Thorns Defend the Rose

by aimeekiwi93

Category: Pitch Perfect

Genre: Adventure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-07-01
Packaged: 2014-09-28 20:32:09
Rating: K
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,376
Publisher: www.fanfiction.net
Story URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10459623/1/
Author URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3469211/aimeekiwi93
Summary: "...it harms only who would steal the blossom from it." After being
dragged out of military school by a man, only known as the mentor, 5 young students
have been sent to a remote location where they are to train in martial arts.
Beca/Chloe pairing eventually. Also features some of the Trebles and Stacie :)

1. Chapter 1

**Thorns Defend the Rose**

Chapter 1~

A remote location, slightly north of mainland Maine, was home to a small enclave of
teenaged students and their mentor. Surrounded by dense forest, flowing streams and
boulders, the enclave was out of the way, hidden to those who thought to seek it.
Although a warm, humid weather throughout summer, now was winter and the surrounds
were blanketed with snow, and the rivers had slowed till eventually they had frozen
over.

Students were not bothered by the change as the seasons rolled around, instead it
was welcomed, forcing them to train harder to maintain body heat, for there was no
form of electricity where they existed. Living off their own food, their own
buildings and gathering their own water, this is the life the students knew.

These students, some were delinquents, others were children their parent's simply
couldn't handle, so they were shipped off to military school. Upon arrival,
students were selected by hand depending on the way they held their own, for
example, the small brunette girl was a drop kick; flunking all her classes to spend
time out mixing up music. The school eventually had contacted her family, and they
had come to the conclusion to send her to military school to get her straightened
out.

Others, like the tall blonde woman or the brunette man, they had been near perfect
students, but due to disobedience at home, or in the case of the man, lack of study
and help around the house, they had been ordered by their families in the hopes
that they would stick their heads down and come out, ready to go into college.

And then there was the ginger woman and the dark skinned man, both of whom had been
doing fine in school, with B averages, likewise their home life was solid, it was
their own choice to depart the world of the civilian and take a more disciplined
view on life.

These six students all coming from different areas of the country, and being put
into the military school at different times, had handled their knew lives and had
sparked attention from a visiting mentor from an unknown school who wished to
select students for his own training.

The brunette had been the first he had selected. He had soon learnt her name to be
Beca, and whilst he watched her attempt to study, but take pride in the small
things she enjoyed, he had spoken to one of the officers at the school. _'Get her
into a gym, or boxing,'_ he had said to them. He saw raw passion behind those eyes
and doing book work was holding her back from her potential. They agreed and he
told the officer that he would be back within two weeks to see how she had
progressed.

The ginger woman, Chloe, was an easy pick for the mentor. He watched the way she
studied, and from what he had observed, when he spoke to the officer, they had
confirmed that she had come of her own free will, to attempt to apply herself
without the distractions of the real world. Likewise, the darker skinned man,
Donald, was taken too. Both on the same day, the first students of the enclave.

When the mentor returned after a fortnight, he had seen an improvement in Beca and
had asked him to come with her, to which she agreed, because she couldn't stand
being in a military school much longer. But before leaving, the mentor's eyes
caught sight of two others, Aubrey and Jesse, sensing their knowledge and ability
to apply themselves when needed, he took them with him too.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Being forced by some random man to take a hike through the forest filled, rocky
surfaced terrain in the late afternoon, Beca had almost regretted leaving the
school immediately. There she had running water, a bed, food and electricity; being
taken out into the woods, she wondered if she would even come back. She brushed
that thought off as she then thought about whether her family would miss her if she
didn't come back.

In her little moment of thought, Beca completely misplaced her footing, sliding
across a smooth, icy rock. She was lucky the school had let her keep her fatigues
and boots otherwise she would have had rolled her ankle badly. The brunette boy,
Jesse, had immediately rushed to her side, attempting to aid her.

"I don't need your help," she hissed at him. "Back off," That was warning enough
for Jesse as he caught up to Aubrey and began walking with her. Their new mentor
had stopped whilst Beca sorted herself out, running her hand firmly over her ankle
as she stood. It would be fine. "You don't have to wait, you know," she said to the
mentor dumbly to which he replied by removing his eyes off her and proceeded to
stare straight ahead.

Beca grumbled under her voice as he didn't move, waiting for her, so she took a
step, followed by another and before she knew it, she was in a jog to catch back up
to her fellow students. The mentor continued to quietly follow them.

