A/N: This is an unusual pairing but one I have already written about. And I like the idea of CR and Aubrey together - it makes sense to me.
Cynthia Rose's expression turned thoughtful as she was watching the Bellas captain give some last-minute instructions for the upcoming regionals competition the following evening. Chloe had noticed this look before and she didn't quite know what to make of it. Sure, she had heard some light criticism of her best friend, she herself sometimes agonized over Aubrey's newly developed need for control over all things Bellas. But she had also noticed a shift in the overall atmosphere at Bellas rehearsal since the riff-off - they were growing tighter as a group, she could feel it. Still, Cynthia Rose's expression now seemed more than criticism, more than simply disagreeing with one's captain - was it dislike?
The deep wrinkle between CR's brows seemed to indicate this but Chloe didn't want to act on her observation alone and decided to talk to her fellow Bella. Chloe hated conflict, she wanted all the Bellas to get along and she also wanted all the Bellas to like her best friend. This had already been a point of argument, especially between her and Beca who couldn't understand the tight bond between the captain and her co-captain when one seemed to be a bitch and the other... well, Chloe wasn't quite sure about what Beca thought of her but there was liking, and smiles, and even some touching involved. Chloe smiled as she thought about how she had spent an evening with Beca in her room - under the unamused watchful eye of her roommate Kimmy Jin. They had definitely clicked... The redhead looked over at the small brunette who seemed more than a little bored by Aubrey's lecture about the dos and don'ts of a cappella competition.
Chloe smiled, looking around the expectant - or bored - faces of her fellow Bellas. She herself was excited about their first competition. They had made some amazing headway since the disastrous performance at the Sigma-Beta-Theta fall mixer. They were well-prepared and she was looking forward to the coming evening. But she was going to have a talk with Cynthia Rose before then because the frown on her face worried her - and it wouldn't do for something to blow up at the competition.
So, when everybody packed their things after practice that evening, Chloe walked over to the younger woman who was chatting animatedly with Fat Amy.
"Hey, CR," she said and the African American woman turned toward her, smiling.
"Hey, Chloe. You excited about tomorrow?"
"Oh, yeah. It's gonna be great. You guys have worked so hard," Chloe included Amy in her beaming smile as the first of the Bellas already exited the auditorium.
"We're going to crush it big time, no doubt about it," Amy agreed and grinned.
"It's gonna be epic," CR said and picked up her bag to leave with Amy when Chloe laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Can I talk to you for a minute, CR? It won't take long," the Bellas co-captain asked.
"Ahhh, sure. I... I'll see you tomorrow, Amy," she told the blonde who looked questioningly at the two women but then shrugged her shoulders once and waved at them.
"We're gonna win that thing tomorrow," she hummed under her breath and Chloe smiled after her.
"Are you guys ready to head out?" Aubrey asked when she noticed Chloe and CR straggling behind.
"We'll only be a minute. I will lock up, just leave the key," Chloe told her best friend and earned another questioning look.
"Oh, alright. Don't be too late, sleep is almost as important as regular exercise and practice, you know?"
"We won't be long, promise." Aubrey nodded and put the key to the practice hall on the piano before she left. She seemed reluctant to leave the two women all by themselves. Ever since Amy had indicated that Cynthia Rose might be a lesbian she tried to decide if Chloe had picked up on it, too. She didn't want to come right out and ask her, after all, one's sexuality was one's own business. Still, Aubrey would have liked to know where Chloe stood on the question, and whether or not her friend - who was as indiscriminate toward her romantic and sexual partners as one could possibly be - had any intentions toward this new member of their group.
When Aubrey had finally left the two women alone, Chloe sat down on one of the chairs and invited Cynthia Rose to sit next to her with a gesture. The younger woman sat, not sure about what the senior wanted to talk to her about.
And Chloe wasn't at all sure about how to broach the subject:
"So, you all ready for tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sure... I mean, I feel good about it. Is there something... I mean, do you think that I'm not?" the younger woman asked uncertainly.
"No, absolutely not. You're... you're great. Your voice, your choreo. You really are very talented, Cynthia Rose," Chloe beamed and CR blushed slightly at the compliment.
