A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for the feedback on this story! I'm still a little uncertain if I'm going to continue this or not, but if I get more positive feedback I will, so please let me know what you think. Compliments and criticism is welcome, I like knowing what you guys want to see so I can incorporate it into my work. Also for those who have asked about the Spiderman game, it's fucking AMAZING and I'm a total nerd and actually bought the Spiderman limited edition ps4 (even though my ps4 was in perfectly good condition) but I could NOT pass it up it's so beautiful. This chapter is honestly less action and more fluff but I PROMISE it is going to get intense. Let me know how you like it. I love hearing from you guys. Enjoy!
Beca's first week was rough, transitioning to the new city wasn't how she expected. She freaked out most of the civilians while she traveled the streets and there was minimal action going on. She would normally say that the quiet was a good thing, but she felt like it was the calm before the storm.
Gail Abernathy-McKadden, a close friend of hers and now one of the captains of the police force of Barden, had brought her here for a reason. Beca had worked side by side with her back in New York City, and when the captain got the news she was being relocated she had asked the hero to come along and help her. However, now that Beca was here she felt like she shouldn't be, but Gail insisted that she would adjust soon.
She decided to go to the women's bathroom to shower, which was another reason why she hated college so much– no longer having her own privacy. The only way to get a little bit of privacy was to go shower in the middle of the afternoon when everybody else was in class, which she should be in as well but she really just didn't want to go.
She sang Titanium as she prepared her shower. The song had been stuck in her head for days since she'd begun to create a mix of it in her very limited free time. She waited for the water to warm up, which took way longer than it should.
"You can sing!" A familiar voice shouted from behind her.
She whipped around quickly, surprised by the suddenly very close and very naked redhead that had managed to get into her shower stall. She must've been more tired than she thought because she hadn't even realized there was someone else in the bathroom, where she normally would have picked up on that immediately.
"Dude!" She shrieked, reaching for the shower curtain in vain because Chloe just pulled it back again. She attempted to cover herself with the body wash and loofah that she had brought with her.
"How high does your belt go?" Chloe inquired, her face void of any humor. This girl was seriously intruding on Beca's shower just because she could sing? Every encounter she's had with this girl shocked her in some sense.
"My what?" She questioned, not knowing what the hell the other girl was going on about. She watched as Chloe shut the shower water off, which slightly frustrated her because once she managed to get this girl out of her shower she'd have to wait for it to warm up all over again. "Oh my god."
"You have to audition for the Bellas."
"I can't concentrate on anything you're saying until you cover your junk."
"Just consider it," the redhead pleaded. Beca tried to make a grab for the shower curtain again to cover herself up while Chloe continued talking. "One time we sang backup for Prince. His butt is so tiny that I can hold it with, like, one hand."
The taller girl hit the shower curtain due to her hand gestures and Beca dropped the curtain as well as the body wash bottle. She went to pick it up but realized that would leave her even more exposed than she already was, and her face would be right in front of Chloe's naked body as well and she just could not handle that.
"Oh geez," she huffed in frustration. This situation could not be any more uncomfortable. This was so not the way Beca had pictured her and Chloe being in a shower together. Not that she pictured it or anything, but now that her whole body was on display it was hard for Beca's mind not to wander to inappropriate places.
"Oops," Chloe said innocently, as if completely unaware of the internal struggle Beca was dealing with. The brunette pivoted her body so her backside was showing instead, and she twisted her neck a little uncomfortably to look at the other girl.
"Seriously," she sighed, hoping Chloe would get the hint from her tone of voice. "I am nude."
Her wishful thinking didn't get her very far because she just ignored her comment.
"You were singing Titanium, right?"
"You know David Guetta?" Beca asked, the surprise evident in her voice. She didn't expect it from the redhead after her conversation with her and Aubrey at the Activities Fair since Aubrey was going on about Mariah Carey.
"Have I been living under a rock? Yeah," Chloe said and Beca couldn't help but smile at her comment because it reminded her of the conversation she'd had with Chloe the other night. She certainly was quick with her words, which made it easier for Beca to talk to her even with her barging into her shower. "That song is my jam… my lady jam."
