mike for you for a whole year? But none of that is a big deal to you is it? Because as far as you're concerned you can justify everything that you did. But you're wrong…everything that's happening now and everything that happens in the future is your entire fault." Aria continued, stepping away from her father who was looking increasingly angry as the time passed on.
Neither Aria nor Byron had heard the front door open as they argued and neither was aware that Ella Montgomery was watching their argument from the front door.
"What's going on here?" Ella asked calmly, wondering why she had walked in on her husband and daughter shouting at each other in the hallway for the whole neighborhood to hear.
Ella's voice seemed to diffuse Byron's anger slightly, a skill that Ella wasn't unaware that she had and played it to her advantage on almost all the occasions in which he was getting angrier than he needed to be.
"It's just a misunderstanding." Byron tried to settle the situation, he didn't want to explain to his wife the action that he had taken against their daughters boyfriend but it looked like he wasn't going to be afforded the luxury of having a choice in that decision.
Aria spun around furiously to face her mother, there was no way she was letting her father get away with this one that easily, and there was no way she was going to make her come across like that crazy one.
"Oh no, I understand perfectly! Dad had Ezra fired and now he can't pay the rent on his apartment until he finds a job…which by the way no one wants to give him! He's having to move back to New York to stay with his parents!" Aria exclaimed to her mother angrily, hoping with everything she had that her mother knew nothing about what her father had done.
She was relieved when Ella's face turned from confused to annoyed, she wasn't sure who she was annoyed at but at least the look she was throwing in Aria's direction wasn't a knowing one.
Ella Montgomery had slowly been coming around to the idea of Aria dating Ezra. It was clear to her that they loved each other, and she could tell that Aria was happier than ever when she was with him…what mother doesn't want that for their daughter?
"Byron…is this true?" Ella asked calmly, making it very clear even with those simple words that she felt the decision her husband had made was the wrong one.
The situation with Byron was spiraling out of control and she couldn't see a way to make it end, their brief separation seemed to have fixed things but as soon as Byron found out about Ezra, he had become a different man. Suddenly the kind man who she had married who gave everyone the benefit of the doubt was gone, and in his place was an angry revengeful man.
"Aria Honey, why don't you go and see the girls, your father and I need to have a talk." Aria nodded, she didn't need to be told twice, the last thing she wanted to do was hang around in that house listening to her father explain why he hated her boyfriend so much.
As she was about to leave the house, she turned and looked straight into her father's eyes with a look on her face that Byron was sure he had never seen in his daughter before.
"You tried to push Ezra from my life but you've lost me as well." Without waiting for the response and picked up the bag she had thrown down earlier and exited her house/
As she walked down the path towards the sidewalk she wondered to herself, would the relationship she had had with her father ever be the same again?
~x~
The thought of facing the girl's questions was still too much for Aria, especially after the encounter with her dad.
Instead, she decided to go back to Ezra's apartment a little early, she had been gone for two hours and she figured that was probably enough for him to have done the majority of his packing and sorting.
As she walked down the corridor towards apartment 3B, she found Ezra's key on her keychain and opened his door. It had been a long time since she had knocked on the door before she entered, those kinds of formalities had been unnecessary since early on in their relationship.
Ezra wasn't in the small apartment but she didn't care, he obviously hadn't left yet, all of his bags were piled up by the couch, she knew he would be back from wherever he was soon.
She lay down on his bed, after last night it become their bed and she loved that thought. As she snuggled into Ezra's pillow and wrapped the blanket around her, tears began to run down her face. Last night had been so amazing, how had it all gone so wrong? Why did it all have to come crashing down around her?
"Aria?" Ezra asked as he entered his apartment, he hadn't expected her to be there, she was supposed to be hanging out with the girls for at least another hour before coming over to say goodbye to him.
As he approached her, he spotted the tears making tracks down her cheeks and immediately climbed onto the bed and pulled her tightly into his arms, kissing her forehead every few seconds.
