Chapter 4-Keep an Eye on the Keycard, Beca

By the time Chloe had returned, Beca had gone to sleep. Or so she made out, since the younger girl was in bed, her back towards Chloe. The redhead keeps herself quiet as she changes out of her top and jeans and into a shirt, before climbing into bed next to Beca.

"Chloe? Chlo what's wrong?"

Chloe's sitting on the end of the walkway outside the casino, her head in her hands as she sobs to herself.

Aubrey's drunk, but she's stable enough to see that her best friend is upset.

"Chlo, talk to me."

The redhead looks up at Aubrey, her makeup smudged and her blue eyes gleaming with hurt.

"I-I have these weird feelings. I don't know. It just, it fucking hurts Bree, it hurts."

Aubrey sits down next to the redhead who has her head in her hands and she's crying, loud sobs that make her body shake with each one as Aubrey wraps her arms around the redhead.

"I have no idea what you're even talking about, but I'm here for you, Chlo."

The redhead lets out a little laugh, and Aubrey smiles.

"This doesn't have anything to do with the midget, does it?"

Chloe wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. "It's got everything to do with Beca Mitchell."

The blonde pauses for a second, having to swallow an insult towards Beca in some way, but she manages to do it and she then gives Chloe a puzzled look.

"Wait, feelings? Oh God, you're not-"

Chloe holds up her hand. "I don't know, alright? Just let me work this out. I don't know, I just don't know." She repeats to herself, standing up, a little shaky.

Aubrey looks at her with a concerned expression and she swallows nervously. "Do you need any help, Chlo?"

The redhead shakes her head, sniffing and wiping the rest of her makeup tears from her face. "No. I'm gonna go back to the hotel room with Beca. Night, Bree. Don't like, die or something."

The blonde laughed. "You concerned about me?"

Chloe shook her head. "No, it would just be really inconvenient to my life if you died. And it would ruin the trip. So no thanks." She holds her hand up in a half wave as Stacie comes out of the casino, her top half hanging off her as she drags Aubrey to her feet and pulls her back, saying something excitedly to her.

So Chloe heads back to the hotel room, her thoughts swirling though her head, making her more confused than she already way before.

oO0Oo

The next morning, Chloe wakes up and her hand has somehow found her way into Beca's grasp. She's suddenly panicking, especially after last night, but she then realises that it's Beca holding her hand, not vice versa. The older girl swallows, feeling slightly awkward and she knows that Beca's a heavy sleeper so she pulls her hand out of the other girl's grip and the smaller girl rolls over and curls up on her side.

Normally Chloe would probably leap on her, to wake her up, but not today.

Beca wakes up a little while later, to hear Chloe taking a shower and she rolls over, her arms searching the other side of the bed for coolness since she's burning up. She moans, and holds the back of her hand to her head as the light pours in through the window and she's annoyed that she's decided to wake up this early. She's probably getting it from Chloe, to be honest.

Chloe.

Shit.

She remembers the previous night in flashes and she's suddenly groaning and holding her head in her hands while she sits up in bed. She cocoons herself in the bedsheets, pulling them over her head and cringes to herself. The brunette grimaces to herself. I can't believe I said all that stupid shit to Chloe in the first place. She thought, shutting her eyes in frustration. I didn't even mean it. I just let the stupid alcohol get to my head. Well, I meant it, but you made it seem like you were in love with her, for God's sake. She gave herself a little laugh. In love with Chloe? Right. Of course.

The redhead comes out the bathroom then, and they make eye contact for an uncomfortable amount of time before Chloe opens her mouth, but no words manage to come out. Beca shakes her head.

"Look, sorry I got all emotional on your ass last night, Chlo. I didn't mean it. I mean, I was standing up for you and everything, but I made it sound a bit weird and like we were more than friends. Which I don't intend for. So, can we just kinda, ignore it?" Beca said, her eyes fixated on Chloe's expression.

Chloe managed to hide her hurt excruciatingly well, even from Beca. "Yeah, sure, Becs." She says softly and she manages a smile, before pulling some clothes on herself.

