For Tumblr prompt - "That's my ex-boyfriend/girlfriend." "Well, kiss me so they see."

Honestly ridiculous.

"This is aca-amazing! Or is it aca-mazing? Aca-stounding? Beca, do you know?"

"Legacy," grumbled Beca while glaring at a passing group of men in Speedos, "you need to calm down. There are way too many people here and it is way too hot for this."

Chloe leaned into Beca, lacing their fingers together. "She's excited, babe. And so am I."

"Yeah, lighten up, Beca," Stacie added brightly. "This is for charity."

Beca relaxed slightly at her girlfriend's touch as they walked across campus, but she still wasn't happy. Apparently, the entire Barden student population as well as everyone else in the city had decided to support a campus charity event on the hottest day of the year. Fantastic.

"Chlo, what are we doing here?" Beca heard the whine in her own voice, but she cared less about that than about the clearly intoxicated girl that had just bumped into her. She glared at the girl, earning a vague smile in response as the girl wandered away.

Chloe patiently said, "I told you. It's a conservation fundraiser for the East African naked mole rat."

Beca closed her eyes momentarily, trusting Chloe not to let her trip. "Yes. I know that. But why?"

"Because," chimed Emily, "they're cute and we have to save them!"

Beca glanced at the flyer in Lilly's grasp; the little cover photo of the rodent monstrosity was not what she considered "cute" in any way. Horrendous and mildly alarming, maybe. Definitely not cute.

"And they're in Kim Possible," Stacie said as if that made all the difference.

"Come on, Bec," Chloe tugged on Beca's arm softly, "you know how much conservation means to me."

Beca sighed. Chloe had been badgering all the Bellas for days about coming to the fundraiser event with her. Why Barden's Charity Club for Underprivileged and Neglected Vermin had this much pull on campus was beyond her, but here they were. In the end, Chloe had managed to convince Emily, Stacie, Lilly, and Beca to go, though Beca was only going because it was a Sacred Girlfriend Duty. Everyone else had blatantly refused; Flo had been especially adamant, insisting that naked mole rats had been pests in her home country and it would be best for them to go extinct. She had completely snubbed Chloe's assurances that naked mole rats were not native to Guatemala.

"Are they even endangered? Like, at all?" Beca tried, wiping away the sweat dripping into her eyes.

"Do you want to see my knife collection?" Lilly whispered while Chloe ignored Beca's question by pretending to look at something interesting across campus (there was nothing).

"Ooh, they have an obstacle course!" Emily squealed suddenly, stopping in place and quite possibly breaking the sound barrier.

Beca looked to where Emily was pointing. Sure enough, there was a smattering of what she supposed could be considered obstacles set up in the center of campus. It had clearly been arranged by an overeager freshman in the ridiculous conservation club; there appeared to be no cohesive theme to the torture. From where they stood, Beca could see that the course required its victims to run through a field of car tires turned on their sides, crawl under a low net, scale a small, fragile-looking wall that had been erected solely for this purpose, and swing across ridiculously high monkey bars. It was a veritable hell and the mere sight of it made Beca's hands sweat.

"Yeah," Chloe said, craning her neck to look at the obstacle course, "it's one of the fundraisers where teams send someone to compete. One of us should do it!" She turned to look directly at Beca.

Beca's eyes widened as she took in Chloe's hopeful expression, Stacie's predatory grin, Emily's overwhelming excitement (she was practically vibrating and looked to be on the verge of tears), and the box of matches in Lilly's hands that had appeared out of nowhere.

Panicking slightly, Beca deadpanned, "I'm not doing the obstacle course."

"Oh, but it's a fundraiser for –"

"Chloe, I'll die. I will literally fall and break my neck and die. I'm not going to die for an ugly rat that's not even endangered."

Chloe stuck out her lower lip in a small pout. Beca stared back, refusing to show any sign of weakness, but she knew she wouldn't last long. Surprisingly, though, Chloe's gaze wavered first.

"Fine," Chloe puffed, turning away from the obstacle course and leading their group in the opposite direction. "I don't want you to die."

"Is Beca not… flexible enough for that?" Stacie asked as they walked, using her most innocent-sounding voice.

"Shut up," Beca growled over Chloe's giggle. "I'm plenty flexible. I just don't wanna die."

"Uh huh."

