Author's Note: Finally got some free time to write! This story features Becky (of course) and Alexa, who is my new favorite everything. The romance is moreso implied in this, but it's definitely there if you squint hard enough. Hope you like!

Need You Now

Becky couldn't understand why Alexa was always so needy. No matter what they did or how often they spent their time together, Alexa just needed more. It's not like she was a stalker or a maniac, but hearing her whine and complain every time Becky wanted to have an Alexa-less night out was grating to her eardrums. Was she bored? The Irish woman pondered this thought on numerous occasions, but could never say for certain. They'd only been roommates for nine months, but sometimes she wondered if nine was more than enough. They gave it a solid effort, but maybe it was time to go back to not living together - back to having a friendship instead of this claustrophobic mess it had become.

Speaking of mess, would it kill Alexa to clean the place up a bit while she was home? This never seemed to be an issue until Becky needed to go somewhere, her keys constantly warping to another dimension to avoid detection. That's what it felt like, at any rate. Still, this was typical Alexa - messy. Becky knew that she'd be doing most of the heavy-lifting to keep their apartment in decent shape, but - as she pulls her keys from underneath a recently used coffee mug - this was beginning to drive her mad. Keys finally in hand, Becky made her way towards the door, only to nearly bowl her roommate over.

"Jesus, Becky. You almost gave me a heart attack."

The look on Alexa's face was one that Becky was all too familiar with - a mix of annoyance and frustration, with just a dash of 'Get out of my face before I tear yours off like a Halloween mask.'

"I take it you're not in a Lex-cellent mood."

Before Becky could inquire more, her smaller friend shoved past her, plopping onto the living room couch. She hadn't even bothered to remove her shoes before stomping along the floor, causing Becky to curse her with every fiber of her being.

"Ugh, work was horrible! This rude guy came up to me demanding that I cash his checks. Uh, hello? I'm not even authorized to do that, moron! But obviously I can't call him that to his face."

"Oh, obviously!" Becky's voice was dripping with sarcasm, but she couldn't help it. Alexa always had these 'stories' to share, and they were more or less the same. The sooner Becky let her finish her little tirade, the sooner she could get going.

"Plus, he smelled like a dumpster. It was the worst." Alexa made an exaggerated hand motion, before plucking the TV remote from underneath the couch cushion - 'So that's where it was,' Becky thought to herself. "At least we still have this horror movie marathon to look forward to tonight. Make some popcorn, would ya, Becks?"

"Um," Becky wasn't sure of where to start explaining, but from the top seemed like as good a place as any. "See, funny story. I actually have plans tonight."

"I'm not laughing."

"Alexa."

"Can't you, I don't know… cancel or something? I'm in a really crappy mood, and all I want to do is watch movies."

And there it was. This happened all of the time. Alexa would always find a way to guilt Becky into cancelling plans and frankly, the orange-haired woman was tired of it. No more. She couldn't let Alexa put this much of a strain on her relationship.

"Look, I'm sorry that you're feeling down in the dumps, but I can't up and cancel my plans whenever you see fit. Seth and I are-"

"Seth? You guys go out all the time!"

"Are you kidding me? We've barely seen each other at all in three weeks because for some reason you won't allow me to have a relationship with anyone! You're driving me up the wall, across the ceiling, and back down to the floor again. I need some room to breathe here!"

She felt a little bad for being so blunt, but it had to be said. Hopefully - if the forces of the universe were willing - Alexa could see her side of things.

"Whoa whoa. You're going to stand there and blame your relationship troubles on me? You've got some nerve. Hey, here's a wild thought. Maybe Seth's just not into the whole 'Look at me, I'm so quirky because I know how to use cheap hair dye!' thing. Newsflash - no guy wants to date a carrot!"

Becky was taken aback by Alexa's sudden attempt at character assassination. Where did that even come from? Becky had no clue, but she wasn't going to take that lying down. She could see the fire in Alexa's eyes and imagined her own eyes were lit up about fifty degrees hotter after those insults.

"Are you honestly going to pretend like you don't cry and beg me to keep you company? 'Oh, someone was mean to me at work! Better make Becky cancel her plans and stay home with me!' Why don't you get your own life, huh?!"

Even Becky was surprised with how horrible that sounded, but enough was enough. Alexa had pressed all of the right, or in this case wrong, buttons.

Alexa was fuming, eyes glaring daggers in her roommate's direction. "You know what? Go. Go hang out with your stupid boyfriend. Go for as long as you want, I insist. The longer you're gone, the less I have to deal with you. I don't need you! I can find ways to entertain myself just fine!"

