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unbealevable · 3 years

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IF MY BODY HAD A SAY, I WOULDN’T TURN AWAY ➝ BECHLOE.

TAGGING ➝ Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Apartment, Prospect Park, dance studio, apartment again.

TIME FRAME ➝ 2/14, afternoon onward.

WARNINGS ➝ None.

NOTES ➝ Beca and Chloe spend a not at all gay Valentine’s Day together. Emotional!Beca. Sad!Chloe. Exotic Dancer!Chloe. Super platonic napping together!Bechloe.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca shuffled through the apartment door around noon on Sunday as she normally did after Jesse weekend visits--clutching a cardboard cup carrier with 3 large coffees and a bag of bagels with an overnight bag slung over her shoulder. She felt bad leaving Chloe for two nights with the kittens alone, but she couldn’t just leave Jesse to himself after he spent money on airfare for what turned out to be a very different, way more permanent weekend visit.

Her mind spun after he’d broken the news to her during their Friday night date, and she’d sort of been dissociating throughout the rest of the weekend, lost in a fog in his shoebox apartment he was super proud of. Having Jesse living in NYC would completely change a long distance dynamic she’d grown used to and comfortable with for the past two years. They could see each other all the time. Hell, she’d probably be expected to move in with him.

And yet… as she closed the door behind her and lay eyes on Chloe, her heart cracked in her chest. She didn’t want to leave their tiny, shitty apartment. She didn’t want to leave Chloe. And what that meant… Beca wasn’t sure she was ready to face that, even though Jesse put her in a position now to face the music.

“Hey, Dr. B,” she greeted with a smile that pulled a bit strained at the edges, setting her bag down before extending the coffee cup to Chloe. Then she shrugged off her coat, unwound her scarf, and peeled off her slouchy beanie, hanging them all up on the coat rack by the door. “How’re you doing? Get enough sleep? I’ll take over kitten duty today so you can take a really long nap if you need one.”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe really didn’t know exactly what it was about Jesse that she didn’t like. He was fine, he was a nice guy, and he obviously made Beca happy enough, considering how long they’d been together. He had never done anything wrong to her, but she just...didn’t like him. So, weekends like this one, with Beca out of the apartment and spending time alone with Jesse always dampened Chloe’s mood, even if she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

Fortunately, she had the kittens this weekend to keep her busy, and they certainly did a good job at that. Even sleeping, which was something Chloe always found incredibly hard without Beca beside her these days, came a little more easily to her, since she was so exhausted. But Chloe didn’t mind; she liked having somebody to care for, five little kittens who needed her, so she wasn’t complaining.

By the time Beca returned, Chloe was sure that exhaustion was written clear as day all over her tired face, but she still pushed a bright grin to her lips, eyes shining as they shot to the coffee cups. She was busy by the sink, cleaning the milk syringes while the kittens slept, but paused to float across the room, eager to accept a drink.

“Hi!” Making grabby hands at the coffee cup, Chloe pulled it tightly to her chest, letting out a contented hum at the very smell. She eyed Beca as she finally took a sip, head shaking in response. “No, it’s okay. It was a good weekend, they all ate a lot and did a bunch of sleeping. Their eyes all open now. I mean, they don’t really stay all the way open, but they’re getting better at it.” Chloe smiled triumphantly. “I’m teaching tonight, though. So are you going to be okay with them for a couple hours then?”

BECA MITCHELL

Cheeks still flushed from her long walk through the cold, Beca carried her large coffee to Chloe’s side of the bed and sat down, grinning at the kittens. “Hey, little goblins! I missed you guys!” She reached into their makeshift bed and stroked their fur, gasping in an over dramatic fashion. “Whaaat? No way! You guys are all opening your eyes? Even you, Purple Princess? And I missed it?? I’ll forgive you but that’s amazing!”

Her head turned back toward Chloe when she mentioned she was teaching tonight, nodding. “Yeah, no sweat. I’ll even make dinner, too. Any requests?”

CHLOE BEALE

Despite the fact that she was around animal lovers all day at both school and her internship, all people who fawned over them and spoke in baby voices whenever they so much as saw an animal, Chloe was almost positive she was never going to not smile at the way Beca acted around the kittens. There was just something overly adorable about her scrappy best friend turning into mush, it made Chloe’s heart flutter.

Plopping down onto Beca’s side of the bed, Chloe laid back against the pillows, resting her drink on her stomach with her fingers wrapped around the cup. “You spoil me,” she teased, glancing toward the ceiling. “I don’t know yet, I’ll think about it.” Mostly to be polite, she added with a small hum, “How was your weekend?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca had always complained about their apartment, but it had become home in the way the Bellas' house had back at Barden. Not necessarily because of the space itself, but because of her roommates. Her best friends. The thought of leaving someday soon to move in with Jesse… it should’ve been exciting, but it wasn’t.

She carefully scooped up her little Green guy, twisting to lie on Chloe’s pillow in a half-reclining position. Setting the coffee aside, she situated the baby kitten atop her chest (higher up, so as to not brush against her still sore nips). “Good,” she said with a slight shrug. It was easier to keep her focus on the kitten, carding her fingers through his fuzzy fur atop his head. “Jesse moved here.” Saying it aloud made it more real, and anxiety surged in her gut. She knew she should’ve smiled or something, but she remained weirdly emotionally distant instead. Like she was keeping that packaged and set aside to maybe poke at and pick through later.

CHLOE BEALE

Jesse moved here.

For some reason, Chloe’s heart dropped.

It wasn’t a bad thing—it would be awesome for both Beca and Jesse; Chloe had always thought long distance must suck, so she knew she should be happy for them. It didn’t take a genius, however, to figure out what Beca’s long-term boyfriend moving to their city would mean. She’d known that this wouldn’t be forever, this cramped set up in their tiny apartment with their shared pull-out bed, but the thought didn’t make Chloe any less sad.

She had no right to be, though, so instead of saying so, she tilted her head to glance up at Beca. “Oh?” she questioned, offering Beca the most sincere smile she could manage. “That’s really exciting, Bec.” So why didn’t Beca seem excited? Chloe studied her expression for a moment, before adding softly, “Right?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca had always been a shitty liar. She had no poker face and she knew it. Especially around someone like Chloe, who could read her better than she could read herself. So she knew her smile pulled more like a wince, strained at its edges and completely unconvincing. She didn’t bother meeting Chloe’s eyes, knowing she’d see the swirling conflicting emotions there--sadness, worry, fear. Guilt. So much guilt.

“Yeah, it’s exciting. I had no idea he was planning this, but…” She puffed out a chuckle more strained than her smile, her laughter ringing hollow. “He’s all about the grand romantic movie-type surprises. What a nerd, right?”

CHLOE BEALE

Maybe it was just because Chloe had never had something like this before. After high school, she’d never had a serious boyfriend or girlfriend, so maybe she was just yearning a bit. Yeah, she decided, that had to be it. She should be happy for Beca; Beca was her best friend, she deserved to be so, so happy, and she deserved a best friend who was just as happy for her. So, Chloe pushed back her own feelings, and forced a brighter smile to her face.

“Super nerdy,” she agreed with a small nod of her head. “Definitely kind of romantic, though, right?” She made herself busy with her coffee cup, pushing herself upward a bit to take another sip. Her next question came before she could even stop herself, and with her gaze deliberately away from Beca. “So, you’re moving out?” To ask so aloud caused her heart to twist uncomfortably.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca had never really questioned her relationship. Jesse was an acapella boy, she was an acapella girl. They just… worked. It was easy. He was a great boyfriend, right? Loyal, funny, sweet. What more could she want?

The question stirred up a whole host of anxiety when she realized the answer was more. God, how greedy could she be? Jesse had to be enough for her. Hell, she barely even deserved him as it was.

“Oh! Um--probably eventually, but not yet,” Beca said, finally gathering herself enough to cut a glance at Chloe. “I’d never leave you guys hanging with rent like that. Plus, I mean--I promised I’d help with these little guys and I wanna see that through. So you’re stuck with me a little while longer, Beale. Can’t get rid of me that easily.” Her lips twisted into a smirk despite the sad glint in her eye.

CHLOE BEALE

Although she mentally prepared herself for Beca to throw at her that she was leaving over the next couple days—because why wait, right?—the response that came broke her heart almost as much as the expected one would’ve. ‘Eventually’ would come sooner rather than later. Chloe didn’t mean to let her smile fall the way it did, but caught herself after only a quick pause, pushing it dutifully back into place. “Living with your boyfriend makes sense,” she said with a small shrug, suddenly very much aware of the fact that she needed to not be directly beside Beca right now.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she shuffled toward the kitchen, ignoring the uncomfortable swirl in her stomach. “Is it still cold outside?” she asked as she began fidgeting with the syringes again. They were already clean, but Chloe started the whole process over, shuffling uncomfortably from foot to foot. A walk sounded good right now.

BECA MITCHELL

Chloe wasn’t wrong. Living with her boyfriend definitely made sense. It should be exciting, not having to be long distance after spending two years dealing with Facetimes and only managing visits every other month or so.

So why did she feel so… not excited?

Especially when Chloe got up, putting distance between them. Taking in a shaky breath and focusing back on the kitten now curled up on her chest, Beca nodded. “Yeah. Freezing. Are you, um--going somewhere now?” Beca kinda hoped they could hang out. After a weekend away from Chloe, she kinda missed her… weird as that was.

CHLOE BEALE

Why she so adamantly needed to put a little distance between herself and Beca right now, Chloe wasn’t sure. Maybe she’d just gotten too dependent on her company, and realized she needed to get used to not being in it so much. The idea of actually leaving, though, after a whole weekend apart, really wasn’t the most appealing, so Beca’s response was apparently enough for her to talk herself out of it.

“Oh, okay,” she nodded, shoulder shrugging once again. “No. I was going to go for a walk maybe, but not if it’s still cold.” She could at least put the tiny apartment’s worth of distance between them, so Chloe hopped up onto the small counter, eyes down on the syringes she’d begun to dry.

BECA MITCHELL

“I could walk,” Beca blurted before she could really help it. “If you want company? I mean, it’s cold but we could bundle up. I just…” She blew out a puff of air. “I feel like I need to get out and move around all of a sudden.” Anything but being trapped in that apartment with Chloe and her shitty thoughts. She frowned at the box of kittens. “Unless--do they need me to stay? We can leave ‘em for like, half an hour or so, right? Do a lap around the park trail or something?” Chloe had just washed the syringes, which hopefully meant they were all fed and could spend a little time without their watchful eyes.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe didn’t necessarily want to walk. Like Beca had said, it was freezing out, and she’d get plenty of exercise when she taught her exotic dancing class this evening. She just wanted to clear her mind, because Chloe might not know much of anything else right now, but she knew she was certainly not supposed to be feeling this sad about her best friend taking a normal next step with her boyfriend. Her gaze drifted toward Beca then, though, with Chloe tilting her head. “You want to walk with me?” she questioned, glancing briefly toward the dreary weather out the window. “They’re okay on their own for a little bit. They’re just sleeping right now, anyway.” She shot Beca a small smile, not her usual bright, excited one. “We can walk.”

BECA MITCHELL

While Beca bottled her emotions as best as she possibly could, Chloe wore hers on her sleeve. So even oblivious Beca sensed the shift in her mood--which Beca of course chalked up to the sadness at talking about Beca moving out in the near future. Beca was sad, too. Maybe a little too sad, but she’d always been bad at handling life transitions anyway.

“Cool. Gimme a couple minutes.” Beca carefully settled Green Goblin back into his bed with his siblings before pushing out of bed. Then she made sure to dress in her warmest clothes, layering up shirts and socks with her puffy black coat, turquoise beanie, scarf, and mittens, and her combat boots laced up high.

Ten minutes later, Beca walked beside Chloe in comfortable silence as they headed toward Prospect Park. Thanks to the recent winter storm, the park trail was clear but a beautiful blanket of bright white snow reflected the sunlight overhead on the grassy grounds around them. Snow lined the branches of the leafless trees lining the path. (It kinda felt like a Kinkade painting, Beca mused in her head.) A stinging chill lingered in the air but at least it wasn’t actively snowing anymore. “So what’s your topic covering in class tonight?” Beca asked, half curious and half teasing as she forced a playful sort of smirk in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Does it involve a pole?”

CHLOE BEALE

Already wearing thick inner lined leggings and a sweater, Chloe shuffled around in near silence, only humming quietly to herself every now and then, as she dressed for their impromptu walk. She almost wished she’d taken Beca up on that nap offer instead, but soon she was dressed in a thick red coat, scarf, gloves and boots, and after checking on the sleeping kittens once more, she headed out into the cold by Beca’s side, grateful for the fresh air.

Her phone buzzed in her back pocket—Tinder people were way more desperate on Valentine’s Day—but Chloe ignored it, instead just taking in the snow-covered surroundings. She lifted her head at the sound of Beca’s voice. “There’s always a pole involved,” Chloe grinned, clasping her gloved hands together as they walked. “Special Valentine’s class, though. Lots of sensual music… I’m basically going to be getting people worked up and then sending them home to their partners to finish Valentine’s Day the right way, huh?” Her nose wrinkled. “Shouldn’t you be spending the day with Jesse?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca snorted. “That’s super generous of you. I hope you get some good tips or whatever.” She wasn’t sure why, but she really didn’t like talking about Chloe’s side gig. No offense to exotic dancers or anything--Beca wasn’t judging them. It just made Beca feel weird thinking about Chloe doing that in front of people. Some of whom might be creepy weirdos.

At the mention of Valentine’s Day, Beca shook her head. “We basically considered yesterday Valentine’s Day since I always come home on Sunday. Told him I had work to do before I go back to the office tomorrow.” Which… wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t really the full truth? She didn’t have a pressing deadline, but she always had work she could be doing.

Beca waited until they reached the snow-dusted Lullwater Bridge, standing in the center and turning to look out over the frozen water below. Hands in her pockets, her frozen breath escaped in a visible cloud. “I don’t know why I’m not stoked,” she muttered after a minute or so, barely audible.

CHLOE BEALE

“Always happy to help them,” Chloe winked. Someone might as well enjoy a wild Valentine’s night on her account; it wasn’t like Chloe was going to get one. At least she wasn’t alone, though. As much as she’d wanted to escape Beca’s presence before, she found that she was grateful for it now. The park looked super pretty, like something from a painting, and having her best friend by her side made it even better somehow.

As much as she didn’t want to think about how Beca and Jesse had spent their day-before-Valentine’s together—because nobody wanted to think about their best friend doing that, right?—a part of her was kind of curious. Especially after what Stacie had told her… Of course, she wasn’t going to bring that up, so Chloe only nodded. “Well, I’m sorry to Jesse, but I’m glad you’ll be my Valentine’s date. The kittens are super cute, but the conversation is always kind of one-sided.”

Naturally pausing at the same time, Chloe shuffled toward the wall of the bridge, peering down into the ice, then instinctively began to run her glove covered finger through the built up snow. It was very peaceful, in spite of the cold, and Beca’s volume seemed to be in keeping with the calmness around them, despite the actual words. Chloe glanced toward her, softened eyes studying her expression. “About Jesse?”

BECA MITCHELL

Lips pulled inward as she kept her eyes trained on the serene scene before her, her head jerked upward and bobbed a few times. Maybe she’d been second guessing her relationship for a while. Maybe a little longer than she cared to admit. But voicing it--dealing with it--Beca didn’t think she was strong enough to do that.

Chloe never judged her. Even in Beca’s darkest moments, her best friend remained a constant source of support. Beca knew she wouldn’t judge her now. Not ever.

She didn’t deserve Chloe.

Just like she didn’t deserve Jesse.

Removing her hands from her pockets, she crossed her arms over her chest, clenching her jaw against the wave of emotion lodged in her throat. Beca didn’t realize a single tear had slipped free until a breeze picked up and it stung her cheek, and she hurried to brush it away with her mitten-covered knuckle.

CHLOE BEALE

It wasn’t like Chloe was under the delusion that Beca and Jesse’s relationship was perfect. Again, Stacie had let a few things slip recently that would hint at the exact opposite, but Chloe didn’t fully understand Beca’s reaction.

She only watched her, continuing to study her expression, and in doing so watched as her eyes began to gloss over with a shine that completely tore Chloe’s heart in two. Back-stepping from the wall to move closer to Beca, Chloe reached out a gloved hand to settle comfortingly against her upper arm. “Hey, it’s okay,” she said in a softer voice, concern lacing her tone. “Bec, it’s a really big step, you know? You’ve been living really far apart for the last two years, I bet it has to be kind of scary that that’s going to change.” It wasn’t like Beca would even be able to feel it through her puffy coat, but Chloe gently ran her fingertips against her arm, hoping to soothe her somehow. “You’re allowed to be scared.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Shit. Sorry,” Beca croaked, willing herself to get her shit together. She didn’t want to lose it--not ever, really--but definitely not in front of anyone. Even Chloe. “I’m not scared.” Not of what Chloe was suggesting, at least.

Despite herself and her innate desire to bolt, Beca leaned into Chloe instead, craving warmth and maybe a bit of comfort. Clearing her throat, she swallowed hard. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she muttered, blowing out another hard, decompressing breath. Gathering her courage, she glanced back to Chloe and forced a watery smile. “I’m fine. I’m really stressed, y’know? Work’s been a huge pain lately and I haven’t really been sleeping super great… but I’m fine.” The last thing she wanted was Chloe worrying about her.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe’s confusing feelings, her apparent devastation over something as silly as her best friend eventually moving out of their tiny apartment, paled significantly in comparison to Beca’s. Seeing Beca sad was a rarity, especially like this, and the protective part of her immediately pushed its way to the forefront, wanting to offer her any kind of comfort she could. “It’s okay,” she promised in the same soft voice, “Nobody should ever apologize for feeling.”

Stress sucked, Chloe knew what it could do to a person, but this just felt different somehow. Although she nodded along with Beca’s explanation, her hand slipped from Beca’s arm, until she could instead wrap her small frame in a one-armed hug. She expected Beca to push her off, of course, but whatever she could do to help, she’d try. In spite of herself, of wanting to agree and let Beca voice her feelings, Chloe let out a small sigh, head shaking gently this time. “I don’t think you’re fine, Bec.”

BECA MITCHELL

It honestly felt different than regular stress to Beca, too--but stress was as close as she could come to describing the sensations wracking her body. Like she wanted to run away for a while. (And Beca hated running, so that meant it was pretty serious.) She leaned into Chloe instead, trusting that gut instinct to not be alone right now. “Maybe I’m not,” she allowed, again knowing Chloe would figure out Beca’s feelings before Beca would based on their track record. But she really didn’t think she was ready to unpack anything right now. (Not that she’d ever be.) After a beat, she puffed out another strained chuckle. “Wow, I’m a pretty shitty Valentine’s date, huh?”

CHLOE BEALE

Although she wasn’t going to push, Chloe also wasn’t going to let Beca battle her feelings alone. She waited patiently for Beca to think them through, arm tightening to hold her a little closer. Two grown women huddled together in the middle of the park probably looked weird to anybody passing by, but Chloe always found it easy to lose herself in their small bubble, so it didn’t matter to her. She nodded when Beca agreed, though let out a soft chuckle then. “I don’t know, you’re the best Valentine’s date I’ve had this year,” she tried, squeezing a little tighter, before letting go, hand once more settling against Beca’s arm. “Want me to get Charlotte to cover for me tonight? I don’t think she’ll mind. We can cuddle up with the kittens and watch a movie.” A mischievous smile stretched onto her lips. “A super cheesy one.”

BECA MITCHELL

One perk about the frigid temperature was the relative emptiness of a typically busy as hell park. Beca didn’t really care if anyone thought they were weird, anyway. (Plus, it was really hard to flip someone off while wearing mittens.) Regardless, she appreciated Chloe’s sensitivity and not pushing her to talk more. She shook her head when Chloe offered to cancel her class. “No, no. I’ll be fine, I promise. You go do your sexy dancer thing.” Beca took Chloe’s arm and tucked it through the crook of hers, urging her to keep on along the bridge. “C’mon. Let’s hit up the hot chocolate cart on the way back. My treat.” Least she could do for getting all emotional during what was supposed to be a chill walk.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe loved all of the things that kept her busy, even her part-time job, but she mentally cursed herself for it today. Leaving Beca alone really did not sit well with her, even if she could probably use the space. “Fine, fine,” she relented with a wrinkle of her nose, though she brightened at her next idea. “Oh! Why don’t you come with me? You could just watch, or you could even try it yourself.” Her eyes widened with excitement at the very thought. “I bet Amy would be okay with watching the kittens for a couple hours while we’re gone.” Easily looping her arm through Beca’s, she allowed her to guide her along the bridge. “Oh, hot chocolate sounds really good right now,” Chloe said dreamily, instinctively tightening her arm.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca’s eyes popped wide at Chloe’s suggestion. “Come with you?” A nervous sort of chuckle escaped and she shook her head. “No thanks. I don’t even--I don’t think that’s my thing?” Part of her had been curious, ever since Chloe had mentioned this gig, what it was like. She had to admit, the idea of watching Chloe teaching exotic dancing might prove a little too tempting to ignore. (If only to make fun of her about it later, of course!) “I’ll think about it,” she conceded, knowing Chloe would likely keep on her until she relented anyway.

CHLOE BEALE

Despite Beca’s initial response to joining her for an evening of exotic dancing, a small part of Chloe really wasn’t too surprised when she eventually relented. For some reason ‘no’ never really meant no with Beca, and Chloe wondered if that was specific to her or not. Regardless, the idea of bringing her along to tonight’s class was exciting, and Chloe also felt much more comfortable doing so than leaving her to mope around the apartment when it was obvious that Beca was very much not fine.

Being the teacher, Chloe always made sure to arrive early so she could set up before everybody else showed, and she beamed proudly as she led Beca into the currently empty dance studio, flicking on the light switch to reveal enough floor to ceiling poles set up for each member of the small class.

“I think you’re gonna love this,” Chloe mused as she set down her large bag on the shiny hardwood floor, then instantly got to work on peeling off her thick winter layers, which would eventually leave her in a much less winter appropriate outfit. Pole dancing was tiring work; the colder weather really didn’t matter, everybody would be sweating soon. As she undressed, she motioned toward a chair positioned off to the side. “You wanna go put that in the back and you can sit there? If you sit up front, there’s going to be a lot of people watching you… and people make some pretty intense faces while they do this,” she said with a wrinkle of her nose.

Other than her coat, which she laid down neatly on top, everything else was stuffed into the bag, before Chloe lowered to the floor to begin fastening her heels into place. She glanced toward Beca, then to the nearest pole, brows lifting and lowering playfully. “Do you want to try it before everybody gets here? I can show you some super easy moves.”

BECA MITCHELL

Since they first met, Chloe had this weird superhuman ability to coax Beca out of her carefully constructed shell. That power didn't seem to fade, in fact it only grew stronger throughout their friendship.

That's how Beca found herself in an exotic dance studio that Sunday night. Clad in her typical plaid shirt and dark skinny jeans with boots, she dropped into the chair Chloe motioned to. "I'm good. Thanks though," Beca said with an amused smile. Beca could dance just fine, but she knew she had no shot at doing this type of dancing with any sort of believability.

As soon as Chloe began stripping down, Beca's eyes dropped to her fingernails on instinct. She needed to repaint them. "Are you sure your, uh--students won't think I'm a creep for sitting here?" Even in the back, she'd be able to see everyone through the wall to wall mirror in the front.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe only shrugged, eyes down toward her feet as she concentrated on fastening the straps of her black high heels. People wore some crazy not-quite-outfits to these classes, but as the person leading them, Chloe liked to dress a bit more uniformly. “No, they won’t care,” she poked out her tongue in concentration. “I think people kind of like having an audience.” She glanced upward then, smirk tugging at her lips. “It might surprise you, but I don’t think the people who take these classes really mind attention.”

