Kailor: Surprise! Sorry life has been so hectic, but I haven't forgotten you guys. Your reviews are so motivating and thoughtful. Thank y'all so much for continuing to take this ride with me!

She does not win the next game, though she does score higher than her new archnemesis, Peach. It is little consolation apparently and it leaves her (mostly jokingly) stewing as Stacie retires to "bother the better half".

Chloe waits for her footsteps to disappear up the stairs before she turns to a pouting Beca. "So." She reaches out and drags a knuckle up Beca's bare side. Then plants her palm against the base of her ribs and easily tips Beca over onto her back.

"I'm– Dude, what the hell, why are you manhandling me?" Beca lifts a hand to hold Yellow Dog in place on her chest.

Laughing, Chloe adjusts their positions so that Beca's right ankle is resting on her thigh, then slides her hands up to knead the muscles around her knee.

"Woof." Beca melts back into the cushions, her eyes immediately drooping and Yellow Dog slipping out of her limp grasp to rest in the crook of her neck. "Nevermind. Handle away."

Choosing to let that particular joke slide this time, Chloe just continues massaging quietly for nearly a full minute, watching the tension seep out of Beca. "I saw you were wearing your brace today. You must have been running around a lot. How was your date?"

"Stacie dragged me around all over like we were fuckin' tourists. Like, you used to live here, dude." Beca opens her eyes just so she can roll them. Despite the annoyance dripping from her tone, she's smiling as she goes on. "We went to the lake so she could tell all her old duck friends hey. Got hamburger steak at Downtown J's. Went to the park where Stacie tried to murder me inside the enclosed slide. We–"

"Whoa, hold up, we can't just race past that. Murder how?"

Beca huffs. "She tried to get me to go down with her, like when we were kids, and I refused and went to climb down the other side. Then I feel a hand on my collar and she drags me, backwards, down the damn thing. About choked me to death."

Chloe can easily picture Beca's flailing legs disappearing into the big yellow slide at the park, her screams echoing comically out of it. She laughs, tipping her head back. "Oh god, I wish I'd seen that."

"You want to witness my murder?"

"Hey, cheaper than Netflix."

"Fake friend."

Giggling, Chloe slips her hand a bit higher and tickles the back of Beca's thigh, making her jump. "Sorry," she lies, "continue. What happened after the attempted murder?"

Beca glares at her hands for a moment and Chloe holds them up in surrender to show she won't try and tickle her again. Apparently accepting this silent promise, Beca closes her eyes, folding her hands behind her head. "We went to the bowling alley arcade and I beat her ass at air hockey. Then we came back here and you saw she kicked my ass at Mario Party. Normal enough day."

"Mm." Chloe resumes her careful massaging, working her hands down Beca's (quite impressive, thank you, basketball) calf. "How happy are you that she's home for good? Honestly."

"Like really honestly?"

"Like really honestly." She knows the answer, of course. She's known the two of them too long now to not know how deeply they love each other. But they don't often say it in a serious way, preferring their ridiculous banter instead.

Beca opens her eyes and tilts her head back, checking the room. When she sees that they're still alone, she flops back into place and gives a smile that Chloe can only call fond. "I'll deny it if you ever tell her, but…" Her voice drops a little, just above a whisper. "I love all you guys I have here, but Barden only feels mostly like home without Stace." She trails off and shrugs, looking away. Time stretches until Chloe thinks she isn't going to continue, but then she says, "It doesn't feel so much like she came home, but like I did."

That warm, utter affection that accompanies so much of what Beca does rushes over Chloe, melting her into a puddle of rapid heartbeat and desperate need to hug her. So Chloe does, slipping from beneath Beca's legs to instead lay across her and tuck her arms under Beca's warm back.

She is waiting for the usual "Dude, gross" or "This is gay behavior, ma'am", but instead Beca just chuckles deep in her chest and her arms come down around Chloe's back, hands rubbing along her spine. Beca must be in an even better mood than Chloe thought.

Yellow Dog squishes softly between Beca's throat and Chloe's forehead, already a part of their little family.

Oh, that's a thought that makes her heart clench.

"Again, those words ever leave this room, I'll show Stacie what a successful murder looks like."

Chloe laughs into Beca's collarbone and sits up to smack her thigh with a loud clap. "You're so good at ruining a moment, Becs."

"I am a woman of many talents." Beca, smirking and closing her eyes, tucks her hands back behind her head. They lapse into a comfortable silence that goes on for a bit.

