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Beca kept looking out the window every five seconds. It was sort of getting annoying, even to herself, she couldn't imagine what the rest of the Bellas felt watching her. Then again. Fat Amy was checking her phone every five seconds and Stacie was smirking over in a corner at her phone too, so maybe everyone else was too busy to notice her own neuroses.

She quickly came to the realization that she really had to pee. But that was definitely not an option right now because what if she left to go to the bathroom and they showed up? No, that was not happening. She was not giving them even half of a second alone with Amy. Not way. But then again, what happened if she really had to pee when they got here and she had like an accident or something because she was an idiot and just didn't take half a damn minute to go to the bathroom like an adult. So. Bathroom. Or not to bathroom, that was the question.

Fuck it. Bathroom.

It was when she was exiting the bathroom she shared with Amy upstairs that she heard them. The accents were unmistakeable. Damn it! She practically fell down the stairs- wait, no. She did fall down the stairs. Very ungracefully, at that. Like Fat Amy going down the stairs on the Bellas' ceremonial sled ungracefully. And landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom. Fucking great.

"Little maus? Are you okay?" Mina asked, obviously trying her best to seem sincere but really really wanting to laugh. Of course she had been standing there the entire time. God damn it. Beca should've just waited and gone to the bathroom later.

"Um." No. No she wasn't, at least her pride wasn't. "Yeah, I guess." She picked herself up off the ground, wincing a bit.

"Are you sure?"

Beca nodded.

And then of course Mina busted out laughing. As if the day couldn't get any worse here. But then again, Mina was in front of her. So. That did actually make things better.

"Crushed it, Beca. Good landing, I'll give you that." Amy said, coming up beside Mina, the tall one, Pieter, close behind.

Ugh. Why her? Did everyone see this? She peaked behind the group in front of her and saw Chloe, Stacie, Cynthia Rose, Flo, Legacy, Jessica, Ashley, and the other DSM girl. Of course everyone saw this. She was never living this down and now everyone else was laughing or snickering politely as Mina's laughter was apparently contagious.

Well, maybe that plan of moving to Saskatchewan wasn't such a bad idea. Eventually the group did disperse, leaving only Pieter, Amy, Mina, Stacie, and that dark-headed DSM girl- Aren.

Mina stepped forward. "I'm sorry, kleine maus, it's just once I knew you were alright, the look on your face it was priceless."

Beca pouted, but then Mina was cupping her face with one hand.

"Don't be mad at me, bitte?"

And then of course Beca was putty in her hands. And speaking of hands, holy shit, did this woman moisturize with infant blood or something? Jesus. "Fine, but next time maybe no laughing?"

"I can't promise that. You are a very funny person after all." Mina smirked.

Beca scowled but the expression didn't last long.

"Alright you two love birds, enough of that," Amy said, stepping up and pushing the two of them apart. "We've got plans, remember? To actually show these hot pieces of meat what a banging city this is." She whipped out a bunch of tickets and fanned them out. "It's totally aquarium time."

"Wait, when did we decide that?" Beca asked.

"Oh, last night, Stacie and I consulted you at like two in the morning." Amy shrugged.

"Amy, I was asleep at two in the morning."

"Oh well, you said yes, so."

"Whatever, aquarium works." She reached out for the tickets but Amy pulled them away.

"Uh huh, short stuff, you might fall down another flight of stairs and lose them. You'd be surprised how much those bitches charge for tickets like these, I'll not have you wasting the money I took from your wallet."

"I've only fallen down the stairs once in like four years!" Beca argued.

Amy glanced over at Mina. "I dunno if that record will stand as is but okay."

Beca looked over at Mina, who was smiling, amused at the Bella's antics. "You okay with the aquarium?"

Mina nodded. "Oh, I like aquatic life."

Aren snorted. "I mean, if you consider majoring in marine biology as 'liking aquatic life' then sure."

Beca's ears perked up. "You majored in Marine Biology?" She hadn't really thought of what Mina would do outside of performing. This wasn't what she had expected, though.

"Ja, DSM is something I stumbled upon in college as just a group of my friends having a good time. It took off my senior year so I didn't apply to grad school, but I can always go back." She shrugged.

"Alright, bitches, enough small talk. Let's go scare some fish! Or maybe go skinny dipping in the shark tank. I've done that before, it's a pretty cool story, actually." Amy walked out the door.

Beca just looked at Mina with an expression that said 'heaven help me, these are my friends' and followed Amy out with the rest of the group trailing behind.

