I
It's not like she doesn't have enough tattoos. But Chloe must have thought she needed another one.
Early that evening she was sitting in the couch with her laptop on her lap in a mid—mix tangled moment. Sometimes she just can't get it right!
Chloe was beside her reading some Russian lit book happily taking some notes (another Anna Akhmatova's book...must be). She was humming some tune under her breath as usual. She was like a living, walking, breathing song.
So since Beca was going nowhere with her mix she thought it was OK to just do a small pause and close her eyes for a few minutes. Sometimes she gets inspired in her sleep. This might just be the case.
And that's when Chloe probably decided to leave her mark.
She kind of felt some pressure on her left arm, that was thrown over the couch. She started to wake up and the little pressure stopped. She opened her eyes slowly but saw that Chloe was still sitting in her place just doing the same as before: reading her book and taking notes. But now she stopped humming a tune and was just smiling.
It must have been nothing.
But now she's in the bathroom washing her teeth before going to bed and that's when she understands what's happened. The little pressure. The smile on Chloe's lips.
Next to her headphones tattoo on her left arm. A perfect doodled treble clef. And what is that little...ohhhh...is that a little yellow cup at the end?
She smiles at her reflection on the mirror.
II
Chloe thinks she has to take care of everyone else, especially her Bellas. All the feels like she's their personal ladybug.
But sometimes she is the one in need to be taken care of. The only time she kind of allows that to happen is when she's sick. And for all times for her to be sick right now it has to be on Christmas!
Maybe the evening she spent two days go building snow—women representing each Bella had something to do with it. But she isn't going to admit it. Especially when Beca is staying behind to take care of her.
Both of them are spending Christmas at Barden (alone! Without any other Bella!...if Chloe was not so sick she might would need to calm down). But Chloe isn't sure if Beca is staying just because she is running away from the stepmonster or also because she personally wants to take care of Chloe. Wishful thinking...might be the fever.
And this is when she kind of gets her Christmas present from Beca.
She's resting on her bed after having a soup for dinner and Beca is just sitting by the bed on the floor, back resting against it, mixing while making her company. Beca's mixing Christmas songs and lets Chloe listen to them on the fly. She's just being sweet. Chloe knows how much Beca hates to show unfinished mixes.
She might be sick but she feels like this is the perfect Christmas.
Chloe's so tired that between songs she falls asleep. She wakes what feels like a couple of hours later with Beca asleep by her bed. Laptop and headphones forgotten beside her on the floor. Head dropping back onto the bed.
She's so going to need a back rub in the morning.
She makes a move to try and sit and tries to reach for Beca to wake her and get her to go to bed 's when she sees it. On her right arm. Near her ladybug.
It's a cassette tape. And connected to it there's a pair of headphones. Just like the ones tattooed on Beca's left arm.
Chloe manages to get up and sit on the floor besides Beca and throws her duvet over them both.
She kisses Beca's head.
III
It's movie-night with the girls. Beca can't say she likes it. But she would be lying if she says she doesn't like it either. Especially when she always gets to cuddle with Chloe on the couch without much to worry about.
But this night feels different.
They hadn't talked about those times. About the cute little doodle tattoos both had left on each other. Beca knew something was shifting between them. And those funny tattoos were somehow their way to show it. To let the other know.
But she was nervous.
She, like in every movie-night, doesn't know what the movie is about and falls asleep like half-an-hour or 45 minutes into it.
She's resting her head on Chloe's shoulder. Chloe's has her hand on her lap and is contently playing with her fingers. So it was really a fit she took that long to forget all about the movie and fall asleep.
Now Beca wakes up, it seems to be late at night. She has to think a bit about her surroundings to acknowledge where she is. That's when she notices she's kind of laying on Chloe. She's resting her head on her belly and trapping her legs.
Ohhh dude!
Beca notices she has a blanket over her. Must have been Chloe. But it doesn't cover her and she's getting cold. Always thinking about the others...
Beca tries to get herself up on the couch and lay besides Chloe without waking her up. She pulls the blanket to cover both of them. And it's when Beca's reach for the lamp on the side table that is still turned on that she sees it and she stops breathing.
On her left arm, right under her 'Ce n'est pas rien' tattoo, she now has something written in beautiful letters.
'You are my favourite jam'
Beca only starts breathing again when she hugs Chloe closer to her. Closer like never before.
IV
How will life be at Barden without Beca?
That's the question that's been keeping popping up on Chloe's mind for a while. And it is that same question that got her to decide to graduate. Because the possible answers for that question are too bad for her to imagine herself to be able to deal with.
