It was the night of Aubrey's Halloween bash, the party that she looked forward to all year. Chloe was absolutely nuts about Halloween; it was her chance to get wild and crazy and for the past few years she'd gotten astonishingly drunk at Aubrey's parties, barely remembering anything. That usually meant it had been a good time.
What she loved most about Halloween with Aubrey was that her best friend was thoughtful enough to provide her with an ungodly amount of her very favorite Halloween related treat—candy corn. She could eat candy corn until she puked, but thankfully her friend usually cut her off around a bag and a half into eating the holiday candy.
Chloe had a serious obsession with all holiday candy, whether it was candy canes for Christmas, peeps for Easter, conversation hearts for Valentine's Day and even chocolate turkeys for Thanksgiving; she always received a stockpiled amount of that holiday's candy from Aubrey. It was an understanding they had and one of the many reasons she loved her sometimes uptight friend so much.
That night, several hours before the party in question, Chloe rifled through the closet, pulling out the cardboard box she'd hidden near the back a few months ago. She'd taken the liberty of ordering a costume for both Beca and herself even though at that point they'd only been dating for three months.
She hadn't managed to tell Beca about what was in store for her, knowing that if she told her beforehand, she would explicitly say no. After all, the idea of themed couple costumes was something that would not appeal to Beca at all even if she wasn't adamantly against the idea of dressing up for Halloween (it was too much for her to "give a shit," she said.)
Dating Beca was challenging sometimes. She didn't like doing couple-y things like double dates or matching costumes or calling each other pet names, but Chloe let all those things go. She knew how her girlfriend felt about her and that was all that mattered.
But damn it, tonight she was going to get her to wear this costume if she had to bind and gag her. Beca was due to show up at her apartment any minute and so Chloe busied herself with putting on her own costume, applying some makeup and fixing her hair while she waited for her to arrive.
She couldn't help but wonder how Beca was going to react to her outfit—whether she'd be feasting her eyes on Chloe all night or be unhappy that she'd decided to bare so much skin. It was hard to tell.
"Chloe?" She heard the door open and Beca's voice call into the living room.
Trying to prolong the moment, she shouted that she was in her bedroom, holding the still-wrapped costume that she'd chosen for Beca behind her back.
When Beca walked in, her eyes settled onto Chloe's body and her mouth dropped open at the sight of her girlfriend in a low cut, short dress paired with fairy wings. She gaped at her without saying anything at all, causing the redhead to giggle.
"I'm Tinkerbell. Ta-Da!"
"No shit. Wow, Chloe, that's…" Beca didn't seem to know what to say.
Chloe grinned, stepping toward her and presenting the brunette with the package she'd been hiding from her. All traces of amusement and arousal were immediately wiped from her face upon seeing what had just been given to her.
"Oh god, no, I'm not dressing up. You know I don't give a shit about Halloween. The only reason I'm even going to this party is because you said you'd break up with me if I didn't." She was less than thrilled.
Chloe stuck out her bottom lip, leaning in close to the other girl's face.
"Please? It's just a costume. Just for one night, be my Peter Pan?"
Hesitantly Beca opened the bag and started pulling the costume out, looking at it with distaste. Chloe's eyes were trained on her, a warning that she'd better do as she was asked.
"I can't believe I'm doing this." Beca muttered as she began to peel off her clothes and replace them with the costume.
She and Chloe had been dating for over six months now and had gotten past the shy body stage. Well, Beca had, anyway. Chloe never had a shy body stage, seeing as how Beca had seen her unapologetically naked the second time she'd ever seen her.
"YOU LOOK SO CUTE!" Chloe yelped when Beca had completed her transformation, capturing her in an uncomfortably tight hug.
Beca tried her best to maintain her steely glare but she eventually succumbed to a matching grin, mumbling something to Chloe about "the things I do for you" and telling her that she owed her big time.
With Peter Pan leading the way, the two of them left for Aubrey's party, which had begun about fifteen minutes ago. Chloe thought it was a good idea to arrive fashionably late anyway.
