The noise reverberates throughout the hallway, a beat that Beca Mitchell subconsciously follows as her footsteps echo around her. She's got one guess where it's coming from, and judging from the volume increasing as she moves further along the corridor, she's absolutely correct. As she approaches her girlfriend's apartment door, she hears Carly Rae Jepsen's lilting voice crooning about whoever that guy is that she really, really, REALLY likes. Figuring that Chloe won't be able to hear her knocking, Beca pulls out the key Chloe gave her and shoves it in the lock, turning the knob and pushing the door open forcefully. It slams against the wall, and Beca just quirks an eyebrow at the sight in front of her.
Chloe, wearing dance shorts and an old Bellas tank top, is spinning wildly around the room. Attached to her hip is a little girl whose head is thrown back with laughter as Chloe belts out the words and occasionally dips her, sending her into another fit of giggles. Beca is confused by the presence of a child, especially because she thought that they had plans tonight, but she can't help but smile as the two of them launch into the final chorus with gusto.
"Wow Beale, that was quite a performance," Beca says with a smirk from the doorway. "We should've thrown those moves into the Bellas choreography." Chloe turns around, the little girl still on her hip, and grins widely at her girlfriend.
"Hi, Becs!" Chloe moves to the stereo, switching it off as an old Miley Cyrus song begins to pour through the speakers.
"Hi, Becs!" the little girl echoes, jumping down from Chloe's arms. Beca looks to Chloe, eyebrows raised in amusement, as she quips, "I see you found a new duet partner. Do you have a fetish for short people, Chlo? She's even smaller than me."
"This is my cousin Lila!" Chloe combs her fingers through the tiny girl's hair as she pulls Beca inside and closes the door. "Her parents are celebrating their anniversary this weekend, so I offered to hang out with her for a couple of days."
"Chloe's my favorite person to have sleepovers with because she makes really yummy cookies," Lila chimes in. "Plus she has all the princess movies and sings the songs with me."
"Yeah, Chloe's my favorite person to have sleepovers with too," Beca answers, shooting Chloe a wink and smirking when her girlfriend's face flushes.
"We were just talking about ordering some pizza before we started our dance party, weren't we Lila?" Chloe interjects, trying to stop this conversation. She pulls out her phone and opens the website for the pizza place to start the order.
"Can I do it?" Lila asks eagerly. "I'm six now, I can read all the words!" Chloe hands over her phone before telling her, "When you get to the part about paying for it, give it back, okay?" Lila nods and starts moving her thumbs over the screen, concentrating carefully on reading the screen.
"I'm sorry I forgot to tell you about this, Becs," Chloe says. "It was kind of a last minute thing, and I haven't really gotten to hang out with her recently because work has been so crazy."
"It's fine, dude," Beca reassures her. "Though I do draw the line at singing to the princess movies."
Chloe shoots her a look before saying, "We'll see about that. I know how you love that song from Frozen." With a scoff, Beca opens her mouth to deny that when Chloe's phone rings. Her face lights up when she sees the caller ID, and answers it with an enthusiastic, "Hey, Aubrey!" She motions to Beca that she is going to be a minute, and chatters away excitedly as she goes into the kitchen.
"Are you and Chloe best friends?" Lila asks Beca, blinking up at her innocently. It is actually frightening to Beca how similar Lila looks to her cousin-despite Lila's platinum blonde ringlets, the two girls have the same electrifying blue eyes and pronounced cheekbones.
"Chloe's my best friend in the entire world," Beca says in a mock serious tone, not quite sure how to handle the little girl's question.
"If you're best friends, why does Chloe have pictures of you guys kissing all over the place?" Lila points to one of the picture frames hanging in Chloe's living room which prominently displays a sweet shot of the two girlfriends embracing on the steps of the Bella house. It's one of Beca's favorite pictures of them; they had made a trip back to campus to visit a rehearsal and Chloe had insisted they stop to commemorate the place where they had kissed for the first time (on the porch a day before Chloe was meant to move out and into an apartment in the city for her teaching courses).
