#pitch perfect fanfic

[massivedrickhead]

Pitch Perfect SpookFest Day 5 - H is for Hike

Words: 9282

Summary: Beca takes Chloe on a hike she used to do with her Dad. It’s a chance for Beca to feel closer to him, and a chance to introduce Chloe to one of her former favourite pastimes. Beca soon discovers that there is more than just memories hiding in the trees.

Notes: Buckle up boys, this one’s a long one! I’ve really let myself have free reign with the horror in this one, and haven’t held myself back at all. I mentioned previously that I’ve been reading almost exclusively horror this year, and Adam Nevill’s The Ritual was one of my favourites, and the setting of this was definitely a little inspired by that.

@pitch-perfect-spookfest

Read on AO3

-

“Bec?”

“Hmm?”

“You doing okay?”

“Uh huh. A little tired.”

Beca’s hands clenched and unclenched around the straps of her backpack, her shoulders burning under the weight of it. 

“We can stop if you need a break?”

“No, I’m good,” Beca said, turning to smile at Chloe. “This is just a bit more physically demanding than I remember it.”

Chloe smiled back and they continued to walk.

“I’m glad you told me to wear these boots for a few weeks at home first,” Chloe said, taking hold of Beca’s hand as she helped her step down a particularly craggy rock. “I think a blister out here would finish me off.”

“Yeah,” Beca said. “I remember Sheila learning that lesson the hard way. I honestly thought her and my Dad were gonna divorce right there and then.”

“How is Sheila?” Chloe asked. 

Beca shrugged. “I dunno. Better, I think, now that we’re doing this. She didn’t like him just being stuck on a shelf.” As if on instinct, Beca reached a hand around to press against the front of her pack, pushing against the tightly packed interior, trying to feel for the small, hard, object that was wrapped safely in the centre. It hardly weighed a thing, but was the heaviest item she carried.

“I don’t think you’ve lost him,” Chloe said. 

“No, I know,” Beca said, removing her hand. “But it’d be so embarrassing if we got all the way up there and it turns out I left him on a tree-stump near the parking lot.”

Chloe laughed and took hold of Beca’s hand again, this time for no other reason than just to hold it. 

“We’d have to just grab him on our way back and tell Sheila we did it.”

It was Beca’s turn to chuckle now. “Damn, lying to a widow about where her husband’s ashes are scattered? Pretty dark.”

“Better than having to do this hike again,” Chloe replied, squeezing Beca’s hand to let her know she was joking. “Are we much further from where you wanted to set up camp?”

“I don’t think so,” Beca said, removing the map from the plastic pouch hung around her neck. She knew where on the map they needed to be, and had a pretty good idea of where they currently were. “Maybe another hour and a half? We should have enough time to get everything set up before dark.”

Chloe nodded and they carried on following the trail. 

Beca had done this hike more times than she could count. At one time in her life, she’d have been able to do it blindfolded, her feet knowing where to step without any input from her brain.

Now, however, it had been almost a decade since she’d last been here, and she found herself checking the map more often than she really needed to. The whole place felt totally unchanged and yet completely different at the same time. It was like she was viewing it from another angle. Through a different lens. It felt like something was missing.

It dawned on Beca that something was missing.

For the first time in her life, she was walking this trail without her Dad walking beside her.

She tugged on the straps of her bag again, feeling them dig into her already sore shoulders, and she focused on that pain because if she didn’t she’d start crying. 

-

Despite being a little out of practice, Beca managed to set up their tent without much trouble. It was as if her hands knew what to do even if she didn’t quite remember the steps. 

“I love watching you be all outdoorsy,” Chloe said, as Beca slid tent poles through eyelets and hammered stakes into the ground. 

“Oh yeah?” Beca asked. “Is this turning you on?”

Chloe laughed. “A little.”

“If I’d known that’s all it took, I’d have taken you camping sooner.”

That night they ate a dinner of ramen cooked on their gas stove, and they watched the stars begin to appear above their heads. 

Beca lit a small fire to keep them warm, and they huddled together under one blanket, sharing a small cup of spiked hot chocolate. 

“Thank you for doing this with me,” Beca said, her head on Chloe’s shoulder.

“Of course,” Chloe replied, her head resting on top of Beca’s. “You don’t have to thank me.”

“I know this isn’t your kind of thing.”

“Maybe not,” Chloe said. “But I’m glad I’m here with you.”

They kissed, finished their hot chocolate, and Chloe crawled into their tent while Beca put out the fire. 

Far off in the trees, she heard a branch snap. 

A deer, she told herself. Just a deer.

She joined Chloe in the tent and zipped it up after her with a little more urgency than necessary. 

Their solar-charged camping lamp was shoved in the corner of the small tent, turned to its dimmest settings. 

“Can we keep it on?” Chloe asked, climbing into her sleeping bag. “It’s, like, insanely dark out here.”

“Of course,” Beca said, unable to shake the feeling of unease that, with the lamp on, their tent would shine like a beacon in this pitch black forest. 

Beca didn’t realise how tired she was until she was wrapped in her own warm and comfortable sleeping bag. 

“Night Chlo’,” she mumbled, suddenly unable to keep her eyes open. 

“Night Bec,” Chloe replied. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

-

By the time Chloe woke up the next morning, Beca was already up and preparing their breakfast of oatmeal and sweet, strong, coffee. 

“Morning,” Chloe said, kissing the top of Beca’s head before joining her on the log they had used as a seat the night before. 

“Morning,” Beca replied. “Sleep well?”

“Not bad. Better than you, anyway.”

Beca frowned and turned her attention away from the oatmeal so she could look at Chloe. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you were up all night, shuffling around the tent. Were you looking for something? And I’m pretty sure I asked you to keep the light on.”

“I did,” Beca said. “I never touched it.”

“Well then the battery must have died, because I woke up at like 2 am and it was basically pitch black. I could just see your… shape, sitting at the entrance to the tent.”

“Chlo’ the lamp was still on when I woke up. I slept like a log last night, I was exhausted. Unless I’ve suddenly started sleepwalking at the ripe age of 32, I didn’t move a muscle.”

“Huh,” Chloe said, frowning too. “I was sure…” Chloe shook her head, dispelling the memory of the night before and already reframing it in her mind. “I must have dreamt it.”

“You get some weird noises in the forest,” Beca said, returning her attention to their breakfast. “It can play tricks on you.”

“That must be it.”

After they ate and packed up, they were ready to begin their second day of the hike. If all went well, they’d reach their second camp spot by dinner, and their final destination tomorrow afternoon. 

This used to be a hike that Beca and her Dad did in two days, but because it was Chloe’s first time, she’d planned a slower pace which meant a couple more nights in the wilderness. Not that Beca minded, she’d always preferred a slower pace to her Dad’s break-neck speed, and it meant more nights spent camping, which she loved. But their time together had always been limited, and she needed to be back at the pre-approved custody drop-off spot by Sunday night. 

“You’re quiet today,” Chloe said, her voice breaking the silence that had accompanied them for the last two hours of their hike.

“Sorry,” Beca said. “I’m in my head a little.”

Chloe swapped the stick she’d been using to walk with to her left hand, and took hold of Beca’s with her right. “Don’t be sorry. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“Yeah,” Beca said. “I’m fine. It’s just… It’s weird doing this without him.”

“I can’t even imagine,” Chloe said. 

Beca sucked in a breath and puffed out her cheeks as she blew it out.

She hated this feeling, the one she got right before she was about to cry. 

“Bec.”

“I know,” Beca said, clearing her throat. She knew what Chloe was going to say, she’d said it to her what felt like hundreds of times since her dad had passed. She was going to tell her that it was okay to cry. That it was healthy even. That Beca shouldn’t bottle up her emotions. And Beca knew that was true - logically knew that she shouldn’t be holding everything in like a shook-up soda can - but every part of her told her it was wrong. 

Beca kept her tears at bay and they lapsed into silence again. 

For hours they walked, Beca ahead of Chloe by inches. She couldn’t see her, but she could feel her, a millimetre behind her left shoulder. A shadow in her peripherals. 

She could hear Chloe’s footsteps just behind her, in sync with her own, close enough that if Beca stopped, Chloe would bump into her. Her left hand swung back as she walked and occasionally brushed against the textured surface of Chloe’s sweater.

Then Chloe took hold of her right hand.

Beca jumped - almost yelled out - and spun on her heels.

No one there.

Her heart was beating so fast and there was a sound like rushing water in her ears.

“Beca? What is it?”

Beca swallowed, her eyes scanning the trees behind them. She shook her head.

“I thought-” Beca cut herself off, alarmed and ashamed to hear the shake in her voice. “I thought you were behind me. I…” She swallowed again, her mouth dry, her tongue feeling thick. “I just got a fright. I thought you were on my left, not my right.”

Beca clenched her left hand and then shook it out. She had felt something brush against it. Had heard something walking right behind her. 

But she didn’t want to scare Chloe - didn’t want to scare herself anymore than she had - so she told herself she’d imagined it. She rubbed the back of her left hand against the sweater she wore under her raincoat, trying to clear away the residual feeling of having touched something unknown. 

“Let’s stop for a break,” Chloe said, still eyeing Beca with concern. “We have time, right?”

Not here, Beca thought.

“Yeah,” Beca said, not wanting to turn around and put her back to whatever that was, but also not wanting to stay in this spot for another second. “We can stop, but let’s cover a little more ground first.” She turned and carried on walking the trail, unable to shift the feeling that they were being watched, but refusing to turn and confirm it.

Whatever it was, she knew she didn’t want to see it.

You sound crazy, Beca thought. 

Chloe could tell something had deeply rattled Beca, so she didn’t argue and instead jogged to catch up. She decided not to take hold of her hand again, and tried to remain in her line of sight as best as she could.

After what Chloe would call a 30 minute speed-walk, Beca finally slowed and they stopped to take a break.

They took off their packs and Chloe almost cried with relief at the feeling, her aching shoulders and back practically singing now the weight had been removed.

Beca poured them each a coffee from the thermos she’d filled that morning, and they drank it with some cheese and crackers. 

Chloe rubbed at the knot in her shoulder as she looked up at the bright white sky that was peeking through the canopy of the trees. 

“I’m not walking you too fast, am I?” Beca asked, relieved her voice sounded normal again. 

“No,” Chloe replied. “I mean, that last 30 minutes was basically a run, but other than that it’s been fine.”

Beca nodded. “You’ll tell me if it gets too hard?”

“Of course,” Chloe said. Something about Beca had hardened in the last few hours, and Chloe couldn’t work out how or why. It gave her a pit of worry in her stomach, the kind she got when she thought someone might be mad at her. “I’m not, like, slowing you down or anything, am I?”

“No,” Beca said, her eyes widening in surprise. “No, you’re doing great. We’re making good time.”

She sounded sincere, and Chloe felt the tension in her loosen a little. “Good,” Chloe said. She could have left it at that, but Chloe was never one for holding back. She couldn’t swallow her feelings the same way that Beca could. “Sorry,” she said. “I just… I don’t know, I feel like you might be mad at me or something.”

Beca looked even more surprised. “Why would I be mad at you?”

Chloe shrugged. “The atmosphere’s been kinda tense, I dunno.”

“I mean, we’re here to scatter my dad’s ashes, Chlo’, I’m not sure what kind of atmosphere you were expecting.”

Chloe cringed and felt her cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment. “You’re right, I’m sorry. Forget I said anything.” 

She turned away and began busying herself with checking her bag.

“I’m not mad at you,” Beca said, her voice softer than it had been a moment ago. “I’m, like, trying to process a lot of feelings right now, and when that happens I go quiet. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t,” Chloe said, turning back around so she could take both of Beca’s hands in hers. “You didn’t do anything wrong, you don’t need to be sorry. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now, what kind of memories being back here is bringing up, you are 100% allowed to be in your own head. I just needed to make sure I wasn’t doing anything to make it harder for you.”

Beca nodded. “Thank you,” she said. “And you never make anything harder, Chloe. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you. Any of it.”

Chloe tugged Beca closer and wrapped her up in a tight hug. “Whatever you’re feeling, or trying to work through, I hope you know that you don’t have to do it in your head. If you want to talk, or even just think out loud, then you can. I can talk it through with you or just be a sounding board. But only if you want to. We can walk in silence, or talk about something completely different. Whatever you need, Bec.”

Chloe felt Beca nod against her, and she held her against her chest until Beca ended the hug. 

They packed up, their backs groaning as the weight of the packs settled against their shoulders again, and they carried on walking.

The silence between them remained, and Chloe couldn’t think of any way to break it. 

She knew Beca needed it, but she hated it. 

Hated it because she was starting to feel on edge.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched.

-

Dinner that night was spaghetti in sauce with some kind of mystery meat. Chloe had grimaced as Beca had squeezed it out of the vacuum-sealed packet, but once it had been heated on the stove Chloe’s mouth had watered at just the smell of it.

“It’s not scientifically possible that spaghetti from a bag should taste this good,” Chloe said, trying to scrape up every last bit of sauce.

“I know,” Beca said, her mouth almost smiling. 

Beca hadn’t been able to shake the darkness that had been growing in her chest since that morning, and it had only gotten heavier as the day wore on. Each step caused a rock to harden in her chest, and now it was almost nightfall, she felt like she was made of stone. 

Chloe cleaned up their plates while Beca lit another small fire, and they were soon huddled up together as night fell quickly.

“Is this the part where you tell me a ghost story?” Chloe asked, desperate for Beca to get out of her head. 

Beca let out a laugh that was little more than a puff of air through her nose. “I don’t think I know any.”

The silence fell across them again. Beca stared into the fire, and Chloe felt like she was sitting beside a statue.

Then Beca moved suddenly, startling Chloe. She reached into her pack and pulled out the bottle of whisky she’d used in their hot chocolate the night before. 

“Bec?”

“I’ve thought of one,” she said, pouring them each a small measure. She’d brought it with them so they could toast her Dad when his ashes were scattered - something that she realised was approaching closer and closer and that she wasn’t sure she was ready for - she hadn’t intended on them drinking it the rest of the nights. But the whisky had warmed her the night before, had temporarily eased the aches in her back and legs, and had allowed sleep to come more easily. Besides, she figured she might need a drink to tell the story she was about to share.

She took a sip and stored the bottle away again.

“You’ve got a ghost story?”

“Not a ghost story,” Beca said. “But a campfire kind of story.”

“Okay,” Chloe said, pulling the blanket tighter around their shoulders. She wasn’t sure a scary story in the middle of the woods was a good idea, but anything was better than silence at this point.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I got lost in the woods?”

