Chapter Two; This is the Road to Ruin

"Ow."

"I haven't even touched you yet."

"You just did!"

"Shh."

Chloe places her index finger on Beca's lips and stares her down over the top of her sunglasses. They've been walking for about half an hour before Beca tries to do one of the dance moves they did at Worlds, only with a somewhat thirty kilogram backpack on her shoulders. So, inevitably, Beca is now sitting on a log with Chloe on the ground, cross-legged, trying to apply an antiseptic wipe to Beca's knee.

"It's gonna sting a little, okay?"

"Yeah, I get tha- OW!" Beca grabs the side of her knee and stands up, hobbling around wincing.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, Jesus Christ! I'd rather dislocate my elbow!" The smaller girl grits her teeth and fans her cut knee. Chloe just looks very amused with herself.

"Come back, I need to put a bandage on it." Chloe rummages through a side compartment of her bag and pulls out a very large first aid kit. Beca hobbles back across to the log she had been sitting on.

"So why is that first aid kit bigger than me?" Beca raises her eyebrows and prods Chloe in the shoulder to make her look at her. Chloe unravels a bandage and starts wrapping it around Beca's bloody knee.

"Well, I figured since I was coming with you, you're more likely to need all this stuff than I am. So here we are, literally thirty minutes into the start and you've already fallen over."

Beca's not buying Chloe's 'irritated' persona.

"Hey, just a matter of time before you hurt yourself, Beale."

Chloe makes eye contact with Beca, her icy blue eyes blazing with the expression of 'you wanna bet?', with the hint of a smirk and it shuts the smaller girl right up since she can't face teasing Chloe when she makes that face, and she's not sure why.

The redhead finishes bandaging up Beca's knees and kneels back to admire her handiwork. "Wow, I should be a doctor. I'd be awesome."

"Right." Beca narrows her eyes at Chloe, who looks at her questioningly, crossing her arms over her chest. The brunette grimaces and sighs, looking at the sky.

"Thankyou," she mutters to herself.

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said thank you. For bandaging me. Can we uh, go now?" Beca is blushing and Chloe bites her tongue, grinning at how cute Beca is being right now.

"Sure, Mitchell. You really hate not being in a position of power, don't you?"

Beca shrugs on her backpack and begins to walk away from Chloe, before turning around and walking backwards.

"What can I say, I'm an absolute beast in bed." She smirks and turns back around.

Chloe just stares after her with her mouth open.

oO0Oo

"Dude, I think we were supposed to take that left turn back there?"

"I'm the one with the map."

"I'm just suggesting, forcibly, that you look at the map."

"Suggesting, forcibly?"

"Look at the map or I'll not let you have any marshmallows."

The speed at which Chloe pulls the map from her back pocket is astonishing.

oO0Oo

"And so the penguin says to the farmer, he's not an eggplant, he's retarded!"

Chloe starts laughing almost to the point of hysteria at her own joke while Beca actually stops walking next to her to face palm several times. But Chloe's laugher is very, very contagious and so Beca is laughing at Chloe, her eyes shining in the sunlight that comes in dapples through the treeline and Chloe isn't laughing as hard right now, because she never quite realised how when Beca's eyes were in the sunlight like that, they were such a deep and mysterious shade of blue. She found herself getting lost in the other girl's eyes and the way that when she laughed, she had these little lines in the side of her eyes that Chloe hadn't really noticed before until now because Beca doesn't really laugh a lot, to be honest. Beca really only laughs when Chloe can make her.

Chloe bites her lower lip and chuckles to herself. "I should have my own TV show."

Beca walks up behind Chloe and raises an eyebrow, smiling. "Yeah, you should."

oO0Oo

Beca is walking along a slightly rocky path sideways to avoid falling over. She's humming under her breath, as both her earphones are pressed into her ears and she's humming what Chloe picks up as Dirty Little Secret by The All-American Rejects. Chloe laughs a little and sings the lyrics to herself, since it brings her memories back from her high school days.

But Chloe can't help but notice the way that Beca sort of sticks her tongue out her mouth a little when she's concentrating, or the way that when her hair falls over her face that she brushes it behind her ears and when it falls back over her, she makes a little pout as though she's annoyed. And Chloe doesn't really realise that she's been analysing everything that Beca's been doing for the past three hours of them walking, and it bothers her a little, because she doesn't know why she's doing it. The redhead bites her lip a little but she's still watching Beca intently, and every time Beca looks up at her she diverts her gaze to somewhere else.

"Dude!"

Chloe nearly walks into her.

"Jesus, why'd you stop walking?"

Chloe's answered with Beca's hand gesture to the scene in front of them. There's a path going down a slope, but further down the slope is a deep set field with a small ravine running through it. There's a stream of crystal clear water and Chloe stands there in silence next to the smaller girl and takes it in for a second.

"Woah."

