Work Text:
Here was the thing about film festival parties: you never knew who was going to show up. Jesse was at a party once where Patrick Stewart got spectacularly drunk and ended up spending another one drinking with Clea Duvall. They were weird and exhausting, fun, but so far from his scene. Not that he really had a scene, except for occasionally going out for beers with the rest of the sound guys after being trapped in the booths all day. It was weird to be in a place where he'd have a few drinks to unwind at the end of a long week instead of to get shit-faced wasted in between shouting matches about the merits of Bernard Herrman versus Ennio Moricone and even less dignified arguments. (You shut your whore mouth, Fat Amy, if you insult the Monster Mash one more time in my presence I will burn every hair off your head. It is the perfect Halloween song.). Maybe this was what growing up felt like, even if he felt as goofy in a tux now as he did in his bar mitzvah suit.
The premiere had gone well, and how weird was it to actually work on a movie's that good? Jesse never half-assed his work, not even when he'd been scoring the DVD menus to imported Belarusian horror movies, but he'd gotten used to focusing on the music and atmosphere at the expense of the plot. Bad movies go with the territory when your steady paycheck comes from adding scare chords while buxom blondes get cut up by axe-wielding maniacs. But he'd finally landed a good gig last year with Whither Thou Go, an atmospheric period spook story that really let him have some fun. That led to Shepherd's Song and here he was, ten months later, at a premiere party and maybe actually getting somewhere in his life.
Then amid the crowd she was there, Beca smiling at him, and Jesse would take her over drunk celebrities any day. "Jesse, as I live and breathe." She grinned and before he could help it he was smiling back at her, playing it cool for a moment before they both flailed in excitement and caught each other in a hug. "Oh my God, look at your face! How has it been so long since I've seen your face?"
"It is so, so good to see you." He squeezed her tight before pulling back, and she felt just as good in his arms as ever. Beca looked amazing, which, okay, she had managed to look good even during the Great Stomach Flu of 2014, but now she was grown-up record producer polished with a sexy dress and asymmetrical haircut. So gorgeous it'd be intimidating but her smile is exactly the same as she beamed at him.
"I know, what failures are we that we live in the same town but it takes an out-of-state film festival for us to be in the same place?" It had been a conscious decision to break up and focus on the career thing, and even at the time had only been minimally angst-filled and only slightly awkward. For a while they'd managed to meet up in L.A. together despite working crazy hours between multiple jobs as they tried to break into their industries--shoulders to cry on when adulthood showed its shitty side. But he'd gotten busier and Beca had too; it was easier to text and email than try to coordinate schedules to meet in person. They never fell out of touch, Jesse was pretty sure he was one of Beca's drunk dial contacts of choice, but it had been months and months since he'd seen her.
"I wasn't planning on being here," she explained and leaned in close to talk loud of the noise of the party. "Or I would have tried to meet up. But we just found out they're using one of my remixes over the credits to Insects and Inkblots which scores you an invite."
Jesse grinned at her. "Seriously? Beca, that's awesome, that movie's getting crazy buzz. I hear it might be up for festival awards." He knew she'd be able to do it, be that badass music producer she always wanted to be, but there was still a swell of pride to even know her.
She nudged his elbow and it was incredible how, already, they were falling into old gestures, rhythms of closeness that Jesse had missed but never really went away. Just being near her sent a low buzz of affection and want thrumming through her. "Yeah, well, you should talk, Mr. Composer. I didn't realize until ten minutes in that Shepherd's Song was yours. Uh, where did you learn how to use that mandolin, talk about pulling on my heart strings." Then a little of the perpetual laughter faded from her expression and she looked up at him, standing close and sounding sincere. "It was great, Jesse, seriously. You've really come into your own and it was awesome just getting to soak it all in."
He put his arm around her without thinking about it and she leaned into him just as naturally. "Thanks. That means a lot coming from you." She had suffered through his early attempts at scoring student films, playing the supportive girlfriend but never pulling her punches if the music in a scene came off as elevator music or over-emotive smarmy bullshit.
