Set after the retreat, and before the second chapter of These Hands Are Meant to Hold.

I know I tagged Aubrey, but she's hardly in this, though she features heavily in the story.

"This isn't going to work."

At the frank declaration that effectively interrupted what should have been a lazy afternoon in the Barden Bellas' house, those who were in the living room of the house and heard the statement glanced at each other and silently debated among themselves who would take the bait.

Since the person who had spoken was Chloe, and it was most probably about the World Championships of Acapella, the responsibility fell upon her Bellas co-captain, prompting Beca to mutter audibly to her friends, "I hate you all." She looked up at Chloe. "What are you talking about, Chloe?"

"This." Chloe gestured vaguely around her, although none of them could figure out what she meant to implicate. When the red-haired girl noticed the laid-back atmosphere of the living room, the part of her that lived with Aubrey Posen as her college roommate for four years kicked in. "Why isn't anybody doing anything? Worlds is literally just around the corner, and does anybody think DSM are just sitting in their living rooms and enjoying their afternoon? I don't think so." She shook her head. "Do we even have our itinerary yet? Tickets, hotels, badge passes to the site?"

There was nothing, and then Ashley, Cynthia Rose, Emily, Flo and Lilly collectively got to their feet, quickly making a beeline out of the living room, with each one saying something about checking their emails.

With the five gone, it left Beca to face the wrath of Beale.

Beca fidgeted, her eyes darting anywhere else but at Chloe. "So… I guess the organizers aren't doing that for us?"

"Us, yes." Chloe nodded. "But the part that's going to make your Hail Mary plan work? No."

Beca bit her lip. "So I should…" She hedged.

"Get on that." Chloe looked at her pointedly.

"Get on that. Right. Yeah." Beca nodded, and turned to leave. As she took a step towards the kitchen, she paused, reconsidering her plan, before she turned abruptly and headed towards the staircase.

The problem with venting out her frustrations on people, Chloe came to realize, was that after the initial onslaught, and people went to do what she wanted, there was nobody left to vent to. And with Worlds, and graduation, and the fact that the very thing she had initially worried about – that she would graduate and fail to have concrete plans for the future – was very much a reality, Chloe found herself needing to vent; but without an adequate outlet, could only pace the living room.

Fortunately (for Chloe, not so much for the other girl), Stacie entered the Bella house, pleased as punch and eager to reward herself with a free Friday and maybe some outdoor fun (that's actually indoors in an outdoor retreat). Humming to herself, occasionally letting a lyric or two out ("I forget myself, I want you to remind me"), Stacie was blissfully ignorant to the storm of frustration waiting for her in the living room. After taking a detour to the kitchen – where Jessica and Ashley tended to study, or Emily or Cynthia Rose to be cooking something – Stacie walked into the living room, her expression confused. When she sighted Chloe, her humming faded, and she smiled at her. "Hey, Chloe. Where's everyone?"

"Where have you been?" Chloe demanded.

"Class…?" Stacie answered, confused, as she drew out her answer wondering what she had just walked in on.

"Finals are next week!"

"And all the more reason to attend them?" Stacie surmised, stepping back.

"You've been on the dean's list your entire college career!"

"I like labs," Stacie shrugged. She eyed Chloe warily. "What's up with you?"

"We have no itinerary, no flight details or hotel accommodations, I'm worried Fat Amy or Lilly will have some weird INTERPOL alert on their passports," Chloe started, "Beyoncé keeps losing Video of the Year to lesser videos, as if there's a talent in the world that exists that's greater than Beyoncé, and Kanye can and should interrupt anyone that dares to prove otherwise, Angelina Jolie isn't adopting anymore, and the success or failure of the Bellas at Worlds is hinged on Emily's songwriting, which, to say is untested, is a gross understatement." Chloe ranted to Stacie, all in a remarkable show of breath control.

Stacie hesitated, and then asked: "You didn't happen to submit your final paper for Russian Lit today, did you?"

Chloe, who was still recovering from her verbal onslaught, glanced at Stacie. "As a matter of fact, yes. Why do you ask?"

Stacie nodded as understanding dawned on why Chloe's emotions were in disarray. "Nothing."

"That's all you have to say for yourself?"

Stacie shrugged. "It's an emotional time."

Chloe frowned, displeased at Stacie's apparent disinterest: did the girl not know just what it meant for Chloe to have even submitted that final paper? Of course, it was now up to her professor to give her a final grade, but she was pretty sure he wouldn't dare give her anything other than a passing grade. "No empty platitudes? No words of joy and hope and 'reach for the stars'?"

