A Secret Santa Fic for the #Merry Pitchmas 2015 on Tumblr.
Story set the year after Aubrey graduates when the Bellas have moved in to their new house (so post PP1/Pre PP2)
Saturday:
"Okay, I'm going to pick up the Chinese food." Chloe announced as she entered the lounge full of Bellas. "Beca, you wanna come with?"
The brunette looked up from her spot on the couch to see her girlfriend looking back at her with a concentrated expression. "Uhh, yeah sure." She replied, hopping up from the seat.
Then Stacie, who was sprawled out on the couch with her legs laying over the top of Flo and Ashley's laps, picked up her cell phone and noticed that the time was only 7:30pm. "Why are you leaving so early? Pick up's at eight and it only takes ten minutes to get there." She asked.
"Oh, I have to get gas on the way too." The redhead replied without hesitation.
Stacie and anyone else who was listening seemed to accept Chloe's answer without question. Then after placing her cell phone in the back pocket of her jeans, Beca began to follow Chloe outside towards her car, putting on her shoes and coat on the way.
A few minutes into their journey, Beca shivered and let out a "Brr" of frustration at the cold weather. Her body was tensed up as she started fiddling with the dials and buttons to warm up the car but the heating system seemed to have little effect.
"Your tank's full, I thought you said you had to get gas." She questioned when she noticed the fuel gauge on the dashboard in front of Chloe.
Just then, Chloe pulled up in a secluded space outside the Chinese restaurant and unbuckled both of their seat belts. "I lied." She said before climbing over the console and onto Beca's lap.
She then positioned herself with one knee either side of the younger woman's thighs to straddle her and leaned in to connect their lips in a passionate kiss.
Instinctually, Beca's hands moved up to grip on to Chloe's waist while their lips remained connected. But as they did, the tips of her fingers lightly grazed the skin of Chloe's back and the redhead jolted in surprise at the cold contact.
Beca's hands immediately flew off Chloe, causing her to roughly hit the back of her palm against the door of the car. The redhead, of course, noticed what had happened at laughed into the kiss as she felt the younger woman trying to shake off the pain in her hand.
"Sorry." Beca said, already mentally scorning herself for her inability to do anything smoothly around the woman currently on top of her.
Chloe then reached out to both of Beca's arms and pulled them so that her hands were once again gripping the redhead's waist.
"I don't care if they're cold." She stated. "I want you to touch me."
Then, just as they both leaned in to re-connect their lips, the phone in Beca's back pocket vibrated with a new message and Chloe pulled back.
"Was that the phone in your pocket or are you just really enjoying this make-out sesh?" The redhead quipped.
And the brunette rolled her eyes at the joke. "I'll just ignore it." She said, assuming the text would be from Jesse requesting a dudes' night out sometime in the near future.
Beca then leaned in towards the redhead again but the action was promptly stopped by another vibration in her back pocket. She hesitated for a moment before deciding to also ignore that text in favour of kissing her girlfriend.
Then after a few minutes of making out with no disturbances, the phone vibrated once more to alert the brunette of yet another received text.
The pair broke apart as Beca reached underneath herself, pulling out the phone to find out "who the hell keeps sending these!" and proceeded to read the messages out loud.
Fat Amy [19:41pm]: Can you get me a fanta while you 2 aca-bitches are at the gas station please?
Fat Amy [19:42pm]: And a coke for Jess :-)
Stacie [19:49pm]: Did you get amy's txts? Don't 4get to ask for xtra soy sauce!
"We can't keep doing this." Beca declared. "Sneaking around is driving me crazy... We have to tell them, Chlo-"
"You're right. I know." The older woman replied. "But I have to tell Aubrey first, she's my best friend."
"Fine, Fine. But when are you gonna do that?"
"I can tell her at the party on Friday night, face to face. So we just have to keep it a secret a few more days."
"A few more days." Beca confirmed with a nod. "Well, we've done it for the past six months so I guess we can manage a few more days."
Monday:
"Alright, I'll see you nerds later." Beca said, zipping up her laptop bag and standing up to walk out of the kitchen where Chloe, Flo and Lily were all sitting with her.
"Okay, and don't forget to pick up a few boxes of popcorn on your way back. It's movie night tonight." Chloe said, standing so she was facing opposite the brunette.
"Yes m'am." Beca answered.
