"Hey babe," Jesse called out to Beca who was hunched over her laptop under her *their* tree on the quad. He noticed she had one earphone in and the other swung violently against her chest as she turned to see him sitting down.
Grinning, he set out a matching blanket to Beca's (he bought them hoping she'd secretly steal one, which she did) and laid it partly on top of hers, claiming their square of area on the grass.
She deserted the earphone opting to watch him settle onto the tartan. He rummaged through his backpack with a frown on his face which stretched into a smirk when he finally handed her a juice pouch.
It's become routine since that first day, when his heart shattered at the discovery of her lack of relationship with movies, to bring her juice pouches ('As long as their grape!' she would remind him every time even though he never forgot) and his laptop even if they never watched anything.
"Thank you." She mumbled through gritted teeth which pulled at the little plastic straw stuck to the side of the drink.
It's his turn to watch her then, and Jesse smiles stupidly at the way she sighs in defeat at the kids drink and gives it a long disapproving look in advance to tearing at it in one final effort. It comes off and Beca's expression is one of triumph.
He desperately tried to conceal his laughter into his own drink, knowing that she would bite at him if she caught him laughing at her. He must've done a shit job because she narrowed her eyes and took a long sip, never breaking eye contact. She's testing him; seeing if he'll crack under the pressure of her gaze, but he holds it confidently. He's learnt to challenge her in the years they've been together because no way was she going to be getting her way all the time. They sat there for a full thirty seconds before he waggled his eyebrows suggestively and she broke into a smile that did all kind of things to Jesse's heart.
"You're such a weirdo." She muttered to herself, focus now back on the screen in front of her, earphone back in.
Jesse smirked over the juice pouch he was sipping casually (he knew she could see him out the corner of her eye) and moved so his back was against the rough bark of the stump. Their bodies were pressed tightly against each other, not an inch of their sides not touching. He picks up the abandoned bud and the sound of a mix he doesn't recognise filled his head.
They listened together until it finished and she gazed up at him seeking approval.
"It's really good Beca," he's sincere when it comes to her music which she's thankful for. "I think that's got to be one of my favourites." he said staring back at her.
She didn't say thank you, just lifted her mouth to his knowing he understood the meaning behind it. She pulled away first leaving Jesse to pout like a four year old giving the impression that he's deprived of her kisses (which is as far from the truth as it can get).
Beca, having saved the mix, moved the laptop onto the tartan so she can face him, legs crossed so they touched his left thigh.
"So my presence was requested?" she jests poking at his arm through the smooth cotton of his t-shirt.
"I actually wanted to talk to you about something." Jesse's voice resounded clearly and seriously. Beca felt her heart begin to race in response and resisted the urge to press a hand to her chest in an attempt to calm it.
She made a noise urging him to continue, sipping at the drink, when he pauses for a moment in thought.
"How do you feel about going to a wedding this weekend with me?" he asks slowly eyes scanning her face for any recognition of emotion. Shock? Panic? Anger?
She muses over the question for all of eight seconds before locating a kiss to his chin. "Okay." Her quick response had him taken aback at first. Since when was Beca reasonable about anything?
Normally they'd fall into a small spat for a few minutes, her stubbornness forcing him to guilt her into agreeing but this time…nothing. Then he remembered that she's not the same freshman he fell in love with three years previous. She was still Beca, but in her time at Barden she had matured; ditched the ear spike for a more suitable bar (much to Aubrey's delight) and was more inclined to be reasonable about things, as Jesse had just discovered.
"Are you sure?" he questioned curiously and she rolled her eyes habitually. He had to be sure for her sake.
"One hundred percent." A hand snakes its way around her lower back and she leans into his side.
"You're in a scarily good mood today. I don't know how to deal with this version of you."
"What's not to be happy about? One more year and then we're free from this place Jess. We can finally begin life together properly." Jesse smiled at the thought of Beca wanting to spend her life with him.
"This does feel a lot different knowing that by the end of the year we will never have to return here again, but you're relaxed to the point of me questioning whether you had secret get together with the high notes before I came over." He feels her shrug against him.
"I'm over tired maybe from travelling- I don't know. I'm just happy, okay?" She said exasperated.
"Okay. I'm not complaining!" he defended with his arms raised. "I kind of like this new Beca; she's hot." He breathed the last part into her ear and she started to question whether the thin navy cardigan she was wearing was at all necessary.
She elbowed him in the side, hard, and contemplated making a sarcastic comment back like she usually would but didn't even get the chance to decide against it because when he groaned dramatically at the impact and buried his face in her hair, his plan unfolded.
In the blink of an eye, she was underneath him staring up at a grinning idiot. Her back pressed uncomfortably into the ground and she was sure there was a rock lodged in her spine through the blanket.
"If you keep smiling like that, your teeth will fall out." And sassy Beca was back. Jesse teased her by smiling harder to the point where his cheeks ached and she just shook her head amused.
"You're such an idiot."
"I know."
He dipped his head and caught her lips in his. She sighed into his mouth and ran her fingers through the short hair at the back of his head, the way she knew drove him crazy. He let a barely audible moan slip out and Beca ran her tongue teasingly along his bottom lip. He was putty in her hands and she knew it. So when he backed away from her addictive touch and glared at the smirking brunette, he was met with a look too innocent to be one of earnestness.
He brought them into a much more PG sitting position and gave her fingers a disappointed squeeze.
"You're such a tease." He grumbled down into their linked hands that settled in the space between them.
"Want to say that louder?" She tried him and his lips twitched. He couldn't keep a straight face for shit unlike Beca who had mastered the twenty four hour resting bitch face. But he still tried; eyes near enough scrunched closed, mouth pressed in a firm line he tried, and failed.
If there was one thing Beca admired about Jesse, apart from his abs because damn, it was his resilience. In the two years they'd been together exclusively (the word dating made her gag), she'd ridden out the highs and the lows with him and not even a handful of times had she seen him falter.
Of course there were exceptions. Being threatened with expulsion from a particularly malicious professor, after he'd forgotten to hand in his ten page essay on the deadline, had him in tears one night. Having no idea what to do, Benji had called Beca desperately and upon arrival minutes later she found a very bad tempered Jesse crying angry hot tears throwing popcorn in the general direction of his mouth.
Silently she kicked off her boots, turned the volume of Star Wars up on his laptop and slipped into the covers, her head nuzzled under his chin. He relaxed into her then, and all was forgotten about.
She woke the next morning to find him stooped over his desk where his laptop had moved to. He never moved until lunch time when he proudly presented the paper to Beca, who spent the time busying herself drying her hair from the shower she crept out to take. They went to hand it in together, smiling, laughing on the way out of the class at the way his teacher stood impressed at his quick bounce-back.
The point is, he got an A.
She was brought back into the present day by the tugging of her hair, "Beca!" her eyes snapped to the goofball waving his arms dramatically in front of her face. "Are we going to get lunch or what because I'm starving?"
And another thing about Jesse; he loved food.
She nodded and began packing up her laptop. He helped her off the floor because chivalry wasn't dead in his eyes and they made their way across campus to their favourite sandwich shop, matching blankets sticking out of their backpacks.