This is not part of the angst war. Enjoy it while it lasts.


"You mad at me?" Chloe asks, her lip jutting out in the pout she knows Aubrey can't resist.

Aubrey turns back, tightening her arm around Chloe and smiles. "Of course not." She doesn't say she isn't disappointed, but she's certainly not mad at Chloe.

Well, that's not entirely true.

She's a little mad that Chloe had to come at that exact moment, and ruin any chances she had tonight of leaving with Stacie.

Aubrey figures Chloe interrupting them was probably for the best though. She can't entirely explain the feelings she has around the tall brunette; and that makes her uneasy. She always feels the need to be in control of her life, and when she can't figure out what her own body and senses are telling her, Aubrey knows she is definitely not in control.

She's never felt the intense attraction that she feels for Stacie for someone else. She's never felt the constant yearning, the constant need to be around someone. She can't even explain the way Stacie all but takes her breath away when she smiles at her, or the way the air between them feels electric, and charged in a way that makes her feel like her arm hairs are standing on end.

She also, begrudgingly, can't explain that the moment their lips touched, for that smallest parcel of time, it felt like everything in the world was right-side up when it had been flipped upside down for so long.

Until Chloe had interrupted them, that is.

"You are mad," Chloe says with a weary sigh when Aubrey doesn't say anything else for a few minutes. They're almost to their apartment now, and Chloe isn't leaning quite as heavily on Aubrey, indicating that she's either gotten used to walking or is starting to sober up. Aubrey hopes it's the second, since she's not really interested in dealing with a hungover Chloe at the first practice tomorrow.

"I'm not mad!" Aubrey insists. "I'm just… I'm thinking."

Chloe seems to accept that for a little while and doesn't speak again until Aubrey's unlocking the door to their apartment.

"Does she not have a soulmate or does she not communicate with her soulmate?"

Chloe shrugs and takes off her shoes, leaving them haphazardly in the middle of the floor as she makes her way to the kitchen. "She's like you," is all she gives in answer.

Aubrey groans and follows Chloe, ignoring her shoes for now. "Are you going to explain it? You never actually tell me anything when you bring it up." She asks, getting slightly annoyed at Chloe's unsatisfying answers.

"Sheee…" Chloe starts, watching her glass intently as she fills it with water. When she shuts off the water, and takes a sip, she finishes her thoughts. "Doesn't have a soulmate either." She scrunches her eyebrows, "That's not right," she says in a low mutter.

Aubrey begins to really wonder how much Chloe has had to drink. She's not usually this cryptic when she's explaining things, even when she's drunk. It's making her want to slam her head into a wall, but Aubrey decides to wait it out hoping Chloe gets her mind back on track.

"She has a soulmate!" Chloe's clarifying statement is loud in the otherwise quiet apartment and makes Aubrey wince at the suddenly increased volume. "She doesn't talk to her soulmate," she says much quieter.

"And why doesn't she?" Aubrey asks just as quietly.

Chloe sighs and sets her glass down. She stares at it intently, as if the glass holds all the answers to her questions. "I'm not really sure it's my place to tell you."

"Chloe," Aubrey walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder. It's meant for comfort to Chloe, but mostly it's an anchor for Aubrey. She can feel that she's bracing herself for the worst news possible. That Stacie's soulmate did something terrible to Stacie or someone else that isn't forgivable in any way. "Please? I need to know."

Chloe turns around and looks, really looks at Aubrey, with the intensity that only intoxicated people can fixate on something with. Her eyes are glassy but not as glassy or glazed over as Aubrey had expected to see so soon. The dim lighting in the kitchen reflects on the pools of blue, making them seem deeper than they usually are. As if by looking into them, Aubrey can decipher the secrets and stories she feels she needs to know about Stacie.

She knows she could just ask Stacie all of this. She wants to, really. She would much rather approach Stacie about her history and learn the brunette better herself and without the help or intervention of others. But they don't really know one another well, and Aubrey knows, despite the strange connection they seem to have, that asking these things too soon could kill any chance she has with Stacie. Or at the very least make it awkward.

Eventually Chloe nods. She must see something in Aubrey's earnest expression and she leans back against the counter, watching Aubrey closely.

"Stacie doesn't talk to her soulmate, because on the day of her father's funeral, her soulmate disowned her."

She's silent for a moment but is soon conflicted on how she should react to this news.

