…....i am ashamed of myself

CHAPTER #2: The Road to Christmas

Italics means thoughts, emphasized word or action. Bolded is a flashback. (….) is an indication that time has passed

With a white, plastic shopping bag in hand, Emily grabs an empty sprite can that was crushed and thrown on her lawn and shoves it inside the bag as she and Alison finish up clearing their house of their Halloween decorations.

"I say Halloween this year was a success, don't you?" Emily looks over in Alison's direction as she works towards the end of their yard.

"It was, it was." Alison grunts back her response as she drags one of the walker dummies by the leg across the grass towards their driveway. "We definitely put the trick in trick or treat."

Emily giggles as she crouches down and scoops up multiple kinds of trash such as wrappers, bottles, and an empty 20 piece McNugget box to toss in the trash, "Who would have known terrorizing teenagers would be so much fun?"

"A little too fun for you." Alison makes her side remark as she tosses the dummy on top of a stack of fake walkers piled up in their drive way. Alison looks down at her hands with a sigh and dusts them off as she looks up at Emily, "If I didn't know better, it seemed like you were really trying to hurt those kids."

Standing up straight, Emily let's out a surprised gasp as she puts a hand on her chest, "Hurt them? Nooooo. I would never do such a thing to those little, innocent children of the Lord."

"Mhmm." Alison gives Emily a knowing nod with an arched eyebrow as she keeps eye contact with her, walking the opposite direction of their lawn, "And what about Jeremy?"

"Jeremy is not a child of the Lord with that smirk he had on his face." Emily's innocent demeanor changes into a scowl as she bends over and swipes another piece of junk off the ground, "He was practically undressing you with his sinful, beady eyes." With their lawn clean and green again, Emily ties up her trash bag and tosses it in an open bin where they'd collect their garbage until it's time for it to be picked up.

Alison shakes her head as she does a visual sweep of her side of the lawn. Satisfied with how everything is looking, she makes her way up towards Emily, "And you practically shot up his back for it."

"I don't know what you're getting at." Emily starts for the front door with Alison trailing in behind her, "I was merely teaching the boy a life lesson. I should be getting a thank you letter, dammit."

"You know what? I think we should use those guns more often. That way anytime you act up, I'm gonna roll up and pop you right in the neck." Alison walks up behind her and swipes two fingers across the side of Emily's neck, instantly causing the brunette to tense up by surprise. Alison laughs as Emily mocks her amusement before gently shoving her to the side.

"If you do that, you're gonna start an all-out war." Emily walks in front of her to their kitchen and opens the right side of the fridge doors, scanning inside, "Something you will regret that you even started."

"You mean something you will regret that you can't finish because I will literally overpower you?" Alison leans her back against their middle kitchen island as she deviously watches Emily pull out and crack open a cold water bottle, elbowing the refrigerator door close.

"You only overpower me in two places: the kitchen and the bedroom," Emily raises her bottle to her lips, "which I let by the way." she slips in her comment before she takes a large swallow of water and twists the cap back on, 'But, if you had noticed, none of those places involve a physical battle of weapons. Because that's where I have you beat." Emily brushes past Alison while she makes her way out of the kitchen, "You better check yo'self before you wreck yo'self."

"Don't start none, won't be none." Alison calls out unbothered as she leans off the island and follows behind the brunette.

"Oh?" Emily spins around with her eyebrows shot half way up her forehead and mouth hung open surprised, "You…you tryna go?" Alison stares at her boldly and shrugs with her hands raised and face pinched in sly confidence before she bypasses the baffled brunette, turning her back to her, and disappears around the corner into the hallway. Emily extends her hands out by her sides as she follows in Alison's path, "Because we can most definitely go!"

….

With the days of November flipping off the calendar quickly as hoped, Emily and Alison spend the days and nights clearing their home of Halloween décor in exchange for the Christmas spirit. However -being in the spotlight as they both are- some days and nights would be spent with either Alison home by herself because of a late practice on Emily's part, Emily wondering the hallways by herself because of the appearances Alison would have to make at various events, or the house being completely empty with no soul in sight because both girls are in two different parts of the city. Whenever there are golden opportunities that both Emily and Alison are staying in for the night, they try to spend it together in total relaxation with minimal interruptions. However, with 2015 soon coming to an end, things have to be done and finalized for the year so a lot of fly-bys and quick hellos have started to trend a pattern.

Fluffing her hair as she jogged down the stairs, Emily strolled into the kitchen where she had her iPhone charging on the counter. Seeing that she was on a time-crunch, she pulls her phone off the plug and checked to see what percentage it has reached.

