A/N: This chapter's gonna be a little longer than the usual ones. I'm putting down Ellena Ashley as reference. And please chill out, because Ali does not get high, nor is she a vampire :]] Jeez. Definitely patterned an excerpt after Twilight but I'm not putting you guys through any vampire stuff so chill XD
The week dragged on. Not long enough she had moved on, like Toby thought she would. After days of internalizing, Emily did in time accept that there wasn't anything she could have done. There wasn't anything Paula could have done. There wasn't anything the librarian could have done. Nothing anyone could have done to foresee what had happened. Of course, Paula still insisted that Alison be questioned because of her family's supposed "history" with arson, as she had not so gently put it the other week.
"Em?" the blonde whispered, stroking the swimmer's shoulder.
Emily didn't respond and kept her eyes closed, reveling at the feel of Alison's lap against her head.
They rested on the chaise lounge in Alison's dimly-lit living room; the silence comfortable until of course Alison had to say something. She had hoped, for Alison's sake, that it wasn't anything charming. Otherwise the brunette wouldn't fight the urge to rip Alison's clothes off this time.
"Don't ruin it," Emily mumbled, toying with a gold-plated coin she had found under the throw pillow by her leg. By "it" she meant the serene and sickeningly sweet moment they were sharing, though it was quiet.
The blonde seemed to understand but chuckled anyway. "Pins and needles, babe."
Her heart fluttered at the endearment. They had yet to discuss whatever it is that was going on between them, but by the looks of it, things were just fine and steady. In the span of two weeks, suddenly gone was Alison's "daddy says I can't date"bullcrap. For whatever reason after her Canada trip, she was carefree. And Emily could definitely vouch for it, remembering the day Alison landed back in the States. It was a gloomy Monday and she came by the café for an Americano. The same minute Alison's eyes landed on her, the blonde strode to tenderly kiss her in front of everyone there.
She shook her head at the memory and smiled as she sat up from Alison's lap.
"What?" Alison asked, bouncing her leg up and down trying to regain feeling.
"What what?" Emily jeered, smirking as she bit her own lip instinctively.
The blonde's eyes darted downwards to Emily's mouth before coming back up to look into brown orbs.
"What are we talking about again?" Alison answered back, visibly flustered by the way the brunette bit her lip.
At that, Emily pulled her in close, connecting her lips with Alison's. After such time, she still had not grown used to the taste of stale cigarettes on the blonde's tongue, but if she was being completely honest to herself, the scent and the taste alike stopped bothering her since the day they got caught making out in that empty science classroom.
The blonde sighed, resting her hand on Emily's waist and lightly gripped dark locks with the other. The soft kiss rapidly intensified, making the swimmer cling onto Alison's shoulders as she moved to straddle the blonde. Alison moaned as Emily's tongue explored her mouth. The feeling was short-lived, however, as the brunette wedged her hand into the sofa's crevice for support, and pulled away after finding another coin under there.
She laughed softly as she examined the small trinket.
"What is it with you and these gold coins?" Emily asked chuckling, sliding her thumb across Alison's lower lip with her free hand.
"Nothing, just," Alison talked under her breath, unable to form a logical thought as the butterflies in her stomach spurred. This time, it was her that pulled Emily back in for a kiss – continuing their previous activity.
The blonde acknowledged the needy feeling between her own legs as she sunk her teeth into Emily's lower lip and moved her hand towards the brunette's behind.
"Ali," Emily breathed, resting her forehead against Alison's. No doubt, Alison turned her on like nobody's business, but their definition of slow obviously differed.
It wasn't that she was playing the inexperienced virgin. If anything, she was actually the top if she were to describe her physical relationship with the blonde. Emily however, only felt apprehensive towards Alison's sudden change of heart the past few days. One second she turns the brunette down and the next she kisses her in front of a café full of bystanders. While Emily welcomed the idea of being with her, it also bothered her that she could drop everything without Alison even asking. Now she blew off party invites. She stopped sleeping in on the last two weekends to instead hang out with the blue-eyed beauty. She stopped attending student org meetings. Hell, she even almost completely stopped talking to Paula.
The hold that the blonde had on her was too strong, too fast. She was afraid that if she started giving up sex too, she'd lose whatever shred of control she had left.
The last bit of Alison's influence though, she admittedly wasn't very guilty for. After Paula had explained her undeniably biased side, Emily kept a bitter attitude towards her roommate. The fact that she hated the DiLaurentis family for being at the wrong place at the wrong time just irritated Emily to the point of silence.
