I'm back! My apologies for the long absence, I could bore you with all the excuses but let's be honest you don't really care. Instead lets just be happy that chapter 8 is here! You don't have to be of course, or you can be happy that it's here and then change your mind once you've read it, that is also an option. Who am I to tell you how to feel. How sad is it that PLL is no more. Did everyone see Ash and Mar's drunk snapchats? Mate I was creased, actually howling with laughter. All the snaps throughout the day were very sad though, and if I wasn't raised so stiff upper lip I might have shed a tear. Anyway thank you so much for your amazing reviews and follows and joy giving actions. You're all delightful, lovely people. I hope you enjoy this next instalment. I basically just sat and wrote all but one paragraph of this in one long session and it's now almost 2am so let's find out what the hell I wrote together shall we...

It had been two weeks since her and Ali had started, well whatever it was they had started. Emily wasn't sure what to call it, they hadn't defined the terms of their relationship and Emily didn't want to raise the subject with Alison in case trying to put a label on it scared the blonde off again. One thing that had definitely become apparent to Emily though was the level of Alison's fame. She wasn't lying when she said she couldn't walk four feet without someone stopping her or shouting across the street. The majority of the time it was adoring fans that meant well, occasionally though it was rather obscene things shouted by horny men that made Emily want to march over and put them in their place. The problem was though that she couldn't. She couldn't punch the paparazzi that constantly seemed to be buzzing around like parasites getting in their way as they tried to go anywhere, all fighting for the best shot. She had made her own fair share of appearances in the background of photos in many magazines and Internet sites, something that Hanna had been far more excited about than she had. It wasn't that this wasn't happening before, it's just that she had become far more aware of it in the last few weeks. Her feeling of need to protect the socialite was stronger than ever, and most of the time she couldn't do anything about it. Another problem she was having was keeping her libido in check. She was being honest when she said she wanted to do this right and take things slow, but honestly she had never gone this long without sex and it was starting to take its toll on her. Many of their date nights had ended with increasingly heated make out sessions on the couch, Emily never moving her hands where they wanted to go. She didn't want to push Ali, and that had resulted in a lot of cold showers recently.

"You missed a spot." Emily said walking over to where Ali was stood painting the last wall in the spare bedroom. Alison had been spurred on to actually get the house finished ever since Emily had sorted out the living room, and after decorating none stop for the last two weeks they were finally onto the only room left unfinished.

"Where?" Alison studied the wall intently trying to see where Emily meant.

"Right…" Emily stuck her own brush out toward the wall, before quickly turning it on Ali and painting her cheek "There."

"You ass!" Alison stared at Emily with disbelief.

"Wow, that colour really brings out your eyes." Emily cocked her head mockingly.

Alison went to retaliate but Emily quickly side stepped her attempt before fleeing out of the room.

"Yeah you better run!" She heard Ali shout from behind her as she chased her down the stairs.

Realising she had nowhere to go without getting paint all over the newly finished downstairs Emily stood in the hallway, ready to take the consequences. Alison stalked toward her, paint brush in hand. Before breaking into a run again and flying at her. Anticipating her move Emily waited until she was within arms reach and quickly disarmed her of the messy weapon. Spinning her round so she was stood behind the blonde, arms wrapped firmly around her so that she couldn't move.

"Come on now Ali, let's not do something you're going to regret." She spoke into her ear, noticing the girl in her arms visibly shiver.

"Oh I don't think I'd regret it." Ali tilted her head back, as if to kiss her.

"Yeah?" Emily leaned her head forward to meet Alison halfway, only to realise too late she had been tricked. Ali rubbing the paint off her cheek onto Emily's own face.

"Well played." Emily laughed as she moved to kiss the giggling girl in her arms. Neither of them heard the door open.

"Well it seems like fun in here today."

Alison shot out of Emily's arms as they both turned to face the interruption.

"Martha." Alison stood like a rabbit in headlights. "We were just, we were painting."

Emily, unsure of what to say just stood dumbly beside her and held up the paintbrush in her hand, as if to corroborate the story.

"I can tell that from looking at you both." Martha laughed, gesturing to their faces.

"Fields was just helping me." Alison sounded uncomfortable.

"Well it's nice to see you've made a friend dear." Martha replied with a smile and headed into the kitchen.

"I should probably go get cleaned up. Thanks for your help Fields, I'll see you tomorrow." Alison's tone was very much back to the one she used for the rest of the help.

"Yeah, I should probably head home and get myself sorted too. It was my pleasure, Miss DiLaurentis." She couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed that their afternoon had been cut short, or that Alison was back to being so cold toward her because someone else was there. This was the choice she had made though and she had to deal with it. Even if she had turned into someone's dirty little secret.

She let herself into the house the next day and was greeted by Pepe at the door. Alison had an appearance at the snapchat offices, followed by a meet and greet. She couldn't say she was looking forward to it.

"Ali?" She shouted into the house.

"Up here." Came the reply.

Following the voice she headed upstairs and into the bedroom. Unable to see Alison in the bedroom she headed into her dressing room and quickly lost all ability to think. Alison was stood in front of the full length mirror in nothing but her lacy underwear. She turned to Emily.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Emily tried to form words as best she could, managing to stutter out, "I'm sorry when you said up here I figured you were ready, I didn't mean to, I'm sorry, I'll just." She gestured toward the door.