Becky could only scoff at Alexa's pettiness. "All right. I will!"

"Do that!"

"I am!"

"Good!"

"Good!"

With that, Becky stormed out, slamming the door shut behind her. She had no earthly idea as to what happened, or how things escalated so quickly. Part of her wanted to go back in, apologize, and stay home with Alexa. But no, she reminded herself - this was about the principle of the matter. If she kept letting this happen, the harm done to her relationship would never heal.

Sending a rather hasty text to Seth, Becky sighed, hoping that her hair didn't resemble any fruits or vegetables this evening.

"What do you think she meant?"

"Gee, thanks for interrupting me again, Becky."

Becky had finally succeeded in her long and arduous quest of going out to dinner with Seth. The only problem was that Alexa, and their fight that took place an hour beforehand, was still fresh in her mind. Even when she wasn't messing things up, she was messing things up. She could feel Seth's gaze constantly boring holes into her forehead as her mind was anywhere else but this dinner date.

"Sorry. But seriously, what'd she mean?"

Seth let out a long, drawn out sigh. "Mean by what?"

"'I can entertain myself,' and all that. You don't think she'd do anything crazy, do you?"

"You know her better than I do. She does kind of seem like the type to get drunk by herself, maybe vomit all over the floor," Seth joked.

Mental images of Alexa drunkenly stumbling into the night flashed through Becky's brain. What if she was hit by a car? What if some aspiring mugger decided that a tiny blonde woman was the perfect target? What if a group of men pulled her into an alley and… and…

"I have to call her." Becky began to hurriedly pull her phone out of her purse, before Seth gripped her wrist. "Seth! Would you let go? This is serious!"

"Come on - listen to yourself. Man, this girl is playing you good." Becky didn't reply, her face a full of confusion and worry, so Seth continued. "This is stupid. She's fine."

"Maybe I should just run home and check. It'll only take twenty minutes, tops."

"Damn it, Becky. I'm so sick of this chick." Seth seemed to be making a concerted effort to not raise his voice, but it was obvious to Becky that he was upset. Rightfully so, but what could she do? Sure, Alexa could be annoying, and sure, she was just insulted by the shorter woman, but she was her friend. She should've cleared things up before leaving, rather than leave Alexa to her own devices. Things tended to get messy when she was alone.

"Seth, she's my friend."

"She's a grown woman! Kind of. She doesn't need you to babysit her."

"She was feeling rotten, and instead of talking to her, I yelled at her." Becky glanced at the time, her phone still in her hands. "And believe me, I'm not about to let her life end up like that 'The Fray' song."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know. 'How to Save a Life?' Popular song? I… never mind. I'll call you when I get home."

"Becky." As she turned to leave, she heard Seth call out to her. "I'm not doing this again. If you leave now, that's it."

Was Seth really giving her an ultimatum? Out of the few guys she dated, she didn't think Seth would be the one to do this sort of thing. She was at a crossroads - did she end her longest friendship to finally - finally! - have a shot at a decent relationship, or did she sacrifice another decent guy to the relationship-eating deity known as Alexa Bliss?

The choice was pretty clear.

"Alexa!"

The sound of the door slamming open caused Alexa Bliss to stumble, falling flat on her face. Becky could only watch in bewildered amazement as a stack of cards teetered back and forth, before crashing down in a cascade of black and red. Alexa rubbed the side of her nose, checking to see if the fall had damaged it in any way, before fixing her gaze onto the cards scattered across the floor. Her mouth was agape, her hard work was ruined! She looked over to the menace - the monster! - that dared to wreck her perfect tower of cards.

"Becky?! What are you doing here? You destroyed my tower! Do you know how long it took me to make that? I had to stand on the stupid couch to reach the top!"

"Have you been stacking cards this whole time?"

"I wanted to play solitaire, but I forgot how."

If this were any other time, Becky would've laughed. The tension between them was still palpable, and she knew that the other woman could feel it too. She helped the blonde to her feet, the latter immediately taking her hand away once she was able to stand.

"That's a relief. Thought you might be off getting yourself in trouble."

"Is that why you came running back home? 'Alexa can't take care of herself. Better make sure she's not dead!'" She stood with her arms crossed across her chest, scowl planted firmly on her face.

Becky emphatically shook her head. "That's not it at all! Well, okay. Part of me thought you might be a bit dead-ish. But…" Becky found that it was quite hard to explain herself. They needed to sort this out somehow, before their friendship suffered any more than it already had. "I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have snapped at you before. Let's talk this out. Without the yelling. No yelling would be good."

