a/n This is an AU with many similarities to the show, but relationships are arranged differently. Hannily-focused but will include Spencer, Aria, Paige and Mona along with Caleb, Toby, Jason D and Melissa H.
On a bright, sunny, Saturday afternoon Hanna Marin laid back on her springy cot in 723 Goddard Hall awaiting the arrival of her roommate. It was move-in weekend at NYU and she had butterflies in her stomach thinking about her first year of college. Leaving Rosewood had been bittersweet. Despite all the tormenting she'd endured throughout high school, Hanna learned to appreciate her close-knit community. Now she felt sort of in limbo in this vibrant, yet nameless city.
A loud knock on the door brought Hanna from her thoughts and before she could get to the door to open it, her new roommate was already in the room. After dropping her duffle bag and pillow, the beautiful, olive-skinned brunette wrapped the blonde tightly in her arms and gently kissed her cheek. "Hey, Beautiful," she whispered. Hanna turned her head to face the girl and reciprocated with a lingering kiss on her soft lips. "Hey you," she replied softly, before noticing a woman standing in the doorway behind her with an armload of grocery bags.
"Hi Mrs. Fields!" Hanna exclaimed excitedly, as she ran over and gave her girlfriend's mom a quick hug and took the grocery bags out of her hands. "Wow, what's all this?"
Hanna found two foil bags of Dunkin' Donuts coffee – vanilla and hazelnut, a quart of milk, a box of Cheerios and some microwave popcorn amidst shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and a loofa.
"It's nothing much," Pam replied with a weak smile, attempting to hide the evidence of crying in her red eyes. "Just a 'welcome-to-college' care package. I know how much you love Dunkin' coffee and Em can't live without Cheerios. Let's go down and get the rest of Emily's things, it may take a few trips."
Emily certainly packed heavily but with three people and a wheelie cart from the RA, it only took one trip to bring everything up to their 7th-floor dorm room. After they brought everything up to the room and unloaded the cart, Pam pulled the girls into a group hug and started crying. "I'm going to miss you girls so much," she managed to say between sobs.
Emily sighed, as this was the about the eighth outburst of tears just today. "It'll be ok mom, we're just a phone call away and we can video chat every weekend. " Wayne was currently deployed in Afghanistan, so Emily knew it would be especially hard for her mother to cope without her around either. She wished her mother would get a dog or something.
"My mom is still in the city for some bank function," Hanna offered. "She told me to tell you that you should stop and have a drink with her. She even has an extra bed in her hotel room if you want to stay the night. It'd be good for you to take some time to yourself and let loose with a friend. My mom could certainly use the company as well, she's probably still crying." Hanna chuckled nervously. She wouldn't admit it, but Hanna was actually quite scared.
"Thanks, Hanna," Pam replied. "I guess it would be ok to stop by for just one drink with your mom, to commiserate about dropping our baby girls off at college."
With that, Pam gave both girls a hug and kiss on the cheek, and managed to say goodbye with merely a hint of a sniffle, which was a big victory since both girls were expecting Niagara Falls again. Standing in the doorway waving goodbye to Pam, Hanna rubbed Emily's back gently as the brunette started sniffling as well. Nerves were running high for everyone that day. Pam stepped into the elevator, turned and gave one last wave before the doors closed. Emily let out another sigh as the girls retreated into their dorm and closed the door.
Hanna and Emily turned to face each other and the tears that had begun welling in Emily's eyes receded as she observed the look of joy in her new roommate's face. "I can't believe we're here!" Hanna squealed excitedly. Emily pulled the blond girl in for another hug and laid a soft kiss on her forehead.
"I love you Hanna," Emily whispered as she held Hanna for what felt like an eternity. No matter what was happening, the imminent apocalypse even, as long as Emily held Hanna things would be okay. Hanna was Emily's comfort animal.
The girls broke apart and began discussing how to set up the room. They considered pushing the beds together, but weren't too sure of the cultural climate and didn't want to become social pariahs before they had a chance to make friends. Instead the beds were arranged at a 90 degree angle with their pillow ends next to each other.
