A/n: Dear self: in what way does this look like Monday? Sincerely, me.
So, um...sorry this is late. Un-beta'd as always so all mistakes are mine. OH LOOK A DISTRACTION.
Disclaimer: Nada.
"Strange things are happenin' to me. Strange things. Strange things are happenin' to me. Ain't no doubt about it." Strange Things, Randy Newman
It turned out to be more of a faire for littler kids then it was for adults, as least as far as the rides went, but it was still one of best days of Naomi's entire life. She didn't know what it was about Emily that helped her to completely relax and let go around her, but whatever it was Naomi found herself hoping it never went away.
They wound up playing a lot of the games instead. Emily blushed absolutely crimson when Naomi won a medium-sized teddy bear at one of the ring-toss games and handed it to the redhead with a flourishing bow. "For you," she said with a wink.
Emily grabbed it and tried to look nonchalant, she even rolled her eyes, but as they moved on to the next game Naomi saw motion out of the corner of her eye. Emily brought the bear up to her chest and gave it a quick cuddle when she thought Naomi wasn't looking, nuzzling the top of its head a little bit. Naomi's heart stuttered at the cute.
Two games later Naomi blushed when Emily proudly handed over a stuffed elephant with a triumphant grin. Emily said his name was Hugo and he rode around in Naomi's bag for the rest of the day.
Partway through the day Naomi was walking between two tents trying to find Emily, who had disappeared to go get sweets while Naomi got them drinks.
A few steps into the little alley and her ears started ringing. She brought one hand up to rub at her right ear and frowned. The noise from the faire was weirdly muted and as much as she strained herself she couldn't seem to hear it. Panic started to creep up her chest.
There was movement behind one of the tents and then something big and black crashed through the fabric and darted into the other. Naomi was so startled she nearly bit through her lip trying to keep her scream in check and she jumped backwards. She tripped over one of the tent's ropes and fell hard on her back, knocking most of the air out of her lungs and sending the cans of soda in her hands rolling away. Naomi watched as they rolled and bumped into a pair of familiar Converses.
"Whoa!" Emily rushed forward and knelt down next to her, switching their candy floss to one hand so the other could run down her side checking for injuries (and leaving goosebumps in its wake). "Are you all right?"
"Fine," Naomi wheezed and coughed. She gratefully accepted Emily's hand up and once she was on her feet air flowed through her lungs with more ease.
"What was that?" Emily asked as she walked over and scooped up the soda cans. She studied them for a second and shook her head. "Also, we might not want to open these for a while."
"Probably not," Naomi agreed. She finally took in a full deep breath and let it out again.
"So what happened?" Emily cradled their sweets and their soda in one arm and kept the other hand on Naomi's shoulder.
Naomi rubbed the side of her head in embarrassment. Now that Emily was here and she was surrounded by people again her overreaction was kind of embarrassing. "I thought I saw something," she mumbled. "An animal or something."
Emily studied her for a second and then raised her eyebrow. "Was it a white rabbit?" she asked.
It took Naomi a second to get the joke. "Funny," she rolled her eyes.
Emily's smirk grew wider. "If you're Alice what does that make me?"
"Annoying?" Naomi suggested.
Emily threw back her head and laughed and Naomi's stomach fluttered at the sight.
Naomi couldn't stop herself from smiling just a little bit. She reached down and brushed the dirt off her jeans. "If I'm Alice then that makes you the Red Queen."
"Was that a crack at my hair?" Emily accused.
In a sudden rush of bravery, and because Emily's arms were full of things and she couldn't possibly stop her, Naomi reached over and tugged gently on a bit of Emily's hair that had fallen in front of her face. "It is rather bright," she said and tucked it behind Emily's ear.
"I don't know," Emily leaned her cheek briefly against Naomi's hand and scrunched up her face. "'Off with their heads' isn't exactly my style. I think I'd be the Mad Hatter. Doesn't he get the girl anyway?"
"Only in the Johnny Depp version."
Laughing and bantering, her momentary panic behind the tent completely forgotten, they went back to playing games.
That day Naomi learned that Emily had a wicked competitive streak. It came out the most when they were playing the water pistol racing game, the one where everyone shoots a stream of water at a target that propels their little racer forward. It was just the two of them and Emily had won the last two.