"Why?" Aubrey whispers.

The thought of anybody disowning Stacie is appalling to Aubrey. Who wouldn't want to be near her? She's bright, she's funny, she's incredibly interesting. She's one of the most amazing people Aubrey has ever met, and she just doesn't understand.

Chloe shakes her head. "I don't know. I never asked and it never gets brought up."

Aubrey turns her head and thinks. It makes her think about her own actions considering her soulmate. She disowned her soulmate, much like Stacie's did her. It doesn't make Aubrey proud, and she feels even worse for her actions seeing how it affected someone in a similar situation. Someone Aubrey really likes.

Her stomach rolls as the guilt crashes over her. Why couldn't she have just kept her mouth shut? Sure she was mad, but she knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that she would regret her actions. That she wouldn't just be hurting her soulmate, but herself too. She never knew her soulmate well in the first place, so acting like she had surely wouldn't get her any kudos with her.

She nods sadly to Chloe and tells her she's going to go to bed. She enters her room and sits on the edge of her bed, lost in the snarled mess of her thoughts.

She likes Stacie a lot. Probably too much, considering the fate of her past relationships. But Stacie is different. Aubrey knows it and she can feel it. She already knows, despite only having met her officially a little over a month ago, that she won't ever try to purposefully hurt Stacie. Not like she did to her own soulmate.

Which gets her back on her former train of thought. She knows she messed up with her soulmate, and she completely understands her reluctance to talk to her. But she feels so guilty about the way she treated her, that she's probably never going to stop trying to apologize. Even if she never actually achieves full forgiveness from her.

So she decides to write to her again, despite the slim possibility of even getting a response. She thinks very carefully about what she wants to tell her. She's said she's sorry so many times that she doesn't actually know how to say it anymore. Instead, she thinks of the sentiment she had thought of a month ago but had never actually wrote out.

I'm proud of you in all that you do.

She caps the pen and blows gently on the ink to dry it. Satisfied with her message, she changes for bed and heads to the bathroom to finish her nightly rituals, a thread of uncanny feeling tingling at the back of her mind.

As she finishes drying her face, she looks up from the towel and sees an addition to her message. It's not much, but to Aubrey, who has suffered over four years of silence, it's everything.

Under her note rests a simple thank you.


"Alright everybody please take a seat. Sopranos in the front and Altos in the back." Her voice rings through the auditorium and the Bellas quickly head to a seat.

"Hey," Beca, saunters up to Aubrey and Chloe, smirking to herself. "How do you know a soprano is at your door?"

Aubrey sighs and rolls her eyes, but says nothing, imploring Beca to continue with a twitch of her eyebrow.

Beca leans forward, barely containing her laugh as she continues. "She can't find her key and doesn't know when to come in!"

Aubrey purses her lips to hide her amusement. The joke is a little funny, she can admit. A very little. But it's mostly Beca's reaction to telling the joke that particularly tickles Aubrey. They're not close at all, and Aubrey can admit that she resents the freshman just a little bit for stealing her best friend, but she can't help it. Beca's cute. Her grin is wide and she looks so proud of herself as she holds a hand up for a high-five. Aubrey is in a good mood this morning though, so she begrudgingly offers Beca a weak high-five and rolls her eyes when Beca fist pumps and takes her seat.

Chloe's reaction is similar to Aubrey's. She does not laugh at the joke, but her affection for Beca glows in her eyes.

Instead of dignifying Beca with any sort of outward response, Aubrey turns to the rest of the girls, signaling to Beca to take her seat.

"As you can see," she tells them gesturing to an empty chair, "Kori is not here. Last night she was Treble-boned and she has been disinvited from the Bellas." She can't help but glance toward Stacie as she says this. She doesn't know exactly why she does, but she thinks it is because she needs to gauge Stacie's reaction to one of her harsher rules. She needs to make sure Stacie isn't going to get mad at her for enforcing the rules.

It has nothing to do with how gorgeous Stacie looks, or the shy smile she offers Aubrey every time they make eye contact. Probably.

Stacie's looking at the empty seat, but when Fat Amy coughs and mutters "slut" under her breath, the rolls her eyes and looks at Aubrey. There's an expression there that Aubrey can't quite read; a sort of mixture between elated, conflicted, annoyed and something else that Aubrey doesn't know how to decipher. Her whole demeanor seems lighter to Aubrey this morning, but she can't say why.