Beca stops to consider the question. She's pretty indifferent when it comes to kids, but their blunt questions always get her because she can't really bring herself to blatantly lie to them. Chloe says it's an odd guilty conscience to have but finds it slightly endearing as well.
"Well, Chloe's my girlfriend, and that's pretty much the best friend you could have," Beca says carefully. Lila's only six, and who knows what she understands about relationships in general. Her love of fairytales makes Beca think that her understanding is pretty limited to the standard guy and girl romance portrayed by Disney.
"She's your girlfriend? Like when Ariel was Prince Eric's girlfriend?" Lila's nose is scrunched up, and she's deep in thought about this whole situation.
"Kind of," Beca says. "Except if Prince Eric was actually Prince Erica."
Lila giggles. "That's kinda silly. Ariel couldn't marry two people."
Beca smirks at the logic. "That would be a little fu- I mean messed up."
"Does Chloe still get to have a princess wedding? Last time we watched The Little Mermaid she said that she's always wanted to have one like Ariel. Especially because they look alike. And Chloe can sing like her too." Lila scoots onto the couch next to Beca, waiting for her answer intently. Beca smiles.
"Well, yeah, she can still have a princess wedding if she wants," Beca answers. "And Chloe is pretty much a real-life Ariel, so I think she would like that."
"Except she has legs, like, all the time. Not a tail." Lila's tone is serious and thoughtful, and Beca is grinning down at her.
"That she does," Beca mutters, her mind wandering to her girlfriend's long, toned legs that could only be achieved by her many hours of cardio. She's so dazed at the thought, her cheeks warming up, that she doesn't hear Lila asking her another question. "What was that?"
"I said," Lila repeats, "are you and Chloe gonna get married so she can have her Ariel wedding?"
With that, Beca's mouth goes dry and she fumbles for words. "Uh…"
It's not a topic that either Beca or Chloe brings up frequently, mostly because they seem to be in agreement as to where they stand on the issue. Or rather, where Beca stands on the issue. Her parents' divorce, though long in the past, has certainly made her question the validity of a piece of paper signifying their undying love for one another. Chloe, ever the understanding and compassionate girlfriend, has never pushed Beca about it or even really expressed a desire for them to get married, even after the Supreme Court ruling months ago. In fact, her only reaction had been to squeal and cheer that Aubrey and Stacie (who had finally gotten their acts together right after Chloe and Beca had) could finally tie the knot after months of waiting.
Now that Beca thinks about it, she realizes that she totally should have known that Chloe was one of those "Yes I have in fact had my wedding planned since I was five and here's a crazy Bridezilla binder to prove it" kind of girls. Even her six-year-old cousin knew that Chloe had always dreamed of a princess wedding, and Beca had known Chloe longer than Lila had even been alive.
"Beca?" Lila pokes her side to get her attention.
"Yeah?" Beca is biting her bottom lip, mind racing furiously.
"Are you and Chloe gonna get married?" Lila asks again exasperatedly.
"I don't know," Beca mumbles.
"But she's your girlfriend, right? And if you have a girlfriend don't you marry her?" To Lila, the process is simple.
"If you love them, then yeah," Beca says softly. "I guess you do get married."
"You don't know if you love Chloe?" Lila's brow is furrowed, her face contorted with concentration.
"Of course I do!" Beca says defensively. God, why is this kid causing her to call into question everything she's ever thought about her relationship? "She's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me, and she's my best friend. I can't imagine life without her."
"What's going on?" Chloe waltzes back into the living room and plops herself down on the couch next to Beca, pressing a kiss to her cheek. Lila giggles and says, "I asked Beca if—"
"If we could watch The Little Mermaid later," Beca cuts her off, not wanting to talk about this anymore. "Apparently you're like a real-life Ariel." Chloe eyes her, not quite believing her, but smiling broadly at Lila and assuring her that could be the first movie they watch tonight.
"Hey Lila, did you know that Beca loves Frozen?" Chloe tosses out the question with a smirk in Beca's direction as her girlfriend just glares at her. Lila gasps with excitement at the mention of another Disney movie.
