Hello my beauties.

So sorry again for the wait, life has a way of taking hold and not giving a girl too much time (or inspiration) to write, but I return again with a post for you all! It's not a super exciting one and for that I apologise, but it is another step toward the end of this story and that's sort of what I'm hoping for with each of these posts.

I'm also sorry I didn't get to respond to all of your wonderful reviews. I really do appreciate them all I've just been so busy working that I haven't had the time to properly sit down and chat with anyone!

I know I'm not as eager or quick to post as I used to be, and that makes me sad but in a way it makes me happy as well. Writing was always an escape for me, a way to get out of my own boring mediocre life into a more exciting and beautiful one, but I don't feel the need to do that anymore. I truly owe that to this site. This community of people has changed my life so much over the last few years. Not only did it lead me to the absolute love of my life, who I cannot WAIT to marry next year, but it let me discover a whole new breed of people, as well as discover myself. I would be so lost without all of you and without this beautiful fandom we all love so much. So thank you. From the very deepest part of my soul I thank each and every one of you for helping me find myself, and for helping me finally be happy.

I can't promise I'll be super quick with posting after this. I'm in England right now visiting my love and will be here for the rest of the summer, and after that I'm starting school again after a semester off as well as preparing for my fiancee to move to the states with me and planning the wedding of the CENTURY, but i assure you all I will try my hardest.

I love you all so much, thank you again for everything you have done for me. I hope you enjoy this little piece of Naomily I have to offer.

Disclaimer: I don't own skins or the characters in it.

My evening with Naomi went far better than I expected it to. My only real goal had been to cheer her up and distract her from the fact that Ava wasn't there, what I got was far more than I dreamed of. I had waited so long to hear Naomi say those three words that were so hard for her to get out. When she finally let them out, finally admitted that she loved me, I almost didn't believe my ears. I thought I must have misheard. She really said I love food, not I love you. It was the only logical explanation, right? But it wasn't. She really did say that she loved me, and her small rant afterwards was enough to show me that she meant it. Naomi opening up to me in that way also proved that she truly had changed. she really was ready for us. Finally. Finally ready to love me and let me love her. We could finally have the relationship I had longed for when I was sixteen, and I was more than ready for it.

While I was ready, and it seemed Naomi was too, I wasn't stupid enough to jump the gun and end up scaring her off by rushing too quickly into things. So, after a lovely evening spent eating food, drinking good wine, and admittedly some pretty heavy snogging sessions, I put my shoes on and left like the respectful woman I was.

On Monday I went into work like normal, texting Naomi throughout the day about nothing really interesting, and I nearly forgot about my guest until I received a text from Sian at two telling me she was on her way. I rushed home from work at half three and started cleaning my room as fast as I could. As soon as I got changed and my room tidied I started cooking up a shepard's pie, and stuck it into the oven a little after half four, giving myself more than enough time to sit and relax. I started getting nervous butterflies in my stomach as I watched some Geordie Shore and sipped on my pinot noir. The nerves weren't so much a result of seeing Sian again, though that did contribute to it, but more so because I hadn't told my mum she was coming. It shouldn't be a big deal, I was an adult and perfectly capable of making my own decisions and inviting over whomever I pleased. It was though, because as much as my mum hated Naomi and blamed her for turning me gay, her feelings for Sian were even worse.

In the eyes of Jenna Fitch, Sian was the reason I was bound to amount to nothing. She believed that Sian is the one who encouraged me along the path of homosexuality, as well as forcing me to waste two years of my life travelling to countries I didn't need to see. I did my best to brush away my worry though. Sian had faced my mother on more than one occasion and knew exactly how to handle her. So, I sipped my wine and watched my show and let the alcohol slowly start to take its effect.

My one glass of wine turned into two, and by the time I heard my front door opening just after six I was onto my third and feeling quite merry. I craned my neck to look through the doorway and see who it was that had finally come home. As soon as I saw the long brown hair of my best friend a smile broke out on my face and i stood up so quickly I nearly spilled what was left of my drink.

"Don't tell me you started the party without me," She joked, smirking at my obvious stumble.

"Never," I promised, "I simply had a few glasses while I was waiting." I reached out and grabbed onto her shoulder to steady myself as the full power of the wine hit me, "Fuck I don't drink enough anymore. I've seriously had only two," I glanced down at my nearly empty glass, "Okay three glasses of wine."

"Don't go clubbing every night anymore I take it?"

