Title: Dare

Rating: T

Prompt: This one is a combination of a few prompts which include: Alison's birthday party - the girls all stay over at Ali's and when the other three are asleep Emily takes Ali upstairs; Emily and Alison have to kiss in-front of the other girls; Alison feeling insecure about not being experienced enough for Emily.

She always dreamt that her eighteenth birthday party would be a grand affair, a party out in the woods somewhere where she could drink the night away surrounded by half of the student body of Rosewood High, with a guy on her arm that would make every girl there insanely jealous.

She never imagined that instead she'd be content to just have a sleepover on her living room floor with her four best friends, but that's what she ends up doing – and she can't think of a more perfect way to spend it, after all they've been through.

Naturally there's still alcohol involved, because it is still technically a party and really, they could all use a little something to help them relax after the drama of A being back and worse than ever, and she'd told the four of them at the door that tonight they were going to switch off their phones and pretend, for once, that they were just normal teenagers.

"Let's play a gaaaaaaaame." Hanna, encouraged to drink for once instead of being advised against it, is by far the worst-off of the five of them, and Alison is half-tempted to take the bottle of vodka she's hoarding in the corner away from her.

"Like what?" Emily asks, sat beside Alison on the couch, and the blonde can't help herself from sneaking glances at the brunette out of the corner of her eye because she's absolutely breath-taking in the dress she's wearing, and Alison is kind of regretting inviting the other girls around tonight as well because she really, really wouldn't mind dragging Emily up to her room, yanking that dress off of her and –

"Ali?" Spencer's voice snaps her out of her daydream, and she realizes that she's been staring at Emily and flushes, turning hastily away to face Spencer instead.

"Hmm?"

"Truth or dare, are you up for it?" She nods in agreement, but she already knows what she's going to answer on every turn – she doesn't want to lie to them, to any of them, but there are some questions that she just can't answer truthfully, not yet, and she knows they're bound to ask about her time away.

She's not surprised by how quickly the questions turn sexual (though she kind of wishes they didn't, because she does not need to know that about Aria and Ezra), because doesn't it always? They go round in the loose circle they're sat in, Emily up before Alison, and the blonde turns to watch the brunette's reaction to whatever question the other three decide to throw at her as she picks truth.

"Are you…" It's Hanna that speaks first, lips pursed in thought, and Emily watches her warily. "Oh! I know. Are you a top or a bottom?"

Emily smirks around the lip of her beer bottle as she takes another sip of it, buying her time before answering, and she quirks an eyebrow at the blonde. "What do you think?"

"Well you kinda look like a bottom," Hanna replies, quickly enough to make it seem like she'd given the question some thought in the past, and the look of outrage that flickers across Emily's face has all four of them laughing.

"I am not," Emily insists, and she looks so offended that it's really kind of adorable. "And I never will be, thank you very much."

"It's not a bad thing," Aria tries to reassure her as Alison concentrates on topping up her drink, and there's a smirk playing around the edges of her lips because she knows that Emily is at least sometimes a bottom, and when she catches Emily's eye the brunette blushes and looks quickly away. "What's up with you two?"

"Nothing," Alison replies, still smirking, and Aria glances between her and Emily with suspicion written all over her face. "And I choose dare," she changes the subject before the brunette can ask any more questions, because she's not really sure she's ready for the three of them to know that she and Emily are sneaking around (that's what Alison calls it in her head because they haven't labelled it, haven't called it a relationship and she's almost too afraid to bring it up in-case Emily doesn't want one and just wants to fool around with no strings attached, until she can get Alison out of her system and move on with her life), because she's not ready for the judgement she knows she's going to get, she's not ready for them to think that she's just using Emily when really she loves her, loves her with a strength and a fullness that she hadn't thought she'd ever be capable of (and she can't tell her that, not yet, because it's terrifying enough to come to the realization on her own but to tell Emily about it? No, that was… unimaginable because what if she didn't feel the same?).

"I dare youuuuuu," Hanna is apparently loving the role of spokesperson, and there's a dirty smile on her mouth when she looks at Alison and she knows that she's not going to like whatever comes out of Hanna's mouth next. "To kiss…" Alison tenses up, because she can guess where this is going and she feels Emily stiffen beside her. "The person in this room who you think is the most attractive. And no, you can't kiss yourself."

Hanna chuckles to herself at her little joke and Alison glares, and it's obvious to everyone who she's going to choose, it must be, and she can't for the life of her understand why Hanna would want her to kiss Emily because hasn't she been warning the brunette away from her ever since she got back?