"I hate my dad!" She mumbled into Ezra's chest, knowing Ezra would not be impressed that she had confronted her dad on his behalf.
Ezra knew that's what she had done, but he couldn't be mad at her. If he was honest with himself, he should have seen it coming. In all of the months he had known Aria, she had never been one to let something she felt strongly about go.
"Aria…I thought we'd talked about not breaking apart your family for us." Ezra replied gently, he didn't want their last moments being tainted by them arguing about Byron.
Snuggling into him even more, Aria sighed, she knew what they had discussed but she was so mad that she couldn't let her dad get away with it. She knew her mother would be having strong words with him back home and that was enough for her to feel better.
"He had no right to do what he did and he needed to know that. Mom came home, she sent me away so that she could talk to him. She knows he was wrong too, she was on our side." Aria smiled thinking of how much her mom's attitude towards Ezra was beginning to change in recent weeks and days.
Aria was so thankful that she had her mom, up until Ella had begun to come around the only support she had was from Spencer, Hanna and Emily. It was hard not having the support of her parents, not being able to take Ezra along to family events and parties, constantly having her father trying to set her up with guys he felt were appropriate for her.
If her dad hadn't messed things up, with her mother finally beginning to support them, things could have been great. She could have finally started introducing Ezra as her boyfriend, but that wasn't going to happen for a while.
"Listen, I have to hit the road soon but while I'm gone, I want you to try and be civil with your dad." Aria frowned and Ezra laughed at her, her ability she had to make the most expressive faces never failed to make him laugh.
"I can't promise that…can you promise that you are really coming back?" Aria asked sadly, her worries that Ezra may never return to Rosewood surfacing again.
He sighed, he thought seeing as they discussed the fact that he would be coming home it would have been enough to settle her anxieties. But he should have known better than to assume those discussions would calm her down. He had every intention of coming back to Rosewood; he just didn't know what he would be able to do that.
"My home is wherever you are. I promise you I will be home, I just don't know when. The rent on the apartment is paid from my savings for the next two months; take care of it for me?" Ezra asked, pushing stray hair from her face so that he could see her eyes. He loved her eyes and he was going to miss being able to stare into them.
He knew that being able to be in his apartment while he was gone would help her feel closer to him. She was relieved that she could still use the apartment; home wasn't exactly a haven for her at the moment.
The moment had arrived for them to say goodbye and it was just as tough as they had expected.
"I'll call you every day and as soon as things are settled down, I'll come straight back to you, I promise." Ezra held Aria tightly in his arm and pressed his face into her smooth hair. He loved the smell of her hair and he would sure that he would miss it the most.
Aria squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she tried to figure out a way she would manage without Ezra. For the last almost year, he had been the one who supported her through everything, he had been her safe place and with 'A' still on the loose, the thought of not having him around terrified her.
"I love you," Aria whispered against Ezra's lips as she kissed him lovingly.
Every kiss they shared was passionate, even the chaste goodbye and good morning kisses were filled with the kind of passion not many people were lucky enough to have in their relationships.
"I love you too Beautiful, so much." Ezra accentuated every word with a kiss, knowing it would probably be a long time before he could kiss her again.
"When things feel better, you'll tell me? And you'll come home?" Aria questioned allowing her insecurities to ask the questions for her, something she tried very hard not to do.
She knew they had already had this conversation today and on many other days, and he had assured her that Rosewood was home, that this was a temporary measure, but with everything they had been through she wouldn't blame him for taking an easy way out.
"I promise I'm coming home to you Babe, I promise." Ezra hadn't yet broken a promise to her, everything he had ever promised had always been kept and for now, that was enough.
Together they walked down the stairs from apartment 3B to the street hand in hand, they didn't care who saw them, in that moment it was just them.
As they approached Ezra's car; he pulled her into a tight embrace, kissing her lovingly as they held each other tightly.
"No matter what, I love you. Nothing will ever change that." Ezra exclaimed as he pressed one last kiss to Aria's lips before opening the car and throwing his stuff inside.
