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Chloe Beale had always cared for the finer details in life. As a child she would spend evenings gazing out of her bedroom window, watching as the sun descended below the treetops, rays of red and orange light beautifully blending into the dark night sky. She would admire how the shadows slowly danced upon the ground as the leaves fluttered in the wind and the soothing noise they made. In her first week at Barden it was watching the sunset from her dorm that calmed her jittery nerves and made her feel at home.
As she started to mature and grow older it was people that caught her attention. She loved the way her eighth grade boyfriend's muscles would flex and relax, becoming more defined as he'd wrap his arms around her and lean in for a kiss. Or how it brought out goosebumps when she'd brush her thumbs back and forth over the skin of his torso under the hem of his shirt, just above his waistband.
The reason she started questioning her sexuality when she was fifteen years old is because she had to ask herself why she was becoming so mesmerised by the way her English teacher would absentmindedly tuck her hair behind her ear as she spoke to the class and the small swaying motions made by the woman's hips as she made her way between the desks that hypnotised young Chloe. The things she was noticing weren't new, but it was about women. And that was the new part. But, unlike a lot of people, Chloe was never scared of it.
So it should've come as no surprise to Chloe that, at the activities fair in her senior year, her eyes were immediately drawn to a certain brunette from the instant she entered her eyeline.
~~~
Beca Mitchell had never been a fan of the sappy romantic stuff. In fact she hated it with a burning passion. She'd spent years of trying not to notice other people, guarding her heart, roaming her high school hallways with her head down, earphones in. The less she cared about other people, the less they cared about her. Then she would never feel disappointed.
Yet here she was, two months into her first semester at Barden University doing the most uncharacteristically Beca thing - pinning over a girl.
At first it was pinning per se. It was more of a “ you're hot and I wouldn't mind seeing you in my bed tomorrow morning” type of attraction. The girl's striking red hair is what initially cast her eye to the a capella stall. The way her curls framed her face. That's when Beca realised she had been staring at this girl’s (whose name she was yet to discover) lips for longer than was probably socially acceptable. Not that she cared. About social rules, not the cute redhead.
Beca noticed how the blonde friend seemed to be sending them both into a spiral of panic and she momentarily felt a pang of guilt that nobody was at their table and everybody was avoiding their flyers. Beca mentally scolded herself. It wasn't her fault these hot girls were panicking and she reminded herself that even if it was, she wouldn't care. Because she was Beca Mitchell. She didn't do emotions. She didn't feel things.
She didn't fall for girls. She knew when she wanted to have sex with someone and she would.
Like the time she fucked her girlfriend (of two days) in the end stall of the bathroom in the maths block during a very boring calculus lesson. All the eye-sex across the classroom had both girls too hot and bothered to concentrate on anything math related. The only numbers on Beca's mind were how many fingers she was going to slide down the front of Sarah's skinny jeans.
Or the time when, after one too many tequilas, she fooled around with two girls at once in the upstairs of a house party. Having a blonde suck her clit while another brunette fingered her sure felt good, but did Beca ever talk to either of them again? Of course not.
So the fact that Beca wouldn't mind waking up next to this stranger and then maybe spending the day with her had her in a slight panic. She would stamp whatever she was feeling down without a second glance.
Except she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, Beca could not convince herself that she just wanted to fuck this redhead within and inch of her life. She wanted to get to know her, to become a part of her life. Not even when the (still unnamed) ginger accosted her in the shower, leaving Beca painfully turned on, could she shake that feeling.
~~~
Chloe was never one to push her feelings away. Emotions are human, attraction is human (even when it's a woman). At first she didn't think of her being drawn to Beca as anything problematic. The girl was hot, she could see that. And she had a hunch that the girl was beautiful underneath her dark exterior.
Aubrey's face at auditions when Beca emerged from the wings to see Chloe wholeheartedly beaming back at her was Chloe's first warning sign that maybe she shouldn't be feeling this way towards Beca - now, a fellow Bella. They could end up dating and having sex which would be fine, more than fine. But then they could argue and break up then still have to face eachother everyday at rehearsals. They wouldn't talk, they probably wouldn't be able to look at eachother. How would Chloe survive teaching choreography to an ex ? It would destroy the Bellas, ruin their chances of winning and disappoint Aubrey, her best friend. The person who'd been there for her since freshman year of high school. She couldn't do that.
However, old habits die hard and no matter how much she tried to convince herself to stop falling, she couldn't help it. She’d noticed the way Beca tended to glance over to her during rehearsal, but no one else. And Chloe noticed the different look in her eyes when she did. Chloe couldn't figure out whether it was all in her head. In a way she wished it was because it would make it one hell of a lot easier to get over these feelings. But at the same time she knew in her heart that Beca was going to mean more to her than the other Bellas.
~~~
That whole year was torture for both women. Each trying to get over their developing feelings in their own ways: Beca by distracting herself with other women and Chloe by worrying about her nodes.
Neither succeeded. It was no surprise really.
And so right up until the ICCAs final they would flirt and enjoy it, then one would realise what they were doing and back out. It became painfully obvious to everyone around them that they had chemistry, that they were into eachother.
The ICCAs final changed everything. They performed a mashup of Beca's and throughout the performance they caught eachother’s eyes. They were happier than they had ever been. Aubrey had ditched her alter ego of drill sergeant, all the girls had come through and surprised them with their talents and they were sure the Bellas had done it. Based on the audience's reaction they had to have won.
Only one thing was missing.
“I will love, love you tonight / Give me everything tonight / For all we know, we might not get tomorrow”
When Beca included that song in her mashup she didn't think anything of it. It was catchy and it was new. But singing it on stage in front of thousands of people, something clicked inside her.
Chloe was graduating. In a few weeks she'd be leaving, never to see Beca again. And Beca felt her heart drop. She would soon lose the one person that had meant something more to her. For a whole year she'd been trying to push those feelings away. But they only grew. And Beca didn't know if or when she'd ever be able to feel something like that for someone again.
So she took a chance. As soon as they were all offstage she took hold of Chloe's hand and pulled her aside. She looked into her bright blue eyes and kissed her. After a moment the reality and the gravity of what she'd just done hit her like a tonne of bricks. She'd just kissed Chloe Beale. As in the woman who had become her best friend, not her girlfriend. Beca tried to pull away, to rectify the damage she'd just caused. But she felt a hand on the back of her neck holding their bodies together.
She had just kissed Chloe Beale and Chloe Beale was kissing her back.