A/N: Hi everyone, I'm back with the second chapter! I'd like to say thank you to everyone that has read my first chapter, especially those that have left reviews or favourites - I really appreciate the support!

I'm still getting into the groove of working out how regularly I'll be posting on here, but my general plan is either once a week or once I've finished writing another chapter, whichever comes first (I have already got up to chapter 8 drafted). Also a reminder that this is on AO3 too if that's more your style.

I hope that you have a lovely weekend, and enjoy the update!

Chapter 2

Arizona Robbins was exhausted. She had spent the past four hours writing a paper on the social and political implications of national vaccination programmes, and she still wasn't done. She'd found herself stuck on this one section and couldn't for the life of her decide what to put next. It had taken literally everything out of her. She felt like her brain had turned to mush.

She was laying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, enjoying the quiet. Which was not something she was used to anymore. In fact, it was almost strange to be in her room without some kind of disturbance, whether it be from her flatmate, her friends or the pain in her ass that lived in the apartment below.

It had been almost a fortnight since she'd had her day disturbed by Callie Torres. Since she'd moved in a year ago, she hadn't found herself going longer than a week without hearing something coming up from her floorboards. And whilst she was grateful for the peace, it almost felt like something was missing at this point. But, as per the general proceedings of the weird feud they had going it was, for all intents and purposes, Callie's turn to retaliate. Arizona had decided on an evening workout (which, in her defence, actually did need doing and was only put off until that late because she'd been busy during the day), so now it was the brunette's turn to do something. And although Callie had technically responded there and then by blasting the first half of a rock song, it had promptly stopped, so Arizona still considered herself to have 'won' that evening. She had basked in the mental image of the brunette frowning over her textbooks whilst having to listen to the Backstreet Boys; pop music being Callie's least favourite genre of music behind Disney hits, Arizona had deciphered; plus, she got a workout in at the same time. It was a win-win.

Since this had been going, Arizona herself had learnt that there was only so much Disney one could listen to without totally losing your mind. Because of this, she'd been refraining from playing that genre too much recently. For her own sanity. And because Alex had made it abundantly clear that, as much as he was all for their 'strange lesbian foreplay' (his words, not hers), if she still wanted a flatmate, then she'd have to stop waking him up with The Bare Necessities or Hakuna Matata or indeed any song sung by an animated being, animal or otherwise.

By this point, Callie would usually have fought back, maybe with some of her own loud music. For the most part it was rock, but sometimes she played some alt, or hip-hop. A couple of times it had been ballads from musicals, which had surprised Arizona. She couldn't imagine badass Callie Torres enjoying musicals. But alas the songs had filtered up through the floorboards into her room. In fact, she could have sworn she'd also heard Callie singing along, but she couldn't be certain as the voice was quite quiet.

If she was being totally honest, she didn't actually mind most of the Latina's music taste. Whilst she wouldn't necessarily listen to any of it herself, it was only when she played songs with really heavy baselines or guitar riffs that she'd be genuinely pissed off. That or when she had it on whilst the blonde was trying to concentrate on work or get some sleep. Once or twice, it had started up when she'd brought someone home - that had been annoying and awkward and most definitely a mood killer, having resulted in Arizona having to apologise profusely for the inconsiderate person that lived in the room below. On one occasion the woman she'd brought home had up left, stating that she 'couldn't get in the mood when all she could hear was Nirvana blasting through the floorboards'. Arizona had been half tempted to comment on the fact that although she was no rock music expert, she was fairly certain that what they were hearing wasn't Nirvana, but she quickly decided that it wasn't worth it. She had been a little put out, but she couldn't blame her guest for leaving. Instead, she directed her anger at Callie, setting her alarm for 7 am and putting on a playlist titled 'the catchiest tunes in pop history'.

