37 - Moonlight Sonata

Toby left for his own class as Alison and Spencer advanced on to English and entered the classroom, finding Hanna, Aria, and Emily already seated. Alison was actually very glad to be in this class, considering it was the only one where all five of them were together, and it was her favorite subject.

She walked over to Emily's seat, trailing her finger hauntingly up the girl's arm as she took the empty seat behind her. "Hey you," she greeted simply.

"Hey," Emily smiled brightly, though her breath was caught in her throat. In her defense, Alison's finger began tracing patterns on her shoulder and it only made it distracting for her to form a sentence. The blonde only smirked to herself at the effect she still very clearly held on Emily.

"Good afternoon, class. I'm Mr. Fitz, I'll be your new English teacher," the young-looking teacher introduced himself as he wrote his name with chalk on the black chalkboard. "This is my first year teaching, so I'm hoping you'll take it easy on me," he joked lightly.

The four girls' eyes instantly flew to Aria. This new teacher was nearly identical to Aria's boyfriend, Ezra. Only differences were that Ezra was younger than Mr. Fitz, he was a Fitzgerald, not Fitz, and that they didn't actually know what Mr. Fitz's first name was but they guessed it wasn't Ezra. And if it was, then the world was way smaller than they'd ever thought. Even Aria's jaw dropped at the sight, and she gave the girls a 'what the hell' kind of look. They looked back at her with a mix of awe and wonder.

The door suddenly opened, Mona standing in the doorway. "Sorry I'm late, Mr. Fritz," she apologized.

The class burst into strong laughter at the greeting, including Mr. Fitz, who merely chuckled to himself. Mona stared at them in confusion as she made her way to an empty seat next to Hanna. "What?" she asked, taking her place.

"It's Fitz, Mona, not Fritz," Hanna said in amusement to Mona.

"Oops, my bad," Mona giggled, shrugging.

As the teacher continued speaking to the class as an introduction, being a new teacher and all, Emily spaced out for a while, staring out the window. It was only when she heard the word "project", followed by a collective groan of disapproval, that she zoned back in.

"Yes, yes, I know - it's the first day of school - but you will have plenty of time to do this project, and I don't want you to say that I didn't inform you ahead," Mr. Fitz reassured. "I'll email you the contents of the assignment later today. In general, you will do the work in pairs and choose a book that means a lot to you or relates to your life somehow, and the project will be about it. Think of it as an introduction assignment so that I'll get to know you better. We have a full year ahead of us, after all."

Alison leaned forward and tapped on Emily's shoulder. "I think I have an idea," she whispered playfully in the brunette's ear.

"Me too," Emily answered back, somehow knowing exactly which book Alison wanted to do the project on.

"Great Expectations?" the blonde asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Great Expectations," Emily confirmed Alison's thought with a small head nod and a smile. Since Mr. Fitz was a new teacher and didn't know about last year's book reports, they could use this book in their project. Alison was surprised Emily was actually down to tricking the teacher with her, but yet again, she had seen several just how naughty Emily could be when she wanted to.

Alison smiled at her mermaid, leaning back into her seat. As the teacher started explaining about the syllabus and special credit assignments, Emily couldn't help but zone back out. She couldn't help it, she was still very tired throughout the day, and she had caught the most important part of Fitz's speech, so it was okay.

She stayed that way until the end of the class, daydreaming about all she'd done with her friends and her girlfriend in Paris, and how much, to her surprise, she had had fun with them that day even without Paris. Simply everywhere she went with them was bound to be fun, she just knew it. Luckily the teacher didn't notice it, and it was a good thing that it was the first class so they didn't have to write anything either.

The bell rang loudly in their ears and the teacher waved them goodbye and exited the class. The five girls assembled and exited onto the hall.

"So what are you guys' plans?" Emily inquired casually.

"I promised Ezra I'll help him babysit his little brother, Wesley," Aria said as they turned a corner.

