I have good news patient ones, next chapter is the night before Mina comes home. Thought you should know.
She practically fell off the damn counter when her laptop finally rang loud enough to wake people back in Germany. She scrambled back down to the floor and paused her music and hit the answer button while lowering the volume. Her neighbors did not need to hear her conversation with her girlfriend, if they could. Whatever, the point still stood.
"Oh thank you Jesus Christ Father in Heaven," Beca said when Mina's face took up her computer screen. She was never as tempted to hug her computer as she was in that instant.
Mina cocked an eyebrow. "I am none of those things, mouse, but I think you are well aware of that." She fluffed her hair with her fingers and yawned.
Beca melted. It was obvious that Mina had almost literally just woken up and called her. She was still in her pjs, hair as all over the place as it ever got for Mina, with the last fading marks of a pillow on one of her cheeks. Warmth flooded through her and she felt ok for the first time all day.
"Yeah, I'm just…I missed you a lot today and it's really nice to see your face and hear your voice."
Mina smiled softly and reached towards the screen. Skype glitched for a second, but then she could see Mina's arms extending from the screen back towards her.
"Are you tracing my image on the screen?" Beca raised an eyebrow.
"Ja, I am. It's the closest I can get to touching you for the next eighteen days. You are too cute not to do something."
"You're cute too. So cute. God I can't wait to hug you. Like really, the only time I like being this god damn small is when you wrap me up in your arms and you're just all around me and you smell like cinnamon and you squeeze me just enough but not too much and I can hear your heart beating under my ear and it's just perfect." Beca blinked back a few tears. Damn it, she needed to get a grip. "I just, I miss you a lot and I wish it was closer even though it's a lot closer than it was at the beginning because I'm not exactly holding it together too well right now."
"Oh, little mouse, I can't wait for all of those things too. I miss you more than I can find words for in English, in all the languages I speak really. They're not strong enough, though German does come closest, but not close enough. But it's less than three weeks now until I can hug you for such a long time that we make strangers uncomfortable and I can glare them into submission because what's important is that I have you in my arms. And then I can kiss you until we both forget our names and then we can go home and we won't have to miss each other for a very long time."
Beca sniffed. "You promise?" She wanted to slap herself for sounding like a fucking five year old, but it was really what she wanted to know and she still hadn't found the filter she once had on her speech. She wasn't sure she'd ever find it again with Mina.
"I promise. I don't think I'll have any reason to be gone for this long ever again. A week, maybe two, but nothing like this. They don't like you to go far in grad school." She smiled as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "And I don't want to go far from you."
"Thank god."
"I feel the same way, liebling. Ich liebe dich, kleine maus."
"I love you too, engel." Beca drew in a shuddering breath and wiped a few tears of her own away. "Do you wanna bake cookies with me?" She asked, voice still a little shaky.
"Of course, what sort of cookies?"
"They're these chocolate pinwheel cookies that I really like. They take forever to make though because you have to make two separate doughs so, you know, they're actually pinwheels. But I made the doughs earlier while I was waiting for you to wake up because I had nothing better to do and I was missing you enough to just sit like a lump on my couch and I really didn't want to be like that so I made something chocolate instead, which maybe or may not have been more productive, but cookies." She shrugged just slightly.
"You'll have to show you what you mean, I'm not quite sure."
Beca bit her lip for a second, considering how to show Mina the type of cookie she meant. She grabbed up her phone and googled what she wanted before pulling up a picture. "That's what I mean." She held out her phone, looking at the little part of the screen she occupied to make sure Mina could actually see what she was doing.
"Ah, those, I thought those were only American Christmas myths."
"No, why would they be?"
She shrugged. "The only place I've seen them are on American Christmas specials."
"And what exactly do you consider a cookie, then? Boring chocolate chip?"
"Those are nice, but I prefer a spicier cookie."
"Gingerbread."
"Those will do, but my favorite are Zimtsterne, they are cinnamon cookies, almost like American sugar cookies but not quite as sweet. I also like Pfeffernusse, they're in a similar vein but they have cinnamon, ginger, and pepper in them. Mama makes them both around Christmas and the house smells delicious." She sighed happily, a smile on her face.