She made her away over to the couch, motioning for Alexa to do the same. With a roll of her eyes, Alexa did as Becky asked, albeit begrudgingly. It didn't go unnoticed by Becky that her friend had sat a little too close to her - not uncomfortably so.

Becky didn't know where to even begin with this. Why was this so awkward to talk about? It was her, it was Alexa - it was them. It shouldn't be this way. It shouldn't be this hard to talk about emotional things, but it was. "Alexa, you're my closest friend. We've known each other for years. We freakin' live together. Yet, for the life of me, I can't understand why you've been so clingy lately. I love spending time with you, but I can't spend all of it with you. Just tell me if there's something bothering you before my head explodes into a million, little Irish lass-kicking pieces."

Alexa's teeth sank gently into her bottom lip. She was struggling, Becky knew, to talk about whatever it was. This was unlike her, but Becky gave her the time she needed to collect herself. After a few minutes, Alexa began to speak. "Does anyone ever make fun of you?"

Well, this was certainly not the direction Becky was expecting this conversation to go in.

"Of course. Loads of times."

"Then you know what it feels like to be thought of in a certain way by people."

"Are you saying that people made fun of you? You told me that you were super popular in high school."

And it was true. Becky recalled numerous time where Alexa would brag about how she was loved by everyone in school. She had no reason to question those claims - she certainly looked the part. Gorgeous, athletic, basically every 'popular girl in a movie' trope you could think of.

"That wasn't the total truth." Alexa twirled a strand of hair around her fingers as she spoke. "I didn't have any friends, not any real friends. Everyone just writes me off as some spoiled, rich girl. Which, tch, if I was rich, I certainly wouldn't be living in this apartment."

"Well, you're definitely not rich."

"Are you insinuating that I'm spoiled?!"

Becky shrugged off Alexa's comment. "Anyway, I still have no idea what this has to do with me."

"Ugh, are you going to make me say it?" Of course Becky knew what she was going to say, but she'd still rather hear it straight from Alexa's mouth. "Fine! You're..." Alexa was trying - trying to speak her mind, trying not to get overly emotional. Yet there was nothing she could do to stop herself. "You're the only one that's ever bothered to get to know me! You make me feel special. It's frustrating because you have all of these friends and people to go parade around with. You're all I have, and I don't want anyone else to swoop in and steal you away, because I need you! There, are you happy? Huh? Becky?"

Becky was at a loss for words. She knew exactly how Alexa felt. She, too, was often bullied - for her weight, her hair, her clothes, her family, her accent. Whatever ammo people could get their hands on, they'd fire at her with gusto. If Alexa had similar experiences, it was no wonder she felt the way she did. Knowing that no words could properly express how she felt, Becky did the one thing that she'd done for Alexa many times in the past - she wrapped her arms around her, pulling her into a warm embrace.

Alexa allowed herself to give in without much of a fight. She hated being emotional - hated for people to see her being vulnerable - but for Becky, she knew she could without the fear of being judged, without the fear of being ridiculed.

"We can't be attached at the hip. Sometimes I need to do things on my own, but that doesn't mean I don't need you too. I make you feel special, you make me feel special - that's a win-win in my books! I wouldn't abandon you, ever. I'd be a fool to."

This seemed to put a smile on Alexa's face, much to Becky's delight. "For a massive dork, you're pretty good at saying the perfect things. I'm, you know, sorry too. I'll try to give you more space. Seth should be pretty thankful to me after this."

"Yeah, well, he certainly wasn't thankful that I chose you over him. Don't think I'll be seeing him again."

"You left him to come here?"

"I'm always going to choose you over anyone else. That's what Becky Lynch does."

"Again. Massive dork," Alexa stated, before latching onto Becky's side.

Becky didn't push her away.

"We, uh… we should probably pick up these cards."

Alexa took one glance at the catastrophe that was the floor, and nuzzled into Becky. "Nah, we can clean that up later."

"I had a feeling you'd say that."

Alexa was a bit much, Becky wouldn't deny it, but no one - man or woman - could ever take her place. They were always there for each other, no matter the circumstances - made the other feel special - and that was all that mattered to her. Maybe it wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do, but it was the thing that made her - made the both of them - happiest.

"Becks?"

"Hmm?"

"Your orange hair."

"What about it?"

"It's pretty."

As Alexa melted deeper into Becky's side - Becky's arm still wrapped around her, a free hand stroking the blonde's hair - Becky decided that maybe it was okay to cancel more plans. Sitting like this was definitely something she needed now.

End