The six of them piled into DSM's rented SUV, Pieter behind the wheel and Amy riding shotgun. Stacie had insisted she and Aren take the back seat for reasons Beca probably didn't care to hear about but probably would anyway because everyone knows Stacie is not one to keep her thoughts or sounds to herself. This left Mina and her maus in the middle row of seats.

Mina pushed Beca behind Pieter's seat. "Go first, mouse, that bear is so tall I can't ever sit behind him or my knees would be up by my head."

Beca immediately thought of situations that would be great if Mina did have her knees up by her head. Her mouth was suddenly dry and she was frozen in the middle of the seat for half a second before she managed to kickstart herself again and move. Trash, she was trash. Just take her to the dump.

And then they were both strapped in, and God, in confined quarters like this she could totally smell Mina and she smelled like warm cinnamon and it made Beca want to eat her up and Christ above. Mina reached out and took Beca's hand, interlacing their fingers and letting their hands rest on the seat between them. Beca's heart beat faster from such innocent contact. What was this woman even doing to her? Pieter and Amy were bantering up front. Beca was afraid to look behind her because she was pretty sure that Stacie was already trying to swallow Aren's face whole, and none of that really mattered because she was holding hands with Mina. What was she, tweleve again?

"How was the last stop on the tour?" Beca asked, swallowing down the lump in her throat.

"Oh, it was nice. It was a pretty large crowd, very responsive. It was a good show all in all."

"That's great." Beca squeezed Mina's hand and hoped to god that her palm wouldn't start sweating. That would be just so embarrassing she might literally die.

"I, however, preferred the show in Atlanta, but that may be because of certain company in the audience." Mina smiled over at her.

"It was the best concert I've ever been to," Beca said, gushing just a little bit.

"I'm glad you thought so."

"Who came up with the theme of your show? I liked the whole 'love is fucked up' bit." But on the other side of the seat she was crossing her fingers and hoping that Mina didn't say she'd come up with it. She needed to know this had a chance to get out of the gate first before there were thoughts of it never working out. She didn't even know what this was, but she needed to know about Mina's views anyway.

"It actually spawned out of a conversation we were all having about six months ago. We were talking about our favorite songs at the time and we noticed a common theme. Of course love songs will always exist, but those about love collapsing...there are less of them. It didn't take long to find those that matched up in narrative tone to tell a story. It turned out rather well, I think."

Beca was relieved. If it was a group idea, then Mina wasn't all cynical about love or anything. Good. She could work with that. "Uh, yeah, definitely. That mash up with Pompeii and Could Have Been Me, I would have never thought of it. Really I wouldn't have thought of any of them together and yet you made it work really well. Whoever does the mixes is really good."

Mina smiled. "Danke, I do the mixes. Pieter is focused on choreography, and Aren is in charge of the fitness regimen that all of DSM has to follow. We can't have anyone lagging behind, now can we? In anything physical." Mina's smile turned into a smirk.

Oh there was totally an innuendo in there. The woman was trying to kill her before they even got the aquarium. How was she supposed to deal with that when Mina was here in the flesh, holding her hand? She could barely deal with it when Mina was texting her halfway across the country. Now she was probably melting in her seat or something.

"Wow, um, no wonder you guys look so good then." Beca internally winced at that. Way to sound like a loser, Beca.

Mina's eyes scanned down her form. "Yes, you look good as well. Perhaps it's just something about a cappella singers."

"Uh, maybe not. You haven't been to the collegiate competitions. Oh my god, my freshman year there was a group at regionals with fucking sock puppets. I don't even know what the fuck was wrong with them."

Amy turned around. "They were from Florida. Maybe the gators got their brains. You gotta be quick with stuff like that or they'll get you."

Beca and Mina just looked at Amy for a second.

"What, have you ever come face to face with a ten foot long reptile in your life with huge teeth, I don't think so. I have. I would know what they're like."

Pieter spoke up. "So have you wrestled one of these alligators?"

And then Amy was launching into a story about crocodiles and how they were bigger and meaner than alligators, and how yes, she'd definitely wrestled one. Beca was glad Pieter was there to distract Amy so now she and Mina were sort of alone again.

"Please tell me that the sock puppets did not advance." Mina looked pained.

"Oh god no, the judges are crazy sometimes, but not that fucking crazy."

"Thank god for small favors then."

Beca smiled. "Yeah, the judges liked us that year. And every year since. We're actually the national champions."

Mina looked at least a little impressed which was great because no one else ever did when she told them that. "How interesting. Seems all you do is win, then."

Beca snorted. "Sort of, at least in a capella. In other things, not so much."

"Oh, but I think you've won more than you think."