“No,” Chloe said, frowning. “Wait, is this a true story?”

Beca nodded. “I must have told you,” she said. “It’s how I got this.” She pointed to the scar on her cheek.

On instinct, Chloe reached out to touch it. She had asked Beca about it before, had even joked that it must mean they were meant to be together, since the scar formed an almost perfect “C” on her cheek. 

“You told me you got it hiking, not that you got lost,” Chloe said, her cold fingers tracing the edge of it. 

The light coming from the fire had blinded Beca to the rest of the forest, and the darkness stretched out around them on all sides. Even the stars were hidden by clouds. They were a solo pin-point of light in a vast sea of nothingness. Beca felt like if Chloe let go of her arm, she would float away into space.

Beca took another sip of whisky. 

“I was four,” she said. “Out hiking with my Mom and Dad. Before the divorce. The last time we did anything like that as a family. My Dad asked me to grab some sticks for firewood. I was right beside him. My Mom was in the tent, and he turned to ask her something. When he turned back I was gone.” Beca took another drink. “They found me three days later in a Walmart parking lot, the next state over.”

Chloe felt herself go cold. “What the hell?” She asked, her voice little more than a whisper. “What happened?”

“Not a fucking clue,” Beca said. “I don’t remember anything about it.”

“Nothing?” 

“I remember looking down for a stick, and then I remember this old couple in the parking lot asking where my parents were.”

“Jesus, Bec,” Chloe said. “Did you just wander off?”

Beca took another drink, her eyes burning from the heat of the fire that she refused to look away from. She couldn’t look away, because then she’d have to look into the darkness. Into the forest. She didn’t want to look.

“I was four, I couldn’t have walked that far on my own, not in three days,” Beca said, a hint of strain in her voice. She was suddenly wondering why she had decided to tell this story. She hadn’t thought about it in years. “I didn’t have any shoes on when they found me. No coat or hat or anything. There’s no way I could have survived on my own.” Beca cleared her throat, and took another drink. “They think someone took me.”

If Chloe had felt herself go cold before, it was nothing to how she felt now. She practically shivered. 

“Were you hurt when they found you?” Chloe asked, terrified of the answer Beca was about to give.

“No,” Beca replied. “I was fine. Healthy, even. I should have been malnourished or dehydrated or something. I was perfectly fine, except for this.” Beca touched the scar on her cheek. She cleared her throat. “They asked me what happened for months afterwards, but at the time I didn’t have the words to tell them, and by the time I did, I didn’t remember.”

“Beca, this is insane, I can’t believe I’ve known you for over ten years and I’ve never heard this story. You really don’t remember a thing?”

Beca closed her eyes. “I remember being cold, and I remember…” It came back to her sometimes in her nightmares. The wooden structure. Incongruous to its surroundings, like it had been cut out of a home depot catalogue and pasted into the forest. “It was like a hut.”

A stick snapped in the distance and Chloe jumped, and a nervous laugh followed. 

“We moved basically immediately after. Mom said she felt like everyone was watching her. Judging her. She was the bad Mom who let her kid get snatched from under her nose. They divorced not long after that. Mom blamed Dad, Dad blamed himself. I’ve never been back in that forest. It took me years before I’d even agree to go hiking with my Dad again.” Beca went to take another drink. The cup was empty, and the last few drops splashed against her chin. “I didn’t speak for a full year. I… Jesus, I haven’t thought about this in so long, I thought…”

“Thought what?”

“Thought I was over it. Thought it was like a funny, mildly interesting story. The time I got lost in the woods.” She let out a laugh that sounded strange. Panicked. “What the fuck?”

“Bec, it’s okay,” Chloe said, trying not to catch the panic rising in her girlfriend. She knew it was contagious, this kind of fear, and one of them had to be calm. “You’re okay.”

“They checked me over at the hospital,” Beca said, her voice shaking as every horrible memory from that time came flooding back. “You know, just in case. And he hadn’t. I hadn’t been… But, fuck, I was four. I was four and they were checking… fuck.”

It was all rushing back to her faster than she could process it. She wanted to be sick. 

This is why she kept things inside. Pushed them down and turned herself to stone.

“Did you speak to anyone after? Like a therapist or someone? Someone to help you process it?”

“Like 10 of them,” Beca said. “But all they did was try and get me to remember. Asked me to draw it if I couldn’t say it. The police tried that too. Said I needed to help them out because what if this guy snatches up another little girl, and she doesn’t get as lucky? But there was nothing in there. Nothing to draw. Just a black space. They never found him. No evidence there was ever anyone with me. This was back in the 90s, but they had basic security cameras in the parking lot, and there’s footage of me just walking into the parking lot alone. No shoes. No strange man pushing me out of a car and speeding off.”

“Man?”

“An assumption,” Beca said. “An assumption everyone else made too.”

In the light of the fire, Chloe could see Beca’s hands were shaking. She took hold of them, and Beca jumped at the contact.

“Baby, I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Chloe said, her thumb brushing over Beca’s knuckles as she squeezed her hand.

“I don’t… I don’t know why I thought about it after all these years,” Beca said, the panic leaving her voice as the heaviness returned. “I don’t know why I told you.”

“I’m glad you did,” Chloe said. “You know how I feel about bottling things up.”

Beca gave a soft grunt of a laugh. “Yeah,” she said. 

“You’ve been in your head all day,” Chloe said. “You’re back camping and hiking for the first time in a long time, I’m not surprised that memory came back.”

“I wish it hadn’t,” Beca said, rubbing her free hand against her forehead. 

“I know,” Chloe said. “Let’s go to bed. You’ll feel better after some rest.”

Beca didn’t think that was true, but she knew Chloe was only trying to help so she didn’t argue. 

A night of rest wasn’t going to undo this thing that had happened to her almost 30 years ago. It wouldn’t break up the rocks that had been settling in her chest all day. It wouldn’t change the fact that her dad was little more than a pile of ash stashed in her bag, instead of the living breathing man that should be here.

She tried to give Chloe something close to a reassuring smile, but her mouth barely moved. It was as if this was turning to stone too. Her face a frozen expression of grief and pain. 

“You go on ahead,” Beca said. “I’ll take care of the fire.”

Chloe went into the tent to set up their beds for the night, and Beca was alone in the woods.

Except, she knew she wasn’t alone. That feeling of being watched had never left Beca since it arrived, and she was acutely aware that by standing in the light of the fire, it could see her, but she couldn’t see it. It could be a foot away and she’d have no idea.

Before the fear could take hold and root her to the spot, she began putting out the fire, and then backed into the tent rather than turning around. 

“All good?” Chloe asked, already curled up in her sleeping bag.

“Mhm,” Beca replied. “Light staying on?”

“Please,” Chloe said. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” Beca said, getting herself ready for bed before climbing into her own sleeping bag. “Weird day.”

“Yeah,” Chloe agreed. 

“I’m sorry,” Beca said.

“What for?”

“Being all… You know. Moody. Brooding. Whatever.” 

“You don’t need to apologise for that,” Chloe said. 

“Still. I’m not myself. Not fun to be around right now.”

“You don’t have to be,” Chloe said. “You’re grieving. Get some rest, Bec. I can tell you’re tired because you’re not even talking in complete sentences.”

Chloe was right. Beca was exhausted and not just from their hike. 

“‘Kay,” Beca said. “Night. Love you.”

“Love you too, baby.”

The sound of rustling in their tent woke Chloe up again that night. 

It was dark. Darker than anything Chloe had ever experienced. 

It was as if the darkness was a physical presence, and not just the absence of light. She could feel it pressing all around her. Smothering her. 

Chloe wanted to ask Beca if she was okay - because who else would be rustling around in their tent - but she found she couldn’t. She was scared that if she opened her mouth the darkness would pour in and she’d drown in it. 

Then she heard another sound which made her blood run cold. 

Beca was crying. Sobbing. Right beside her on the ground. 

Which meant there was something else inside their tent. 

A fear like Chloe had never felt before gripped her so tightly she was afraid she’d shatter. 

She wanted to cry. To tell Beca to be quiet. To do something about this intruder that might wish them harm. 

But she couldn’t. 

All she could do was squeeze her eyes shut and hold her breath and pray that it would go away. That whoever or whatever it was would leave them alone. 

Beca continued to sob beside her, and Chloe realised this was the first time she’d ever really heard her girlfriend cry. She wanted to cry too but she swallowed the urge. 

“Please,” Beca whimpered, her breath shuddering between each painful sob. “Please, I want to go home. I want to go home.”

Her voice sounded so much smaller than usual. So much younger. She sounded like the lost little girl in the story Beca had told earlier that night. 

Beca’s story came back to Chloe like a bad dream she’d tried to forget. 

In her mind, she could see her huddled. Shivering. Looking up at… something. Something her four-year-old brain didn’t understand. Something she couldn’t put into words, but she knew enough to be afraid. 

All Chloe wanted to do was reach out and comfort her, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t move because she could still hear this thing in their tent. 

Behind her closed eyes, Chloe could see light. A dim glow that had returned to the tent. 

She almost opened her eyes.

Almost. 

Then she heard another rustle, and she knew they still weren’t alone. It was still there with them. 

Chloe could feel it watching them. 

It had turned the lamp back on. It wanted Chloe to look but she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. 

It was silent save for the soft whimpering still coming from her girlfriend. So silent that she couldn’t hear the sounds of the rest of the forest anymore. No animals scurrying or owls hooting, or the wind rustling through the trees.

She could feel its eyes burning into her and she could feel herself beginning to shake as she realised something else.

She’d heard those noises the night before and had attributed them to Beca. 

Now she knew better.

This thing had been in their tent last night too. 

Had likely been following them this whole time.

That feeling she’d had of being watched wasn’t just her mind playing tricks on her. 

The silence dragged on with the feeling of pressure in their tent growing and growing. Chloe felt like she was waiting for a jump-scare in a movie. 

Then she heard the whine of the zipper being pulled, and felt a rush of cold air blow through the entrance to the tent. She heard the zipper again and the soft retreating footsteps of whatever it was. 

They were alone again, Chloe could feel it, but she still couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes. 

In her head she counted to ten. Twenty. Thirty. 

“I want to go home,” Beca cried again. “I want my Daddy.”

It was enough to finally force Chloe’s eyes open, and she felt a brief flood of relief to discover they were in fact alone again. 

Beca was curled on her side, knees pulled into her chest, body shaking with each cry for home and for her dad. 

From her spot beside her, Chloe could see that the scar on Beca’s cheek was bleeding. The scar was over 20-years-old, long faded and barely visible, but was somehow bleeding like a fresh wound.

Chloe tried for the rest of the night to wake her, but she couldn’t. Beca remained trapped in the nightmare where she was a lost little girl, begging to go home.

All Chloe could do was hold Beca in her arms. She assumed sleep would never come, but at the sound of the birds and the sight of soft light beginning to filter through their tent, she finally did. 

-

Chloe was alone when she woke up only a few hours later.

She scrambled up and out of her sleeping bag and was relieved to see Beca sitting just outside the entrance of their tent.

The cold air bit at her exposed arms and legs, but she didn’t return to the tent to get dressed. 

Beca was hunched over their camping stove, but was staring off into the trees. Chloe could smell the burning oatmeal in the pan and hurried forward to take it off the heat. 

Beca didn’t even react to her presence. Her eyes were slightly puffy from the hours she’d spent crying the night before, and the cut on her cheek was beginning to scab over. 

Chloe thought she looked empty. Lost.

“Beca,” she said, taking a seat beside her, the wooden log cold and wet against her bare skin. She took hold of Beca’s arm.

Beca gave a grunt in response, but didn’t look away from the trees.

“Bec, last night…” She trailed off, unable to find the words she needed to explain what had happened. “I don’t think we’re safe here. I think we need to go home.” Even as she said it, the knot of worry tightened in her stomach. They were at least two days' walk away from where they had parked up, which meant two more nights out here in the forest. 

Beca still didn’t speak, and Chloe’s panic increased.

“Something came into our tent last night. I don’t know if it was an animal or-” she cut herself off as she remembered that whatever it was had messed with their light. Had zipped and unzipped the entrance to their tent multiple times. “Something was in our tent,” she repeated. “And it was in our tent the night before. And it followed us all day yesterday, and I think you know that. I think you felt it too.”

Beca nodded, slowly.

It wasn’t words, but it was something. It was an acknowledgement. 

“So we should go, right? Like pack up and hightail it out of here? I can walk faster,” Chloe said, the speed of her voice quickening as a sense of urgency filled her. “You and your dad used to do this hike in two days, right? Well just walk at that pace and I’ll keep up, or-” Chloe’s words were coming faster. Tripping over each other in a rush to get out of her mouth. “Or we go a different way. Just whatever will get us out of this forest the fastest. We can Uber to the car when we’re back to civilization.”

Beca nodded again, her eyes never leaving the trees. Chloe was too afraid to follow the direction they were focused on.

“Baby, please say something. I’m really fucking freaked out right now.”

Beca swallowed and a tear crept down her cheek, stopping when it reached the raised scab that was still a scar only hours ago. 

“I’m sorry,” Beca said. “I don’t… I don’t know what’s happening.”

“I know,” Chloe said. “I don’t either, but I need you right now. I don’t know what I’m doing out here, and I need you to help me get us out of here. I need…” She trailed off. She had almost told Beca she needed her to snap out of it, but that seemed too harsh.

But then she thought, fuck it.

She needed to be harsh.

She needed to be harsh because she couldn’t get them out of this forest alone.

Because she refused to die out here.

“I need you to snap out of this,” Chloe said, her voice sterner than it had been a moment ago. “Something weird is happening out here, and I need you to fight it. You can’t give up, Bec. We need to get out of here.”

Beca cleared her throat and finally tore her eyes away from the trees. 

“I know,” she said. “I know, I’m sorry.” She pulled out the map, and tapped on a spot. “That’s where we’re headed,” she said, pointing at the place where she intended to scatter her Dad’s ashes. “From there we’ll cut down here.” She traced her finger down a length of what Chloe assumed to be woodland. “A harder path than the way we came, but shorter. There are multiple places to join the trail, and this should lead us to one of them.”

“Have you done it before?” Chloe asked.

“No,” Beca admitted. “But we could be out of here by tonight if we take it.”

Chloe nodded. The unknown was frightening to her, but the way they came didn’t feel much better. “Then that’s what we’ll do. I trust you.”

Chloe dressed and they packed up their camp in record speed.