"Thank you. That means a lot. So, is there something else... wrong? I mean you didn't just want to chit-chat, right?"
"No," Chloe sighed. "I... I saw you look at Bree earlier and you looked... kind of... angry, maybe?" This interpretation seemed to surprise Cynthia Rose, her brows shot upwards, her eyes went round.
"Angry? Erm, no, I'm not angry at Aubrey," she quickly said.
"But?"
"I'm not... I... don't know what you mean," but she blushed and wouldn't look the redhead in the eyes anymore.
"If there's something wrong, CR, you can talk to me about it. That's pretty much what I'm here for, for you all to talk to when Aubrey... well, she can be a little hard to talk to sometimes. But you can always talk to me."
"There's nothing to talk about, Chloe, really... I... erm. No, I'm good," Cynthia Rose told the older woman and tried a tentative smile but it didn't convince Chloe.
"Oh... okay. Just... okay, listen. Aubrey can be difficult, I know. I'm her best friend, I should know. But she is really a great person. She's just under a lot of stress lately. And if she said something, something that didn't sit right with you... maybe about... your sexuality? I'm pretty sure she didn't mean it."
"That's not... it at all, Chloe. Really, I... I like Aubrey. She's pretty wired but... she's..." Cynthia Rose stopped herself, biting her bottom lip and seemingly thinking about something. "You don't happen to know... whether she has a boyfriend... or girlfriend, maybe?" The dark-skinned woman didn't look at Chloe but rather at her hands in her lap. The question surely surprised the redhead but only for a second, then she smiled again.
"Ah, no, she's not with anyone right now," Chloe said and Cynthia Rose nodded.
"Do you know..." CR took a deep breath before asking: "Do you know whether she likes guys or girls? I mean if you rather not tell, I understand... I was just wondering. I think she's... pretty cool. I mean, pretty yeah, gorgeous, actually. But she's also... there's so much more to her than just this tense person. She knows a lot about music and she's... intense and interesting. I think she's... pretty amazing," Cynthia Rose got out and Chloe reached out for the other woman's hand and squeezed it before letting go again.
"Aubrey is a wonderful person, a good friend... as for her sexuality, I actually don't know, sorry."
"You don't know?" the younger woman looked up at Chloe questioningly. Chloe shook her head.
"No, I don't know. I know that she had someone back home, a guy, when she started studying here. They were engaged but she broke it off after the first year. And she's not been with anyone since, at least not as far as I know. We never really talked about... her sexuality. I'm not sure if Aubrey thinks about it much...," Chloe explained but stopped herself because she didn't feel comfortable relating all her thoughts on this topic.
Cynthia Rose nodded but seemed thoughtful.
"Do you think...," but the African American woman shook her head. "Probably not. It's... it doesn't matter," she decided and gave a small smile.
"I don't know if she is open to dating... a woman, CR. But I think you should ask her." Chloe guessed at what Cynthia Rose wanted to ask. They looked at each other for a long moment.
"I don't know. Maybe..."
"She won't be a bitch about it, CR, even if she says no. She respects you and she doesn't have a problem with... well, maybe she's a little awkward when it comes to the topic of sexuality most of the time but... she won't be an ass about it, that much I know," Chloe tried to reassure her friend.
Cynthia Rose nodded.
"That's good to know," she said and smiled up at Chloe who answered in kind.
"Okay. Well, we should probably get going... unless there's something else you wanna talk about?"
"No, I'm good." They picked up their things and left the auditorium. Chloe locked up and they made their way to the nearest bus stop. They didn't resume their conversation about Aubrey, instead they talked about the competition, about choreo and songs.
They had placed second - which wasn't exactly what Aubrey had hoped for but it wasn't as bad as she'd feared. The group had done their best - even if Amy had veered off course and made the performance a little ... Aubrey didn't even have a word for it but she had an inkling that the other Bellas had actually enjoyed this deviation from their perfectly thought-through routine. Now it was on her, of course, to discourage any further 'deviations.' They really couldn't afford them - seeing how the rebellious spirit had already landed one of them in jail. And Beca certainly had the potential to land them all in more trouble than she seemed worth.
