It's late, so late when Beca finally stumbles home from the station. It's cold, too. It's not snowing, but it's cold enough that it might start any second. She lets herself into the Bella house, kicks off her boots somewhere inside the door, dumps her coat on the nearest chair, and hauls herself up the first flight of stairs without bothering to turn on the light.
She's so tired, she's practically on her hands and knees crawling up the stairs, and as she reaches the landing and contemplates another flight of stairs before she gets to her room, she knows in her heart she just can't do it.
Besides, what's waiting for her up there but a cold bed and a snoring Fat Amy? How is that worth the effort? Why, when there's a better alternative right next to those stairs?
Without overthinking it, Beca turns right, opens the first door she comes to, and all but falls into Chloe's tiny little single room.
It's the work of a moment to shuck the rest of her clothes. Jeans, flannel shirt, socks and scarf, all are dumped just inside the door and she climbs onto the bed, eyes already half shut. She's shivering now, the cold air hitting her skin in a way that doesn't feel at all pleasant… but when she pulls back the covers to crawl under them, she's hit with a wave of heat from Chloe's sweetly slumbering form.
Mmm, yes. Warmth. Warmth is Beca's only thought as she slides in beside Chloe and lets her eyes fall closed. Predictably, even in sleep Chloe turns towards her and wraps her arm around Beca's waist, sighing contentedly as she pulls the smaller girl close. And Beca, for her part, is so tired she forgets to pretend to protest Chloe's perpetual touchy-feely behavior, and simply snuggles into the embrace. The whole scene takes less than a minute, and both girls are fast asleep.
Beca wakes to sunlight streaming in Chloe's window and hitting her right in the face. She wonders, briefly, why Chloe hasn't closed her curtains to avoid exactly that, then realizes that Chloe probably LIKES waking up with the sun. But Chloe's still asleep, which gives Beca time to take stock of the situation in which she finds herself.
She vaguely remembers snuggling into the taller girl the night before, but now, she realizes as she wakes up a little more fully, the two of them are completely tangled around each other. They're sharing a pillow. Their bodies are pressed, chest to chest, against each other, their hips too, and their legs are entwined in a way that makes it seem as if something more than slumber went on. For a moment, Beca seriously considers disentangling herself and leaping out of the bed with some kind of a yelp of protest… but then she stops herself.
She's warm. She's deliciously warm, and so comfortable, and she feels… happy. And she's looking at Chloe's face, so peaceful in slumber, and she's starting to get this feeling in her chest that she doesn't really understand. It's tight, like maybe something's going on in there, like there's something extra in there now, or what was already in there has grown too big to fit? She feels like she almost wants to cry. She feels like she wants to…
Chloe starts to wake and Beca freezes, watching as big blue eyes flutter open and struggle to focus. There's a long moment when Beca's not sure what Chloe's thinking, but then, it seems, Chloe's eyes snap into focus and she understands what, or who, she's looking at, and her mouth curves into a wide smile, and Beca sucks in a breath.
"Hi," Chloe murmurs softly.
"Hi," Beca replies.
For a long while they just lay there, gazing into each other's eyes.
"Your eyes are blue," Chloe whispers finally.
"Yeah," Beca agrees, her voice also hushed. "Did… did you not know?"
"They're so dark, I always thought they were brown, but now I'm up close," and Beca shivers slightly, because for a moment, she'd forgotten quite how close they are, "now I'm up close I see they're like… navy blue. I've never seen anyone with eyes quite like them."
"What can I say, I'm one of a kind," Beca quips awkwardly.
"They're beautiful," Chloe breathes.
And they're back to staring at each other. From outside the door they start to hear the sounds of a busy Bella house waking up and a Saturday beginning, but neither moves. Not yet.
"I should, um. Fat Amy is probably wondering why I never came home," Beca says finally.
Just at that moment they both hear Fat Amy thundering down the stairs, bellowing about breakfast burritos and how many "flat-butts" are joining her on a breakfast run. From the sounds of things, most of the house run out the door after her.
"Or not," Beca finishes her earlier thought, but that's all she has time for before Chloe closes the gap between them and kisses her.
This is new.
It's not like Beca's never questioned her sexuality before. Jesse did literally less than nothing for her, even though she had been the one to initiate the kiss between them at the ICCA finals that first year, but she kept dating him because that was just… what you did, right? Meeting Das Sound Machine and the Kommissar had been something of a wakeup call to her. She'd admitted to herself, tentatively, that girls were attractive.
It would have taken her another few years before she was ready to confess to Chloe that she'd had feelings for her since the first time she'd barged into the shower, if Chloe hadn't kissed her just now.
Beca makes a conscious decision to stop thinking so much, to get out of her head, and kisses back.
It's nothing like kissing Jesse. When she kissed Jesse, it was like a convenient shorthand for "I'm not completely repulsed by your company, please continue to date me." When she kisses Chloe she thinks maybe she's starting to understand what people are singing about in all the songs she mixes together.
Before she really wraps her head around gentle, close mouthed kissing, she's surging forward and darting her tongue out, something she had never initiated with Jesse. Chloe's lips part and she moans and Beca feels herself CLENCH in a way that is entirely new and entirely wonderful, so she presses forward again, chasing Chloe's moan.
Chloe doesn't disappoint. When Beca's hand drifts up and grazes the side of Chloe's breast she moans again, and Beca repeats the action. She's finding it hard to breathe and dark spots are starting to dance at the corners of her vision but she can't stop kissing Chloe, can't take the chance that this is all just a wonderful dream and if she stops, it will end.
It's Chloe who pulls away first, grinning widely. "Wow, Beca," she pants. "You are aca-awesome at that."
Beca cracks up, because of course Chloe would find a way to bring her cringeworthy acapella lingo into this. "You're pretty good too," she says finally. She wants so badly to ask what this means, but she's scared, because Chloe is gorgeous, so damn gorgeous and she could have anyone she wants, and Beca can't bring herself to hope that this means Chloe wants HER.
"So, do you want to go out?" Chloe asks, and Beca's eyes snap up in something like shock.
"What, like a date?"
"Well, yeah."
"Dude, yes!"