A/N: Kind of a filler chapter. Sort of. Don't hate me for bringing back the angst. ;D
Chapter 10 - Kiss and Yell
Emily Fields had learned quite a long time ago that she enjoyed kissing girls. Yes, she enjoyed it very very much indeed. But enjoyment was a gross understatement for what she was experiencing at the moment. See, the thing was, kissing girls was one thing. But kissing the girl, kissing Spencer bloody Hastings, was something she'd never thought she'd ever had the opportunity to indulge in. And the mere fact that Spencer was the one who had initiated it was something that almost blew her mind.
Almost.
Her mind was still very much there. And it was yelling at her (in a teeny tiny, almost easy-to-ignore voice) to stop. Stop.
Emily's conscience suddenly woke up, and she pulled away with a start, as if someone had just doused her with ice-cold water. Spencer's face followed hers, unwilling to let their embrace come to an abrupt end. But Emily firmly pushed her shoulders away (after first disentangling her hands from the knots she had formed in Spencer's quite large shirt), much to Spencer's obvious dismay. Emily jumped up to her feet, almost tripping on a jutting root in her sudden eagerness to put as much space between her and Spencer as possible.
Air, she needed air. She felt like she'd just swam underwater for hours, delirious with lack of oxygen (and flooded with sensations that were unnameable, unthinkable). She tried to ignore the crestfallen look on Spencer's face, she tried to still her own heaving chest. God, what had she just done? What had she allowed Spencer to do?
It made no sense.
No sense at all.
(But it had felt so damn good.)
It was almost too difficult to clear the lust-induced haze in her mind. She couldn't even think clearly, couldn't even form coherent thoughts without a stray feeling making her blush inwardly.
How could Spencer have this effect on her? She was practically coming undone.
The same Spencer Hastings who hadn't displayed even the slightest interest in girls (or even Emily) until this night.
(Their flirting obviously didn't count. Friends did that, okay?)
This was hurting her head. (And someplace within her chest too.)
"Why did you do that?", Emily asked in a quiet, uncertain voice. She needed to know what had just happened. Now that the distance between them had resolved into something tangible and permanent (for the moment, at least), everything that had transpired seemed like a dream.
A really, amazingly vivid and detailed one at that.
The tension that Spencer usually wore well had returned to her shoulders, and Emily noticed the slight tremor of her hands, even from this distance. She looked so...vulnerable, so open. Her brow was creased with lines and she seemed similarly perplexed. She just shrugged in response. Then, perhaps deciding that she should be more coherent, she added, "I don't really know", almost as an afterthought.
Emily winced. Great. So this was just some spur-of-the-moment thing that hadn't meant anything. Just wonderful. She'd been feeling upset and cheated, and she'd gone ahead and let her best friend kiss her. She was a horrible and weak person. And she'd allowed Spencer to take advantage of that. She felt like kicking herself for being so stupid.
"Right. Of course. You don't know. I suppose you accidentally fell on my face? Twice? Three times?", Emily hissed bitterly, holding on to a branch for support. She suddenly felt drained of all the energy that had been charged into her by Spencer's heated touch. No, stop. She couldn't start thinking about that. She wouldn't think about that now or ever again.
"Emily", Spencer warned, her eyes flashing and her posture becoming stiff, upright. "I don't even know why you're saying these things." She really didn't understand. Okay, maybe she did. Emily was confused. And she had a right to be. Hell, even Spencer was confused. Very much so. The pleasant warmth that had flooded her from the passionate kisses were wearing off, and the look of hurt that had returned to Emily's face was making her feel extremely guilty. Ugh, now really wasn't the time to stop being eloquent and start spouting stupid sentences.
"You kissed me, Spencer", Emily accused her loudly, almost making Spencer jump.
The statement felt out of place in their serene environment, not because of the words, but because of their intonation. Because of what they implied. Yes, Spencer had kissed her. And she knew exactly why. But she couldn't even put it to herself in comprehensible sentences, therefore she had no idea how she was supposed to voice her feelings. The pure accusation in Emily's voice annoyed her to no end, though.
"Ehm, excuse me for a minute there. I'm not sure if I'm remembering this correctly, but didn't you kiss me back? You're acting like I took advantage of you", Spencer retorted. What was Emily implying anyways? That she hadn't wanted it as much as Spencer had? Like Spencer would ever believe that. They'd both participated in that dance, both had their equal parts to play and had played them quite well. Really really well, on Emily's part, actually. Excellent. Outstanding. Exceeding all expectations (read: fantasies).