Deciding that she was too dignified to respond, Beca looked around in disgust at the mass of people milling around them in close proximity. Yet another person bumped into Beca, a massive and idiotic-looking jock this time. She turned to shoot him a venomous glare; amazingly, he glared at her just as harshly.

"This is so fun!" Emily was completely beside herself. Chloe agreed enthusiastically. Lilly's smile widened frighteningly. Stacie pointed and laughed at the bitter expression on Beca's face.

A trickle of sweat ran down Beca's back. She desperately wanted to go home.

Suddenly, Chloe's hand squeezed hers tightly and yanked her to a stop.

"Look!" Chloe exclaimed, nodding her head to the left. "It's Tom."

Beca squinted against the glare of the sun, looking past the cloud of smoke emanating from a group of High Notes members. Finally, she spotted Tom standing with several other frat boy buddies, shirtless in the heat. She felt a stab of annoyance when she saw how perfect his sculpted upper body looked; clearly, he'd been working out since The Shower Incident more than two years ago.

"That's my ex-boyfriend," said Chloe. For a moment, Beca wondered why she'd said that – obviously Beca knew who Tom was – until she realized that Chloe was talking to Emily.

"Well, kiss me so he sees," Beca said grumpily, irritated by the huge smile that had broken over Tom's face at the sight of them. Or, more likely, at the sight of Chloe.

Chloe narrowed her eyes at Beca suspiciously before leaning in to press a soft kiss against her lips. Beca smiled into it; she knew Chloe would never miss the opportunity to kiss her. And she would never miss the opportunity to show her hot girlfriend off to the world.

"Hi Chloe!"

Beca's momentary contentment was shattered by the sound of an overenthusiastic male voice. Chloe pulled away so suddenly that Beca lost her balance and teetered forward, bumping into Chloe's shoulder. From behind them, Stacie emitted a snort of mirth that she tried (unsuccessfully) to cover with a cough.

"Hey, Tom!" Chloe responded happily to the shirtless boy that had appeared next to them.

"And hey, uh… Brianna?" Tom asked uncertainly, looking at Beca.

Beca grimaced before turning to glare at the object of her annoyance. "It's Beca," she muttered, hating how big and brown his eyes were. And how close his bare chest was to them all. Or, more specifically, to Chloe.

"Right, Beca, sorry. So, you two are…?" Tom trailed off, gesturing jovially between Beca and Chloe. Beca thought it made him look moronic.

"Yep! We've been together for a few months now," Chloe said, wrapping an arm around Beca's waist and pulling her against her side. Instinctively, Beca rested her arm over Chloe's shoulders, wanting to make their relationship status exceedingly clear to the idiot boy standing in front of them. Stacie coughed again.

"That's awesome!" enthused Tom. "And I'm assuming these are some other Bellas?" he looked behind Beca and Chloe questioningly.

Emily and Stacie both greeted Tom (Lilly had disappeared into the crowd). Stacie winked flirtatiously, making Tom's smile widen and his chest puff out even further.

Beca wanted to punch him.

"I heard you guys have been killing it at Nationals the last few years," continued Tom, "I gotta say Chloe, I'm really happy for you."

Chloe smiled warmly at Tom and thanked him, sounding surprised but happy. Beca restrained herself from rolling her eyes and settled for grinding her teeth. Stupid Tom and his stupid compliments and his stupid chest.

"What are you doing here?" Chloe asked in a somewhat higher-pitched voice than usual. Beca's frown deepened.

"Oh, I'm representing Alpha Gamma Delta for the obstacle course," said Tom, pointing at the course like they couldn't see it for themselves. "Gotta show off these guns for charity," he added, flexing rather unnecessarily. "Do the Bellas have a competitor?"

Beca actually felt Chloe deflate next to her, like some kind of human-sized balloon. It was alarming, to say the least. She glanced over and saw the disappointed look on her face, and beyond her, the absolutely devastated expression on Emily's.

Beca sighed. She felt an elbow in her side, courtesy of Stacie. She sighed again.

She really hated disappointing Chloe.

"No, actually," started Chloe, "we don't –"

"Yes!" blurted Beca, already hating herself. Chloe turned, dislodging Beca's arm over her shoulders to stare at Beca with a mix of adoration and confusion. "I'm doing that. The obstacle… thing. Of course. Anything for the wombats, right?" she added halfheartedly.

