A/N: Welcome back! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter posted. Life has been crazy. This chapter isn't really action packed but I think it has some cute Bechloe fluff so I hope you enjoy! Let me know how you guys like it, your feedback means the world to me :) ily aca-nerds!
Beca stirred awake from the feeling of something poking her repeatedly in the ribs. Her eyes fluttered open to find that she wasn't in her dorm, but in Stacie's, and the memories from the night before flooded back to her. She shot upright in bed and noticed that what had been poking her was Stacie.
"You gonna tell me what the hell happened last night?" Stacie asked once Beca was finally awake. The taller brunette had spent the night pulling glass out of Beca's arms and legs, and stitching her forehead up from the gash she had. Her minor wounds looked almost completely healed thanks to Beca's ability to heal faster than the average person, but her forehead was going to take a couple days until it would be back to normal.
Once Stacie had learned of Beca's abilities she had begun to practice minor medical procedures during the process of Beca experimenting with her new powers. She continued practicing once her best friend's foes grew bigger and more dangerous because as much as Beca had perfected her skills, they didn't keep her completely out of harm's way. She thought it was cool to have a superhero as her best friend, but it didn't stop her stomach from being knotted in worry that something horrible could happen to Beca.
Beca explained everything that had happened with Shocker and how Black Cat saved her. As well as the mayor being involved in Shocker's release, with some other mysterious person, and how she apparently had enemies she didn't even know about. Stacie listened, eyes wide as Beca relayed the tales of last night.
"You almost died, dude," Stacie exclaimed after Beca was finished telling her what had happened. Concern etched itself across the taller girl's face, a look that Beca wasn't used to seeing on her best friend. "Bec, do you think being Spider-Girl is worth you possibly dying?"
"I– I don't know," Beca sighed. If she was being honest, she's asked herself that multiple times before. "I just don't know if I'd be able to live with myself knowing that something horrible happened and I did nothing to stop it with the powers I have."
"I understand, but at least think about taking it easy. Shocker isn't even the baddest enemy you have and he was almost the one that put an end to you. You're wearing yourself thin, and if you actually want to get to the bottom of what's going on in Barden you need to be on your A game," Stacie explained, always being the level-headed one.
She was right, and Beca knew it. She had spent her time here chasing after any possible crime that could be happening in the hopes of getting even the slightest clue as to who was behind all of the chaos. As she sat in Stacie's dorm, she decided to leave the petty small crimes to the Barden Police Department, and only insert herself when they absolutely needed it. Besides, her little run-in with Shocker had given her a small lead, and perhaps it was time for her and Chloe to pay a visit to the mayor.
"Shit, I didn't even realize the time," Stacie practically shrieked. She leapt up from her spot on the bed and started gathering some of her belongings into a duffel bag. "I know I just gave you a lecture about needing to rest, but we have our first Bellas practice, so resting will have to wait."
"Ugh, can't we just skip?" Beca groaned. The thought of synchronized lady dancing right now after the night she had made her want to die.
"Are you kidding? If we skip the first practice, neither of us will have a shot with Aubrey or Chloe."
Stacie grabbed Beca by the arms and shoved her towards her door. The smaller brunette squeaked indignantly at the man-handling from Stacie. She tried to squirm out of her grasp but ultimately was too tired to break free.
"Go get your things, we have a half hour before we need to be at the auditorium," Stacie ordered, opening the door and shoving the other girl out into the hallway. "You better not ditch!"
With that said, she slammed the door in Beca's face. The shorter brunette huffed in frustration, really not wanting to go to practice. She also didn't want to have to lie to Chloe about what had happened to her head, and she knew the other girl would be worried.
She swung through the areas of campus where she knew nobody would be to get to her dorm, and quickly changed into what she planned to wear to practice. Once changed she ran to the auditorium because the campus was too populated in that area to use her webs to swing there.
As she walked through the door, the first person to catch her eye was Chloe, and the redhead beamed at her when she noticed the shorter girl walk in. The smile soon faded as she got a closer look at her and noticed the wound on her forehead. She quickly made her way to Beca.
"What happened to you?" Chloe shouted, drawing some attention from the other Bellas, grabbing Beca by the arms and pulling her closer to see how bad the cut on her head was. Beca was not used to people disregarding her personal boundaries and let out another squeak of indignance, like she had when Stacie had man-handled her just a half hour beforehand. Chloe lifted her hand to touch the wound, but thought twice about it and let it fall back onto the brunette's shoulder, not wanting to cause her any pain. "Did this happen after you left last night? I knew I shouldn't have left you alone! Who did this?"