"Please, are you kidding me? Pretty much the whole world has seen me in my underwear."

Emily couldn't help the jealousy that must have been evident on her face, because Alison started laughing.

"I mean I've done hundreds of photo shoots like this. Did you want something?"

All logical thought had escaped Emily, she desperately tried to remember why she had come upstairs. However all she could think about was how much she wanted to put her mouth over every inch of exposed skin in front of her.

"My face is up here."

Emily raised her eyes to meet Alison's, who was now wearing a large smirk. Why couldn't she form a thought that didn't include pinning the blonde against that wall? This wasn't her, yes she'd only had two serious relationships, but she'd had quite a string of meaningless flings. It was always her that left other girls like this, not the other way round. Alison cleared her throat, Emily realised she'd let her eyes drop down again, they were greedily taking in the sight in front of her. Where was her witty comeback? Her flirting A game? She quickly raised her eyes again to see Alison stood with her hands on her hips, looking at her still smirking.

"I'll wait for you downstairs." Emily choked out.

"What I don't even get a proper hello?" Alison started to move toward her, swaying her hips.

Not trusting herself, Emily quickly mumbled something about Carter waiting, turned on her heel and fled. She swore she heard Alison chuckling as she left.

Emily was correct in thinking she wasn't going to enjoy the day's activities. It was more of the same, the barrage of paparazzi on arrival and and the usual leering and obscene remarks from the occasional disrespectful spectator. It didn't seem to faze Alison at all, but Emily had to work hard to keep her emotions in check. The meet and greet was only 15 minutes, but in that time 6 people had tried to give Alison their number, Emily was pretty sure that one of them was a guy from the office. The majority of the fans and competition winners just gushed over her and two people cried. Emily didn't know how she did it, she couldn't live like that, but Alison took it all in her stride.

After what seemed like the longest time they were finally in the car and on their way back home. Emily quietly staring out the window.

"Are you okay?" Alison whispered over to her.

"I'm fine." Emily turned to give her a tight lipped smile and then went back to staring at the passing scenery.

Feeling her phone vibrate moments later she looked at it to see a message from Alison.

'What's wrong?'

Sighing, Emily text back.

'Nothing, it's stupid.'

'If it's important to you then it's not stupid, tell me. No lies and no shutting out remember?'

Annoyed at her own words being used against her, Emily gave in and began to type.

'I don't like the way they treat you, the things some of them say to you, the way they look at you.'

'How's that?'

'Well some of them actually just say it outright. Like they want to fuck you right there in the street.'

'That bothers you?'

Emily paused again, was she allowed to be bothered by it? Did she have a right to be? It wasn't like they'd defined the boundaries of any of this. Deciding to carry on with the honesty she finally messaged back.

'Of course it does. Doesn't it bother you?'

'I'm used to it.'

'That's not what I asked.'

'That's my appeal, that's how I'm marketed. People either want to be me or fuck me.'

'Still not what I asked.'

Before Alison could reply Emily quickly tapped out another message.

'Have you ever taken one of the numbers?'

She could guess from the noise that Alison made after reading it what the answer would be so it didn't surprise her when she received it.

'God no! I have never taken a fans number, never mind slept with one.''

Emily let out the breath she didn't realise she'd been holding in, then her phone went again.

'As for whether or not it bothers me when they look at me like they want to fuck me? Yes I'm used to it so it doesn't really bother me, but no I don't like being looked at like that. With one exception.'

Emily furrowed her eyebrows.

'Exception?'

'Well I certainly didn't mind it when you were looking at me like that this morning.'

Emily felt the blood rush to her face as she quickly turned her head to look at Alison, who was now staring out of her own window. No sign on her face of the text she had just sent. Her eyes then shot to the drivers seat for any indication that Carter had seen her sudden embarrassment, his eyes however were fixed firmly to the road ahead. Suddenly feeling the need for a very cold shower, she turned to stare out of her own window trying to stop the inappropriate thoughts she was having about Alison and the back seat of the car.

"What do you want for dinner?" Alison asked, turning to face her as Emily shut the door behind them.

Unable to stop herself any longer she grabbed Alison face in her hands and kissed her with a hunger she'd tried to suppress for weeks. Spinning them round so that the blonde was pinned between her and the wall. Alison let out a delicious moan as Emily pressed her body as close as it could possibly go, hands in those golden locks, Alison kissing her back with just as much enthusiasm. Emily left her lips to trail kisses down her jaw and begin sucking on the soft skin near her exposed collar bone.

"Don't you dare leave a mark." Alison panted out, although her tone carried no real conviction.

Emily heeded her warning though and moved her lips back to Ali's, before sliding her hands down her back and grabbing her ass. She tentatively gave a gentle squeeze, the noise that the blonde released into her mouth nearly made her legs give way. It was all the encouragement she needed to take a firmer hold and lift Ali up, who wasted no time in wrapping her legs around Emily and her arms around her neck. With Alison's dress now bunched up around her hips Emily moved her hands, sliding them along her now exposed thighs. The blonde let another whimper fall into Emily's mouth. Emily pushed her harder against the wall for support, it was then that she felt the heat of Alison's core which was pressed firmly against her stomach. She couldn't help but release her own moan at the sensation. Pulling away from those glorious heart shaped lips she rested her forehead against Ali's, both breathing heavily. The blondes pupils were blown, and Emily was pretty sure the look of want in those eyes mirrored her own.