"I know, right. Wanna stop and eat lunch here?" Beca inquires, biting on a nail.

"Definitely."

oO0Oo

"I'm just saying, I think that Katy Perry has more over Taylor Swift. I mean, boobs, man." Beca indicates to her chest and nods at Chloe, her face having a completely neutral expression, Chloe bursts out laughing, spitting water out her mouth and into the stream they were sitting next to.

"Are you sure you're straight?"

Beca cringes awkwardly and grins. "I'm pretty sure. Well, I think. Doesn't everyone have a thing for Katy Perry?"

"Fair point. But remember at Worlds, you couldn't handle your sexuality with Kommissar, could you?" Chloe teases, gently nudging her best friend with a shoulder while taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Yeah, but have you seen her? She's gorgeous."

Chloe laughs, but can't help but feel a little…jealously? She frowns to herself in confusion and shakes her head.

"Dude, calm down. There's no insects near you."

The older girl purses her lips together and narrows her eyes at Beca, before leaning backwards and lying back on her backpack, staring through the tall sequoia trees and into the bright blue sky. She was enjoying herself and felt her eyelids begin to grow heavy until she hears Beca shuffle a little and her eyes snap open.

"Surprise!" Beca leaps onto her and delves her fingers into Chloe's sides, tickling her ribs.

Chloe squeals and tries to push Beca's hands off of her but the smaller girl is straddling her and she is having way too much fun making Chloe squirm like this. The redhead is laughing and after about a minute she gives up trying to get Beca to stop, but even though her instinct is to make Beca stop, she doesn't really want her to. When the smaller girl does eventually stop, Chloe lets out a little giggle and looks across at her, to see Beca grinning.

"Didn't want ya falling asleep on me, Beale."

"So, you decided to torture me instead?"

Beca rolls her eyes. "Over-exaggeration. No need for dramatics." She grins and Chloe's eyes darken suddenly, so Beca decides it's a good idea for her to take her backpack and run across the stream.

oO0Oo

"What are you doing?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you have a handful of feathers?" Beca makes a face of disbelief at how odd Chloe is being right now. To be honest, she's not really that surprised, but hell, she's just really distracted by the way Chloe's hair is falling over her shoulders right now. The smaller girl thinks about what just ran through her mind just then and she chooses to ignore it.

"I'm collecting feathers."

"For what? In case we want to re-enact Lord of the Flies or something? Make some fletched arrows?"

"Do me a favour and stop reading that survival guide, please."

oO0Oo

Beca has a puzzled expression on her face as she digs her switchblade into a piece of wood she's found on the ground. She's outlined something in it with the edge of her knife but won't let Chloe see it.

"So, you're not going to tell me what you're making?"

"Nope."

"Please, Beca? Pretty please?" The redhead appears in front of her with her best puppy face and Beca's face sets solid and gives the taller girl her best bitchy resting face.

"Nope. It's a surprise. That way, if I mess up I won't have to explain myself."

Chloe pouts.

"No."

oO0Oo

Chloe checked her watch, though she didn't really need to know what the time was. The sun was setting fast across the sky, and they noticed their shadows getting longer and longer. The redhead was saying something to Beca about whether they were going to make it to the campsite on time and Beca was not saying anything to encourage the older girl to panic even more because she was honestly finding this entertaining. However, Chloe was almost on the verge of a mental breakdown, saying something about bears or something before Beca tapped her on the shoulder.

"I mean, what if- what? What?!" She said, apparently annoyed that Beca had stopped her mid-rant.

The brunette pointed to a wooden sign nailed firmly into one of the Sequoia trees.

Blue Moon Campsite
1km

Chloe opened and closed her mouth several times.

"Oh."

Beca just grinned at her and danced away from her, having a surprising amount of energy for the two of them to have been walking all day.

But Chloe just gave herself a shy little smile and watched her.

oO0Oo

Chloe insisted that they pitch their tent on the edge of a ledge, but Beca was making some comment on how 'what if they rolled off and fell down the cliff to their death', which apparently wasn't enough for Chloe to start unrolling the tent fabric next to the ledge that overlooked the valley that they'd walked over the previous hours.

"I just realised," Chloe muses to herself, one of her hands on her hips and the other one tapping a finger on her chin.

"What?" Beca asks, unstrapping the tent poles from Chloe's pack.

"I'm not entirely sure how to put up a tent."

Beca waves her copy of the SAS Survival Book in front of Chloe's face, who dodges her head in fear of being slapped in the face.

"Lucky for you, Beca Grylls is here to the rescue."

Chloe gives Beca the most blank expression before she rolls her eyes.

"If you make one more comment on your survival skills, I will cut you."

