(AZ POV)

"Who we waitin' on again, Torres?" Meredith asked in the most indifferent tone she could muster up, leaning on the wall with a nonchalant look plastered on her face.

"Umm, only Montgomery and Altman," Callie said, furrowing her brow a little and tugging her backpack a bit closer to her body by the straps. "This is the kind of thing I'd expect from Addie, but Teddy… Well, Little Miss G.I. Jane has always made a point to be almost annoyingly on time, so you'd think she'd be here by now."

Impeccably, as if on cue, a familiar clacking sound began to ring from down the hallway. I looked up at Callie; her face twisted into a menacing glare with a matching scowl. I could practically hear her teeth grinding together as Addison sauntered into the room behind a very distressed Teddy. Turning back to her roommate, my friend hissed, "I told you to hurry up! But noooo, our very own Ginger Elle Woods just had to get all dolled up like we're going out on the town or something."

My eyes dropped as my teeth nearly drilled into my lower lip to hold back a fit of giggles. A hint of a chuckle came out and Addison shifted her dirty look between Teddy and me, sort of like she wasn't quite sure which one of us deserved to die at the hands of her manicured claws first.

My roommate looked Addison up and down very slowly. If it weren't for the intense glower remained frozen on her face, it'd probably look like she was checking out her best friend. "Addison Forbes Montgomery," Callie pronounced each syllable in an eerily calm voice.

"Yes, oh Honorable Captain-san?" Addison drawled in a playful tone, smirking at the Latina. For a second I thought she was going to go all out and bow down before Callie's knees.

"What the fuck are you wearing on your feet?" Callie growled, her dark eyes shooting daggers at Addison's visible toes.

"Silly Callie, you know your Prada as much as the next girl," the redhead teased, twirling around in her fiery-red stilettos.

"Damn it, Addie, I said casual. Shoes you can get around in! Look at what everybody else has on." Callie's voice rose in a gradual crescendo; her hands waved in a somewhat flustered manner towards feet clad in indoor cleats that had giant Nike swooshes displayed as the predominant feature.

"That's what I did," Addison replied; her eyebrows flexed into a genuinely confused expression.

My roommate rolled her gorgeous brown eyes and groaned in a jokingly exasperated voice, "Just go upstairs and find a pair of shoes that doesn't lift you six inches off the floor."

The tall redhead grimaced and stormed off in a huff. Callie grinned, revving up a Latina accent that just oozed sex as she yelled after her, "Don't stomp your little last season Prada shoes at me, honey."

Addison didn't dignify that comment with a response. Addison would never wear out of date shoes. But we knew it and Addison knew it. Hell, even Callie knew it. Going by the radiant smile that eased its way onto her face, she was clearly just yanking her friend's chain anyway.

God, that smile was the kind of smile that inspired poetry. And yet what's most intriguing about Callie is all the passion she's got built up inside her. I mean, holy crap, that fierce intensity moves - no - drives her very being. It's really a thing of beauty in and of itself. But with that whirlwind of emotion came unpredictability… it's like I never know what I'm going to get when I'm with her. And while that both excites and terrifies me at the same time, I can't handle something like that right now. Hell, I can barely deal with the some of the stuff I can already see coming…

"Well, well, well! Look what the cat dragged in."

At the sound of that catcall, I jolted upright, blinking away all the thoughts that had been racing through my mind.

"Damn Addie, those shoes are fine. You look hot when you're so close to the ground." Callie husked jokingly, waggling her eyebrows for the full effect.

"Yeah, yeah, suck it." Addison mumbled, waving off the jeers. "Where the hell are we going tonight, Cal?"

A grin crept onto the captain's face as she flourished her hands in a grandiose gesture. "Ladies and…ladies, please blindly follow me to an unspecified location!"

Well, who could argue with such sound reasoning? And with that, we were off.


(Callie POV)

I peeked around the corner. Hmmm… Nope, too small.

I led the group farther down the sidewalk and stretched my neck around the next bend. Ehhh, no, there won't be enough light.

"Torres, where in God's name are we going? All we've done is walk down the block watching you looking 'round every building like you some crazy woman!" Bailey snapped.

I walked down to the next alleyway and stopped. "Just right," I murmured.

"What the does that even mean, 'Just right'? I didn't know we were following friggin' Goldilocks." Teddy, who was standing right next to me, grumbled.

"We're here!" I declared, trying but miserably failing to conceal a smug smirk as my teammates stared blankly for a few moments.

"Wait, wait, wait… Hold up, Cal. If we had to go to a some random sketchy place, you could've at least made it somewhere indoors!" Addie whined, pursing her lips in distaste.

