Work Text:
Setting: Pitch perfect 2 after the Bellas get back from camp.
"Hey, um do you wanna take five? You seem tired", Beca asks the youngest Bella who is currently sat across from her on the desk in her bedroom. She has noticed Emily's voice getting hoarse and her overall tired demeanor a few minutes ago but waited until the girl said something. About ten minutes later, she deemed the girl too shy to say anything and decided to prompt the break herself.
Beca and Emily have been in Beca's room for about an hour and a half now, trying to finish the lyrics of Emily's song, Flashlight, and round up some of the arrangements. They've both been giving it their all that they bardly noticed the time pass.
"Yes, please."
"Alright, Legacy, I'll go get us some water and make us some ginger tea. Do you need anything else?"
"I'm good, thanks Beca." Beca can feel the shyness of the youngster, and lets a small smile spread across her lips hoping to send a reassuring vibe. She doesn't know if she's doing this correctly, though. She's never been good at stuff like that after all.
"I'll be back in five. Make yourself at home."
"But don't you dare touch that mixer." The captain adds as a warning before she leaves for the kitchen.
On her way there and as she prepares the tea and pours the water, she thinks about Legacy, and how she'll be taking over as the new Bellas Captain in less than two months, if they win The Worlds, that is. The girl seems so excited about her new start, and Beca's very well aware that she fangirls over her. But she is also aware of the potential the freshman has. And over the few months she's gotten to know her, Emily has proven herself to be responsible and capable of more than she shows. Beca thinks that the newbie only needs someone to believe in her and show her how to believe in herself. After her brief moment of realization, Beca vows to herself that she is going to be just that for Legacy.
A dozen minutes later, Beca's back with the water and two cups of warm ginger tea for their aching throats. As she sits them down on the desk, she makes sure she moves around all of her mixing equipment and disconnects her laptop before she lays it gently on the bed, just to avoid any damage.
Once sat down, she notices the awkward silence settling in, empowered by Emily's shyness and her absolute hate for small talks. Taking the first step, she decides to initiate the conversation by asking the most basic question anyone can ask:
"So, how are you finding college? "
Mentally, Beca curses her inability to open a conversation even if her life depended on it. But to her luck, Emily answers her question enthusiastically and carries the weight of the conversation all by herself. She tells her about her courses and her favorite ones, she tells her about how weird people in her classes are and Beca can relate to that, and she even tells her all about her short but allusive encounters with Benji and how she might be starting to feel something for him. Beca takes the chance to tell Legacy that she should go with her feelings because Benji's a great guy and questions herself internally how the hell she never saw this coming. The perfect fit for Emily has to be Benji. They're both so innocent and pure.
After a short pause, it's Emily's turn to ask her captain, "Hey, can I maybe ask you a question? "
To which Beca responds with "Sure, go ahaead."
"What's it like being captain?"
At that, Beca has to take a deep breath because for the first time in four years, she actually has a chance to think about what it really is like being a captain and not just having the responsibility to be one.
"Woah, tough one. Okay, I think it's definitely a sh-", catching herself right on time before she slips up, Beca corrects herself quickly, "a whole load of work. You have to take care of everyone, be there for everyone, make sure everyone is comfortable in their spot but at the same time that we're all giving our one hundred percent all the time. Juggling it all with college was very hard but luckily I had Chloe to help me out."
Chloe... she owes it all to her on this one. She doesn't know what she would have done without her. Chloe showed her how to be a good leader, she believed in her before she believed in herself. She owes to Chloe the success of the Bellas and the importance of the group they have gained over the years -well, before the Wrecking Ball incident, at least. Beca finds herself wandering back to that night at Aubrey's lodge, and how Chloe had been so close to her, both physically and emotionally.
Around the campfire, she looked her right in the eyes and sang the same song Beca auditioned with, when she first sang for the Bellas. Beca recalls the connection she felt to Chloe that moment and cannot but compare it to the connection she felt with her in the showers, four years ago. And the night before that, in the tent, Chloe was so close her, physically, she had reminded her how close they had become. And then out of nowhere, she mentioned that she wanted to experiment more. She thinks back and wonders why this moment, this very intimate yet completely platonic moment, has stirred something inside her, a small flame that has been growing every day since to become a fire that is consuming every inch of her.