"Bring the recipe with you. I can try to make them, as long as you help me, of course." Beca smiled at the screen.
"I will do that. Mama will be glad that someone in the family besides her can bake. She's always complaining. Then I just make her dinner and she quiets down." She laughed.
"You'll miss her, won't you?" Beca asked, leaning forward on the counter.
"I will, I'll miss all of my family. But visits are possible and there is always Skype and texting. You have to move away from home at some point, ja?"
Beca looked around her own apartment on the other side of the country from her father and her friends. "Ja, you do."
"Now little mouse, you said something about making cookies. I'm curious as to how these pinwheels are put together."
Beca laughed. "Ok, hold on, I've got to set everything up first. Once the dough gets warm it's a fucking bitch to get them to cooperate."
She carried her laptop over to the island and put a tea towel over the keyboard. That should keep the worst of the mess from it. Mina watched all her preparations from the screen with an amused look on her face.
"I see you're wearing your apron." She smirked.
"It's an apron, dude. Do you see how much flour I'm using? I'd look like the damn abominable snow man if I didn't have an apron on." Her face softened an instant later. "Also, this really great girl bought it for me because she calls me her little mouse and she thought it was so damn hilarious. And I was missing her today so it seemed appropriate."
"This girl you speak of has an excellent sense of humor."
"Uh huh." She cocked an eyebrow. "Don't worry, gorgeous, you'll get your own ridiculous apron, I just haven't found a good enough one yet."
"I look forward to it." Mina laughed.
Beca sprinkled flour on the counter as she laid out the rolling pin and baking sheets. "This isn't going to become a thing is it? Where we buy each other really ridiculous aprons, because I can see it becoming a thing and we really only need an apron each. Though if we only had one then you'd have to wear the mouse one and wouldn't that be ironic?"
"Nein, mouse, that one is yours and yours alone."
Beca shook her head. "Fine. Be right back." She slipped off and grabbed the bowls of dough and set them out beside her rig. She scooped the chocolate dough out and plopped it in the middle of the counter, rubbing flour all over it so it wasn't sticky anymore. She picked up the rolling pin and started to roll it out.
"Paying attention?"
"Ah yes, it's riveting."
Beca looked at her. "You're the one who wanted to watch. Would you like me to narrate it like some sort of bad cooking show, because I totally can and then you might be in pain from the ridiculousness and it'll be all your fault."
Mina snorted. "I would like to see that."
"Oh, ok, it's on then." Beca tightened her throat muscles so the next words out of her mouth were ridiculously high and nasally. "And so we need to roll out the dough to about a fourth of an inch thick. Too thin and it'll break just like a basket of farm fresh eggs that you obviously used in such a high class application, too thick and it won't wrap properly and we all know about those problems, don't we ladies." She winked ridiculously as she finished rolling out the first layer of dough.
Mina's face was amused, but not quite where Beca wanted it just yet.
"Now we just do the same thing to the next piece of dough. Don't forget to set the first one to the side until you need it. It doesn't need any more of a beating than it's already had. Time to let that pony rest. Now if they don't match up in size when you roll them out, that's ok. Just make sure they match as good as you can get them and we'll trim off any of the extra. If only losing weight was that easy, am I right?"
Mina was starting to laugh silently, but Beca wasn't going to stop until she was fully out right laughing out loud. Might as well get to hear Mina's beautiful laugh for all this ridiculousness.
"Now, we're going to just brush it right down with some butter to make sure the layers stick together. Not your ordinary use for butter, but we aren't exactly massaging a butter ball right now if you know what I mean." She waggled her eyebrows.
At that Mina finally burst out laughing. Beca smiled smugly and started to layer the two pieces on top of each other while Mina laughed her filled. She trimmed off the excess and started to eat the dough pieces before Mina finally sat up, clutching her stomach with tears in her eyes for the second time in their conversation.