That afternoon passed quickly and as the remaining sun in the sky dipped below the
horizon, the chill in the air picked up and breath quickly turned to mist in the
cold. Realising how long they had been tramping, Jesse stopped to look at the
mentor.

"Did you happen to bring any water?" he questioned the man, giving him an arched
eyebrow in the hopes it would make his question more questioning.

The mentor stared back at Jesse and that was when Beca piped up. "He doesn't say
much," she told him. "He points occasionally to where we are meant to be going, but
he says nothing. Not even a shake of the head."

This time it was Aubrey who grumbled, she was cold, and her fatigues weren't
designed to last a cold, winter night without any kind of jacket, or shelter, or
sleeping bag. She was shivering, the first sign of potential hypothermia.

"Keep moving," the mentor spoke, earning surprised looks from the trio. "Half an
hour,"

Beca rolled her eyes, desperate to get to some kind of shelter, she tried to drag
along her colleagues, and the mentor watched on as she did so.

This is what he wanted; his students to overcome barriers to prove they could do
anything they set their mind to. He figured that if he had not have brought Beca,
Jesse and Aubrey would be human popsicles. He needed to work on them, especially
the boy. He was a follower, and had the mentor realised this at the school, he
wouldn't have taken the him. Perhaps his assistant mentor, Luke, could help train
him up, because obviously playing mind games with him wasn't going to work.

"Ow!" the mentor heard Aubrey scream from up ahead. "Let go of me, you little
punk!" the mentor smirked at this, the small brunette was determined to get to
where she wanted.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the mentor had told his newest students, it would only be half an hour to where
they were going, and as soon as Beca saw light, she ran. She ran because light
meant people, and warmth. And so as she ran towards this camp, she heard her fellow
students begin to run behind her, and before she knew it, she saw the mentor run
past them all.

Jesse saw the mentor surpass them, and he took upon the challenge to push himself
to be faster, and because of this Aubrey did too; she had to be the best and before
she knew it, Beca was pushing herself also, her legs burning in pain as they
sprinted across the icy rock and up the small dirt bank into a section of dense
forest.

"Students," the mentor called out, summoning not only the three with him, but the
two inside the enclave and his assistant.

It became clearer as Beca and the others neared the enclave, that it was actually
surrounded by a wooden fence, at least twelve feet high, with river stones around
the bottom for reinforcement. Where the riverstones ended, she assumed it was a
gate, and as she thought it, said gate opened slightly, letting in the new students
and the mentor.

Beca looked around, things becoming clearer as she saw the fire roaring in the
middle of the fenced area. Low wooden huts had been constructed and what looked
like a small farm, and when actually narrowing her eyes on it, they were growing
what looked like lettuce and asparagus. Beca hadn't actually realised things grew
in winter. As she continued looking around the camp she saw another three people,
two wearing the same uniform as her, and the third wearing what could almost be
considered a robe with a form of tabard draped over. She soon realised that the
mentor was wearing the same clothing items.

"Sit, students, around the fire which has been made for us," the mentor greeted, as
the students found places around the fire. "Welcome to my enclave. I am aware you
all must have questions for me, but I do grow weary from the journeys that I have
taken in the last two weeks. I trust you all understand?"

This was answered by the students nodding their heads. "Luke would you care to
explain?"

"Yes mentor," he agreed as he watched the man retire to one of the small wooden
huts. "You have been hand selected to be a part of a training regime," this got the
students looking at each other in interest. "We will be training you in martial
arts, and upon watching you and studying your behaviour, we have selected the forms
that we think will suit you best. Of course, these forms are chosen out of the
select group that myself and our mentor have mastered." Luke explained, and looking
around again, he had noticed the students had actually moved closer to him out of
pure interest. "Chloe, Beca, Jesse, you three will be trained in Bok Fu, an
external martial art, based on the techniques of Kenpo and Kung Fu. This technique
was born in America out of traditional Chinese martial art." Jesse and Beca looked
around wondering who Chloe was, and deduced she was the redhead; especially since,
other than Aubrey, she was the only female. The three gave each other a nod, and
Luke dismissed them, telling Chloe to show them around. Luke spoke up again.
"Aubrey, Donald, we have decided to train you in the art of Tai Chi, an internal
martial art, defined by its defensive training and health benefits," Aubrey and
Donald passed each other a look before Donald was informed to show Aubrey around
the encalve.

"What is this place?" Jesse asked as Chloe showed the two new students around the
enclave walls, reinforcing just how big this place was.