Dammit. I have less than 30 minutes.

Having a meeting with her endorsement representatives in the city, Emily pockets her phone and swipes her keys along with a cold water bottle from the countertop, "Alison! I'm on my way out!" she yells aloud to get the attention of the blonde that's located somewhere in the house. Knowing that she has to be out the door right then and there, she wasn't going to leave before she got a proper goodbye. Emily impatiently twirls her keys around her finger as she glances around her surroundings for Alison to appear at any second. "Alison!" she calls out once more. The sound of footsteps trailing down the stairs gains Emily's attention as she waits for her girlfriend approaching. However, it wasn't long before something else gained her attention as well. "Where are you going?"

"I have an interview to go do and then I have this thing with Francis," Alison informs as she walks down the stairs adjusting her earrings.

"Aw no!" Emily whines as her mouth and body posture shrugs downwards in disappointment, "I'm only to be gone for like an hour and a half! I was coming right back!" Alison makes an apologetic face as she advances towards the brunette with open arms. Emily slothfully leans into her embrace with a deep inhale, taking a lungful of the scent exuding off of Alison's hair that smells like vanilla. "When are you coming back?" Emily mopes as she pulls away from the hug.

Alison shrugs as she began walking towards the kitchen, leaving Emily where she stood, "I dunno, like 4 or 5 maybe?"

"4 or 5?!" Emily gasps with wide eyes that look like they have been told the most outlandish thing of the day, "It's only 11!"

"Yes, which means you should have already been on the highway by now." Alison opens both fridge doors, taking a peek at something she could grab to eat quickly before she glanced over at Emily still standing in the hallway, "Go, Emily."

The brunette moans in frustration as she fidgets around like a five year old ready to throw a tantrum. For the past week or so, they haven't been able been able to enjoy each other's company without someone having to run out for something. And then when they do come back home, exhaustion overwhelms the body, putting them straight into tired mode; Especially Emily when she has long practices. She wants to be able to spend time with Alison but as soon as she arrives back, it's either an ice bath that she has to soak in or a bed she suffocates herself into. Those days when Emily is free, Alison just so happens to be out and about leaving Emily by herself. After a while, the trend started to pick a nerve with Emily seeing that they've been so busy lately.

"Can you try to come back as fast as you can? This is the only day I'm completely off from everything for a while…" Emily hopefully asks as she makes her way to the front door, seeing that with every second she wastes inside her home is a second she's going to be late.

Leaning on her side against the counter as she begins peeling the orange she had in her hands, Alison smiles with a gentle grin as she finds adoration from Emily wanting to be with her more, "I will try my best….I love you."

"I love you too." Emily returns with a similar smile before she gives a single wave and begins fast pacing in the door's direction.

"And no speeding!"

"I will-bye!"

…..

"I have an idea…" Emily dries her plate with a hand towel and walks towards the cabinets housing the rest of their dishes, placing it where it belonged, "And I think that we should do it."

"I'm not going running with you at 4am again, let's just stop that little thought of yours right now." Alison scoffs as she washes her dish under the sink faucet. Finishing their small thanksgiving dinner for the night, Emily laughs, tossing the hand towel on Alison's shoulder as she wrapped herself around her from behind.

"No, I'm not talking about running even though it wouldn't kill you to come out with me more-"

"No. Final answer."

"It's not thaaaat." Emily squeezes Alison's sides, making her giggle and squirm from being so ticklish, "I think we should invite our family over for Christmas. Host the holidays over here."

Alison slows down the pace of her dish scrubbing as she contemplates the words that just came out of Emily's mouth, "…Really?"

"Really. We barely see them let alone celebrate with them." Emily slowly runs her hands up and down Alison's stomach as she stated her case, "You bring your side and I'll bring mines and we can have our first very own Fields-DiLaurentis Christmas."

"You mean DiLaurentis-Fields Christmas." Alison looks at Emily from the corner of her eye with a small eyebrow raise.

"DiLaurentis-Fields, however you'd like." Emily chuckles, placing a kiss on her cheek before she squeezed her tighter, "If we do it, we should let everyone know now a month in advance so there is no confusion or any problems." The kitchen stands still with silence as the sound of water rushing into the stainless steel sink and Alison's hand creating friction between her cleaning sponge and her plate takes over instead of words. Emily stands motionless for a moment before she cocks her head to look at Alison, concerned about her lack of communication. "What do you think?"

"That's…." Alison nods her head with her lips pursed, keeping her eyes on her hands, "That's a nice idea, yeah."

