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Star Wars Celebration. The bane of Beca's existence.
It takes her a long time to agree to this.
It takes her a really long time.
Like, three years long.
"I promise you, babe, you won't regret this."
Jesse's been sweetening her up for weeks, now. She kinda wants to punch him in the face.
Out of all the movies he makes her watch, she draws the line at Star Wars. There was just no way, and it didn't matter how much, how loudly, or how annoyingly, he begged.
It was absolutely not going to happen.
That was what she thought, anyways.
It was brought to her attention three months ago.
Jesse, in his usual fashion, clumsily scrambles up the stairs to Beca and Amy's room, doesn't care to check if her Australian roomie is there, and rolls her away from her desk and in front of her bed. She's left staring at him, headphones wrapped around her neck, with a grimace on her face.
"You know I hate it when you do that."
"I know, I'm sorry," he pauses to give her a quick peck on the lips, "but this is urgent."
She eyes him curiously. "What happened?"
"Bec, what I am about to ask you... It's important," his puppy eyes are in full effect as he pulls her from out of her desk chair and onto his lap, taking her legs and wrapping them around his waist.
She should feel some sort of panic arise from out of her chest, but she knows him too well to know that it wasn't actually anything urgent. That is, anything actually important. Not with those eyes.
"I've got a bad feeling about this."
Nonetheless, she allows herself to indulge in his embrace and leans into his arms, which were encircled around her back.
"Benji invited me to go with him to Anaheim for spring break."
"And this involves me how?"
"I want you to come with me."
"And how is this super important?"
He gives her an innocent smile, and now she knows he's up to something that she most definitely will not like.
"Jesse..."
He doesn't say anything. The nerd just continues to give her that "I love you so much so please don't kill me" look.
"Just spit it out, dude."
The words come out in a rush. "We want to go to Star Wars Celebration. And the tickets are selling out kinda fast so if you could give me an answer soon, that'd be great."
"I love you and all, but there are a lot of things in this world that I don't need and a convention filled with a bunch of Star Wars dweebs is one of them. Why do you need me to come along?"
"Benji's taking Emily and I thought this would be a great bonding experience for all of us."
Of course Legacy would be just as nerdy about Star Wars as Benji. They're two peas in a pod, it's getting a bit ridiculous now.
"I'm sure you three will have fun. Besides, I have the internship and I'm busy with Bellas stuff. I can't just leave," she shrugs, removing herself from his grasp to lay in her bed. He sits criss-cross next to her.
He pouts, which, in theory, should be as ridiculous as it looks, but Beca has a weakness for those lips, and... God dammit.
"You give the girls spring break off every year. And I'm sure your boss will let you off for a week, paid leave is a thing."
"Even if I do agree... Why? You know I haven't watched any of the movies."
"It's L.A! It's your dream city. We can get to know the city, the beaches, the theme parks..."
She lays there, silent, as he absentmindedly plays with the ends of her hair. It was true. Now that she's proved herself to her boss, she's sure he'd do anything to help get her name out there. Plus, there's no doubt her boss would have connections in one of the biggest music powerhouses of the country.
Maybe L.A. isn't such an awful idea. She needs a vacation after all the stupid drama she's been through, Muffgate and all.
But, ugh, Star Wars... No thank you.
Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), Benji's the one who convinces Beca to come.
It's the sincerity in his voice when he talks about Legacy. The excitement is there, but with it is the nervousness.
"We're not official... But I promised to take her after she told me that she loved Star Wars too and this could be really good for us. I just don't want it to be awkward with Jesse being there, but then I don't want it to be awkward for me and Em. I really like her and I really want it to work, Beca," he sighs.
Beca nods sympathetically. She can't help but feel for the guy. She adores Benji and his quirks.
She doesn't want to break his spirits by mentioning the fact that Emily confessed that she wasn't that into Star Wars.
Thus, the creation of why Star Wars Celebration is the bane of Beca's existence.
Not that Star Wars Celebration was ever gonna be enough for Jesse, and Beca knew that.
He slips her sticky notes at first.
She opens her counterpoint class textbook one day to find a bright green sticky, with "May the Force be with you" scratched in his handwriting.
She finds one a few days later, "Leia Organa & Han Solo 4ever" stuck to the glass of the picture of her and Jesse on her nightstand.
When she asks him to buy her a bottle of shampoo, it appears in her shower with a note that says, "So your hair doesn't go all Chewbacca."
She finds a dozen more around the Bellas house. They're all, she assumes, quotes from the films or stupid comments relating to it. She should be pissed, but she finds them strangely endearing.
"I don't understand any of these," she deadpans when she finally confronts him.
He replies with a smug smirk. "Yeah, I figured."
"I'm still not watching it," she hums, turning her cheek as she stalks away from him on the quad.
"Aw, Bec! You have to be at least a little bit curious!" He yells to her turned back. "You're going to SWC, you need to know!"
She gives him an over the shoulder glare before sprinting her way to Bellas practice.
Just as she let’s her guard down, it gets worse.
He starts quoting lines out loud.
He slips "You don't know the power of the dark side" into her ear right before they begin an impromptu riff-off.
The Trebles lose to the Bellas' rendition of Icona Pop's "I Don't Care" after a heated leader sing-off with Jesse and Beca going for blood.
