Author's Note: So, this is just a short little fic and I don't think it's going to hurt anyone too much if I pretend like Aubrey and Chloe were juniors during the movie. So, basically, everything's the same with the Bellas, only they've already won the ICCAs and have already had the time to get to know each other.

Beca heaved in a deep breath as she knocked on the door to Chloe and Aubrey's apartment. Aubrey wasn't home yet – and wouldn't be for another hour or so, Beca was sure – but she knew what was coming, and she couldn't focus on anything else, so waiting for Aubrey seemed to be her only option.

She just wanted to get this over with.

When Chloe appeared at the door, she engulfed Beca in a solid hug that lasted for what should have been entirely too long. But Beca needed it, and, because it was Chloe, she allowed her forehead to drop softly against the redhead's shoulder for a moment before Chloe urged her inside.

Neither said anything until they were situated on the couch, and Beca had pulled out her laptop to play a mix with the vague (and pathetic) hope that it would ease some of her own tension.

It didn't.

"You guys fought a lot today," Chloe observed quietly.

Beca could feel Chloe's clear blue eyes watching her fingers trip across the trackpad of her computer.

Briefly, Beca paused. Then she nodded her head. "Yeah," Beca breathed out brokenly.

There was no disagreement. She and Aubrey had fought a lot that day – but it hadn't been Beca's fault. Aubrey had been goading her into arguments all week, most noticeably creating issues where there actually weren't any at all, but also picking at little things that could easily have been discussed and resolved had Aubrey not blown them so far out of proportion. They had been tense and uncomfortable and awkward and everything about it felt wrong, because she and Aubrey may encompass all of those things individually, but not together.

They were none of those things when they were together.

They were warm and easy and fluid and right.

Except for the other three times that Aubrey had goaded her this way, which told Beca all that she needed to know about what was in store for her.

"She always comes back to you," Chloe offered tentatively, but her voice hitched like even she knew that was hardly a comfort.

"I know," Beca nodded again. She shuffled forward to rest her laptop against the table and turned the music down low; still audible, but incapable of interfering with conversation. "But one day she won't."

"Oh, Becs," Chloe cooed, "of course she will. You and Bree are… you're so good together, Beca. I've never seen anyone understand her the way that you do. You get her. You get what she needs, and what she wants, and you know when she's being unreasonable and how to call her out on it and talk her down when World War III erupts. And, when she's not… being like this," Chloe settled with a sigh, "she understands you, too. You open up to her – and, God, Beca, we all know how hard that is for you. She makes you happy."

"Yeah," Beca rasped again, with yet another nod as she rested her arms against her knees and dug the heels of her hands into her eyes. "Yeah, she makes me happy. But it's becoming more and more apparent that no matter how much I want to be, I won't ever be enough for her."

"Beca, I know it's hard to see it when she gets this way," Chloe said softly, "but you make her happy, too. No matter what happens, you have to know that. But I know it's hard, sweetie – and no one would blame you if… well, if you wanted to make it stick, this time."

"I'm just tired, Chloe," Beca sighed. "I'm tired of second-guessing myself and everything about our relationship every time Papa Posen demands a visit," she finished dryly.

"I know, Becs," Chloe assured her with a watery lift at the edge of her lips. "Just – let me know if I can do anything, okay?"

"Sure, Chlo," Beca smiled appreciatively. "Thanks."

But, honestly, there was nothing that Chloe could do for her. Aubrey was going to break up with her, again, and Beca would have to deal with that. She didn't want to, and she was exhausted by the pattern, but she couldn't do anything about it, either.

Beca just prayed for the strength to make it through the Christmas break. Things would go back to normal, then.

"Beca?" Aubrey called out, spotting a familiar pair of chunky combat boots inside the door of the apartment she and Chloe shared.

"In here," Beca shouted back, though her voice sounded strained.

Aubrey straightened her spine – a Posen never lacks poise, she reminded herself – and nodded once, determined, despite that Beca couldn't see it. She set her backpack next to her shoes, now comfortably situated beside Beca's, and navigated to the living room.