"What do you have against Alison?" she asked, looking her roommate stern in the eye.
A wave of relief seemed to wash over Paula's features when Emily finally demanded to hear her. As though she'd be spilling Alison's darkest secrets.
Emily took a deep breath before exhaling. Just in time, too, because Paula had opened her eyes and looked at Emily with as much intensity.
"I'm sure you've heard of the ever-infamous Guardian Medical Center fire back in '88," the redhead sneered.
Emily scoffed, slightly having an idea as to what Paula was implying.
"The only recorded 5-alarm fire in Philadelphia. Literally everyone in this state knows about that, Paula," she stared at her roommate with sympathetic eyes. Paula's parents lost almost everything to that fire. They were board members as well as attending physicians in that hospital at the time. Too many people died that day. Paula's parents were lucky to even be alive. It was all according to Paula, of course – one note-worthy post sex story that Emily couldn't ever forget.
"Ken DiLaurentis did that," Paula claimed as though it were the most obvious thing.
Emily went on to stare, waiting for the redhead to continue with her story.
"He had just learned that it was the hospital's board members that beat him out at a property auction in Wiesensteig."
"Where's that?" the brunette queried, growing slightly more interested in the legend-like story, though she still didn't know how Alison fit into it. Paula's story was set in 1988, after all. Neither Paula OR Ali were even born back then. Ken DiLaurentis had to be only around 25 years old at the time.
"It's a small town in Germany," Paula moved to sit on one of the benches. Emily stood still, watching her roommate who seemed to have a look of both sadness and anger on her face, "He barged in on one of my dad's consults one day and kept saying that Wiesensteig has "always been their grounds", like he had a monopoly on German towns. Real asshole, that man.
"Then he threatened that my parents will pay for what they did. And guess what, Emily. The hospital got burned to a fucking crisp that night. But that's not all!"
The brunette clenched her jaw, a chill running down her spine at her roommate's anger. She shifted her weight, now leaning against the pillar across the bench where Paula sat.
"Ignore the fact that authorities wrote it off under an oxygen leak. Let me tell you a little story about Ken's son Jason," the agitated redhead spoke, putting emphasis on the word "son". Clearly the hate wasn't centered on just Ken DiLaurentis himself, but rather his entire family.
"There once was a boy in a private high school named Jason DiLaurentis. We weren't on the same grade but I knew of him because he was rich and notorious. His father was an arsonist, so I thought he was an arsonist too!
"One day classes got suspended. Mister Bates, my English teacher, told us not to pass by the main building because the Chemistry lab was there and the whole wing had caught on fire, he said.
"I saw the police tape around the building and an ambulance that roamed the perimeter, but I didn't think too much of it and just went home. The next day was fun, though, because somebody actually pointed Jason out! I don't know the whole story but he went straight to juvie for "accidentally" setting a school on fire."
Emily closed her eyes and sighed, finally realizing where the story was going.
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. That's what you're saying, isn't it? That Ali took after her father's alleged crime?" Emily said sarcastically, trying to meet Paula's eyes.
Paula stood and glared at the brunette, "I warned you against that fire-starting brat."
"Paula," the swimmer addressed in a calm tone but before she could talk further, her roommate spoke again.
"What excuse did she tell you for disappearing for a day, huh, Em?"
Emily's irritation suddenly spiked once more as she remembered how Paula evaded this very topic just the day before, "What's yours?"
The redhead was taken aback, caught off guard by Emily's straight-forwardness. She regained composure just as quickly, however, and challenged back confidently, "I asked you first."
"Canada."
Paula muttered under her breath, and probably intended for Emily to hear, "She's honest, I'll give her that."
"And where were you?"
The redhead rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Paula!" Emily half-yelled, balling up her fists in frustration.
"Manitoba. Filing a..." Paula paused to think, "… lawsuit. Against your precious Alison."
She stood suddenly and started walking away from the brunette, but not before Emily had caught her by the forearm.
"No, don't even fucking..." Paula spat, writhing under Emily's hold. The brunette had no plans on letting go. In her head, the conversation was far from over. That was until she saw a single tear fall down the redhead's face, "Let go. You're hurting me, Em."