"This is known just as the _enclave_." she replied simply. "The mentor, yes we call
him that too, hasn't told us if this place has a name yet or not,"

"It's strange," Beca spoke. "I've never heard about anything like this,"
"No one has," Chloe quickly told her, stopping and looking at the pair. "We got
made to hike out here like you, and judging by uniform, we were picked up at the
same military school,"

Beca scoffed. "You? At military school? You and that Aubrey girl look like preppy
school girls, how in the hell did you get sent out here?"

"Long story," Chloe brushed off, faking a yawn so she could leave. "Jesse, we'll
take you back to the fire, you'll be roomed with Donald, Beca, you'll be roomed
with me and that blonde,"

The pair nodded as they followed the ginger back to the fire.

"She's hot," Jesse whispered to Beca, which made her smirk at him.

"I know," Beca replied as she and Jesse held back a bit, admiring the red head from
behind.

**A/N: **What do you all think? I have this story planned out entirely! So I
shouldn't run into writers block at all! I have tried doing my research on martial
arts, forms, Maine...etc...So I do apologise now if I run into anything! Feedback
is always handy! Any questions you might have, I will definitely answer :)

Thanks guys!

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing! Except the plot line running through my mind :) I
secretly wished I owned Brittany Snow ;) Welp, not a secret now.

2. Chapter 2

**Thorns Protect the Rose**

Chapter 2~

Jesse had run along to catch up with Donald to get a feel for this place. He knew
for a fact that they were still in Maine, seeing as no transport had been used, but
now that he thought about it, how well we re boarders monitored, because for all he
knew, he could be in Canada right now. Dismissing the thought with the shake of his
head, he saw the darker skinned man dousing the fire that had been fully ablaze not
ten minutes ago.

"Hey man, I'm Jesse," he tried greeting, to which Donald replied by looking over
the top of his thick rimmed glasses, it didn't even look as though he was going to
make an attempt to speak. "So you don't talk, huh? Just like the rest of them?"
Jesse asked, hoping the man would become tired of his questions and just answer
them. Donald just shook his head, he had no intention of befriending anyone here,
and that was where ever _here_ was.

"Follow me, go to sleep, you'll get your answers. I have nothing more to say to
you," he said rapidly as he lead Jesse to their small wooden hut.

As Jesse approached the hut, he noticed something. "No door? We'll freeze!" he
protested before being dragged into the small area by Donald.

"Just shut up, dude," Donald said, annoyance laced in his tone. "I've been here two
weeks and I'm not dead, so drink a cup of cement, and grow a pair. Pick your rack
and go to sleep," the then said, gesturing to the two bunk sets in the small room.

Jesse sighed. He supposed the man was right. Looking up, though, and finally
getting over the fact that there was no door, he saw that the room was lit with
several candles; these ones looked handmade. In fact, everything here looked
handmade. Taking another glance around the room, Jesse realised how low the roof
was and how crammed the room really was.

The two bunk sets filled the room leaving the bare minimum in terms of being able
to move about the room. It didn't help that there was also a mall table in the
centre of the room, a few of Donald's possessions placed neatly on the surface.
Jesse soon spied the top left bunk and climbed up the single step onto it. On
closer inspection, the bunks were handmade, they had to be. The height of the roof
would never have fit a normal sized bunk, and even this one only gave a meter or so
between the mattress and the roof. But at the moment this didn't really matter to
Jesse, all that mattered was his boots coming off his feet and landing on the
ground with a loud thud, and crawling under the few blankets that dressed his bed.
It wasn't long before the young man was sound asleep, snoring away.

xxxxx

Meanwhile in the female's hut, Chloe lead Beca into the small area. This hut was
just as small as the male's hut, only Chloe had made a few homely touches to it. A
small woven mat covered the cold, hardwood floor, and unlike the open doorway in
the male's hut, Chloe had, again, seemingly sat for hours, weaving thin strands of
dried grass to form a sheet to cover the doorway. This made their hut slightly
warmer, keeping most of the cool air outside.

Beca looked to the bunk on her left and saw the blonde girl wrapped up in her
blankets on the bottom bed, facing into the room. She cast quick glances at Beca
and Chloe, quickly rolling and letting out an annoyed huff.

"What's her problem?" Chloe whispered into the brunettes ear, to which Beca just
shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway," Chloe continued in a normal voice. "Feel free to
chose a bunk. Top left is free, bottom right is free, either that or you can sleep
on the floor,"

Beca cast a quick look at the bunks, the only assumption was that Chloe slept on
the top right. "I'll take bottom right?"