"That's nice," Beca mumbled. As if it wasn't hard enough already for her to focus, Chloe had to go and tell her that.
"It is, that song really builds," she winked.
"Gross." Except it wasn't. Beca was just trying to find a way to void her mind of images of Chloe in bed listening to that song.
"Can you sing it for me?"
"Dude, no! Get out!" Beca squealed. She couldn't take being in this shower any longer with talk of lady jams and Chloe asking her to sing it.
"Not for that reason," she clarified. "I'm not leaving here until you sing, so…"
She knew Chloe wasn't bluffing. Anyone crazy enough to come into a complete stranger's shower to begin with had nothing to lose. The taller girl sighed dramatically to prove her point even further. Beca really didn't have a choice in the matter.
So she awkwardly turned around, trying to cover herself as best as she could, while she could feel her cheeks burn from embarrassment. But she still continued to give the redhead what she wanted and hesitantly began to sing.
"I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose."
Chloe joined in on the next line and Beca was actually amazed by her beautiful voice as well as how the two sounded together. Her smile was bright and ravishing as she sang with Beca, and Beca couldn't stop the smile that spread across her own face. She got lost as their voices intertwined in the bathroom, echoing off the walls. They really did sound great together. Beca was disappointed when they finished singing, wanting to hear more of Chloe's sweet, melodic voice.
Beca glanced down at Chloe's body, and the awkwardness she originally felt was back with full force. The taller girl seemed to finally sense her discomfort because she looked down as well.
"Oh, yeah, I'm pretty confident about…" she trailed off and motioned toward her body. "All this."
"You should be," Beca smiled stiffly.
Chloe grabbed her towel and handed it to Beca so she could cover herself up. Beca realized that she wasn't making any move to leave, so she mumbled, "I still need to shower."
"Oh, right," Chloe said as she made her way to leave. Her voice echoed through the bathroom as she shouted, "I'll see you at auditions!"
Beca's moment of privacy and relaxation hadn't turned out to be quite private or relaxing. And it looked like she was going to be auditioning for that a cappella group after all.
That night Beca wound up heading to Chloe's apartment because even though she felt super strange about the encounter she had earlier with her, the redhead had information that she needed, and Chloe had no idea anyways that it had been her shower she burst into. It was just getting dark when she arrived, figuring the girl was finished with her classes for the day. She got a few odd looks from the tenants of the building, which was understandable since it wasn't everyday people saw someone running around in tights and a mask, unless it was Halloween.
Beca approached the apartment door and knocked softly, not wanting to be too annoying. She paced a few feet back and forth as she waited for someone to answer, going over in her head what to say to the girl when she saw her. She hoped Chloe wouldn't find it strange that she was showing up at her apartment unannounced.
She was startled out of her thoughts by a shrill scream, which caused her to jump so high she reached the tall ceiling of the hallway. She stuck to the ceiling and looked down, noticing that the person screaming was Aubrey, and her shrieking only got louder as she realized that Beca was sticking to the ceiling.
"Woah, woah, calm down!" Beca said as she landed back onto the floor. "I'm not going to hurt you!"
"Get away from me!" The blonde shouted, throwing a fist in Beca's direction which she dodged.
"Aubrey, what's going on!" She heard Chloe's voice and then she saw the redhead in the doorway.
"This freak won't leave!" Aubrey explained to her friend, and Beca looked over Aubrey's shoulder to see Chloe's eyes light up and her smile grow.
"Aubrey, it's okay," Chloe cooed, placing a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "This is Spider-Girl, she saved me from that group of guys that I told you about last week."
"So now she thinks she can just show up here unannounced?" The blonde yelped, and Beca did feel kind of bad because most people should have a similar reaction to a masked person at their door.
"I'm sorry, Aubrey," Beca apologized. "I didn't mean to startle you, but I need to discuss some important information with Chloe and this was the only place I knew where to reach her."