"Little mouse, that was…I don't even have words for how silly it was. Where in the world? Do cooking show hosts actually sound like that in the US?"
"Eh, not that bad, but some of them almost do. It's like housewife porn or something."
"I thought that was Fifty Shades of Gray."
"Ugh, don't even mention that book to me. It's so fucking horrible that I can't even. I just can't, Mina. You don't understand."
Mina laughed again. "I do understand. I read about five pages before I had to put it down. Even translated into German it is horrible, I can't imagine what it is like in English."
"I don't know. Look it up. It's just…there are so many problems other than the writing that it just needs to be burned. All copies of it. Everywhere."
"Fahrenheit 451, mouse?" Mina arched an eyebrow.
"No, I didn't say all books ever, just that one and all its copies."
"Small steps toward dystopia are still steps."
Beca looked at Mina, unamused. "You know what I mean."
"And if I do?"
Beca grumbled for a few seconds and started to roll up the cookies now that the layers were stuck together. "I would tickle you so hard right now if you were with me. So hard."
"There would be consequences to that."
Beca started to exaggeratedly shake. "Oh no, I'm so scared, whatever shall I do? The big mean Kommissar is going to get me. From six thousand miles away. When she says that teleportation isn't possible."
"Fine, fine, but if I was there, there would be. You cannot run from me, mouse, your legs are too short."
"Yeah, well, smaller people are more agile and quicker. I do run every day, you know. I'm fast!"
Mina chuckled. "Oh, we'll see then, when I get there, won't we?"
"You're on."
She started to slice cookies off the roll and placing them on the baking sheets. Beca bit her lip. In ten minutes she was going to have cookies. She looked at just how many were coming off the little cookie log. She was going to have cookies for the next week. Whoops, she was going to have to spend a little more time at the gym because she was totally going to eat all these cookies with a fuck ton of milk and she wasn't going to feel guilty about it. Besides if she was actually going to outrun Mina, she was going to have to run more anyway. Why the hell had she gotten herself into that bet again? Oh right because she was an idiot when it came to Mina.
She finally finished slicing the cookies and popped the first two pans into the oven with a timer set to five minutes so she could rotate the pans. "So what are you doing today?"
"Ich weiß nicht."
Beca thought for a minute, pulling words from her brain slowly and forming them into what she hoped was a comprehensible sentence. "Wirst du mit deinen Eltern Zeit verbringen?"
"Wahrscheinlich schon, aber Pieter will vielleicht etwas unternehmen. Er will diesen neuen Film sehen und er ist überzeugt, dass ich ihn auch mögen werde."
"I think I got that. It's totally a chick flick isn't it, that he wants to see and he's dragging you along so he doesn't look bad."
"Nein, it's Mad Max? I don't know. I haven't heard much about it." She shrugged.
Beca turned away from the screen, cleaning the counter as she smiled. "Oh, ok, I've heard of it, but I haven't seen it. It sounds like a cool action movie, though. You should like it."
Oh she bet Mina would love it, but she wasn't going to spoil the fact that it was everything a woman could want in an action movie and more. She couldn't wait for Mina to come back and gush about it tomorrow morning.
"Ja, I suppose. Action is more of Pieter's things, though I do not mind an action movie now and again."
"And tell me, what do you prefer in a movie? I would totally peg the Kommissar as the action movie type of girl."
"Kommissar would be, Mina, however, enjoys dramas, the occasional comedy if well written, and a thriller every now and again."
"No horror?"
Mina's face scrunched. "Why ever would I want to watch those?"
"Um, because they're hilarious?"
Mina rolled her eyes. "No they are not. They are horrible, stereotype filled movies that I could rather do without in my life."
Beca leaned forward with a smirk. "Uh huh, you say that, but I bet you're just a big scaredy cat. Big mean Kommissar can't handle a wimpy little horror movie, whatever will the world think?"
Mina glared at her. "Or, little mouse, it's just as I have said."
"Fine, but I'm not going to believe you until you sit through at least one horror movie with me."
Mina heaved a sigh like the entire weight of the world was on her. "Herrgott, kleine Maus, du bist aber auch hartnäckig."
