Disclaimer: No Copyright intended. Pitch Perfect is owned by Jason Moore and Brownstone Productions. As Tall As Lions owns their song Maybe I'm Just Tired.

Main Characters: Donald and Lilly

Secondary Characters: Kiyoko and Takuma Onakuramara (Lilly's parents), Ivy and Anthony (Lilly's best friends), Alex and Chris (her high school friends), Derrick (her fourth boyfriend)

Ratings: K-T

Warnings: There will be implied sexual content and swearing.

Summary: A series of oneshots showing Donald and Lilly's relationship as it evolves.

Book Cover: A banner created by ICanSeeYourFace for my story! She is awesome and I thank her very much for creating such a great banner for it.

If I can be saved
show me the way
Help me help myself, baby
Don't be confused
our love is true
Just tell by the way I'm looking at you

-Maybe I'm Just Tired by As Tall As Lions

Tell me a story. Tell me something that you're afraid to remember. Tell me about you.

He asked her these things wanting to know more about who she was; to understand who she was because a person is built by their past. He wanted to know why she spoke so softly - which person silenced her? He wanted to know why she had a need to pinch herself when she was stressed. He wanted her story.

It didn't come in a stream of words like you see in the movies where a boy has a heart to heart with the girl he likes. No, he found out slowly and it always left him wanting more. He always felt humbled by her small, soft confessions that sometimes she told him in the dead of night, bright and early in the morning, in the mid-afternoon, and anytime they were alone; he never knew when to expect it and maybe that was the great thing about it.

The first thing she told him was her story about her parents. Her parents, Kiyoko and Takuma Onakuramara, were first -generation Japanese-Americans who immigrated in the 90's. They were traditionalists who taught her that respect for her elders was the most important lesson and that children should be seen and not heard. So from her early childhood Lilly didn't speak unless spoken to and never out of turn. Her parents were strict about certain things but they provided her a safe and secure home and she loved them unconditionally. Her mother taught her how to make traditional Japanese food, which was passed down from her great-great grandmother. Her father, though always busy at his work, tried to make time to read her stories (fairytales from all different countries). So Lilly grew up to be a quiet child who learned to keep to herself and to dream about worlds that did not exist in the real world.

The second story came after their first time having sex when she confessed the reason for her need to be silent. He held her as she spoke softly, her lip quivering at the memories that hounded her. Lilly's mom had two siblings who also lived in LA while her dad had four siblings who lived in the outskirts of San Francisco so she saw her two aunts and three uncles often enough, always in big family gatherings. One particular dinner when she happened to mention that she kissed a frog that she found in her backyard (she wanted to find out if the Princess and the Frog story was true) her two cousins who tended to stick together because they were of similar age looked at her like she was a freak and said, "You're so stupid Lilly. Why would you kiss a gross thing like a frog. You're such a weirdo."

The words slipped out her mouth and Donald found her shaking in his arms as tears fell down her cheeks silently. He kissed the tears that fell from her beautiful black eyes and whispered that they were wrong and that she was no weirder than he was and that being weird was a beautiful and amazing thing. Lilly had been six when they told her that and she couldn't help but think if she hadn't opened her mouth to speak then they wouldn't be laughing at her. But that wasn't the whole reason why she had a tendency to not speak. He didn't push her to finish her story, he just held her, letting her fall asleep in his arms as he tried to fight the anger he felt at her cousins for treating her in such a manner.

The third story came weeks later when they were lying in bed as they waited for their alarms to go off. It was her first day of second grade and she had spent the summer with her boy cousin who didn't laugh at her (he was much older so he didn't judge her as much) and she had gained new confidence, promising herself that she would make a friend. She met Ivy during their lunch break when she was trying to get her packed lunch from her backpack, struggling to reach for it. Ivy had seen her struggling and helped her with it, inviting her to sit with her for lunch. Lilly agreed and suddenly, she had a friend. Ivy was different from Lilly. Where Lilly was quiet, Ivy was loud. Where Lilly was shy, Ivy was sociable. But despite their differences in personality, they shared a friendship that grew with age, where Ivy never laughed at Lilly for her differences or her shyness or her strange comments. And it was from Ivy that Lilly learnt to speak more and to open up to the people around her.