She knows she can't predict the future. But she knows she have what it takes to make the best of it. And if she can make the best of it with Beca, out of Barden, she will fight for it.
She knows what she's been feeling for Beca for a while. And she kind of wrote a declaration of love on Beca's arm. Well, at least that's what she meant with that…
And even if Beca have yet to react to it she feels Beca is different with her. Beca has a different kind of blue in her eyes every time she looks at Chloe.
Chloe wants it to be real.
Still. She's afraid.
But right now she's studying and trying not to think about it.
In order to graduate she has to finally pass Russian Lit. It's not that it's hard (she knows it by heart). But after going to the class for four years she wants to end it with a blast, and deliver the perfect final paper.
She had declared the kitchen island as her territory in the last couple of weeks. She has all her books and notes scattered around. Pens and pencils. Markers and post-its.
And like the last couple of weeks routine, the other Bellas just come by the kitchen to grab something to eat and go eat in the living room, living her to finish her paper in silence.
Today, as predictable, one by one (except Jessica and Ashley that come together) they come and go to grab something to eat without disturbing her. Stacie as usual plants a kiss to her head 'That's my Red.'
After a while Chloe noticed that only one Bella has yet to come and grab her dinner.
Beca.
She looks at the kitchen clock and thinks Beca must have already ended her internship for the day. She's probably upstairs lost in one of her mixes and forgot about the hours and her dinner.
Chloe always worry about Beca.
But like sensing her thoughts, Beca appears in the kitchen. She navigates around Chloe while grabbing some snacks and heads for the living room. But before she lives she turns back. Chloe is looking at her. Beca just smiles.
That smile.
And then she's gone.
And it's thinking about that smile that Chloe falls asleep over her notes and books.
She opens her eyes to the Sun peering through the kitchen windows.
A blanket falls from her shoulders when she straightens up. She picks it from the floor and goes to the living room to put it down when she sees Beca sleeping on the couch. Chloe can only smile. Beca was the one to put the blanket over her and probably stayed downstairs to somehow make her company.
How can Chloe not love her like she does.
She kneels beside the couch looking at Beca peacefully sleeping. Chloe reaches with her right arm to caress Beca's cheek when she sees it. Like the other time. Next to her ladybug. Written with careful letters.
'You are my favourite mix'
And after her heart skips a beat and never returns to its old heartbeat, because now it beats to a different song, she does three things.
She wakes Beca.
She hugs a sleepy Beca.
She kisses a now quite awake Beca.
V
They are walking together along the coast line. Hand in hand. Feet burying in the sand and occasionally kissed by a less shy wave dying on the beach.
Chloe signals that she wants to stop for a bit by pulling a bit on Beca's hand.
They sit on the sand. And even if it is Summer time there's always this breeze near the Ocean that makes Beca put her right arm around Chloe and bring her closer to keep her warm while Chloe rests her head on Beca's shoulder.
Chloe loves the Ocean. She always thought it was one of the most beautiful things in the world. Now she can only think it is beautiful because Beca is beside her. Everything is prettier and beautiful because Beca is here. With her.
Beca's thoughts are not far from the same road.
She always respected the Ocean and thought it was one of the best musics she ever listened to. The eternal Ocean's Song. The waves. The seagulls. It's one of the many Nature mixes she loves.
But lately, she thinks, she can hear more sounds. Like what she listened to until now was an incomplete work of the Ocean's Song. Now with Chloe besides her she can listen to more sounds, more everything.
Because Beca meant what she wrote those two years ago. Chloe is her favourite mix. Chloe brought even more music to her life.
That's why she quietly takes a pen from her jacket pocket and gestures for Chloe asking for her to let her reach her right arm.
And with tremble fingers, not so because of the breeze, but because of so much more, she writes next to Chloe's ladybug like other times before.
'Will you marry me?'
And if Chloe thought, that those two years ago would be the last time that her heart skipped a beat and would not do it again and start beating to another new song yet...she was so wrong. Because now Chloe realizes that with Beca her heart will always have new songs to learn. To beat for. To love.
Beca can't take her eyes from Chloe's arm. She cannot breath. Those years ago when she found out she couldn't breath right unless she was with Chloe, she never thought it would happen again. But here she is, waiting for Chloe's reaction, holding her breath. Again. And she wants so much to hug Chloe closer to her…
That's when Chloe slowly lifts her head from Beca's shoulder and gestures for Beca to pass her the pen.
Chloe takes Beca right arm and besides her grasshopper she writes amidst falling tears.
'Yes'