Chloe nodded as Beca took off her camo jacket, throwing it onto the bunk, exposing
the tight white singlet underneath. The cold didn't seem to bother her as Chloe
climbed onto the bed above Beca's and watched as the brunette did a set of push
ups, followed by a set of crunches and a two minute long bridge. Chloe hadn't quite
realised she had been staring at the smaller woman the whole time until she was
caught out on it.

"Like what you see?" Beca asked, a blank expression causing Chloe to panic, not
knowing whether she was being serious or not.

"I-uh-," she stammered, quickly composing herself. "I'm impressed, didn't think
you'd have it in you,"

Beca scoffed, rolling her eyes and taking off her boots. "I'm going to bed, blow
the candle out when you're ready." She slid into bed, pulling the blankets around
her shoulders, and just before Chloe blew out the candle, she managed to get a
glance around the room. Handmade.

xxxxx

A loud bashing noise was heard outside, waking the residents of the enclave. Chloe
was already up as Beca scrubbed the sleep out of her eyes and partially sat up. The
bashing noise was still heard, followed by a loud yell telling everyone to be up
and outside as soon as possible. Beca looked across the tiny room, noticing Aubrey
was already hunched over on the low bed, pulling on her boots and fatigues. Beca
thought it wise to follow suit.

Aubrey was the first to leave the hut, but Chloe stayed behind. "You're only as
strong as your weakest player," she told the brunette, and although wise, it hurt
her.

"You're calling me weak?" Beca questioned, trying to stand as tall and aggressive
as she could.

"You're cute when you're trying to be all tough, did you know that?" the ginger
giggled, Beca narrowed her eyes at the woman. "By the way, you have panda eyes. How
did you get away with that eye liner back on base?"

Beca quietly cursed herself, looking around for anything that would remove the make
up, but huffed and gave up, licking her fingers and wiping them around her eyes.

"Much better," Chloe told her with a grin. "Now lets go, before we get into
trouble."

The pair quickly made their way outside, and Beca realised immediately that the sun
wasn't up. It must have been very early morning, and Beca had sworn that the
military school's five in the morning wake up was too early, but this, this was
definitely earlier that five. Following Chloe to huddle around the small fire with
the rest of the students, the mentor walked forward with Luke.

"As I explained last night, we have brought you out here to be trained in martial
arts, however, this is not the only thing you shall be trained in. If you remember
the art we have delegated to you, please group together so we can begin our first
day," Luke spoke as the mentor stood and watched over the students. "Bok Fu
students, you will be coming with me, Tai Chi students with our mentor," he
explained further as the students rearranged themselves into the correct groups.

The mentor gestured to Aubrey and Donald, and walked into another small hut, this
hut was pushed against the fence opposite the sleeping huts.

Beca remembered Luke saying that night that the only arts that would be taught
would be the ones that he and the mentor had mastered, so taking that into
consideration, she supposed that Luke was the master of the Bok Fu art.

"Follow me," he instructed and the group did as they were told. Leading them across
the enclave to an area dedicated to what looked like woodwork, he sat the few
students on the logs placed around. "Right, before we get into martial art, you are
going to first learn woodwork, craftsmanship, anything and everything," Luke told
the three. "You will have noticed we are in the middle of no where, our surrounds
is dense forest, and you are lucky to be here with several shelters and walls
established, however, this is all just temporary, and whilst you are out here
learning to build, the others are learning how to provide food for you,"

Beca looked to Chloe and Jesse, noticing how they both were looking around, almost
astonished by what they were told. All teenagers, pulled out of military school to
be put into the forest in the middle of nowhere, all so they could build a small
enclave. Beca shook her head.
"Are you serious?" she questioned angrily. "You make us hike for hours in the
freezing cold and expect us to then be up at the crack of dawn to build for you, on
top of that, you use the promise of martial art to get us to do your dirty work!
Count me out!"

Beca stood quickly and was about to turn before Luke rushed at her, raising his leg
and preparing to slam it on her shoulder to get her to sit, but Beca was quick, and
her boxing lessons paid off. Naturally raising her fists to her face, she used her
left forearm to push Luke's leg away, quickly withdrawing the arm and hooking his
gut with her right hand.

Beca heard Chloe gasp, and could almost see the nervous sweat breaking out on
Jesse's forehead, all the while Luke smirked. "You pay attention in my class, and
I'll teach you how to block this," he told Beca as he expertly moved his hands,
almost similar to hand tutting, before pushing his hand into Beca, forcing her back
onto her log.

