Disclaimer: I think others can make a wittier disclaimer than I, so I'll just go with the tried and tested: I own nothing! Absolutely nothing at all. Glee is a property of Fox.

Note: Hello, fellow glee/ faberry enthusiast! This is my contribution to the current hiatus. Please kindly note that this is slightly AU, babygate did not happen and neither did Quinn date Finn. If you have read it please kindly click that button down below~ you know I want you to.

Chapter 1

~Quinn~

"Don't say words that you don't mean"

Ms. Pillsbury looked incredibly uncomfortable and right now, Quinn couldn't find it in her 'I-want-to-slightly-be-nice' newly improved persona to pity her. She just made detention more unbearable than how it usually is, not that she personally knows, but Santana had been to a lot, usually because of inappropriate behaviour, and Santana whined and whined some more on a daily basis, so Quinn had a fairly decent idea.

Santana coughed 'closet case' into her hand and Quinn quirked an eyebrow and resisted the urge to point out the irony, mostly because Santana is very, very prone to violence. Leaning her chair to rest in its two back legs, she lazily watched the overhead fan swirl and circle, cursing Figgins for the broken A/C and mindlessly listening to Karofsky continue his speech about not regretting throwing Kurt down another garbage bin. Quinn sighs and Brittany says "12" underneath her breath, Karofsky mentions Kurt again and Brittany says "13". Quinn tried not to laugh too loudly.

"Oh my god."

Quinn's chair slipped back into it's proper position with a loud thump and Quinn fixes Emma Pillsbury a glowering glare. Don't use his name in vain. Her head snaps forward though when Dave- fucking- Karofsky started wailing. Wailing! of all things.

"I regret it, I regret it. I didn't want to... but I can't, I dooon't want to look at hiiim... KUUURT!"

Brittany says "14!" triumphantly, Santana burst into shameless laughter and the eerie silence brought on by boredom permeating the detention room was broken. Quinn watched Ms. Pillsbury hurriedly browse through her bag and snatch her pamphlets nervously. She could almost see it: 'So you're a gay 6th grader with a crush... stop pulling his metaphorical braids.' Quinn could almost read the regret the guidance counsellor must be feeling about taking on this detention class and suggesting this blasted activity.

"That's okay, that's okay, Dave. Why don't you seat down and we'll uhmm... we'll talk about this later at my office if you have the time." Ms. Pillsbury's words were shaking and she was clutching the desk so tightly her knuckles were turning white. Karofsky walks by them, head bent and sniffing. Quinn couldn't blame Santana when she started jeering at his pathetic loser ass.

"Well, that was... that was very good, Dave, very... honest. I expect the same honesty from all of you. Let's continue, alright."

The litanies of 'I regret this...' 'I regret that...' continued. The unusually full class filled the humid air with a series of 'I wouldn't do it again-s' and 'I didn't mean to-s'.

It was Brittany's turn and she skipped to the front happily, immediately blubbering about cats, ducks, talking too loudly, scaring away, in a jumbled mess that Quinn found amusing and that Santana discreetly listened intently, the blond could see the Latina's brows crunch together in concentration. She found it nauseatingly sweet and oddly... painful.

"I regret not pummeling JewFro's face, I regret not kicking the shit out of him for blabbing on us. I should have put him in a coma and ended his pathetic existence. I regret that most of all, actually. I regret bringing Q into this because she's a whiny bitch. No offense, Q..."

Sure, Santana, I hope you like the bottom of the pyramid you'd be staying there for a loooong time.

Santana continued the violent monologue for another 5 minutes and Quinn couldn't help but groan at every explicit detail of kicking, punching, and wedging coming from her mouth. Ms. Pillsbury looked horrified now, mouth opening and closing, eyes wide (wow, her eyes are so creepily wide). She coughed, spluttering incomprehensible words. Santana's turn ended with a smirk and an almost traumatized guidance counsellor.

"You better pay for my therapy."

"Oh wa wa wa, Q. Get over it."

She chose the reason she actually ended up here as her 'regretful' moment, walking up to the front and leaning her back into the teacher's table, hands entwining together, eyes to the floor, looking decidedly remorseful.

"I deeply regret trying to scare Principal Figgins with Vampires to get my way." Quinn began lowering her voice into shy territory, "I truly didn't mean for him to lose consciousness. I'm deeply sorry, and though this wasn't my idea but Santana's..." Santana snorted loudly "... I accept the consequences of my actions and am very remorseful towards the conclusion of our reckless act. I now know that a cheerio's spa isn't that terribly important."

"Wow, Q, go on and put the blame on me, why don't you." Santana says, as soon as Quinn had seated herself. She only laughed in answer.

...and the boredom continued.

Quinn watched Brittany doodle mindlessly on her notebook and pretended to just... .here.

