All The Things She Said

Ian stared at the screen of his iPad, thoroughly dumbstruck. It was starting to feel like his relationship with Lucy was always two steps forward, one step back.

Her twitter feed was pulled up on his screen and no matter how many times he read her posts and then switched back to the interview she'd given just two days earlier, it infuriated him more.

Someone had tweeted her, asking if she was in a relationship. She had simply winked in reply.

He tapped his screen a few times, closing her twitter feed and opening up the interview again.

Interviewer: You've got a lot of success with Pretty Little Liars, and now you're working on an album. The question we keep getting most though from your fans: Who's the better kisser? Ian or Drew?

Lucy: [laughs] you know, they both have their own techniques. Ian would tell me to pick him, because most of his scenes are with me. Drew's good though, too. Yeah. Drew.

Ian shook his head, pushing the button at the bottom to shut the iPad off. He closed the case it was held in and settled it on the table in front of him and then walked out of the kitchen. He headed towards his sitting room. The knot in his throat was tight as he looked around.

His love for Lucy was far from a secret. Pictures of them literally covered his walls in almost every single open space. Photos from Pretty Little Liars photo shoots, as well pictures they had gotten done together outside of work.

In the last year and a half, they had done a lot to keep their relationship away from the public eye. They were both young actors, and Ian knew that if they wanted to keep things going as well as they seemed to be for the both of them, then it was better to appear single. It gave them both a better edge at being looked at for a wider range of roles. Neither of them wanted to be thought of as tied down. They both worried that if they told people that they were together, they'd be seen as nothing more than 'that couple that plays a couple on that show twelve year old girls watch'.

Ian huffed and shook his head. He walked over to the small tree set up in the corner of his apartment and squatted down, resting on the tips of his toes as he picked up one of the wrapped gifts. He had been waiting for over two weeks to see her. They hadn't even parted at the airport. She had taken a four AM flight to spend Christmas with her family two days after the finale. Ian hadn't even had time at that point to go shopping for her gift.

Still, he felt the lack of her presence everywhere from the very minute she was gone. It was more than just the space beside him on his California king being cold. It was more than her giggles missing from the sitting room as she chatted on the phone with Ashley, Shay, and Troian.

It was like she was the other half of him. He remembered when they first had said that they needed to branch out; just a few episodes into the first season. They joked that they spent so much time kissing at work, why not look for something different outside of Pretty Little Liars. The funny part was that she was the one looking for something else. He waited the long, irritating six weeks that she searched for something 'different' (which ironically transformed itself into 'better' inside his head). He asked her every day if she had found what she was looking for.

And he still remembered the day she walked into his dressing room and tackled him to his couch. He'd been off set for more than ten days, when he hadn't been needed for episodes seven and eight. He had taken the short break and flown across the country to spend a few days with his parents before he returned back to LA. Lucy had practically stormed into his room, and he had barely been there for five minutes. She had shoved him down onto the couch and straddled one of his legs, and proceeded to have the most passionate kiss he had shared with her up to that point. There had been so much yearning and unadulterated fervor in that kiss, that it had sealed a conversation they never even had to have.

Even when he was frustrated with her, it was hard to be angry. He turned the present over in his hands. Last Christmas might've been the most ridiculous year they'd had. He remembered how Holly had written him a letter for Christmas, and promised to sick her son, Finley, on Ian if he did anything to hurt Lucy.

Yet, he was beginning to wonder if he wasn't the one ending up more hurt with the time that continued to pass. Lucy seemed more than amicable to coming off as still single, and he felt like the third wheel in his own relationship.

His phone started to sing in his pocket. Even when he tried not to, he smiled. He pulled it from the confines of his jeans.

"Oh, darling,
I love you so,
If you'd ask me for my heart,
There's no way that I'd say no

Oh, darling,
Just take a chance, please
So we can stay together 'til hell starts to freeze."

He opened the new text message.

Lucy: Knock, Knock.

Ian looked over his shoulder at the door. Lucy had a key. He wondered if she was trying to pull a prank on him. He typed out a reply.

Who's there?
Message is sending… …. Message sent!

He looked over his shoulder again at the door.

"Oh, darling,
I love you so-"

He opened the new text message.

Lucy: A girlfriend without her keys. They're buried under everything in my suitcase. Open up plz?

Ian chuckled as he pushed up to his feet. He walked across the room and strode up to the door. He turned over the deadbolt and then stepped out of the way as he opened the door.

Lucy waltzed in, shoving her suitcase and bags down off her arms and turning directly to him. Ian raised an eyebrow at her, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Hi?"

He was prepared for what came next, but the launch was still enough to knock him off his feet. His apartment door wasn't even shut as she jumped into his arms, kicking both her legs up behind her. In a twist of usual events, it was her tongue searching for access as they tumbled backwards and fell to the floor. Lucy didn't let that stop her. She dropped both her knees on either side of him and pinned his arms above his head while they ensued in a game of tonsil hockey. Her skirt rose up high on her thighs. Her present rolled out of Ian's hand, a few inches away. As their kiss came to a close, Ian nibbled on her lower lip.

