1904

It was nothing more than a typical monday afternoon. The streets were busy, the noise level was excrutiating, carriages and steamers wizzed along and the sound of chattering people was everywhere. The smells of different foods from the market filled the air and many beggars were out with their palms right side up. Every now and then a woman with barely enough dress would stumble by with a cheap smile on her face when her eyes were set on a rich male. Children ran everywhere with their arms out, begging for food and attention.

It is hard to say that this was the city of London.

A seventeen year old Emiline gripped her parasol as she shuved her way through the busy streets. She groaned when she felt a foot clamp down on her semi long train of her light blue drees. She hated wearing this thing, she would rather run around in her undergarmets if she could with no shame. The puffed sleeves annoyed her, the skirt was thick and heavy, the over coat with large red buttons was itchy and tacky and the hat; God, the hat she wanted to laugh at while it burned.

"Bollocks!" She hollard as she used her parasol as a club to create an Emiline sized hole in the crowd. With a groan and jolt of her lower back, she bombarded herself through the crowd and infront of the post office. Her cheeks puffed with a groan as she straightend her back and pulled the wrinkles of her dress down by her thighs. She mumbled and groaned as she brushed away the dirt and city dust before a light chuckle reached her ears.

She lifted her head up to see a pair of bright blue eyes smiling at her. Ryan, who was taller than her by a good foot or so and was perched on the door frame of the post office, where he always waited for her. His smile brightend his pale face as his straight white teeth glitered. His hair was still as black as ever, reaching down and over his shoulders. She smiled at the choice of his wear. A long puffed sleeved poets shirt with a black buttoned vest, tight black slacks with his boots. Not the fashion for men these days but Ryan wasen't like the others. That's why she loved him...

He snickerd. "I see your still having quite an adventure just coming to the post office."

Emiline smacked his shoulder with her parasol. "Well I'll just put you in one of my dresses and you try to make your way over here. I'll even let you pick out the heels."

Ryan let loose a bellow of laughter at Emiline's joke and let her hook her arm through his. They walked into the post office and Emiline walking to the front and began talking to the woman behinde the counter. Ryan stood at the door with his arms crossed as he looked here and there, ready to act if something happend to his Emiline. His Emiline... Ryan's head tilted with thought as he pondered those two words through his mind. This girl, a beautiful first class girl had dared to be friends with him when they were young and to this day he always thought why. He was nothing more than the son of a whore woman and a man he dosen't even know, but Emiline never cared about his past but saw the human within him. She was there for him, to hold him to her shoulder when he would spur into fits of anger that would come from the depths of his being, all she did was shush hime.

He remembered when he was sixteen, Emiline was the only person he ran to for the feeling of safety. His mother had gotten worse and would now have two to three men in her bedroom other than one. Ryan would be locked in his room gritting his teeth and clenching his fists as the moans escalated of his mother and mystery men. The moans of his mother were sins to his ears and the laughter of the men made his stomach turn. He remembered foot steps that stopped at his door and being torn from the hinges. There in all his drunken glory, was one of his mother's clients, a large semi bald man with an anchor mustache. Ryan can't seem to figure out why, but that man charged him and before he could think, his large hands were around his throat and was being shaken with no mercy.

The man's drunken yells and slurs filled his mind with fear as she shook and tossed Ryan from wall to wall. The man squeezed his neck harder and tossed Ryan backword to the bed and was soon ontop of the frightend sixteen year old. The man's yellow teeth and liquor breath hit his senses like a slap to the temple.

"Savannah never told me she had a daughter. What fun this will be." The man slurred as he gripped Ryan's throat tighter. His eyes bulged at what this drunken fool said and for the first time in his life, he was petrified. Ryan hollared and bellowed when the man reached for the ties of his pants with a sly smirk and with all the force Ryan had, slugged the man in the jaw. With his head slung back, his lip turned into a snarl as he stared the frightend Ryan down.

"You little bitch." He leaned down to Ryan's ear. "Now you'll have to pay."

Ryan's eyes began to tear as the man's palm raised above his head with a smirk and with a scream from Ryan he bega...

"Ryan!"

His eyes snapped upward and into the worried hazel's of Emiline. He looked around and saw that he was still in the post office where he was waiting for Emiline. Her brows were furred together in confusion and worry as Ryan's eyes darted behind him and a shaky sigh left his lips. Emiline looked over her shoulder and saw all the other customers staring at her with single lifted eyebrows and whispering amongst themselves.

Emiline gripped his long slender fingers. "Ryan...dear it's alright. Lets go." She walked out the door with his fingers still tightly clenched in hers and paced faster once the door chimed shut.

As they walked down the busy streets, Ryan's fingers never unlaced with Emiline's. The horrid memory of one ofthe whore's client's coming and attacking him while she and the other whatched was burned into his mind like a brand on cattle. His head had fallen and his long black hair created a curtain. Emiline stared at Ryan as they made the trip back to her home. He's been unusually quiet and that has always worried Emiline. She sighed and brought the back of his hand to her lips and gave his hand a gentle kiss.

He looked at her with glassy eyes. "Ryan love, please don't think about that." Emiline laced her arm through his and brought his shoulder to her cheek. He sighed and kissed her hair as they rounded a turn. After a twenty minutes of silent walking, Emiline walked up the stairs to her front door and clicked the knob open. Silence greeted them as they walked through and shut the door.

"Mother?"

No answer.

"Mother! Josephine!"

No answer.

"Hm, she and the maid must be out." She said to herself as she placed the package that was labled for her mother on the oak dinining table. She walked to the coat rack and peeled off the coat that she was dieing in and snatched the hat away from her hair, forgetting that it was held in place with many bobypins.

"Ah wanker!" She hissed as she lightly peeled the hat from her hair, hearing the clanks and clats of the pins falling to the marble floor. Her long black ringlets fell down her back as they were finally freed from the prison that was her hat. She began the activity of pulling all the pins out of her hair, something she hated to do. After a few seconds of pulling the pins from her tangled hair, she felt cool hands rake through her tresses and pull the pins out with ease. She closed her eyes and sighed in content as Ryan raked his long fingernails over her scalp and through her hair.

With the pins fully out of her hair, she grabbed his hand and led her up the stairs to her room. Once in the room, she flopped on her bed soon followed by Ryan. Emiline laid on her back and stared at Ryan was still standing with that same vacant expression and eyes darting around, she sighed and held her arms open for him and waited. Ryan stared at Emiline for mere seconds before walking over to the large and crawling to her where he laid his temple ontop of Emiline's collarbone. She rested her chin on his head and let her arms snake around his shoulders and they just laid there. Emiline made circles on his back and inbetween his shoulder blades as she stared at the ceiling with the man she loved settled in her arms.

"Ryan?"

"Hm."

"You're my bestfriend."

He didn't respond.

"You're the best friend that I love."

His arms tightend around her waist as his head sank deeper into her chest. The warm loving feeling he was experienceing, he never wanted it to end and then to hear those words. His heart sang.

He raised his head and kissed her right collarbone. "I love you too."