She feels no urge to break it. Instead, she takes the time to admire the subtly defined edges of Beca's abs, the dip of her hips where the hem of her sweatpants sits, the light, hooked scar just beneath her ribs where she'd slipped climbing a chain link fence in high school. ("It was, as all things are, Stacie's fault," Beca had said while telling her the story.)

"You're staring again, dude."

She blinks, finding Beca's eyes slitted open and a grin on her lips. "What can I say?" Chloe wiggles her shoulders, winking. "I like what I see."

Beca's whole face wrinkles up as the tips of her ears redden. "I'm goin' put on a shirt."

"Noooo!" Chloe smacks at Beca's side as she tries to roll away. "Don't take away the view!"

"Oh my god."

"What? You're hot, Becs!"

"I am leaving, is what I am."

"Beca!"

The wrestling match doesn't last more than a few seconds and it ends with both of them giggling and Chloe wrapped around the only half of Beca still on the couch.

"Okay, okay, I give," Beca chuckles, propping her elbows on the carpet to glance back over her shoulder at Chloe, whose cheek is pressed to her lower back. "Gimme my legs, dude."

That would be far too easy, of course, and Chloe can't have that. So she tightens her grip around Beca's thighs a bit more. "Only if you pay the toll."

"Pay the toll? What are you, a causeway?"
"I'm a businesswoma–ah, stop squirming!" Chloe is pulled almost off the couch as Beca suddenly attempts to army crawl away from her. To keep from face planting Beca's back, she's forced to release half her hold to grab the coffee table with one hand. "Come on, Becs, it's a paltry price!"

Beca stops trying to get away again, panting a little. "What's the offer then?"

Oh, Chloe hadn't thought that far ahead. She lifts her head to glance around the room. Her gaze falls naturally to the piano in the corner. "Play me a song and I'll let you go."

A too-heavy-to-be-real sighing groan rumbles out of her captive. "Not a song, dude."

Snorting, Chloe releases the coffee table to smack Beca's bare back, getting a yelp. "Come on! It's been forever."

"Ugh, fine," Beca says and Chloe can't see her smile, but she can very clearly hear it.

Conceding her trapped legs, Chloe scrambles up to her feet, just in case Beca tries to make a run for it. She doesn't though. She just rolls over onto her back and lifts a hand for help up. Yellow Dog is carefully clutched in her other hand.

Chloe helps her up and moves to shut off the TV, which is still playing the Mario Party theme, as Beca pads over to the piano. In a well-practiced move, Beca lifts the lid, locks it into place, and then pulls the small padded bench from under the keyboard and turns it so it rests perpendicular to the piano. Chloe grins, excitement racing through her as she remembers the very first time Beca did this for her.

"O-M-G, you have, like, a mansion!" Chloe spins on her toes, trying to take in the whole spacious, gorgeous interior of Beca's house. "It's beautiful!" She gasps excitedly. "Is it haunted? Please tell me it's haunted!"

Beca, who is casually leaning against the garage door with her arms crossed, watching Chloe bounce around her living room, just shrugs. "By Amy's many boyfriends and Stacie's many mistakes, sure."

On her next spin, Chloe spots the instrument in the corner and gasps so hard that Beca actually straightens in what might be concern. "You have a PIANO!" She races over, all new-visitor decorum lost to her childlike glee. "Like a real life, full-on, I've only seen one of these in my old choir class, piano!" Hands flapping to try and burn off some of her excitement, Chloe locks eyes with Beca and points an almost accusatory finger at her. "Do you play?"

She shrugs again but Chloe has been learning the ins and outs of her new best friend for a few months now and she knows that's totes a yes.

"Beca 'I will learn your middle name someday' Mitchell, you've GOT to play for me now. One song and I will never ask you for anything again." She doesn't even have to see Beca's disbelieving eyebrow lift before she quickly amends, "Scratch that. One song and I will buy you lunch for the rest of the week."

"Mm, more believable, I guess." Beca pushes off the door with her shoulder, arms unfolding with a whisper of leather and her heavy biker boots clunking against the hardwood floor as she ambles over. Chloe sucks in a half-trembling breath, butterflies racing along her veins. God, Beca's so cool, it's not fair. And she plays piano, Chloe's favorite instrument!

"Do you take requests?" Chloe bounces on the balls of her feet, tucking her hands behind her back to keep from reaching for Beca with them. She's still working on getting Beca comfortable with the amount of touching Chloe likes in her friendships and she isn't about to risk an attempt right now, afraid she'll lose her piano performance if she does.

Beca rolls her shoulders back and her leather jacket slides away, leaving her in just her dark gray flannel. She hooks her fingers in the collar and holds the jacket out to Chloe. "Only if you pick a good song."

"Thrilled" is a very weak synonym for what Chloe is as she takes the offered jacket and happily wraps her arms around it. "You know what? Surprise me."

Thinking for a second, Beca pulls out the piano bench. "Okay. But, uh. One more condition."

"Anything!"

Beca looks away but Chloe can see the tell-tale red spreading up to the tips of her ears. She's only seen it happen a couple times since they started hanging out but it's very quickly becoming a marker that tells Chloe she's about to adore whatever Beca's about to say or do. And, sure enough, when Beca says, "Can you, like, not watch me play this time? I'm totally gonna mess up if I feel you staring at me or my hands or something." Chloe finds herself utterly bowled over.

Though she still thinks Beca's the coolest person she's ever met, Chloe's been seeing more and more of this awkward adorableness that runs beneath her suave exterior. And she loves it. Loves that she's become one of a very select group of people that gets to see it, even in just brief bursts. She feels privileged, blessed. Like she imagines people feel when a wild bird chooses to land on their finger. Like her secret belief in magic is a little more justified, because what else could have gotten her so lucky?

Chloe grabs the edge of the bench and turns it so it runs perpendicular to the piano. She straddles the middle of it, facing away from the instrument and tucking her arms around the jacket. "How's this?"

Beca lets out a huff of a laugh, a surprised sort of sound. "That works, yeah." She sits behind Chloe and they aren't touching, but Chloe can feel her warmth only inches from her back and she goes very still to make sure it doesn't move away.

There's a pause that hangs in the air, the silence a little more noticeable with the promise of its breaking imminent.

Then the entire living room is filled with a haunting melody, long, drawn-out chords floating through the space. It transitions into sharp, staccato notes and Chloe nods along to the somewhat familiar beat until it suddenly becomes very familiar.

"Hold on, is this 'Gangsta's Paradise?'"

Beca's laugh bursts out of her in a way that can only mean she's been holding it in and it meshes beautifully with the notes still ringing in the air. "You said surprise you!"

"I thought you were going to play me some beautiful classic!"

"This is a classic, you watch your mouth!"

Chloe jerks back so her back bumps Beca, rocking her forward and spilling her laugh over the keys. Then, because Beca's right and it kinda is a classic, Chloe starts to sing along.

She's more than a little starstruck when Beca joins in.

"Any requests tonight?" Beca takes a seat at her end of the bench, stretching her bare feet out to the pedals. She sets Yellow Dog down on the music desk, his little head peering over at the keys below.

Chloe happily straddles the bench behind her, scooting forward until she can rest her chin on Beca's shoulder. It's been a long time since she sat facing away while Beca played. "Do you know 'All I Ask of You'?"

"The Adele song?" Beca's fingers automatically begin to play, Adele's melody humming from the piano.

"No, the one from Phantom of the Opera."

"From what?"

Chloe shoves her gently. "You know The Phantom of the Opera."

"Never heard of it, no. Is that a movie?"

"You're a lying liar, Beca!"

Beca's laugh vibrates against Chloe's chest. "Okay, okay. I know the movie, but I don't know the song."

Sighing, Chloe wraps her arms around Beca's waist and slumps against her in defeat. "Fine. Good thing you don't work for tips, Piano Man. Just play me some Taylor Swift then."

"Who?"

"Beca Rae Mitchell–"

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" She immediately jumps into the rapid intro of "Our Song" and Chloe happily slaps at Beca's thighs as she begins to sing along. In just moments, the patter of feet behind them heralds Aubrey and Stacie's arrival and they skid to a halt on either side of the piano just in time to join in on the first chorus. Chloe jams along with them, but she stays pressed tight to Beca's back, where she can feel both her music and laughter pouring directly into her chest.

She thinks of her baby feeling it too. Of them learning to love music the way she does, even before they're fully formed. Learning to love these wonderful, music-making friends of hers.

Beca lowers the octave for absolutely no reason suddenly and Stacie, without missing a beat, begins to warble out a deeper, more operatic and dramatic version of the song. Aubrey tries valiantly to join in through her laughter before giving up and letting Stacie fly solo.

Chloe remembers Beca's quiet admission about feeling like she's the one that came home and she happily hugs her friend even tighter. She's totes right. That's exactly what this feels like.