They parted after a few minutes, and Lucy hovered a few inches above him, still having him pinned down.

"You seem to like things from this view," he teased.

She shook her head as she giggled. "Are you complaining?"

Ian quickly slipped his arms from her grasp and clamped his hands down on her hips, grinding them down. "Do I seem like I'm complaining." He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"Your name certainly is apropos, Harding." Lucy teased. "Good thing Ezra Fitz has nothing on you."

Ian flipped them over, kicking his door shut as he did so. Lucy had her one of her legs hooked between his while the other wrapped around his hips, keeping him pinned down against her.

"Ezra Fitz is a baby seal compared to me," he said huskily. "And he never thought of doing half the things to Aria that I want to do to you right now."

"Well you would know," Lucy replied. Ian had her pinned at her shoulders. She tried to lean up to kiss him. He pulled up out of her reach.

"C'mon, Ian, don't tease. You're not being fair," she whined.

He nodded. "Kinda like how you weren't fair in that interview two days ago," he asked.

Lucy frowned. "Ian-" He shook his head. "You know I read everything you say. You know I do. Everything you post, every interview, every photo you tweet…You know what's been going through my head since this morning?" Lucy looked up around from where she laid. "Am I going to spend the rest of the afternoon here," she asked, ran his hands slowly down her arms until he reached her hands. He laced his fingers into hers and then moved her arms up until her hands were on either side of her head.

"Depends." He was smiling.

Lucy looked back at him and tilted her head. "C'mon, Ian. You know I love you. You know there's no one else I want to be with." He chewed the inside of his bottom lip as he pondered her comment. "I know you don't want to be with anyone else? I mean I really know it?" Lucy raised her hips slightly, trying to shift into a slightly more comfortable position. Ian growled lowly.

She looked into his eyes. His pupils were almost completely black. Only thin rims of blue-grey iris showed. She stared at him quizzically for a moment before she repeated the previous motion. He growled again, releasing one of her arms. He moved his hand to wrap under her chin. He turned her head to the side and nuzzled his face into the side of her neck, nibbling and suckling on the spot just below her ear.

Lucy slipped her free hand down between them and pulled the button of his jeans apart, sliding her hand inside. She wrapped her hand around his erection.

"Good fucking God, Ian. What the hell do you do when I'm not here? Pray to a higher power for a quick return?"

"Two God-forsaken weeks," he rasped, grinding his hips against her. "Two weeks after waking up to an empty bed with no note." She could hear the irritation in his voice. She turned to look at him.

"I called when I knew you'd be waking up." He released her other arm and moved his hands down to her skirt. He slipped his hands under it and gripped the elastic band of her tights. He curled his fingers inside them, as well as her panties, and yanked.

"You leave here like it means nothing," he argued. "And you talk about me like I'm nothing more than a pat on your back." She squeezed the head of his penis. Ian exhaled a hard breath, almost shaking with fervent need. Lucy let go of him and moved her both of her hands to the waistband of his jeans. She pushed his boxers down until his throbbing erection was free of its confines.

She brought her hands up to his face, making him look at her. "You know that's not how I feel. There's-" "Fuck it," he groaned. He tore open her button-up blouse as he readjusted them. Lucy shifted her pelvis, rising up to meet him. The wetness of her lower lips brushing against him only enticed another moan from his lips. He rested his weight on one hand as he reached down between them and slid a finger inside of her vagina.

Lucy began to breathe harder, as they stared each other down. She tilted her head up and her upper body began to rise up from the floor, trying to meet his languid strokes. Their position gave her little room to move against him.

"It's a bitch, isn't it?" He taunted. He brushed his thumb over her clitoris with maximum force.

Lucy let out a loud squeal of surprise, shuddering.

"Not being able to do anything, when you're pushed into a corner, and all you wanna do," he removed his hand from inside of her and adjusted his cock to line up with her entrance. He thrust forward as hard as he could. "Is slam me up against a wall." He leaned down and brushed his tongue along the inside of her parted lips. Lucy dug her fingers into his hair and lured his tongue further into her mouth. He pulled away quickly, though he was moving painstakingly slow, pulling out of her.

"And have your way with me. But you can't do that," he continued as he placed open-mouth kisses along her jaw line. He reached her collarbone and bit down. He slipped a hand under her, raising her hips as he finished withdrawing from her. The angle allowed him to brush against her clitoris as he entered her. Ian looked up at her. She was shaking from all the sexual torture. "When the person you love so much it hurts is mind fucking you. So instead you play with them when you've got them right down at their most vulnerable." "God damnit, Ian, if you don't do something about it soon, I swear I'll tie you to the bed when you fall asleep tonight and give you hell for the next two days," Lucy yelped.

He knew she was good for it. She'd involved handcuffs in foreplay before. Maybe he didn't mind it. He was slowly thrusting back into her. He used his free hand to reach behind him and yank her boot off of her foot.

