Hello everybody! Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews you left on the last chapter as well as the fic recommendations (which I have started reading!) Hopefully with the next update I'll be able to recommend some fics to you guys if you'd like that sort of thing :)

This chapter doesn't seem to have much going on, but I actually really enjoyed writing it and know that some important things do happen so I'm happy with it.

As usual, I don't own Skins.

Chapter 17: Awake My Soul

I woke up early the next morning with Emily sprawled out next to me, her red hair fanned out around her head. The still-blue early morning light made her look almost ghostly, as though she was going to slip right past me. I turned onto my side and propped myself up on my elbow and couldn't help but stare at her, watching her every move in hopes that somehow it would keep her next to me. She was lying on her stomach, her bare back exposed, my duvet covering her lower back.

There was something at work here, something that brought us together. I knew I wasn't lucky enough to merely stumble upon someone as wonderful as Emily Fitch. My hand sneaked away from me as I traced patterns along her back, feeling my hand rise and fall with the movements of her breath. I felt so at peace here with her – even more at peace than when I spent a month in India travelling around to various temples and meditating.

"Darling, I can't sleep with you staring at me like that," Emily whispered as I continued to trace patterns on her back. She sighed heavily as I splayed my hand out flat against her back, just feeling her breath.

"You're too beautiful for me to look away," I whispered in response as I leaned down and kissed her exposed skin. "Just lay there and let me enjoy this."

And so she did. She just laid there and let me trace patterns into her back and kiss her and think about how amazing she was. I memorized every scar, every freckle, every mark I came across. I remembered where she was ticklish, I remembered where she would sigh slightly, I remembered where she held stress in her shoulders. Eventually, it came to be that I was almost lying on top of her, my bare breasts pressed against her back, my cheek pressed against hers, our hands intertwined.

"I think I'm falling in love with you," Emily whispered, squeezing my hand tightly. I sighed with what could only be relief. My chest filled with happiness, no, not happiness, pure bliss.

"I'm falling in love with you too."

We fell back asleep like that, me lying almost on top of Emily, my heart filled with love.

I awoke with the bright sunlight beaming in my face, still lying on top of Em. I rolled off her and sighed, tangling my fingers in my hair before I pulled myself out of bed rather reluctantly. I grabbed a pair of shorts and a top before walking into the kitchen as silently as I could.

"Freddie, you can't just fire me without grounds! I have shares in the company, you'll have to buy me out if you want to get rid of me that badly!" Effy was sat at my kitchen table, whisper-arguing into her mobile. "You owe me, Freddie! You either buy me out or you're fucking stuck with me."

Effy angrily hung up the phone and grabbed her mug of tea, looking as though she was about two seconds away from throwing it against a wall.

"Eff?" I asked, breaking her from her thoughts as she realized I had just seen the whole thing. She shook her head and smiled, though it wasn't a real smile. It was a smile where she was doubting everything she thought she knew about the world and the people around her, a smile that held no hope for humanity.

"Freddie says he can't work with me anymore. That it'd be too hard for him," she said, her blue eyes peering up at me. I could see she'd let her walls down and was showing me the real Effy right now. She was scared and vulnerable and lost.

I nodded and sat down next to her, scooting my chair close to hers and pulling her into my side. We sat there like that for a few minutes in silence. I didn't want to coddle Effy and tell her everything would be alright, because she knew that. Effy was actually a really good stylist and could get a job working with a proper high fashion magazine if she really wanted to. Effy wasn't feeling sad because she'd lost her job. Effy was feeling abandoned by the first person she'd ever loved, the first person she'd ever worked for, and the person she'd once envisioned staying with for the rest of her life. I knew that she was happy with Katie, but she was going through a lot at this point in her life. I needed her to know that I was always going to be there for her, and no matter how many times I told her so, I knew that Effy needed to be shown that I wouldn't abandon her as so many others previously had.

Katie padded into the kitchen still half-asleep, but seemed wide awake as soon as she noticed the state Effy was in. I got off my chair so Katie could sit down next to her and snuggle her as I'd been doing moments earlier.

I put on a pot of tea and made some toast and set them on the table for Effy and Katie as I wasn't feeling very hungry, and could tell that they needed their own time together.

I walked into the bathroom only to find the shower already occupied by Emily. I was about to leave before I remembered that she was my girlfriend and technically I could shower with her if I wanted to. At this thought, I quickly stripped off my shorts and shirt and slid open the shower door.

Emily was turned away from me, facing the shower head, though the surprised glance she shot me over her shoulder let me know that she'd heard me come in.

"Good morning," she said with a smile before leaning back and kissing me.

"Morning, shower stealer."

She smiled at me before handing me the shampoo and trading places with me so I was under the spray of the shower and she was stood behind me. I felt her wash my back as I lathered the shampoo in my hair.

"I kind of have something important to tell you," Emily said as I began to wash the shampoo out of my hair. I turned back around, soap suds stinging my eyes, making me squint at her, and nodded before I continued to rinse my hair. "I have to go to London next week and stay there for a little while."

"For how long?"

"A few weeks maybe. I was called in to do the make up for some photo shoots for a few magazines. And since what happened with Effy and Freddie, I doubt I'll have a job with them now so I could really use the money," Emily said as I reached over and turned off the shower.

I smiled and shrugged at her, feigning nonchalance though I actually wasn't quite sure how to feel about Emily being gone for a few weeks. I was definitely going to miss her and not seeing her all the time was going to be really difficult, but at the same time I didn't want to be selfish or overprotective and offer to come with her or ask her not to go. She was right – Freddie was unlikely to want to work with Katie or Emily after what happened with Effy, and that had been a somewhat stable job for Emily. I was proud of her, being able to find a job doing these photo shoots, but at the same time I was scared and feeling selfish. I wanted to have her all to myself, preferably for her not to leave my flat for the foreseeable future, and now she was telling me that not only was she planning on leaving the flat, but leaving Bristol.

"Are you okay with that, Naoms?" She asked, searching my eyes with her own worried brown ones. I smiled tightly at her and nodded before stepping out of the shower and grabbing a towel for each of us.

Emily came up from behind me as I finished wrapping the towel around myself and hugged me tightly. "I love you," she whispered before kissing my shoulder. I smiled, a real genuine smile, all my fears about Emily's journey to London forgotten.

"I love you, too."

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