"No, I haven't been to a club since I moved here. I've barely even drank any alcohol at all," I explained, surprised I wasn't devastated by that fact.

"You're going to one with me though right? I really need a night out."

"Yes," I promised, "I don't have work tomorrow and I could use a nice dose of loud music and too much alcohol."

"Good," She smiled, "Can we eat something first though? It was a long drive and I'm fucking starving."

"Yes!" I said, a bit too enthusiastically and loud judging by the frightened expression on Sian's face. I smiled apologetically and motioned toward the kitchen, "Sorry, I meant yes, I've got a shepard's pie in the kitchen whenever you're ready to eat."

Her eyes transformed from being wide with shock to wide with excitement as she brought me into her arms, "Emsy bear, I love you." She kissed the side of my head and started dragging me toward the kitchen, "I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a proper good shepard's pie. And as you know, yours is the best in the entire world."

"Yes I do know. That is exactly why I made it for you."

She smiled at me like she was a six year old child and I was Santa Clause before grabbing the serving spoon and shoving a pile of pie into her mouth in a less than attractive way.

"Oh my god I could actually kiss you right now," She moaned, a bit of mash fell out of her mouth and landed on top of her shoe.

"God please don't," I laughed. Not only was watching her devour the pie just about the opposite of an effective aphrodisiac, but the thought of kissing her now, even after years of exploring every inch of her body, was about as appealing as the thought of kissing my sister. "And please share," I requested. She put a protective arm around the pie dish and shot a glare in my direction. "I did make enough to feed a family of six," I pointed out, "and if you share with me now I'll let you keep all of the leftovers."

"Or I could just eat all of it right now and not have to give you any," She reasoned, shoveling another glob of food into her mouth.

"Sian," I said, giving her my best unimpressed mum look.

"Fine, you can have two bites," She relented, lowering the protective arm and opening the silverware draw, "with a tea spoon."

My mum glare didn't waver, so she relented and grabbed a normal sized spoon with a dramatic huff. I smiled kindly and pulled two dinner plates down from the cupboard.

"You're ruining my night," She whined.

"Babes, me eating shepard's pie, which I made, Is not going to ruin your night. You being a stubborn cow on the other hand," I trailed off, my lip turning up into a smirk. She rolled her eyes and tried to act annoyed, but I could see the corners of her mouth twitching, giving away the smile she was trying so hard to suppress.

"What time do you want to head out? She asked after an additional eye roll from yours truly.

"Probably about half nine?" I suggested, looking down at my less than flattering jogging bottoms and baggy t-shirt.

"Perfect," She smiled, "that means we'll have time to chat sober, bet ready, and do a bit of pre-gaming to start the night off properly." She smiled, taking the serving spoon and finally dishing normal sized portions onto our plates instead of shoveling more into her mouth, "though, you're already ahead of me on the pre-gaming front."

"Don't worry, I'll be sober by the time we start drinking again."

She winked at me and handed me my plate as we both turned to make our way upstairs.

"So Emsy bear," She said as we settled down onto my bed a few moments later, our dinner in our laps. "I believe you've got some things to share with me?"

Beautiful crystal blue eyes popped into my mind and the blood rushing to my cheeks destroyed any hope of me avoiding the subject. I cleared my throat and took the hot plate off of my lap before setting it on my bed, keeping my eyes clear of Sian's face while I pointlessly busied myself.

"Come on then, I want all the details."

"There aren't really any details."

The way she rolled her eyes in response to my denial reminded me so much of Naomi I couldn't help but chuckle, and had to do my best to disguise it as a cough in order to avoid even more questions from her.

"So, what's her name?"

There wasn't really a point to avoiding this conversation, Sian would get all of the information out of me eventually anyways, so I figured i'd save us both time and effort and just come out with it.

"Naomi," I said, and as I had imagined, Sian's eyes grew to the size of saucers and her eyebrows shot so high up they nearly merged with her hairline.

"Naomi Naomi?" She asked, the way she said Naomi's name sent a feeling of dread straight to my chest.

"Yeah," I said, feeling a small bit of shame for the first time since letting Naomi into my life again.

Sian knew more about what happened between me and Naomi than anybody else. I told her every single detail from our first kiss in middle school to that very last day outside Naomi's front door. She knew everything. Which was why I felt suddenly like I'd let her down. With knowing everything about what had happened, she also knew how adamantly I had promised to never be with someone like Naomi again, let alone actually be with Naomi herself again. She was speechless for a few moments, and when she finally did speak all she managed to get out was a very strangled "Why?"

