30 - Means the World to Me

"Ugh," Alison groaned regrettably as she opened her eyes. Her head was throbbing unpleasantly, her body felt remarkably weak, and worst of all, she looked around to find that Emily wasn't next to her in the bed. "Emily?" she croaked out, squinting her eyes at the bright sunlight coming from the window.

"Morning, drunkie," Emily teased as she entered the room with a tall glass of water. The brunette took the bottle of ibuprofen from the bedside table and handed it to the blonde along with the glass.

Alison sat up on the bed slowly, groaning as she did so, and rubbed her eyes before taking the items from Emily's hands. "Thanks, Em," she gave her the closest thing to a smile that she could produce at the moment but it came out as more of a grimace.

"Of course, Ali," she dismissed, kissing the top of Alison's head and sitting next to her on the bed while the blonde took her pills. "How are you feeling?" she asked kindly.

"Bad," Alison answered simply. "Please tell me I didn't do anything embarrassing last night," she added desperately.

"Uh..." Emily trailed off with a considering expression. "Depends on what you count as embarrassing," she chose her words carefully.

Alison turned to her miserably, "Was I that bad?"

"No, you just slurred a lot of words and tried to sing like Beyonce," Emily offered with a little amused giggle as she remembered last night's events.

"Oh, no," Alison covered her face with her hands in embarrassment.

"Oh, yes, I think Hanna even has some videos of that," Emily laughed.

"Of course she does," Alison grumbled and narrowed her eyes.

"You... You were so carefree. It was actually really good to see you like that," Emily admitted after a beat of silence, blushing shyly.

"You're sweet, Em," Alison smiled softly, ignoring the pain in her head as she inched closer to Emily. She was about to lean in but the brunette stopped her.

"No, Ali, you need to rest," Emily clarified. "Go back to sleep, I'll wake you up when we need to leave."

Alison pouted but then shuffled back to her lying position on the bed. She pulled Emily down as well and buried her face in the crook of the brunette's neck. Before Emily could object, Alison titled up her own head and pressed a lingering kiss on Emily's cheek, making Emily smile in return. The blonde backed away and then promptly snuggled against Emily. The swimmer merely played with her hair as she fell back asleep safely in her arms.

XXXXX

"Champ de Mars, here we come!" Aria announced enthusiastically as the group entered their rented car.

Emily had been relieved when she'd woken Alison up forty minutes before they had to leave and the blonde was back to her normal state. Well, almost. They had gotten ready and met their friends at the lobby of the hotel. Champ de Mars, the popular and extremely large public greenspace was their next destination.

It surprised Alison that she had been the only one from her friends who drank enough alcohol the previous night to get a hangover, especially since she was friends with Hanna. The girl loved to drink when the chance came up, but was simultaneously a total lightweight, so the fact that she hadn't gotten drunk as well was a mystery to Alison. The Queen Bee was glad about it, though, because she doubted their group could handle two drunk cases.

"Aria and I made food this morning for the picnic since we figured we should eat as much as possible to recharge." Ezra started with a smile. "Especially Ali, after being, well- "

"Drunk and hungover?" Alison finished for him with a chuckle.

"Yeah... How are you feeling, by the way?" Aria asked concernedly.

"Better, thanks to Dr. Fields over here," Alison grinned as she placed a hand on Emily's knee.

"I didn't do anything," Emily smiled a little shy smile that made the blonde's heart grow twice its size.

"Yes, you did, Em. And thank you. Again." Alison giggled and nudged Emily lightly.

Aria watched them with a pair of compassionate eyes and a wide smile. She knew she always said it to them, but she couldn't tell them enough how much she loved their relationship. She loved how Emily brought Alison down to earth and how Alison brought Emily out of her shell. She always said it in her own playful way such as, "you're gonna make me cry," or, "you guys are so cute," but she truly did appreciate and support their relationship, especially because seeing two of her favorite people so happy, made her happy.

"I bet Alison's 'drunk in love!'" Hanna mimicked Alison's actions from last night teasingly. The group burst into loud laughter at her comment, ignoring Emily's unimpressed expression.

"Guys," Emily warned.

"No, it's okay, Em. I mean, they're right. I am drunk in love." Alison said, looking straight into Emily's eyes. "Drunk on you," she finished in a whisper that only the brunette could hear, making her grin coyly.

"What about the 'put her to bed' part? Did that happen, too?" Spencer taunted, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Emily and Alison laughed at that, not averting their gazes from each other's eyes. "If by that, you mean I put her to sleep, then yes," Emily answered with a small grin.