"You two seem like a great pair together", interrupting her thoughts, Legacy adds in, only pouring oil on the raging fire in her heart.
"Yeah ", Beca mumbles as she plunges back into her thoughts.
Noticing the short break is long overdue for, Legacy prompts: "So, should we get back to-" before she is interrupted by Beca's "Can I tell you something? ". The brunette has deemed the young Bella her safest one to confide in. She recognizes a good friend when she sees one, and Emily was definitely a good secret-keeper. Emily was genuinely good at heart, she wouldn't dare make fun of her, and she most definitely wouldn't mention anything to Chloe, concidering her future as a Bella may or may not depend on it. Besides, Beca needs to let some of the weight off of her shoulders before the fire grows and destroys the important things, like her current relationship, or her friendship with the redhead.
As Beca pours her heart out to Emily upstairs in her bedroom, the main door of the Bellas house opens to let in an exhausted Chloe who just got back from her test. She had stayed up all night the night before, studying to pass her test. She needs the great to graduate. Absent-mindedly, Chloe does what she does everyday; put her stuff away in her room, change into more comfortable clothes, then go to see if Beca is in herr room to have lunch together.
However, this time, as she approaches the brunette's bedroom, she hears her name being mentioned. Chloe rests her foor on the first step, the second firmly planted on the floor, as she steadies herself with one hand over the wall. She stands there listening to bits and pieces of the ungoing conversation upstairs that she probably wasn't supposed to hear.
A few meters above her, Beca is explaining to Legagcy with a little bit of embarrassment how she's been questioning her sexuality ever since the camp. She tells her how awful she feels for her boyfriend, and how she feels like she's betraying him. Beca soon finds herself saying everything on her mind without holding back. It's amazing how easy it is to talk to the younger girl.
"Sorry I normally don't overshare." Beca delivers with a small laugh, hoping to shake away the nervousness creeping in. "It's just that a part of me is telling me that I can't do this to Jesse, but a much, much, bigger part is screaming at me how right it feels to love Chlo, and it all finally feels right. How did I not realize this before?", Chloe hears Beca say and wonders who she might be talking to. Beca usually comes to her for these talks but for the first time, she is talking about her to someone else. It feels odd to be the topic of the conversation for once and not the receiver. It is when Chloe hears the following response, however, that she recognizes Emily's voice.
"I know I might seem too naive or inexperienced to be trusted with giving advice, but Beca... if it feels right at heart, it is the right thing to do. Don't guilt-trip yourself over Jesse, you've only discovered your feelings now, and he should understand that. I mean, you never cheated on him, right?"
"I think you have a point there, Legacy. But I have to figure my shit out before I do anything I might regret later."
"Are you talking about your friendship with Chlo?", the young Bella feels the need to double check her findings.
"Yes, I mean, let's say I did figure... whatever is going on in my head up there. There still are so many questions to be a answered! I mean, what if Chloe is not... you know, not straight? I've seen her with guys, freshman year if I'm not mistaken. And if she was, what if she doesn't feel the same way about me? What if Chloe, the girl I'm inevitably falling for, only sees me as Beca, her best friend and co-captain?"
Downstairs, Chloe is now sitting on the third step of the staircase, her hand over her mouth agape, her eyes wide in shock but teary from what she's just heard, and her mind running three thousand miles a second. "The girl I'm inevitably falling for", Beca said. She cannot believe what she's just heard. She has been crushing on her best friend for four years now. She first saw her at the activities fair and, no matter how exaggerated this might sound like, her world was changed forever. She can't wrap her head around the fact that Beca is finally reciprocating her hidden feelings.