Carefully pushing herself to her feet, Chloe headed for the nearest pole, fingers wrapping around the cold metal. “Come on, let me show you,” she urged, despite Beca’s prior response. She pushed her lips out into a pout. “Please? Something super super easy.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca snorted, chuckling as her eyes finally lifted to Chloe. Holy shit, that outfit… was really intense. Intense, yeah. Also like… hot and sexy or whatever, but Chloe always had been so that was no surprise.

It took another beat for her brain to reboot, her stomach flip-flopping at Chloe's pout. Puffing out an annoyed sigh, Beca rolled her eyes as she stood and strode over toward Chloe with her arms crossed over her chest. "I'm in jeans," she reminded her best friend. As though she couldn't see that for herself.

CHLOE BEALE

The natural grin to widen across her lips as Beca rose from the chair was not at all a smug one, and Chloe giggled as she swept her gaze over Beca’s very Beca outfit. “I can see that. That’s okay, you only need your hand on the pole for this one,” she explained, lifting her arm higher to grip onto the pole in the right place. “So, you’re gonna take a step with this foot,” Chloe began, slowly stretching her leg to step around the pole, free arm stretching outward as she swung her body around it. “Then lift this foot.”

Chloe repeated the move again, then took a small step back. “Now you try.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca sucked in a sharp breath through her nostrils as she watched Chloe so gracefully and sensually moved around that pole. In fact, she forgot she was supposed to be paying attention to the actual choreography and doubles down on her focused the next time.

"This won't look a fraction of how good it looks when you do it," Beca muttered, stepping up to the pole and mimicking the move. In boots, she managed to land the technical aspects of the choreo, though she knew she was a bit hesitant and stiff. Not unlike she usually was when first learning new dance moves. "There. Happy?" Her arms recrossed over her chest as she waited for Chloe's evaluation.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe’s hands planted on her hips as she watched Beca replicate the simple move, pride immediately swelling within her. She couldn’t help but let her mind drift to the thought of Beca doing that in something a little more revealing… But that was normal, right? This was an exotic dancing class, after all. Regardless, she quickly shook off the thought. “Perfect,” she grinned, offering a small clap of her hands.

The door swung open behind her, the sound of her assistant’s voice echoing around the room. “That’s Charlotte,” Chloe explained, whirling around to offer her a bright smile. “This is Beca, she’s gonna watch the class.”

“Right, Beca,” Charlotte nodded, sending Beca a small wave. “The one you share a bed with.”

“Mhm,” Chloe beamed, motioning Beca toward the chair again as people began to filter into the room. “Are you sure you’re not gonna join in? You really could just do it in your underwear. Other people do.”

BECA MITCHELL

"Hey, cool meeting you." Beca cast a smile at Charlotte, grateful Chloe's assistant hadn't seen her first (and only) attempt at a pole dancing move. Then… her jaw fell slack, cheeks flushing. "Oh, it's not like that!" Beca interjected, casting a look at Chloe because why would she tell people they share a bed?

Her eyes rolled once again. "I'm good, thanks though. Have a good class, Beale." Beca dropped back into the chair and kept herself as still and small as possible, not wanting to draw attention to herself. She sort of generally enjoyed people watching, so it was difficult to not take in each participant as they filed in wearing similar tight and barely there dancing outfits with impossibly high heels and stepped up to an open pole.

Almost as difficult as it was to keep her eyes off Chloe once she began her lesson.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe’s brows tugged together at Beca’s reaction. Who’d said it was like that? She only shot Beca a confused glance in response, though ultimately shrugged it off, before turning back to Charlotte to go over their plan for the evening.

As always, once everybody was situated by their poles, Chloe started off with warm up stretches, before diving back into the routine they’d been working on for the past couple sessions—a dance to a slowed down, sultry version of Beyonce’s Crazy In Love. Although she couldn’t really converse with Beca throughout the class, Chloe continuously shot glances her way.

Following a final run through of the whole performance, she made sure to let everybody know that they’d done a great job and wished everyone a happy Valentine’s Day, before approaching Beca with a much more flushed face as people began to pack up and head out. “So, what’d you think?” she questioned hopefully, halfway tugging on her shirt. “Good?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca assumed Kommissar had been a fluke. Like--she was tall and gorgeous and flawless and whatever but like, the whole attraction situation wasn’t real, right? Beca was just… super stressed with everything that year, and she’d been pulled under some sort of German witchcraft spell.

Yeah, no. Fine. Beca knew somewhere deep down she wasn’t totally straight. But there was no point in pulling that fact out of the depths of her subconscious to poke around and stress over it because she had a boyfriend. A really great boyfriend who was super awesome and now living in New York City. So what if she was bi or whatever? It didn’t actually matter.

But sitting there frozen on that chair, leaning into her locked arms as she gripped the curling lip of the seat on either side of her knees, watching the dancers? A simmering heat ignited and she couldn’t tear her eyes away from them.

No, not them.

Chloe.

It felt like that same sort of magic pulling her focus, sparking down her spine and making her shiver every single time Chloe’s eyes found hers during that routine. Beca’s breathing shallowed and her lower lip caught between her teeth; at one point, she almost bit down too hard and drew blood.

The spell broke when the music faded out. (Music had that effect on Beca in general, but this? Okay, holy shit. Um…) When Chloe approached, Beca sat up and a different sort of chill--the cold sweat type--rushed through her body because this was very, very wrong. Chloe was her best friend, for fuck’s sake. It was super wrong to think of her like that.

Still, Beca did her best to summon her best tight-lipped grin and offered a dorky thumbs up. “Yup. That was dope. Good thing you’ve got a backup career lined up in case you decide against the vet thing for some reason.” Suddenly eye contact proved really hard. Near impossible, even. Beca gathered her bag and pulled her coat back on, focusing on her breathing. It was just stuffy in there, right? That was definitely it.

CHLOE BEALE

It didn’t pass Chloe by, the fact that her eyes would lock with Beca’s each time she’d glance toward her. Neither did the way she kind of liked the fact that Beca was watching her, even if she did worry that her stare was simply in response to Charlotte’s earlier comment that had seemed to piss Beca off somehow. She didn’t think their living arrangement was a secret, but maybe she wasn’t supposed to tell people. If she thought about it, it did come up pretty often, though… (“I fell asleep on Beca last night.” “Beca and I just took a really nice spoon nap.”) She made a mental note not to bring it up as often.

Her grin widened at Beca’s response. “Thanks!” she chirped, straightening out the hem of her sweater, before bouncing toward her bag to grab her leggings. “I kind of wish we had a pole at home, it’d make it way easier to practice,” Chloe mused, unfastening her heels, then stepping into the pants.

“You should join in next time,” Charlotte added to Beca, pushing a reciprocated kiss to Chloe’s cheek, before announcing her departure, then heading out of the room.

As she shrugged on her winter coat, Chloe glanced toward Beca, brows knitting at the way she seemed to be a little flustered. “Are you okay?” she asked, head tilting as she studied Beca’s expression. “You look like you could use some air.” This was supposed to help distract her from her sad thoughts about Jesse, but Chloe had a feeling it hadn’t been as helpful as she’d hoped.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca puffed out a strained chuckle. “Thanks, but I can’t move quite like you guys do.” She realized after a beat that she’d barely even watched Charlotte or anyone else throughout the class, and guilt tightened like vines around her heart for more than one reason.

“Me? Yeah. I’m cool. Air sounds good. Got a little stuffy in there,” she muttered as she hyper focused on pulling on her mittens. The brisk walk back would surely help clear her head, she figured. Make her feel normal-ish again.

CHLOE BEALE

“Yeah, the AC doesn’t really help much,” Chloe frowned, pulling her gloves into place. There was something strange about Beca, about the way she was acting, but Chloe really wasn’t entirely sure what it was. She figured it probably had something to do with her feelings from earlier, but Chloe forced herself not to look at her too sympathetically. Even if she did really want to wrap her into a protective hug.

Although she did not quite go the hug route, once properly dressed and wrapped up to face the biting evening air, Chloe shrugged her large bag over her shoulder, then shuffled toward Beca with an outstretched hand, offering it for her to take. “We should go relieve Amy of kitten duty, huh?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca knew she was acting super off today. She couldn’t really help it. Maybe she could just chalk it all up to stress--both her weirdness right now and the emotional blip during their walk in the park earlier. “Yeah, probably. Poor things are probably being forced to listen to Fat Amy Winehouse practice.”

She hesitated before taking Chloe’s hand, always calling her a weirdo when she offered and usually just taking it to make Chloe smile. (At least she wouldn’t have to worry about a clammy or sweaty palm this time, with gloves on.) “She seems cool,” Beca said once they stepped outside. “Charlotte? How long has she been your assistant or whatever?”

CHLOE BEALE

“Probably,” Chloe grimaced. Their third roommate really was on her own whole other level. “It was nice of her to watch them for us, though. I wonder if she’ll get as attached to your Green Goblin as you have.” Although she tried to bite back her smirk, she knew the amusement was shining in her eyes.

Chloe was used to Beca making a comment whenever she would extend her hand, so although it was nice that she didn’t this time, it only confirmed Chloe’s suspicions that Beca really wasn’t doing so good, so she wasn’t going to feel too smug about it. Gripping comfortably onto Beca’s hand, she flicked off the light switch, then led her outside and to the cooler air of the city.

“Oh, yeah, she’s awesome,” Chloe agreed, grateful for the wind against her rosy cheeks. Dancing always had her working up a sweat, so she didn’t mind the short walk home. “We took classes together, so she’s been with me right from the start. She didn’t want her own class though, so she just helps out. She reminds me of you a little bit, in fact. Maybe a little louder than you, but she definitely has a Beca vibe. I like her a lot.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca usually complained about the cold, but in this case it helped regulate her wacky body temperature situation. At least while walking she could focus on the journey, trying to avoid thinking of Chloe dancing like that as they strolled hand in hand.

Chloe’s words pulled her attention and Beca cast her a side look, quirking a brow. “A Beca vibe?” She narrowed her eyes playfully. “Explain.”

CHLOE BEALE

An amused grin pulled at Chloe’s lips in response to the look she could see Beca shooting her from the corner of her eye. “Yeah, a Beca vibe,” she nodded. “Kind of broody and mysterious at first, but she’s actually a total softy.” She turned her head to shoot a smirk toward Beca, gloved hand squeezing gently onto hers. “Like my Beca.” Her gaze drifted toward Beca’s chest, before lifting back toward her face. “She has her nipples pierced, too. Maybe you’re secretly twins.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Psh, whatever,” Beca grumbled, shooting Chloe a heatless glare before turning her attention back to the street. My Beca. That phrase made her stomach flip and a sudden rush of nausea flood her core before thankfully receding a moment later. Thankfully, Chloe’s dig served as a good enough distraction, pulling a scoff from Beca. “Seriously? I’m never living these piercings down, am I?”

CHLOE BEALE

“Nope!” Chloe smirked, giving Beca’s hand another gentle squeeze, before relaxing her fingers. They remained looped comfortably with Beca’s all the while, though.

Fortunately, Chloe’s work was not too far from their building, so as much as she’d appreciated the blast of cold air at first, she was happy to get back inside, and only released Beca’s hand once they were safely tucked away in their shoebox apartment. The strange pang of loss she felt upon letting go was something she pushed away quickly—she was pretty touch-starved these days, it probably made sense.

Dumping her bag down at the foot of their bed, Chloe immediately swept toward the kitten box, lips twisting into a smirk at the sight of it empty, with light leaking from beneath Amy’s bedroom door. “Do you think she’s napping with them?” Chloe asked, voice lowering to a whisper. “Bec, that’s such a cute thought.”

BECA MITCHELL

As soon as they stepped back into their apartment, Beca unwound her scarf and shrugged off her coat, hanging both on the rack. She frowned when she followed Chloe’s gaze to the empty kitten box. “I mean, she’s either napping with them or she kitten-napped them, so hopefully it’s the first one.” Toeing off her boots, Beca moved to her dresser to pluck out a pair of pajama bottoms and a soft sleep tee, nodding to Amy’s door. “Peek at your own risk.” While Chloe tended to that, Beca made a quick change into cozy clothes because she was pretty desperate for a nap.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe shot Beca a playful glare; she was going to bask in her adorable idea of the image of Amy napping with the five babies, and proceeded to peel off her scarf and gloves as she tiptoed toward Amy’s door, pushing it open gently. Just as she’d suspected, Amy laid in the middle of her bed, the one she got all to herself, surrounded by five sleeping kittens. They were probably due to be fed soon, unless Amy had seen to that, but Chloe didn’t want to disturb them yet, so only giggled quietly to herself as she carefully closed the door.

“They’re all knocked out, including Amy,” she announced, hanging up her removed clothing items, then got to work on shrugging off her coat and boots, too. “Getting ready for bed?” she asked, lifting her gaze toward Beca as she approached the bed. In spite of herself, Chloe lowered down onto her side with a small yawn. “We didn’t even eat dinner yet.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca crawled beneath the covers, waving her hand dismissively. “Promised I’d cook and I’m not gonna punk out on that. Just wanna take a little nap first, if that’s cool?” She wrinkled her nose as she tugged her hair tie out of her ponytail and used her fingertips to shake out the stiffness on her scalp. “Unless you’re really hungry?” She could forego the nap to cook sooner if Chloe wanted.

CHLOE BEALE

They both had their reasons to be in need of a nap; Beca had had an emotional day, and Chloe had just taught a whole pole dancing class, so although she could go for food at some point, and was definitely looking forward to whatever Beca cooked, she figured a nap couldn’t hurt first. “Mm, no, I can wait,” she shrugged, slipping off her leggings to leave her in her sweater and the bottom half of the outfit she’d worn for the class. They’d have another night of broken sleep tonight feeding the kittens, so Chloe shuffled under the covers too, pulling them comfortably up toward her chest as her head rested back into the pillows. “I’m glad you came to the class with me, it was fun having you there,” she hummed, twisting onto her side to face Beca.

BECA MITCHELL

Not anticipating Chloe wanting a nap at the same time, Beca’s body stiffened momentarily while Chloe crawled into bed with her before relaxing. It truly made no sense, why Beca was being so weird with her all of a sudden--but she couldn’t really help it?

Chalking it up to anxiety over what would likely be an imminent move to Jesse’s new place, Beca dismissed her weird feelings and turned on her side to face Chloe. “Looked like a hell of a workout,” Beca said with a tired smirk. “You’re a pretty good dance teacher, nerdface.” Not that Beca actually paid any attention to the students in the class, she realized with slightly burning cheeks.

CHLOE BEALE

Beca would be leaving soon. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but with Jesse here now, she was going to be leaving soon, and Chloe wanted to feel happy for her, she didn’t want to feel the sad twist in her stomach that came with simply laying side by side and immediately thinking about how they weren’t going to get this anymore. Those feelings were stupid, though; best friends didn’t do this, so Chloe bit them back as best as she could, offering Beca small smile instead. “Thanks,” she nodded, lazily studying Beca’s expression.

Her nose wrinkled as she thought for a moment, voice quieting slightly. “Are you still sad?”

BECA MITCHELL

She never dwelled on their living situation much. It was what it was. But Jesse’s surprise suddenly made Beca more in-tune with her current circumstance. Like how she probably wouldn’t have these close, deep talks with Chloe anymore. Those before bed chats about anything and nothing. Talks she didn’t realize she cherished until now. Not when she inevitably moved in with Jesse.

Chloe’s question would ordinarily make Beca shrug off her concern insisting she’s fine. But with everything today, she didn’t really feel like putting on that brave face. Not when Chloe could see right through it. Instead, she went with honesty, staring back into those bright blue eyes. “I dunno if it’s sadness, really. I don’t really know what it is.”

CHLOE BEALE

This whole thing was conflicting, because Chloe wanted to help in some way. It didn’t matter how she was feeling, she wanted to help Beca, to make her feel better. If even Beca couldn’t pinpoint her own feelings, though, then how could Chloe? She’d always been able to read her pretty well, but apparently not right now. So, she just sent another small smile her way, head nodding along gently.

“It’s just a big step,” she reiterated her earlier response, sticking her arm out of the covers to cocoon herself a little better. Her other hand rested beneath her cheek, gaze still glued to Beca. “I’m kind of sad,” she eventually admitted, mouth twisting a bit. “I mean, I’m really happy for you, Bec. And I don’t mean to be selfish, but I’m gonna be sad when you leave.”

BECA MITCHELL

If. If I leave. Those correcting words sat on the back of Beca’s tongue, sour and bitter as she swallowed them back. Just because Jesse moved here to surprise her, that didn’t mean she needed to move out soon, right? They hadn’t talked about it. What if she wasn’t ready? (What if she’d never be ready?)

“Me too,” she muttered instead, reaching out to cover Chloe’s hand with her own before she thought much about it. Sure, Chloe initiated physical contact like 96% of the time, but Beca did when it felt like it mattered, too. Like right now. “But it’s not gonna happen tomorrow or anytime super soon, okay? So don’t be sad yet.” As if it was that easy. A smile pulled a bit shaky at the corners. “Let’s get some sleep before the kittens start crying for dinner.”

CHLOE BEALE

If either of them was going to initiate physical contact, it was generally going to be Chloe. A part of her felt like she should keep to herself right now, though, so when Beca’s hand settled over her own, Chloe glanced down at it briefly, but couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips. It was instinct for her to part her fingers, slotting them between Beca’s. “Okay,” she nodded, figuring it’s not that easy probably wasn’t the best response. “I’ll just save it for when you do go. Maybe I’ll have to start sharing a bed with Amy…” Chloe’s nose wrinkled. “Sleeping on my own is weird now.” Of course, it wasn’t exactly sharing a bed that helped to settle her, it was who she was sharing it with.

Sleep was a good idea, that was what they were supposed to be doing right now, anyway. Maybe she would magically wake up feeling a little better afterwards. So, with a small squeeze to Beca’s hand, Chloe finally let go, twisting onto her back for the briefest moment, before turning with her back toward Beca. It was with the thought that she kind of just wanted to be close to her right now that she shuffled closer, eventually curling into Beca’s body.

BECA MITCHELL

“Everything you do is weird ‘cause you’re weird,” Beca fired back, though her heartstrings tugged at the thought of not sleeping beside Chloe anymore. She should be excited at the prospect of finally living with her boyfriend of five years… but she figured that excitement would kick in once the shock wore off. That made sense, right?

When Chloe scooted back against her, Beca’s arm naturally slung around her middle. She truly was exhausted, mostly because of the emotions wracking her body all damn day--a not-date Valentine’s Day she’d spent with her best friend… whom she’d miss like hell soon enough. As her body relaxed into nap mode and she willed slumber to drag her down, Beca’s eyes locked on the loose ginger wisps at the nape of Chloe’s neck escaping her hair tie. Flashes from their day together drifted into the forefront of her mind--Chloe accepting the proffered coffee with a bright, tired smile. Chloe hugging her close when she got emotional on the park bridge. Chloe’s burning intensity in her eyes while dancing like that--and the terrifying yet exhilarating way it made Beca feel.

Maybe it was stupidity. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was desperation or a combination of all three. But Beca didn’t think about much of anything else in that moment when she quietly leaned in and brushed the softest, most feather-light kiss to the back of Chloe’s neck. Bare enough that Chloe might not even notice. Innocent enough that Beca might be able to pass it off as a gesture of friendship.

But anxiety crept in a beat later because she knew--Beca knew it wasn’t just that. Guilt swirled in her core once again and she willed herself to close her eyes and fall asleep, to forget what she’d done and chalk it up as a dumb idea resulting from chronic lack of sleep lately.

It was fine. Chloe was probably sleeping and didn’t notice, anyway.

CHLOE BEALE

Even if things could feel strange and complicated sometimes—like the way Chloe felt so devastated at the thought of Beca leaving to be with her boyfriend like any normal person in a long-term relationship would—everything was always just so easy with Beca, too. Chloe’s sadness, her apprehension surrounding everything, it all instantly melted away once Beca’s arm flung over her middle, and Chloe’s whole body relaxed into its curled position against her best friend.

She really was tired, but her mind apparently wouldn’t shut up. Their day today, the way her heart had torn in two at the sight of Beca’s tears up on the bridge, all of their nights curled up tightly together (usually because Chloe had pulled Beca into her as they’d been drifting off to sleep) replayed on a strangely comfortable loop in her tired mind, and while Chloe’s lids fluttered shut, she was sure she wasn’t going to actually get much sleep.

Even less so as she felt Beca shuffle closer, felt the delicate way her lips brushed to the warm skin at the back of her neck, sending the most welcome shiver through Chloe’s spine.

Her bottom lip tugged in between her teeth as she reached out to fumble for Beca’s hand, fingers sliding between the gaps in hers, until she could wordlessly lift their connected hands up to her mouth, with Chloe pressing a soft kiss to Beca’s fingers. Maybe best friends didn’t do that. Maybe best friends didn’t do a lot of the things they did, in fact. But the thought did not scare her. In fact, as the pad of her thumb brushed across the back of Beca’s knuckles, lips hovering over her fingers, it only made her feel strangely safe.

BECA MITCHELL

When Chloe’s lips grazed Beca’s fingers in turn, Beca’s jaw clenched so hard her teeth damn near crumpled to dust, her heart thundering so loud she was certain Chloe would hear it. She had no idea what it meant--was it a conciliatory gesture, or a bolder one? Was Chloe just as confused as Beca? If so, what would it mean for her relationship with Jesse? Her friendship with Chloe? The best friendship she’d ever had… Beca couldn’t fuck that up, no matter the cost.

But words lodged in Beca’s throat and she swallowed them back down, her eyelids screwing tighter despite a traitorous tear slipping free from the corner of her eye--a single damp droplet on her pillowcase.

She inwardly pleaded for sleep to take her before her mind could piece together her predicament.

Thankfully, it did.

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (4) beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

Text

GOBLINS ➝ BECHLOE.

TAGGING ➝ Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Beca, Chloe and Amy’s apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 2/10, afternoon.

WARNINGS ➝ None.

NOTES ➝ Beca comes home to find Chloe and five new babies.

CHLOE BEALE

Although they’d smiled politely and thanked the woman who had come into the clinic mid-morning with a box of newborn, abandoned kittens, everybody had actually been kind of mad about it. For all she knew, their mom had simply gone to find food, and would return to find her kittens gone, but they were here now, and there was nothing they could do to reverse her actions—if the cat had returned, she would be long gone by now, and her babies wouldn’t smell like her anymore. This, of course, meant that they now had five helpless kittens to provide twenty-four hour care for, and without considering the shoebox she lived in, Chloe had jumped at the chance to volunteer.

After checking them all over, they all seemed to be in generally good health, and were each given tiny paper collars in different identifying colors—red, blue, green, yellow and purple—before being bundled into a new, bigger box with fresh blankets, and Chloe had been dismissed early to get them home and settled. Considering they couldn’t yet open their eyes properly, it wasn’t like they needed toys or food bowls or anything; the clinic provided her with plenty of kitten milk and syringes to feed them, then the rest was pretty much up to Chloe.

Navigating the city with a box of kittens proved to be a task, as did opening doors, but once they were safely out of the cold and closed away in the apartment, Chloe cleared a space by her side of the pull-out bed to settle their box, then set a timer for every two hours on her phone for scheduled feeds.

By late afternoon, changed out of her scrubs and into a standard winter comfort outfit of leggings and a sweater, Chloe sat cross-legged on the bed, pouting at the soft whines to ring from the box beside her as she scrolled through kitten care tips on her laptop. “I know, you’ll get more milk soon,” she cooed toward the box, leaning over to admire the tiny black and white blobs sprawled out in their makeshift bed.

BECA MITCHELL

Another day, another frustrating shift at the office. While Beca wasn't a fan of physical activity in general, she was low-key grateful for her studio commute as the musical decompression time on the subway plus the several block power walk to and from her subway stops helped blow off some steam. So she wasn't in the worst mood by the time she got home, all things considered.

Especially because her apartment had heat. And food. And…

"Chloe?" Beca cast a confused wave at her roommate as she set her laptop bag down gently by the foot of the bed. Then she carefully removed her headphones from around her neck and shrugged off her blazer. "What's up, you okay? Are you sick or--"

The tiniest mewl interrupted Beca and her brow furrowed as she followed the sound toward the other side of the bed. "Uh, what…" Taking a few steps over, her hand flew to her mouth and barely muffled her gasp at the sight of the tiny creatures in the box. "Dude, oh my god!"