"I bet she put her to sleep in all kinds of different ways," Hanna mumbled jokingly to Caleb, who chuckled, shaking his head.

They arrived after a short drive and grabbed a blanket from the trunk as they got out, walking in the direction of the entrance to the large park. They exchanged effortless banter between them as they looked around, finding a good place to sit, and got settled on their blanket.

Alison thought they all looked like some sort of motivational poster, as though their life was a part of a movie that ended with a 'happily ever after'. And maybe, it was.

It was a notably sunny day and Alison took out her sunglasses, still not completely adjusted to the bright light. Just as she was about to place them on, she glanced at Emily, turning to her. "Here," she handed them to the brunette. "Try them on."

"Why?" Emily frowned in confusion.

"I want to see how they look on you," Alison explained shortly with a shrug.

Emily carefully took the pair of sunglasses from Alison's hand and placed them on her face. She turned to Alison with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, you are keeping those," Alison chuckled, not being afraid to bluntly check Emily out.

"What? No, Alison, they're yours," Emily insisted, taking off the glasses from her eyes.

"Come on, I want you to keep them. It looks better on you anyway," Alison cupped Emily's chin playfully, winking at her in assurance.

"Woah, giving away your designer sunglasses? What happened to the Alison DiLaurentis?" Aria joked from across them on the blanket.

"The Alison DiLaurentis, has fallen hard on her ass, in love, Ar, that's what happened," Alison replied playfully to the girl.

"Speaking of in love, isn't you guys' one month anniversary coming up?" Toby chimed in from beside Spencer, knowing Emily had brought it up with him recently.

Alison and Emily turned to each other, a small smile plastered on their faces. "Toby's right, Em. We should do something," Alison told her girlfriend. "And I think I know just the thing," she ended with a smirk.

"Ew, keep it in your pants," Hanna said in a disgusted manner.

"Not what I meant, Han, although we'll have enough time for that too," she waggled her eyebrows coyly at Emily, who gave her a playful scoff and a roll of her eyes at the blonde's lack of discretion. "But I saw this restaurant online when we were looking for things to do in Paris, they do special dinners for anniversaries and stuff, it looks really good. I'll show you later, Em," Alison explained.

Emily nodded excitedly as they kept eating their food. Aria pulled out her camera from her bag and started fumbling around with it, taking silly pictures of the group for the sake of memories. It was such a beautiful day out, too, and she couldn't miss the opportunity of using the natural sunlight for her own needs. The short brunette turned to the couple.

"Get together, I want to take a picture," Aria told the two girls.

They playfully posed for the picture and smiled when Aria showed it to them. "Aria, you're so talented," Emily complimented as she scrolled through the other pictures on Aria's old-school camera.

"Either that, or you guys are just really photogenic," Aria joked.

"She's right, Aria, these are fantastic," Ezra stated proudly from behind the smaller brunette, planting a kiss on her cheek. Aria blushed under her boyfriend's praise, then turned to Alison.

"Well, there's a reason why I'm taking all of these photos," she winked at the blonde who's eyes widened twice their size. Alison tried to secretly mouth 'Shh' to the girl, shushing Aria right up, then cleared her throat awkwardly when Emily stared at her strangely. Emily couldn't know just yet.

"What?" Emily asked naively.

"Nothing, Em," Aria brushed it off, turning away from Emily so the taller brunette couldn't see her satisfied smile.

XXXXX

They sat and chatted for hours on end, getting to know each other even better. Alison was sitting in Emily's lap, telling Toby, along with Hanna, a story about how the goofy blonde had once rescued the Queen Bee from being locked in a bathroom stall at The Grille, and how they had received free dessert as compensation after that.

"... And then the waiter looks at us like he's going to pass out, and he comes to us and begs, 'Please don't tell my boss, I'll get fired.' Anyway, he actually handed us a five-dollar bill as a bribe to keep our mouths shut, but Ali was all like, 'We don't want your money'. So, we ended up not telling his boss, but he still owed us free dessert, which we happily collected," Hanna told enthusiastically.

"Good times, Han," Alison reminisced nostalgically with a small sigh.

"Some crazy stuff went down in Rosewood, huh?" Toby laughed. "You should hear about the one time when Caleb and I broke into our principal's office," he started, lightly punching Caleb on the arm.

