Chapter Text
Going to work today Ava anticipated a few things. Beatrice to maybe be a smidge mad at her considering she took her out drinking only to follow Miguel into a fight right after. She also expected the bar to be crowded, and Hans to help keep her from pissing off Bea even further. The Miguel thing last night was innocent. All she wants, more than anything, is to get an advantage over Adriel. They have stayed hidden for a couple months. She pushes herself daily with training. Okay, probably not as much as she could. She knows she can be a bit whiny, and mastered the art of procrastinating. She constantly tries to side track Beatrice, almost always. Fighting Adriel is inevitable, but it isn’t today and it made Ava want to enjoy life.
Standing behind the bar now, she’s positive she nailed all the things she expected. The bar is definitely crowded, Hans kept her occupied, and Bea hasn’t even glanced in her direction. At least that she noticed. Bea’s posture is perfect as she taps her pen on her notebook. Ava keeps hoping she is wrong, having Bea mad at her, it’s hard to describe. It’s suffocating. Beatrice sacrificed everything for her. Over and over, Ava puts in her positions where she has to come rushing in and fight by her side. This has been their dynamic since they first met. Ava knows she is head strong and irrational at times. She does it for what she feels – no – believes to be the greater good. Unfortunately for her most of the times she rushes in for the right reasons leads to the wrong after effect.
It doesn’t matter, Ava knows it’s not why it feels suffocating when Bea is mad at her. No, none of it is the reason. The truth, honest to God truth – how ironic – is her ever growing crush on Bea. This has kept her up many of nights, not just because they happen to sometimes share a bed. There are times she takes the couch not quite trusting herself in such a close radius to the sexy badass warrior. Oh, definitely not the time to start thinking of how incredibly hot she is when she fights. Ava shakes her head as if she shook the thought from her mind. Bea keeps herself pretty covered, except when they train. Those times her arms are very exposed, and they are toned, tan, sexy…..
“Heyyyy” the guy snaps his fingers in front of her face. She moves back startled as he dragged her out of her thoughts.
Shit, right, working. Focus. “Yeah, sorry dude, it’s loud in here.” She casually shrugs it off. Probably better than snapping back in his face. She catches Hans grinning at her. Ava shakes her head as she shrugs it off. Her attention back on snappy, fighting the urge to glance at Bea. “Whatcha having?”
“Irish coffee on the rocks, two.”
Ava gets to work on the drinks, glancing over at Bea a touch more than she should. A bit to much as she starts making the drinks the classic way. Pushing them over he points out they were supposed to be on the rocks. “Just whatever dude, it’s Irish coffee.” She has no time to argue with him, her attention is needed elsewhere.
Soon as she steps away from making the drinks, Hans is beside her. “You in trouble again?” He fights the smile, which leads to a lopsided grin as he nods towards Beatrice.
Still determined not to spend the night catching glances of her, Ava keeps her attention on him. She lifts her hand, keeping her thumb and pointer finger about an inch apart, “Little bit, man, little bit.”
“You don’t seem to learn how to stay out of it.” He shakes his head at her as he walks backwards, spinning on his heels to the DJ equipment by them, and turning the volume up. The two of them get into a groove as the move to the beat of the music, and mix up drinks.
The next two hours fly by as more and more customers start filling in the small space. Ava has been so busy she barely had the time to look over at Beatrice. Perhaps, she used the busy time not to. Not the best feeling to look over at the person you are definitely feel something for, and see them still ticked off at you. It’s incredible to Ava, the second she gets a chance to breathe, and BOOM thoughts of Bea fill her brain instantly.
Picking up a wet glass, she starts to dry it, using the opportunity to finally look in Beatrice’s direction. What the actually fuck! The site in front of her wasn’t what she expected. Next to Beatrice, sitting extremely close, a very pretty blond girl. They are sitting so close she is sure their legs have to be touching. She can’t see it from where she is but if she had to guess she would bet their legs were touching. Even though she isn’t right near them Ava can tell this pretty stranger is absolutely flirting. This new girl rubs Bea’s perfectly muscle toned arms, leans in here and there, and smiles away as she pokes her chest.