The oatmeal had been beyond saving, so they each ate a protein bar as they walked.

The pace Beca set was punishing, but Chloe kept up. Everything hurt from her feet to her shoulders, but she didn’t complain. She would not slow them down.

The thing still followed them.

They both knew it, could both feel it, but they refused to turn and look.

Up ahead, they saw the gradual incline of a hill, and for the first time that day, Beca thought about why they were even here in the first place. 

She thought about her dad.

She thought about what she would soon be doing.

These weren’t the circumstances she’d wanted when she’d suggested the idea to Chloe a month ago.

She’d wanted time. Peace. She’d wanted to be able to say a few words. Have a drink. Cry, maybe.

Beca knew now she wouldn’t get that. She knew she was foolish to even still be doing it. 

But she also knew she had to. It was her last chance. 

Once she got out, she would never set foot in this place again, or anywhere like it. 

Because what she knew now was the man that had taken her all those years ago had never been a man.

It was a Thing. An It. Something not human. Something that had followed her to the other side of the country.. 

After all these years, it had found her.

Or had it always known where she was? Had it just been waiting for the right moment?

Had it been following and watching on every hike she’d taken with her dad?

Beca shuddered as the ground sloped upwards beneath her feet. 

It didn’t make any sense, but logic and reason were starting to feel like foreign concepts. 

None of it had ever made sense.

How do you snatch a child from right under her parents��� noses? How does she end up in a parking lot miles and miles away from where she started?

Chloe walked beside her, her right hand holding Beca’s left, as their pace slowed as they climbed the hill.

The thing followed on Beca’s right. Its footsteps out of time with her own.

It wanted her to know it was there. 

Chloe was beginning to pant beside her.

“We can stop soon,” Beca said, her own breathing just as laboured.

Chloe didn’t want to - she could feel it beside them too - but she knew they needed to. 

They crested the top of the hill, and the forest stretched out beneath them.

It seemed to go on forever, and Chloe felt that panic grip her again.

How would they ever get out of this?

“There,” Beca said, pointing in the direction they had to head next, her head down to look at her compass. “Down that way.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah,” Beca said, pulling the map out to double check. 

“Okay,” Chloe said. She unclipped the strap across her chest and let her pack drop to the floor. The relief was immediate but the pain still lingered. 

Beca did the same, though she was a little more careful about lowering her bag to the floor. 

This thing that followed kept its distance.

Like it understood this was a moment Beca needed to have before whatever came next. 

She reached into her pack and pulled out the urn that contained what was left of her Dad.

She straightened up and took a deep breath.

“This isn’t how I wanted to do this,” she said, speaking to the urn. To her Dad. “I had a whole speech prepared, but I think we have to keep it short. The gist is, you deserve to stay in your favourite place forever. To be with nature, in this forest you loved so much. I… I miss you. I love you.”

Beca opened the urn and tipped out the ashes and they were picked up by the wind. 

She had expected to feel lighter, but she didn’t. She didn’t know how she felt, but they didn’t have time to dissect it right now.

“Ready?” Beca asked. She couldn’t bring herself to glance over her shoulder at Chloe, in case it wasn’t Chloe that was looking back at her. She kept her eyes focused on the direction they were heading as she hauled her pack back onto her bag.

“Yeah,” Chloe replied, doing the same. She handed Beca another protein bar. “Let’s get out of here.”

-

Hours and hours passed and they had no idea if they were even close to getting out.

The trail Beca had chosen for them had been significantly more overgrown than expected.

The terrain was rough, uneven, and dangerous. A lot had been completely impassable and had required them to alter their course to go around it. 

Beca had tried to maintain their pace but it was proving reckless. One wrong step could result in a twisted ankle or worse, and that could put them in serious danger under normal circumstances.

The sun was getting lower in the sky, and Beca was forced to bring them to a stop.

They would have to endure one more night in this place.

“I’m sorry,” Beca said, her breathing heavy as they finally conceded defeat. “I didn’t realise how bad it would be.”

“It isn’t your fault,” Chloe replied. “We didn’t have a lot of choices.”

They set up their tent even though they knew it offered them no protection from the thing that still stalked them, and they huddled inside it together without any intention of sleeping.

“As soon as it’s light we head out again,” Beca said, checking the map for what felt like the hundredth time. “I think we went too far south, we need to be more west.”

“Eat something,” Chloe said, handing her one of the vacuum sealed packages Beca had brought, and keeping one for herself.

They ate them cold, and in silence, hunger gnawing at their stomachs even after the last of the food had been squeezed into their mouths. 

“We’re going to be okay, right?” Chloe asked, shuffling closer and linking her arm through Beca’s.

“Yeah,” Beca said, without conviction. “Of course.”

Darkness was falling fast, and only their dim, flickering, camping lamp provided them with any kind of light. 

“I was going to propose,” Beca said, her voice breaking a long silence between them. “Before my dad… Then I thought maybe I’d do it when we got home from this trip.”

There was defeat in Beca’s voice and it made Chloe feel helpless. 

“When you ask me when we get home, I’ll say yes,” Chloe said. “I’ll even act surprised.”

“What if I asked you now? Would you say yes now?”

Chloe wanted to cry. “Are you asking now?”

“Yeah,” Beca said. “I think I am.”

“You have to actually ask me,” Chloe said, tears coming quickly now. 

Beca laughed and sniffed and cleared her throat. “Chloe Beale, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” Chloe replied, her voice hiccuping as she half laughed and half cried. “But you have to promise me we aren’t going camping for our honeymoon.”

“After this, I’m never going camping again.” 

Beca hurried to wipe her eyes before kissing Chloe for what felt like the last time. 

Darkness had truly fallen now, and she knew their time was short. 

“The ring is in the bottom drawer of my desk. The one with the lock. Key is taped to the back of our photo,” she said. 

Her brief moment of joy was now being replaced by the fear that had followed them all day. 

It was coming. 

She could hear the snapping of sticks in the distance as it made its way over to them. 

“You can give it to me yourself when we get home,” Chloe replied. She could feel it too. Could feel the fear radiating out of Beca as the lamp in their tent began to flicker and die. 

They were plunged into darkness. 

The only thing they could hear was their own ragged breaths. 

“Beca. I love you.”

Beca didn’t reply, because she was already gone. 

-

The darkness lifted so slowly, Beca thought maybe she was just imagining it. Maybe her eyes were finally adjusting after so long in the pitch black. 

But then it got brighter. 

She thought it was the sunrise, but she knew that morning was still hours away. 

What was that old saying her grandmother had said about a red sky at night?

She reached for Chloe’s hand, but Chloe wasn’t there. 

There was no use delaying the inevitable. 

Beca unzipped the tent and stepped out into the blood red sky. 

The ground was cold beneath her bare feet, the wind bit at her now completely naked body, and her breath fogged in front of her face.

This wasn’t the same forest she’d been in only hours before. 

Before her was a clearing free from trees, and in the middle was that wooden structure from her nightmare. 

Beca began to sob.

No no no no no no no

God

Please

Her feet moved of their own accord towards the hut, and the door creaked open to welcome her inside. 

It was so cold. 

The red light filtered through the single window above the door and she could make out the shape of a creature crouched in the shadows.

The door slammed shut.

No no no 

It stood. Its presence filled the space.

It was taller than the height of the hut, and it had to hunch over as it stood.

Its body was too long. The back of its head was flat against the ceiling as it looked down at her.

Red eyes and a smiling mouth with too many teeth. Ram-like horns and hooved feet. Thick matted black hair.

Beca began to tremble.

In her mind she begged and pleaded and prayed but not a sound left her mouth.

She was mute with terror, the same way she’d been as a little girl.

The cabin smelled of the cold. Of rotten leaves and neglect. Of animal waste and rotting meat.

Please god oh please please I want to go home please let me go home

This creature looming over her made no sound. It simply stared.

Like it was deciding what to do with her.

Beca knew she was in the presence of something ancient and terrible.

It was older than anyone alive. Older than the country it lived in. Older than the Gods.

She also knew that this creature was dying.

It was the last of its kind.

And Beca was here to fulfil a promise she’d made when she was four years old.

No words had been spoken but Beca had understood that when she’d left this hut as a child, that she would be expected to return. She would be expected to help.

And Beca had wordlessly agreed.

Yes. Anything. I want to go home. I want my Mommy and Daddy.

It had even left its mark so it would be able to find her again.

It’s why Beca had flat out refused to go hiking again as a child, until every part of the experience had been lost from her memories.

She knew now what would be required of her.

Without telling her body to do it, Beca backed up until she hit a wall, and then she slid down it.

Not this not this not this not this

Her mind screamed and tears rolled down her cheeks, mixing with the fresh blood now dripping from her scarred cheek.

No no no no no no no no no

The creature began to fall apart.

Its horns crumbled into dust. 

Its eyes melted in their sockets and ran down its snout like tears.

Its fur fell away in clumps.

Its skin and flesh sloughed off its yellowing brittle bones.

It was nothing but a pile of bones and teeth and viscera. 

Beca was not comforted by this, and she began to cry harder as she saw movement in that pile.

I don’t want this not this not this please please Jesus fuck please

She remained silent and completely paralyzed as what was left of this monster began crawling towards her.

She couldn’t move an inch. She couldn’t fight. She couldn’t scream. All she could do was watch.

-

Chloe was pacing her apartment, a cut chewed into her lip, a headache pushing against the backs of her eyes.

“Chloe, can you sit down and eat something?” Aubrey asked, her own head pounding as she watched her best friend pace backwards and forwards. “I know you think we’re going to hear something today, but-”

“It’s been three days,” Chloe snapped. “She’s been gone for three days and the last time she was taken she turned up three days later.”

“I know,” Aubrey said, trying to keep her voice calm. Trying to sound rational. “You told me what she told you. Even if that is what’s going on here, pacing a hole in the floor won’t make the phone ring any faster.”

“I can’t sit still,” Chloe said. “If it lets her go…” Chloe trailed off. It had to let her go. The alternative was unthinkable. “When it lets her go, I need to be ready. Who knows where she’ll end up, so I’ll need to be ready to leave at a moment-”

Chloe’s phone ringing and buzzing from the countertop cut her off.

“I can’t,” Chloe said, suddenly frozen in place. “Aubrey, please, I can’t.”

Aubrey nodded and answered.

“Chloe Beale’s phone, Aubrey Posen speaking,” Aubrey said, in her best lawyer voice. “Oh my god are you serious? You found her?!” Aubrey’s eyes were wide as she looked at Chloe. “Wait, she’s where? How did she - you know what, never mind, we’ll get there as soon as we can.”

Chloe felt relief flood through her like someone had opened a valve of it in her brain.

Beca was alive.

“Oh,” Aubrey said, her shoulders dropping. Chloe’s stomach dropped with them. “I’m sorry I think you have the wrong person, Beca isn’t… You’re sure? Like 1000% positive because if I tell her fiance this and you’re wrong I swear I will sue you to… Okay. Shit. Okay. Um, thank you detective. I’ll speak to Chloe now and we’ll… Yeah, we’ll get there as soon as we can.”

“Well?!” Chloe demanded as soon as Aubrey put the phone down. 

“Chloe, sit down.”

“I’m not-”

“Sit down.”

Aubrey’s voice left no room for augment. Chloe sat down at the kitchen table. She fiddled with her engagement ring, twisting it around her finger as she waited for Aubrey to speak.

“She’s alive,” Aubrey said. “They found her in a Walmart parking lot and they took her to a nearby hospital. The detective is going to text the address.” 

“Is she okay?”

“She’s in labour.”

Chloe blinked. Thought for a second she was having some kind of stroke. Or maybe a hallucination from lack of sleep. 

Then her shoulders sank the same way Aubrey’s had. “It’s not her,” Chloe said. “Beca wasn’t pregnant.”

“Chloe-”

“Beca wouldn’t have cheated on me. And even if she did, even if she was somehow miraculously pregnant, she was certainly not pregnant enough to be in labour.”

“She’s asking for you,” Aubrey said. “That’s what the detective said.”

“‘Bree, this is impossible,” Chloe said, her voice breaking. 

“So is a lot of the stuff you’ve told me in the past 72 hours,” Aubrey said. “Maybe the detective is wrong. Maybe something else is going on here. But we have to find out, right?”

Chloe nodded. “Let’s go.”

-

They arrived at the hospital the next afternoon, after an overnight flight and long drive in a rental car.

The detective met them at the entrance.

“Ms Beale? Ms Posen? I’m Detective Farrow. Please follow me.”

“How is she?” Chloe asked, her hands shaking as she followed the detective through the winding halls of the hospital.

“Okay, considering,” he said. “Still in labour, though I hear it won’t be much longer. Seems like the baby was waiting for you before making its entrance.”

There’s no baby, Chloe thought.

“When can we see her?” Aubrey asked.

“Not sure, not my circus so to speak. Down to the doctors,” he said. “You should have given the police and mountain rescue folks a heads up about her being pregnant by the way.”

“She wasn’t pregnant.”

“You thought she was just gaining weight or something?”

“Look,” Chloe snapped, pulling out her phone. “Here is a picture I took of her two days before she went missing.”

The detective frowned as he looked at the photo. 

“Huh,” he said. “I’ll be damned. Late bloomer, I guess, in the stomach department.”

Chloe was starting to get annoyed with this guy.

“Can you find someone I can talk to about my fiance?” She asked. 

He opened his mouth to speak, but there was a series of shouts coming from a room up ahead. He turned, his hand resting on his gun.

A man in scrubs came stumbling out of the room looking horrified. Chloe saw the name Mitchell scrawled on the whiteboard outside the door.

Her feet started moving before her mind could make sense of what was happening, and Aubrey’s hand closed around her arm, pulling her to a stop.

“Everything okay, doc?” The detective asked.

The doctor shook his head, practically tripping over himself to get away from the room.

“Has something happened to Beca?” Chloe asked, her voice shaking. “To the baby?”

“That… That’s no fucking baby,” he said.

The screams and shouts continued coming out of Beca’s room and more doctors and nurses began fleeing.

Chloe pulled her arm free of Aubrey’s grasp and she ran for the door.

She took a deep breath before she pushed it open.

In the days that would follow, a smartly dressed man would arrive and introduce himself as being a part of the FBI. 

Beca and Chloe neither checked nor cared if his credentials were real.

He promised he would help, but only if Beca could tell him exactly what happened.

Beca couldn’t, and he would leave seemingly disappointed.