After the beds were made, clothes put into dressers, coffee pot and alarm clock set up, the new roommates had about 90 minutes before the move-in social all first-year students were encouraged to attend. Emily put her iPod onto the iPod dock with decent audio quality and played their summer mix. Though the girls were moved into their college dorm and set to start class in two days, the calendar still said August so technically it was summer. In the next few days the pair would put together a fall playlist to enjoy during the autumn months.
Emily laid back on her bed holding her left arm out as an invitation for Hanna to lay down next to her. The twin-sized bed didn't leave much room for space between the girls but neither minded as Hanna laid her head gently on Emily's left shoulder. Hanna always rested on the brunette's left side as pain in her right shoulder still flared up occasionally, pain which resulted from a swimming injury that caused her to lose her swimming scholarship. Hanna felt bad about being happy Emily didn't go to Stanford on a swimming scholarship. She knew her girlfriend lived to swim but it would have been difficult to maintain a relationship while living on different coasts, 3 time zones apart.
Deep down Emily also knew the injury was a blessing in disguise. Paige McCullers had landed a swimming scholarship at Stanford as well, and the tension between the two swimmers was unbearable. Emily moved to Rosewood at the beginning of 10th grade when her dad got reassigned to a base near Philadelphia, the year after she won the state championship for freestyle swimming in Texas. The Rosewood swim coach was completely enamored by Emily, who replaced Paige as the star of the team. Then there was the awkward sexual tension when Emily spurned Paige's advances.
Hanna listened to the music, relaxing into her girlfriend's toned body. Reaching her left hand from Emily's hip to around her back, Hanna pulled Emily onto her side. Hanna caught her girlfriend's eyes and gazed deeply into the chocolate brown orbs. Emily pulled Hanna in, pulling the blonde's body into hers, and she could hear the girl's breath start to quicken. Hanna moved her left hand up the swimmer's back and pulled her head in, covering Emily's lips with her own. Emily moaned softly and ran her tongue along Hanna's bottom lip. Hanna opened her mouth to allow Emily's tongue access, and gently caressed the girl's tongue with hers. Hanna and Emily got lost in the moment, as if the world stopped turning and time ceased to exist.
Emily whimpered as Hanna broke the kiss when the music stopped. They looked at the square red numbers of Hanna's digital alarm clock and realized the freshman social started about 15 minutes ago. "Looks like we'll get there right on time," Emily said jokingly. After being raised in a military household Emily was punctual to a fault. Her dad always said "If you're on time, your late," to which Hanna replied with "If you're on time, you're 20 minutes early." The girls found a way to compromise, when attending the Fields functions they were on time, but for Marin functions they strolled in about 10 minutes late.
Hanna threw on her strappy leather wedge sandals and Emily stepped into her purple and grey flip-flops before the girls stepped into the elevator. After quickly crossing W 4th street, they walked into the welcome center and followed signs to the freshman reception area. The pair was greeted by a roomful of awkward 18 year olds holding plates of pizza and red solo cups of soda.
A tall, thin woman with dark hair and a red blazer adorned with the name tag KAREN, RD greeted them at the door. "Hi Girls, welcome to NYU," then pointed towards the table behind her that had piles of blank sticker name tags and a few red Sharpies. "Grab a sticker, write your name and hometown on it, and then go mingle with the others. In the front of the room there's pizza and beverages, and in a few minutes the Ras are going to introduce themselves and go over some dorm rules and 'good neighbor guidelines'."
Branded with name tags, Emily and Hanna made their way to the pizza & soda table. Being fashionably late there was only plain cheese pizza and root beer left. They each grabbed a soda and one large piece of pizza and found one of the few nearly-empty tables in the room. Emily placed her plate on the table before pulling a chair out for Hanna. "You're so chivalrous," Hanna stated shaking her head. There were a few other guys sitting across the table lost in conversation amongst themselves about some upcoming football season.
"What can I say, I was raised in a military household," Emily grinned coyly, shrugging her shoulders.
