I am so ready for the 3rd part of Black with Staubrey! It’s soo good! Thank you for taking the time to write such amazing stories.
Ahh no problem at all, and thank you for your keen following of this particular fic as well as my one shots 🤗 here, have the final part of ‘Black’. Have a wonderful daaay!!
Masterpost of previous parts
Staubrey - Black (Part Four of Four)
The bedroom was silent as Stacie quietly closed the door behind her, then turned to look at Aubrey through the dim light. The woman’s body was lit only by the street lamps that filtered through the uncovered window at the end of the room. Stacie could remember every single inch of how Aubrey had looked tonight - she didn’t need the light to remind her.
“Come.” Aubrey whispered while slowly wandering to the bed and Stacie watched, her heart beating hard against her chest as Aubrey slipped her heels off and scooted onto the bed. When Stacie was certain her friend had got comfortable, the brunette took a deep breath and slipped her own heels from her feet before padding over to the bed.
She swallowed loudly before crawling onto the empty part of the bed, letting out a heavy tired sigh as she got comfortable. Laying on their sides, Stacie and Aubrey faced each other, taking the time to listen to each other’s breathing and their own beating hearts.
“You look so beautiful.” Aubrey mumbled gently, reaching her hand out so her fingertips could trickle up and down Stacie’s bare arm. But the compliment didn’t fill the brunette with confidence. It filled her with doubt. Because she still couldn’t understand how Aubrey found her beautiful.
“You can’t see me in the dark.” Stacie replied in a plain voice, causing Aubrey to let out a light chuckle. Clearly the older woman thought she was joking. That showed just how little Aubrey knew Stacie. And it made Stacie curl a little more into herself.
“I don’t need to see you in the dark, Stacie.” Aubrey replied in a gentle tone, and Stacie felt the blonde’s hand trace its way down the length of her bare arm until she took her hand, “You’re always beautiful to me. No matter what.”
Aubrey sensed so much hesitation in the woman’s body as she lay beside Stacie. And she knew it wasn’t because of their close proximity or the fact that they were now on a bed together holding hands. It broke her heart to realise that Stacie’s hesitation was because the younger woman still didn’t believe what she believed.
So Aubrey gently released Stacie’s hand, and reached up to cup her cheek, drifting her thumb gently across her skin. And her stomach sank slightly as the pad of her thumb met a tear that was falling from Stacie’s eyes.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” Stacie mumbled in a vulnerable tone, and Aubrey’s heart lurched towards her crush.
“Because...I love you.” Aubrey revealed softly. Finally. Hearing herself say it out loud was an overwhelming relief, but to do so in the dark was somewhat daunting. Because she couldn’t gauge Stacie’s reaction. Not until Stacie’s jaw began to tremble and a light sob fell from the brunette’s mouth.
The reaction had Aubrey bringing her hand from Stacie’s cheek and towards her own body instead. Her heart broke. Was this it? Had she ruined everything? Had Stacie’s Mom been wrong when she’d told Aubrey earlier in the day that her daughter was secretly in love with her too?
“How can you love me...” Stacie blubbed, pausing to sniff, before letting out a heavy sigh, “...when I struggle to even love myself?”
It was those words that hit Aubrey like a steamroller. Words that were said with such sensitivity and vulnerability. As though Stacie had exposed her deepest insecurity. Words that completely baffled Aubrey. The blonde took a couple of moments to rattle through potential comebacks. Until she finally landed on one, and took a deep shaky breath.
“Why do you struggle to love yourself?” she asked tentatively. The question hung in the air, echoing around both women’s heads. Aubrey waited with baited breath. As far as she was aware, Stacie wasn’t one to walk away from a conversation. But then again, they’d never had such a deep conversation before. Perhaps Stacie would just get up and leave the room?
“Because I miss the old me.” Stacie revealed in a quiet voice, swallowing loudly while tears still fell from her eyes and rolled down onto her pillow. “Back in college I had hoards of guys - and quite a few girls - tripping over themselves wanting to talk to me. Wanting my attention. Wanting to get to know me. Wanting to kiss me and take me out on dates.”
