A/N: Hey, guys! This is my first Bechloe fic, not sure if it's any good. I was struck with an idea I can't shake, and would really appreciate knowing if you guys thought it was any good, and if I should continue. I love these girls a lot, and hope I can do justice to them. That being said, this fic is very AU, so let's see how it goes, shall we?
I, alas, do not own Pitch Perfect. I definately would have confirmed a sequel by now, if I did. :P
Young Beca Mitchell gently smoothed the kinks out of the brown horse's mane. She had just finished carefully washing him, and now she was preparing the final touches on his appearance before she could call her day's work finished at the farm.
She was excited to check up on her best friend, Jesse, and see if he was done with his work on the farm, also, so that they could go play ball.
Beca excitedly hopped off the ladder she had been using and washed her hands, drying them at the bottom of her shirt as she quickly walked out of the stable. She could see Jesse out in the fields in the distance, waving happily back at him after his face broke out into his puppy-smile and he nearly dropped the crops he was collecting. She hid her chuckle behind her hand at his subsequent reprimand from the farm owner.
She sat down on a nearby stump, content to wait for Jesse as he wrapped up his shift in the shade. She built a tower of sticks, tossing rocks above and around it to entertain herself. At the sound of a trumpet, she startled, throwing her rock too hard and knocking the tower flat.
At first, she couldn't tell where the sound was coming from, but then the first horse came over the hill. She noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, and turned to see the older workers on the farm removing the hats from their heads. There was only one reason they would do that in the sweltering August sun, and she realized what it was as soon as the banners rounded the hill- the Prince was passing.
The Prince was only three years older than Beca and Jesse, but was already well-known for his promiscuous ways. He was, in all honesty, pretty attractive, in that Mediterranean type of way; the olive skin, the dark hair and long eyelashes.
Beca bowed her head as his horse rode past the farm, watching the horse's hooves strike the ground, one after the other. A little curious as to who was riding after the Prince, Beca slightly raised her head.
Surrounded by armed guards on foot, Beca could make out two heads- one blonde and one redhead. She cautiously peered around the guard to get a better glimpse, and saw two princesses sitting atop tiny ponies. The one with blonde hair was facing forward, very stiff. The one with copper locks was bouncing, smiling happily at everyone she passed. She turned and suddenly caught Beca's glance.
Even from far away, Beca could tell the Princess was beautiful. Her small golden crown framed her hair perfectly, making everything about her positively glow with radiance.
But her eyes. Beca had never seen eyes in quite that color. The small, sweet smile she sent Beca contrasted all the other smiles she had been sending so vividly that Beca instantly needed to know more. Unfortunately, the princesses were swiftly carried away with the dust, leaving poor Beca to only wonder.
"Who… who were those girls?" she ventured cautiously over to the farm owner, still standing agape next to Jesse.
"Well I'll be." John says, running his hand over his head in shock. "I can't wait to tell Gail that this happened. I didn't think this would happen so soon…"
"What is it? What's happened?" Jesse questioned, confused as well.
"Prince Donald will be marrying one of those two ladies. This is the first meeting, where he meets both of them, and whichever one he is taken with, he can either choose now, or when he is the right age to marry, which is on his nineteenth birthday." John put his hat back on his head, wiped his jaw worriedly, and turned to walk back to the house.
"You're both dismissed for the day!" he called back to them, nearly inside.
Jesse immediately turned to Beca, shocked. "Two princesses! Here? In our town? Really, what are the odds of that! That is super cool!"
Beca shrugged slightly. "Why is that cool? We're never going to meet them."
Jesse stopped in his tracks, turning to grin mischievously at Beca.
"Oh, no. Absolutely not. Are you crazy? We're NOT going to sneak into the castle to meet the princesses!" Beca hissed at her friend.
"Who said anything about castles?" Jesse beamed, pulling a reluctant Beca behind him.
"This is a bad idea." Beca whispered to her friend, eyeing the guards in the clearing in front of them. "Like, don't get paid for a week and still have to do the work, bad idea."
Jesse swatted at her to be quiet, which Beca reluctantly went along with. He surveyed the situation presented by viewing it through some shrubbery, and then backed up slightly to stage whisper to Beca.
"Okay, so, it's almost nightfall. That means the Princesses will be finishing up supper soon. When it's over, we just sneak back and pretend we're part of the servants, and boom, easy as pie, we'll get to see the princesses up close!"