"Yeah, and I'm going to the guys' apartment with Toby, so maybe I'll see you," Spencer commented in response.

"Well, I'll be in The Brew with Caleb, helping him with his computer tech-stuff, not that he needs my help," Hanna rolled her eyes playfully.

"What are you two doing?" Aria asked in interest.

"We're just gonna head to my house to hang out and rest. Emmy needs to sleep," Alison teased her girlfriend with the nickname she hated the most, causing Emily to roll her eyes begrudgingly as the blonde giggled.

They reached their lockers to insert their English books. Alison, Aria, and Spencer's lockers were a little further down the hall but thankfully, it was still in the same corridor, so the five of them were all in hearing distance from each other.

"Rest," Hanna chuckled smugly. "Is that what they call it these days?" she said, bouncing her eyebrows suggestively at Emily.

"Please stop doing that," Emily said with a disturbed tone, but couldn't help the small smile at her best friend's humorous antics.

"Hanna, you know we don't just have sex 24/7 and we actually do hang out, right?" Alison asked teasingly just as a teacher walked by. She grimaced lightly as the teacher turned to look at her at the sound of the word 'sex', ducking her head a bit to avoid laughing in his face at the awkward situation. He warily glanced between her and Emily, then adjusted his glasses and carried on hastily, shaking his head. Good thing he wasn't her teacher.

"Ali! Did you have to scream that for everybody to hear?" Emily hissed, looking around and checking for more damage.

"Relax, babe, he isn't our teacher. We won't have to see him that often and he'll forget soon," Alison persuaded.

"Fine," Emily said as she shut her locker, "but if he's the sub for something and I'm in that class, I'm toast for the entire period."

"And here I am thinking I'm the drama queen of our relationship," Alison taunted with smirk, closing her locker and advancing slowly towards Emily.

"What do you say we'll get out of here before the two of them start making out with each other?" Spencer offered to Hanna and Aria loudly enough for the couple to hear.

Aria and Hanna nodded wide-eyed and over-dramatically, following Spencer out of the corridor. Alison rolled her eyes at them and then turned to Emily. "Come on," she said, grabbing the brunette's warm hand and walking out of the school. Emily got her bike from the bike rack and they walked all the way to Alison's house, Emily holding her bike beside her as they strolled by foot.

They talked about their day as they trodded; Alison ranted several times about how bored she was without Emily and then the brunette tried to persuade her that school wasn't so bad, which led to Alison groaning and telling Emily that she and Spencer were starting to sound awfully like each other, and like her own mother.

They entered the DiLaurentis house to find Jason napping on the couch. When he heard the door closing, he woke up, startled.

"Sorry Jas, we didn't mean to wake you," Alison apologized casually as Emily gave him a sympathetic smile.

He looked at the time on his phone, "No, it's okay, I should be grateful to you. I'm supposed to be somewhere in an hour, thank god you woke me up."

"Where are you going?" Alison asked as she took Emily's school bag from her, setting it down on the floor, then took off her own purse as well.

"I have someone waiting for me," Jason replied with fake-nonchalance.

"Ooh, a date?" Alison asked in a playful voice, making Emily giggle and Jason roll his eyes.

"It's not a date," Jason said grudgingly.

"Right..." Alison drew the word tauntingly, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

This time it was both Emily and Jason's turn to roll their eyes at the girl. Jason shook his head lighthearted and walked over to the dining table, grabbing his jacket from where it was laying hung on the back of a chair. He put on the leather jacket and then approached them.

"I'm friends with some of the seniors in your school. Heard what you did at the cafeteria, it was the real talk of the day apparently," he said as he gathered his keys and wallet. He paused to look at her, admitting with a smile, "Pretty badass, if you ask me."

"Yeah, yeah," she dismissed the compliment, rolling her eyes playfully.

He laughed and then turned to the door. "Later, losers," he called out lightheartedly over his shoulder, much to their amusement, then closed the door behind him.