While Emily listened to Toby telling the story, she leaned her head on the blonde's shoulder, smelling the delicious scent of tender vanilla radiating from her. She nudged her nose on Alison's neck and without thinking twice nor blinking, the blonde reached out and handed Emily her Diet Coke, knowing exactly what her girlfriend wanted without even speaking a word. Sometimes, it still amazed her how well they could read each other's minds.

As Toby finished telling the story and the group's waves of laughter echoed through the park, Alison moved to sit next to Emily as the brunette finished her drink. Emily caught the girl smirking in the corner of her eye before she felt a hand coyly sneaking up her body over her shirt.

She grabbed Alison's wrist lightly. "Ali, not here," she scolded softly yet sternly.

"Oh? How about here?" before Emily could register, Alison's hand was moving up her thigh, close to her center. The brunette didn't think Alison even cared about the fact that they were in public with their friends, she guessed the blonde was just caught up in her trance.

"Ali," Emily started shyly. "We can do that, but later," she reassured her with a small, not-so-innocent smile.

"Promise?" Alison asked in a flirty voice.

"Promise."

Alison pulled her hand away with a victorious smirk. "I'll take you up on that, Fields."

XXXXX

They were traveling in small groups around the spacious park and surprisingly, Emily and Alison weren't walking together. As Hanna chatted endlessly about anything that came to her mind, and Emily was in awe by herself at the fact that she was actually keeping up with the bubbly blonde, Alison was somewhere ahead of them, talking to Aria and Toby. Emily momentarily glanced at them as Hanna rambled on about the crappy waiter at the party the night before.

"He spilled red wine on my shoes and didn't even apologize," Hanna shook her head exasperatedly and huffed. "But enough of that. So, you know what you're gonna get Ali for your anniversary?"

"No, not yet..." Emily looked in deep thought. She groaned, "I don't know what to get her, Han. Help me!"

"Alright, alright, geez. Okay, I have an idea," Hanna started excitedly, which caused Emily to raise her eyebrow a bit.

"I'm not going to wear five-inch heels and nothing else when she walks into the room, Hanna," Emily rolled her eyes, envisioning what her friend had in mind.

"I only mentioned that one time as a joke! And anyway, that's not what I was going to say," Hanna retorted.

"Okay, then shoot," Emily countered.

"How about we go to the mall tomorrow and I'll help you pick?" Hanna suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Thanks, Han," Emily said with a genuine smile.

"Don't thank me just yet, wait till you see what I have in mind," Hanna smirked devilishly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing. You'll see."

XXXXX

"There you go, one vanilla latte with extra foam," Emily handed the blonde a mug as she sat across from her at the table in the balcony of their room.

"You're an expert, Em, you should really work at a coffee shop or something," Alison mumbled offhandedly as she accepted it gratefully.

Emily felt the light breeze fly by and it was quite relaxing to finally have some cool air after the entire day had been hot. The sun had set and the skies had turned dark blue as the moon shined from above. It was an amazing sight that she could never dream of getting used to. The brunette couldn't help but notice the small smile on Alison's face from across the small table.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" the brunette asked, matching her smile to Alison's.

"One month. One full month that we've been together. It may not seem like a lot when you think about it, but it means the world to me, Em." Alison explained seriously. "It's been so perfect and honestly, it just makes me more excited about what's to come."

Emily smiled at the blonde. "Before I met you and the girls, I'd never thought I would actually go to Paris. And not just go to Paris, fly there first-class with the love of my life and my best friends. This is amazing, Ali. I've been thinking, and... I know it sounds super cheesy, but you know when people ask you, 'If you could be anybody in the world, who would you be'? Well, I don't want to be anyone else but me, because I'm just really happy," she finished in a quieter tone, her eyes turning involuntarily glassy.

"Em, are you crying?" Alison asked concerned, making a move to stand.

"A little, yeah," Emily responded with a watery chuckle as a tear slipped from her eye.

Alison moved over to sit on Emily's lap sideways, so she was facing the Eiffel Tower and the brunette was to her left. She wrapped her hand around Emily's shoulder and with the other, wiped her tears. "Well, I'm happy that you're happy. You have no idea how many times in my life I've wanted to be someone else, how many times I've wanted to run away and leave it all behind. But I want you to know, Em, that because of you, what you just said applies to me too. I don't want to be anyone else because nobody else has you as their girlfriend," she completed, wiping away Emily's last tear.

