*Blushes like a geek whilst accepting Kickstart's flower* lol Thank you! I can't accept chocolates though. I give free fic :P hahaha, so you enjoy them :D For those who aren't familiar with the term 'L7', make an L with your left hand and then make a 7 with your right. What shape do you get?
Vero, i'm glad you resonated with Emily's speech. Lots of ppl look at me like i'm crazy when i point out the way that society and socialization works. Hmmm, maybe naomi will find herself. And its nice to know that we all enjoy a bit of sassy, self-confident emily. Always thought she was sexier that way.
Big, BIG thanks to every single person who has read this, reviewed, favorited or alerted.
Sat in front of the TV one afternoon, Naomi began to think about the prison service and all that she'd endured and taken from it over the years. Her job had been about nothing but control, she decided, thinking about L wing. Controlling the criminal's behavior, controlling the officer's duties…control of something that didn't involve her having to think about the lack of control over her own happiness. The blonde became rather grateful for Freddie dismissing her, a place she never thought she'd ever reach.
She nodded to herself, thinking of Emily's words from the other night. "Colouring outside of the lines."
Dancing maybe? That'd be colouring outside of the lines for the L7 blonde. She'd always made sure that her body ceased to respond to music, even when her ears smiled to it…even when she was alone. It was what she considered an unacceptable act, not for anybody else though. Just her.
Clubbing? Naomi had never liked the idea of going out clubbing. After all, what was the point of going out, getting rat-faced, pulling some tit, shagging, only for said tit to bin you the next day? Of course, she'd never actually witnessed any of this herself or heard first-hand accounts from friends, since…there weren't any. Television was her informer, yet another external influence that she'd let dictate to her experience…or lack of.
They were hitting her, as she sat in the lounge pondering these things, Emily's words were. Or rather the veracity and relevance of them.
Then, as if knowing she was needed, Emily strode into the lounge, Bimbims' collar jingling pleasantly with every step he followed behind his fiery haired companion.
"Were you watching this?" Asked the redhead, whilst leaning down for the remote control sitting on the coffee table.
"You told me you'd like to see me begin to colour outside of the lines. How?"
Naomi's enquiry stopped Emily in her motion, and a subtle but perceptible smirk broke out of Emily's lips, her head later leaning on its side. "If I told you that, you'd still be colouring inside of the lines. My lines. I can't tell you what's going to make you happy. Only you know that. Give it a try; just sit and think about the things that'd make you happy if they came to fruition. A lot of people focus on the things that they don't want to happen in the hopes that they can prevent such, so focusing of things desired might feel a little strange to you at first. You'll get used to it though. I did."
Emily wink-smiled and continued to scoop the remote control up into her feminine little hands.
Naomi blinked, looking around the room as though the fixtures and fittings were going to lend her a clue as to where she should start, and when they didn't she asked. "How do you know all of this… stuff? I wouldn't say it's political stuff either, it's more…"
Crimson hair gently lashed her cheeks as the redhead dropped down next to her on the sofa, and helped her out with the completion of her question."Spiritual?"
The blonde lit up. "Yes! Spiritual! It's like…"Naomi paused to process the jumble of thoughts she'd come up with in her time alone. "Once you get the feeling shit about yourself over and done with, there's a limitless supply of empowerment available, you know? It feels…" She shrugged away all of the negative connotations which so easily came to mind when she'd ever heard the word spiritual and said. "Spiritual."
She looked to her side to find her lodger smiling a smile of pure adoration at her, and the blonde found herself fidgeting under it.
"I meditate." Emily answered, as if all was simple. "You'd be surprised what truths you hear when you quieten the chatter of your brain, Naomi."
Blue eyes watched Bimbims crawl up and curl into Emily with a love strong felt, and Naomi didn't know what it was but everything felt big in that moment, like the poles were shifting or something.
"I want to learn." She then suddenly blurted.
Itches bubbling up in places she never even knew existed, ridiculous randoms popping into her head, the washing, the spider she'd exploded all over the wall with her shoe the other night, even Santa clause and his stupid white beard. They were all making it impossible for Naomi to sit still on her bed and 'quieten the chatter of her brain,' as Emily had so stereotypically put it.
She just couldn't understand why she wasn't getting this meditation thing right. Why she couldn't. After all, it was only sitting down and doing nothing for Christ sake. Nothing. Which knobhead couldn't do that?
Apparently her.
It was getting to her, just like it always did when she found herself faced with a challenge she couldn't overcome, because she was Naomi fucking Campbell, and she was used to challenges becoming wobbly-kneed and falling when she stared them in the eye…or maybe she wasn't, which could've been why she was so bloody frustrated.
Meditation? Supposed to relax and calm? More like raise the pressure of the blood and cause heart attacks.
"Fuck this." She relaxed her back and opened her eyes…only to find Emily stood in the doorway. A sudden need to spring up from the bed and make things look casual quickly cascaded over the flustered blonde. "This isn't one of your depraved pornographic DVDs you know; I actually mind you watching me." It was harsh, but the guilt racking her thanks to the fact that she'd snapped Emily's head off, felt much better than the feelings of embarrassment she felt at having been caught failing to pull of meditation. At the feelings of embarrassment she felt at having been caught failing full stop.