The music she could deal with. It was tolerable, if not quite frustrating at times. What she couldn't deal with, however, was Callie's abnormal obsession with horror films. She wasn't sure if the woman was insane enough that she was genuinely hardcore into films designed to scare the shit out of you, or whether she was over-playing them just to bother the blonde, but she had clearly learned that they were a sure-fire way to really piss Arizona off. Because she absolutely detested horror films. They terrified her, gave her horrendous vivid nightmares, and were something she tried her utmost hardest to avoid at all costs. And up until a year ago, she had done a pretty good job, hard vetoing them whenever Alex or Teddy tried to force her to watch one. But now they were unavoidable. Whilst she wasn't actually watching them herself, she was often woken by the sound of screaming, or the screeching of violins, which, in her books, was more than bad enough. She'd actually had to invest in a pair of heavy-duty earplugs just so that she could make it through the night. Those had proven problematic on more than one occasion, as they had caused her to sleep through her alarm, making her very late to her morning classes. On those days, she would give Callie her most intense, hateful glare as she slipped into the lecture hall twenty minutes after the class had started, pretending not to see the smirk plastered across the Latina's face.

But she hadn't heard from Callie in almost two weeks. which was highly uncharacteristic of the brunette. They had long ago established that they were both highly stubborn and competitive, so neither tended to go that long without trying to get back at the person in the other apartment. Arizona almost found herself worrying, half tempted to make up an excuse to go and knock on the downstairs door, just to see if Callie was still alive.

But that would be ridiculous. Surely, she should be grateful for the quiet.

Alex had grilled her on this on more than one occasion, questioning why she still bothered to go out of her way to piss off the Latina after a year of the same endless back and forth routine. She could just stop, and the feud would be over, and they could go back to just going about their business. And whilst the floor between them would still remain thin, Alex had assured her that he and Cristina managed to exist just fine without driving each other to distraction, only a small amount of noise passing between the rooms. It was almost like she wanted Callie to annoy her, he claimed, just so that she could get back at her.

Arizona had thought about this, and if she was being totally honest, she did kind of enjoy their odd relationship, in some sort of weird, twisted way. Don't get her wrong, it was extremely annoying, and often horrendously inconvenient, but she took some kind of strange pleasure from winding the other woman up.

And, however much she claimed it was irrelevant when Alex brought it up, something that definitely played a part in her enjoyment of the situation was the fact that Callie was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. Like woman-of-her-dreams level stunning. She was tall and tanned and had legs that went on for days, and there was something about her whole leather-jacket doc-marten vibe that did something to Arizona that she couldn't explain. So maybe the idea that she was irritating the woman enough that she felt the need to consistently retaliate gave her a sort of rush.

Not that she'd ever admit any of this to anyone. She was pretty sure, however, that Alex had figured it out at least to some degree, based on the way he constantly teased her about trying to get Callie's attention. Which, she thought, was ridiculous, because if she actually wanted to make a move on Callie in a romantic way, she totally could, easy. But she didn't want to.

Because for all that the woman was gorgeous, she was also possibly one of the rudest people that Arizona had ever met. Not only was she annoying and inconsiderate with the noise, but every time they had any kind of face-to-face exchange, she was incredibly mean. The number of times Arizona had heard phrases like 'whiney toddler on steroids' and 'prissy blonde piece of shit' and even once 'bastard child of Tigger and a barbie doll' (which she would have admitted was creative if the tone of Callie's voice hadn't been so venomous) was too many to count. The blonde wasn't someone that tended to get angry easily, but Callie seemed to possess a unique ability to piss her off within seconds of seeing her beautiful, angry face.

No, Callie Torres would never be anything other than someone that Arizona tolerated at best and yelled at at worst. That much was for certain.

She was roused from her thoughts by a gentle buzzing, coming from her left. She blinked once, momentarily confused about what it was that had disrupted her train of thought, before realising the noise was coming from her phone.