The redhead smiled sweetly. "Thank you." She replied, before placing a chaste but certain kiss on the younger woman's lips.
And had it not been for the fact that Beca leaned in to kiss the older woman back, there might have been a chance that they could brush it all off as Chloe just being, well... Chloe.
But then when their lips broke apart a few seconds later, they both almost simultaneously came to the creeping realisation that they had an audience. And that audience was made up of two of the seven other Bellas they were currently sharing a house with.
An expression of what could only be described as pure panic, washed over both of their faces as they turned to look at the two other women.
"Did you two just..?" Flo questioned.
"Umm." Beca began to stumble "I... we... uh.."
"Okay. Here's the deal." Chloe interrupted and Beca looked at her girlfriend, wide-eyed, waiting for whatever she was about to say "Beca and I are together."
"I told everyone that a long time ago." Lilly muttered, but apparently nobody heard her this time either.
"We've been together for some time now and kept it quiet for a multitude of reasons." Chloe continued "But I want to tell Aubrey before anyone else finds out, so do you think you keep it to yourselves for a while?"
"When I was five, my cousins taught me how to withstand torture so I'd never tell anyone where they were hiding the drugs. So... I can keep your secret." Flo replied.
And judging by the slow nodding of Lilly's head, the couple assumed their secret would be safe with her too.
Wednesday:
"Why do you look so sour this morning?" Fat Amy asked Cynthia-Rose as she trudged into the kitchen where Amy, Stacie, Chloe and Beca were all having breakfast.
"I barely got any sleep because somebody was having really loud sex at 2 o'clock this morning." She complained, shooting a look over at Stacie, whom she assumed was the culprit.
"I told you, you were being too loud!" Beca very unsubtly blurted to the redheaded woman standing beside her.
"Beca!" The redhead immediately hissed back, raising her hand to cover the younger woman's mouth to stop her from saying any more.
But she was too late. All three of the other Bellas had heard the words come out of Beca's mouth and needed no further explanation. Their eyes all widened in astonishment as they turned to face the two women before them.
"Shit." Beca muttered, not bothering to look up as she could already feel each pair of eyes on her.
"Something you two aca-lesbians wanna tell us?" Amy asked, folding her arms and throwing the couple an expecting look.
"We were just going to keep it a secret until tomorrow after I told Aubrey." Chloe explained. "She'd flip if she knew you guys found out before her."
"And you thought keeping CR up all night was the best way to keep it a secret?" Stacie asked.
"Okay, so that was a bad call." Beca replied.
"Flo and Lilly found out the other day." Chloe added "And they agreed to keep quiet for now, so could you all do the same please?"
"Well, after hearing what I heard last night, I don't think it's any of us that have a problem staying quiet." Cynthia-Rose scoffed, earning a laugh from Stacie and Fat Amy.
Thursday:
"Hey, do any of you know where we keep those photo albums? The ones that have old photos of the Bellas in them and stuff like that." Ashley asked as she was sat beside Jessica on the couch, facing opposite Beca and Chloe.
"Oh, yeah. They're all on that shelf right behind Becs." Chloe answered happily. "I'll get them."
Then she moved from her spot on the couch to climb over Beca, her knees placed either side of Beca's thighs and her body pressed against her as she reached behind to grab hold of the three photo albums.
"Ow. Chlo- get off, you're crushing me!" The brunette complained from behind Chloe's chest.
"Oh please." The redhead quickly shot back. "You weren't complaining when I was straddling you like this last night."
It took Chloe a total of 0.5 seconds to realise what she had said before she got down off Beca's lap, and turned to face the two women sitting opposite her.
And after looking beside her at Ashley and then back again at Beca and Chloe, it was Jessica who was first to break the silence by balling a fist up to her mouth and faking a small cough.
"Screw it." Beca said "Everybody else in the house already knows about us but we just need you to keep your mouths shut around Aubrey until Chloe can tell her at the party on Friday."
There was a second of silence as the two Bellas considered what Beca had said.
"So you two are..?" Ashley asked.
"Yes." Chloe answered simply.
"And you have been for...?" Jessica added.
"That's right." Beca replied.
"So, can you just not tell Aubrey?" The redhead requested.
And it was that simple. Less than a week ago, Beca and Chloe had been maintaining their secret relationship perfectly but now every Bella in the house knew about them and Chloe hadn't even managed to tell Aubrey yet.