“What you starring at.” Hans practically shouts in Ava’s ear causing her to jump five feet in the air.
She spins around and hits him with the towel she is now squeezing to the point her finger tips are white.” Dude, don’t creep up on a girl. You could get a broken nose.” Turning her attention back to Bea and the new flirty girl she decided she doesn’t like.
Hans helps out grabbing a glass and starts drying as he stands next to Ava following her stare. “Good for Beatrice. She’s hot.” He smirks as he wiggles his eyebrows. It made Ava want to punch him.
“I am surprised.” Her voice higher than she intended. She straightens up hoping he didn’t notice anything.
He looks from Beatrice to the girl a few times. “Why? Beatrice is hot and so is that chick.” Studying both like he missed something.
Ava sighs heavily. “No, I know that, I am not blind. I meant…I am caught off guard by Bea.” Feeling quite proud of her coverup.
Hans’s brows lower, “You didn’t know she was gay?”
“Not at all what I meant. But wait a minute, you knew? How?” She could use the distraction. As hard as she tried, she kept looking back over at the scene.
He half laughs as if he thought she was kidding. “I figured as much considering I never saw her check out a guy.”
She nods as if it makes sense till his words sink in. She spins around towards him eyes wide, “Wait, what, you saw Bea checking out a chick? Who? When?” Sounding a tad bit more enthused than she intended. Hoping it was her.
Immediately shaking his head at her, “Nope, no way. Not spilling the boss’s secrets.” He made it look like he locked his lips shut and threw away the key.
She glared at him for another minute for effect. Now, Ava needed to get over to Bea. What if she was actually trying to get out of the conversation. Bea usually isn’t great with strangers. She whipped the towel over her shoulder, rubbed her hands together as she cautiously walked over. Suddenly she could hear her own heart beat pounding away in her ears. The closer she got to the table the louder it became. Another step and she would be there. She paused, throwing on the best fake smile she could. “Heyyy, seeing if anyone here needs drinks.”
The plus side she finally had Beatrice’s attention, eyes finally off of what’s-her-name. The not so plus side is she didn’t seem amused in the slightest. “Ava.” Her voice flat, like she does when Ava’s being scolded. Which as much as she hated to admit, sometimes, could be kind of a turn on.
Ava didn’t realize they were staring at each other till she heard Miss Flirty get up. The noise diverted her eyes away from Beatrice. This new girl smiling away. “Yeah, actually how about two shots of Southern comfort with a lime.” She leans closer to Bea, “I am going to run to the bathroom.”
Before she gets to move, Ava stands up straight, shoulders back, speaking a little louder than normal with a wide smile. “Beatrice doesn’t drink.” Ha, new girl, fucking suck it!
Shooting a glance at Ava, Beatrice’s eyes narrow. Ava’s posture bends a bit. “Actually, that’s inaccurate. As of late, I do tend to have a drink.”
Caught completely off guard her eyebrows went up. “Drinks? Really?”
Bea gives her that intense stare. That stare, that stare is hard to describe, it’s the one she gets anytime Ava has done something she knows isn’t exactly the best thing to do. It’s utterly terrifying, somehow, at the exact same time it is incredibly sexy. Gives Ava chills right down her back she practically has to shimmy to get rid of them. Bea sits back, arms crossed, “Well, I did perfectly fine drinking lots last night and then having to fight. Did I not?”
Ouch! She hates when Bea throws her mistakes back in her face. Although, still hard not to see how it is also in fact kind of hot when she does. Ava avoids eye contact as she rubs the back of her neck. “Right, right yeah, makes sense.”
This catches what’s-her-names attention. “You got into a fight?” She rubs Beatrice’s shoulder like she needed to comfort her.
“Ava’s friend got himself into a bit of trouble. We helped him out, that’s all.” Bea sweeps it aside shooting Ava a fast sharp glare.
New girl starts grinning. “You know how to actually fight?”
Bea stays modest. “I know a thing or two.”
Miss Flirty’s eyes have a shine to them, as she draws her bottom lip under her teeth. Grinning away as she finally takes her leave to the bathroom. Ava fought the urge to stick her foot out and trip her. She actually shuffled her feet backwards when she walked by in case, she had an involuntary movement.
