Title: Right beside you, down the memory lane
Author: nebbiapurpurea
Disclaimer: I don’t own The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestly, Andrea Sachs or any other character mentioned.
Rating: PG
Feedback: Yes, please!
Pairings: Andy/Miranda, James Holt/Nigel, Emily/Serena
Summary: our favourite couple remember how they got together
Beta: acceb23

A/N: This is the sequel of “Lies, Loyalty, Love”. You should read it first if you don’t want to miss anything out.



Chapter 1

Andy was sitting beside the bed she'd shared with Miranda for nearly seven years, trying to focus on applying her lipstick. They were due at a meeting to arrange the details of this year’s graduation ceremony in an hour and she still wasn't ready. Andy and Miranda had both been pleasantly surprised when the school’s dean, Miss Hopkirk, had asked them for their opinions on the graduation ceremony for the twins’ year. Yes, Miranda was extremely famous, but she hadn’t expected that to affect her relationship with her daughters’ school. Naturally, the twins were ecstatic. Since Andy had become part of the family, Miranda had changed. She was more available to them, going to their practices and the teacher-parents meetings. Most of the time, she was even in time to eat dinner at home, spending a couple of hours with them to watch movies or help them with homework.

“Andrea, are you ready?” asked Miranda, re-entering their room she’d left so could take a call from the office. Instead of giving a verbal reply, Andy simply looked at the other woman, a goofy smile on her face.

“Ah” said Miranda, noticing the North-Western’s t-shirt Andy was holding in her hand “Where did you find it?”

“The closet”

“Really?”

“Yes. I was searching for a pair of shoes when I found it. I thought you threw it away…”

“Yes, well…” replied Miranda, blushing slightly.

“You really are a romantic woman, Miranda” said Andy while approaching her, the t-shirt still in hand.

“I simply forgot to get rid of it”

“You don’t have to pretend with me, love. I know what this means for you… for both of us”
Miranda sighed, letting herself to be embraced by the younger woman, inhaling her intoxicating scent. “It was a beautiful night”

“Yes. Yes, it really was…” was Miranda reply.

Both of them were already remembering that fateful night in Miami, six years and half prior.

“Hello, Miranda” Andy breathed, breathless from the sprint up the stairs and from the beauty that was Miranda Priestly.

“Andrea. What are you doing here?”

Miranda Priestly was known for her non-human ability of keeping her emotions at bay in any circumstances. Many even suspected that she was incapable of feeling anything. The nickname the “Ice Queen” wasn’t invented for no reason, after all.

But in that situation, when she’d desperately wanted to be as cold as ice and twice as cutting, she found herself struck by surprise and by the beauty of the young woman that was standing before her.

How can she do this to me?
Simple, you idiot. You love her!
Oh please! That was just an infatuation…
Yeah, right. Then why did you recommend her for the Mirror? And why did you kiss her the other day? Just to get it out of your system?

Her internal struggle was interrupted by Andrea, who was looking at her, her head slightly tilted, a curious look on her face.

“What?”

“I asked you if I can come in. I promise I will explain everything but I really don’t want to do it in the corridor, where anybody could walk in on us at any moment.”

“Fine,” was the laconic reply.

Miranda let Andrea enter the room, before closing the door and walking past the young woman.

“Are you planning to stay?”

“What?” asked Andy, surprised.

Miranda merely looked at the bag Andy was holding, before taking a seat on the couch.

“Oh. Well, it depends”

“On what?”

“On how this conversation goes.”

“Andrea...” Miranda began, only to be interrupted

“No. You had your go. Now it’s my turn”

“If you insist”

“I do”

“Proceed then”

Andy nodded and seated herself on an armchair directly in front of Miranda, clearing her throat a couple of times.

“First of all, you must think that I’m the most stupid person on this planet. And I probably am, since I wasn’t capable of understand the situation... but before you say anything” – Andy held up a hand, to stop the reply that was sure to come – “you have to know that I’m not so good at reading people. Even if with you I’m able, at least to a certain point, to understand what you’re really trying to say, but most of the time you are a complete mystery to me, Miranda. A mystery that I would love to comprehend.”

“You know how much I like to wait, Andrea,” was the sarcastic reply. A clear invitation to get to the point as soon as possible.

“Right. I thought it would be easier” said Andy, talking more to herself than to the other woman.

“We have two choices, Miranda. Ignore each other and go on as nothing happened, or take a chance at what should have happened months ago.”

