44 - Faster Than my Bullet

Spencer peeked her head around the wooden door, staring out into the street ahead as the warm night air enveloped her skin. She waited with bated breath for Emily and Alison to arrive - the blonde had put her on watch duty, claiming she was the most responsible, and the witty brunette found it funny that both Aria and Hanna hadn't even bothered arguing.

All of the people inside the house were chatting animatedly, drinking or making out with someone - the usual things that happened at every Rosewood High party. Noel had helped them with the sound system installation but they hadn't turned on the music yet, truthfully scared that anyone from a block away could hear them.

Spencer turned around for a moment to scan the inside of the place; Hanna was enthusiastically munching on chips along with Caleb as they discussed when was the appropriate time to expand wardrobes due to seasonal change - well, Hanna talked, Caleb listened with an amused smile. Ezra and Aria were still obsessing over the drinks and snacks table, cleaning up every little mess the kids from their school made, which made Spencer believe they would become great parents, all while an old camera hung around Aria's neck by a strap, the petite brunette hoping to get Emily's surprised face on film for a possible collage she was making of her friends. Toby had gone to help carry more plastic chairs inside the house with the promise that he would return soon enough, before Emily got there. Noel and Mona were huddled in the corner, talking to some people from school. The witty brunette turned back around, going back to her duty.

Once Spencer caught a glimpse of brown and blonde hair down the asphalt road from the lake house under the light of a lamppost, she rushed over to Hanna and Aria, who upon seeing her distressed look, hurried over to her side.

"They're here," Spencer informed.

"How did Ali even get her here?" Aria asked with interest. She truly wondered why Emily would agree to being randomly dragged by Alison late at night to her own uncle's lake house. She made a mental note to ask Alison about it later.

And it indeed wasn't a simple task by any means for Alison. She had to come up with an explanation to the sudden request of bringing Emily to the lake house, but her years of perfecting her lying skills had helped, and she had merely told her girlfriend that there was a book she needed to burrow from Aria - that the petite brunette had left at the lake house of her uncle when she'd gone for a visit - for an upcoming and urgent Psychology project that she had, in her own foolery, postponed until the last minute, and that she was scared to go there alone. The Queen Bee had exaggerated with the details, knowing that the bigger the lie, the more believable it is.

Emily, although skeptical about the reasoning, still had Alison's best interests in mind and was happy that blonde turned to her instead of going there all alone. The brunette hesitantly allowed herself to be led over to the particular lake house by Alison who claimed to have gotten a key from Aria. The blonde was over the moon when Emily hadn't remembered that Aria wasn't even taking Psychology.

"How she got her here? Probably promised her a twenty four hour sex service." Hanna shrugged.

Aria and Spencer gaped at her in disgust. "Gross, Han," the petite brunette let out.

"Oh, come on. With a girlfriend like Ali, Em is probably doing all kinds of kinky stuff behind closed doors that we don't know about," Hanna gave them a small smirk with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

"Please stop talking," Spencer deadpanned, getting Hanna to merely chuckle at the amount of revulsion written on her face. "That disturbing image aside, hide!" the youngest Hastings practically shouted in their faces and, not wanting to upset their friend, Aria and Hanna scattered around, scolding people to stay quiet and hide while they turned off all the lights. As Hanna ran off to Caleb's side, she sarcastically mumbled something to herself about Spencer being so preppy that she had rhymed without even noticing she had.

As the silent seconds passed by, which turned to full minutes, Spencer sent a puzzled frown to Hanna and Aria, wondering where her friends had suddenly disappeared to. When she'd noticed them, they had been just down the street, so surely it wouldn't take them so long to get to the lake house from there.

She quietly padded over to the door, peering through the eye hole to see what was happening outside. She had never rolled her eyes as hard as she did when she saw the two girls locking lips on the front porch - or as Alison would explain to her later on, she was simply her "thanking" Emily for coming with her since she needed to make the show believable - which caused Spencer to roll her eyes even harder and break her own unwritten record.

Not wanting to ruin the surprise, she realized she couldn't march up there and pull the two apart by their hair, so she stayed awkwardly watching the pair with a grimace, waiting for the two of them to freaking part away already.

When Emily giggled and pulled away from Alison, waiting for the blonde to open the door, Alison smirked as she pulled out the key, entirely knowing that Spencer would probably be watching them through the eye hole - she knew her friends very well, after all.