They were still staring into each other's eyes when the moment was interrupted by the ring of Emily's phone.

"You should get that." Alison said, not taking her eyes off Emily's.

"Yeah." Emily didn't make any move to do so though, she didn't ever want to put Ali down from their current position.

"Em?" Ali laughed now, "The phone? It might be important."

Emily unwillingly lowered Alison back to her feet and pulled her phone out of her back pocket. If it was Hanna it was definitely going to voicemail. When she saw it was Spencer however, she quickly swiped to answer.

"Hey Spence." She tried to sound like she hadn't just had the hottest make out session of her life.

Alison smiled at her before heading into the kitchen and leaving her to her conversation.

"Emily, hey are you free for a quick chat?"

Emily's eyes followed Alison's behind into the kitchen thinking, no I am not. The stress in her friends voice sounded like a more pressing matter though.

"Yeah I am, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, well no, look Em I need a favour." Spencer was never one to beat around the bush.

"What can I help with?" If she could help her friends out she always would.

"I need your boss."

"You need what now?" Emily asked, assuming she'd misheard.

"Alison DiLaurentis. I need her."

"For what?" Emily was feeling pretty confused.

"My mother is holding an education fundraiser in New York tomorrow night. The celebrity speaker we were meant to have has cancelled, so I was hoping you could ask your boss for me. I don't mean to put you in an awkward position here but this was the quickest channel I could think of to get in touch with her."

"Why Alison?" Emily questioned, she made a lot of appearances and she was very in demand, but an education event?

"Well she was consistently top of her class and she graduated from Brown with degrees in English literature and business, so I assume education is important to her. I think it would be good for the young people she would be addressing to see that you can have all that beauty but the brains are just as important."

Emily was silent for a moment letting that sink in. Alison graduated from Brown with two degrees? She realised she knew less about her than she thought.

"Em?" Spencer's voice brought her back.

"I can ask her."

"Oh Em that's fantastic, I know how persuasive you can be so I'm just going to put her down as a yes. Just remind her that she's volunteering her time, no payment. Thank you so much for this. You've really saved my Mom's butt."

"Spence I said I'd ask, I really can't promise anything."

"Sure you can, this is brilliant. I'll see you tomorrow Em!" With that, Spencer hung up.

How was she going to convince Alison to do this? Confidence, she just had to go in there with with confidence and persuade Ali that this would be a great thing. Taking a deep breath she headed into the kitchen where she found the blonde making them dinner.

"So that was Spencer…" Emily began trying to sound casual.

"The lawyer who's mom is a senator right?"

Emily couldn't help but smile knowing that Ali had actually cared enough to listen when she spoke about her friends.

"Yeah that's her. They're in town tomorrow for an education fundraiser." Build up to it slowly Emily thought.

"That's nice, are you meeting up?" Alison continued to chop.

"Yeah, about that. I didn't know you graduated from Brown?" Emily moved closer to her.

"Not many people do, it doesn't really interest the magazines. No pictures to print of me dancing naked at a keg party." Alison scoffed.

"Yeah." Emily rubbed the back of her neck absentmindedly.

"Okay, what's going on?" Alison put down the knife and stood in front of Emily with her arms crossed.

"What makes you think somethings going on?" Emily tried to feign innocence. Alison just raised her eyebrow at her, a look on her face that said 'seriously'.

"Spencer asked me if I could ask you if you'd speak at her mothers event tomorrow night. I know that you're going to say no, but hear me out. This would benefit so many people, including you. Yeah I know you wouldn't get paid, but you've got loads of money! Not that that's important to you. You'd be inspiring so many young people there, in a generation where selfie sticks outsell books you could show them it's better to buy both! You could remind people that you actually do have a brain as well as beauty. All you'd have to do is a little speech, maybe answer a few questions and then you can leave." Emily blurted out without taking a breath, then braced herself for Alison's inevitable no.

"No." There it was. She turned to pick the knife up again.

"Please, you'd be helping out my friend so much." Emily begged.

"No." Alison continued with her chopping.

Time to pull out the big guns, "You once said that you never did anything nice for me, that I did nice things for you all the time, but you never did them for me. This would be a nice thing to do for me Ali. Please." She put on her best puppy dog eyes as Alison turned to face her.

"This isn't for you though." Ali reasoned.

"It's for my friend, trust me that means a lot more to me." Emily answered.

"Fine!" Alison relented after a moments silence.

"Really you'll do it?!" Emily never actually expected that to work.

"Yes, I'll do it. I'm not thrilled about it but I can see the positives in this for my image. Also my father will love it so he'll get off my back for a while."

"Plus it's a nice thing to do." Emily couldn't help but make fun of Alison's reasoning as she stood behind her, wrapping her arms around her waist and placing her head on the shorter girls shoulder.

"Yeah sure whatever." Ali threw up her hand and went back to the dinner.

They were about five minutes away from the event and Emily was yet to see Alison look up from her speech once. She had been reading it the entire way there. Karen had emailed it over that afternoon. She had let Emily read it, her response had been 'it doesn't sound like you'. Alison had gone into one of her strops shouting that she didn't write it and it was too late to sort out another one so they'd just have to cancel. Emily had finally managed to calm her down about an hour later, telling her that the speech was a good speech that's not what she was saying. Then going on to say that Ali could have written a better one herself had started yet another argument, which had taken her a lot longer to calm down from.

