Radio Silence

When Chloe had leaned into Beca on hood night informing her they were going to be "fast friends", she wasn't sure what Chloe had meant. It seemed now - six months later - Beca was beginning to understand; in the form of long hugs, good morning texts, kisses on cheeks just because and many late night study sessions at their favourite diner.

Chloe Beale had well and truly barged into Beca's life with a bold warning she had shrugged off and somehow Beca was completely OK with that.

She was currently working her fourth night shift in a row at the radio station and queuing as many songs as possible in preparation for Chloe's arrival. The redhead's company and take out was a new development during her shifts but Beca was never opposed to it – she had even given Chloe her spare key card to the front door (OK, that might be breaking a very important rule, but when Chloe asked, Beca never said no.)

The moment Beca caught sight of Chloe pushing open the door she tried to control the butterflies in her stomach - the butterflies that were occurring a lot more frequently around the other woman. She was carrying their take out and wearing a goofy grin as she made her way over to the booth, causing Beca to wheel her chair over to open the door.

"You're not allowed in if you didn't bring me coffee" she frowned, leaning over to pull the door slightly ajar, but not quite wide enough for Chloe to get through.

"I have coffee" Chloe assured with a serious look on her face and passing the cup through the small space of the door.

Beca took it with a grin, flinging the door open and pushing off the cupboard to wheel her chair back to the desk.

"Alright, come on in."

XXX

Four hours into her shift and Beca was polishing off her sixth cup of coffee and cracking open a can of Redbull.

"You know that stuff isn't good for you, right?" Chloe asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Beca took a long swig before settling the can down next to the mixing board.

"Yep, but it literally keeps me going through the nightshift" she replied, tracking her finger along the laptop's mouse pad.

Chloe leaned forward, giving Beca's chair a light shove with her foot, "Yeah and that's why I'm here and I'm certain I'm better company than an energy drink."

"Hmm, I don't know, it tends not to speak as much" the DJ retorted with a smirk, eyes glued to the screen in front of her.

The redhead rose to her feet, collecting the litter from their food on the desk with her back to Beca, "Well I guess I better get going then, I'll leave you and your Redbull alone" she sighed with a knowing smile.

Before she could turn to leave, hands were on her hips and pulling her backwards and onto Beca's knee, "...Or you could just stay and shut up" she whispered into Chloe's ear, feeling the other woman's laughter vibrating against her chest.

Chloe didn't reply and she didn't move either. Beca finally realised the position she had gotten herself into, thankful the redhead couldn't see the blush rushing to surface of her cheeks. When it came to Chloe, Beca was a lot more open than she normally would be and there were many different factors of the other woman's personality that caused that. It seemed there was a warmness and sense of comfort that resonated deep with Beca and it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago she realised why that was.

The nervousness, the excitement before they met up and the butterflies were all warning signs of a crush developing but Beca were too engrossed in the redhead to shut her out in order to prevent it from developing. She would find herself getting lost in her presence, which explained why she had absentmindedly pulled Chloe into her lap without so much as a second thought; until it happened and she was no longer able to back pedal or take it back.

"What does this do?"

Chloe's voice disrupted her thoughts and suddenly Beca was hyperaware of the switch the redhead was about to touch. She quickly stilled her hand and pulled it back so it was resting on her knee.

"Dude, please do not touch that, ever"

The hand Beca still had a hold of was surging forward again, causing her to keep a tight hold of it. Chloe was laughing mischievously before Beca was poking her in the side.

"I really want to keep this job" she said through gritted teeth, feigning anger.

Chloe turned slightly, pressing a kiss to Beca's cheek with a wide smile.

The first time she kissed Beca on the cheek, the younger woman couldn't help but turn a rather scarlet shade of red and pull away quickly; she tried not to over think the hint of hurt in her friend's eyes. The pair stopped on their walk back to campus, the cold air of the evening settling around them before she nervously stammered out a confused "What was that for?"

Chloe stepped a little closer, before shrugging her shoulders with a smile.

"I don't know, just because, I guess."

The truth was Beca had never been kissed on the cheek "just because" before. It was new and unusual, but the way the redhead's lips grazed her skin made her wish Chloe would do it again in the future.