"She's not even that good a singer, either," Aubrey murmured as she looked over her 'way to victory'-chart and checked the box that said: Regionals.
"Hey, Aubrey," she was roused out of her contemplations by a Bella. It was Cynthia Rose, she smiled but she seemed tentative to approach her captain.
Aubrey was surprised to see anyone at the auditorium this early or that day at all - she had given them all a day off as a way to celebrate their success but also to contemplate on how to hone their performance, how to become the perfect Bella. Because Aubrey was still convinced that she could turn them all into perfect specimen of what the old Bellas had represented - even Beca.
"Cynthia Rose. You do know that there's no rehearsal today, right?"
"Yeah, I know. I just... I wanted to talk to you about something," the younger woman said, though her 'want' to talk seemed to make her unusually shy.
"Oh, alright, sure. Wait... no. You wouldn't have been treble-boned, right?"
Cynthia Rose rolled her eyes but smiled patiently.
"No," she said.
"No, I didn't think so," Aubrey agreed. "Alright," she then said and sat down on one of the chairs, ironically it was the same one Chloe had sat on two days ago when she had asked Cynthia Rose to talk. And CR sat down on the same chair she had sat on that day, too. "Let's talk," Aubrey said and smiled encouragingly. "I hope it's not about Beca's ideas because I'm not going for them. I mean, she seems to be very much into music, I give her that, but - as most of you - she's new to a cappella and not everything that works on the radio works on an a cappella stage, you know."
"It's not about that," Cynthia Rose said.
"Oh, good. Because this isn't open for discussion. I'm the captain and I choose the music," Aubrey reminded and smiled. The other woman nodded. She seemed thoughtful and a little nervous. And Aubrey wasn't very patient. "Is there something wrong, Cynthia Rose?"
"Wrong, no. I... I was wondering..." the younger woman took a deep breath but didn't continue right away.
"About?" Aubrey encouraged.
"This is really... hard. I..."
"Take your time," the Bellas captain said and smiled though Cynthia Rose could easily pick up on her impatience. It didn't help her that Aubrey reached out - much as Chloe had done the other day - and squeezed her hands that were once again working each other in her lap. But it was an altogether different feeling from when Chloe had done it. This felt almost too good, it made her catch her breath as her heart was already thumping in her throat. And it burned her skin but not painfully so - she marvelled at the sensation.
"I... erm, was wondering... would you maybe, like, want to go out... for a movie, maybe... and pizza - or a salad," she corrected herself as she knew that Aubrey was kind of a health freak. Cynthia Rose didn't dare look up at the blonde but was looking down at where Aubrey's hand was still touching her own. She watched as the hand withdrew and felt sure that it would never return.
"Movie and a pizza? As in... a date?" Aubrey asked slowly, seemingly flustered. Cynthia Rose only nodded. "You...," but the Bellas captain didn't finish the thought, she just sat looking at her fellow Bella who finally raised her head to look into her eyes. It was an intense look, revealing to both of them. And Cynthia Rose was sure she read shock in those blue-gray depths of Aubrey's eyes. She shook her head.
"It's okay. It was just a thought," she backpadalled and was about to get up when a hand on her arm stopped her. She looked back at Aubrey who smiled - uncommonly shy.
"Yes," Aubrey then said, seemingly surprising herself with this simple answer to a question she had asked herself for some time now. "I would like to go out with you," she added to make it unmistakably clear what she wanted.
They looked at each other for a long moment, both were smiling now, still a little bit shell-shocked but confident enough that they knew it was what they both wanted.
"Great," CR said. They both laughed a little and Aubrey returned her hand to Cynthia Rose's, squeezing it, letting it linger.
"Yeah, great," she agreed. And it was exactly what she felt - it was indeed great. And right. And she felt something else: she felt a knot inside herself losen. It was only one little knot, one thing that had tugged at her, had wound her up. But now it losened - and it felt indeed great.
Song: Take a Chance on Me by ABBA