"You're going to be great." Emily leaned over and took to the speech out of her hands. "You can over prepare you know."

"Why am I so damn nervous? Do you know the last time I was nervous at an event?" Alison asked.

"I do not." Emily replied calmly.

"Me neither!" Alison practically shouted. "That's my point!"

Emily put the speech down between them and reached over to take Alison's hands in hers.

"You're going to be great." She spoke calmly again before forgetting where she was and bringing the stressed out blondes hands to her mouth, kissing them gently.

Alison must have also forgotten with her mind focused so heavily on freaking out, because she leaned her head against Emily's and closed her eyes, seemingly relaxing into the feeling.

"We've arrived."

Carter's voice broke them from their moment. Alison pulling away from Emily, more stressed out now than before.

"Carter I…" She began before being interrupted by the usually quiet driver.

"If I may be permitted Miss DiLaurentis I would just like to say two things." Carter asked.

Alison seemed in shock so Emily spoke up, "Go ahead Carter."

He smiled softly as he turned to face them, "One, I see and hear nothing that happens in the back of my car."

Emily couldn't help but smile at him, Alison now had her mouth slightly open in horror.

"Two, Emily is right, you're going to be great." This seemed to bring Ali back round a bit. "Now I'm going to get out and open your door. I'm a bit tired today though so it might take me a bit longer than usual. Shall we say a minute?" Carter smiled at them again before turning to open his door.

"Carter?" Alison finally spoke up.

"Yes Miss DiLaurentis?" He turned back to face her.

"Thank you."

Emily smiled warmly at the girl next to her, thinking how far she'd come. Sure she'd reverted back to old ways earlier in the day, but the fact that Carter still had a job never mind got a thank you spoke volumes. Carter just nodded and got out of the car.

When the door was shut Alison turned to her again. "Em, I'm scared."

"You heard Carter, you're going to be great." Emily smiled taking her hands again and gently placing a kiss to her forehead, knowing that if she messed up her make up she'd never be forgiven.

They heard a gentle knock on Alison's door which was opened ten seconds later by Carter. Emily quickly let herself out and made her way round.

"Look after her." Carter said to her quietly before Ali got out.

To anyone else they were simple words to someone responsible for security. Emily knew they were a lot more than that though. She never realised Carter cared that much for his boss.

"I will." She promised him and then Alison was at her side.

They made it inside and Emily spotted Spencer and her mother straight away.

"Come on, there's people I want you to meet." .

"Em!" Spencer greeted her with a hug when they made it over.

"Hey Spence, Mrs Hastings." She wasn't sure if she was meant to hug the senator in public or not.

"Come here right now Emily Fields." Spencer's mom hugged her warmly.

"Guys this is Alison DiLaurentis." Emily introduced. "Miss DiLaurentis this is Spencer and Veronica Hastings."

"It's a pleasure to meet you both." Alison smiled warmly, shaking both of their hands.

"Thank you so much for doing this Miss DiLaurentis." Mrs Hastings looked at Alison with gratitude.

"It's my pleasure Senator. I'm sorry we're a little late." Alison replied.

"Nonsense you're right on time, although you are on stage in ten minutes so I'm sorry you don't have much time to get settled."

"I'll show you to the room can you prepare in." Spencer gestured for them to follow her.

"Just let us know if you need anything." Spencer said before closing the door and leaving them to it.

"Right, I best go over this speech again." Alison said holding her hand out.

"I don't have it." Emily said, then she saw the panic set into Ali's face.

"I left it on the fucking back seat!" The blonde sat down on a chair and put her head in her hands.

"Hey," Emily knelt down in front of her, "it's going to be fine, just make it up."

Alison lifted her head, "Make it up?! Are you fucking kidding me right now?!"

Emily knew Alison was after an argument and she wasn't going to rise to the bait.

"You are a smart, intelligent, amazing woman. You can do this. All you have to do is go out there and talk about your experiences with education and your opinions on it. The key word is your. It's your thoughts that people want to hear so the wonderful thing about that is, they're all up here." Emily softly tapped Ali's head with her finger. "So yeah make it up as you go along, people will love it regardless."

"What if they don't?" Alison looked up at Emily, the last time she had seen that look in her eyes it was when she was talking about her mother. She had no confidence in herself at all.

"Are you kidding? It's you, babe people hang off every word you say. I'm sure they'll be no different today and they'll have loads of amazing questions for you. Just go out there and be yourself. Not Alison DiLaurentis, be yourself." She finished and mentally berated herself for using the pet name, it had just slipped out. Alison didn't react to it though and Emily was secretly hoping she'd not noticed it.

"Maybe it should be you up there, you're the one who's always giving speeches." Alison pouted.

Apparently she hadn't. "Yeah but I don't look as good in my underwear so I never get booked." Emily joked standing up and moving behind Ali to massage her shoulders and hopefully relieve some of her tension.

"I'll be the judge of that." Alison said causing Emily to gulp, "Hopefully I'll be a bit more eloquent than you were so I can actually tell you how good you look." She mocked.

Emily went red at being reminded of her embarrassing moment. She hated how Alison could do what no other girl had ever managed, and turn her into a stuttering mess. At the same time though she loved it, she'd never been challenged like that before. It was nice for things not to be so easy.

"Oh my God your fingers are amazing." Alison practically moaned with her eyes shut.