"Nobody did anything, Chloe," Beca sighed, guilt knotting in her stomach at the thought of lying to the other girl. "I fell going up the stairs to my dorm, but I'm okay, I promise."
Chloe eyed her suspiciously for a moment, not quite sure if she believed the other girl. After a few seconds she seemed to let it go, apparently not wanting to accuse her new friend of being dishonest.
"Okay, well, try to take it easy during practice today. Maybe I can get Aubrey to let you skip out on cardio."
"I'll be fine, Chlo, I promise," Beca said, the nickname slipping out of her mouth without even realizing it. It brought a small smile to the other woman's face, and Beca made a mental note to use it more often.
Their moment was ruined by Aubrey clapping her hands to get the team's attention. She had everyone sit down in the chairs lined up and Beca realized not everybody was in attendance.
"As you can see, Kori is not here. Last night she was Treble-Boned. She has been disinvited from the Bellas," Aubrey said as she grabbed the empty chair that would have belonged to Kori.
"That oath was serious?" Beca snickered, not understanding what her best friend could possibly see in this blonde dictator.
"Dixie Chicks serious," Aubrey replied. Beca's smile dropped from her face when she realized Aubrey was not joking. "You can fool around with whoever you want to. Just not a treble."
"That's not going to be easy, he's a hunter," Stacie piped up, indicating towards her nether regions. Beca couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips at her best friend.
"Stacie, the trebles don't respect us," Aubrey sighed, almost seeming jealous by what the brunette had just said. "And if we let them penetrate us, we are giving them our power."
"Not a good enough reason to use the word penetrate," Fat Amy piped up.
Beca had to bite her lip from stopping another giggle to escape. She caught Chloe's eye and even the co-captain was trying to stifle her own laughter knowing that her best friend would not take too kindly to it.
"So, does anyone here have anything to confess?" Aubrey continued on, ignoring Amy's comment altogether. She walked towards a brunette whose name Beca couldn't remember.
The rest of practice went by pretty uncomfortably after the girl was kicked out of the Bellas, and Beca felt bad for her after the pure humiliation Aubrey had brought upon her. She thought the rule was ridiculous, not that she had any intentions of breaking it. She also felt kind of bad for Aubrey after Lilly pulled up last year's performance, but she would never admit that to anybody because the blonde was absolutely insufferable.
Beca couldn't focus on much of anything during practice, especially the dance moves since Chloe took it upon herself to be extremely touchy with Beca while showing them to her. She noticed though, that they were the same moves from the video they'd just watched. When she mentioned it to Aubrey she got ignored, which wasn't surprising at all. Afterwards, Chloe and Aubrey informed the group that they had a gig for some Fall Mixer.
Aubrey pulled Beca aside after they concluded the practice, which caused Beca to roll her eyes. She just wanted to rest, but the captain was quickly becoming a pain in her ass.
"You know you'll have to take those ear monstrosities out for the Fall Mixer," the blonde said. It wasn't a request, it was an order.
"You really don't like me, do you?"
"I don't like your attitude."
"You don't even know me," Beca quickly retorted back, irritation rising in her chest that she was struggling to hold back.
"I know you have a toner for Jesse," Aubrey stated.
"A what?" Beca asked incredulously. Her eyes practically popped out of her head at the comment.
"A toner," Aubrey repeated. "A musical boner. I saw it at hood night. It's distracting."
"That's not a thing, and, uh, you're not the boss of me. So…" Beca trailed off.
"You took an oath," the blonde seethed. Beca was kind of afraid that she might throw up on her.
"That oath cost you two girls already today. I'm pretty sure you need me more than I need you."
When Aubrey didn't say anything in response to that, Beca turned around to leave the auditorium. She didn't have the energy to keep arguing with the girl.
"I can see your toner through those jeans!" Aubrey shouted after her.
"That's my dick!" Beca snapped as she whipped back around to scowl at the captain. She vaguely registered that Chloe had been in the auditorium still, watching the quarrel between the two women. She didn't like the fact that the redhead was seeing her like this, but something about Aubrey really rubbed her the wrong way.
As she stepped out of the auditorium, all she could think about was getting as much distance between her and Aubrey as possible. She was at the point where she'd even settle for Kimmy Jin as company, so she made her way to her dorm for a much needed nap.