Yang crossed her arms and scowled, chiming in, "Yeah, if you wanted to drink in some dirty place, couldn't we have just gone to some grungy bar? Why'd you make me bring my own-"

"Shhh!" I stopped her from spoiling too much. Even Cristina had no clue what was going on; her only job was to bring some supplies with her.

"Okay, so I know you're all feeling a little befuddled right now, but just bear with me for a second."

Mouths immediately snapped shut and I had 11 pairs of eyes on me. Before I took a few classes, all this attention would've turned me into a blubbering mess. I sucked in a big gulp of air to squelch the butterflies that were rumbling around in my stomach. All right, I've got this.

"Okay, so Webber basically said our team chemistry sucks and that we all need to do some bonding or something like that. Then, it hit me. What are two things we all have in common?"

"Dazzling good looks and flawless cheek bones?" Little Grey called out.

"Hmm, well that's true but not exactly what I was going for…"

Lexie dropped her head with a pout on her face, unintentionally securing her well-known status as the 'baby' of the team.

Strangely enough, Little Grey took it pretty well when she heard about her nickname. She simply squinted her eyes as if she was deep in thought and remarked, "Oh well, it's a lot better than 'Baby Horse'*." Whoops, I have to actually tell them the answer instead of drifting off on Memory Lane…

I pulled a ball out of my backpack and proclaimed dramatically, "We all love soccer… so I decided adding in some tequila would keep things interesting. We're going to have a good ol' match of street soccer with a twist. We'll have normal FIFA rules plus a few more. First off, don't kill anyone because I'm so not cleaning it up. Next, if one team scores, each player on the other team has to down a shot. If you get nutmegged*, take two shots. Oh, and if you miss when you're shooting, you gotta drink up too. Any questions?"

I glanced over the expressions on my teammates' faces; they stood stunned in a state of pleasant shock. "Let's make teams first," I said, my lips curling into a cocky smile. Our team doesn't have any problems we can't drown in tequila.


"Wait a second, this isn't fair! If everyone has to be the same team as her partner, that means our striker and first-string keeper are on the same team!" April shrieked at a decibel that wouldn't be appreciated by any breathing organism with ears.

"Whoa there, Kepner, down girl!" Teddy said, holding her hands in front of her body palms out. "It'll take too long to remake the teams. Let's just leave them as they are."

The rest of the team grunted in assent. April, clearly outnumbered, stomped across the pavement. My eyes met Arizona's; she smirked at me and gave a small shrug. Walking over to our side of the pitch, Arizona slipped next to me and whispered, "Why'd you make Yang bring the tequila?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she seems like the type of girl that's very attached to her booze, so I was wondering why you had her bring her stash of tequila?"

Oh. Umm, yeah, she doesn't need to know the main reason. Maybe she'll buy it if I feed her a half-truth. "Ha, what's the fun of being captain if you can't abuse the power a little," I joked with a wink, hoping my voice didn't give me away.

Arizona beamed and walked over to join the rest of the field players. Phew! Hmm, well, we've got Robbins, Teddy, Addie, Grey, Kepner, and I. Not a bad bunch. Plus, they have Thompson between the pipes; Arizona will eat that girl alive. I bounced on my toes in between the two cans of soda that marked the goal.

Cristina tapped the ball forwards to Lexie and the game was on. The young player swiftly weaved around April and Addie, who were attempting to double-team her. Trying to dodge her older sister, Little Grey cut the ball to the left, which was right where Teddy was waiting.

Sweeping the ball off Lexie's feet, Teddy took a touch to the side and passed it to Arizona, who had made a run along the edge of the makeshift field with Heron blazing behind. With a swift trap, the ball was like putty in her... well, not hands, but feet. Sydney leaned against Arizona's left side, essentially trapping her against the building.

With one arm on the wall for balance, her left foot pushed the ball behind her right with care. As the ball thwacked against the brick, the blonde rolled off of the defender, spinning around her and collecting the leather sphere on the other side. Holy shit, she just literally did a wall pass*

Yang barreled at Arizona and coiled into a defensive stance, low and ready to pounce. Stutter stepping next to the ball, Arizona dropped her shoulders with each move her feet made. But Cristina knew better than to dive in. Her eyes were trained on the ball instead of the deceptive shoes fluttering beside it.

The blonde tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and inhaled deeply. After tapping the ball slightly sideways, Arizona stomped down with her right foot and wound up with her left. Her arms stretched out at her sides as her left boot began its plunge towards the ball. Cristina bent her body forwards to try to block the shot.

It never came; the blonde's foot froze centimeters above the sphere. Whizzing by her off-balance defender, Arizona dribbled a couple of feet towards the goal. Julie Thompson's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets, an anxious frown dominating her features. Yikes, that's never a promising look on a goalie…

Driving the ball with inside of her foot for accuracy, the leather orb hovered an inch off the ground into the lower right corner of the goal. After performing an uncoordinated rendition of the Macarena, Arizona pointed at the other team and shouted the familiar refrain, "Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!"


