Prompt: Imagine Bechloe spending the night in an old creepy inn, huddling under the blankets together because they heard a noise in their room.
Beca was under the impression that if she hoped hard enough, this insane idea that the Bellas came up with would go away.
Naïve of her, she knows, especially when Chloe's eyes sparkle in absolute delight at the mere mention of a summer long road trip across the country.
"Come on Becs, it'll be so much fun, and after the crazy year we've had, don't you think we deserve a nice break?"
Beca nods her head seriously, "Yes, I do. A break, away from all the crazy. I don't deserve being trapped in a tin can with all the crazy."
Chloe just rolls her eyes, and nudges her, "You love us actually."
Humming, Beca nods and says, "Yes, that's exactly why I shouldn't be made to be dragged along. I wont be held accountable for anything I might do…and I really don't want to hurt any of you."
Chloe doesn't respond, not verbally at least, and Beca makes the mistake of looking over at her.
She isn't smiling, and that alone is a problem and is cause for concern. Her eyes also look a little teary and she's sort of despondently watching Beca, her lower lip jutting out in the most heartbreaking pout.
And she isn't really doing anything, at least not technically, but Beca's shoulders drop and her features soften significantly and she sighs, "Chloe…"
The redhead immediately perks up then and launches forward to quickly leave a kiss on her cheek, jumping up from her seat on the couch and running off to tell the other Bellas the good news, "Guys she's on board!"
Beca sits there staring off into space just contemplating her choices, and contemplating her life.
Wondering just when was it exactly that a blue-eyed redhead wedged herself so deeply into her 'give a shit about' zone.
Xoxoxo
"Look you aca-nerds, we're stopping because if I have to continue sitting in this uncomfortable seat, I will scream." Fat Amy grouses as she shifts uncomfortably beside Cynthia Rose, who nods, completely agreeing with her.
Aubrey, who has been driving for the past few hours, looks towards Stacie beside her and silently asks if she could check the, rather detailed, map she had outlined.
Chloe reaches over and nudges a quietly brooding Beca, and waits until she removes her headphones before saying, "We're stopping soon."
Beca's eyes dart towards the windows behind Chloe and she raises an eyebrow when she's met with darkness, and rows upon rows of trees passing them by as they continue driving, "There's literally nothing here."
Chloe hums quietly, affectionately patting Beca's head placatingly, "You're lucky you're so cute. Yes, we're pulling over to sleep, not to sight-see."
Beca's cheeks flush, but she plays it off by not responding, instead she just remains silent, toying with her headphones. Chloe giggles lightly as she leans her head against Beca's shoulder and gently taps her hand, silently asking to hold her hand.
That's something they had managed to work out between them. This non-verbal form of communication, allowing Chloe to get a sense of whether it was alright to touch Beca or not. And Beca is appreciative of this, since she sometimes really can't handle being close to anyone.
She smiles a little as she flips her hand over to accept Chloe's warmer hand to hold. Beca lets out a contented sigh, tired and glad for some warmth, when she feels Chloe interlace their fingers together, and when her thumb starts to draw smooth circles across the back of her hand, she all but curls up and starts to purr.
Beca smiles to herself as she listens to Jessica tell Lily about the time she and her parents had gone on their own road trip and how they had to stay at this motel for the night because both her parents were just too tired to keep going. Lily interjects every now and then, and it's a testament to just how tired and quiet everyone is that Beca can even make out what she's saying, by asking if she knows if there had been any paranormal activities in the place they had stayed.
Chloe feels Beca shake as she tries to keep her laughter in, and she sits up to look at her, quietly asking, "What?"
Beca shakes her head and squeezes Chloe's hand, "I just thought, if anything were to happen, Lily could probably manage to dispel the 'spirits' or whatever…she's eerily good at, ya know, not being scared."
Chloe tilts her head slightly, "Why would there even be any spirits?"
Before Beca can respond, Aubrey is speaking up from the driver's seat, "Alright ladies, we're parking it for the night, wheels rolling tomorrow at eight."
The girls all turn to look out the windows, trying to catch sight of their resting place for the night.
It's Beca that scoffs in disbelief, "Here? We're stopping here? Aubrey this looks like the perfect creepy inn for hauntings."
Aubrey clears her throat, having come to the same conclusion herself but not wanting to give Beca the benefit of agreeing with her, "This is the best rest-stop on this route, and I assure you, any allegations of uh illegal activities have never been proven."
"Yeah…you're so not helping your case here Sheila." Fat Amy pseudo whispers to Aubrey, who chooses then to ignore everyone completely, maneuvering the tour bus into the parking lot.
Beca huffs as she looks at Chloe with raised eyebrow, "You're okay with this?"
She knows just how much Chloe dislikes scary movies, having always stayed the night whenever they all watched one together. Chloe's not much for the paranormal and creepy. She'd much rather an action movie than a horror one, though she'll never say anything.
