Title: Puppy Love

Author: A. Windsor

Pairing/Characters: Callie/Arizona

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. My one year of law school could allow me to legalese this a little more, but it also tells me it's pretty useless. So please don't sue; it's not mine, I'm just playing!

Series: Thing!verse

Summary: Momma and Mami's little Lena-bug is growing up. [Spring/Summer 2033]

Author's Note: So sorry for the long delay. Summer's getting a bit crazy (in a good way). Beta'd by the wonderful, snarky, weirdy reindeer roughian.

"Doesn't she have her own house? Don't her parents want to see her?"

Callie grins at her wife's thoughtful pout.

"I thought you liked Mia."

"I do! She's great. She's just... always here."

Callie looks over to where the girls are cuddled on the couch sharing a blanket, "studying" for finals, and talking softly. They've been dating for about two months now and have only become more inseparable in the month since prom.

"I like it. I know where they are, and I can keep an eye on them. Plus, watch this." She looks over to the kitchen table where Teo and Caroline work on their homework. "Cari?"

The fourteen-year-old raises her head and meets Callie's gaze. Callie gestures to the couple with a tilt of her head. Caroline grins and nods, balling up a piece of paper, which she lets fly towards Lena and Mia. It strikes Lena in the back of her head before falling aside harmlessly.

"Hey!" Lena objects.

"Keep all hands where we can see them," Teo calls as if by rote. He and Caroline snicker and return to their work while their madre giggles in the kitchen.

Lena flushes and rolls her eyes, while Mia grins. Both raise their hands, though Lena's have a more sarcastic twist of the wrist.

"That is awesome," Arizona allows with her own smile, looking to her gleeful wife. "But when did you become the modesty police?"

"Oh, I don't really care," she says lowly. "That's just hilarious. And I like to keep Lena-nena on her toes."

Arizona laughs. "Just a little cruel, but I approve."

"Hey, Mia, sweetie, are you staying for dinner?"

"If there's enough, Dr. Torres."

"Of course there is. We eat in forty-five, troops."

"How come Teo always gets to DJ?" Mia asks. It's a question that's been puzzling her for awhile. Lena may not be like most girls their age, but she knows few teenagers that let their eleven-year-old brother control the music.

"Because he's the best at it."

Teo smiles at the praise, and Caroline beside him in the backseat shrugs in acquiescence to the statement.

"I get ultimate veto power, as long as I don't abuse it. Caroline gets one veto a day. You can have one, too, if you want, Mia mia," Lena smiles sweetly while she drives to the mall, one hand on the steering wheel, the other tangled with Mia's.

"Thanks."

"While we're on the subject of car privileges," Grey speaks up from the backseat, squished next to Teo.

"Yes, Grey?"

"I would once again like to file a formal application for a veto."

"No," the three Robbins-Torres chorus.

"Okay. Then I also want to know why I'm always in the back when Mia rides with us, even though my legs are longer."

"Because she's my girlfriend, and you are not."

"That was a dumb question," Caroline pipes up.

"You guys are gross," Grey grumbles good-naturedly.

"I think you're cute," Caroline defends. "But please put both hands back on the wheel."

"Ten and two," Teo calls.

"Driving with my own peanut gallery," Lena complains, releasing Mia's hand with a squeeze. "Democracy day in Chooch is closing in one minute, so lodge any more complaints or comments by then before this goes back to a dictatorship."

"I can't believe you named your car Chooch," Mia laughs.

"What name wouldn't be weird?" Caroline asks. "It's a name for a car."

Mia smothers a grin. Lena finds her little sister's snarky attitude totally grating, but Mia actually thinks Caroline is hilarious.

"Freaking peanut gallery," Lena grumbles.

"Why does summer league have so many games?" Arizona complains, slamming her car door shut.

"Because they don't have school?" Callie offers, grabbing her wife's hand and heading towards the soccer complex's fields. She waves politely to parents she vaguely recognizes from almost fifteen years of Seattle-area soccer, getting the sympathetic "yet another game" soccer mom look in return.

"Do you think she's going to be upset we're late?" Arizona asks as they approach Field Three, where Lena's game has already started.

"Nope." Callie gestures halfway up the stands. "She's already got her favorite cheering section."

Mia is in fact already there, half watching the game to be a good girlfriend, half reading the book in her lap.

"Oh, then we're totally unnecessary. Let's go home."