I gave her an answer so simple I knew she would want me to say more, but so truthful I wasn't quite sure how to expand on it just yet, "I love her."

"You're not getting of with a three word answer this time Emily."

"That's it though. I love her and she loves me." She gave me a look that very clearly said she wouldn't put up with such a simple answer.

"She makes me happy. Happier than I've ever been. Even standing on a cliff in New Zealand with you looking out at the world doesn't compare to sitting on the sofa with Naomi watching telly and eating sweets." Her eyebrows perked up again at my mention of New Zealand. We'd had a mutual understanding that that day had been the best day either of us had experienced in our lives, saying anything topped that wouldn't be taken lightly. "She's changed now. She's gone through a lot of shit and it's made her grow up so much. She's finally not running from us. I love her Sian, and her mum and her stepdad and her daughter and every single person in her life."

"Wait," She said, putting her hand up in front of my face, not so subtly signaling for me to stop talking, "She has a daughter?"

"Yeah," I sighed, an image of the smile Ava got any time I walked into their house made its way into my mind and I couldn't stop my own lips from twitching up, "Her name is Ava. She's four years old and just the smartest, funniest, most amazing little girl I've ever met in my life."

"Christ you sound like a child talking about her favorite new toy from santa."

"Shut up," I mumbled, turning my face away so she couldn't see my blush.

"Are you sure being with Naomi again is the right thing to do?" She asked, any hint of joking completely gone.

"Yes I am. She's proved to me that she's changed. I'm choosing to believe her because I finally feel like I can trust her not to hurt me. That's something I didn't have with her before."

"What if she does hurt you though?"

I shrugged, that was a thought that had entered my mind hundreds of times since Naomi and I met again, and I'd come up with a thousand ways I could cope with it, though my mind always seemed to settle on the most simple one. "I'd get over it," I said simply, Sian gave me a look that made it clear she was not convinced. "I mean, obviously it wouldn't be easy, but I would. I would lick my wounds and find some way to be happy again. I've done it once before so I know it's possible. I'm just sticking with the mentality and the hope that I won't have to do it again."

"But Em," She started, but my hand in her face cut her off.

"I do appreciate your concern ," I told her, "But I've gotten more than enough lectures from Katie already. All I want now is for you guys to be happy that I'm happy and trust that I'm grown up enough to make my own decisions and my own judgements."

"Fair enough," She agreed, "I am happy for you Em," She assured me with a quick squeeze of my knee, "And I can't wait to meet her."

"Thank you," I smiled, giving her an affectionate poke in the side with my foot to show my appreciation, "Now, you mentioned before that you've got some things to share with me, so spill."

The corners of her mouth seemed to involuntarily turn up and her cheeks took on a new rosy tint, so I knew whatever she was going to tell me would be good.

"It's nothing huge okay, not yet at least," she started, I waved my hands frantically, telling her without words to just cut to the fucking chase. "Okay, okay. I've been talking to this girl, her name is Kaelyn and she's pretty fucking amazing."

"When did you guys meet? And how?" I asked, the prospect of Sian finally finding someone after our split was exciting. It may be weird for her ex girlfriend to want all the details of her new love interest, but I couldn't help it, I wanted to know everything.

"We met about five months ago," She said, my eyes widened and my heart sank a little. Five months ago I had been living in Manchester, spending most of my time hanging out with Sian, yet I had never heard a thing about this Kaelyn girl. Knowing Sian obviously must have been hiding it from me felt like a weird form of betrayal. "We actually met online," She added, stopping me just as I was about to give her a bollocking for hiding it from me.

"Wait, what? Like on one of those matchmaking sites or whatever?" I asked. I never would have pegged sian as the type to go searching for love at all, let alone on the internet.

"No it wasn't any matchmaking sites. I started a bog for my photography,s he followed it, and things just sort of took off from there."

"and where exactly would things be?" She hid her face and her eyes scanned the room, seeming to focus on anything but me. "Sian?"

"I'm going to America in July to meet her?" Something about that sentence hadn't seemed quite right. At first my mind was telling me that it was because she was meeting a stranger from the internet, but after replaying her words in my mind again I registered one big detail.

"Wait, America?" I demanded, "you met a stranger online and you're going to America to meet her?" She nodded her head slowly, a somewhat frightened expression on her face, "Do you want to die Sian?"

The fear was gone, replaced instead by an obnoxious eye roll, "I'm not going to die, Emily."