Aubrey remembered how Stacie was back at Barden. How sought after she was. It had always amazed her how much the brunette had thrived on it. Because there had been times when Stacie had been in her freshman year and Aubrey had been in her senior year, when the older woman had wanted to protect the younger from all the shallow attention she received. The guys only fawned after Stacie because she was so openly sexual. To them she was an easy lay. And Aubrey had hated that they’d thought that. Had hated that Stacie hadn’t seemed to get that at the time. There had always been so much more to the brunette - though Aubrey had only come to realise the true intricacy of Stacie’s intelligent mind during the trip to Copenhagen several years ago..
“I miss the affection and the attention. The compliments. The flirtatious conversations. The intimacy...” Stacie continued in a quiet voice. It was noticeable she was crying but not by the way she looked. By the way she spoke.
“Ever since falling pregnant with Bella, I’ve really struggled to like anything about my body. And it made me realise just how much I’d relied on my looks back in college. I got bigger and bigger during my pregnancy and stupidly believed I’d immediately go back to my pre-pregnancy size as soon as she was born. But I haven’t. I’m a whale.”
Aubrey still struggled to comprehend what her friend was saying. She imagined there were thousands of women all over the world who would kill for a body like Stacie’s. But there was no telling her. Aubrey knew thanks to the complicated relationship she had with her own body that all women perceived their own bodies differently to the bodies of others.
“People don’t talk to me like they used to. People don’t know anything about me beyond Bella. They ask about her and how she is. But nobody asks me about me... About how I am or how I’m coping or what my dreams for the future are.” A huge heavy sigh fell from Stacie’s mouth as she paused to catch her breath. Then she finished with a quiet, vulnerable, “I feel as though my life as I knew it has expired. Now people don’t notice me any more.”
“I notice you.” Aubrey replied in a soft tone, wishing she could reach out and cup her crush’s face again. But she didn’t really know Stacie well enough to know how to comfort her. If it were Chloe she knew the woman liked a big tight hug. If it were Beca, she knew to give her some ‘tough love’ words then just leave the woman alone.
But Stacie was different. And because Aubrey loved Stacie so much, she didn’t want to upset her any more than she already was. She the blonde kept her hands to herself.
Until Stacie reached out with a sniff, took Aubrey’s hand, and brought it to her own mouth. Placing a short sweet kiss on the back of Aubrey’s hand, Stacie mumbled, “I know.” bringing the hand into her chest and holding it there gently.
The room fell silent again as Aubrey and Stacie peered at one another through the darkness. And for several minutes they laid in silence. Their bodies rose and fell in time as they breathed gently. Their hearts hammered away as one. The alcohol in their system from the meal earlier had mostly gone. Now all that was left was the sober reality that the two of them felt a lot for one another. A lot of love. A lot of trust.
“Your Mom told me earlier that you have a thing for me.” Aubrey said in a calm voice, a small smile on her face, and she felt Stacie take a deep breath beneath her hand.
“Of course she did...” Stacie breathed out, and Aubrey could almost hear her friend’s eyes rolling. Aubrey let out a light chuckle, and to her relief, she heard a similar - if not slightly more sniffly - chuckle leave Stacie’s mouth too.
“For what it’s worth, I have a thing for you too.” Aubrey admitted, the words slipping out far easily than she’d ever expected they would. She’d done it. Had officially told Stacie, to an extent, how she felt. And Stacie was still holding her hand.
“Yeah I figured that much when you told me you love me.” Stacie replied in an amused tone and Aubrey let out a slight audible grimace. “It’s okay.” Stacie replied, then let go of Aubrey’s hand to reach up and curl some of her long blonde hair behind her ear. “Because I love you too.” she whispered, “I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”
The words hung in the air over them as the sexual tension built in the room. Stacie’s hand had stilled, cupping Aubrey’s cheek affectionately while Aubrey’s palm remained on Stacie’s chest over her heart. This was the sort of intimacy that both of them had been yearning for over the years. That neither of them had ever really experienced before now.
After a couple of moments, Aubrey shifted her hips so she laid closer to Stacie. And this close proximity meant that both could feel the other’s breath on their faces. Warm. Comforting. Smelling remotely of strawberry thanks to the final couple of cocktails they’d had that evening.
“I love every inch of you, Stacie Conrad.” Aubrey whispered affectionately, “Body and soul. Every bit.”
