Disclaimer: I do not own Pitch Perfect, or any of the movies mentioned (Inception, 2010)

Beca buckles in her seatbelt and looks expectantly at Jesse, who was staring at her with big eyes. Her brows squeeze together and she leans away from his face, only earning a poke on the nose.

"What?"

"Should the little girl be in the back? In a car seat?"

Beca finds herself rolling her eyes, and turns to slap him on the chest. "You're taking this way too seriously, Swanson. It's a fake baby."

"I wasn't talking about the doll." Her jaw sharply clenches, making him chuckle.

"That was rude. I'm not that short!"

"Really? Are you sure?" He joked, only earning him another smack. "Hey! No distracting the driver! I can't have the mother of my children be the cause of a road accident!"

She raises an eyebrow, but nods. "Fair enough."

He's just a little happy on the inside. Just a little.

"Will a game be too much of a distraction for you, nerd?" She asks.

"I guess it depends on the game."

"Alright, how about twenty questions? You start."

He gets his mind chugging as well as keeping his focus on the road ahead of him. He thinks for a bit before coming up with something.

"I think I'm ready." He nods as she opens her mouth.

"Is it a person?"

"No."

"Is it a place?"

"No."

"So it's a thing?"

"Yep."

His head turns slightly to her direction, glancing at her concentrated face.

"Is it a juice pouch?"

"Dammit, how did you know?"

"Lucky guess." She smirks triumphantly. "My turn!"

Her stomach growls over the rumble of the tires rolling over the rough cement underneath. She licks her lips as her mind settles on something for the game.

"Is it a thing?"

"Yeah."

"Is it food?"

She frowns. "...No."

"Is it spicy?"

"Nope."

"Sweet?"

Her teeth clench, which he takes as a "yes".

"Is it a red velvet cupcake?"

She groans, and he starts laughing. "Too predictable."

"Hey! I was going easy on you. And look who's talking." She shoves his shoulder lightly, laughing alongside him.

"Oh, before we start another round, I should probably warn you about my parents. Hopefully, they're not at home but just in case..." A stoplight turns red, signaling Jesse to step on the brake. "My dad is pretty easy-going, but you probably don't wanna see him mad. My mom's probably going to do everything in her power to embarrass me, but she doesn't mean to. At least I don't think she does? She rambles a lot."

She gives him a playful look. "Sounds like you. They don't sound that bad. I mean, at least you get to see them everyday."

A mixture of confusion and concern crosses his face, his eyes staring at her regretful expression. She bites her lip angrily, immediately regretting the words that just came out of her mouth. She awkwardly turns her gaze to the road in front of them, realizing that the light was green. "Um, Jess?" She gently elbows his side, snapping him out of his trance. His foot flies to the gas pedal just as the doll starts crying again. She's hovering her ID bracelet over the doll, then takes care of the doll in order for it to shut up, when suddenly they're parked in the driveway of a two-story, light blue shingled house with a bed of blue and purple pansies planted along the front. Jesse's house looked just like the page of a 'Better Homes' magazine.

He clears his throat, returning Beca back to reality.

"Well, are you coming or not?" His tone is friendly and warm, which Beca assumes is an attempt to kill the awkward vibe in the car.

"Sorry." They exit the car and they follow the stone path to his doorway, where he pulls out his keys and opens the door.

"Mom?" He calls as he pokes his head through the door. When they hear no reply, they enter the house and take off their shoes. Beca immediately notices the multiple frames covering the walls, which gave a nice family feel to the house. She follows him to the attic, and he starts digging into some dusty boxes for the doll clothes. All the while, Beca's sitting down on a ragged couch with the doll, watching him. After a few minutes, he finds what he was looking for and lays each clothing article on the couch, letting Beca pick. She takes the pair of little overalls and puts it on the fake baby, feeling an overwhelming flood of childhood memories wash over her. She loved dressing up dolls when she was a kid, it put her mind off her parents' fighting. She liked playing with them and pretending that they lived in a nice family, like the ones she saw on TV. It was temporary relief for a permanent problem.