"Don't cheat this time," Naomi taunted as they lined up to shoot again.
"I do not cheat!" Emily pressed a hand to her chest and faked offense. "Please don't be jealous because I am obviously the superior shot, Naoms."
It was the second time that day that Emily had thrown that nickname out and it put a grin on Naomi's face that threatened to split her head in two. They both brought their water pistols up at the ready and kicked at each other gently before it started. Naomi started shooting as soon as the buzzer went off but after a few seconds it was obvious Emily was winning.
Naomi smirked evilly and bumped her hips lightly into Emily's.
"Hey! Now who's the dirty cheater?" Emily accused.
Naomi just bumped her hips into Emily again, this time hard enough to knock off Emily's aim. When her little horse reached the end of the track first she threw her arms up into the air in victory.
For half a second Naomi thought Emily was actually mad but then she saw the evil grin that was spreading across the redhead's face and started to get nervous.
"You know, Naomi," she said. "That was pretty aggressive. Maybe you should cool off." And then she hefted her water pistol and proceeded to shoot the front of Naomi's shirt.
Naomi shrieked and jumped away and Emily was laughing so hard that the annoyed-looking booth worker was able to take the water pistol out of her hand without a fight.
"You little bitch!" Naomi yelled as she swiped at the front of her shirt.
"Awww, don't be mad Naoms. I'm sorry." Emily pouted and Naomi's heart melted.
Damnit Emily Fitch, Naomi cursed at herself. Stop being so cute when I'm trying to be mad at you. It's not fair.
"Come on," Emily grabbed her hand and started leading her towards the line of shops across the street from the faire. "We'll go and see if any of those has customer toilets with the little hand dryers. I really am sorry."
Naomi probably would have believed her if she wasn't giggling the whole time they were walking. She just rolled her eyes and followed and accepted the fact that staying mad at Emily was a waste of time. Eventually they found a little clothes shop that looked promising and Emily led the way in.
"Excuse me?" she asked one of the passing employees. The woman stopped and stared at Emily like she was a particularly difficult puzzle she was trying to solve. "Do you have a toilet we can use? My friend here got all wet."
Naomi swallowed heavily and concentrated on the feeling of the cold water soaking through her shirt to keep a blush from creeping up her neck.
Emily you bitch.
"Back of the store to the left," the woman said distractedly. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
"I don't think so," Emily replied. "Maybe you've been to the club I work at."
The woman shrugged and turned back to the clothes rack like the answer no longer mattered, and Naomi and Emily made their way to the back of the shop. Sure enough the toilet had several stalls, a counter with a bunch of sinks, and most importantly one of those little hand dryers.
Naomi toyed with the bottom of her shirt as Emily hopped up onto the counter, still snickering away for all she was worth, and started swinging her legs back and forth like a little kid.
"Yes it's exceptionally funny," Naomi frowned down at her shirt. "And when I get hypothermia I'm sure it'll be downright hysterical."
"It's not even close to being cold enough for that," Emily said through her random bubbles of laughter. "I think your odds of survival are pretty high. We could always call your friend JJ for the exact numbers though."
Naomi attempted to contort her body in such a way that she could get the wet part of her shirt underneath the air dryer. It probably wasn't terribly attractive and it didn't work anyway. Emily burst into another fit of giggles when she almost fell over trying to bend enough to manage it.
"He'll probably need to know all the specifics," she said absently as she glanced back and forth between her wet shirt and the air dryer and tried to think of a way to get them together. "Like exact temperature and purity of the water and the type of shirt, you know, et cetera. How d'you know about JJ's love affair with numbers anyway?"
She huffed in aggravation when her brain still refused to supply a good solution and missed the way Emily's eyes darted away for a moment.
"You told me, remember?" she asked.
Naomi shrugged. She must have. There was no other way that Emily could have - ah HA! A plan surged up into her mind the way stuff like that always does. You stop thinking about something for a moment and almost immediately the answer comes to you. Plus this had the added bonus of payback on Emily for the whole water incident in the first place.
She shrugged out of her jacket and walked over to the door of the bathroom, which locked with a satisfying click.
"What are you doing?" Emily asked suspiciously, an edge of nerves creeping into her voice.