Beca was on the couch, her head cradled in her hands with her elbows on her knees, laptop half-shut and settled against the glass surface of the coffee table. Chloe was curled up on the opposite end, looking sad and sympathetic and a little cross, too, but Aubrey couldn't deal with that right now.

"Aubrey, can we talk?" Chloe asked.

It sounded more like 'we need to talk right now,' but Aubrey didn't relent. "In a minute, Chloe," Aubrey replied evenly. "Beca and I need to talk, first."

"Aubrey – "

"It's okay, Chlo," Beca sighed, lifting her head and leaning backward until her back met with the cushions of the sofa.

Chloe's lips parted for a protest, but Aubrey threw her a pointed, no-nonsense look and Beca nodded encouragingly until Chloe huffed, stood, offered a short squeeze to Beca's thigh, and departed for her room.

"Beca," Aubrey began pragmatically, taking Chloe's place and primly folding her fingers together to rest over her crossed left knee, "this isn't working." Beca didn't reply, so Aubrey coolly pressed onward. "We aren't working. I don't need to tell you about how much we argue, and, frankly, it's exhausting. And it's interfering with the Bellas, which I will not tolerate. I can't do it anymore, Beca. I think we need to take some time apart to reconsider what we're doing, here."

It took a minute – a solid sixty-four seconds, by Aubrey's count – before Beca uttered a soft reply.

"Okay."

Aubrey's brows shot into her hairline, though she quickly schooled her expression back to neutral before it could be noticed. This hadn't happened before – not with any of the other three times that she had ended things with Beca. They had argued, and fumed, and cried until Aubrey had slammed the door shut behind Beca's hunched back.

'Okay,' had not ever been uttered, unless it was firmly preceded by the word 'not.'

But, as unexpected as it was, Aubrey knew this was better. Easier, even. So she ignored the sting behind her eyes and the extra thud-thud-thud of a heartbeat out of sync, and she nodded.

"Okay," she agreed.

"I'll see you at rehearsal, then," Beca said thickly.

Aubrey watched her throat squirm beneath the pressure of a hard swallow, but she forced herself to ignore it.

"I'll see you at rehearsal," Aubrey echoed, standing as soon as Beca did, the brunette shutting her laptop with a quiet click as she collected it and shoved it in her bag with a ratcheting zip to finalize the discussion.

Once Aubrey had closed the door after her girlfriend – ex-girlfriend, she trained herself – she rested her forehead against the wood and closed her eyes.

The sting behind them had intensified.

"You're an idiot, Bree," Chloe said quietly from behind her.

Her disappointment was not lost on Aubrey, but she inhaled a strengthening breath anyway and turned around to face her best friend, who she found leaning against the frame of the kitchen doorway. "I'm not talking about this with you, Chloe. It's done."

"Until you decide that isn't done anymore, right?" Chloe scoffed angrily, boosting herself from the wall with her arms folded irately across her chest. "Until you decide, again, that you want her back, right?"

"Chloe – "

"No, Aubrey," Chloe interjected with a firm shake of her head, "because, one day, Beca won't take you back. And I swear to God, when it happens, I will fully support her in that decision. Because all you've ever done to Beca is break every promise you've ever made to her."

It was a good thing that Chloe whirled around and locked herself in her room before Aubrey had the chance to speak, because every well thought out response that Aubrey had planned for this exact moment seemed insufficient, and even if she'd wanted to reply, her tongue was resolutely glued to the roof of her mouth.

Aubrey had nothing to say.

Practice the following day was grueling for Chloe.

She tried to keep the Bellas distracted, but it had become pretty obvious that something was amiss. Aubrey was behaving especially dictator-esque, even for her, and Beca hadn't said a word in reply to it – or to anything else, either. Beca had been completely, painfully silent for three hours.

And, because it had happened before, the girls knew exactly what was going on. So Chloe's problem then became keeping everyone busy enough not to ask questions about it.

Which worked really well, actually, until Aubrey dismissed them for the day. And then it didn't matter that Chloe had put so much effort into preventing the conversation, because it was happening, anyways.

"What's goin' on, Beale?" Cynthia-Rose honed in on her immediately.

