Just to clarify - I know very little about music. Suspend your disbelief if you know more for the sake of the narrative...

Jesse used the well-worn eraser on his No.2 pencil on the paper perched on the sheet music stand yet again, adjusting some notes and tucking it back behind his ear. He flipped the page over to begin again, to see if he'd gotten it right this time. Just as he started in on the first measures, a knocking to his right startled him out of his intense concentration and practically caused all his carefully arranged sheets to cascade to the floor.

He looked through the full-glass, soundproof door to see Beca, hand and eyebrows raised in an amused greeting.

"Hey! Come in!" he said, motioning since she couldn't hear him. She pulled the heavy door open, resulting in a loud sucking sound as it pulled against the seal of the vacuum. The row of small practice rooms in the music building were tiny, just large enough for an upright piano and a player. Beca stood in the doorway. It was a surprise to see her, but a welcome distraction.

"Hey, nerd. How's it going?" she said, leaning against the frame.

"Aah, ok," Jesse said, running a hand back and forth over his hair. "I'm working on this project for my class – it's due tomorrow."

"Yeah I know – how do you think I knew where to find you? Benji gave me the 411," Beca said.

"You were looking for me? Remind me to mark this day in my journal," Jesse joked.

"You missed your appointed make-Beca-suffer-through-a-movie time," she pointed out. "I was at your room on time, you can write that in your diary as well, with your little pink Lisa Frank pen with the bells on the back. Benji made me sit through all his new card tricks before he would tell me where you might be."

Jesse dropped his head in his hands in frustration. "Ah, God, Beca, I'm sorry! I totally forgot – I got so wrapped up in this, and it's not really going well here…I'm so, so sorry. Here, let me get this stuff together – " He was so pissed at himself; if anything was going to endear him to Beca, ignoring commitments certainly wasn't it. He had weaseled a bit of info out of her about the painful divorce she alluded to before. Her dad walking out on her and her mom had made a very deep, indelible mark on her psyche, one he in no way wanted to share.

Beca took a step up into the tiny stall, holding out her hand in reassurance. "Don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. I figured the music building might have sunk into the ground for you to miss a movie, so I thought I'd make sure you were ok. I can't stack all the CDs at the station by myself, you know," she said, with a faint blush.

She worried about him? That was new. That meant she actually thought about him when he wasn't around.

Outwardly, he smiled at her small joke. "Ah, so it was your own self-interest that sent you to find my carcass in the rubble. What time is it, anyway?"

"8:30. Where's your phone? I tried to text you," she replied, looking around the room. Oh, this just kept getting better and better.

"I put it on silent – I didn't want any distractions. Wow, 8:30. I've been in here for 4 hours – way longer than I thought this would take me," he said, blowing out a frustrated breath and looking up at her. "I'm really sorry, Beca," he said.

"Jesse, really, don't. If anything, I owe your prof a Coke for getting me out of the movie. So…listen, I'll get out of your way. You're alive, so I'll go," she smiled at her own awkward admittance of her concern and put her hand back on the door again, but then seemed to remember something. She started digging in her bag, her voice muffled a bit by the hair that fell as she faced down. "Oh! I brought you a water and a bag of Combos – cheese and pretzel, right?"

Jesse blinked, turning his body with slight shock to her figure in the doorway. "Yeah," he replied slowly, taking the things from her outstretched hand. "Aw, honey, you cooked."

She shrugged. "Once Benji told me when he last saw you, I figured you might have missed a meal. And I was right. So that's three things for your journal – Beca was looking for you, Beca was on time, Beca was right," she ticked off the items on her fingers.

He laughed and nodded in agreement. "Ok, duly noted – thanks for the summary. And the snack. You're the best. In fact…"

Jesse put his hands on the keys and played a few bars from Rocky, while he sang

You're the best, around
Nothing's gonna ever keep you down!
You're the best, around
Nothing's gonna ever keep you down!
You're the best, around
Nothing's gonna ever keep you dooooooooooown!

"HEY! Shut your door!" someone yelled from down the hall. "No one wants to hear Bill Conti!"

Beca's face turned into highly delighted laughter as she pulled the door closed quickly and was fully inside the room. "Whoops. Music nerds are gonna mutiny," she said.