"Ugh, whatever," Aubrey huffed out an exasperated breath. "But take it elsewhere, I don't want people to see you come into this apartment and get the wrong idea."
"Aye, Aye, Captain," she saluted the blonde, and couldn't help but grin at the eyeroll she received in return. It was pretty fun getting under her skin.
After Aubrey slammed the door behind her, it was just Beca and Chloe in the hallway. Beca took a moment to appreciate the woman in front of her. Her hair was down in her normal waves. She was wearing a striped t-shirt that had different shades of pink, and a pair of skinny jeans that accentuated her curves. Even in simple clothes she looked incredibly beautiful.
"Nice costume," she said, indicating to what Beca was currently wearing.
Stacie had made Beca several suits over the years, and this one was one of her favorites. The upper half of her body was red with the typical black webbing, and her lower half was blue with a white stripe outlining the blue. She had leather studded wristbands as well as a belt to match. To finish off the suit she had a denim vest with a pair of red Converse shoes, plus there were four spikes down the center of the top of her head.
"Thanks, I was feeling a bit edgy today," Beca chuckled.
"Why do you have different outfits?"
"Well for starters, it serves me well when I miss laundry day," she joked, earning her a giggle from the taller girl. "Secondly, each suit has its own purpose. This one, for example, can knock down surrounding enemies using shockwaves if I get bombarded by too many at once. That way I can pick them off once I've gotten my bearings again."
"That's really cool, do you design them yourself?"
"If I have free time, but my best friend is usually the mastermind behind them."
"So, where are we heading to?" She asked, switching the subject back to the reason why Beca had come here. They began their trek towards the exit of Chloe's building.
"Are you afraid of heights?"
"Well, I think you already know that I'm not considering how high you were swinging the other night," she teased.
"Alright then," Beca grinned. "I was thinking we could talk on the rooftop of the university's auditorium that way nobody can overhear us."
The auditorium was across campus so Beca decided to make the trip faster by swinging there, holding the other girl the same way she had the week prior. It was nice to have someone with her while she swung through the sky. Even though it made it a little harder, the look of bliss on Chloe's face while the wind blew in their faces was worth the extra work.
When they arrived at their destination they both took a seat on the edge of the building. There weren't many people on this side of the campus at the time so they didn't have to worry about someone spotting them and calling campus police.
"So, what kind of information do you need to know?" Chloe asked once they both got settled.
"Honestly, anything you may know," she sighed. She felt like she was failing at what she had come here to do, and she didn't feel like she'd gotten many leads to figure out what was going on in Barden. "I feel stuck, like I haven't gotten anywhere since coming here. I'm scared I'm going to let people down."
"You haven't been here that long, though. Honestly it has been suspiciously quiet since you've gotten here so it's not really your fault that you haven't found much out," she comforted Beca, placing a delicate hand on her shoulder. The touch was nice, not something Beca was used to, but she wasn't complaining. "I think AllenCorp is behind most of the crime in the city. I'm not positive, that's just a hunch, but all the evidence points to them."
"What exactly is AllenCorp?"
"The mayor, Martin Allen, owns AllenCorp and it basically runs everything in the city. He has a lot of enemies, and a lot of people are suspicious that AllenCorp is actually harming the environment."
"It would make sense then that those henchmen showed up the other week to stop you," Beca pondered out loud. "Did you happen to find anything about whether there was toxic waste being dumped into the water supply?"
"I didn't really get much of a chance," Chloe frowned. "There was security all over the place, I'll definitely need some assistance getting past them all."
"Well, you know I'm here to help," Beca smiled even though she knew Chloe couldn't see her face, but she smiled back so maybe she could sense it.
"So, where are you staying while you're here?" She asked.
Suddenly, a feeling hit Beca that she hadn't felt in a long time. She actually wished she could tell the redhead about herself. The only person she ever felt like she could tell was Stacie, but this girl that she really didn't even know if she was being honest with herself, had her wishing she could tell Chloe all her secrets. She just knew the other woman wouldn't bat an eyelash if she were to pull her mask off right now and revealed herself to the girl. Chloe would probably just keep going on with their conversation like nothing happened. Chloe treated her like a normal person, as if she already saw Beca without her mask on. Everybody else Beca came across in her suit either treated her with disgust or was in complete awe of her. Sometimes she didn't want to be a hero, she just wanted to be herself. Chloe treated her like a friend, not a freak, and that made Beca trust her.