CHLOE BEALE

In hindsight, maybe Chloe should’ve texted her roommates to at least give them a heads up about the kittens, but she’d been kind of preoccupied all day, so the thought had just slipped her mind. It wasn’t until she heard the door opening that it registered to her, and Chloe bit back a grimace as she took in Beca’s reaction. She couldn’t tell if it was a good one or not.

“Before you say anything,” she began quickly, pushing her laptop aside to instead swing her legs over the side of the bed, body now facing the box. “They were abandoned. Some lady brought them to us this morning, and they don’t have their mom, so now someone has to take care of them until they’re big enough to take care of themselves.” Chloe pulled her lips inward. “Don’t make too much noise, okay? They’re really tiny, you might scare them.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca may have perfected her hard-ass exterior over the years, but while she held firmly to her belief that most people suck… she'd always had a soft spot for animals. Some of them even melted that badass persona right into mush. She couldn't help it.

"Oh my god, okay." Beca kept her voice low and toed off her boots before lowering herself to sit on Chloe's side of the bed beside her. "Poor babies! They're so freakin' small, holy shit. I've never seen a cat that small." And there were five of them!

All of this information processed a little too slowly as Beca tried shaking off the shock and she cut Chloe a glance, blinking. "Wait. Does that mean we're taking care of them until they're big enough?"

CHLOE BEALE

Pleased that Beca at least didn’t seem angry, Chloe’s expression softened, and she glanced between the box of kittens and her best friend seated now beside her. “I know, they’re newborn,” Chloe explained, keeping her volume low so as not to wake the ones that were still sleeping. Technically, they all should be sleeping between feeds, but already some of them were a little more lively than the others. “We don’t know when exactly they were born, but it can’t be more than a couple days. You see how they can’t really open their eyes yet?”

Peering into the box, Chloe pulled in her lips again. “Umm, yes,” she nodded. “I mean, I’m taking care of them. It would be awes if you could help, but you don’t have to. They do need to be fed a lot, though… Every two to three hours, in fact.” Chloe paused, nose wrinkling as she shot Beca an apologetic look. “And that’s every two to three hours, including during the night.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca nodded without hesitating. “Shut up, nerdface. I’m not gonna let you do this shit by yourself--it sounds like a lot of work. And I’m here already. I’d be a dick if I let you do this all by yourself.” Not that Chloe needed to ask. Seriously, Beca never thought twice about helping Chloe, that’s how it had always been. She caught her lower lip between her teeth for a bit, seemingly losing her restraint. (At least she didn’t let out the squeal. She had a cool image to maintain.) “So can I hold one??”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe knew Beca was a softie for animals—who wasn’t?—but she still felt a certain sense of relief in response to her reaction. It was much better than she’d expected, considering they were going to have a lot of sleepless nights ahead of them. But Beca was her best friend, and Chloe knew that she’d always have her back, so it really shouldn’t have surprised her.

Her lips relaxed into a warm smile. “You can, but you have to be extra careful, okay? In fact…” she paused, picking up her phone to check the time. “They’re due another feed really soon, maybe you could feed one or two of them?” Pushing herself up from the bed, Chloe bounced toward the small kitchen, then directly to the fridge to grab the kitten milk. “There are a couple syringes by the box, grab those and we can fill them. Feeding them is so cute, Bec. They make the sweetest little suckling noises.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Oh, um--sure!” Her reply tinged with a sudden injection of anxiety. “They’re so freakin’ small,” she noted as she peered into the box once again. “What if I accidentally crush it or something?” Beca wrinkled her nose, knowing the concern was likely a dumb one--she had pretty small hands, after all. While Chloe set up the milk, Beca hurried to change into her pajama pants and a soft t-shirt, wanting to get comfy before handling the baby kittens.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe chuckled quietly as she got to work on carefully heating a saucepan of water. “You won’t. They’re also less fragile than they look… But I mean, don’t, like, squeeze them or anything,” she frowned, focus on preparing everything she needed. While Beca changed, Chloe set a fresh container of milk into the pan, keeping the heat low, before shuffling back toward the bed to plop back down into her previous position.

Grabbing the small notebook she’d been recording their feeds (and other habits) in throughout the afternoon so far, Chloe pulled it into her lap, opening it up to scan over her earlier notes. “I’m guessing you’ve never fed a kitten before?” she questioned, lifting her gaze toward Beca. A shot of excitement ran through her at the idea of getting to teach her something, even if it was just how to syringe feed, so Chloe wasn’t going to waste any time, and leaned down to carefully scoop up the first meowing kitten.

“This one’s name is Green for now,” she said in a soft voice, pulling her hand close to her chest and glancing down toward the black and white blob with a small, contented smile on her lips. “They’re all named after the colors on their collars,” Chloe hummed, reaching out with her finger to delicately stroke over the kitten’s tiny head. “Do you want to hold him? His milk isn’t ready yet, but I bet he still loves cuddles.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca had to bite back her smile as she watched Chloe go into vet mode, writing her notes and analyzing the situation. “Nope. Can’t say I have, Dr. B. Good thing I’ve got you to teach me.” Pride shined in Beca’s eyes as she watched her best friend handle the kitten with such gentle care. Chloe would be an incredible vet, and it was super awesome she found something she had so much passion for and could make a career out of it.

“Green,” Beca repeated, a slight smirk twisting on her lips. “Like the Green Goblin. Dope.” Her spine snapped straighter when Chloe asked if she wanted to hold him, and she couldn’t resist shooting Chloe a sheepish smile as she made grabby hands toward the baby. “I’ll be real careful. Promise.” She carefully helped transfer the kitten into her hands, gasping as she brought him against her chest. (Mindful of her sore nippes, as always lately. Thanks, Stacie.)

“Hey there, little dude!” Beca whispered, carefully stroking the soft fur on his back before dropping a kiss to his head. “I’m Auntie Beca.” Well, so much for not getting attached.

CHLOE BEALE

It was perhaps kind of pathetic, the way Chloe’s entire body would tingle with pride whenever Beca called her that particular name. To be more relatable to their clients, everybody just used each other’s first names at the clinic, so she only really got the doctor title at home, but it always made her feel incredibly warm.

“Yes, exactly like the Green Goblin,” Chloe grinned, the reference going entirely over her head. “There’s also a Red Goblin, a Yellow Goblin, a Blue Goblin and a Purple Goblin.” Her gaze was down on the kitten, but glancing over to see Beca so eager and excited made Chloe’s heart flutter in the strangest way. She couldn’t resist cracking a bright smile in response. “I trust you, Bec.”

Cautiously handing him over, Chloe watched the way Beca interacted with the kitten, and did all she could to bite back her grin. “Auntie Beca,” she giggled quietly, reaching out to run the pad of her finger over Green’s head again. “He’s so cute, right? He’s definitely one of the more lively ones already. He has one brother, Blue,” she explained as she rose from the bed to go check on the milk. “Then the rest are girls. Do any of the others look like they’re awake?”

BECA MITCHELL

"He's so freaking small," Beca marveled, continuing to card her fingers in what she hoped was a soothing rhythm through his fur. While Chloe tended to the milk, Beca peered back into the tiny kitten box. "Um… it's hard to tell since their eyes are all still closed but it looks like purple's squirming around a little." Beca refocused her attention on the green collared baby in her hands, hitching her voice up an octave in an uncharacteristically gooey sort of way. "You hungry, buddy? Dr. B's fixing you up some grub right now."

CHLOE BEALE

Careful not to let the milk get too warm, Chloe pulled the container from the pan, testing a small drop on the back of her hand like regular baby milk. “Oh, really? That’s good, Purple has been the least lively so far,” she commented, turning off the heat and bringing the milk back over to the bed with her. Although she really wanted to say something about Beca’s adorable baby voice, she held it back, and instead just grinned as she reached for two of the syringes.

“You can feed Green while I feed Purple?” she suggested, carefully measuring out the correct amount of milk into the first one, then set it down on the bed beside Beca. She did the same with the second, before reaching into the box to scoop up Purple, the obvious runt of the litter. “Hi, baby,” she cooed, bringing the smallest kitten up to her face to take a look. “I don’t think your brothers and sisters let you get much milk from your mama, huh?” Chloe pouted, setting the kitten down in her lap on her back legs with her hand securely holding her upright.

“Okay, so this is how you feed them,” Chloe began, grabbing the closest filled syringe and guiding it toward the kitten’s mouth. “Nice and gentle,” she just above whispered, finger pushing delicately on the plunger. “You just do one little drop at a time, otherwise they might not be able to swallow it properly.” Chloe watched the kitten for a moment, then glanced toward Beca. “You try.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Just you wait,” Beca said, eyeing the tiniest of the litter. The ‘runt’ or whatever. “Purple’s gonna be the toughest cat there’s ever been. Small and scrappy as fuck. Nobody’s gonna dare mess with her.” Was Beca projecting? Nope. Not even a little bit.

She paid close attention to Chloe’s kitten feeding process, only getting somewhat distracted by how adorable she--it was, her whole… vet thing. She’d always been a good teacher (especially when it came to choreography), but helping Beca learn how to care for newborn kittens was pretty damn cute.

“Here we go, Goblin. Milk time.” Gentle as ever, she repositioned the kitten and held up the syringe, pressing out one drop for him. She brightened when the tiniest pink tongue poked out to lap it right up. Beca giggled. “Delicious, huh? Here ya go, have another drop.” Beca remained hyper focused on the kitten, feeding him one drop at a time. She figured Chloe would stop her when he had enough.

CHLOE BEALE

“Small and scrappy,” Chloe echoed, brows rising playfully. Beca was totally describing herself. “She’s gonna have to be scrappy when they start sharing a milk bowl, I think Red is going to be super greedy. She’s already the biggest, and she really, really loves her milk,” Chloe chuckled quietly, glancing toward the open page in her notebook.

Although focused on feeding Purple, she couldn’t help but let her gaze drift toward Beca, at first watching to make sure she knew what she was doing, but then lingering, because there was something almost irresistibly adorable about Beca Mitchell syringe feeding a tiny kitten.

Not that Chloe would ever think of her best friend as irresistible in any other instance, of course.

“This is cute now,” she hummed, gaze moving toward Purple again. “But how do you think you’ll feel about it when we have to wake up every two hours during the night?” Chloe paused then, sending Beca an apologetic look. “I really can figure something else out. Maybe Amy will switch beds with me until they’re a little bigger and don’t have to have regular night feeds?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Well Purple’s gonna have to show Red who’s boss. I believe in her.” Beca cast Chloe a quick smirk before refocusing her attention on her little Green Goblin, who was basically the most adorable creature Beca had ever seen.

“I’ll make it work,” Beca said with a shrug. Though honestly, if literally anyone else in the world asked Beca to deal with waking up every two hours for at least a few weeks, she’d laugh in their face. Chloe… played by a different set of rules. (She always had.) “I mean, how many chances will I get to raise baby kittens like this? It’s pretty awesome.” She pulled a grimace at the suggestion, shaking her head. “Oh god, please no. Waking up every two hours is cake compared to sharing a bed with Amy. She’ll dutch oven me to death.”

CHLOE BEALE

The apologetic expression melted into something more appreciative, with Chloe shooting Beca a small, genuine smile. “Thanks, Bec,” she nodded, turning her focus back to the feeding kitten again. “I’m just worried you’ll be tired at work. I’m gonna bring them to work with me and come home between classes,” Chloe explained, tip of her pointer brushing soothingly over Purple’s head. “I can also weigh them and stuff at work, and I bet some of the others will help out there, too. It was weird that nobody seemed to want to take them, though.” Her nose wrinkled, though she shook off the thought; Chloe had always been the first to jump at the chance to help, after all.

Glancing toward Beca, Chloe motioned to her chest, gaze instinctively dropping for the briefest of moments, though she quickly picked it back up again. “Still sore?”

BECA MITCHELL

“I’ll figure it out,” Beca muttered. “I can always hook myself up to a coffee IV at work, it’s fine.” She cast Chloe a tight-lipped smile before glancing back down to the kitten lapping at the milk droplet. “He seems like he’s worth it. They all do.” She peered over the side of the bed into the box of the three remaining kittens, all who seemed to be asleep at the moment.

She blinked at Chloe’s question, following her gaze and puffing out a chuckle. Her cheeks warmed and she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it’s been a rough week. Tattoos are healed up by now but this sucks so far.” Beca sighed. “They’ll get better I guess. Eventually.”

CHLOE BEALE

“True,” Chloe shrugged, cracking a grin. “Sounds very healthy.” In spite of everything, she wasn’t trying to talk Beca out of it. In fact, she was very grateful for the help; it felt like a strangely nice bonding activity of some kind, taking care of the kittens together. While she watched Beca and Green from the corner of her eye, Chloe’s gaze drifted toward the box, sad smile tugging at her lips. “They do. I just feel bad for their mom. Their real mom,” she corrected, lifting the kitten up to talk in a baby voice, “I guess we’re your foster moms now, huh?”

Being careful not to let her gaze slip again, Chloe only nodded to Beca’s response. “Mm, when I got my navel piercing it bled for a whole week.” She paused, a look of horror creasing onto her face. “Wait, they’re not… bleeding, right?”

BECA MITCHELL

“I mean, captaining the Bellas for three years was pretty much like herding cats most of the time anyway. This shouldn’t be much different.” Beca’s heart cracked with empathy when Chloe mentioned the kittens’ mother, but then thumped harder at Chloe uttering the phrase foster moms. Like--both of them, doing this together.

She wrinkled her nose with sympathy and shook her head. “No, no bleeding. They’re just, like--super fucking sensitive? Especially in the shower. Yikes.” Beca winced. “I guess they’re not as sore as a few days ago, so that’s good.”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe giggled at the mental image, head nodding along in agreement. “I guess. Kittens are crazy, though. Like, even more than the Bellas. Especially when they get a little bigger and want to run around all night.” She really had gotten them into something here, but there was something exciting about it too, sharing this big task, and Chloe couldn’t quite put her finger on exactly what.

Her eyes immediately shot back toward the kitten, because Beca totally didn’t mean that kind of sensitive, but Chloe’s mind began to race somewhere it definitely shouldn’t. “Mm,” she hummed nonchalantly, keeping herself busy with shaking the syringe a little bit to keep Purple awake. “Then they’ll be better in no time. Be thankful you’re not a cat, if you were then the kittens would be suc—” She caught herself, trailing off and pulling the syringe carefully away, before settling the kitten down on its belly. “Gonna let your brother and sisters have some now, pretty girl?”

BECA MITCHELL

“I dunno, dude… drunk Bellas might be on that level.” She chuckled, a few specific college memories flashing in front of her eyes. (Literally flashing, in Stacie’s case.) Green Goblin yawned and licked his lips once more. Beca snickered. “Speaking of--are you milk drunk, buddy? You look like you’re ready for a nap.”

Beca’s eyes popped wide and she blinked at Chloe, amusement twisting up the corners of her mouth as she scrunched up her nose yet again. “You’re such a weirdo,” she reminded Chloe for what must’ve been the ten thousandth time throughout their friendship. “Yeah, let’s switch it up. I’ll take Red.”

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (3) beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

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SNOW DAY ➝ ROOMIES.

TAGGING ➝ Fat Amy, Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Beca, Chloe and Amy’s apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 2/3, early afternoon.

WARNINGS ➝ None.

NOTES ➝ Roommate snow day.

CHLOE

Taking the weather into consideration, Chloe probably should not have even made the journey to her internship today. There would’ve been no repercussions for her if she hadn’t—hardly anyone else bothered to show up, after all—but always eager to please, she’d gone ahead and made the effort regardless. It really did not surprise her that they’d decided to close up shop early, though. The snow, already a thick blanket on the ground, really was coming down, so the sooner she made it back to the apartment, the better.

Following a quick stop at Rocco’s to pick up the order Beca had called in (she’d been on her way there already; she knew Beca), Chloe trudged through the heavy snowfall and to their building, unceremoniously shaking herself off like a particularly wet dog the moment she made it to shelter. Taking Beca’s ‘be quite’ order very seriously, she switched from walking to tiptoeing once she reached their door, letting herself into the apartment as quietly as possible, though greeted Beca with a bright smile, before pretending to zip her mouth shut.

Their bag of food rustled loudly as she set it down on the counter, with Chloe flashing Beca an apologetic look over her shoulder, before shrugging off her jacket to reveal her cartoon animal printed scrubs, fortunately dry of snow. Not wanting to disturb Beca’s work call, Chloe hovered in the kitchen area, glancing somewhat helplessly between Beca and the bag of food until she caught Beca’s eye. ‘What do I do?’ she mouthed.

BECA

As much as Beca’s job had been sucking balls lately, she was beyond grateful her boss was cool with her working from home when it snowed. Beca never really did well in extreme temperatures in general–she bitched about the sticky southern heat throughout college, and NYC summers were just as bad if not worse, thanks to the city stench. Winters were a different animal altogether. So on mornings like today, she slept an extra 45 minutes, shuffled to the coffee maker, and “dressed” for the day.

Which meant that when Chloe returned home, she’d find Beca with her hair and makeup done, wearing a nice button-down shirt and a blazer… with checkered pajama pants and fuzzy socks. (Chloe’s fuzzy socks. Whatever, her feet were cold and they just happened to be nearby.) Headphones secured over her ears, she sat Indian-style at the foot of their bed with her laptop propped onto a foldable tray at the appropriate height, eyes flickering toward the door on instinct when Chloe shuffled inside.

Ugh, Rocco’s smelled so freaking good. Beca’s stomach rumbled. At Chloe’s shrug, Beca held up a quick ‘one second’ pointer finger offscreen, flashing a pained sort of smile at her laptop screen. “Yep, got it! I’m with you, Sharon. We’re tooootally gonna crush it with this one. I’ll send the suggested changes to you by end-of-day Friday.” With a nerdy two-finger salute, Beca signed off and closed her laptop, setting her headphones on top. Then she very ungracefully groaned as she flopped backwards onto their still unmade bed, dramatically throwing her forearm over her eyes. “I seriously can’t stand that bitch.”

CHLOE

Thankful that Beca’s work call seemed to be wrapping up, Chloe’s almost-panic dissipated quickly, until she was leaning back against the kitchen counter with a quick nod. She pulled her lips inward to keep herself from openly giggling at Beca’s dorky salute toward her laptop, then pushed herself upright again as the call came to an end. “But you saluted her,” she teased, quickly grabbing a couple plates, then the bag of food to bring it over to their unmade bed. “What’d she do?” she hummed, kicking off her snow-covered shoes—she’d do something with them later; right now she wanted food.

Scooting around the heap that was a flopped back Beca as she climbed onto their bed, Chloe shuffled to a comfortable position, legs crossing the same way as Beca’s as she set down their lunch things. “You know Rocco’s is going to make you feel so much better. Even if you do look super grumpy right now.” Her nose wrinkled as she studied Beca’s body language, though she quickly offered over a plate, then got to work on digging into the bag to pull out their respective meals. “I guess at least you didn’t have to walk through the snow today, right?”

AMY

Looking out the window of the apartment she woke up in, Amy realized sleeping over at - wait, what’s his name again? - place might have been the wrong decision. She looked out over an outstretched white blanket and dreaded the journey home already. She briefly wondered if her roommates would be staying home today.

Walking already was not Amy’s favorite activity. Walking is snow is even worse. After what’s his face jumped in the shower, she made quick work of getting dressed and got out of the apartment before he was even done. The ground was slippery but Amy tried to hurry and get home as soon as possible. Luckily, the trip back to Brooklyn went smoothly and as she walked into the Starbucks around the corner of their apartment building, she shot a quick text to the roommates groupchat asking is they’re home.

Happy to have made it back to the apartment building in one piece, Amy climbed the stairs huffing and puffing while holding a tray with 3 cups of steaming hot coffee and a bag of pastries. She opens the apartment door and finds Beca and Chloe chatting in the apartment. „what’s up, pitches!” She quickly closes the door behind her to keep out the cold, kicks of her shoes and hands them their coffee. „As always Butter Pecan for you, Red. And BM, coffee black, like your soul.”

BECA

"She's just..." Beca puffed out a hard breath. "She either dismisses my ideas entirely, or when she likes what I've got to offer she tries to pass it off as her own idea to the execs. She keeps putting me on these shitty projects that are almost impossible to make better. I mean I love a challenge, but..." She winced, shaking her head. No need to get into 'Lil' Pimp Lo'. Especially on her lunch break.

She forced herself to sit up when Chloe joined her, smiling as the scent of her favorite lunch wafted toward her like a goddamn cartoon pie in a window sill. "Yeah, thanks for picking it up. And you're right, at least I didn't have to deal with a horrific commute today. How was your morning? Meet any new furry friends?"

After inhaling her nacho platter, Beca insisted on cleaning up the bags and washing the dishes. She made a move to stand when Amy burst inside. "Dude, is that coffee? You're a mind reader." That was... sort of like a greeting, Beca. Close enough. "Where've you been, Ames? Should I even bother asking?" Beca cast a knowing smirk at Chloe before making her way into the kitchen, setting her coffee on the counter while she got to work cleaning off their lunch plates.

CHLOE

Chloe's nose wrinkled as she listened to Beca's complaints. It wasn't a new thing, Beca seeming unhappy where her job was concerned, but it also wasn't Chloe place to comment, so she simply nodded along and let her vent. "She tries to take your ideas because you're so good at what you do," Chloe pointed out, offering up an encouraging smile, though it twisted into something a little more mischievous then, "Maybe we should prank call her." Her brows rose and fell playfully.

Pleased that lunch seemed to be something of a pick-me-up, Chloe nodded her head in acknowledgment, plating up her own food. "Mm, not really," she shrugged, reaching over to steal a nacho. "It's weird, those little things people bring their pets in for always somehow manage to be resolved at home when the weather's like this. Funny how that works!"

Although she liked to help out, Chloe wasn't going to argue, so while Beca took care of cleaning up afterwards, Chloe quickly changed out of her scrubs and into something more comfortable. She was mid-pulling her sweater on when the door opened, with her glancing over to flash Amy a bright smile. "Coffee," she said in an almost dreamy tone, instantly floating over to accept the cup. "Did you know you're an angel?" Chloe winked, pulling the warm drink close to her chest as she tugged her hair from beneath her sweater with her free hand. While she shot Beca the same knowing look, Chloe stayed quiet, eyeing Amy in anticipation of a likely wild response.

AMY

“Well...” she started while considering wether to give her roommates the full story or not. “Yesterday I was performing Fat Amy Winehouse at Times Square. This guy kept coming back like every hour and at first I thought it was really annoying. He didn’t say anything. Just stood there, watching.” She paused briefly to take a sip of coffee and open the bag of pastries.

She took a bite of a cinnamon bun and continued: “after seeing him for the third time I decided to talk to him. I mean, he was a hot piece and I was surprised to hear he had an Australian accent as well. Anyway, long story short; he asked me out, I didn’t have anything better to do so here we are... ” she shrugged.

Amy decides to keep the story at that and to not tell her roommates about the feeling she’s had the entire time, that the guy looked oddly familiar. It didn’t matter anymore anyway. She was home now and honestly didn’t even remember the dudes name.

“What have you guys been up too? Taking a snow day or working from home?” She looked between her two roommates and noticed Beca had obviously been working.

“You know, if you want... I could work from home too. Let me just get out my...”

BECA

Beca listened to Amy's latest adventure while she focused on washing the few dishes they'd used for lunch, all while keeping her eyes trained on the sink and definitely not on Chloe changing her clothes behind her. "Sounds like you've got yourself a groupie," she teased, setting the dishes in the drying rack and plucking the dish towel to dry off her hands. "I'm working from home, Chloe left early." Beca snagged the coffee back from the counter and curled back up on her spot in bed. "Maybe I'll take the rest of the day off. No meetings this afternoon so it doesn't matter much." She wasn't on any active tight deadlines and it wasn't like she'd get much accomplished with both Chloe and Amy home anyway.