Once they strode in together, her arm linked around Beca's, she looked around the apartment for the hostess of the party, eager to see what she was dressed as. Chloe found her without much difficulty, dressed with minimal effort as some sort of feline.
"Hey, Bree, great party!" She greeted, pulling her girlfriend along with her.
Aubrey turned and looked to them, complimenting their costumes and smirking extra hard at Beca. Amy was standing next to her, dressed relatively normally.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Beca asked her, making conversation and giving Chloe a look like 'see, she didn't dress up.'
Amy opened her mouth and sang a high note.
"I'm Adele, duh. We're both fat and gorgeous singers with sexy accents. She's basically me but less hot." She explained.
Across the way, Stacie and Cynthia Rose were engaged in conversation. Stacie was dressed as Katy Perry during the California Girls video, with a blue wig and some inappropriate chest adornments. Cynthia Rose looked to be dressed as Nicki Minaj, which Chloe thought was oddly fitting.
Skulking by the punch bowl was Lilly, dressed as a cactus. She was dipping her cactus limbs into the punch bowl and watching the liquid swirl around. Chloe made a mental note not to drink the punch.
"Doesn't Beca make the cutest Peter Pan?" Chloe asked Aubrey with a wide smile.
Aubrey shrugged. "She does, actually. When you guys decide to fly to Neverland, make sure to do it in the guest room, not in my bed, okay?"
"Oh, did you get the candy corn?" Chloe wondered suddenly, thinking of the candy Aubrey had promised to her.
"I did. There's a bowl on the table, and your own personal bag is in the kitchen behind the Raisin Bran."
Chloe left Beca in favor of the candy corn, leaving her girlfriend and her best friend to make awkward conversation while she was away.
"You really eat Raisin Bran?" was all Beca could think of to say.
"Yeah?"
"Raisins creep me out." She admitted.
"Lilly creeps me out." Aubrey's gaze fell onto Lilly, who was now doing some bizarre dance next to someone dressed as Gumby.
Beca nodded, fixing her hat when it began to sag. "Me too."
Aubrey let out a sigh, taking a drink from her red plastic cup as she looked over at Chloe's girlfriend. She really wasn't that bad, once she got over her initial issues with her attitude. Aubrey actually sort of liked her. She could see what Chloe saw in her anyway.
"Chloe really loves you, you know." Aubrey told the brunette.
Usually Beca was squeamish about the l word. Chloe had said it really early on in the relationship, maybe a week and a half after they got together. It took her four months to finally say it back. But now it didn't bother her so much. She just smiled.
"Chloe loves you, too." She reminded the other woman.
"Yeah, I guess. In a different way." Aubrey glanced into the kitchen, where Chloe was eating handfuls of candy corn and looking adorable.
"There's no way to say this without sounding like a total weirdo but we should hang out. I mean, I'm Chloe's girlfriend and you're her best friend and we should be friends, you know?"
The statement from Beca caught her off guard. She hadn't shown any interest in being Aubrey's friend before. The blond smiled and admitted that she thought it was a good idea, telling Beca that she wasn't really that bad.
"Aw, thanks." Beca laughed.
"Now go get your girl before she eats so much candy she pukes."
"That would be a change." The younger woman was referring to Aubrey's tendency to vomit when she was nervous.
Aubrey rolled her eyes and sent her off into the kitchen, watching the two of them interact and feeling wistful as well as slightly jealous. Amy came back over to her and pulled her by the hands near the stereo, forcing her to dance with her.
Beca and Chloe enjoyed themselves that night, once Aubrey made a new bowl of punch (which Stacie and Cynthia Rose promptly spiked) Chloe drank entirely too much and ended up dragging Beca into bed with her for some really interesting roleplay.
"Do you believe in magic?"
Chloe slurred as she hovered above Beca, hiccupping before she dropped down onto her, her fingers exploring the soft fabric of her Peter Pan costume as her wings flapped at her movement.