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“Allyson Brooke Hernandez!”
Dinah looked over at Ally with a smirk, wiggling her eyebrows and cackling quietly.
“Told you she wouldn’t be impressed.” Dinah said under her breath. Camila usually wasn’t scary, she was like a puppy on steroids; cute and hyperactive. However, she did have moments of soul sucking anger that, as displayed when Lauren tried to one up her, could send even the sweetest people (Ally) quaking in their boots.
The door to the recording studio slammed into the wall and a furious Camila stormed in, Lauren trailing behind her with a cringe on her face.
“Mila. What can I help you with?” Ally swallowed thickly as Camila stalked over to her chair, slammed her hands down on the arms and glared at her.
“I’m disappointed Ally. I expected that sort of behaviour from Dinah.” Camila said pointing at the manager in question who looked affronted.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked indignantly. Camila ignored her in favour of gripping Ally’s seat again.
“I hoped you would be above this.” Camila shook her head slowly and Ally hung her head.
“Uh, babe.” Lauren interrupted. Camila looked over her shoulder at Lauren who was watching from the doorway in amusement. “Not that this isn’t entertaining and all but didn’t we agree it didn’t matter?” Camila paused in her intimidation and stepped back from Ally.
“We did. Doesn’t mean I’m not gonna terrify her.” Camila smiled sweetly before sitting down on a chair behind her. Ally was watching her wide eyed and pale. Lauren strolled up behind Camila and put her hands on Camila’s shoulders.
“Ally, relax. She’s messing with you.” Lauren said slowly. Camila shrugged with a small smile.
“Just teaching her a lesson, that’s all babe.” She replied, reaching up to interlace their fingers on her shoulder. Dinah cleared her throat and poor Ally practically lept a mile in her seat.
“Sorry Ally.” Dinah winced before looking at Camila. “Normani texted, she want’s you and Lauren to do a livestream.” Camila looked up at Lauren who smiled and leaned down to press a soft kiss to her lips, lingering longer than she should’ve.
“I’m down for it.” Lauren replied with a shrug. “I haven’t done one in a while so it’d be fun.”
“Right, we wait for Mani, then we can do it with all five of us.” Dinah grinned down at her phone and both Lauren and Camila raised their eyebrows at Dinah’s nickname.
“Mani huh?” Lauren asked. Dinah looked up before looking down quickly. Camila giggled lowly, almost a hum in the back of her throat, and Dinah glared at her.
“Dinah’s got a crush.” Camila teased with a pout. Dinah rolled her eyes and wheeled over to grab her laptop to place on the table.
“Shut up Walz.” She muttered. “Zip it and get tweeting. Both of you.”
----
After waiting for Normani and tweeting out about the livestream, the five of them were ready. Lauren was sat in the middle of the screen, Normani on her left, Ally on her right, Dinah over her shoulders and Camila directly on her lap, Lauren resting her head on Camila’s shoulder.
They loaded up the livestream and Camila smiled, watching the viewers tick up a lot faster than usual, and to higher numbers.
“Hey guys! It’s Lauren here and I’m sure you know these four but I’mma introduce them anyway.” Lauren said with a grin. “This wonderful manager is Normani, this one over my shoulder is Dinah, short stack on my right is Ally and this beautiful singer is Camila.”
“Lo, seriously.” Camila muttered, feeling her cheeks flush slightly. Lauren smirked and wrapped her arm tighter around Camila’s midsection.
“It’s true though babe.” She replied, breathing down Camila’s neck with every word. Camila shivered and tried to focus on Dinah’s arguing with the fans.
“No it’s Camren. Not any other stupid ass name.” She grumbled. Camila lifted her hand off of Lauren’s shoulder and smacked Dinah lightly.
“Don’t be mean to my fans.” She scolded with a frown.
“Yeah D. Don’t be a bitch.” Normani laughed. Dinah looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“You wanna start Mani?” She asked simply. Normani turned back to the laptop without another word. Dinah muttered to herself and smirked.
“So, as you know Lauser and Walz here did a little duet. You haven’t heard it yet but damn is it good.” Dinah sighed. Ally nodded enthusiastically and Camila glared at her again.
“Allyson here decided to make another announcement which we weren’t going to tell you until the song came out.” Camila said with a wry smile at Ally who sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. Lauren ran her hand down Camila’s side and sighed.
“Babe, quit scaring Ally.” She said, Camila rolled her eyes and traced her free hand down Lauren’s neck slowly. Lauren’s eyelids fluttered and she leaned out of Camila’s touch as white teeth chewed her bottom lip. “Camz…” Lauren trailed off and Camila watched her with a smirk.