That same night, a nurse would tell Beca, with a straight face, that her baby had died. They could see her mouth twist at the word ‘baby’. 

Beca had no reaction, and Chloe was secretly relieved.

Beca would tell Chloe months later that she thought the FBI guy took it. She would tell her that she hoped it wasn’t suffering, but that she also hoped it was dead.

But that was all to come. 

Right now, Chloe had to confront the horror she had just walked in on.

Beca was on the bed, staring blankly out of the window to her right, her legs still in stirrups.

The room was empty of medical staff, and Chloe could hear the dripping sound of blood hitting the floor as it ran from in between Beca’s legs.

They hadn’t even covered her up before they fled.

Chloe’s hands were on her mouth as her eyes travelled up Beca’s body.

On Beca’s chest was something small. Hairy. Horned and hoofed. Chloe could make out the red of its eyes as its razor sharp teeth bit and tore at Beca’s breast.

It lapped up the blood that flowed.

Chloe swallowed. 

“Beca?”

Beca’s head turned. Her eyes were hazy. Glazed over. Lost. 

Somewhere in there, Chloe could see her fiance begging for help.

“Hi Chlo’,” she said, her voice breaking as she spoke. “Have you come to meet my son?” 

[ridiculously-over-obsessed]

BECHLOE WEEK 2024 - MASTERPOST

It's here bitches!!!! 😍😍 Ngl I'm so pumped for this year, I know that I have five fics/updates planned for sure, maybe six, I'm hoping to get them all out in time but as always no gurantees, my muse is a fickle bitch 😅 (also if you're waiting for TMWYH please don't worry I plan to update it right after Bechloe Week I swear)

Day One - To Kiss In Cars And Downtown Bars Day Two - I Could Stay Awake Just To Hear You Breathing Day Four - Run Don't Walk Away ch. 3 Day Five - Does Your Daddy Know That You're Out?

[mitchellbealess]

new fic posted! this one is very close to my heart

Summary:

“You’re so much more than a Bella, Chlo. I wish you could see that.” The mere thought of Chloe doubting herself pained Beca, because how could a sun not see how brightly they shone?

A retelling of the campfire scene except all the other Bellas are asleep, and it’s just Beca and Chloe by the fire.

[callme-l-d]

Chicken Scratch | Ch1/ Stupid this, stupid that

Rating: T

Fandom: Pitch Perfect

Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks

***

Beca Mitchell has never understood the hype around the soulmate finding thing.

The whole thing is plainly too stupid for her liking. As stupid as she looked ten minutes ago mistaking DJ as, undoubtedly, disc jockey.

...read on AO3

***

anyone still shipping Beca and Chloe in 2024??

[cycwrites]

A (Few) Day(s) in the Life - Lingerie

A very overdue second chapter of random glimpses into the lives of my favorite girls.

This was meant to be a short, fade to black ficlet while I tried to remember how to do this words thing. Close enough.

Thank you to everyone who has ever left me a comment on AO3 (I owe so many responses over the last 3 years) or sent me a message on Tumblr, encouraging me to continue after all this time. I’m really hoping to finish a few things next year as I still owe everyone a Staubrey origin and cliffhanger reveal.

For @tiny-maus-boots and @kimmania. I honestly don’t know if I’d be here without your unending support and encouragement in life as well as writing.

And for Rylee, who somehow convinced-slash-hoodwinked me into thinking about the Mitchsen chapter, which in turn reminded me I needed to get this one done first.

Words: 3600ish (aka the 2nd shortest thing I've ever written.)

Rating: Mature/Explicit

Chapter 1 (and the whole Nowish Universe) on AO3

Master Post for Tumblr

And just because, the Spotify playlist that helped me write pretty much every Pitch story.

A Pitch Perfect Lifetime

----------------------

~S~

Wednesday, October 11th, 2017

“Is it dumb that I’m nervous?”

Stacie turned to look at Aubrey who very clearly was avoiding looking at her. Which meant she missed the loving smile that Stacie aimed her way.

“Bree.” Aubrey didn’t turn, merely slid another hanger to the side and intently looked at the clothing behind it, which was exactly the same style and color. “There is a list of things you are not, and dumb is definitely on it.” Stacie resumed going through the rack in front of her, deciding this was one of those times that Aubrey needed to pretend they weren’t having a discussion about whatever was bothering her. She knew they’d eventually get to the heart of it. “Were you nervous with Chloe?”

A pause. “No.” Another few seconds filled with the sounds of hangers sliding along metal racks. “Chloe is home.”

“Are you saying Beca’s less?” Stacie grinned even though they still weren’t looking at each other.

“I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer.” Very snooty, very amused but then a longer pause. “But my history with Beca is more…”

“Spicy?” Stacie looked over her shoulder and saw Aubrey’s beautiful smile in profile.

“I suppose that’s one way to put it,” Aubrey agreed wryly. “But that’s not quite what I meant.”

Stacie looked around them and lowered her voice even though there was no one else near them in the shop. “You guys have been alone before.”

“Not like this, no. Not since…” Aubrey’s voice was even quieter and Stacie had to strain a little to hear it. “You and or Chloe have always been in the house or within minutes of getting home.”

“Really?” Stacie turned and rested one elbow on the rack. “I’d have sworn…” She thought for a minute, watching Aubrey’s hands as they ran down lacy fabric. Their movements were graceful but precise. Controlled.

Chloe had a convention she wanted to attend the following week and it was Stacie’s turn to go with her, leaving Aubrey and Beca at home to hold down the fort. It was something they had done many times before, but it was the first time since beginning their new shared life together.

The nerves were making a kind of sense now, Stacie mused, reaching out to run her hand down Aubrey’s back before moving past her to another rack of lingerie. She didn’t know yet what exactly was going on in her beautiful wife’s head, but since Aubrey was at least dancing around the subject, it hopefully wouldn’t be too long before she could help work through it.

Briefly she wondered if Beca was nervous before deciding that of course she was. The two women were far more alike than either of them usually admitted to. In fact, she’d almost be willing to place a large sum of money that whatever was setting off Aubrey’s nerves was at least partially in Beca’s mind as well.

“Bree?” Stacie waited until Aubrey turned and held up a random negligee. “What about this one?”

“Hmm?” She turned, eyed it narrowly from top to bottom and pursed her lips before giving a single dismissive shake of her head “No.”

As she turned away, Stacie sighed and hung it back up before moving to stand next to Aubrey and flip through the same rack, though she wasn’t paying any attention to the clothing in front of them. “Are you turning your nose up at everything in every store we’ve stopped at today because you can’t find anything you think will make a good impression on the woman who already loves you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Another precise sliding of hangers from right to left.

“You’re using your high voice, Bree.” Stacie nudged her gently with her elbow. “The denial tone doesn’t work on me anymore.” She’d used to think it was just haughty and dismissive – and okay, sometimes it was – but now she knew that it usually hid uncertainty and a need to look in control when Aubrey felt anything but. “You could wear the Bella uniform and she’d still think you’re one of the three hottest women she’s ever seen. She’d be dying to rip it off you.”

Aubrey snorted. “That last is true – mostly because of the PTSD it would cause.”

“Ooh, yeah. That’s probably true.” She waited a moment, trying to figure out the best way to help. “It’s true though. She loves you and when I asked if you wanted to pick up matching lingerie, I didn’t mean to make you think you needed to dress up.”

“No, I know.” Aubrey glanced at her from the corner of her eye. “And I know I don’t, but…” She bit her lip in a very Chloe manner that made Stacie smile. “I want to make it special.”

“The fact that you exist makes every day special, love.” She leaned over and kissed Aubrey’s cheek. “For all of us. What’s really going on?”

With a sigh, Aubrey finally turned to face her, sheepishly meeting her eyes. “I have a lot to make up for.”

“What do you mean?” Stacie’s brow furrowed.  

She wondered if there was something else she was missing, having obviously not realized that the two women had never been fully alone together before. Sure, she and Chloe hadn’t yet either – a circumstance they were happily changing next weekend as well – but that was more random luck than anything. She knew how they all felt, knew them better than herself some days, and it had never occurred to her that any of them would be hesitant. Not with how much they loved and trusted each other.

Then again, she reminded herself, they were only three months into their new phase of life. A fact that she found hard to accept since it felt like they had been together for years this way. Plus, Aubrey and Beca were built a little different. More prone to listen to their darker fears even knowing they shouldn’t. Not anymore. And now that Stacie was thinking about it that way, things started falling into place.

“I wasn’t nervous with Chloe because she’s been my home for years. But with Beca…” Aubrey continued, looking down and then back up through lowered brows. “I worry she… It’s just that, the first year I was so terrible.”

“Aubrey.” Stacie very much wanted to reach out and hold her but didn’t think it was the place even if it was the damn time. “You’re both so far past that –”

“Rationally I know that!” Aubrey raised her hands in frustration but kept her voice low. “Or tell myself I do.” She signed softly, shoulders slumping. “But does she know?”

It was said so plaintively that Stacie pulled her into a hug, potential audiences be damned. “Know what, love?”

“That she’s as necessary to my continued existence as you and Chloe.” Aubrey pressed her face into Stacie’s shoulder, the words muffled but the worry coming through loud and clear.

Stacie thought about the way Beca would sometimes watch Aubrey in their quiet moments – while one or the other was working quietly on a laptop on the couch; when Aubrey was taking pictures of her garden, trying out her artistic angles while sober – her eyes so filled with peace and love… Chloe had confided to Stacie that on at least one occasion she’d had to make up some excuse and leave the room because it had moved her to tears.

“Oh… I’m very certain she knows.” Stacie kissed the side of her head. “But I’m definitely behind Project Woo Her if that’s what you want. I will never say no to looking at all these sexy outfits and picturing you in them.” She leaned down and whispered in Aubrey’s ear. “And to imagine Beca slowly removing them from you.” There was nothing more beautiful in Stacie’s mind than the image of any of them being together.

With a laugh, Aubrey stepped back, her smile genuine and more than a touch wicked. “Don’t think you’re going wind me up and lure me into the dressing room, lover.”

Relieved at the teasing, Stacie lifted her chin at the challenge. “Don’t think I’m ever going to give up trying.” She turned Aubrey around and patted her on the ass. “Now, let’s find you something that’ll make Beca’s legs weak before you even lay one silken fingertip on her skin.” Aubrey flashed a wink over her shoulder and Stacie felt some of the tension drain from her. It was likely only temporary, but she’d just do her best to draw the rest of it out or, at the least, keep Aubrey distracted for the next week.

In part she supposed that’s why she had made the suggestion that they go shopping for the non-boring sleepwear that Beca said they should bring over. Both because she wanted to reaffirm, once again, that this was all okay and she was one million percent behind this amazing new life they were making as a foursome. But also, that she expected Aubrey and Beca to enjoy any and all of their moments alone just as Aubrey was encouraging Stacie to do with Chloe. Sure, it might be a little strange to just be two bodies instead of three or four, but they all knew each other inside and out – puns absolutely intended – and she couldn’t imagine it feeling awkward for any of them.

It certainly hadn’t phased Aubrey just a few weeks earlier when she and Chloe had finally realized what had been growing between them for years.

Then again, the rest of them didn’t have the contentious history that Beca and Aubrey did, and the last thing she wanted to do was dismiss Aubrey’s worries and make her feel worse about them. Maybe she’d just have to have a talk with Chloe to see if there was matching nerves and anxiety at the Beale-Mitchell household and see what they could do to help their partners relax. She smirked to herself as she continued that thought and realized that even if she and Chlo failed, once the other two were past the first few minutes they would help each other relax just fine. Repeatedly.

After a couple more minutes of perusing, holding up various outfits up to each other and dismissing them, Stacie pulled a white bustier and panty set and held them up. It was satin and lace, zipped down the center and it was solid with none of the peek-a-boo cutouts that she normally bought. Simple and yet it called to her to try it on.

“Hey Bree? I’m going to go try this one.”

“Oh?” Aubrey turned and Stacie held it behind her back. “Seriously?” She pouted and Stacie laughed.

“You’ll see soon enough.” The pout deepened and she relented. “I won’t make you wait until we’re home – you’ll get to decide if we buy it or not.”

“Oooh, I’m in charge today?” Aubrey’s eyebrows rose in delight.

“For now.” As Aubrey laughed behind her, Stacie made her way to the fitting rooms and found most of them unoccupied. Taking the one against the left wall, she locked the door behind her and quickly stripped, knowing that Aubrey would be drifting closer as she looked for the perfect outfit.

The straps over the shoulder were adjustable and fit comfortably and when she zipped the top closed, it wasn’t constrictive. The front of the bustier came down to points that would pair perfectly with nylons and garter straps if one were so inclined.

Each room had tri-fold mirror on one wall so shoppers could get a better idea of how everything looked from all angles and after a couple minutes of turning this way and that, Stacie decided she approved. She’d also decided that Aubrey would look utterly fucking delicious in this same outfit in black and definitely with nylons. Satisfied with how it fit her, she opened the door and found Aubrey only a little way away, holding up another bustier and panty set that was all silk, lace and almost matched the color of Chloe’s eyes.

“We’re definitely going to have to get that one for her,” Stacie said softly, leaning against the doorframe.

“Yeah?” Aubrey tilted her head as she eyed the outfit. “I think so too.” She finally turned her head and toward the dressing rooms. “I thi –” She stopped mid word, her eyes widening and her hands going slack, suddenly nerveless fingers losing their grip on the hanger and letting it fall to the ground, utterly forgotten.

It immediately brought to mind the night she’d proposed; Aubrey had reflexively dropped the rib that she’d been eating when Stacie had brought out the ring. It almost shamed her to admit it, but her ego purred under the immediate desire that lit Aubrey’s face, even as she marveled that this beautiful and complex woman was hers to love forever.

Then Aubrey was moving, a not-quite-casual swift power walk that bordered on a charge. Stacie was unprepared as her wife pushed her back into the fitting room, closing the door behind them. Stacie started laughing as Aubrey’s hands began to run over her hips and thighs; the amusement at the best reaction she had ever gotten in public from Aubrey filtering the slow building sizzle as the touches burned with serious intent.

“Bree?” The chuckles still bubbled up but they were followed quickly by the urge to moan as Aubrey’s fingertips dipped just under the edge of the panties and slid back and forth.

“Can you be quiet?” Aubrey’s lips were busy pressing kisses to her exposed upper chest and Stacie took an involuntary deep breath, lifting herself closer and it was Aubrey’s turn to chuckle against her skin.

