"Beca! There you are, we were worried when you didn't return, oh hello." Emily smiles and waves both her hands at Luisa though the drinks have obviously gotten to her since once she starts waving she can't quite stop.
Emily is guileless and even the normally standoffish Beca had been more than welcoming to her when they first met, and apparently the girl garners the same type of reaction from Luisa. "Hello Emily, I look forward to working with you."
"Me too! I'm looking forward to working with each," Emily claps her hands together and point forward at Luisa and then points left before making a broad sweeping motion to the right, "and every one of you." She takes a while to blink her eyes several times at the duplicates she's seeing.
Luisa stifles a laugh at Emily's drunkenness while Beca puts a guiding hand on the other girl's shoulder. "How about we call it a night, I think you've had quite enough."
"Oh Beca, I found you!"
"Yeah, good job Ems."
"Guys! I found Beca!" Emily's yelling has Beca jerking away in pain. She sees that Luisa is covering a hand over those lips to hide a full blown smile.
She's not sure how the other Bellas' manage to hear Emily's holler but they all appear moments after; all equally as sloshed if not more so than Emily. Beca wouldn't describe Luisa as turning cold in the presence of the other Bellas but the Kommissar does become aloof, the smile fading to a more neutral if not haughty expression.
"Well, what do you have here," Amy bobs her head side to side, grinning more than she has any right to do.
"You guys remember the Kommissar right?" Beca waves her free hand at Luisa but when their eyes meet she can't help but stare and smile.
"Charmed," Luisa is still sharing a look with Beca but when she turns to address the Bellas her tone is much more reserved, "to see you all again."
"Ah, we can see that you're busy and can take a clue," Amy clicks her tongue as she pretends to shoot off two guns at Luisa then Beca, "use protection, Beca!"
Stacie pulls her mouth to a confused grimace, "why would they need… ooooh, Beca, damn girl."
"What, no," she points at Amy and Stacie for them to stop, "and where's Aubrey and Chloe, did they not hear Emily's mysterious summon?"
"Oh those two are about to engage in a dance off so we rounded up, you coming?" Cynthia rolls her eyes over Luisa appreciatively. "Though I won't fault you for sitting this one out."
"No! I wouldn't sit this out for anything, you know how I'm all for spontaneous dance numbers!" Beca realizes she's being too quick to dismiss whatever Cynthia is insinuating since she can only glance helplessly at Luisa as the rest of the Bellas start pulling her and Emily along with them to the sunken board space designated for dance offs.
"Viel Spaß, Mäuslein."
…
Beca groggily wakes and instantly decides to never move again for the rest of her life. Or drink or dance or live, ever ever again. Her head is about to explode and she can do nothing about that pain but groan pathetically. Where ever she is at least it smells nice, there's an arm around her middle and someone snuggled against her. Like plastered against her, uhgrh it's sweaty but she's forlorn to move a damn muscle.
"Rise and shine, Beca." It's Aubrey's voice, and while the woman hadn't spent most of the night with them, Beca is still sure that the blonde had been quite inebriated but it sure as hell didn't sound like it.
"Ouhgh?" Something has definitely died and chosen to her mouth as its tomb.
A hand gently presses into Beca's shoulder but when she doesn't respond the touch turns rough and starts jostling her. She stubbornly keeps her eyes shut but the shaking was just making the headache worst. She surly cracks open her eyes and glares first at the 8:00AM shown on the analog clock then to Aubrey who was decked out in a aerobics getup and gleaming with a sheen of sweat.
"You're screwing with me."
"I can promise you I'm not, like my father used to say; the early riser is the only one that gets the breakfast worm."
"That's so not how the saying goes." Beca flops limply in Aubrey's surprisingly strong arms, refusing to cooperate even as Aubrey woman handles her.
"Can you guys talk about this not here?" It's a mumble but it's definitely Emily, she had had her head tucked between Beca's shoulder blades but is now looking mussed and barely cognisant but very pouty. Like a puppy rustled up from nap time. The girl smacks her lips and turns further from the motion Aubrey and Beca were causing.
"It's no use;" Chloe yawned, resigned to her fate, "Aubrey's awake so now we have to be as well." She's already pulling the arm she had around Beca's and Emily's body away and rolling off with the sheets.
Emily flops onto her front and grips onto the bedsheets, unmoving and quite adorably snoring.
They are apparently in Aubrey and Chloe's loft, having probably spent the night as Chloe's little spoon along with Emily sandwiched between them. They've all taken a rather sisterly role towards Emily when the Legacy pledged into the group, adopting her into the touchy feely festival of weird. Beca's still not sure how she got roped into being the Leader of a music cult through her bachelors. It's way too early for this.
"It's way too early for this." Beca sounds. Eyes slipping close once again.
"Up up up, it's sunny and bright and I haven't even made you join in on my morning exercises, also the fridge has Poweraid and I even put out some aspirin for you."
Beca blindly sticks out her palm for the proffered drug but Aubrey smacks her little hand away, for the nerve of her. "I set it at the kitchen table."
"Aubrey pleeeease, have mercy."
Aubrey ignores the pitiable plead and grabs Beca's shoulders as leverage to yank the brunette up, once again shaking her as if she were a broken toy with faulty wiring.
"Fine, fine, stop!" Beca bats at Aubrey's hands and congeals into a barely sitting position. She notes that the loft appears a lot more homely since the last time the Bellas were all here helping the unpacking process.
The pair had chosen this place because Chloe loved the raw wooden beams and bricked walls. Aubrey had taken a defiant breath and lifted her chin, gazing at the challenge of the space and declared she enjoyed the open concept theme. Though it'll be hard to take that statement at face value considering how all the walls were fully decorated from floor to ceiling, least the red stone bricks crash their way into Aubrey's strict order.