Beca scowled at the blonde man, but if she would learn how to do that, she supposed
she would have to sit through this boring woodwork class.

What seemed like hours passed, when Beca realised the sun was finally coming up,
not a cloud in the sky and the lack of a breeze meant that they should have a nice
day. Luke had been discussing how best to chop trees with the limited resources
they had so that they could craft items. Jesse had seemed to take well to the
class, Beca noticed, but she watched as Chloe fidgeted with her a small handwoven
bracelet, and it was there that Beca noticed the small outline of a tattoo. She
wondered whether Chloe had done it herself while she was in military school, or
while she was out here in the wild.

"Well that's class over," Luke told the trio.

Chloe looked at the man. "Seriously?" she questioned. "I've been out here two weeks
and you're only just telling me this now?"

"We had to wait for the rest of the students," Luke explained.

Now it was Chloe's turn to get angry, but instead she took a deep breath. "Fine."

Beca and Jesse cast each other a questioning look, wondering what the hell had
possessed the ginger to have that small outburst. Perhaps this is why she wasn't
chosen for Tai Chi. Perhaps she deceptively dangerous. Beca didn't know, but she'd
soon try to find out.
"Class may be over, but you are expected to pull your weight around here," Luke
quickly warned as his students proceeded to stand. "We will banish you, and you
will be left in the woods alone. I suggest you put your lesson to use,"

With his final words the three departed the small area of the enclave, finding the
entrance they came through when they first arrived at the camp. Jesse had a plan
and decided to tell them.

"Hey, so you know how we have to pull our weight and all?" he told the brunette and
the ginger. "So now that I can actually see the enclave, what do we have? I suppose
the camp is perhaps one hundred and thirty feet in diameter?" Jesse guessed, taking
a quick glance around the place. "But what structure do we actually have? An eight
foot wall, four small huts, and I don't know about your hut, but mine is tiny," he
told the girls. "There's the small garden, but that will hardly feed all of us, and
on top of all that, we have no gate, and there are no doors on our buildings,"

Beca nodded her head, seeing where Jesse was running with his idea. "This place is
all forest, rolling boulders and water, we can reinforce the wall with the river
stones and the boulders," she rolled her eyes at herself. Why did she care so much?

Chloe grinned, also catching on to the plan. "So boulders or trees first?"

"I would like a door," Jesse told them, scratching his head, finding himself also
grinning.

The trio set out past the enclave gate, or lack of, with the tools they had been
given by Luke. They were seriously primitive tools, stones lashed to sticks, but
they had been sharpened, and they should have had no problems felling a few smaller
trees. That's just what they did, each taking several trips to drag back logs that
they had divided up.

Upon reentering the enclave, they saw Donald and Aubrey at work in the small
garden, and Beca let out a laugh. Tai Chi, defensive and with healing properties!
She laughed at her own thoughts again, watching as the pair weeded the garden.

"Shall we set up here?" Chloe suggested, directing Jesse and Beca to a small
clearing inside the enclave walls.

This brought Beca out of her thoughts and she nodded her head, staring at the
ginger as she continued to talk about their task. Beca often found herself in her
own thoughts, but she was soon perceived to be staring, which she probably was.
"Quit staring," Jesse hissed in her ear as a calmly walked past. "Your chick boner
is so obvious,"

Beca snapped her head towards the brunette man, narrowing her eyes at him. "Shut
up, Jesse,"

Chloe shot a questioning look at the twosome, and they both shrugged at the ginger,
and she quickly returned to her work.

Their first task; constructing a gate and doors.

xxxxx

The sun had passed high in the sky and was now beginning its decent to the west.
Beca, Jesse and Chloe had been slaving over logs all day, and were nearing the end
of the tedious task of setting up doors and a gate.
Chloe had run off to find Luke just before midday to find out what they could use
as nails, to which Luke had just told them to be creative, so Jesse had spend all
afternoon crafting small wooden pegs to hold the planks together.

"This is stupid," Beca told Jesse and Chloe. "I wanted to learn martial arts,"
Jesse and Chloe both nodded in agreement, when Beca felt a firm hand on her
shoulder.

"You are proving yourself, and that is what we need to see before we teach you
anything," he spoke. "What you are doing now is proving your strength and your
discipline, but also your willingness to do whatever it takes for you to get where
you want to go,"

Beca turned to see the mentor standing behind her, it was his hand on her shoulder.
She nodded her head at his words, understanding, and out the corner of her eye she
saw both Chloe and Jesse nod in understand too.