"Oh, that's your plan, genius? What about those guards? What are we going to say to them when we have to scoot around them?"
"Yeah, that's a good question!" came a booming voice from behind them.
Beca and Jesse both gulped loudly before being dragged on their backs out from behind the bushes.
Both fought against the man holding them, but the two skinny preteens were no issue for the beefy, balding guard.
"Look-ey what I found, fellas." The guard taunted, throwing the pair harshly on the ground of the clearing. Beca cried out, landing on her wrist roughly. Jesse's concerned eyes immediately found hers, and she shook her head to calm him.
"So, were ye tryin' to sneak in, steal a glimpse of the lasses, were ya now?" wheezed an old soldier with an eye patch, limping his way over to them. He gruffly spat to the side, coughing sharply before rounding on Beca.
"Yer a pretty one, aren't ya, lass? Bet I could sell you for a pretty penny…" he trailed off, lifting a dirt-covered finger to move a strand of her hair. "And in a few years, we might even have a special bus-i-ness for you to join…" the men around her laughed loudly at their leader.
"What is the meaning of this?"
The soldiers snapped apart at the disruption, immediately at attention in front of the two princesses, one who looked shocked from the background, and the red head, the one who had said something.
"I… uh, ma'am?" the Captain who tormented Beca asked nervously.
"I said, what is the meaning of this?" the princess repeated, eyes narrowing dangerously.
"We didn't mean nothin', misses, we were just teasing a little before we were gonna let them on their way." The head guard shifted nervously on his feet.
"I don't ever want to hear of you talking to any of my servants in such a disrespectful manner again, do you understand me?"
"You… your servants?" the guard sputtered, visibly whitening.
"That is correct. Do I need to say anything further on the matter?"
The guards swiftly shook their heads.
"Excellent. Now follow me, you two. I'm sorry you were lost." And the Princess turned on her heel and walked into her camp.
Beca and Jesse just stared after her.
The Princess seemed to know they were not following, as she called back over her shoulder "Punctuality is considered a virtue!" that had the pair scrambling after her.
"I can't believe she saved us." Jesse mumbled to Beca.
"Yeah, I wonder why." Beca questioned back. This girl didn't owe them anything. Why was she being so kind?
She was broken from her musings by a sharp cry next to her, followed by a crumpling sound. She turned to see Jesse on the ground, both hands over his knee.
"Jesse!" she shouted, forgetting herself and rushing to his side. She was joined momentarily by a second pair of hands, gently feeling Jesse's leg.
"I think he pulled a muscle behind his knee." She said, watching Jesse retract his leg at the slight pressure on the muscle. "He needs medical treatment. Aubrey?"
She met the gaze of the blonde princess, who rolled her eyes and gestured to one of her guards to pick him up. Beca watched in a daze as everyone dispersed at a quiet command from the red-haired princess, unable to cease her worrying over her best friend.
"Follow me." The soft voice of the Princess floated, not giving Beca much of a choice when she grabbed her hand.
She was led into a tent, wide and spacious, at the center of the camp. Everything on the inside was colorful, a stark contrast to the white of the tent walls. She felt herself be sat on a settee near what she could only assume to be the Princess' bed, as the Princess herself fluttered around the kitchen area, telling Beca everything about herself; her hobbies and favorite things, to why she wished people wouldn't be so mean, all while putting on a kettle.
She eventually came to sit next to Beca, crossing her ankles delicately and gazing at her guest. Beca did her best to avoid the gaze. She didn't last too long.
"Hi." The redhead said softly upon first catching her eyes. Beca forgot how to breathe.
She had been right, earlier. Like totally, totally right. This girl had eyes that could set things on fire, they were so alive. Beca was stunned into submission, totally missing the redhead's question until she nudged her playfully.
"I, uh, I'm sorry, what?" she shook her head to try and get some of her thinking process back.
The redhead giggled.
Like, actually giggled. At her. In response to something she did.
Beca could already feel her cheeks warming up.
The princess smiled a mega-watt smile, repeating her question. "What's your name?"
"Oh, uh, sorry. My name… my name is Beca. Beca Mitchell."
This caused the redhead to grin further. "Hi, Beca. My name's Chloe, pleased to meet you."
She held out her hand curtly to shake Beca's hand. Beca looked at it suspiciously, one eyebrow rising of its own accord.