When the guys noticed the girls sitting across the table they immediately turned on their teenage-hormone charm. "What are you two pretty ladies doing all by yourselves," the guy in the Knicks cap asked. His name tag said TYLER, from DUCHESS COUNTY.
"Oh, we just got here and haven't had a chance to meet too many people yet," Hanna said, subtly winking at Emily. "I'm Hanna," she said, extending her hand to Tyler and his companions Luke and Cooper.
"Emily," the brunette said with a terse smile, begrudgingly shaking their clammy hands. She didn't like the way the creepy Knicks fan was eyeing her girlfriend.
"Where is Rosewood?" Luke asked. Luke was a Mets fan, according to his headgear.
"Outside of Philly," Hanna replied. "Where's Duchess County?" Luke and Tyler were both from Duchess County. Cooper's tag said he was from New Haven.
"It's upstate, about 2 hours on the MetroNorth," Luke replied vaguely.
"New Haven is in Connecticut," Cooper offered, unsolicited.
"We've heard of New Haven," Hanna replied, sounding haughtier than she meant to. "Our friend Spencer goes to Yale. She's a real brainiac."
Just then KAREN tapped a microphone from her place as doorkeeper to get everyone's attention. "Good evening everybody. I'd like to take a minute to welcome you to New York University, introduce you to your resident advisors and talk a bit about the rules and guidelines of the residential halls here." Karen motioned for a dark-haired guy with a boyish face to come to the microphone. "The first RA, for Goddard Hall, is Wesley Fitzgerald."
Wes grabbed the microphone and introduced himself briefly. "Hey, I'm Wes, a senior in business management. I'm in room 201 Goddard Hall, right outside the north elevator. If you haven't noticed yet, the male floors are even numbered and the women live on odd-numbered floors. Don't hesitate to stop by if you need anything. If I'm not there you can stick a note on the corkboard to the left of my door." Wes spoke real quick, like he was trying to win some imaginary rap battle in the Bronx, while wearing brown corduroy pants with a snug black button-up shirt and a red bow tie.
Next was a girl with long red hair, pale skin and a spattering of freckles across her nose. Hanna thought she was adorable. "Hi everyone, I'm Kelly O'Rourke, and I live in 521 Goddard Hall, which is right outside the south elevator. If you need anything at all, don't hesitate to stop by, night or day." Kelly spoke with a genuine, slightly devilish, smile.
A few other RAs from different dorms talked before finally Karen returned to the mic to go over some rules, guidelines and suggestions. Always flush the toilet, keep public spaces clean, don't leave food out in your rooms, don't whiz on the electric fence, yadda, yadda, yadda. By the time all the RAs of the dorms introduced themselves, most of the students had mentally checked out so most of what Karen was saying sounded like gibberish. It was now 7:45 on a Saturday night and this nonsense was cutting in on their social time; forced mingling did not count as a "social" activity.
Hanna and Emily ducked out of the room before the guys at their table could follow them. "Where should we go?" Hanna asked. "I don't really feel like sitting in our room all night but I don't know where anything is around here."
"Well there's only one way to fix that," Emily replied, visibly more relaxed since leaving the freshman social. "Let's just walk around." They turned and headed north towards Greenwich Village.
Emily reached out for Hanna's hand and the blond turned to give her girlfriend a sweet smile. "This is going to be the best year ever," Hanna stated. She could hardly believe that just 12 hours ago she was in Rosewood packing up her mom's car to move to New York City and live with her girlfriend. Of course there was the college thing too, but it was Saturday night and that kind of responsible thinking would have to wait.
They were just halfway down the block when Emily turned to Hanna and said, "Isn't that – "
"Mona!?" Hanna exclaimed. The shorter brunette looked up from her intense conversation to acknowledge Hanna and her girlfriend.
"Oh, uhm, hey Han," she stuttered, then nodded at the other girl, "Emily." Standing next to Mona was a guy with shaggy dark hair and a blue pac man t-shirt. "You guys know Caleb?"
