That night, Alison couldn't fall asleep. The moon was casting bright light into her room, lighting up the carpeted floor like a spotlight. It had to be past midnight, she swore she heard the bell tower toll twelve in the distance. Her open window brought in the cool August air, and the occasional sounds of the patrolling guards talking below. Everything was peaceful and as it should be, but Alison could still not sleep. She had been trying her hardest to focus on her breathing and to let her thoughts stray to a sleep, but they were on a whirlwind. She couldn't help but panic about kissing Emily. She was worried that Emily was freaking out about what she did, regretting her decision. Did Alison regret it? No of course not. She had been thinking about it since Emily tucked her in and left for her own room.

When she couldn't take it any longer, Alison threw back her covers and sat up. She looked around her room frantically and swung her legs around so that her feet could touch the carpeted floor. She took a deep breath and stood up, pulling on her silk robe and tried to find her door in the moonlit room. When she reached for the doorknob, she quickly exited her bedroom and closed the door with a click behind her. She could see two guards at the end of the hallway, guarding the stairwell and talking in their deep voice through their covered masks. Alison approached them, and they looked taken by surprise at her sudden appearance.

"Uh, Queen Alison. What are you doing awake?" one asked, Alison could almost see the confused looks on their faces through the masks.

"Is that any of your business?" Alison asked, holding the sternness in her voice.

The guard shook his head quickly and stood straighter than he was before. "N-no."

"Where is the assistant's quarters?" Alison asked.

"On the lowest level. Your personal assistant is at the end of the hall on that level." the guard said, pointing with his head to the stairs behind him.

Alison nodded and put her hand on the railing of the stairs, walking quickly down the staircase. She walked down the steps, passing all the landings to the different floors until she reached the last one. The lowest level was dark and seemed eerie, there weren't any guards. The only light was the occasional lantern on the wall, it was enough for Alison to navigate her way to the door at the end of the hall. She reached the white door and turned the knob, allowing herself to enter the bedroom.

From her first impression, Alison saw that Emily's room was very clean. Everything seemed almost too perfect, but maybe that was because she was barely in it. The only reason that Alison's room was clean was probably because of the maids that cleaned it everyday. She never had any intentions of coming down to this level before, this was probably the first time in her life that she had even been down here. The room had no windows, probably because the lower level was underground. Alison could only make out things in the room because a candle had been left lit, casting yellow shadows all over the room. On the bed, covered in blankets was a figure laying on their back, a cascade of dark brown hair was spread across the pillows. Their left arm was resting on their stomach, and the other was spread out across the bed. Alison approached cautiously and caught a glimpse of Emily's sleeping face in the candle light. She looked peaceful and innocent, Alison couldn't help but stare at the beautiful girl in front of her. Alison had never seen someone look so beautiful while sleeping, probably because she hadn't watched anyone sleep before. Emily looked angelic.

Alison moved cautiously and sat at the end of Emily's bed, almost hovering over her as she watched in awe. She was tempted to reach out and stroke Emily's face, and no sooner that the thought crossed her mind, she was giving into the temptation. Alison caressed Emily's face with such gentleness that she didn't know she was capable of. Emily let out a deep breath when Alison did so, and she moved slightly in her sleep. Alison moved her hand so that she was holding Emily's head, Emily's ear between the space of Alison's thumb and pointer finger. She brushed her thumb up and down Emily's cheekbone, watching as Emily took deep breaths in her sleep. When she couldn't take it any longer, she found herself leaning down to capture Emily's lips between hers. It hadn't even been a few hours and Alison was already missing and craving Emily's lips upon hers again.

When she was mere inches away, Alison stopped and thought about what she was about to do. Why was she feeling this way over someone of such lower class? Alison was surprised that she had felt this fluttering in her chest at all, never did she expect that she would ever think of someone romantically. Boy or girl.

"A-Alison?" she heard a voice mumble. Busted. Alison's hand shot back and she shit back up, heart beating so loud that Emily probably would've heard it had she stayed closer for any longer. She didn't budge once she placed her hands back on her lap, hoping that Emily had drifted back to sleep. But she wasn't so lucky this time.