"You don't know that! This girl could be a crazy murderer! She could be a forty year old Venezuelan man for all you know!"

Another eye roll, this time accompanied by a dramatic backwards head tilt.

"I've skyped with her enough times to know that she is definitely not a man, and I'm fairly certain she's not a murderer either."

"She could be."

"She's not!" She snapped, my mouth snapped shut and I didn't even breathe until she spoke again. "I'm sorry, but just like you, I've already had my fair share of lectures about all of this. Just trust me okay? All I want, just like you, is for you to be happy that I'm happy and trust that I'm not being stupid."

"I do," I sighed, and I am, I'm sorry Siany, I'm happy you've found someone worth crossing an ocean for."

"Thank you," I'm happy you've found someone you don't have to cross an ocean for." I lifted my spoon and clinked it against hers. She winked at me and continued to eat her dinner. It was nice being with Sian again. I'd spent nearly three years of my life with her as my other half, all logic says we shouldn't talk much at all anymore let alone be best friends, but I could say without a doubt that she was the person I was closest with in the world. She'd even passed Katie up in that way, something that was not easy to do. As much as I wanted Naomi to be the person I was closest with, she wasn't yet. She would be someday, but for the time being Sian held that spot, she'd earned it, and it would take a lot of effort for someone to pass her up.

I was drunk, and it felt so good. The music was loud, the atmosphere was alive. I felt myself fully relaxing and not worrying about a single thing in the world. I'd lost track of time after my fourth shot of tequila, and Sian and I were having fun just like we used to. The only different, and in some ways weirdest thing about the evening was that neither of us were trying to pull, which had been one of our favorite activities to do when we went out since breaking up. Granted, we weren't always successful, but our nights were still filled with eyes searching for someone who might tickle our fancies. This was the first time I hadn't asked Sian to feel a girl out for me, and the first time she hadn't done the same.

Something else the last few hours had been severely lacking was dancing, and I was more than ready to fix that.

"Come on," I said, taking Sian's hand as I stood up from the sofa we had been sharing.

"Where are we going?" She asked, a slight slur to her voice. I also didn't miss the little stumble she tried to disguise as a step when we stood up.

"To the Taj Mahal," I answered, and Jesus Naomi must seriously be rubbing off on me. She didn't quite catch on to my sarcasm though, no doubt a side effect of her inebriation. "Dancing Sian, we're going to dance." A look of realization crossed her face and she much more willingly followed me into the mass of sweaty, moving people toward the center of the room.

We moved our bodies and danced horribly to the music and I could feel myself letting go of my last inhibitions. As my hips swayed the heat from Sian's body radiated in my direction and the loud thumps from the bass that was way too strong vibrated in my chest, my mind filled with images of my beautiful blonde and my chest filled with an intense longing for her I hadn't felt since I was a teenager. My body caught up with my mind and my limbs stopped moving as the absolute need for Naomi invaded every one of my cells. Before I had the chance to think and make a conscious decision my legs were moving and I was halfway out of the club.

"Emily?" Sian's confused voice rang out after me, "Em! Where are you going?" I could hear her getting closer, but as much as I wanted to turn around and follow her back into the club, I couldn't get my legs to stop taking me outside.

We got out into the cold night and the deep breath of fresh air I breathed in went straight to my head, making me realize just how drunk I was.

"I miss Naomi," I said, a little louder than necessary, and a little more slurred than I intended. The silence and the thin air was causing the amount of alcohol I had consumed to hit me full force and I could barely keep myself standing straight.

Sian's concerned look was taken over by a frown and she let our a sad sigh, "I miss Kaelyn."

The frown on my own face deepened as a cold breeze hit. I crossed my goose-bump covered arms over my chest, "can we go see Naomi?" I asked, the need to be with her was ripping a hole in my chest.

"Yeah," Sian answered sadly, "Can I call Kaelyn?"

I nodded my head and began walking, "yeah."

It was way too late for me to be going to Naomi's house, and I knew that somewhere deep in my mind, but my drunk (far more drunk than I thought) brain insisted that I see her right in that moment.

"I'm gonna call Kaelyn," Sian said,m sounding like she needed to call Kaelyn more than she needed to breathe. I nodded, giving her silent permission to pull out her phone, knowing exactly how painful the desperation she was feeling was. She pulled out her phone as the taxi I had been waving down pulled up to us. We climbed into the back and I gave him Naomi's address as sian chatted drunkenly on the phone, using the word 'baby' way more than necessary and slurring more than she probably realized.