"Yeah, well, not everyone agrees on Rocky being on my list of best-scored films," he replied. "For instance, that person."

"What are you doing, anyway?" she asked, stepping closer and dropping her bag, declaring her intent to stay. Yes, there was certainly a lot of fodder for his diary here…not diary, journal…or, er, memory bank. Jesse didn't keep any of those aforementioned items…that anyone knew about.

"Uh, we have to take a section of Clare de Lune and recreate it into a different style," he answered as he gestured back to his sheet music. "I'm going for jazz."

"Well, let's hear it," Beca said, stepping up behind him.

Jesse was so tempted to turn around – he knew how close she was standing. Over the past two weeks since the riff-off, they'd been spending quite a lot of time together, in addition to their work time at the radio station. Catching her in the quad was almost a daily occurrence; they'd had a few meals together and even went to hear music at the local coffeehouse last weekend. Not to mention his now enforced movication "dates." All strictly platonic, of course.

Shyeah, for Beca it was. Jesse was constantly itching as he restrained himself from taking her hand while walking, or putting it on the small of her back when holding a door to escort her through, or just plain old leaning against her as they watched movies on his small laptop screen. The most play he was getting was when their hands sometimes brushed together in the popcorn bowl, and no amount of buttery oil could make that collision worthwhile. He knew – he started buying extra butter flavor, and it wasn't doing it for him.

Beca's light freesia perfume floated toward him as he lay his hands on the keys. He took a deep breath and started to play his jazz rendition of Clare de Lune. His hands were bouncing expertly over the keys for a few measures, until he got to the part he was currently stumped on and they slowed. "That's where I am now. This last part wasn't working out so well," he said.

Beca leaned her left elbow on his right shoulder and leaned around his side, pointing to the sheet music at exactly the place where he seemed to be having trouble. "I think you need to go back here and tweak it a little," she said, "Kind of bolder, and then maybe bring it to an end that is more similar to the original arrangement."

Jesse was breathless. Not only was she pressing her warm body against him, she was reading his music.

"Can you play?" he asked, turning his head in shock to meet her eyes, very close to his own. "You didn't tell me that!"

"YOU didn't ask," she said, her face lit up at having surprised him. "Here, scooch," she said, coming around the right side of the bench and gesturing for him to move over. "What if you do this part like this," she said, and, putting her hands on the keys, tried a slightly different interpretation of the segment they were talking about.

He leaned to his left slightly, giving her some space to reach all that she needed. When she finished, she looked up at him. Then she reached over and put her hand on his chin, pushing his mouth closed in jest.

"Beca," he said, and stared at her.

"What?" she said, looking unsure.

"How did you just do that in 30 seconds and I've been working on that last part for an hour?"

"Because I am a musical genius," she said, with a shrug, as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Damn right. Now play it again, so I can transcribe it," he said, pulling the pencil out from behind his ear again.

Jesse could tell Beca was enjoying herself as they worked through the final portion together. Jesse was too. Having her tiny thigh pressed up against his was just an added bonus.

"Seriously, you saved my bacon. 'You're the best, around…"

Beca put her hand against his mouth. "Dude, no. Don't." Oh God, fingers touching lips. Miles of midnight mind fodder, happening right now.

"Mphkay," came his response before she pulled her hand away. He reached for his folder to put the final assignment away, and a stack of hand-written sheet music slid into her lap.

"Whoa, sorry…"Jesse made a grab for it, his fingertips sliding against her denim, arms getting tangled with her own as they both reached to grab the paper.

"That's ok, here, here's your…Benji's song?" Beca looked at him quizzically, a laugh evolving in her eyes.

"Yeah, ok, I can explain this," he said. He could feel the blush creeping up his cheeks. He just hoped the many versions of Beca odes were not in the pile she held in her hands. "Ok, so, I want to score movies, right?"

"Uh huh."

"So when I see people, or like, know them, sometimes I start to think about, you know, whattheirthememusicwouldbe," he rushed out at the end in a mumble, finally securing all the paper back into his folder.

"Uh, what?" she said, complete amusement playing across her features. "Oh, you HAVE to play one of those. Do the Benji one."