"You weren't kidding when you said you've been acting more like siblings in the past month than in your whole lives," Emily mused out loud.

"I know," the blonde chuckled.

Going to plop down on the couch, where Jason had been napping merely minutes ago, they half-sat half-lay on opposite sides of the sofa, facing each other, their backs against the sides of the couch and their legs laid across it.

"So, how was your day? You know, besides the whole, crazy cafeteria thing?" Emily asked with a relaxed grin.

"It was good, I guess, except for the fact that we got a project on the first day," Alison groaned, pouting.

"At least we'll do it together," Emily said optimistically.

"And on a book we both love," Alison added in agreement, taking Emily's hand in hers.

Emily smiled and rubbed her thumb over the back of Alison's hand. "What do you want to do now?"

XXXXX

His hands were at the base of her neck, squeezing sickeningly while she struggled to breathe. She tried to reach out and grab his arms for dear life but failed as her own hands fell limply to her sides.

She took large gasps and mumbled something incoherent as he watched her with a sly grin of success. And just like that, she became a lifeless corpse.

"Goodbye, Emily," he whispered hoarsely in her ear.

"Remind me again why we're watching this movie?" Alison asked her girlfriend as she grimaced at the sight of what was playing on the television.

Emily shrugged, "It was the only thing on."

"How ironic is it that the main character's name is Emily," Alison stated, chuckling from where she was lying in Emily's arms.

Emily was now lying with her head on the side of the couch, her left arm loosely around Alison as the blonde rested her head in Emily's chest, her own arm draped around the brunette's torso. Emily made a move, shifting a little to the edge of the couch so that Alison would have more space and see the movie better, but she accidentally ended up rolling off of the couch in the process.

"Oh, my god, are you okay?" Alison asked concernedly, reaching a hand for Emily.

Emily laughed wholeheartedly at her own fail, taking Alison's reached hand and pulling the blonde down onto her. They were both shaking from laughter by this time, Alison's body vibrating on top of Emily's, but as the blonde gently reached a hand to touch Emily's face, the swimmer winced.

"Your eye's still hurting, isn't it," Alison frowned softly, a caring expression on her face.

"A little," Emily admitted.

"I'll get you some ice. Turn off that horrible movie in the meantime," Alison said jokingly, and Emily's cute little giggle echoed in her ears as the brunette reached for the remote while Alison got off of her.

The blonde soon returned from the kitchen with an ice pack, handing it to Emily. "Thanks," the brunette said as she moved to sit on the couch.

Alison sat next to her, placing a hand on the brunette's back and rubbing soothing circles as Emily placed the pack on her throbbing eye, flinching in the process at the coldness.

"Does it feel better?" Alison asked.

"Yeah... I'm just looking forward to not having this in a few days," Emily laughed lightly.

Alison smiled at the brunette, withdrawing her hand.

"Ali?" Emily asked as her good eye focused on something else in the room.

"Yeah?"

"How come I've never heard you play the piano?" the brunette asked as she stared at the large, black piano in the corner of the room.

Alison frowned slightly. "Do you want to?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Emily nodded, a small smile gracing her face.

"Okay," Alison confirmed happily, unable to stop the smile spreading upon her own face. She and Emily stood up and walked over to the piano, sitting down on the small bench in front of it. Emily kept the ice pack resting on her eyes as the blonde opened the piano's fallboard, placing her fingers on top of the keys. Emily anticipated the beginning of a melody, but it never came.

"Ali?" came Emily's small voice.

Alison shook her head, "I just, I haven't done this in a long time."

"It's okay, Ali. Just take your time." Emily said thoughtfully. Alison nodded in response, the wheels turning in her head as she adjusting her hands on the keys.

She began moving her fingers softly, playing a melody that could only be described as beautiful by anyone with ears. Emily smiled tenderly and savored the sweet sound coming from the large instrument. The melody was melancholic and sad-like, and it made Emily want to cry, somehow not necessarily because of the tragic sound, but because of the incredibly accurate yet flowing way Alison played it. As Alison's fingers flew across the keys with ease, Emily was stunned at how talented she was.