"Just because?" Beca repeated with a bewildered smile on her face.

Chloe let out giggle as she took looped her arm with hers and tugged Beca to walk forward.

"Yeah, do you never get that feeling of appreciation for someone or something at a random moment and just want to let them know?" she asked matter-of-factly.

"Um, I don't know, I've never really thought about it before" Beca replied falling in step with Chloe.

"Well, I do, quite often, so that's what that was."

Beca turned to face the redhead with a grin and a nod of the head, "I have seriously never met anyone like you before, Beale."

She shrugged it off with a laugh and a shoulder bump, but Chloe's reasoning that night was probably when the 'crush' started.

Chloe was swiftly turning back around on her lap and taking a swig of the recently opened energy drink.

"You know that stuff isn't good for you, right?" she smirked, throwing Chloe's own words back at her.

"Shhh you and show me how to work this stuff" the redhead fired back, gesturing to the laptop and mixing board in front of them.

Beca leaned forward, pulling the chair closer to the desk, as she placed her hands around Chloe for easy access to the laptop.

"Alright, so this is the music I'm going to play..." she said, hovering the mouse over a list of songs on the lower half of the screen, "...and this is the song that is currently being played and because I've queued things already, I basically don't have to do anything" she said, watching Chloe's shoulders drop, picturing the disappointment on her face.

"Beca!" Chloe shouted, reaching for the same button she was warned not to touch.

"Alright, jeez, I'll show you!"

After explaining what the buttons and switches did what, Chloe was already lining up a new song and waiting to play the radio's required jingle in between. The redhead was hastily fluttering her hand over the board and focussing on the track countdown to the end of the song, whilst Beca was slowly moving a slider up. She ghosted her hand over Chloe's, before resting it atop and helping the redhead press the button at the exact moment.

Beca kept a hold of Chloe's hand and directed it to another slider, before they both pushed the piece of plastic upwards. The older woman turned to look at Beca, catching her in a moment of great concentration; Chloe smiled fondly before their eyes met.

"You could potentially be the fifth weirdo that works here" Beca joked as the opening vocals of Reef's 'Place Your Hands' filtered through the headphones resting on her right ear. Chloe was turning her hand still in Beca's and interlocking their fingers together with a smile the DJ hadn't seen before. She had a feeling Chloe was leaning closer...

...and then there was a loud screeching through her headset and the booth fell in complete darkness.

Beca quickly pushed the headphones from her ears with a loud "shit" and felt Chloe's hand tightly squeeze hers.

"Did I break it?"

Chloe's breath tickled her cheek and Beca realised perhaps the redhead was leaning in closer a mere three seconds ago. She let out a light chuckle and rested her hands on the woman's hips before she began standing up.

"No, I think the power is out" she thought aloud, pulling the phone out of her back pocket and turning on the flashlight.

"But what about your show?" Chloe asked worriedly.

"It's fine, there is a generator that keeps the feed going, I just can't queue anymore songs, but I already had enough to last until the end of my shift anyway" Beca assured with a soft smile.

The younger woman made her way to the door with Chloe not too far behind and pulled the handle.

"Shit, it's locked!"

Chloe looked at her puzzled, causing Beca to pull at the key card in her pocket and wave it in the air. "It's all electronic, Chlo."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh" Beca deadpanned, searching the room for something to help their situation, but unsure of what. When she came up empty, she blew the air from her cheeks and shrugged at the woman before her.

"So, what now?"

XXX

Beca had guided Chloe up the stairs and led her to the ridiculously worn sofa in the corner under the skylight. The bright light of Beca's phone shone from the table, casting shadows of the record shelves on the wall beside them.

"Can we dim this or something, I feel like you can see every detail of my face" Chloe joked, leaning forward and turning it over, face up on the table.

"I thought you were confident about all that?" Beca challenged with a smirk.

"Yeah, I am, but some light isn't as flattering as others. For example, the lighting in your dorm showers isn't too bad, if you know what I mean?" she countered, dragging her eyes suggestively over Beca's body.

