"No! Chlo, come on another one?"

Meow.

"It's just a kitty, look, look at this cute little face," Chloe said holding the cutest gray kitten inches from Beca's face.

"I see it."

"But look!" Chloe insisted.

"Can you please take the cat off of my face?"

"But did you really look Becs? Like really look?" Chloe pressed the kitten further into Beca's face

"Yes, I looked, but Chlo we have 4 cats in the apartment already! Landlord's gonna kill us."

"I know but look at this face, would you just look at this face! How could anyone resist this face?"

"Just don't shove it in my face again! OK, fine! I'll give you that she's really cute."

"Yay, that means we won, kitty! Let's go meet your brothers and sisters, baby, let's leave mommy alone so she can fume in peace," exclaimed Chloe as she bounced away.

"No, you haven't won anything. We need to have a conversation about this. Come back, Chloe! This better be a foster situation! Darn it!" Beca yelled after her.

She knew she lost the second Chloe shoved the cat in her face. Beca always had a soft spot for cats even if she never had any pets growing up. She just felt like cats got her, and she got cats. But never did she see her life turning out this way. She had married the love of her life, but she kept bringing home strays, sometimes they'd foster them and sometimes they'd just keep them. It's how they ended up with 4 cats. It really wasn't a character flaw. She'd never admit it but she thought it was the cutest fucking thing on the planet, she was just very pragmatic. She found Chloe in their guest room, aka the Cat Room. She was introducing the newest member of the family to the other cats. They were all docile and chill so the newest kitten was mostly treated with indifference except for the oldest Louie who immediately took the kitty in and started grooming her.

"Please tell me you are looking for a forever home for this one? You know Louie is ferocious, he could like bite her or something."

"Oh please, Louie would do no such thing. Look! He already adopted the tiny ball of fluff. He's just grooming her." Chloe pointed at the older cat carefully grooming the gray kitten.

"Traitor." Beca glared at an uncaring Louie.

"Anyway we've already posted her ad in the clinic's socials, so hopefully we'll find her a place soon. But I had to bring her home with me because all of the other kennels were full."

"Why were all the kennels full?"

"We just haven't had much luck finding them all homes this month."

"I'm sorry Chlo, that sucks." They sat together on the pull-out couch in the Cat Room, Chloe rested her head on Beca's shoulders. Chloe loved animals, and almost everything about her profession except for this part. She knew the fate of those that wouldn't get adopted. One of these days she'd open her clinic with a no-kill shelter.

Beca knew better than anyone how stressed Chloe could get, it reminded her of their co-captain days at Barden. Chloe had been a great captain and did a great job at taking care of everyone but sometimes she'd come apart at the seams. Beca noticed Chloe's hands, more specifically her nails. Chloe got her nails done religiously every two weeks. She hadn't gotten them done in a while; they were short and raw. It looked like she'd chewed through them. It worried Beca and she decided that she needed to help Chloe somehow.

"Yeah it sucks, but what can I do?" Chloe sighed. "I wish we had more space here. I'm sorry I know I should have mentioned I was bringing home a little friend."

"No, no it's cool, I'm the one that's sorry I overreacted. Hey! I have an idea what if I share it on my socials? I happen to know a few VIPs you know."

"I know, you've mentioned almost meeting Taylor Swift only a few hundred times."

"I totally almost did," Beca said with a proud goofy smile.

"I mean I'd appreciate all the help we could get." But Chloe wasn't going to hold her breath, the situation had been dire for a while and it was starting to feel a bit hopeless.

After dinner, it was Beca's turn to do the dishes. She still didn't get why they just didn't buy a dishwasher, who cared if they were renting? Beca really hated doing the dishes, she'd be happy to throw them out, and she had. Chloe hadn't liked that so here she was doing the dishes, like an idiot. Chloe poured them both a glass of their favorite Cabernet Sauvignon that they discovered when they visited Napa Valley for their anniversary.