"I don't want anyone to walk in while I'm trying to dry my shirt," Naomi answered as vaguely and innocently as she possibly could.
"Awwww, you figured out a way to dry it? I was enjoying the sho-" Emily's sentence cut off with a strange little strangled whimpering noise when Naomi answered her first question by very quickly and deliberately peeling off her wet shirt.
Naomi didn't look at Emily on purpose, instead faking nonchalance as she went over to the dryer and proceeded to hold her shirt under it easily. Eventually she got a little worried from the complete lack of response from Emily and chanced a look over her shoulder. The redhead was still on the counter but her legs had stopped swinging. Her eyes were locked on the wall to her right like if she stopped looking at a specific tile over there the world would end immediately.
As Naomi watched a muscle in her neck twitched, as if Emily's body was saying 'Please? Just one teeny tiny peek?'. She could see her lips moving quietly.
"Emily," she said, and watched as the muscle twitched again. "What are you doing?"
"Counting backwards from 150,000," Emily answered.
"Emily," Naomi said again, this time lower.
"Yes?" Emily's voice squeaked on the word. She cleared her throat and tried again, still staring at the wall. "Yes?"
Naomi grinned. It was nice to know that she could do the same thing to Emily that Emily could do to her. She walked over and, feeling exceptionally brave, put a hand on Emily's leg.
"You can look."
"No I can't," Emily shook her head vigorously as a blush that rivaled the color of her hair started to spread across her face.
"Well my diabolical plan doesn't work if you don't look," Naomi teased.
"I'm fine right here," Emily insisted. In fact it looked like she was trying to lean back to put more distance between them. "Isn't your shirt dry?"
Naomi looked over very quickly. It actually did look pretty dry by now but she was having way too much fun to admit that.
"It could use another couple of minutes," she lied.
The muscle in Emily's neck twitched again and this time Naomi leaned forward and very cutely soothed it with a kiss. Emily jumped violently the moment Naomi's lips touched her skin, as if she had been trying so desperately to ignore the half-naked blonde that she had momentarily forgotten about Naomi's proximity altogether.
"Naomi," Emily groaned.
Naomi smiled and she felt Emily shiver as her lips brushed the redhead's neck again. "Problem?" she asked.
Instead of answering Emily turned her head and pressed her lips hungrily against Naomi's. They were right back to being unable to keep their hands off each other, right back to snogging in the middle of the woods again, and as much as Naomi knew it was probably too fast she wouldn't have stopped if the world was crashing down. Naomi saw fireworks every time Emily touched her and she was just going to stop questioning it because it felt way too fucking good to possibly be bad.
She tangled her hands in Emily's hair and attacked her mouth with so much heat that Emily gasped and she took that opportunity to slip her tongue into Emily's mouth. Emily's gasp turned into a moan and she grabbed Naomi's hips and dragged her closer, sucking on her tongue in a way that made Naomi lightheaded. She wanted Emily so badly that her ears were filled with a dull roaring noise. Emily hooked her legs around Naomi's waist and Naomi let go of her hair with one hand so she could push herself higher up onto the counter. Emily's hands were all over her back, running her fingernails over her spine, caressing the bare skin of her shoulders, and they left a trail of fire in their wake.
Naomi pulled away from Emily's mouth so she could place open-mouthed kisses along her neck and she knew the moment she hit the right spot because Emily's hands shot up to the back of her head and held her there.
"Shit," Emily hissed, and Naomi could feel the vibrations of the word with her lips.
Someone knocked on the door of the toilet and Naomi flew back like she'd been burned. Emily was gripping the counter so tightly her knuckles were turning white and they both stared intently at each other as they tried to catch their breath.
Eventually that person knocked again and Emily recovered her wits enough to shout out, "Just a moment!"
Naomi shook her head like a dog to clear her thoughts and quickly walked over and put her t-shirt back on. She tried desperately to zip up her jacket but her hands were shaking too badly to get it to catch. Suddenly Emily's hands were over hers and she zipped it up for her and fussed over the collar, smoothing it and straightening it nervously.
She lifted herself on her tiptoes and slowly kissed Naomi again, and this time it had the opposite effect. Instead of igniting a fire in her veins it made her heart beat normally again. Her hands stopped shaking as they rested lightly on Emily's waist and Emily's hands were rubbing small comforting circles on the back of her neck.