"There's only one bed." Beca comments, she was still in her performance clothes, their shoes, purse and cellphones all thrown hazardously at the end of the bed.
"We were kind enough to share our bed so be kind enough to leave it when asked."
"Our?"
Aubrey's cheeks turn crimson but after a sniff she straightens and amends. "The bed, it's the bed me and Chloe share."
Before Beca can comment further Aubrey beats her to the punch, sounding a little winded and as high strung as the time they've first met, "it saves room to just have one bed and we're best friends and sharing is normal, Beca, sharing is normal!"
"Beca you still like blackberries and bacon in your pancakes?" Chloe intercedes whatever else was going to pass between them by sliding in and near Beca with a skillet readied with melted butter.
"What, oh yeah, here I'll help." Beca straggles after Chloe's promise of food while Aubrey turns in a huff towards the shower corner.
It's literally a shower corner, there's a drain in the cement floor and a curtain that shields off from the rest of the room and that's about it. Aubrey aggressively belts out Taylor Swift's 'Shake it Off' for the entire apartment to enjoy while Chloe insists on standing close, very close, behind Beca and guiding her on how to properly beat eggs with a fancy Italian whisk.
No one bothers Emily until they have a plate full of gluten free waffles and a glass of orange juice ready for their youngest.
…
It's noon and Beca was still at Chloe's and Aubrey's. They had called for an Uber but Emily had crawled right back under the sheets after breakfast and gone determinedly back to sleep. It was Sunday and they were in no rush to leave one another. Though Aubrey has a twitch in the vein along her temple as she works on her laptop, she's squinting at the screen and progressively getting more and more annoyed as Chloe and Beca chat amicably over honeyed tea.
Aubrey has always been a quite private person and having Beca in her den is making her tense especially since she can't really see a damn thing because she hasn't a clue where her reading glasses have gone. After she had returned from the club she had drunkenly decided to reorganize everything last night but she wasn't about to look like a fool and rummage around her own loft in front of a guest.
When the blonde displeasingly crossed her legs and managed to bump her knee into the kitchen table, Chloe takes one glance at Aubrey and leaves mid sip of her green tea with a 'oh!' and returns with a pair of thinned navy rimmed glasses. She slips them right onto Aubrey's face and after brushing a strand of hair behind the other woman's ear, seats herself right back down next to Beca.
Aubrey's blushing but she's less ridged, siting properly in her chair as she quickly taps out an itinerary for her retreat. Then just to avert Beca's amused stare. "So what's got you so fidgety?"
"Nothing." Beca avoids eye contact immediately, finding herself suddenly mesmerized by the contents of her teacup. The tealeaves were shaping into a vague squished image of a mouse perhaps?
"Hey, you can tell us." Chloe pats a reassuring hand onto Beca's knee. "This is a safe place."
She's not sure if Chloe and Aubrey have ever been anything less than mother hens for their group. Aubrey's always ruthlessly pragmatic while Chloe catered more to their individual voices and emotions; though it makes it no less unnerving when both can pinpoint Beca's moments of insecurity.
"You're dragging your feet, you're kinda more into scurrying off after such a long bout of socializing instead of," Aubrey offers her palms at the space between the three of them, "hanging aimlessly out with us."
"Can't a girl hang out with her friends?" Beca asks rather helplessly. "I thought a gal's pals were all about hanging out."
Aubrey raises her brow and pushes the brim of her glasses down. Need she mention how very gay that last statement was?
"Of course you're welcomed to stay as long as you like." Chloe looks rebukingly at Aubrey who has already turned back to her laptop.
"Just until Emily wakes up from her hibernation." Aubrey amends. She enjoys Beca as much as all her other Bella sisters but Beca keeps giving Chloe and her such a charmed gaze every time they interact like they were a pair of frolicking kittens or is probably just jealous at how real friendships should be like. Whatever it was, it was starting to make her feel antsy.
"Luisa told me to add her on Facebook." Beca blurts out, getting up and moving to rinse out her full cup of tea when her two friends watch her curiously.
"Do you mean the Kommissar?" Chloe already has a another cup out and a new tea bag for Beca to try since it was more anxiety that had Beca moving than her lack of thirst.
"Yeah, it's strictly professional you know, just for work since DSM plans to work with Emily at the studio."
"Then you should add her." Chloe opens her own laptop, sliding the booted up com towards Beca.
"Yeah maybe… maybe not yet?" Beca shrugs but eventually starts typing out her Facebook username and password and clicking into a Luisa Löwe's page. She hovers the mouse over the 'send friend request' button but slips her trembling hand between her thighs instead. "Maybe never?"
Aubrey and Chloe share one of their looks.
"Beca, you know how I said you had a crush," Aubrey slides her glasses a little further down her nose so that she can stare Beca down over the blue frames, "I take it back, it's not a crush."
"Oh, yeah good, see-"
"You really like her, Beca!"
Beca gawks at Aubrey then Chloe and feels utterly outed.
"Are you afraid she won't add you back?" Chloe's sincere concern distracts Beca from Aubrey who is already reaching over and before anyone can intercept the friend request has been already sent.
She's been double teamed, though by Chloe's chastising expression and Aubrey rather tight lipped sheepish grimace she can only assume that Aubrey will be in trouble later.
"You won't ever know unless you try." Aubrey explains decisively.
"Oh my god, how could you do that, it's been like a night, aren't you supposed to at least wait a couple of days so it's not so weird-"
*Do-doo*
*Luisa Löwe has accepted your friend request*