"Did you want any of those?" Stacie asked.

Chloe pouted.

"Because I've been dating Aubrey for over a year, and learned from a master, so I could probably whip up empty platitudes like a pro at this point." Stacie offered.

"No, it's OK." Chloe waved off the offer. "But thanks for offering."

"Sure." Stacie watched for a moment, making sure Chloe wouldn't descend into another round of madness, before venturing, "So… where is everyone?"

"Hiding, probably." Chloe answered, taking a seat on the couch facing the fireplace. "I kind of went off on them earlier."

Stacie nodded slowly, and sat down on the opposite end of the same couch. "You want to talk about it?"

Chloe shook her head. "I think it just hit me, on my way here." She glanced at the ceiling, wondering if she should go and apologize to the girls she had driven away from the living room.

"Yeah, graduation. Pretty big deal." Stacie agreed, but didn't say more on the matter.

"It really is." Chloe nodded. She leaned back to rest her head against the back of the couch, looking up at the ceiling. "I mean, it's been three years and I still don't know what I'm going to do after I graduate."

"Teach music to underprivileged children," Stacie reminded, calling back Chloe's declaration from their retreat a few weeks prior.

Chloe waved her hand dismissively. "Sure, but how do I get there."

Stacie smiled wryly. "I know someone who gets paid to provide career counseling, want me to give my girlfriend a call?"

At Stacie's second mention of Aubrey in so many sentences, Chloe glanced at her. "What are you going to do about graduation?"

Stacie gave her a puzzled look. "Do?"

"Stacie, we all know you're going to MIT." Chloe reminded. "Remember? It got lost in the celebration of the Trebles winning the ICCAs, but we did do a toast for yours and Ashley's post-graduation plans." Both girls were planning to go to graduate school, Stacie in Boston and Ashley in Louisiana.

"Then why ask?" Stacie queried.

"You know." Chloe tilted her head to and fro. "Aubrey."

Stacie hesitated. "What about Aubrey?"

"The fact that you'll be in Boston and she'll be in the middle of the woods?" Chloe reminded.

Stacie looked away, deliberately avoiding Chloe's curious gaze. Sure, she and Aubrey had their plans, but Aubrey had told her to keep the information on hold until she needed it in case of Chloe having a breakdown. Mere minutes earlier, Stacie had been ready to divulge the truth, but Chloe seemed to have calmed down since. "Well, uh…"

"Hey, Chloe, do you know if Denmark's weather is like ours right now, or–" Beca entered the living room, a guidebook about Denmark in hand.

"I failed Maps!" Chloe snapped, prompting an alarmed Beca to make a U-turn and head back upstairs.

Stacie frowned at Chloe, and drew out her next statement, hesitatingly. "You're not a Foreign Studies major."

Chloe looked at her in question.

"You've never taken a Geography class." Stacie pointed out.

"So?"

"So you're a filthy liar who's never failed Maps!" Stacie accused.

"You kept your relationship with Aubrey a secret! For months!" Chloe returned.

Stacie faltered. "What does that-"

Chloe threw her hands up. "Nothing! I just wanted to have something to throw back at you."

Stacie stared at her, entertaining the possibility that Aubrey had been the sane one in her friendship with Chloe, before she shook her head, clearing it, because no way.

Chloe whined. "I'm sorry! It's just I realized how much easier life was with Aubrey calling all the shots, and Beca suddenly going from avoiding me to referring to me at every opportunity is freaking me out. And now with graduation, and finals next week…"

"You're not taking a single exam next week." Stacie reminded.

"Why are you being annoyingly factual today?" Chloe asked.

Stacie shrugged. "Had a meeting with the dean today. Better one than last time, too. Depending on my exams, I might graduate with honors."

"That's great!"

Stacie grinned. "Right?"

"That's amazing, Stacie." Chloe told her, giving her a quick hug. And it was amazing, considering the fact that throughout Stacie's freshman year in Barden, she was mostly known as the hypersexual member of the Bellas who had introduced herself as having her hobbies and interests focused mainly on the E! network and cuticle care. Chloe pulled back, and glared at Stacie. "But you're not getting away with not answering my question."

"Look at the time. Have to go."

Chloe grabbed the escaping girl's wrist. "You're not wearing a watch."

"Why does that work for Aubrey?" Stacie wondered under her breath, and reluctantly returned to her seat.

"She wears a watch." Chloe reminded.

"That's one reason." Stacie pouted.