"Ellie looks nice." Jesse comments, momentarily taking Beca out of her memories. She blinks at him, then smiles, nodding.

"I have good taste, that's why. Denim overalls are always in." She laughs. The two walk back to his living room, plopping down on the velvety couch.

"These bracelets make me feel badass! Like I'm in prison or something!" Jesse remarks, tapping the ID bracelet and smirking. Beca rolls her eyes and stares at Ellie, marveling at how grossly lifelike it was.

"Jesse, honey? Is that you?"

A woman who was about a foot shorter than Jesse peeks her head into the room, sighing in relief at the sight of her son. "This is a surprise! Who's this beautiful young woman?" She asks as she approaches them, a warm smile on her face.

"We got kicked out of the library, so we decided to come out here. Mom, this is Beca." He introduces. Beca gets up to shake the woman's hand but instead gets sucked into a warm hug. "Uh, hi Mrs. Swanson." She says awkwardly, her words muffled in her graying hair.

"Call me Jill, sweetheart." She let's go and goes to give a kiss on Jesse's cheek when she notices the swaddled doll in his arms. Her eyes switches focus from Jesse to Beca, her jaw hanging slightly open ajar.

"Is this your..."

"No! It's fake, see." She quickly shows the older woman the doll's face, feeling embarrassed.

"Oh no, sweetie. I was going to ask if that was your fake baby, for the project." She laughs, making Beca's cheeks flush with color. "We've heard a lot about you from Jesse here. I think he'd mention if you had a baby or not." She winks, causing Jesse to groan.

"Mom."

"A lot? About me? Like what?" Beca asks, smirking at Jesse. She genuinely wanted to know, though. She's never talked about Jesse with her mother, albeit that she was never at home. She's only ever talked about Jesse with Chloe (Stacie and Amy did not count) after she bugged her tirelessly during one of their sleepovers after Valentines Day. Beca made the mistake of bringing Jesse up while Chloe was rambling about her new boyfriend, promptly making the redhead drop the subject to talk about Jesse. It was the first time Beca decided to speak up about the boy, and, for some reason, it greatly relieved her. And it helped that Chloe Beale was an excellent listener.

"Oh, Beca! Tom's the cutest. He does this thing with his hands and he just brings them up to mine and—"

"Oh yeah, Jesse does that too. Well not that, but he takes his thumbs and he rubs them together when he's really nervous..." She shows Chloe the gesture, missing the redhead's growing smile. She looks up just as Chloe's grin reaches its max and immediately her arms fall back to her sides, already regretting what she had done.

"You interrupted me! You never interrupt me, especially to talk about something you don't like talking about." Chloe stares at the fumbling brunette, her smile shrinking. "The topic called Jesse."

Beca blinks at the energy-filled girl and sighs as she scoops up a handful of popcorn and stuffs one by one into her mouth. She shakes her head, her mouth full of the buttery goodness. She swallows her last piece before finally speaking. "No, Chlo. I told you—"

"No, I get it. I won't bother you about it. Just, please Beca, you should tell me something about him. Now that I have to share my best friend I should probably learn a thing or two about my competition." Chloe pouts to an unmoving Beca. "I get that you don't like when I tease you about him, or uh, mention him. I just want to know what's going on in your life, you know? You're my best friend. And it's obvious that he's become a big part of your life. Well, if not big, a significant part, I guess." She gives her a sheepish smile, making Beca sigh.