"What was that? What am I?"
Mina smirked. "Oh, that would be too easy. You have to figure it out on your own. That's half of learning."
Beca glared. "Yes, let me just pull out my dictionary for a word that I have no idea how to spell and only heard once. It'll go so well."
"I can say it again, if you wish."
"I wish you would just tell me the translation of what you said."
"No, no, the options are repeating or nothing at all."
Beca huffed just as the timer for the first five minutes went off. "Hold on, but we're not done talking about this."
She slipped out of view, rotated the cookies quickly, and then stepped back. The kitchen was starting to smell absolutely delicious and she was starting to get more than a little excited now that most of the haze of missing Mina had passed. Cookies. Yes.
"Ok, yeah, please just tell me." She put on her best puppy dog eyes and leaned forward. "Pretty please?" She was sure that she probably wasn't doing this right. Being ridiculous and over the top about flirting had never been her thing, but spelling in German was going to be the death of her. She could only spell in English because there was autocorrect and she'd been speaking it her whole life and had all of elementary school to drill it into her head.
Mina tilted her head, considering. "Perhaps. But first promise me something?"
"Um, ok?" What in the world could she promise Mina from half a world away? She was about to find out, she guessed.
A link appeared in the chat section of Skype. "Pick something from there and send me what you want."
Beca squinted and reached forward, clicking on the link. She squeaked as the screen loaded and she was taken to a sex toy site.
"And the little mouse sounds like a mouse."
"You meant to send me a link to a sex toy site, right?" Beca felt herself blushing even though she knew it was ridiculous. She had a vibrator in her sock drawer like everyone else. Not that she hadn't been slightly mortified the entire time she walked around the story trying to decide what she wanted and then completely mortified when she'd handed the box to the middle aged guy at the checkout, but she had done it and hadn't regretted it after she'd gotten over the embarrassment.
"Of course. Pick something that we can use together." A sexy smirk made its way onto Mina's face. "Perhaps for the first night I am in America, start my time off with a bang, ja?"
Beca swallowed hard, switching back to the page. "Ja," she said quietly, mind already gone imagining some of the things they could get up to with some of the things on her screen. She was so involved she almost missed the second cookie alarm. She shook herself and grabbed out the pans, putting the last two in and setting the timer before she carefully scooped up the still hot, but set cookies and put them on cooling racks. She grabbed a glass of milk and started at the rack, deciding which one would be first.
"You have an awfully concentrated look on your face."
"Picking out the first cookie is an art form."
"Uh huh," Mina said skeptically. Beca wasn't even looking but she could picture the look on her face, both eyebrows raised, mouth cocked slightly to the side and eyes slightly squinted.
"What, I want the best one first?" Beca shrugged and finally picked out the one she wanted. She took a bite of the still warm cookie and sighed. Perfect.
"They're all cookies that you just made from the same batch. How is one so much different from the other?"
"Well, one could be a little more cooked than the other, and be crunchier, and I'm looking for a softer cookie, and then they're slightly different sizes because you can't cut them all the same size unless you're a robot. So, you combine everything together and of course there's always one cookie that will be the best cookie out of all of them."
Mina shook her head. "If you say so mouse."
Beca took a drink of the milk and licked her lips. "Ok, so I'll pick something out. Now will you tell me what you said?"
Mina heaved a sigh. "Tenacious."
"You like that about me, and we both know it."
"I do. But I said Jesus Christ, little mouse, you are a stubborn one. Are you satisfied now."
Beca frowned but nodded. "You like that about me too."
"Yes, but sometimes, liebling."
"I can say the same for you. 'Oh no, mouse, that wouldn't be fun. You have to learn,'" she mocked, putting on a ridiculously deep voice to imitate Mina.
"I do not sound like that."
Beca laughed. "That's sort of the point, engel."
"Whatever you say."
She took another bite of her cookie and just stared at Mina. "Yeah, well, you're an idiot. But you're my idiot. So it's cool."
