A/N: Hello everyone! Wow, it has been a while since I've posted anything, and for that I am truly sorry. My life has been extremely hectic since, I dunno, last summer? Longer? Who knows... Anyway, life has been crazy for sure, but more importantly to me, I've been needing a break. Because of this, that, or the other I've felt a pressure to write everyday, not because I wanted to, but because I felt obligated to do it. And that never works for me. It has been building for a while, but over the last few months things just kind of hit a breaking point and snapped. Now this project I actually started a few months back and had originally envisioned it as a quick one shot. Well, last time I checked the full file it's over 44 pages and getting close to 30,000 words. However the last few weeks I've only been plinking away a sentence or two here and there. So in order to explain my current and upcoming hiatus from writing I decided to split it up and put out the first chapter with this note.

As Douglas Adams would say, though, "DON'T PANIC!" I'm not quitting writing or even giving up on any of my current fics. I desperately want to finish them all. Especially one which has a sort of deadline on it, you'll see later when I get it out. I'm not stopping writing for good, just for a short while.

Like I said earlier, this story already has almost 30,000 words in it, so it's likely I'll find another good place to split it in a week or two and put out a second chapter. If you're really lucky I'll be able to finish it off and post a third or fourth chapter as well. But I don't want to promise anything.

Anyway, sorry for this massive note at the beginning, guys, but I felt that you guys deserved an explanation as to where the hell I've been lately. So I now present to you, without any further warbling, the first chapter of Swapping Tails. If you like it, if you hate it, if you want to see something tweaked in it let me know. I live to hear how people react to my stuff and it really is the only true guaranteed thing that makes me want to write more. So, if you want me, heap on the praise!

Swapping Tails

"What in the name of all that is aca-holy is going on here?"

The insistently furious question cut through the laughter and chatter that filled the room, easily audible despite the music playing from the laptop propped up on the piano. Aubrey, her green eyes ablaze with indignation stared from guilty face to guilty face as each of the girls suddenly looked in her direction, blanched, and looked away. Her fierce, demanding stare landed on the one set of eyes that didn't. Fiery green eyes met steely blue ones from across the room and it was a wonder that a fire didn't burst into existence in between them as each girl expressed impassioned emotion with a simple look, both determined to give nothing away to the other.

Thankfully, for the pair would have no doubt stared at each other until they passed out, the sudden silencing of the music broke both girls' gazes from the other as they turned to stare towards Beca's laptop and the redhead who had just silenced it.

Recovering first, Aubrey strode into the room, commanding attention with her presence as she looked first from Chloe, who was smiling at Beca, to Beca who had turned back to face her and thus missed the smile the redhead directed her way. But Aubrey hadn't. Leaving that can of worms for another time, Aubrey modified her tone slightly as she said, still irate, "Seriously though. I was fifteen minutes late because one of my professors held me back to discuss one of my papers, and you let her take control of everything, Chlo? I was trusting you to have them warmed up by now…"

"Hey! She didn't– " Beca started to protest, even though there was really no protest to be made because Chloe had allowed her to take charge, at least of the warm-ups. Still, she couldn't let Aubrey get away with using that condescending tone to emphasize her. Chloe's hand on her upper arm stopped any further words, however, as the redhead stepped forward.

"They are warmed up, Bree. Beca was just … helping with music selection. She's got some pretty aca-awesome songs on here, you should–" The redhead started to gesture back towards Beca's laptop, but she could tell that the blond wasn't going to ever listen to anything on "her arch-nemesis's" laptop even if her life depended on it.

"I think our normal warm-up music is just fine, thank you very much." Aubrey said smugly, turning to survey the rest of the Bellas. They did, in fact, seem to be warmed up, Aubrey even noticed that Stacie was sweating slightly as a drop ran down the curve of her breast into her cleavage.

"Yeah, cuz everyone just loves running laps to Celine Dion…" Beca's sarcastic quip snapped Aubrey's mind out from a place it shouldn't be going during practice and immediately spiked her anger once more. Furiously rounding on the brunette, Aubrey raised an arm and pointed straight at the bleachers around which the girls normally ran.

"That's enough, Beca! 20 laps, go!" Aubrey felt a bit of sinister delight at the way the short brunette's face flickered from the bleachers to Aubrey's determined gaze. When the younger girl didn't move, however, Aubrey snapped her fingers, pointed again and said, "Now, Mitchell or you can walk out that door and not look back!"

A twinge of guilt shot through the blond as her anger got the better of her and she let the last part slip out unintended. Not necessarily at the threat, she couldn't tolerate a soldier who was as insubordinate as Beca had been from day one, but at Chloe's expression when she said it. The only reason that the young girl was with the Barden Bellas still, beside the fact that she really was an incredible singer, a fact Aubrey grudgingly had to admit, was because of Chloe's little crush.

Aubrey would do anything for the redhead. Literally. She would take a bullet for Chloe if the situation arose where it was necessary. So tolerating the little troll on her team was a minor inconvenience… Most of the time.

Thankfully, for Aubrey's peace of mind, not to mention keeping the peace between her and her best friend of 21 years, Beca only hesitated for a moment before trudging over towards the bleachers and starting off at a slow jog. Mumbling under her breath the whole time about how she understood how Jews in Poland felt in the '30s now. Aubrey almost threw her water bottle at the short girl, but managed to restrain herself. It was an expensive water bottle, after all.