Unable to stop herself Emily leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "Oh you have no idea."

A knock on the door made Emily jump back.

"Come in." A flustered Alison called out.

Spencer's head popped through the door, "You ready?"

"Yeah, I'll be right there." Alison replied regaining her composure and getting up.

"See you out there." Spencer smiled left.

Alison walked toward the door, "I can do this." She seemed to be saying it more to herself than Emily.

"Damn right you can." Emily replied anyway.

Alison reached the door and grabbed the handle before turning back to Emily with a raised eyebrow. "Babe?"

Emily felt herself go red again, "Yeah sorry about that, I didn't…"

Alison interrupted her, "I never said I didn't like it." Then she opened the door and stepped out.

Emily watched from the side of the stage as Alison reached the podium. The room had burst into applause as she had walked out, and now everyone was staring at her expectantly. Emily really hoped this went well, she knew the socialite was more than capable of doing this.

"Good evening, my name is Alison DiLaurentis." She started which received more applause. "So I did have a speech for you tonight, but I left it in my car. I may have beauty and brains but apparently not any organisational skills."

This got a laugh and Alison seemed to relax a little bit. Emily silently willed her on from her spot off stage.

"Most people know exactly what make up I use and where I went on holiday. What most people don't know is that I graduated from Brown University with degrees in English literature and business. Education is important, my life may seem frivolous and easy but I actually put a lot of work into my brand. That's where my business degree comes in handy, yes I had a hand up in life because of my family, but one day that business will be mine and because of my education I'll actually have an idea of what I'm doing. So that will give me an advantage over my father." The audience laughed again, Emily couldn't help the smile on her face as Alison continued, "Fun fact, I didn't actually want to do business. My original dream was to just do English and then become a teacher. Yeah I know, me a teacher, can you imagine? Or an author, I love books, reading brings people joy. You get to escape into all of these amazing worlds, I wanted to bring that same joy into other people's lives. My father insisted I do business as well though, turned out I really enjoyed it. Anyway as you all know, neither of those dreams came true. Never say never though, I could still pen the great American novel."

Emily realised again how little she really knew about Ali, she didn't know anything about these dreams. They would definitely have to play the question game again.

Alison's speech continued eloquently and beautifully. Emily was so proud of her and the audience stood to applaud when she had finished. Alison was absolutely beaming.

"What a wonderful, truly inspiring speech. If it's okay with Miss DiLaurentis we will now open the floor for any questions from our young guests." Veronica said as she walked out onto the stage next to Alison.

"Ask away." Alison nodded eagerly.

A young brunette with glasses raised her hand first.

"You said you were the top of your class in most subjects, did you have many problems with bullying? It's not exactly cool to be smart."

"I didn't, I'm ashamed to say I wasn't the nicest person in school. Actually some people would tell you I'm not the nicest person now, but I'm working on that." She turned to smile at Emily, "I suppose I was one of the bully's, and that was definitely not cool. Being smart though is the coolest thing, never ever let anybody tell you otherwise. You'll have a lot more opportunities in life if you work hard in your studies, nobody cares who the popular kids were when you're grown up."

"You seem nice to me." The girl replied shyly.

"Thank you…what's your name?"

"Beth."

"Thank you Beth." Alison smiled warmly. "Next question."

Another girl raised her hand, "You say you love books and reading, I just wondered what your favourite book was?"

"Ah, I have many. I absolutely love Harry Potter!" People laughed again, "Shocking I know, but recently I've fallen in love with an old classic, Great Expectations."

Emily felt her heart beat a little faster, staring at Alison with affection she realised that the blonde wasn't the only one falling for things recently. The thought scared her a little bit, she couldn't ever remember feeling like this about someone so quickly.

When the questions were over Alison walked off stage to applause and cheers. Emily clapped enthusiastically with them.

"You're such a dork." Alison laughed as she reached her.

"Thank you so much for that, it was truly inspiring. The young people here will have taken a lot away from it." Veronica gushed.

"Yeah and hopefully the old people here will get out their check books." Spencer said from behind them. "Are you staying for a drink Em?"

Emily looked at Alison, it would be her decision.

"Yes, we'll stay for one." Alison smiled.

"Can I steal her for a second?" Spencer asked the socialite.

"Actually I have to stay with her, it's kind of my job Spence." Emily answered for her.

"Go have a drink with your friend Fields, I'm sure there's enough security at this event to keep me out of trouble." She replied, putting her hand on Emily's arms sending tingles through it.

"Great, see you soon." Spencer said dragging Emily toward the open bar. "So, how long has that been a thing?"

Emily choked on the drink she'd just taken a mouthful of, "Have you been talking to Aria and Hanna?"

"Well I've spoken to them but not about this, seriously I'm the last to know?!" Spencer said with jokey annoyance.

"You can't say anything to anyone Spence!" Emily warned.

"You know me better than that Em."

"How did you know?" Emily was curious how she had figured it out without a heads up from the others.

"Well you're not exactly subtle, anyone that knows you knows that look you've been giving her all night. Also the fact that you got her to agree to this means you must have some pull in her life." Spencer said taking a sip of her own drink.

"Hey Em, Spencer."

Emily turned to see Paige standing at the bar. Now this she was not expecting, luckily Spencer wasn't frozen into silence like she was.

"Paige, I didn't see your name on the list?" Spencer narrowed her eyes, she had never like Emily's ex much, none of them had.

