A.N. I know, I know I'm horrible for not updating but I went to a folk festival with my friend for the weekend (as well as yr11 being a nutcase) sooo been without a computer for a little while. But I haven't forgotten you :) Which is why I gave you this extra kinda pretty cool chapter. I think...hope you'll enjoy.

Disclaimer; If you think I own Skins then maybe you should see someone :)


She looked down for a second then back up at me through her eyelashes. How come I had never noticed them before? They were so long and dark and without any make-up at all. I knew mine must be near nonexistent without their usual coating of mascara because while my hair was a bleached blonde the colour wasn't far off my natural one. But back to the topic at hand, her big eyes looked at me through those dark eyelashes and I yelled internally at my stomach which was doing some weird shit without my permission.

"Emily. Emily Fitch."

3.

Emily Fitch and I kept on talking tho whole bus ride, not that it was as long as I would have liked, and while I was still rather terse with her and reculent to answer some of her probing questions I enjoyed it. Enjoyed her and made sure I stood next to her while we were waiting for the rest of the mini buses, following her in as we finally were allowed to clean ourselves.

I didn't perv on her. That I can promise you. The girl thing was still a little weird, I mean, I was attracted to guys, still was and I wasn't completely sure if I even liked girls, liked Emily or if it was just a weird feeling. It felt different. She felt different.

But I did notice her looking. She was far less subtle then I would ever be brave enough to do but I didn't notice because she was staring, I noticed because I could feel her eyes on my skin, burning as I stripped down to my underwear and I turned quickly to find her brown eyes, not even moving away from my body when I looked at her pointedly, only blushing as her eyes met my ice blue ones. She didn't seem too embarrassed though and I found I kind of liked that she was looking at me.

It meant I wasn't the only one thinking weird things.

It meant three days of army food hadn't done anything too harmful to my body.

Only once did I allow my eyes to roam over her body; she had just stepped under the jet of hot water and I watched as the stream quickly turned her bright hair dark before travelling over her curves, making the material of her underwear dark with the water before it ran down her shapely, pale legs. I followed the path of that first jet of water until it had been sucked in by the drain and only then did I return to my bar of soap, steadily ignoring the curious look she sent me afterwards.

I didn't want to see that curious look because I didn't want to see the implications it held for me, for her. If I wanted to be cliché here I would have added 'for us' but that would have been too much cheese for me.

The drive back to our HQ was silent and I wondered if I was the only one that could feel the tense air between us or if Emily, Emily Fitch, felt it too. I didn't understand it and I sure as hell didn't understand her but all I knew was that it felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest the whole ride back and it wasn't gone until I had my pack on my back, walking in line with the rest of our company to a new location. The redhead in question, Emily Fitch, was behind me somewhere and I yelled at my mind to stop picturing what she was thinking right then. I almost wished I had the pace counter in my hand again.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

It was easier than thinking by any means.

We walked for a long time, long past sundown and I found it harder to keep my thoughts of her, Emily Fitch, when it became darker. Like there was a giant hole and while I could keep an eye out and walk around it during the daytime I couldn't help but fall into it at night. I guess all our thoughts come to a peak at night, or at least mine do; usually while I'm tucked up in bed but seeing as I had no clue when we would be stopping this seemed more than alright, the steady left, right rhythm easily bringing thoughts to the surface. That's when I thought that maybe it wasn't the comfort of my bed at all but the darkness and comfort of night.

Emily Fitch. I liked saying her name. It was probably obvious but it made my brain warm up and go gooey when I thought it like that and it tasted even better on the single occasion when I got to say it.

Yes that did just come out of my mouth and no I can't quite believe it either. I was hard-ass Naomi and here I was swooning. And over a girl too. It was fairly disgraceful for me. Just keep quiet about it yeah?

But anyway, we finally got to our new location, 01:43 by my clunky watch and soon we were all formed up, tired faces looking up at our OC just hoping he would call bedtime. Thankfully he didn't make us wait long and I was all ready to trudge off and set up my one person hootchie, crawl into my sleeping bag and be dead to the world but a shout from the female sergeant made me stop and, with a fair amount of grumbling, turn back to her.

