A/N: So, I decided to take this story up for another spin. I'm not sure how often I will be able to update but I'll try to stick to it and work through it till the end. Hope you like.
It was late afternoon and everybody was exhausted. They had rented a bus to get to their location and as per usual Amy was their driver. Everybody else had collapsed into their seats, more in lying positions than sitting upright. Even Aubrey sat slouched.
"I need a beer," she now said and everybody looked over the backrest of the seat infront to the blonde who sat in the front row. "Anybody else for a beer and some pizza?" she asked her friends.
"I'm in," Chloe said from behind her.
"Hell, yeah, if you're buying," Cynthia Rose agreed.
"I'm buying but you'll be paying, my dear," Aubrey gave back and everybody laughed. Thus it was agreed on and, of course, Amy would know just the place.
It was a bar of sorts, but there was eating and there was karaoke, and altogether it was a strange mix of things that shouldn't go together and, in truth, didn't because it wasn't very full. It could have been surmised that it was too early for a large crowd but Beca had an inkling that this place never saw more than a dozen patrons at once. She didn't mind, she followed Amy through the bar into it's wide backroom where she slouched into a couch, rather than sit on a chair at a table. Chloe collapsed into her, as usual not bothering with any kind of personal space.
"I'm beat," she said and Beca merely nodded while looking for Aubrey. The blonde was still standing in the front room, chatting with the man behind the counter. She had run her hands through her hair earlier and pulled her top down a bit. She was smiling at the middle aged man with the full red beard. Beca was watching her from her place on the couch with a frown on her face.
"What is it?" Chloe asked.
"Is Aubrey actually flirting with that guy?" She asked before she even realized who she said it to. Chloe laughed at Beca's bewildered face.
"Yeah, I guess she is, why?"
"I've never seen Aubrey do that before," Beca commented. Chloe leaned even closer and whispered into her ear:
"And I thought you've seen plenty of it today." The brunette blushed and coughed, deciding to ignore the flirtatious tone and the implication.
Aubrey finally came back with two large pitchers of beer, some of the girls caught mugs and they settled down to have a drink. A collective sigh of appreciation could be heard around their group after the first taste of the frothy beverage.
"I ordered some pizzas, I hope none of you has turned vegan on my ass during the last few weeks?" Aubrey looked questioningly around at her friends but only received head-shakes. "Good. I must say, I'm very proud of you all. Today was great." She smiled at everyone proudly.
"I say cheers to that, we're fucking heroes - even compared to my high standards," Amy said and lifted her mug in the middle of the table. Everyone clinked their glasses together.
"This could be our new 'ahhh'-routine," Cynthia Rose suggested.
"Yeah, we should all just bring a shooter to our next performance, clink them and take a hefty sip before we go on stage," Beca said and everybody looked at her questioningly. She rolled her eyes at them.
"And sarcastic Beca strikes again," Chloe laughed but the others simply shook their heads at their captain.
"Oh, come on... you all should be used to that by now, right?"
"I don't know, little one, maybe you should overthink that high-and-mighty 'tude you got going there. It's kinda getting old, you know?" Amy said and mostly everyone agreed. Beca looked around the table, flabbergasted. Were they serious?
"Sarcasm is not for well-behaved young ladies, Beca. It also might turn away male suitors. Surely, you don't want that? You might end up an old maid," Aubrey lectured in a fake British accent and everybody laughed at the dumb face Beca was making.
"Okay, okay, very funny. You got me there, aca-bitches," but the small brunette joined the laughter.
"That was almost too easy," Aubrey said and lay an arm around her friend's shoulders, pulling her into a one-armed hug. Beca flushed at the unaccustomed display of affection but hid her face behind her mug as she drank down the rest of her beer.
"Drink up, shorty," Amy called and refilled Beca's glass when she put it down again.
"Don't get me shit-faced. I'm, after all, your captain and responsible for all your's good behaviours," the DJ joked and the conversation around the table got noisy with everybody talking. None of the other girls noticed that Aubrey's arm had abandoned its earlier post around Beca's shoulders and drifted down to lean on the couch. Nobody but Beca herself, of course, who would sometimes lean back a little to assure herself that it was still there, and Chloe who sat on Beca's other side, casually leaning into the brunette and putting her hand on top of Aubrey's.
Beca had been right about one thing: the bar didn't see many more patrons during the course of the evening. There were about half a dozen milling around the front room and a straight couple in a corner in the backroom where the Bellas sat - as far away from the girls as the room allowed. The brunette also noticed Amy eyeing the karaoke set-up. Beca wasn't exactly thrilled about this, not because she didn't like the Bellas singing but because they would make her sing - in public, after a long day in the sun. The only good thing about this was that Aubrey and Chloe kept them all sufficiently lubricated with beer. By now, they had eaten and there were only a few slices left on the two big plates standing on the table. Beca took one and started munching it contendedly when Amy got up and walked to the front room to talk to the proprietor. They couldn't hear what they were saying, there was soft music coming from a loudspeaker over their heads but when the blonde pointed at the karaoke machine, they all knew what was going to happen. Beca made a face.
"Oh, come on, Becs, it'll be fun," Chloe nudged her in the ribs and Beca gave a small yelp. Everyone was looking at her.
"Just... I... whatever," the brunette leaned back into the couch and just ate her last piece of pizza for the evening.
The waitress - she had started working after the girls had arrived - came over and turned on the karaoke machine. She gave Amy a short introduction on how to work it and their friend nodded eagerly to all the instructions. Then she grabbed a mic and blew into it.