"Mole rats," Emily stage-whispered.

"Hmm," Beca grimaced.

There was a very awkward pause as Tom's eyes flicked between Chloe's thrilled expression and Beca's unhappy one.

"Riiiight," he said slowly, "So, it's starting soon, we should probably get lined up?"

Beca's stomach dropped; she hadn't been expecting to act on her impulse so quickly. Too late now, though. "Yep," she said, gently detaching Chloe's arm from around her waist, "let's, uh, line up, or whatever."

"Beca, you don't have to," Chloe whispered as she started to follow Tom to her demise.

Forcing a smile (that, judging by Stacie's raised eyebrows, must have looked painful), Beca glanced back and said quietly, "It's all good, I want to." It wasn't totally a lie; Beca did want to show up Tom and prove herself. She just didn't necessarily want to do it on an obstacle course to benefit ugly, non-endangered rats.

As she walked toward the course's starting line with Tom, Beca overheard Stacie say, "It's fine, she wants to prove she's bigger. If you know what I mean."

"But she's so small," Emily's confused voice was the last thing Beca heard before she was out of earshot. She sighed yet again.

Glancing back at her, Tom smiled encouragingly as he led her closer to the start of the course. Beca tried not to glare back too obviously. Stupid Tom with his stupid smile and his stupid arms.

Once they reached the course, they were met with a familiar-looking blonde girl. "Hey there!" she said extremely enthusiastically, making Beca take a step back. "If both of you just want to sign this waiver form, releasing Barden from any and all legality regarding injury, maiming, or accidental death! There are paramedics here, but remember, don't fall unless it's actually happening!" Oh no. It was rape whistle girl. Beca groaned internally; could this get any worse?

"And it looks like you two are the first ones here, so you can run it against each other!" rape whistle girl practically shouted in excitement as she handed them waiver forms on a clip board.

It got worse. Beca had only wanted to prove she could do the course; she didn't think she'd actually have to compete against stupid shirtless Tom. She really hadn't thought this through at all.

Tom signed his form without reading it and turned to look at Beca expectantly. Beca glowered at the waiver, positively seething. Why did she have to get so jealous? She knew that her relationship with Chloe was solid, so why did she feel the need to prove herself in possibly the most moronic way ever?

The rape whistle girl cleared her throat loudly, staring pointedly at the clipboard in Beca's hands. Taking the not-so-subtle hint, Beca hurriedly scrawled her name on the signature line and handed it back to her.

"Perfect!" the girl cheered. "Time to get started!"

Tom was already on the starting line, stretching his arms to make his muscles pop. Beca looked away, reluctantly moving to stand next to him at the start.

"Good luck, and no hard feelings," Tom said congenially, reaching out a hand to shake hers.

"Uh huh," Beca said, grabbing his hand and letting go quickly. She had to beat him.

"Competitors ready!" called rape whistle girl, attracting the attention of people passing by.

Beca turned to the course, taking in the field of tires, the crawling net, and the wall ahead, behind which hid the monkey bars. Great. She took a deep breath; she could do this. It wasn't that bad, right? She had years of Bella cardio under her belt. She could win. For Chloe. Or, wait, for the sewer rats, or whatever the hell it was. She could win.

"Get set!" A whole crowd had formed to watch them now.

Beside her, Tom had lowered himself to a runner's crouch. It looked impressive (stupid Tom and his stupid legs), so she imitated him. Time to beat this pretty-boy.

"Yeah Beca, you got this!" a familiar voice shrieked, shattering her concentration. Beca glanced to the side to see Chloe standing along the course cheering her on, looking both parts amused and nervous. Stacie and Emily were beside her – Stacie mimed lifting her shirt to flash her, and Emily had covered her eyes in a nice vote of confidence.

"Go!" screamed the rape whistle girl.

Tom was off like a flash, starting on the course by the time Beca realized what had happened.

"Shit!" she swore loudly, launching herself to the first obstacle, the sideways tires. Tom was already halfway through them by the time she stepped into the first one. She jogged through them as quickly as she could, internally thanking Aubrey's insistence to "lift those knees, Bellas!" throughout Bella cardio. Her toe caught the edge of a tire once and she heard Chloe cry out as she stumbled, but she managed to catch her balance and made it through the tires relatively unscathed.