"I still find this highly unfair, if I may say. Sunshine Corazon did not get hurt and it was an inactive crack house as I have already mentioned countless times and I simply cannot grasp the reason behind my detention. Nevertheless, I believe that participation in activities is conducive to my learning-"

"Get to it, Berry!" a random student goes and Quinn found it sad, very pathetically sad that she wanted to introduce her fist to his face.

Rachel took an annoyed breath, brandished a paper and cleared her throat.

" When I was nine, I entered a ballet competition. Of course, I had practiced meticulously, taking in consideratio-"

Rachel looked dazed, mouth still in that perfect 'o'.

I took enunciation lessons, Quinn.

She cleared her throat and looked down to the paper in her hand. "in conside-" brunette curls fell forward as she shook her head, paper crumpling in her tensed fist. Rachel closed her eyes, breathing so heavily, Quinn could see every inhale and exhale passing through her expanding and contracting chest. When she opened her brown orbs something has changed and all Quinn could do was avert her eyes to the parking lot outside. She could see Puck's truck, the setting sun illuminating the hood, making her feel hazy.
: :

"Good day, Quinn."

Quinn blinked, looked around the crowded hallway, then back to her locker and the book in her hand and then back to Rachel Berry who was looking at her expectantly. She blinked again.

"Quinn, it is only proper for you to greet me in return."

"Wha?... Yeah... yeah... hey, Berry."

Rachel blinked too and Quinn took that moment to look around, people were watching them now.

"May I talk to you in private?"

Quinn closed her locker, leaned her shoulder on it and fought off a shiver, it was kind of cold. She eyed the brunette for awhile, half-amused by the locked fingers and shifting weight, horrified but slightly finding the pig sweater adorable.

"And what? Be killed without a witness? No, thank you. Whatever it is you're going to blabber on today- sharp notes, animal rights,... argyle- you can say it here."

Rachel squared her shoulders and puffed out her chest. "Very well then..." she took a deep breath.

"I would like to invite you out on a date."

Quinn stared at her. Rachel stared back defiantly. And with a horrified gasp, the words hit Quinn and she looked around hurriedly, glaring at students who had the nerve to stare at them. She seized Rachel's right wrist hurriedly and dragged her down the corridor.

Kurt and Mercedes eyed them suspiciously when they barged into the choir room. Quinn tried to casually ask them to get the hell out- nicely, but from the way Kurt was looking at them like a dog presented with a bone, Quinn knew how spectacularly she had failed at casualness.
The door shut out the whispers and she could only hope that Mercedes would do damage control.

"That was very rude, Quinn."

Quinn glared at Rachel from her position by the door, hand gripping the knob behind her with so much intensity she might dent the metal. The brunette averted her eyes, fingers skimming on the black surface of the grand.

"What's your damage, Berry?"
"I don't understand what you mean, Quinn."

"What is wrong with you? Is this some annoying ploy to annoy me you annoying midget?"

Rachel blinked again, Quinn admits that that might have been confusing.

"N..o... I am simply... expressing my... feelings. I am taking a chance."

Quinn knows that that wasn't possible, she spent 2 years making sure that that wasn't possible. Rachel couldn't possibly like her after all the taunts and the slushies.

but...

Here it was. The person she wanted the most, the person she spent her whole freshmen year hiding from as she listened to her sing. This was the chance she both feared and prayed for. She wouldn't have to watch her chase after Finn anymore, she wouldn't have to pretend that she feels nothing when she sometimes have to bite her tongue just to reel the words back in.

And YES! Blasphemous gods of humiliation, you had me at hello.

"...but... I understand if you do not desire such arrangements... I apologize and hope that you would not stoop to delinquent actions to express your displeasure... I-"

"Okay..."

Rachel blinked and Quinn stared down at the floor bewildered.

"Okay... you mean you agree?"

"I... get a freaking dictionary, Berry! Yes, okay... yes, I agree."

"Well that is excellent, I-I... well... I-"

"Yeah, whatever... I have cheerio practice. I- bye."

: :

It was only during the thoroughly fucked up practice that Quinn remembered, while being insulted and ridiculed by Couch Sylvester that they had totally glossed over all the detail- oh good going, Berry lose your Anal retentiveness when needed.

So, she called her that night.

Rachel was chewing on something when she finally answered the phone and it was the most awkward conversation she had ever been privy to and she dated Noah Puckerman, once upon a mindless time!

"Rachel, please don't tell me you're chewing on some green leafy thing like a goat right now."

"Quinn, I am not chewing some 'green leafy thing' like a... a... goat right now."

"Do you mean that?"

"The like a goat part, certainly. I am eating a garden salad though."