Beca swallowed hard. "Oh, really?"

"Ja, it is yours if you only reach out and take it."

She looked down at their joined hands. Well technically she had already reached out and taken it. At least part way. She hadn't taken Mina in that way. And there went her brain again. When was she going to learn not to let herself do that? Probably never.

The car stopped and Amy yelled. "We're here bitches! Time for fish!" She hopped out.

Everyone else followed at a slower pace, by the time they were out of the car Amy was already breezing past the lines up to the entrance. Seeing how long they were, it was a good thing she had decided to buy the tickets ahead of time, or they'd have been there all day. Beca wondered why in the world Amy was so excited over the aquarium. If she knew Amy, then she probably didn't actually want to know. That whole skinny dipping in the shark tank was probably something she wanted to do. And probably with Pieter. Yup, she didn't need to know.

Once they were inside, the crowd thinned out slightly. Beca looked around at their group. Amy had Pieter by the belt and was dragging him to look at some weird turtley thing near the doors. Aren had her arm thrown over Stacie's shoulders and Stacie had hers wrapped snuggly around Aren's waist. Everyone else was just so couple-y. Beca didn't understand how they pulled that off with such ease. They'd all just met like two weeks ago and yet, here they were.

She looked over at Mina. Fuck it. She reached for Mina's hand just as Mina ran off, eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. Beca cursed under her breath and hurried after Mina. Just as she was going to grow some lady balls. Of course.

She caught up with Mina a second later. She was practically plastered against the glass, a huge smile on her face. Mina looked back at Beca for half a second and pointed down at the bottom of the tank.

"Beca! It's a Tasselled Wobbegong. I've only ever read about them in books, I haven't actually seen one in real life."

"Wabba what now?" Stacie asked as she and Aren joined the pair at the side of the tank.

"Who said what about a dong?" Amy approached just behind them.

"A Tasselled Wobbegong. It's a kind of shark that lives on the ocean floor. This one is pretty small, but they can be up to 125cm in length, supposedly. Isn't he beautiful? Oh, wait, sorry, she. Definitely she."

"Ah, yes, Mina might have a thing for shark species," Pieter said from the back of the group.

"What? They are fascinating! There are so many different kinds that perform so many different functions in the marine ecosystems where they live. Unlike you, who just sits and eats everything in front of him. At least the sharks are productive." Mina folded her arms across her chest and glared at Pieter.

"Why the fuck is it named Wobbegong?" Beca asked.

"Oh, it's Aboriginal," Amy shrugged as if everyone should know that. "It means living rock. Though if you ask me, Pieter passes for a much better living rock." She winked at him.

Oh lord, another thing Beca did not need to know. Speaking of need to know, did she want to know why Amy knew that about the Wobbe whatever? Probably not. She'd probably just get another story about something Amy wrestled.

"Ok, but if you're like some expert on marine life, why in the world doesn't this shark thing eat the other fish swimming around?" Stacie asked, looking down on the Wobbegong.

"Oh, aquariums keep their carnivores well fed so they don't feel tempted to eat the other fish. If you walk around long enough you'll see a diver probably who's feeding them." Mina's eyes were still glued on the tank even as she explained everything.

Aren turned to Stacie. "I heard they had whales here. You wanna go?"

Stacie smiled and wrapped herself up tighter against Aren. "Lead the way."

"You have your phone on you, ja?" Mina called.

"Ja."

"Good, text us when you want to find us."

Amy turned to Pieter. "What about you, big boy? You wanna go find some dolphins to swim with?"

"I always have enjoyed dolphins, even when this one went on rants about how they are overly glorified." He gestured at Mina, rolling his eyes.

"Do not even get me started, Pieter. Go off with Tina and leave me to my perfectly correct opinions."

Pieter rolled his eyes right before Amy grabbed him by the belt again and tugged him off to a different part of the aquarium.

Beca was pleased that she was now alone with Mina. Well as alone as they could get in a crowd, but all her friends were elsewhere and that was close enough really. She stepped a bit closer to Mina and this time, when Mina unfolded her arms and dropped her hands to the side, Beca was ready. She reached out and took Mina's hand and smiled for the win it was. Mina squeezed her hand absently, eyes following different fish with rapt attention. Was that a blush on her neck? No, probably just Beca's overactive imagination. Yeah, that had to be it.

"There are just so many fish here, it's wonderful. The ecosystems that they can establish in such a space...it's just…" Mina sighed and shook her head like she didn't have the words to describe what she wanted to say.