Emily pulled away and smiled. "Let's go for a walk?" she suggested.
Naomi leaned away again and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. The guard had been right; Leeds had a way of saying exactly the right thing to set you off. He was playing her but he could only continue doing so if she let him.
She leaned back and copied his position. "So enlighten me," she said, and was proud of how steady her voice came out, "how can I be punished for something I haven't done yet? I might now do it at all."
Leeds cackled again and twirled his pen between his fingers. "Oh, you will," he assured her. "You won't be able to stop yourself. Moth to flame, lovely. Moth to flame."
"Do you take lessons in vague or does it just come naturally?" she snarked.
"Au naturel sweetheart," he winked and Naomi felt another shudder run down her spine. The guy oozed creep from every pore.
"If you're not even going to give a straight answer then I think we're done here," Naomi said coldly. She moved to get up and stopped when Leeds started spinning the pen around in his hands.
"Anything strange been happening to you, lovely?" he asked almost too casually. "Things you can't quite explain?"
"I wasn't aware this was the X-Files," Naomi snapped, but even she knew that wasn't a real answer. It couldn't have been her imagination that the lights in the room dimmed. The one directly above their heads flickered sporadically. Naomi had the fleeting thought that the county really needed to invest more money in their light fixtures.
"Seems a little convenient doesn't it?" Leeds continued on like she hadn't said anything. "Guy you've never talked to before asks you out on a date? Then of course there's that girl you've never talked to before who watched you for the rest of the night. She even managed to bump into you the second time around. Kids these days. Precious."
Naomi frowned as she tried to recall what he could possibly be talking about. She had talked to that boy before he asked her out. She thought. Maybe. She'd been flattered in any case. And what girl? Wait, there was that one girl. At the club the night she met Emily. That girl from her politics class. Sarah? Sophie? Sophia! But she hadn't been looking at her the whole night, not that she could recall.
Had she?
A thought occurred to her. "How do you know about any of that? You were already in jail that night."
He ripped bits of paper off of his pad and started flicking them at her. "And that nurse in your room after you, you know," he waved a hand around his head, "bumped your little noggin. She couldn't even check your vitals right. What exactly was she doing in your room?"
Naomi's chair made a scraping noise as she pushed it back. "I know what you're doing," she said. Her hands gripped the table to conceal how hard they were shaking. "I've already been told you mess with people's heads."
"Oh darling," he flashed her a smile that should have been charming and wasn't, "you have no idea."
The sun was already starting to set as they skipped riding a bus and walked back to Naomi's house instead. They both consciously tried to keep distance between them but in the end they wound up drifting towards each other anyway.
"So we obviously have issues with personal space," Emily said suddenly.
Naomi laughed because it was so true there was no other reaction she could have but to laugh. "What are you doing to me, Emily Fitch?" she asked.
Emily looked over at her in confusion. "What do you mean?" she prodded.
"I don't have any self-control around you," Naomi said pathetically. She looked at Emily with nothing but hopeless pleading on her face, just sincerely wanting to know how it was possible for her to make her feel all of these things at once and so strongly. "How do you do it?"
Emily pulled her around and gave her one of those calm kisses again. Naomi sighed when they broke apart.
"I don't know," the redhead said quietly, her hands still wrapped around the back of Naomi's neck, "but you do it to me too. So it can't possibly be bad. But since we both seem to be having trouble with the whole 'going slow thing'," she stopped here and they both blushed as their moment in the toilets surged to the front of their minds, "why don't we just, I don't know, let it develop as it goes?"
"All right," Naomi agreed quickly. She leaned down and kissed Emily again and this time it was Emily who sighed when it was over. They started walking again, their hands swinging between them. Naomi glanced at the ground and smiled. "You're one of those people who can do anything you put your mind to, aren't you?" she asked. "I bet you can even make my nightmares go away."
Naomi closed her mouth quickly but it was already too late to take it back. Fucking word vomit. Just another example of her complete inability to control herself around Emily.
Emily was frowning. "What nightmares?" she asked.
"It's nothing," Naomi shrugged and tried to play it off.
"It's not nothing," Emily stopped again and tugged on Naomi's hand until the blonde reluctantly faced her. "Naomi."