As Beca trudged up and around the bleachers, Aubrey walked over to the piano and put the normal stereo she used for music during practice back atop the polished surface and docked her iPod to it. Shuffling through her playlists until she found one she knew would drive Beca insane, she wasn't above a little petty vindictiveness once in a while, Aubrey hit play. She made sure to time it so that Beca was coming down the stairs, and grinned smugly at the brunette, whose eyes snapped up to her as the aforementioned Canadian music goddess' voice began to inundate the room.

Turning back to the rest of the girls, Aubrey ran them through a second set of warm-ups, really more something to kill time while Beca ran than anything else. When the short brunette finished she allowed for a quick five minute break for Beca to catch her breath and get some water. She wasn't a tyrant despite the younger girl's belief and never ending Nazi comments that were muttered under her breath. Well, that and Chloe was giving her an evil look when she first opened her mouth to run straight into the routine after Beca finished.

The rest of practice went more or less smoothly, as far as Aubrey was concerned. Beca kept up a fairly relentless, though thankfully mostly quiet, commentary espousing her feelings for the routine, the song selection, and even the outfits, but Aubrey managed to avoid sending her to run more laps, barely.

Really it was only because every time she heard a comment Beca made and rounded on her to inflict the aforementioned punishment, she somehow managed to find Chloe looking at her. Just looking, but Jesus, how was someone supposed to resist that puppy dog look the redhead wore? Seriously, fighting against that look was nigh unto impossible and, even if you could manage to fight it off, you felt like you'd just kicked the most adorable puppy right into the open mouth of a crocodile.

So Beca managed to avoid running more laps for the first hour of practice.

After that she split the girls into two groups for skills work. She made sure Beca was in Chloe's group. Not because she didn't want to have to teach her or anything, but the delight that shimmered out of those crystalline orbs when she paired Beca up with Chloe's group was a reward that she was happy to receive. Of course the fact that it meant Stacie was in her group didn't hurt either…

More than a few times Aubrey caught herself watching the other girl just move as they went over some of the necessary skills for a capella. She tried to catch herself quickly enough so as not to be noticed by anyone, but she was sure she saw Chloe smiling more than one time in a way that had nothing to do with Beca and the redhead's hands all over her "helping" her perfect the moves. The short brunette protested, but never enough to actually stop Chloe. Which was basically the same thing as encouraging her as far as Aubrey was concerned. Her bestie disagreed, however, but that was an argument for another day.

Her main argument for this particular day was whether she could follow Chloe's lead or not. Honestly, Stacie had her hands on herself enough that she probably didn't need, nor would have noticed, Aubrey's own hands. But it was still tempting.

Finally after working with the rest of her group and physically correcting some of their movements, Jessica in particular was exceedingly bouncy and kept needing to be restrained, Aubrey felt that she had no choice but to do something about Stacie's incessant groping. Well, something besides calling a ten minute break to go, uh, regain her composure.

Privately.

In the bathroom on the opposite side of the building, just in case.

Approaching Stacie, however, almost seemed to increase the amount of the aforementioned groping and Aubrey had to swallow hard before hitching a stern expression on her face. Gesturing up and down the taller girl Aubrey opened her mouth and said, "Stacie, for serious, we're an a capella group competing for a national title. We aren't auditioning at the Pussycat Lounge for the main stage."

Her words froze the girls with whom she was working, including Stacie, who looked a bit like Aubrey had just slapped her. She tried to smile to soften what she realized were probably harsher words than she'd intended them to be, but it didn't seem to help. The taller brunette's hands were frozen in place, squeezing a magnificent bosom that had more than once haunted her dreams. Stepping forward she reached out and took hold of Stacie's hands to remove them. For the briefest second she imagined that the taller girl had actually arched slightly into her touch because she definitely felt a soft, squishiness before she pulled Stacie's hands away. Quickly stepping back she snapped her fingers at the girls and said, "Again ladies, these are basic skills. You need to know them as well as Stacie knows the feel of her breasts."

She turned away from Stacie so that her own flushed expression wouldn't be plainly obvious to her. In doing so she also missed the look that flashed across the taller girl's face at her words. She didn't know, however, whether to be upset or grateful that the groping seemed to be greatly toned down afterwards, however. Of course, her indecision over how to feel was something she spent the rest of practice debating.

As she was wrapping up practice Aubrey found herself musing that this wasn't the first time, nor would it likely be the last time, where she found herself feeling a bit envious of Chloe for her confidence and boldness. Then again, given Stacie's own forwardness with regards to sex, if she was interested at all, Aubrey was sure that the younger girl would have already tried to pursue something. Since she hadn't, well, there were always bosom-filled dreams…

Beca's utter rage and frustration at their Obersteführer slowly subsided after the blond dictator split them into two groups and Beca got paired with the overly handsy redhead. She tried, over and over, to tell Chloe that she knew how to make a rectangle with her hands, but the half-hearted protests seemed to fall on deaf ears. After a while the protests themselves seemed to die out as the tingling she felt at the redhead's touch wore down her resistance. Before she lost her cool, however, and jumped the redhead's bones right there in their practice room, however, Aubrey's sharp rebuke of Stacie's own version of handsy-ness brought Beca back to reality.