Inside, Spencer heard the jiggle of the key and ran back to her previous spot behind the couch with Toby. As the door swung open, someone turned on the lights, which startled Emily deeply, and the brunette was greeted by a loud sea of "Surprise!"

Suddenly, a flash was on her face as Aria took a pic of her astonished expression, and she looked around in utter wonderment. She saw the looks of anticipation and expectation on her peers' faces and she couldn't help but break into a wholehearted grin, which earned countless cheerings as she felt a joyful chuckle escaping her lips.

She looked around, then ducked her head slightly when she saw everyone watching on, waiting to see what she'll do next. "Um, t-thank you," she croaked out with a nervous giggle and they all smiled at the adorably humble Emily that they all knew and loved.

Emily felt a hand on her hip and turned to see Alison, gazing at her with adoring eyes. She happily returned the same look without even trying, feeling newly-found drops glistening in her eyes.

"I'm going to cry," Emily warned with a smile, tears already welling up in her brown globes.

"You're already crying, Em." Alison teased gently and Emily laughed a bit as Alison wiped away the brunette's fallen tears with her thumb.

"What do you say, Fields?" Alison's small smirk turned into a soft smile as she continued.

"I say," Emily started, her smile widening flippantly, "I don't know how I'm going to repay you for this."

She giggled as she tilted her head and looked into the brunette's eyes earnestly. "You repay me every day by being in my life," she said softly, her voice intentionally only reaching Emily's ears and the brunette mustered a tiny smile as the tears rushed to her eyes again at the statement.

Figuring she still needed to show her gratitude to the people who came, Emily turned to the people around her, taking hold of Alison's hand with hers and intertwining their fingers easily. She swallowed lightly as she looked down at her own outfit. If she had known she was going to a party, she would've put on something a little more festive than jeans and a simple white t-shirt topped with a leather jacket.

But she's could hardly blame Alison for not telling her she was going to her own surprise party.

Emily wondered briefly what the party was actually for. Of course, she assumed it was probably for the new position she had gotten from her swim coach, but yet again, her birthday was coming up, so she really didn't know which one to go with.

"Thank you all for being here. Uh, I'm not entirely sure what I've done to have such amazing people in my life," she was fidgeting with her hands, but the kids around her had patient looks on their faces and they smiled at her in encouragement. She was perplexed for a moment over whether they were being overly nice to her because they genuinely liked her, or because they were afraid of the wrath Alison would bring upon them if they acted any differently. She stopped to look at Alison, then at all of her friends who were observing her from different spots in the room with loving expressions plastered on their faces, "But, I'm so glad to have every single one them in it." She cleared her throat to turn back from this serious moment, "Enjoy the party."

XXXXX

Alison had easily expected that kids would get drunk at the party. Teenagers were the most predictable species in the world. Noel had brought different types of alcohol from his big brother's stash after assuring the blonde that the older guy wouldn't mind, and teens being teens, well, she knew a lot of them would drink. Whether it was for fun, or if it was actually tasty for them, if they liked the feeling of it rushing through their body, or an explanation as simple as 'because it's a party', they would drink. What hadn't expected, though, was for her own girlfriend to get drunk.

Emily had always been the good girl, the goody-two-shoes, the, perhaps, "guardian" of the group who took care of the girls when they were drunk, especially Alison. But that day, the brunette decided to just let loose and have fun for once, seeing that it was her surprise party. Alison had stayed sober, knowing that if Emily drank, she would obviously get majorly drunk because her body wasn't all that used to it.

"There you are," Emily stated a few hours into the party with a lazy grin, plopping down on the couch next to Alison. The blonde had been sitting there with her face buried in her phone, in hopes of her girlfriend finding her after she'd lost Emily earlier. The party actually seemed like it was tentatively coming to a closure, since it had fewer people - only Emily's closer circle and people she would approve of, which was more Emily's style than huge, flashy parties - and it had been more casual and lowkey.

"Here I am," Alison acknowledged lightly and Emily closed her eyes and smiled widely, looking like the poster child for 'drunk'.

"I wanna go home, Ali, I'm so tired from beer pong with Tobes," Emily pouted, referring to Toby, as she dropped her head on Alison's shoulder, turning her head and burying her face in the blonde's neck. She took a large sniff, "Why do you always smell so good?"

Alison smiled softly at her girlfriend's fake groaning and took her by the shoulders. "Come on, party animal, let's take you home," she helped Emily to her feet, wrapping the girl's arm around her shoulders so she could hold her upright and support her weight, much like how Emily had held her when she was drunk in Paris.