CHLOE

Amy's adventures always provided a lot of entertainment, so Chloe sipped happily on her coffee as she listened to her regail them of her latest one. "So you stayed at his place?" Chloe questioned, brows rising and falling suggestively. "Is he cute?" Still only half-changed, she set her coffee cup down on the nearest available space—a difficult find in their cramped shoebox apartment—then got to work on tugging off her scrub pants without regard for her roommates. Surely they were used to her by now.

"Bec, you totes should take the rest of the day off," Chloe nodded enthusiastically. "Especially if Amy's gonna sing for us." She flashed a bright grin toward Amy, plucking a pair of black leggings from their not-quite-closet, before pausing with something of a gasp. "Oh, wait! Guess who I ran into this morning." Without giving either a chance to actually guess, she continued with raised brows, one foot in the leggings. "Aubrey. She's living in the city, too."

AMY

"Yeah shortstack, take the day off. We should hang out!" Amy said while standing up to go change her clothes.

On her way to her side of the room, Amy heard Chloe mention running into Aubrey. She turned on the spot and returned back to her previous position on the kitchen chair and picked her coffee back up to listen to Chloe’s story of her encounter with Aubrey.

"Wait, are you saying that you didn’t know Aubrey lived in the city too? How is that even possible? Isn’t she your best friend?”

BECA

Beca sighed. "Fine, why not?" It wasn't like she'd be able to concentrate much with one roommate home, let alone both. Besides, she rarely used her sick time and was long overdue for some time off.

Noting Amy pointedly avoided Chloe's question about the guy--she figured she probably didn't want to talk about him, which was cool--her gaze snapped back to Chloe. "Oh, for real? Yeah, that's... super weird. I guess she's been really busy to not drop you a text at least, huh?"

CHLOE

It hadn't passed Chloe by that it was incredibly weird that Aubrey hadn't stayed in touch—maybe she should've tried a little harder herself or something—so she wrinkled her nose in response to both of her roommates. "Yeah, I don't know. She seems to be doing super well, though," she offered, pushing a bright smile to her lips to replace the sadder one that really wanted to be there.

Wanting to change the topic from what a bad friend she must've been, Chloe retrieved her coffee cup again, bouncing toward she and Beca's bed and gracefully plopping down. "So what should we do? We're never all home during the day like this."

#char: amy.#char: beca.#f2f (1) roommates.#dontputmedownforcardiio #thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

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@thesickestbeats

whoever sent this... dude back off? not everyone’s on a 4 year plan and chloe’s isn’t any of your business.

Bec, it’s fine. I do kind of wonder why people care so much about that, though.

#dash: beca.#char: beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

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F2F ➝ ( BECHLOE. )

@thesickestbeats

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (1) beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

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A LITTLE BIT OF BUTTER ➝ BECHLOE.

TAGGING ➝ Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Beca, Chloe and Amy’s apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 2/6, evening.

WARNINGS ➝ Boobs I guess.

NOTES ➝ Chloe helps Beca with her new piercings.

BECA MITCHELL

“Ow… ow, ow, ow, ow, fuck!” She grumbled from the tiny bathroom, leaving the door cracked as she believed herself to be home alone. Her audible grumpiness carried even over the chill after work playlist she’d left streaming through the rigged bluetooth speakers in their bed/living room.

Beca stood in front of the mirror in a pair of drawstring plaid pajama pants sitting low on her hips with her t-shirt almost pulled all the way off and hanging loosely around her neck. She frowned at her chest, now sporting two white gauze pads taped around her sore-as-fuck nipples, newly pierced. She had been trying to remove said pads for the past minute, but every time she tugged more at the corner of the surgical tape she yelped in pain. “Fucking Stacie,” she growled as her face screwed into a deeply concentrated and aggravated expression as she reached up to try yet again.

CHLOE BEALE

For the most part, Chloe’s somewhat generic date of dinner at a fancy-ish restaurant and then a movie back at his place that they hadn’t actually watched had gone pretty well. Right up until the end, anyway, hence Chloe now trudging with a frown toward the door of their shoebox apartment, grumbling petulantly to herself. She was pretty free with her body, but even she knew how unprofessional a giant hickey would look right there on the side of her neck at work, but Tinder Ben hadn’t listened, so Chloe had huffed and left.

It was kind of late, so with the assumption that her roommates were sleeping, Chloe entered the apartment as quietly as possible, surprised to see she and Beca’s pull-out bed empty. Taking note of the light spilling through the cracked bathroom door, Chloe dropped her purse down onto the bed, then began to shrug off her jacket as she floated toward the tiny bathroom. “Becs, is that you?” she called, pushing the door the rest of the way open without regard (when did Chloe care about privacy, after all?). “I don’t think I’m—” she trailed off, brows tugging tightly together as her eyes landed on the sight of Beca, almost shirtless… and with two big pads over her boobs. “Oh, what is that?” she questioned, walking into the bathroom to get a closer look.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca had been so focused on getting those annoying pads off to let her nips finally breathe after their traumatic afternoon that she didn’t even notice the door opening wider. “Dude!” she cried, turning her back on Chloe the instant her roommate had stepped inside. “Can you not?? I’m--I’m busy!” Her cheeks burned beneath the bright-as-fuck fluorescent bathroom lights when she realized Chloe probably saw her... situation.

CHLOE BEALE

“Oops!” Chloe jumped back quickly, though not so far that she actually left the bathroom. Considering the compact size of their apartment, she could toss her now discarded jacket onto the bed, though her focus remained on Beca. Her tightly knitted brows eased, until one had begun to arch a little bit, gaze sweeping over Beca’s bare back. She knew what she’d seen, even if Beca was trying to hide it now. “Bec, what are those things over your boobs?” she questioned, lips pulling inward to bite back her amusement. “Did you get nipple piercings or something?”

BECA MITCHELL

Ugh. Busted. Heaving a heavy sigh, Beca crossed her arms over her chest (to the best of her ability, because fucking ow) and turned back around. She sported a scowl as she rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Lost a bet to Stacie and… yeah.” Puffing out a hard breath, she cut a glance to herself in the mirror. “I’m supposed to take these gauze pads off but the tape they used hurts like a bitch and a half.”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe had never been the best at holding back her reactions; they were always written plainly on her face, so right now was no exception. Her eyes widened at Beca’s admission, feeling a mixture of both surprised and, frankly, impressed. “Wow, what kind of bet resulted in...that?” she motioned vaguely toward Beca’s chest, gaze unabashedly dropping toward it in spite of Beca’s folded arms. It didn’t matter that she was still trying to bite back her amusement; that, too, was written all over her expression. “You had needles through your nipples and you’re worried about the tape?” Chloe chuckled softly, instinctively taking a step closer. She brought her gaze up to Beca’s face, head tilting slightly. “You want some help? I deal with this stuff at work all the time,” she paused, nose wrinkling in thought, “Not piercings, obviously. But I know what I’m doing, I’ll be super gentle.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Mario Kart.” Beca puffed out a hard breath and considered for a few beats. She’d always been super private about her own body, while some Bellas were borderline nudists. Even in tight living quarters, she’d always been mindful to change in the bathroom or at least keep her back to her roommates while swapping shirts.

Now, though--she needed help, and though her instinct was to stubbornly insist she could do it herself, the past few minutes proved otherwise. “Fine. Yeah. I guess.” She willed the color out of her cheeks but knew she was mostly unsuccessful in that endeavor.

CHLOE BEALE

Of course it was Mario Kart. Chloe didn’t really understand the game, she just liked to play the cute green character, but she knew how competitive Beca and Stacie got, so it wasn’t all that surprising. She only offered Beca a sympathetic smile, before dropping her gaze back down to her arm-covered chest. “Okay, you’re going to have to let me see, though,” Chloe urged, lifting her hands to reach for Beca’s wrists, though she paused then, taking a step back. “Actually, I have a really good tip for this. Hold on.” She held up a finger, signaling that she’d be right back, before dipping from the room to head for their fridge.

Returning with a tub of butter, she held it up to shake in Beca’s view. “Helps it slide off easier. It’s gonna be super easy, I promise you won’t even feel it.”

BECA MITCHELL

When Chloe dashed from the bathroom and she heard the fridge or freezer door open, Beca was kind of hoping she’d return with a large bottle of alcohol to help numb the pain. And then… she returned with the butter tub. Wrinkling her nose, she skeptically eyed the tub and then Chloe. “If anyone finds out I let you rub butter on my tits I’m gonna murder Stacie in cold blood.” With another huff, she dropped her arms to grant Chloe full access.

CHLOE BEALE

Stripping in front of her roommates was really nothing out of the ordinary for Chloe, though the same could not be said for Beca. If she wasn’t in work-mode right now, intent on making sure Beca’s experience was as painless as possible, she’d likely realize that this was kind of a big deal. As it was, though, Chloe simply shot her a reassuring smile, before pulling the lid from the tub.

“Our secret. Promise,” Chloe winked, scooping a little butter from the edge of the tub onto her finger, then stepped closer to get a better look. Lips twisting as she mulled over which corner to tackle, she reached out to carefully rub the butter over the edge of the tape, sweeping it around all of the edges and definitely not thinking about how she was literally touching Beca Mitchell’s boobs right now.

“Okay, super fast,” Chloe promised, bringing her gaze upward to meet Beca’s as she pushed her short nail beneath the corner of the pad. “Just a big bandaid.” Her free hand lifted to hold onto Beca’s shoulder in an effort to keep her steady, before she peeled the pad away with a quick tug, instinctively glancing downward to see the pierced result.

BECA MITCHELL

Something about Chloe’s wink hit differently this time, and Beca swallowed the lump in her throat. (Because she was anxious about the pain, right? Yeah. Definitely that.) She sucked in a sharp breath through her nose when Chloe’s fingers began spreading butter around the tape, biting down on her lower lip so hard she nearly drew blood. (Chill the fuck out, Beca. This is not a big deal.)

Her eyes popped wide the beat before and then-- “Fuck!” Her free hand slapped over her mouth as tears stung her eyes just as they had during the piercings themselves. She groaned and grimaced. “Just--hurry up and do the other one before I lose my nerve.”

CHLOE BEALE

Beca’s jolted reaction caused Chloe to grimace, offering her an apologetic look. “Sorry,” she pouted, though forced herself to keep her gaze from the exposed side of Beca’s chest and instead on the other pad. Just like she had the first one, Chloe spread the butter around the edges, then slid her nail under the corner. Without warning this time, figuring it was better to just get it over and done with, she tugged off the second pad. “There, all done,” she stated, fingers still curled around Beca’s shoulder, the tips brushing soothingly over her skin.

It was impossible not to let her gaze fall again, and while she noticed the marks from the pads, her focus was easily pulled in by the actual piercings. They looked understandably sore, but wow, they looked really good, too. Like, really really good.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca’s chest had always been annoyingly larger than her small frame would suggest, and the resulting jiggle from Chloe’s bandage tear caused another flash of pain to rush through her. “Holy shit. Might still murder Stacie in cold blood,” she mumbled, closing her eyes for a moment as the ache receded.

When she opened her eyes once more, she found… Chloe looking at them. No, staring.

Beca’s mouth went dry and it took her an extra second or two to find her voice. “Seriously? Eyes up, Beale.” She couldn’t resist casting a heatless glare Chloe’s way while her cheeks continued burning. But curiosity got the better of her and she turned a quarter way around to face the mirror, blinking down at her piercings once more. They still hurt like hell, but… okay, she didn’t hate them. “They look okay, I guess,” she conceded, glancing back at Chloe. “Thanks for the assist, Doc.”

CHLOE BEALE

“Mm, you might want to wait until you’re healed a bit. Murder probably requires a lot of movement,” Chloe teased, forcefully ignoring the part of her that wanted to reach out and touch. Just...to see what the piercings felt like, obviously. She only pulled her wide-eyed gaze away at the sound of Beca’s voice, dutifully bringing it up to Beca’s face instead.

“Just admiring your new piercings,” Chloe shrugged, shooting Beca an innocent smile as she leaned over to drop the removed pads into the small waste basket. She kept hold of Beca’s shoulder to steady herself this time, though let go once she’d straightened again. In the interest of being respectful, she chose not to look again, though she did glance briefly at Beca’s reflection in the mirror. “No problem!” she grinned, the name sending a shot of warmth throughout her. “So, you like them? They really do look good.”

BECA MITCHELL

“I guess they kinda fit my aesthetic,” she said with a shrug--wincing as soon as she did. (Note to self--stop shrugging for a while.) Carefully, she raised her arms to pull her t-shirt back down, pressing her lips together to bite back a whimper. Eager to turn the topic away from her sore-as-fuck nips, she cut Chloe another glance. She couldn’t stop her eyes flickering toward the notable bruise on Chloe’s neck. “Whoa, dude. Did you just hook up with Dracula?”

CHLOE BEALE

“Definitely,” Chloe nodded, a part of her feeling relieved when Beca finally covered up. It felt super disrespectful of her to even want to look; it wasn’t like Beca drooled every time Chloe walked into their bedroom-slash-living room with nothing on, after all. This was easier, even if she knew a quick glance downward would show her the metal balls through the thin fabric of her shirt. Again, Chloe forced herself not to look.

More concerned about Beca than the mark on her neck before, Chloe had almost forgotten about it, but frowned as Beca brought it back to her attention. “Ugh, no,” she huffed, bringing her hand up to cup at the side of her neck. “I told him no marks. I definitely don’t think I’m going to be seeing him again.” Frown still wrinkled onto her face, Chloe reached for the butter, pushing the lid back into place. She turned to exit the bathroom. “You almost got the bed all to yourself tonight, but you can blame Tinder Ben for ruining that.”

BECA MITCHELL

“What a fucking asshole.” Rage bubbled in Beca’s belly when Chloe shared she told him not to but he did it anyway. Part of her wanted to find Tinder Ben and knee him in the balls. He totally deserved it. “Also a dumbass, screwing up a shot to spend the night with you. Hopefully he learned his lesson.” Relief washed over Beca, and she wasn’t exactly sure why. She should’ve been bummed learning she lost a chance at having the bed to herself, but instead… yeah, fuck Tinder Ben.

Beca followed Chloe out of the bathroom, turning out the lights en route to said bed. She crawled beneath the blankets slowly, not wanting to make any sudden movements and risk more nipple related pain. “Sorry he fucked up your night.”

CHLOE BEALE

“I know,” Chloe frowned, and while a part of her really was annoyed—because everyone liked a night of meaningless sex, right?—another part of her couldn’t help but feel kind of relieved. The sleeping arrangements in their tiny apartment weren’t exactly the most convenient, but Chloe liked her little pull-out bed, the one she shared with Beca each night. Besides, she’d been in a bad mood thanks to her date, and Beca had lifted that without even trying. “You know, I dated a guy named Ben before, and he turned out to be kind of sucky, too.” Her nose wrinkled as she placed the butter back into the fridge. “Maybe it’s a Ben thing.”

Making her way toward their bedroom area, Chloe shot Beca a small smile. “It’s okay, there’ll be others,” she reasoned, hands dropping to the hem of her dress to begin tugging it upward and off of her body. Unlike Beca, Chloe had no problems with showing everything off, so she didn’t care to hide, and only hummed to herself as she tossed the dress into the laundry hamper, then set out to pick out something to wear for bed. “You should take a picture of your piercings to send to Jesse,” she suggested as she reached behind her back to unclasp her bra. What a waste of a good matching underwear set.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca snorted. “I dunno. Does that make Benji the exception to the rule, or is your Ben luck just shitty?” A smirk curved on her lips as she settled the blankets over her lap. Her eyes popped wide as Chloe crossed the room and whipped her dress over her head without a second thought. Seriously, it wasn’t fair… Chloe had an absolutely perfect body.

Not that she was looking. Not like that, anyway.

Heat prickled back onto her cheeks and she cleared her throat as she dropped her gaze to the phone in her lap, not really focusing on anything on the screen in particular. At Chloe’s suggestion, a grimace pulled across her lips and she shook her head. “Nah, I’m good. I texted him about them earlier though. He didn’t seem to mind, so that’s cool.”

CHLOE BEALE

“Oh, no, Benji’s different. He’s a Benji, not a Ben. And he seems to be making Emily really happy,” Chloe sighed dreamily. For someone who was so content with meaningless encounters, she really was a sucker for a good romance, and seeing her friends in their happy relationships always warmed her heart. Mostly, anyway.

Selecting a pair of blue pajama shorts and a mismatched white sweater, Chloe began to tug both on, then turned toward the bed as she pulled her hair from beneath the neck. “Didn’t seem to mind?” Her brow lifted at that. “It’s your body, it doesn’t matter whether he minds or not.” Jesse was a nice guy; the very definition of Nice Guy, in fact… Of course he wasn’t going to judge. “I’m gonna go brush my teeth, you wanna set up a movie or something? Or are you tired?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Pretty sure they’re both Benjamin but whatever, weirdo. I guess Benji really is one of a kind.” She had always rooted for Benji and Emily, and it was pretty damn cute how happy they were. Stealing one more quick glance up to Chloe while she pulled the sweater over her head (and instantly berating herself for doing so--seriously, what was wrong with her lately??), Beca sighed. “No I know, I didn’t care about what he thinks I just--I’m glad he didn’t seem to care either way.” He didn’t ask for a pic, but she wouldn’t have sent one either. She scrunched up her nose once more at the prospect of a movie. “I was just gonna put a chill playlist on, but if you really wanna watch a movie that’s cool, too.”

CHLOE BEALE

She shot Beca a playful glare, but only shrugged in response. Either way, Tinder Ben would not be getting any of her attention anymore, and it really was not too much of a loss. Beca and Jesse’s relationship always kind of confused Chloe—if she was in a long distance relationship with Beca, Chloe would certainly have asked for a picture. Not that that hypothetical situation mattered, of course. Rather than respond, she simply breezed toward the bathroom. “Doesn’t matter, music or a movie. Whatever you want,” she chirped, disappearing to go brush her teeth and wash up for bed.

Chloe was serious, it really didn’t matter what they did, just as long as there was some kind of distraction from having to lay there in silence and think about the fact that she’d had her hands on Beca’s bare chest only moments before. She mentally cursed herself for replaying the scene over in her mind—it wasn’t like bringing up Jesse had been accidental, after all.

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (2) beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

Text

'CAUSE YOU KNOW IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, DON’T YOU LET ME FALL ➝ BECHLOE.

TAGGING ➝ Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 3/9, evening.

WARNINGS ➝ None.

NOTES ➝ Beca and Chloe have The Feelings Talk.

CHLOE BEALE

Although Chloe had really wanted to talk about the things both she and Beca had said at the club the other week, the timing always seemed to be off. And it was okay, it wasn’t like things were exactly awkward between them; Chloe knew Beca needed time, she’d just ended a five year relationship, so she wasn’t going to push. As long as they were okay, she was fine with pushing her feelings aside to maybe bring up at a later date.

But then the awkward massage had happened, and Chloe had walked into the bathroom to see Beca doing...that. And suddenly it felt like it wasn’t something they couldn’t really put off anymore.

It was a sensitive topic, though. Feelings were sensitive, and Chloe had spent the last day trying to figure out how to bring it up in a way that wouldn’t have Beca running for the hills. Still a little lost in her head, she knew she’d been quieter than usual today, and as she laid in bed staring down at her twitching fingers where her hands rested over the top of the covers, she wondered if now might be a good time to just rip the bandaid off. They were in bed for the night, it wasn’t like Beca could really run.

“Bec…” she began quietly, not bothering to turn to look at her. She instead continued to focus on her hands. “I don’t want things to be weird with us, but I feel like they kind of are.” Despite herself, she turned her head to glance in Beca’s direction. “I wasn’t going to say anything about what happened at the club, at least not yet. But things felt off yesterday, and I feel like maybe it’s something we should talk about.”

BECA MITCHELL

In true Beca Mitchell fashion, she’d done everything in her power to force down those pesky feelings--both the very real and borderline inappropriate feelings for her best friend along with the awkward ones surfacing because she had no idea how to handle them.

The massage was a mistake. Beca wished she would’ve realized how… intense it would feel, and she was nowhere near ready to process how that simple back rub affected her.

She knew they needed to talk. She knew this just wouldn’t go away, much as she wished it would. Though Chloe promised they’d stay friends no matter what, Beca couldn’t shake the fear of losing her.

So she had a feeling Chloe would bring it up eventually. It didn’t mean she felt ready to talk about it, but here they were. “Yeah,” she agreed with one word to all of the above. Things had gotten weird. Things felt off. They should talk about it. Beca remained on her back as well, eyes up on the ceiling as she blindly picked at a loose thread on the blanket. She knew Chloe was probably expecting more words from her in that moment, but the fact that she’d agreed to even talk about it was a miracle in and of itself.

CHLOE BEALE

If anything, Chloe was kind of expecting Beca to turn away, or to pretend to be asleep or something, so the one word response was more than she’d counted on. It surprised her, in fact, the realization that she was actually agreeing, and while Chloe knew she was probably going to have to do most of the talking here, she hadn’t actually prepared what exactly she was going to say. “Yeah?” she echoed, sweeping her gaze over Beca’s side profile, before turning to face the ceiling again. “Okay. Um…” her mouth twisted as she thought over what she wanted to say, but instead her words came out as a question—a big question, one she was positive Beca probably wasn’t ready to answer. “Bec, how do you actually feel?”

BECA MITCHELL

How do you feel. The worst question Beca could possibly be asked ever. But this was Chloe asking, so she couldn't deflect. She didn't want to deflect, much as this scared the shit out of her. "Um…" Puffing out a hard breath, Beca licked her lips in an effort to provide moisture there. "High key terrified." There. She'd ripped the band-aid off. (So why was she still internally freaking out?)

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe had never had to have this kind of a talk before. Outside of her high school boyfriend, she’d never really had feelings for anybody, at least nobody that mattered. So, this was new territory for her, and the same way Beca was apparently terrified, so was she. She let out a quiet chuckle, not even thinking about it as she slipped her hand from where it rested over the covers to instead gently take Beca’s hand. She was handsy in general, but maybe right now she just kind of needed the comfort. “That’s not what I meant.” Her volume lowered a little. “I meant it when I said that we would always be okay, but I don’t know how to pretend you didn’t say you...felt something.” She paused, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “You were drunk at the club, and you were really sad the next day, so if that’s all it was, just a drunk sad thing, then that’s okay… but I don’t think that’s what it is for me.”

BECA MITCHELL

With anyone else on the planet, Beca would’ve yanked her hand away. Not Chloe, though. Again--Chloe always played by her own set of rules with Beca. And finally, after… god, how many years? Beca started understanding why.

“Wish I remembered exactly what I said and how I said it,” she mumbled, though Chloe had given her the gist of course. Keeping her eyes on the ceiling above, Beca summoned her courage. “Wasn’t just a drunk thing. Or a sad thing. Or a drunk sad thing.”

CHLOE BEALE

Although her heart had begun to race kind of uncomfortably and Chloe didn’t really count on that slowing anytime soon, her body was able to relax at least a little bit when Beca didn’t immediately pull her hand away. Her thumb began to brush softly over Beca’s fingers. “I remember what you said,” she hummed quietly, the confessions having replayed on a seemingly continuous loop in her mind ever since. “And how you said it. In a very drunk voice, right here,” she pointed with her free hand toward her ear, “right in my ear.” Her head turned to glance toward Beca, gaze sweeping over her face. “Then what was it?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca’s gulp was audible. Just the thought of her whispering confessions into Chloe’s ear shot a rush of warmth through her body, pinkening her skin. “Um, so.” Beca cleared her throat. “I’m not totally sure what it is? That’s what’s scary about it. It’s… different than I felt for Jesse, but definitely just as important? And more intense.” Wincing, she cut a glance to Chloe. “Shit. Sorry. I don’t mean to, like--compare you and him. I just…” She blew out a puff of air. “I don’t know how else to explain it.” And she was doing a shitty job as it was.