Emily quickly loosened her grip, letting her roommate ultimately walk right out of sight. She had never seen her so vulnerable before. Even after over a year of knowing the redhead, she had never so much as seen the girl sulk – much less cry. It tugged at Emily's heartstrings, but knowing Paula, she trusted that the redhead would suck it up eventually. She prayed she would.
Emily sighed. Paula's story was definitely flawed from her point of view. There were too many holes, such as why there was even a dispute between land – in Germany of all places. And how many run-ins would their families be in in their lifetime? How small and anomalous the world truly was if it were always just a coincidence. Lastly, why would a legal case be processed in Canada if the supposed crime was committed in the United States by an American citizen? She was no lawyer but Emily was fairly certain that Paula got that lawsuit part wrong. Didn't she? She had to have meant something else.
Dragging her feet away from the building, she walked to the one café that drew her in, yearning for consolation in a certain blue-eyed blonde.
It took an entirety of four minutes to conjure up that memory of her bitter exchange with Paula. She glanced from Alison's digital clock, back into the blonde's eyes.
"I think I should go," Emily whispered, giving Alison a peck on the lips. Their position stayed unchanged for a little while – the brunette laying comfortably atop the other girl before Emily attempted to get up.
"Don't. I'm sorry. I won't do it again, I promise," Alison said pleadingly, her hands now resting on both sides of Emily's waist. "We can take it slow."
Emily gazed into Alison's blue eyes and saw nothing but sincerity. She could drown in them, she thought. Never before has she been in a situation where she thought drowning was a good thing, but Alison's shade of cerulean made her question every logical thing she knew.
"Tell me a story," the brunette whispered, settling back comfortably in the warmth of Alison's body. She mentally kicked herself for pulling a cliché, but at the time that was the best she could come up with to keep the moment going. Not that she didn't enjoy the silence. The silence was very nice, but the way Alison's fingertips traced her back as she spoke was just a sensation she wouldn't trade for quietness.
That night Emily lost sleep, her thoughts never leaving the blonde's story and how she seemed to memorize it like the back of her hand.
"This story begins with once upon a time, because the best stories do, of course.
So, once upon a time, and imagine if you can, a steep sided valley cluttered with giant, spiky green pine trees and thick, green grass that reaches to the top of your socks so that when you run, you have to bring your knees up high, like running through water. Wildflowers spread their sweet heady perfume along the gentle breezes and bees hum musically to themselves as they cheerily collect flower pollen.
People are very happy here and they work hard, keeping their houses spick and span and their children's faces clean.
This particular summer had been very hot and dry, making the lean farm dogs sleepy and still. Farmers whistled lazily to themselves and would stand and stare into the distance, trying to remember what it was that they were supposed to be doing. By two o'clock in the afternoon, the town would be in a haze of slumber, with grandmas nodding off over their knitting and farmers snoozing in the haystacks. It was very, very hot.
No matter how hot the day, however, the children would always play in the gentle, rolling meadows. With wide brimmed hats and skin slippery with sun block, they chittered and chattered like sparrows, as they frolicked in their favorite spot.
Now, their favorite spot is very important to this story because in this particular spot is a large, long, scaly rock that looks amazingly similar to a sleeping dragon.
The children knew it was a dragon.
The grownups knew it was a dragon.
The dogs and cats and birds knew it was a dragon.
But nobody was scared because it never, ever moved.
The boys and girls would clamber all over it, poking sticks at it and hanging wet gumboots on its ears but it didn't mind in the least. The men folk would sometimes chop firewood on its zigzagged tail because it was just the right height and the Ladies Weaving Group often spun sheep fleece on its spikes.
Often on a cool night, when the stars were twinkling brightly in a velvet sky and the children peacefully asleep, the grownups would settle for the evening with a mug of steaming cocoa in a soft cushioned armchair. Then the stories about How The Dragon Got There began. Nobody knew for sure, there were many different versions depending on which family told the tale, but one thing that everybody agreed on, was this:
In Times of Trouble
The Dragon will Wake
And Free the Village
By making a Lake
This little poem was etched into everybody's minds and sometimes appeared on tea towels and grandma's embroidery.
The days went by slowly, quietly and most importantly, without any rain. There had been no rain in the valley for as long as the children could remember. The wells were starting to bring up muddy brown water and clothes had to be washed in yesterday's dishwater. The lawns had faded to a crisp biscuit color and the flowers drooped their beautiful heads. Even the trees seemed to hang their branches like weary arms. The valley turned browner and drier and thirstier, every hot, baking day.
