Author's Note: Hey everyone who still reads my stuff! I know I've been ... basically nonexistent on here for a while. Just life being too busy and filled with too much stuff to make room for writing, and for that I do sincerely apologize. I know that there's a lot of things I have going that are unfinished and do hope to return to them one day. Hope springs ever eternal, as they say. Anyway, here's the penultimate chapter of Olympic Exploits, barring any epilogues. I have one more chapter planned to wrap up the fic for sure, and Zap is working on convincing me to do an epilogue, so we'll see. Honestly, if wasn't for Zap's insistence that these chapters only be released during the Olympics or thereabouts, it's possible that this would have been done months ago, but c'est le vie. As always, I don't own the characters, yadda yadda. I hope you like it, but even if you don't, leave a comment and give me your thoughts and feedback!
Zap's note: I'm so glad we're able to get this out! I've been fighting for it for a long time, trying to do the logical thing and have everything done before the games even started, but that's a battle I lost. HOPEFULLY we'll get the final chapter in the next few days, or else it'll be waiting till Los Angeles. Because I'm sorry, to me it just makes sense to post a fic about the Olympics DURING the Olympics.
Chloe was sitting on the edge of her seat surrounded by people wearing red, white, and blue and preparing to cheer like maniacs. There was music. There was laughter. Chloe was loving every minute of it. To her right, Aubrey seemed irritated, no doubt impatient to get away for one more bit of training. But the redhead had convinced her that they were here as part of Team USA, emphasis on the team part of that, and they could at least show up to some other events aside from volleyball matches. That and the fact that they'd just won a hard-earned place in the Round of 16 after their final Pool match the previous day and didn't have another match until the follow day definitely helped. Despite it all, however the blond knew what she was really up to, but let it slide. And that's how they found themselves surrounded by a surprisingly boisterous gymnastics crowd cheering on the finalists for the individual All-Around competition. Chloe's eyes, however, were locked on one tiny brunette, just waiting for a return gaze so she could smile and cheer her heart out.
Chloe was vaguely aware of Aubrey saying something beside her, but her gaze and attention was focused on Beca as though she could will the short gymnast to look up and open her eyes. For a few minutes, it seemed as effective as waving your arms in order to fly. Beca simply sat, head bowed down as her teammates moved around her. From where they were seated, Chloe could see Beca's favorite headphones covering her delicate ears, ears that the redhead knew from experience would positively drive Beca up the wall when nibbled on slightly. She wasn't close enough to read the brand name printed on the ear cups themselves, but didn't need to be. Over the last few days, she'd seen more than enough of them to have that name memorized.
Just as it seemed all was lost, and Aubrey was leaning towards her to smack her or something, Beca's eyes opened, and head still nodding along to the beat of whatever track she was playing, she lifted her eyes and in an instant locked gazes with the redhead. Though she knew better, Chloe could have sworn a bolt of electricity flew across the gym, lancing between the pair, because she felt her breath leave her in a rush and had to take a moment to remember how to draw in air. Beca looked more or less unruffled, damn her and that composure she pulled on like a comfy blanket. But she did smile, and give a little wave before closing her eyes again.
"CHLOE AMANDA BEALE!" Aubrey's shrill voice finally penetrated her focus, that and the brief look she'd shared with Beca had satisfied her enough to take in the rest of her surroundings.
"What's up, Bree? No need to shout, I'm sitting right beside you." Chloe said, loving the look that came over her friend's face at the innocent tone. Spluttering indignantly, Aubrey was quite unable to talk for another several moments, giving Chloe a chance to glance back towards Beca one more time. The brunette's head was bobbing up and down in time to whatever music she had on, but she wore a small smile that made the redhead smile a little wider.
"I still don't know what you see in that little hobbit…" The blond finally said, after her spluttering had subsided.