As she hears Beca proceed talking and wondering how she had not realized her feelings sooner for the redhead, Chloe decides that she has had enough listening to Beca's remorse and decides to take the matter into her own hands. She stands up and dusts her clothes off and starts taking the steps one by one. As she goes further up, her hands are shaking and her heart starts beating faster. Part of her wants to run away and pretend nothing has ever happened and she did not hear anything Beca said. Another, much more persistent part wants her to keep going and finally face the feelings she's been hiding ever since she met the brunette.
Chloe knows she doesn't have much time anymore and she needs to get this over with.
Once on top of the stairs, she is met with two pairs of eyes looking at her with a mix of terror, anxiousness, and shock. The pairs then take quick glances at each other and she witnesses their quick exchange before she speaks up:
"Hey Em, would you mind giving us a second?"
"Sure, yeah, definitely. Sure", a fidgety Legacy stumbles away from Beca's desk and down the stairs, hurting her knee and hitting her head slightly against the roof of the attic along the way. What the girls don't know, however, is that their younger friend does not go away but, instead, sits at the bottom of the staircase, waiting for their conversation to be over. She's not eavesdropping if you might ask. She's only making sure that her captains are getting along well because she's grown fond of them over the past eight months and doesn't want any of them to be hurt.
In Beca's room, silence falls heavily between the two girls, occupying every bit of the space and leaving no room for air. That's what Beca feels like, at least. She is confused, terrified of what is about to come. She's starting to shake slightly, her hands trembling like two tree leaves in the wind. Her heart is beating faster than she ever imagined possible and she can feel herself starting to sweat.
The fact that Chloe hasn't uttered a word directed to her yet, makes this situation a whole lot worse.
Her ginger best friend, and newfound crush, gazes at Beca with piercing blue eyes and an unreadable expression. Maintaining eye contact, the older Bella takes a step in Beca's direction. It is true then, what Amy keeps saying about redheads and how they can take away your soul, Beca thinks. She has never felt this vulnerable in front of Chloe, not even when she walked in on her in the shower, yet right now, she feels completely exposed in front of her, unable to save herself, or their friendship, in any way.
The line has been crossed, forever, and nothing will ever be the same.
As Chloe keeps moving forward towards Beca, the younger girl feels the need to say anything to ease the tension, so she starts her word vomiting, a mechanism she'd opt for whenever she used to be nervous before.
"Look, Chlo, I can totally explain... It was that night, back at the camp, and, and you-", she stops to swallow the excess of saliva forming in her mouth, "-you said something, and-"
Beca is so nervous. This is the first time Chloe has ever seen her like this, and she's afraid that Beca might literally die of high pressure, or that her heart might explode. But she keeps on walking until she is cornering the girl on the wall beside her desk, and Beca is normally small but right now, she looks the smallest that Chloe has ever seen her.
Beca is still looking in the two pools of pure crystal blue that are staring back into hers and it is an understatement to say that she's petrified of them, but she is also falling more and more in love with them. For a fraction of a second, the two blue pools flicker down to her lips before going back to their initial objective. Chloe's face inches closely to hers and her red curls are suddenly framing her face. She feels her heart about to burst and it stops for a second when she feels Chloe's lips on the corner of her mouth, just under her own lips, planting the softest, most gentle kiss, she will ever receive.
Not stepping back a single millimeter, Chloe moves her lips to her ear, making sure her teeth are grazing the hem of Beca's earlobe as she says: "Inevitably falling for, huh?"
With a dry throat and a blank mind, Beca absent-mindedly nods and lets out a small hum of agreement.
"Deal with your boyfriend first so I can show you what you're really falling for", is Chloe's answer, slightly louder than a whisper.
Little did the women know that, intrigued by the silence, young Emily has come to the top of the staircase and stood watching their little interaction from below the railing.
"Oh. My. Stars, the aca-gods have looked down on me and paired my favorite people together. Just so you both know, you are totally my aca-moms, from now on", Legacy's excitement gets the best of her and she screams that last part, earning herself a couple of dirty looks from her captains.
With a sheepish grin, Emily waves goodbye and runs downstairs relishing in the fortunate news she got to witness of both her aca-moms finally coming together.