The leaves crunched underneath Emily's feet as she trekked through the forrest. The crisp night air making the brunette furrow her hands deeper into the pocket of her bomber jacket. Nighttime strolls in the woods was probably a bad idea considering every going on with AD, but a particular blonde apparently had something up her sleeve. And Emily was the lucky recipient of this mischievous endeavor.
She had received a text from Alison that morning telling her to come over for dinner, an odd text considering Emily had practically been at the blonde's house every single night. Alison then proceeded to spend the rest of the day ignoring the brunette's texts, an even more peculiar turn of events especially when they've been teasing each other with Great Expectation quotes all night. So it was in this state of utter confusion that Emily knocked on the door of the DiLaurentis home that evening. When a full minute passed without anyone answering the door, the edgy brunette used her spare key to enter.
"Ali?" Emily's worried voice called out as she stepped into the living room.
Silence. The brunette frowned. Searching the entire house, Emily's forehead wrinkled with worry when the blonde was nowhere to be found. Alison should have been home already. Her mind immediately sped to the worst possible scenarios. Did AD sporadically decide to kidnap the blonde? Was it her turn to play again and she didn't tell Emily? Are Alison and the baby ok?
She was about to call the girls for an SOS search team when her eyes finally landed on an inconspicuous little note sitting on top of the kitchen counter. In her rush to look for Ali, she completely missed the piece of paper when she came in. The baby pink note card was addressed to her in Alison's distinct penmanship and that's when her curiosity piqued.
Meet me at our spot.
Five simple words in the English language. But five words she hasn't seen since her senior year of high school when she found out Alison was still alive. And just like Alison's note filled her with nervous excitement back then, those words still get her heart thundering inside her chest five years later.
Emily had no idea what the blonde was planning. The anticipation of it all drove her to take quicker, longer steps to get to her destination. She could see the clearing up ahead and was momentarily startled to see a soft glow illuminating the area. A few determined strides later, the Kissing Rock came into full view and her heart nearly stopped.
The Kissing Rock was surrounded by soft fairy lights, the forrest floor coming alive with an orangey glow. Paper lanterns of all shapes and sizes hung from the tree branches around the perimeter of the area. The entire set up looked like it came out of some fantasy world. Peaceful. Whimsical. Breathtaking. And at the center of it all, Alison sat atop the rock, her legs swinging off the side as she leaned back on her arms. She looked carefree—like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders—as she proudly admired the decorated space she was in. The warm glow of the lights casted an almost ethereal aura around the blonde.
Emily stood simultaneously transfixed yet magnetically drawn to the sight before her, mouth agape and let out an astonished exhale. At the sound, Alison turned her head towards the girl and a wide grin appeared on her face.
"Too much?" she teasingly asked, bitting her bottom lip in anticipation of the brunette's reaction.
As Emily slowly walked up to Alison, the blonde shifted over, patting the space next to her. The still stunned brunette took a few seconds to accept the invitation. Sensing her girl was feeling a little overwhelmed, Alison chuckled and reached for Emily's hand, pulling her to sit down. The brunette turned towards Alison with an awestruck expression. "It's…perfect. When did you do all this?" Emily asked, an uncontainable grin appearing on her face.
"I had help," the blonde coyly answered as she played with Emily's fingers.
"Emily's gonna die when she sees this," Hanna gushed, leaning back from her position on top of the ladder with her hands clasped together. The designer had been given the job of hanging the lanterns on the various branches and her animated gestures were quickly becoming a safety hazard.
"Hey, careful!" Spencer scolded the overly giddy blonde from below the ladder. "You leaning back that far, from up there, in those heels, give me anxiety."
"Oh please, I live and breathe in these heels. I can scale a rock wall with th—woah—" Hanna's left foot slipped slightly and Spencer sprang forward to spot her. For a second, the blonde waved her arms wildly before succeeding in regaining her balance. "See? Perfectly fine." Hanna stuck her tongue out in defiance, heart thumping in her chest as Spencer rolled her eyes at the blonde's antics.
Alison chuckled quietly as she observed the exchange, her best friends the very image of bickering siblings. It felt nice to finally have a healthy dynamic like that in her life. Alison never had the best sibling relationship growing up with Jason. The two barely talked and when they did, it quickly escalated into vicious fights. Their relationship had improved a lot since then but even so, the oldest DiLaurentis was never around much. But looking around, with the girls going out of their way to decorate the space with her, Alison felt like she was finally part of the group again.
"Are you nervous?" Aria asked, pulling the tangled lines of fairy lights out of the box. The petite brunette had noticed the blonde's growing quietness as day went on. Alison would join in with the occasional jab and joke, but for the most part had a look of deep contemplation on her face.
"Terrified," the blonde answered honestly. She paused briefly before letting out a quiet laugh. "But in a good way, if that makes any sense."
Aria beamed at the response, "Perfect. That's exactly what it's supposed to feel like." The writer reached over to grab Alison's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "And Hanna's right, Emily's gonna love this."
"No wonder those three weren't picking up my calls all day," Emily concluded. She had found it slightly worrying that all her friends went dark the same time Ali did. But never in her wildest dreams did she think the blonde would recruit their friends into surprising her like this. This was a grand gesture if there ever was one and her heart warmed at the thought of Alison doing it for her. "I seriously thought AD pulled a fast one on me," Emily admitted with a chuckle.