“Me?” Stacie found herself in the unfamiliar position of having her mind short circuit and having to sprint to catch up with her normally restrained in public spouse. “You’re the loud one.”

Aubrey’s head snapped up, indignant. “I am not!” To her credit, it was whispered and not shouted like it usually was at home. The corner of her mouth twitched. “That’s Beca.” She slowly backed Stacie up until she was against the wall.

“Oh, right.” Stacie licked her lips as Aubrey’s hands resumed their wandering over her body. She flicked a look at the door and was grateful to see that even in her rush to get them in the room, Aubrey had locked it behind them. “You’re going to get us kicked out of here before we can buy these, aren’t you?”

“Not if we’re quiet.” She paused, just the slightest bit, giving Stacie the opportunity to stop things before they got too far.

As if.

“Well, I did say you’re in charge…”

With a familiar wicked glint in her eyes, Aubrey’s fingertips once again dipped under the edge of the panties but this time she pushed, her palms skimming down and taking the fabric with them until they fell to the floor. Her nails ran back up the outside of Stacie’s thighs and up her sides to trace the edge of the bustier, tickling as they barely grazed her skin. “God, you look amazing, Stacie.” She flattened her hands and ran them over Stacie’s breasts to her stomach, curving them around her ribs before retracing her steps. “You feel so good.”

It was unspoken that they would need to be quick as well as quiet. There had only been a handful of times that Stacie had been able to coax Aubrey into anything even half as risky and all of them had been at night and most with alcohol. She knew without being told that if she hadn’t come before Aubrey reached whatever timer she had going on in her head, Stacie would have to wait until they got home.

Aubrey’s fingers were on the zipper of the bustier and Stacie could tell she wanted to do it slow, teasingly, but they just didn’t have that sort of time. She pulled normally, as if this were any normal trying on of outfits, but the second Stacie’s breasts were free, her lips covered one nipple and sucked lightly.

Stacie’s head rebounded lightly off the wall as she jerked in pure reaction and she winced at the small thump, hoping it didn’t carry. She tried to say something, anything, to keep anyone from asking if she was okay, but even a simple “Oops” wouldn’t pass her lips when Aubrey’s hand slid down and cupped her center.

“I think that one looks great, Stace.” Aubrey’s voice was shockingly even for someone who’s lips brushed Stacie’s nipple as she spoke for the benefit of an audience that might not even exist. “Try the other one.” As if her middle finger wasn’t slightly stroking Stacie’s clit in all the right ways to make her whimper even though that was definitely not in today’s rules.

‘Let’s hear it for Posen control,’ she thought giddily, her legs parting to give Aubrey a little more room. But even as she really hoped Aubrey didn’t expect her to answer, she looked down and saw Aubrey’s eyebrow lift in challenge.

Goddamnit.

She licked lips suddenly gone dry and took a deep breath. “Sure, Bree.” She was rewarded by Aubrey’s mouth on her breast once more, tongue swirling to match the motions of her middle finger.

Stacie could already tell it wasn’t going to take long, the sheer fact of Aubrey – her unbelievably sexy but usually-proper-in-public wife – taking her in broad goddamned daylight, even if they were in a locked room, was enough to throw her halfway to orgasm; she could hear people talking in other rooms for fucks sake and Aubrey was still touching her and showing no signs of stopping.

With an ease brought about only by familiarity and deep trust, it didn’t take long for Aubrey to have Stacie wet and writhing against her. She swallowed the gasp as those long, skillful fingers filled her in a way guaranteed to reduce her to a trembling mess in their bed. Except she was plastered to a wall and had to lock her knees to keep herself upright as Aubrey took her in complete silence, their eyes locked together.

She would have thought it was the images of them in the mirrors that surrounded them that would have done it, but it was Aubrey’s gaze softening from wicked determination to sensual devotion – a distinction and emotion Stacie had never known before Aubrey – that pushed Stacie to the peak. She reached down with her hand and gripped Aubrey’s wrist, pulling up until Aubrey understood what she was after and thrust deep within, her palm tight to the curve of Stacie’s body; letting her set the pace and take what she needed. Her eyes closing involuntarily, Stacie rolled her hips, rising and falling, chasing her release until Aubrey leaned forward and raised ever so slightly on her tiptoes to whisper in Stacie’s ear.

“Come for me, mon Soleil.”

Her body surrendered instantaneously. She pulled harder on Aubrey’s wrist, her hips driving downward in rocking spasms as she rode Aubrey’s touch. Eventually her body slowed and she realized she had no idea how much time had gone by, though she was very aware she didn’t have enough time to sink into the blissful lassitude spreading through her muscles in the aftermath. They had to pull themselves together – or apart as the case may be – and clean up. There was also no way they were leaving without buying the garments that had been so gleefully stripped from her.

In several variations.

Leaning against the wall, she kept her eyes closed for another few moments, enjoying the languor before she had to hustle back into her clothes. Except she heard another zipper and looked around to find Aubrey digging into her purse one handed. She couldn’t help it; she started laughing as Aubrey pulled out a pack of wet wipes.

“Always prepared, aren’t you, love?” Just one of the legion of reasons she had fallen in love.

Despite the hint of rose in her cheeks, Aubrey handed over several. “Never know when they might come in handy.” In a lower aside, she half muttered, “Besides, it’s not like I’m going to go walking through the shop with you all over my hand.” A pause. “You’re definitely going to go pay and I’ll meet you in the car.”

Stacie merely smiled. “’Kay.”

It didn’t take long to clean themselves up and for Stacie to get dressed. When Aubrey left the room, power walking like a champ, Stacie took another moment to rearrange the outfit on the hanger and hopefully make it less obvious the room had been very occupied.

When she went back to the rack, she kept an unobtrusive eye on other shoppers but no one seemed to be paying any special attention to her. Deciding to stop worrying about it, she picked up the same outfit in black in Aubrey’s size, as well as a red outfit of similar design that caught her eye. It took only another moment to find the blue lingerie Aubrey had been holding and bring all four outfits up to the counter.

Finishing the transaction without the cashier giving her any sort of knowing look, she pushed her way through the door and out into the bright sun, wishing she’d brought her sunglasses with her. Lengthening her stride, she headed down the block to where they’d parked the car, anticipation singing through her veins like champagne. She couldn’t wait to get Aubrey home and in bed to return the gift she’d just been given…

And maybe later they’d invite Beca and Chloe over and see who was louder once and for all.

[fanficbutnow]

Summary:

With Amy now a millionaire with a mansion, Beca and Chloe finally have the space in their shared apartment to bring some old clothes back in. But when a trip down memory lane has Chloe in some lingerie and Beca in her old Bella uniform, certain feelings may be tested.

Tags, Warnings, Rating, and Bingo Card are under the 'Keep Reading'.

Prompt: Post-Canon

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Pitch Perfect (Movies) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Chloe Beale/Beca Mitchell Characters: Beca Mitchell, Chloe Beale Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Post-Pitch Perfect 3, Chloe likes a girl in a uniform, Clothed Sex, Brief mentions of the terrible Chicago/Chloe relationship, Movie Hater Beca, Love Confessions

[lgbtkendricks]

people throw rocks at things that shine (mitchsen one-shot)

inspired by ours (taylor's version) by taylor swift. Beca and Aubrey finally go public with their relationship. Neither anticipate the reactions they receive.

read on ao3 here, or below

Aubrey Posen had not fiddled with her cardigan sleeve since she was a schoolgirl.

On the first day of school every year, without fail, she would come home and get told off by her mother for ruining the cardigan they had just bought. She would spend the entire day pulling at the threads, forcing them loose and making the sleeve unravel into an unruly, anxious mess. Sometimes she would bite at it once it was loose, eating away at the cardigan throughout class until it was damp, until she was forced to tug harder at the threads when the uncomfortableness of a damp sleeve became too much. It was the feeling of everybody giving her unwanted attention that caused it – asking too many questions, expecting her to be one way and being put off when she was another. It was the embarrassment of being able to tell when she wasn’t suiting the other kids’ standards of friendship, the anxiety that came with being the girl who tried too hard to be something she wasn’t and knowing that sooner or later, the new kids who took interest in her would fade away with the understanding that she was boring. It was the knowledge that they spoke about her behind her back, questioning why she was so prim and proper, assuming she felt she was above them all because she couldn’t understand them the way they understood each other. It wasn’t until she started college that she stopped fiddling with her cardigans. That first day was the day she met Chloe. They swapped dorms to share together by the weekend, and the rest was history.

Today, however…today was the Monday morning after Aubrey and Beca finally went public with their relationship. Beca had posted a photo of them on Instagram from their 2-year anniversary a couple months back. It was raw and personal and attracted a lot of attention on Twitter and Instagram because Beca was usually anything but. It was a selfie Beca had taken, holding up Aubrey’s anniversary card in an envelope that read ‘happy 2 years, alt girl.’ Beca’s mouth was covered with the card, but her eyes were bright and happy and a little teary as she posed for the camera. Aubrey was hugging her from behind and grinning, resting her chin on Beca’s head. It was an adorable photo, one that was now standing in a frame in their living room. Beca had simply posted it without a caption before switching her phone off, taking a deep breath, and sitting back down on the sofa to continue their Love Island marathon.  

So that happened, and it was all over the internet, and it was Monday at the office, a morning already gruelling enough what with the backlog of emails and excruciating small talk about what everyone got up to over the weekend. Her girlfriend was quite famous now. Since Beca began her solo career, she had skyrocketed into the charts, into winning her first Grammy, into being the subject of fan mail and fan accounts. Aubrey could not have been prouder of her. They had been careful to conceal their relationship from the public. Aubrey didn’t want to jeopardise Beca’s rising popularity, and Beca didn’t want Aubrey to have to deal with paparazzi or stalkers whilst she found her footing in the entertainment industry. But, in the two years they had been together and of Beca’s career – somehow managing to dissuade any relationship rumours – Aubrey herself had become quite successful as a lawyer. She was well respected at the firm, and whilst the blonde wasn’t sure she would call them all her close friends, she did get along with them and often felt guilty about lying through her teeth whenever they would bring up how amazing Beca’s music was and how Aubrey used to be in the Bellas with her. Rather than gushing about her incredibly talented girlfriend, it would turn into gushing about their acapella days and pretending to wonder who the mystery person was that Beca dedicated her Grammy to and if that person was a friend or a lover.

It was pretty difficult.

Now, though, all that was behind her. Aubrey was sat in her parked car strangely excited for the day ahead. She would finally be able to speak freely about the love of her life, about how proud she was of Beca, how in awe she was of her always, and most importantly just how important the woman was to her.

It was only once she stood waiting for the elevator that her excitement began to fade and become overwhelmed with an unsettled feeling in her chest. She was stood next to Brandy, one of her co-workers who often mentioned Beca’s music and snuck her songs into playlists at office drinks. Brandy was someone who Aubrey assumed would have been most excited to see her this morning.

Brandy side-eyed her with a passive smile. “Good morning, Aubrey.”

“M-Morning,” Aubrey stuttered back in confusion. Brandy had never been so curt with her before.

She reached for her cardigan sleeve.

The elevator dinged. Brandy sniffed and waltzed right in, pressing the button a little too forcefully. Aubrey gulped and followed the woman in, smiling as warmly as she could at the rest of the people in the elevator. None of them looked particularly pleased to see her, either. She turned around to face the front as the elevator doors closed, entrapping them into the tiny space. Aubrey had never worried so extensively about what would happen if the elevator stopped before. The metal cuboid (death trap, more like) was silent. You could cut the tension with a knife.

Aubrey was going to the thirteenth floor. She would’ve taken the stairs over this silence any day.

Her mind’s whirring substituted for the lack of conversation, unfortunately. She couldn’t help but wonder whether they were unhappy with her lying, with her relationship, with her sexuality, with Beca’s, or all of the above. And Aubrey being Aubrey, she couldn’t help but think the worst. It was like the first day of school all over again. She hadn’t so much as addressed her sexuality in the workplace before. And now, she could be ostracised from the community she had managed to be accepted into, everyone else realising how she was untrustworthy or a liar or unfair. Should she have told them sooner and offered concert tickets? Should she have offered concert tickets when they all thought they were just teammates and good friends?? Why did she feel the need to buy these people’s acceptance? Her chest felt tight as she glanced quickly at the mirror, watching everyone stare vacantly at the back of her head, or her bag, or her shoes. If Beca had been there she would have whispered a joke about them in her ear and calmed her down with ease. But she wasn’t, and they all looked as uncomfortable as Aubrey felt. Brandy especially was not only uncomfortable but clearly miffed. Aubrey didn’t feel well all of a sudden.

The elevator dinged, making Aubrey jump and rip a little more of the thread out of her cardigan than she was supposed to. Brandy all but pushed past to stalk out of the elevator immediately, and Aubrey willed herself to follow, not knowing what would be awaiting her. She had to walk through the entire corridor to get to her office, passing the breakroom and several other people’s rooms. She kept her head straight and her face passive. If she showed a crumble in her resolve now, it would be obvious and it would define her post-public era for months to come. She could hear people whispering in the breakroom. This was worse than the first day of school. This time, she didn’t just think that people were judging her, she knew they were. She needed to text Beca.

The whispering stopped as she walked past. She didn’t look directly, but in her peripheral vision it seemed they were all gathered around someone’s phone. Aubrey’s face felt hot. She had been so concerned about how their relationship being public would affect Beca and her career that she never even stopped to consider how it might affect her own. She passed another coworker in the hallway who didn’t so much as bat an eyelash in her direction, purposefully staring straight ahead and avoiding her. Their firm regularly dealt with homophobia and gay rights in their legal cases. Aubrey wasn’t sure what specifically was causing this icy atmosphere but it was really stressing her out and it wasn’t even 9am yet. Her sleeve was unravelling faster than she cared to admit.

“Good morning, Aubrey,” Her assistant said cheerfully from their desk stationed outside her office.

Having half expected to walk past them with no obvious acknowledgement, Aubrey paused and smiled in relief. “Good morning, Sage. Any messages?”

They smiled supportively. “No…none about work.”

Aubrey reeled herself. “And about Beca?”

“There were a couple of fan gifts and whatnot.” Sage cringed. “Nothing major. Congratulations, by the way, boss.”

“Thank you.” She let out a sigh of relief. Fan mail from the overzealous ones who had found out what firm she worked at was to be expected. She would probably be receiving things like that all week. “I think you’re the only person here who isn’t annoyed at me right now.”

“Would you like me to talk to the office?”

“No, no, I could never put that on you,” Aubrey said immediately.  