Miranda knew that Andy was right. Those were the same two choices she gave herself right before she’d started to ignore the young woman, right before disappearing from her life.
Obviously, the choice she’d made then wasn’t the right one.
This situation was clear proof of her mistake.

“What…” began Miranda, only to find herself unable to continue. She cleared her throat, before trying again “What do you suggest?”

“I suggest that we try, Miranda. It’s obvious, to every one but us apparently, that there is something between us. Something that you tried to ignore and that I wasn’t aware of.”

Miranda nodded slightly, urging Andrea to continue.

“Nate said something to me about it too, even if it didn’t make too much sense to me at the time. Not in this context, anyway.”

“Really?” at the mention of Andrea’s ex, Miranda suddenly tensed. If the cook was able to pick up something, how many other people knew, or suspected, of her feelings towards the young woman?

“Really. He said something like ‘the person whose calls you always take? That’s the relationship you’re in’. At the time, I simply dismissed it. I hid myself behind the excuse of our professional relationship, telling myself that you were a really demanding boss, a woman who didn’t trouble herself with the amount of time she required of her assistants, or anyone else who worked for her. But in the last few days, I realized that I was wrong. From your point of view, that was probably all it was; you just wanted me to do my job and you probably didn’t stop to think that a call at two in the morning to tell me to reschedule one of your appointment was so atypical… For me, it was another opportunity to talk to you. I was looking forward to hearing from you, even if it was just to talk about work…”

“You’re not… entirely right, Andrea.”

“Oh?” said Andy, perplexed

“My calls were related to work, yes. But I too was looking forward to talking to you. That night, in Paris, when you walked in on me… crying,” she shuddered at the mere thought of it, “I wasn’t sad for the end of my marriage. Yes, the fact that I let down the twins, once again, was a large factor behind my distress. But with the divorce, my motivation to ignore my feelings for you had disappeared. And when we became… friends, I told myself that I was an adult, that I could surely continue ignoring my feelings... but the more you were around, the more difficult it became. So I took what you probably think was the ‘easy way out’. We both know how well that went.”

“So you knew, even then?”

“Not on a conscious level. Later, thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that I was, at the very least, infatuated with you.”

Andy remained silent, nodding lightly a couple of times, before getting up and walking around the room. She was evidently processing the new information Miranda just gave her and the older woman was quite content to wait.
For once in her life, she was happy to just sit there, in complete silence, watching Andrea walking up and down, from the door to the huge window at the left of the couch, her face almost contorted in concentration.

After what seemed like weeks, but what was only just a few minutes, Andy stopped and walked towards Miranda, who was looking at her with a mix of perplexity and curiosity.
Right when she was about to speak up, Andrea straddled her, a knee on the couch on each side of Miranda’s thighs.

“Shhh” Andy said, putting two fingers over Miranda’s open mouth “Thank you for telling me that. I know that you aren’t accustomed to talking about your feelings or explaining yourself. And that only confirmed what I already knew.”

“And what is that?” asked Miranda, a light blush on her cheeks caused by Andy’s proximity.

“That I love you and that I’m ready to take the risk. You deserve happiness, Miranda. We deserve happiness”

Miranda remained silent, looking directly in Andy’s eyes in search of a trace of insincerity, a hint of a lie. But there was none. Andrea was being completely honest and that, Miranda thought, wasn’t a surprise. The young woman always wore her heart on her sleeve. Andrea’s eyes really were a window on her soul.

“So, what do you say?” asked Andy, suddenly anxious

“I love you too, Andrea Sachs, and I’m willing to try as well. For as long as you will have me.”

“You’re stuck with me, then. I’ll never let you go, Priestly” came the reply, with a hint of amusement.

A slight smile showed itself on Miranda’s face and Andy answered with a kiss that quickly had both women quite aroused. Miranda’s arms wrapped themselves around Andy’s waist, while Andy’s hand came up to cup Miranda’s cheeks and neck, lightly caressing every bit of skin they could reach.

“If it wasn’t for the poor delivery guy, I would have ravished you right here, on that couch,”
Miranda shuddered at the idea, smirking when her hands, almost on their accord, reached down Andy’s back, stopping just before her ass.

“Stop!” said Andy, laughing “If we begin again, we’ll never make it on time!”

“And whose fault that will be? You’re the one who started all of this.”

“Yeah, yeah. As if you don’t like to remember those times…”

“I like to remember every minute of our lives together. You, Andrea Sachs, are the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me. Apart from my daughters, of course”

“Of course,” came the teasing reply.