I tapped my foot impatiently as we drove along the road, trying because I was interested, to listen to Sian's conversation, but not really comprehending much of what she was saying because of another stupidly beautiful woman taking over all of my coherent thoughts.

Sian spent the entire, thankfully short, ride talking on the phone to Kaelyn, and opted to stay in the taxi for a bit longer while I went inside. I didn't push her to follow me, being much too eager myself to get in and see Naomi to bother even trying to convince her to follow me, and was out of the taxi and to Naomi's front door before the wheels even stopped turning.

I lifted my hand to knock and for a brief moment considered that pounding on Naomi's door at 2 AM, while I was very drunk, wasn't a good idea. But another rush of missing my love hit me and my fist met her solid door with a dull thud. There was no response straight away so I increased the speed and power of my thuds. By the time Naomi answered with thunder in her eyes, one thud couldn't be distinguished from the next.

Her Campbell glare faded slightly when she realized it was me, but her forehead was still scrunched and her red eyes screamed to be shut again.

"Is everything okay?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep and concern.

"I just miss you," I said, stepping close to her, not quite noticing that she could smell the alcohol on my breath until she ducked her face away from mine.

"are you drunk?" She asked, the annoyance from her face when she opened the door creeping its way into her voice.

I shook my head no but the movement caused the world to spin a little too fast and I nearly fell over, "Okay, maybe a little bit," I admitted, holding my pointer finger and my thumb a centimeter or so apart, barely able to focus on them. I giggled at myself as my fingers drifted apart and then back together again, but the laughter died in my throat when Naomi's annoyed expression came into focus in my peripheral.

"Emily why are you here?" She asked, nothing in her voice but annoyance. If I hadn't been so drunk I might have actually picked up on that.

"I wanted to see you," I said, reaching for her arm, "I love you and I missed you and I wanted to cuddle with you."

"It's nearly three in the morning. Couldn't you have done this six hours ago?"

"I'm sorry," I said, pouting out my lower lip and bowing my head. The action once again made me lose my balance and this time I stumbled into Naomi's arms, barely able to tell which way was up. She stabilized me and took her hands off of my arms once I was standing straight again.

"I'm just gonna go call you a taxi," She said, pointing behind her and turning to go back into her house.

"No!" I reached out for her arm, squeezing it tight to stop her from getting away from me, "I need snuggles and kisses 'cause I miss you and I love you." Her expression softened the slightest bit at my words, but hardened again almost immediately.

"Emily, I'm not feeling so well, do you think we could go back to yours now?" Sian's slurred voice came from behind me.

Naomi's face filled with what could only be described as complete rage, and she turned around, slamming the door in my face before I even had the chance to reach for her.

I stood there for a moment, completely dumbfounded and unsure what to do, before lifting my fist up and pounding it against the door as hard as my tired limbs would allow me to. "Naomi please come back, I just want you okay?" I begged, the familiarity of the situation didn't go unnoticed by my muddy brain, and a bolt of pain shot straight through my chest. I suddenly felt like I couldn't breathe, and my arms barely found the strength to pound the door even harder, though unfortunately to no avail.

"Ems what's wrong?" Sian asked, putting a friendly hand on my back.

"Naomi," I stammered, "She, she won't talk to me, she looked like she was mad."

She looked at the door thoughtfully for a few moments before turning back to me.

"She's probably just tired," She reasoned, lets just go back to yours and get some rest."

I hesitated for a moment, wanting nothing more than to bust down Naomi's door and demand kisses and cuddles, but Naomi had bee right. I was drunk, and the best thing I could do in that moment would be to go home, sleep it off, and ring Naomi in the morning. So I slowly nodded my head and hooked elbows with Sian as we both began our journey back to the taxi.

The driver was annoyed, and charged us a ridiculous amount of money for our journey, but not long after leaving Naomi's house I was tucked up int my bed with sian's feet resting next to my head and it didn't seem to bother me too much.

I was still quite drunk, and I could feel myself slipping into the world of the unconscious, but Naomi's face wouldn't leave my mind, the anger and annoyance I had seen in her eyes stuck with me as I drifted off, and filled my slumber with sad nightmares instead of the happy dreams I had hoped for.

There we go! I know it wasn't perfect and exciting but it's one small step toward the conclusion of this story :) (Which is still about 15 chapters away. oops.)

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed it!

Feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions and I'll do my best to reply to them!

Love you all!