"Okay, Chloe. Just, don't make this a big deal, alright?" She sighs, which perks the redhead up. "Jesse... Well, I don't know. He's Jesse." Beca tries as she bites the inside of her cheek, thinking hard. "He's a friend, and I hope this doesn't sound like I'm being cocky or self-assertive or whatever, but it's easy to tell that he has some sort of crush on me. I usually ignore it, and I guess he doesn't seem to mind, I hope. He knows his limits, and I like that about him. He's a nerd, and he likes juice pouches and movies. He likes annoying me... But I'm okay with it, I think. He can be really sweet, but he can be kind of an asshole too. He makes me watch movies with him during lunch, and once I fell asleep on him during one of his favorites, and he got mad at me but he didn't make fun of me for falling asleep. He gets when I don't wanna be bothered with, and he knows what to do when I'm having a bad day. On those days, he doesn't make me watch those stupid movies and he lets me eat his cupcakes that were meant for him. He doesn't ask me anything too personal, it's like he knows that I won't open up that much to him. He just likes talking to me, and it's nice I guess. I like talking to him. He's kind of got a big ego, but he's still a big dumbass. He makes my days a little more bearable, when he's not being dumb."

"You know that Benji guy? The one with the cape that almost caught on fire at homecoming your senior year?" Chloe nods. "He's sorta our friend too. He asked me and Jesse to keep an eye out on his date at the pizza parlor slash arcade with this one girl, because he was scared he'd mess up. He didn't, and me and Jesse ended up getting really competitive over the games. I bet him that if I won, he'd be my slave and I'd be able to get out of those dumb movications— movie-education— for a week, and he bet that if he won, he'd be my partner for that baby project that's coming up in health."

"Did you win?"

Beca sighs and crinkles her nose in disgust. "No. We were tag-teaming and Benji ended up being really good at laser tag." Beca pauses, pondering for more words to say. When none come up, she simply shrugs and stares at Chloe, waiting for an absurd amount of squealing.

"He sounds like a great friend, Beca. I'm glad he's in your life. You know, to fill in the gaps when I'm not around." Chloe winks, making the younger girl smile just a bit.

"Oh, you know... He was talking to Maddie earlier this week and—" Mrs. Swanson starts, only to have Jesse interrupt.

"Mom."

"Did I say something to embarrass you? I'm sorry, honey. Do you two need anything? Some snacks, drinks?"

"Just some juice pouches, thanks mom." He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, making Beca snicker. Mrs. Swanson leaves the two alone again, and Jesse gets up and pulls a board game out off their bookshelf. She raises an eyebrow as he sets the pieces up.

"Checkers? Seriously?"

"Seriously. Could you set the rest up? I need to run to the bathroom really quick." Before she could respond, he runs out of the room, making her snicker. She sloppily lays each piece on the proper square finishing in just under a minute. Her eyes wander over to the end table next to her seat on the couch, examining each picture. Her eyes set onto a particular picture of a younger Jesse, who was playing the piano on a brightly lit stage. Next to the frame was another one, except it contained a picture of him holding an award of some sort, with his parents smiling proudly next to him.

"Ah, that was Jesse when he was nine." She doesn't notice when Mrs. Swanson (or, she should say Jill) comes back carrying two juice pouches and a tray of those chocolate cookies that she loved so much. The older woman offers her the juice pouch and sets the tray on the coffee table. "He won first place at the state-wide piano competition for youth. It was his first time, getting first." She smiles fondly at the memory.

"Jesse's never mentioned playing the piano before."

This seems to take Mrs. Swanson by surprise. "Really? Well, he's only ever competed at state level, nothing big. Just a handful every couple of years. He has a recital in about a month, we'd love if you could come." She offers the younger woman, who smiles back at her beaming face.

"I'd love to come."

His mother picks up another frame, this time it's just of Jesse, maybe around ten, with a goofy grin on his face and a large apron around his waist with a rolling-pin in his hands.

"I hope you enjoy those treats Jesse makes. He's wonderful in the kitchen."

"Wait, what?" Beca's genuinely taken aback at the news.

"He's the one who makes all of those red velvet cupcakes! And these cookies, too!"

Her jaw is slightly open ajar, unable to process this information.

"He said that you make those!"

"Mom! You just gave me away." Jesse suddenly appears, surprising both of the women. A fat corgi comes running through the doorway, immediately making its way to Beca's side and sniffing her carefully. She jumps a little at the sudden dog invasion, but relaxes and pets the happy lump of fur.