She didn’t notice that she had started to fiddle again with the cardigan until Sage cocked their head and looked pointedly at her wrist. “Are you…alright?”

“I-“ the question hit her a little harder than she expected it to. For the first time in her professional career, she was uncertain of where she stood and how to fix this. She knew there shouldn’t even be anything to fix, but there was, and if this hostile work environment was going to continue, she wasn’t sure what her next steps should be. The panic rose in waves. “Um…”

“I’ll cancel your meetings for the morning. Say something came up.” Sage said, already typing something out on their laptop.

The lawyer smiled gratefully at them. “Thank you.” She took her ponytail out of its hair tie before moving to lock herself into her office.

“And boss?”

Aubrey turned round to look at Sage questionably.

“There will always be people with nothing else better to do with their lives who disapprove. For whatever reason. You and I both know that. Doesn’t change anything.”

Feeling tears prickle at her eyes, Aubrey nodded at them. She didn’t know what to say, so she hoped her actions later in the week would make up for the lack of communication. She didn’t know Sage as well as Sage knew her, but they would probably love some time off at least. A gift, too. Right now, though, she needed to text her girlfriend. Once she got into her office she shut the door and locked it immediately, dropping her bag, kicking off her heels and falling into the sofa. Aubrey was fast to pull out her phone and head to the messages app.

Aubrey: Busy?

Beca: it’s 9am

Beca: no

Beca: whats up?

Aubrey: Sage cancelled my morning meetings because I’m two seconds away from a breakdown so no.

Beca: what? what happened??

Aubrey: I don’t know.

Beca: just anxious?

Aubrey: No, it’s just very hostile here. Everyone’s being cold with me. I don’t know why.

Beca: because of me?

Aubrey: I don’t know for sure.

Beca: jesus fucking christ

Aubrey: Don’t worry about it for now. Are you needed at the studio this morning?

Beca: yeah i have a meeting gonna make my way over there in a sec

Beca: its gonna be a long one baby im sorry

Aubrey: Done by lunch?

Beca: definitely

Aubrey: I’ll pick you up

Beca: okay cool

Beca: im really sorry im not free when you need me to be

Beca: i love you

Aubrey: I love you too, it’s fine.

Beca: dont type like that you sound mad

Aubrey: imnotmadbecs. Better?

Beca: i guess

Beca: dork

Beca: see you at lunch. watch glee in the meantime <3

The blonde smiled sweetly. She hadn’t thought of distractions yet, but Beca knew she’d need one this morning. She wasn’t sure how Beca always knew. It wasn’t the same for her whenever Beca wasn’t herself. Partly because the brunette generally just put on a specific playlist that pretty much showed her girlfriend exactly how she was feeling and Aubrey simply waited until she was ready to talk, knowing not to push her too hard. They were opposites in that sense. Well, in many senses, but specifically that one. Aubrey always wanted to talk before anything else so she didn’t end up bottling up and triggering nausea. Aubrey knew that was why Beca felt so bad about not being available. It sucked when their relationship suffered for less important necessities.

---

“Shit.” Aubrey mumbled as she pulled up to Beca’s studio and noticed the paparazzi were stationed around the entrance. Beca would usually bring her in through the third secret entrance but if she even tried to meet the brunette there now it would show the paps where it was. Reaching for her big sunglasses in her glove compartment, Aubrey gulped before switching off the engine and getting out.

There were flashes going off immediately. It was almost amusing for Aubrey considering they hadn’t known who she was in relation to Beca until two days ago. But she wasn’t in the mood to be amused, or to be photographed, so she kept her head down and ignored the questions about their relationship and if it were true that they had eloped and all this crap she couldn’t believe Beca would have to put up with every day from now on.

Aubrey made her way quickly to the front desk and took off her sunglasses, but she didn’t even have to say a word before the receptionist buzzed her in with a smile.

“Go right ahead, Miss Posen,”

“Oh, thank you,” she said quickly. Beca must have arranged for her to have full access on demand now that the news was out. It warmed her heart, the lengths her girlfriend went to.

It didn’t take long to find Beca. She was in the studio’s common area, looking bored out of her mind as she listened to a conversation that was going on between a couple of her editor coworkers. When she saw Aubrey coming through, she jumped up and excused herself, striding over with a familiar, comforting grin. For the first time in hours, Aubrey felt the awful feeling in her chest begin to fade as her girlfriend opened her arms out and she rushed into them with a heavy sigh of relief.

“Hi,” Beca said gently, loud enough only for Aubrey to hear, rubbing her back as Aubrey draped her arms round her waist and squeezed.

Beca’s heart dropped as she heard Aubrey’s deep, shaky breaths. The panic and upset was radiating off of her and the musician hated to see her like this, barely keeping herself together. Aubrey seemed overwhelmed more than anything else. Overwhelmed and scared. It hurt Beca even more knowing how put together Aubrey usually was. Not in an unhealthy way anymore, not like back in college, but she kept herself and her emotions in check with a careful schedule and routine, she allowed for spontaneity on the weekends - she rarely ever got to this stage about anything these days. Beca knew it must have been a bad start to the morning if Sage cancelled her meetings, but she hadn’t anticipated it getting to this stage.

“I’m here, Bree,” she whispered. “Are you feeling okay?”

They both knew she meant physically rather than mentally. Aubrey took a moment to check in with herself, but eventually nodded.

“I’m fine,” she said softly.

Beca wasn’t so sure. “Do you think you’ll still be fine after food?”

“Mhm.”

“Okay.” The shorter girl pulled back and tucked some strands of hair behind Aubrey’s ear, tiptoeing to give her a quick kiss before grabbing her hand, choosing not to comment on the state of Aubrey’s sleeve that she had clearly been pulling at all morning. It looked ruined beyond repair.

Aubrey put her sunglasses back on. “The paps are outside. We have to go through the front, my car’s there,”

“No,” Beca shook her head. The last thing she wanted to do was have Aubrey photographed now. “Mine’s at the back. We’ll give your keys to security and ask him to park it there for now. We’ll get it later,”

---

Having successfully evaded the paps, they wound up eating sandwiches in their favourite secluded spot. A little hideaway in the middle of the park nearby that was completely concealed by foliage and trees. They often came there to watch the sunset, to have picnics or just to get away from life for a while. It was their secret spot.

After watching Aubrey silently eat her sandwich for a while, Beca nudged her slightly with her leg, putting her own sandwich bag down onto the blanket Beca had found in the boot of her car and laid out for them to sit on.

“Wanna talk?”

Aubrey looked up at her kind, concerned eyes and nodded, putting her sandwich down too. She took a deep breath.

“I walked into work and- it’s so ridiculous, nothing even technically happened,” Beca sent her a disapproving look, which Aubrey ignored. “And I saw Brandy by the elevator. She was really cold. And judgemental. And the ride was so tense. It was oppressive. Everybody was hyperaware of me. I don’t enjoy that kind of attention without intention.”

Beca noticed she was fiddling with her sleeve again.

“And everyone was in the breakroom whispering about us. I guess- I just…it was really nerve-wracking. I didn’t expect anyone to disapprove of us. I knew they would care, but they’re all fans of you anyway. I didn’t think it would be…like that. It was just too much without warning.”

Beca bit her lip, rubbing circles over the back of Aubrey’s hand. She felt terrible. “What’s on your mind?”

“I just told you.”

“No, I mean, after all of that happened, what were you thinking all morning?”

“Worrying about what they thought of you, of me, of our relationship. Worrying that they hated me now because of it, or because I’m a lesbian. Worrying that my work environment has been permanently altered and not knowing where to go from there. Worrying that this could develop into something worse. And if they’ll ever trust me again for lying to them.”

Beca moved so her legs were spread out and tugged Aubrey until she was lying down with her head in her lap and Beca could run her hands through her hair. “I’m so sorry. Fuck. I am so, so sorry baby.”

“It’s not your fault.” Aubrey shook her head.

“It is. I should have prepared you.”

“Beca, what are you talking about? Of course I was prepared to go public.”

“You weren’t.” Beca frowned. “Not like I was. Not professionally. My publicist should have sat you down. I…I was prepped for every possible scenario. Stalkers, haters, whatever. None of them involved your work. I-I assumed people might be shocked. That was it. And your work is more important than mine.” She watched Aubrey open her mouth to interject and brought a finger to her girlfriend’s lips. “Your work is more important than mine, Bree. That’s a fact.”

Aubrey was quiet whilst Beca ruminated on how she could possible fix this. Her phone dinged and Aubrey reached for it. It was a Facebook messenger notification. Aubrey looked up at her questionably, but Beca merely shrugged so Aubrey unlocked her phone and clicked on it.

Alicia sent you a photo.

Alicia: so you can go public to the whole world with Audrey but you couldn’t tell your mom about us? I’m pretty pissed that I would be living life as the beca mitchell’s famous girlfriend right now if you’d had the balls. And to leave me for her?? Let me know when you realise you want a second chance.

“Well now I feel sick.” Aubrey said as they both stared at the message and a topless selfie where the blonde girl had applied too much lip gloss to grin impiously at the camera.

“What the fuck?” Beca scoffed as she took the phone and reread the message in disbelief.

Aubrey sounded even more dejected. “Is that your high school girlfriend?”

“Yes.” Beca said with an exhausted sigh. “Sort of. I don’t really count barely getting along as girlfriends. Didn’t even know she was on my Facebook.”

Her girlfriend was already feeling weak and embarrassed and hated enough without that message to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. To be crying over something so far deep in Beca’s past felt juvenile, and the last thing she wanted to do was appear like a jealous girlfriend when they both knew the brunette only had eyes for her. But damn it, she was strong all the time. And if she couldn’t have off days in front of Beca then she couldn’t have off days in front of herself. The sniffle and gasping breaths that Aubrey couldn’t hold in alerted the singer from where she was in the process of blocking Alicia, and she dropped her phone immediately as she noticed the tears falling slowly down the side of Aubrey’s face.

“My love.” Beca said sadly, cupping her cheeks and pressing an upside-down kiss to her lips. “I-I’m not about to tell you not to cry but…but look around. Look at where we are. This is our place. All ours. It’s you and me and our place and our love. Nobody else is welcome here. Bree please…don’t you worry your pretty little mind, okay? I-I know that’s easier said than done but- shit, Aubrey.” There were tears threatening to fall from her own eyes now. Beca would never get used to seeing Aubrey cry. It always broke her heart. “People throw rocks at things that shine.”

Aubrey nodded, and her mouth upturned into a near-smile at the riddle. She loved it when Beca spoke in riddles and metaphors. It was a habit she picked up from her dad, and she did it without realising whenever she really, really meant something. It was a comfort to Aubrey because it always meant Beca was being her most honest and loving self.

Beca gently wiped the remaining tears off her girlfriend’s face as she continued speaking. “And…life makes love look hard. But…but our love isn’t. Our life is gonna be rocky for a little while, I know that, you have no idea how sorry I am. Just a little while, while we navigate the publicity. But our love won’t be. Right? This place is ours, this love is ours, nobody’s taking that away from us.”

Aubrey sat up and looked deeply into Beca’s eyes. What was usually an ocean blue had turned into a dark, misty midnight. Aubrey cupped Beca’s cheek and brought their heads together.

“How do you do that?” Aubrey asked her.

“Do what?”

Aubrey pressed a kiss to her lips and pulled back. “Make everything okay. Speak like that unrehearsed.”

Beca rolled her eyes. “You do it too.”

“I do?”

“Aubrey, you’re a lawyer. Come on.”

“It’s not the same.” Aubrey smiled gently.

“It is totally the same.”

“You were not like this in Barden. At all. It’s not the same. What changed?”

Beca looked down a little shyly and shrugged. “Started songwriting when we got together.”

Aubrey simply chuckled at Beca’s sudden bashfulness as if she hadn’t heard and given notes of a dozen of Beca’s songs that she was still perfecting for her next, more personal album. “I love you, Becs.”

“Love you too,”

[tiny-maus-boots]

Down South pt 2

Chloe

"Quick get him on the table."

Chloe tossed a sheet over the wooden trestle table they usually shared meals together at. Guillome was pale and listless from pain and blood loss and she wasn't entirely sure she could help him. Beca and Stacie wrangled the tall man onto the table and backed away so she could work.

"Guillome? Can you hear me?"

His eyes were closed but she could tell he was on the cusp of awareness. Chloe gave him a few sharp slaps until he roused enough to blink blearily at her.

"Hey there fella. You've been beat to hell it looks like."

He gave a weak nod of understanding and she gave him a tight lipped smile. Chloe turned to ask that one of the girls bring in water but Aubrey was already at her side with a full bucket and a basin.

"Thanks, love."

While the blonde filled the basin for her she took the time to take a pair of shears to Mr. Beauchamp's best pressed shirt. He must have been visiting Kat. Another thought that weighed heavily on her mind.

If he was here in this state, what must the people of the town be suffering? Kat wouldn’t leave her cantina no matter who blew into town. She had run once but since coming to Mexico, Kat had dug her heels in firmly with no intent to ever leave or be run off again. Chloe shook her head and focused on the task before her. The cool well water felt good on her hands as she rinsed them off.

"I'm going to need help. Beca, Stacie, hold him steady. This is gonna hurt something awful."

There was a lot of work to be done and she didn't like the way the bones of his forearm had broken through the skin. Chloe took a deep steadying breath and set herself to the business of fixing their friend and Kat's sometimes paramour.

"Think he'll be able to tell us something?"

Chloe shook her head at Stacie’s question as she carefully pulled and rotated the bones back in place with a grinding crunch. He'd be damn lucky if it healed at all let alone good as it was. Guillome screamed in pain and writhed against their strong grip until he slumped back against the table, out cold. She shook her head again unsure if he would be able to tell them much of anything. It would be better if he rested.

"I think we already know enough, Stace. If they aren't on our land already they soon will be."

They all stopped to look at Beca who shrugged and looked down at the barely conscious man on their table. Her words caused a stone to plummet to Chloe’s guts.

"They beat him bad. Real bad. But someone put him on that horse. A horse with a brand I don’t recognize. Looks like two crooked letters in a star, except one of them is backward. It looks fresh too”

Silver Star Ranch. Chloe felt the world shift uncomfortably. That was impossible. She raised shadow filled eyes to the blonde and swallowed hard. It couldn’t be. Beca was mistaken.

Aubrey set the basin down on the edge of the table and silently walked to the corner to pick up her rifle. She alone understood Chloe’s sudden fear. Stacie started to follow her up the stairs to the bedrooms but Aubrey stopped her with a hand gently cupped to the taller woman's face.