But Miranda knew how much Andy was feeling at the moment. As always, she could see everything in Andy’s eyes. Her emotions, her feelings, her expectations. Everything was shining in those brown eyes.

“Now go,” said Andy, motioning with her chin towards the door “I still have to change and we both know very well how that would end if you remain here and watch me.”

“You’re such a spoilsport, Andrea. I’m perfectly capable of watching you change without…”

“Jumping me?”

Miranda glared at her, but Andrea merely kissed her and ushered her outside the room, even taking the time to close and lock the door; it had became an inside joke between the two of them. At the beginning, whenever the twins were up for some trouble, Andy locked herself in one room or another, trying to avoid them.
Naturally, both Caroline and Cassidy did this only to annoy and test the young woman and were slightly disappointed when she didn’t respond.
Miranda put a stop on that.

“Andrea, do you want to tell me why you locked the door?” asked Miranda from the doorway of her bathroom.
“Because your daughters want me to let them do my make up!”
At this, Miranda simply laughed, shaking her head a couple of times
“Don’t laugh! Do you remember the last time I let them do it?”
“Of course I remember. You were quite… amusing”
“Amusing! Amusing she said! I looked like a clown!”
“Darling” said Miranda, approaching the young woman and embracing her “They’re simply being difficult. They want to test you, to know that you’re ready to be there for them,”
“I know that, but I don’t want to be their guinea pig again.”

Andy knew that she was being stubborn, but she didn’t care. She loved the twins, really. But there were times when she doubted her ability to handle them. She wasn’t trying to being a mother, Miranda was enough, but she didn’t want to simply be their friend.

“You’re afraid that you’ll be never enough”
“What? How…?”
“I know you, Andrea. But you don’t have to be afraid. They love you, darling. Just like you love them, but they’re scared of what will happen if they start to relay on you for serious matters. They need to be reassured that you will be there for them, whenever they need your help.”
“That’s why they torture me?”
“I told you, they’re just testing you. Stand up to them, let them know that you’re not going to stand by and watch.”
“But what if I do something wrong? What if I… I don’t know… punish them or scold them?”
“They’ll be mad at you for a couple of days and then they will realize that you did it because you care enough to put up with their behaviour.”

Andy nodded, looking more at ease. But her shoulders were still tense and her posture wasn’t exactly relaxed.
Miranda smiled, kissing her on the lips, before walking to the door to unlock it.
The moment the lock opened, the door flew open, almost hitting Miranda, and two smirking redheads were standing in the doorway.

“Well?” asked Caroline
“Yeah, we’re waiting” added Cassidy
“Sorry guys,” said Andy, looking briefly at Miranda for support. The older woman nodded, smiling encouraging “I’m not really up for a full make up session. What about homework? If you finish before dinner, we could watch a movie right after…”

“Homework? That’s boring!”
“Yeah. And we have problem with math, anyway. It would take us more than half an hour to finish them!!”
“What if I help you?” asked Andy “Mind you, help you… not do them for you. I was quite good at math.”
“Really?”
Andy nodded and the twins grinned at her and Miranda, before running to their respective rooms to pick up their books.

As Andy was walking towards the door, Miranda merely looked at her with a glance that said ‘told you so’. She didn’t say anything though, opting instead for a quick kiss and a gentle push out of the door.

Miranda knew perfectly well what Andy and the twins were going through.
Her daughters weren’t willing to start caring for Andrea, afraid that their relationship would end, like the others before it, and that they would remain with nothing but memories and a great sense of loss.
For her part, Andrea wasn’t sure of her role in the twins’ lives. Sure, her relationship with Miranda was a certainty that both women took for granted, but a few arguments, one of which ended with Andy storming out of the townhouse, made them realize that there were, still, many things to talk about.
Miranda knew that Andy couldn’t remain at the side, content to simply watch her educate her daughters.
They were stuck together, as Andrea so nicely put it that first night in Miami, and Miranda was happy to have her at her side. That meant, of course, that the young woman needed to be a part of the twins’ lives, just like she was of hers.

Fifteen minutes later, Andy reached Miranda in her study. How she managed to get ready in such a short time, Miranda would never understand. Nor did she particularly care. It was just one of those thing for which the older woman was grateful.
“Ready?” asked Andy
“Yes. I was merely waiting for you. I’m always waiting for you, Andrea. One may think that you do it on purpose”

Laughing contentedly, Andy shook her head and reached for Miranda’s hand, which she used to drag the other woman in the foyer, where they picked up their bags and coats, (not that the weather required it, but you never know).
Soon enough, they were in the car, heading towards the school.