Listening to You Picked Me by A Fine Frenzy will help make reading this story so much better, I promise!

one, two, three, counting out the signs we see

Imogen had a habit of staring that not even she could deny. She wouldn't, in fact, if anyone dared to call her out on it one day, but the reason for her staring was far too interesting a subject to stop.

Her chin propped on one hand, her teacher's voice just white noise in the background, Imogen would study everything about Fiona Coyne. The way her hair fell around her shoulders (Imogen preferred it curly, although she wasn't opposed to it straightened either), her stunning blue eyes that changed shades depending on her mood, her slightly crooked nose that Fiona claimed to hate but Imogen adored, and the way her lips quirked into a smile when their teacher said something remotely inappropriate (Fiona was a twelve year old boy at heart, Imogen was convinced). She focused on more than just her face, too, noting the kind of clothing that Fiona preferred (most of it came with a label that everyone knew and a price tag that could be the down payment on an apartment), her long legs, the way her waist nipped in slightly (Fiona had gained just a little bit of weight over the past year and no matter how much Imogen tried to tell her that she liked it and that Fiona looked great, Fiona was still self-conscious), and how Fiona would toy with her phone or her bag when she had nothing else to do with her hands.

She studied Fiona when they were alone, too. She watched how her entire face lit up when Imogen arrived at her loft, and she noticed how Fiona subtly shifted towards her when they watched movies. She saw the way that Fiona tried to remember things about Imogen and for Imogen so that she could put a smile on her face, and every time it did. Other things that she saw included how Fiona had to hide her face whenever a horror movie killer came on screen, how she bit her thumbnail whenever she was on an important phone call, that she didn't like butter on her popcorn, and that she unconsciously licked her lips just before speaking.

Imogen considered herself to be an expert in the ways of Fiona Coyne by the time they were officially dating, and from there she could only learn more.

four, five, six, the two of us a perfect fit

Holding hands with someone was considered to be one of the most intimate things that a person could experience, Imogen remembered being told once upon a time. She didn't remember who told her - it might've been something she found online - but she remembered it. So when she and Fiona held hands for the first time (she didn't count the Frostival because they were both wearing huge, ridiculous gloves and it was more like they were holding onto pieces of material instead of each other) she was blown away by how perfectly their hands fit together.

The two of them were sitting on Fiona's couch watching another one of their subtitled French movies that they were so fond of when Fiona shifted a bit and picked up Imogen's hand. Imogen turned her attention from the movie to Fiona and Fiona just smiled at her, turned Imogen's hand over so it was palm up, and laced their fingers together.

There was a moment where Imogen didn't quite know what to do and then a spark ignited in her brain and she thought, This is perfect.

—

When they had their first real sleepover at Casa Coyne Imogen expected that she would have to sleep on the couch or an air mattress or something of the sort. Fiona snorted and said that her mother didn't mind if Imogen slept in the same bed as Fiona because, as her mother put it, Imogen couldn't exactly get Fiona pregnant, could she? Besides, they were old enough to know right from wrong and Fiona's mother had earplugs.

Imogen didn't know what to expect when they finally slid under the covers after dinner, some terrible reality TV, and a few hours of just talking and hanging out. At first she laid still on her side, facing away from Fiona, but then she could feel some movement on her girlfriend's side of the bed and a sudden warmth pressed against her back. Fiona draped an arm over Imogen's waist and rested her forehead against the back of Imogen's neck. "Is this okay?" she breathed, and Imogen couldn't speak over the flurry of happy butterflies in her stomach and so she just nodded.

They fit together so well it was ridiculous.

and all i can say is you blow me away

Imogen still had to stop and remind herself that Fiona Coyne was her girlfriend months into their relationship. Sometime into the summer a group of their friends had decided that a beach trip was in order and Imogen and Fiona had been one of the first ones to agree to it, having been dying to get out of their house and loft respectively and do something.

Imogen agreed to meet Fiona at her loft so that they could ride together to the beach and meet Eli, Clare, Adam, and Katie. When she knocked on the door and it swung open, she grinned happily at Fiona, who was wearing a sundress. "Greetings, Miss Coyne!"

"Well hello there, Miss Moreno!"

—

When they arrived at the beach an hour or so later, everyone else had already gotten there and had set up camp. Eli wasn't really much of a beach person and it had taken quite a lot of coaxing from Clare and Adam to even get him to come, but he seemed in good enough spirits once he saw the two girls approaching. "Moreno, Coyne, nice to see that you two showed up. We thought maybe you had gotten a bit sidetracked with some other activities."

Fiona rolled her eyes. "If we'd gotten sidetracked with those activities, trust me, we'd be a lot later." Imogen simply nodded, throwing in a wink at Eli.

Adam was rubbing sunblock onto his girlfriend's shoulders and he just smiled up at the two girls. "Glad to see you made it!" Katie nodded in agreement before sitting up and glancing at Adam. "Should we head into the water?" The two of them took off for the water, Adam playfully grabbing Katie around the waist once they actually reached the shoreline.

Fiona set up her chair and slid her sunglasses on her face, smiling. "I'm so glad the two of them worked things out. Adam deserves a nice girl." Imogen hummed her approval as she set up her own chair and plopped down in it immediately to construct a small sand castle in front of it.

When she looked up ten minutes later her jaw nearly dropped. Fiona had taken off her sundress to reveal a black bikini that didn't leave a whole lot to the imagination and was currently in the process of rubbing sunscreen on herself. When she saw Imogen staring, she held out the bottle, frowning. "Can you help me, Im? You know I burn the second I step outside and I cannot afford to look like a lobster for the rest of the summer."

