Disclaimer: I don't own Skins, I don't own Naomily and I don't own supermarkets...such is life.

Author Note: Thank you everyone who has reviewed this fic so far, I'm really glad that you all seem to be enjoying it! I'm enjoying writing it and for once I'm attempting to let it flow instead of forcing it to appear. Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter as much as the others!

In This Life

Free range eggs, soy milk, fair trade chocolate. The list of things to try, or in fact purchase, was growing with every trip Emily made to the supermarket. She wanted to impress Naomi and for some reason that meant throwing her own personal opinions about food aside and taking on board the things Naomi told her. In reality it was only two shopping trips, approximately an hour of discussing dairy farming and how unfair large companies were to people who made chocolate and coffee. Not that Naomi drank coffee, she always drank tea. Or bought tea, anyway. Really Emily knew very little about her and was quick to keep her own private life just that.

'So Emily,' Naomi smiled, turning around and walking backwards down the deserted aisle. 'What do you do?'

'What do I do?' she asked, baffled by what was supposed to be an easy question.

Naomi chewed on her lip, a trait that Emily had very quickly realised was her most attractive feature and fortunately for Emily, happened often. 'For a job, in life, what keeps you busy.'

'Oh.'

What did she do? She contemplated her life and what was in it; her job, her poky flat and a family who knew very little about what she really thought. She stopped midway down the aisle and began searching through various jars of tomato sauce, more for distraction than wanting to buy any.

'Nothing interesting,' she finally answered.

The answer appeared to fulfil the purpose of the question and they continued shopping. In the bread aisle, Emily asked the same question in return. If she was honest, she'd wanted to know since that second meeting. She wanted to know everything about Naomi. At first it was something of a fascination, a possibility relating to an event that happened a decade ago. Emily knew that it didn't mean Naomi was gay, nor did it mean she even liked her more than as a shopping companion. Yet something was there, something made her keep going back in the hope of discovering more about her.

'So you won't tell me about you, but you want to know about me?'

The accusation in Naomi's voice made Emily freeze in fear. Caught. The thought of Naomi knowing, or at least guessing that she had more purpose than just being polite, left her shaking. But then those sea blue eyes seemed to sink and Emily got lost in the cheeky smile perched on Naomi's lips.

'I am an environmental education officer.'

With that, Naomi disappeared around a corner at a rush, leaving Emily more confused than when she'd asked the question. She quickened her pace and followed Naomi towards the freezers.

'What do environmental education officers do exactly?'

'We go into schools and community groups to teach people about waste water, climate change and deforestation, amongst other things.'

Passion. That was something Emily was missing. She rarely talked about her job and when she did, it was usually the basics; low paid, menial work, a job's a job. Naomi's job wasn't like that, that much was clear. Despite the lack of voluntary information about it, there was a look in her eye and a way her voice crackled that showed how much she really cared. Emily felt jealous.

'So Emily, what do you do?' Naomi repeated, pushing her trolley towards the checkout.

Asking once appeared to be small talk made simply to keep those involved occupied, asking a second time showed that Naomi genuinely wanted to know. Emily busied herself with a number of items, hoping that maybe Naomi would forget she'd asked the question.

'I'll ask you again next week,' Naomi pointed out.

xxx

Naomi wouldn't approve. She didn't say it, but she thought it. Every day. Several times a day in fact. Emily finished making the skinny latte and handed it over to the customer, fully aware of the milk she'd just used and coffee shop chain, non-Fairtrade coffee she'd just created. She was working somewhere Naomi wouldn't approve of and after four days of constantly wondering what Naomi would think, she realised why she hadn't told her anything.

'Naomi wouldn't approve.'

The other coffee shop girl, Hannah, look at her with concern. Emily hadn't meant to say it out loud, nor had she even meant to think it again. A customer arrived at the counter before either of them could say anything more, relieving Emily of the need to explain herself.

When they closed up that evening Emily found herself staring at her colleague. Hannah was only a couple of years younger than her, still at university and working in the coffee shop to help pay her bills. She had her whole life ahead of her. Then again, so did Emily. She just couldn't see her whole life in the same way she could see hers. She was in a rut, working sometimes six days a week pouring coffee for mostly ungrateful customers. The other girl, however, managed to smile and be cheerful with everyone.

