Author: LunarianPrincess
Title: Tied Together with a Smile
Living in a dorm is never what people expect. Benji is roped into listening to Beca after she can't find Jesse one afternoon.
Fandom: Pitch Perfect
Pairing: Benji/Beca (Benjeca?) friendship
Warnings: None. Oh wait… brief mention of S&M
I - I O I - I O I - I O I- I O I – I O I - I O I - I O I - I O I- I O I - I O I- I O I - I
Beca knocked lightly on the door, last night Jesse had been over, and she'd flinched away from him. Though it embarrassed her, she knew she needed to man up and kiss him, or let him down, or something. She knocked again, not knowing whether to expect an answer. She knew Jesse had his composition or conducting class around this time but she couldn't remember if it was a Wednesday/Friday class or if it was Monday-Tuesday-Thursday. She waited a second and was about to head out when she heard a soft thud.
"Jesse? If you're upset about last night please let me in so I can explain." She sort of whisper shouted this, looking out the corner of her eyes at the gaggle of girls huddled around a doorway a few feet away. One of them looked vaguely familiar and she desperately prayed that this wouldn't make its way through the dorm grapevine. "Look, please let me in, we need to talk about what happened, I don't want you to get the wrong idea." She heard another weird thud and a grunt. "Jesse?" the tone of her voice reflected her confusion. Her brow furrowed even further at the next sounds that came out of the room. Was that a bird?
"Beca, Jesse's in um… Cassius Hall taking his :huff: composition class, but, um…the door's unlocked. Could you do me a favor?" Benji's voice came out muffled and some of the sentence was lost in the air between him and the door. She did catch the last bit so she hiked her bag on her shoulder and twisted the knob, peeking her head around the jam. Benji didn't look very surprised at her uproarious laughter, but he nearly shouted at her to come in and shut the darn door, so she did as asked, leaning against the ledge at the head of Jesse's bed to catch her breath as the door latched shut.
The one eye Beca could see was looking at her reproachfully, but it was hard to take the poor guy seriously with his face pressed into the carpet and his hands cuffed behind his back and caught in some Gordian knot that encased his body. Some of the props that had been probably stacked on the box in the corner were littered across the floor and his lower half. The bird cage had been tipped sideways on the desk and the dove, Houdini, cooed with umbrage, well as much umbrage as a dove could muster. Beca picked her way across Benji's body and the various swords, ropes, and action figures to right the cage, still giggling, and Houdini instantly ruffled his feathers before settling in the farthest corner.
Beca perched on the table and observed the wiggling form on the floor. She let out a scornful huff through her nose and lifted an eyebrow at him as he finally got turned enough to look at her again. "So, did S&M night get a little out of control for you boys again?" Beca's chortle seemed to hurt him and he pouted before he tried to leverage his way to kneeling. His face and shoulders were shoved deep into the low pile carpeting as his hips wiggled and his knees drew closer to his stomach. He started to lift his left shoulder off the floor when his knee went right into one of the action figures back, there was a crack of plastic and his knee slid out causing him to slump back to the ground, his ass sticking up. The whole tableau was slightly obscene, making Beca laugh even harder.
"Laugh it up, fuzzball." Benji's voice held a note of steel that cut through Beca's laughter. "I'm trying a new trick and apparently I wasn't ready for the handcuffs this early. Can you please help me out of this thing? I'm losing feeling in my fingers."
"Sorry, hold on, do you have scissors?" Without waiting for an answer she rifled through the desk and the drawers. His silence was making her uncomfortable so she began to talk. "I came to see if Jesse was here, well you probably figured that out. Just so you know, nothing happened last night, that's what I wanted to talk to him about." She gripped the pair of scissors that were wedged between a slide rule and t-square. "Well, not that I didn't want anything to happen. Oh! I don't even know what's going on anymore." She knelt behind him and gripped a length of the rope that went to the largest tangle.
"Wait! Wait! This rope was expensive…do you think you can just undo it instead of cut through it?" The note of urgency in his voice was a surprise but Beca shrugged and inspected the labyrinth of rope. "Sorry, I just can't afford to buy more rope and this was supposed to be for one of my theatre projects." Beca nodded absently before trailing her finger down one rope that seemed to have an end. "So what's up with you and Jesse again? He seems to really like you so if you're not into him you should tell him, don't string him along. That's not cool and he doesn't deserve it."