“So, Camren fans and I guess everyone else who’s watching; me and Lauren did actually get together after recording.” Camila said to the camera, giving her girlfriend time to calm down from her teasing touches. “Questions. You got any? Mani pick some would ya?” Normani nodded and skimmed through the comments.
“How did you go from hating her to dating her?” Normani read out. Camila cleared her throat when she felt Lauren’s expectant gaze on her profile. Camila looked down at the laptop’s keyboard as she replied.
“She brought me hot chocolate on the first day of recording and I realised maybe she wasn’t a bitch. I mean a bad person.” Camila admitted quietly. Lauren placed a finger under Camila’s chin and turned her head slightly.
“You're kidding right? Since day one?” She asked softly. Camila shrugged and turned back to the camera with a smirk.
“That and she’s fricking hot. Like have you seen her?” She added. Dinah snorted and nodded her head.
“True. Hot girl like you Lauser? Yeah you weren’t escaping the Cabello effect.” Normani frowned.
“What the heck is the ‘Cabello effect’?” She asked, leaning around to look at Camila and Dinah. Camila groaned and buried her face in Lauren’s neck, mumbling to herself. Ally leaned around Lauren to grin at Normani.
“The Cabello effect is Camila’s effect on girls. Like it’s dangerous. Either sucks you in as a friend or as a date.” Ally said. “It’s never failed.”
“Except with that one girl.” Dinah added. Ally snapped her fingers.
“Yeah, she did not like the effect.” Ally agreed. Camila looked up with a smirk.
“Oh she liked it. Just not for a long amount of time.” Camila said slyly. Lauren huffed slightly and Camila pressed a kiss to her jawline. “In the past babe.” She whispered. Normani shook her head as she watched Lauren melt under Camila’s touch. She looked back for more questions.
“Hey Mila. Top or bottom?” She asked with a sly smile. Dinah cackled and Ally hid behind her hands. Lauren blushed and coughed, looking down at Camila’s hands as they trailed over her ribs. Camila smirked and cupped Lauren’s cheek, forcing her to look up. She leaned forward and pressed a fairly rough and passionate kiss to Lauren’s lips, leaving her breathless and putty in Camila’s hands.
“What do you think Mani?” Camila replied, not looking away from Lauren’s glassy and dazed expression.
“So Mila tops, Lauren’s a softie, the badass thing is all an act. Next question.” Dinah summarized with a laugh.
“Um… when’s the song out?”
“Soon. In fact,” Camila paused and looked at Dinah who nodded, “Watch us perform our song on Jimmy Fallon in two weeks.” Camila finished with a grin.
----
They answered a few more questions and messed around more before signing off and ending the livestream.
“That was fun.” Camila said with a smile. Lauren nodded and kissed her softly on the cheek.
“It was.”
“Ugh, you two are so sappy it’s untrue.” Normani complained. Dinah snorted.
“Babe, we are totally like that.” She said before slapping a hand over her mouth. Camila looked between them curiously.
“China, was she your date when I was still fighting with Lo?” Camila asked slowly. Dinah nodded, hand still clapped over her mouth.
“Went well then?” Ally teased and Camila laughed, Lauren smirked and nudged Normani’s leg.
“Sleeping with the enemy Miss Kordei.” Lauren shook her head. “Unacceptable.”
“Er, says you.” Normani shot back. Lauren paused before nodding her head in defeat.
“You got me there.”
“Anyway, you ready for the world to hear our song?” Camila asked, wrapping her arms around Lauren’s neck, still sitting in her lap. Lauren nodded once.
“Hey Dinah, how’d you get them on Jimmy anyway?” Ally asked curiously. Dinah shrugged and smirked mysteriously and slightly creepily.
“Don’t you worry Ally. Just know I got connections.” She replied slowly, the four girls looked at her with varying stages of alarm on their faces.
“You’re really scary sometimes.” Ally squeaked out quietly.
----
It was performance night. They were nervous but it was going to be fine. Dinah had calmed Camila down with a shockingly good pep talk and Normani chilled out Lauren with a similarly easy pep talk.
They met in the wings a few minutes before they were due to go on and Camila was still nervous.
“You ready babe?” Lauren asked, gripping her microphone tightly. Camila nodded jerkily.
“Totally cool. Totally ready… totally freaking out.” She whispered. Lauren gripped Camila’s white jacket and pulled her into a hard, short kiss. Just enough to calm their nerves and enjoy the feeling of the others lips caressing their own.
“You’ll be great.” Lauren reassured her. Camila grinned back at her.
“As will you.” Jimmy’s voice echoed through as he introduced them.