"Sorry," Alison shrugged unapologetically, her smile showing just how satisfied she was at catching Emily off guard. "You love surprises though."
"The good ones," Emily relented, a blush creeping up on her cheeks. "So what's all of this for?" the brunette finally asked, the anticipation apparent in the slight tremor of her voice.
Instead of answering, the blonde bent over to the side of the rock, brushing her fingers over the spot forever marked with their initials. Emily studied Alison, the smile tugging at the corner of her lips and the faraway look in her eyes. Finally, the blonde breathed, "Do you remember the last time we came here together?"
"Yeah," Emily answered back just as softly. She bent over from behind Alison, catching a glimpse of the graffiti. "You spray painted that there."
The girls had been having another one of their sleepovers when Alison woke Emily up in the middle of the night and secretly dragged her off to the Kissing Rock. Running through the woods with a giggly, mischievous teenage Alison was absolutely thrilling for the young brunette. The experience further amplified when the blonde pulled out a can of bright red spray paint and proceeded to immortalize their names on the infamous rock. Emily was shocked at the brazen move, but was thrown for another loop when Alison tugged the brunette forward and kissed her again and again. All too soon, the blonde pulled away, both of them knowing they had to go back before anyone noticed they were missing. The raw emotions behind that memory that kept the swimmer well away from the rock after Alison's "death", not daring to return until the runaway asked her to meet again.
Alison sat back upright after a few seconds, tucking her hair behind her ear, "This was where we last kissed before I went away."
Emily bit her lip in response, having just reminisced about that particular memory. Taking Emily's hand in hers, Alison took a deep breath, "I kissed you then for the same reason I kissed you a couple weeks ago." The brunette's hand tightened slightly at the revelation. "It's not like I've never had a clue…just that I've never let myself think about what it means. But I've always known what I felt, even if my brain didn't let me label what they feeling was…What that feeling is."
The blonde sniffles slightly, the emotion behind her words threatening to overwhelm her. Emily gently stroked the blonde's hands in encouragement. As impatient as she was, she understood the enormity of what Alison was doing. Being honest has never been first nature for the other girl and Emily would give her all the time she needed to gather her thoughts.
"When I'm with you, I feel…Safe. Loved. Whole. You're the only one who has ever made me feel that way. For so long, I resigned myself to the fact that I don't know how to love. I didn't exactly grow up with the best role models in that department. But you taught me how. I didn't realize it at first but that feeling I get every time I look at you…it's love. And for as long as we've known each other, that feeling has never went away." Alison paused, glancing up to see Emily's eyes starting to tear up as well. "I want to be with you, Em. I've loved you since I was 15 and I still love you now. I know the timing's horrible. But I promise I'm not telling you this now because of the baby or because I don't want to be alone. I'm saying it because I can't go another day without you not knowing that I love you, Emily."
At her admission, Emily let out a breath she had been holding throughout Alison's entire speech. This was it. The girl of her dreams, her first love, finally saying what she has wanted to hear all these years. Emily gently pried her hands out of Alison's grip, placing them on her cheeks as she brought their foreheads together. Alison closed her eyes at the contact as she relished in the tender gesture. "I've never stopped loving you, Ali," the brunette whispered, "And there's nothing I want more than to be with you."
Pulling back, Alison's voice registered a mix of surprise and hope, "You do?"
The other girl's mouth curved into a smile, "Yes. When I asked you why you kissed me, it's because I wanted us to finally be on the same page. The past couple of weeks we've spent together has only confirmed what I already knew I wanted."
"I really want to kiss you now," Alison admitted, smiling hard through her teary eyes.
The brunette leaned in, barely brushing her lips across Alison's, before the blonde pushed back harder pouring all her emotions into the kiss. Emily's arm wrapped around Alison's waist, pulling her impossibly closer as Alison's hands moved to tangle into the brunette's hair. Tasting Alison's lips again felt like a breath of fresh air after being underwater. Alison tugged on Emily's bottom lip with her teeth, drawing a quiet moan from the brunette. In that moment, nothing else mattered. There was no other sound except that of their lips moving against one another. There were no other feelings except that of each other's exploring hands. When they finally pulled apart, both girls were sporting matching smiles.
"Thank you for doing all of this for me," Emily said, taking one more look at the decorated space around them and pulling Alison into her arms. "Whatever's next, I promise we'll figure it out together."
"Together," Alison agreed, craning her neck up to take Emily's lips between hers once more. And just like the first time their lips met at the Kissing Rock, the two kissed well into the night—knowing without a shadow of a doubt that this was exactly where they should be.
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Well, there you have it! I'm sorry I took so long to update the last chapter. Finals was kicking my ass. But after the massive episode we've just gotten, I felt inspired to push the last chapter out. This chapter pretty much wrapped a little bow on this story. I couldn't imagine the girls not being a part of Emison getting together so having them help decorate the Kissing Rock was a good way to involve them. In chapters 2 and 3, Emily and Alison were pretty much already acting like a couple. So this last push was just getting them to verbalize it. Thank you everyone who came on this little mini journey with me. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Let me know what you guys think! I love the feedback. Now I'm gonna go watch that 7x16 scene another couple hundred times!