When the melody ended, turned to stare at Alison and lowered her ice pack, finding the blonde looking at her with an expectant look.

"What do you think?" Alison asked tentatively.

"That was amazing, Ali. I can't believe I've never heard you until just now." Emily answered, still in a living daze.

"Yeah, well, I stopped taking piano lessons at the beginning of last year," the girl admitted truthfully.

"Why'd you stop?"

Alison shrugged, "It was my mom's idea that I'd start learning, from the beginning. She wanted me to be the 'most talented kid in the school', whatever that meant. When she'd ask me to play in family events, I'd always thought it was just because she was proud of me, but years later, which was last year, I realized that she was just using my talent to show me off. That's when I stopped." Alison sighed at the fact that her voice turned heavy at the end.

"Maybe it wasn't just to show you off. Maybe she really was proud of you," Emily tried.

"Maybe."

The silence lingered a few seconds before Emily spoke up again, "Well, I'm proud of you."

Alison turned to look at Emily. The brunette's face was completely genuine, and it showed nothing but pure love. "I know you are. I'm proud of you, too."

"For what?" Emily asked, sounding completely confused. Alison almost laughed at the girl's obliviousness.

"You don't see it, do you?" Alison asked, her head tilted slightly. Emily shook her head in puzzlement. "Em, you are so talented. Your swimming is absolutely amazing, you're already breaking school records before even becoming captain. That's incredible, babe," Alison promised. "But I'm not just proud of your swimming, though."

Emily frowned a little, not understanding what Alison meant.

"Do you know how hard it is to be a genuinely good person? You don't see it because you've been like this your whole life, but I do. Em, I had become a better person throughout the last month, and it was because of you. And I know how hard it is, but you make it look so easy. You're nice, you're caring and polite and... you're everything that's good in this world. Like an angel," Alison finished in a quiet voice, reaching out her hand to hold Emily's cheek. She ran her thumb over the smooth skin, watching how the brunette placed her hand on top of her own.

"I love you, Ali, but I'm not the only 'angel' in this room. You've come such a long way from who you were last year, and everyone can sense it," Emily said, struck by Alison's way with words.

"Thank you, Em. That means a lot," the blonde answered, pulling Emily into a hug. "And I love you, too. Always."

They stayed in their position for a few seconds, until Emily spoke again. "I don't want to break this moment, but what was that piece you just played?"

Alison laughed lightly, "Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, why?"

Emily backed away from Alison, "With all due respect to Beethoven, can you play something I know?"

They both laughed at that, before Alison turned her body back to the keys and placed her fingers back onto them.

She began playing an acoustic version of Emily's favorite song, obviously the first song that came to her mind. She faintly remembered how she'd learned how to play it once, about two years ago, when Emily had told her it was her favorite song. Alison didn't know why she did it back then, but she'd just known that she wanted to play it for Emily sometime and impress her. Somewhere along the lines, when she had become Queen Bee, she'd forgotten all about it, but now, it was like everything was flowing back to her mind again.

She didn't even realize she had begun softly singing along to the song, and she chanted the words faultlessly in a quiet, pleasant tone until the ending came, when she released her fingers and glanced at Emily. The brunette was completely in awe, her mouth agape and her throat dry.

"Holy crap," Emily let out, more to herself than to Alison.

"What's wrong? Is it your eye?" Alison panicked.

"No, nothing's wrong, it's just... your voice, Ali... I didn't know you could sing that well," Emily said with a growing smile.

"Thank you, Em -"

"- You have to go to the Rosewood talent show!" Emily interrupted with her enthusiastic offer.