Naomi wanted to lie, she really truly did. She wanted to repeat that it was nothing and act nonchalant until Emily let it go. But she couldn't. For some inexplicable reason she couldn't look at Emily when the redhead was watching her with so much concern and affection written all over her face and tell her it was nothing. It was difficult, though.
"Okay," she sighed. She tugged on Emily's hand and they started walking again. "I've been having these really weird nightmares lately."
"Weird how?" Emily prompted.
Naomi's throat tightened. "Everything is dark," she whispered. "And something is chasing me. It's a huge bird, I think. And it's angry. I don't know what I did or why but it's so very angry at me and there's no way to escape it."
Emily let go of her hand in order to wrap her arm completely around Naomi's waist. She tucked her hand into Naomi's pocket and pulled her closer so they were walking practically attached at the hip. She glanced over at Emily out of the corner of her eye. Emily was watching the ground at their feet, her face dark and troubled.
"What's the matter?" Naomi asked.
Emily looked at her and smiled sadly. "I'm just sorry that you're having these nightmares and I can't do anything about them," she said.
Telling Emily about them, feeling her concern and her empathy, it was like a weight had been lifted off her chest. Naomi smiled and wiggled her arm out from between them and wrapped it around Emily's shoulders. "I don't think I'll let them bother me anymore," she said, and Emily's frown slowly lifted.
"Well if you say so," Emily smiled and bumped their hips together gently.
By this time they were just outside of Naomi's house. They slowed their steps and finally stopped just in front of her walk. Naomi untangled herself from Emily and stood a little bit away from her. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "I really needed today and you gave it to me. So, thank you." She saw the curtain of the front window twitch. "And don't look now but we're being spied on."
Emily paled dramatically. Then she followed Naomi's eyes towards the curtains and her face broke out into an amused smile.
"Your mum?" she whispered conspiratorially.
"And probably Cook and Effy," Naomi admitted with a grimace. "Would you like to come inside?"
Emily shook her head and looked genuinely sorry to say no. "I can't," she said. "I've got to get back. I had to switch out of a day shift which means I'm covering the bar tonight."
"Is that even legal?" Naomi frowned.
Emily shrugged. "Probably not, but no one seems to worry about it."
Naomi could clearly see her mother waving in the window now and she groaned. "Please ignore the mad woman behind the curtain."
"I think she's nice," Emily smiled and waved back.
"Don't. You're encouraging her."
Abruptly Emily was looking down at the ground and drawing pictures on the pavement with the toe of her shoe. "I really did have a great day, Naomi," she said and Naomi couldn't stop the smile that burst onto her face. Emily Fitch, be cuter.
"So did I," she replied.
They'd been flirting and laughing and kissing all day. Since when did they act like award thirteen-year-olds on their first date? She lifted Emily's chin with one finger and kissed her, smiling into it when Emily's hands came up to grab the collar of her jacket.
They were interrupted by cheers and hoots from inside the house.
Naomi pulled away. "I am actually going to kill them," she growled.
"Don't," Emily laughed. "If we kept kissing I'd never be able to make myself leave." And then she blushed like she couldn't quite believe those words had just come out of her mouth.
Naomi's heart was a melted puddle of goo by that point. "Sure I can't convince you to come inside?" she asked. "You could have tea and my mother couldn't interrogate you mercilessly."
"As tempting as that sounds…" Emily leaned up and kissed her again very quickly. "I should go."
"Do you want me to walk you back?" Naomi offered.
Emily's eyes lit up with amusement. "Then I'd have to walk you back," she said. "It would be the physical version of 'you hang up first'."
Naomi laughed. "Okay, I get it," she said. "'Shut up Naomi and let the girl go to work?'"
"Shut up Naomi and I'll come visit tomorrow," Emily corrected. She grinned when Naomi made a zipping motion across her lips and mimed throwing away the key. She kissed Naomi's cheek. "Good night, Naoms."
"Night Ems," Naomi lifted a hand and waved as she walked away. She watched until Emily turned the corner and then she turned around and ran up the path to her house. She threw open the door and immediately shouted, "All of you are dead!"