Serves them right.
//
When they're eating dinner at a restaurant and he can't seem to decide between the sweet and sour pork or the almond chicken, he hands the decision to her with a, "Help me, Beca-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope," which, to no surprise, only earns an eye roll and a loaded sigh.
//
She nearly screams when he pulls a quote out of his ass at the most inappropriate of times.
"The Force is strong with this one."
She sits up from her spot on the bed, glaring daggers into his eyes. "Oh my God. I'm never having sex with you again. Like, ever."
"But that was a compliment! You wouldn't know because you hate George Lucas and his brilliant franchise."
The room is dark, but she can see the smugness on his face. It drives her nuts, and she knows he won't take no for an answer. It's time to end this once and for all.
She sighs. "If I watch the movies, will you finally shut up?"
"Really? You'll do it?!"
"If you shut up."
"Deal!"
She knows that's a fat chance, but she really has had enough with her nerd's incessant quotes.
His persistence is enamoring, she’ll give him that.
Which brings us back to the first weekend of April.
"I promise you, babe, you won't regret this."
There's two weeks to Star Wars nerdom, and Jesse has a whole franchise to introduce her to.
She officially hates herself.
She hates how she loves him too much to keep up her stubborn front.
His face annoys her. Especially that thing he does with his eyes. Ugh. She hates that.
And then there are his fun facts. Beca concludes that he and Benji could churn out a Star Wars love baby easily. She hates that.
There's also Han Solo. She hates him, too, because his arrogant ass is pretty goddamn sexy. And Princess Leia? Equally as sexy.
(Wait. What?)
The thing she hates the most? That she actually finds herself enjoying it.
She finds that she doesn't hate C-3PO. She actually relates to the prissy, gold robot. He and R2-D2 can stay.
Of course she resists at first. She makes snide comments at the space junk and graphics of it all. But when Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, and Han almost die in a garbage compactor, Beca finds herself shrinking into Jesse's side in anticipation for the worst. Jesse, however, watches in complete repose, which comforts her in a way, even though all she wants to do is yell at the stupid gold droid and his stupid beeping companion to hurry up and shut down all the garbage mashers on the detention level!
So when A New Hope ends and they're onto The Empire Strikes Back, she's feeling at ease. Excited, even.
"Honestly, when did they become a thing?" she asks, gesturing to Han and Leia's stubborn glares, a telltale sign that they were completely and utterly in love.
"Since the universe said so," he replies, nonchalant as ever as she bites her tongue to keep from laughing out loud.
//
"That did—That did not just happen?" She actually gasps when C-3PO's beaten into a pile of broken robot parts. Beca Mitchell does not gasp.
"Don't you worry your pretty little head, Bec."
//
"They're not actually gonna do that, right?"
Silence.
"They're not allowed to freeze Han Solo in carbonite!"
"Shh."
"Jesse."
"I love you."
"I know."
Beca’s visibly upset by this. It shows in the way her eyes were unblinkingly staring at the laptop screen in disbelief, forehead scrunched.
"Bec, are you okay? You look a little shell-shocked," Jesse comments on Beca's (not-so) subtle reaction, eyebrows raised in concern. "I wasn't kidding when I said 'Han and Leia forever.'"
She rolls her eyes. “Not okay, Jesse.”
That’s when he sighs, presses a kiss to her cheek to comfort her, and spews out meaningless facts about Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
//
"Yoda's a little shit!"
"Don't be mean!"
//
"Luke, I am your father."
Beca's not sure if she actually expected this.
Out of the however-many Star Wars Episodes, she really didn't think it'd come this early.
"Wow, great timing, O Dark One," she retorts, watching as Luke Skywalker falls heroically into a hole of darkness.
"Is that all you have to say?" Jesse asks, mouth gaped open in disbelief.
"What am I supposed to say?"
"That was the biggest cinematic reveal of all time and your heart isn't racing?"
"It caught me off-guard, sure. Not all that surprising. Cool fight sequence, though.”
They finish the original trilogy at three in the morning. When the credits stop rolling, Jesse turns to a sleepy Beca with smug smirk fully formed on his face.
“You loved it.”
She grumbles at his sheer ability to both drive her nuts and make her grin until her cheeks hurt. She snuggles in closer, resting her head onto his chest.
“Whoa, hold on a sec. You actually loved it?”
Again, she grumbles gibberish and puts a hand to his mouth, hoping to shut him up.
“Oh man! Star Wars Celebration is gonna be amazing! We can cosplay as Han and Leia, oh and Benji can be Luke... Crap, what about Emily? Could you convince her to dress up as Yoda maybe? Wait, she’s super tall, maybe Chewbacca would be a better fit? Or maybe—”
Beca rises from her spot on Jesse’s chest to kiss him hard on the mouth, ending his rambling once and for all.
“I love you, but you’re pushing it, nerd.”
Jesse loves pushing her buttons with his persistence. It’s maddening. And annoying.
But his happiness is infectious. So is his nerdiness, apparently (is she seriously geeking over Star Wars?).
Yet somehow, it’s his chase—to get her to laugh, to smile, to feel— that makes the little annoyances all worth it.
She’s drawn to him. She’ll fight it and refuse with all her might, but she’ll allow him in.
It’s not a game, but in the end, they both win.