"I do not!" she hisses indignantly. "I only watched because last time you promised me that by the time she met that asshole prince you would make me co—" Chloe shuts Beca up by slapping a hand over her mouth before she can finish her sentence.
"And you really loved it, didn't you?" she asks sweetly with a suggestive flick of her eyebrows. Beca shields her body away from the six year old staring confusedly at them and flips Chloe off in front of her chest, rolling her eyes.
"I love that movie," Lila says dreamily. "I want to be like Elsa when I grow up. The nice Elsa, not the one that freezes everything."
"Want Beca to do your hair like Elsa?" Chloe offers her cousin. "She's practically a master at braids."
"Really?" Lila asks Beca eagerly. With a sigh, Beca moves Lila so she's sitting between her knees on the ground and starts threading her fingers through Lila's blonde ringlets.
"It's a good thing you're cute, kid," Beca says, and Lila just giggles.
Some hours later, after pizza and a showing of Frozen, the three girls are curled up on the couch as the The Little Mermaid plays. Lila is wearing pajamas decorated with the Disney Princesses, her hair still twisted back in the braid that Beca made, and curled up on Chloe's lap with her head resting against her chest.
"Sing it, Chloe?" she requests with a sweet grin. Chloe tickles her stomach before joining in effortlessly with the cartoon on the TV, her melodic voice singing, "I wanna be where the people are…"
As she continues, Beca, who is cross-legged on the other end of the couch, can't help the smile that overtakes her face. Her girlfriend is absolutely adorable, and watching Chloe with Lila settles fluttery warmth over her. How is it even possible that of all people for her to be with, she ended up with one who practically jumped out of the screen of a Disney cartoon?
Beca's mind wanders back to her conversation with Lila earlier. She supposes that when you're six, things are pretty black and white. Kids don't have that same cynicism adults seem to grow into, and when Beca thinks about it, she realizes that Lila had a valid point. She loves Chloe more than anything else in the world, music included, and it would only make sense to move forward with their lives together. For so long, there had been reasons to push off the conversation—Chloe going through teaching classes and starting her first job as a 2nd grade teacher, Beca working her way up at Residual Heat to eventually becoming a producer with songs topping the charts. They didn't even live together, though they spent most of their nights together at one apartment or the other. Thinking back on it now, Beca realizes, those reasons weren't really valid ones at all. Every time she talked about the horrors of marriage or mocked their friends for their relationships, Chloe would avert her eyes and change the subject. Of course Chloe would never want to broach the topic of marriage with Beca; she probably figured it would only lead to an argument and her feelings being hurt once again. The thought hits her, and she sinks back into the sofa cushions a little bit with shame.
Meanwhile, Chloe's soprano voice softly and delicately finishes the song as Lila's eyes slowly droop shut. Chloe is stroking her hair, continuing to hum the melody, as she gently lays the little girl down on the sofa. She covers her with the blanket hanging over the back of the cushions and props one of the decorative pillows under her head before kissing her forehead and switching off the movie.
Beca is entranced by her current revelation, but also by her girlfriend's gentle maternal actions. Her eyes follow Chloe as she moves around the room, making sure the door is locked and the blinds are closed before offering a hand to Beca. "Ready for bed?"
Chloe pulls Beca up off the couch and starts to move down the hallway toward her bedroom when Beca gently tugs on their joined hands, drawing Chloe back towards her. She wraps her arms around her girlfriend's waist and pulls her into a tight hug, and Chloe, surprised by the contact but not at all complaining, immediately squeezes back.
"What's this for?" she murmurs softly, not wanting to wake up the sleeping child behind them.
"You know I really, really love you, right?" Beca whispers into her ear. Chloe leans back slightly, locking her eyes onto Beca's.
"Of course I do," she answers. "And I love you too."
"But, like, does it bother you that we've been together for four years and we haven't gotten married? Or even moved in together?" Beca presses on with her questions, trying to ignore the pounding in her chest.
Chloe's eyebrows draw in with confusion, and she quickly glances back at Lila passed out on the couch before dragging Beca by the hand down the hall to her bedroom. She shuts the door and leans against it while Beca sits cross-legged on the bed.