CHLOE BEALE

Despite the way her jaw clenched for half a second at the mention of Jesse, Chloe understood it. It was normal for Beca to compare them; he was her ex boyfriend, after all. Probably the last person she’d felt something for. “It’s okay,” she promised, meeting Beca’s quick gaze. No, she didn’t particularly want to think about Jesse—honestly, Chloe still felt kind of guilty—but something about Beca’s words caused a warm feeling inside of her. “I think it’s more intense because I’m your best friend.” And if something went badly between them, there’d be more to lose, but Chloe opted not to verbalize that particular thought. Instead, she just continued to watch her carefully. “You know that I’m still your best friend, right? Even if we look at each other a different way sometimes, I’m still going to be your best friend. You don’t lose that.”

BECA MITCHELL

Her jaw clenched and she managed a jerky nod, searching Chloe’s eyes. “You promise?” Her lower lip caught between her teeth for a beat. “‘Cause that’s what keeps me awake at night. My stupid feelings… fucking up everything we are because I inevitably do something dumb or make things too weird.” She’d verbalized that fear during her breakdown in the shower, but she needed to say it again. Clearly this time.

CHLOE BEALE

“Pinky promise,” Chloe nodded, twisting her hand to wrap her pinky finger around Beca’s. She understood the fear, it was something she felt herself, but there was something so calming, so strangely reassuring about just lying here and taking comfort from Beca’s eyes, it was suddenly kind of hard to feel too scared. “I mean, I think you’re kind of weird anyway,” she added quietly, pulling her lips inward to bite back her small smirk. “But I’m weird, too. And I think that’s one of the things I like best about you.” She paused to properly digest Beca’s words. “I don’t think you’d do anything stupid, because I think you care too much to do that. And I don’t think your feelings are stupid feelings like you keep calling them. I think they’re just feelings.”

BECA MITCHELL

When their pinky fingers hooked together, Beca’s shoulders relaxed into their mattress. Chloe was right. They were both weirdos, that was why they fit so well as friends. “Okay. Fine. Just feelings then.” Blinking at Chloe in the relative dimness of their makeshift “bedroom”, Beca pulled her lips inward as she surveyed her face. “So… now what?”

CHLOE BEALE

“Just feelings,” Chloe hummed, unhooking their pinkies to instead take Beca’s hand again, her fingers slotting comfortably between Beca’s. The simple question to follow was kind of a loaded one, but Chloe felt surprisingly peaceful as let her eyes quietly study Beca’s, almost a little surprised that Beca hadn’t yet torn her gaze away. “I don’t know,” she admitted, pad of her thumb brushing over the backs of her fingers again. “What do you want now?”

BECA MITCHELL

Exhaling shakily, Beca squeezed Chloe’s hand. “I guess I kinda wanna… explore stuff a little bit?” She licked her lips, scrunching her nose. “But not yet. I don’t want you to feel like some sort of rebound situation because obviously you mean more to me than that.” Relaxing her facial muscles, her expression shifted into a softer, more hopeful one. “Maybe soon though? If you still want to, I mean?”

CHLOE BEALE

The corners of Chloe’s lips twitched upward into a relaxed smile, comforted by the squeeze to her hand. “Explore it how?” she questioned, unable to shift her small smile in response to the way Beca’s expression changed. Her head nodded gently as she studied Beca’s face, gaze drifting upward to meet her eyes once more. “I’m okay with waiting. I think I’ve been waiting for you a little longer than I even realized, so a little more is okay.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca puffed out a few notes of a semi-strained chuckle, rolling her eyes. “Dude, c’mon. You know what I mean. Like--more than friends stuff.” She’d never been more grateful for the shadowy darkness so Chloe couldn’t see the color rising in her cheeks. The next part made her heart skip a beat as bats seemingly took off, flapping away in her stomach. “Dope. Thanks for understanding.”

CHLOE BEALE

Beca’s chuckle pulled an amused grin to Chloe’s lips. This conversation could’ve definitely gone way worse; the fact that they were able to smile about it definitely spoke volumes. “Well, yeah, but I mean like how? Do I get to ask you on a date?” Although her brows lifted and fell playfully, it really wasn’t a joke. It wasn’t something she’d actually considered before, but the idea of a date with Beca Mitchell drew the good kind of butterflies to her stomach. “Of course,” she nodded. “Maybe no more massages until then, though. I couldn’t do that respectfully…” her nose scrunched. “Not even yesterday.”

BECA MITCHELL

“For real? Dates are for people to try to get to know each other, right? We already know each other.” She blinked, amusement twisting up the corners of her mouth. “You mean you wanna, like… wine and dine and romance me like the total cheeseball you are?” Another rush of heat flooded Beca’s system at the massage memory and she nodded maybe a little too eagerly. “For sure, yeah. Hard agree. I mean, you did great--” Maybe too great. “But yeah. Good call.”

CHLOE BEALE

“Hmm, I don’t know,” Chloe hummed thoughtfully. “I know best friend Beca. I don’t know trying to sell herself on a date Beca.” She’d gotten pretty good at dates herself, even if they were always only with the intention of a mindless hookup afterwards. It might be nice to have one with something more in mind. “I did mean the cheesy thing, though, yes. My parents know each other super well, they’ve been married for years and have three kids and they still go on dates. I think it’s important to romance the person you like.” At least they were on the same page about the massage—and Chloe totally had not forgotten what she’d witnessed afterwards. Releasing their hands, she rolled onto her side to face Beca. “You know, I really thought you were gonna run away when I said we should talk.” She shot her an appreciative smile. “I’m really glad you didn’t.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Sell myself? Get out of here, nerd.” Beca narrowed her eyes in a heatless glare. She softened a few seconds later. “That’s adorable though. Sounds pretty stereotypical Beale to me.” Her own parents split when she was young. All Beca really remembered was hearing them fight. So it was kinda… refreshing, hearing another version of a long-term relationship. One that didn’t break apart. “Yeah, well. What was I gonna do… barge into Amy’s room or run outside in the freezing cold in my underwear?” Huffing a laugh, Beca turned on her side away from Chloe… then did that not-so-slick move where she shuffled back a few inches, hinting for a spoon. “Glad we talked,” she admitted. “G’night, weirdo.”

CHLOE BEALE

“That’s what people do on dates,” Chloe shrugged, “try to get the other person interested.” Then again, Beca had been in a relationship for the last five years, it made sense that she didn’t really know the protocol anymore. Her parents were pretty much her relationship goals, they’d set a great example, so a fond smile pulled onto Chloe’s lips at the thought. “It is. I think we’re all kind of hopeless romantics, even my brothers.” Her grin returned at the idea of Beca even attempting a night in Amy’s bed, dealing with her loud snoring. She also totally would not cope without someone to spoon—or spoon her—a pretty much nightly occurrence for them at this point. “No. The last two times things got intense, you ran to the shower,” she pointed out, watching as Beca not so subtly shuffled back. Just like always, Chloe’s arm stuck out to drape across her middle, tightening to tug her closer. “Me too,” she hummed, slipping her fingertips beneath the hem of Beca’s shirt to brush softly along the smooth skin of her stomach. She was kind of riding a high that came along with their positive conversation, but if Beca was ready to sleep, then Chloe would try to, too. “You’re a weirdo, too,” she reminded her through a contented sigh, nudging her nose against Beca’s shoulder. “Night, Bec.”

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (10) beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

Text

I WISH I COULD PRETEND I DIDN’T NEED YA ➝ BECHLOE.

TAGGING ➝ Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 3/8, afternoon.

WARNINGS ➝ You know what yeah NSFW Beca.

NOTES ➝ Beca needs a massage...

BECA MITCHELL

While the cold cucumber slices helped reduce the swelling beneath Beca’s eyes, her stress levels continued mounting throughout the rest of the week.

In addition to Jesse-related guilt and fielding questions from her parents about the break-up, her shitty boss continued piling impossible projects onto Beca’s workload.

Lil’ Pimp Lo’s “Bend Over” might be the final straw.

Beca trudged up the stairs after what felt like a decades-long meeting with BFD’s new “artist” and his weak voice, horrendous love of special effect lasers, and clear Napoleon Complex. Her mood probably couldn’t have been more sour, and after letting herself into the apartment, she set her bag down, toed off her boots, then flopped face-down on her side of the bed.

CHLOE BEALE

Between school, her internship, her part-time job and the kittens, it was fair to say Chloe was exhausted. She barely had the time for a social life, so when she wasn’t tending to one of her obligations, she was generally just lying around the apartment and trying to keep her eyes open until bedtime, with today being no exception.

She’d fed four of the kittens, and was just finishing up with the fifth when the door opened, Chloe’s lazy gaze flickering toward it to see a sour looking Beca entering their tiny apartment. She followed the way Beca flopped down onto the bed, face scrunching into a frown.

“Good day?” she asked sarcastically, not moving from her slumped back position against her pillows where she balanced a feeding Yellow on her chest. “I know you love Green, but please don’t grab him just yet. They’re all milk drunk, and they’ve really been putting their vocals to use today.”

BECA MITCHELL

“M’gonna rage quit this job one of these days I swear,” Beca mumbled, barely comprehensible into her pillow. Turning her head to look up at Chloe, she reached out to give Yellow a soft stroke on her back. “Don’t grab the kittens. Noted.” She squinted up at Chloe. “You look pretty tired. Wanna order pizza and pass out early tonight?” Sounded like a dream, honestly.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe breathed out a small sigh, sending Beca a sympathetic look. “There has to be something better for you out there. What happened this time?” She glanced down toward the kitten on her chest, small smile pulling onto her lips as she watched Beca’s fingers dance over her fur. “You read my mind. You know what sounds so good right now?” Her head tipped back into the pillows as she let out a dreamy sigh. “Hawaiian.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Ugh, just got a new client I got assigned to. They keep getting progressively more shitty and obnoxious to work with. Kinda feel like my boss is punking me.” Beca sighed, eager to not think about work. “Yeah, sure. No ham on my half.” But of course Chloe knew that already. “We’ve still got half a six-pack in the fridge, too. You cool ordering? I’m gonna shower real quick.”

CHLOE BEALE

“Maybe it’s a musician thing,” Chloe’s nose wrinkled. “Aren’t they supposed to be, like, divas and stuff?” As cool as Beca’s job sounded, Chloe didn’t really envy it; it seemed to be more stressful for her than anything else. Pulling the empty syringe from Yellow’s mouth, Chloe pushed herself upward to settle her in her bed with her brothers and sisters. “Got it,” she nodded, twisting to plant her feet on the floor. “Hey, you know before you shower, why don’t you let me give you that massage?” She glanced toward Beca. “Or I guess after, but I have massage oil so you’d have to shower again afterwards, and that seems kind of pointless.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Most of ‘em are, yeah. Or maybe my boss just has bad taste and signs shitty people.” With a shrug, she pushed to sit up, raking her hand through her hair and shaking out its stiffness. She froze when Chloe mentioned the massage, her brow shooting upward. “Oh. Um.” Beca figured Chloe might forget about that offer. Beca certainly hadn’t. “Right now? Are you sure? You said you’re tired, too.”

CHLOE BEALE

“Or your boss knows you won’t take any crap, so you’re the best person for the job,” she shrugged, always intent on putting a positive spin on any situation where she could. Making sure Yellow was comfortably settled, Chloe sat upright again, reaching over to open up her bedside drawer. “Of course I’m sure,” she nodded, retrieving the small bottle of oil—hopefully Beca wouldn’t be too weirded out by the Badd Kitty label. “I’m just tired, but you’re tired and stressed. Massages are great for stress. Besides,” she popped the cap on the oil, holding it out to Beca with a bright grin. “This smells like strawberries. See?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca appreciated Chloe’s vote of confidence, even if she didn’t fully believe her. Leaning in, she sniffed the bottle and nodded. “Yep. That’s strawberry.” At least it smelled nice. “So, uh--” Beca shrugged off her work blazer. “How much am I supposed to take off here?”

CHLOE BEALE

“Exactly. It’s very relaxing,” Chloe hummed contentedly, pulling the bottle closer to take a sniff herself. A part of her was surprised Beca was even entertaining this, but she wasn’t going to draw attention to it; if Beca was down, Chloe was not complaining. “Umm, however much you want,” she shrugged, “I mean, you can take everything off if you wanna get super relaxed. But definitely everything on the top half. You don’t want oil on your clothes, trust me.” She frowned, turning to look away. “I won’t look.” Not that she hadn’t literally seen Beca’s bare boobs when she’d helped her with her piercings… or when she’d followed her into the shower the other day.

BECA MITCHELL

Perhaps it was sort of inevitable living in such tight quarters with someone so open as Chloe, but even Beca grew somewhat desensitized to having Chloe seeing her in various states of undress. (Only under duress and only for a few seconds at a time.) “Right, got it.” Once Chloe turned, Beca undressed fully up top and pulled on a pair of mesh shorts. Then she swept her hair up into a messy bun atop her head, settling on her side of the bed and looking back at Chloe over her tattooed shoulder. “All set.”

CHLOE BEALE

While Beca got to work on undressing, Chloe jumped up to grab a towel. The same way they didn’t want oil on their clothes, they didn’t want it on their bed either. She returned with a hand over her eyes, plopping back down onto the bed, and only turning with Beca’s say so. “Awes,” she hummed, shuffling closer to drape the towel across the bed, then settled on her knees beside it. “Lay on your front over the towel. Should I light candles? That would be super relaxing… Or, uh, that’s what I normally do anyway.” So maybe Chloe had never given or received a massage that wasn’t in the build up to sex, but whatever.

BECA MITCHELL

Keeping one hand draped over her chest out of habit, Beca shifted to lie down along the towel. She pillowed her head on her folded arms, shrugging. “Whatever you think? The bright lights kinda suck, so that might be better.”

CHLOE BEALE

“Candles coming right up,” Chloe nodded dutifully, quickly shuffling from the bed to get to work. “Do you have, like, a relaxing playlist or something?” she suggested as she began to rummage for a lighter. “You could put that on.” It was fortunate that Chloe insisted on decorative candles dotted around the apartment already, so all she had to do was light them while Beca did whatever she needed to do to get comfortable.

BECA MITCHELL

“Oh, uh--yeah, sure.” Beca reached for her phone on the bedside table and thumb scrolled through her vast musical library. She eventually chose a playlist and hit shuffle, setting her phone back as King Princess streamed through the bluetooth speaker.

CHLOE BEALE

“Perfect,” Chloe smiled, quickly lighting all of the available candles, before bouncing over to flick the light switch. “We probably should’ve done this for our spa night before, it feels way more relaxing already.” As she headed back toward the bed, Chloe crossed her arms over her middle to peel off her sweater, under which she wore a strappy sleeved black cami. She wasn’t trying to get oil on her stuff, either. The top and pajama shorts were fine, though, and Chloe reached for a hair tie as she climbed back onto the bed. “Is it okay if I sit on you?” she hummed, though she’d already begun to climb until she could position her knees on the bed either side of Beca’s thighs as she tied her hair back securely.

BECA MITCHELL

“Sit on me? Um… go for it.” Beca had never received a massage, so she assumed all of this--the lighting, the music, the positioning--was standard. “Just a heads up, the sides of my rib cage are super fucking ticklish and if you tickle me I can’t be held responsible for murder because you’re forewarned.”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe giggled at the mental image. “Noted,” she nodded, stretching across the bed to grab the bottle of strawberry oil. “Murder would really ruin the whole relaxation thing, so I would really appreciate if you refrained.” Beca was a baby, she’d whined about how cold the cucumber was the other day, so Chloe thought better of squeezing the oil directly onto her back. Instead, she squeezed a bit onto her palm, setting the bottle aside and rubbing her hands together. Her gaze dropped to Beca’s bare back, and the idea that this...might not be the best idea entered her mind. It would be weird to stop now, though, right? Chloe cleared her throat, leaning down to press her hands to Beca’s shoulders. “Where do you feel the most tense?”

BECA MITCHELL

The faint smell of strawberry wafted under her nose after Chloe squeezed the bottle. “Uh… everywhere? I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t tense.” Realizing that wasn’t likely helpful to Chloe, Beca hummed. “Probably my neck and shoulders?” From all the hunching over her laptop and schlepping her laptop and equipment all the time.

CHLOE BEALE

“That’s kind of sad,” Chloe frowned, forcing herself to focus on her hands instead of what she could see of Beca’s naked upper half. The last thing she was supposed to be doing was checking her out, after all. “Lucky for you, though, we’re gonna fix that right now.” Her volume lowered as she ran her fingers gently over the curve of her shoulder and toward her neck—this was supposed to be relaxing, after all. “Here?” Her fingers pressed down, beginning to massage over that exact spot.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca sucked in a sharp breath at first contact, willing herself to relax. Okay so maybe letting Chloe touch her bare skin like this wasn’t the brightest idea, but she’d committed to this so she needed to give it a fair shot. “Yeah,” Beca croaked, clearing her throat. “That’s not bad.”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe nodded despite the fact that Beca couldn’t see her. She focused on that same spot, gaze drifting toward the tattoo on Beca’s shoulder while her hands worked. “Pretty,” she hummed, eyes following the outline. She’d never really allowed herself to study Beca’s tattoos before, never really had the opportunity from this angle. It felt better than letting herself look down her body, though. “Your tattoo.” Her hand instinctively slid across Beca’s shoulder until her fingers could begin to trace the outline, though she stopped herself quickly, instead pushing down her palm to gently massage.

BECA MITCHELL

Plenty of people had commented on Beca’s tattoos before in both positive and negative ways (lookin’ at you, grandma). But nobody had ever studied them. Nobody had ever traced one with fingertips, and the simple act rendered Beca speechless for a few solid seconds before she managed to husk out a raspy “Thanks.” The added pressure only pulled a soft groan which… Beca realized a beat too late probably sounded, like… inappropriate for a massage. She tried ignoring it though. Maybe Chloe didn’t notice.

CHLOE BEALE

Beca’s audible reaction had Chloe’s teeth sinking into her bottom lip. Her other hand slid to Beca’s opposite shoulder, paying the same attention to both. She sucked in a steadying breath, thumb brushing over the tattoo. “Bec, is this…” she trailed off, about to ask if this was weird, but if it wasn’t already, that was probably a good way to make it weird. She settled instead on licking her lips and continuing quietly with, “is this okay?” She wasn’t necessarily asking how the massage felt, at least not physically.

BECA MITCHELL

“Mhm,” Beca managed, her tone pitchy through pursed lips, afraid what sound might escape if she opened her mouth in that moment. Inhaling deeply through her nose, she finally let out her exhale through her mouth, willing herself to relax. That was the point of this, wasn’t it? “You good?” she croaked after another minute or so, glancing at Chloe over her shoulder.

CHLOE BEALE

Of the two, Chloe was the least likely to ever find anything awkward, but apparently the same could not be said for right now. Maybe it was just because of their confessions, the ones they had yet to revisit—Chloe wasn’t sure if they ever even would, in fact—but she couldn’t help but feel...really, really weird. In spite of herself, she bit back an honest response, and instead just shot Beca a forced smile. “Mhm,” she echoed, bringing her gaze back to her slowly moving hands. “If you’re good, I’m good.”

BECA MITCHELL

When Beca agreed to this massage, she definitely hadn’t anticipated the weird cascade of sensations coursing through her body. Uncomfortable heat pooling low in her belly and tingling throughout her limbs, causing her breathing to shallow significantly.

Of course, Beca chalked that up to her discomfort and anxiety with people touching her in general and not what it actually was.

Surging arousal. The sort she’d never really experienced before.

After another few minutes of enjoying Chloe’s hands on her a little too much, she gave in. “Actually…” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat. “I’m hungrier than I thought. Mind ordering dinner now? I’ll hop in the shower and run out to pick it up so we don’t have to pay the delivery fee.” Beca honestly craved fresh air, hoping the frigid winter air might help cool her body temperature and chill her brain.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe always wanted to help Beca to feel better, so it wasn’t like she didn’t want to do this. The problem was that she was kind of enjoying touching Beca a little too much, so although she tried to preoccupy her mind by humming along quietly with the music, when Beca spoke up again, Chloe silently cheered.

She instantly paused the movement of her hands, sinking back to sit on Beca’s thighs with her hands falling into her lap. “Mm, yeah, food sounds good,” she agreed, gaze unintentionally sweeping over her back, before Chloe quickly lifted it again. “The delivery fee is fine, I can get it.” She shuffled to climb off of her, instead kneeling on the mattress beside her. “I bet if I order right now, it’ll probably be here when you’re done with your shower, right?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Cool. Thanks. I’ll Venmo you half.” Keeping her back to Chloe, Beca ducked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She’d intended on taking a quick one, except… the hot water felt a little too good pelting down on her new piercings. Combined with the incessant, pulsating throb pounding between her legs in time with her heartbeat, Beca couldn’t resist bracing her right hand flat against the wall to steady herself as she yanked the shower head off its hinge and directed the spray where she needed it most. Biting down so hard on her lip she nearly drew blood, Beca mostly managed to keep her mewls and moans quiet enough to not be heard over the water as she worked herself over the edge in a shuddering finale.

CHLOE BEALE

“No, it’s fine. I’ve got it,” Chloe shrugged, hopping from the bed and heading directly for the kitchen sink to clean off her oily hands before ordering their food. She forced herself to keep her eyes directed away even as she heard Beca standing, thoughts entirely consumed by the mental image of her hands on Beca’s bare body—and that damn noise Beca had made. Maybe she should shower soon…

The last thing Chloe had wanted was anything between them to be weird, but suddenly it felt like it was, and she really could not handle the thought of things only worsening the way she was sure they would if they didn’t talk soon.

Her worries began to consume her as she shuffled back toward the bed to order their food, and she decided she really needed to initiate a conversation. It was probably something that could wait until after Beca’s shower, but Chloe had never really cared for privacy, so she didn’t really think about it as she headed for the bathroom, pausing only briefly, before pushing open the door.

Although she opened her mouth to announce her presence, she was instantly cut off by the quiet sounds coming from the shower, and Chloe’s eyes widened as she glanced toward the curtain to see… No, she totally wasn’t seeing what she thought she was seeing. Was she? Teeth sinking into her bottom lip, she slowly backed out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

Alright, yeah, they really needed to talk.

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (9) beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

Text

EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT IF YOU KEEP ME NEXT TO YOU ➝ BECHLOE.

TAGGING ➝ Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 3/2, afternoon.

WARNINGS ➝ None.

NOTES ➝ Post-Jeca breakup.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca hadn’t intended on taking a half-day. But she’d been planning on finally sitting Jesse down to have the conversation she’d been dreading for weeks now after work. She wasn’t able to focus on her projects that morning, so she decided she better leave work early and get on with it.

As predicted, breaking up with her boyfriend of almost five years was… awful. Heartbreaking. The most difficult emotional conversation she’d ever had, hands down. She wished she’d dropped hints, told him she’d been feeling disconnected for a long time. She wished she didn’t completely blindside him AFTER he’d surprised her by moving across the entire country.

At first he lashed out, then his anger morphed into unbearable sadness.

Beca said all the wrong things, of course. Lines she promised herself she wouldn’t use spewed out anyway because they felt like the truth.

“It’s not you, it’s me. I’m the problem.”

“I love you, but I’m not in love with you the way I should be. You deserve better--someone who can love you the way you should be loved.”

“You’re still my best friend, Jesse. I understand if you need some space but I hope we can still be friends eventually.”

Beca cringed as some of those awful phrases repeated in her head on loop during her brisk walk home. She only hoped he heard the sincerity in her tone and chose to focus on that rather than the words themselves.

By the time she trudged up the stairs and let herself in, she knew she looked pretty damn worn out. Bone-weary exhaustion made her movements sluggish. She was dehydrated from crying, her eyes red-rimmed and cheeks blotchy with dried tears. Beca dropped her bag by the door and struggled with the laces of her boots, sniffling as she felt another tearful wave coming on.

Ugh, not again.