Chloe didn't release Stacie from her vice-like grip. "We all know how unhappy you both were when you were more than a couple of hours' drive apart. How are you going to handle it when you're in Boston?"

"I know it wasn't… preferable," Stacie hedged.

Chloe narrowed her eyes at Stacie in suspicion and deliberation, wondering if this was going to be the moment she was going to have to turn against Stacie to defend her best friend. Since she and Aubrey had been on the outs for most of Aubrey's relationship with Stacie, Chloe had never felt herself to be in the position to have any kind of opinion on the goings-on of their relationship. But in the past few weeks, having repaired most of the damage of her friendship with Aubrey, if Stacie said anything that made Chloe believe she was anything less than fully committed to her relationship with Aubrey, there were going to be words. And maybe some hair-pulling.

Except… Chloe paused to reconsider her stance. Stacie had never been the one who hedged her bets about her relationship with Aubrey. Stacie had been the one who pursued the older girl, had been the one to force Aubrey to acknowledge their relationship, as something more than scheduled romantic rendezvous, and as a public entity with the rest of the Barden Bellas. Stacie had been the one who coerced Ashley and Jessica to keep her in line and keep the hunter in check to avoid risking Aubrey's jealous streak from activating, and to avoid jeopardizing their relationship, despite its label as an open relationship. It was Aubrey who took forever to step up.

Chloe's expression cleared, her eyes widening at the conclusion she drew. "She's moving with you to Boston?"

Stacie gaped at her. How the hell did Chloe make that logical leap and come to the correct conclusion?

Chloe gasped. "And she didn't tell me?"

Because it was all about Chloe today, apparently.

Chloe paused, going through a vast array of emotions regarding this update, and then squealed. "You're moving in together! That's amazing! Did you ask-? No, Aubrey would be the one to… or not. Did she-? Oh, what is she going to do there? What about The Lodge? Did she know when she offered me to…? Do you have a place picked out? Aubrey's always struck me as either a ludicrously expensive penthouse or vast mansion person, have you seen her family's house? Are you just moving in, or is this step one-?"

"Whoa!" Stacie cut in abruptly, stopping the flow of words from Chloe and ending the direction of that last particular question. "Whoa."

"This is just so exciting." Chloe gushed. "Look at you two, moving on and moving in together."

Stacie smiled, pleased, because a part of her had always wondered if Chloe approved of her relationship with Aubrey at all, given her reputation and the fact that the relationship had started and grown while Aubrey and Chloe's friendship floundered.

And it had been awkward and difficult, trying to tread the line between being a friend to both of them and juggling her responsibilities as Aubrey's girlfriend while also keeping the peace with the girl she saw and lived with every day. When Stacie's room in the house was turned into their storage room for the Bellas' growing collection of costumes, and Chloe was the only one with space to spare in hers, there had been a moratorium of sorts when it came to Aubrey. Chloe liked to joke about it now, but it had been weird to finally have Aubrey back in the Bellas' lives, after such a long period of emotional distance, while knowing she was there because of Stacie. And the fact that whenever Aubrey was present, Stacie liked to lock themselves up in their room really couldn't have helped with Chloe's goodwill about the relationship.

But the truth of the matter was that she had been happy for them. It had sucked that she and Aubrey couldn't get over themselves and just fix the ever-widening gulf between them, but Chloe hadn't been blind to the fact that Aubrey and Stacie obviously made each other happy.

So now? Now that she and Aubrey were finding their footing again as best friends and not just by rote or title, but actually being each other's hand to hold and shoulder to cry on? Yeah, she was going to be a pain in the ass bursting with rainbow-colored, fruit-flavored happiness for Aubrey and Stacie.

"She's applied to business school," Stacie explained. "She'll still run The Lodge, but the day-to-day will be assigned to two managers."

"And Boston, was that a coincidence, or…" Chloe started, but Stacie blushed, making Chloe squeal again. "That minx! I'm gonna… That's adorable. You're adorable. You two.

"Oh, you are going to be in for a heck of a time!" Chloe exclaimed, grinning widely at Stacie. "She's a pain in the ass as a roommate, like, eighty percent of the time, but she'll probably welcome you barging in on her showers and you can shut her up with sex, so maybe more like fifty, for you?"

Yes, Stacie knew about Chloe's propensity for walking in while people were in the shower, having been victim to the weird habit as well, but she supposed she just hadn't been as good in harmonizing as Chloe's previous shower buddies, because it had only happened to her twice in the two years they had shared a bathroom.