Aria was now sobbing uncontrollably, tears flooding her eyes and preventing her from seeing anything. Ezra wrapped her in one tight hug for a final time, tears clouding his own vision but reminding himself he wasn't going to let this be permanent.
Without being able to say the words, he untangled himself from Aria, wiping her tears away with his thumbs before getting into his car and closing the door.
Before he drove away he pulled out his cell phone and sent one final text message, suddenly becoming thankful that he had offered up his tutoring services and stored the number in his phone.
'Please take care of Aria.'
Once the message was sent he turned the key in the engine, swiping away his tears as he pressed down on the gas pedal.
Too distraught to look in the rear view mirror, he kept on driving out of Rosewood and into the unknown.
~x~
As Ezra's car drove off into the darkness, Aria sank to her knees and sobbed. She didn't care if people thought she was crazy or overdramatic and it didn't care if she looked like someone had just died, all of the emotions she had been bottling up for months were suddenly flooding out of her and onto the dark street on which she was sat.
"Aria?" Hanna asked as she approached the edge of the sidewalk where she was sat.
She had been buying coffee just around the corner when she had received Ezra's puzzling text message. When she had broken her leg, Ezra offered to tutor her for English and they had exchanged phone numbers to arrange sessions.
"Hanna? What are you doing here?" Aria asked as she looked up from the ground, wiping her face with her sleeve in an attempt to cover up the tears from her friend.
She wasn't fooling anyone, her red cheeks and puffy eyes were enough for anyone to see that she had been crying for a long time.
"Fitz sent me a text asking me to take care of you, what does that mean? What's going on?" Hanna asked, confused by what had got her best friend so upset. The last she had heard Aria and Ezra were doing great and everything was going smoothly.
Aria sighed, she hadn't got the chance to talk to the girls about what her dad had done and the thought of explaining it all again now was unbearable. She was exhausted and she needed rest but she didn't know where she was supposed to rest.
"Can you just take me home?" Aria asked; she didn't want to go home really but there wasn't a better alternative, if she went to Hanna's she would be drowned with questions, if she went back up to Ezra's she would just be surrounded by him.
Hanna wrapped her arms around Aria and pulled her up from the ground. Normally she would have asked questions but tonight she would sense that that wasn't the right thing to do. Whatever had happened between Aria and Ezra was major and she could see that Aria just needed a friend, not someone to interrogate her.
Slowly they walked back the four blocks to the Montgomery house, Hanna's arms staying wrapped tightly around a sobbing Aria for the whole journey. As she they approached the door Aria turned to her best friend and smiled through her tears.
"Thanks for picking me up off the sidewalk." Aria thanked Hanna sweetly, still not answering Hanna's questions about what had happened that evening.
"Do you need me to come in?" Hanna asked, sure that part of Aria's pain had to have something to do with her parents.
Aria shook her head; all she wanted to do was go to bed.
"No, it's okay. I'll call you guys tomorrow." Aria smiled and hugged Hanna tightly; turning and entering her house she took a deep breath.
She had no idea what she would find when she entered the house, but all she wanted to do was go up to her room to cry and sleep.
"Aria?" Ella called from the lounge; surprised that her daughter was home, she had assumed she would stay away and sleep at one of the girl's houses.
Aria walked slowly into the lounge, seeing her mom sat on the couch with her feet up and leaning against the arm rest. Aria tried to fight the tears that were starting to leak from her eyes but she couldn't, with her mom looking at her all she could do was to scrunch up her face and completely break down.
She quickly made the short distance to her mom on the couch, climbed on and sobbed into her arms. Ella didn't have to ask what happened, she already knew, all she could do was hold her daughter and try her best to comfort her fears.
"He'll come back sweetheart, he will." Was all Ella could say and she hoped with everything she had that she was right.
~x~
"No matter how hard I try…I can't stay away from you."
~x~
Well, I really hoped you guys all enjoyed that! I sure loved writing it so you can expect more where this came from in the future! Hit that little blue button and tell me what you thought!