Emily Prentiss One-Shots

Emily/Elle

Title: Falling In Love With Elle Greenaway - strangely_appealing (AO3)

Summary: Emily tries not to think too hard when she's back in New York a week later, knocking on a vaguely familiar door (it's surprising even to her that she remembered Elle's address). But it has been impossibly long since she knocked (probably a minute), and she's biting her nails again, and Emily's not even sure why she's here in the first place.

Rating: General 

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Emily meets Elle Greenaway, working on a case in New York. She's dazzling, brilliant, and so sharp around the edges you could cut yourself.

The team talks about Greenaway like she's a ghost. When their bodies are pressed together, Emily thinks that Elle's anything but.

The morning after, Emily finds Elle in the kitchen - shirt so big she could drown in it, her hair messy - making coffee and scrambled eggs (all the while cursing profoundly). The smile Elle sends her way is all teeth - Emily tries to photograph it in her mind, to save this moment to some archive for her to revisit (not for the first time Emily wishes for Reid's memory).

On the flight home, she will be scared by how right it felt to be there, to work with Elle, to be with Elle in general, but not now - now she'll smile back and sip her coffee.

Emily tries not to think too hard when she's back in New York a week later, knocking on a vaguely familiar door (it's surprising even to her that she remembered Elle's address). But it has been impossibly long since she knocked (probably a minute), and she's biting her nails again, and Emily's not even sure why she's here in the first place.

Elle opens the door with "Sorry I was in the shower" and doesn't look one bit surprised. She doesn't ask why Emily's there - just lets her in and starts heating up some leftovers from the fridge.

- So this is going to be a thing, huh? - Elle asks, her tone curious if nothing else.

- You're not surprised - Emily feels ridiculous - like she can't wake up from a surreal dream.

- I had a feeling - Elle says it half-joking and half-serious.

- And I had a concerning lack of judgment getting on that plane - Emily remarks, too scared to admit that she had a feeling too.

- It's almost romantic when you think about it - Elle jokes, and Emily gets the sense that she rarely takes herself (or life, for that matter) seriously. Emily almost likes it.

They spent the whole evening drinking beers and talking (slurring words just a little bit), and that makes it just that much harder to treat it all like a prolonged one-night stand.

They can't afford it to be anything else, really.

Still, they exchange numbers and spend the whole weekend together (which is a miracle on its own, considering their line of work).

She's going to lose a fortune on these planes.

Emily calls her the next week because she had one of those cases that makes you question humanity, and for some reason, she doesn't want to talk about it with anyone but Elle.

Emily's in the kitchen, and it's 2 am, and she doesn't even attempt sleeping. She paces, restlessly waiting for her to pick up. Elle's voice is groggy with sleep and strangely soothing, and not for the first time makes everything simpler (Emily will worry about it later).

Elle calls her too. When she's had a nightmare (Emily can hear her ragged breathing, can almost see her pacing around the room) or when she's cooked something she's terribly proud of (it was established quickly that neither of them can cook) or just after a shitty day.