"I think she might notice if we just don't show up after we told her we would," Callie laughs.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Not exactly sure she sees other people when Mia's around."

"I carried that girl in my uterus for ten months, and it was not pleasant. She better see me."

Arizona laughs. "I really never thought you would be like this. You were never like this with Asa and Katie."

"Like what?"

"Jealous," Arizona teases.

"What?"

As they get closer to the stands, Arizona drops her voice. "You're jealous of all the attention she gives Mia. Mami's little girl is growing up."

Callie looks affronted. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Mhmm," Arizona grins as they mount the hot metal steps of the bleachers. She turns her attention to the teenage girl just noticing their arrival. She greets her brightly: "Hi, Mia!"

"Hey, Dr. Robbins, Dr. Torres."

Mia looks just the slightest bit nervous to be sitting with her girlfriend's parents, even though she's met them several times, before and after she started dating Lena. Arizona thinks that's good; a healthy amount of fear is appropriate, but not too much.

"What's the score?" Arizona asks, amused as Callie maneuvers so that she can sit next to the girl.

"0-0. Lena had a nice shot on goal, though. At least I think it was pretty," Mia grins. "I'm still getting the hang of this."

"It was pretty," Erin's dad adds helpfully from a few rows up. "I know she likes center mid, but I think it's exciting when they put her on forward and let her open up on goal."

Arizona turns around to greet him and ask after the rest of Erin's family and how their summer is going, while Callie proceeds to be terrifyingly nice to poor Mia for the rest if the game.

"Well, there you all are," Katie huffs, turning a corner in the winding halls of the SGMW basement to find Grey, Caroline, Susie, Nicky, and Teo all gathered conspiratorially at another corner. She narrows her eyes suspiciously. "What are you doing?"

They turn around guiltily.

"Nothing," Grey says smoothly, but almost in a whisper.

"Uh huh." She goes for the weakest link. "Nicky?"

The eleven-year-old, though tall and strong for his age, is powerless under the pressure of her questioning gaze. He shuffles and clears his throat. "N-nothing."

Teo giggles a little, and it's a hilarious sound coming from the preteen boy. He quickly stifles the laugh as Caroline and the Sloans give him an un-amused look.

"Oh, c'mon, let me in on the fun."

"Shh," Grey admonishes, grabbing her shoulder and dragging her to the very edge of the corner.

She peers around and rolls her eyes, stifling a giggle of her own. At the end of the hall is a long abandoned gurney, currently occupied by, of course, Lena and Mia. Thankfully they are fully clothed, but definitely occupied. Three months into their relationship, they're obnoxiously inseparable.

"You're a bunch of peeping toms," she whispers to the group, who are all trying desperately to keep their laughs in.

They are apparently not successful. Lena, half raised on one arm with her back to them, lifts the other hand in an unmistakable gesture.

"What are you lot doing?" another voice interrupts them.

They all slowly turn back around.

"Hi Chief!" Grey practically shouts. Lena's on about her fourth or fifth strike with Bailey and the PDA. She's liable to be kicked out of the hospital one if these days.

"Baby Grey, what is your problem? I am not that old," Bailey demands, arms crossed over her chest. "Nicholas, what's going on?"

Nicky Altman-Tate freezes, desperately torn.

"N-nothin, Chief," he repeats.

"Mhmm. I'm coming around that corner, Lena Rose, and I better not dislike what I see."

"Aunt Miranda," Lena clucks, heading off the scowling chief, Mia's hand in hers. That dimpled smile that even Bailey has trouble resisting is in full effect. "Who do you think I am?"

"Your mothers' daughter."

"You remember Mia," Lena smiles right on through.

"I certainly do."

"Hi, Chief," Mia grins nervously.

"I was just giving her a tour, telling her about all the mischief we used to get up to down here," Lena says easily.

"Used to, huh? Aren't you supposed to be at work, anyway?" Bailey asks skeptically, referring to Lena's summer position helping her momma's office manager.

"No, ma'am. I got off about thirty minutes ago."

A snort escapes Grey at her wording, and all of the girls in the group level glares at him. It thankfully flies over Nicky and Teo's heads. (For now.)

"Right, well. You all have cars. Stop loitering in my hospital."

"Yes, ma'am," Lena and Teo chorus, while the others mutter other variations of the same sentiment.

"Alright then."