Beca looked over Mina's face and smiled at the awe there. Big tough DSM leader, yeah right. In that moment she saw nothing of the sort, and it made her heart beat a little harder and a warm feeling blossom in the pit of her stomach. This was nice. She could stay like this for a long, long while.

She inched closer to Mina so their sides were pressed together and she could feel the body heat coming from the other woman. "Do you have a favorite fish?" Beca asked.

Mina shook her head. "Not really. Everything has its own place in its own ecosystem that is vital to that ecosystem to thrive and be successful. Picking a favorite fish would be like choosing a single favorite note in a song. They're all important, you can't just choose one."

Beca stared at her in awe for a moment. How could someone make fish sound poetic? That's just not something that should work, but Mina did it with ease.

The pair continued their trek through the Ocean Voyager exhibit, stopping every so often so Mina could go on a rant about a certain type of fish. Beca stared in awe as a massive Manta Ray glided by the glass. Mina quickly corrected her that it was a stingray, not a manta ray. A Leopard Whipray, to be exact. Whatever, it was still pretty.

They came to a stop at the edge of the tank. They were inside a tunnel, surrounded on all sides by aquatic life. Beca looked up just as a 30ft whale shark swam overhead. When she brought her eyes back down to the real world, she was met with the most sincere look she'd ever seen on a person. Mina was staring at her but not in a creepy way. No, she was more admiring her than anything else. Her gaze darted down to Beca's lips and back up to her eyes. Oh god, this was it. The brunette wet her lips with her tongue and began to lean forwards. Mina returned the favor, meeting her halfway.

Just as they were about to close the distance between them, Mina's phone went off followed shortly by Beca's. They jumped apart, each grappling for their own device. Mina fiddled with the screen for a moment. Beca read her text. It was from Stacie.

"OMG Beca, you have to come see the Beluga Whales, they're so cute!" Dammit, Stacie.

"That was Aren. She says we have to come to the Cold Water Quest. Something about Beluga Whales being DSM's new mascot." Mina said, her brow furrowed in confusion. Beca laughed at this.

"Yeah, I just got a similar text from Stacie. Looks like we're headed to Cold Water Quest then, huh?" Mina nodded in agreement and the two turned towards the exit of the Ocean Voyager exhibit. Beca grinned when she felt Mina reach down and intertwine their fingers again. She could definitely get used to this.

It wasn't long before they entered the Cold Water Quest exhibit. Once they were inside, it only took a moment for Stacie to come bounding up to them and drag Beca away.

"Come on, come on, come on! The habitat is over here, you're gonna miss the baby beluga!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming! Jeez." Beca scurried along behind Stacie. She could hear Mina laughing as Aren approached her and the two exchanged a few sentences in German. Beca tried to listen to Stacie go on about the Beluga Whales, but she kept getting distracted by the pair behind her. At one point Mina muttered something unintelligible to her cohort who then responded by gasping excitedly and slapping her on the shoulder.

Mina was quick to retort, saying something loudly in her mother tongue and looking pointedly at Stacie. Whatever it was caused Aren to blush like a fiend and storm off with a guilty grin on her face.

Stacie looked at Beca and smirked. "That was totally something about our asses looking good."

Beca squinted at her. "So suddenly you speak German now?"

"Nah, a girl just knows. Besides, did you see that cute blush?"

Beca chuckled. "I did see the blush. What's with you two anyways? You seem awfully cozy for only having known each other for two weeks."

Stacie looked away and rubbed at the back of her neck. Beca thought it had to be the only time that she'd ever seen the girl look bashful. About anything. Ever. "Sometimes you just click with someone, you know?"

Beca did know. She knew very well. She smiled and bumped Stacie with her shoulder. "And I'm guessing this is one of those times, huh Stace?"

Stacie grinned big and put her face in her hands. She looked like a teenager who just told their best friend about their first kiss. It was kind of adorable. And Beca knew that the changed behavior of her normally brazen friend definitely meant something.

"Yeah, yeah, call me out on being stupid and cute all you want but you know what?" Stacie said, her confidence returned and her blush fading. She leaned down to whisper in Beca's ear. "Your toner is showing."

Beca sputtered and took a step back. "No it isn't, what!? I- I have no idea what you're talking about."

Stacie eyed her blankly, clearly not buying it for a second. "Oh? Then you didn't try to kiss miss tall blonde and fearless a minute ago?"