'You like this job, don't you?' Emily asked, realising how the question could easily be turned on it's head to match her own opinion.

Hannah shrugged and slid her jacket around her shoulders. 'I don't mind it. You do though.'

Silence. Emily couldn't speak, didn't know how to respond. The truth was there somewhere, she just couldn't find the words. She could never find the words for the things that mattered, or the things she thought didn't but really made a vast difference to her whole life.

'You do it at least four times more than me most weeks though,' Hannah pointed out, prompting a nod and smile from Emily.

'What are you doing now?'

'I was supposed to go to the pub with my girlfriend, but we're sort of in the middle of something.'

Girlfriend. Hannah was gay. Knowing changed everything. Emily looked at her again, different, noticing the little things about her that really made it obvious to someone looking. Why hadn't she noticed before? Was there anyone else in her life screaming gay whom she'd not ever considered as such?

'Maybe we could go instead.'

It wasn't a question, it was a statement and one that Emily put out there before she'd managed to stop herself. The reason for asking wasn't even clear to her and she quickly reminded herself of Hannah's girlfriend as her hands began to shake.

'Look, Emily, you're a great girl, but when I said me and my girlfriend are in the middle of something. We're going to sort it out.'

'Oh, no,' Emily backtracked, despite feeling slightly disappointed. 'I didn't mean, just as friends, work colleagues getting a drink after work.'

She stumbled over her words, her tongue seemed to have grown in her mouth and nothing made sense to her. She stopped talking as quickly as possible and stared at the floor instead. Hoping that Hannah wouldn't notice that she had, in fact, been asking her out on a date. What was she doing? The girl was taken and despite never getting further than walking around the supermarket with Naomi, she considered herself taken, also.

'Maybe next time,' Hannah replied, a sympathetic smile spread over her lips, an apology aimed mostly at making Emily feel better. It didn't. There was never going to be a next time and they both knew it.

The walk home, alone, was tiresome. Despite being on her own, Emily's thoughts kept her busy, so busy that she wished there was a way to avoid them. She'd made a mistake, made many mistakes. All of them seeming to snowball together into one big massive mess. Her life and everything in it was not how she'd imagine that first day of college, when she'd hoped things were about to change. Instead they got worse, not better and she was still suffering the fallout of her own stupid actions.

xxx

As she lay in bed with her duvet tucked up to her chin and her bedside clock lighting up the table beside her, Emily couldn't sleep. Her mind would not switch off and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to focus her attention on getting some rest. So she focused it on Naomi. She was tall, Emily noted, something she never really thought about as they walked down the aisles of the supermarket. Yet when Emily couldn't reach the tins of tuna on the high shelf, Naomi had been there to get them down.

'Alright Shorty,' she'd been greeted, the week after.

She didn't mind. At school she'd watched her sister with boys, they usually stood a foot above her and she'd become this small, fragile thing in their arms. Despite never wanting a boy's arms around her, Emily wanted something similar. The first time she thought about it she thought of Miss Harper's arms around her; the youngish, beautiful music teacher who actually gave her more attention than her sister. That was also the first time she thought about girls. After Miss Harper came Lucy Lockridge in year eleven. Her breasts were fully developed, unlike twelve year old Emily's, and despite getting into a lot of trouble, she liked to wear half of her shirt buttons unfastened. She got attention from almost every boy in school and Katie hated her for it. Emily on the other hand, couldn't help but stare when she leant over during her library duty, leaving Emily weak at the knees.

Sleep still seemed a distant possibility when Naomi returned to her conscious, the way her body moved as she walked. The last time they went shopping together, Naomi had on a tight fitted top that made Emily question what she looked like naked. It wasn't the first time she'd thought about it, but it was the first time she'd thought about it in detail. And then her mind began to wander and before she could stop it, she was back in that supermarket in her mind.

Naomi's clothes were dishevelled and they were kissing in the bread aisle. Emily didn't think about where her hands were travelling, she just closed her eyes and allowed them to wander. Then the supermarket shelves disappeared and they were in her home, in her bed, arm in arm and Emily couldn't stop the Naomi in her mind from fulfilling her every desire.

Author Note: So, did you enjoy this one as much as the others? I'd really like to know because like I said before, this is sort of a new-ish fic for me, starting afresh, it feels different and maybe better but it's difficult to judge my own work, so a review wouldn't hurt in helping! :-P