"Mmm, yeah, so we can put our three kids to bed and give Rex his food," Emily mumbled.

"What?" Alison laughed humorously. "We don't have kids, Em."

"Not yet," Emily grinned and winked sloppily at Alison, making the blonde giggle, because it that sentence was something she would more likely say, not Emily.

She practically dragged Emily and then placed her on a chair near the dining table. "I'll be right back, okay? I'm just going to help Aria clean up a little and then we can go home."

Emily nodded tiredly and the blonde rushed into action, cleaning up around the place as people were beginning to leave, saying their goodbyes and congratulations to Emily. She found Aria and told her she was taking Emily home, and after the short brunette hugged her goodbye, she left back in the swimmer's direction.

She found Emily playing with a napkin that was on the table, attempting and failing at making a paper airplane as she lunged the paper in the air and it dropped pathetically to the ground, making her pout in disappointment. Alison shook her head in extensive amusement as she got Emily back on her feet and they left the lake house, walking to the brunette's house.

Emily stumbled on nothing but thin air every now and then, and other than a few slurred sentences, they walked in silence. The only sound that was being heard was Emily's feet dragging occasionally on the ground.

Once they got to the Fields' house, Alison knew Emily was a tad too drunk to use the entrance Alison had shown her the other day, and she wasn't sure where Emily had placed her own key or if she'd even taken one, considering the brunette thought she would be gone for twenty minutes tops.

So she pulled out the spare key Emily had given to her, suddenly remembering that the brunette's mother had yet another late shift at the station. She unlocked the front door and pulled Emily along with her up to the brunette's room. She knew there was no way she was leaving Emily in such a drunk state, she needed to make sure the brunette was okay. She laid the girl on the bed gently and then shot Jason a quick text, informing him that she would be staying at Emily's house for the night. She carefully tucked the already sleepy brunette under the covers, then headed downstairs to grab a bottle of water and ibuprofen from the medicine cabinet for the morning.

When she headed back upstairs, feeling quite drowsy herself, she couldn't help herself but steal some of the girl's night clothes, basking in the familiar scent of her girlfriend encasing her pleasantly.

She crawled under the covers next to Emily, seeing the brunette already mostly asleep. She snuggled up to her girlfriend who mirthfully accepted the blonde's position in her chest, pulling her closer. Alison could feel a steady beat pounding against her ear, and as the beat picked up, she could discern it was Emily's strong heart pumping in her chest, and a genuine smile curved at her lips. Emily didn't even try to hide the way the blonde made her feel whenever she was touching her, and Alison didn't try to hide the goosebumps she got from being this close to Emily, either.

"Em?"

"Yeah?" Emily mumbled sleepily.

"We need to find a better name for our dog. Rex is so unoriginal."

Emily chuckled and kissed the top of Alison's head, "Trust me, we'll have enough time to think about that."

XXXXX

"You guys need to get here, we want to leave early so we can use as much of the day as possible," Spencer stated anxiously over the phone, watching as Toby grabbed their bags and threw them into the trunk.

"Easier said than done, Spence. The girl is hungover, badly, what do you want me to do?" Alison muttered lowly and heatedly into her phone in response. Just then, the blonde turned to watch as Emily stumbled a bit down the stairs, returning from packing her bag, though she could barely open her eyes enough to do that.

"Actually, 'the girl'," Alison knew her friend air quoted without even needing to see her, "is your girl, so it's your job to find a way to get her down here. Look, I'll give her a cure for a hangover that's better than any other medicine. I've already given it to Hanna and she feels fine now," Spencer persuaded, feeling confident in her homemade unorthodox remedy for hangovers.

"Yeah, fine, whatever," Alison answered distractedly as she watched Emily place her packed bag on the table and then turn to approach her. She hung up the phone quickly and pointed at Emily. "Sit. I made you breakfast," she commanded, and from hearing her tone, Emily quickly took a seat at the table, lifting her hands in surrender.

As soon as Emily started eating, Alison took the seat next to her, tentatively asking, "How are you feeling?"

Emily swallowed the small bite. "Much better, but I still feel a little out of it." The brunette sighed, "I realized after last night that I don't really like drinking at parties, after all. It's not that I don't like letting go and having fun, I just think I'll have a lot more fun staying sober."

