Emily Charlton x f!reader
You're a photographer for Runway and spend most of the time with Miranda Priestley's well known and normally not so friendly assistant- Emily Charlton. On a luxurious event, you find the redhead almost passed out in the bathroom.
TW: (talking about) eating disorder, hurt/comfort, bad jokes lol??? If I should add anything lmk:3
A/N: Hey, pretty people! This is my first fanfic in YEARS, but due to the painful lack of Emily stories, I decided to try and write again. Feedback is very appreciated, have fun reading<3
Something about these fancy events makes me so nostalgic about my job. A job that I love. Being a photographer was my dream ever since I found that old camera in my grandma's drawer. It was dusty and the pictures that I took never made it into physical copies, since I didn't know how to transfer them onto film. Still, I was obsessed with the old camera, making my mom buy me a newer one for my 10th birthday.
That's when my love to capture the world's beauty started. But I never would have guessed that I'm going to photograph dressed up models in the newest designer clothes instead of ladybugs in my garden.
Shaking my head to get out of thoughts, I wander around in my stilettos and an oversized suit, looking around the room full of women that probably spend more time doing hair and makeup, than I've spend cooking my dinner the entirety of a week.
Even if I look good, I'm not getting noticed in a room like this, which makes it way easier to press past the mass of silk gowns and velvet suits and make my way to the bathroom.
Just getting a few breaths without almost coughting from the mingle of expensive perfumes.
Get a few seconds for myself. Sometimes -especially in rooms this full- I ponder if my introvert self should have stayed with the ladybugs. Well, too late.
I press down the handle of the bathroom stall, taking in the shiny tiles and golden sinks and - a head with red hair so fiery I would reconize it anywhere.
Emily. Miranda Priestley's assistant and the bluntest woman in the room. Or anywhere she's present, for that matter. There is something that differs her from the other women in fashion.
The way she holds and presents herself. The slight edge in her appearance. If it's a sharp lined wing, a jacket that feels off just the right bit or the way her hair falls like it's a little messy, knowing well enough that every detail is entirely on purpose. She isn't just soft features and pretty smiles. Her eyes can burn down the egos of powerful men if she has enough reason to.
She's Magnetic. Not that I would tell her though, she enjoys teasing me about enough things already...
Before I can lose myself in my thoughts again, I hear a sniffle and a grown.
"Emily?", to that, the red head turns around and looks at me with glassy eyes and a pained expression that doesn't fit onto her features at all.
"Hiii...shouldn't you take care of your social relationships", Emily slurs with a smirk that looks more like her teeth hurt.
"Shouldn't you take care of yourself? Jesus, have you looked at yourself?"
"Aren't I mesmerizing?", Emily smiles, obviously trying to play it cool like she's not on the edge of passing out.
Even in a state like this, she keeps teasing me, turning around every word in my mouth...
"Mesmerizing? For whom, the Grim Reaper?", I tease her back, even though she knows very well I'm seriously concerned, but still, Emily's smile gets even wider. If this was a different situation, maybe I could enjoy this too...
I stand there for a second longer, watching -observing- the woman as her smile turns into a grimace. As she presses her lips together, the smallest whimper slips through Emily's lips.
Emily Charlton just whimpered in pain.
The same woman that came into the office in heels -or, at least one heel- when she got hit by a taxi and had to wear her leg in a cast.
"Okay, I'm not playing this game anymore. Em, what the fuck is wrong?", I take one big step into her direction and grab her arm just soon enough before her legs give in to the pressure of simply standing upright.
"Emily, don't you dare say 'I'm fine' when you're clearly not."
I gently grab her waist instead of her arm, noticing how she's cold but sweaty and scarily bony.
Emily... I hold her for a second longer, knowing what this is about. Emily seems to understand my train of thoughts too, avoiding my gaze by looking away.
I know Emily is someone who's always poised, polished, her walls up high. Her exterior seeming perfect. But this, this is nothing like the version she tries to sell the world.
Right in this moment, she looks small and fragile and I know me seeing her in this state pains her more than starving herself to the point she almost passes out in a bathroom.
"Okay. It's okay. We're leaving." My voice turns into something softer. So soft, that Emily looks up with teary eyes and doesn't try to contradict.
And that scares me the most. No snarly response. No eye-roll, not even a pout. The energy long lost. I pull Emily away from the wall she is leaning against, her body half limp under my hold.
The way to the uber took quiet a while, with me carrying most of Emily's weight. When we made it, I helped her into the backseat, sitting on the other side myself. While rummaging through my bag, I tell the driver to take us to my place, since I wouldn't leave Emily alone under these conditions.
Finding what I was looking for, I unwrap my chocolate bar and hold it in front of Emily's face. She looks at me like I wanted her to eat a stick of pure butter, but grabbed at the brown bar nonetheless.
The rest of the drive was silent, a barely audible chewing the only thing that filled the backseat. When we got out, Emily needed a little less help, but still groaned at the sight of my stairs.
"I could carry you, you know", I say geniunely but amused, to which Emily gives me her best death glare.
"Don't. Even.Try.", her words and facial expressions hard in contrast with the frustration on her face, that tells me, the only thing keeping her from agreeing is her pride.
Seven minutes, two stairs and a few grunts later, Emily looks around my loft, while I get the other woman something comfy to wear.
"Here you go, bathroom is in this direction. What do you want to eat?" I ask casually while Emily looks at me dumbfounded.
"Even though I'm glad you're able to annoy me again, I'm serious. You're eating dinner with me, whatever you want, just tell me."
Emily's mouth turns into a smirk and I ask myself what escaped my mouth again.