She really had to learn how to control her thoughts. Really.
"Wait, you're not gonna pretend like it didn't happen? I'm surprised." Emily crossed her arms, glaring at Spencer. She didn't need to be reminded of what had happened. Each detail was already etched quite clearly in her mind—so much so that she was sure if she ever allowed herself to revisit the memory of this night, she would experience every single emotion that had flooded her.
"I really do not like the insinuation in your voice", Spencer replied, looking like she was trying really hard to keep calm. "You could've just said that I made a mistake." Her eyes widened when she realized the way her sentence sounded but it was too late now. Words couldn't be taken back.
Emily frowned and pressed her lips together. So a mistake was how Spencer was putting it? Great, just great. Not only was Spencer clearly not into girls, but she had apparently filed her kiss with Emily under the category of minor aberrations. Maybe she'd done it out of vengeance. Perhaps Emily had been too quick to assume that Spencer had truly forgiven her.
But that couldn't be right, could it? What about all the time they'd spent together? Did Spencer see that as a mistake too? Something to be forgotten? Was that why she'd insisted on hiding it from Toby, from everyone? Thinking so much was giving Emily a pounding headache. So she started speaking just to interrupt her flow of thoughts.
"I guess that was your way of messing with me because of the Toby thing, right?", Emily asked quietly, a trace of pain edging her voice. "I know you're not into girls, Spencer. I used to be your best friend, remember?"
Spencer winced at the baseless allegation, but what hurt her even more was the underlined use of the past tense. It seemed to highlight the fact that they would probably never go back to the way they used to be. Things would never be simple between them. And while that had seemed to be a good thing a few minutes ago, now she was not so sure. And the fact that Emily was reading between the lines and coming up with entirely wrong conclusions infuriated her.
"Right, of course I did. Because I'm Spencer Never-Lets-Go-Of-A-Grudge Hastings, right? I'm glad to know that's what you think of me", Spencer spat, her eyes lighting up with anger. She couldn't believe Emily would think that she would ever willingly hurt her. (But it made sense. She had hurt her in the past, she had wanted to hurt her long ago, some wicked little part of her.) "Maybe this is why no one sticks with you long enough. You never give them a chance."
Emily gasped, the last statement taking both of them by surprise. This was too much. She felt the stinging sensation of tears in her eyes and turned away. She could not, would not, let Spencer see her weaken. She'd already allowed her in and look where that had gotten her. The one person she'd allowed inside was clawing through her heart.
Spencer sprang to her feet, and took one step, then another towards Emily's bowed back. She could make out the faint ridges of her spine through the skin of her bent neck, she could pinpoint the slight tremble in her wrists that gave her away. Spencer couldn't believe the toxic words that she had let loose, and now she had no idea how to go about doing damage control. The night was spinning out of control.
"Take me home." Emily's voice was low, and emotionless. She was really proud of herself, proud because she had managed to keep her feelings in check, successfully detained the tremors from slipping into her voice. She wouldn't allow Spencer the satisfaction of seeing her down or weak. "Please", she added, a resigned form of politeness that seemed to mock the intimacy they had shared.
Spencer looked baffled, as if the word 'home' held no meaning for her. As if, she was home already. (What silly notions.)
"It's the last favour I'm asking of you." Emily turned and looked Spencer squarely in the eye, her mouth set in a firm line.
Favours. Please and thank you's. What a sham. What false facades they were suddenly being forced to assume.
Spencer wanted to laugh (without mirth) but instead, she merely nodded her head and walked towards her car, not even looking back to check if Emily was following. She got into the driver's seat and waited for the taller girl to get inside the car. Emily hesitated for a second near the door, then strode past to the back of the car, to Spencer's surprise. She got inside and scooted as close to the car door as possible, looking as if she was ready to bolt any second, as if she was trying to put as much distance between them as the limited confines of the quite-spacious SUV could provide. Her actions made Spencer feel like a freaking pariah, shunned without reason or logic. However, she made no comment, simply started the car and maneuvered the car off the gravelly banks of the lake and onto the silent asphalt of the road.
