So this will be lighthearted story. Seeing just what is happening on the show to Quinn (alright, I get it, it's fun to torment her a bit, but really there is a limit…) I needed a change of pace. So there'll be no angst in here and very little drama (because really, romance without a bit of drama is boring).

Warning! There'll be happy Quinn in this. Seriously, the pregnancy never happened, she was the Cheerio's captain all along. Her life didn't fall apart and she is friends with Santana and Brittany... aside from that the rest follows pretty much canon

Summary: Not even in her wildest dreams Rachel ever imagined how much being the captain of a club with three Cheerios in it would change her life. Faberry, side Brittana.

Disclaimer: I don't own glee

Captains and Dragons

Chapter 1

Not even in her wildest dreams Rachel ever imagined how much being the captain of a club with three Cheerios in it would change her life.

At first Rachel hadn't even understood what was happening. She had been just shocked but grateful. A little bit suspicious too.

It had been just before Regionals. Rachel had been walking to her locker with a slight smile on her lips. It was a good day, even with all Jesse St. James had done. She wasn't exactly happy, but she was getting there.

"Hey loser!"

The words made her freeze and her stomach drop. Rachel just closed her eyes waiting for her slushy shower. She had been almost happy this morning, it was obvious it couldn't last.

"What the hell!"

Cautiously Rachel opened an eye to see exactly what was the reason of the reprieve. Generally speaking jocks didn't wait around before throwing slushies.

What she saw stunned her. The jock who had been about to slush her was standing in front of her covered by what seemed mint slush, if the green was any indication, his own blue-berry slushy spilled on the floor at his feet. Quinn Fabray was at her side, and by the looks of thing, she had been the one to throw the mint slushy to the jock.

Without waiting for the hockey player to clean his eyes, and Rachel's knew from firsthand experience just how slushy could sting, Quinn shot him a question in her best no-nonsense tone. "Who am I?"

"Quinn Fabray, Cheerios' Captain." The jock automatically answered, trying to understand just why he had been slushied. He quickly recalled the school's rules to find out which one he had broken but he came empty.

"And Glee Club member." Quinn added and the jock nodded, still not understanding. But when Quinn Fabray told you something you listened. The blonde didn't like to repeat herself. And generally speaking the ones who made her repeat herself didn't like it too. Bad things happened to them. "Who is she?" The blonde asked pointing to the smaller girl at her side.

Quinn's death glare made him avoid the word loser and desperately trying to remember the name of one his favorite slushy target. "Berry?" He tried, hopeful. After all there had been a reason he had always used blue-berry flavor when he slushied her.

"Good enough." Quinn said nodding slightly. "And she is what?" This time the glare made the answer clear for him.

"A Glee Club member?" He said already cursing his bad luck. There was a rule that said: You don't slushy Cheerios' teammates. Luckily Cheerios rarely joined other clubs.

"Almost." There was a pause before Quinn spoke again looking straight at him, with cold, hard hazel eyes. "She is Glee Club's captain."

"Shit." Jack gulped. He was doomed now. Because the first rule recited: you don't touch Cheerios' captains. And he had been about to slush the captain of the cheerios' captain.

"Shit alright, genius." Quinn smirked maliciously. Jack already knew he was in for a beat up courtesy of one of the guys on the football team if he was lucky. Of Santana if he wasn't.

"I didn't know Fabray, really…" Even if not knowing hadn't ever been reason enough to Quinn to forgive someone, he tried all the same. "I'm sorry…" He said to Rachel. Jack saw Quinn nod approvingly at his apology.

"Well now you know." Quinn said it blandly. The lack of anger was enough to tell Jack it would be only a football player who would beat him up. "And you'll behave from now on, won't you?"

"Of course." He nodded once again before high tailing out of there. He had to warn the rest of the hockey team. Some of the other guys had been planning a multiple slushy attack on Berry to follow his own.

"You alright?" Quinn asked turning for the first time to face Rachel, who simply stood there shocked.

"Yes." The brunette stammered out, not sure of what had just happened. Just grateful that for once she wasn't the one covered in slushy.

"Good." And with that Quinn nodded and turned leaving Rachel in the middle of the hallway, too stunned to say anything else.

Then, when Rachel had begun to notice a pattern of rescues and how suddenly nobody bothered Glee kids anymore, even after they had lost at Regionals, she had asked explanations to the wrong person.

"Brittany?" Rachel asked, biting her lips a bit nervous to ask about this topic. She feared Quinn's protection would suddenly disappear if questioned. But she was so curious.