The townsfolk grew worried and would murmur to each other when passing with much shaking of heads and tut tuts. They would look upwards searching for rain clouds in the blue, clear sky, but none ever came.
"The tale of the Dragon cannot be true," said old Mrs Greywhistle, the shopkeeper.
"It hasn't moved an inch, I swear," replied her customer, tapping an angry foot.
It was now too hot for the children to play out in the direct sun and they would gather under the shade of the trees, digging holes in the dust and snapping brittle twigs.
"The Dragon will help us soon," said one child.
"He must do Something," agreed another.
"I'm sure he will."
They all nodded in agreement.
A week went by with no change, the people struggling along as best they could. Some were getting cross at the Dragon and would cast angry, sideways looks at it when passing. The villagers were becoming skinny eyed and sullen.
Meanwhile, the children had a plan.
Quickly and quietly, they moved invisibly around town, picking and plucking at the fading flowers. With outstretched arms and bouquets up to their chins, they rustled over to where the giant rock lay, as still as ever.
The boys and girls placed bunches of flowers around the Dragon in a big circle. They scattered petals around its head and over its nose, then danced around and around it, skipping and chanting the rhyme that they all knew so well.
In Times of Trouble
The Dragon Will Wake
And Save the Village
By making a Lake.
The searing heat made them dizzy and fuzzy and finally they all fell in a sprawling heap at the bottom of the mound. They looked up at the rock.
Nothing happened.
A dry wind lazily picked up some flower heads and swirled them around. The air was thick with pollen and perfume. A stony grey nostril twitched.
"I saw something," cried the youngest boy.
They stared intently.
An ear swiveled like a periscope.
The ground began to rumble.
"Look out! Run! Run!"
The children scampered in all directions, shrieking and squealing, arms pumping with excitement.
The rumbling grew and grew.
The Dragon raised its sleepy head. It got onto its front feet and sat like a dog. It stood up and stretched, arching its long scaly back like a sleek tabby cat. It blinked and looked around with big kind, long lashed eyes.
And then its nostrils twitched and quivered again.
The older folk were alerted by the screams and shrieks. The ladies held up their long skirts to run and the men rolled their sleeves up and soon the whole town stood together in a tight huddle at the foot of the hill, staring up at the large beast with mouths held open.
"AHHHHH AAHHHHHHHHH!"
The noise erupted from the Dragon.
"AHHHHH AAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The families gripped each other tighter and shut their eyes.
"AHHHHH CHOOOOOOOOO!"
The sneeze blasted from the Dragon like a rocket, throwing it back fifty paces, causing a whirlwind of dust and dirt.
"AHHHHH CHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The second blast split open the dry earth, sending explosions of soil and tree roots high into the sky like missiles, and something else too ...
The people heard the sound but couldn't recognize it at first for it had been such a long time since their ears had heard such tinkling melody. As their eyes widened in wonder, their smiles turned into grins and then yahoos and hoorahs.
Water, cold, clear spring water, oozed, then trickled, then roared out of the hole, down the hillside and along the valley floor.
The torrent knocked over a farmer's haystack, but he didn't care.
The river carried away the schoolteacher's bike shed but she cared not a jot. It even demolished the Ladies Bowling Club changing rooms but they howled with laughter and slapped their thighs. When the flood sent pools of water out towards the golf course, filling up sixteen of the nineteen holes, the men just hooted and whistled and threw their caps up in the air.
What used to be a dirty, brown dust bowl, now gleamed and glistened in the sunlight, sending playful waves and ripples across the lake and inviting all to share.
"HMMMMM," sighed the Dragon sleepily, and showing his perfect movie star teeth. "Seeing as I'm awake ..."
And he lumbered forward with surprising grace and style and disappeared into the cool dark water with a small wave of a claw and flick of his tail.
They never saw him again.
After the families had restored and rebuilt the village, and set up sailing clubs for the children, and scuba diving for the grandparents, they erected a bandstand and monument in the spot where the Dragon used to lay. Every year to mark the occasion, they would bring garlands of flowers and herbs and arrange them in a big circle. The children would have the day off school, for it was known as 'Water Dragon Day' and wearing the dragon masks that they had been working on all week, would skip and clap and sing.
The Dragon helped Us
As We said He would Do
Hooray for The Dragon
Achoo, Achoo, ACHOOOO!
And that is the end of the story."