The journey back to Holbrook was the diametrical opposite of the journey from. Although both were quite similar in terms of the silence that dominated them, it was the quality of the quietness that characterized their dissimilarity. There was none of that peace, understanding or silent support in the air now. The atmosphere was charged with unsaid words, furious subtext and glaringly obvious misunderstandings. What hadn't changed, however, was the fact that Emily could feel Spencer's gaze on her every two minutes. While on the ride from Holbrook, she hadn't really been that aware of it, now, it felt like there was a spotlight on her and she was acutely conscious of every movement she made. She could feel those concerned pools of burnt sienna focused intently on the rear-view mirror, not looking out for invisible cars behind them, but keeping a watch over her. She wanted to be quite irked by it, (she willed herself to get annoyed and perhaps even angrier) but somehow, she felt flattered. She was being quite silly, really. Spencer's eyes also unfortunately seemed to trudge up the still quite fresh memories of their kisses. Even now, thinking about those unhurried but frenzied, cautious but wanton touches made something bright and warm bloom in the pit of her stomach.
Emily tore her mind away (reluctantly) from the slowly replaying images of the night and focused on the guilt that was niggling at some remote part of her. She wanted to feel the force of it more openly, and wondered how exactly Spencer had managed to lull her conscience to sleep. (Those brown eyes were certainly not helping.)
She knew she wasn't a cheater. She didn't know what had made her reciprocate Spencer's kiss. She couldn't forget the fact that she had done exactly what she had been hating Arianna for, what she had herself condemned so vehemently. And she wondered why she had done it. Was it because she had been spurred by Arianna's betrayal? Was that the reason behind her crazy response to Spencer? Had they both been trying to use passion as an instrument for revenge? She didn't know and she wished that this explanation would satisfy her. But somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that this path of reasoning wasn't right. Because when she'd been kissing Spencer, she'd forgotten that someone named Arianna even existed.
"Where do you want me to take you?" Spencer's soft and scratchy voice broke into Emily's muddled thoughts, and Spencer couldn't help but slip a smile onto her lips when she noticed the baffled look in reflection of those onyx eyes.
It was strange how despite the limited view she had of Emily—her charcoal rimmed eyes, part of her perfectly-arched eyebrows, the beginning of the slope of her nose—she could still perfectly visualize the play of emotions of her face just by the shifting shades of black in her eyes. She could tell that Emily was busy contemplating a response from that faint little crease between her eyebrows, could accurately guess that her lips were drawn in a thin line just by noting the tightness around her eyes.
"What do you mean?", was Emily's delayed response.
"I mean...you're obviously not going back to...that place. Right?", Spencer asked, taking her eyes off the rear-view mirror and focusing on the road for a moment.
"By that place, do you mean my home?", Emily scoffed, surprise in her voice. She was taken aback by Spencer's assumption that Emily wouldn't go back to Arianna's house. She hadn't even thought about it herself when she'd left, the only thought in her mind then being Spencer. She hadn't even thought about anything long-term at all. Besides, where else would she go?
"Her house, yes. Are you going back there?"
"Where else would I go?", Emily asked, a touch of irritation in her voice. "All my stuff is there...I live there."
'You could come to my place', Spencer almost said. But she stopped herself just in time. She'd already erased their boundaries before and look where that had gotten them.
"Fine." A curt and abrupt end to the conversation that had broken what felt like decades of silence between them. Spencer gripped the steering wheel with unnecessary force, her fingernails making half-moon shaped indentations in the expensive leather. She couldn't understand how Emily could bear to go back to the girl who'd broken her heart. Especially after...everything else. But it wasn't her place to dictate what Emily did. She had no right. She shouldn't even care.
So she tried not to and let the whole ride back pass by with nothing but the sound of the occasional car keeping them company.
The sky was teetering on the edge of dawn, still a dark purple, but with a thin peach horizon heralding the long procession of the morning. A grey BMW pulled up next to a nondescript house and a dark figure got out of the back. Emily Fields paused near the white iron gate that fenced off Arianna's front garden from the sidewalk, filled with indecision. She wanted to turn back and say goodbye. Good morning. Anything. But she didn't trust herself to not break down and do something stupid. Just looking at Spencer's face did strange things to her, and she couldn't afford a meltdown right now, not here, not in front of her house. So she squared her shoulders and opened the gate slowly, and strode off towards the brightly painted front door.
Spencer Hastings was left sitting with a heartbroken expression on her face, watching the retreating back of the taller girl with a mingle of disappointment and relief. At least now, she wouldn't have to keep up the battle of keeping her emotions in check. She could breathe freely, she felt like the atmosphere had lost the electricity it had been carrying. She could almost pretend to be herself again.