"CALLLLLIEEE!" Cristina bellowed in what a wasted person thinks is the normal volume for talking. "Guess whaaat?"

"What, Yang?"

"This actually didn't suck! Your brain deserves a gold starrr."

Wow, she liked my idea. That never happens! Huh, oh wait… that never happens. When Cristina starts spewing out her version of compliments, you know it's time to call it quits.

"Everybody, grab your roommates and head back!" I shouted.

Sydney latched onto Bailey's arm, giggling at the infinite wit she possessed when she was plastered. Miranda tried to form a death glare worthy of such an offense only to look like she was going a bit cross-eyed. The team stumbled out of the alley as a pack, traveling in groups of two. Now where is-

"Calllllliope?" Arizona slurred and wobbled towards me. Damn, this girl is such a lightweight. Glassy blue eyes connected with mine. I tilted my head to the side, wordlessly telling her to continue.

"Do you think dead people are cowards?"

"What?" I squeaked, caught completely off guard by the question.

"I mean, when the light goes out of their eyes, it-it's like…" Deep in thought, Arizona's eyes moved upwards as if she were literally looking inside her head to find the right words.

"Everything gets dimmer," she said a bit more quietly. "An' then you're left here allll alone with your entire world crumpled up. But then you've gotta pick up after the mess they've left behind while they're floatin' around up there in the sky playing cloud tennis. Do you think that makes them cowards?"

Her eyes flashed with hopelessness like a lost ship sending out flares when it finds itself in hot water. Well, figurative hot water. Her baby blues searched for an answer but I had no clue what to do or say. She was speaking in drunken riddles and my foggy brain couldn't quite put the pieces together.

"I think," my voice trailed off a little bit. "I think it just makes them dead."

The blonde threw her head back and a mirthless laugh rang out. She looked like she would be sobbing if she and her tear ducts weren't so damn stubborn. Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I kept her steady as we began our trudge back to the hotel.

We walked along the edge of the building, almost reaching the corner. Suddenly, Arizona stopped dead in her tracks; she wasn't exactly light on her feet before but she was 100% deadweight now. I spun around to face my roommate with my back to the wall. "Hey, why aren't you movi-"

In retrospect, what happened should have been a given. Those eyes that were more black than blue, that gaze directed just below my nose, that breath so shallow with a faint sweet aroma… I really should've seen it coming.

My back smashed into brick with an audible thud; a soft whimper escaped my mouth. Slightly clumsy lips attached themselves under my neck, leading a hot trail up my collarbone. A surprisingly strong hand pinned my wrists up above my head as the other grazed down my side, leaving behind a path of goosebumps. My already cloudy train of thought became almost entirely incoherent until it eventually skidded to a stop.

An electric sensation lingered on my skin as sloppy openmouthed kisses made their way up my neck. I let out a breathless gasp as her teeth nibbled at the flesh just underneath my ear. When I took in a deep breath of air through my nose, I caught a small whiff of tequila.

Fuck, fuck, fuck! She's drunk and completely out of it. I can't take advantage, especially if she was a hot mess just a few moments before. Damn it, why do I always pick the shittiest times to have morals? Okay, I've gotta stop this… Well, once I retain feeling in my limbs…

"Wait," I breathed out; she flinched slightly but continued her assault on my neck as if she hadn't heard anything.

Wiggling my arms out of her hold, I gently pulled her away. I stretched out my arms with hands clasped tight on her shoulders, insuring that she was exactly an arm's length away. "Look, you don't want this. Not now, but especially not with me." I whispered as her eyes started to tear up.

"I-I'm sorry," Arizona stammered as her small frame started to tremble. Before I realized what I was doing, my arms were wrapped around her as distraught wails echoed in the alleyway.

When she buried her face deeper into the crook of my neck, I felt a light vibration against my skin. I struggled to catch the beginning but heard the end of what was probably meant to be some sort of soliloquy. "I j-just can't do it!"

Murmuring sweet nothings into her ears as I leaned against the brick, I wracked my brain to figure out what that 'it' could possibly be.

* Alex Morgan is the 'baby' of the US women's team right now. She was dubbed "Baby Horse" because she apparently looks like a baby horse when she runs.

*Nutmeg: when you pass the soccer ball in between another player's legs. (Go to around the 47th second of this video:[youtube].com/watch?v=TPXu3jURUS8)

*Wall pass: when a player passes to another player and gets it back right away. (Watch the 11th second to the 16th second of this video:[youtube].com/watch?v=jzTlQLgCgPM)