A/N: I feel the need to apologise for this chapter so… I'm sorry. I also feel like there should be some sort of warning on this chapter but I'm not really sure which horrible part to focus on. I seriously am I huge Bechloe shipper… I've always been one… regardless of how this chapter makes me seem. Also Chloe is my absolute favourite fictional character ever created (Snow being my all-time favourite human) so just know this chapter (and the next few) hurt me just as much as they hurt you.

So, umm, enjoy?

Disclaimer: I don't own Pitch Perfect and Dark Paradise belongs to Lana Del Rey.

Chloe paced. She was stressed, confused, lost, unsure and losing herself. Chloe Beale had always been sure... until a cursed Activities Fair that changed everything. How one day had changed the course of her entire life she could never comprehend, but she could explain it. Beca Mitchell. At first it has been attraction with a blistering side of curiosity. The 'alternative' girl had been unique and something Chloe had never experienced before. She was sarcastic, tattooed, and filled with a distain for all the things Chloe loved. Their first meeting should have been their last, would have been, had it not been for Chloe's desire to rid the girl from her mind with meaningless stranger sex in a public place. The excitement at the potential of being caught had overwhelmed her senses, consuming and defeating the lack of attraction she had for the faceless jock. He was nothing, because he wasn't her.

The voice had echoed against the tiles, entered her bloodstream and taken complete control of her body. She'd pulled away from the man, the boy, barely noticing the way he slipped out of her, as she turned towards the intoxicating sound. It called her like a siren and she obeyed. Her hand pulled open the curtain, slowly, like a dream, and the seductress revealed herself as the ghost in Chloe's memories. Her bright blue eyes had memorized every each of skin, creating a manifestation that would accompany Titanium every restless night for the rest of her existence. With each harmonized word Beca had reached a hand into Chloe's chest and removed her heart, taking it for her own and ridding Chloe of any free will she had once had.

Chloe hadn't actually expected Beca to go to auditions; she hadn't seemed like the type to give in to a naked strangers whims. Her heart had faltered, before burning her heart in its ferocity to beat out of its confines. One had smirked, and the other had beamed. Chloe couldn't be alone in this feeling, could she?

That year had been both the worst and best of Chloe's life. She'd finally found the music for her melody, but, her music seemed more interested in rap as it tried to force itself to remix with a goofy romantic.

"Russian Lit is hard, right?" She had asked during a study session one day.

Chloe had looked up from the textbook in her lap. Russian Lit was actually one Chloe's favourite and best subjects, something that Beca was aware of. "I guess."

Dark blue eyes had sparkled with an intense emotion Chloe couldn't quite place. Misery? Curiosity? Love?

"If you failed it then you could still be with the Bellas next year."

It had been worded like a suggestion, like an after-though, but Chloe could read Beca better than that. It was an order. Chloe was smart, well above average, and she had a bright future filled with numerous early job offers just waiting for her to pick what would be the best for her. She dropped her head, staring blankly at the small text on the page as she considered her options, not that she really had any. Her eyes once again met dark and she nodded. "Yeah. I could."

So Chloe paced. She paced across the floor of the retirement home, feeling her emotions flying aimlessly around her brain, uncontrollable and chaotic. She fanned herself, trying to calm her nerves and lower her temperature but nothing was working. Bellas around her prepared, mostly ignoring her panic attack, especially Beca who wouldn't even met her eyes in the mirror as Cynthia Rose covered her scalp with unnecessarily tight plaits. She panicked, Beca ignored, and then they failed, publically, again.

She wanted to go back. Back to that pillow fight and the joy she'd felt before Beca had walked in, drawing all of her attention and pulling her away from her friends. Back to aca-initiation night when she'd drawn Beca to her, pulling her close enough to breathe her in. Back to a time before she'd lost herself. Then her bedroom door opened and a small, dark figure entered, giving itself permission to be in her space, in her bed. Chloe reacted on instinct, on habit, wrapping her arms around the small body and pulling her close. As much as the pain was killing her she would never give it up because in these moments, late at night and hidden under the cover of darkness, she could convince herself that Beca was hers, had allowed her to love back. She would force herself to remain awake so that she could enjoy these few hours with her love before Beca withdrew back into her broken shell and left Chloe behind like a secret, like a mistake.

Something about tonight was different though. As Chloe's tears came Beca's breathing didn't even out, the telltale sign of her falling asleep. Chloe froze, unsure of what this meant, of what Beca wanted, needed, from her.

"Chloe?"

Chloe sucked in a deep breath, giving herself a moment to enjoy the way her name sounded rolling off Beca's mouth, said with such reverence it was almost a prayer. "Yeah?"

"Don't leave me."

There was a deep hurt in Beca's voice, in her very soul. Chloe had always known it, always understood it, and never ran from it. She knew what had happened to a little Beca Mitchell and how she had been broken and damaged. She knew that inside Beca was fragile, easily bent and bruised, even though her outside seemed deadly and protected like Fort Knox. Beca had allowed Chloe into her heart, deeper than anyone else. So yes, a little pain was fine; Chloe could live with a little pain, if it meant she had Beca.

"Never."

It was more than a promise, more than a guarantee. Chloe Beale would never, could never, leave Beca Mitchell.

Or at least that's what she'd thought before the retreat.

A/N: There she blows… yikes… please remember to review or chat to me over on Tumblr (awesam-blog). Peace folks.