Beca didn't move from her position lying half on top of Chloe after agreeing to talk.

She felt safe, and if they were going to talk then she would need every bit of safety and comfort she could get. She waited for Chloe to say something, to start bombarding her with intensely personal questions that she wasn't sure she could answer, but instead there was only silence. Chloe just kept rubbing small circles on her back, fingers tracing and pressing in ever so slightly, and when the redhead nuzzled into her hair and breathed in deeply before exhaling, Beca realized with a start what Chloe was doing. The older girl was waiting for her to talk- was letting her set the pace and decide what she wanted to say and when.

Beca felt like crying all over again as she realized that Chloe wasn't going to force her to do anything, even if it was something that seemed as harmless as talking. The thought made her wish there was some way to keep Chloe hers and only hers forever. Despite the fact that she was lying on the other girl, nearly the entire lengths of their bodies pressed together, Beca felt like she still couldn't get close enough to the other girl. She wanted to be on top of her, under her, around her, inside of her-

Whoa.

Beca cut herself off, not wanting to go down that path. Chloe was her friend, and an amazing one at that, and Beca would content herself with whatever Chloe would give her.

Chloe could tell that Beca was thinking about something, and was thinking about it seriously. The smaller girl had tensed ever so slightly and was trying to press even closer to Chloe's body, though Chloe was sure that the brunette didn't even realize she was doing it.

Beca realized that she was still laying there silently when Chloe gently moved her hand to the small of her back, bringing them just a tiny bit closer together. Humming slightly at how nice it felt, Beca sighed after a moment.

"Can you just….keep me safe?"

Flushing the second the words were out of her mouth, Beca immediately kicked herself for sounding so needy and asking something like that of Chloe. She waited for the inevitable laughter, but it never came. Instead, Chloe's hold on her just seemed to tighten protectively. When it became clear that Chloe wasn't going to ridicule her for such a ridiculous request, Beca tentatively kept talking, trying to explain herself to Chloe.

"When I'm with you," she whispered, "I feel safe. I feel like you'll protect me from the rest of the world, and it makes me less scared. Like maybe I can do this, I can have a life. Like maybe I'm not completely broken."

Beca bit her lip as Chloe shifted underneath her, sure that this was the moment where the redhead would shove her off and kick her out of the room, but Chloe just moved enough so that she could look Beca in the eye. She gently brought a hand up and brushed a stray strand of hair back from Beca's face, a fond smile teasing her lips before her eyes turned serious. "You're not broken, Beca. I'm not saying that you're flawless or anything, or even that you should be, but please don't ever think that you're broken."

Beca flushed, looking down, but found tender fingers lifting her chin so that she was staring into shining blue eyes once more. "What…." She started to say, then lost her nerve. Chloe waited patiently, and Beca found the courage to say what she was desperately wondering. "How can you know that? You don't even know me, Chloe, not really!"

Running a soothing thumb across Beca's cheek, Chloe nodded.

"I don't know you- not all of you at least. But," she continued, "what I do know is that you've been able to make it this far on your own. I don't know everything you've been through, but what little I do know….it already tells me that you are amazing, and so incredibly strong."

Beca tried to interrupt, but Chloe gently pressed a finger to her lips. "Let me finish, Beca. I'm not saying you haven't been hurt, and if you see yourself as broken, then that's okay for now. I just want you to know that when I look at you, I see an incredible person who's fought to be where she is now. You might have had your heart broken and beaten, but you've stitched it back together, and I don't think that makes you broken. I think it makes you strong."

Beca laid there in silence, dropping her head down to rest on Chloe's chest again, and tried to think of how to respond to what the older girl was saying. Nobody had ever said anything like this to her before, and it was beyond disorienting. After thinking for another minute, Beca came up with a single question that was more pressing than all the others. Pushing herself up on one elbow so she could see Chloe's face, Beca quietly asked, "How can you have so much faith in me when I don't even have any in myself?"

Looking down for a beat, she made herself look back up before she could chicken out entirely. "I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have the kind of faith that you do, in myself or anything else. I just…I don't even know what that would look like. I've never been that person, never really believed in someone or something like that…"

"You believe in music," Chloe whispered, a statement not a question.

Nodding, Beca looked at her seriously before murmuring, "And I think I might be learning to believe in you, too."

Quickly continuing before Chloe could respond to that, she said, "But in myself? I just…..I don't know. I can't, Chloe."

Leaning up a little so that her forehead was pressed against Beca's, Chloe gave her a little half smile. "That's why you have me. So I can believe in you enough for the both of us. And one of these days, I don't know when but someday, you won't need me to have faith in you anymore, because you'll have faith in yourself."

The moment was intimate- incredibly so, and tears rose in Beca's eyes. Blinking quickly, she tried to stop them, but Chloe wrapped her arms back around Beca's torso and quietly said, "It's okay to cry, Beca. Sometimes it's even good, you know?"

Inhaling deeply, Beca nodded quickly against Chloe's shoulder. "But not right now," she whispered, "Right now I just want to stay here with you and not be sad." Pushing up, she looked uncertainly at Chloe for a second before impulsively leaning in and kissing her softly on her cheek, lips barely brushing the corner of Chloe's mouth. The sensation caused butterflies to erupt in her stomach, and she looked at Chloe hesitantly, hoping that what she had done was okay. There was a brief look of something that flashed across Chloe's face, but then she was smiling fondly at Beca. "Go to sleep, Beca," she whispered, "We can make pancakes or something in the morning if you want."

Gratefully accepting the move towards levity, Beca collapsed back down against Chloe, cuddling in against her side. "Blueberry pancakes?" she asked teasingly.

"If you want," Chloe replied softly.

"Mmkay. Good," Beca mumbled, already half asleep.

Chloe pressed a soft kiss to the top of the other girl's head, stifling her giggle at Beca's half-coherent mumbling. Relaxing back into her pillows, the redhead exhaled slowly. Beca's kiss had caught her off guard, and she had barely been able to keep from turning her head ever-so-slightly so that their lips would have connected full-on. This was Beca's game, and therefore Beca's rules. Chloe refused to push for anything unless Beca initiated it, and even then she was hesitant. There was already a level of intimacy between them, sure, but crossing the line from friends into lovers would complicate things, and Chloe really just wanted to make Beca's life as non-complicated as possible. The girl had enough on her plate already without having to worry about Chloe wanting a relationship, and so unless Beca was the one to initiate things, Chloe would force herself to behave.

Beca was worth every moment of unfulfilled desire and more, and as she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, Chloe found only images of soft hazel eyes and sweetly-scented brunette hair behind her eyelids.

Update time! Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed- it means the world to me and i was so excited by the enthusiasm and feedback from you all!

I've got another Beca/Chloe fic up called Wishingbone if you're interested- I'll likely be alternating updates for that one and this one.

Thank you so so much for reading! Hope this didn't disappoint too much!