CHLOE BEALE

It was perhaps a little unfair that Chloe found herself so on edge today. It wasn’t like she was breaking up with anybody. It was always difficult for her not to feel Beca’s pain, though, so with the knowledge that Beca was headed to break up with her long-term boyfriend, Chloe was...well, kind of on edge.

Maybe that was why she’d lashed out at Aubrey a little bit—well, that and the fact that Aubrey had apparently known Chloe’s mind before she’d even known it herself, but still, that was really no excuse. Deep down, she was just really worried about Beca, even going so far as to offer to go with her to Jesse’s place, despite knowing what a terrible idea that was and that it likely wouldn’t help at all.

So, after Aubrey left, all Chloe could really do was sit around and wait impatiently to be there for her best friend. Because that’s what Beca was above everything else, despite whatever they may have spoken about over the weekend, she was her best friend, and Chloe figured that was what Beca needed right now.

She also didn’t want to overcrowd her, though, so as she heard the door opening, seated on her side of the bed with her legs tucked beneath her and scrolling through her phone, Chloe didn’t immediately jump up. She simply glanced toward a downtrodden looking Beca, heart aching in response to the sad sounding sniffle. “Hey,” she greeted gently, immediately setting down her phone and beginning to push herself from the bed. “Um, how did it go?” Chloe asked, cautiously making her way across the small stretch of floor and toward the doorway. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she stretched out a hand to rest against Beca’s shoulder. “Actually, first… Bec, are you okay?”

BECA MITCHELL

Ever since Beca’s emotional breakdown on Sunday, things between her and Chloe… felt pretty normal? Which Beca appreciated more than she could say. Though they definitely needed to pull their confessions out of that locked box to poke at it at some point, right now… Beca just needed normalcy. She craved it more than anything in the moment. “It was awful, but I didn’t expect it to be good or anything.” Puffing out a sigh, she ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head. “I just kinda feel like the shittiest human on the planet right now. I guess that’ll pass eventually.” Her shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. “I know I did the right thing though. He deserves… someone who can love him the right away, you know? The romantic kinda way.”

CHLOE BEALE

Cautiously pulling back her hand when it became clear that Beca wasn’t about to have a whole breakdown right there and then, Chloe quietly watched her as she began to explain, dutifully nodding along in understanding. She had never actually had a serious relationship of her own, she’d never had to break up with anybody, so she didn’t totally get it, but she could still be there for Beca. “You did do the right thing,” she promised with another short nod of her head, arms folding comfortably across her middle. “And I know you feel like a shitty person, but you’re not. People fall out of love, Bec. It just...happens,” Chloe frowned, taking a step back out of Beca’s space. “He didn’t see it coming? Like, at all?” Chloe had seen it coming, apparently Aubrey had, too. Surely Jesse had to have some idea, right?

BECA MITCHELL

She knew she did the right thing, but Chloe’s reassurance definitely helped. “Yeah. It still sucks.” Beca shuffled over to the kitten box to scoop up her Green Goblin, carrying him over to her side of the bed before settling in comfortably. He snuggled atop her chest and she stroked his fur. “You know Jesse. He thinks his life’s a freakin’ movie. If he saw it, he probably ignored it, you know?” Beca frowned. “I should’ve realized it sooner. I kinda wish he gave me a heads up before he moved across the country but… that’s not my fault, right?”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe watched as Beca scooped up the kitten she’d just gotten fed and settled, though chose not to say anything. If she wanted that comfort right now, who was Chloe to stop her? Green always seemed the happiest when he was with his Beca anyway, so Chloe simply shuffled toward the bed too, neatly seating herself on the foot at Beca’s side. “True,” she shrugged, almost feeling guilty for weighing in on anything Jesse related, as strange as that may have seemed. She knew she hadn’t been the cause of their breakup, that it had likely been a long time coming, but Aubrey had kind of put the idea in her head that she’d played some part in it, so she couldn’t help the way that began to nag.

“Of course it’s not your fault. I don’t really have much experience when it comes to relationships, but I’m pretty sure people are supposed to discuss the big things with each other. And moving across the country is definitely a big thing,” Chloe said with a wrinkle of her nose. She paused then, chewing on the inside of her cheek in thought. “I knew you weren’t super happy about that. I guess I didn’t know you were this unhappy about it, but I mean…” she trailed off with a small shrug. “He should’ve told you. Do you think he would’ve still moved here? You know, if you’d broken up before?”

BECA MITCHELL

“I doubt it. Pretty sure he just assumed I was gonna move in with him as soon as I could, which isn’t cool to you guys too, y’know? But I should’ve definitely figured out my own shit sooner. I honestly didn’t realize I was as unhappy as I’d been until I felt super pressured to change my life around for him.” Beca glanced up at Chloe. “Kinda relieved I don’t need to move out now. Bad news is you’re stuck with me for a while longer.” She managed a weak smile.

CHLOE BEALE

“He was expecting a lot of you,” Chloe nodded—she knew how (not) well Beca coped with change… Jesse should’ve known it too, in fact, but Chloe wasn’t going to comment on that. “Well, I didn’t want you to go. And Green would’ve been super sad, too,” she mirrored Beca’s weak smile, motioning to the kitten curled up on her chest. “That wasn’t the only reason you broke up with him, right? Because he wanted you to move in with him?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Yeah. He always had me cast as his leading lady love interest but life isn’t a damn movie.” Beca sighed, brushing a kiss to Green’s head. She blinked up at Chloe at the question. “It was more of the fact that, like… I should’ve been really excited to move in with him but I didn’t want to. That was kind of the biggest red flag that my feelings weren’t as… intense as they should’ve been for being with someone for that long.” She paused, glancing down to the kitten. “I guess I just started figuring out that the way I love Jesse isn’t that romantic kind he expected. I thought it was for a while, but…” Beca trailed off. “It’s just not.”

CHLOE BEALE

It was difficult not to join in and to tell Beca exactly what she thought, that Jesse really did want too much of her, that maybe he hadn’t even deserved her. He had clearly wanted something that Beca wasn’t, but again, Chloe was not going to say so aloud. Instead, she just continued to quietly nod along. “Well, I’m proud of you, Bec. I know you might not feel good about yourself right now, but you did what you had to do, and I’m proud of you.” She offered her another small smile, though paused as her gaze fell from Beca’s face to instead focus on the kitten. It probably wasn’t the right time to ask, especially because what Beca needed right now was a friend, but Chloe couldn’t stop the nagging in her mind, and her lips pulled inward as she thought over how to word her question. “I know you’ve probably been feeling like this for a while,” she began kind of slowly, “but it didn’t have anything to do with the weekend, right?” Her bottom lip sucked in between her teeth. “What we talked about?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Thanks.” She didn’t feel like she deserved anyone’s pride, but Chloe always had a habit of lifting her spirits even when she didn’t think it possible. Chloe’s question and subtle shift in demeanor sent Beca’s brow crawling toward her hairline. She shook her head. “What? No. I mean--not directly, at least.” She exhaled in a strained sort of chuckle. Beca wished she’d been able to remember Saturday night’s events, but she’d need to take Chloe’s word on what happened. “Me and Jesse breaking up has probably been a long time coming. I feel like shit that I hurt him but I’m also pretty relieved.”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe responded with an encouraging smile. She knew Beca, she knew she definitely didn’t want praise, but if Chloe thought something, she was going to say it, and she knew that Beca knew that, too. Once she’d asked her question, she brought her gaze back up to Beca’s face, an unfair amount of relief washing over her at the response. “Okay,” she nodded. “Good. I mean, not good... I don’t know, Aubrey just kind of put it in my head.” She paused then, before adding, “I didn’t say anything to her, by the way. I guess she’s just been thinking some things.” Her nose wrinkled. “Maybe they all have.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca’s head tilted to the side while she continued running her fingertips through Green’s soft fur. “She put what in your head?” Beca frowned. “What did she say to you?” Despite she and Aubrey declaring a truce after their first ICCA victory, Beca’s protective instinct when it came to Aubrey’s controlling nature in her friendship with Chloe remained wholly intact.

CHLOE BEALE

“Blame, I guess?” Chloe shrugged halfheartedly, shuffling over to position herself at her own side of the bed to settle in beside Beca and the kitten with her pillows propped up beside her. “She said…” she paused, mouth twisting as she thought back over their earlier conversation. Admittedly, a lot of it had been kind of blurry. “Something like after what she saw at Output, she doesn’t want me to think I’m to blame. I don’t know what she saw,” she shrugged again, reaching over to gently run her fingers over the top of Green’s head. “But I guess she thinks she saw something.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca couldn’t help it--her eyes rolled hard. “She needs to mind her own damn business.” Softening a beat later, Beca’s fingers sort of accidentally-on-purpose brushed Chloe’s while she stroked Green Goblin’s head. “Hey. It’s not your fault, okay? I promise. It’s my own fault for… not figuring my own shit out sooner, you know?” Beca’s shoulders lifted slightly and she cast another tight-lipped grin her way. “But it is what it is. And right now…” She blinked. “Holy shit, now I’m like… single?” Beca grimaced as she spoke her new status aloud. “Weird. Okay. Cool. Weird but cool.”

CHLOE BEALE

“I think she means well,” Chloe chuckled softly, eyes down on the way their hands moved over the kitten’s fur. A small smirk tugged at the corners of her lips as Beca’s fingers brushed against her own, with Chloe allowing herself a brief glance upward, before dropping her gaze back to the kitten. “I don’t think you’re at fault either, Bec. You figured things out when you figured them out, you couldn’t have forced yourself to do it sooner,” she shrugged. Her nose wrinkled at the sound of Beca Mitchell and single together… After five years, it was super weird. “You are,” she nodded, letting out another soft chuckle as she glanced toward Beca’s face again. “That’s kind of exciting, right?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Uh. If by exciting you mean low-key terrifying, sure.” She scrunched up her nose in return. “Dating randos sounds torturous and honestly, and I feel like I’m supposed to work on bettering myself or some shit. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do after an intense breakup?”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe’s heart had no right to tug in the way it did at the idea of Beca dating. Just because they’d drunkenly confessed some things to each other didn’t necessarily mean anything, so Chloe bit back her disappointment. “Something like that,” she agreed, twisting to lean back against her pillows. “I could help you set up Tinder, if you want. Most people on there are super creepy, but it’s fine for if you just want a little fun.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca pulled another disgusted face. “Definitely not. Appreciate the offer, but I’m good.” Why would she willingly subject herself to creepers? Hard pass. “Anyway, I didn’t mean dating. I meant like--maybe taking some time to figure out my shitty situation at work so I’m less miserable and stressed all the time. Maybe I’ll drink a smoothie with a piece of lettuce in it once in a while. Stuff like that.”

CHLOE BEALE

“You said dating randos,” Chloe pointed out. “Tinder is rando central.” Her brow quirked as Beca continued, and Chloe couldn’t quite bite back her amused smile. “A smoothie with lettuce will definitely solve all of your problems,” she teased, leaning over the side of the bed to check on the kittens where they slept in their box. “Speaking of lettuce, do we have cucumber? Your eyes are super puffy. They look sore, we could cut up cucumber slices and have our own little spa right here.”

BECA MITCHELL

“I said dating randos sounds torturous as in--I have no interest in doing that ever.” When Chloe mentioned her puffy eyes, Beca sighed. “Yeah, romaine calm. There’s a cucumber in the fridge.” She leaned over to set Green back in his box. “Lettuce have a little spa day. Auntie Beca filled her cry quota for the next five years.”

CHLOE BEALE

Satisfied that the kittens were all sleeping comfortably, Chloe began to push herself from the bed. She winced at Beca’s terrible pun—both of them. “Oh, that was painful,” she giggled, rolling up the long sleeves of her sweater as she shuffled toward the fridge. “You’re Mama Beca, by the way. Not Auntie. Do you want anything to drink?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Shhh… you gotta deal with my dad jokes, I’m in relationship mourning.” That was a thing, right? It definitely felt like someone died. “Water would be clutch.” God knew she cried too damn much and needed more hydration. She blinked after a beat, processing Chloe’s words. “What do you mean, Mama Beca?”

CHLOE BEALE

“Fine, you get a free pass just for the rest of today, then I get to complain again,” Chloe teased, grabbing both the water pitcher and the wrapped cucumber half from the fridge. She’d assumed she’d probably have to take care of a defeated Beca today—not that she minded; Chloe always liked to be doing something—but she hadn’t anticipated an at home spa night. She was kind of into it, though, and got to work on slicing up the cucumber. “To the kittens,” she shrugged, setting four slices onto a small plate, before starting on the water. “We’re their foster moms, remember? Not their foster aunts. You’re Mama Beca and I’m Mama Chloe.”

BECA MITCHELL

A weird flutter batted in her stomach when Chloe reminded her of their official cat foster mom titles. “Right, right. Yeah. Cool.” She drummed her fingers on her stomach before noting her bitten down nails, most of the polish chipped off. “What else do we do for spa day? Guess I could repaint my nails…”

CHLOE BEALE

Water poured into two glasses, Chloe balanced the plate on top of one of them as she carried them toward the bed. “I really think I missed my calling as a waitress,” she hummed, handing the other glass over to Beca, before shuffling back to her own side of the bed. “We could paint each other’s nails,” she suggested with brightened eyes. “I also think I have some face masks in the bathroom. But you need the cucumber first,” she frowned, plopping down into her spot again, this time with her legs crossed and her body facing Beca as she held out the plate.

BECA MITCHELL

“I’m not the best at painting nails but I’ll try if you want.” Beca accepted the water with a tight-lipped grin, chugging down a few gulps before setting it on her bedside table. Then she snagged two cucumbers from the plate. “This is gross. Is it gonna feel slimy?” Without waiting for a response, she lay back and rested the slices over her eyes. “Dude that’s cold!” But that was the point, right? To reduce the swelling.

CHLOE BEALE

“That’s okay,” Chloe shrugged, lifting her own glass up to her mouth to take a slow sip. “I’m not really supposed to wear nail polish at work anyway. I’ll be taking it right back off, so you can do your worst. I can paint yours, though.” She leaned over the side of the bed to set her glass down on the floor, then straightened as she watched Beca relaxing back into her pillows. “It’s supposed to be cold,” she giggled, reaching toward the plate to pick up a cucumber slice. “You know, my eyes are fine.” Rather than lean back like Beca had, Chloe instead popped the cucumber into her mouth. “Want me to paint your nails while you lay there?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Oh, uh--sure. If you want to.” Beca motioned to her bedside table. “Mine’s in the drawer there.” A shade of purple nail polish dark enough that it looked black, of course. She’d hardly ever worn any other color. Also inside Beca’s bedside table drawer, Chloe would spot two spare pairs of earbuds, hair ties, and a pile of greeting cards from Chloe and the other Bellas that Beca received over the years for birthdays, holidays, or random occasions.

CHLOE BEALE

“Awes,” Chloe grinned excitedly, pushing the plate and its one lone slice of cucumber aside, then stretched her body to lean across Beca’s middle in pursuit of her bedside drawer. “Do you ever think about wearing a different color?” Chloe hummed as she scrambled through Beca’s belongings to retrieve the small bottle of dark purple nail polish. Her gaze swept over the collection of saved cards, lips tugging upward at the sight. “It’s really sweet that you kept all of these. Oh, this one’s from me!” She sat back again with the nail polish in one hand and a familiar card held in the other, small smile settled on her lips as she scanned over the front. “The grumpy cat on the front is you.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Nope. Gotta match my dark soul,” she muttered, her other senses suddenly heightened now that she couldn’t see thanks to the veggie slices. She made sure to keep extra still when Chloe stretched across her, not wanting to like… accidentally brush anything. Beca forgot she kept all those cards, a soft blush rising in her cheeks. “Don’t tell the girls I kept them.” She had a badass reputation to uphold, after all.

CHLOE BEALE

“Right,” Chloe agreed with a playful roll of her eyes. Beca’s ‘dark soul’ was not quite as dark as she seemed to think it was, the collection of saved greeting cards being the perfect example. Chloe smiled fondly down at the card as it rested in her lap. “Your secret’s safe with me, Bec.” She recalled telling her the same thing back at the club. Stretching over Beca’s body once more, this time to set the card down on her bedside table, Chloe soon leaned back to rummage through her own drawer for a bottle of nail polish remover. “I can give you a hand massage and everything, you know?” Chloe hummed thoughtfully as she tipped out a splash of remover onto the accompanying pad, before scooting closer to gently pick up Beca’s hand. Chloe couldn’t resist the way her thumb brushed softly over Beca’s fingers, before setting it down against her thigh. “What’s your perfect spa day? What treatments would you get?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca realized then and there that she wouldn’t trust anyone else with this. Letting them touch her hand and apply anything to her body while her eyes were closed. But Chloe had always played by her own set of rules, and Beca licked her lips and swallowed hard when Chloe settled her hand on Chloe’s thigh, hypersensitive to every brush and stroke. “Um… this is as ‘spa day’ as I’ve ever really had. I heard massages are excellent for stress relief but I’ve never been into strangers touching me so I probably wouldn’t enjoy it.”

CHLOE BEALE

“You’ve never been to a spa before?” Chloe asked with widened eyes, gaze drifting briefly toward Beca’s face, before falling back to the hand settled on her thigh. “You’re really missing out, Bec.” Slipping her hand palm up beneath Beca’s, Chloe got to work on wiping away the chipped nail polish. “You’d let me touch you, though, right?” she questioned, tongue poking out in concentration.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca snorted. “Do I look like the kind of person who goes to the spa?” An amused smile played on her lips for a beat as she tried picturing herself getting pampered. The follow-up question made Beca shrug. “I’m letting you touch me right now, aren’t I?” It was just her hands, but still…

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe shrugged. “I mean, right now you do. You’re laid on our bed with cucumber slices over your eyes while someone cleans up your bad nail polish job. Seems pretty spa-like to me.” She reached for Beca’s other hand to begin cleaning the old polish from that one, too. “I didn’t mean right now, I meant like a massage. I’m told I give very good massages, it’s in my Tinder bio.”

BECA MITCHELL

Well, she couldn’t argue with that. The offer of a massage, though… it set her hand twitching reflexively on Chloe’s leg. The simple thought of Chloe running her hands over her bare back and shoulders for an extended period of time made Beca’s mouth dry up, and she casually and blindly reached for her water glass. “Okay. Maybe some other time.”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe took note of the slight twitch to Beca’s hand, eyes lifting to read what she could see of her expression. She wasn’t trying to make her uncomfortable, but it was difficult not to allow her mind to drift elsewhere, especially after their confessions. There was something very appealing about the idea of Beca allowing her to massage her, however innocently, and the mental image caused Chloe’s teeth to sink into her bottom lip. “Awes,” Chloe murmured, dropping the pad out of the way and reaching instead for the nail polish bottle, then got to work on the hand closest to her. “How do the cucumber slices feel? Are they helping?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Cold and slimy,” Beca confirmed. “Doesn’t hurt? I dunno. Guess you’ll be able to tell me if the puffiness went down whenever it’s time to take ‘em off.”

Beca remained compliant during the rest of the spa session, grateful the cucumbers seemed to have helped the swelling. She remained exhausted though, bone-weary and yawning as she tested the top of her nails to make sure they were thoroughly dry. “Thanks for this, Chlo. I’ll paint yours next time. Kinda need a nap before dinner if that’s cool?”

CHLOE BEALE

It wasn’t like Chloe expected an impromptu pamper session to take all of Beca’s worries away, but by the time they were done, Beca at least looked a little less beaten down. Her eyes were less red and puffy, at least. Drifting back from the kitchen, where she’d tossed the cucumber slices out and left the plate in the sink to deal with later, she sent Beca a small smile. “Of course.” Normally, she would not have thought twice about climbing into bed and joining Beca for a short nap, but considering the day Beca had had, Chloe wasn’t sure whether she’d be wanting her own space or not. She rocked on her heels as she stood by the foot of the bed. “Can I nap with you?”

BECA MITCHELL

While Chloe got up, Beca made a quick change into a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Her whole body hurt from spending so much time crying which served as a reminder as to why she kept her emotions bottled up as often as possible. “Yeah, sure. It’s your bed, too.” Beca drew the curtains closed above the bed, casting a darkness over the space before she crawled beneath the covers.

CHLOE BEALE

“I know,” Chloe shrugged, “I just didn’t know if you wanted some time on your own or something.” Regardless, with Beca’s blessing, Chloe shuffled to her side of the bed, plopping down to peer into the kitten box, before wriggling under the covers. Twisting onto her side to face Beca, Chloe flashed her another small smile. “Do you feel a little better?”

BECA MITCHELL

“A little, yeah. Thanks.” She managed a tight-lipped smile, resting her hands over her stomach as she stared up at the ceiling. “It’ll just take some time, I guess. Time for the sadness and guilt to go away. I’ll get through it.”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe gently nodded her head. “You will. You’re strong, Bec.” Her gaze dropped to Beca’s hands where they settled on her stomach, and while the idea to stretch out a hand to rest over the top of Beca’s entered her mind briefly, Chloe decided against it—she’d been questioning her actions more than usual when it came to Beca lately. “Napping will help, too,” she hummed. “Sleep is healing.”

BECA MITCHELL

She sure as hell didn’t feel strong. She’d honestly never felt weaker or more vulnerable. But she believed Chloe, trusting she’d never lie to her. “Hell yeah it is. ‘Night, Chlo.” Beca turned away from Chloe, though she definitely craved her closeness. She scooted her body back a few inches in a nonverbal invitation, hoping Chloe would read her signals because of course she couldn’t just ask for what she wanted.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe responded with an encouraging smile and a short nod of her head as she watched Beca roll onto her side. Truth be told, she really wasn’t all that tired herself; she kind of just wanted to be close to her, though, and swept her gaze over Beca’s back, wanting to reach out and pull her closer. It was another one of those things she would’ve never questioned before, but that she found herself second guessing now… until Beca scooted back, and Chloe couldn’t quite help the small tug to the corner of her lips. Without further deliberation, her arm instinctively wrapped around Beca’s middle, tightening to gently tuck her body into her own. “Night, Bec.”

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (8) beca.#thesickestbeats

0 notes

unbealevable · 3 years

Text

IT’S ALL ME, JUST DON’T GO ➝ BECHLOE.

TAGGING ➝ Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 2/28, morning.

WARNINGS ➝ None.

NOTES ➝ "I had to go and catch stupid [redacted] for my [redacted]...”

CHLOE BEALE

Sometimes, Chloe would wake up the morning after a night of drinking with a strangely clear head and no signs of a hangover. Unfortunately, however, this morning was absolutely not one of those times, and Chloe blinked open her eyes to the sight of way too bright morning light spilling in through the window and alerting her to the obnoxious pounding in her head. She loved the kittens, but thank God they were still with Benji, because even her own quiet whine was enough to cause her ears to ring.

A cool shower felt like a good idea, but the prospect of moving too much made Chloe feel instantly sick, so she figured she’d wait until she had a little coffee in her system for that. For now, she simply forced herself to sit upward in preparation of eventually peeling herself from the bed altogether and heading for the kitchen, but even that task could wait a moment, too. Her new position told her that changing for bed had apparently been too much of an inconvenience for her last night, considering Chloe was dressed in the bra and panties she’d been wearing and nothing else, and definitely had last night’s makeup smeared across her face still, but that was really the least of her worries.

Blinking slowly as she hiked the covers up over her exposed stomach, she glanced toward her best friend, at first blissfully unaware of their previous night’s incredibly intense conversation. “Bec,” she croaked, sticking out a hand to poke Beca’s shoulder. “Are you awake? Or at least alive?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca had face planted onto bed the night before, not bothering with any blankets. In her drunken state, she somehow managed to get her jumpsuit half peeled down but apparently gave up halfway through the battle, leaving her clad in the bottom portion along with her black bra.

She stirred thanks to the shifting of the mattress and the rude-as-fuck light filtering in through the curtains. “No,” she grumped, turning in an attempt to suffocate herself with her pillow. “Never drinking again,” she mumbled, probably incomprehensible to Chloe but whatever. Her head hurt. Correction--her whole body hurt.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe quietly groaned in response, head nodding along in agreement despite the fact that Beca’s face was buried in her pillow. “Me either,” she frowned, lazy gaze sweeping over Beca’s exposed back. Why they’d even allowed themselves to drink to that excess, Chloe really did not know, especially because she had a class to teach later today, one that she needed energy and the ability to keep food down for. The very thought caused her to whine.

