Normal?
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An: Update! Update! So not a too too horribly long wait, right?
"You want to explain to me why we're hiking through the woods at five in the morning on a Sunday?" Emily grinned tiredly as Maya walked in front of her. She might not like the early wake up call, but she definitely wasn't complaining about the view. "You don't even like mornings…or hiking for that matter." She continued after checking out her girlfriend's ass.
Maya laughed and turned so that she was walking backward. "Firstly, you're so busted. I know you were just checking out my ass." Emily just smirked and shrugged, Maya was her girlfriend, and she could look all she wanted. "Secondly, this isn't hiking the car is parked like right over there and we're just walking up a gravel driveway." Emily rolled her eyes; it wasn't a regular length driveway. "Thirdly, and most importantly, I love you, so just trust me when I say that this is so worth the early wake up call."
Emily adopted a sweet smile at her words, loving how Maya stopped to link their hands and kiss her cheek before continuing up the driveway. She leant her head upon Maya's shoulder as they walked; completely enjoying the crisp air of the morning and the smell of Maya's perfume on the wind. Around a small bend, their destination finally came into view, Emily frowned in confusion but Maya just smiled secretively. "An abandoned boat house?" she questioned.
But Maya was in complete mysterious mode now and just led her clueless girlfriend around to the back of the house where the wrap-around porch led out to the open dock. "Sit." She commanded softly, removing the backpack from her shoulders and sitting near the edge herself. Emily sat next to her, amused by her girlfriend's sudden change in demeanor. The day was still dark, but as Maya took out and lit several large candles a soft glow surround the two girls.
With the light Emily could now see why the dock seemed unusually soft; they were sitting on a down sleeping bag. 'When did she sneak away to do this?' Emily wondered softly.
Maya moved the candles around to circle the sleeping bag, though far enough away so nothing caught on fire. 'Nothing ruins the mood more than setting your girlfriend on fire.' Maya chuckled at the thought.
Emily waited in silence, just watching her girl pull even more things from the backpack, Maya was thankful for the time being given, she needed to get her thoughts in place. She looked up, catching Emily's eyes as the girl watched her lovingly. 'Hormones too, have to get those in check, but damn, why does she have to be so damn beautiful?'
"So…what are we doing?" Emily asks, when Maya finally settles back down beside her.
"Well…we're on a date." She smiled with a quiet confidence that drove Emily wild. Emily bit her lip, as the slow burn of desire started to fill her body starting with the butterflies in her stomach. "I've always had this…fascination with fire and water." Maya explained, taking Emily in rapture. "Fire is so wild and hard to control, pure passion, unpredictable. Yet water is so calm and gentle, its pure contentment, easy." Maya paused, bringing her attention to Emily's face. "That's how I look at us, our love. It's both you know, its wild and hard to control and passionate beyond belief, unpredictable even, but it's also like the water, it's easy as breathing. With one touch Emily, you can set me ablaze and I never know what to expect of me when I'm with you, but with one look you stop me completely, everything that's rushing inside of me slows and calms. I love you like I've never loved anything or anyone before…or ever again, there's always a smoldering inside me, yearning for you and when I finally see you, hear you…touch you it turns to a wildfire, but one that brings absolute peace."
Emily swallows hard against the emotion bubbling from her throat knowing her girlfriend isn't quite finished yet. "It's more than that though, it's you and me. I know I can be a handful and sometimes I don't think through my actions, especially when it comes to protecting you." Maya's eyes burn into hers. "I'm impulsive and quick to act out. You though, you're steady and you have such a peace within you, you know when to push and when to pull, the ebb and flow. You quite my flames, but you also feed them, reflect them." Maya goes quiet, staring at Emily, reaching up to wipe the lone tears off her lover's cheek.
Emily nuzzles into her hand, pressing an earnest kiss to the palm as she speaks. "I was ice before you melted me Maya. I can never tell you how grateful I am that you found me, saw through me, love me the way you do. No one could ever love me as completely as I feel you do." Her whispered words send shivers down Maya's spine and like magnets their lips meet in an earnest embrace.
For every burn Maya delivers to Emily, Emily quenches Maya's never-ending thirst as they push and pull against one another. Emily ends up beneath Maya, the familiar weight of her girlfriend settling on top of her only adding to the fire within her. Out of breath, Maya pulls back for Emily hadn't the strength, burning eyes connect, spark, breathing ragged and hands still grasping. "I love you."
Maya smiles sweetly, pressing her lips to Emily's once, twice and a third time. "As I love you."
Monday found the girls sitting round their usual table, the absence of certain significant others aside, they found themselves enjoying the old familiarity of a four person lunch date. Still as lovely as it was to have some alone time with her friends, a part of Emily missed the warmth Maya's presence provided her. It seemed though, that she wasn't the only one. "So why isn't Maya here again?" Hanna semi-whined from across the table.
Emily quirked an eyebrow, putting her phone down after sending a text. "Band practice." She said simply, becoming even more amused as the blonde began to pout. She laughed lowly, almost smirking at the sulking blonde. "You know Hanna if I didn't know any better, I'd swear Maya was your girlfriend and not mine."