"Um, sorry, Princess… Chloe, but what are you doing?"
The redhead giggled again, her cheeks dusting with pink. "Well, I thought we might be friends." Princess Chloe explained, matter-of-factly. "Seeing as you don't really work for me." She winked as an afterthought.
"You caught that, huh?" Beca asked sheepishly, tucking some hair that had fallen behind her ear. Chloe gasped dramatically.
"You're hurt! Why didn't you tell me you were hurt? I've just been blabbering on and I could have been taking care of you!"
"No, I'm okay; really, you don't have to call anyone or anything…" Beca insisted, hating the thought of their time getting cut short in any way. Chloe looked at her, grinning. "Who said anything about calling someone?"
She turned and left Beca on the settee, going over to the drawer of her night stand and rummaging through it, pulling out some bandages. Beca chanced a glance at her wrist, and swiftly directed it away from her body, totally grossed out. Chloe caught her doing this, and chuckled as she put the salve on her wound, covering it with fresh bandages.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" Beca swiftly let out, having held back the question from the moment the redhead had intervened. Chloe sat silent for a few moments, smoothing the air bubbles out of Beca's bandage.
"I want to be a doctor." She finally whispered, glancing down forlornly. "I realize that I can't be that; I have a duty to uphold by marrying Prince Donald, if he chooses me. But that won't stop me from trying." She steered her glance back up toward Beca, something steel inside of it. "I care about people. I want to protect people and fix them as much as I can."
"Then why don't you?" Beca suggested gently. Chloe looked at her, head tilted questioningly. "No, I mean it. Why don't you become a doctor? I know that you have a 'duty' but why don't you do this for you? You're not getting married today, right?" Chloe shook her head. "Well, then, do this. This is for you, Princess."
Chloe smiled. "Call me Chloe, please. And, you know what, you're right. You're a really amazing person, Beca." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "That's partly why I stopped them, you know. I knew you were different." She nodded her head once, deftly, as if agreeing with her prior judgment of Beca's character and being most pleased with herself.
Beca flushed, tucking that ever-elusive strand of hair behind her ear once more. "I knew you were, too." She admitted, "When I saw you earlier. I just… knew I had to be your friend."
Chloe's smile impossibly widened, and next thing Beca knew, Chloe had thrown her arms around Beca's shoulders.
"I think we're going to be fast friends." The princess declared, snuggling happy into her new friend's neck. This only made Beca frown. She pulled away from the princess.
"But… will we ever see each other again, after you leave?" she sadly inquired, already suspecting the answer would be no.
"Well, I believe that we were introduced to each other by fate. And I think that fate didn't intend to make this a one-time deal. So, yup, we will see each other again." Chloe smiled happily.
"Well, good," Beca said warmly, "Because I really like you."
She quickly clapped a hand over her mouth in horror, but Chloe only smiled at her.
"Well, I really like you too, Beca."
A rooster crowed in the distance.
"Oh, dear, is it that time already? I hate to be a bother, but I have to get up in a few hours, and-"
"Don't even worry about it; I'll get out of your hair. I should find Jesse anyway." Beca said regretfully.
"Okay." Chloe said, equally dejected. She got up and followed Beca to the opening flap of her tent.
"Remember what I said, Beca. We'll totes see each other again." She reached up to embrace her friend again, sighing at the contact.
Chloe went to pull back from the hug, but Beca only pulled her in closer. She smiled softly, content to stay in her new friend's arms for a little longer. What she didn't expect was for Beca to pull back slightly, and put a soft, sweet kiss on the apple of her cheek. Her breathing noticeably staggered. Beca noticed and her lips pulled into a smile as she reached Chloe's ear, whispering.
"Thank you, Chloe, for everything. Don't you dare forget me." Beca swiftly kissed her once more on the cheek before darting out of the tent.
If she had bothered to turn around at the sound of her name, she would have seen a frozen Chloe, in the same position but for the hand on her now-blazing cheek and a goofy, lop-sided grin on her face.
She knew that she certainly wouldn't be forgetting Beca anytime soon.
A/N: So there it is! What do you guys think? Should I continue, or what? The next chapter will take place several years from this one, where we'll see all the main characters at (roughly) the ages they are in the movie.
Drop a line, valentine!
(Not even sure what that was, but yeah, if the spirit moves you, let me know if I should continue!)
Thanks for reading!