She goes off on her spiel about the loathsome Trebles when Beca remarks about the rule being stupid, and by the end of her speech, even Beca seems a little cowed. Or at the very least understanding of the rule.

Seeing that everybody was at least paying attention now, Aubrey turns and explains their attack on the a capella world.

When she brings up the cardio rule most of the girls groan and complain with Amy basically refusing to do any.

"What do you guys want me to do about it? It's a necessary evil!" She talks over them, trying to get them to see the light.

"It's exercise!" Beca shouts back. Aubrey wants to groan and bury herself in her bed to get away from the whiners.

She looks desperately at Chloe, not entirely knowing how to handle them all. Chloe's lip quirks when she sees Aubrey looking to her for help and she mouths "punishment" to Aubrey.

Steeling herself and getting ready to play the not entirely comfortable role of "bad guy," Aubrey clears her throat. The girls' conversations and complaints ease off, not quickly enough for Aubrey's liking, but soon enough that she knows, with however long it takes, that eventually she'll clear her throat and everyone will cut off immediately.

Channeling her father's authority, she keeps her voice strong and stern, meeting the eyes of each girl as she talks. "You will, have at least an hour of cardio a day," she emphasizes. "If we have to add an extra hour of practice on a day, so be it. Better yet, that's what we're going to do, starting today." The girls all start to groan again and Aubrey quickly shuts them up, her voice sharp. "Everybody up! 15 laps up and down the bleachers."

Her sharp tone seems to work, as every girl shoots up and starts following Chloe up the steps. None of them are dressed for this, she knows, but when she sees Stacie holding her boobs as she descends the stairs, Aubrey can't help but stare.

Chloe snaps her out of it before anybody else seems to notice by running up next to her. Her co-captain isn't even a little winded by the six laps she had completed around the gym.

"You wanna wipe the drool off of your chin?" Chloe asks, a smug smile plastered on her lips.

Aubrey shifts her gaze to the other runners, making sure each of them are actually exerting themselves. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she tells Chloe. Her mistake though, and she knows it as she does it, but she just can't stop, is letting her eyes fall on Stacie again.

The tall brunette is now trying to drag Beca up the stairs with her, laughing at Beca's obvious discomfort with the idea of running. Even running up the stairs backwards, Aubrey thinks Stacie is gorgeous. This is obviously something she's done before, and with the gracefulness that she's accomplishing the task, Aubrey is sure she isn't even tired.

She continues to stare, despite Chloe's soft chuckle next to her. There's just something about Stacie, that she can't escape from. It isn't the way her shirt flows around her as she runs, or the bounce of the bun in her hair she hastily constructed, or the way her eyes seem to shine in amusement and happiness as she jokes with Beca.

She doesn't realize how long she's been watching them when the girls all stop at the bottom of the seats, panting and bent over like they're going to die. All except for Stacie it seems, who is just as upright as she was before, throwing an amused smile to her fellow Bellas.

She's not even panting, Aubrey notes, eyes unintentionally traveling south again. She catches herself and shakes her head and turns to Chloe.

"Five minute break then routine?"

Chloe nods and grabs a water bottle, taking it to Beca.

"You all have five minutes to catch your breath," Aubrey calls out. She holds back an amused huff when they all slump to the floor where they're standing, despite there being seats just behind them.

The rest of the practice goes well for a group of newbies to the a capella world. They can all match pitch and hold it, and Aubrey works on having them manipulate their mouths to develop new sounds. She keeps an eye on Chloe, who has officially become the dance teacher in the group, as she works with everyone. She can't help but sigh in exasperation when she notices Chloe "helping" Beca with her dance moves despite Beca's assurances that she can do it on her own.

When it's Stacie's turn for Aubrey's instruction, she welcomes the brunette with a warm smile.

Stacie returns it hesitantly. "Ready to make music with our mouths?"

A startled laugh escapes Aubrey's lips, and Stacie's smile grows. She completely was not expecting the flirting to continue after the night before.

"That's Chloe's line," Aubrey says, her answering smile just as bright.

Stacie shrugs. "I was thinking about trying it out. Y'know, steal her lines like she's stolen my best friend."

Stacie says the words that Aubrey's been thinking, but without any hint of actual annoyance. Which is almost exactly the opposite of what Aubrey's been feeling. She can understand some points of Stacie's view, since alone time is pretty great. Though Stacie seems like she's making friends quickly among the Bellas, so she probably isn't as dependent on Beca as Aubrey is of Chloe.

