Bechloe Prompt - Chloe is cursed, whoever looks into her eyes will turn to stone. So when she bumps into Beca Mitchell, she's curious as to why when Beca looks into her eyes. Beca doesn't turn to stone

When Chloe was four years old, she choked on an ice cube. It was her earliest memory, stopped in some random fast food restaurant on the way to Wildwood New Jersey. Her little feet were kicking back and forth, her mom having to keep a firm arm across her midsection to keep her back against the cheap plastic booth.

The ice had come along with the sweeping gulp of blue energy drink. The kind that had way too much sugar for her tiny body, but not enough to keep her awake at night. She had coughed first, catching her father's attention the moment he got a look at her paled features. He scooped her up, pulling her flush against him.

Chloe could remember panicking, crying almost immediately as the patrons around the restaurant stared in sweeping silence. He pressed his palm into her back, moving quickly as she coughed a few more times and finally got the feeling of air back into her hissing lungs.

She felt that same rush of cold now- that same ache that filled her chest as she dug her fingers into the pavement until they stung cruelly. Chloe felt icy, Chloe felt like she had just choked and that there was no one there to pull her into their arms and soothe her.

Instead, she groaned under the weight of another. An elbow shoved into her ribs, a knee too close to her midsection, and more importantly, a cheek on her chest, not hugging her close, but pressing so far into her that a heat seared against her skin. Chloe groaned at the rough ache that hit her like a truck. Half of her body was sprawled against the malleable grass, the lower edge digging into the stone asphalt.

"Ow, fuck." The stranger mumbled, her whole body vibrating with the muffled words. Chloe wanted to shiver at the hot breath basting the side of her throat. She moved her arms, pressing her palms into the dirt as she lifted herself away, still hovering as Chloe blinked wordlessly at the overcast sky. "You okay, dude?"

Chloe inhaled sharply, clenching her eyes shut as she strung her now free arm over her stare. She couldn't let this woman see her eyes. Her glasses the only priority that was getting under her skin at the moment. She could deal with a little blood, she could accept the torn clothes and the painful morning after. But she needed those glasses.

"Hey," the small flash of brunette that she thought she saw before she tumbled to the ground placed a cold thumb under her chin. "Are you okay?" She repeated tenderly. "Can you open your eyes?"

"I'm fine, really," Chloe mumbled out, hearing the exasperation in her words. She didn't' sound fine, and nothing about that made the girl straddling her happy.

"Then open your eyes."

She made one small attempt to grasp at the ground around her for the sunglasses. She had no such luck. The dropping pit in her stomach seemed to grow slowly. She edged her stare, blinking rapidly at the bright light that filled the air. She hadn't seen the sun- hadn't stared into anyone's unwavering eyes, for months. For years that dragged on in her mind.

Midnight orbs blocked out the overwhelming light. Chloe's breath hitching as she waited for the worst- the cherry on top of the darkness that shrouded her. The quad was empty, the day waning as classes pulled the student body into their clutches. They were alone, and Chloe was wracked with fear.

"There we are," The stranger said, "Your pupils look a little dilated."

"I just got tackled." Chloe ghosted.

In truth, she was baffled. The curse, her family's misfortune, made it impossible to pull her sunglasses away from her eyes without creating a few more garden ornaments. It started when she turned fifteen and accidentally turned her hamster into a paperweight. Not the greatest memory, but it got the lesson across. No matter what, she had to keep her aviators over her stare.

This stranger, this person who crashed into her, stared plainly at her. Not convulsing on the floor as stone worked its way through her veins. Not gasping as she lost any sense of life she had left behind her eyes. Not the way Chloe's mother had told her it would happen.

Yet, she waited, waited in stunned silence as she held her breath. She had paled, hair falling into her gaze as she stared head-on into the woman's eyes. "Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going."

"You're fine," She breathed a response, glancing around frantically as she finally spotted her glasses and pulled them onto her features. The stranger was warm against her skin, legs moving to a straddled position against her stomach. "Sorry, the sun it…"

"I get it, you're like a vampire or something." She waved her hand in front of her face. "The sun is your mortal enemy."

"Not quite." Chloe couldn't help but chuckle at that, earning a triumphant smile from the woman before she rolled herself away from the redhead. It was cute, leaving a fuzzy feeling in her throat as she propped herself up on her elbows.

"I'm Beca." The girl stated, still sporting the mix between a smirk and a toothy grin on her face. She was collapsed into herself on the grass, scratching her hand through her head as she lifted her chin. "Human wrecking ball."

"Chloe," She reached out a hand, maybe to be pulled up to a sitting position, maybe to be polite. "Vampire queen, apparently."

"Oh, you've promoted yourself to queen now?"

"If I'm undead it's the least you can grant me."

She got a huff in response. The girl officially taking her hand and pulling her up. Chloe couldn't help the jump in heat she felt the moment those fingers collided with hers. She swallowed it back. This was a fluke, it had to be- no way could a girl like this a human girl who wasn't plagued down with an ancient snaky curse, be immune to her stare. It was unheard of.

"Where were you off to in such a hurry?" Chloe dared to ask.

"Biology lab," Beca shrugged innocently. "But I was thinking about blowing it off anyway. We're just looking at cells." She stilled for a moment. "Maybe we should… I would like to buy you coffee considering I ran you down?"

"I would like that," Chloe said despite her reserves. Despite the fact that this woman wasn't a statue, and that the color in her cheeks drained a little more each time Beca flashed her dusky gaze. "If you're not too afraid."

"Afraid?" Beca let out an exaggerated scoff, waving her hand in front of her face. "What's there to be afraid of, Chloe?"