The rest of the party was a blur of conversation as they ignored everyone else in the room to catch each other up on their lives. Events like these were supposed to be networking goldmines but despite knowing he should be working the room making connection, Jesse can't pull himself away. No movie producer bullshitting could compare to hearing about Beca's ongoing battle with the Thai delivery place three blocks down. Eventually they grabbed themselves a table in one of the dimmer corners away from the roar of the party, something close enough that their sides were pressed together and he almost clocked her in the face while getting a little over-invested in regaling her with the time an air conditioning unit fell on his car.
It wasn't that late, still before 2 a.m., when Beca gave an exaggerated yawn with a languid full-body stretch that just happened to make her boobs look fantastic. "Wow, I am just wiped out," she said but looked sly instead of weary. "All this fancy movie business takes it out of a girl. Funny thing about beds here though--ergonomically designed to accommodate two people instead of one."
Jesse raised an eyebrow but he knew, they both knew, exactly where this was headed. It was in the way she smiled as she knocked her knee against his and the heat in his belly whenever she tipped her head back to toss her hair out of her eyes. "Well, I mean, I wouldn't want you to have a sleepless night."
"Actually a sleepless night is exactly what I had in mine." Beca tipped her chin up and almost managed to look pull off a smoldering gaze before dissolving into laughter. That easy laugh, even more than the great boobs and sexy dress was what made Jesse want to kiss her breathless then get up to various other breath-taking activities. "Boom: if a line like that won't seduce you, I don't know what will."
She stood up and held out a hand to him. "C'mon Jesse. Let's get out of here." Without a moment's hesitation he threaded his fingers through hers, and that was that.
Maybe Beca was right about the ergonomic hotel beds because, when he got to sleep, he slumbered long and deep. It had to be late morning when he woke up, still pleasantly naked if in need of a shower. Beca had beaten him to it however, and previous attempts had told him shower sex was sort of awkward even if it wasn't in a tiny hotel bathroom. With a pleased sigh, he stretched and then got out of bed to fish his phone out of his jacket pocket. For a moment, he felt profound regret that they'd gone back to Beca's hotel instead of his: he did not want to have to put that tuxedo back on for his walk of shame.
Now, Jesse fancied himself to be a personable guy but not even his winning personality would explain receiving 9 texts and 2 phone calls between 1 and 10 a.m. Frowning, he perched, still naked, on the edge of the bed and started scrolling through them.
1 from the director of the movie, obviously wasted, leaving a misspelled but heartfelt note of gratitude. 2 from his mom, a congratulations on his success and then a reminder to call his cousin Connie for her birthday.
Then:
Yeah booooooooooooooooooy tap that business - Fat Amy 8:52 a.m.You two are so sweet it actually just made me a little bit sick right now - Fat Amy 8:54 a.m.
So happy for u 2!!! - Chloe 9:04 a.m.
Did you know the birthmark on your back looks like an old woman? - Fat Amy 9:05 a.m.
i didnt know u still saw Beca! Dude- way to break ur 5 mo. dry spell with a bang - Donald 9:28 a.m.
Seriously it's like my Great Aunt Pat but a mole. Might want to get that checked out. She's a wretched cunt, once set her grandkids' Christmas gifts on fire - Fat Amy 9:42 a.m.
"Uhhhh." Jesse twisted so he could look at his back in the hanging mirror and reminded himself to schedule a check-up with the dermatologist. Before he had time to text Donald and ask just how the transnational a capella gossip line had got a hold of this, the bathroom door opened with a cloud of steam and Beca stepped out wrapped in a towel.
"Hey naked." She raised an eyebrow at him then leaned up to kiss him. Her skin was still flushed from the hot shower in a very appealing way that did not escape his notice. But there was a mystery afoot and also he had a flight to catch in two hours.
"Uh, Beca? There a reason why various Bellas and Treble Makers are congratulating me on my sexual prowess?"
