A/N - My first Quinntana fanfiction!
A/N - I've had the whole concept of this story in my head for a quite while and these characters just seem perfect for the plotline. I hope you agree!
Enjoy. (:
A Date With Paddington Bear
Slumped on a different seat to normal sat a girl no older than twenty five staring up at the flashing notifications on the trains departure board. She scanned it quickly a couple of times and still her platform hadn't been announced although it did say her train would be on time.
The girl smiled at the efficiency of the train and turned her gaze to a couple sitting just two seats down from herself. Her smile faltered and swiftly turned to a glare. They were sitting in her seat. In all honesty she knew she was lucky to have a seat at all due to the vast number of people both passing through the station and those currently occupying the station. Paddington station. Despite knowing this however, she still wasn't satisfied. On the seat she was currently occupying she had to crane her neck ever so slightly to the left to see the departures board and that simply wouldn't do.
The girl huffed and went back to staring at the departures board absentmindedly rubbing her neck. The board flashed twice and displayed the girl's platform number but due to the ceiling lights shining on the board, the girl couldn't quite see what number had been displayed. Typical, she thought to herself, this wouldn't have happened if I had my seat now would it?
She stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder and began forcing her way through the crowds of people to reach her platform. Halfway to her destination a man dressed up as Paddington Bear came up to her and began indicating to a girl just over her shoulder to have a picture taken.
"Not now dumb ass," the girl snarled trying to push past the bear.
"Just one picture," the bear said in a very feminine voice.
The girl was a little taken aback and slightly shocked as this revelation. Not only was the bear in fact a girl, but American too. Questions filled the girls head. Why was the girl dressed up as Paddington bear? Why was the girl in London? Why did the girl want a picture with herself?
A flash of light brought Santana back from her thoughts. She looked down at her watch.
"Shit," she yelled a little too loudly causing surrounding parents to pull their children close and tut in her direction.
A blush steadily crawled its way up the girls tanned cheeks as she mumbled, "sorry," before dashing off to platform four to board her train leaving a bewildered Paddington bear in her wake.
This is how it should be, the girl thought as she smiled to herself relaxing into the hard metal as much as she could. The couple from the day before were nowhere to be seen and the girl had her seat. The seat situated in just the right place enabling her to see everything going on in the station.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw someone dressed up as Paddington bear taking pictures with little children. She couldn't help but wonder if it was the same girl from yesterday. Her day had been disrupted due to the amount of questions flowing through her head. How was she supposed to concentrate when a girl dressed in a bear outfit had picked her out of about two hundred people to just get a picture with her? The mystery of the whole situation intrigued the girl.
Platform six.
The girl's heart beat hard against her rib cage. Platform six was in the same walking direction as platform four. She would have to walk straight past the girl again, assuming that it was her in the costume. As the girl neared closer and closer to the Paddington bear stand the girl held her breath and surveyed the area.
There she was! The girl who had a stature of no more than five feet tall was taking pictures of the bear and anyone who walked past.
She had no idea why she was so worked up about the whole situation. She could feel her hands becoming clammy as she thrust them into her pockets. Her heart was beating faster than usual and that's when the girl noticed her.
"Hey," she shouted, "Hey you, the one with the shoulder bag."
The girl looked over her shoulder and then suddenly realised… I'm wearing a shoulder bag, she thought to herself. Way to make yourself look like an idiot.
"Yeah," the girl said nervously looking at the floor.
"It came out blurry," the shorter girl said.
The girl looked up from the floor somewhat confused but thankfully the situation was speedily clarified.
"The picture I took of you yesterday, it came out blurry. Secondly I wanted to apologise for ambushing you and snapping away with the camera like that but my friend," The girl pointed over her shoulder at the bear kneeling on the floor with a little girl on her knee, "was worried she wouldn't get the chance again."
Just when the girl thought she had finished, the other girl started to speak again, "Oh and I'm Rachel by the way, Rachel Berry," she finally finished holding out her hand for the girl to shake.
The girl nervously removed her hand from her pocket wiped it on her trouser leg and took Rachel's hand and shook. Rachel smiled, "And you name is?"