Beca unwraps the sheets from around herself and she winks at Chloe. "Alright. I'm gonna shower, and we'll be good to go in twenty minutes?"

oO0Oo

An hour later (because apparently Beca's eyeliner has to be perfect), the Bellas converge in the downstairs lobby and they're apparently all late anyway, judging by the fact that Aubrey, although she normally looked pretty on point, she looked hammered. And Stacie was wearing this sort of gloat around her every time she looked at Aubrey, and Beca couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"So, Beca, did you?" Stacie inquired.

"No."

"Bu-"

"No, Stacie."

"Huh?" Beca grinned at Chloe's rather frazzled expression but avoided any further questioning.

The rest of the day involved visiting various attractions, including the Las Vegas Springs Reserve which Beca spent most of the time complaining about because there was just a bunch of plants, but she was quickly shut up when she found out Chloe had a thing for orchids. Well, they were pretty, she guesses, so she buys Chloe a little red orchid from the shop, to match her hair, she says. Beca has no idea of the effect that she has on Chloe Beale, the way that the younger girl will go out of her way to make Chloe happy, and even these little things like gift buying make the redhead ecstatic for the other girl, and the thing is that even though Chloe hates it, she loves it so much at the same time. These feelings, whatever they are, they're killing her inside, but they're making her feel so damn alive.

Beca on the other hand, was noticing a change in the relationship between them. Chloe was a clingy person, yes, but she was being slightly clingier than usual. Beca didn't really mind, since the two of them didn't really have persona space issues, but the brunette was noticing a definite change of character in Chloe. She wasn't sure if she liked it, but overall it did make her feel better since she craved attention, even if it didn't come off that way. So when she got attention from Chloe, she was starting to feel all…warm inside.

The two were doing their usual hand-holding routine that made the other Bellas exchange excited glances as they walked down the path of the gardens together and Chloe looks so at home here, looking around at all the colourful plants and trees.

"Why plants?" Beca asks her, swinging their hands a little.

"I grew up in the country, and I liked to plant a lot of my own things. My dad didn't really appreciate it, he always wanted me to be more like my brothers, who'd go camping with him and he complained too much that I was too much like my mother. But I just liked the pretty flowers, and I wanted to just be responsible for planting something and growing it, giving it life, you know?" Chloe said in a surprisingly even voice, even though it was quite emotional for her to talk about.

"I getcha." Beca says, smiling, giving Chloe's hand a little squeeze.

"Beca." Chloe's hand fell out of Beca's as she stopped walking.

"Mm?"

"What you said, about last night-"

Beca bit her lip. "I thought we were gonna ignore it."

Chloe gave her a little nod. "Yeah, it's just you said something. You said I was the best person in your life. But it doesn't really all add up."

Beca's heart was beating a little faster. "What do you mean?"

The older girl swallowed. "It's just that, you know so much about me, like, you can't help that since I kinda have to tell someone everything about me for me to feel comfortable. But I don't know so much about you, because you're so far away from everyone all the time. It's like you try to detach yourself from everyone, and I don't get it." Chloe had to cut herself off at that point before she ended up saying something else at the end of it.

Beca sighed. "I'm sorry, Chloe. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me, and I'm not just saying that, I really mean it, okay? I've just never opened up to anyone before, and I promise I will when I'm ready, Chlo. And I'll tell you all the shit in my life when I can, okay?"

Chloe smiles. "Okay."

oO0Oo

Later on in the day, the Bellas all returned to the hotel. They'd decided to come back early so they could go swimming in the pool of their hotel since the day had been so hot. Beca and Chloe raced each other childishly, Chloe taking the stairs and Beca taking the lift. The redhead ended up winning, but she practically looked like she was going to pass out, so Beca carried her on her back to their hotel room. The two changed into their swimwear, Chloe in a pale blue bikini and Beca in a predictable black one. They wrapped their towels around their shoulders and made their way down to the pool outside.

It wasn't particularly that busy, since most of the people staying there would be out at a later dinner by now. It was around 8pm, and the Bellas had already eaten on their way back, so they had until as long as they wanted to enjoy the pool.