And slowly, Aubrey nudged the tip of her nose against Stacie’s, her eyes flickering closed to relish this intimate moment. Their lips hovered over one another, almost taunting each other, trying to lure the other to make the final move. In the end it was Stacie who couldn’t hang on any longer, and the second her lips met Aubrey’s, they both took a deep intake of breath through their noses, and exhaled in relief.
Because this first kiss was everything they’d hoped for and more. And above anything, it was mutually reciprocated.
——
The clink of the bedroom door slowly opening, closely followed by loud shallow breathing, entered the once silent room. Shuffles of tiny footsteps joined the breathing, then stopped.
“Mama?”
Stacie stirred in her sleep, letting out a light groan as she brought her hand to her eyes and rubbed them. What time was it? The brunette turned her whole body around and caught sight of her daughter stood beside the bed, her big green eyes peering at her with a questioning expression.
“Why you here with Bau-Bree?” the two year old asked in a crisp clear voice, one that seemed far too loud for this time of morning - whatever time of morning it was.
“Uh...” Stacie croaked before clearing her throat and looking over her shoulder. There Aubrey laid, with a bedsheet over her body, her bare arms on top of it, her hands gently gripping the edges. The blonde was looking up at Stacie with a sleepy grin, and Stacie grinned back.
“We...had a sleepover, sweetheart.” Stacie explained slowly, turning back to her young daughter who still looked a bit confused.
“You not want sleepover with me?” Bella asked in her little voice, her expression turning a bit sad, and Stacie felt her stomach drop a bit. She couldn’t remember what time she and Aubrey had fallen asleep last night. But it hadn’t occurred to her that her daughter might be upset if she hadn’t ended up staying in her little bedroom instead.
“Ohh no-no, Baby.” Stacie said quickly, reaching out to invite Bella up onto the bed, “It just got so late and we got really sleepy and fell asleep here.” which for the most part was true. It wasn’t wrong for the mother to miss out the tiny detail that she and her friend had actually been heavily making out on the bed before then..
Little Bella Conrad clambered up onto the bed, settling on her mother’s lap on top of the bedcovers while Stacie cradled her gently.
“Why you not wearing clothes?” Bella asked in a curious voice, furrowing her brow slightly while peering down at her mother’s bare chest. Stacie cleared her throat awkwardly. She never went to sleep overnight without pyjamas on.
“I um...got quite hot.” Stacie replied, glancing down at Aubrey who had tugged her bottom lip between her teeth with a grin. Because yeah, last night she and Aubrey had got a bit too hot during their make-out session. And had wanted to further explore one another’s bodies. Naked.
The two year old peered down at Aubrey, clearly pleased to see the woman awake.
“Bau-Bree? You wanna come play?” Bella asked in a hopeful tone, always loving a bit of entertainment first thing in the morning. Usually her mother insisted she play on her own in her bedroom until ‘a more reasonable time’ (which was only normally an hour later - at 6.30am).
“Sweetheart,” Stacie said while reaching back for her phone which she’d slipped under the pillow at some point last night. She checked the time. 5.33am. As if like clockwork. “Why don’t you play in your bedroom for a little while, until a more reasonable time, then me and Aubrey can join you, yeah?”
Bella, good as gold, nodded gently with a quiet “Okay” then proceeded to scramble off her mother’s bed. As the two year old shuffled out of the bedroom, Stacie reached out and pushed the bedroom door over again. It wasn’t closed. But it was closed over enough to give the two women a bit more privacy.
Stacie turned back to Aubrey, scooting down the bed again and let out a heavy tired sigh as her arm lolled over the blonde’s bare waist. They both looked into each other’s eyes with soft smiles on their faces, hardly able to believe all that had happened in the past sixteen hours or so.
“Sorry about that.” Stacie mumbled as she nudged her face into the nook of Aubrey’s neck, resting there with another sigh, this time of contentment.
“It’s okay.” Aubrey replied with a chuckle, bringing her lips down to kiss the top of Stacie’s head, “She’s so cute.”
“Even at 5.30 in the morning?” the brunette mumbled against Aubrey’s skin, her eyes having already drifted closed. This was the calmest she’d felt in a very very long time, and she adored the feel of Aubrey’s arms wrapping around her bare body beneath the bedsheets.
“Especially at 5.30 in the morning.” Aubrey replied in a gentle tone. But Stacie began to wonder how long her friend could think that way about her daughter. After all, it was one thing to be woken at 5.30 by a two year old as a one off. A whole other thing when it was every morning.