"You're just saying that because you get the dorm to yourself while I have to deal with them in my own apartment," Aubrey says, trying to maintain a believable disgusted face.

"Very true," Stacie nods. "So what are we going to do today?"

"Percussion," Aubrey says.

Aubrey ends up spending the most time working with Stacie. It isn't that she's not talented, because she is. She's definitely understanding what Aubrey's trying to teach, and, when she's actually being serious, she does excellent at it.

It's Stacie's playful nature that stalls them. Instead of simply copying Aubrey's aperture and mimicking the beats she makes, Stacie chooses to make faces and purposefully over exaggerate the noises.

"Oh my god, Stacie stop," Aubrey says, trying to contain her laughter.

It's her third time trying to get Stacie to pay attention and properly use her mouth to make beats, but instead of being serious and actually practicing, Stacie holds her lips in a way that as she blows air through them, spit flies from her mouth.

"But we've been here forever!" Stacie slumps, no doubt tired from all the activity.

Aubrey checks her watch and is amazed to see that it has been almost five hours that they've all been working. She glances around at the others, taking in bored and worn out faces. Even Chloe isn't really working anymore.

"Okay!" Aubrey shouts, getting the attention of the girls. "I'm calling it. Everyone go home, rest, eat healthy," she glares at Beca as she says this, knowing the girl's propensity for junk food, "and I'll see you all here tomorrow after classes."

The girls have a mixed reaction of grumbling and sighing with happiness as they gather their things to leave after a failed hands-in.

"Hey," Chloe comes over as she's picking up her bag and getting ready to head out.

"What's up?"

"Beca, Stacie, and I were thinking of going out for a bite. Do you wanna come?" Aubrey looks up from Chloe's hopeful expression to see the other two standing and waiting by the door.

Seeing Aubrey's gaze on them, Stacie smiles brightly while Beca stands there examining the chipping paint on her nails. Aubrey quickly returns the smile and shrugs to Chloe. "Sure, I'm in."

She grabs her bag and double checks her things are still in it as she walks with Chloe to the others. "Where are we going?"

Chloe shrugs as they reach the others. "Pizza?"

"Yes!" Beca exclaims, pumping a fist into the air.

Stacie and Aubrey both look down at her with similar unimpressed expressions.

Stacie grimaces. "I'm tired of pizza."

"Chinese?" Chloe suggests as Aubrey stops to lock the doors behind them.

This time it's Aubrey that makes a face, catching Chloe's attention. "What?"

"There's a lot of oil in that."

Chloe sighs and throws her hands up. "Okay so someone else come up with something."

"Benetti's?" Aubrey suggests the little Italian place just down the street from their apartment.

"Ooh, yes!" Chloe bounces and grabs Beca's hand, pulling her along.

"What is that?" Stacie asks, walking with Aubrey a few paces behind the somehow still bubbly redhead.

"It's a little Italian place," Aubrey says, throwing Stacie a small smile. She thought alone time with the brunette would be awkward today, but it's proving to be anything but. They're just as comfortable as they felt the night before. "They have good everything."

"Awesome," Stacie nods. "I'm starving."

They walk in comfortable silence for a while, quietly listening and occasionally chuckling at Beca and Chloe's inane conversations.

"I'm sorry about last night," Aubrey eventually says as they turn the street corner near the restaurant.

Stacie turns to Aubrey and grabs her hand, pulling her to a stop. Aubrey meets her gaze curiously.

"It's okay," Stacie assures her. "It's not the first time Beca's gotten in the way and it won't be the last."

Aubrey laughs. "It will be if I have anything to say about it. There'll be no interruptions next time."

Stacie laughs and shifts her weight over her hip, letting go of Aubrey's hand and crossing her arms as she raises an eyebrow. "Oh, so you think there'll be a next time?"

There's a flirty and playful lilt to Stacie's voice, and the corner of her mouth is twitching up in amusement. Aubrey studies her lips, taking in the exact shade of them in the setting sun.

She looks up and meets Stacie's gaze and gives a smirk of her own. "I know there will be," she says with a wink. She turns and catches up to Beca and Chloe who are waiting for them outside of the restaurant, leaving Stacie behind with a wide grin on her face.