"Sorry, sweetie. I don't see what the big fuss is about! You know what they say, the way to a woman's heart is through her stomach!" Mrs. Swanson winks, making Jesse groan. Beca, however, seems to enjoy every bit of his embarrassment. The dog next to her wags his tail happily, also seemingly enjoying Jesse's embarrassment (or, that's what Beca likes to think, anyway).

"Huh... Or is it the other way around?" The phone rings, causing Mrs. Swanson to excuse herself, relieving Jesse greatly.

"Alright, go ahead."

"What? Make fun of you for baking? That's not a bad thing, you know. It doesn't hurt that you're actually pretty good at it, too."

"Is this real life? I never thought I'd see the day where Beca Mitchell actually compliments me. This day will surely go down in history." He smirks, only making Beca smack him.

"You never told me you played, nerd." She brings up, taking Jesse aback.

"Yeah, well, you never asked." He shrugs, reaching by his side to pet Spike.

She bites her lip, her eyes flickering over from him to the piano in his livingroom. "You should play, like, right now." She was hesitant in asking him, but she was really curious. She could only assume that he was good, considering that he won his first, state-wide competition at age nine. "I mean, only if you want to. I don't know if you're one of those people who has a weird ritual or whatever they go through..."

"Believe it or not, I happen to not be one of those people. Sorry to disappoint you." He gives her a wry smile before removing himself off the couch and onto the piano bench. He brushes his fingers against the smooth, white keys, not pressing down, but turning to Beca instead. "I'm not that good." He warns her, his tone light, but Beca could detect the insecurity and nervousness in it, only taking her by surprise. She raises an eyebrow and opens her mouth to argue against it before he starts playing a sweet melody, his fingers pressing each key with grace and skill, each note followed beautifully by another. She closes her mouth, letting the music fill her ears, the melody calming and beautiful, chilling her insides. It was nothing fancy, but beautiful nonetheless. She sits there on the couch, with the fat Swanson family dog by her side and the fake baby on her lap. He steadily stops playing after a minute or so, Beca can't quite tell. She was too invested in the music to notice how long it had been. She's speechless, but she fights to keep a calm demeanor. It's a couple of minutes until she finally decides to look him in the eye, his Adam's apple bobbing trembling slightly. She notices that he's fiddling with his hands, his thumbs rubbing circles against each other, which she recognizes as one of his little quirks she's come to love and tease him about. She could usually tell what he was thinking whenever she caught him doing that. But this time, she can't seem to put together

It's a minute or so when she finally chooses to open her mouth, her blue eyes meeting his expectant gaze. "I... Wow." Is all she says, and she swears she sees his muscles loosen up underneath that plaid flannel he was wearing.

"You're far from good, Jesse. That was impressive." She claps lightly as he takes a bow in his seat.

"Two compliments from Beca Mitchell in a row, this is too good to be true." He's got a smug smile on his face, only making her roll her eyes.

"Don't let it get to that big head of yours, Swanson. Your ego's big enough." She grins as he's making his way back to the couch, still smiling. Ellie the fake baby starts crying, startling the two of them (and Spike, who yelps ands runs away, disheartening Beca and leaving her side cold). Once they take care of the thing (the thing needed a diaper change, which took longer than it should because Jesse insisted on checking if it needed to be fed first), they lounge around lazily, eating cookies in comfortable silence.

It's finally Friday afternoon, and after class Jesse hands the doll (in the midst of it crying) over to Beca before fleeing without much of a word to her, angering the brunette. She's forced to shut the thing up before leaving the school, annoyed that he dared do that to her. She changes its diaper for a few brief minutes and heads home, plopping her stuff (not the doll, though. She gently flings that onto a pillow) onto the floor before collapsing on the couch, sighing deeply and closing her eyes. Just as she starts feeling herself dozing off, the sound of the beginnings of Ellie the fake baby's muffled cries disturbs her, her eyes still closed with a frown on her lips. She sits up, hovers her ID bracelet over its chest and waits for the beep before reaching for her bag on the floor. Sticking a hand in a pocket of her bag, she immediately grabs hold of a diaper and attempts to change it, only having its cries continue to drone on and grow louder. Frustrated, she sticks her hand back into her bag, scrambling to find the stupid bottle of milk to get the thing to shut up. She dumps the contents of her bag onto the floor, suddenly aware that the bottle was missing.