"Well, take what you see in Conrad, and shrink it a little." Chloe said, gently ribbing her friend, who blushed at the mention of Stacie. Sadly, she wasn't able to be here with them for the start, as she had some preliminaries to swim earlier in the day and a meeting with the coaches afterwards, but she expected to join them before it wrapped up.
Aubrey was quiet for a few moments before she answered Chloe. That alone gave the redhead a little pause, seeing her friend working so hard to find the right words. Eventually though, the blond spoke. "I'm… I'm still not sure what I see in Stacie. How I feel… You know how much trouble…?"
"I do, Bree. I do. But you know what, fuck 'em all. You gotta live your life." Chloe said, watching Aubrey's face jerk in shock at the unexpected swear word. It wasn't that Chloe never swore, she just made sure that when she did, it was at the most effective time.
"I… I don't know." Bree said, looking nervous and glancing around. People were moving all over around the place, things were still getting setup down on the floor, lots of gymnasts moving around practicing and warming up, so the stands weren't especially full.
"I know that it's scary, and I'll support whatever you choose, but you know my mom and dad would take you in without a moment's hesitation, if the worse comes to worse." Chloe said, putting an arm around her best friend's shoulder and pulling her in for a hug.
"I know. And that helps. It's there, in the back of my mind…" Aubrey says into Chloe's neck as she hugs the redhead back. One quick sniffle, then the pair separate, switching to some idle conversation as the seats around them slowly fill up. Chloe, being the outgoing, social butterfly that she is, greets several folks from Team USA whom she had encountered. All in all, once Aubrey gets her emotions under control, the pair spend a rather enjoyable twenty-ish minutes waiting for the event to get started.
But it did eventually get started, with the various gymnasts finally settling down and getting into "game mode", and as one eagle-eyed redhead noticed, a particular brunette gymnast finally took off her headphones and looked over to receive a smile and wave. Which she returned with a smirk.
This wasn't the first time that Chloe had been to a gymnastics event. She had been a fan for a number of years, and she tried to go to every gymnastics meet that was held at her college. On top of that, she had also seen multiple Olympics, but that never could have compared her for this. This was an experience unlike anything she'd had while watching gymnastics. Sitting there, surrounded by members of Team USA all wearing the colors, and cheering as Beca and her fellow teammates flipped, twirled, and danced across pieces of equipment that, in Chloe's eyes, were certainly not designed to have people doing such things on.
Unfortunately, because of how the scheduling worked out, Chloe hadn't had a chance to see the Team All-Around a few days earlier, but she'd caught some highlights since. This setting, though, was different. While all the members of the women's team were out there, only Beca and Simone were wearing their leos, and even then they weren't the standard Team USA leotards, but ones chosen by each girl. While a lot of gymnastics focused on the team events, this was one where each girl was able to go out and show what she could do, standing on her own, and in the end prove who was the best.
Chloe was delighted to see that the first apparatus that Beca and Simone were set to perform on were the uneven bars, one of her personal favorites. She also felt that it was an apparatus that really favored Beca's smaller stature. Small, but fierce, and decidedly sexy.
"Ow!" Chloe said, rubbing her leg where Aubrey had just smacked her.
"You were leering at the hobbit with that look on your face…" Aubrey said quietly to her. The redhead knew it was to keep private things private, but Chloe also didn't care that anyone knew she had a thing for Beca. Hell, she probably wasn't the only person in these stands who had a thing for her. Of course, those people hadn't spent over a week making out with said brunette on a daily basis but not being able to get the gold medal with her. Apparently Aubrey was thinking along the same lines as she said, "We're nearly there. Less than a week, and…"
"We go for gold?" Chloe said, winking at her blond bestie and partner. She hadn't missed Aubrey's use of the word "we", and had a feeling she was beginning to regret her own rule about no sex. Or maybe the redhead was just projecting.