"Alison? What are you doing in here?" Emily asked, propping herself up with her elbows, she sounded more awake now.

Alison opened her mouth for words to come out, but all she could make was a weird chocking like noise. "I-I couldn't sleep, so I thought I would come down here." Alison said, barely above a whisper.

"Do you need me to get you something? I can see if I-"

"No I don't need anything." Alison sighed, she didn't know how to say what she wanted without sounding weird. "I was wondering if I could sleep in here."

"I'm pretty sure that's frowned upon by-"

"So is kissing you, but I did it anyway." Alison said, cutting off Emily. It was weird saying that, she didn't think she would ever use those words in a sentence.

"Alison, it's late. I think you should-"

"No. I can't sleep alone tonight."

Emily sighed, obviously not wanting to put up a fight this late at night, scooted over in bed, leaving a large space for Alison. Alison smiled slightly and pushed back the covers, slipping under. Emily's bed wasn't the same quality as Alison's, but Alison only barely noticed as she snuggled into the covers. There was a good six inches of space between the two girls and Alison didn't like it. Without giving it much thought, she reached out and tugged at Emily's waist, causing both of them to scoot forward. The met at the middle of the bed and Ali flipped onto her stomach and snuggled into Emily, the bridge of her nose on Emily's neck and her arm wrapped around her waist. Emily adjusted herself so that her arms were around Alison's upper body. It seemed uncomfortable, and it was at first until both girls shifted themselves.

Alison was intoxicated by Emily's smell and already felt herself drifting off to sleep. She listened to the sound of her breathing and Emily's breathing as her mind began to slip into a dream. Before she fell asleep, she leaned up and pressed her lips to Emily's jaw line. She wasn't sure if Emily knew she did it because she couldn't see if Emily was awake or asleep. In fact, Alison didn't even know if she herself was awake or asleep.

Alison awoke the next morning unaware of where she was. When she finally realized that she was in Emily's room, with her arms wrapped around her, her panic level went back down. It must've been early still because Alison's eyes still itching of tiredness. A new level of panic set in when she realized what Emily would think when she woke up to see Alison in her bed with her. She was probably too tired to realize what was going on last night, even if Emily did remember, Alison didn't want to take any chances of her freaking out. She cautiously unwrapped herself from Emily and replaced her body with a pillow. Emily wrapped her arms around the pillow and continued sleeping, not realizing the Alison had gotten up.

Ali crept towards the door and quickly left, sighing with relief that Emily did not wake up. She felt bad for leaving Emily, but she was afraid of being confronted about being in Emily's room. So she left, and she didn't look back. She climbed the stairs silently and was only interrupted when she met Noel on the stairs. He was going down, rubbing his eyes sleepily, his perfect hair now a mess.

"Alison?" Noel asked, squinting at Ali. There was no hiding the fact that she was standing there since the sunrise was lighting up her face.

"Noel. What are you doing up?" Alison asked, her heart going a mile a minute.

"I should be asking the same thing. I thought your room was on the top floor." Noel said, blinking quickly as his eyes adjusted to the light.

"I was... Just coming up from breakfast." Alison said, thinking up of a fast excuse.

"It's a good thing I caught you then. I was thinking we could go sailing today. For the whole day." Noel said.

"I'll talk to Emil-" Alison began, she honestly wondered if Noel thought that people's emotions reset every morning. Did he forget how mad she was at him the previous night?

"Without your assistant." Noel added. "The only thing she does is help you fix your hair, we'll be out on a sail boat the whole day so I don't see the need."

Alison looked at Noel for a few seconds, confused but she didn't think that she could object. She didn't have an annoying political assistant anymore, come to think of it she hadn't seen a new one yet. But she couldn't object Noel's offer, so she nodded and walked up the stairs as Noel walked down them.