She was woken up a few hours later by someone knocking on her door, and she wanted nothing more than to ignore it, but the noise was incessant. She groaned as she got up and stalked her way over to the door to shut up whoever was interrupting her beauty sleep, assuming it was her best friend.
"Stacie, someone better be dying and in need of my help for you to be waking–"
Beca's words died in her throat as she opened her door to reveal Chloe. She had assumed Stacie was coming to harass her about staying rested, but instead the redhead stood by her door with what appeared to be a bag of groceries.
"Oh, Chloe, hi," Beca greeted the woman. She chewed on her bottom lip hoping Chloe wouldn't ask anything about what she had previously said. "Sorry, I thought you were Stacie. What are you doing here?"
"I came to see how you were doing and brought you some snacks to cheer you up from your injury!" Chloe grinned, but her smile soon slipped away to a look of confusion. "What did you mean when you said someone better need your help?"
Beca internally cursed herself out, knowing Chloe was too smart not to notice that little slip up. She'd have to be much more careful about what she said before opening her dorm door with the many surprise visits she seemed to get. She had to think fast to ease the other girl's suspicions.
"Oh, it's just an inside joke. When we were in high school I saved a student from almost getting hit by a school bus because they were paying attention to their phone and not traffic, so she jokes about me being some kind of hero," Beca explained. The story wasn't exactly false, but not the real reason why she'd said what she had. She just hoped Chloe would buy it.
"Wow," Chloe said in surprise. "That's really scary, but luckily you were there to help!"
"Would you like to come in? My roommate isn't here so she won't stare daggers at us while we hang out," Beca said, scratching the back of her neck nervously. She didn't know if Chloe even had any intentions of hanging out or if she was just dropping the snacks off.
"I would love to!" Chloe beamed while taking a step inside her dorm. She hadn't gotten the chance to really take it in the last time she was there since she had been focused on kidnapping Beca. She took a look around at all the things Beca had, from her music production setup, to the vinyls and posters on her wall, and the little gadgets she had all over her desk.
"What's this?" Chloe asked, gesturing towards a gadget on the desk that looked like it had little legs.
"Oh! I'm trying to build a robot, it still has some kinks I need to work out so it doesn't operate quite yet," Beca explained. She intended to build a little Spider-Bot that would allow her to see into areas that were heavily guarded so she would know what she was up against, but she didn't disclose the purpose for the robot so Chloe wouldn't make any connections.
"That's really cool, Becs," Chloe beamed, the nickname spreading warmth through Beca's chest. "How did you even get into building this kind of stuff?"
"My mom was a scientist, and when I was younger I wanted to be just like her. Science was always something I easily excelled at in school, and my brain kind of just comes up with random ideas so I fiddle around and see if I can make it happen," the shorter woman explained. She shifted awkwardly, not ever really indulging anyone who asked her personal questions, but something about Chloe made her feel safe enough to do so. "Kimmy Jin isn't too fond of it, which is probably why she's never here."
"And how did you get into music?"
"My dad was a musician. Any instrument you can think of he could probably play. He taught me everything I know."
"That's amazing, Beca," Chloe smiled. "I knew you were going to make a great addition to the Bellas."
"Aubrey doesn't seem to think so," Beca scoffed, thinking of her earlier argument with the girl.
"Aubrey is tough, I know," Chloe sighed. "But she means well and is just trying to make up for last year."
"No offense, Chlo, but do you really think the same set from last year is what's going to push the Bellas to the top?"
Chloe bit her bottom lip, probably not wanting to say anything against her best friend's judgment, but Beca also knew that deep down regardless of Aubrey's incident last year that set wouldn't have gotten them first place, and she had a feeling that the journalist felt the same way. She knew Chloe loved Aubrey and her tenacity. Hell, as much as she couldn't stand the blonde dictator she couldn't say the captain wasn't dedicated, but Beca could see how her previous year's mistake would cause her to lose sight of the fact that their setlist sucked with or without her projectile vomiting on stage. In fact, her throwing up on everybody in the crowd probably had made the setlist more entertaining. Beca could be someone who could get the Bellas to break away from tradition and land them first place in the ICCAs.
Beca watched as Chloe seemed to struggle with some sort of conflict, but she wasn't sure what exactly was on her mind. She didn't think her question was so loaded that it would cause this much of an internal battle for the redhead, so she couldn't quite put her finger on what was going through Chloe's head. The journalist was scanning Beca's face, as if analyzing her very soul, and it made the younger woman nervous. She wished she could crawl into Chloe's brain to figure out where her thought process currently was, because she had a feeling her friend was no longer thinking about the setlist. After several more seconds Beca could no longer handle the tense silence that fell over the pair.