Hanna merely rolled her eyes, chewing her bite of salad thoroughly before responding. "Please, we've been over this…Naya Rivera look-a-like or nothing for this girl." She shrugged, choosing to ignore the laughs and looks her friends tossed at her. "Maya's just my partner in crime."
The girls frowned, leaning in closer, Emily's frown bordering on a scowl. "And what deviant behavior do you want to involve my girlfriend in this time?" Emily was very close to getting pissed.
Hanna balked realizing her mistake. "What? No! Nothing, I swear."
"Hanna?" Spencer urged with a warning tone. The blonde pouted, looking to Aria for help but only received an unconvinced look in return.
Sighing, she slumped back into her seat, "…" she mumbled, making the girls frown even more.
"What?" they asked.
She sighed again, ready to respond when a commotion startled the cafeteria into silence. Standing in the middle of the room, Paige McCullers' dad stood ranting about how his daughter was being treated unfairly. "No, you listen to me! I want to know why my daughter isn't getting the things she deserved because the school is pushing some 'equal for all' bullshit agenda? Paige is the best swimmer this school has and if Fulton continues to overlook her we're going to have a problem."
Emily watched as Aria's mom intervened and steered the irate man out of the cafeteria. Hanna touched Emily's arm in a comforting gesture, but it did nothing to quell the swell of emotion inside her. Spencer stepped in, "Don't listen to him Em, you deserve to be captain. He's just mad that you're better than his precious daughter."
"Right. Everyone knows that the McCullers' are sore losers." Aria chimed in.
Emily nodded, standing from the table, "Right, you're right…I'm just going to go uh to my locker before class. I um left a book in there." She reasoned, moving away from the table and out of the cafeteria and leaving her friends to watch after her with concern.
Hanna sat back with a loaded sigh, looking around the table. "Right…so who wants to tell Maya?" Seeing both Spencer and Aria wince and lean away from her, Hanna rolled her eyes and stood, shouldering her bag and giving her friends a disbelieving look. "Scaredy-cats." She spared them one last look before strutting away.
Spencer and Aria shared a look. "It's not that we're scared of Maya." Aria reasoned slowly.
Spencer nodded, "Right, not scared…just cautiously aware." They shared another look.
"Right." Neither one believed the other.
Emily sits on the bench, watching the light reflect off the water, it was soothing…almost. For the life of her, she couldn't understand why the world seemed to be reacting so much to her relationship. Was the love she and Maya shared so abnormal, so…controversial? No, she didn't think so. She just couldn't see why it was such a big deal.
'It's like the water reflecting the light.' She pondered to herself. Water and light were perfectly normal when separate, perfectly recognizable but when you put the two together they change, shift. It's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Separately they are both pretty in their own right, but when brought together they create an image so…memorizing, once you see past the reflection of course. 'Maybe that's what everyone's problem was…they're too busy staring at their reflections to see what's just beyond it.'
Warm breath on the back of her neck is enough to pull her back to reality, but the tingling sensation that flows through her when strong arms circle around her shoulders is enough to reassure her. "How did you find me?" she questions softly, reaching up to pull on the arm circling her neck and pulling the body in front of her.
Maya smirks, arms still locked around her girlfriend. "Just a hunch." She smiles slyly, laughing as her girlfriend rolls her eyes at her. She untangled herself from Emily and moves to straddle the bench next to her, Emily follows suit so that they're face to face once more. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" Maya runs her finger across Emily's forehead and down her face to cup her cheek.
Emily nuzzled into the familiar touch. "I love you." Maya stops at the words, sure it's not the first time Emily has said them, not even close, but the look in her girlfriend's eyes as she speaks them…well she's only ever caught glimpses of it. The pure confidence behind Emily's words crash into her and she feels it filling her as well, overwhelming her with the sheer truthfulness of it all.
Maya drops her hands down to Emily's thighs and pulls the girl so that Emily's legs now rest over her own. She wraps her arms around the small of Emily's back as Emily drapes one arm around her shoulders, the other coming to rest over Maya's heart. Maya leans forward, her forehead pressing softly against Emily's, their noses brushing intimately. "And you love me." Emily pauses. "I can feel it in every touch, in every kiss. I can see it in every look, in the way you move around me. I can hear it in your voice…your heart." She emphasizes her words by putting a light pressure to her hand resting over Maya's heart. "It's so…complete."
Maya exhales at her girlfriend's soft, but strong words. Knowing no words could ever explain her feelings in this moment, and that Emily didn't need words, she did the only thing proper in this situation. She kissed the love of her life.
She watched the girl from her spot in the shadows. Watched how the girl lost herself in thought, watched her go from confused to peaceful.
She wanted so badly to know what caused the switch.
She wanted so badly to be that thing that caused the switch.
But it was impossible…maybe though, maybe if she went to her now and explained everything. Maybe if she laid everything on the table, then maybe Emily would accept her.
She smiled, taking a hesitant step forward, but stopped as someone else beat her to the punch. Her smile wiped clean to a look of disgust and anger.
'What does she have that I don't?'
'What does Emily see in her?'
'She's the thing standing in the way of Emily seeing me…wanting me…'
'She'll get hers. Soon.' She watched as the couple began to kiss and left with nothing but her anger and silent promise to keep her company.