"We leave at 9." Noel said. He continued to walk down the steps at a faster pace, disappearing as he went down. Alison groaned and continued to walk up the steps, that means she would have to get up when all she wanted to do was look out her window and think about the past 24 hours involving Emily.

Alison wanted to scream, but she held a straight face. It seemed like Emily was ignoring her. Of course Emily had to help her get ready, but she avoided Alison's eyes and answered with short and respective answers. If only Emily had any idea what she was doing to Alison when she ignored Alison, especially when Alison wanted to talk about the kiss they shared the previous day. Emily hadn't even so much as hinted that she remembered Alison sleeping in her room, much less share a kiss. It was aggravating and sometimes Alison wanted to scream at her and other times she wanted to slap her. This wasn't what Alison wanted, she wanted Emily to acknowledge their moment, but she herself couldn't find the words to bring it up.

If Emily was going to do this, than Alison was going to show her what she was missing. So she strutted down to Noel and took his arm, knowing Emily was watching. She smirked, wondering how Emily was feeling inside. When she looked back before she exited the front entrance of the castle, her smirk faded as she found no sign of Emily. Emily was gone, leaving Alison to only make up what she was going to do the whole time she was gone. It probably shouldn't be bothering her that much, but she found herself worrying about it the whole carriage ride to the docks and onto the beautiful sailboat that the two would be going on. The people in the town once again stopped and stared as Alison and Noel passed in their carriage. She didn't look at her people this time however, she looked down at the carriage floor feeling the need to admire her shoes.

When they arrived at the docks, Noel got out first and helped Alison out. He led her past the fishing boats in the harbor and past Noel's ship from Ravenswood. They climbed onto the sailboat, Alison almost fell as she climbed on board due to the fact that she was thinking about other things. Noel laughed and helped her on, ignoring Alison's glare.

"You know how to sail?" Alison asked.

"Of course I do. What do you think? I'm taking the queen out on a boat I don't know how to direct?" Noel asked, opening the sails.

"It's quite possible." Alison said, as she sat down. She looked out at the glistening water and felt almost, free. Not the same freedom that she felt when she was with Emily yesterday, but something similar. When the ship began to move, Noel let out a laugh and almost started dancing. Alison, confused by Noel's actions, watched as he began to steer out of the dock towards the open sea with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"I haven't been able to go sailing in a long time." Noel said to Alison when he noticed her facial expression.

"Why?" Alison asked questionably. "Did you crash or something?"

"No, I just have a lot of responsibilities. I'm not even king there and I still have to do all these different things." Noel said. "I never got to fit sailing in until now. I'm glad I get to share the experience with you."

Alison looked at the Kingdom of Rosewood as it got smaller and smaller. After about fifteen minutes, the castle had been reduced to the size of the castle inside the snow globe she bought, the one had she hadn't taken out of its place in her bag. Noel was whistling and steering the boat across the glistening water, reminding Alison of the boy she met back when they were younger. The wind was rushing through his hair, turning his perfect hair into a wild mess, but he didn't seem to care. Alison's hair was also being whipped behind her and she was glad that she decided not to wear her favorite crown and instead a tiara that was much more appropriate.

"Are we exactly going anywhere? Or are we just going to sail around like this for the day." Alison asked.

"Depends. There's an island not too far from here, it's really beautiful. It's fairly small, but it has significance to me... If you wanted to see it that is." Noel said.

"What's with the sudden kindness?" Alison asked, not answering Noel's question.

"I realized that the way I had been acting before was just because I wanted to impress you. But, doing that wasn't going to get me anywhere, in fact, it probably made you hate me more. So, I decided to cut the act and just not try to impress I guess." Noel said, casually as he steered the sailboat to the right.

"So you're looking for a second chance?" Alison asked.

"More like an eighth chance." Noel chuckled. "But yes."

"I guess you'll have to prove your worthiness." Alison said, simply.

Noel smiled, the same smile that he had spread across his face since they began sailing. Alison didn't return his smile, in fact, she looked away quickly, wondering what her assistant was doing back at the castle.