Mina hummed. "If I'm the idiot what does that make you? After all I am not the one who cannot come up with a real insult to save their life."
"Hey! That's only because you're like stupidly hot and it makes me stupid. It's not my fault your DNA was crafted by the gods and blessed several times over."
"I suppose not, but you can control how you react."
Beca rolled her eyes and hit the timer right before it was about to go off. "No, no I cannot. Have you seen yourself? Like seriously." She rotated the pans and stepped back on screen.
"I quite regularly see myself. There are these things called mirrors. Wonderful inventions," Mina deadpanned.
"Har de har, you're hilarious. You know exactly what I mean." Beca grabbed another cookie at random and started to munch on it. Not as warm, but still just as good really. She sighed and leaned forward onto the counter.
"I do." Mina smiled. "Thank you, little mouse, but I still say you are the beautiful one. I am aware that I am attractive, but you are much better."
"Well, thanks, but isn't this an area that we agree to disagree on? Or are we going to be one of those couples that does the 'no you are,' 'nuh uh, you are' sort of thing?" Beca cocked an eyebrow.
"No I believe this is one of those places we have prior agreement on."
"Good, glad we covered that." Beca yawned. She didn't want to stop talking to Mina, but she felt sleep dragging at her like a lead weight. She glanced at the clock. It was almost two in the morning now. But she didn't have anywhere to be in the morning and right now she was standing up so she wasn't really in danger of falling asleep or anything. Though she could probably find a way. Mina would totally flip a shit if Beca just fell over sideways or something, but she would take that chance.
The timer went off for the final time and Beca pulled the cookies out. "I can't wait to bake for you, honestly. The apartment smells so fucking good right now," she said as she put the cookies on the cooling rack. She looked up to see Mina smiling.
"I am excited as well. Those cookies look good, mouse." Her stomach growled loud enough that Beca actually heard it. Mina blushed faintly, but showed no other signs of embarrassment.
"Hungry much?"
"A bit. Dinner was quite a while ago and there was a small rodent that I had to call right as I got up." She smiled.
"Small rodent sounds so much worse that little mouse. I like that a lot better."
"Ah, so you like it?"
"Only from you. Everyone else I just sort of sit through them giving me nicknames because it's easier than protesting and usually if you say something they just stick even harder, but you…yeah I like being your little mouse, you giant goddess." Her face scrunched again. "Though I could seriously go without Pieter calling me little troll. Where the eff did that even come from? Troll was not ever in the line of things you were talking about. I don't understand where he pulled that one." She shook her head and threw up her hands.
"That, as with many things, Pieter pulled out of his ass." She laughed fondly. "Also, it had the desired effect if you still think about it and are annoyed months later. We were trying to get into your head, liebling. You were exceptionally fun to tease, especially after you started to compliment me."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She huffed and stuffed another cookie in her face. They were cool enough now that she could bag them. She should probably do that. She yawned again and set out for the box of ziplocs.
"And look who's speaking loser now." She popped up long enough to stick out her tongue and then went back to searching for bags. She swore they were in the cabinet by the fridge, but apparently she had moved them since then like an idiot. Jesus, when was she going to learn to just put back things where she found them?
"Oh, I don't think I'm speaking loser at all. After all, I did get you out of the deal, didn't I?"
She popped back on screen again. "Oh stop, you're being so cheesy." But she still couldn't keep the smile off her face.
"To reiterate our earlier point, you like it."
"Maybe. I'm not admitting to anything, even under threat of torture."
"Hmm, it is a shame that you aren't ticklish. Tickle torture is quite effective, I've found."
"Of course you would know that. That's a bit creepy if you take it out of context. Which since I have no context is totally what I'm doing right now."
Mina laughed. "I did have friends in high school and college, mouse. Tickling them when they wouldn't tell me something I wanted to know was a painless way of getting what I wanted. Of course then they would turn the tables later, but I suppose turnabout is fair play in this instance."
"Tickle fights with your besties. Sounds like a porno."
The corners of Mina's mouth twitched into a smirk that looked like the cat who caught the canary. "Perhaps sometimes it was."