Alison nodded in understanding, secretly feeling extremely proud of Emily for not surrendering to peer pressure that way. She knew the brunette would no longer get drunk at parties, and although she was happy, she was a little bit bummed out that she wouldn't get to see adorable, drunk Emily more often. She noted to herself that Emily could still get drunk around her and their friends, though, just maybe not in high school parties.

"Hey, so I've been thinking," Emily started, her voice suddenly serious as she turned her full body to face Alison. The blonde held her breath at the sudden gravity behind Emily's words.

"I think Pepe is a good name for a dog."

Alison let out a sigh of relief and pushed Emily's shoulder playfully, "You jerk, I thought you were about to say something serious."

Emily chuckled lightly. "That is serious. It's obvious that the name we choose for our dog will determine our future," she deadpanned, trying not to smile.

Alison knew Emily was kidding, but the sound of her girlfriend saying, "our future" made her want to marry Emily on the spot, not giving a damn about their young age.

A little later, they headed over to Spencer's house, their bags slung over their shoulders. Spencer greeted them with a rush in her tone and acts, obviously wanting to leave as soon as possible. She handed Emily a tall glass of some mysterious green liquid, and Emily and Alison shared a grimace at the sight. The blonde didn't even bother asking what was in that thing, she was only glad she didn't need to drink it herself.

Emily nearly barfed at the taste of Spencer's hangover remedy, she only kept drinking when Alison placed her hand on her lower back and encouraged her, not wanting her girlfriend to be hungover while camping for Emily's sake. The swimmer truthfully didn't know if she wanted to hate Spencer for the horrible tasting medicine, or love her for having homemade medicine that actually worked, since she did, in fact, feel better merely minutes after sipping the drink, when she was already sitting in Toby's backseat with Alison by her side.

Hanna, Caleb, Aria and Ezra all climbed into Ezra's car and the two cars soon took off down the road, heading to the designated camping site Spencer had researched.

The drive was bound to be rather long, and they got bored pretty soon, too. Sure, they listened to some songs, talked and watched the passing view outside their windows, but by the time they were done with that, they still had two more hours until they got to the particular site.

Not too long later, Emily and Alison successfully fell asleep on one another after the blonde had scooted over to the middle seat to rest her head on Emily's shoulder and the brunette quickly rested hers on Alison's, the soft music coming from the car radio relaxing them as they soon drifted off. When slow, steady breaths filled the car, Spencer looked over her shoulder from the passenger seat and involuntarily smiled at the pair, who, even she had to admit, looked adorable. She turned to Toby, "Give me your phone for a second."

"Why?" her boyfriend asked curiously.

"You'll see."

Toby hesitantly pulled his phone from his front pocket while keeping his eyes on the road and handed it to his girlfriend.

Spencer threw him a thankful smile and turned to the girls. She began snapping away, a small smile plastered on her lips.

"What are you doing?" Toby laughed lightheartedly.

Spencer shrugged, "They're gonna thank me for this later."

She was very glad for the two girls' relationship, and even more so for the fact that they were best friends first and girlfriends second, knowing that if they were to break up - not that she found it very likely - they would still remain influential and important in each other's lives.

Toby soon started up a conversation and she engaged gracefully, and the time thankfully flew by just like the nice chat with her boyfriend, until eventually, in due time, they reached their anticipated destination.

After waking the sleepy girls up, they all took out their luggage from the trunk and met up with their friends, heading to find a proper spot to build their small, four-tent camp.

Alison placed her bags down on the grassy ground beside Spencer and looked behind her to see Hanna and Emily approach, also carrying their bags in their hands, the rest of their entourage slightly behind. Scanning Emily up and down, she decided the girl's "camping" outfit was far too tantalizing to be coincidental. She absolutely appreciated how Emily could even make sporty clothes look ten times hotter than they were intended to be.

"Em," she called out and Emily lifted up her head just in time to see Alison jogging lightly in her direction.

"Hey, Ali," she addressed warmly, finally reaching the spot and placing her bags down next to Alison's. Hanna waved them goodbye for the moment as she, full of amusement, went to help their most petite friend, Aria, carry her unusually heavy bag.

"So," Alison started, sweeping forward and standing in front of Emily. With her thoughts preoccupied with shots of Emily in her sporty camping attire, she momentarily forgot what she had even wanted to say and simply stood there for several seconds, mouth agape, looking - and feeling - like a complete idiot.

"Yeah?"

"Uh..." Alison blinked repeatedly as inappropriate thoughts once again started finding their way into her mind. Emily watched on with an eyebrow raised in amusement.