"Your girl is going up…" Aubrey said, changing the subject with a slight cough. Chloe's head whipped around to look towards the arena where she could, in fact, see Beca just stepping up and getting some chalk onto her hands. The redhead started screaming her head off, of course so did half the people in the stands, so there was likely no way that the hobbit would notice her. Which Aubrey was a little surprised when Beca turned and looked straight at them, blowing a quick kiss to the stands, to Chloe if she was being honest.
As much as she protested the relationship, Aubrey was actually starting to develop a soft spot for the little brunette gymnast. Not necessarily because she was into the alterative style that she had, or the snarky attitude, or the sarcastic wit she constantly displayed, but for another reason. Without turning her head, the blond could feel the emotions coming off her best friend and she didn't need to be psychic to know that the redhead was falling in love, if not already there, with Beca. And for that glowing, gigawatt smile that her partner and lifelong bestie had on her face, Aubrey found the shorter girl softening the beach, as her dad would have said, and making headway against all her carefully planned defenses.
"Damnit…" She felt herself mutter, inaudible in the sheer volume of crowd noise coming from the Team USA section, as Beca stepped up and presented herself, before facing the uneven bars before her with a determined look on her face. If looks could kill, or at least win gold medals, then the short brunette was in for another gold medal award ceremony in her future.
The now familiar smell of chlorine filled Chloe's nostrils as she settled into her seat next to Beca, snuggling up against the short brunette's side as she did. Rolling her eyes, Beca reached an arm out and pulled the redhead in tighter, but didn't let it interfere with her conversation with Aubrey.
"I'm telling you, Aubrey, keeping it all in doesn't do a lick of good…" Beca chuckled at her own joke, which caused Chloe's blond teammate to roll her own eyes.
"Yeah, and how's your neck feeling after adding, what, four more gold medals to the dozen or so you already have? Or was it five? I lost count…" The blond raised an eyebrow, as if to say her argument won on the merits as presented, but Beca just snorted and scoffed at her.
"Not as good as it would feel if Chloe's legs were wrapped-" Beca started to retort, before an elbow from the redhead into the short brunette's ribs caused the rest of it to escape in a grunt. After a couple coughs, the shorter girl leaned in and kissed Chloe on the cheek as she said softly, "Sorry, babe, but it's true…"
"I know, Becs. Soon… Really, really soon, I promise." The redhead replied just as softly before kissing Beca's pouting lips. She had to force herself to make the kiss chaste, just a quick peck on the lips, because more and more as the Games had gone on, even just the feel of Beca's lips on her own had been causing Chloe to almost go feral and have her tearing the brunette's clothes off on the spot.
"Ohhh! Here they come!" Aubrey said, having witnessed the exchange, but kept silent because she really didn't have a good argument, and in all honesty had come damned close to breaking her own rule a time or two with the busty brunette that was just now walking out towards the blocks with her Team USA parka on, ear buds in her ears.
The three athletes, along with their fellows, all started whooping and hollering, cheering on their compatriots down on the pool deck as Stacie filed along the deck towards the assigned lane. Chloe had never been big into competitive swimming, she could get by in a pool well enough, but doing nothing but laps for hours on end would have had her bored out of her skull. Still, she'd picked up some of the details since coming to Rio, and especially since Bree's interest in one of the top swimmers for Team USA. That was why she knew, as Stacie stopped behind lane four and started taking off her parka and pulling out her earbuds, that she was one of the favored to win, having secured top seed in the prelims.
The group around them slowly settled down as the finalists took their places, but Chloe knew it wouldn't last long. Pretty soon they'd go through introducing the swimmers, and with two members of Team USA in the final heat, their section wouldn't stay quiet long. Suddenly beside her, Beca spoke up, "You know what I really can't stand? The buildup. The tension… Like, do they go through all this fuss? Can't they just let 'em swim?"