But she bit her tongue to prevent her from telling the truth, shaking the warm feeling off of her, and shifting back to her normal sarcastic self.
"You trying to find out where my secret Spidey Lair is?" She teased, earning a giggle from the woman sitting next to her. The sound made her heart flutter and god, she really needed to get a hold of herself around this girl.
"I'm just trying to get to know my new partner in crime a little better," Chloe grinned. "Don't you think it'd be easier for me to find you if I ever need your help one of these days?"
"Partner in crime?" Beca chuckled. "Isn't crime what we're trying to prevent?"
"Well, assisting me with trespassing into a huge corporation, regardless if they are suspicious or not, is technically breaking the law. So I stand by my previous statement, we are partners in crime."
Beca cracked up at that, her boisterous laughter echoing in the night. Chloe was laughing too, and Beca found herself feeling much better than she had earlier. Chloe was able to make her relax and took a lot of the pressure off her shoulders.
"Are you a student at Barden?" The hero asked once her laughter died down, changing the subject so she didn't let any personal information slip. Obviously Beca knew that she went to Barden, but Spider-Girl did not so she had to be careful of what information she divulged to Chloe.
"Yup! I'm a senior this year, but may attend grad school. I haven't decided yet."
"How's the beginning of school going for you?"
"Classes are good, but I'm worried about my a cappella group," she sighed, and Beca could see a hint of a frown forming on her face. "We bombed our final performance last year, and now nobody wants to join."
"I'm sure it won't be too hard for you to convince people to join," Beca said, hoping her words would ease some of Chloe's worries like she has been able to do for Beca. "You do have a way with words. People would be stupid not to join."
"I did meet someone who I'm really hoping will join," she explained, and Beca could see her frown lifting a little at the thought. "She kind of reminds me of you! Broody and sarcastic, but her voice is just… breathtaking."
Beca felt her cheeks turning red, knowing Chloe was talking about her. She felt kind of wrong sitting there listening to the older girl speak about her, but not knowing she's revealing herself to the same person she's thinking about.
"You think I'm broody?" Beca gasped dramatically. She didn't question her other description of sarcastic, because she knew she was, but broody? "How rude."
"Oh please," she snickered. "You know you are."
"I know what I am but that doesn't mean you just call someone out on their shit like that." Beca hadn't been able to wipe the grin off her face since the beginning of her conversation with Chloe. She loved the back and forth teasing between them. It was easy and natural, and it's been a long time since she has been able to talk to someone like that other than Stacie. "I stand by my previous statement though, she'd be stupid if she didn't join."
"Thanks," she said quietly. "I think I may have scared her though, I barged into her shower because I heard her singing."
"Chloe Beale, are you some sort of stalker?" Beca teased. "I'm going to have to find this girl and put her into protective hiding."
"I know, I know!" She shrieked, playfully slapping Beca's arm. "It wasn't one of my finest moments, but I couldn't let a voice like that slip away!"
Just as Beca was about to respond, the alert system that Stacie had implemented in her suit went off about a high speed chase going on about three blocks away from Barden University. She sighed, not wanting her night with Chloe to be over so soon, but duty was calling.
"I guess it's time to wrap this up?" Chloe asked, and Beca could see the disappointment shining in her eyes. It kind of made her happy knowing she didn't want things to end either.
"I'm sorry to end things so abruptly," she apologized. "Let me take you home, it's on the way."
They took off into the night, reaching Chloe's apartment building in just a couple minutes. Beca decided it was best not to go into the building with her since the tenants seemed to be spooked out by her.
"Hey!" Chloe shouted before she headed off to the chase. "You never told me where your secret Spidey Lair is."
"Trust me," Beca said to her. "I'm closer than you think."