"But, oh, she makes french toast and omelettes like nobody's business." Chloe continued. "That, and stir-fry. Really, it's unfair how she can whip something up given what she can find in a fridge. But never let her order for takeout, she'll order, like, the same five things every time. And don't get me started on her pizza order."

Stacie laughed. "I've managed to convince her on the virtues of pepperoni, so the days of the boring cheese pizzas are over."

"You are a gift." Chloe complimented her. "At least she isn't so uptight about groceries anymore. She was awful our first year: in the dictionary, her face used to be under the term penny-pincher."

"A regular income tends to do that." Stacie allowed.

"Oh, and whatever she says, always make her do the laundry." Chloe told her. "Do whatever it takes, as long as she does the laundry."

Of course, Chloe's method of making Aubrey meet that end was to not do the laundry at all, resulting on many occasions of borrowing – Aubrey called it stealing – Aubrey's clothes and forcing the blonde to do the laundry just to keep Chloe away from her closet.

Stacie nodded. "I know, right? Like how do the clothes smell that much better when she does them? And have less wrinkles? It's crazy."

Chloe nodded. "And who needs to wash the dishes right after meals? Like, chill, right?"

Stacie shrugged. "I wash and she rinses."

Pause.

A pause that grew into a lengthy silence, the statement having far reaching implications than Stacie expected.

Chloe frowned deeply, brow wrinkled in thought, as if trying to figure something out.

Stacie, realizing far sooner her mistake, made to leave but forgot about Chloe's grip on her wrist, which tightened considerably.

"You…" Chloe began, searching for words – kinder, less judgmental words – but came up short. "You've lived with Aubrey before."

"I wouldn't say-" Stacie's offhand response was cut short by Chloe's glare, and she admitted, "We've been dating for two years. I've stayed at her place plenty of times."

Chloe narrowed her eyes, before bringing out her phone and keying in number one on her speed dial. The moment the call was picked up, Chloe barked, "When were you going to tell me you were having domesticated sex with Stacie?"

Really, stunned silence was the only expected response.

Stacie reached over, and grabbed the phone from Chloe. "Hey, babe. Breathe. Oxygen is your friend. Yeah, I just told her. She turned in her Lit paper. Yeah. Mmhmm, yeah, she figured a few additional things to it." A pause, as Stacie snuck a glance at a still-infuriated Chloe. "She'll be fine. She was pretty thrilled, until that epiphany. I didn't know she didn't know." Another pause. "Well, I thought it obvious we weren't just doing it all the time, you know, after the first few… yeah." Stacie listened, then nodded. "What? Yeah, I'm gonna try to catch the first bus out, I don't want either of us waiting at the stop at night. The meeting went OK: depending on final exams and my final grade, I could be running for cum laude." She bit her lower lip before asking, "You're gonna come to graduation, right?" She glanced quickly at Chloe before she turned away, her voice dropping to a sultry tone, "semper vos vere volo 'cum laude'."

Chloe quickly grabbed her phone back, and wiped the surface against the edge of her dress. "That's gross, you two, whatever gross thing you just said." Although context clues and the obvious homophonic pun were telling.

Stacie laughed, and called out to Chloe's phone. "I'll see you tomorrow, Aubrey."

Chloe waved her away, having released the girl earlier, and turned her attention back to her phone. "My phone just killed itself with embarrassment, you know."

Aubrey laughed. "You don't even understand Latin, I'm sure neither does Siri."

"Do I want to—"

"No."

"No, of course not." Chloe quickly agreed, taking Aubrey's word for it. "Nice time to spring that factoid, though, considering we were just hanging out at The Lodge so very recently."

"I told her to save it for a rainy day when you were freaking out." Aubrey said plainly. "Were you freaking out?"

"What? No." Chloe lied.

"Uh huh." Aubrey said dryly. "Beca's sent me five messages in the past few minutes all including the phrase 'I'd ask Chloe but she's freaking out'."

"That tattletale." Chloe muttered. Finally, she conceded. "Maybe I kind of was a little, earlier. Freaking out."

"Well, you're not anymore, right?"

"I was calming down fine before Stacie's bombshell that should have been yours to tell me, just FYI."

"Sure." Aubrey allowed.

Chloe settled in her seat, finding a comfortable position, and asked, "But now that I have you on the phone: Fill me in on you shacking up with Stacie, both past and future."

.

If the Latin is frakked up, blame Google Translate.

Written because Fruith asked why Aubrey gave Stacie such specific instructions in Track In On This Feeling, and I wanted to explore the Stacie/Chloe friendship in the Fallen Leaves universe.