Sighing, she turned the car around to the other side of the road and made her way home.
Spencer turned the bronze door knob slowly, anxiously opening her front door, hoping that it would not creak. She shut the door behind her without the usual resounding thud that she always indulged in and tiptoed across the hall, careful not to step on any of the creaky floorboards that she had memorized (the perks of sneaking out at night with Emily).
All her efforts, however, were in vain. As soon as she reached the foot of the stairs, the light in the hallway flicked on and she found Toby coming out of the living room, an expression of worry and confusion etched into his face. She took in his blood-shot eyes, his messy hair, his gaunt-face —all pointing towards a sleepless night.
Toby almost leaped towards her, enveloping her in a warm hug that threatened to squeeze the life out of here. "Where were you, darling? I was so worried!", he murmured into her hair. He smelled like a mixture of yesterday's clothes, the steak they'd had for dinner last night and Kiehl's shaving cream, and the scent made Spencer nauseous. She stepped back hurriedly, willing herself not to bound up the stairs to put as much distance between them as possible. "Where were you?", Toby asked, not noticing the change of emotions on Spencer's face.
"I...eh...", Spencer muttered, shifting from foot to foot, her mind working in overdrive. The lack of sleep was catching up with her, and her thoughts felt sluggish. It felt like Emily had been her battery, her power source; as long as she'd been with Emily, she'd felt charged and restless. Now, without her, she felt lethargic and completely drained of energy. It was all she could do to not collapse on the spot immediately. She couldn't even concoct a lie properly, so she resorted to her back up plan—the truth. "I was with Emily."
Toby quirked an eyebrow, the confusion melting away from his sharp features and being replaced by something unreadable. "Oh", was all he said, before he bit his lip. The strange lack of surprise woke Spencer up, who felt her heartbeat being replaced by something that echoed the periodic beat of a hammer. "Is that where you've been the other nights too?", he asked with an air of nonchalance, a strange smile tugging at his lips.
Spencer felt her legs weakening and she grabbed onto a nearby shelf for support, feeling it sag under her weight. "What?", was all she could muster, feeling shock settle into her limbs. How did he know? Had he been following her? How much did he know? Why hadn't he said anything? What the hell was going on?
Toby shrugged casually, as if this meant nothing. That had to be a good sign, right? "Spencer, did you really think I wouldn't notice you disappearing in the middle of the night, every night? I'm a heavy sleeper, but I'm not stupid."
Spencer took a deep breath to calm herself. "Oh..why didn't you say something?"
Toby lowered his gaze, keeping quiet for a long, agonizing moment. Then he lifted his baby-blue eyes and smiled at her again. "I figured you had a good enough excuse for sneaking away like that. I thought that perhaps if you wanted to explain things to me, you would." There was a faint trace of hurt underlying his words, something that Spencer wouldn't have picked up on if she hadn't been so alert. "But now I know it's Emily...and it confuses me, a little."
"It's not", Spencer quickly cut in, a defensive tone to her voice, her words a little too loud. "Emily wanted to talk last night, but that's all. I took her for a drive 'cause I figured we'd start fighting and I didn't want to wake you up. I was right. We did fight and I'm sorry but I don't think we're going to go back to being friends like you want us to. The other nights wasn't her at all."
Lies, lies, lies. The lies were coming so easily to her now that she was fully conscious of her words.
Toby frowned, the confusion returning to his face. "Then what?", he demanded.
"I was...working. On something."
That excuse clearly didn't work on him, as he still looked dissatisfied with her response. He waited for her to go on, so she did.
"I was thinking of switching careers. I don't know. I'm tired of being a divorce lawyer. It's kind of monotonous. So I've been going up and reading and researching and...stuff", Spencer said, surprising even herself. Where was this coming from? She did dislike her job but she took it as a part of life. An easy way to earn money to support her lavish lifestyle. A plan to keep her parents moderately satisfied. Something to do to pas her time. Nothing serious, nothing she was passionate about. But she surely hadn't been thinking about a career change. Well, until now.
Toby took in her words, the creases on his forehead deepening as he slowly understood their meaning. "When were you going to tell me about this?", he asked quietly after a pause. A muscle twitched in his jaw and Spencer took it as a sign of disappointment.
"I..I wanted to be sure before I told you. I just...I'm so confused, Toby", Spencer groaned, letting her head fall between her hands.