"You and your team have though about what you need out here," he continued. "When
you are finished, you may retire for the day. Food will be served around the
campfire shortly, I will get Aubrey to get you when it is ready."

Beca watched as the mentor wandered away, and when she returned her gaze to her
work, she saw Chloe and Jesse smiling. "The day is almost over!" Jesse exclaimed
excitedly. "Let's get this done, I want to nap!"

Within half an hour, Beca guessed, the trio had finished their construction, each
of them helping to lift the heavy gate and somehow managing to lash it to the
walls, likewise with the hut doors, and soon the group retired to their respective
huts.

Beca chucked off her boots, the smell of sweaty feet tainting the air. She coughed
before shoving her boots back on. Beca went to climb into bed, but noticed a fresh
pair of socks and fatigues for her to change into.

"They somehow do all our washing, and they all have spares of our clothes from back
at camp," Chloe explained, noticing how Beca had stopped and looked at her bed
questioningly.

Beca nodded her head, placing her fresh clothes under her pillow. "I see no point
in changing now," Beca said.

"Good," Chloe replied, pulling herself onto her bed. "I made the mistake of
changing before the first night was up. In the middle of the night, either Luke or
the mentor came through and doused me with water,"

"Why would they do that?" Beca asked as she lay down on the bed, her eyes staring
up at the bed above her. She somehow wished she could see through the bed, just so
she could see the ginger.

"Ah, I suppose it was punishment; teaching me to be prepared for the worst?" she
guessed. "Perhaps it was a lesson that I shouldn't get a head of myself," Beca
didn't reply, too caught up in her own thoughts, and instead her eyes had closed.
Chloe poked her head down to look at Beca, "Good night, sleepy," Chloe said,
blowing a kiss to the brunette.

**AN: **Not really much feedback, which makes me sad, but this is ok. I'd like to
know what you guys want to see. Ultimately I have the whole plot set and ready, and
these first few chapters are the build up to everything. Anywho, hope you enjoyed,
and feedback is definitely appreciated, otherwise I get depressed and don't update,
and I lose the excitement in writing new chapters.

Follow me on tumblr!

kiwibechloeshipper . tumblr . com

(Obviously without the spaces!)

3. Chapter 3

**De**s771: Thanks for taking the time out to reply :) Very appreciated.

**Reda V: **I was kinda going for a survival theme to begin with, so if it reminds
you of your basic training, awesome! :)

**Miss-Statement: **I'll try to add more imagery, I'm just terrible at writing it
and sometimes I can get carried away and distract from what's actually happening,
but I'll give it a shot in this chapter :)

**The rest of y'all: **Thanks for you reviews :D

**Thorns Defend the Rose**

~Chapter Three~

It was only a matter of hours before Aubrey entered the female sleeping hut it rise
Chloe and Beca. Aubrey wasn't particularly please about being what she liked to
call the 'messenger bitch'.

For her day, she and Donald had been made to garden; seriously, who did gardening
in winter? Just the thought had struck her that perhaps the mentor was being
serious about them starving if they didn't pay attention in their classes. Funnily
enough, Donald, who was already reserved, took the lesson to heart, completely
weeding, hoeing and planting the seeds that their mentor had set aside for them.

This would be their everyday job, providing food for the camp, but they were
promised their training would start early the next day. Learning different mixes
for herbal medicines, meditation and self defence. This is what Aubrey looked
forward to the most. She figured Donald was the same, but his lack of communication
made it very difficult for her to work him out.
Aubrey quickly shook her head after remembering the day and had to focus on her
task.

Chloe had stared at Aubrey the entire time, wondering why the hell she was just
standing in the doorway.

"You're awake?" Aubrey questioned, half astounded that the ginger wasn't fast
asleep like the brunette under her.

"Yeah, why?" Chloe asked. "Were you hoping to scare me as you woke me?"
"No, I just thought -" Aubrey started, but stopped as she was too tired to explain.

It was then that the brunette sat bolt upright, smacking her head on the low bunk
above her.

"Red!" she exclaimed as Chloe poked her head down. "We need to make training
dummies!"

Chloe furrowed her brows. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Training dummies!" Beca explained. "They can't rain us without anything to train
with!"

Aubrey nodded her head in agreement. "Using initiative, Beca,"

"Yeah, but how are we meant ot make them? All we have is wood," Chloe replied,
thinking about what the brunette had said. She went to speak, but Beca cut her off.