Trying hard to think of something to say. After all this person is a stranger, she is the Warrior Nun, maybe her turn to watch out for Beatrice. Who the fuck was she kidding, the jealousy is pumping through her veins. “Is this even allowed?” Which she felt is a valid question. For the immediate circumstance of course, not because she is dying with curiosity to know the answer. She plopped down next to Beatrice.
She appeared completely bewildered. “Is what allowed Ava?”
“The flirting.” It made her feel physical ill to even say the words. Someone else flirting with her girl. Ok, technically not her girl. Yet!
“Flirting?” Bea’s eyes widen slightly. Just enough for Ava to notice. “Being friendly is flirting?”
She knows Beatrice is smart and without a shadow of a doubt knows what flirting is. “The touching, laughing, and drinks.” Ava talks through her forced smile with sarcasm dripping from her lips. Apparently trying to hide being jealous isn’t a strong suite. She also decides to imitate it, as she fake giggles as she leans forward running her hand up and down Bea’s arm, feeling her muscle tone glide under her fingertips. As it turns out, not the smartest move, realizing it after the sudden heat flows through her. She even gives the sexy eyes, complete with the lip bite. Only she lets her bottom lip slide from under her teeth.
That’s when Ava sees it. Beatrice throat moves like she swallowed something only she didn’t take a sip of anything. Oh, she likes the lip bite, noted.
“Don’t be ridiculous Ava we were talking about fighting. No one is getting turned on from fighting.” Bea reeling in her emotions in the way only she can.
Soon as she finishes speaking Ava has flashes of them training play out in her mind. Beatrice flipping Ava over, pinning her down on the mat. When she does, here and there, Ava’s mind tends to wander. Having Bea slam her down, pin her hands above her head, her tongue sliding into Ava’s mouth, gliding over hers leaving her breathless, as Bea’s hands sliding under her shirt. FOCUS!! “Some might…some might find it hot, I think.” Suddenly the place felt like it turned up a few degrees. Ava hoped Bea didn’t notice anything from her answer, or her casual tug at her collar to get some air.
Even if Beatrice sensed anything she showed no indication of such. Which lets Ava relax a bit. Instead, Bea gives a slight head shake, even fighting the corners of her mouth from the smallest small at Ava’s antics. “Flirting is harmless, it’s fine. Besides, it seems to be a perfect cover. If anyone is in fact flirting.” She makes sure to stress the last part.
From the corner of her eye, Ava sees, oh-she’s-still-here returning. Ava gets up, stopping, “We good?” She points back and forth between the two of them. Wanting to get out of there before she actually does trip her this time.
Bea grins, as her eyes soften, and it fucking melts Ava’s heart. “We are fine, just try not to get us into a fight tonight.”
She nods at Bea as she slowly moves away. To bad it didn’t wash away the jealousy or whoever she is from returning. Passing by her sparks the anger right back up. That really didn’t go as planned, real smooth! Ava makes her way behind the bar again, giving Hans side eye which causes him to throw his hands up as if he surrenders. She stomps around, grabbing shot glasses rough, slamming them onto the bar as she scans the bottles. Ava yanks the southern comfort up, as she starts to pour, Hans tosses a lime in the air. Catches it and slices it as he hands Ava two wedges. Clearly ignoring her current behavior.
Before she has a chance to bring the drinks over, she sees Hans’s hands go to the side of his mouth, “BEATRICE, DRINKS.” He points to the bar. The two-start making their way over. A sinking pit in Ava’s stomach at them approaching. At least with them in the corner she can concentrate on the people around her. Convince herself not to look in their direction. Now though, now she’s fucked, they are right there.
In this moment things kind of click in place for Ava. JC, Miguel and even some of the customers here. The way Beatrice kind of acts isn’t entirely different than how Ava is now. Ok, Bea is more in control of her emotions, still, she does act different. It gave her a glimmer of hope perhaps Bea did get jealous of her.