"What are you talking about, Beca?" Chloe asks. "Where did this come from?"
Beca heaves a sigh. "When you were on the phone with Aubrey and Lila was babbling about princesses, she started talking about how you told her that you had always wanted a fairytale wedding. I mean, god, Chlo, you're practically a living Disney Princess, and I started thinking that I had just been selfish to constantly mock marriage when it was something that you clearly wanted. We've been together so long and we don't live together, and I don't want you to think that I'm not in love with you or that I don't see us being in this for the long haul or…" Beca is rambling, her words tumbling out on top of each other in a practically incoherent flood of noises. Chloe is partially amused, and as Beca continues talking, she bites her lower lip trying not to giggle.
Of course Chloe knows that Beca is fully committed to her and loves her more than anything in the world. While the outside world gets the Beca with snark and cynicism, Chloe gets the Beca who dances around the kitchen using a ladle as a microphone and who stays up until five in the morning helping Chloe finish her lesson plans for the week and preparing supplies. It is always apparent, even on her worst days, that Beca is completely devoted to Chloe.
"Beca. Hey, Becs," Chloe cuts into her girlfriend's speech and goes to sit next to her on the bed. Beca, still deep in thought, is startled by the sudden movement of the bed beneath her.
"You know that I don't care about any of that stuff. It's superficial, and it's not necessary. Sure, when I was a kid I dreamed about having a wedding just like the ones on all those movies I loved so much. But I was just a kid, Becs, and I didn't realize that the wedding isn't the important part. It's the commitment, and the knowledge that the other person becomes your family forever," Chloe says earnestly. "You're already that for me, and I don't need a ceremony to make that true or to solidify it. I know that marriage is a scary concept for you, and I never wanted to make you think that it was something I needed to be happy. Our friendship and our relationship are so much more than that, and I see it in your actions every day just how much you love me and how devoted you are to me. As for living together, we agreed a long time ago that space would be a good way to help keep us balanced, especially when we start getting crazy because of stress or family or whatever. It doesn't mean that I love you any less, or make me think that you love me any less."
Beca has a tiny glimmer of a smile spreading across her face, and her eyes are so honest and focused that Chloe can't help but smile broadly at her.
"So you don't hate me?" Beca asks quietly. "Promise?"
"No, Beca, I definitely don't hate you," Chloe said. "You're everything to me, okay?" She pulls them together in a warm hug, and she feels Beca nodding against her shoulder.
"What if I said I didn't want space anymore?" Beca mumbles into Chloe's shirt.
"Like living together?" Chloe fights to hide the excitement in her tone and the grin threatening to crack across her face.
"Well, believe it or not, the kid made me realize that if I love you, nothing else really matters. We can get through it all, right?" Beca's hesitation is so out of character that Chloe can't help but laugh.
"Yes, you weirdo, we're going to be fine. Great. Fantastic, even," she says, and the grin on her face is enough to make Beca believe her wholeheartedly.
"And maybe sometime we can talk about…doing the married thing," she mumbles. "Just because it sucked for my parents and fifty percent of America's population doesn't mean it'll suck for us."
"Wow, you really sold me on it," Chloe deadpans. "The enthusiasm is overwhelming, really." Beca looks panicked momentarily, afraid that she hurt Chloe's feelings even after her rant moments ago, before realizing that her girlfriend is just kidding. She rolls her eyes.
"Marriage or not, this is it for me." Beca's voice is genuine. Chloe smiles before leaning in to press their lips together sweetly.
"I'm glad we had this talk," she says with a giggle. Climbing towards the headboard of the bed, she snuggles her body under the covers and lays her head on the pillow with Beca following suit. As Chloe switches off the light, she feels Beca intertwine their hands and curl up into her.
"So at this princess wedding, can we have it on a boat with our closest mermaid friends and sea creatures surrounding us?" Chloe asks after a moment. "I hear Fat Amy even knows how to mermaid dance."
"Dude, there's no freaking way."
Thank you so much for reading! I've never written for these characters before, so I hope they were believable. Please feel free to let me know what you did or didn't like!