"Santana," the girl replied, "Santana Lopez."
"Pleased to meet you Miss Lopez," Rachel giggled.
Santana smiled in response but still couldn't work out quite why the girl in the bear costume wanted her picture. She figured she'd never know unless she asked and she couldn't afford to waste more of her day dwelling on questions she may never know the answer to unless she actually asked.
"Why did your friend want my picture?"
"Ah," Rachel said almost embarrassed by what she was about to say, "It may be easier if she tells you that."
Santana could feel a pit of anger bubbling at the bottom of her stomach but bit her tongue and refused to let it rise any further and spill out in words she knew she would later regret. "Okay. Can I speak with her then?"
Rachel nodded, "Hang on," she said before dashing away to whisper something into the bears ear. The bear nodded in response and began making her way over to Santana.
"Hi," the bear said stopping just a few feet away from the girl she was talking to.
No matter how many times Santana heard a woman's voice escape the costume she still couldn't quite get her head around it.
"Hi," Santana said in response.
An awkward pause hung in the air like a bad odour of some sorts. Santana wasn't sure quite where to look. Directly at the bears eyes? Could the girl actually see out of the costume at all? Is that why Rachel was guiding her?
"You come here a lot, sometimes alone, sometimes with other people; I guess I just wanted to say hi. We pass each other every day and I don't think you've ever noticed," the costume said completely unembarrassed about her honesty.
That was to the point, Santana said to herself, definitely better than talking to that Rachel girl.
"It's kind of hard to walk past a hulking great bear and miss them," Santana replied her lips curling at the edges, forming a half smile.
"You've never spoken before," the bear said in return.
"I guess I've never needed to."
"Why do you come here so often?" the bear asked.
"Why did you want my picture?"
"Memorabilia?" the girl stated.
Santana nearly choked and her eyes widened. The girl could obviously see Santana's sudden change in expression and quickly rectified herself.
"I worked in a café and a girl came in everyday for a month. She was really pretty. By the time I had plucked up the courage to ask her out she never came back again. I don't want to lose that chance again. At least if you never turned up to the station again I'd have a picture and could say I'd tried."
"Wait, are you hitting on me?" Santana almost laughed.
"What's funny about that?" the bear deadpanned.
Santana stopped abruptly, "Nothing," she said, "Nothing's funny."
"Are you seeing someone?"
"No."
"Were you?"
"There was a girl once," Santana responded.
"The blonde one?" The bear asked more or less in a comforting sort of way.
"How do you…"
But Santana was cut off, "I saw you with her, you looked very happy together. Every day she would say goodbye to you at the station and then the next day you were alone again. You looked sad, you still look sad."
Santana blushed and looked at the floor. This girl was pulling her apart and getting inside her head and she didn't even know her name.
"That's over now."
"But you aren't happy."
"Why do you watch me? How long have you been watching me because this is kind of creeping me out?"
"Don't flatter yourself," the bear answered harshly, "I work here, I see hundreds and possibly even thousands of people a day, and you are just another one of them that I happened to notice comes here regularly."
Santana looked up and tried to hold the bears gaze although she still wasn't quite sure where she was supposed to be looking, "And out of those thousands of people you picked me. Tell me again why I shouldn't be flattered?" Santana retorted triumphantly trying not to smile at the girl's sudden lack of response.
The girl in the costume stammered and didn't respond but luckily Rachel came bounding over and interrupted the conversation.
"Quinn, there's a girl waiting for her picture to be taken, are you nearly done here?" Rachel asked brightly bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.
"Yeah, just one more minute," Quinn replied her voice much softer than it was before.
"Quinn," Santana said aloud. The name fell off of her tongue perfectly like petals of a rose falling delicately to the ground. She smiled. "Pretty name."
Quinn blushed but thankfully nobody but herself could tell, "Thank-you."
Santana paused briefly before speaking again, "So, how can I date someone when I don't know what they look like?"
The girl in the costume snorted, "Are you that superficial?"