“It’s Lauren Jauregui and Camila Cabello, performing their new duet Strangers !”
----
It was over. Just like that. Three minutes and forty one seconds later and it was over. Give or take a few seconds. Lauren and Camila finished with a grin before launching at each other and delving into a tight hug before making their way over to sit next to Jimmy.
“Alright normally you guys will disappear backstage but this time we’re gonna have a chat.” He said. He leant forward on his chair, leaning on his table and looked at them seriously. “That was amazing. Like in rehearsals it was good but that was even better.” The crowd cheered and clapped and Camila blushed while Lauren looked smug.
“Thanks. It was really fun.” Lauren said, letting her arm fall around Camila’s shoulders as they sat on the small sofa. Camila instantly relaxed into her side and placed a hand on Lauren’s knee. Jimmy smirked slightly, before shuffling a few cards on his desk.
“I also hear that maybe that song wasn’t the only thing you guys made in that studio.” He said with a grin. Camila didn’t think she could blush anymore but apparently she was wrong.
“We made out in the studio. Jesus nothing more happened in that recording booth.” Lauren laughed and the audience joined in. Jimmy grinned.
“So more happened outside the studio?” He asked hopefully. Someone in the crowd yelled Camren and Camila narrowed her eyes.
“Dinah I know that was you!” She called out.
“Shit.” A muffled voice echoed around the room and everyone laughed even Camila who had finally stopped blushing.
“But yeah, the song, er, ended our feud.” Camila said, interlacing her fingers with Lauren’s above her shoulder. Lauren grinned and rolled her eyes.
“It wasn’t a feud.” She argued. Camila turned around and looked at her.
“You kept trying to make my songs better.” Camila said indignantly. “Which you didn’t do by the way.” The crowd had a collective ‘oooh’ and Lauren chuckled before looking at Jimmy.
“All I did was cover a few songs that I liked. If they happened to just be Camz’s, well, that’s a coincidence. Besides you did the same thing with my songs.” Lauren pointed out. Camila scoffed.
“Yeah in retaliation to you. You started it.” Camila muttered. Lauren laughed, pulling her closer again.
“Whatever, you ended it when you said I was hot.” Lauren said with a smug smile. Camila sighed deeply.
“Anyway, it was a feud. It’s over now. I was the mature adult and ended it-” Camila said solemnly.
“Please, you practically jumped me.” Lauren interrupted.
“And now we’re happily dating.” Camila finished, ignoring Lauren’s input. Jimmy was watching them with a fond smile before he shook his head.
“Nice to know music can bring people closer.” He said. Lauren nodded in agreement.
“That’s what we wanted to do with Strangers , bring people together. Even though the song is about missing your ex, it’s still wishing people could be brought closer.” Lauren said, Camila watched her with a soft smile; Lauren was a naturally passionate person, especially about her music. She was brought of her musings when Lauren looked at her curiously. Camila looked back to Jimmy with a guilty smile.
“Look, it’s a mainstream song that uses female pronouns with two female singers. We weren’t about to hide ourselves from the public and it felt good. No one’s ever done this kind of sensual love song between girls and hey if it brings people together from the LGBT community and everyone else then bonus.” Camila said with a grin. Jimmy nodded.
“Well, that’s it for Lauren and Camila, don’t forget Strangers is available now so go out and support these two up coming singers in their futures.” Jimmy said with a grin.
The show cut to commercial just as Lauren pulled Camila into a soft kiss and the audience cooed. Lauren smiled against Camila’s lips when she heard a yell and flipped Dinah off from her place just behind the cameras, not disconnecting their lips once.
----
“That was awesome.” Camila sighed in the backseat of the Jeep, her legs entangled with Lauren’s and her head resting on Lauren’s shoulder. Lauren hummed and ran her hand under Camila’s t-shirt.
“It really was. Hopefully a kickstart to our careers.” She muttered. Camila looked up and leaned up to capture Lauren’s lips gently.
“I’m so glad you tried to one up me.” She sighed against Lauren’s lips, moving her hand to curl around Lauren’s neck, pulling her into a deeper kiss. Her tongue swiping over Lauren’s lips gently.
“Hmm, I’m glad you got pissed off and tried to one up me.” She gasped when Camila pulled away to trail her kisses down Lauren’s neck.
“Ay, you should be thanking me for setting you two up in recording studio.” Dinah called from the front seat. “Also can’t you wait until we at the hotel to get freaky?”
Ally sighed from her seat next to Lauren and nudged her hard in the side, making her wince and shift more into Camila. Camila looked up and stared at Ally who huffed and crossed her arms.
“Seriously, keep it in your pants Mila.”