A/N: Directly follows on from the end of Seven Keys. Fluff before Chloe returns to Australia.
Chloe hadn't stopped talking to people on New Years Day, after Seven Keys' last song was released. Beca had reluctantly headed for the airport, getting her driver to drop Chloe off at her hotel because it was on the way anyway, dammit. That extra ten minutes mattered, even though they were seeing each other again in less than 48 hours.
Chloe had shut off her phone not long after Aubrey called, wanting to leave responding to all the messages from people who had figured out what was going on until she was by herself again. Now, sitting in her hotel room, she was still kind of putting it off. She hadn't listened to the song again herself since last night. Part of her wanted to analyse every line, part of her wanted to just forget about it for a while and go out and explore New York a bit more, but she was too tired for the latter.
She had about thirty messages when she turned on her phone again, but she went to Beca's first.
"It's literally playing on the radio already oh god that usually means it's gonna be big" the first message reads, followed by three shocked emojis.
"I know you've probably still got your phone off but I feel like I need to tell you whenever I hear it, it's on in the airport now, no one's recognised me though thank god"
Beca probably isn't in the air yet, so Chloe replies, telling her about the number of texts and messages she has to respond to. Beca's reply is quick – "get to it, then, don't want your friends to hate me!" – and reluctantly, she follows her advice.
Somehow, she finds herself on Skype with a few of her friends in Toronto a few minutes later who were apparently together today and had to have this conversation at least slightly face-to-face, evidently. They scream when she answers, and Chloe laughs, letting herself get swept up in their excitement. Maybe she wasn't quite as close to them as her long-term friends back in Australia (who, thankfully, had mostly not woken up yet), but these girls had all had to deal with her pining over Beca for the last couple of months and to say they were happy with what Chloe told them was an understatement.
Around the same time the Australians started waking up, Chloe got an update from Beca, now holed up at her Mum's place in California because apparently she'd missed out on a family new years' event and had to make up for it today.
"So it's in the itunes top 10, which isn't like officially charting, but probably means it will… Sorry?" Beca's text reads, followed by more shocked emojis. Beca was certainly getting a lot of use out of that one.
"Not gonna lie, I was just stalking the hashtag on Twitter, I think the going theory right now is that you used Chloe as a codename for someone else"
"Awesome, my trick of being TOO obvious worked!"
"Sure you meant to do that x"
"Well clearly I'm smart, I got into USYD…"
"Did you stalk my Facebook to work out that's what we call it?"
"Maybe…"
'Chloe' is sitting at a comfortable number 7 in the official singles chart by the time Chloe is flying out of New York two days later. Dylan and Chris – who Chloe has, strangely enough given technically Seven Keys is now officially broken up, started talking to a significant amount – have made the joke about seven keys being at seven more times than anyone else thinks necessary. Definitely more than seven.
Leaving New York was weird for Chloe. Sure, she was just going to California, but she'd been on the east coast of North America for over 4 months now and it'd been kind of life-changing, even outside of everything with Beca. She'd got to meet a whole new group of people and explore another part of the world, and she'd nerded out with a bunch of other anthropology students and even some published academics whose work she'd read in the past and, yeah, she totally wanted to do an honours year now because she had such a good idea for a thesis. She was definitely getting ahead of herself, she still had a full year of undergraduate, but still.
She managed to make peace with the concept of leaving before she was on the plane, at least, partially because she'd got yet another Skype call from a few Toronto friends a couple of hours ago demanding they stay in contact, as if that definitely wasn't going to happen anyway. Chloe wasn't the type that fell out of touch with people, she liked to keep friendships, and the assurance that her friends felt the same way this time was comforting.
It also helped, just a tiny bit, that she'd decided she'd stay at Beca's place in California. The hotel she'd booked was fully refundable, and it wasn't exactly ideal location-wise either because she'd booked too late, and it's not like she wasn't going to spend the whole time with Beca anyway, so why not stay in her apartment?
The only development that had occurred in the public awareness of who this mysterious Chloe was in the last two days had been fans who'd got autographs on New Years Eve giving rough descriptions of the girl that Beca was with that night, but none of them had photos, and the only detail they'd really got was red hair. They hadn't even heard her talk, so no one had any reason to think Beca and Chloe were both going to disappear off to Australia soon.
So, when she arrived at LAX, Chloe pulled her hoodie up over her hair and put on a pair of sunglasses, on Beca's advice, as she walked into the arrivals hall and quickly found Beca.
"I feel some weird combination of cool and silly doing this whole disguise thing," Chloe mumbles as Beca takes her hand and leads her out to the short-term carpark.
"You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but nope, still feel silly," Beca agrees. It works, though – no one recognises Beca, and no one seems to notice Chloe.
Beca's apartment is modest, although not tiny, and kind of what Chloe had expected. There's an open plan kitchen-living-dining with largely bare furniture and a bookcase absolutely full of music – CD and vinyl, of course – and the small office is packed full of music equipment that Chloe doesn't quite know the exact function of. Beca's bedroom has a fair spattering of her personality evident, too – the room is bright, but her bed coverings are dark, and instead of jewellery or makeup the dresser is lined with sunglasses and three pairs of headphones. They're all different, Beca assures her, and Chloe is inclined to believe her. She likes decent sound quality too, it's just that the $20 non-branded earphones she uses were, well, twenty dollars. Maybe she should upgrade.
Chloe puts her suitcase against the wall in Beca's room at the brunette's suggestion, before following her back out into the main room, sensing her girlfriend is struggling to fight off some awkwardness.