That definitely wasn't how everything was supposed to turn out.
Friday:
"Hey Bree..." Chloe said, handing Aubrey a drink as she walked through the kitchen to stand with her "There's something I wanna talk to you about, can we go up to my room for a while?"
"Yeah sur-" The blonde began to say before Fat Amy crashed into both of them.
"It's time to play Never Have I Ever! Everyone in the lounge now!" The Australian declared before marching off to rally the rest of the women in the house.
"I guess we're playing a game." Aubrey laughed "Can we talk later?"
And the redhead nodded, smiling sweetly. She hoped that she'd instead get a chance to talk to Aubrey once the game was over and finally tell her about her relationship with Beca.
Then once everyone had gathered in the lounge, with Chloe typically positioning herself in between Aubrey and Beca, the game began. A number rounds went past with a few Bellas taking shots of tequila every time someone else mentioned something that they'd done, and things were already beginning to get a little more personal.
Since the women all knew each other pretty well, it made it easy for them to purposely set up situations that the others would have to drink to or to make statements that they knew had the potential to get some of the others in trouble.
"Ooh, I've got one that'll be interesting!" Jessica said excitedly.
The rest of the women looked at her with a combination of fear and enthusiasm, preparing themselves for what was about to come.
"Never have I ever had sex in the rehearsal space on campus, while Aubrey was still captain of the Bellas." The woman said.
And following that, three people in the room took a shot: Stacie, Chloe and a sheepish looking Beca.
Nobody in the room was surprised that Stacie had taken a shot but Aubrey's jaw fell open in despair as she turned to face the redhead beside her. "Chloe!"
"Sorry!" Chloe replied, knowing how important Aubrey's 'no sex where we rehearse' rule was to her. Then in seeing the funnier side of the situation, she snickered "It was just before you walked in, too."
"Oh my god, I trusted you!" The blonde declared as the rest of the Bellas laughed around her. "Who was it with? And please god, tell me it wasn't on the piano."
At this point Beca's hand flew to cover her own mouth as she began to sputter on the beer she'd been drinking.
Aubrey's eyes darted over to Beca as the brunette tried to compose herself.
"Beca..? Something you wanna share?"
"No." The younger woman replied quickly, looking hesitantly between Aubrey and Chloe, who was giving her a look that told her to keep her goddamned mouth shut.
And Aubrey too started to look between her best friend and Beca, seeing the wide-eyed expression on Chloe's face and sensing something between the pair that she couldn't quite work out.
Then she took a moment to glance over at the rest of the girls sitting around the room. The expressions on their faces and the way they were looking at the two other women told her that they knew exactly what that something between them was. Like they were clued in to that thing she hadn't quite worked out yet.
And then it clicked.
"Beca!" The blonde shrieked at Chloe "You and Beca?!"
But before Chloe could say anything, the brunette jumped in (thanks to the newfound confidence she'd gained from the 6 shots she'd already taken during the game)
"In my defence..." She said, pointing a finger up at Aubrey "...sex on the piano was Chloe's idea."
The former captain looked nothing but horrified by the images of the couple occupying her mind.
"I used that piano and you two had sex on top of it!" She shrieked again.
"Bree, it wasn't just sex." The redhead clarified, trying to calm her best friend down "This is what I wanted to talk to you about earlier."
And it worked. Aubrey did calm down and the look of horror slowly diminished from her face as she focused more seriously on the couple in front of her.
"Beca and I... We're... She's my..."
"Aubrey, I'm in love with your best friend." Beca spat out, noting how much her girlfriend was struggling to say the words by herself.
But Chloe's head quickly snapped around to face the brunette, her eyes fixed on her and her mouth hanging open just slightly. Beca's brow furrowed for a moment as she looked back at the redhead in confusion.
"You're what?" Chloe asked gently.
Then Beca suddenly became very aware of how silent the room had gotten, but not because everybody else had stopped talking. It was like there was a change in atmosphere to accompany the stunned look on Chloe's face. As if the silence was an actual thing that was lingering in the air between them.
"You're in love with me?" Chloe continued.
"Well, yeah." The brunette responded confidently.
There was a beat of silence again as a smile began to form on the older woman's face.
"You've never said that before." She pointed out.
And that's when Chloe's fixed eyes began to sparkle (even more than usual) and Beca felt the atmosphere between them change once more.