She rolled over on her bed, blindly waving her hand around on her nightstand until it came into contact with her phone, noticing that she had a lot of messages, all from Teddy, time stamps showing that she'd been texting her all afternoon. Arizona glanced at the time. God, she didn't realise how long she'd spent on that paper. She had a tendency to get in the zone when she needed to focus, completely ignoring everything around her and often losing track of time. It worked well when she had things to get done, but it did sometimes lead her to neglect her other responsibilities, such as eating or sleeping, or replying to her persistent friend's messages.

14:38

Teddy: We still on for tonight?

Teddy: Lexie is going to bring red, I've got two bottles of white, will that be ok?

15:49

Teddy: Ooh we could make cocktails!

Teddy: Actually no that's a terrible idea

Teddy: I don't wanna see Lexie vomiting up a pina colada again

16:12

Teddy: Hello?

Teddy: Earth to Arizona

Teddy: You'd better not have forgotten. I'm looking forwards to this classy dinner!

17:03

Teddy: I'm still showing up at 7

Teddy: If you don't have food ready you can buy us all pizza instead

Ten minutes ago

Teddy: Oh by the way, I invited Alex too

Arizona pressed her face into her palm, mentally slapping herself for losing track of time. And for forgetting she was supposed to be cooking.

"Hey, Robbins! Why has Teddy invited me to dinner with you and the Barbie Brigade?!" Alex yelled, knocking loudly on her bedroom door.

"You can come in!" she shouted in reply, sitting up on her bed. They had implemented a 'knock first' system after they had both managed to walk in on eachother with a girl in their beds on two separate occasions. Plus, one time she'd gone into his room to find him crying into a tub of ice cream. He'd yelled at her to get out immediately and afterwards had strongly denied that it had even happened, let alone that it had bothered him that she'd seen it. She was however convinced that was the main reason he was all for the knocking rule.

She was massively regretting making plans tonight. Right now she wanted nothing more than to curl up under her covers and watch a rom com. Or maybe a Disney film – that way she could turn the volume up a bit to annoy Callie.

The door swung open, and Alex came into view, his phone in his hand and a frown on his face.

"Apparently you're cooking, and there's going to be wine. Is this like a dinner party or something? On a Wednesday?" he asked, pulling a face and raising an eyebrow at the blonde. "I know you guys are weird and all but since when did you become forty?"

Arizona threw a scowl in his direction.

"Ugh…" she started, rubbing her eyes. "Remember I went out last week and it got really messy? And Teddy practically had to drag me home?"

"I wish I didn't. I had to carry you into the bathroom so you wouldn't vomit in my shoe," Alex pointed out, grimacing slightly. "You're heavier than you look."

Arizona threw him a dirty look. She didn't quite remember the point in which the evening went off of the rails; one minute the three of them were meeting for a couple of drinks at the bar, and the next she was almost passed out in the back of a taxi on the way home from a club. She'd woken up in the morning with three separate phone numbers written on the back of her hand in permanent marker, and a headache so intense she could feel it in her teeth. Who the numbers belonged to she had no idea.

"Yeah, well after that we agreed to try and be more civilised," she replied, pushing the embarrassing memory out of her mind. "So, Teddy suggested a dinner party."

"Of course she did. She's practically middle aged already," Alex scoffed.

"Don't be such an ass," the blonde muttered, frowning.

"Well, I'll tag along if you're making dinner," Alex decided. "Won't say no to a free meal, but don't expect me to make small talk with GI Jane and the walking encyclopaedia."

"Seriously, did no one ever teach you to be nice?" Arizona asked, grabbing a pillow from her bed and tossing it in his direction, watching as he ducked and the cushion hit the door.

"You and I both know they didn't," Alex quipped, turning to head back into the main part of the apartment.

"I know that you like them really!", Arizona called as he disappeared from her doorway.

"Sure, they're a laugh." Alex yelled over his shoulder. "But Lexie talks to much, and I tune Teddy out the second she starts complaining. Which is a lot!"