Over what little was left of their practice Chloe turned her attention to the others, which helped Beca rebuild her walls and barriers that the redhead always seemed to treat like wet tissue paper. By the time Aubrey called a halt to things she was her usual, more or less composed self. The blond, with Chloe by her side, stood at the front of the room and went on and on about something or other as Beca gathered up her bag and water bottle, taking a few healthy swigs.

As the annoying drone of Aubrey's voice died away and Chloe dismissed everyone, Beca looked around for Stacie. They'd been planning to go grab some pizza from the pizza place across campus before Beca's evening shift at the radio station. She had a feeling that the brunette would need a bit of consoling after the scolding that Aubrey had given her. As it turned out, though, Stacie was standing and chatting amicably with Aubrey, Chloe, and Ashley at the front as though she had not just been called an auditioning stripper. Glancing at her watch Beca waited for a couple minutes before realizing that her friend had apparently forgotten their early dinner plans and started towards the door.

She was just pulling up her headphones, however, as a voice that haunted her every waking, and most of her sleeping, hours, called out, "Goodnight, Becs! See you at practice tomorrow."

She had to bite her cheek to avoid turning around and grinning like a buffoon at Chloe. Instead she just settled her headphones around her ears, threw her arm up in a casual wave, and walked out of the practice hall. She kept her feet moving until the door shut behind her where she had to pause and take a shuddering breath. It was as though Chloe didn't realize how her innocent touches and deliciously evil casual innuendo affected people around her.

Still, Beca wasn't about to try messing around with another straight girl. She'd done that in high school and it had ended disastrously for her. And based on what she'd seen in the shower when Chloe introduced herself without actually introducing herself, the redhead was definitely straight.

Still, Beca couldn't help her fantasies. Nor did she try.

Calm restored the shorter girl started quickly walking off towards her dorm room. Even if Stacie had forgotten their plans, Beca knew she needed to eat something before her shift, and in order to properly go get some food she needed to shower because she was sweaty and gross. Pulling her phone from her pocket as she walked she flicked on her playlist, amusingly enough the same one she'd been playing when Aubrey had walked in and dropped a giant, soaking blanket on the fun everyone had been having, and smiled as the beats began to thrum through her ear drums and soothe the last vestiges of anger she felt towards the blond senior.

As a result of the loud music, however, she totally missed the voice that called out behind her saying, "Hey, Little B… B. Beca!"

She couldn't miss, however, the hand that fell onto her shoulder. Instinct, and those self-defense classes her mom had thought were necessary for her to take during her high school years took over and she found herself spinning around as she grabbed the offending appendage. Her momentum carried her around, spinning the unknown, but much taller, figure around. It was only when she had Stacie's wrist in a tight lock behind the brunettes back which had the much taller girl up on her tiptoes to avoid breaking her wrist did Beca realize who she had.

Swiping her headphones off her head she quickly let go of Stacie and said, "Oh my god! Jesus, Stace! You can't fucking do that, man. That's, like, super dumb to do to a short girl like me. And we both know you're anything but super dumb."

She watched as her friend settled back onto her feet and slowly turned, rubbing her wrist to get rid of the dull ache that Beca knew still lingered in the joint. Getting ready to dodge any potential attack, Beca was surprised to see Stacie grinning down at her and shaking her head ruefully. With a gentle flick of her uninjured hand against Beca's shoulder, Stacie said, "Damn, Little B, that was sweet. You probably just laughed when they tried to hand you the rape whistle on the first day, am I right?"

Beca laughed because obviously Stacie wasn't pissed at her. Turning to walk alongside the taller girl she looked up at her out of the side of her eyes. Stacie easily fell in alongside her, their paces synching up without any conscious effort on their part as Beca sped up just slightly and Stacie shortened her stride on instinct. Bumping her hip against the taller girl's she answered, "I mean, not exactly. But I did roll my eyes pretty fiercely, which seemed to piss off the chipper little blond girl to no end. Also, did you just call me 'Little B'?"

"I can picture that pretty clearly. You do seem to have a talent for pissing off blond girls." Stacie said, chuckling. The two made their way through the campus to Baker Hall as they talked. Through either some act of Fate, or more likely the fact that most freshmen tended to be placed in the same dorms, both girls were both assigned to the same dormitory hall. As they walked, Stacie continued, "And yes, I did. It's your new nickname. You're 'Little B', I'm 'Big B'. I've decided that."

"Oh, you decided that?" Beca asked, pausing in their walk to turn and face the other girl. Reaching out she poked one of Stacie's "big b's" for emphasis as she arched an eyebrow and said, "Just cuz you have a gigantic rack doesn't mean you automatically get to be 'Big B'."

"Pffft, that's not the reason at all. If anything, I'd say we're basically the same size in that department." Stacie said matter-of-factly as she eyed Beca's chest. The shorter girl couldn't help the skeptical look that she knew was written all over her face, however. Stacie, for her part, just rolled her eyes and reached out with both hands and, before Beca could reach, gave both her tits a healthy squeeze. Even as Beca was franticly squawking a protest and swatting the taller girl's hands away Stacie opened her mouth and said, quite confidently, "Yup, I was right. I'd guess, 34 B? I have some super sexy bras you can borrow if you ever sack up and try to get Red horizontal."