The Rosewood talent show was an annual event in their small, yet extremely wealthy town. Alison had never gone on it, despite her mother's attempts at persuasion. Jessica DiLaurentis had even tried to get Jason on the show once, when he was fourteen. He had studied guitar for exactly five months back then, and he wasn't very good at it either, Alison might add - she had hours of screeching noises coming from Jason's bedroom and many many headaches to prove that. Still, Jessica DiLaurentis wanted at least one of her kids to be on the talent show, but they never were. Maybe now Alison could do this. Not just for her mother, but for herself, too, with Emily's support, of course.

"Are you sure? I really don't know if I'm good enough-"

"Alison DiLaurentis is backing out of a challenge?" Emily teased with a small smirk.

'When had my mermaid become so bold and spicy?' Alison thought in wonder as she felt herself falling even harder for this newfound confident Emily.

"Of course not," Alison answered with just as much power and attitude in her words.

"Good," Emily smiled at her. "I'll sign you up tomorrow at school."

Alison gazed at the girl in shock, not believing she had just been talked into doing this. She stared at Emily's beautiful face in awe, the only girl who could challenge her to anything and get away with it.

When the brunette's eyes dipped to her lips, it was like an internal trigger had now been activated inside of her. She could practically feel her eyes turning three shades darker and her adrenaline pumping in, signaling that Alison's body was now alight with desire. A desire for Emily, to be exact. She grabbed the brunette by the back of her neck and pulled her in for a strong kiss. They kissed passionately, their lips moving against each other's with rhythm, their hands trailing over each other's bodies greedily, and their bodies moving closer by the minute. Alison was about to slide her tongue into Emily's mouth when-

"Alison? Jason?" Kenneth DiLaurentis' voice echoed through the house from where he was entering through the front door. "Are you home?"

Emily and Alison jumped away from each other, and not to mention a foot in the air, the blonde giving Emily an apologetic look for her oblivious father. "Over here!" she called out breathlessly. She hoped her father wouldn't pick up on anything.

Mr. DiLaurentis walked over to the living room where the two were still sitting on the piano bench. "Oh, hello, girls."

"Hi, Mr. DiLaurentis," Emily answered politely with a small smile. She tried her best to avoid eye contact with him so he wouldn't see her 'I just made out with your daughter and it would've gone further if you weren't home' look. But she assumed he was still oblivious since he was still smiling at her.

"Is your mother or Jason home?" he asked Alison.

"No," Alison answered with a huff and attitude. She was still frustrated by his timely entrance.

"Well, I'm gonna go rest while I can," he joked and they tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace as they were still embarrassed by almost getting caught. He made a move to the staircase before turning back. "Oh, don't forget you have a dentist appointment tomorrow after school, okay, Ali?" he reminded.

"Alright, dad," Alison answered, trying to get him to move along already.

Once he nodded and disappeared out of sight, Alison groaned and buried her face in the neck of a still-flustered Emily. "I'm sorry about my dad."

"It's okay," Emily barely croaked out.

"Hey, do you want anything to eat?" Alison changed the subject.

"Um, not really, I-"

But Emily's unbelievable coaxing was stopped by the grumble coming from her stomach. The brunette's cheeks turned bright red as she looked down at her abdomen, embarrassed.

Alison couldn't help but giggle lightly. "You have to stop being too polite to ask, Em. Come on, let's order pizza or something," she said as she grabbed Emily's hand and led her up to her room.

Emily plopped on the bed with an audible thud as Alison sat at her desk. "You're really tired, aren't you?" the blonde questioned with a knowing look.

Emily simply nodded without picking up her head, making the sheets ruffle against her face.

Alison got up and walked over to her own bed. She climbed on it and went under the covers. When Emily picked up her head, she motioned her to come, to which the brunette obeyed tiredly. It was as if all of the day's tiredness caught up to her just now. She went under the covers as well and Alison's hands guided her to rest her head on the blonde's chest as Alison held her safely.

As Alison ran her fingers through Emily's soft hair, she felt the brunette's body relaxing against her own as Emily turned sleepier by the moment. She kissed the top of the girl's head lovingly and saw the brunette smiling cutely at the gesture, her eyes still closed.