"Let's go to the lake," Caleb shouted to the group, pointing to the beautiful body of water just a few feet away from where he was standing further on the grassy hill.

Phew, what a save, Alison thought. Had she mentioned how much she loved Caleb?

The woods behind them, the lake in front of them, it all seemed as close to perfect as it could get, Emily thought as she led Alison by the hand to the lakeshore. With her friends gathering around at the sight of the blue lake in clear daylight, Alison gently let go of Emily's hand, giving her a small wink before running freely to the edge of the water, only to be snatched away mid-air by two strong arms and spun in the air. The blonde let out a small, surprised noise followed by a laugh, and Emily held Alison's body flushed snuggly against hers as the hot beams of the sun shone down on them, bounding and reflecting on the lake. The sound of laughter emitted in the background, their friends having just as much fun as they were.

Alison's laughter stood out most, though, and Emily didn't think she'd ever heard it so joyous and contagious before. It was the most beautiful thing that had ever laid upon her ears.

When she finally placed Alison down, both of them dizzy - and not from the amount of times Emily spun the blonde in the air, but from the light-headedness they felt next to each other - they turned to gaze at the lake laid out in front of them. They greatly appreciated the way the sun rays' shimmering lights spread on their faces, and found themselves smiling miraculously at the winsome and benefitting view ahead.

They quickly detached their shoes and advanced slightly further into the lake, feeling the lukewarm water on their feet. Their hands found their way to each other's and as they laced their fingers together, Alison leaned her head on Emily's shoulder, the same way she always did.

It didn't just feel nice. No, it felt beyond incredible to be standing at the edge of the lake on a day so bright and beautiful, with the love of your life's hand tangled with yours, Emily concluded.

Their friends came closer and the eight of them somewhat huddled, just taking the time to treasure the artistic-looking view all around them, giving each other soft and relatively shy smiles.

They all knew they could count on each other to make every location in the world look great as long as they were together, even if it was the bathroom of a gas station. But the fact that the sight actually looked this wonderful and they were together, made the word 'wholesome' barely scratch the surface of what they were feeling.

They spent the next few hours or so at the lake; disregarding their bags and tents that needed to be put up, they got rid of their clothes and went into the lake in their undergarments, laughing, splashing and simply enjoying the sun. While Alison, Aria and Hanna went off to lay on the grass and catch some tan, and Ezra and Caleb tried their hardest to skip rocks in a way that made them bounce more than three times on the surface of the lake, Emily and Toby made a contest to see which one can stay longer underwater, and after Toby failed - playfully claiming that it was because he had started too soon - Emily smiled and shook his hand in amusement as Spencer, the referee, announced her victory.

After they all got dressed again, four girls watched from the side as Emily, Ezra, Toby and Caleb took it upon themselves to organize an impromptu game of soccer, creating goalposts using rocks that found nearby and playing around with the soccer ball Toby had brought along.

Aria sighed with a grin from her place on the ground, looking solely at her boyfriend, "I love our boyfriends."

"Me too," Spencer responded in the same dreamy voice.

Alison looked at them in dismay, "Um, boyfriends and girlfriend, thank you very much."

"Please," Hanna dismissed with a wave of her hand, "Emily's the guy in your relationship, anyway."

"What makes you say that?" Alison raised her eyebrow with a curious chuckle.

"What?" Hanna shrugged, "it's obvious."

Alison turned to her expectantly, waiting for her to further explain herself.

Hanna sighed quickly, not understanding how her fellow blonde didn't see something that seemed so explicit in her eyes. "Okay, who tops? Emily, right?" the bubbly blonde asked in all seriousness.

"You'd be surprised," Alison smirked mysteriously.

"Ali, you top?!" Hanna choked with wide, enthusiastic eyes.

"Wow, I am just so uncomfortable right now," Spencer shook her head with an amazed expression at her friends' bluntness, looking away from the conversation.

"I mean, sometimes," Alison shrugged nonchalantly at Hanna's question, ignoring Spencer's remark. "We just switch, I guess. And Han, there's no guy in our relationship, that's kinda the point," she rolled her eyes.

"That's just a river in Egypt."

"What?" Alison asked in utter perplexity.

"Denial, Ali!" Hanna shouted, getting far too excited and invested in this topic. "Besides, you know what I mean," the bubbly blonde waved her off. "Look, it's not a bad thing by any means, but it's just easy to notice. See? Emily is even playing soccer with the guys."