"Chloe?" Beca asked, waving her hand in the redhead's face to get her attention.
"What?" Chloe perked up, coming out of her thoughts and back to reality. A reality where Beca Mitchell was standing in front of her with a worried expression on her face. "I'm sorry, I got lost in thought. What did you say?"
"Clearly," Beca chuckled. "I asked if you thought the current setlist would get us first place in the ICCAs."
"Oh, no, I honestly don't."
"So why don't you say something to Aubrey? You are our captain too, you know. Your input is just as important."
"I wish it was that simple," Chloe sighed. "Aubrey has made it her responsibility to make up for last year, and when she has her mind set on something you can't persuade her any other way."
Beca thought to herself for a moment, and decided to do something she never did. She went over to her computer, opened up her music files and played her most recent mashup, the one of Titanium and 500 Miles. Her cheeks burned at the reason why she'd made that mashup to begin with, and with that reason standing right behind her. She turned around to face Chloe, biting her lip from her nerves. Stacie was the only other person she showed her music to, and she feared that maybe Chloe wouldn't like it and realize she really shouldn't have seen anything special in Beca.
Her negative thoughts were squashed however, when Chloe let out a shriek of excitement. Her cerulean blue eyes sparkled and the smile on her face knocked the air out of Beca's lungs. She wished she could take a picture of this scene with her mind so she could go back and see this look on Chloe's face whenever she wanted to.
"You made this?!" Chloe shouted over the music.
"Um, yeah, I did," Beca smiled sheepishly.
"Becs, I didn't think my lady jam could get any better, but you just proved me wrong."
"Well your confession in the shower sparked inspiration in me, so…" Beca admitted. Once she realized what she just said her cheeks burned even more than they already had been.
Something in Chloe's demeanor changed after the confession. Beca swore she saw her baby blues grow darker, and she felt butterflies erupt in her stomach at the sight. She took a deep gulp for air when Chloe stepped closer into her personal space, and she felt the redhead's fingers brush against her own.
"I inspired you to make this?" Chloe asked, and even her normal bubbly voice sounded huskier than usual. All Beca could do was nod in response, not trusting herself to be able to form proper sentences. "That's the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me."
"Well, again, you saw me naked so it's the least I could do," Beca chuckled while she turned back to her computer. She needed to distract herself or else she would end up doing something stupid, like trying to kiss the redhead. "But if you can convince Aubrey to think about changing up the setlist I can help."
"For someone who didn't want to join the Bellas to begin with, you sure seem to care a lot about us," Chloe teased, bumping her hip against Beca's, a coy smile spread across the journalist's lips.
More like I care about you, Beca thought to herself. The intrusive thought startled her, she hadn't realized just how deep her feelings for Chloe ran until their moment just then. She was falling so fast for this girl that she hadn't known for that long, but something about Chloe was so enrapturing. The co-captain was knocking down the walls Beca carefully constructed to protect others from her true identity, and she was welcoming it with open arms. She was tired of the thick steel walls around her heart that kept herself away from happiness, and who better to tear those walls down for than Chloe. The girl who liked not only Beca, but Spider-Girl as well.
"I'm just competitive," Beca chuckled, a genuine smile gracing her lips. "And I know we won't win with this setlist."
At that moment, Chloe's phone rang, interrupting whatever remark she was going to give. She looked at the screen and frowned, before looking up at Beca with an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry, Becs. I have to go. I forgot about a doctor's appointment I have in an hour."
"Everything okay?"
"Oh yeah," Chloe said, but something about her tone made Beca not quite believe her. "Just a routine check-up."
Chloe gathered her belongings before heading to the dorm door, Beca following behind her. She turned around and wrapped the brunette in a bone-crushing hug.
"Thank you for showing me some of your music, I would love to hear more of it sometime," Chloe grinned.
"Of course, Chlo. Whenever you want, just let me know."
"I'll hold you to that," she smirked. Then she opened the door and walked out into the hallway. "Make sure to get some more rest."
"I will," Beca promised. "Good luck with your appointment. I'll see you tomorrow at practice."
"Bye, Becs!"
Once Beca closed the door she took a deep breath, feeling like she hadn't breathed the entire time she had been with the other girl. She leaned against the door with a small grin. All Beca could think of was Chloe, and little did she know, the redhead was having similar thoughts about her. Chloe Beale was going to be the death of her, but Beca couldn't find it in herself to even care.