Chloe shrugs her shoulders lightheartedly, and nods her head with a small smile, trying to play it off, but Beca sees right through this but simply sighs as she shakes her head, "Alright Chlo…"
They all shuffle into the inn, and the concierge greets them amicably, or as amicably as anyone can manage at nearly two a.m.
The Bellas let Aubrey take point, choosing instead to stand there silently, conserving their energy until they can crash into bed for the night.
Beca seems to be the only one, aside from Chloe, who is on high alert, eyes darting every which way, taking in every little detail she can manage, not wanting to be surprised by anything.
To anyone watching it would appear as if Beca was scared and on edge; in reality, she's trying to make sure she has every angle covered to reassure the redhead who she knows isn't going to be too keen if anything goes bump in the night and Beca can't logically explain it away.
She's in the middle of trying to peak around a slightly opened door with a sign reading 'employees only' when Aubrey shoves a keycard under her nose, a smirk appearing on her face when Beca jumps, "Room 1408, you're right beside Chloe."
Beca's eyes widen slightly, quickly scrambling to grab the keycard from Aubrey, who starts chuckling as she sees her face as Beca notices the room number is actually 27, much less daunting than its counterpart, "You're such an asshole Aubrey, I hope you know that."
Aubrey doesn't respond, just winks at her as her smirk widens, turning away to give away the rest of the keycards.
Chloe shuffles up to Beca and nudges her lightly, "Come on…I think maybe we should employ the buddy system, everyone else is on the same floor; we're the only two on the next floor up."
Beca rolls her eyes because, of course they are.
They pass by everyone as they enter their rooms, noticing that each two share a wall with an adjoining door between them.
Chloe grins as she nudges Beca as they continue down the long hallway towards the stairs that will lead them to their own rooms, "So, this is fun."
Beca laughs under her breath, readjusting the strap of her overnight bag on her shoulder, "Sure, yeah, I suppose you could say that."
"It's an adventure," Chloe says brightly, aiming for preppy and breezy, and instead coming off as slightly high-strung.
Beca smiles at her easily, aware that Chloe's trying to play things off for her sake really, and just hums quietly.
The stairwell is well lit, which Beca is thankful for because there's only so many coincidences she can take, and this horror movie trope of an inn is really pushing it.
However, her reprieve from all things horror movie-esque is short lived when they reach the floor they're checked into.
The lighting is dim, and Beca guesses it's to do with the fact that, one, it's really late, and two, there are hardly any patrons at this inn, so there wasn't a need to have proper lighting on. Except for the fact that, well there are now two individuals on this floor and Beca would have hoped someone would have at least turned the dimmer up.
The lights flicker just as they step out of the stairwell and Chloe gulps as her eyes dart up and around the long hallway.
Beca clears her throat, and then cringes when Chloe jumps at the sound, mumbling a quiet, "Sorry…Come on…our rooms should be the first ones on this floor."
They aren't.
Chloe groans under her breath when instead of being met with a nice big plaque with the number 27 on it, they're met with a nice big plaque with the number 54.
"We're…we're all the way on the other side," Chloe mumbles, blue eyes widening as she takes in the number of doors they'll have to pass, and the length of the hallway.
Beca grumbles at the stupidity of such a layout, wondering why they couldn't have started with the very next set of numbers in order, instead of starting from the last one, "This makes no fucking sense, for fuck's sake…" she murmurs under her breath as she squares her shoulders and takes lead.
Chloe isn't far behind her; in fact she's walking much closer than she had been when they were downstairs, and Beca can't really blame her. It's quiet up on this floor, and dark, and eerie. Beca just really wants to climb into a bed right now, if only to be able to shut her eyes and sleep this place away until the morning.
The floor creeks then under their feet, just as the lights decide to flicker, causing the both of them to freeze, Chloe stepping even closer to Beca then, and reaching out to grab hold of her forearm, squeezing tightly. Though Beca is sure she isn't aware of just how tightly she's holding on.
"Fucking shit," Beca whispers harshly, furrowing her brow and cursing at the owners for not taking better care of their inn.
She uses her other hand to pry Chloe's off of her forearm, and slides it down her arm and into her hand, "You good?" she whispers, squeezing her hand.
Chloe just nods her head quickly, not daring to look away from the hallway and not wanting to open her mouth to speak; Beca just doesn't think she really can, even if she wanted to.
Beca nods once, "Right," and easily tugs Chloe along, walking down the hall with longer strides, and surer steps.
31…
29…
"27, here we are," Beca says, coming to a stop right in front of her door. She uses her keycard and lets out the breath she was holding when the little red light suddenly glows green. She looks at Chloe and just gently tugs at her hand slightly to get her to come into the room with her, "Come on, you can go to your room through the adjoining door."