"What are-! Oh my god! Dude! DUDE! You can't just…" Beca spluttered, taking another step back from Stacie and the offending, groping extremities the tall girl possessed. Then she added another step, just to account for the freakish height of the other girl. Angrily gesturing around at the many students surrounding them on the green grass she furiously hissed, "Dude! You can't just do that shit in public! For serious, Stace, we're in the middle of the fucking quad! You can't just go groping me like that! Also, just no, I'm so not gonna borrow whatever skimpy, see-through, barely-there scrap of fabric that you call a bra just on the off chance that Chloe isn't 100% completely and totally straight. Just no. I've been there, that shit sucks when it all blows up in your face."

"Oh bah humbug to that! I'll grope you whenever I want, thank you very much. It's what friends do, ya know? And you so will be borrowing it if I say so. It's about the only thing we can swap, you being the pint-sized midget that you are, because that girl is totally hot for you. Just wait…" Stacie said grinning wolfishly at the shorter girl. Gesturing with her head towards their dorm building, and dismissing Beca's protests about the previously mentioned public groping by looping her arm through the shorter girl's and turning them towards the dorm building. As Beca's protests died out Stacie looked down at her college bestie and said, "Also, that's totally not the reason you're 'Little B' and I'm 'Big B'. It's cuz we're both awesome B's!"

"Seriously, dude?! First you sexually assault me in public and now you're calling me a bitch? I don't even know why I'm friends with you, you freakishly large mutant." Beca grumped as she strode alongside Stacie. As much as she ragged on the other girl, though, they both knew what they meant to the other. Somehow their friendship worked, and Beca loved every second of it.

"You're so dense sometimes Little B that I think you might be made of Roentgenium… That's one of the super heavy metals, by the way, since I know you haven't the foggiest what it is." Stacie said, chuckling as she rightly interpreted the confused look on Beca's face. Before the other girl could protest any further, though, she went on, "And we're both awesome B's because we are bodacious, buxom, brunette Bellas. Duh. And since you're smaller than I am, you get to be Little B."

"Oh… Well. I guess that makes sense…" Beca said, finally getting where her friend had been taking the conversation. She laughed as Stacie's logic, which may have seemed baffling at first, finally made sense. Somehow it, like their friendship, just seemed to click in the end. As they walked into the dorm they split up, both planning to change and shower before heading out for their dinner.

"Did you have to be so harsh on her?" The words were out of Chloe's mouth even as the echoes of the slamming door were still reverberating through the practice hall. Aubrey had been expecting it, though she'd hoped to at least wait until they'd gotten home. Sighing she started moving towards her bag and grabbed her towel and started wiping the sweat from her face. Chloe, though, seemed rather insistent on having the conversation here and now as she asked, "Well? For serious, Bree, that was super mean. We were just playing some different music. It isn't a crime, you know?"

"She was usurping my authority, Chloe!" Aubrey said, spinning on the spot and firing back at the redhead. The combination of the events of the day had perhaps given the words a sharper edge than she'd planned, but it didn't stop her adding a glare for good measure. The defiant look on the redhead's face, as though she wanted to argue the point, drove Aubrey to continue as she added, "I'm the captain. We. We're the captains, Chlo. We lead this team, we will lead this team to Nationals! We don't need help from some mutinous, rebellious, alt-girl who hasn't even been in a competition."

"She isn't usurping anything, Bree!" Chloe fired back when Aubrey paused for breath. The redhead took advantage of the blond taking in much needed oxygen to try to point out to her how wrong she was being. Gesturing back towards the piano, Chloe went on, "I asked her to play those songs, Bree. Me. One of the captains, as you just pointed out. You weren't here. I didn't know how long you were going to be. I wanted to do something fun and different…"

The redhead's defiant, authoritative tone dwindled as she spoke. By the end she had trailed off into more of a plea. The change in Chloe's stance was really what made Aubrey think about the situation and try and analyze it objectively. Sure, Beca was a pain in her ass most of the time, and yes she did constantly challenge Aubrey, but Aubrey supposed she could be nicer to the girl too. For Chloe's sake if nothing else.

"You're right…" Aubrey said the words quietly, conceding the point. The two simple words, spoken softly, did wonders for Chloe's demeanor though. She went from sad and unsure to smiling and happy. Cracking half a smile at her best friend she quickly added, "Not about everything, mind you. But, if you asked her to play them… Well, I guess it's ok to change things up occasionally! She just better not expect it to affect our set list at all."

"Yayyyyy!" Chloe said, leaping forward to give her a hug. A sweaty, exuberant, but thoroughly Chloe hug. Aubrey laughed along with the redhead as they held onto each other. Breath tickling her ear, Chloe went on in a quieter voice, "You'll come around soon, Bree! You'll see that Becs is totes amazeballs. She's soooo adorbs, too! You should have seen this thing she did the other day when we were hanging out on the quad…"

Aubrey tuned out what ended up being a rather rambling Beca story, not the first one she'd heard from the redhead and certainly not likely to be the last, as the pair separated and gathered up their own stuff. The story was still on-going as they left the gym, Aubrey locking the door behind them, and started off across campus. Aubrey listened enough to make appropriate noises when they were called for, but as Chloe rambled on and on about Beca, the blond mostly let her mind drift off to thoughts of another brunette Bella.

Apparently Chloe's mind was also drifting in that same direction as the redhead suddenly asked a question that got one hundred percent of Aubrey's attention. And caused her to drop the keys she'd just pulled out of her bag at the same time. In a far too innocent tone, to Aubrey's mind, Chloe asked, "So, what was up with your little blow-up at Stacie earlier? I've only ever seen you react that strongly to, well, to Beca."