"So what?" Alison played along. "You and I can play soccer too. All of us can. In fact..." The Queen Bee rose from her place on the grass, turning to her girlfriend, who was busy trying to playfully snatch the ball away from Caleb. "Em!" she called out, glancing teasingly at Hanna as the swimmer turned in her direction, "do you guys mind if we join?"

"No, Ali, I just got a new mani-pedi!" Hanna piped up, horrified.

"Han, you sound worse than I do," Alison rolled her eyes once more in irritation.

"Come on, Han. It's fun!" Emily encouraged with an inviting smile.

"Fine," Hanna relented at the sweet expression on her best friend's face, not wanting to disappoint Emily, "but only if I get to be on the same team as Caleb."

"Why don't we just do couples?" Caleb suggested as he helped his girlfriend up.

They all agreed and ended up splitting into two teams - Emily and Alison with Toby and Spencer, against Hanna and Caleb with Ezra and Aria. They didn't set any official rules, simply passing the ball around them as each team tried to score as many goals as possible. Although Hanna was having a great time, jokingly playing around with her friends like that, she quickly decided that the game had been rigged from the beginning, since the team that played against her consisted of four athletes, Emily and Spencer being the stars as they scored multiple goals with the help of one another.

At the end of their casual, spontaneous game, when they were heading over to sit down and have a sip of water, Hanna turned to Emily. "Okay, so maybe putting Aria as the goalkeeper wasn't the smartest decision. You and Spence sometimes aimed it too high for Ar to reach."

Emily pushed her arm playfully at her lack of tact, as per usual, while Aria, who had heard the comment, muttered, "Thanks for the support, Han."

Hanna only wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulders with a goofy smile and gave her a side-hug, "Oh, you know I love you, Ar. Height isn't the criteria for being a great friend like you. And you did do a good job at being a goalie - if it were me standing there, I would've ducked out of the way every time the ball even came near me."

Aria only chuckled in amusement at that, hugging Hanna back all the same.

They eventually got very tired and decided to go form their tents before it was too late. Ezra took control of the operation since his uncle had shown him how to form a tent many times. Finally, ten minutes later, four tents stood proudly facing the lake, a relative distance between each tent. Emily and Alison arranged their sleeping bags inside the tent along with the rest of their luggage, and by the time everyone was finished with everything they had to lay out, the sun was already setting.

Emily exited the tent before Alison did, and winced as she felt a gash of unusual, cold wind shuddering against her skin. 'What the hell?' she thought to herself. She didn't think it was supposed to be cold yet seasonal-wise, but then again, it was cutting close to a month into the Fall and she knew the weather was going to be really chilly soon - which was why she had brought along some warm clothes. She was Pam Fields' daughter, after all. She was prepared for any type of weather.

Alison soon came out, appearing by her side. "What's wrong?" she asked softly, seeing the look of concentration on Emily's face as the brunette tried to remember in which bag she placed her warm clothes. "Jesus, it's freezing," the blonde hissed and wrapped her hands around herself, standing in only a tank top and leggings.

"One second," Emily said, finally remembering she had placed her warm clothes in her red backpack. She disappeared into the tent, coming out a few moments later with her blue Rosewood Sharks zip-up hoodie in hand, while a black sweatshirt already covered her own body, since she had placed it on herself inside the tent just now.

Alison sighed in immense relief and smiled at Emily's kindness. She intended to reach for the Sharks hoodie, but was surprised when Emily walked closer to her with a timid expression, lifting her hands to go behind Alison's back and wrapping the hoodie securely around Alison's form. With Emily's hands still on the sides of the blue jacket, she timidly pulled Alison even closer and kissed the mesmerized girl tenderly on the forehead. "Don't want you getting a cold," she said quietly and the blonde so much as melted on the spot.

Alison gulped silently, staring into Emily's loving brown eyes, the butterflies running wild in her stomach at the thoughtful gesture. "Thank you, Em," she let out.

Emily nodded softly, then parted from her, taking Alison's hand to walk in the direction of the campfire their friends had already set up.

Walking closer, the soft sound of Aria singing and humming Pumped Up Kicks filled the air while Toby strummed the strings of the guitar he had brought along wafted into the air. They saw everyone sitting on wooden logs around the fire, listening to their friends creating delicate music as the light from the fire illuminated their faces. Emily and Alison smiled at the sight, both girls feeling sudden warmth from the already-burning fire, and for once, everything just seemed... peaceful.