"Alright, OK, I get it" Beca sighed, with the shake of her head causing Chloe to laugh.

It seemed from the moment the lights went off, Beca couldn't stop thinking about what happened just before they lost power. It both looked and felt like Chloe was leaning in closer, but considering her angle and her 'crush', Beca could easily be jumping conclusions. The chances of Chloe kissing anything but her cheek were surely less than zero, right? It was no secret the redhead was a very tactful person with everyone, what made Beca any different from everyone else?

"What're you thinking about?" Chloe asked, bringing Beca out of her thoughts.

"Nothing, just wondering when the power will come back on; I'm not sure I can take being locked in a dark room with you anymore" she deflected.

Chloe gave her pointed stare, before a mischievous smile flickered over her face, "I'm not quite sure this is the dark room I had in mind for us."

"Oh yeah, thought about it a lot have you?" Beca quipped, thankful the light wasn't bright enough for Chloe to notice the possible rouge in her cheeks.

"Maybe..." she shrugged with a wink, "...I'm sure this green sofa would suffice" Chloe added.

"You never stop, do you?" Beca scoffed.

Chloe's eyes flickered to the sofa, "I don't know, wanna find out?"

Beca stood up abruptly, rolling her eyes, "OK, and on that note I'm going to raid Luke's secret stash."

After a couple of minutes, the DJ returned back up stairs to see Chloe shining a light at the records on the shelves.

"Alright, so all I found was an empty hip flask, a gift voucher to Chilli's and a blank postcard of the London Eye" she announced, making her way over to the record collection.

"So do you and Jesse actually know the order of the alphabet or do you just guess and hope for the best?" Chloe teased, rearranging the order of the shelf.

"Dude, do you know how many records are in here? Or better yet, do you know how many steps we had to climb to get up here?!" she exclaimed, pointing towards the banister.

Chloe rolled her eyes good naturedly and continued to move the records.

Beca watched as the redhead concentrated, trying to suppress the urge to kiss her on cheek.

She failed and gently pecked Chloe just above her jaw line, causing her to still her movements and look at her very much like Beca did on the walk back to her dorm a while ago.

"I had one of those moments of appreciation" Beca said simply, with a shrug.

Chloe was beaming back at her for a few seconds until the same smile from the DJ booth earlier was back on her face. There was a pause before she was stepping closer, placing a kiss of her own on Beca's cheek and lacing their fingers together.

The DJ was completely transfixed on her eyes unable to pull them away from the piercing blue ones staring back at her. Without much thought and even less hesitation, the shorter woman leaned in again and softly kissed Chloe's lips; it was quick and chaste, but there was a jolt of electricity surging through her body.

In return, the redhead reached for Beca's other hand and closed the distance once again, but this time she kissed Beca with purpose, her lips working over hers with a kind of hunger the other woman was never aware of.

Before the brunette's brain could catch up with her hands, she was gently pushing Chloe against the shelf; hands resting on hips as her thumb ran a circular motion over Chloe's bare skin. The redhead was now fisting her hand in Beca's shirt, pulling them even closer together and deepening the kiss with an appreciative hum when the DJ's hand was trailing up and down her thigh.

Suddenly the sound of music was filling the room and the lights glowing down on them – neither of them noticed though, as Chloe hands were tangling themselves in Beca's hair and her thigh finding its way to rest on Beca's hip.

The kiss was getting more heated than first intended, causing both women to slowly pull apart, remaining in their somewhat compromising position and searching each other's eyes.

"I think we should get locked in a dark room together more often" Beca ghosted over Chloe's lips and breaking the silence. Their breath mingled together, as Chloe let out a giggle and dropped her head onto the smaller woman's shoulder.

"Well, we can always just turn the lights off at my place?" the redhead replied, with a knowing smile.

XXX

A/N: Thank you for the reviews lately, it's really nice to hear your thoughts and feelings on different chapters and I know it's more time consuming than just clicking fave or follow, so cheers for taking the time; much appreciated!

Oh, side note; whenever I mention a song in my wiring it is seriously just whatever I'm listening to the moment I write the sentence, so if anyone thought Reef was a shit song choice, blame my shuffle...