"What's up?" Chloe asks, turning to her side to face Beca as the both sit down on the sofa.
"I don't know. Sudden onset awkwardness," Beca replies, shaking her head before turning and meeting Chloe's eyes.
"That's okay. Be as awkward as you want. Did Ashley tell you when she's free?" Chloe replies, and Beca can't help but smile at how easily her girlfriend makes her feel more normal.
"Tonight or tomorrow, she actually suggested grabbing takeaway from a Mexican place near here and meeting us for, in her words, a cute picnic thing somewhere?" Beca replies, jokingly scrunching up her nose at the description.
"You totally love the idea, don't be silly. Where would this somewhere be?" Chloe answers, and Beca shakes her head, knowing Chloe can see right through her.
"There's a really nice spot up the top of one of the mountain trails near here that I go up sometimes when I'm not being lazy, it's got a decent view over the city and stuff, you mentioned you wanted to do one of those?" Beca explains, and Chloe nods.
The awkwardness of the first five minutes of Chloe's stay with Beca disappears quickly and doesn't return. They meet Ashleigh that night, and Chloe is initially surprised at how soft-spoken and soft-mannered Ashleigh is compared to Beca, until she realises it kind of makes sense. Beca might be defensive, but she's not the slightest bit out-there, and the two girls admit that they don't actually physically spend much time together given the "best friends" label because they're both kind of introverts. Chloe finds conversation with Ashleigh easy, anyway, and they have a nice evening.
"Thank god that went well," Beca sighs in relief, later that night, falling back on her bed as Chloe changes into pyjamas on the other side of the room.
"Were you worried it wouldn't?" Chloe asks, intrigued.
"Not really. You and Ashleigh both seem like you could get on with anyone. It's just… important that you two did. You did, right?" Beca quickly sits up and looks at Chloe, her eyes cautious.
"Of course, she was fun. I love how passionate she is about her job, too, although it still amazes me that your best friend is a kindergarten teacher…"
"Oh, shush, I'm not that grumpy."
"Were you not the one that tried to convince me you're totally less sweet than you really are?" Chloe teases.
"Of course not," Beca answers, sarcastically, shifting back onto the bed again as Chloe joins her. That night, for the first time, they share a bed but don't sleep together. They do cuddle, though, and Beca doesn't pretend she hates it, because honestly, she doesn't. Maybe it wasn't ever that she didn't like physical affection, maybe it was just she was getting it from the wrong people.
Chloe's second day in California is, well, relaxing as shit. Somehow, she convinces Beca to spend the morning shopping with her in Santa Monica, and it's kind of busy and tourist-y but it's nice and, given it's technically the middle of winter and snowing on the other side of the country, surprisingly warm. The beach is even busy enough that, after they have lunch at one of the restaurants on the pier in extremely stereotypical tourist fashion (Beca's a little ashamed, Chloe isn't), they can go and blend in with the crowd and lie on a towel on the sand, taking in the atmosphere.
They have dinner at a small café not far from Beca's apartment, one that Beca says has been her favourite for a while. It's not hugely popular, by any means, but it's nice, and it's quiet and kind of private.
They're about to leave the restaurant when Beca's phone starts ringing from where it is sitting, face-down, on the table, and Beca looks surprised.
"Um, sorry, I thought that was on silent, I'll just ignore-" she starts, flipping the phone over. "huh, it's my mother. Ah well," she slides across the screen to ignore the call.
"Such a great daughter," Chloe jokes, and Beca shrugs.
"I'll text her and explain I was busy when we get home."
Beca's reply text turns into a reluctant reply call, and Chloe is across the room as Beca leans against the kitchen bench, but she can still hear Beca getting an earful for not telling her mother that her girlfriend was in town for a few days and if she's disappearing off to Australia soon then why can't she meet her now?
The idea makes Chloe nervous, and she can tell Beca is too, but she still can't help but laugh at her girlfriend's scowl in response to the grilling. Eventually, with Chloe's permission, Beca relents and agrees to her and Chloe having lunch with her mother tomorrow, as long as it's not at her house and no one else is involved.
So, Chloe meets Beca's mother – Sarah –, forcing her nerves about everything to the side because she knows that Sarah was right, with Chloe heading back to Australia tomorrow, there probably wasn't going to be much chance for them to meet any other time within the foreseeable future. Apparently, Beca had insisted that none of her family come over to Australia with her, even initially, because she wanted to make a point of doing it herself. They could visit after she was settled in, if they wanted to.
Chloe liked Beca's mother. She was brighter than Beca on first impression, and she was clearly a creative type. The latter was unsurprising to Chloe, though: Beca was too, just in a slightly broodier way, and she had to have got it from somewhere.
As much as it pains Chloe – and Beca – to know that they won't see each other again for close to a month after Chloe leaves, Chloe feels a slight tinge of happiness when she lands in Sydney sixteen hours after saying a (tearful, she'd admit) goodbye to Beca at LAX. It's been a long time away from her friends, and her family, and her home country. She missed the accent, weirdly enough, and she knew hers had temporarily become a strange hybrid Australian-Canadian-American mix.
She would've loved to go straight to her place in Sydney after the flight, but her parents had other ideas, her mother meeting her at baggage claim with a very long hug before hurrying her into the car to drive to their house in Wollongong.
"Now, we've got an hour or so – tell me everything," Chloe's mother enthuses, as they merge onto the freeway just outside of the airport, and Chloe can't help but laugh lightly as she sorts through the last few months, trying to work out where to start.