There were real emotions backing her statement. She was really so confused, but it wasn't her career that was taking the lead in her thoughts. It was a certain dark-eyed beauty that was making her lose her mind. She felt warm, strong arms around her and Toby's soft murmured words at her ear, words meant to comfort, words meant to ease her mind. A strong sense of guilt twisted her gut, and she almost pushed him away, almost confessed everything that had happened. She wanted to tell him that those weren't the arms she wanted around her and she had no idea why. She had no idea when she'd started wanting what she wanted and whether she actually wanted what she thought she wanted. She didn't remember the last time she'd been this confused, this lost. She wanted to tell him that maybe she was becoming someone who was a stranger to him and her. But she didn't say a word and allowed him to lead her upstairs and put her to bed.
Emily Fields wasn't as careful as Spencer Hastings when it came to closing doors. She just let it close with a muffled bang and leaned against it, sighing for what felt like the millionth time. The house felt quiet and empty, like it hadn't been lived in for years, despite all the trappings of a normal life littered around. After taking a few minutes to pull herself together, Emily trudged upstairs, navigating her way without switching on a light. It was getting lighter anyways, and the dark, shapeless objects were beginning to get definition, albeit in a very black and white way.
When Emily reached her bedroom door, she paused in front of it, sudden hesitation making her freeze in place. Should she go in at all? Or should she go for the guest room? But she really needed to get out of the ruined dress that she was wearing and all her clothes were in the closet. Going inside meant facing Arianna though, and she had no idea if she'd come out of that one alive.
Now wasn't the time to be weak. She'd made a promise to herself to be stronger. She could do anything she put her mind to. Or at least, the new Emily could. Or so she hoped. Steeling herself, she twisted the door knob and stepped inside.
The sight that greeted her looked straight out of a war painting.
The black silk bed sheets were twisted and almost hanging off the bed, revealing the pale mattress cover underneath. There were clothes strewn all across the room, and drawers had been pulled out of the bureau without any apparent reason. The normally alphabetized bookshelf was now missing most of its contents, and all of Arianna's paperbacks and hardbacks had seemingly leaped to their deaths on the floor.
In the middle of all this mess, sat a hunched over figure that stirred when Emily entered the room. Arianna raised her opaque eyes to Emily, her face wrinkled and tear-stained.
"Em. You're back." Her voice wasn't the low, quiet drawl that Emily was used to. It was trembling and high. An uncertain smile twisted her lips into a grimace as she tried to get up, then decided against it. "I...I thought...I thought you'd left. For ever."
Emily pressed her lips into a thin line. Guilt twisted her gut as she surveyed the train-wreck of her girlfriend in front of her. It was obvious that Arianna was truly repentant over what she had done. And how had Emily repaid her? By going and kissing someone else. Emily anxiously pushed the thought out of her head, worried that it would somehow seep into her expression and cry out her misdeed for all the world to know.
"Does this mean you've forgiven me?", Arianna asked with a voice full of hope. She rubbed at her teary eyes, biting her quivering lip.
Emily frowned, resisting the urge to turn around and walk out of the room. Every time she thought of Arianna with someone else, she felt bile rise at the back of her throat. No, she hadn't forgiven her. Arianna had hurt her without reason, hurt her when Emily had done all but hand her Emily's entire world on a silver platter. But she'd done something horrible too. And she couldn't act like a hypocrite now. She really couldn't.
"I..I don't know."
It was the truth. Emily didn't know whether she had it in her to forgive Arianna. She didn't know if she could live with the fact that her girlfriend had gone behind her back and cheated on her with her old college roommate. Of all the people in the world! It still completely baffled her, thinking about how Arianna and Danielle had known each other from before, how Dani was, in fact, Ari's ex. It was something that she couldn't wrap her mind around, and the fact that her old friend had been instrumental in her girlfriend's betrayal just added salt to the wound.
"That's okay", Arianna quietly mumbled, finally pushing herself off the floor and approaching Emily. "I deserve worse, actually. I don't deserve you, I know." She sniffled, and paused a few feet away from her girlfriend. "I am so sorry. You are the most perfect girl I've ever met and you didn't deserve what I did. I just..."
"You what? You thought you could get away with it?", Emily snapped, feeling the wound being pulled open by Arianna's words.
