Chapter Text
“Becs!!” Chloe ambushes her dramatically from behind, latching herself onto Beca’s back and wrapping her arms around her chest tightly.
It accidentally jolts Beca forward with the force of it, slopping a little of Beca’s beer onto the ground. But she just grins drunkenly in response, turning her head over her shoulder to look at Chloe, and lifting one arm up to grasp onto her wrist.
“Hey Chlo.” And then Beca leans a little further in to plant a wet kiss to Chloe’s cheek, which quickly turns into a smile, still pressed against Chloe’s face, before Beca pulls back and begins to laugh loudly.
“You’re drunk!” Chloe shouts unnecessarily loud, because it always makes her heart thump harder when Beca Mitchell is affectionate with her and her alone.
“So are you!” It’s true. And so Chloe pushes a kiss of her own to Beca’s cheek, lets it linger far longer than she ever would dare when sober, and Beca just keeps laughing and laughing.
“Here you go, Chlo. This should help you sleep.” Chloe doesn’t respond straight away, temporarily caught up in a hacking coughing fit. When she opens her eyes again, Beca’s crouched by the bed, forehead furrowed in worry, a mug of steaming tea held in her hands.
“Thanks,” Chloe croaks, before groaning, embarrassed at the sound of her own sickly voice, taking the warm mug from Beca with a grateful smile.
“Can I get you anything else?”
“A new immune system? A miracle cure? Puppies?”
“Hmm, well I’ll see what I can do.” Beca smiles at Chloe softly, before leaning in from her crouch position to kiss Chloe’s clammy, unwashed forehead gently. “Feel better soon.”
“OMG, Beca, look at you!” Chloe can’t help but squeal at the sight she’s been presented with.
“Don’t you dare say anything Chloe Beale, this is the worst. The worst fucking thing that’s ever happened to me, and if you actually make me go out on stage in front of people wearing this, I swear to God-”
“Oh shush you, don’t be such a drama llama.”
“I am not a drama llama, Chlo, this is serious.”
“It’s not serious at all. You’re wearing a costume for a performance at a comedy show. We’re singing acapella Flight of the Concords and Bo Burnham songs. It’s literally the opposite of serious.” Chloe approaches Beca from behind, so that she can catch her eyes in the mirror. “And you look adorable.” Chloe grins so wide she almost gets Beca to join in- she can see the corners of her lips twitching, but it descends into noises of protest almost immediately when Chloe turns her head to pepper a series of quick kisses all over Beca’s face.
“So.”
“Goddamn.”
“Cute.”
Beca squirms away, wiping her cheek dramatically. “I am not cute.”
“That,” Chloe says, pressing finger to Beca’s chest, “is not for you to decide my dear.”
Chloe looks up from her work to find Beca staring at her in that indescribable way she seems to be doing a lot lately. It inexplicably makes Chloe’s stomach flop when she sees it- every time that she catches Beca’s eye with a small smile and Beca quickly looks away.
But this time Beca doesn’t look away, and it makes Chloe swallow heavily.
“What?” Chloe asks, but Beca just shakes her head gently. “Why do you keep looking at me like that?”
The minute the question’s out of her mouth, her heart starts pounding, and she has no idea whether she actually wants Beca to answer or not. There’s a long pause where Beca keeps staring, and Chloe can’t look away, caught in the look they’re sharing, heart rate soaring.
“Because I think that I want to kiss you,” Beca says eventually.
“You…What?”
“Don’t make me repeat it, please.” Beca finally breaks the stare to look up at the ceiling, chewing on her thumbnail before looking back anxiously.
Chloe’s mouth falls open, and she gapes at Beca for a moment, watching as Beca’s expression morphs from embarrassment to fear to something verging on disappointment, and it’s that which makes Chloe get her brain in gear. She forces some words out of her mouth.
“Maybe you should then.”
“Really?” Beca’s eyes snap back to Chloe’s, and this time her mouth falls open.
“Yeah.” It’s not much more than a whisper, but then Beca’s moving closer, and Chloe’s heart is thump thump thumping in her chest, loud in her ears, and Beca’s hands are on her face, holding it ever so gently, and Chloe’s so close she can see the tiny, almost invisible freckles across Beca’s nose. Then they’re holding there, holding and waiting, and the pause is just too much, and Chloe thinks she might pass out from the anticipation, from the way her heart is thudding so quickly. So Chloe leans in, presses her lips to Beca’s and they’re kissing.
It’s the early afternoon but they’re still in bed, and the light filtering through the still drawn curtains is soft and comforting, glowing pinkish.
Chloe’s in the process of covering Beca’s naked body with reverent kisses, moving upwards from her ankle, looping around her kneecap, and earning a squeal and a kick of the leg when she kisses the sensitive and tickly patch in the bend of her knee. She kisses up the smooth skin of Beca’s thigh, into the groove of her hip, and over the flat plane of her stomach, taking time to kiss each of the freckles that mark the pale skin there.
It’s totally quiet in the house and on the street outside, so all she can hear is the calm of Beca’s breathing, the way certain kisses earn sharper intakes of breath than others, the rustle of the sheets when Beca squirms.
“Tell me again.” Chloe says quietly when she’s kissed all the way up Beca’s neck so that they’re face to face again.
“Tell you what?” Beca smirks and Chloe can’t help capturing her lips in a quick kiss before responding.
“Don’t be obnoxious, you know.” She smiles against Beca’s lips, and Beca leans up to put her mouth close to Chloe’s ear. Her heart’s pounding already with the anticipation of it, her stomach flittering with butterflies, and she can feel Beca’s warm breath against the side of her face as she opens her mouth to whisper.
“I want mac & cheese for dinner.”
Chloe immediately rolls off Beca, trying not to laugh. “Why are you like this?” She groans, grinning at Beca, now rolled over so her body’s pressed over Chloe’s, their faces close again.
“And I guess I kind of love you, or whatever,” Beca concedes with a smile.
“That’s better.”