Finally, after a few minutes of soothing silence, she felt Emily's breathing becoming even, and the brunette was peacefully asleep in her arms. She carefully took out her phone and flickered through it, occasionally checking on Emily to see if she'd woken up accidentally, which luckily never happened. Then she took her earphones from the top of her bedside table and plugged them into her phone, listening to music.

That was how they spent the afternoon, and by the time it was evening, Alison knew Pam Fields would be worried if Emily came home late, and as much as she didn't want to wake her girlfriend, she felt like she had an obligation to.

She took out her earphones and placed them on her bedside table, along with her phone. She took one last glance at her sleeping girlfriend, noticing how absolutely adorable and peaceful Emily looked in her sleep.

She gently shook Emily's shoulder, trying to wake her up. "Em," she whispered softly. "Babe, wake up."

When that didn't work, she went for more "drastic" measures. She slid her own body further down the mattress until she was face-to-face with Emily. She gently grabbed Emily's cheek with her hand, kissing her shortly on the lips and then pecking her on the cheek. "Wake up, mermaid," she whispered quietly in her ear.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Emily shook out of her sleep, opening her eyes slowly to find Alison right in front of her on the mattress. "Hi," Alison said with a simple smile.

"Hi," Emily answered with a half-sleepy voice, matching the smile. She rubbed her eyes, "I feel like I've slept for ages. What's the time?"

Alison gulped at Emily's raspy voice. She didn't think Emily knew just how extremely sexy she sounded when she woke up. She barely answered Emily's question, checking her phone clumsily, "Uh, 7:15 PM."

The voice that came from Emily's stomach was much louder now, she had forgotten all about the pizza they had said they'd order.

"Oh, I ordered the pizza while you were asleep. It's probably cold now but you can take it home and heat it up. I don't want you to stay hungry," Alison said.

"What about you? Have you eaten?"

"No, I stayed here. I was afraid that if I moved, you'd wake up. I wanted to make sure you got enough sleep, but not too much sleep, so that your sleeping schedule wouldn't get all messed up," Alison answered thoughtfully and Emily didn't understand the blonde's nonchalant voice because small gestures like that were exactly one of the main reasons she had fallen in love with the blonde.

"That's really sweet of you, Ali, thank you," Emily smiled softly, giving Alison a long kiss on her cheek. The blonde faintly blushed at that and smiled, biting her lip cutely.

"Anything for you," the charming answer made Emily's heart flutter.

After that, Alison and Emily walked downstairs, where they packed a few slices of pizza for Emily to take home. The blonde then walked Emily to the door and cupped her face, kissing her goodnight.

A few hours later, when they were each getting ready to go to sleep, they couldn't help but smile at the afternoon they'd spent together, as lazy and 'uneventful' as it was.

Alison loved that Emily was just too polite to ask for food herself, it showed that she didn't feel entitled to anything and that she'd been raised well. She loved how Emily could be a 'bring home to meet the parents' type, and a 'too sexy to be true' type all rolled up into one person.

On the other hand, Emily loved the way Alison stayed awake just to make sure Emily was alright, and how she'd thought ahead about Emily's hunger before her own. Not to mention, she'd woken her up in the best way possible. A relationship with Alison was something Emily had dreamed of ever since she'd first laid her eyes on the blonde, but back then, she had no idea it could even be this good.

Emily remembered the time when they'd talked about Bella and Edward's relationship in Twilight, that night when they'd first kissed, and now, she was certain that her relationship with Alison was better than theirs. Alison had said Bella and Edward had a beautiful relationship, but Emily was content with knowing that her relationship with Alison wasn't just beautiful, it was extraordinarily intimate, playful, comforting, affectionate, and not leaving out, fun.

Emily would do anything for Alison. She would do anything in return for the incredible relationship Alison had given her. She would give her the world, and Alison would do the same. If fact, both of their worlds had already been taken over, Emily's by Alison and Alison's by Emily.