Chloe usually loved being the go-to girl for inquiries about Beca and Aubrey's relationship; she loved gushing about how Beca had cooked Aubrey dinner and the blonde had nearly cried at the sweetness of the gesture; she loved talking about how cute they were when she came home late from the library and found them snuggled up together on the sofa; she even loved explaining how Aubrey launched into a jealous rage every time Beca even brought up Jesse's awkward methods of flirtation, in spite of the fact that Beca was very much, totally gay. (Aubrey didn't care; she hated that Jesse knew Beca was hers, and continued coming onto her anyway.)

But she hated being the go-to girl for their relationship inquiries during times like these, because it took everything that Chloe had not to sob and wail out that her best friend was a masochist who couldn't let herself be happy, and that she was stealing Beca's happiness in the pursuit of her self-destruction, too.

Chloe just sighed and shook her head at the audience that had amassed.

"Again?" Stacie puffed furiously.

Outside of Chloe, Stacie was Beca's best friend – and if anyone hated seeing Beca hurt, it was Stacie.

"Trouble in paradise, eh?" Fat Amy asked, and the tone of her voice struck a chord in Chloe; it was so dejected that Chloe would swear Amy had been the one broken up with, if she didn't know better, and Chloe sympathized, because she (irrationally) felt that way, too.

"Paradise is a myth," Beca said quietly from the stands, where she was grabbing a bottle of water from the side pocket of her bag and staunchly refusing to look at any of them. "Don't let anyone tell you differently, Amy."

"This is none of their business, Beca," Aubrey snapped out from behind them, somewhere near the whiteboard.

"It becomes their business when it changes the dynamic of the group, Aubrey," Beca replied tiredly.

"See!" Aubrey cried out triumphantly, and Chloe frowned as most of the group flinched. "This is exactly why we don't work, Beca! We're a disaster together, and everyone else can see it, too."

"I just think you're a disaster when you're apart," Jessica mumbled, earning a hard nod from Denise and Cynthia-Rose in reply.

Chloe's heart broke for Beca, who couldn't even look up to face Aubrey, let alone defend the relationship that Aubrey had, for the fourth time now, single-handedly decided was destined for failure.

"Becs," Chloe tried softly, despite not knowing what consolation she could possibly offer.

"No, it's okay," Beca said, shaking her head and throwing the strap of her backpack over her shoulder. "Break starts tomorrow anyway, right? Just give it some time. Everything will be fine, guys," she promised, pitching a weak smile at the rest of the Bellas, who returned it with equally as much (lack of) enthusiasm as Beca trudged up through the aisle and shoved open the door, which closed with a deafening reverberation into the now-silent room.

"Who are you trying to convince that this is the right thing to do, Posen?" Stacie barked out abruptly. "Be with her or don't – that's your choice. But quit yo-yoing her around. Beca deserves better than this."

With mumbled assents from the rest of the group – minus Chloe, who felt she'd already expressly conveyed her opinion in private the night before – most of the Bellas made for the exit.

Chloe turned back to Aubrey, who was bowed over the piano with her fingers clenched around the lid, her knuckles paling until Chloe was sure that her bones would soon show through her flesh if she just added a little more pressure.

No, Chloe didn't agree with Aubrey's decision – not at all – but Aubrey was still her best friend, and Chloe knew that she was hurting. Even if it was self-inflicted.

"Come on, Bree," Chloe sighed, resting her palm against Aubrey's lower back and trying to fight off the guilt that she felt for offering the blonde her sympathy. "Let's go home. There's Rocky Road in the freezer."

"I don't want to talk about any of this," Aubrey warned fiercely.

"Good," Chloe couldn't help but reply. "I don't want to talk about it, either. We'll eat ice cream and watch Mean Girls, and we won't say a word."

Aubrey released a shuddering breath that Chloe felt tremble through her fingertips. "I love you, Chloe."

"I love you too, Bree," Chloe replied earnestly. "Come on."

Chloe just hoped someone was taking care of Beca's hurting heart, too.

Author's Note: Just a little thing that started nagging at me this morning. Only looking at two to four chapters – and only four if I seriously stretch it – so don't get too excited over anything. I've never written Mitchsen before (and I know this is kind of a weird start), but I love everything about it. Bear with me. I'm starting with the angst, but I promise that there will be fluff! Let me know how I did, guys.