She didn’t want to let her mind wander to far down this path. She had no idea if Bea liked her as anything more than a friend. If she did, if Ava happened to be possibly be right, then she would one day tell her. The JC thing, ugh, if she could go back in time.
Growing up in an orphanage, they didn’t really have all to many LGBTQIA movies. By not to many, there were none. She grew up watching same ole, same ole. Girl meets boy, boy falls for girl, they end up happily together. Over and over, it is the normal, right? When she finally had legs, and a life, JC happened. He was the first person she actually met. Of course, she liked him, she thought she was supposed to. It’s what the world she knew taught her. Literally Ava knew no other way. For some reason though, there wasn’t a spark. She thought it was because they lacked physical connection. Naturally she slept with him trying to find the missing spark. It lasted for all of about ten minutes, wasn’t anything earth shattering spectacular. Maybe borderline ok, Ava didn’t have anything to compare it to obviously, but still, it didn’t make her head spin.
Somewhere during the time in Arq something changed for her. This pull to Beatrice. She couldn’t explain it, still can’t. They became closer after Bea opened up to her. When she told her who she truly is, her true self. From then on, she never stopped being near her. Literally finding reasons to need her, or seek her out. There was beauty in her story. As horrific as it was, as horrible as her parents were, under it all there was beauty. Love is love.
She remembers waiting outside of her room, to be able to see her. Talk to her. The way she never judged Ava. Compared to the rest of the OCS, Bea was surprising gentle with her. When she trained her to go through the stone, she couldn’t have done it without Bea. No way! It was Bea who blasted through all miles of stone to save her, again. After Adriel escaped his tomb, and they had to go on the run, it was Bea who stepped up to be with her. Ava planned on asking for it to be her anyway.
She felt this need to want to protect Beatrice, although more often than not it’s the other way around. Kind of funny thinking she might ever be able to protect Bea considering she is one of the most trained warriors in the OCS. She would giggle if she wasn’t so mad at the current state of affairs. Since it crossed her mind, she lets her eyes divert up. She’s been preoccupying herself with cleaning up the bar underneath, and tending to the many customers.
The site before makes her stomach flip over in a nauseating feeling. The two women are sitting in bar stools facing each other talking. Miss Flirty leaning in laughing, still touching. Ava fighting the overwhelming desire to slap her out of the stool. Ava pours herself a shot of tequila. Figures it will over all help.
Wiping his hand on the back of his pants, Hans reaches over, “I am Hans, nice to meet you.”
“Hi Hans, I am Selene” Miss Flirty answers back. It practically makes Ava’s eyes roll. She pretends to be getting an eyelash out of her eye to stop herself.
Of course, it’s a sexy name like Selene.
He points to the empty shot glasses, “Here let me.” Seeing Beatrice waving her hand like she has had enough Hans shakes his head at her as he grabs two more shot glasses. “For all of us.” He slides one to Bea, Ava, Selene and himself. “On three.” He counts down, they all throw their heads back at three.
Bea sucks the lime her face scrunching at the bitterness. “These shots are not great.” She laughs as she says it.
The next hour, Ava tries her hardest to focus on all the customers, peeling her eyes away from the two as often as she can. Besides looking at another girl flirt with Beatrice isn’t good for her health. She’s surprised she hasn’t halo blasted her right out the door. Probably because she kept taking shots of southern comfort. After the one and only shot of tequila hit her harder than she expected she decided to not go for it again. Deciding it would be safer for everyone in the bar.
She got pulled from her thoughts as she hears Hans saying it was nice to meet her. Wondering if she missed it. Is Selene finally leaving?
He puts 4 shot glasses on the bar. As he is pouring Selene stands up moving next to Bea, “You here tomorrow.” When Beatrice nods Selene grabs their shots, handing one to her. “I will see you tomorrow it’s a date.” She downs the shot, then full on kisses Beatrice on the lips.
Right as it happens Ava is taking her shot, which she then sprays across the bar, as she starts to choke. Hans comes up behind her hitting her back. Using her arm to cover her coughing fit, with her free hand she gives Hans the thumbs up. Through the glassy eyes she catches Bea’s glare, an eyebrow up, head tilted to the side, arms crossed. “What was that?”
SHIT!!