"I'm telling them you said that!"

"Its six thirty you know. Shouldn't you be in the kitchen already?" he muttered, ignoring her previous comment.

Arizona glanced at the time. And then groaned. She didn't even know what she was going to cook yet. She'd planned to sort it this afternoon, but then she spent longer on her paper than she had realised. Now she had half an hour until her friends were arriving.

Opening up her laptop, she opened her browser and followed her shortcut straight to the page she frequented so often.

Up until about a year ago, Arizona had had absolutely no idea how to cook. She couldn't even make pasta, having lived exclusively off of frozen food and takeout. And it had been fine, she wasn't that fussed about what she ate, and she couldn't really be bothered to cook, not when she had more important things to do, like studying and throwing parties and wasting money on tequila shots.

Then in her first semester of first year she had had a class on nutrition, and after spending ten weeks studying the negative effects an unbalanced diet has on the human body, she decided that make she should try and be a bit healthier. At least cook once a week rather than constantly order pizzas.

At first, she had been totally clueless, and had nearly burnt the building down trying to make a simple marinara sauce. No one had ever told her that the reason oil was necessary was to prevent the contents of the pan from burning.

It had taken her a while, and she really had considered saying fuck you to her health and resigning to eat oven chips for the rest of her life on more than one occasion. But if there was anything Arizona Robbins prided herself on, it was that she wasn't a quitter. No, she was not going to let the difference between a tsp and a tspb defeat her. She would learn to cook if it killed her.

Eventually she had figured out the basics and was able to make a semi-decent tomato pasta, as well as a basic chicken casserole and some very standard fajitas. It was hardly gourmet, but it was a start.

After she'd gotten the basics down, she'd found herself scouring the internet for easy and cheap but still decent recipes. That's when she'd come across what had now become her holy bible.

She'd stumbled upon this blog page totally by accident. She was looking for a taco recipe, and it had come up as one of the top hits, with a couple of hundred five-star reviews. So of course, she'd given it a go. And it was damn delicious. Probably the best thing she had managed to make so far, being the novice that she was.

After that she'd figured she'd try out some of the other stuff that this godsend blog had posted. And with each recipe she'd tried, the more she'd started to wonder why she hadn't tried cooking earlier. Not only did it taste good, but it made her feel good that she'd managed to make it herself.

After the fifth or so recipe she'd made successfully, Arizona had decided to leave some feedback on this page. She liked to think she was a friendly person – she knew the impact a nice comment could have. So, she figured, for the good work this person was putting into their blog, the least she could do was leave a nice message to say thank you.

At first it had been a simple 'Thank you for making this blog, it's a godsend and I really appreciate the effort it must take! – from a hungry med student'.

She hadn't been expecting the owner of the blog to reply to her comment, but she'd woken up in the morning to a 'I'm so glad you're enjoying my page! As a fellow student, I'm just hoping to make other people's lives a little bit easier! – A grateful blog owner'

For some reason, the response had cemented Arizona's appreciation for this person. Not only did they have the time to upload these killer recipes, they also put the effort in to respond to people that left comments on their post.

After that, Arizona had become a dedicated follower of this blog page. She'd leave comments on practically every post that they uploaded, finding herself genuinely looking forwards to seeing their new recipes and getting to give them a go.

I absolutely loved this one! I've never tried making a curry before, but this was super easy to follow, and it tasted amazing! Thank you! – from a Hungry Med Student

I'm really happy with this recipe, so I'm really excited that you enjoyed it too! – A grateful blog owner

It's been a rough week with finals, so this nice and easy update has really made my day. Thank you! – from a Hungry Med Student

It's been a tough one on my end too, so I'm glad our schedules aligned that I could help make your week easier! – A grateful blog owner

I swear to god GBO (grateful blog owner) you are actually my hero. How you managed to post a recipe for something I have been LITERALLY craving all week I have no idea. I think I am a little bit in love with you - from a Hungry Med Student

Clearly it was meant to be! And GBO, I like that! I probably wouldn't go as far as to call myself a hero, but I appreciate the sentiment - GBO

And so, it had continued, the blog owner uploading new recipes every week or two, and Arizona leaving appreciative comments on their posts. Whilst the blog was anonymous - all she knew was that they were a student that liked to cook - she felt like she knew this person, at least to some degree. They were like a very useful companion that gave her cooking tips and said nice things in response to her comments.