"I… What? No. I didn't… I mean, I'm just, uh, tired of her always grabbing herself during practices. It's distracting. I mean, counter-productive." Aubrey said, bending down quickly and grabbing her keys. She knew she'd stumbled over her words, and probably let far more slip out unintended than she'd meant to, there were times that Chloe was far too perceptive for her own good as far as the blond was concerned.

"Uh huh…" The redhead said, sounding completely unconvinced as Aubrey opened the door to their apartment. The blond led the way in, hoping to avoid the redhead's scrutiny, but wasn't able to avoid hearing her follow-up statement as Chloe said, "I've always found attractive girls fondling themselves to be distracting too…"

"That's not what I… Oh hell, who am I kidding, it was what I meant…" Aubrey said, starting to protest but then realizing that Chloe had basically already sussed things out before she'd even opened her mouth. In all honesty, Aubrey wasn't even sure why she'd not told her best friend about her growing feelings for Stacie before now, but she somehow felt it was unprofessional for the captain to be crushing on one of her underlings. Turning in the middle of the living room Aubrey saw Chloe, still standing by the door wearing a big smile. Sighing she decided to just tear the band aid off ASAP and said, "Yes, ok. I have a thing for Stacie. But I can't, I just can't, Chlo. It's unprofessional for me, one of the captains, to do anything with her. She's my subordinate!"

"So it's less ok for you act on feelings for Stacie than it is for me with Beca?" Chloe asked, one perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched at her from across the room. Aubrey's brain scrambled for an answer that would appease the redhead at this point because she really had no other excuse to pursue Stacie other than that one which Chloe had neatly picked apart. As much as she didn't approve of Beca, the blond had been encouraging Chloe to "just go for it" for a month now. Mainly because she was tired of hearing Chloe pining over the obnoxious brunette and just wanted them to fuck and get it over with.

"That isn't… I didn't… Yes!" Aubrey said, unable to come up with anything solid to argue back with. She sighed as she heard Chloe chuckle because she knew that they both knew that Chloe had won. From here on out it was only a matter of time.

"I mean, that does make perfect sense, you know. What with Stacie having been perfectly clear that she's bisexual, and all. Of course, since you came out in our senior year of high school, in quite a spectacular fashion as I recall it, it would be completely out of the question for you to pursue something with her…" Chloe said, her voice trailing off as she finally started walking towards her bedroom. Aubrey couldn't help but laugh a little at the reminder.

She'd just been named Prom Queen, something she'd been dreading because at that point in time only Chloe knew that she'd prefer another Queen to a King. They were standing up on the dais getting their crowns when Marcus Robins, the captain of the football team and newly crowned Prom King, finally tried to get the kiss from the cheerleading captain he'd been after since their sophomore year. Aubrey slapped him across the face and told the whole school she'd rather kiss a maggot infested carcass than kiss a boy. Chloe had been literally rolling on the floor with laughter at the look on his face.

Coming out of her fond reverie of that night, and the look on Marcus' face that was just satisfying to the core of Aubrey's soul the blond noticed that Chloe had kept on walking, heading back into the apartment towards her room. She heaved a huge sigh of relief that the redhead seemed to be dropping the subject, which was somewhat confusing, but Aubrey wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not about this, at any rate.

Knowing Chloe like she thought she had, she'd completely expected her roomie to assail her with a barrage of questions, many of which would be out of the bounds of a normal friendship. Of course there was no such thing as a "normal" friendship with Chloe. The girl literally had no boundaries at all and expected everyone else to be the same. That was why when Aubrey had finally pried the story of how she'd convinced Beca "I don't sing" Mitchell to audition the blond had only rolled her eyes and told Chloe to be careful breaking into random girls' showers as most would call the cops.

Taking the Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket level miracle she'd just been handed, Aubrey hurried off to her own room. The main reason she was so delighted at this turn of events was because she didn't know herself if she could answer the redhead's questions in her own mind, let alone out loud. She dropped her bag by the door, which closed with a soft click as she leaned back against it for a second to let out a second sigh, before moving to sit on her bed and drop back to lay looking up at the ceiling as thoughts of Stacie, the Bellas, her desire to approach the brunette, and her fear of what the other girls would think if she did started swirling through her head again. It seemed to be a common state she'd found herself in quite frequently of late.

"So, like, what are we talking here?" Her bedroom door slamming to reveal a questioning Chloe shot her upright off the bed in surprise. Her heart, already unstable with thoughts of Stacie consuming her mind, quite possibly skipped a literal beat. Her eyes flashed over to the doorway where Chloe stood topless, holding her sports bra in her hand, clad only in a very small pair of booty shorts she must have had under her pants which were probably laying in the hallway if Aubrey knew her best friend. The redhead, completely oblivious to her friend's near heart attack, hadn't even paused in her questions as she kept on, "Like, do you just want to fork her brains out? Well, I guess if we're gonna use a tool-slash-utensil metaphor I should say scissor her brains out, but whatever. So, like, do you want to scissor her brains out, or are you looking for something more serious?"