"It wasn't, but I'm here scouting and the coach mentioned that Alison was speaking at the event tonight so I thought it would be fun. I'm their plus one, in a strictly professional way." She added looking at Emily.

"Well it was nice to see you." Spencer said in a dismissive tone that suggested she should leave now.

"So Emily," Paige turned her full attention to her, "you're seeing someone?"

"Yes she is."

Emily turned to see Alison had made her way over, and she did not look happy. Paige opened her mouth to speak again

"In fact we should be leaving, I'm sure your girlfriend is missing you. You should get home to her. It's unfair for me to keep you out all night." Alison said to Emily. "It was lovely to meet you Spencer."

"Yeah you too." Spencer was watching the whole exchange looking rather amused, Emily shot her a look.

"See you soon I hope." Emily hugged the sniggering brunette then followed Alison, messaging Carter to bring the car round.

Once they were home and inside Alison started the argument she knew she'd wanted the whole way back.

"You could have given me a heads up that she'd be there." Alison spat angrily as she stalked into the living room.

"Honestly Ali I didn't know!" Emily tried to explain the situation. "I was as surprised as you were."

"Last minute? Fun to hear me speak? Let's not pretend that she didn't know you were going to be there!"

"I can't control where she goes Ali!" Emily was getting annoyed, why couldn't the blonde see that Paige wasn't a threat. Not that her and Alison were even together.

"I just really hate her!" Alison sat on the couch and put her head in hands.

"Why? Why do you hate her so much?" Emily asked softly.

"I don't even know. I just feel like she really wants you back." Alison spoke, head still in her hands.

"What are we doing here Ali?" Emily finally voiced her internal questions, needing to know where they stood.

"Do we have to speak about this right now?" Alison still didn't look up at her.

"No, I best be going though. Apparently I have a girlfriend at home that's been missing me all night." Emily couldn't keep the bitter tone out of her voice. It made Alison finally look up.

"Do we have to put a label on this? Why can't it just be what it is?" Alison asked.

"But that's just it, what is this?" Emily threw her hands in the air with exasperation.

"It's fun." Alison shrugged her shoulders.

"Fun?" Emily replied, hurt.

"Not like that fun!" Alison back tracked, "It's…we have fun, I like you, I don't want you having fun with anyone else…we are exclusive fun."

"Exclusive fun?" Emily couldn't help but laugh, "That's a thing is it?"

"It is now." Alison smiled back, "Look I'm not ready to…can we just be exclusive fun?"

Emily understood that this was a huge step for the girl in front of her, accepting she would have to give her some time she sighed, "Sure, exclusive fun it is."

"Great, now come cuddle me." Alison held her arms out and Emily complied, shifting them on the couch so that the smaller girl was snuggled up to her with her head on her chest.

"So I realised tonight that I don't really know much about you." Emily spoke, "I think we should play the question game again."

"Okay, but I get to go first." Alison nodded against her chest.

"Okay, ask away." Emily braced herself for whatever Alison was going to come up with, she was not prepared for it though.

"How many people have you been with?"

"Ali come on!" Emily sat up, forcing the blonde up also.

"The rules are anything and you have to answer." Alison argued.

"But really? That?" Emily wasn't happy about the direction the night was taking.

"Is it that many?!" Alison took her refusal badly.

"It just doesn't matter." This wasn't a conversation that Emily wanted to have.

"Well if it doesn't matter then tell me."

"Well how many have you been with?" Emily fired back.

"Two." Alison replied quickly. "Both men, and before you ask one of them wasn't Elliot Rollins. I thought he was being sweet and old fashioned wanting to wait until we were married. Turns out my lawyer thinks he just didn't want to risk a longer sentence."

"Two, oh wow, okay." Emily rubbed the back of her neck.

"Jesus Emily, how many is it?" Alison stared at her wide eyed.

Emily had never had to count them up before, it wasn't something she'd ever really thought about. Once she was in the army she'd had quite a lot of one night stands she wasn't exactly proud of.

"Errm six that mattered." Emily hoped her answer would suffice, she didn't want to get into this.

"So a lot is what you're saying?" Alison asked, not angrily, Emily couldn't read her emotions right now.

"Yeah, look I've had a lot of one night stands I'm not proud of okay."

"Okay."

"Okay?" Emily was shocked at how well Alison was taking this conversation.

"Yeah, it's your past. People change."

"That is true." Emily smiled leaning in to gently kiss the beautiful blonde.

"So how long has it been since you…?" Alison asked when she'd pulled away.

"Are we really doing this?" Emily sighed.

"It's been four years for me." Alison said looking away, "It was a guy I dated in college. He tried to sell a story about me after, I became very careful after that."

"What a dick." Emily voiced her anger.

"Yeah well, I mean I've dated quite a lot since then but you have to be pretty damn special to make it into my bed. So you?" Alison asked again.

Knowing that Alison was opening up and sharing with her Emily knew it was only right she be honest with her too.

"Three months. There was a girl in a different unit, Samara. It wasn't anything serious, just…well relief I guess." Emily looked down feeling embarrassed.

"Have they all been girls?"

"Yeah, I had a boyfriend in high school but nothing ever happened. I was just trying to fit in."

Alison snuggled back in to her again. "Thank you for being honest with me."

"Likewise." Emily kissed the top of her head and pulled her to lay down thinking that they might not play this game again.