Santana quickly realised how materialistic she had just made herself seem. "No, I just meant, how will I know who to look for?"
"I know what you look like therefore I will know who to meet," Quinn replied simply.
"What if decide to stand me up?" Santana asked worryingly.
"Do you think I would?"
"It wouldn't be the first time someone has."
"I'm sorry to hear that but you will have to trust me. You don't know what I look like and I don't know your name. If you don't show up I won't be able to ask anyone if you were there or not."
Santana sighed, Quinn had a point, "Fine, okay." She looked down at her watch. "Shit, I've missed my train."
"Ah, sorry, my fault," Quinn apologised.
"It's fine, but I really should go, I'll try and catch the next one. When will I see you?" Santana asked hitching her bag further up her shoulder.
"Wait for me outside the station at six, it'll be busy, but I'll find you," Quinn instructed.
"How do you know I'll be finished with work by then," Santana asked trying to seem smart.
"Because you walk across this exact spot just after five most days, I'm sure you'll have time," the girl quipped back, her eyebrow raised triumphantly behind the costume.
Santana huffed and rolled her eyes for the second time during their conversation, "I forgot you stalked me, sorry."
Quinn laughed. It wasn't a high pitched squeal of a laugh like Rachel's that could be heard by a deaf person at least ten miles away. It was much more subtle. It almost wasn't there. To hear it and know it was a laugh you'd have to listen very closely. It was like liquid music pouring from the girl's mouth. Santana laughed in return. Unlike Quinn's hers was a much throatier and husky sound, but she didn't seem to mind.
"Six, outside the station. Stand me up and I know where to find you," Santana smiled shyly.
"But you walked past a hulking bear before and never stopped," Quinn replied sceptically.
"I think I may be able to stop for the girl who promised not to stand me up."
"I didn't promise."
"Then I'll just have to trust you," Santana smiled somewhat shyly before walking past the bear, to platform six hoping against hope that another train would be leaving very shortly.
Six o'clock found Santana standing with her back against the cool brick surface just outside the entrance to Paddington Station. Quinn was right, busy was an understatement. People were both pouring in and out of the station at record speed. Buggies pushed by rampaging mothers into other peoples ankles in hope they'll make their train just a little bit quicker.
Santana chuckled to herself. Londoners, she thought, what amateurs.
As five past six rolled around Santana began to get anxious. This girl wasn't really going to stand her up was she? Santana tried telling herself various scenarios that may explain why Quinn hadn't turned up yet and she began to feel better about herself that was until ten past six rolled around.
She pushed off of the wall and craned her neck above the crowd looking for the girl but then remembered she had no idea who she was looking for. Typical. She threw herself back against the wall and stared at the floor. She'd leave it until quarter past and then she was out of there.
A tap on the shoulder brought Santana to her senses. She lifted her head and squinted in the light from the ever blazing sun that just never seemed to set in the summer months.
"Hi," a soft voice emerged from a pretty blonde not much taller than herself wearing a blue flowery summer dress and a white cardigan draped over her shoulders. From what Santana could see out of her non-blinded eye the sun reflected golden flecks in the girl's eyes that were surrounded by deep emerald and hazel coloured irises. Her wavy hair hung loosely just below her shoulders and she looked slightly windswept despite the lack of breeze let alone wind.
Did she run to meet me? Santana asked herself gobsmacked swiftly reminding herself that a swinging jaw with drool at the corners was not an attractive look even for the likes of herself.
"Wow, you're a lot less furry in person," she said dumbly, slightly embarrassed about the corny comment. She braced herself for a sarcastic response, god knows she deserved one.
Thankfully however Quinn just grinned, "disappointed?" she asked teasingly.
Santana laughed. A girl with a sense of humour and a slight attitude judging by their earlier conversation; she was really starting to like Quinn already.
"Nope, not disappointed at all," Santana replied taking a step forward, her face just inches away from the blondes before saying with a grin as wide as the Cheshire cats' "it's not as if everyone can say they've got a date with Paddington Bear can they?"
Reviews? It'd be great to know what you thought of the story. (:
Thank-you for reading! (: