Chloe wakes up with a neck-ache and Beca's body pressed hot against hers. She stiffens slightly, but Beca grumbles and rolls away, face pressed against the couch. Chloe smiles and shakes her head. Quietly, she gets up and heads to the bathroom for a quick shower. When she reaches the front door, Beca sits up and mumbles a sleepy "see you this evening", before turning over and going back to sleep.

She wakes up again two hours later, washes up, and immediately starts working on the soundtrack for blue city. Before she knows it, it's past twelve and her stomach starts to grumble so loudly and persistently that she's forced to rummage around the kitchen for edible food. She finds nothing except some vitamins, oatmeal, and ice cream. She's seriously tempted to binge eat the ice cream for lunch and go right back to work, but eventually decides to reign in her primal urges. She calls Chloe. "Dude! Why's there no adult human food in your house?" She demands. "Are you secretly a vampire?"

Chloe laughs. "I'm out at work through all my meals and I can't cook for shit. Anyway - there's a diner just downstairs that I always go to. And some vegan place too, if you're into that."

Beca groans and slaps her forehead. "It's one p.m., Beale, you know I only interact with other humans under cover of darkness."

"You sure you're not the vampire?"

"Maybe I am," Beca says offhandedly. "If a vampire bites another vampire, what dyou think will happen? Will they both turn human?"

Chloe laughs again. "Wanna try it out tonight?"

Beca guffaws. "Kinky."

Chloe makes a sound that's halfway between laughing and choking. Beca takes pity on her and changes the subject. "Think I'm gonna go down and buy some groceries. You know, so I can actually fix lunch for myself from time to time. Do you need anything?"

Chloe thinks for a while before replying. "We're almost out of toilet paper," She says. "And I think we need some toothpaste too – and don't get that horrible strawberry flavor that Emily loves."

"Yeah, that was gross," Beca agrees, wrinkling her nose. "I don't think I'll ever get that sickly sweet stench off my teeth."

They hang up a couple of minutes later. Beca grabs her coat and heads out of the door.

...

Beca arrives back at the apartment at two thirty, by which time her stomach is empty enough to collapse on itself. She fixes herself a quick sandwich, packs away the groceries and goes back to her music. At four thirty, her phone starts buzzing loudly from its forgotten location somewhere amongst the mess on the living room coffee table. Beca ignores the call, and the next four afterwards. Cursing inwardly, Beca rummages for it and casts an irritated glance at the screen. It's Aubrey.

Beca hasn't spoken to her since the older woman showed up for one of their post-World-championship parties and even then, they hadn't said much to each other besides congratulations and thanks. The only thing Aubrey could possibly want to talk about is Chloe. And Beca doesn't want to think about that, let alone talk to Aubrey about it. So she puts on her headphones and continues ignoring her phone.

But Aubrey, in typical Aubrey-fashion, doesn't give up. Seventeen missed calls later, Beca lets out an exasperated huff and picks up her phone. "Are you fucking insane? Somebody better be dying, you hear me?"

"Finally," Aubrey says, not sounding too happy herself. "You finally told her."

Beca throws up her hands in exasperation. She didn't bother asking her how she knew. "Aubrey, I'm working. And I don't know what you're talking about. Can I-"

"Your work can wait," Aubrey snaps, cutting in. "Chloe's love life has been put on hold for long enough - yours too, but I don't really care about you - and don't treat me like an idiot, you know damn well what I'm talking about. So tell me: how do you plan on winning her over?"

Beca slaps herself on the forehead and groans. "Don't you have to work?"

"I've got more important things to deal with," Aubrey says huffily. "Believe me, I do not want to sit through another teary, hysterical phone call. And stop changing the subject! You're in need of some serious love life intervention from an expert – come on, action plan, out with it."

"An expert...?" Beca asks skeptically. "Since when did you become the expert?"

"Action plan!" Aubrey screeches.

"Jesus," Beca says, holding the phone away from her ear. "Don't give yourself a bloody heart-attack." A few seconds pass and Beca eventually sighs and closes her eyes. When she speaks, her voice is soft, barely a whisper. "I don't know what to do. This is all pretty new to me. I've - I've never had to do the chasing before." Her voice goes even quieter. "I've never even wanted to chase anyone before."

To her surprise, Aubrey doesn't fly into an impatient rant about 'manning the fuck up', and instead says, "If you genuinely do like her, you've already done one thing right. You just have to be honest, put yourself out there, and Chloe will get it. She'll come round."

"You think so?" Beca asks.

Aubrey's tone turns stern. "You aren't planning on fucking her up, are you?"

Beca gulps. "No! At least, um, not on purpose."

"Okay," Aubrey says. "Because if you do, I'm gonna have to kill you."

Beca laughs and admits that for all her faults, Aubrey is a great friend to have. She's is glad that Chloe has Aubrey watching her back – even if it means instantaneous death the moment she screws up. "So – um, how do you think I should, um, go about 'putting myself out there'...?"

"I don't know," Aubrey snaps impatiently. "You're the one in love, not me."

Beca snorts. "So much for being an expert," she says.

Aubrey ignores her. "Report back to me on Sunday with a full update on your progress, your goals and your plans. Bye. For now." Aubrey pauses. "And Beca?" Her tone softens. "It's okay to screw up once in a while. As long as you make it right. And don't tell me, I don't want to have to murder you."

"Please," Beca says, rolling her eyes. "Informing you about my failures is the last thing on my mind."

But she does hang up feeling a little lighter, a little more reassured. Maybe a small part of her had been so scared to tell Chloe how she felt because she was terrified that it wouldn't be the perfect, amazing, once-in-a-lifetime romance they'd both built up in their minds. But Aubrey, of all people – the girl who'd nearly killed the rest of the Barden Bellas with her ridiculously harsh preparatory regime, the girl who'd vomited on stage from nerves before their performance – had partially convinced her that it didn't have to be perfect to be good.

A/N: Couldn't resist bringing Aubrey in :P Anyways, I'll be at a camp for the next few days or so and won't be able to write anything until I'm back but don't worry, you shouldn't need to wait more than a week for the next update. Cheers :)