"Maybe it's because your sexual prowess is legendary? And maybe-" she bent down to get her phone and, again, that is not a bad look on her. "Maybe you were sleeping so adorably that I had to text it to the Bellas."
Her phone had a picture of him fast asleep sprawled out on his stomach in the hotel bed. The covers meant he wasn't entirely naked but, clearly, they could do the math. Jesse rolled his eyes but smiled. Hard to get mad after being called adorable and, anyway, Jesse knew how this worked: you get down with a Bella and they're all going to know about it. Kind of nice that it hadn't changed. "I'm impressed you didn't just text Fat Amy a picture of my junk."
"You say that as though they haven't already all seen your junk. Pretty sure Naked Karaoke took care of that." She took the towel off her head and started drying off her hair. "And you might want to get said junk into the shower unless you want to be stranded in Utah."
Things moved pretty quickly then and in short order he was showered and dressed. Beca had another two days at the festival, but he had to hurry back to his hotel down the block if he wanted to catch his flight. One night together and they were back off to their separate lives.
"Hey." He'd been putting on his shoes but Beca curled her hands into his wet-dark hair and tilted his head up to meet her gaze. "Let's do this again. Not the Utah part and the sex, while awesome, is optional but...let's see each other again. L.A. isn't that big a town that we can't make it happen."
A tension that had gathered in his chest went loose and he smiled warmly up at her as she held his head in her hands. In the shower he'd worried that this was over, already, even though it wasn't ever actually a thing again in the first place. Jesse didn't want to have to go through learning to miss her all over again, even after just a few hours. "Let's. I can't wait to hear the ongoing tale of your battle with Banana Blossom Take-Out."
Beca grinned back at him looking a little relieved, and it still felt so good to know she cared as much as he did. "Those mofos screw up my order one more time and it's full-scale war." Checking against each other's schedules, they settled on dinner two weeks from Thursday. Fish tacos at a place near his apartment at 7 p.m.: they put it into their phones and then it was official. Jesse pressed a quick kiss against her mouth and was out the door.
The next two weeks kept Jesse busy at work but it was fun work, the engaging part of the process before things got frustrating and down to the wire. It was typical in a lot of ways, falling back into a routine after a weekend of excitement. What made it better was texting Beca throughout. They'd never fallen out of touch completely, but they were more 'hey, how are you!' emails and not day-to-day minutiae like it was now. He'd text her a photo of his work station in the studio, she'd take a picture of her favorite Batman coffee mug, then they'd have a three-day argument about who's the best Batman villain. It was easy, it was fun, and she slotted back into her life so neatly that it was a little scary.
Also scary: Fat Amy's Youtube video about human-shaped moles garnering 400,000 views in 2 days. Sometimes it was weird being friends with an Internet celebrity. Scarier: the fact that she used the photo of his back as evidence which meant nearly half a million people had seen his weird Great Aunt Pat mole.
He was almost ten minutes late for their dinner meeting that was maybe a date but maybe just hanging out, but Beca wasn't there yet. Loitering outside the restaurant as it filled up for $4 Thursday taco night, Jesse tried to play it cool. Not worried that Beca didn't want to come--he had long since gotten over his 'Beca Mitchell doesn't actually like me' complex, but she was busy. Maybe Utah had been a fluke and chatting was the best thing they could manage. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world--better talking to her about Danny Devito's role as the Penguin than not talking to her at all. Still, he'd miss the chance to see her laugh in person.
But when he looked up from his sad-faced melancholy worries she was there, rounding the corner and running in a gloriously undignified fashion. "I'm sorry!" She said, breathless but grinning. "I'm really sorry. The Roots are horrible at time management despite my explaining that fish taco night waits for no man."
"I will excuse your tardiness only on account of oh my God, you know the Roots!" He held open the door for her and she ducked under his arm to go inside the loud, bright bustle of the restaurant.
