f i g h t e r ;

It had been less than a day and yet Emma didn’t know how she had ever gone without the soft kisses and touches from him. She melted from them every time. “I really think your memory is starting to fail you. I remember it a different way,” Emma said, still attempting to change his mind. As he continued to talk, Emma put on a small pout as if that would change his mind in any way. “Fine,” Emma conceded as she turned to sit on one of the stools, taking another sip of her coffee as she got comfortable. “I just hope you know that you’re missing out on a really good sous chef,” Emma teased. It wasn’t much of a loss regardless, at the end of the day Emma would prefer to watch him. 

Emma gave a fake gasp as she put a hand to her chest, as if offended by the proposed accusation. “I would never think that, I had complete and utter faith in you.” Emma said, but her ruse didn’t last long. “I just like that you know me.” Maybe that was what Emma had been missing from past relationships, they didn’t know her. No one knew her as well as Noah did. Emma tilted her head towards him, “Are you sure? I’m pretty sure I heard the phrase, ‘Emma you can help.’ I’m sure the fire department won’t come, besides even if they did I bet they’d be so impressed by my cooking. I’m a good helper, I promise.” 

Emma smiled through their kiss, she found it hard to keep any sort of smile off her face; not that she would want to. “Me too, the best sleep.” Emma agreed, she probably wouldn’t have even needed to say anything about her sleep considering the rare sleep in that Emma had managed. It would have been extremely hard to convince him otherwise. The butterflies in her stomach were still there and probably would stay there until they had gotten used to their new normal but Emma didn’t mind it. She was just glad that this was happening. “For me?” She asked, taking the coffee from his hands. Emma had seen the coffee as she walked in and was looking forward to it, but wanted to say good morning to him first. “Thank you,” Emma said, taking a sip before looking at what was cooking. “I thought you said I could help?” 

For the first time in days, Emma slept through the entire night. Emma couldn’t remember the last time she had woken up without the sound of her alarms, nor could she remember the last time she felt truly well rested but when she did wake Emma didn’t feel as if she needed any more sleep. Emma stretched out as she woke, her hand moving to the colder side of her bed in an attempt to find him. It was only when she kept meeting cold spots that she properly opened her eyes and woke up, sitting up on her bed. On a typical day, Emma might have woken up stressed, tired, or just generally overwhelmed by all that she had planned for the day, today wasn’t like that, Emma woke up happy and excited for the day. It was only once she had properly woken up that Emma noticed the smell of breakfast wafting through her room, it brought a smile to her face to remember his promise from the night before. Emma got up from bed and followed the scent of breakfast to the kitchen, she wasn’t surprised to see Roxy sitting in the middle of the kitchen before Roxy had gotten up to greet her. Emma gave her a quick pat behind her ears but dropping her hands as she walked further into the kitchen, smiling as she saw Noah cooking up a storm in their kitchen. “Good morning,” Emma said, her tone filled with bliss as she walked closer to him. She hesitated for a second, a flash of doubt that last night had been a dream but it went away quickly as she wrapped her arm around him placing a kiss on his cheek. “Did you sleep okay?” 

For someone who hadn’t been sleeping well the past few nights, if at all, Emma would have been completely happy to stay awake just talking with Noah all night. But sleep was slowly but surely catching up to her. Emma rested her head against his chest, burrowing herself slightly into him. She nodded slightly against him, “Maybe,” Emma agreed, her voice quiet as she stifled a yawn, closing her eyes. She was attempting to fight sleep, despite how much she needed it. “That would be nice.” Despite her best efforts to stay awake with him, it was a battle that she was quickly losing as she fell asleep. 

It was easy for Emma to get comfortable in his arms, mere seconds passed before she was completely comfortable. As he stroked her hair, Emma’s mind slowly began to slow down and she felt as if she could easily fall asleep; it had been weeks since she had felt as if she could sleep easily. “You did this,” Emma joked, “I just like being here, with you.” She added, as if it wasn’t obvious already. In her excitement at the pure idea of their date, Emma’s mind had completely skipped a step in their planning. “Probably…” Emma admitted, laughing at herself. “I think trivia usually starts at seven, so it would have to be an earlier one to give us enough time. But we can look at it all tomorrow, we have all day.” 

Emma missed the feeling of his kisses; something she never imagined that she would be thinking until they had kissed the first time a few weeks ago, but fell into his arms all the same as she allowed herself to sink deep into his hold. Anyone would say that Emma was a very active person and prefered to always be doing something but if presented with the opportunity to stay with him Emma would clear her schedule. “That sounds perfect,” Emma said, “Anywhere we go would be a good first date so long as it’s with you but that sounds perfect.” She spoke with a light giggle as they talked more about it, already excited by the mere thought of it. “What time should we leave?” 

Emma wasn’t one to hide things about herself from others but she knew that at times it could intimidate people or scare them off. Emma never felt like she had to cover it up or settle down with things that she was passionate about. Noah had always been there to lend an ear or encourage her thoughts. “We could… go to trivia? Or… maybe a drive in movie?” 