Chloe doesn't argue about why that doesn't make a single difference in the world. Whether she enters her room through the adjoining door, or through the front one, doesn't change the outcome.
Beca drops her overnight bag on the floor and just stands in the middle of the room, and takes in the surroundings.
"I'm not going to be able to properly sleep in there," Chloe says quietly to herself, her eyes staring at the door that's acting as a partition between their rooms, as if she's seeing through it.
Beca walks closer to Chloe and reaches out for her, gently tapping her hand to let her know she's going to hold it, "You know, you could stay in here with me."
Chloe's eyes snap towards Beca's and the brunette thinks she's going to immediately jump at the suggestion, but instead, "No…Thanks Becs, but…I'd like to stay in my room."
Beca hums and nods her head, squeezing her hand in understanding, "Okay, well. I'll be here."
Nodding her head, Chloe gives her a little smile, "Yes, you will be."
Xoxoxo
Barely twenty minutes have passed since Chloe shuffled across to her room.
Beca is just on the edge of sleep when she hears a gasp come from the other room, followed almost immediately by the door that joins both of their rooms together flies open and Chloe darts into her bed, clinging to her body tightly, shivering as she holds her close, "There's something in my room," she whispers harshly into Beca's ear.
Beca stiffens, tilting her head to look at the still opened door that Chloe just entered from. As she shifts to try and get out of Chloe's hold, the redhead just squeezes her tighter, "Where do you think you're going?!"
"You kinda left the door open sweetheart; I'm just gonna shut the door."
Chloe lets go of her so fast, Beca wonders if her skin burned Chloe. She also gets sort of shoved out of her bed and that just has her rolling her eyes at the redhead.
She walks the five steps to get to the door and refuses to look into the room as she quickly shuts the door and locks the door from her side.
Just as she's turning away from the door, she hears a creak and that has her eyes widening but she make her way back to bed as calmly as possible, easily slipping in under the covers and wrapping her arms around Chloe, both of their hearts impersonating jackhammers.
"You heard it?" Chloe whispers when she feels Beca's heart.
Beca nods her head, face so close to Chloe's, that their noses bump against each other, "I heard something," she whispers, shaking her head slightly.
Chloe takes in a shuddering breath and she tugs Beca impossibly closer, "I don't like this…"
Beca shuts her eyes for a beat, and then she starts rubbing Chloe's back soothingly, "I know…You're okay, though. I'm right here. We're alright sweetheart. This place is just old and creaks."
Chloe nods slowly and whispers, "Yeah…yeah that makes sense."
Beca continues gently running her hand up and down her back, calming her down as well as calming herself down.
"Becs…"
The brunette hums quietly, as Chloe snuggles closer into her body, her hand slowing down in its ministrations, prompting Chloe to mumble against her neck, "please don't stop doing that…you're making me fall asleep, and it feels really good."
Beca lets out a breath, a tiny smile on her face as she start up again, "Okay…alright, I can do that."
Just as they're both falling asleep, something that sounds a lot like someone shuffling across the floor reaches their ears, followed by a loud bump.
To say that it took them a long while to finally fall asleep would be an understatement.
Xoxoxo
"And the badass of the year award goes to…" Fat Amy's voice is especially loud this morning, and Beca just wants to scream at her to shut up, only that would require more noise.
Beca then realizes that she's still in bed, huddled close to Chloe, having apparently not moved at all throughout their long, drawn out, night.
She cracks open an eye and looks over towards Fat Amy, who is standing by the door, a smug look on her face. Beca groans as she lays her head back down, pulling Chloe tighter as she snuggles against her, mumbling, "Shut up, I'm protecting Chloe."
Fat Amy snorts, "From what? A draft?"
Before Beca can retort, she feels Chloe's body shake a little and she realizes she's trying not to laugh out loud.
She sits up and pokes Chloe, "Hey! I am, or well I was, or whatever dude, you suck." Beca pouts as she folds her arms across her chest and just sits there on the bed rolling her eyes and refusing to look at Chloe, who is now flawlessly sitting up in bed, wither her adorable curls somehow perfectly framing her face even after barely sleeping last night.
Fat Amy clears her throat and shares a wink with Chloe, "So, you needed a cuddle buddy then?"
Chloe giggles when she hears Beca huff beside her and she leans over and taps Beca's folded arms before sitting back and saying, "Beca's the best," she then leans over again and drops a kiss to her cheek, "Thank you," before swiftly swinging her legs over the side of the bed and making her way to her own room, leaving behind a blushing Beca and a smirking Fat Amy.
"Thank you?"
Beca throws a pillow at the blonde, "Shut up, you don't even want to know the kind of night we had," she shakes her head at the memory of the creepiness of the night before.
Fat Amy throws her head back and laughs, "Or I totally do, but maybe only after you've properly had breakfast because I want the details."