"Uhm, vaguely," Hanna stated. "I think we were in biology with Jurkowski together?" to which Caleb nodded in agreement. "What are you doing in New York?" Hanna finished.
"Right now we're just out for a stroll around the Village, I'm showing Caleb around," Mona said. "I've been at NYU since the beginning of second summer session, mid-July, and Caleb just moved here this weekend."
"I got a job doing cyber security for the City. They've been having hacking issues, and I was in the right place at the right time to get the offer, so here I am," Caleb said with a shrug. "I heard you guys are enrolled at NYU as well?"
"Yeah, we live in Goddard Hall," Emily pointed over her shoulder to indicate the building they lived in. They were barely a block away from their residence hall and somehow, in all of Manhattan, they had managed to run into two people from their high school.
"Me too!" gushed Mona. "We should hang out sometime. I'm in room 324."
"723," Emily stated dryly, unimpressed and rather annoyed with Mona's excitement. "With Hanna." Hanna nodded in agreement.
"Lucky for you," Mona said. "I had an awful roommate for the summer session and I've barely spoken to the new girl who just moved in. I think her name's Carmen something, seems stuck up, which is common around here. Don't trust anyone."
Hanna and Emily nodded awkwardly in agreement, said polite goodbyes to Mona and Caleb, and parted ways. "Wow, that was weird," Hanna spoke first.
Emily shook her head in surprise, almost disbelieving what she saw. Mona was BFFs with Emily's swim team nemesis Paige McCullers, and certainly not someone she wanted to see mere hours after moving into the city. "Did you know Mona was going to be here, Han?" Emily asked.
"Not for sure. Last I heard she was deciding between NYU, UPenn or Georgetown. I guess she chose NYU," Hanna replied. "Is everything OK, Em?"
"Yeah, I don't know, I guess I'm just more nervous about college than I thought. The city didn't seem quite as large when we had a campus visit, and those guys were hitting on you hardcore back in there, and now the first thing we see is Mona Vanderwaal. And what's the deal with that guy Caleb?" Emily spoke more quickly than hot-shot Wes in his RA introduction, which led Hanna to believe things were definitely not OK.
Hanna stopped and turned to face her girlfriend. The blond rubbed Emily's shoulders briskly and brought her in for a hug. Hanna could tell Emily was anxious by how tense her back and shoulder muscles were, but after a few seconds Hanna felt Emily relax. Hanna kissed the brooding brunette's forehead, looked her in the eye and told her it would be OK.
It was nearly 12:30 when Hanna and Emily returned to Goddard Hall. The pair stepped onto the elevator, and before it reached the 7th floor Emily immediately tensed up when they were joined by the three goons from earlier – Tyler, Ed and Cooper – reeking of weed and in various stages of intoxication. Of course they were going to the 7th floor as well.
When they left the elevator, Emily and Hanna took the long way, around the entire 7th floor, to their room in hopes of losing their riding mates. Luckily the guys didn't have to travel far from the elevator to arrive at their destination, and they'd all lost interest in Emily and Hanna when they refused to shotgun beers in the elevator. Upon arrival to room 723, Hanna unlocked and held the door open for Emily. "Look who's being chivalrous now," Emily raised her eye brows and remarked with a smirk. The walk around the city had done a world of good to uplift Emily's sour mood.
Hanna turned on the light as she closed the door behind them, and was quickly reminded of how barren their dorm was. Despite how tired she felt Hanna couldn't help but imagine how the two might make the tiny dorm room their own…maybe some bean bag chairs, plush throw rugs and some cute lamps. Hanna opened her eyes to see Emily gazing at her with a smile. "Thinking of how we can decorate already?" she asked. Emily knew Hanna like the back of her hand.
Hanna smiled and nodded as she stepped towards her girlfriend and wrapped the brunette in her arms. "I want it to be perfect. We must always remember our first place together," Hanna whispered softly in Emily's ear, causing the hair on the back of Emily's neck to stand at attention.