The shorter woman stared at her friend incredulously, completely flabbergasted. "Wh- how did you-"

"Aren is a fast texter with a big mouth. I guess that's what your girlfriend told her to make her freak out a minute ago, she must've been excited over it. She told me last week that blondie hadn't had someone in her life in a while. She said she couldn't even remember the last time she had seen Mina so absorbed and smiley with her phone like she has been since you texted her." Stacie shrugged, the shadow of a cocky smirk present on her face as she looked back at the tank in front of them. "And then maybe she said that Aren was doing the same thing. And that's where the blushing came in. They're both totally whipped and there's nothing either of us can do about it. Sadly, though, the blushing was not over our asses, because we both have very fine asses."

Beca glanced back at Mina and looked her over. "But maybe not the finest."

Stacie rolled her eyes. "Speak for yourself girl." She grinned as she slapped her own ass which had everyone in the immediate vicinity looking at both of them with dubious faces. Stacie just looked back with a devil may care expression. "I'm totally too hot."

"And the understatement of the year award goes to..." came from behind them and they both turned to see Aren smiling there. "What? I get my opinions. Though, in this case it's more fact but..."

Beca snorted but nodded. "Yeah, I see what you mean, Stacie."

"Told you," Stacie said, walking over and slipping her arm around Aren's waist.

Mina came up behind Beca and did much the same. Beca leaned into the contact as she tried to keep her eyes from fluttering shut. This felt nice. They stood in silence for a few moments as a group, just watching the fish swim around them. One of the whales swam back and forth happily, playing with a child through the glass.

"Did you know that Beluga whales and Narwhals are related?" Mina said as the whale finally swam off, distracted by something else in the water.

"Seriously? Then why don't they have horns?" Beca asked.

Mina shrugged. "Evolution took them on two very different paths. But you see the bump on it's head?"

The rest of them nodded.

"That's an organ called the melon. It lets them use echolocation under water so they can find holes in the ice to breathe."

"Huh, cool, so they're like sea bats."

Mina looked at Beca. "I suppose if that's how you want to see it."

"It totally is." Beca smiled at her and leaned in closer. Mina's face lost all signs of protest over the validity of Beca's comparison. She felt extremely powerful that she could make such an intimidatingly hot woman lose her train of thought.

They all wandered around for a little while, seeing what their was to see until Stacie wanted to go see the dolphins. Mina looked at Beca with a clear question in her eyes and Beca just shrugged. It didn't matter to Beca if they went to go see the dolphins so long as Mina was by her side.

And so that was how they ended up by the dolphin tank at the exact moment that Fat Amy canonballed into the tank. Completely naked. Oh, Beca should have known she wasn't fucking around with her claim of skinny dipping with the sharks. Well, at least dolphins were a little safer, but still. How in the world did she even get back there? Surely there were like locks on the doors or something.

Nevermind it was Amy. Somehow she always found a way to accomplish whatever slightly illegal goal she had at the time. Why wasn't Beca used to that after four years?

Stacie, Aren, Beca, and Mina all looked at each other with wide eyes. They were not staying here to witness this. Another splash a second later and Pieter was in the water too. Beca turned her back on the tank. No she really didn't need to see any of this, though from the glimpse she'd gotten he had ridiculous muscle tone.

"I think we need to get out of here," Beca said.

"Seconded," Stacie said quickly.

"Please tell me Pieter didn't have the keys," Aren said as they all started to walk rather quickly away.

Mina frowned and shook her head. "He did."

"Well fuck," Beca said just as they rounded the corner and were finally out of view of the dolphin tank. "They're totally going to get arrested and then what will we do for a ride?"

Stacie looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, I mean we are downtown. There's always stuff to do while we wait for them to call us to post their bail."

Beca glanced over to her. "What did you have in mind?"

"That nice, romantic Italian place is nearby, and I may know a club we could go to after. It'll take a while before their processed. We might as well enjoy it." Stacie grinned at Aren and Beca could already see that if they were going to the club Stacie totally had plans of grinding all over Aren. Beca brushed up against Mina again. Then again, maybe she should have the same plans. God, she already knew Mina could dance. She'd seen it on stage. To have all that pressed against her as music beat through them. She was going to need a cold shower afterwards but that was totally okay.

She looked at Mina for confirmation and Mina smirked at her. That was all the answer she needed. Somehow she knew that they were totally on the same wavelength.

"Sounds good then. Let's go."

They hit the stairs to the aquarium just as the first sirens of police cars came into hearing distance. Oh, this was going to be a very exciting night on multiple levels. Beca snuck a glance at Mina. She hoped it was a great many, many levels. And with a woman like that, it probably would be.

Mina took her hand again as they walked off further into downtown and Beca's heart fluttered yet again. Oh yeah, definitely.