Despite herself, Chloe forced herself to twist her body until her bare feet were pressing to the floor, stomach turning with the apparently too fast motion. “Why did we have to go that hard?” she sighed, using what little energy she had to finally push herself unsteadily to her feet. She didn’t even bother with clothes, and instead simply began to shuffle in her underwear toward the kitchen. “I’m gonna make coffee, do you want some?”

BECA MITCHELL

“We’re fucking idiots, that’s why.” Beca’s voice carried a special rasp only present after a club night--almost like she chain smoked three packs a day. She needed more sleep. She needed medicine. She needed a shower. Probably food would be good, too. But she just… didn’t wanna move.

A pathetic whimper escaped and she flopped miserably onto her back, casting her forearm over her eyes in a weak effort to block out the light. “Yeah. D’you know if everyone got home okay?” Beca typically remained the most sober of the bunch for that very reason. But she really didn’t feel like dealing with the group chat right now. Or dealing with much of anything, to be honest.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe certainly was not going to disagree with that. It was pretty typical of her, though; the same could not be said for Beca. She thought back to the night before, trying to envision a completely wasted Beca Mitchell as she began to prepare their coffee. “I don’t know,” she bit her lip at the question, mad at herself for not immediately checking the group chat. “I hope so. I mean, I’m pretty sure I can hear Amy snoring, so she at least did.”

Stretching to reach for mugs made Chloe whine, though the mention of their third roommate pulled a vivid image to her mind: Chloe, seated in Beca’s lap, and Amy telling her to give her a lap dance. Despite her pounding head, she couldn’t help her soft chuckle at the memory, even if it did kind of hurt her throat. She’d likely been screaming along with the music at some point. “Do you even remember anything from last night?” she questioned, turning to shoot Beca an amused look. “Like your lap dance?”

BECA MITCHELL

“Uh…” Thinking hurt, too. Like--she swore the act of trying to remember made each strand of hair ache. “I remember you painting something on my face. That’s about it.” The sluggish processing definitely was part of the hangover too and she snorted. “My what?”

CHLOE BEALE

“Your rainbow,” Chloe nodded, motioning toward Beca’s cheek. Their pillows were probably covered in paint remnants, but that was an easier fix than their pounding heads. She leaned back against the counter as she waited for the coffee to brew, mischievous grin on her tired face. “I gave you a lap dance.” Chloe paused then, lips pursing as she thought over the aftermath. They’d danced after, but they didn’t just dance. They’d talked, too, and while it was taking a few moments for Chloe’s mind to fully adjust, their surprising conversation seemed to suddenly come flooding back. “Uh, Bec, don’t you remember anything?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca groaned, her cheeks flaring at the thought of Chloe giving her a lap dance. And it had actually happened? Fuck. “You would,” she mumbled, wincing as she forced herself to sit upright. Passing out in her makeup had given her serious raccoon eyes and she squinted at Chloe across the tiny apartment. “No? What else did I forget?” She puffed out an anxious chuckle, raking her hand through her hair. “Fuck. I haven’t gotten blackout drunk in like… I dunno, years I guess.”

CHLOE BEALE

While she’d been amused at the thought initially, once the resulting conversation entered her mind, Chloe suddenly didn’t feel quite so smug. In reality, she felt a little...weird. “Can you toss me a sweater or something?” she asked, ignoring Beca’s question for now and simply focusing on fixing their drinks.

BECA MITCHELL

Blinking a few times, Beca sensed Chloe’s shift in mood. Only she couldn’t put her finger on why. Closing her eyes for a moment, she tried harder to recall any memories from the night before, only to come up empty. “Yeah, sure.” Grimacing as she reached over her side of the bed, she tossed Chloe one of her own hoodies. Chloe’s side was too far. “What happened, dude? Did I make a fool out of myself or something? If I did… I mean you know Amy’s gonna definitely tell me so you might as well just rip the bandaid off…”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe turned only to catch the hoodie, then quickly shrugged it on to at least cover her top half. It was probably going to be a weird conversation to have in only her underwear. Her lips pulled inward as she picked up the two freshly filled mugs, carrying them carefully back toward the bed. “No, nothing like that,” Chloe promised, handing one of the mugs over to Beca, before lowering onto her side of the bed. She stayed on the edge, legs crossing beneath her. “You don’t remember what you told me when we were dancing together?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca pulled the bed sheet upward to cover her chest on instinct, never one to hang around in her undergarments if she could help it. She accepted the mug with a grateful tight-lipped grin, taking a careful sip. “No…” She eyed Chloe, panic steadily rising within her. She knew she’d been… weird about Chloe lately, and god, if she was that drunk… “Chlo, what did I tell you?”

CHLOE BEALE

Sexuality may not have been a big deal to Chloe, but she figured Beca’s confession was something she should approach cautiously here. She paused to take a slow sip from her drink, both hands wrapped protectively around the mug. “Bec, you told me you don’t think you’re totally straight,” Chloe explained gently. “And I don’t think it was a drunk thing.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca’s mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish out of water, unable to fully process the confession her drunk brain had apparently made to her best friend before her sober brain fully comprehended it. “Oh. Okay. Um…” Licking her lips, Beca puffed out a few notes of a strained sort of chuckle, glancing down into her coffee mug as she fought to figure out what the hell she was supposed to say.

CHLOE BEALE

Although she watched Beca carefully, Chloe was trying not to openly stare. She didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable, at least no more so than she obviously already did. “Yeah,” she nodded, balancing the base of the mug lightly against her thigh. “You know it’s, like… fine, right?” She offered Beca a small smile. “You can feel that way and still have a boyfriend or whatever…” her volume dropped a little at the indirect mention of Jesse, mostly because there had been more to that conversation, and Chloe really wished Jesse was not a part of it.

BECA MITCHELL

“Yeah. Yeah, totally. I mean--it’s not a big deal, right?” She snapped her gaze back to Chloe’s, forcing a smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes. Confusion, worry, and a decent amount of fear swirled in those dark blue irises. Mostly because she didn’t remember confessing it and that was sort of something she’d liked to have planned out word for word before speaking to anyone. Even Chloe. (Especially Chloe?) Forcing a deep, shaky breath, she bit her lower lip for another beat before scrunching up her nose. “Sorry if I, like--made you feel weird or anything...”

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe knew Beca’s expressions. She knew when something excited her and she tried to bite it back, but Chloe could see it shining in her eyes. She knew when her smiles weren’t real smiles, too, just like the one Beca was sending toward her right now. Still, she responded with a small smile of her own, head shaking gently in response. “No. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, no.” She almost didn’t want to tell her the rest, but the thought of keeping it to herself felt even weirder than anything else, so Chloe sucked in a breath as she glanced down into her mug. “You didn’t make me feel weird. It actually makes me feel really good that you trusted me enough to tell me something like that.” She paused for a moment. “But you told me something about me, too.”

BECA MITCHELL

Relief flooded Beca’s system when Chloe assured her the confession was a good thing, even if Beca couldn’t remember how it had been phrased or the circumstances around it. (Besides being completely drunk off her ass, of course.) She took another sip of coffee, each one making her feel fractionally more human. But after Chloe’s pause, Beca’s brow crawled toward her hairline. She swallowed hard, anxiety bubbling in her gut once again. “What did I say?”

CHLOE BEALE

Other than before big Bellas performances back in college, nerves really weren’t a big thing for Chloe, she never really got nervous. She distinctly remembered the way her body tingled when they’d been dancing so closely last night, though, coupled with Beca’s confessions right by her ear, and how they’d made her feel kind of nervous. Sort of how she felt right now, in fact. Still, she was nothing if not open and honest, though she didn’t quite meet Beca’s eyes as she continued. “It was probably just a drunk thing,” she said with a small, halfhearted shrug, wanting to give Beca an out right away. “Um, so I gave you the lap dance and you got really weird after. Like… I don’t know what it did to you, but it did something. Then we were dancing after, and you told me that.” Her voice quietened again, this time to a bit of a mumble. “Then you told me that I make you feel things you’ve never felt before.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca wasn’t an idiot. Okay, scratch that. Beca absolutely an idiot. But she didn’t have to recall the exact memory to understand what a Chloe Beale lap dance would have likely done to her--especially after the hot flashes and subsequent inappropriate dreams she’d endured after witnessing Chloe’s pole dancing skills.

That last bit hit her like a bucket of ice water dumped on her head. Her mouth dried up and her hands began trembling around her coffee mug, all of those terrifying Chloe-related feelings she’d been fighting to suppress for so damn long now creeping around her heart like tight vines. Squeezing, even as her blood pumped harder with rising panic.

“God, that’s--fuck.” How much more awkward could she have been? For fuck’s sake. Her pale skin flushed pink and a wave of conflicting emotions crashed through her, eyes pricking with glistening tears she frantically tried blinking away. “I’m really sorry, Chlo. Jesus. I shouldn’t have…” Shaking her head, she set the coffee on her bedside table and scrambled to climb out of bed, that fight or flight kicking in hard as fuck right now.

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe understood the reaction. It wasn’t the one she’d expected; in reality, she’d expected Beca to fake a laugh and make some comment about how wasted she really must’ve been. It would’ve definitely hurt to hear, but Chloe had almost mentally prepared herself for it in the short amount of time she had to do so. She hadn’t expected the reaction she actually got, though, and Chloe’s widened gaze lifted as Beca began to scramble from the bed, head quickly shaking in protest. “No!” Chloe accidentally yelped, twisting to set her own mug down on the floor, before stretching across the mattress to gently grasp Beca’s wrist. “No, it’s okay, you don’t have to apologize. I promise, it’s okay.” She released her wrist, not wanting to literally restrain her. “It’s not like it was…” she licked her lips, some of Beca’s obvious panic leaking into Chloe’s body, too. “Bec, it wasn’t a one-sided conversation.”

BECA MITCHELL

Literally anyone else in the world wouldn’t have been able to coax Beca to stay just then. Only Chloe had that ability, had put in the work over the years to disarm and break down layer after layer of Beca’s carefully crafted defenses. She forced a shaky breath, swallowing the massive lump in her throat. She refused to cry. She just… had to get her shit together. A big part of her still wanted to flee, but Chloe’s desperation rang in her tone.

Chloe’s last words hit hardest, rendering Beca speechless. She summoned all the courage she possessed (it wasn’t much, she knew that) to turn back and look at Chloe full on, silently asking--pleading, even--for Chloe to elaborate, even if it clearly terrified her to do so.

CHLOE BEALE

Sometimes it was a good thing, the fact that Chloe didn’t always think before she spoke. She kind of wished she’d thought over this a little better, though. Especially seeing that look in Beca’s glistening eyes, that panic she really hated being the cause of (even if it was by recalling Beca’s own words). She couldn’t take it back, though, and as her wide, sad eyes stared back at Beca, Chloe couldn’t help the helpless expression on her face. “It wasn’t one-sided, Beca,” she confirmed with as much confidence as she could muster, although it was surprisingly lacking for Chloe Beale. Maybe she’d just never had something so big riding on her shoulders before—even co-leading the Bellas paled significantly in comparison to this. “It’s not one-sided.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca hadn’t realized she’d stopped breathing, but her hitching inhale sounded almost as if she’d been drowning and just crested for air. “Okay,” she croaked, shock and awe written all across her features as she was pretty damn sure she looked like that math meme for the past several seconds. “Wow. Okay. Um.” Licking her lips, her head jerked upward and bobbed in a near frantic nod. (Which hurt her still aching head, for the record.) “Good. Okay. I mean cool.” Now she said okay three times. Get it together, Beca. Exhaling shakily, she hitched her thumb toward the bathroom. “I’m, uh--still gonna shower.”

CHLOE BEALE

Although she’d obviously remembered all of the big details very vividly, so much so that she could practically still hear Beca talking into her ear, telling her the things Chloe had recalled, there were still small additions that seemed to take a little bit longer to process—like how Chloe had said something about them kissing, and how Beca had said they couldn’t. Chloe’s heart had dropped when she’d heard it last night, and it dropped again as it entered her mind now. In fact, this happened a lot lately… It would usually happen when Beca’s relationship would come up, but Chloe always pushed it aside, because it was just her being stupid, just something she couldn’t fully explain or understand.

She seemed to understand it now, though, and it was the kind of terrifying thought that caused a lump to form in her throat.

“It’s not…” she swallowed, suddenly kind of angry at herself. And maybe a little bit at Beca too, but she wasn’t going to say so. “It’s not okay, Bec. And it’s not cool.” She slumped back slightly, blinking away the salty liquid from her eyes. “You have a boyfriend. It’s not cool that we said that last night, and it’s not cool that I just said it again now.” Regardless, it also dawned on her that she was not taking it back.

BECA MITCHELL

Guilt wrenched hard in Beca’s chest and she clenched her jaw. “Don’t you think I know that? I’ve been feeling like absolute shit ever since he moved here because I know… I know I need to end it. But breaking off a five year relationship is not that easy, Chloe. He just freakin’ moved across the country to be with me and I’m gonna be the asshole who shatters his heart.” She couldn’t hold back the tears now. They spilled over, thickly streaming down her cheeks as she wiped one away angrily. “And if that’s not enough to turn my world upside down, I had to go and catch stupid feelings for my best friend in the world.”

Beca hated change. She was so, so bad at life transitions, and this whole thing just… it was enough to almost put her over the edge. “So yeah, I’m sorry I said anything. I know I shouldn’t have and I know that makes me seem like a bigger piece of shit. So I’m just gonna…” She needed space. She needed it now before she said anything else that might upset Chloe or trigger her own breakdown. So she puffed out a hard breath and made her way to the bathroom, closing the door behind her before turning on the hot shower. Even though she knew all the water in the world wouldn’t wash away all the built up guilt.

CHLOE BEALE

Recalling the previous night had been a lot, especially amidst a particularly painful hangover and the severity of what exactly they were recalling, but as Beca shot back, Chloe’s mind flew to more of their conversations. Like when they were at the park, when Beca had cried because Jesse was here, and Chloe hadn’t really understood it, but she’d known that it had broken her heart, too. Her mind rewound to the night their heating had broken, to the way Beca could’ve gone to stay with Jesse, something Chloe had literally pointed out, but Beca had chosen to stay with her instead. Everything just seemed to make sense, things that hadn’t made sense before, and Chloe normally had a lot to say, but she found herself speechless now, simply watching Beca with widened eyes and tears threatening to spill over her lids.

It was so unlike Chloe not to do anything, not to say anything. It was like she was stuck in some kind of trance, Beca’s words looping over and over in her brain:

And if that’s not enough to turn my world upside down, I had to go and catch stupid feelings for my best friend in the world.

Chloe only blinked, finally pulling herself from her wordless daze when the bathroom door opened, and somehow springing into action once it’d quickly closed. She sucked in a shaky breath as she headed for the bathroom, tugging open the door with every intention to tell Beca that that wasn’t fair, that she couldn’t say all of that and then just walk away. “Bec, you can’t—” she started, though her words held much less bite than she’d intended, and Chloe found herself trailing off until she was stepping, still dressed in her underwear and Beca’s hoodie, into the running shower to grasp onto Beca’s wrist again. This time, rather than letting go, she gently tugged her closer, pleading eyes scanning over her face, before pulling her into a tight, protective hug. One that Chloe actually kind of needed, too.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca wasn't exactly surprised when Chloe barged in after her. She had a track record of shower invasion, after all. And maybe… just maybe there was a reason Beca didn't lock the door behind her. There was a reason why "Dude, get out!" lodged in her throat, held back.

So when Chloe stepped inside, Beca didn't fight her. Instead, her fingers curled around the fabric of her hoodie and she sunk into Chloe's right embrace, her body wracking with sobs as she finally allowed herself to fall apart.

Time stretched and dragged while Beca regained control, the water soothing from above in its constant pressure. Eventually, she pulled up enough to seek Chloe's eyes--her own now red and puffy. "We're gonna be okay, right?" Beca croaked, desperation in her tone. "Whatever happens. I need us to be okay."

CHLOE BEALE

It wasn’t like this was the first time Chloe had ever invited herself into Beca’s shower, and Beca could’ve easily locked the door if she’d really wanted to keep her out, so Chloe had a feeling, deep down, that Beca wasn’t going to push her away. Even so, she froze up for half a second as her arms looped around Beca’s small frame, though she relaxed as she felt Beca falling into her embrace. Her heart broke all over again as she registered her sobbing, tears rolling down Chloe’s cheeks too, but she was more concerned about Beca than herself. “It’s okay,” she whispered in a teary voice, face tilting to push a soft kiss to Beca’s wet shoulder, “I promise it’s okay.”

When Beca eventually pulled just slightly back, Chloe loosened her arms, though they stayed looped around Beca, still holding onto her as her gaze fell to meet her favorite blue. Her brows tugged together while she scanned her face, head nodding gently. “Of course we’re gonna be okay,” Chloe promised, tips of her fingers brushing soothingly along the damp skin of Beca’s upper back. “We’re always going to be okay, Bec.” She thought back to Beca’s outburst, to all of the crap she had going on—them, Jesse, everything—and Chloe adamantly wanted her to know that she was not alone. “We’re going to figure this out, okay? All of it.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca clung to Chloe as though she were her single buoy in the vast ocean during a raging storm, her soothing words the calming balm she needed to desperately hear. "Okay," she rasped, sniffling. "That's good to know. Thanks, Chlo."

One step, one crisis at a time. She could do this--especially with Chloe's support.

Especially knowing now that she wouldn't ultimately lose both of her favorite people on the planet in one fell swoop thanks to her stupid fucking feelings.

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (7) beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

Text

BELLAS NIGHT OUT ➝ ( BECHLOE. )

Considering the biting February night air, it was really not the kind of weather for anybody to be walking around in a fitted short-length, strappy sleeved dress, but Chloe really did not care about that tonight. She figured they’d warm up once they were inside the club anyway, especially because she certainly was not the kind of person to simply sit down and drink—Chloe loved to get up and dance, so if she had it her way, all of the girls would be doing the same.

(Besides, she’d been pregaming like a college kid back at the apartment anyway, and her first vodka cranberry was already half empty as it sat on the table beside her.)

Unsurprisingly, her energy levels were already pretty high (when weren’t they?), so as she settled into their pre-booked VIP section, UV finger paint palette in hand, she cast Beca an excited smile. “Bec, this is gonna look so cool,” she beamed, dipping the pad of her finger into the green paint, then holding it up to examine it. Her glowsticks, of course, were sticking out of her small purse, and with the sound of upbeat music thrumming around them, Chloe was desperate to get up and put them to use, but they had to look the part first.

“Here,” she started, offering out the palette. “How are you going to do your paint?”

@thesickestbeats

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (6) beca.#thesickestbeats

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unbealevable · 3 years

Text

I UNDERSTAND IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE THIS, BUT IF YOU WANNA GET A LITTLE SCANDALOUS ➝ BECHLOE.

TAGGING ➝ Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 2/20, evening.

WARNINGS ➝ None.

NOTES ➝ The heat is busted, so naturally sharing direct body heat is the way forward.

BECA MITCHELL

“Fucking Derek,” Beca grumbled when she stepped into the icebox apartment to find Amy’s note still taped to the heater. Their landlord clearly hadn’t been by (he always left a note) and at this hour, he wouldn’t get to it until morning.

Which meant they were forced to freeze their asses off overnight. Great. Just great.

With a huff, Beca shrugged off her coat but left her scarf, gloves, and beanie in place as she turned to Chloe. “Should we shell out for a hotel room or something? I know our budget’s tight enough as it is, but…” It really was so cold, she wasn’t sure all the blankets they had would make a difference.

CHLOE BEALE

The very last thing they needed, in the middle of a freezing cold February in their already kind of cold shoebox apartment, was busted heat. It almost didn’t surprise Chloe, considering things had been going pretty smoothly with their place recently, but that didn’t make it any less inconvenient, so despite her generally sunny (understatement) outlook, she entered the apartment with a frown, arms immediately tightening her red peacoat around her body as she headed, as she always did first thing whenever she got home, for the kitten box.

“A hotel room?” Chloe echoed, kneeling down beside the box to begin adjusting the multiple blankets she’d laid over the babies before heading out to meet Beca for dinner. “A last minute hotel room. In New York. With five kittens?” she shot an amused glance over her shoulder. “It’ll be fine, Bec. We can just layer up until bed. We could turn on the oven and leave the door cracked a bit? That might help.”

BECA MITCHELL

Right. The kittens. She wrinkled her nose at her own dumb idea, grudgingly nodding along because what choice did they have?

“Sounds like a recipe for burning the place down but whatever you think. I’m gonna try and thaw out with a shower. I’ll save you some hot water, promise.” With that, Beca scooped her warmest clothes into her arms and ducked into the bathroom to shower and wash up for bed.

She emerged fifteen minutes later with long blow-dried hair, wearing a thermal henley shirt with a hoodie on top, a pair of flannel pajama bottoms, and fuzzy socks she may or may not have stolen from Chloe. She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded to the kitten box. “Which goblins still need to be fed?”

CHLOE BEALE

“Just for now,” Chloe shrugged, pushing herself up from the floor to head for the kitchen. “I read about it in a BuzzFeed article. We won’t leave it on overnight or anything.” The shower was definitely a good idea, too, so while Chloe nodded, she got to work on heating up the oven, then tugged off her gloves and shoved them in her pockets as she started to prepare the kitten milk.

By the time Beca reappeared, Chloe was seated on her side of the bed, shoes off and scarf removed, with Purple in her lap while she quietly sang a lullaby and carefully syringe fed the kitten. She glanced up with a smile toward Beca, biting back her amusement at the sight of her socks. “Feel better?” she asked, gaze lowering back to the feeding kitten. “Blue and Yellow. You wanna feed them while I shower? The milk’s already all set in the syringes.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca kinda wished she didn’t interrupt Chloe’s singing as it had the habit of making her smile despite any shitty circumstance. Beca of course chalked that up to college memories and how she didn’t get to hear Chloe sing nearly as much anymore without rehearsals and competitions.

“Yeah. For now.” She snapped her focus back on the kittens, offering Chloe a nerdy two-finger salute as she shuffled over to snag the syringe and settle into bed with Yellow first. “Have a good shower,” Beca said as she cradled Yellow on her chest and began her feeding. “Look at you, big girl. Your eyes totally open now,” Beca cooed, stroking her fur while she fed. After, she swapped with Blue, in the same position with the last kitten when Chloe reemerged.

CHLOE BEALE

They really did make a pretty good team. In fact, they always had—leading the Bellas to win consecutive national championships was proof enough of that. It was nice that it extended to caring for the kittens too, though, and despite the thought flashing through her mind that this would all change soon, Chloe hummed contentedly as Beca picked up the kitten to settle in beside her. Once Purple was all done, Chloe set the empty syringe aside, carefully lifting the kitten up to her face to push a soft kiss to the top of her head, before placing her back into the box with the blankets snuggled around her.

Effectively swapping with Beca, Chloe gathered a warm outfit—fluffy pink pajama bottoms, a long sleeved pajama top, her Barden Bellas hoodie and a pair of heart-patterned fluffy socks—then bounced toward the bathroom, where she proceeded to take a quick shower in the hot water, singing breezily to herself all the while. She bunched her hair up into a messy bun as she entered their living room-slash-bedroom, softened eyes watching Beca and the kitten.

“You’re a really good cat mom,” Chloe hummed as she floated toward the bed, plopping down on her side and instinctively tugging the covers over her middle, her voice melting onto that distinct pet/baby voice as she reached out to run her finger over Blue’s head. “Isn’t that right, handsome?” Rearranging the pillows behind her, Chloe stacked them to sit upright, then settled back against them, retrieving her phone to pull up the web browser. “There are probably more tips for staying warm online,” she mumbled as she began to scroll through various articles. “Like the oven one. It helps, don’t you think?”