Use your ammo now, some part of her mind shouted at her. It prodded at her to confess what had happened with Spencer. Arianna hated Spencer, and if Emily revealed what had happened last night, it would surely hurt Arianna almost as much as Emily had herself been hurt. But doing that didn't feel right and Emily pushed the truth deep within herself and let its serrated edges sink their teeth into her.
"I didn't want to get away with it. It's just that Dani and I..", Arianna paused, pinching the bridge of her nose, looking tortured, "..Dani and I had a lot of...history. We had unfinished stuff to deal with. She left me, you know, without saying goodbye or anything and it was the first time...well, the second time we'd met and it was all too much. We'd never...you know. I just wanted to know what it would feel like."
The words hovered awkwardly in the air between them, cluttering the room, making it hard for Emily to breathe. "So you didn't even spare me a second thought?", she demanded of the taller girl, watched the smile crumble from her face.
"I did. That's why I stopped. You jumped into my mind almost as soon as I kissed her and I admit, it was so hard, so hard to push her away because I'd never...because it was something I'd wanted for all of my life before I met you, but I did and I did it because I love you, Emily."
There was a raw honesty in Arianna's voice, but she looked as if she was resigned to her fate, as if she'd just heard her death sentence. "But I did leave you back then without an explanation, and I'm sorry for that. And I did linger around her house, and I shouldn't have. I already had the most beautiful girlfriend in the world, but I guess my past caught up with me."
Emily bowed her head, feelings tears making a comeback. This was all too much to take in. The unmistakable apologetic tone in Arianna's voice was just making her guilt more potent and she was afraid that all it would take would be another word to make her spill. But Arianna, thankfully, kept quiet and wandered to the corner of the room to curl up in a ball.
"I don't understand, Ari..", Emily murmured without lifting her head, after a few minutes, after the tears had disappeared.
"It's okay. I don't expect you to."
And that was that. They both stayed frozen in their respective places while the sun made its gradual ascent to the pinnacle of the sky, slowly bringing back the colour and light into their lives.
A/N: Keep reading and reviewing, folks!
LaughLoveLiveXx: You always get the essence of the chapters! Well done. I really love mentioning the lake because as of now, it's become sort of a symbol for Spencer and Emily, kind of where they have their memorable nights, somewhere they can be themselves without the pressures of adjusting to society.
I actually was a little hesitant about writing the skinny dipping part, but I thought it would be nice to include a part where the girls actually shed their inhibitions around each other before they became...well, more intimate. (Oh, and Hanna and Aria? Don't worry, they're not gone. I was actually gonna bring them in earlier, but I didn't wanna have too much going on. Perhaps later?)
I'm glad you liked the kissing scene. I actually needed it to be hot, more like a passionate, they really can't control themselves kinda thing.
Thank you so much for your review! :)
Shayforever: Thank you so much! Yes, Spemily is totally meant to be, and I feel sorry for Tobs too.
spinoza-off: Whoa. Thanks a lot for that compliment. :) I'm glad you enjoy the story so much.
You're completely right. The water thing does highlight the key difference between Arianna and Spencer. While Arianna is very...love-obsessed, shall we say, Spencer has this innate need to make sure Emily's okay with whatever they're doing, and always making sure that Emily's happy and getting what she needs.
Okay, I love how you picked up on the cheating aspect of the whole thing. This story is called 'The Scarlet Letter' for a reason. Their struggle with the whole cheating/infidelity is what's going to basically constitute the main plot of the fic.
And you're right, Emily is a little more out of tune with her own feelings, because she's always trying to be the nice one, the perfect girlfriend, while Spencer basically goes for what she wants. And she's also the one who actually has a valid reason to be straying from her once-perfect relationship, which is why it makes her own motives even more muddled.
Guest: Hahaha! 'You are Jesus' That's something I've never had before. Best anon ever. ;D
go-sullivan: Thanks a lot. I think we're all perverts when it comes to Spemily. ;)
Guest: Thank you so much! I know exactly what you mean by the whole OTP finally makes out thingy. xD I get that feeling a lot too!
LittleLiarLovesEmily: Thank you so much and I'm glad you think so. :) I'm really happy you could see the passion in their kisses, coz I was really aiming for that.
JustforKicks403: Thank you for the support.
Guest: I wish (don't we all?) that they could elope forever, haha.
prentiss-be-mine: Thank you! I'm glad you're finding it plausible! That's something I really was uncertain about!
x-sugarfree-x: You're right! It's just begun and you're in for a ride. (;