Dinner flew by; however fun it was to hear updates about her day to day life via various technologies, hearing about them in person is better. Beca seems just as interested in his life--it was nice that she knew the background of it all so he could get to the good parts of the stories without tripping her up with the tech talk. A tiny table in the corner of a crowded restaurant was pretty far from tuxes and fancy hors d'oeuvres, but Jesse liked this better. It felt more like real life: tiny, health-code-violating restaurants were more their scene.
The place was full enough that lingering at the table after they finished would be rude, so they paid and escaped back out into the cooler streets. "It's only 9:30," Jesse pointed out and tried not to over think what it meant when Beca leaned to bump her shoulder against his. "You should come to my apartment. My movie collection has grown to be actually obscene."
"Yeah, alright." This time when she bumped her shoulder to his he grabbed her hand to thread their fingers together. Beca didn't pull away as she smiled at him. "I want to watch that Argentinian prison documentary you got." It was only two blocks down and three flights up before they were back at his place, and Beca slipped her shoes off before insisting he give her a tour. There wasn't much to see but Jesse obliged and she only teased him a little bit about the disgustingly large number of movies he owned.
"You don't have room to talk," he pointed out as she flopped down onto the sofa while he reached for a bottle of wine. "I'm not the one who runs a blog on obscure 1970s jazz records."
Whatever she was about to say was cut off when Jesse came back in with two glasses of red wine and handed her one. "You're offering me wine that comes in a wine glass? An actual glass that is made for the holding of wine and doesn't have 90s cartoon characters on it? Damn," she said with some regret. "We really are grown ups now."
They sit and actually do watch the movie, which is too depressing to try to make-out during. Not that it wasn't good, because it was and the score was amazing, but, well, make-outs were also amazing and particularly with Beca. Jesse contented himself with leaning together with her and enjoying the way her fingers played idly with his hair.
When it was over they stayed in the same comfortable position for a few minutes more before Beca reluctantly pulled back and got to her feet. "Alright," she said as she grabbed her stuff. "This was fun and while I'd love to do more fun activities I need to get work done before the Roots come back into studio tomorrow."
"I've got a thing next Thursday but Friday? Think you could slot me into your schedule between hanging out with Grammy winners?" Jesse grinned as Beca rolled her eyes and leaned up to kiss him.
"Don't start comparing yourself to the Roots, because you'll never live up to their awesome," she said after pulling back and opening the door. "But, yeah. Friday. Thanks, Jesse, this is- nice. The finest fish tacos and South American cinema I've ever had. Night."
"Night." He stayed standing there at the door even after she left and when he finally turned away and started getting ready for bed he couldn't seem to stop smiling.
Weeks seemed to go by faster with something to look forward to. He'd gotten to be like Pavlov's dog: anytime his text alarm came on he started grinning and fumbling for his phone. They didn't do sexting even though he'd thought about it while lying in bed illuminated by the glow of his phone screen. It would just be...weird. Not the sex, because he was all about getting up close and personal with the sexy bits of Beca, but more the idea of doing it on the phone when they could do it in person. There was also the knowledge that any pictures of his penis would, inevitably, get seen by the Bellas eventually. So they talked and texted and when Friday came they met up in Beca's neighborhood this time.
They did not, despite Jesse's urging, go to Beca's local nemesis the Banana Blossom, with whom she'd established a shaky truce. That was the problem with take out places, Beca explained over sushi, they literally know where you live. The food was good if not remarkable and they didn't even pretend that Jesse wasn't going to come back to her place afterward.
When they got up to the apartment, which was neat and cute with old record sleeves lining the walls, Jesse knew something was up. It was in the way Beca began practically bouncing with glee as soon as they got inside.
"I got you something." Beca had this look--this very particular look- when she was really pleased with herself, delight with more than a hint of smugness. That first glimpse of it in an abandoned pool to the tunes of Blackstreet was what Jesse go from crush to 'holy shit, I'm in love with a girl who can rap.'
She was looking at him like that now as she held up a box and Jesse was helpless in the face of that smile. "You got me what?"