"Yes, Rachel?" It was still strange to be called by her first name by anyone who wasn't a loser like her. To be honest she had noticed this same trend in practically everyone at school. And it had started as soon as Quinn had stopped that slushy. It was strange, but nice.

"Why does Quinn protect me?" It didn't really make sense to the brunette. After all she was dating Quinn's ex-boyfriend and didn't that automatically mean the blonde should hate her?

Brittany had just shrugged and looked at her like it should have been obvious. "She is your Dragon."

After that Rachel hadn't asked anymore explanations even if she still didn't understand. She just enjoyed Quinn's protection while waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Then Quinn, Santana and Brittany begun to openly support her in Glee Club. If Rachel had an idea the three Cheerios would agree to it. Or if they didn't they would take her aside and spoke to her about it. When Santana had asked to speak to her aside the first time Rachel had been scared the Latina wanted to beat her up out of sight. But Rachel had shot a look at Quinn and the girl had been perfectly fine with the idea. Rachel had decided to not ask herself when she begun to trust Quinn to protect her.

"We need to talk Streisand." Santana said suddenly, looking angrily at Finn who had just stepped on Brittany's foot. Again.

"Sure?" Rachel answered not really sure at all. The Latina looked ready to kill someone and Rachel really didn't want to end up as that someone. More so since she wasn't the one who had almost crushed Brittany foot.

"Not here." Santana said. "Let's step out."

And even if Santana hadn't as much as insulted her in weeks Rachel was suddenly scared. Santana didn't ask, tell really, someone to "step out" unless she didn't want to beat them up. It was her modus operandi.

Panicking, Rachel searched for Quinn, hoping that the head cheerleader would be there to save her from Santana. And thankfully Quinn was there, looking straight at them, obviously paying attention. It wasn't all that surprising, Rachel had noticed that lately the blonde wasn't ever very far from her. The puzzling thing was that Quinn didn't seem at all alarmed by Santana request to "speak" to her.

Glancing at the blonde once more to be sure that the blonde wasn't even slightly worried by Santana request, Rachel found herself nodding to the Latina and following her out of the choir room.

"Listen, I don't think the choreography you're talking about will work." The fact that Santana really spoke to her once when they were in the hallway left Rachel practically gaping for the shock. The Latina took the smaller girl's silence as an encouragement to go on. "Finn isn't anywhere ready to do something like that..."

"You mean all you wanted to do was tell me that you don't agree with my idea?" Rachel asked just to be sure, when she was able to talk.

"Well yeah, I don't think you're wrong, I just think it can be better." Santana explained with a shrug puzzled by Rachel's reaction.

Relaxing completely Rachel just smiled at the brunette. "Well, then tell me how you would do it and we'll see ok?"

"Perfect." Santana smiled back, looking pleased.

The next thing Rachel noticed was how, when she asked to do something at the other glee kids and they didn't seem to want to do it, Quinn would glare at them, sometimes with Santana's help, until they did what was asked. It sure made Glee practice much more efficient and enjoyable for Rachel.

"Alright, from the beginning." Rachel called out, still not satisfied of how the song was turning out.

"Stop, please. I'm exhausted." Mercedes moaned pitifully, sitting down in the nearest chair and tiredly wiping the sweat from her brow.

"Come on, Rachel!" Artie said, whining a little. "It's almost an hour we are practicing!"

"You heard Rachel." Quinn ground out, somehow without even having to raise her voice. "From the top. Now!"

There was a little grumbling but Quinn's glare was enough to make everyone shuffle to their starting positions. Rachel simply beamed at her.

Sophomore year ended without a single slushy throw at her since Quinn's intervention, with people calling her by surname, just like they did with Quinn, or using the nickname of Streisand. All the others hurtful nicknames were just gone, as were the injurious writings on bathrooms' walls and on her MySpace page.

An if her social life was going better, her school one was going better yet. Everyone in Glee club followed her lead and even if they had lost Regionals everyone just seemed more motivated to win next year.

Rachel was happier she had ever been even if she was full of questions on just why it all had happened.

It was at the beginning of junior year, when Quinn's protection didn't stop as she had feared, that Rachel questioned Santana about it. She still wasn't comfortable enough to just go and ask Quinn. She was scare the blonde would be offended by the questions and would stop the protection and the help. Asking Brittany hadn't really solved anything. That left Santana.

"Santana?"

"Streisand." Santana acknowledged. Now that she wasn't scared out of her mind anymore of Santana Rachel had understood that half the time the Latina looked like she was about to murder someone didn't mean anything. Santana was just a very, very, intense person. Generally speaking if you didn't hurt Brittany Santana didn't hurt you. She talked on code too. She told you bitch and it meant friend. She told I want to kill you that translated was I like you afterall.