"You better run, better run, faster than my bullet," Alison gently joined in on Aria's singing and the shorter girl looked up, smiling encouragingly for the blonde to keep singing, since she had been pleasantly surprised since the talent show.

Emily sat first, turning flabbergasted when Alison took a seat in her lap instead of the open space on the log. She was far from complaining though, and she wrapped both her arms safely around the blonde's smaller form as Alison and Aria continued to sing together. Caleb soon joined in, whistling along to the familiar tune just until it ended.

They were talking light-heartedly between them when Hanna left to bring something from her tent. She came back, grinning mischievously, bearing marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate.

Emily smiled brightly, "Han, I love you so much right now."

"Hey, what about me? I was the one who put it in Hanna's bag in the first place," Caleb playfully feigned outrage.

"Yeah, yeah," Alison dismissed him jokingly, already taking the products from Hanna's hands, her mouth watering at the simple thought of all of them mixed together.

Caleb rolled his eyes and chuckled with Hanna, who took the seat next to him.

They all watched in wonder as Alison uncharacteristically fussed over the food, roasting the marshmallow quickly, then squashing it along with the chocolate between two equally-sized graham crackers.

She was munching away when the group shook their surprise at her. "Yout know, I've never even had s'mores," Spencer shrugged.

Alison choked on hers, turning to Spencer with a look of disdain. "You've never had s'mores?" she nearly shouted, Emily wincing at the sound behind her.

"No...?"

Alison's wide eyes blinked at her from across the small circle in exasperation. Without another word, the blonde began making another s'more with intent, while the rest started on their own, as well. Then, Alison handed the snack to Spencer who took it hesitantly, not understanding what the big deal was.

Emily stared in amusement as Alison waited with bated breath and a small grin for Spencer's reaction.

Spencer took her first bite, and a second later, "Mmm," an appreciative groan was sounded as the girl closed her eyes, quickly taking another bite.

"Uh huh," Alison smirked, satisfied. She leaned back against Emily who wrapped her arms tighter. Alison happily turned slightly to feed the brunette her own half-eaten snack.

"Thank you, Caleb," Alison grinned at him, remembering even though she didn't thank him earlier, she really should now.

He rolled his eyes once more, playfully repeating Alison's words from earlier, "Yeah, yeah."

A few minutes later, mid-conversation, Emily began chucking small pieces of marshmallow to Ezra for him to catch with him mouth.

"One," Emily counted with a grin.

"Two," he said after he caught the second one and chewed it.

"Three," they all joined in, watching Ezra catch the third marshmallow.

"Four," he stood up as Emily threw higher in adjustment.

"Five," Emily winced as he almost didn't catch that one, but ended up kneeling on the ground and letting it fall in his mouth, chewing it hastily.

"Six," he had to climb on a log to get that one, and Emily admitted that had thrown it a bit out of his reach.

"Seven," they all stood up in anticipation as the number approached a round number ten.

"Eight," Emily waited impatiently for Ezra to swallow the previous marshmallow before she continued throwing pieces.

"Nine," Ezra couldn't believe he hadn't missed a single one. They were all faintly aware of how ridiculous they were acting, but they didn't care the slightest bit. They were just with each other, no one else to see.

Emily threw the final piece of marshmallow and Ezra maneuvered his head cleverly towards it.

"Ten!"

They all cheered and laughed in delight, and Ezra rushed over to give Emily a hug as she chuckled at his boyish smile, the boy still chewing the marshmallows as he held her.

"Alright, Fitzgerald, hands off," Alison joked when Ezra didn't show any sign of letting go.

"Sorry," he sheepishly stepped back, smiling, watching as Alison wrapped her arm around Emily's hip possessively.

Emily giggled, wrapping her arm around Alison's shoulders. She tucked hair behind Ali's ear with her free hand and leaned closer to whisper, "I like it when you're jealous."

"I'm not jealous!" Alison hissed quietly, but didn't try to move Emily's hand or her own. Emily gave her an are you serious? kind of look and the blonde rolled her eyes in response, "Whatever, Em, maybe just a little bit."

Emily smirked a little in satisfaction. She took her free hand and used it to pull Alison's face by her further cheek towards her lips, placing a sweet kiss on the soft skin of the girl's cheek.

Alison's pout deflated, and she failed to fight back a small grin, her beloved girlfriend looking down at her like she had hung the stars.