She made it to the low-hanging net, Tom already having thrown himself under it. Thankfully, his height and muscle mass (both stupid) were more of a hindrance than a help; he struggled to remain low enough to the ground to successfully crawl under the net.

Sparing a thought to the sorry state her skinny jeans (why the hell was she even in jeans in this heat?) were going to be in after this, Beca dropped to the ground to Army-crawl under the net. Knee, elbow, knee, elbow, she made her way across the ground, blood pounding in her ears, muffling the sound of the cheering crowd. She passed Tom less than halfway through with a smirk, then kept going. She finally reached the end, pulling herself out from under the net with a groan.

Beca glanced back to see Tom still struggling with the net. For the first time, she allowed herself to think that she might actually win. She was more than halfway through already!

"Woo, go Beca!" she heard Emily call out. The cheer acted as a shot of adrenaline to her veins; Beca sprinted forward, full of disbelief at how well she was doing, and threw herself at the slanted wall ahead.

Unfortunately, she was a little overenthusiastic; she rammed the wall at full speed and her shoulder bounced off its surface, sending her staggering backward. Clutching her shoulder, she heard Chloe's sympathetic groan accompanied by the sound of Tom running toward her – he had escaped the net obstacle at last.

"The rope, Beca! Use the rope!" Stacie's shriek rang out over the crowd, drawing Beca's attention back to the wall in front of her. Sure enough, there, hanging from the top of the wall were two knotted ropes, obviously meant for use in scaling the obstacle.

Annoyed that she'd missed those the first time, Beca seized one of the ropes and braced her feet on the wall. It wasn't easy, and she knew Tom was hot on her heels, but she managed to scramble up the slanted wall with the assistance of her rope.

She dropped to the other side, by some miracle without breaking anything, and looked to the final obstacle: the monkey bars. Beca swallowed. She'd always been horrible at monkey bars.

But Tom had reached the top of the wall behind her and Chloe was cheering her on – cheering for her, not for Tom, the stupid, really very nice ex-boyfriend – and Beca knew she had no choice.

She stepped forward, preparing to jump to the first one – Jesus Christ, those were high, didn't they have a step up she could use? – when Tom flew by her out of nowhere. He leapt right to the second bar, bypassing the first and swinging himself forward to the third.

Beca knew she had only seconds to catch up. She flung herself up to the bar, grabbing hold with both hands. Without hesitating, she swung forward, managing to catch the second bar and switch to it with relative ease. That wasn't so bad. She allowed herself a small smile – she had a chance.

She swung to the third, then the fourth, and was surprised to notice she was almost halfway. She glanced ahead and horror (or maybe sweat) trickled down her spine when she saw that Tom only had three rungs left before the finish. The only way for her to catch up would be to skip bars like he'd done at the beginning. It had looked easy enough, she just needed the momentum.

She could do this.

Beca kicked her legs out, gathering energy. Her eyes locked on the second bar from her and she prepared herself to release. She felt her body reach the peak of the swing, felt her fingertips release one bar and extend for the other and then –

The bar she'd been aiming for slid from her sweaty palms and she was falling, falling, until she landed with a thud on her back, bouncing her head off the ground. The air whooshed from her lungs and her eyes slammed shut automatically.

The next moments were full of hazy confusion. She heard the collective gasp of the crowd, one voice standing out above all the others, then the pounding of feet rushing toward her. She didn't at all fancy getting trampled, so she forced her eyes open and drew a breath, squinting in the direct sunlight.

The first face she saw was Lilly's, strangely enough, despite her earlier disappearance. Lilly stooped alarmingly close, her features blurring until Beca felt an unmistakable wetness graze the tip of her nose; Lilly had licked her. Lilly pulled back (thankfully) to clear Beca's line of vision. Chloe's anxious face appeared above her, as did Stacie's, Emily's, and finally, Tom's.

"Beca, oh my God, are you okay?" Chloe's frantic voice filled the space between them. "Did you lose consciousness? Did you hurt your back? Did you break anything?"

"Uh," said Beca.

"Medic!" bellowed Chloe, directly into Stacie's ear.

"Chlo, I'm fine," Beca grumbled, trying to sit up. The last thing she needed was a medic to haul her away on a stretcher and force her to wear one of those awful neck braces.