"Pain and pleasure are the same thing," he said.

Lucy whimpered. She couldn't move at all with his hand pinned under her pelvis.

Ian settled inside her fully for the second time. He rolled his hips in a figure eight motion. Lucy squealed again, and her eyes grew wide.

"Oh, GOD, Ian! Fuck!"

He moved his hand out from under her and reached between them. He pushed his thumb between her folds and pressed up against her clitoris and began to move it back and forth as he repeated the motion. Lucy dug her fingers into the back of his neck, moaning with each movement he made.

"Oh, G-God! I'm- Ian!" She screamed his name as she clamped down on him, holding tightly to the hair at the base of his skull.

"It's about fucking time," he growled. He pulled both of her hands out of his hair and pinned them above her as he began to thrust in and out of her with reckless abandon. Lucy dug her nails into the back of his hands where their finger were intertwined, struggling to come down from one high as her body started building towards another.

Ian's lips crashed on hers, and they dueled for control as his thrusting became more erratic. Lucy bit down on his bottom lip until she drew blood. They only broke apart for mere seconds before their lips were upon each other again, searching each other's bodies.

He brought her to a second climax, and followed her over a moment afterward, with heavy gasps and a dripping bottom lip. Lucy placed gentle kisses along the side of his neck, stopping briefly to kiss a spot where she'd bitten him quite hard in the midst of it all.

Ian rested his head on the floor next to hers, slowly loosening his grip on her hands as they both tried to catch their breath. "I just…want you to care," he gasped.

After a few long, deep breaths, Lucy turned her head towards his, and made him look at her.

"I do care."

Ian looked up at the dropped present a few inches away from his hand. He reached up and grabbed it. He put his weight on his elbows as he leaned his torso up; she still had her legs tightly wrapped around him. He pulled the wrapping paper off the small package to reveal a jewelry box.

Ian handed it to Lucy.

She furrowed her brow as she took it from him. She looked at him, and then turned her attention to the box as she opened it up.

"Ian…"

He rested his hands on either side of her ribcage. "Marry me, Lucy."

It wasn't even a question. It was more of a plea.

"I love you, more than I ever thought it was possible to love anyone. And I know we say and do stupid shit sometimes, and we drive each other nuts. I know you make me feel like I'm going insane most of the time, but here, like this? I don't want anyone else. It's like a god-damn inferno when I'm in the same room as you. Everything about you sets me on end, and I don't want to have to even have the option to think of someone else.

When you're not here, all I think about is you. When you're right here, like this, I still can't get close enough to you. But this, this right here, in this moment, and all the other moments we've had like this… feels complete, and real, and… I'm rambling."

Ian blushed. He looked down at the concave curve of her stomach and kissed the space just below the middle of her ribcage.

Lucy pulled the ring from its confines in the box, and slid it on her finger.

"You scare me, Ian," she said softly. He looked up at her.

Lucy cupped his face in her hands. "You scare the living hell out of me, because you know everything before I know it. Sometimes I want to just take the time to discover it for myself, even when you already know, and you're already there with the answer. And that scares the crap out of me. But if there's one thing I've known since that day I walked into your dressing room, it was that this was meant to be. There's not a day that's gone by in the last few months, that I haven't wanted to just screw all the typical answers we give to people, and tell them the truth. I don't want to lie about us anymore. I want to tell people, because I love you. Because, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to marry you, and have perfect little Ian Michael Harding Jr's running around here, making me as nuts as you do." Several tears ran off the sides of her face as she looked up at him. "And because you're right. Here like this, everything feels right, and complete. It terrifies me sometimes, how intense moments like this can get, because I know when you look at me, you're not seeing anything else. I just… it took me longer to get this far."

Ian sat up, pulling her with him as he rested on his knees. Her legs were still wrapped around him. 'Forever?"

"Infinity times infinity." She rested her forehead on his. He kissed her softly, but quickly. They both still needed to get their heart rate back down to normal.

Lucy dropped one of her legs. Ian groaned.

"Sorry," she murmured. She looked down at their torn clothing. "Shower?"

Ian nodded. "I'll throw your skirt in the wash after."

She placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed up off of him. She pulled her ripped tights from her legs and scowled at him as he stood up.

"These were brand new. I got them yesterday. And my mom is gonna be pissed when she finds out the shirt she got me for Christmas has no buttons left on it."

Ian nodded, pulling on the ripped collar of his shirt. "She can talk to my sister about this."

Lucy chuckled and shook her head. She walked over to the bathroom and pushed the door open. A few moments later, running water filled the silence of the apartment. Lucy popped her head out from behind the door. "Are you coming or not?"

Ian laughed. He crossed the room and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind them. Lucy pushed his shirt up off his body. Ian tossed it into the corner and wrapped his arms around her.

"I kind of love you a whole hell of a lot, you know?"

Lucy nodded. "I'm pretty fond of you too."