"1,2 - 1,2 - can u hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Fat Amy," Cynthia Rose called and Amy smiled happily.
"Okay, so, we're gonna rock this joint tonight. Hello, I'm Fat Amy and my friends and I are the Barden Bellas. We're the best a cappella group in all the land - a cappella means only with our mouths, it's what we do, we make music with our mouths. It sounds more perverted than it actually is, I swear, so... we're gonna sing now - with music from this little machine here," she pointed at the set-up. "And first up is our captain: Beca 'the DJ' Mitchell. Come up here and choose a song, Mitchell!" She waved at Beca who just glared at her, not moving. They all looked at her expectantly, two of the patrons from the front room came to the doorway to the back and looked at what the fuss was about. Then Chloe jumped up and came over to Amy.
"I'm gonna choose a song for her," she informed the room and looked at a long list of songs on a computer screen. She seemed thoughtful, then tipped on one with her index finger, Amy grinned. "Bring her over, Bree," she told the ex-Bellas captain who looked at Beca challengingly.
"You're coming on your own or do I have to drag you? Your choice, Becs," she told the brunette who glared at her but got off her seat. The Bellas applauded and whooped as Beca tried to keep a pissed-off mask on her face though the slight smirk gave her plainly away.
"I'm not gonna sing anything by Brittney or Miley, just so you know," she warned the ginger who still stood next to Amy and handed her a mic.
"Don't worry," she said before she left her perch and went back to her friends, pulling Aubrey off her seat and onto the dance-floor. "Hit it, Amy!" she called and Amy pushed some buttons. The first chords of a rock song could be heard and Beca looked at Chloe questioningly before her eyes cleared in understanding:
"Melissa?" she mouthed and Chloe nodded before she started moving to the beat.
"Hey! She wakes up in the morning with a pain in her jet-black head," Beca finally started singing All American Girl by Melissa Etheridge. The other Bellas hopped from their seats and started dancing as well. The two patrons who had at first tentatively stood in the doorway sat down at a table in the backroom now, nodding their heads to the music. The couple in the corner looked a little disturbed by the ruckus but didn't move, the girl seemed to like Beca's voice at least, she listened intently.
Beca on the stage got into the song, singing in her most rock-ish voice, nodding her head, she seemed the embodiment of bad-assery, even in her shorts, even with flip-flops on her feet, she rocked the song. During the short guitar solo, she watched Chloe and Aubrey dance, the blonde twirling the redhead, the two coming together to dance closely, until the song picked up again.
The song finally ended and the girls whooped and cajoled for their captain who had crushed the song. Beca was all 'yeah, yeah, whatever' but she grinned rakishly.
"Alright, up next is... drumroll... CR, come up here! We wanna hear ya, gal," Amy waved Cynthia Rose to her who chose a song fairly quickly and the next thing they heard was No Diggity, in memoriam of their first really great performance at the riff-off. Lilly joined her after the Dre-rap and they killed it Bella-fashion. The other girls danced and the couple from their corner also came to the dancefloor to show their moves. Beca who was dancing with Jessica felt the girl's eyes on her and when she turned she saw the cute brunette wink at her behind the back of her boyfriend. She just shook her head at the young woman but smirked just a little when she turned away. Another sight caught her eyes and held them: Chloe and Aubrey dancing closely, sexily. Chloe pressed her hips to Aubrey's ass, both of them grooving to the beat. It was mesmerizing - so much so that Jessica leaned over to her before the song ended, whispering:
"Your toner's showing, Becs." The Bellas captain blushed and quickly looked up to the stage at Cynthia Rose and Lilly who ended the song in style, posing. More applause, some catcalls. And Amy took the mic, waving Aubrey on stage. They sang I'm So Excited by the Pointer Sisters.
"A song about sex, if there ever was one," Chloe whispered into Beca's ear who grew flushed at the mere proximity of the ginger and the implication of her words. But Chloe didn't give her a chance to recover, she just pulled her to her than away. They started dancing and Beca found herself laughing at the 80s moves the redhead exhibited. She tried to keep up with Chloe but she soon found that she couldn't, nobody could. Chloe was dancing in the middle of the dancefloor and the other Bellas surrounded her, cheering her on while the redhead threw arms, hair and hips around. It was amazing, it was enticing, sexy, and a lot of fun, too.
Jessica took the stage next and chose Bruno Mars' Just the Way You Are - another collective memory for the Bellas. Beca went over to the table to take a sip of her beer when she saw Aubrey coming toward her, taking her hand.
"Come with me," she said, pulling her back to the dancefloor and into her arms.
"I thought you'd rather dance this one with Chloe," Beca stammered.
"I already danced with Chloe, now I'm dancing with you," Aubrey simply informed her and pulled her a little closer. It was a strange sensation that overcame the brunette as she felt certain body parts of the tall blonde touch her own. She felt a flush overcome her whole body, goosebumps, and an altogether prickly feeling all over. She swallowed hard on the sudden dryness in her throat and wished she wasn't so buzzed from the beer, just so she could say which feelings were brought on by the alcohol and which by Aubrey dancing with her. Not that it was important, she just wished she knew what all this meant, what this feeling was that pulled her toward Aubrey when she had had a crush on Chloe for the longest time - and without that crush lessening but rather intensifying. It was confusing but it felt so good. Beca caught Chloe's blue eyes as the song ended and they sparkled brightly at her, before she gave her a sexy wink and turned back toward Cynthia Rose with whom she was dancing.