BECA MITCHELL

A soft snort escaped as Chloe complimented her pet parenting skills. “Thanks, nerd. Not so hard when I’ve got a half-vet showing me the ropes.” She cast Chloe a smirk before Blue detached from the tiny syringe. “All set, Blue buddy? Here you go.” Beca got out of bed and walked back around to the makeshift bed, gently resituating the blankets for the kittens who were now milk drunk and mostly all snoozing already.

“Cold doesn’t seem to bother them. Must be nice to have a permanent fur coat,” she muttered as she turned off the oven before heading back to bed. It was getting late, after all. “My nose is ice,” she grumped as she turned off the lights and burrowed back beneath the blankets on her side. “While you’re at it, can you google frostbite symptoms?” Dramatic, thy name is Beca Mitchell.

CHLOE BEALE

“But you’re a fast learner,” Chloe pointed out. “And it takes more than just following instructions to really care about an animal like you care about the kittens.” Honestly, she really couldn’t have asked for anyone better to do this with. Beca seemed to have more compassion for the kittens than even some of the vets she worked with. Chloe watched as Beca settled Blue back into bed, not bothering to hold back her warm smile in response. If anything was going to make Chloe Beale soft, it was someone she cared about as much as she cared about Beca being nice to baby animals.

An amused expression wrinkled onto her face as she scrolled through the various tips and tricks. “Frostbite symptoms,” she repeated, pretending to read from her screen. “It says here that you know you have frostbite when you have an icy nose and you complain adorably about it.” She shot a smirk toward Beca, before going back to her phone, hand reaching out to tug the covers more tightly around her. “Gorge on ginger,” she frowned, “I don’t think we have any ginger, but apparently that helps to warm you up.” She continued to scan over the same list, then added nonchalantly, “Sharing direct skin-to-skin body heat, too.”

BECA MITCHELL

“Whatever. Don’t tell anyone I’m mushy with animals,” she shot back, curling up in a tight ball on her side facing Chloe. When she teased her, Beca rolled her eyes and reached out beneath the blanket to poke her side. “Don’t be a jerk.” As if Chloe Beale could actually be a real jerk even if she tried.

She scrunched her nose at the mention of ginger. “Like--raw ginger? Gross.” They didn’t have any anyway, but Beca would probably rather freeze than chow down on raw ginger and inevitably puke it all up. No thanks. With a heavy sigh, she shook her head. “We’ll probably be fine with all these layers and blankets. Let’s just… try to sleep.” Sooner they fell asleep, less time they had to worry about being cold, right?

CHLOE BEALE

“Our secret,” Chloe promised, pretending to zip her lips shut. She was sure nobody would believe her anyway, but that was because nobody else knew Beca the way she did. Other than probably Jesse… She giggled at the poke to her side, squirming away from Beca’s finger, then batted her lashes to prove her innocence.

Apparently, they really weren’t the best equipped for cold weather, a mistake they really should’ve learned from after two years here, because they really didn’t have any of the things included in the list to help keep them warm. Chloe thought she could cope with it, but as she glanced down at Beca curled in a ball beside her, she couldn’t really say the same for her.

Her nose wrinkled as she locked her screen, repositioning her pillows flat, then shuffled further under the covers, twisting her quickly curling body into Beca’s. “But what if you really do have frostbite,” she pouted, scanning her eyes over Beca’s face. “It’ll only get worse during the night.” Her hand rose from beneath the covers to touch her fingers to Beca’s nose. “Oh, it really is icy.”

BECA MITCHELL

Tonight was the first night since her boyfriend had broken the news to her he’d moved to NYC permanently that she’d been tempted to head over to Jesse’s early. At least he had heat. But she’d never leave Chloe to deal with their frigid apartment and the kittens on her own, even with Amy around.

Grumping yet again, Beca swatted Chloe’s hand away before burrowing all the way under the covers--not unlike a turtle retreating fully into its shell. “If I die in my sleep, kick Derek in the balls for me.” Her voice carried muffled through the layers of blankets but remained audible enough. Despite the extra clothing and blankets piled on top, Beca couldn’t really stop herself from shivering. She kinda hoped she could summon sleep through sheer force of will. “This blows.”

CHLOE BEALE

“Hey,” Chloe frowned, quickly pulling her hand back to stick under the covers. For the swat, Chloe grumbled then twisted her body to face her back toward Beca, though it was kind of pointless really, considering she shuffled back to tuck herself into her regardless. Recalling the list, she shoved her hand beneath her sweatshirt and pajama top, openly wincing at how cold it felt initially, though it eventually began to warm up.

“Here,” she began, reaching behind her to grab Beca’s hand, before sticking it under the layers to rest on her bare stomach, too. Again, she winced at the first touch of icy fingers. “That list was right, you know? About body heat.” She glanced over her shoulder, brow arching curiously. “We’d warm up faster without clothes.”

BECA MITCHELL

For as much as she took great care to protect her own personal space bubble, Beca never really protested when Chloe scooted closer--especially during the colder months. Besides, it was sort of an inevitability considering the small frame of their fold-out mattress, right?

Unaware of what Chloe was up to, she sucked in a sharp breath through her nostrils when Chloe pressed her hand against her flat stomach. (Her toned, muscular, yet with the softest skin she’d ever--also warm! Warm was important. Not the other stuff.) “My hands are ice,” Beca mumbled, wanting to pull her hand back but simultaneously feeling her frigid digits melting against Chloe’s bare stomach. “You sure this is okay?” Beca asked as she braced herself, figuring she should return the favor at some point soon.

CHLOE BEALE

Although she of course wanted to help warm her up, there was perhaps something selfish about this, about the way Chloe apparently just needed to keep Beca as close as possible. Chloe had always been incredibly handsy, never one to shy away from physical contact—good thing really, considering she literally shared a bed every night—but since learning about Jesse’s move, and the consequent inevitability of Beca leaving soon, she’d just wanted to keep her closer. How much closer could they really get than this?

“Mhm,” she nodded, shuddering slightly at Beca’s cold hand on her skin (definitely just because it was cold…) “It’ll warm both of us soon.” Her own hand was still pressed to her stomach, and Chloe slid it over to settle directly beside Beca’s, their fingers brushing together. “Do you think you can fall asleep now?”

BECA MITCHELL

Much as Beca had been avoiding it, her brain flashed back to the other night when they lay in a similar position. How she’d not only not minded the contact but… sort of craved it in a weird way she never had before? Almost like the impending move made her want to soak up every moment of her and Chloe’s shared space.

‘Uh, not yet.” Though her hand warmed significantly, the rest of her continued shivering. “Are you cool if I--” Moving slowly to give Chloe a chance to stop her if this was too weird, Beca used her free hand to tug up her front layers to expose her own stomach before doing the same to Chloe’s. Then she leaned in to press her own bare stomach to Chloe’s back, chalking up her whimper to the initial chill of the contact… that quickly morphed to produce body heat between them.

CHLOE BEALE

It wasn’t like something as simple as hands on her stomach suddenly warmed her up, but Chloe couldn’t deny the sudden warmth within her at their new position. She didn’t know what it was, again probably because she’d been feeling clingier since Jesse’s move, but a part of her really wanted to grab Beca’s hand. It would be so easy to slot her fingers through Beca’s and just...hold her hand. The same way as they had the other night, after Beca had pushed a soft kiss to the back of her neck and neither had so much as mentioned it since.

Her thoughts were cut off by Beca shuffling behind her, and a distinct shiver shot through Chloe’s spine as she felt her lifting her sweatshirt up, and maybe this time not just because of the cold. Backing up to press her bare back tightly against Beca’s front, Chloe glanced over her shoulder. “Bec, maybe we should just take them off,” she murmured, sending her a weak smile.

BECA MITCHELL

At Chloe’s ridiculous suggestion, Beca puffed out a chuckle strained at the edges. “Yeah, right,” she croaked, though her body betrayed as she continued shivering. From the cold. Definitely from the cold and not from anything else. Though as she willed herself to view their dire heatless situation through a purely scientific lens and not her own awkwardness, she cleared her throat. “You really think that’d… make that much of a difference?”

CHLOE BEALE

All things considered, maybe it was for the best that Beca shot down her suggestion. Chloe knew she wasn’t supposed to enjoy something as simple and genuinely strange as having her best friend’s exposed body pressed up against her own, after all. She was sure they would fall asleep soon anyway, but when Beca seemed to have thought it over a moment longer, Chloe twisted her neck to glance back at her again. “I mean, you can feel how it’s helping already, right?”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca considered Chloe’s proposition for a few more beats. “Fine,” she said, ducking back beneath the blankets to pull off both her hoodie and thermal shirt in one hurried swoop. She wore a soft cotton bra as she had every night since getting her nips pierced, lessening the chance she’d be woken up by an accidental brush or something. “Whenever you’re ready.” Beca shifted and settled down to face the other direction out of respect even though she couldn’t see very much anyway (not that Chloe would care, but still!). This could be weird. Too weird, even. But if it was, she could always just tell Chloe it wasn’t helping and put her shirt and hoodie back on. No big deal, right?

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe’s brows rose in surprise when Beca agreed, instantly shuffling away to give her the space to change. “Are you taking everything off?” she questioned, turning to see that Beca was halfway out of her top layers, and instinctively moving to do the same with her own. Changing beneath the covers felt like hard work, so Chloe sat upward to peel off her top and hoodie, paying no attention to the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra—her back was to Beca, it was fine. It was cold under the covers, but even colder out of them, and Chloe shivered as she tossed her clothes aside and slid back under. She turned onto her side again, backing up against Beca’s front, and immediately sought out Beca’s hand with her own to tug back across her middle.

BECA MITCHELL

“Nope. Just my hoodie and the shirt beneath.” Beca had a feeling Chloe might strip down more--she’d long since grown used to living in close quarters with Chloe Beale in her various states of undress. Beca had been bracing herself for Chloe to drape over her from behind, but when she was tugged to roll over, she bit back a teasing remark about Chloe maybe being allergic to being the big spoon. She wasn’t sure she could handle Chloe’s bare chest pressed up against her back, so. This was better. Yeah. Beca’s body stiffened and then relaxed as her arm slung across Chloe’s middle again with her guidance. Beca shivered and sighed, the greater skin-to-skin surface area connection definitely an improvement. With a wicked sort of smirk, she leaned in to bury her frozen nose in the crook of Chloe’s neck… just to be a dick.

CHLOE BEALE

“Got it,” Chloe nodded, pushing aside the thought of removing everything like she’d initially planned, and instead just sticking to the top half. It would defeat the purpose if Beca’s legs were covered and hers weren’t, anyway. Already, as she pulled Beca closer, the contact proved helpful, and despite her small shiver, her body began to relax. “See, better already,” she mumbled, ignoring the fact that she still hadn’t let go of Beca’s hand, the two connected as they rested over her bare stomach. Chloe jumped as Beca’s freezing nose pressed to her neck, and couldn’t help her shrill giggle in response. “Don’t do that,” she whined, though there was really no conviction behind it. “Are you warming up yet? Apart from your nose.” She shot a playful scowl over her shoulder, despite the darkened room.

BECA MITCHELL

“Mmm… I guess google knows their shit sometimes,” she muttered, her smirk only widening when Chloe giggled. Beca always loved getting under Chloe’s skin. She’d just… never been this close to her actual skin before. “Yeah, it’s starting to help I guess.” She forced a deep breath and relaxed into the embrace. “Apologies in advance if I like… accidentally shift and graze your underboob or something.” Her cheeks warmed at the thought, and she was super grateful for Chloe’s firm hold on her hand, which significantly lessened the chance of that happening.

CHLOE BEALE

“They do,” Chloe agreed. “And this is less gross than the ginger thing.” Tomorrow, they really needed to go out and buy whatever else was included in the list, but for tonight, this would do. As she relaxed comfortably back against Beca, Chloe decided that this would more than do, in fact. “It is,” she nodded, using her unoccupied hand to tighten the covers around them, before slipping it past their connected hands to slide beneath the fluffy fabric of her pajama bottoms. That was warm. She chuckled softly, fingers squeezing gently onto Beca’s, and bit back a smirk despite the fact that Beca couldn’t see her face. “Don’t worry, we don’t even have the butter with us, there’d be no reason for you to be near my boobs.”

BECA MITCHELL

“You’re a ginger thing,” Beca grumbled in retort even though she knew it was a lame reply. She technically wasn’t wrong. Once again, Chloe’s laugh loosened the knots in her chest… until Chloe teased her about the butter thing for what felt like the hundredth time. Beca groaned, rolling her eyes. “Oh my god, Beale, let it go!” Beca couldn’t resist wiggling their joined fingers enough to tickle Chloe’s abdomen in retaliation.

CHLOE BEALE

“True. You wanna gorge on me?” Chloe teased, fingers playfully squeezing onto Beca’s. This really could’ve been weird, lying here with their almost bare (completely, on Chloe’s part) upper halves pressed against one another’s, but apparently it wasn’t. At least not enough that they couldn’t still tease each other, anyway. “I can’t!” Chloe giggled, volume increasing in reaction to Beca’s fingers tickling her. “You’re the one that made a big deal out of it. That thing I said about toast and butter was literally about toast and butter.” She flipped onto her back without regard for her own bare chest, playfully glaring up at her. “You made it about your boobs.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca groaned at Chloe’s suggestion, screwing her eyes shut. When she opened them again, she cast a heatless glare right back… and made sure to keep her eyes trained on Chloe’s face now that she shifted onto her back. Beca didn’t move much, still pressed against Chloe’s side. For warmth. Beca’s hand remained flat over Chloe’s abdomen and she didn’t yet pull it back… just in case it would get cold again, you know? “Why would you make a post about toast and butter if it wasn’t meant to slyly roast me, you nerd. You may have everyone else fooled but don’t forget I know you’re not as sweet and innocent as everyone thinks you are.” Beca’s lips twisted into a mischievous smile and she stuck out her tongue for good measure.

CHLOE BEALE

The point of all of this was to help each other out with body warmth, but the cold really didn’t bother Chloe much anymore as she laid with her amused gaze sweeping over Beca’s face, distracted by their ridiculous conversation. This was one of those moments she’d thought about before, how things were always just so easy with Beca. Chloe really didn’t know why or what it meant, but it was something she couldn’t deny. “Because I’d just watched a video about double buttering toast,” she shot back, smirk still dancing on her lips. Her brows knitted together then, small chuckle falling at Beca’s words. Her gaze dropped briefly to Beca’s lips, to the sight of her tongue poking out, before lifting upward once more. “What does that even mean?”

BECA MITCHELL

“It means,” Beca started, following Chloe’s eyes down to her mouth now that her eyes had adjusted to the moonlight filtering in through their curtains above the bed. “You stick up for me in person--which I appreciate, for the record--but when it’s just the two of us you get a sick pleasure out of roasting me just like all the others do.” Beca chuckled mostly to show she wasn’t bothered by it. It was… kinda nice, knowing a side of Chloe that maybe the girls didn’t get to see often. Chloe was an open book compared to Beca, but she liked to think she knew her on a different level. It’s what made their friendship so special.

CHLOE BEALE

Despite her amused expression as she watched what she could see of Beca’s face in the dimly lit room, Chloe responded with a wrinkled nose. “I don’t roast you. I mean, maybe just then with the butter thing, but I don’t do that often. There’s really nothing to roast,” she hummed, twisting onto her side again and shuffling back into the warm curve of Beca’s body once more. “I like being nice to you more. You’re sharing your body heat with me, Bec.” Without thought, she dropped her hand to her stomach again, seeking out Beca’s fingers. “People don’t do that to people who roast them.” She paused to let out a long yawn. “You wouldn’t lay like this with Amy.”

BECA MITCHELL

“That’s why I put up with you,” she shot back with another smile. Beca’s heart soared once again when Chloe assured her there wasn’t much to roast. Beca knew there was plenty to roast her about--Amy and Stacie reminded her often. It was still pretty cool, knowing Chloe always had her back. When Chloe shifted once more, Beca relaxed on her pillow, squeezing Chloe’s hand when she relinked their fingers. “Highly unlikely, but people do desperate things when they’re dying of frostbite.” Lying there, her pulse slowing as she readied herself to sleep, Chloe’s words repeated on a loop in her brain.

Beca wouldn’t lie like this with Amy. She wouldn’t lie like this with any of the other Bellas either--not so comfortably anyway, especially considering they were both shirtless. It made Beca’s stomach flip in a weird way, which… again, she chalked up to her inevitable move out.

Besides, in contrast, Chloe would do this with all of the girls.

It wasn’t like Beca was that special or anything.

CHLOE BEALE

As she settled back into her previous position, Chloe couldn’t help but note the distinct level of comfort. In fact, it was almost too comfortable; their bodies pressed up together, fingers interlaced across Chloe’s stomach. The mental image of Beca and Amy doing this pulled an amused grin to her lips, because that was a super weird picture. Maybe this was weird too, though. There was someone in the city who Beca should be doing this with, and the realization that it wasn’t her hit her much too suddenly, with Chloe stiffening slightly on the spot. Lips pursing, she glanced over her shoulder toward Beca, studying her momentarily. “If you were that desperate, wouldn’t you have gone to Jesse’s?” she questioned, despite mentally kicking herself for even bringing it up.

BECA MITCHELL

Beca’s breath caught when Chloe brought up Jesse, her lips pulling inward as guilt suddenly panged in her chest. (She forced it away, though. She wasn’t doing anything wrong, after all.) “No,” she said quietly, meeting Chloe’s eyes. “I wouldn’t leave you to deal with this on your own. I told you I’d be here to help with the kittens and I told you I’m not gonna back out on that. Heat or no heat.” Beca knew she had plenty of flaws, but unlike her father, she always showed up and followed through. Especially for people she cared about.

CHLOE BEALE

Despite the busted heat, it had actually been kind of a nice night. They’d laughed and settled into their unusual yet incredibly comfortable position for the night, tucked into one another’s bodies, and there really was no need for Chloe to go and ruin the lighter mood, but she’d done it now, and really, really wished that she hadn’t. Mostly because her own level of chipper had dropped completely. “I appreciate that,” she nodded, voice quieter as she bit back a small sigh. Her grip on Beca’s hand loosened. “But you won’t be here next time.”

BECA MITCHELL

A lump formed in Beca’s throat and she swallowed it down as she closed her eyes, Chloe’s words sinking in deep. “I kinda hate that,” she confessed in a low tone--as though Jesse himself were listening in. “I wish he would’ve told me before he moved. I don’t really wanna leave you yet.” Beca had meant to say ‘you guys’ but… well, she wasn’t really thinking straight. (She’d blame the cold for that.)

CHLOE BEALE

Chloe was beginning to wonder if this was going to be what all of their conversations would come down to now. She knew it was her own fault, too—at least this time. Again, it shouldn’t have been a bad thing, but as she stared at the faint lines of her patterned pink pillow in the darkness, fingertips brushing gently over her stomach in an effort to bring herself a little comfort, Chloe couldn’t imagine anything she wanted less than for Beca to leave. The response caused her chest to tighten; she knew that Beca hadn’t meant it to her directly, that she was talking about both her and Amy, but something about the idea of Beca not wanting to leave her specifically caused a twist in Chloe’s stomach, and she couldn’t be sure whether it was a good or bad thing. “I don’t want you to either,” she mumbled, releasing the sigh she’d been holding back before. “I’m sorry he didn’t tell you.”

BECA MITCHELL

Beca knew it was probably just nerves--she’d never been great with big life transitions anyway--but she had a lot of reservations about moving in with Jesse. Most of all because they hadn’t even been seeing each other regularly for the past two years, stealing long weekends or holiday breaks instead. Moving in with someone felt like a really big deal, and she wasn’t sure if she’d enjoy living with Jesse full time or if she’d feel sort of suffocated. But these weren’t really things she felt like she could mention to Chloe because Chloe was already bummed about it. “Yeah, I guess it is what it is.” She blew out a puff of hot air against Chloe’s shoulder blade. Part of her wanted to try lightening the mood with something like ‘Hey, look on the bright side--at least you’ll get the whole bed to yourself!’--but that sounded depressing even in Beca’s brain. Instead, Beca gave Chloe’s hand a squeeze. “Don’t get too sad on me, Beale. You’re stuck with me for another few weeks at least.”

CHLOE BEALE

“He still should’ve told you,” Chloe mumbled, though honestly she would take any reason to be mad at Jesse right now. He was going to be taking her best friend away from her, after all. (The very middle school vibe of the thought was not at all lost on her, but Chloe didn’t care.) She appreciated the squeeze to her hand, so instinctively tightened her own hold again, but continued to brush her fingers against her stomach, once more glancing over her shoulder toward Beca, this time to send her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry for bringing it up,” she said with a small, defeated shrug. “I guess I’ve just been thinking about it a lot.”

BECA MITCHELL

“No, hey. It’s cool. Trust me, I get it. Doesn’t feel real yet.” Beca waited a few beats, no longer thinking about the cold. Chloe’s body had done a damn good job of warming hers. “I’m sorry, too. I know it wasn’t all my fault but I’m sorry I had to spring it on you like this without much of a heads up. I promise I won’t leave you hanging--rent-wise or, um--friend-wise. You know that, right?” Beca had already assured her she would make sure Chloe and Amy had a solid plan to comfortably cover rent, even if that meant still paying her share for a while after moving in with Jesse. But she also felt the need to remind Chloe they didn’t need to stop being best friends even if she moved out. “I know I’m shitty at texting and stuff but I’ll get better.”

CHLOE BEALE

It was her fault for bringing it up now, but Chloe wasn’t going to protest, and instead just gently nodded her head. The rent was a big deal in reality, but each time Beca brought that up, it only made Chloe’s heart drop a little, because she had to know that that wasn’t what Chloe cared about, right? A student living in New York City with only a part-time job, it should’ve very much been a big deal, but it just...wasn’t. Not in comparison, anyway. “Bec, you know that the rent isn’t why I’m sad, right?” she whispered, keeping her head turned over her shoulder to take in Beca’s expression. In spite of herself, her lips curved upward slightly, though her smile certainly didn’t meet her eyes. “We’ve always lived together, I don’t think you being a shitty texter has ever mattered too much before.”

BECA MITCHELL

"No I know, I just meant I'll make more effort to stay in touch since we won't get to see each other every day." Beca's smile matched Chloe's in that it didn't reach her eyes. She'd miss Chloe's positive energy even though she complained about it most of the time. She'd miss their chats while they made dinner or wound down before bed. She'd miss Chloe badgering her to join her for a night out until Beca caved and often didn't regret going along with Chloe's plans. She'd miss a lot of things about living with Chloe. She just… wished she was also looking forward to living with Jesse. But she still had time to figure that out. "We should sleep," she suggested after a few beats of silence. "Unless you wanna talk some more?"

CHLOE BEALE

For some reason, maybe because they really had lived together for most of the time they’d known each other—whether in the Bellas’ house or their tiny Brooklyn apartment—Chloe hadn’t really considered the idea of them not seeing each other every day, though the realization made her heart ache all over again. There was nothing she could do about it, though, so she only met Beca’s words with a brief nod of her head. “I’ll hold you to it,” she said with another small smile. She considered the question for a moment. “No, let’s sleep. You have work and I have school tomorrow,” she decided, as much as she really would like to soak up as much conscious time with Beca as she could. A part of her was worried she might say something she’d regret, even if she didn’t know exactly what that something would be, so sleep was easier, safer. Lifting herself up slightly, Chloe leaned forward to push a soft peck to Beca’s cheek, before relaxing back into her pillow with her back curled into Beca. “Night, Bec.”

Despite herself, she had a feeling she probably wasn’t going to sleep for a while. She did know, however, that she wasn’t going to bring up Beca’s move anymore. And if it came up, this wasn’t going to be her reaction. She would be supportive, like all best friends should be, because this was reaching confusing territory now, and despite her general curiosity, it wasn’t something Chloe really knew how to unpack. Or if she even wanted to, in fact.

#char: beca.#f2f: beca.#f2f (5) beca.#thesickestbeats

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