Well, shit.

Jesse Swanson is an actual idiot.

Beca's frantic now. It's been more than two minutes and the weird internal technology is recording every second of it, both annoying and freaking her out. Quickly, she dials the idiot's number and presses the phone up to the source of the baby's crying, all the while putting him on speaker.

"Hel— What the..."

"Do you hear that, Jesse?"

"Obviously! Aren't you going to, uh, you know... Take care of it?"

"I should, shouldn't I? But unfortunately, I can't."

"And why is that?"

"I DON'T HAVE THE FUCKING BOTTLE." She yells over the stupid doll's stupid, annoying crying to the idiot boy over the phone.

"What do you mean you don't have the bottle? Of course you have the bottle. It sure as hell isn't with me!"

She's seething now. "If I had the bottle, maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't be calling you right now."

"Bec, you're being ridiculous. It's probably in your bag— Oh."

What.

An.

Idiot.

"I'll be over in five minutes." He hangs up first, probably too scared to hear her response, she figures. She grabs the doll and buries it under a plethora of couch cushions, temporarily blocking out its screams. She rubs her temples with the base of her thumbs and goes into the kitchen, finds a bag of tortilla chips and a container of hummus, and goes back into the living room. She turns the television on in an attempt to drown out the doll's wailing, now just annoyed instead of worried about her grade going down the toilet. After a good five minutes, she gets up and opens the door just a smidgen to check if the idiot's arrived yet. The driveway's still empty, which prompts Beca to call the idiot again.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!"

"It's been five minutes."

"Where do you live again?"

"Jesse." She groans.

"Just kidding. But I may or not be a bit lost..."

She lets out an exasperated sigh. "Jesse, seriously." Of course he should know where she lives. It's not like he hasn't been there many times before to drop food and, sometimes, even her off.

"Seriously. I drove into the wrong neighborhood and don't really know where to get out..."

"Oh my god, just hurry up and figure it out." She snaps, making Jesse flinch at the end of the line.

"Oh, it says Birch Road... Do you know where that is?"

"Turn left and keep going, you should find my street by then. You know, it's been almost ten minutes, now. We're going to fail."

"Yeah, well, I'm going as fast as I can in a 15 miles per hour neighborhood... Oh, there's your house!" A minute later, the doorbell rings. Jesse hands her the bottle and drops his phone into his pocket, a small smirk on his face.

"You think this is funny, Swanson?" Beca squeezes her eyebrows together, clearly not amused. She grabs his hand and unfurls his fingers, placing the bottle at the base of his palm. "You're feeding the kid, you idiot. You caused this mess."

"Will you relax? Where is our little Ellie?"

She points to the pile of couch cushions on the couch. He chuckles and takes off his shoes upon entering her house for the first time. "You're adorable when you're mad, you know."

"You didn't just spend the last ten minutes listening to its stupid screaming."

"I wasn't talking about the doll."

"Ha-ha." She rolls her eyes, already cooling down from her short temper tantrum. She feels the blood that was once boiling rush to her neck and cheeks.

What the hell? Blushing, again? Pull yourself together, Mitchell.

She bites her lip, relieved that Jesse was fixated on the doll rather than her reaction. She stands there awkwardly with her arms crossed and feet together, staring first at Jesse, who was busy feeding the kid, then at her messy home, suddenly feeling self-conscious of her surroundings. She curses herself for not cleaning the place, then for actually caring about what Jesse may think of her. Well, shouldn't she care about what people thought about her home? She doesn't want to look like a slob... But she shouldn't care about what Jesse, of all people (including Chloe), thinks. She shakes her head and walks over to the brown-haired boy, who was still feeding the doll.