“It wouldn’t hurt to get one,” Emma answered, her eyes closing momentarily as he kissed the connecting lines of her neck. Her breath kept hitching as she talked, her attempts of trying to prove that he wasn’t distracting her were long gone. “But it doesn’t have to be a priority, I can organise us one for our phones, it’ll always be there that way.” If he was in any way attempting to tease her about her organisation, she absolutely wouldn’t be able to tell. Even if he was, she would still talk about it and her different ways. Emma nodded in response before he had moved her hair; Noah’s soft touches were very quickly becoming her favourites. Just as he was memorising her features, Emma was busy storing away his kisses. She had been extremely tired before, thoughts racing around her mind as she tried to piece them all together but now that they had worked it out and knew what they had wanted, Emma’s mind was finally calm and the tired feeling had washed away allowing her to remain in the moment. “I think they would, especially if we have multiple ideas. No chance of anything getting lost.” 

“Now that you mention it, I have noticed it once or twice.” With his success of his distraction earlier, Emma was trying to not let it happen twice, especially as he was still talking so casually. For someone who normally didn’t particularly liked to be touched, Emma was relishing in every touch as she let him move her and get newly acquainted with her different features. “It has to be fancy, it’ll be a very important binder.” She mused, “We could get one for our pre-date organisation… one for the dates themselves…”   Emma paused between her suggestions, her mind more wrapped up in him rather than the stationary and planning. “Maybe we could even get some tabs?” 

Lucinda narrowed her eyes slightly towards him, it absolutely wasn’t her business to ask or to know in general, and still she didn’t believe him. “It should be under the name Kelly,” She answered. 

Emma made a face towards him, both of were as stubborn as each other but Emma knew it wasn’t something she would be able to budge him on. At the end of the day, Emma would like a surprise date, just not the suspense or the lack of details leading up towards it. “You have a lot of confidence there, don’t you?” She asked, still slightly teasing him. Emma already knew that she would like anything they did or anywhere they went so long as it was time together. A breathless sigh that Emma didn’t know she was holding escaped as he talked and moved kisses around her neck. One of her hands found themselves in the small curls of his hair, creating soft movements through it. “That’s… Good point,” She managed to get out, still catching her breath with every movement. “Maybe a binder styled one?” Emma then suggested, she really could talk about stationary all day. “Any? I could get us options then…” 

“I really like knowing everything, though. We can’t have surprise dates all the time then, I wouldn’t be able to cope. Besides, you couldn’t keep it from me if you tried.” Emma teased, almost challenging him with her words. Her head tilted upwards slightly as he peppered more kisses to her neck, basking in the moment of every little touch against her. “Really? That’s good, because I could very easily talk about stationary all day. Like… what colour planner should we get? I already have blue for work so it can’t be that… Oh! and should it be lined, or not?” 

“No,” She whined with a pout. “Don’t do that. Rule, no secrets or surprises.” Emma countered, pointing a finger at him as if she had found a way around it. Emma liked the way that he already knew her completely, she felt understood by him and his idea as it catered to both of them. “I really like that idea. Especially the pre-dates. Do you think I should get a new planner for it all?” She asked, if they hadn’t known each other so well Emma would have needed to specify that she was serious about her question. “Maybe… we can go on Thursday?” 

“I wouldn’t be upset if it were more than three.” She responded to his light gasp with a laugh, “And where would you take me?” Emma asked with a tilt of her head in anticipation for his answer. She opened her mouth slightly to answer before closing it again- he had gotten her there. Emma was very much a planner and liked to be in every single decision. “Not all of them… maybe just the first ones? Or I could help you organise them?” Emma offered, although deep down she knew she wouldn’t be able to let him be in complete control of planning, or even be able to help without taking over. “You are! You kissed me first and you’re here. You may as well round it out with our first date.” 

“Minimum one,” She corrected herself. “I could even consider three.” Emma then said, playing along with the teasing still in an attempt to distract from the lack of thoughts that were in her mind. Emma pursed her lips in thought, “I don’t know, I could but I wouldn’t want to damage your masculinity. Besides, you’re already on a roll with all of all of this relationship stuff I don’t want to ruin this winning streak for you.” 

“Incredibly happy.” She spoke with a content sigh. “I don’t think there’s a word to describe it.” Emma truly believed it, there wasn’t a word that she knew of that could describe just how happy she was. Part of her hoped he would just be able to tell. It had always been difficult for Emma to express what she had felt to others, whenever she had tried her mind fell to a blank but with Noah it came simply. She didn’t have to think about how she felt about him, Emma just knew. If Emma were honest, she would have said that the thought of rules had completely left her mind. He had been that distracting to her thoughts. “You… have to take me on a date every week.” Emma said quickly, trying to cover the fact that he had managed to erase her mind. “Do you have any?”