"Han, I don't think that - " Spencer tries to intervene, but the blonde cuts her off with a wave of her hand.

"No, no take-backs. So, who's it gonna be, Ali?" Alison's jaw sets, a muscle in her cheek twitching, and Hanna just looks out her expectantly and eventually she sighs and looks away. She catches Emily's eye and knows the look of discomfort on her face isn't feigned, wonders if she knows why Hanna's doing this. "Well?" The blonde prompts, and Alison rolls her eyes, shooting her one last glare before turning her body towards Emily and the brunette meets her halfway.

She feels awkward, even though she's kissed Emily a dozen times by now – but the others don't know that, and she's supposed to act like this is something new and not like she's wanted to do this since Emily had breezed through her front door earlier that night, Hanna in tow.

When their lips brush, it's chaste – Alison's eyes flicker closed and her hand lands on Emily's thigh to steady herself, her thumb brushing absently across the brunette's skin and she feels Emily's sharp intake of breath and can't resist kissing her a little harder, and she curls her other hand into a fist so that she doesn't bury it in Emily's hair and shove her back down on the couch because it's tempting and she so, so, wants to, but she doubts that their friends want to experience that any time ever, so she pulls back before she gets too carried away, trying to will away the blush that stains her cheeks.

"Satisfied?" She fires at Hanna, who's watching them with abject scrutiny (Spencer and Aria look uncomfortable with the whole situation, trying to look anywhere else), but the blonde merely shrugs and the game continues.

Alison presses her back against the arm of the couch, as far away from Emily as she can possibly get because she's not entirely sure that she'll be able to control herself if she's close enough to touch the brunette, and from the way Emily shuffles backwards a little too, she guesses that she's thinking the same thing.

Hanna calls a time out before they get around to Emily again in order to grab some more drinks from the kitchen, and Spencer goes to help. Alison realizes belatedly that she needs a top-up of Coke to go with her vodka otherwise she's going to regret it in the morning and quickly hurries after them – but promptly stops just inside the doorway when she hears what the other two are talking about.

"What were you thinking?" Alison hears Spencer hiss, and when she peers around the edge of the doorway she sees them stood at the kitchen counter, Spencer's hands on her hips while Hanna's just opening the new bottle of vodka and taking a swig right from the bottle.

Lovely.

"I was thinking that if we saw them kiss then we'd be able to tell if there was something going on like we thought."

"And I thought we agreed to talk about it with Emily when she isn't wasted? And when Alison isn't around?"

"Yeah, well, I wanted to know sooner rather than later, okay?"

"They're going to know that something's up now, you've - " Alison inadvertently shifts and treads on the creaky floorboard and Spencer cuts herself off mid-sentence, and Alison curses herself before meandering into the kitchen with a fake smile plastered on her face.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," she says as she opens the fridge, pulling out the open bottle and pouring it into her glass as the other two try not to look guilty (and fail).

"Not at all, Ali." Spencer reassures her, and Alison just shakes her head because they dare to call her a liar and a manipulator when the two of them are there in her kitchen discussing her and Emily like it's any of their business?

When she stalks back into the other room she must have a face like thunder, because Emily takes one look at her before alarm spreads across her face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she mutters darkly, but she knows that Emily isn't convinced from the worried look she throws her, but Alison can't help it, because Hanna and Spencer and hell, presumably Aria too, all think that there's something between her and Emily that needs addressing when she isn't there and that can't be a good sign and what if they say something to Emily that turns her away from Alison for good? What would she choose, if they made her pick between them and her?

"Em, it's your go." Emily's eyes only leave Alison's face when Hanna speaks, back in her position curled up in the corner. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"I've got a good one," Aria is the first one to speak, this time, and there's a sly smile on her face. "Because girls must be so much better at it than guys – most number of orgasms given and received during sex."

Everyone's attention turns to Emily (and Alison's a little curious at the answer, herself), whose cheeks are such a bright shade of red that they practically light up the room, and she's looking resolutely down at the floor and away from everyone else.

"Come on, Em," Hanna prompts. "You're the only one here who's been with more than one person – except maybe Alison, I don't know what she got up to on her two years away - " Alison's teeth grind at the thinly-veiled insult but she holds her tongue,"- unless you didn't sleep with both Maya and Paige."

"No, I uh… I did." Even though she already knew that (or suspected it, at least, because Emily was freaking gorgeous and who wouldn't want to sleep with her?), she still feels a little stab of jealously in her gut, because they'd both gotten to touch Emily before she had, and it was all her own damn fault.