“You don’t have to be so polite, you know. I know how exhausting she can be.” Stacie replied, but Aubrey only held her that little bit tighter.
“I love you. And that means I love her too.” came the soft reply, “Even at 5.30 in the morning.”
Stacie tugged her bottom lip between her teeth, her eyes open again but looking over Aubrey’s bare chest at the window where the early morning light was creeping between the curtains. The mark of a new day dawning. Not just for the next nineteen hours, but of the rest of her life.
“I may go through and play with her now though.” Aubrey admitted, and Stacie pulled herself up slightly, propping herself up with her elbow while she looked down at her friend in confusion.
“I just feel bad that I took her Mama away from her overnight...” Aubrey began with a shrug but Stacie quickly swept her lips down to kiss her on the lips. Aubrey was out of this world wonderful. Thoughtful. Kind. Caring. And it meant so much to Stacie to know that the blonde could accept her daughter as much as she accepted her.
“Mama?”
Stacie let out a disappointed sigh as she and Aubrey quickly broke their kiss, Aubrey automatically drawing the bedsheets up to cover her bare chest. And the two women looked to the bottom of the bed they were laid in to see Bella now stood there, looking over at them with her big green eyes.
“Why you kissing?” the two year old asked, her brow furrowing as though she were trying to work it out herself. The two women began sitting up in the bed, their cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment.
“Because Bau-Bree and I are...” Stacie began, pausing to look over at the woman she loved, who was already looking at her with an affectionate smile on her face.
“Girlfriends.” Aubrey finished for her.
“Girlfriends.” Stacie confirmed, a smile growing on her face, loving the sound of that label that she and Aubrey now shared. She turned back to her little daughter, “Yeah, girlfriend’s.”
“Like Mommy and Mommy?” Bella asked, “Not Mommy and Daddy?”
Stacie was surprised on how much the two year old picked up on. Bella had never questioned where her ‘Daddy’ was before. She just knew that in her house there was her Mama, and her Grandma. That was it. All girls. “Strong girls!” as Stacie’s mom always reminded the child. And that was what Bella had grown up knowing.
“Yeah, Bella.” Aubrey confirmed with a gentle tone and a soft smile, “Like Mama and Mommy.”
Stacie’s heart soared as the blonde beside her looked over at her, and they both smiled affectionately at one another while Aubrey added, “If you want?”
The look and words were entirely directed at Stacie. Aubrey wanted to check. Was Stacie okay with her being a part of both of their lives? Was she willing to allow Aubrey to love both of them unconditionally? But before Stacie could answer, a little voice piped up at the bottom of the bed.
“Yes I want!”
And the two women chuckled at the little girl, Stacie shrugging while adding, “Guess the jury’s out.”
——
Julie Conrad stood at the door of her bedroom, having always kept it open slightly in case her granddaughter had needed her in the night. A soft smile was on her face, having heard the entirety of the the early morning conversation, including the private conversation between her daughter and daughter’s best friend. Stacie’s crush. And from the sounds of things, her new girlfriend.
The eldest woman was pleased. She knew her daughter deserved the world, and someone to spend it with. Someone who loved her and Bella more than anything. Someone who would support and protect them. Someone who would bring a fire back to Stacie’s ambition. And that someone appeared to be Aubrey Posen..
“Bau-Bree, now can you come plaaay?” Julie heard her two year old Grandaughter ask, and the woman let out a short sigh. Poor Stacie. Poor Aubrey.
So the Grandmother quickly opened her door and called out to her Granddaughter, “Come on Bells! Let’s go down and make breakfast!”
Stacie and Aubrey watched as the two year old’s face lit up, a little gasp falling from her mouth, and they saw Bella racing out of the bedroom. Bella was a sucker for food of any kind. Particularly breakfast.
To Stacie’s surprise the bedroom door was quickly closed up completely behind her daughter, and a coy smile swept onto her face as she looked over at her girlfriend.
“I think your Mom’s worked it out.” she heard Aubrey admit, and Stacie giggled as the blonde grinned at her. She twisted in the bed, slipping her hands back over Aubrey’s waist, and gently guided her onto her back.
“Means we’ve got plenty of time to wake up properly then.” Stacie mumbled affectionately against Aubrey’s smiling mouth, before their lips smashed together in a deep and lustful kiss...