"We're actually going to fail this project. I hope you know that it's all your damn fault." She smacks him on the shoulder, only receiving an apologetic frown. "Sorry about giving you Ellie while she was, you know... Crying. I was in a hurry to pick up Maddie from dance practice to go to the family gym. She has a big gymnastics meet today, and my dad would've killed me if she got there late." He says, catching the small flicker of guilt in Beca's eyes.

She shrugs. "Oh... It's okay, now that you've got a reason."

Finally, Ellie the fake baby burps, indicating that it's fully fed. Jesse hands the bottle over to Beca, who throws it back into her bag. He awkwardly folds a hand into one of his pockets, clearing his throat as he looks around the unfamiliar home that smelled like tropical fruit.

"Is it just you here?"

She nods. "My mom's somewhere in Spain or something. She should be back in a couple of days."

"So do you make your own food?"

"Sorry, what?"

"Like lunch and breakfast and dinner and stuff." He takes a seat on the couch with Ellie the fake baby lying in the crook of his free arm.

Her head tilts to the side, clearly curious at what he was getting at. "I usually get takeout, or eat leftovers from the dinners my mom makes whenever she's home."

"I should make you dinner!"

"Wait, what?"

"What do you have in your fridge?" He places the doll onto the couch and departs for the fridge, already getting comfy in her house.

"Cheese... Bread.. Milk, butter..." He shuffles through the pantry and cupboards, unaware of how invasive he was being.

"Didn't your parents teach you any manners?"

He pauses and looks at her, completely embarrassed as he nervously scratches the back of his neck.

"Jesus, Beca, I'm sorry! I'll stop."

She breaks out into a grin at his embarrassment, because, hey, Jesse embarrassed is always going to amuse her. "No, it's fine. I could use a gourmet meal."

"How about a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich with milk?"

"It better be good, then." She laughs as he begins making the sandwich. "It's kinda early to be having dinner, though." She comments as he attempts to flip the sandwich all fancy-like, only having it be the most anti climatic thing she's ever seen.

"Yeah, well, whatever." He shrugs. In under ten minutes, he finishes the sandwiches and pours milk into two mugs. They settle down back in the living room, eating their sandwiches in comfortable silence.

"Hey, Jess?"

"Yeah?" He pops his remaining crusts into his mouth, his tongue sliding out to lick off the crumbs on his lips.

"Thanks for the sandwiches." It's weird, really; how she says that. He seems a little taken aback and shocked as he scans her face for any trace of sarcasm or playfulness. She seems genuinely... Grateful?

"Yeah, of course." He's a bit baffled, but he shakes it off. "So, tonight seems like the perfect night to continue on with your movication. I say we watch Inception. It's in my car. I swear it will blow you away."

And just like that, her mood flip-flops to the normal Beca Mitchell he knows. She's skeptical now, with her face all contorted into indifferent angles.

"You keep movies in your car?"

"And you don't?" He fake gasps, then smirks.

"You're such a loser."

He laughs, gets up and opens the door, his body already outside the frame when she calls out to him.

"Aren't you forgetting your shoes?"

"I'll go shoeless!" He laughs and runs to his car to pick up the DVD. Beca shakes her head, a small smile on her face. She bites her bottom lip, holding back her laughter at the loser that is Jesse Swanson.

A/N:

First things first, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever. It literally only feels like weeks, not months! School's gotten super busy so that is the reason behind the slow updates (seriously, I'm even at school during holiday breaks and weekends. It's insane). I can assure you all that I have not given up on this story! Check for updates on my profile to see my progress, if you want.

Secondly, I apologize because this chapter was a little weird. It's sort of a filler chapter, but a lot of it sets stuff up for the next couple chapters. I'm excited to write more, but unfortunately, again, I can never find the time to write.

Finally, I heard from a little bird that Skylar Astin plays the piano in real life, so I decided to add that into the story. Also, for some reason, it seems like it's a pretty common trend for him to play the piano in other Jesse/Beca fics. I don't know. Just an observation!

Hope you enjoyed! Reviews motivate me to keep writing :D