Jesse sighed. As confident and as cocky as he could be, this was definitely revealing a part of himself he didn't share much, a part that was still new and vulnerable. He tried to deflect.

"Don't tell me you've never thought about this – what would be the perfect theme song for a person," he said.

"Nope, never. I'm not as big a weirdo as you. Now, play it," she said, bumping her shoulder against his.

Jesse put his hands back on the piano, but with a gleam in his eye. Instead of the innocent, playful and earnest notes that he had ascribed to Benji, he struck up the Imperial March theme with vigor.

A genuine laugh bubbled out of Beca, surprising both of them. "Okay," she said, nodding in concession. "That's too funny – that is the complete opposite of Benji," she said, around her chuckle.

"I know, give me another one," he said, warming up to this.

She gave him a side eye. "Kimmy Jin."

He thought for a second, and then bounced out a couple bars of the Mission Impossible theme. "Don't you think? She's totally a spy under that cool cucumber exterior," he said. "Go again."

"Aubrey."

This time he brought his voice into it. "I hate the world today, you're so good to me, I know but I can't change," he sang, playing Meredith Brooks. She nodded in agreement.

"Do Chloe."

"Uh, no thanks, I think she's got a boyfriend," he said, complete innocence on his face. She laughed, not a general occurrence at his humor.

"Yeah I know, I met him in the shower," she said.

Jesse's head about swiveled off his neck. "Wait, what?"

She sighed. "I'll tell you later. Now, Chloe."

He struck up a quick version of the Golden Girls theme, complete with vocal accompaniment.

Beca's giggles were escalating quickly. "Ok, Donald!" she gasped.

Jesse looked at her blankly. "Wow, um…let's see," he fiddled a bit with the keys, finally settling on the Super Mario Bros. theme. Beca's eyebrows came together, an expression of befuddlement on her features.

"I don't know, he's always on his phone," Jesse shrugged helplessly. "Who else?"

Beca bit her lip and nodded her head at his folder. "You have one for me in there?" she said.

"Uh, no," Jesse said, watching her calculatingly. "I have no idea what you're –" and he cut off as soon as she made a grab for the folder. There was a minor scuffle, both of them vying for possession, Beca coming up triumphant. She twisted away and Jesse reached an arm around her as he leaned in from the opposite side, causing her to balk toward his arm. His hand brushed against the side of her breast and he seized the folder. They both froze.

Beca looked over her shoulder at him, her mouth open in shock.

"Okay, sorry about that. Boob graze. That was accidental. Accidental boob graze. I'm sorry," he said, his hands up in mild surrender. Ohgodohgodohgod.

Her shock morphed into amusement. "Okay, you're forgiven. But only if I get to grope yours later," she said. He exhaled in shocked amusement and only recovered when she then announced, "Game on!" and turned, reaching in to tickle his stomach (damn her finding that out), resulting in a loud guffaw and twist away from Jesse, causing her to grab the treasure and thrust it in the air triumphantly with a shout of "Yes!"

As she began to page through it, Jesse spoke up in a last ditch maneuver. "Okay, okay. You don't have to find it in there. I'll play it. Close that," he said.

She did and looked at him expectantly.

Jesse cracked his knuckles and stretched out his fingers experimentally. Then he looked up at her. "I'm not going to do this justice without a full brass and percussion ensemble," he began.

She made a rolling motion with her hand, rolling her eyes and indicating he should get on with it. He looked at her seriously, and then, after a salty intro, started belting out Joss Stone:

Work it
Girls we gotta work it like we do
Turn a head or two

Cause we're worth it
So I ain't gonna waste my time waiting on you
Gotta make your move

You've had my number for two or three days or more
If you're a real man then you can't ignore mmmm, mmmm this

Sometimes it's physical
But I want supernatural
I don't have wings but I'm ready to fall
I deserve it all

Headturner yeah
Soul burner
Ya gonna watch me walk, then watch me walk

Headturner yeah
Are you a slow learner
Come and take my hand
Cause I'll find another man

If you're gonna watch me walk, then watch me walk
Ya gotta earn it
Nothing in life is free you gotta bring your love to me baby, baby, baby
Emotional, mmm I got it
Sexual, mmm I got it
Spiritual, God knows I've got it
What you want, baby I got it

The entire time he was singing, Jesse kept glancing up at Beca to find her expression teetering on the intersection of complete amusement and charmed disbelief. At this point she interrupted him by putting her hand on his arm.