They must have fallen asleep like that, Emily was woken by her phone chiming. Alison stirred in her arms but stayed asleep. She picked it up to check the message.

'Nice seeing you and your girlfriend tonight. Although she lied when she said she was at home. Really Emily? I thought you had better taste, well I'm done. I hope you enjoy being a dirty secret. Next time she wants to keep it tell her not a piss on you in public.'

Paige knows? Shit! She should have known, Spencer said anyone that knows her could see. Why wasn't she more careful? Not that Alison exactly helped with by basically marking her territory. Paige wouldn't say anything though, Emily was sure she wouldn't. She was a lot of things but that wasn't her style. Deciding that she'd only be worrying Alison for no reason she hit delete. Before scooping the sleeping girl up and carrying her to bed.

When she woke up the next morning Emily decided that she had made the right decision. Things were going well with her and Ali, why rock the boat for no reason? They had a party to go to that night. A 'ball' actually, according to Alison it was a big deal. A big enough deal that apparently it would take all day to get ready for. Emily had decided to keep out of the way, taking the garment bag Ali had given her with a 'casual, smart outfit that will help you fit in but still do your job' home to get ready. Hanna was far more excited about this whole thing than she was. Apparently this was a huge deal.

"So when do I get to meet her?" Hanna was sat on her bed as she got ready.

"Probably never." Emily replied finishing her make up.

"You're a terrible best friend. You have access to my hero and you let Aria and Spencer meet her but not me!"

"Oh yeah, those meetings were completely orchestrated to leave you out." Emily dead panned, going to put her hair up.

"Leave it down and straight. I've looked at your outfit, it'll go better."

"It's a pantsuit." Emily sighed.

"No, it's a Valentino jumpsuit."

"Whatever."

"No, not whatever. Alison obviously wants you to look nice and I will not let my future bestie down." Hanna stared her down.

"For the love of God Hanna, fine!" Emily gave in.

"YES!" Hanna jumped off the bed in glee and picked up Emily's make up bag.

"I just did that."

"Not for a Valentino jumpsuit you didn't." Hanna said in the most serious tone Emily had ever heard her use. What had she let herself in for?

She arrived at Alison's just as the team were leaving. Getting out of the car she told Carter she'd be back in a minute with the socialite. Alison was already stood at the door though when she opened it.

"Holy shit." Emily breathed out. Ali looked stunning, her signature hair curled to perfection, her cap-sleeved sequinned gown fitting her perfectly in all the right places. Emily wanted to tell Carter to leave and take her back inside and do things she definitely didn't want the blonde to know she was thinking about right now.

"I could say the same." Alison smiled at her, "I knew Hanna would make you glam up."

"Then I've spoken too much about her." Emily rolled her eyes.

"You look amazing Em." She said as they walked to the car.

"Thanks, not sure how I'm meant to tackle people in these heels though."

"Just take them off." Alison replied as though it was obvious, "I was going to send a dress but then I knew you'd complain you couldn't run at all."

"That is true." Emily said as she opened her door for her to get in.

They had just set off when Emily noticed the slight tear where her sleeve met the body of her dress.

"Errm Ali, I think there's a problem." She said pointing it out.

"Oh my God! Are you fucking kidding me! I said to Enzo, I said I heard a rip, he said there wasn't one! Fucking liar! He will never work again! What the fuck am I meant to do?! Carter turn back, we're going home!" Alison was in full rant mode.

Emily knew what to do but she really didn't want to. For fucks sake she sighed internally.

"Carter take us to my place please."

"What? Why?" Alison questioned, still clearly very angry.

"Because I have a Hanna." Emily smiled taking the blondes hand and rubbing circles to try and calm her.

"Brace yourself." Emily warned as she opened the apartment door. "Han?" She called out.

"Why the hell are you back?" Hanna came into view from the kitchen, clearly in her pyjamas.

"Hi." Alison smiled shyly, was she nervous about meeting Hanna? The thought made Emily laugh.

"Oh wow." Hanna stood in shock. "Em this isn't what I meant earlier."

"You said you wanted to meet your 'hero'" Emily put emphasis on the last word, if Hanna was getting her own way she was going to make it as awkward as possible for her.

"Not in my fucking pyjamas." She said through gritted teeth.

"I have a wardrobe malfunction and Emily here seems to think you're going to be my saviour." Alison addressed the still frozen blonde.

"Alison Lauren DiLaurentis just call me Jesus, what's your problem?"

Oh great, Emily thought, she's back to being herself again.

"You know my middle name." Alison replied.

"Honey I know your bra size, now what's the issue?" Hanna was in her element.

"Errm my strap…really my bra size?" Alison seemed a little taken aback by Hanna, most people were Emily noted.

"Come into the living room and I'll grab my stuff." Hanna ran off to her room.

"Well she is…" Alison laughed.

"Yeah she is." Emily agreed.

Less than five minutes later and the problem was no more. She was pretty damn good, Emily had to hand it to her.

"Next fashion week you are totally my date." Alison said throwing her arms around the other blonde, who hugged back eagerly.

"This is the best day of my life, and I'm engaged, just saying." Hanna gushed.

"Yeah yeah, you worship her we get it. Come on Ali, let's leave before she gets out her magazines for you to sign." Emily teased.

"Shut up, although a follow on Twitter wouldn't hurt?" Hanna smiled at Alison sweetly.