Currently, Arizona found herself scrolling through old posts, searching for something that she knew she could make. There was a specific recipe for enchiladas that she knew she had the ingredients for in the fridge.

Twirling a loose strand of hair around her finger and biting her lip in concentration, she felt a frown form between her brows. She could have sworn the recipe was posted fairly recently, six months ago max. She remembered because she'd been typing a thank-you comment in the middle of a lecture, which was highly uncharacteristic of her. Arizona wasn't a slacker – she paid full attention in class, but this recipe had been one of her favourites so far, and after most of a bottle of wine the night before, she hadn't gotten around to leaving a comment.

Her lack of attention had clearly had its consequences, as she'd found herself being picked on by the professor, and where she'd usually always be able to answer, this time around she'd missed what was being said. Whilst most students were nonplussed about not knowing how to respond even in the terrifying face of Dr Bailey, Arizona had authority issues and a slight pathological need to be right all of the time. So, this mishap had played on her mind for a while.

That class had been last semester. So, by that logic, she should have found the recipe by now, as the posts she was presently looking at were dated over a year ago.

"Where are you dammit?!" she muttered, frustration bubbling in her chest, adding to the irritation she was already feeling. She tried the search function, and, just as she'd suspected: the post wasn't there anymore.

Fucking wonderful. She thought at least the person behind 'A Student and Their Kitchen' had her back. Now even they were letting her down.

And as if on cue, like the brunette that lived downstairs could sense Arizona's declining mood, a pounding baseline started up, loud enough that she could feel making the ground beneath her feet shake. Which was followed by what the blonde could only assume was a hoover, adding a monotonous droning noise to the mix.

Well, at least Callie was still alive.

"Of fucking course," she muttered to herself. "God you have the worst timing!" She yelled the last sentence, knowing that there was no way the Latina would hear her over the noise she was making, but still shouting it anyway.

For a fleeting moment she considered firing off a text, cancelling on her friends and crawling back under her duvet. But that wasn't an option, partly because she knew Teddy wouldn't take no for an answer, but mostly because it would mean she'd have to stay in her room and listen to the obnoxious noises that resident of the flat below was making. And whilst Arizona could sometimes tolerate the music, she only had so much patience.

Right now, it was wearing thin.

Now she'd have to think of something else to cook tonight, and to make it worse, she only had twenty minutes until her friends were due to arrive.

Quickly scrolling back up the page, she figured her best bet was to figure out what she had in the fridge, and then find a recipe that best covered those ingredients. Sure, she'd probably have to adapt a little, but desperate times called for desperate measures. If she could get some of that wine down her friends quickly on arrival, they probably wouldn't notice if it tasted a bit iffy anyway.

She was more than a bit miffed about the recipe though. It was one of her favourites, and whilst she'd made it several times before, she wasn't sure she could repeat it without the step-by-step instructions there for her. Whilst her cooking skills had definitely improved, she was by no means a natural. She had found she had to follow the instruction down to the letter, or else something would end up burning or tasting funny.

Maybe she could leave a comment on a recent post and ask what happened to the recipe. Yes, that could work. Arizona felt she knew the blog owner well enough at this point that they'd more than likely be happy to help her out.

Happy that she had a conclusion to one of her problems, Arizona shifted off of her bed and headed towards the kitchen, laptop in hand. On the way out of her room she made a point to slam the door closed extra hard behind her, as a not-so-subtle fuck you to Callie in the room below.