As Beca made her way to their living room she paused and leaned against the entryway to take in the sight for a moment. Chloe was on the big couch, wine glass in one hand and the other was petting the kitty she brought home on her lap. Scattered all over the couch were the rest of the cats, Louis, Poe, Damian, and Coco. Chloe was also using their favorite fluffy throw that was decorated with rainbow flags and the phrase "love is love" all over it.

Chloe saw her standing in the doorway and smiled. "What are you doing over there weirdo?"

What am I doing? Counting my lucky stars maybe?

Beca felt impossibly lucky, blessed, whatever. This was her life. Her career was going well, they were surrounded by cats, and she married the most beautiful redhead on the planet. And it was Friday night which meant they were about to relax for the night and watch the latest episode of The Great British Bake Off. It was a good life.

"Nothing just feeling lucky."

"Oh?" Chloe's tone turned salacious "Lucky huh? Well, the night is still young."

Beca blushed at that, she always did. No matter how many times they'd been intimate she would always blush at the idea of making love to Chloe. That was a privilege she did not take lightly and appreciated at every turn, passionately. She cleared her throat.

"I'll hold you to that. Bake off?"

"Hell yeah! It's the final tonight." Chloe excitedly tapped on the couch, gesturing to come sit next to her. "Who do you think will win?" Chloe asked, knowing full well the answer.

"You know who I'm rooting for," Beca said. Because for the first time since they started watching Great British Bake Off together, they had separate favorite contestants. It added a fun, new, and competitive edge to their special Friday night routine.

"Yeah OK, I know, I know. I have my own champ actually." Chloe admitted with a smirk. They both knew, they kept hassling each other over it by sending random memes during the day. Those memes were a lifeline during the day-to-day of their professional careers. In not so many words the message was "Life is hard, work is hard, but when you come home, I'll be here and we'll watch our favorite show together and everything will be alright."

"May the best champion win?" Beca offered her extended her hand.

"May the best champion win! Oh, but wait what does the loser get?"

Beca considered this. "A week of dishes duty?"

"Deal." Chloe accepted her hand and they shook on it.

Turns out Beca had in fact been lucky that night, twice.

Fortune favors the bold right? Beca thought to herself. She knew how to be bold, but it wasn't without difficulty. She's had to put herself out there multiple times in her life, like when she decided to join the Barden Bellas, when she impulsively kissed Jesse after their first big win, when she contributed to Snoop Dog's Christmas Album during her internship, and when she asked Chloe to marry her. She knew how to be brave but every time it was difficult. Today wasn't any different.

Beca's foot tapping echoed in the waiting room. With her right hand she played with an imaginary keyboard as she composed an imaginary melody, she tended to do this when she was nervous. She spent longer than usual this morning picking out an outfit, she really wanted to dress to impress.

"Not long now" She glance at the watch on the wall. Her heart was pounding a bit louder than usual. The last time she'd felt this way was when she proposed.

Beca knew why she was nervous, it was because even though she'd had the opportunity to work with a lot of famous musicians before none like this one. She knew that if anyone could help it'd be her.

"She'll see you now." The receptionist said.

Deep breaths Beca, fortune favors the bold.

Chloe had the idea to host a big adoption event with another local pet store. She's hosted these events before and while it wouldn't be a cure-all she'd be happy if at least some of the pets got adopted. Like always she got everyone matching t-shirts for the staff. This year she opted for cute instead of witty. The white T-shirts sported her clinic's logo and the phrase "Please adopt me I'm cute" in big bold colorful letters. She wore jeans and opted for her favorite cowboy boots, not exactly the most versatile pair of footwear but they made the outfit. They sat at a desk with a colleague giving out information about the recruitment event happening inside.