A bit of jealousy sparked through Beca but then died. Mina was with her now and that was what mattered. She couldn't exactly say anything about ever having past relationships, now could she?
"Aren't you just stereotypical?"
"Yes, well, stereotypes do have some foundations. I believe there is one that we rather embody."
"Oh?" Beca prayed that she didn't say U-haul. She was beyond over hearing that. They totally weren't U-hauling it. Ok, maybe they sort of were, but whatever. That didn't mean she wanted to hear it.
"The blonde and brunette lesbian couple."
Beca sighed out her relief. That one she could handle. "Ah yeah, I guess we do. Though I think you could dye your hair and still look fucking fabulous. I'm not exactly sure the same thing could be said about me." She went back to looking for bags.
"I think you would look wonderful no matter what you do, little mouse."
"You have to say that, you're my girlfriend."
"What does that have to do with it? I think we are both well aware that if I didn't want to be honest I wouldn't be. Kommissar isn't one to spare people's feelings."
Beca made a triumphant noise as she finally found the bags under the sink. She had no idea when she'd put them there, but whatever. She walked back over to the cooling racks and started to scoop cookies in.
"Fair enough." She yawned widely and flinched as her jaw cracked. "Son of a bitch that hurt." She zipped up the bag of cookies and started to clean up the last few things.
"What hurt?" Mina asked immediately, concerned.
"Nothing, my jaw just cracked while yawning, no biggie." She would have to go to bed soon. She was exhausted, but she didn't want to stop talking just yet.
"Tired, liebling?"
Beca finally stepped back on screen, everything clean and put away. She scooped up her laptop and started to walk towards her room.
"Yup, but it's sort of two in the morning after I got up at nine and worked all day." She shrugged. "It's to be expected."
"Then sleep, little mouse."
Beca smiled a small smile. "I'm working on that." She turned the computer and showed Mina that she was walking down the hall.
"Good, we can always talk in the morning."
"Was planning on that too." She set the laptop on the bed when she walked into the room and started to change into her pjs.
Mina hummed, eyes raking down Beca's form. Beca rolled her eyes. "Like what you see, horn dog?"
Mina laughed. "I think you are well aware that I like what I see." She licked her lips. "Or do I need to demonstrate.
A zing of heat shot through Beca, but her body was just too damn tired to do much about it. "Tomorrow, maybe?"
"That can definitely be arranged." Mina's smile was predatory and her eyes were alight with thoughts of what she was going to do to Beca. Beca took one look at her and swallowed hard. Good god she'd just given her the entire day to think of ways to slowly kill her sanity. What in the world was she thinking?
"Lord, you're going to torture me tomorrow, aren't you?" Beca pushed the laptop over and crawled into bed. Her eyes wanted to close immediately but she managed to keep them open for now.
"Of course, what would be the fun if I didn't?" Mina arched an eyebrow.
"Of course," Beca deadpanned. "Stay on the line with me until I fall asleep?"
"Already ahead of you, liebling."
"Awesome." She yawned again and settled into a more comfortable position. "I love you."
"Ich liebe dich auch. Sleep well."
"Thanks, have a good day doing whatever you end up doing," Beca's voice was already deepening, sleep coming over her quickly. She was even more tired than she thought.
"Danke. I'll tell you about it when you wake."
"Good," she mumbled.
She heard Mina laugh quietly and then she was asleep a second later.
German Translations:
Ich weiß nicht.-I don't know.
Wirst du mit deinen Eltern Zeit verbringen?-Are you going to spend time with your Mom and Dad?
Wahrscheinlich schon, aber Pieter will vielleicht etwas unternehmen. Er will diesen neuen Film sehen und er ist überzeugt, dass ichihn auch mögen werde.-probably, though Pieter might want to do something. There's some movie out that he wants to see andhe's convinced I will like it.
Herrgott, kleine Maus, du bist aber auch hartnäckig..-Jesus Christ, kleine maus, you are a stubborn one
and thanks again to the sweet cinnamon roll xxraug-mossxx who helps me with the translations.