"So…?" Even Spencer's joining in now, interested expression on her face. "Give us the numbers."

"Um, well, I've never really counted…"

"Roughly, then," Hanna encourages, and Emily's head disappears in her hands and she speaks through her fingers, her voice muffled.

"I don't know, like… ten? Maybe more?" Alison's eyes widen slightly and she tries not to panic because that's… a lot, compared to what they've been doing, and oh god, what if she's awful in bed but Emily's just too polite to say anything?

"Wait, what? Jesus Christ, I think the most Caleb ever gave me was three and I'm pretty sure one of them was by accident because he had no idea what he was doing down there and you're telling me that you've had ten or more in one go on purpose?"

Alison tries to focus on Hanna's obvious awe instead of the insecurity that's gnawing at her gut, because yeah, she knew that Emily was more experienced than her, and she'd told Emily that she'd been the first girl that she'd ever been with (the first person that she'd ever been with), but knowing that and knowing this are two completely different things and god what if she really is terrible at sex?

"It's really not that much of a big deal," Emily tries to shrug it off by acting nonchalant, but that does nothing to assuage Alison's doubts or the curiosity of the other three.

"Oh, yeah, it is," Hanna is by far the most animated, probably because of how much she's had to drink, and Emily's looking at her with a fond smile on her face as she shakes her head and Alison just kind of wants to shake Hanna for starting this stupid game in the first place. "Seriously, like, let's you and me go upstairs and you can show me what you've got."

Alison stiffens at Hanna's words, and Emily glances towards Alison to see her reaction and must see some of her anger written all over her face because she hastily turns back to Hanna and tries to brush off her comment. "But you have Caleb."

"We're not technically back together," the blonde points out, and Alison wants to strangle her. "And really, I don't think he'd mind. You know, if I had to go gay you've always been my first choice 'cause you're hot but like now that I know you're good in bed?"

"Hanna - " Spencer tries to cut the blonde off, finally noticing the murderous looks that Alison's shooting her across the room, and the brunette looks nervously between the two of them, but Hanna just speaks right over her.

"Like, I would be so all over that. And I'm kind of your type, right? I mean, I look kind of like Alison and you were in love with her for like years so – "

"Hanna!" Spencer snaps, louder this time, and the blonde blinks at her like she'd forgotten that she was here, and Alison knows that it's the alcohol talking, that when drunk, Hanna always says exactly what's on her mind but that doesn't make her any less annoyed. "I think that's enough."

"Why?" Hanna glances around and looks as though she notices Alison for the first time. "Because Alison doesn't like what I'm saying?"

"It's her birthday," Aria reminds Hanna, gently, and the blonde sighs heavily, rolling her eyes.

"Fine, let's get on with the game, then. Alison, truth or dare?"

"Suddenly I don't feel like playing anymore." She forces the words out through gritted teeth, and she wishes that she wasn't so insecure but she is, she is about Emily, and she can't help it and she's angry at Hanna for making her feel that way, even though she knew the blonde didn't mean it and she just… suddenly isn't having such a great time, after all.

"Oh come on, don't be boring. Just cause you're jealous - "

"Hanna!" Spencer once again interrupts, her eyes still watching Alison warily, waiting for her to snap. "Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?" When the blonde makes no move, Spencer sighs and climbs to her feet, grabbing Hanna's wrist and dragging her into the kitchen – Alison can hear the brunette speaking in a hushed voice but can't quite make out individual words as Aria excuses herself to the bathroom, leaving her and Emily alone.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Emily asks as soon as Aria's disappeared, cupping the side of the blonde's face with a gentle hand, titling her head so their eyes meet. "And don't say nothing because I know there's something."

"I'm fine."

"Alison," Emily huffs, a flash of annoyance in her eyes. "Is it what Hanna said? You know that she was just joking, and even if she wasn't, you're the only girl in this room that I'd wanna drag upstairs, okay?"

"I know, it's just… I'm just wondering why you want to. You're more experienced than me at… stuff, and I - "

"Have you ever heard me complaining?" Emily asks, and her voice huskier, and when Alison dares to meet her gaze the brunette's looking at her like… like she wants to devour her. "I want you, no-one else. But if it really bothers you…" She trails off, casts a glance around them to make sure they're still alone and darts forward to press a quick, but heated, kiss against her lips. "If it really bothers you then how about when the other three are asleep, you and me can go upstairs and we can make the number ten a distant memory?"