Beca was stunned into silence, resting back on her haunches staring with new respect at the nerd splayed on the ground in front of her. From the few times Jesse had brought him up, Beca knew that Benji was a timid young man with a fondness for childish hobbies. Confronting her about her relationship with Jesse seemed out of character. She wondered if it was his loyalty to Jesse that compelled him to speak out or something closer to home. "What was her name?" she asked, taking a chance. She knew she'd guessed right when Benji seemed to deflate and a sigh escaped him.
"Jolene, she was so beautiful and sweet. She was so kind and seemed like such a good person. She let me bring her Starbucks every morning, take her out to nice dinner, take her to the movies. She let me buy us tickets to comic-con, joined my D&D group, she never seemed to dislike me, but then she turned my whole life upside down. She told me that she'd never have dated a nerd like me, that I was nothing like what she wanted. She started dating the dungeon master and turned everyone against me, I guess I never expected it to happen." Beca listened to the sad story as she loosened the largest knot on his back. She finally worked a piece loose, careful to not let a triumphant sound escape to interrupt him.
"She sounds like a bitch then." Beca hated girls that did that, used the nice guys who were out there, turned them into cynical recluses, leaving them scarred and hurting. She knew what it felt like to be left raw and alone, her own family had done it to her. He made a noise in his throat and she knew that he wasn't completely over that girl, that he still wished she'd come to her senses and choose him. She felt her chest tighten as she finally unraveled the largest knot.
"I'm not using Jesse, I just can't understand him. He seems so together and caring, and I can't see what he wants with me." She let a little of her frustration leech into her words and she felt Benji wince when she tugged too hard on the trailing end of the rope.
"You'll never know unless you ask him." She nodded, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from blurting out 'fat chance!' they sat there in silence for a minute as she wiggled the rope under his chest and back out the other side.
"Ha!" finally the rope was free and she shoved it to her side as she grabbed Benji's shoulder and leveraged all her weight to pull up the larger boy. When he'd gotten to his knees she stood and pulled on his arm to help him get to his own feet. "So where's the keys to the handcuffs, or is it a trick set?" He let out a laugh.
"If I'd have been able to get my hands free don't you think I would have tried to untie myself instead of relying on the damsel's help!?" his incredulous laugh made her grin in response. "It's in my shirt pocket." She rolled her eyes, shaking her head slightly at the boy and his doofus behavior. She reached into the tiny pocket, sliding out the key and stretching the soft cotton a bit. He turned sideways, lifting his wrists to her, allowing her to fit the key in the little slot. He sighed as the lock popped open and he massaged his wrists and rolled his shoulders a few times. Beca tossed the key and handcuffs onto the cluttered desk and grabbed her bag, slinging the strap over her head and settling the bag at her hip.
"Guess I better get going," Beca headed for the door but was stopped when Benji cleared his throat.
"Wanna go grab some coffee? Its on my way to my set design class…" Beca suppressed a smile as his foot scuffed at the carpet and his eyes avoided hers.
"Sure, if you're not too tied up," Beca laughed at her own wit while Benji rolled his eyes good naturedly and grabbed a backpack and shoved a few papers and the ruler into his bag before herding her out of the room. They walked leisurely across campus, joining the queue at the sole Starbucks in the student union. They had remained mostly quiet, both a bit uncomfortable and unsure of this new friendship. They ordered their coffee and Benji waved off Beca's cash. "Oh come on, you just saved me from missing my class and probably permanent paralysis of my arms back there." She laughed and thanked him, before asserting that next time would be her treat. She smirked at Benji's surprised smile, he'd probably figured that she'd never want to hang out with some nerd again. Beca chewed the inside of her cheek and wondered if before the Bellas or Jesse if he wouldn't have been right. Shoving that thought aside she grabbed her White Mocha and wended her way after Benji. Beca waved as Benji jogged up the steps to the Joseph Charles III Performing Arts Building, which he had delighted in telling her, was colloquially known as C3PA.
She had just made it to the sociology class in the humanities building when her phone buzzed.
-I hope I didn't rope you into anything, I had fun hanging out with you. But don't keep me in suspense or I'll be fit to be tied.-
She let out a laugh before sending a quick text. Who'd known a geek was so funny? And she'd been able to sort through a bit of her feelings with Jesse while listening to poor Benji's story. Maybe college wouldn't be so bad, while she waited to get to LA.
I - I O I - I O I - I O I- I O I – I O I - I O I - I O I - I O I- I O I - I O I- I O I - I
Please read and review! First Pitch Perfect fanfic. I'm so in love with Benji and I just needed to give my headcanon for why he would run after Beca. Hope you enjoyed it! -LP