The fourth story came during a large thunderstorm that lasted long into the night and he found himself awake as she told him in quiet whispers how Ivy had hurt her the most. It was the beginning of middle school, she was 10 and one day she arrived at school to find the classrooms bigger and the people meaner. That first recess signaled how her first year at middle school was going to be like: lonely. She found herself alone on the playground as she looked for her best friend, who she hadn't seen yet because they were in different classes. When she did finally find Ivy, she was surrounded by a group of girls; their voices loud and high pitched as they talked and laughed about something. She attempted to talk to Ivy but her best friend just ignored her, she didn't acknowledge her existence or even try to invite her to join them. She couldn't stop the tears that fell from her face when her friend just ignored her and later in the week when those same girls, that Ivy was friends with, made fun of her for something she said in class, her best friend didn't even try to defend her. What Donald found out later was that, although Lilly was able to make a few friends like Anthony, she ended up forgiving Ivy the next year when she decided to befriend her again. He couldn't help feeling incredulous at Lilly's forgiving nature and she just kissed him and whispered that Ivy was the past and nothing could change the fact that he and the Bellas were ten times the people she used to know.

The fifth story came when they were taking a drive to a small restaurant they found on the side of the road that sold the best hamburgers. She had finished inhaling (she had a tendency to do that when she was really hungry and he found it hilariously adorable) her hamburger and told him how in high school, she, Ivy and Anthony made friends with some of the stranger kids that attended their high school - completely fitting in with them. They were the reason she got into beat boxing and music in general. Alex (short of Alexander) had an older brother who taught her how to beat box and Lilly learned from both Alex and Chris (her older brother). Eventually, Alex gave up beat boxing because she had a limited attention span and Lilly found herself becoming immersed in the underground beat boxing scene. It was the only time she found completely at peace with herself and the only time she found herself not worried about what people said. He learned that it was Chris who actually got her to accept herself and to stop worrying about people's opinion. It was from there that Lilly understood that no one's opinion mattered but her own and to just say fuck it when it came to judgments and people thinking she was a freak. This helped her when her group of friends (minus Ivy and Anthony) just ditched her because their school decided to label her as a social pariah because Derrick's (her fourth boyfriend) ex-girlfriend spread lies about her and told them all that she was a freak. Lilly had the last laugh when Derrick came out of the closet and told everyone that his ex-girlfriend was the reason he realized he was gay.

Her past wasn't an easy one but it wasn't a terrible one either. She realized she had her ups and downs in life but she knew she was lucky because she had a roof over to her head, a good relationship with her parents and she didn't have to worry about when the next meal would come. Lilly confessed to him that although she hated feeling ignored, hated, disliked, judged and alone; she wouldn't change a thing because she knows that those situations made her into the person she is now. She also told him that if she was different then she probably wouldn't be lying in his arms and she couldn't help but think that was the worst thing that could possibly happen.

He had smiled at that and kissed her gently as she started to hypothesize about how in another universe she would probably be married to a wealthy Sheik and him married to a gold digger wife who slept with his next door neighbour's son.

And he had replied that he believed that no matter what universe they were in, they would always end up together because they were Donald and Lilly and if they weren't together then that universe wasn't worth living in.

She kissed him and began telling him another story.

A/N: Ahh this was really short but I hope you like it. I got this prompt from MusicAngel to do a more Lilly-centric about her family ... it sort of became a more of background on why Lilly is the way she is. I'll maybe do meeting of her family a little later on, it is a good idea so thanks for that! Um ... I couldn't help but write a story of why Lilly is the way she is. I hope you like it.

I listened to Maybe I'm Just Tired by As Tall As Lions - I would seriously suggest checking them out (though they are broken up now ... but their music is excellent!) And previous members of As Tall As Lions have created a band called theBlack&theWhite and their new song is called Futures (they are also excellent)! Okay I'm done plugging my favourite bands and such.

Um I'll probably go back and read this over and proofread it so I apologise for any mistakes because it's now 12am and I have an 10am class tomorrow so I should really go sleep. Anyway I digress.
Thanks for all the reviews! I was so overwhelmed by the response that I had to write this chapter and post it asap! You are all awesome and so sweet!

xoxo - Kelli

Review please! :)

To MusicAngel: I'm really glad you liked the previous chapter and I hope you like this chapter just as much! Thanks! :)