She was ready to leave. She wanted out now, couldn't take being across from him one more second. But something in the back of her mind made her stay. Something in her heart made her want to ask just one more time…
"Whose orders?" she demanded.
Leeds chuckled but he didn't lift his head from where he was quietly doodling on the pad of paper again. "This is over your head," he said, and he sounded every bit like an adult telling a child they were too young to play with the older kids.
"Whose?" she asked again, this time louder.
He shook his head. "Stop trying so hard," he tutted and added a few more lines to his drawing. "There's nothing about what's coming that you can change."
Naomi wasn't sure exactly when her anger had started to replace her fear but it had, quickly thawing the ice in her gut and traveling up to her heart, which had started to race. That spastic light above them was really starting to get on her fucking nerves. It looked ready to go out any second.
"What's coming?" she asked. No matter what his answer was it would be her final question. She was through with him. Through with his cryptic non-answers and through with his games.
The corner of his mouth turned up in a horrible smirk and he ripped the page off his pad of paper and pushed it towards her. Naomi reached out a hand without meaning to and picked it up. It was a crudely drawn crow.
"Why don't you ask your little girlfriend," he suggested.
The light above them finally went out with a loud popping noise and a shower of sparks. Leeds actually jumped and his eyes widened. Then, inexplicably, he started to laugh.
Naomi looked at Guard Zeus and instantly the man pushed himself away from the wall and walked over, his long legs carrying across the entire room in ten steps.
"You're done," he barked at Leeds and motioned for two of the other guards to come collect him. He turned Naomi around and led her out of the room, muttering the whole way about stupid teenage bravado and faulty wiring.
They marched her straight out the door, along the hallway, and out into the main lobby again. She felt like she didn't breath until she was back in the sun again and she almost had a heart attack when someone moved unexpectedly to the right of her.
Emily held up her hands. "I come in peace," she said lightly, but her eyes were serious and worried as they flickered all over Naomi's face.
Naomi relaxed immediately and smiled a genuine smile for the first time all day. "Hey," she said tiredly, all of her energy suddenly draining as the adrenaline went away and her fear disappeared.
"Hey," Emily smiled back. "I wanted to come make sure you were all right and ask if you wanted to grab a late lunch."
There was literally nothing Naomi would rather do at that moment then spend some time with Emily. Emily Fitch, her own personal source of comfort and reassurance.
"That sounds fantastic," Naomi said gratefully. She lifted her hand to tuck a piece of hair away from her face and the note in her hand crinkled. She'd completely forgotten about it.
"What's that?" Emily asked as she moved closer.
Naomi frowned at the note in her hand. "I don't know," she said. "It was something he gave to me before I asked to leave."
"Shouldn't they have taken it from you?" Emily asked.
"Probably," Naomi shrugged. "I honestly forgot about it until just now."
Emily leaned over to get a good look at it and Naomi actually watched as her face dropped in surprise and she snatched the note out of Naomi's hand. "Oh!" she gasped. "Weird."
That hard, icy ball was back in her stomach. What had Leeds said when he handed her the note? Why don't you ask your little girlfriend?
"Emily," she said, a little more harshly then she meant to, "do you know what this is?"
Emily blinked in surprise at the sudden change of tone in her voice. "I know what it looks like," she said slowly. Her face was guarded and wary as she took in the look in Naomi's eyes.
"What does it look like?"
The redhead handed the note back to her. "See the way the beak is turned to the left? It looks like the logo for Karma." She pulled her jumper down and Naomi saw the black logo on the white and red shirt that was Emily's work uniform. She must have come straight from work or would be going there afterwards. "Are you okay?"
Naomi studied Emily's face. Her gorgeous, open, concerned, and very confused face.
Why don't you ask your little girlfriend?
She looked down at the note in her hand for a long moment, and then very deliberately crumbled it up into a ball and tossed it into the nearest bin.
"I'm fine," she said. She looked up at Emily and smiled. "Just a little shaken up is all. You said something about lunch?"
Emily's smile back was hesitant but grew stronger the longer she searched Naomi's face and didn't find anything wrong. Naomi held out her hand and Emily laced their fingers together and Naomi looked away from the jail without looking back.
A/n: Yaaaaaay. I wrote a chapter that explains ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Par for the course, actually.
Please don't kill me. Cheers! ~FS