"I'm just going up to have a look. If they're coming I want to know from what direction."

"You gonna be okay up there alone?"

Aubrey smiled sweetly and leaned forward to kiss Stacie with as much softness as she held her face. Chloe tore her eyes from the pair to give them some privacy while she worked. She couldn't blame Stacie's trepidation. It was hard for any of them to let the blonde out of their sights. Those long days of worrying if Aubrey would heal whole or not had scarred and haunted them all.

"It's trespassers that gotta worry, Stace. I'll put a hole in them long before they see me."

Beca didn't even try to hide the darkly amused smile at the thought. Chloe was absolutely sure the tiny woman was itching for a fight. None of them wanted to give up the peace they had found here in the home they were building together. But neither had they been so foolish as to believe they would never need to ride into danger again.

"Hey Cowgirl, how about you go grab those blankets of ours and dunk them in the trough outside in case they get the smart idea to try and burn us out?"

"Beautiful and brilliant."

She gave Beca a wink as the shorter woman sped off and waved Stacie over to help. Chloe was just as eager to strap on her rig to help defend their home but she wouldn’t do it until their friend was as stable as they could get him. Stacie worked quickly to clean up the blood still oozing from several open wounds while Chloe worked to clear and close as many as she could. She never imagined all those years of having to stitch up her brothers before their mother saw them all banged up after one brawl or another would be so handy now.

“Who do you think did this, Chlo?”

That was hard to say. It wouldn’t be the Army, not this far south. Might be banditos, they had a couple of nomadic gangs in the area. Mostly horse rustlers with a healthy respect for the town. Or at least respect enough not to cause too much grief for anyone but Kat when they got a little too drunk at her cantina. No, this felt a little bit heavier than that. Guillome was hurt in a way that was meant to make a statement. Not a dust up over a spilled drink and a pretty girl.

“If I have to guess? Bounty hunters."

Or worse. Pinkertons. She didn't have to say it. Just the thought of them brought a tingle of fear to the room. Pinkerton men were brutal and vicious. They weren't just law men, they were worse. They were true believers.

Not in God of course. But in the power of man. The power a man had granted them to do unspeakable things to ensure order in the chaos of a wild and growing country. They would do anything in any way they could to achieve what they believed was for the greater good.

Including rousting a family of emigrant Irish farmers from their beds in the middle of the night and burning their ranch to the ground to make way for the train and progress of the people. She would never forget the fear and despair of that night. That was the night she had decided the law no longer applied to her. And she had been spitting in its eye ever since.

For just a moment she heard the roar of fire consuming the walls around her and felt the heat of flames licking at her skin as her eldest brother, Cole, pitched her right through the bedroom window into mama's garden below. It wasn’t the softest landing but it had saved her life.

Chloe shook off the thought and snipped the end of her thread savagely with her shears. If Pinks were here they were in big trouble. It meant they weren't bringing the girls back for trial.

"Riders. Half broke off from the pack to go around back. A dozen in total."

Beca burst through the front door dragging wet blankets and all the linens they had. She frowned and dropped them in a pile by the door at hearing Aubrey's news from the top of the stairs.

"That hardly seems fair. Only twelve of them for all four of us.” Beca made a stink face and kicked at the pile with a leather moccasin clad foot. “I thought we were actually gonna have a scuffle. Aubrey’s gonna have them so full of holes before they get here I won’t even get to play.”

“I’ll save you a few, Bec.”

Chloe chuckled as Beca’s expression went from cloudy to bright as she ran to the foot of the stairs and shouted back up.

“I could kiss you for that, Aubrey Posen.”

There was only a quietly amused grunt from above. Stacie shook her head with a smile and dumped the bloodied water out the back door. She gave the basin a rinse and refilled it so Chloe could clean her hands before touching anything else. Beca bumped her shoulder lightly with her own and surveyed Chloe’s work.

“We’re gonna have to stash him somewhere.”

“We’re not gonna have time to get him upstairs before they get here and if there’s a fire…”

They’d never get him back down before they all burned to death. Beca nodded off the rest of Stacie’s comment and scuffed her foot lightly at the floor. The edge of a rough woven rug flipped up to reveal the dry timber floor they had laid down together.

“Help me pry out these boards, willa ya?”

“Beca Mitchell you’ll NOT be prying up my kitchen floors!”

Beca blinked once at her before looking around startled. When she didn’t see the apparition she was looking for she heaved a sigh of relief.

“Thought your Ma was here for a second.”

Chloe’s eyes widened and Stacie knew better than to even let out a hiss of a laugh from behind clenched teeth. Bright blue eyes bored into Beca who shivered and shrank in on herself.

“I mean I’ll leave them if you want him to get shot to hell when they get up here…” She paused to consider then sweetened the deal. “I promise to dig you that root cellar in there for all your herbs and stores and whatnot.”

“Aye, and this one will help you!”

Chloe sighed and jerked her head in tight agreement. She couldn’t bear to watch Stacie and Beca rip up the floor. Maybe she really was turning into her mother now that she had settled some in her life. Chloe certainly sounded an awful lot like Cerridwen when she was good and fired up. She shrugged and crept up the stairs to find Aubrey, she should be so lucky to be as strong as passionate a person as her mama.

The blonde was crouched near the window in her bedroom watching patiently for someone to get close enough. Aubrey pulled back her hair into a neat bun and lowered her head to gaze back down the length of her barrel without glancing toward Chloe.

“They here yet?”

“Just about. Can you see them yet out your bedroom window?”

Chloe trotted the few steps down the short hall and looked out at the south facing window. A handful of them had just dismounted and were cautiously scanning the area, creeping forward with rifles drawn. Still too far to shoot at but not quite far enough to make her comfortable. The redhead knelt by the foot of the bed she shared with Beca and raised the lid on the cedar chest her father had hand carved for her mother in Ireland. She took her well oiled rig and strapped it low on her hips. The weight of the heavy leather and steel felt comforting, familiar.

It had been awhile but her body remembered each movement without thought as she drew both pistols and gave them a smooth and practiced twirl before sliding neatly in their holsters. She raised the rifle from its spot resting on a pair of long horns mounted on the wall and set herself to the task of loading it with ammo.

Chloe was more of a brawler than a shooter but she’d taken every lesson Cole, Conner, Caleb, Christian, and Corwin taught her to heart and knew she could plug a man dead between the eyes if she needed to. Two rapid fire shots rang out from the next room over followed by a soft cackle.

A part of her winced at breaking out a small pane of glass to shoot out of but she rested the barrel of the rifle on the window sill and sighted down its length. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she found her mark. She inhaled slowly and tightened her finger around the trigger, squeezing smoothly on the exhale. The man’s body dropped an entire breath later, dirt rising in a cloud where he hit the ground. The men around him spread out, but didn’t creep any closer. They didn’t have to. If they were in range, so was she.

She tucked herself down low behind the cover of the wall and the heavy dresser propped against it as their shots rang out and shattered the rest of the window. Footsteps rushed up the stairs and Beca burst into the room to throw herself over Chloe’s body protectively. They could barely hear each other over the ringing aftermath of the shooting but Chloe was fixated on the soft curve of Beca’s lips as they moved with the words she was shouting.

“Yeah…yeah I’m okay, Bec. Put one of them down and they took exception. Where's Stacie?"

Chloe could hear the sounds of reloading and tossed the rifle to her partner. She drew both guns and started firing at the men below. They scattered under their duel onslaught, scrambling for what cover they could find.

"Oh she's gonna greet our gentleman callers."

Beca shot a man just raising his rifle and snickered. Chloe raised her brows at that. Well that sounded damned suspicious and if she knew Stacie at all whatever she had planned would be wild.

"Of course she is. I hope she shows them our Southern hospitality."

[daylightmitchells]

a piece of my thanksgiving au even if thanksgiving has been and gone

Chloe hugs with her entire body, Beca realizes, wrapping whoever she’s hugging in her arms tightly — sometimes she sways, almost all of the time she’s standing on her tiptoes just like now, yellow socked toes digging into the floorboards. Chloe hugs like she could take your breath away in a single second, Beca doesn’t need to hug her to know what that feels like.

[massivedrickhead]

Could you do something for “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”? Maybe as a follow-up or prequel or something to the prompt you did for “I’m not going to yell at you”? Thanks in advance! 🩵

First off, I'm so sorry this took so long! Usually when I go this long without posting any new fics it's because I'm working on something but I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've written anything in the last month.

I've had probably the worst writers' block I can ever remember having and I've just not felt any desire to write anything or work on any of my wips.

I don't even know if this is any good, but I'm hoping it'll pull me out of the slump.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Prompt taken from here

Trigger warning: physical domestic abuse

This is a prequel to this fic

Read on AO3

-

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Chloe didn’t believe him.

She swallowed, the pain radiating from her mouth as she forced a steadying breath through her nose. 

She knew her lip was bust. She could taste the blood in her mouth, could feel the sting when she swept her tongue across it.

“Chloe.”

Chicago knelt in front of her. His eyes were full of tears, one of his hands cradling the other as if he’d hurt it when it collided with her face. As if he was the one in pain right now.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean…” he trailed off. “Are you okay?”

Chloe wanted to laugh, but instead tears stung her eyes. 

“Please don’t cry,” he said. “Please… Please just say something.”

“Can you get me some ice please?” Chloe asked, no longer recognising the sound of her own voice.

He seemed to deflate with relief, and Chloe felt her hatred for him grow. 

“Of course,” he said. “Let me help you up.”

Chloe couldn’t help but flinch away from him as he extended his hand towards her, and she saw the briefest flash of anger cross his eyes. 

She took his hand and he helped her up and onto her feet before he disappeared into the kitchen. 

Now alone, she gingerly touched the split in her lip and winced. It hurt more than she’d expected it to.

He’d never hit her before, and even though he was full of apologies and remorse now, Chloe already knew he would do it again. 

He came back with a bag of frozen peas. “We’re out of ice,” he said. 

Chloe nodded and took it from him, holding it against her rapidly swelling lip.

“I’m-”

“I know,” Chloe said, cutting him off. “I know you are.” She couldn’t bear to hear him say it again. “Let’s just… Let’s forget it.”

“Sure,” he said. “If that’s what you want.”

The rest of the evening passed in a tense silence until Chloe finally crawled into bed.

She feigned sleep long enough to hear the sound of Chicago’s snores fill the room, and then she eased herself out of bed.

Shoved in the back of her closet was a bag she’d begun prepping months ago. When the rose-tinted glasses had come off, she started to really see those red flags that she’d so often dismissed.

The bag contained some clothes, toiletries, a small amount of cash, and her important documents.

She grabbed it out of the closet and, still in her pyjamas, climbed into her car and drove. 

-

Beca had been fast asleep when the sound of her apartment buzzer cut through her dreams.

She groaned and fumbled for her phone, one eye closed as the bright screen lit up the room.

It was close to 2 am, and her stomach lurched as the noise continued.

She stumbled out of bed and hurried to the front door, her heart beating uncomfortably in her chest as she did so. 

No one ever knocks at your door at 2 am with good news…

“Hello?” Beca asked into the intercom.

“Beca?”

If Beca’s heart had been beating hard before, it was doing something else entirely now.

“Chloe?”

“Please can I come up?”

Beca hit the button to unlock the door without a second of hesitation, and she waited anxiously for Chloe to reach her apartment.

Even though she’d been expecting it, Beca still jumped at the sound of the tentative knock at the door and she hurried to open it.

“I’m sorry,” Chloe said. “I’m so sorry for just turning up like this.” Chloe’s hands were shaking as she adjusted the weight of the bag on her shoulder, and her eyes shining with tears. “Please can I stay? Chicago, he’s…”

Chloe trailed off, but she didn’t need to tell Beca what Chicago had done, because Beca could see it for herself.

Beca felt like she couldn’t speak, so she just stepped aside so Chloe could enter her apartment. She shut the door behind them and slid the chain lock across for good measure.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Chloe said. “I’m sorry.”

Beca shook her head and forced herself to find her voice. “Don’t be sorry,” she said. “Of course you can stay here.”

Chloe seemed to deflate with relief in front of her, and Beca hated that in Chloe’s mind, there might have been a chance she’d have turned her away.

“Stupid question, but are you okay?” Beca asked.

Chloe shrugged. “I don’t think so,” she said, tears filling her eyes faster than she could wipe them away. 

Beca wasted no time in closing the gap between them and wrapping Chloe up in a hug. “I’m so sorry this happened to you,” she said. “How can I help? What can I do?”

“Can I go lay down?” Chloe asked, the adrenaline that had been keeping her going was now quickly fading away. “I’m really tired.”

“Of course,” Beca said, reluctantly ending their hug. “Take my bed until I can get the spare room set up. I can sleep on the couch.”

Chloe took hold of her hand. “Please come with me,” she said. “I don’t want to be by myself.”

Beca nodded and squeezed Chloe’s hand. Her throat felt tight. “Go ahead,” she said, the strain evident in her voice. “I’ll be right in.”

With Chloe out of the room, Beca’s hands closed into fists, and she clenched her jaw shut in order to hold back the scream that threatened to erupt. 

She’d never felt an anger quite like this before, and she needed it to go before she joined Chloe in the bedroom.

She closed her eyes and imagined herself pummeling every square inch of Chicago. Her jaw was clenched so tight she was amazed her teeth hadn’t shattered. 

She counted to ten in her head, and then forced a slow breath out through her mouth.

Her anger was no good to Chloe right now. Chloe needed her to be strong and stable, but not angry.

She could be angry later, but not now. Not tonight.

She filled a glass with water and returned to the bedroom. Chloe was curled up on her side, her face lit up by her phone screen.

“Here,” Beca said, placing the water on the nightstand.

“Thanks,” Chloe said, locking her phone and placing it on her nightstand.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Beca asked, climbing into the bed beside her.

“Not really,” Chloe said. “Not yet.”

“Okay,” Beca said. “That’s okay, you don’t have to.”

“I, um, I don’t really know what to do Bec,” Chloe said, her voice beginning to waver again. She let out a small sob, that was quickly followed by another. “I’m sorry,” she said, quickly wiping her eyes.

“Don’t,” Beca said. “Don’t be sorry, you’ve got nothing to be sorry for.” She lifted her arm so Chloe could cuddle into her side, which she eagerly did. 

“What’s going to happen when he figures out where I am?”