As they all walk past her, Lena and Teo each pause to kiss either side of her cheek simultaneously, which earns them an affectionate eye roll and a pat on the shoulder.

"Kissing their chief," Bailey mutters to herself as the group pounds up the stairs. "What's this world coming to?"

After a close brush with curfew last Friday, Lena makes a goofy show of setting her phone alarm before they crawl into the backseat.

"Your dad looked at me like murder might in fact be an option last week," Lena grins, tossing Caroline's forgotten backpack into the front seat and then gently placing her phone on the center console. Then she grins and presses Mia back against the cloth seats. "I would like to make it to senior year."

"You would?"

"Yep," Lena says purposefully before turning her attention to the more important matters at hand: kissing the very hot girl in her backseat.

Mia giggles into the curve of Lena's neck.

"If we get caught by a cop again, murder might be definite," Mia points out.

"Well then keep your shirt on, Mia mia," Lena teases, as her warm hands slide underneath said shirt.

"I didn't take it off."

"You didn't complain at the time," she reminds her even as she rolls up the fabric under her hands and Mia shrugs out of the shirt. Lena does think briefly that she really doesn't want another awkward interaction with a dumbfounded young cop trying desperately to be professional, but that's sorta lost underneath her much higher priority of all that bare skin.

It may be cliché, the amount of time they spend kissing in the backseats of cars, but sometimes a car is a teenager's only path to freedom. Their make out session heats up and then slowly cools down as they approach the firm line drawn earlier: though shirts are often shed early in the proceedings, everything else (more or less) stays in place.

Somewhat conscious of the hour, their kisses grown more tender and less ardent until Lena pauses completely, pushing up on one elbow, the other hand tucking soft brown hair behind Mia's ear and then tracing the curve of her cheek. She bites her lip and hesitates, studying the other girl's features, then dives in:

"I love you."

For a second, it seems as if even the summer crickets outside grow silent in anticipation of Mia's response.

Mia tenses, a little surprised, but the earnestness in Lena's expression tells her this is more than the raging hormones and the glorious feeling of skin on skin. She melts at the eagerness of Lena's eyes, and her own green eyes start to sparkle.

"I love you, too," Mia promises, even as she leans in to seal it with a kiss.

Declarations made, the heat grows between them and Lena's hand starts to drift down to the top of the thin cotton of Mia's summer-y skirt. Mia shudders a little at the contact, but then reaches a hand to still her.

"Not yet," she says, breathily.

Lena blushes. "No, I know. I'm sorry, I just..."

"Hey," Mia interrupts gently. "Not yet. Not here. I didn't say never. I want us to be ready. It's sorta like my first time, too."

Lena blows out a breath, trying hard to hide her frustration, since that certainly wouldn't be chivalrous.

"I'm ready," she insists. "Are you... are you not? 'Cause that's okay. We can wait."

Mia pushes Lena a little so that they're sitting up and takes Lena's hand in her own. She pulls her legs up and drapes them over the other girl's lap, and Lena's free hand idly brushes against her knees.

"I think I'm ready. But not in the back seat of your car."

Lena flushes and grins. "Yeah, no, you're probably right about that. I mean it, though, if you're not..."

"Do you love me?" Mia asks simply.

"Yes," Lena answers easily with a dorky smile.

"Then maybe we're close to being ready. My parents are going away for the weekend in the middle of August. They're leaving me home alone."

Lena's grip on her knee tightens, and she blushes again.

"Yeah?" Lena asks, trying desperately to not sound too excited.

"Yeah. That's in three weeks. If you can get away..."

"Oh, I will get away," Lena insists quickly. "Don't worry about that."

Mia smiles, now more than a little nervous herself, feeling especially exposed in the bright light of the full moon as Lena's eyes trail over her body.

"Okay, so. Maybe then?" Mia says hopefully.

"Maybe then."

The phone alarm blares a twenty-minute warning to midnight (their negotiated summer curfew), and both girls laugh out of nerves and surprise. They flirt and kiss and giggle as they find each other's shirts and help each other back into them in the cramped space of the sedan's backseat. Refusing to climb back into the front seat (too many incidents with car horns), Lena hops out of the back seat and holds the door open for Mia, before sprinting to the other side to open that door for her.

Mia shakes her head and says:

"Next time, I'm driving, and I get to hold the door open for you."

Lena beams and kisses her insistently against said car door before reluctantly pulling away.

"We'll see about that."

tbc