The smaller girl just laughs, her eyes sparkling and begins pushing the poles through the tent fabric.

oO0Oo

In a record time of about twenty minutes, Beca has pitched the tent. To be honest, it must be the fastest Beca's ever done about anything, but Chloe doesn't say anything as she's standing fairly close to the edge of the little space of land that they're on right now. Chloe has dragged a log across in front of their tent and made a circle of stones. She's currently making a little tepee of tinder and sticks, surrounded by logs as she gets the fire-starter out of Beca's pack, who's pouring water over herself.

Chloe grits her teeth as she strikes the two rods against each other, and it takes around three or four minutes before she manages to get a spark that lights the tinder inside the fire.

"Boom." She says, holding her hands up to the sky.

Beca raises her eyebrows in appreciation. "Not gonna lie, Beale, I'm impressed." She proceeds to take off her tank top and she squeezes the water out of it. "Ugh," she says as she wipes herself down with the damp material. Chloe can't help but stare at Beca's chest, probably because she's tired, but Beca's so absorbed in cleaning herself that she doesn't notice the older girl looking at her. For some reason Chloe can't comprehend, the brunette does look ever prettier with her hair up in a messy bun and her skin streaked with mud. It takes her away from her otherwise perfect look, when they were back in Los Angeles, and it makes her look more vulnerable and open; something Chloe has always never seen in Beca before.

Chloe turns her attention to the fire, which is already roaring away. She begins to feel the sun setting, rather than see, since the temperature in the air is already dropping and she pulls her hoodie from her pack which was previously wrapped around her shoulder pads to take the pressure off.

Beca pulls out a packet of pasta for the two of them to share and pours it in some water that had been boiling in a metal container over the fire.

"Ugh, my back is killing me," Beca moans as she stands back up, rubbing in-between her shoulder blades with one hand.

"Want a back rub?" Chloe asks, fluttering her eyes meaningfully.

Beca blushes, remembering that memory. "I'm not going to pass that offer up, Chlo."

The smaller girl pulls her sleeping mat out of the tent and lays it on the gravelly floor before laying on it on her stomach. Chloe clicks her fingers before straddling the other girl on her back and she pulls at Beca's bra strap.

"I'm just gonna undo this, mkay?"

"Not like you haven't seen anything before, Beale."

Chloe grins to herself before unhooking Beca's bra and starting to run her hands up and down Beca's spine. She notices the goosebumps along the smaller girls arms and smiles slightly, before starting to rub at her shoulders. Beca lets out a moan.

"Shit, that feels really fucking good." She says, her eyes closed and she bites her lower lip.

Chloe's eyes travel down to Beca's lips and she bites her own. God, she looks so hot. She stops for a moment and gasps to herself. Wait, what the fuck?

"Why'd you stop?"

Chloe winces and starts massaging her lower back. "Sorry, mosquito."

"I hope there are no mosquito guts on my back."

Chloe slaps her lightly on her side before pressing her thumbs in between her shoulder blades and Beca breathes heavier through her nose, obviously enjoying it. But hell, it's making Chloe hot, and the redhead is worrying slightly because she's not felt this weird about something. It's just a backrub, she's given them to Aubrey before and felt fine over them. And sure, she had a thing for Beca but that was two years ago. But she realises that she's never really gotten over it.

Beca swallows suddenly and Chloe looks down. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just starving. Wanna eat?"

Chloe pulls Beca's bra back together and she hooks it back, biting her lower lip.

oO0Oo

Beca was cleaning up their eaten food in the stream that was near them while Chloe filled their water bottles up. It was around 10:30pm, but it was still very hot from the heat of the previous day.

"Say, Beca?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna sleep outside tonight? We have the tent if it rains or something, but it's probably too damn hot to sleep inside tonight."

Beca looks across at Chloe and nods softly.

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

oO0Oo

Beca lay next to Chloe, looking up at the sky and she notices all the little stars in the sky.

"See that?" Chloe is pointing to a series of stars in the darkness.

"That kinda line shape?"

"Yeah. That's The Plough. It points to the Pole Star which should be…" she ran her finger across the sky to land on a single star, further away from any of the other. "There."

So Chloe is talking about all the constellations that her father had taught her when she was a kid, and Beca is listening, truly, she is, but she can't help but look across at Chloe's eyes, and how excited she is to talk about something she's truly in love with, astronomy and the sky.

Beca's eyes keep running from the sky to Chloe's eyes, and how they're lighting up and sparking and they keep looking at Beca, and how they make the smaller girl feel all warm inside because they're so beautiful.

"Beca, you're not looking at the sky. Can't you see how beautiful it is?"

The brunette can't shake these feelings from her head, and it's almost like she's drowning in this weird sea of emotions for Chloe right now and she shakes her head.

"No, I am looking."

She lies back down again and stares back up at the sky. She loves the stars, and how beautiful they are, but their sparkling is nothing compared with the sparkling ignited in Chloe's eyes.

A/N: This is the longest effing chapter I've ever written and it's not even that long sigh