"What-? I… Jesus Christ, Chlo'. You nearly gave me a freaking heart attack." Aubrey said, hoping that the accusation would deflect the redhead. The near nakedness of the redhead was something that barely registered to Aubrey as Chloe stood just inside the doorway, waving her sports bra around as she'd spoken. It wasn't the first time that she'd seen the redhead naked, nor even the most compromising position Chloe had been in while naked, and the blond didn't think it was likely be the last either. Thankfully they'd worked out a system with their Bellas scarves early in their freshmen year that helped Aubrey avoid any further trauma.

"Cuz, like, if you really just want to get with Stace for a good forking, or scissoring as you will, then I'm sure you could just send her a text now. She'd probably be over here before you even finished typing it, honestly, that girl is thirsty for you I think." Chloe said, completely undeterred by anything the blond had said as Aubrey had expected. As she paused for a breath, leaning against the doorframe and rubbing her chin with her un-sports-bra-encumbered hand, Aubrey frantically searched her brain for some way to distract the redhead. She hadn't come up with anything solid, though a tick in the back of her mind was trying to get her attention as Chloe spoke again, "But, if it's serious you're looking for, like an actual relationship… Well, that'll be a bit tougher. I get the impression Stacie doesn't like being tied down. I mean, she probably literally likes to be tied down, but not in a relationship-y sort of way. Ooooh! You should try that tying down thing, I bet she'd really dig that!"

"Beca!" Aubrey blurted out, the niggling tickle from the back of her mind finally coming to the forefront. Of course, it wasn't coherent as it burst forth and only the one word made it all the way out. Which was probably why Chloe looked super confused right now as her mouth dropped open.

"Uhhh, if anyone's going to find out if Beca likes getting tied down that'll be me, Bree." The redhead said after a few moments of opening and closing her mouth like a fish as she tried to make sense of Aubrey's interjection. The redhead did look amused, however, and her own bemused comment gave Aubrey the time she needed to put her thoughts into an ordered fashion.

"No. Ewww. I don't want to… Ewww." The blond said, shaking her head and probably looking like she'd just tasted Thai food, something she utterly despised. Chloe giggled at the expression, as she usually did, but kept quiet long enough for Aubrey to complete her thought, "I was thinking about what you'd said about Beca. About how I was too harsh on her earlier. I guess, maybe, considering you did give her permission to do the warm-ups, that maybe I was a smidgen over the line with her."

"A smidgen? A smidgen?" Chloe said, bristling indignantly. Aubrey managed to keep her smile hidden as she tried to look thoughtful and considering. Based on the way the redhead's entire demeanor had changed the blond had found an effective deflection to change the subject with.

"Ok, maybe I guess slightly more than a smidgen. You probably think I owe her some sort of an apology, don't you?" Aubrey asked, hoping to keep them on the topic of Beca long enough for Chloe to forget about Stacie. She knew that it wouldn't last, but even just a short reprieve would be welcome based on where the redhead's thoughts had been going right at the end there.

"You're damned skippy I do! I think you owe her one in front of the entire squad, but I know that wouldn't ever happen so I'd settle for a face-to-face one." Chloe said, gesturing forcefully with her sports bra at the blond. Aubrey would have found it amusing if she wasn't so desperate to avoid a backslide in their topics of conversation.

Sighing heavily the blond shrugged her shoulders as she said, "I mean, I guess. But then again, she's probably off doing something now, and who knows what her schedule is like…"

"Oh, she's got work now. She usually always works from four until eight on Saturdays at the radio station. Then she'll probably head home and spend most of the night mixing, though I dunno, she was up kind of late last night so she might just pass out." Chloe said offhandedly. Of course, the fact that she knew Beca's schedule off the top of her head like that drew a raised eyebrow and questioning look from Aubrey. Chloe simply shrugged and smiled as she answered the unspoken question, "I sometimes visit her at work with coffee on Saturdays. And I know she was up late because she was sending me texts at 3 AM about how the baselines of 'Where Them Girls At' just wouldn't line up with 'Buttons'."

"She was trying to match baselines of David Guetta and The Pussycat Dolls? Why?" Aubrey asked after pausing only a few seconds to remember the songs. Because despite Beca's oft-hurled accusations that she only ever listened to music from the previous century, Aubrey was quite well versed in lots of different styles of music.

"I dunno why, but she was super grumpy about it too. That's kinda why I let her do the warm-ups. Cuz she was making April Ludgate look cheerful when she walked into the hall earlier." The smile that graced Chloe's face as she spoke about Beca right then, that was the reason why Aubrey hadn't put her foot down and tried to stop the redhead's insanity. It almost literally lit up the room and drew an immediate answering smile from the blond despite the subject being a sore one for her. Blinking once to no doubt clear thoughts of the tiny brunette from her head, Chloe refocused her gaze on her as she adopted a stern look and said, "Anyway, you could totes go see her and apologize tonight around 8:15 or so, that's how long it usually takes her to walk back to her dorm from the station. Also, don't think that I didn't notice you changing the subject, Aubrey Carol Posen."

"Damn…" The blond said as she realized that she hadn't fooled Chloe even one iota. She'd had high hopes, considering how long the redhead had let the conversation go on, but she really should have known better. Shrugging as though asking if Chloe could blame her, Aubrey sighed and asked, "How about this? I go apologize to the Hobbit later, you drop the Stacie thing. For now, because I don't even know the answer to those questions yet…"

"Deal!" Chloe said, smiling and bouncing the rest of the way over to Aubrey's bed. Quite literally bouncing as her chest jumped up and down with each hopping step across the room. As Chloe held out her hand to seal the deal, Aubrey rolled her eyes.