"I'm beginning to think you enjoy my collection almost as much as me Naomi." Emily smirked. "But yeah, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to gawp. I literally just got in the doorway as you opened your eyes babe."
Already agitated, Naomi wasn't doing any better off for being referred to as 'babe'. "I'm not a babe. I'm 26."
"Why can't you be both? Let go of the boxes you've put yourself in. And my babe-o-meter is telling me you're a babe right now. Deal with it."
Naomi's entire expression panned dead…"What did you want anyway?"
Emily fanned a few leaflets in the air. "Just to give you these." She then tossed them to the bed. "A few tips on how to meditate. I erm, saw you were giving it a go when I interrupted. I'm sorry."
Blue eyes rolled, and their owner shrugged, putting out a relenting sigh. "Yeah well it's making me fucking homicidal! Like, I'm actually seriously considering looking up guns on the net when I get done here. What's your method?"
Emily had eyes to roll of her own and chuckled. "Yeah, because the whole purpose of meditation is to give you the courage to go out there and shoot people in the face. Like, right there." She prodded the space between her eyebrows, nodding like she meant it.
"You're such a sarcastic little –"
"Naomi, meditation can be pretty personal. Everybody eventually finds their own way of doing it. One which works best for them. Take a gander through those." Suggested Emily, gesturing at the leaflets. "Take out what resonates with you and leave the rest."
Satisfied that her part was over, she instructed her feet out of the door, only stopping on the landing to smile when she heard a small, "Thanks," from the blonde.
"No prob's babe." She said to herself with a grin.
Emily Fitch wasn't shy. Naomi was quickly learning that. In the month and a half that the red haired woman had been lodging, Naomi had seen it all...quite literally. It'd started with the lack of clothing that Emily would wear whilst lazing around the house. The blonde had endured the sight of Emily's porcelain legs, chest, and arms the time she'd found Emily walking around the landing in nothing but a pair of girl boxers. As well as dancing, it was also unacceptable to show yourself in such a manner, as far as Naomi was concerned, and her beliefs had bled through heavily when she hadn't known where to put her face, whilst a more than half-naked Emily waved at her with a small smirk before disappearing into the bathroom.
Throughout the days since, Naomi would occasionally catch herself outlining the fullness of Emily's breasts in her mind, mostly for comparison, least for something else which she couldn't quite put words to. It was fascinating to her that a person would have such little qualms about showing their body – or even seem to relish in having the eyes of others roaming their bare flesh. It made her more than uncomfortable, but then, nothing made Naomi stiffen up quicker than when she'd randomly catch the redhead's chestnut orbs resting on her, especially with knowing how perceptive her lodger was. It made Naomi feel like she was under a microscope, like she was constantly being read and analyzed. Naomi wasn't used to that.
She was usually the one doing the analyzing. Doing the judging.
Judge Naomi was alive and in all of her glory as she walked into her front room to a sound indicative of kissing. She frowned, the deeper she walked in because the television wasn't on, and then shrieked the moment her brain processed the two naked, gyrating forms rolling around on the good carpet. A flurry of emotions passed through her, from shock, to embarrassment, to disgust, to second-hand embarrassment for the caught now scrambling for their discarded clothes.
Eventually she just turned her back to the sexing pair, hands clamped over her mouth, a muffled, "Fuck." Squelching out.
"I'm sorry Naomi. I didn't think you'd be back so soon." So deep and husky was the voice coming from behind, that Naomi could decipher the arousal which was still swimming in it. The whole thing made her boil and she span around to face the dressing pair.
Flinging an irate finger at the timid looking brunette trying to hide behind her redheaded lover, Naomi barked. "Get that out of my house now!"
The mousy little brunette flinched at the hatred being directed at her and quickly came to the obvious conclusion: "Emily, you've been living here with your girlfriend the entire time we've been seeing each other?"
Emily rolled her eyes, sighing boredly. "No Shannon. This very angry lady is not my girlfriend. We're just sort of roomies."
The brunette's emerald eyes flitted to Naomi for confirmation.
"Are you fucked or something, as well as being a whore? Course I'm not her fucking girlfriend! Now get out!"
Emily stepped in then. "Come on Naomi. There's absolutely no need for name-calling. Thought you would've had a bit more class than that."
Emily's admonishment shook the blonde so hard, that it was a miracle her body wasn't trembling with the turbulence. She'd been scolded by her redheaded lodger, and the burn that her pulsating heart was tattooing into her ribcage was like a voice telling her that she cared what Emily thought of her. Perhaps a little too much.
And as with everything else Naomi didn't understand, it infuriated her.
"You want to talk about class Emily, really? I just caught you shagging some random on my living room carpet and I'm the one lacking class here?"