"Okay, Aretha, that was very soulful. But I know that's Joss Stone. You can't con the music master. And now I am going to find my theme song in this here folder," she said, cracking it open, "and I'll play it myself if you refuse," she said, looking him in the eyes with a final dare.

He blew out a deep breath, exhaustion and frustration causing him to give in. "Alright, okay. Just remember you asked…and it's only for fun," he said, looking for her approval.

"I'm Beca Mitchell and I approve this theme song," she said. He cocked an eyebrow at her humor.

"Okay, sorry, go. Just, I'm sure it's fine," she said, reassuringly.

Jesse held out his hand for the folder and found the appropriate sheets, merely labeled as "Beca" on the top. At least he'd refrained from drawing hearts and rainbows all over them. He glanced over at her as her eyes scanned the music rapidly. Well, now or never.

He put his fingertips to ivory and played his composition. It carried a heavy baseline at first, a sullen composition in the minor key, but after just a brief intro, he morphed into a brighter melody, sometimes disguising a sweetness, that tracked on top of a bold harmony. The rhythm moved from tentative to confident. Jesse had tried to pour all he knew about her, and all he was discovering every day, into the composition and the performance. When he finished, he just stared at his hands on the keys.

"So, that's me, huh?" she asked, quietly. He could not look, he could not look…

He had to look.

"I used only the good notes," he said as he met her eyes.

What he found was an openness he had not seen before. Her face seemed pleasantly resigned, thankful that she no longer had to hold up that mask in front of someone, just one person. That finally, someone saw past it all, past the tiny badass shell and the mocking exterior, to the girl who saw humor and excitement in a lot of things, if she gave them a chance, and if they gave her one too. To someone who could use a friend, a true one that would stand by her no matter what, and who needed someone to challenge her to open up to love. His composition appreciated shocking people, just like she did, but it was also smart, bright and alive.

She nodded her head slowly, and he could swear her eyes were bright, moisture welling just at the edge. She swallowed, and blinked, and sniffed. "I think you crushed it, as Fat Amy would say," she said finally, with a small smile.

"Yeah?" Jesse breathed in disbelief.

"Yeah. Hans Zimmer better start planning his retirement," she said. With a deep breath, she seemed to pull herself out of her reverie, looking around as if she just remembered they were together, practically in each other's laps, in a small, confined, space with only the sound of their breathing as companion.

"Uh well, I should get going," she said awkwardly, a little too loudly, breaking the spell as she moved to pick up her bag.

"Yes. Me too," Jesse replied, gathering his things together again. "Beca, thanks again, for your help. I could have been here all night," he said earnestly, hoping to acknowledge the walls that had been broken down over the past two hours.

"Sure thing," she said, hand on the glass and ready to push. "Maybe if I stick around this joint I'll be frequenting the scary music cells along with you," she said. She opened the door and paused, turning to look back at him. They locked eyes for a silent second, and she was making her way back to the bench, putting a knee up on it to lean in close to his ear.

"Thank you, for that," she said, brushing a kiss so light on his cheek that he wasn't sure it even happened. She avoided his gaze and pushed out of the room.

Jesse jumped up from the bench, catching the door before it sealed, and looked out at her retreating form as she moved past the rows of piano rooms.

"See you tomorrow, dork," he called. She raised her arm in goodbye, whistling Joss Stone as she moved around the corner and out of sight.

Huh.

Wow, beaucoup references here.

Rocky, You're the Best Around

Harry the Piano, mashup #7 for the idea of Clare de Lune as jazz

The Holiday again, for some words and the idea of an individual's theme music

The Imperial March, Mission Impossible, Meredith Brooks "Bitch", the Golden Girls Theme and Super Mario Bros. theme

Joss Stone, Headturner

Thank you for reading, and following, and favoriting. It gives me such a rush, like Benji :-) Your reviews would make my head explode!