"Also, seriously Chlo', put some clothes on or something. One of these days those'll go bouncing around in front of someone you don't want them to and then there'll be trouble." Aubrey said, poking one of the aforementioned globes and drawing a squeak from the redhead. Still, she knew that Chloe would stand there with her hand held out until Aubrey shook it, so she reached out and took the redhead's hand in her own and gave it a firm shake.

"I'll think about it. Anyway, whatcha thinking about for dinner? I'm thinking maybe spaghetti. It's quick, easy, and should be good for replenishing all those calories you made us burn with the cardio you were using to punish the future Mrs. Beca Beale."

Aubrey just rolled her eyes again, turned the redhead around and gave her a shove towards the door, and a slap on the ass for good measure too. She wanted to shower, then she'd think about dinner. And how the hell she could apologize to Beca without actually having to apologize.

Aubrey impatiently looked at her watch as she paced for what felt like the fiftieth time back down the hallway towards Beca's room. The hands showed her that it was nearly twenty-five minutes after eight. Beca had been in her room for nearly ten minutes, Chloe having been freakishly accurate about the time by which the midget would be home, but Aubrey still hadn't worked up the courage to go knock. That and, possibly, some part of her hoped to run into Stacie. She knew that the two girls were in the same dorm building from their info sheets she'd gotten at the start of the semester, but so far she hadn't seen hide nor hair of the taller brunette girl.

Taking a deep breath and giving herself a quick pep talk, she stopped outside Beca's door and watched as her hand lifted up and knocked sharply three times. She heard a disgruntled sound from inside and something that sounded like someone getting up off one of the too-tiny beds that the freshmen dorms had. She was easily able to hear Beca call out to find out who was at the door, but chose to remain quiet figuring the she might not open the door if she knew it was Aubrey in the hallway.

She found out soon enough, though, as the door opened up and the blond saw the younger girl's face go from grumpy and annoyed to, well, grumpier and more annoyed. It gave her some small bit of pleasure, which she knew she'd need to let bolster her through the upcoming conversation. The short demon didn't make it any better as she said, "What do you want, Bree? I'm fucking tired and just want to sleep for, like, a year."

"Good evening to you too, Beca." The blond said, forcing a smile and cheerful tone. She could see how much it annoyed Beca, though, so she kept it up as she went on, "So, I realized that, well, I might have been a little tough on you earlier today…"

"You mean Chloe chewed your ass out when Stacie and I left? Then she basically sent you over here to apologize, am I right?" Beca asked, smugness dripping off every word. Aubrey could tell that the brunette was really enjoying herself, and immediately regretted the decision to come over here. She wondered if there would be any way to leave with her dignity intact, then realized that at least Beca wasn't recording the whole thing, so there was that.

"Maybe, whatever. It doesn't matter, she isn't the boss of me, as you're fond of saying. She told me that she had said you could play that, noise pollution, for warm-ups… Anyway, I… Well, I shouldn't have made you run all those extra laps." Aubrey said, hoping that Beca wouldn't notice that she hadn't actually apologized.

"That wasn't an apology, mein obersteführer." Beca said simply, leaning against the doorframe in a manner very reminiscent of her redheaded roommate earlier in the evening. She apparently had no intention of letting Aubrey off the hook. Another trait very like her aforementioned roommate.

"Ugh, you're a pain in my… Fine! I'm sorry." Aubrey said, finally deciding that finishing the conversation was preferential to dragging things out. Even with the apology still literally hovering in the air between them, she glared at the short girl as she said, "But I should warn you, kleinerschädling, ich spreche auch deutsch."

"Well, good for you. But just like how there are different spoken languages, there's also different types of music. Maybe if you could pry your claws off the reins long enough, you'd realize that some of them might actually be really fucking awesome if our girls performed them." Beca said, but Aubrey could see the shock at the words. Of course, it didn't last as the brunette kept talking and the blond soon was seeing nothing but red.

"Our girls?! Our girls! They are MY girls, Beca Mitchell! And it will be a cold day in hell before I let you have any sway over the set list, that's for sure. God, you're so irritating, I don't see why…" Aubrey, even in her anger, managed to catch herself from blurting out Chloe's secret. But she knew that the short girl wasn't stupid and would have caught the aborted sentence. So with anger still fueling her words she covered for her mistake by saying, "I guess I can see now why Luke doesn't let you into the booth."

For a second, Aubrey thought Beca was going to reach across the short distance between them and punch her. She definitely hit a nerve of some sort as the shorter girl's face flashed in fury. Already preparing to dodge down the hallway, Beca simply said, "Fuck off, and fuck you, Aubrey."

The door slamming shut in her face effectively cut off any reply the tall blond would have made, if any had actually occurred to her. Of course, now that Beca wasn't right in her face, the events of the last few minutes suddenly dawned on Aubrey and she turned around and fell back against the door, her head thumping against it. Little did she know that, at the same time, the short brunette was doing just the same thing because the noise of each girl's action covered the sounds the other made.