"I don't pretend to have any." Emily quickly responded. "Whereas you pride yourself on it. After all class is something that is perceived by how you think others perceive you, the majority of the time isn't it? And we all know how crippled your personality has become thanks to your constant rewiring of how you act to please others."
"And…I'm not a random." Shannon meekly raised her hands.
Of course Emily's rolling eyes would suggest otherwise, as she awaited the furious blonde's comeback. However, she wasn't expecting: "I want you and all of this debauchery out of my house by the end of the week."
"I've already paid until the end of the month." Protested the redhead, calmly.
"I'll give you the money back then won't I?" The blonde yelled.
"Then who's going to run this place? You're currently unemployed, and I already had to make up the difference because you were lacking the funds to pay your half. You're screwed without me Naomi, so get over your idea of debauchery and just fucking chill out a little. God's sake." Whined Emily, walking a dressed Shannon to the front door to let her out.
It was the first time Naomi had ever heard Emily swear, and she paused to let that thought register. She didn't know how to feel about the fact that it'd been directed at her. She just knew that she was still feeling angry, even if it had subdued a stitch.
"Well if I'm stuck with you, you're moving up into the attic. It'll be finished in a matter of days, and the less I have to see your constant smirk, the fucking better."
Locking the door, Emily glanced over her shoulder at the annoyed blonde, and shrugged. "Well we'll see how spacious it is, and if I decide that I like it up there, I'll agree to move up there won't I?"
Stubborn cunt, was all Naomi could think. As bad as it sounds, she despised the fact that she couldn't push Emily around and tell her what to do, like she'd done with her wing officers and inmates for so many years. She wasn't in control when Emily was around and the redhead let her know it, really made her feel it. The small 25 year old Fitch often reminded the blonde of one of those large stones built into the ground; unmovable, unshakable, strong and defiant. If anything, Naomi was jealous. She may have been taller and more experienced with her harsh ways of chopping people down, but nothing that she could do seemed to be able to challenge the power of the scarlet haired woman living with her, and inevitably she beat herself into an inferiority complex about it.
The only thing she had left to say was, "Whatever Emily. You're fucked if you think I'm going to put up with you shagging women in my home. Do you know how much this carpet cost? I'm not going to have it covered in stains from you and your 'mates'."
"Well someone here has to get laid. I bet poor old Valarie is starving." Emily was back to smirking as she gestured at Naomi's womanhood.
"Can you not see how cracking jokes about my vagina would piss me off even fucking more right now Emily?"
She stopped smirking then, the redhead did, and something about her became softer. "I rather enjoy living here with you. I like your mood swings, the grumpy little huffs you make when you spill something on the worktop or stub your toe on something. The smile that breaks free from your face when that silly program you like starts. You're rather amusing. I like the area too. It's nice, an ideal place for me to've began the next chapter in my life. There are so many things for me to find appreciation for here, including the women. You guys aren't hard on the eye and I'm only human."
Naomi had gradually felt her pulse rate slowing with every bit of Emily's speech, and by the end of it she'd discovered that most of the anger had left her body, gone off to plague someone else. Maybe it was because Emily's tone had softened. Or maybe it was because she was discovering that Emily was just like her, only human, with unquenchable thirsts, weaknesses, and urges too. Perfect because of imperfection. It was a small thing to realize, but it made all the difference with Naomi's feelings of inferiority, and she felt herself becoming appreciative of this whole debacle…carpet stains and all.
"Wow, I'm impressed." Emily said, a mere two days later, as her eyes took around the light and spacious attic. She slowly twirled in its center, giving herself a look at the rest of it, and smiled at the particles of dust floating carelessly by in the line of light coming in through the attic window. "I'll take it." She beamed, turning to Naomi, whose shoulders were just relaxing with the long breath she let out.
"Oh come on. Surely I'm not that much of a nuisance to live with, Naomi."
"Really, you are." Naomi nodded emphatically, only popping a smile on her face to do damage control just in case Emily decided that she'd remain living downstairs just to irritate her for her cheek.
"Great." Emily said with humorous glum, before considering the blonde standing a few steps away from her with thoughtful eyes. "What's your problem with people Naomi?" She finally asked.
"They irritate me."
"Why?"
Naomi's cheeks grew inflated with her frustrated sigh. "They just do!"
Emily let one of those grins take full reign of her expression; one of those grins which always fell over her face whenever Naomi's ornery attitude amused her, and she stepped towards the exasperated blonde. "People are a big part of our lives Naomi. People built this house, people filter the water which pours out of the taps, people deliver your mail and make the clothes you buy over the internet. People, people, people."
It was becoming such now that Naomi could sense when one of Emily's moments was coming on. First the redhead's face would often take on an almost dreamy state, like she was staring into another world and not at the actual wall opposite, and her voice would coat in excess husk.
This was one of those moments, and frankly, Naomi couldn't be bothered, so she turned away from Emily's annoyingly happy smile and began to walk towards the attic door.
"Us people, we're everywhere Naomi. We're persistent like that." Emily called to the empty doorway.
Review and tell me what you think please?