"Not everyone is reclusive cave hobbit, Mitchell." Aubrey said, the derisive tone in her voice which would normally accompany the insult gone despite the harsh words. The redhead knew that, despite her initial distaste for Beca's style and attitude, that her opinions had shifted since she'd actually gotten to know her over the last few weeks. "Some people enjoy the tension and the buildup. They want to bask in the limelight while it lasts."
"I could tell you about some tension building up…" Chloe started to say, but was cutoff as the group around them started cheering and hollering as the announcer called out one of their teammates. The three girls turned their attention back towards the pool deck, cheering along with the others. A few seconds later, the cheering took on a more personal note as Stacie's name was called. The reaction in the stands was something that Chloe hadn't anticipated either.
Suddenly all around them, the cheers became more akin to wolf whistles and several folks bedecked in Team USA garb began clapping Aubrey on the shoulders and back. It didn't take much to figure out why, as Chloe could obviously see one of the cameras turned towards the stands, focusing very obviously on Aubrey. Blushing furiously, Aubrey threw caution to the wind and blew a kiss down to the pool deck, more for the camera than anything, the redhead suspected, though she did see a grin appear on Stacie's face briefly before she stepped back and the next swimmer was announced.
Beca opened her mouth to comment, no doubt something snide, but she was interrupted by someone, Katie Ledecky unless Chloe missed her guess, called out, "Way to tame that hunter, Posen!"
A round of laughter from those who heard, and understood the reference, came from the Team USA crowd before Chloe put her hand on Beca's leg and looked around her girl towards her bestie. The blond was still blushing furiously, but aside from that, she looked positively happy as Chloe spoke up, "So, I'm guessing your dad took the news that you're gay well?"
"Believe it or not, he told me 'what took you so long?'" Aubrey said, looking back at her briefly before returning her gaze to the pool. Despite herself, the blond brushed her hand across an eye that looked a bit watery before continuing, "Apparently he and mom had known for a while, they just … wanted me to come to it on my own."
"Well, kissing her on primetime coverage last night was certainly one way of 'coming to it on your own.'" Beca said with a laugh. Aubrey's head snapped up, a cutting remark no doubt on her lips, but she was forestalled as the announcer called the swimmers to jump into the pool, getting ready to start the Women's 200-meter backstroke final. All argument or discussion of the events of the previous evening were forgotten as all three girls focused on cheering on their friend and teammate.
A tense, exciting few minutes later, though, it was all over and Aubrey was screaming as loud as the rest of them as Stacie Conrad pumped her arms above her head after securing yet another Olympic gold medal.
Arms unexpectedly wrapped around Aubrey from behind as, unbeknownst to the girls, another friend made over the last few weeks suddenly scooped up the blond volleyball player and shouted, "If it couldn't have been me, at least it was Conrad! Tell your girl congrats for me, Posen!"
"Oh crap, put me down, Missy!" The blond screamed, excitment turned to horror as the redhaired swimmer held her over the bleachers for a few moments more. After her feet were safely on the ground, Aubrey turned and smacked Missy Franklin on the shoulder as she said, "Damnit, Missy! Chloe and I still have our finals match in a few days, don't do that!"
Laughing, Missy held up her hands as if surrendering before turning to grab another of the Team USA swimmers and start up a cheer of "Conrad! Conrad! Conrad!" That carried on for a while, so it wasn't until the trio were filing out, intending to head down and meet Stacie on the pool deck that Aubrey had a chance to respond without shouting.
"Honestly, I don't know what came over me last night. She was doing that interview, and all I could see were her lips. Next thing I knew everything was quiet and I was just … kissing her on live tv. Thankfully she was able to deflect questions from the interviewer, but…" Aubrey said, her lips tingling as she thought back to the previous night.
"Well, I'm glad your parents are supporting you. Anyway, let's go find your girl." Beca said sincerely, though she did emphasis the last words with a leer on her face, which earned her a smack on the shoulder from Aubrey. Chloe, laughing, just stepped in between the two, her bestest people in the world, and wrapped an arm around each, dragging them down towards the locker rooms.