Fuck… Chloe is going to kill me! Aubrey thought, squeezing her eyes tight as she still seethed with anger at Beca. The short girl had no idea what it took to lead the Bellas, as if it was all just picking some poppy, catchy music and everything would work. With all her anger and will she thought, God, what I would give to see that. I just wish I could see her in my place, be there to see how hard she failed at it.

On the other side of the door, Beca too had slumped back against it almost as soon as she'd slammed it in Aubrey's face. The dumb bitch couldn't have had any idea the night Beca had had since leaving Stacie's company outside the station. She'd had no way of knowing what torture Beca had had to suffer through during the four hours she'd had to listen to the fucking idiot of a junior that Luke had just recently hired to do the evening shift on weekends as he butchered basically the entire genre of, well, music itself. The man was a disgrace to the profession of DJ, didn't even deserve the title in all honesty, but Beca had had to sit and listen as he thought he was god's gift to the world of college radio.

Still, what angered her the most about the whole situation was Aubrey's just flat-out refusal to even consider anything that was outside her precious fucking tradition. She was going to drive the Bellas into the ground hard as they crashed and burned before even seeing the ICCA Nationals at the rate she was going. And as much as Beca wanted to see them go down in flames, she also was a fierce competitor and wanted to wipe that smug smile off Jesse's idiot face whenever he spoke about the Treblemakers.

Fucking Aubrey… She thought to herself, seething at the girl just inches away from her. Absolutely sure of herself she knew with all her will that she could do it. She knew to her core that she was right as she thought, I just fucking wish I could be in her place cuz I'd fucking show her how a leader acts and how awesome the Bellas could be with someone who wasn't so stuck in the mud leading them!

Palo Alto, California. Cal-Tech Astrophysics Labs.

"You know, Raj, we really could have just played this game at my house, right?" Howard asked his friend as he looked over the cards in his hand. He wasn't sure if he could win, but he was fairly sure that the Indian astrophysicist across from him couldn't either.

"I know, but I told Dr. Wently at NEAT that I could help him keep an eye on the GEODSS satellite tonight." Raj said absently, looking at his cards. This was the third game the two had played so far, and the score was tied up. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he was desperate to win.

"Yeah… I still don't know what that is." Howard said, slapping a card down and looking challengingly at his friend. The crafty engineer still had a couple tricks he could try, if he could distract Raj enough to pull them off.

"You never listen when I talk to you… NEAT stands for the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking program, and they use the GEODSS satellite on Maui to track asteroids that are … Near Earth." Raj said, explaining slowly because it was only the third time he'd told Howard why they were here. Still, he couldn't really blame the engineer, it was very boring work. Almost nothing ever happene–

A beeping from the computer broke the otherwise quiet background noise of the room and drew both scientists' gaze from their cards. Howard was the first to say something, even as Raj was slowly getting up, "Uh… Was it supposed to do that?"

"No. No it wasn't." Raj said, hurrying over towards the computer which had been running an analysis of the data that the telescope was collecting. He quickly looked everything over, then gaped at the screen and looked it all over again. Shaking his head he said, "This is… I don't believe…"

"Well, what is it? What happened?" Howard asked, getting up as well and walking over to stand beside Raj at the computer. Even with as good of an engineer as Howard was, most of the numbers and displays on the screens were gibberish to him.

"One of the asteroids we were tracking has … vanished." Raj said, running the data again even as he spoke. The asteroid, really more of a meteorite actually, had been going to disappear anyway, it was supposed to hit the atmosphere that night anyway, which was why Dr. Wently had wanted him watching the data, but it shouldn't have completely disappeared for another ten minutes. That's what had triggered the alarm.

"What do you mean 'an asteroid has vanished'?" Howard asked, getting concerned all of a sudden. He looked around the room, feeling slightly panicked at the thought.

"Well, ok, it wasn't technically an asteroid. More of a meteorite. And it was supposed to hit the atmosphere tonight. But it shouldn't have vanished yet…" Raj said, looking over the data again. Maybe they had just been wrong and had miscalculated the time of reentry.

"Oh, uh, so is this going to be a problem? It didn't, like, hit anything did it? Where was it?" Howard asked, wondering if they were going to get in trouble, or if some coastal town was about to get wiped out by a massive tsunami.

"I don't… I don't think so. Maybe the JPL guys just, well, got the time wrong. And no, it didn't hit anything, it was still in the upper atmosphere when, well…" Raj said before looking through the data quickly to figure out where. After a second he said, "Well, I couldn't be exactly sure as to where without using the university's main computer to run the numbers, but if I had to venture a guess I'd say… South Eastern US. Maybe near Georgia? Would have been a hell of a thing to see a shooting star vanish like it seems to have done. Well, whatever, the computers have the data, let's get back to the game."

Rising up from unconsciousness was like slowly settling into a hot tub. Except instead of warmth suffusing her, it was pain. She felt all over, inundating her. Seeping into her very bones. She couldn't help but let out a groan as consciousness crept over her. Even that hurt…

Before she had time to process that a burst of military themed trumpet music crashed over her in a crescendo causing her to sit bolt upright in bed. In not her bed, she realized as she looked around and saw not-her-bed beside not-her-nightstand which was next to not-her-dresser…

"What the absolute fuck?!" Beca asked, and the words shocked her as much as everything else combined.

That wasn't her voice.

A/N 2: Well, there you have it guys, the intro for Swapping Tails! I hope everyone liked it. If you want more, leave a review and let me know! Until next time, stay safe everyone!