The area was busy enough with plenty of foot traffic but people weren't interested, they would just pass on by. She did manage to wrangle a lot of folks who were captivated by her clear blue eyes, but they weren't exactly as interested in adoption as they were in getting her phone number or making some smart-ass remark about their t-shirts. She'd simply rest her hand under her chin, showcasing the very nice and subtle wedding band on her finger. She loved letting her ring do the talking for her.

"Maybe these shirts weren't the best idea." Chloe felt deflated, her colleagues were supportive as always but they'd also been there for two hours and none of the pets had gotten adopted.

"Um Chloe…"

Chloe turned to her colleague. "What's up, Michelle?"

Michelle one of the two other lab assistants she managed to persuade into helping her looked flabbergasted. "You are not going to believe this." She showed her phone to Chloe. "We're trending?" Chloe asked incredulously. Cars suddenly started pulling up, and people were walking over. Everyone was suddenly very happy to be very busy.

"Taylor Swift tweeted about our event!" Chloe squealed.

In an hour every animal was adopted, not just the ones from her clinic, they also adopted the ones from the pet shop too. All of them found their forever homes. Chloe was exhausted, her writing hand was cramping but she was so happy and relieved, a little bit of soreness but everyone found a home, it was a good trade-off.

"Is that it? All of them?" Chloe asked John the youngest of the lab assistants.

"All but this one," Beca said as she came into Chloe's view. She was holding the kitty Chloe brought home. "Hey hot stuff," Beca said as she walked over. Chloe immediately lit up at the sight of her paramour and hugged her, and the kitten.

"Hey, baby!" Chloe said to her wife, giving her a quick peck on the lips, and then immediately turned to the kitten "And hi to you little baby! You're here! Wait why are you here?"

"I thought we could officially adopt this one."

"Really? What about the landlord."

"Fuck the landlord, we now have five cats. We are that couple now."

"Yay!" Chloe bounced happily and gave the kitten gentle pets "What should we name you little fella?"

"How about Taylor?" Beca said with a knowing smirk. Chloe stared at her, in a second she put two and two together.

"Wait, no way babe."

"Totally way"

"This was you?" Chloe asked knowing full well that this had been all of Beca's handy work. She knew Beca's love language was acts of service, she may not always know exactly what to say but she knew just what to do to show Chloe how much she loved her.

"What? Oh you mean making your adoption event viral by getting your favorite singer of all time to tweet about it? Yeah, that was me." It was hard not to be cocky after pulling it off so yeah Beca was going to boast a little bit. After a very passionate and nerve-wracking meeting, Beca got Taylor Swift to write a post about the adoption clinic needing help. Taylor Swift was immediately more than happy to help, she famously loves cats and is incredibly charitable.

"You got to meet Taylor Swift for real this time?"

"Hey, I-" She immediately jumped into a defensive stance but realized it really didn't matter anymore. "OK yes, I got to meet her for real this time"

"Oh my god Becs that's amazing! What was she like?"

"A goddamn angel, really, just a saint."

"I knew it" She hugged her for a second time. "But how did you-?"

"I had to call in a lot of favors for this one. Do you remember my old internship boss? Michael?"

"Um sure, yeah used to call you Reggie right?"

"That's the one, yeah well I may have promised him we'd name our firstborn after him."

Chloe gasped in surprise before just having to laugh out loud. She blushed furiously and decided to just have fun with it.

"Why Mrs. Miller-Beale, are we having kids now?"

Beca realized that we just opened a Pandora's Box. "I um- I mean, I've never or um- I mean we are married- umm, wait- do you want to?"

Chloe decided to be merciful. "Calm down babe, this is a conversation for another day."

Oh, thank god. Beca sighed in relief, she wasn't against the idea, but she tried to think of reasons why not to do it. Space yeah, that's it. Not enough space in their apartment and five cats. Chloe agreed. "Besides we'd need a bigger place first."

"Should we maybe start looking at houses you think?" Beca asked before she realized what she was saying.

"I'm ready," Chloe said confidently as she stared into Beca's cobalt-blue eyes. She meant every word.

- fin