"Shh," she hushed. "Food then we think..."

xxxxx

The dinner was average, although no one would admit that. The group was literally
just eating 'rabbit food', as Jesse had put it. So with the group sitting on
upright logs around a small fire to keep them warm as the suns last rays streaked
the sky, the mentor stood from his log, his head just high enough to reach above
the lick of the flame.

"Your first proper day is over," he spoke. "I am aware that it was nothing like you
were expecting. As I have mentioned today to a student, we are going to work you,
so you understand discipline and what it means to work towards something,"

The students were half expecting for their mentor to say more, but instead he
turned his back and wandered the few feet it was to his hut. Luke stood in his
place. "Your evening is now free."

Beca sighed in relief at Luke's words, there was something she had been dying to do
since she arrived; run. Standing from her log, she ran from the warmth of the fire
and into the cool, twilight air. She ran. Ran past the gate that she, Chloe and
Jesse had erected. Ran out past the low, wooden fence surrounding the enclave. She
didn't look back as Chloe shouted her name.

"Beca!? Where are you going!?" the redhead yelled before she stood from her seated
position and sprinted after the brunette.

Beca didn't care what the redhead did; it wasn't like Beca planned on running away,
she just wanted to get out and run a few laps around the enclave. But of course,
this is probably not what it looked like to anyone.
Beca quickly decided she would run in a clockwise direction, hopefully coming
across areas which would provide her resources to create a training dummy. Heading
off to the right, she watched as the green of the low trees and the brown of the
trunks of the taller trees blended to create a mucky image. Beca ran fast, over the
cold, hard ground, and for a brief moment, noticed a patch where there were river
stones. She guessed that down the small bank would actually be a small, frozen
stream.

Chloe hadn't run out past the enclave gate, seeing no rational reason for her to
chase Beca. If she wanted to run away, then shouldn't Chloe just let her?

"Beca!" Chloe yelled again, this time slightly out of breath.

Aubrey and Jesse pulled up next to the gate also to try make sense of the
commotion. One second Beca had been running, next second Chloe was running. They
had only been around each other for twenty four hours, how the hell was there
already drama.

The trio looked from left to right, not seeing a thing, but Chloe's ears picked up.
The heavy footfall of Beca's boot coming from the left made her look. Chloe
mentally counted down to the point that she would see the brunette. Chloe looked
around again, noticing the last sliver of light shining through the dense forest;
she hoped this would be the right height for it to hit Beca square in the eye. And
as Beca rounded that corner, Chloe knew it would.

The redhead took her opportunity to allow the light to temporarily blind the
brunette before launching into a spear tackle; throwing Beca to the hard ground.

"What the fuck!?" Beca yelled out angrily, wincing quietly at the pain radiating
through her back. It was then that she realised the ginger had her pinned down. As
in, she was physically holding Beca down.

"Why would you run away!?" Chloe asked loudly. "Are you out of your mind?"

Beca shoved Chloe at her shoulders, pushing her back and giving Beca the advantage.
She stood, dusting herself, even though there wasn't a lot to dust off.

"Why would you care?" Beca spat. But Beca was truly curious to know the answer to
this. They had met each other not even twenty four hours ago, yet here Chloe was
chasing after Beca who was only out for a run. "You were the only one to try and
stop me," Beca finished.

Chloe, from her spot on the ground, fumed. Why she cared, she didn't know, all she
knew was that she did care, and that now she was pissed, and was about to lose her
temper. Perhaps it was because Chloe knew that Beca was only going for a run, but
knew Beca was worthy of the fight. Chloe was impatient.

It was Luke who came out to break up the fight before it started. The adrenaline
pumping through both the girls' bodies seemed to slow everything down. Both women
were caught up, staring down. Dark blue on baby blue.

"Aubrey, take Chloe, distract her," Luke instructed as Aubrey came forward and
helped the ginger off the ground. "Beca, go with Jesse, sort your shit, we're all
allies, and you're all out here fighting each other. Disgraceful."