"As long as you're here, this place will always be perfect," Emily purred as she began to plant soft kisses along Hanna's jawline. Hanna closed her eyes and tilted her head back to give Emily unfettered access, as she tangled her hands in the brunette's hair, massaging her scalp. Hanna's desire for the olive-skinned beauty in her arms grew exponentially as Emily began kissing down Hanna's neck to her collar bone. With her hands firmly on Hanna's hips, Emily guided her girlfriend backwards towards the blonde's cot. As the bed hit the back of her knees, Hanna felt into a seated position and Emily climbed on top, straddling her. Hanna's hands fell to Emily's waist then began exploring the swimmer's toned body underneath her shirt, as Emily began kissing Hanna's mouth in a frenzy of passion. In one swift movement Emily removed Hanna's shirt then lifted her arms for Hanna to return the favor. They quickly removed their bras and went back to kissing and caressing each other.
Emily's short shorts had ridden up to the level of her panties and Hanna couldn't resist teasing her by slowly raking her fingers up and down the crevice between Emily's toned thighs and core. Emily's kissing grew rough and frenzied as her girlfriend caused heat to emanate and wetness to pool from her core. Soon Emily was moaning incoherently, and unable to hold steady enough to continue kissing Hanna she rolled onto her side on the bed. Hanna took the opportunity to remove the bucking brunettes shorts and panties. Holding Emily's arms out flat on the bed, Hanna lowered her head to plant soft kisses around Emily's navel. Emily could barely hold herself together and began to beg for relief as Hanna's kisses migrated slowly south. Emily did not often let her guard down, but Hanna knew just how to push the buttons; Emily was putty in Hanna's hands. After letting go of Emily's hands, Hanna brought her own right hand down to feel the wetness emanating from Emily's core. Reveling in the heat between her girlfriend's legs, Hanna enjoyed a slow journey with her tongue to find Emily's clit. Rolling her tongue around the bundle of nerves, Hanna slowly inserted her middle finger into Emily, curling it towards the swimmer's abdomen to hit her G-spot. Despite Emily's pleas to speed up, Hanna enjoyed making her squirm. The blonde held out for as long as she could, then plunged Emily over the edge to orgasmic ecstasy.
After letting Emily ride out the waves of her orgasm, Hanna crawled to the top of the bed to kiss her girlfriend. "Oh my god Han, that was amazing," Emily spoke breathlessly as she wrapped Hanna in a tight embrace, savoring how well the blonde fit in Emily's arms. After a moment of reprieve Emily lifted her head and captured Hanna's lips in hers. The brunette's hands made their way to Hanna's hips, then up her sides and back over her creamy skin until they reached her perfectly-shaped breasts. Emily broke the kiss and tuned her attention more fully to Hanna's breasts, pushing them together and nuzzling her face in between until she found the blonde's left nipple with her lips and gently nibbled while using her left hand to tweak Hanna's right nipple. "Em! Oh my god!" Hanna moaned loudly, as Emily enjoyed the reaction she had come to love. After a few minutes of teasing, Hanna sat up and rolled Emily onto her back before straddling the swimmer's immaculate body. After leaning in to offer Emily a sexy kiss, Hanna planted her arms on either side of Emily's head and arched her back, grinding her center into Emily's. The blonde beauty on top of Emily leaned her head back as she moaned, straightening her back as she began massaging her own breasts and gyrating against the goddess beneath her. Emily took in the sight before her – Hanna was beyond beautiful, especially when she got lost in her own sexuality. Emily moved her hands to Hanna's hips and pulled the blonde further into her before slipping her finger in to bring her over the edge. Hanna collapsed on Emily, still moaning and breathing heavily. The pair stayed like that for a few minutes, Hanna catching her breath on top of Emily before turning onto her side next to the swimmer and slowly drifting off to sleep.
"Goodnight Sweetheart," Emily whispered as she kissed Hanna softly on the cheek.
a/n Writing fiction is not my strength, but I'm working to improve. I'm also using this story to set up the Universe I hope to use as a backdrop to explore other non-traditional 'ships. Let me know what you think!