"The corporal's hootchie partner had to leave because they were sick so now she's stuck without a hootchie at all. Do you think she could share with you just for the last few nights?"

I wanted to yell at her "NO! I don't want to share my space with a stranger, especially seeing we would only have one hootchie for the both of us instead of the normal double but I only grimaced and asked, "Which Corporal?"

"Corporal Fitch."

Oh. So my stomach just hit the bottom of my feet. Well I think it did anyway and I'm pretty sure that the Sergeant saw the way I had sucked in that last breath a little too fast.

"Yeah, that should be fine," I stammered, really wishing bitch-Campbell would turn up right about now and say no so I didn't have to go through with this.

"Oi Corporal!" the sergeant yelled to someone behind me and I turned around to see her. Red, messy hair, big brown eyes and all.

I let out the breath I was holding.

"I got you a hootchie."

I think the shock on her face rivalled my own and with a small exchange of smiles we made our way to the female lines, the tension from before apparent in the air. I really don't think I'm going to get out of these next few days alive.

We set it up in silence except for the occasional, "Pass the tent peg" or "pull the side a little tighter" until finally we were standing side by side, the tingles along my arm clearly from hitting it on something subconsciously and not from her own barely five centimetres from me.

"I never realised a single hootchie was so..."

"Small," I finished, my eyes going wide as I took in the tiny space we had to cram both ourselves and the packs into. I definitely wasn't going to get any sleep the rest of the week. I turned to look at her and almost jumped when I found her eyes already trained on me.

"Naomi..." she whispered, her eyes raking over my face and making me feel exposed.

"STAND TO!" broke our moment and this time I really did jump and swearing, ran to the other side of our hootchie, my eyes squinting in the darkness to see anything. Stand to; basically the worst thing possible especially at night when you wanted to get to sleep. Everyone had to go near there hootchie and face outside a giant circle, the platoon harbour, incase of enemy attack. You could sometimes be stuck out there for nearly an hour which, if you were stuck with some moron could equal the longest hour of your life. But I was with Emily, Emily Fitch, and I had a feeling this hour wouldn't be as bad as others I had done.

Then again the tense silence between us could just kill me.

I felt her get on her guts beside me, her breath hitching as her hand brushed against my own. At least I wasn't the only one who felt the spark and with determination of steel I opened my mouth to actually talk to her. Like a normal human being. Normal being the key work.

"How long have you been in cadets?" Great Naomi, that was the most amazing question ever, sure to inspire massive amounts of conversation between the two of you, I thought angrily but the redhead beside me responded as enthusiastically as if I had asked her about her favourite band.

"This is my third year now. I actually only joined because my sister decided one day she wanted to do it and we're twins so back then we kind of did everything together but long story short; I really enjoyed it and Katie quit after her first camp. She really wasn't the cadet type anyway," she said giggling and I couldn't help the smile that came across my face as she did. Something about her was making me smile more in the past day then I had the whole year. "And what about you Naomi Campbell? How long have you been in?"

I decided that my name didn't actually sound that bad coming from her mouth.

"About a year now," I replied, keeping my eyes out to the darkness in front of us. "I know I joined late but I needed something to do before I can join the real army."

"What do you want to do in the army?" she asked, her voice so amazingly husky I had to look over to her. Her eyes were bright despite the darkness around us and it actually looked like the cared about my answer, an enthusiasm which I'm sure, would disappear once I started talking about my favourite subject but for now it was enough to make me smile at her and relax slightly so I was laying completely on the ground.

"I want to be a Military Police Officer except it's rather hard to get into," I said. "And what about you?"

"What about me?" she asked coyly and her face was suddenly too close to mine, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. Only her.

"I-" I started, trying to gear up my brain to ask her about what she wanted to do, if she wanted to join the army or what but my mind wouldn't work and was instead stuck on one thing. Well, to be honest, two. The way her eyes were looking at me now and the way her gaze burned as she looked at my body before.

"I-I saw you looking at me before."


Ahh god, the suspense is killing me! :) Anyway, I hope you guys liked it and keep an eye out for the next chapter; I have a feeling our girls are going to...get to know each other a little better.

Cheers,

Jules