"Woah there, tiger, go slow," Stacie reached for her arm, helping to haul her to her feet. Once standing, Beca stumbled a little to the side, but Tom caught her and held her steady against his still-bare chest. It took her a second too long to realize what was happening; when she found herself confronted with all that skin, she jerked away sharply to stand on her own.

Beca looked beyond Emily's concerned face to see the rape whistle girl pointing a group of bored-looking paramedics in her direction.

"Hey, it's all good. I'm fine!" Beca called, waving her arm. "You can, like, go away."

"Okay, but don't forget, you signed the waiver!" the girl yelled back as the paramedics turned away. Unfortunately, most of the crowd present was still staring at her. Didn't they have anything better to do?

Beca rolled her eyes. She really just wanted to leave and go home and have Chloe give her a massage. Before she could tell this to Chloe, though, she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned.

Tom looked at her apologetically. "Hey, sorry about that," he said, "If I'd seen you'd fallen, I'd have gone back before finishing."

"Really, I'm fine," Beca said, annoyed by how nice and perfect Tom was being. It was rude of him, she thought. "It's all good."

"Okay, well, if you're sure, I'm going back to join my bros," Tom said, gesturing over his shoulder. "It was great to see you again, Chloe, and I'm happy for you and Beca." With a nod to Stacie and Emily (Lilly had vanished again), he jogged off as the rest of the crowd dispersed.

A hand smoothed across Beca's lower back and she relaxed into Chloe's touch. "You sure you're okay?" Chloe murmured, slipping her hand into Beca's

"Yeah, just a little bruised," Beca replied, trying to seem macho while wincing.

"Just a bruised ego, you mean," Stacie said with a wry smile.

Emily nodded, "Yeah, Beca, I can't believe you body-checked that wall without seeing the rope."

"Thanks, guys," Beca grumbled as they walked away from the obstacle course.

Chloe smiled and said gently, "Well, you are an idiot. I don't know why you got so jealous of Tom."

Beca glared back, affronted, "I wasn't jealous!"

Chloe looked at her with raised eyebrows; Stacie laughed out loud and Emily looked away pointedly.

"I… fine. I was jealous," Beca groaned, embarrassed. "Happy?"

"No!" Chloe burst out, gesturing wildly with her free hand. "You have no reason to be jealous and hurt yourself over it!"

Beca looked at the ground ahead of them as they walked. A Frisbee flew by and nearly took out Emily, who dodged it at the last second. Beca threw a glare in the general direction it came from.

Finally, Beca risked a glance at Chloe and mumbled, "Yeah, well. It's hard not to be jealous when my girlfriend looks like a model and Tom was being really nice and has all that muscle."

"He did look yummy," Stacie supplied most unhelpfully.

"I don't care what he looks like," Chloe said firmly. "He isn't you. You are beautiful and wonderful and perfect, even if you do get jealous. Bec, I love you with all that I am. I chose you for a reason. You have no reason to worry about anyone else."

Beca smiled a little, unexpected happiness washing through her as she looked down at hers and Chloe's entwined hands. She had been pretty lame about the whole thing. Tom really seemed like a good guy, and she knew Chloe would never cheat on her.

"Sorry," she eventually said, "Got carried away."

Chloe leaned into her, tugging on her hand. "It's okay, no harm done." She pursed her lips and added with a wink, "Well, at least I hope not. I need your body in top shape." Beca immediately felt herself blush.

"Ugh, you guys are so hot," Stacie whined.

"Stacie!" Beca hissed over the sound of Chloe's giggle. "There are children present," she said, gesturing to Emily, who wrinkled her nose.

"It's okay, Bec," Chloe soothed, "come here." And she reached her free hand to turn Beca's face toward hers for a small kiss. They were in public, so it couldn't really go anywhere, but it still made Beca's body hum and her heartbeat stutter. She was never going to get tired of kissing Chloe.

Their moment was shattered by Emily's excited squeal; Beca broke away to see that she'd spotted a cotton candy cart ahead. Based on the group of people running in a circle around it, she gathered which student organization was running the stand. All proceeds were to go to the naked mole rat, of course.

"Ooh, Beca, can we get some?" Emily begged, practically bouncing on the spot.

Beca sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. Barden's charity fundraisers were a lot more trouble than they were worth.