Beca felt that anger pulse in her again, but she pushed it away. “I don’t know,” Beca answered honestly. “But we’ll figure it out. I do know one thing though, and that’s that he won’t put his hands on you again.”

Chloe knew it wasn’t as simple as that but she allowed herself, for that moment, to feel safe. To feel protected. She decided to believe her. 

“All you need to worry about now is getting some rest,” Beca said. “We can deal with everything else tomorrow.”

[ridiculously-over-obsessed]

TRUST ME WITH YOUR HEART (I CAN FIX IT TOO)

Rating: T Chapter 29/? - And Now I Could Swear You're The Air In My Lungs Pairings: Bechloe Chapter Summary: Bonds, new and old, are solidified as Barden ED prepares itself for the summer ahead

Holy CRAP it's been way too long since I posted an update omg, sorry gang!! It's been a difficult couple of months, not least because my old laptop died and that made writing pretty much impossible and I've only just gotten a new one, but also just because life sucks and it's been a little rough here honestly. But I'm determined to keep writing, especially now I have a laptop again, for as long I have the inspiration/you'll put up with me kdljgdflkgjdf so hi, hello, I'm very much alive and while updates may not be super frequent, they will hopefully be coming more often than they have been doing lately

[mitchellbealess]

new chapter posted!

Summary: When Emily and Beca are home alone at the Bellas House, some things are said that leave Beca thinking about her relationship with Chloe.

[godzillachloe]

list 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who reblogged something from you. learn to know your mutuals and followers.♡

Have a wonderful day 💜💙

1: My dog:

2: The Bellas Whether it is in PP or another movie or just posting on Insta:

3: My fics: (Remind me I'm Alive )

4:Godzilla

5: Asks from my bestie (even if I take a million years to answer)

[kailoraurelius]

Starlight

"Starlight" is defined as the light that stars produce. As a name, "Starlight" can represent dreams, aspirations, and a connection to the universe's infinite possibilities.

"You know, you can just say you hate me, dude."

Beca's sudden voice should break the still of the night, but it doesn't. It fits right in with the frost on the edges of the rooftop and the mist Chloe breathes out. She's lying in one of their sunbathing chairs, her favorite one with the yellow polka dots. Twisting her head a bit, she can see Beca is shutting the roof door, cutting off the faint sound of music and laughter from downstairs. The girls are really living up their final week in the Bella House. They've even invited the Trebles over and are, currently, having a rousing card tournament. Chloe's been judging who's winning by whether or not she can hear Amy doing a war cry.

"I don't hate you," Chloe says. "Why do you think that?"

"Because you know I hate heights and you're hiding up here." Beca pulls up the flaps of her oversized, black jacket so she can squint at the zipper as she slots it together. It's pretty dark up here, with only the light stringers from the backyard sending up a gentle glow. She misses once, curses quietly under her breath, then adds, "Don't make a short joke."

Chloe snorts. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Beca manages to make the zipper catch and yanks it all the way up to her chin in one quick move, then shoves her hands deep into the pockets. "Mhmm. And the hiding up here part?"

Shrugging, Chloe watches as Beca saunters over to her side. "I'm not hiding. Just wanted to get away for a few minutes." She motions above them. "The night sky is so pretty in winter."

Beca tilts her head back, taking in the view too. Then she sighs, a large puff of fog floating slowly away from them. "The stuff I do for pretty things. Shove over."

Chloe scooches to the side as Beca turns and lowers herself to lay down without removing her hands from her pockets. Chloe giggles, bracing her hands against Beca's back to keep her from falling. "Why were you looking for me?"

"'Ain't no party without a ginger', someone told me once."

"Oh my god, I was drunk! Let it go."

"Mm. I don't think I will, no. Thank you."

Chloe curls into Beca's side, wrapping her arms around Beca's elbow. "Really though." The warmth from Beca's body makes her realize just how cold it actually is out on the roof. She nuzzles even closer. "Why?"

Beca doesn't answer right away. She just stares up at the billions of lights above them. And Chloe stares at her. At the sharp line of her jaw, the curve of her cheekbone. The quirk at the corner of her lips when she finally speaks. "Jesse's had a few too many drinks. He made a joke about getting back together."

Chloe's stomach twists. An ugly, burning feeling. It isn't as strong as it used to be, when Beca and Jesse first became a thing. As they grew apart over the years, the feeling faded. "What did you do?"

"I thought of you." She says it quietly, in one breath, like a confession, and Chloe silently hopes.

"Oh." She's not sure what else to say. She knows what she wants to say. I love you and I have for forever. I love you and I don't want you to be with him again. I love you and I think you love me. Please love me. But she bites her lip and just continues to watch Beca watch the stars.

"Yeah. Oh." Beca huffs a laugh and Chloe feels the sound in the small jerk of her chest. "What's that Van Gogh quote about the stars? The one Jessica wrote on the fridge white board last week?"

Chloe blinks, thinking. "'I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream'. She got it from Emily's Quote of the Day calendar."

Beca nods thoughtfully. "He might have been onto something."

"You're dreaming right now?"

"Yeah."

"Care to share with the class?"

Beca shifts a bit and Chloe tries not to notice that they're now tilted a bit toward each other. Beca's eyes are still on the sky. But her shoulder is lightly brushing Chloe's chin now.

"I'm...dreaming of a vacation. Somewhere warm and chill."

"What else?" Chloe says, urging her to continue.

"I'm dreaming that we will never again go to Aubrey's resort."

Chloe snorts and knocks her knee against Beca's. "It was a great time."

"I'm still finding leaves in my clothes."

"What else are you dreaming of, nerd?"

"Mean. Uh, I'm dreaming of a damn good waffle in the morning. If my totally cool bestie feels up to making one?"

Chloe hums as if she's mulling it over. "Maybe some dreams can come true."

Beca looks at her then and Chloe stops breathing. They're so close. Closer than she thought they were. Beca's eyes are bright even in the dark.

"I hope so." There's something in the words. Something deeper than her joking before, something more real. Something that tastes like possibility.

Carefully, gently, Chloe says, "You say that like you have more dreams to tell me." The words fill the space between them. Hanging in the tension.

"And if I said I did?"

Chloe tightens her grip on Beca's elbow. "I'd say tell me."

Beca doesn't blink and there are stars in her eyes. "And if I said I dreamed of kissing you right now?"

And, in an instant, Chloe doesn't have to hope. She knows. "I'd say kiss me."

So Beca does. Right there on the roof of the Bella House. With frost in the air and laughter on the breeze. Chloe kisses her back with all the longing she's held onto for years. All the moments she's wanted to do exactly this colliding at once, hitting her so hard that she sees stars.

Even with her eyes closed, the night sky is so pretty.

[massivedrickhead]

If it hasn’t been asked yet, I’d love to see what you come up with for the “I’m not gonna yell at you” prompt!

Thanks so much for sending this, I hope you like it!

“I’m not going to yell at you.”

Prompt taken from here

Read on AO3

TW: abuse is alluded to

-

The sound of smashing glass and a startled yelp caused Beca to look up from her phone and frown.

She shoved it into her pocket and entered the kitchen, where she saw Chloe picking shards of glass up from the floor.

“What happened?” Beca asked, causing Chloe to jump which then caused the shard of glass to slip in her hand and slice into her thumb.

“Shit,” Chloe muttered as blood began to well up in the cut the glass had left.

“Oh crap, I’m sorry,” Beca said.

Chloe shook her head and turned on the faucet before sticking her thumb underneath the running water. “It’s my fault,” Chloe said. “I was being careless, I’m sorry.”

“Are you… apologising for cutting yourself?” Beca asked, her brows pulled together in confusion.

“No,” Chloe said. “I’m apologising for breaking one of your glasses.”

“Oh,” Beca said. “It’s fine, it was an accident. I’m more worried about you, are you okay?”

“I should have been more careful,” Chloe said as if Beca hadn’t said anything. “You were kind enough to let me stay with you and here I am smashing up your stuff and-”

“Chloe,” Beca said, placing her hand on Chloe’s arm. “It was one glass. All my shit is Ikea, it isn’t expensive. And even if it was, it’s not like you did it on purpose.”

“I just don’t want you to be mad or yell or something,” Chloe said, turning off the faucet and gingerly inspecting her cut thumb. 

“I’m not mad, and I’m not going to yell at you,” Beca said, handing her a paper towel. “I’d never yell at you.”

Chloe pressed the paper towel against her thumb. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, but it still stung. “I know that,” she said. “Logically, I know that.” She sighed. “He’s still rattling around in my head.”

Beca pulled her teeth across her bottom lip and exhaled through her nose.

She didn’t need to ask who Chloe was talking about. 

“Of course he is,” Beca said softly. “After everything that happened, how could he not be?”

“What he did… I know you’d never do that to me,” Chloe said. “I know that. It’s just… Sometimes I forget that it’s all over.”

“I wish I could fix it for you,” Beca said. “Undo all the damage he did.”

“I know,” Chloe said, giving Beca a smile so small it was hardly there at all. “You can’t fix it, but you are helping.”

“Yeah?”

Chloe nodded, and her smile grew just a fraction. 

Beca smiled back at her. “Good,” she said. She grabbed the dustpan and brush from the cupboard under the sink and shooed Chloe backwards and away from the shards of broken glass. “You wanna go pick a movie to watch with dinner? The pizza should be here soon,” she asked, sweeping the shards of glass into the dustpan.

“You hate movies,” Chloe said.

“Yeah, but you don’t,” Beca replied. She tipped the glass into the trash and dusted her hands against her jeans. “I’m willing to do a lot of things for you, Chloe Beale, and watching movies is definitely one of them.”

Chloe grinned, kissed Beca on the cheek, and headed into the living room. 

Once Chloe was out of sight, Beca gently touched the spot on her cheek which felt like it was burning. She sighed, closed her eyes, and then shook herself out of it.

She grabbed the vacuum cleaner from the hall closet and vacuumed the spot where the glass had smashed. She tried to hold onto that brief glimpse she’d gotten of the old Chloe - the Chloe who wasn’t so nervous, and jumpy, and unnecessarily apologetic.

She tried to ignore the memory of the Chloe who’d arrived at her apartment last month. Shaking and crying and apologising for turning up in the middle of the night. She couldn’t ignore it though. The memory came back to her during every quiet moment. She was sure she’d never forget it as long as she lived.

“Please can I stay? Chicago, he’s…”

“Bec?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve vacuumed that same spot like ten times, I think the glass is gone,” Chloe said, leaning against the doorway to the living room.

“Right,” Beca said, shaking her head slightly and forcing out a chuckle. “Did you pick something?”

“I seem to remember you telling me you’d never seen Sister Act, and I think that we need to fix that,” Chloe said, tapping the remote control against the heel of her hand. She opened her mouth to say more, but the apartment buzzer went off and she jumped, sending the remote control clattering to the floor. 

“I’m sure it’s just the pizza guy,” Beca said. She pressed the button on the intercom and asked who was there.

“Alfredo’s,” a bored voice replied. “Got an order for Beca Mitchell.”

“I stand corrected,” Beca said. “It’s the pizza gal. I’m gonna grab it, the elevator’s still out and I don’t have a tip big enough for them to climb four flights of stairs. Will you be okay?”

Chloe, who had been staring into space, focused her eyes on Beca, and she gave a tight-lipped smile and nodded.

When Beca left the apartment, Chloe forced herself to take a steadying breath.

She was getting tired of this. The jumpiness, the anxiety, it was all so exhausting. 

She just wanted to feel like herself again.

She wanted to go back in time so that the last two years hadn’t happened.

She wished she’d made a different decision that final night of the USO tour.

Chloe was still staring into space when Beca returned.

“They need to fix that elevator,” Beca said, shutting the door behind her with a huff. “I almost had to stop halfway and set up base camp.”

Chloe laughed, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Plate or just out of the box?” Beca asked.

“Box is fine,” Chloe replied.

Beca nodded and carried the box through to the living room. “Come on,” she said. “I hear we have some singing nuns to watch.”

Beca was almost asleep when the credits rolled, and Chloe lifted her head from Beca’s shoulder to hit stop.

“I gotta admit, that was pretty good,” Beca said, yawning and stretching.

“Told you,” Chloe replied. 

“I’m gonna call it,” Beca said, checking her watch. “I have to be at work crazy early tomorrow for some big meeting.”

As Beca was about to stand, Chloe put her hand on her arm to stop her.

“Chlo’?”

“I just… I can’t thank you enough, Beca. For everything you’ve done… Everything you’re doing… I’ll never be able to repay you for it.”

“You don’t have to repay me,” Beca said. “And you don’t have to thank me. I just wish I’d known sooner. I wish I’d seen it before…” Beca trailed off, that image of Chloe crying at her door floating back into her mind. “I’m sorry that I didn’t see it.”

“You’ve got nothing to apologise for,” Chloe said. “You literally saved my life.”

Beca let out a quick breath through her nose and ran a hand through her hair, shaking it out as she tried not to let her eyes fill with tears. “I’m so glad you’re here, Chloe. I don’t ever want you to think otherwise.”

“I’m glad I’m here too,” Chloe said, allowing Beca to pull her into a hug. They stayed like that for a while until Chloe spoke again. “I’ve been having nightmares,” she said. “I think that’s why I’ve been so clumsy, I haven’t been sleeping well. Do you think… Could I stay with you tonight?”

“You don’t even have to ask,” Beca said. 

Chloe let out a breath of relief and hugged Beca even tighter.

“Thank you,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Luckily you’ll never need to find out.”

[ridiculously-over-obsessed]

TO KISS IN CARS AND DOWNTOWN BARS

Rating: T Oneshot Pairings: Bechloe Summary: The Barden Bellas winning streak is definitely a cause for celebration Bechloe Week 2024 - Day One: Drunken Dare

The absolute debacle I've had trying to post this what the fuck??? My laptop charger stopped working last night and my laptop battery is shit so I can't use that right now, I'm still waiting on the new one to arrive, We had an hour long powercut so I had no wifi to try and post it on my tablet (which I'm thankfully doing now), my browser is glitching out and loading tumblr weird so I've had a 'mare trying to make the post for it… the absolute homophobia on this, the first day of Bechloe Week 😭😭😭

ANYWAY I'm hyped it's Bechloe Week again, I've got five of seven days of ideas planned, I'm skipping day 3 and probably day 7 too, but we'll see, maybe the inspo will hit for the last one soon. Hope you enjoy!! (Also if you're waiting on TMWYH I'm sorry for the delay I've had the WORST writers block lately but I feel back on form again so hopefully the next chapter will follow next week)