"You got it." Alison laughed, "I'll get Em to give me all your social media accounts, I bet your Instagram is fantastic."

"Come on, before you two actually make friends." Emily joked, but internally it was becoming a genuine concern.

They were heading out the door when Hanna said it. It had all been going far too well, Emily knew it had to happen eventually. Foot in the mouth Hanna was inevitably going to show up at some point.

"Give me a call about fashion week, finally Em got herself a girlfriend with some useful connections."

Emily turned to glare at Hanna in horror, she however still had a smile plastered to her face.

"Will do." Alison called behind her, before throwing Emily a death stare.

Not wanting to argue in front of Carter they hadn't spoken since the apartment. They continued not to speak once they arrived. In fact they were now halfway through the ball and they still hadn't spoken. Emily was stood on the sidelines, having to watch Alison flirt with far too many male celebrities for her liking. The first couple she knew Ali was just doing to piss her off, so she had brushed it off. Now though she was actually starting to get pissed off, but she'd never let Alison see that. It wasn't until she was slow dancing with some Hollywood actor that it really started to hurt Emily. Not because she was flirting, Emily knew she wouldn't actually do anything, that she wasn't really interested. It was because Emily realised she would never get to do that with her. Swallowing her feelings down, she stood stoically for the rest of the night doing her job.

They didn't talk the rest of the event, they didn't talk on the ride home, they didn't talk on the way to the door. Emily was about to turn to leave when Alison's hand grabbed hers and pulled her inside. Shutting the door behind them she walked into the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses. Emily had noticed she'd not drank at all during the ball, pouring a drink into each she silently handed one to Emily and walked through to the living room. Emily followed behind. Alison sat down on the couch and downed half her glass before finally speaking.

"Who knows?" Her voice was low and calm.

"Hanna, Aria and Spencer." Emily answered unnerved by Alison's demeanour.

"Did you tell them?" Alison was unreadable.

"Hanna yes. Aria and Spencer guessed." Emily replied honestly, still waiting for the eruption.

"Do you trust them?" Why wasn't she yelling?

"With my life." Emily meant that completely.

"Okay." Alison answered.

It was now or never, she had prepared herself for an argument so she might as well get it out of the way.

"And Paige." Emily flinched as she said it.

Alison downed the rest of the glass, "You told Paige?" Her face was now readable, and it was livid.

"No, actually you did." Emily replied.

"I most certainly did not!" Alison raised her voice for the first time.

"She text me after the education thing saying something about you pissing on me in public."

"Did you confirm it?" Alison asked, her voice normal volume again. Emily could see her beating herself up internally.

"No, I just deleted the text." Emily answered, wishing she'd just told her at the time now.

"Good. I mean, not good she said it, but she has no proof. To sell the story to anyone credible she'd have to have something."

"I don't think she would do that." Emily didn't want to believe her ex was capable of that.

"Yeah well people will surprise you." Alison took Emily's untouched glass out of her hand and took a sip.

"Yeah they will." Emily agreed, staring at the blonde. She couldn't believe how well that all went.

"Don't look at me like that, I've had the whole night to get angry and then calm myself down. Believe me at one point I was planning where I was going to hide your body." She took another drink, "Plus the alcohol helps."

"Really you had time to do all that AND give half of Hollywoods leading men hope that they had a chance with you?" Emily couldn't help herself, it had pissed her off.

"Call it even?" Alison smirked at her.

"Yeah sure." Emily said not meeting her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Alison's face was serious again now. "I thought I was being mad at you?"

"I'm not mad, it's just," Emily tried to gather her thoughts, "is it always going to be like this?"

"Like what?" Alison cocked her head.

"A dirty secret." Emily looked at her.

Alison looked down, "You're not a dirty secret Em, yes it's a secret. Although apparently not a well kept one, but it's not dirty. This is just a difficult situation for me. If you can't do it then I understand."

"I can do it," Emily sighed, "but it's hard for me too. The worst part of the whole night for me was knowing that I was never going to be able to dance with you. I know that's a stupid little thing. I don't even know if that's something that people having 'exclusive fun' do, but it bothered me tonight."

"I think that's something that they do." Alison said softly standing up. "My iPod is on the dock, press shuffle."

"You want to dance here?" Emily asked a little shocked.

"Is where we dance important? Is it that you want people to see us dance or do you just want to dance with me?" Alison questioned.

"Right now I just want to dance with you." Emily answered honestly.

"Then press shuffle."

Emily walked over to the iPod and pressed the button, she walked back over to Alison as the sound of a piano started. Reaching her hand out to her she noticed the blonde was blushing furiously.

"Is everything okay?" Emily asked, confused, Alison didn't seem nervous when she was dancing earlier.

"Everything is perfect." Alison almost whispered as she put her arms around Emily's neck, placing her head below her chin.

Emily put her arms around the shorter girls waist, resting her head on top of Ali's. They started to move slowly to music, and Emily finally realised what song was playing, listening to the lyrics as they danced.

'Shall I stay? Would it be a sin? For I can't help falling in love with you…'

"Yeah, it is." Emily whispered back placing a soft kiss on the top of Ali's head.

So that's what I wrote, who knew eh? As usual all of your thoughts are greatly appreciated, it's always nice to be spoken to. Unless you're on public transport with your headphones in, nobody needs chatter in their lives at that moment. If you don't want to review the story why not tell me a joke? As always much love to you all :)