The wind has been blowing gusts of drizzle in her face all the way from the metro station to the building and she's more than glad that Rachel has given her a spare key so she can let herself in immediately instead of having to wait for somebody to answer the doorbell.
At first Quinn is just happy to be inside, out of the bad New York fall weather and though she does notice a slight smell of smoke she doesn't think any of it. However, as she heads up the stairs to the loft, seriously, she wishes Rachel and the others would live in a building with an elevator, the smell becomes stronger.
Right in front of the apartment door it's acrid, burning in her nose and Quinn could swear she can see slight smoke curling through under the door. She's alarmed right now, trying to jam the key into the lock so hastily she misses two times. "Rachel!" she cries out, bursting into the living space.
Sure enough the air in the apartment is a bit hazy. Her panicked shout is followed by a yell and the clatter of metal hitting the floor coming from the direction of the kitchen area and another scream "Quinn, get out!"
Quinn would never listen in a moment like this. In a flash she is round the corner to find herself in front of the messiest sight she's ever seen here.
Granted the apartment usually isn't all that tidy to begin with, despite Kurt's efforts to keep it neat, but it's three people living there and one of them is Santana, who makes enough of a mess for two people. The usual state of the apartment is nothing compared to what the kitchen looks like right now. The working space is cluttered with the remains of cut vegetables, the pan they've been in apparently looks like it has first spilled over the stove, before making its way down to the floor spilling the contents all over the tiles. That must have been the metal clang she heard upon entering Quinn notes. Another pan is still on the stove, smoking slightly and standing in the middle of all this chaos is Rachel, wearing a bright pink apron covered in some sort of sauce and looking utterly miserable. Even more so as she takes in the sight of Quinn before her.
"You weren't supposed to see this." she states in a quiet voice.
"What on earth were you trying to do Rachel?" Quinn just asks, stepping carefully around the food splatters on the floor to pull the pan from the stove and checking the oven is shut off. She wrinkles her nose at the black curled up unidentifiable stuff left in pan. "Thank God, you're okay, when I smelled the smoke coming from your apartment I was scared!" She's still a little puzzled how this catastrophe came about and why Rachel is cooking in the first place. Usually Kurt is the one to cook or they all just do take-out.
"Obviously I was trying to prepare a meal to have ready when you were to arrive, which, knowing your class schedule shouldn't have happened for at least another hour." Rachel huffs, crossing her arms. "Why are you here already Quinn?"
"The professor came down with the flu, so class was canceled." she disposes the charred remains in the bin. "I took an earlier train, thinking my girlfriend" she stresses the word, giving Rachel a pointed look "would be happy to see me for more hours than planned.
It deflates Rachel's indignant air, one she pulls off surprisingly well, Quinn notes, given that she's covered in sauce smears, flour and what-not.
"And I can see you experimented with food," Quinn chooses for a phrasing, "but you never cook, apart from pancakes for breakfast, so humor me for asking what came over you all of the sudden?"
The expected theatrical explanation does not come forth, instead Rachel just shrinks into herself a little, looking embarrassed as she mumbles "Today was our five months anniversary so I wanted to surprise you with this wonderful dinner. I had recipes assuring me they were doable even for beginner chefs," Rachel points to a pile of soaked papers, Quinn assumes to have drown during Rachel's attempt at extinguished the fire in the frying pan, "and I was following them to a letter. Everything was supposed to be ready and perfect for when you arrived."
"Oh honey." She sighs touched. It's one of the nicest things any of her partners has every said to Quinn, it makes her heart swell with love for her girl and seeing Rachel look positively miserable at her failed attempts in the kitchen just won't do. Not caring about her own clothes she pulls Rachel into a fierce hug. "I love you." she breathes in Rachel's ear followed by kiss pressed to her earlobe which makes Rachel shiver.
"I love you too, but this is so not how I pictured this evening to proceed."
Quinn laughs softly at that. "At what point did this all go awry if you were following the recipes every instruction anyway?" she asks.
"Oh, I got a call," Rachel explains. "I really did plan on ignoring it, but it was the agency so I just had to answer. It was only a minute. Turns out I got a call-back from the audition last week but when I turned around everything was going to hell."
Quinn's the tiniest bit stunned to hear that; not that Rachel got a call-back, but that she only mentions it now. Normally everything Broadway related is out of her girlfriend's mouth before she can even draw a breath. Rachel really did take this dinner to heart and Quinn makes a note to prepare an equally elaborate meal the next time Rachel comes to New Haven.
"That's great Rachel!" Quinn presses her mouth to Rachel's where she is warmly welcomed. It's a welcome here, I'm happy for you and a well-celebrate-this-later-with-less-clothes kiss all in one and neither of them is willing to stop it before they both run out of breath.
"We should clean this up before Kurt gets home, he'll have a heart-attack if he sees what you did to his kitchen," Quinn says when they part. Rachel answers her with a deep heavy sigh as she takes a another look at her surroundings.
"Let's get to work, rags are under the sink." She tells Quinn, motioning for the cabinet as she starts picking up the vegetable bits. "We only have like half an hour," she says, just as they hear the key turning in the lock followed by a horrified scream of "Rachel Barbra Berry!" when Kurt enters and the kitchen comes into his line of sight.