"I'm glad that you agree." a smile makes way on Emily face as she shakes Alison encouragingly. Alison forces out a small smile as Emily releases her and begins walking backwards out of the kitchen into the direction of their room, "I'm going to go ahead and start calling to wish Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and then slide it in there to see what we're working with."

"Okay." Alison eyes stay glued to her hands as she turns off the faucet and slides the hand towel off of her shoulder to begin drying her plate. Snapping delightedly to herself, Emily snaps her way out of the kitchen, leaving Alison alone with their new plan.

….

As the first day of December makes its debut, Emily excitedly makes yet another go around with her spirit in-tacked to let everyone know she's ready for the festivities. She skips into her room and passes by the master suite bathroom doors before she notices Alison inside applying her makeup. Emily retreats backwards with a small slide before she strolls into the bathroom to an Alison who was applying a subtle, rosy blush to her cheeks.

"Damn, are you made of LED lights?" Emily asks through a straight face, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and eye trained on her girlfriend. Alison stops her makeup application and glances over at Emily with a bit of a perplexed, silent look, not sure of what Emily was asking her. "Cause that smile is bright as fuck." Emily laughs aloud at her own joke, catching a small giggle and a head shake from Alison before she goes right back into the mirror.

"Aw!" Emily pushes herself off the wall with a cheesy, childish grin, slinking forward with a finger pointed at the blonde, "Look-look at that smile. It's so bright I…" Emily shields her eyes in the crease of her arm, pretending as if there was a sudden intense light that was too penetrating for her eyesight, "I…I think I've gone blind!"

Alison smile becomes more apparent as she picks up an unused makeup blender and chucks it at Emily laughing at her own sense of humor.

"You've heard of ABC Family's 25 days of Christmas," Emily swoops down and picks up the sponge from the floor as she waltzes in Alison's direction, "well…..get ready for Emily Fields' 25 days of pickup lines. Every day for the next 24 days, I will approach you with various pickup lines that's going to make you swoon for me like nothing before." the brunette steps to the side of Alison and shakes her hand through Alison's hair, purposely messing up the style that she created.

Alison gasps in that exact instant, realizing what Emily has done, "You bitch!" she sends a hard jab to Emily's upper arm, making Emily laugh even harder as she grasps herself from the sudden strike. "I just got done doing that, what the hell!" Alison lands two more angry hits as Emily deflected them still laughing.

After Alison stops and annoying looks back into the mirror in front of her, Emily clicks her tongue at her new-found attitude. "Oh come on, baby…" Emily teases as she saunters behind an Alison re-prepping her hair with a few strokes of her hand. Emily stands behind her, enfolding a bear hug around her sides which prevented little movement for the blonde. Emily rests her chin on Alison's shoulder and sways her lightly from side to side as she gazes at her through the mirror, "Are you coming shopping with me?"

"Keep messing around like that and I won't." Alison responds with a strict and focused tone as she tried to get herself to the same look that she had prior to Emily ruining it.

"I'm sorry." Emily whimpers with her exaggerated sad brown eyes. She gives a small round of kisses to Alison's neck in her defense before she glanced back at the mirror again, this time with a pout to go hand-in-hand with her rounded eyes, "Forgive me?"

Alison pauses briefly to stare at Emily's remorseful face, finding it half cute, half amusing, yet a bit bothersome. It's always moments like that where she couldn't hold an upsetting nerve in her body for more than 60 seconds before she felt herself melting into Emily's hands. "Get out of here, Emily." She lazily rolls her eyes, shaking Emily off of as she leans forward, closer to the mirror to get ready to put on her mascara, "Go ahead and start the car, I'll be there when I'm done."

Still holding onto Alison, Emily tilts her head up, looking at their bright bathroom celling light in a second's thought, "Mmmm…nope. You're coming right now." and in that same second, Emily uses her arm strength to tighten her hold on Alison's waist and brings her off the ground. Immediately caught off-guard, Alison lets out a surprised yelp as her hands quickly found and held onto Emily's arms around her.

"Emily! What are you doing! I'm not-"

"Oh stop it, you look fine." Emily hushes Alison's loud complaints as she walked off with the small blonde out of their bathroom and in route to their stairs with little to zero strains or struggle, "The store jingles of the mall calls us!"

I'm just as disappointed in myself as you are.

A Christmas fic in the spring? Really? You couldn't even finish it when it was 2015?

I know, I know.

But when you're thirsty for Emison, you'd drink anything.

Besiiiiides, who wouldn't like a fluffy fic with family? :D You can't possibly say no to that!

baaaaaareeee with meeeee, please :)