Emily sighed in contentment, then, a sudden memory came to her mind, making her frown faintly. "You know, my life hasn't always been like this. I used to... dislike myself, Ali, for not liking boys the way I liked girls, for being in love with you because I didn't think you returned my feelings, or ever could. This is not how I had imagined being - drinking coffee on a balcony in a hotel suite in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower right in front of me and the most beautiful girl in the world on my lap," she shot a look of adoration at Alison. "And - despite what my mom wants - I'm not really religious in any way, but I find myself thanking god every day for what I have, because this is everything I've ever wanted," Emily said intently with her eyes locked on the view of Paris, her arm finding its way automatically around Alison's waist.

Alison looked at her, not with pity of how Emily used to feel, but with understanding and solidarity. "I know what you mean, Em. I used to try and talk myself out of thinking about you as more than a friend, and I hated the fact that I couldn't. I know you forgave me for all of these years, for not showing you that I did return your feelings and for teasing you, and I know it was hard for you, Em, but it was hard for me, too. Imagine what it's like, living in a world where every move you do is judged and you have to be perfect. Imagine thinking all of your life that you have to like boys and that girls aren't even an option. But then you came. And I watched you, Emily. I watched as you dealt with your feelings and that gave me strength to act on them. And when I first kissed you at that sleepover, I knew it was right." Alison gave Emily a small smile and played with a strand of her hair.

"Then, when we first started dating, I was scared as hell of what both of our parents would say," Alison continued. "My parents are, well, they're the DiLaurentis'," she chuckled bitterly, "and your parents-"

"Mr. and Mrs. Military," Emily concluded sarcastically.

"Exactly. I had no idea their reaction was going to be so... good and even encouraging. They support us, Em, and we're really lucky for that. And not only our parents, our friends too," Alison noted as she looked at Emily lovingly.

"I love our friends so much... They're just the best. I'm not saying that only because they're so supportive, but for genuinely being the greatest people ever. I feel so close with all of them," Emily grinned from ear to ear.

Alison glanced at Emily, catching her smiling to herself like a little kid. "Em, can I ask you something?" she began solemnly after a few silent moments.

Emily instantly recognized the anxiety in Alison's eyes and wondered what the blonde was about to ask her that was so important. "Yeah," she answered reassuringly.

"I know we've never had a serious conversation about it, but... Are you... Do you think you're gay?" Alison blurted.

Emily was caught off guard by the question but she maintained a straight face. "Honestly?" she asked and Alison nodded. "I guess I do. I didn't like the idea of putting a label on myself at first, but when I thought about the actual definition of that word, it just fit the bill. I've never looked at boys the way I look at girls, or well, at you," she giggled, blushing. "So, yeah, if I had to find a label for it, then, I'm gay," she said, nodding. "Woah," she breathed, "this is the first time I've actually said it to someone this way."

"Well, you picked a killer location," Alison pointed to the Eiffel Tower with a chuckle.

Emily chuckled despite herself. "What about you?" she asked curiously.

"I don't know. I don't think I'm gay, but I think I really was repressed for the longest time. I thought I was absolutely straight until my feelings for you started to develop. I've liked guys in the past, Em, but I love you more than anything. If I had to put a label on my sexuality, then, gun to my head, I guess I'm bisexual," Alison finished with a sigh. "This is not only the first time I've said out loud, but it's also the first time I've actually admitted it to myself," she let out with her eyes wide, like she suddenly realized what she just said.

"Congratulations, Ali," Emily said honestly with a smile. "I'm proud of you," the brunette added as she turned Alison in her lap, so that now the blonde was straddling her, and gave her a long hug.

"I'm proud of you, too," Alison remarked with a small smile.

They stayed like that for a while until Emily spoke up again. "I love you," she murmured softly as she landed a kiss on Alison's hair.

"I love you too," Alison answered into the crook of Emily's neck as she closed her eyes and held the brunette tighter.

"You know, I know it's kind of silly, but sometimes I feel like someone could write a book about us. About all of us," Alison started with a silent laugh as she parted from Emily, in attempt to lighten the mood.

"Right? I said the exact same thing to Hanna when we were talking at the park. Somebody should write a book about our lives, but it has to be a really good book that'll later on become a TV show or something," Emily chuckled.

"But TV shows these days have more action. We need some crazy, stalkerish, cyber bully and we'll be all set for our own series," Alison said, making Emily laugh.

"I think we can create enough action right here."

Alison raised her eyebrow coyly at Emily's low tone, making the girl's insides turn about. The brunette gave her a surprisingly daring smirk. In one swift motion, she suddenly turned Alison back to the position she was before, sideways on her lap, and then swooped her off of her feet, carrying a shrieking and laughing Alison in bridal style into the bedroom.