Beca glared at Luke as he turned and walked back into the enclave, returning to his
shared hut with the mentor. Jesse followed Beca's stare, and sensing her need to
calm down, he reached a hand out to touch her with.
"Don't. Touch. Me." she warned with a low growling voice. Jesse immediately removed
his hand. "If you want to help me, we are going to chop more trees and we are going
to collect the long grass I spotted at the back of the fenceline," she explained,
anger still evident in her tone. Jesse was obviously confused by Beca's task, and
she picked up on it. "I need something to fight before I hurt that ginger,"

Jesse sighed. He didn't feel particularly overjoyed at the idea of wandering a

forest at night, especially not one that would soon be icing over, seeing as the
sun had finally dipped below the horizon and the night air removed any kind of
warmth. Jesse had also somehow assumed that Beca and Chloe were getting on well,
but was at a total loss as to why they almost attacked each other only five minutes
earlier. Shrugging his shoulders, he figured he would ask Beca about it when she
wasn't so grumpy.

xxxxx

Beca had managed to chop several small trees and had shed her fatigue jacket so
that she could use it to drag the slightly heavy logs behind her. Jesse admired her
initiative, and her strength. The could seemingly not bothering the smaller woman.
Beca had also proved a master of manipulation, managing to get Jesse to strip his
jacket also, and filled it with long grass.

"So what's your deal?" Jesse asked as they tramped up the side of the frozen stream
Beca had noticed earlier.

Beca had nothing to say to Jesse, so replied by shrugging her shoulders.

"You act tough so people don't get close and hurt you," he told her, trying to
assume her life story.

"Not true," she shot back angrily, hopefully Jesse would take the hint and back
off. But truth be told, everyone for her entire life had said that she'd lived
behind walls. What people didn't know were that those walls were to protect others.
As she pondered her life, walking now up a slight hill with a man she barely knew,
she wondered whether this martial arts thing they had promised to teach her would
actually help calm her and focus her anger elsewhere.

So while she was so caught up in her though, she was completely unaware that Jesse
had still been talking to her.
"Sorry, zoned out," she muttered.

"It's fine, I suppose," he told her. "We're back at camp, if you hadn't noticed,"
he quickly pointed out.

"Finally," she replied, walking faster so she could drop off her stuff. "We'll work
on it in the morning,"

"Okay," he agreed, as they walked through the gate, shutting it behind him.
"Goodnight, Beca," he said, as he tried to look into her eyes.

She turned away, rolling her eyes. He was getting on her nerves, and she was tired.
"G'night,"

xxxxx

Sliding herself into her bed, she wondered when Aubrey and Chloe would be back.
Beca felt as though she owed Chloe an apology for overreacting, but she was still
unsure as to why Chloe cared. Beca's eyes felt heavy, she could feel herself
slipping, so she got herself back out of bed, going through her night routine of
push ups, sit ups, anything really that would keep her awake.

Quiet female voices were heard outside the hut, and Beca stopped what she was
doing. The blonde and the redhead walking in, smiling. Beca felt a little jealous,
but ignored it.

"Chloe," Beca started, to which Chloe turned her head, but this wasn't going to
stop Beca. "I'm sorry I overreacted,"

Aubrey had moved around the small space and had prepared herself for bed, settling
in under the sheets, she gave Chloe a quick nod. This let Chloe know that Aubrey
was there for the redhead if anything was to go down.

"Apology accepted," Chloe told Beca, looking her in the eye. "I'm still not happy
with you though,"

Beca scratched her head awkwardly. She was standing in front of the red head with
only her white singlet and fatigue pants. "So yeah, well I'm gonna, uh, get into
bed," Beca told her, crouching down and getting back into bed.

She watched from her position as Chloe bent down to unlace her boots, toeing them
off only a foot away, before she stood up straight and removed her camo uniform,
exposing her white singlet, hugging her body, and everything else that would
usually be left to someone's imagination.

"Gay, are you?" Chloe questioned with a small smirk as she turned and noticed
Beca's head flick away fast. Beca let out a couple of fake snores and waited till
Chloe had climbed into the bunk above hers.

"So tell me about yourself, shorty..." Chloe asked but the once fake snores had
deepened, and Beca really had fallen asleep. Pushing her head over the side of the
bunk, Chloe marveled at how peaceful the brunette looked. "Night, Beca."

**AN: **So I had NO idea how to finish that chapter. There was so much more that I
wanted to write, but I think it would be best left for another chapter. Anyway,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK! I hope this is an okay chappie. As I said in the last
authors note, these first few chaps are building up to the main plot, obviously at
the moment I'm trying to focus on relationships and settling characters in.

I'd also like to point out that Chloe is **NOT** a pushover/damsel in

distress...she is strong...and I'll get to that later :P

Anyway! Feedback, like always, is appreciated :D

You can follow me on tumblr here:

kiwibechloeshipper . tumblr . com

(Obviously without the spaces!)

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