"I meant to ask you something…" Santana only nodded, waiting almost patiently for Rachel to find the words. "Why are Quinn and you protecting and helping me? I mean, not that I'm not grateful, I'm, really, it's just that I want to understand. I even asked Brittany but I didn't really get her answer. She talked about Dragons?" Rachel said shrugging her shoulders hoping that Santana would at least explain just what a Dragon was. She had spent hours trying to understand what the blonde meant without any success whatsoever.

"You don't know?" Santana seemed honestly surprised.

"No?" Rachel asked more than said, breathing in relief that the Latina was taking this so well.

"Nobody told you about Captains and Dragons?" Rachel shook her head, completely lost and beginning to feel a little like an idiot too. "Well, if Finn feels like this every day, it's no wonder he is always so gloomy." she realized. "No wonder you were so slow on the uptake." The matter of fact tone Santana's used was enough for Rachel to know the Latina wasn't insulting her. Really it had been months since Santana had insulted her and meant it. She still bitched but Rachel had understood early on that Santana was just a bitchy person. "Or why you never speak with Q. She was beginning to think didn't approve of her as an enforcer."

"What?" Rachel didn't know three things know: what a dragon was, what an enforcer was and just why Quinn thought she hadn't her approval. "Quinn wants my approval?" Maybe talking to Santana hadn't been that great of an idea, she was more confused than before.

"Calm down, Streisand. I'll explain." Rachel nodded grateful. "Maybe I'll even get this explanation." She crossed her fingers. "It works like this. Every Cheerios' captain has an enforcer, a Dragon, in Brittany's words." Santana smiled softly. Rachel had noticed it happened a lot when the Latina talked about or to Brittany. "An enforcer is someone who gets things done once the captain decides what to do and keeps the others in the squad in line. I'm Q's enforcer on Cheerios. Her right hand."

"And Brittany calls an enforcer Dragon because?"

"It's a TV trope thing, don't worry." Rachel just nodded not really understanding.

"Ok, I get it." Rachel confirmed. "So… Quinn is my …enforcer?" She asked not really sure if Cheerios organization translated exactly in Glee Club.

"Exactly." Santana nodded glad that Rachel was getting it.

"Just like that?" It seemed really too simple to Rachel.

"Well no." Santana admitted leaning back in her chair. It had taken much more time to explain it to the others gleek. Football players aside, they had looked at them like they were completely crazy. Kurt and Mercedes hadn't liked it one bit but after their stint in the Cheerios they had known enough to shout their mouths when Quinn had declared she was the Rachel's new right hand. "The enforcer is the second most important person in the team." Rachel nodded, everyone at school knew Santana was Quinn's second in command. "Sometimes it takes a bit of time to decide exactly who is enforcer material." Santana frowned recalling the senior who had been stupid enough to think she would be Quinn's enforcer. She had to show the wannabe just who was thought enough to be the right hand of the first freshman who ever made captain. "Often enforcers become captains if the captain isn't there or if the captain isn't capable. Q did that in freshman year. The old Cheerios captain was good but not Q good, you know?" The Latina said trying to explain something that, after three years as a Cheerios, was an everyday thing to her.

"And Quinn didn't step in as Glee captain because?" Rachel knew she didn't hold a candle in leadership ability compared to Quinn.

"Because of Sectionals, Streisand." At Rachel's frown Santana explained some more. "That day you showed you were thecaptain. You got there, created a set list ex novo, sang an incredible solo. I mean, you lead us to victory, didn't you?" Rachel nodded a bit unsure. She hadn't ever thought in those terms. "To Q that was proof enough you were a capable captain and she didn't need to step in the role."

Having Quinn's blessing made Rachel flush with happiness. But things still didn't add up. "You told the enforcer is the second most important person in the team. Shouldn't it have been Finn since he is co-captain?" Rachel asked even if she couldn't quite see him doing what Quinn had been doing for her all last year. He sure as hell hadn't ever been able to protect her as his girlfriend.

"Right, Finn should have been your enforcer. He was." The Latina confirmed with a frown. Apparently she really didn't like Finn. "At least until Q stepped in when he showed just how incompetent he truly was. I mean he let you be egged by St James!" Santana really seemed outraged. "No decent right hand would let anyone get away with doing that to his or her captain! So Q talked to him." The Latina's smirk made Rachel doubt that all Quinn had done was talking to him. "And then she stepped up as your enforcer."

That was how Rachel finally found out of Captains and Dragons. And that Quinn would be there to protect and help her. What she didn't know what that all this was only the beginning.