"You could at least ask me if you could have dinner with me, you know...I would have said yes eventually..."
"You're unbelievable, Em." I mumble sternly, turning away so she wouldn't catch the smirk on my lips and the blush that's creeping up my cheeks.
I don't remember when our playfullness turned flirty. I just know that I enjoy it too much to adress the elephant in the room and ask her what we are. Seriousness isn't my strenght and it wasn't hers eighter.
On my way to the kitchen, a "make the pasta you recently had on that one shoot with Miranda, where she looked at the designer with that disgusted face. They looked pretty decent" echoes through the room.
Decent. If that woman knew...
Still, I smirk to the memory of the shoot, just as I did when Emily and me stood in the corner, watching the designer get eaten by Miranda's stares only, trying to hide our smirks behind a stack of pictures. Even when there was no need for us to spend time together -theoretically not even working in the same department- we always managed to whisper snarly comments into each others ears or trying not smirk too hard.
While the noodles are boiling and I season the sauce, Emily comes into my peripheral view. I turn, taking in the way she looks in my long sleeve and velour pants from bottom to top.
When my eyes land on her face, I see raised eyebrows, telling me something is not to Emily's satisfaction.
"Is there something I did for earning such a punishment?", Emily deadpans. "Pardon?"
Emily rolls her eyes like I was oblivious for not noticing the thing paining her. Fact is, I have no idea.
After what Emily considers enough thinking time, she rolls her eyes. "I though making me wear sweatpants was enough, but then I saw this." Right in the moment, Emily turns around and the word "juicy" written onto the sweatpants in shiny rhinestones comes into my view.
Before I can stop myself, I burst into laughter. Emily turns around again, looking at me like I told her her outfit was bad.
"I can't believe I once thought your fashion sense was even existent. Clearly I haven't seen your tacky homewear..."
Still smirking, I hand Emily a plate full of pasta. "You know, a simple 'thanks' would suffice and -by the way- you look great in them." This time, it's Emily turning red. "Oh shut up."
Sitting on my sofa, we eat in silence. It's a comfortable silence, but there is still so much I want to ask Emily about. So I have to be the one popping the bubble of comfortability.
"Em?", I ask, my voice low. Emily hums without looking up from her spaghetti. "You- I can clearly see that your...that you are not healthy."
Wow, this is harder than I thought. Especially when Emily doesn't answer. "Emily," I gently touch her knee to get her attention. "please."
Her eyes land on my hand, then my eyes. I can't believe these are the same eyes that glare at incompetent people like they were her sworn enemy. All the hardness, all the fire gone. Replaced by watery, green orbs staring at me.
"I'm just dieting, everbody does that.", she chokes out like every word escaping her mouth is burning her troat.
"Emily that's not-" "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY!? THAT I DON'T EAT? AND WHEN I HAVE TO, I PUKE IT OUT AT THE BATHROOM? That I barely get my period or that I'm always cold?!!!"
The sudden outburst catches me off guard, the sobs in between even more. "I KNOW that that is not normal but-but what else should I do t-to stay in control? I need to stay beautiful..."
My heart breaks at her words. Wrapping my arms around Emily's torso, I let her cry into my shoulder. By the way her cries come out of her like a thunderstorm, I can tell she doesn't let herself do this often.
As the rain starts to hammer against the window, Emily's sobs get quieter, before they stop entirely. "Emily. Look at me.", I try, untangeling my arms from around her body, just to lay my hands on her shoulders.
"Emily, baby. Please look at me.", my desperation visible in the way I practically beg.
Slowly, Emily turns her head to me, still not looking into my eyes. I take her wet face into one of my palms, wiping away a last, fresh tear, until Emily's green eyes finally lock with mine.
"Nothing could ever take your beauty away. Nurturing, fuelling your body will not make you ugly, but starving yourself to death will, Em. Eating will give you energy to do the things you love and move your body the way you want.", I say, trying to convince Emily of the importance and truth of my words.
Some seconds elapse without another word exchanged, our breathing the only sound besides the heavy rain.
"You always make my thoughts seem stupid." The heaviness in my throat clears with Emily's playfullness returning. I know she understood my point and I'm sure there is a lot of work to do for her recovery, but for now, I'm just glad she feels better.
"In my defence, I also tell you when your thoughts are brilliant, which is most of the time. Soo...", I throw back playfully, scurring back into the pillows to make myself comfortable, Emily mirrowing my actions.
"Mhm. I am brilliant and I think you should praise me for that more often."
Praise. I can work with that. I can work with that very well.
"Just say you want to be my good girl already.", I whisper into the redheads ear, brushing away a crimson lock of hair behind her ear.
Refacing her, her cheeks almost took the same color as her hair.
"So, am I your baby or your good girl? You got me a little confused here."
Wait, what? I did not- oh.
Emily, baby. Please look at me.
The words echo in my head over and over again. I didn't plan to call her that, it just happened in the moment. And I don't regret it. At all.
"You are cute when your cheek turn red and you're at a loss of words, but right now I'd rather know what's going on in that head of yours."
Emily's voice raspier than usual and I have to make a mental note, that she sounds even more sexy than usual. I don't recall a single sentence coming out of Emily's mouth, that was so direct and genuinely soft.
Our heads lay on the soft backrest, facing each other, our noses only a few inches apart. I trace my fingers over Emily's jaw, as I confess the one thought, that took over my brain minutes ago.
"I would really like to kiss you now."
Emily smiles, a real, bright smile. "I'm not one for begging, but if you don't, I may become impatient."
Our noses brush together, her hands finding my waist. "As good as that sounds, I can't wait any longer either, baby."
And as our eyes flutter close, lips collide into a long awaited kiss.