Imogen had seen Fiona in various states of undress before. Hell, she had seen Fiona completely naked. But there was something about seeing her in a little black bikini on a beach in front of all these people - was that guy over there checking her out? Uh, yeah, he was - that made her feel lucky. Jealous, but also lucky. She nodded and took the sunblock. "Yeah, sure."

—

After Adam and Katie had tired themselves out in the water and had flopped down next to one another on a towel and remained motionless, and Eli and Clare had dozed off while reading, Imogen and Fiona were the only two left doing anything. They had gone into the water for awhile, but it had been cold and Imogen had splashed Fiona enough for Fiona to scowl and try to tackle Imogen and it had gone downhill from there.

As the seventh - seventh - guy in the past half an hour walked by and checked out Fiona, who had her eyes closed and was happily sunning herself now that she had about five layers of sunblock on, Imogen growled a little.

Not moving at all, Fiona lazily commented, "Since we're not in bed, I'm guessing you're not happy about something?"

Imogen froze, caught, but then relaxed, her shoulders dropping. "Fi, everyone here is checking you out! And I mean, I love having a hot girlfriend and I don't want to, like, stifle you or anything, but it's kind of annoying to have every other guy on the beach staring at you like you're a piece of meat!"

Fiona sat up and removed her glasses just enough to stare at Imogen. "Do you really think that I'm not aware that people are staring?"

"Um...yes?"

"Imogen, I wore this for you. You're the only one I want staring. So just try to ignore everyone else, hold my hand, and let's enjoy the rest of the day. Maybe later we can try and get Eli in the water and see if we can get that precious hair of his wet."

Sometimes Imogen didn't know if she was the luckiest girl in the world or the biggest idiot in the world.

i was hard to reach but you picked me

Adam and Katie's wedding had been a lavish affair with a ton of their Degrassi friends invited. Even though everyone had gone their separate ways after graduating and a lot of couples had broken up and found new loves, everyone came back together for the unlikeliest couple of all.

Imogen and Fiona had managed to stay together all throughout university, both of them going to the University of Toronto, and now that they were in their mid-twenties, lived together in their own apartment with steady jobs. They were happy with where they were and wouldn't change a single thing.

Well, they would change one thing.

As Imogen watched Adam and Katie laugh and dance together from the bar, she sighed, wondering if that was in the cards for her and Fiona. She knew that they planned on staying together, bar some unusual, unexplainable event in the near future, but a wedding was a big step, even for a couple that had spent nearly a decade together. She had been thinking for a while about proposing but what if that messed things up?

As she thought she felt a pair of arms slide around her waist and she grinned, putting her hands over Fiona's. "Oh, Eli, I always knew you'd come back for me!" she joked.

"Even if Eli is single now, I think he knows I'd kill him if he touched you," Fiona said, before letting go of Imogen and taking her hand and spinning her around. "What are you thinking about?"

"Just stuff." Fiona raised an eyebrow and leaned against the bar.

"Sounds serious. What kind of stuff?"

Imogen hesitated. "In high school, I would have never believed that a girl like you would want anything to do with a girl like me. You were beautiful, rich, everyone knew who you were...you were amazing. And then there was me. I was weird, I had no friends, I wore weird things. I was just weird. Somehow, someway, you just found me and you picked me and you stuck with me. And I just don't get it." She furrowed her brow, not even understanding where she was coming from.

Fiona nodded, like she was understanding when Imogen didn't. "Well, that's where you're wrong. It's the other way around. You chose me, remember? You didn't have to kiss me back on the Ferris wheel that night. Things just worked out well after that. We just fit together, Im. Soul mates, remember?"

Imogen grinned upon remembering her lame attempt at hinting at her feelings in her senior year, but she soon lost her smile. Leaning into Fiona, her head on her girlfriend's shoulder, she mumbled something unintelligible.

Fiona smirked and rubbed the back of Imogen's head lightly, mussing up her girlfriend's straightened hair. "Repeat?"

"Can we do this?"

"Do what?"

"Get married?"

The hand stroking her head abruptly stopped and Imogen screwed her eyes shut, heart dropping into her stomach. Of course not. She had totally just messed all of this up, hadn't she? Of course she had -

Fiona pushed her away gently, holding her by the shoulders. Her blue eyes searched Imogen's brown ones, her face serious. "Do you really mean that?"

Imogen took a breath and nodded. "More than anything."

Fiona's face broke out into the most breathtaking smile Imogen had ever seen and she swore that her knees went a little weak. She actually put a hand onto the bar just in case she fell down from the sheer attractiveness of her girlfriend's happiness right then. What made it worse was the fact that Fiona was kissing her like she was never going to kiss her again, and, yeah, Imogen might have needed to be carried out on a stretcher.

—

At home later that night, the adrenaline from the wedding still coursing through their veins as they lay in bed, Imogen shamelessly gazed at Fiona. Her perfect Fiona, all blue eyes and curly hair and slightly crooked nose; Fiona, who still bit her thumbnail when she made an important call and couldn't watch horror movies and didn't like butter on her popcorn; Fiona, who still tried to make Imogen smile no matter what and shifted closer to her on the couch when they were watching movies and, most of all, loved her.

She reached out to touch Fiona's face, first skating across her jaw, and then tracing down the slope of her nose, and finally she gently touched Fiona's bottom lip with her thumb. Fiona's eyes never left Imogen's face while she did this, but she eventually grasped Imogen's wrist and leaned in to kiss her.

Imogen couldn't imagine a world where Fiona didn't pick her and she was so, so grateful for that.