Jesse ripped off the wrapping paper of the presented box then let out a laugh so loud and sudden that he surprised himself. "Get out- get out of here."
Three cups. Not just cups that was such an understatement it was offensive. Three Burger King glasses that weren't just ridiculous. They transcended ridiculous, they found a new yet-undiscovered realm beyond ridiculous that bordered on bliss.
"Holy shit are these- do they actually feature a poem? Are they, oh my God, is the King not just using magic to spin hamburgers around but rhyming about them?" Jesse was smiling so hard it was less of a grin and more just open-mouthed joy and when he looked up to Beca she was beaming at him.
"The 1970s were truly a magical, incomprehensible place," she said with an appreciative nod and wrapped her arms around him as they admired the glasses. "Our glass decorating skills just can't compare with what the masters did back then."
He looked away from the hideous, glorious monstrosity in his hand to press a kiss to her hair, content for a moment just to have her arms around him. "What made you see these and think 'Jesse'? Because, whatever it is, awesome."
She shrugged without letting him go. "You mentioned cups with cartoon characters on it and, I don't know, I thought it would be funny." Now Beca tipped her chin up so she could look at him. Her smile is luminous, sincere in a way that's rare. "I like making you laugh. It is...a thing I have missed seeing in person. If it makes you laugh like that I would totally invest in spinning hamburger lessons."
There's something else she's about to say- doubtlessly something clever and quippy, but Jesse cut it off with a kiss. His fingers curled into her hair as he pulled her close and poured all his feelings into the kiss, every 'I'm so glad you're in my life again' and 'I never stopped loving you' and 'holy shit, you bought me awesome fast food glasses'. Maybe that didn't all come across but Beca got the gist as she opened her mouth against his and tugged him in tight to her with her free hand. They didn't stop touching as she fumbled with the box until it was safe on the kitchen table, as they started pulling clothes off and making their way to the bedroom.
Jesse stayed the night. He stayed the night and woke up early to the sound of Beca making coffee and lay there dozing until she padded barefoot into the room and leaned down to kiss him. When he opened his eyes she was smiling at him with hair a mess and just a ratty Treble Makers shirt on. "You are maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life," Jesse said as he kissed his way up her neck and tugged her onto the bed with him.
"Mmmm, you are maybe lucky I wasn't carrying a mug of coffee or I would have spilled it all over your naked body and, more important, my bedspread." She clambered up onto the bed so she was stradding him. His hands slid up her warm thighs and Jesse loved the look in her eyes, happy and hungry and amused all at once. "Now I don't know what your weekend plans are." Her fingers ran down his chest then his belly then lower, making him gasp. "But I--knowing I wanted to spend the weekend watching movies and eating take-out and screwing your brains out--cleared my Saturday and Sunday. So if you're free we could do that."
"I- " It was very hard to think with Beca's clever fingers working over him and Jesse let out a little sound as his hips arched up. "Will do whatever is necessary to make that happen. God, Beca."
There was that gleefully smug face again before he sat up to kiss her and, yeah, Beca could be pleased with herself now but Jesse always gave as good as they got.
They spent the weekend together all the way until Monday morning when they parted ways with a kiss at Starbucks. It was their lovemaking extravaganza as Fat Amy called it and Jesse spent the next week walking around with a goofy smile on his face. After that they were...dating? They hadn't put a name on it, but that's what it felt like. Soon it was like they'd skipped the preliminary dating stage and had jumped straight into being in a relationship again. But Jesse didn't ask. He was content to be whatever they were. Now that he had a reason to make the effort, it was easier to find time to see her as often as they could. How did they manage to go without seeing each other for so long? Already it felt impossible to be without her, like in a month she'd become a vital component of his existence again. It was weird and a little wonderful, but maybe that was them.
Months later at the next movie premiere, one more fancy affair, she was his date, just as gorgeous and goofy as ever. When the lights turned down in the theater her hand slipped into his and as the first beats of music started she squeezed tight. And Jesse would swear he never, not ever, thought adulthood would feel as right as it did.