Aubrey, Stacie and Amy were hogging the hot tub and weren't budging. "So much for swimming," Emily mutters as she marches past Beca and Chloe as the two laughed at her frustration.

"Hey, Chloe, what's that?"

"Huh? Ahh!"

There was a shriek followed by a splash as Beca pushed Chloe into the pool. The brunette stood about, laughing her ass off at Chloe's absolutely outraged expression on her face and Beca just stuck her tongue out in the most child-like manner before cannonballing into the pool next to Chloe. It ended up being a whole new level of a splashing war, before Chloe leapt onto Beca, as the younger girl played being a whale. Or was trying to be anyway, since she was having quite a tough time holding Chloe up as well as breathing herself.

Eventually, the two were tired out and they were sitting on a ledge inside the pool, chatting with one another.

"But I mean, c'mon, you gotta be all for The Joker. I mean, Batman's great but The Joker is a classic villain. He's unique, and he's got a great way with jokes." Beca winks at Chloe.

"Catwoman, though."

"Oh, damn yeah. Or Harley Quinn? Not gonna lie, Harley Quinn could turn me."

Chloe holds her hair up in two pigtails. "Can I turn you?"

Beca laughs. "Funny, Beale."

The redhead bites her lip and smiles across at Beca. The brunette narrows her eyes a little, because she didn't quite comprehend how pretty Chloe actually looks right now, with her damp messy hair and in her bikini, her slightly smudged makeup and her eyes. Oh, her eyes. Beca feels a pull at her heart whenever she looks into Chloe Beale's eyes, and she doesn't know what it is but it gives her so much will to just kiss he-

What? Beca cried in her head.

"You look like you're having a seizure." Chloe tilted her head at Beca.

Beca swallowed hard, and Chloe just looked at her more intently, apparently unaware of the effect she was having on the smaller girl. Beca felt her heart rate increase and she knew she had to move soon.

"Hey, I'm gonna go shower in our room. I'll uh, catch you later?" Beca said quickly before standing up and getting out of the pool. Chloe just looked across at her as she wrapped her towel around herself and walked speedily back into the hotel.

Beca had just about reached the hotel room as she reached into the pocket of her bag for the keycard, only to find it wasn't there. "Shit," Beca muttered to herself, rummaging through several pockets of her bag.

"Looking for this?"

Beca looked up to see Chloe holding the card, and forced a smile. "Yeah, thanks Chloe."

Chloe walked across to Beca and handed the keycard to her, but when Beca took it, she didn't let go.

"Uh, Chlo?"

Chloe's own clear blue eyes flicked between Beca's as she stood inches away from Beca's face. "You have really beautiful eyes." Chloe breathed, causing goosebumps to run through the smaller girl.

"T-thanks. Y-you too?" She replied, uncertainly.

The redhead swallowed before she took the back of Beca's neck in her hand.

"I'm sorry Beca, but I have to do this." She whispered before she leant forward and pressed her soft lips on Beca's.

It took a while for the younger girl to work out what was happening, but she suddenly realised and she dropped her towel and her bag on the floor to take Chloe's jaw in her hand. Her heart was racing as she felt Chloe's electric touch of her lips on hers and fuck, she was a good kisser. Beca had no idea what she was doing but she loved every second of it and she opened her mouth a little more to allow the kiss to deepen. Chloe's tongue slid into her mouth and the smaller girl was running her hand down the redhead's back, dragging her nails down her spine as Chloe suddenly pulled away.

Beca gasped a little, not wanting the kiss to end but she looked back up at Chloe, her pupils dilated.

"Why'd you stop?" Beca asked, pulling on Chloe's bikini to bring her closer. The redhead put the keycard in the door and opened it.

"So I could do this," Chloe breathed huskily before forcing Beca backwards into the hotel room, grabbing the back of her head and kissing her roughly.

Beca had no idea what she was doing, but Christ, she didn't want it to stop.

A/N: Um I think the next chapter calls for smut ngl apologies in advance for being such a dirty mofo (will change ratings next chapter)