She looked up the mirror above her vanity and she was grinning like a fool. "May I inquire about the business of this call, Quinn?" Rachel said after a pause where she could hear Rachel addressing someone who might be one of her fathers. The man was laughing and Rachel was ranting words a mile a minute that it was just a confusing buzz to Quinn's ears.

"I...I... you didn't tell me when."

More mannish laughter and Rachel huffing.

"The specificity is overwhelming Quinn."

Quinn almost laughed, because 'look who discovered sarcasm', instead she just rolled her eyes... at thin air. "Rachel? Seriously? the thing..." she sighed. "The stupid date Rachel when is it?"

Rachel made a sudden choking sound and the laughter turned into "Oh god, baby, are you alright?"

The phone was put down with a loud thump that made Quinn groan, falling back to her bed and brushing her hair from her face, she started counting to 100, listening to the faint sounds of 'daddy Berrys' fuzzing over Rachel.

By '10' she was starting to worry.

By '15' Rachel was back, voice slightly scratchy.

"I apologize for that, and about the... date. I am quite busy this week and I think I am right to assume that you have cheerio practices so-"

"I'll skip it."

Quinn almost bit her tongue just to stop the words, get more desperate, Fabray, I dare you.

"I...I mean... whatever... I... I'm captain anyway."

"O...kay. The next Monday, then?"

Quinn faintly contemplated acting like she was busy... which she actually was, she was invited to one of the cheerio's birthday party, but she had already succumbed to desperation so what the heck...

"Yeah, sure. Monday."

"8 sharp, at my house. Quinn, I expect you to be punctual. I do not need to remind you but, time is certainly gold, Quinn."

Quinn laughed. It was so typical. "But, patience is a virtue, Berry..."

An annoyed huff, "Not a virtue I abide by. Be on time."

~Rachel~

The first thing Rachel could think was that being in a room with Quinn was suffocating her, like her own vocal cords were strangling her, traitorous vocal cords, and she didn't really want to go there, god does she not want to go there, but she knew that there she would go. Regrets... and isn't that what she regretted the most...(at the current moment cause she is positive that along her successful would-be career she would have some regrets scandalously plastered on tabloids by those infuriating paparazzis), surely Ms. Pillsbury does not expect her to blubber on about how her greatest regret was sending Sunshine Corazon to that, as mentioned and reiterated by her countless of times, inactive crack house.

Quinn Fabray's hazel eyes, the color of sea water on that particular shade of sunlight,(or sometimes feces, when she infuriates her with her unfounded 'throw downs') disappears from her view as she closes her eyes, takes a breathe and says the expected words "I regret..." with a voice that tells her even through denial and the fact that nervousness does not exist in her vast vocabulary, that she was scared shitless of opening up this particular can of worms and figuratively throwing it at Quinn. She opens her eyes to a rapt audience except that one blonde girl averting her eyes to the windows outside.

Rachel Berry would not be ignored though.

: :

"We need to talk."

Rachel looks up from her biology book to a red head cheerio towering over her. She looks around and she seemed to have zoned out again from her teacher's incessant rambling about cell division because that had been the lesson every single meeting in Biology as she realized that the class were all walking out the door. A hand slams heavily and loudly against her desk. She looks up and almost laughed because the cheerio could hardly hide the wince. Santana would have broken the table and wouldn't even flinch. She bets such a thing actually happened.

"Did you not hear me, man-hands?"

"What is it that I can do for you?" she says curtly, closing her book and reaching for her bag. She didn't like Tony Cavanaugh at all, especially because she was the big villain in her love story with Finn. She had that put-off expression all the time too and when she bitched, she looked downright ugly. It wasn't the jealousy talking. At least Santana looked scary when she bitched, not ugly and Quinn looked… well like how Quinn always looks, angelic, but particularly scarier.

"I've got a proposition that you can't resist."

"I do not" she made air quotes "swing that way, not that I condone it, actually I'm rather support-"

"Do not even start with that, Berry!"

Rachel crosses her arms. "Well fine, please speak."

"You're trying to steal Finn away."

Rachel stood up immediately "I am doing no such thing, if Finn feels something towards me, that is his prerogative and I admit that I would be delighted if he did have such feelings, but I am not actively stealing him, I resent your opinion of my character!"

Tony smirks and raises both hands "Woah, slow down. Frankly, I am tired of Finn. I'll break up with him, so he could be all mopy and you could reel him in or whatever, curse him or something… I'll do it, you just have to do something for me."

Rachel snorts "and what's that? Do your project for you?"

"I'm not Brittany, smartass. So, do you want him?"

Rachel sits down again, studies the sure grin on the cheerio's face and had the urge to say No just to wipe the smug smile off her mediocre face.

"Yes." She admits sighing, defeated. Tony's grin widens and the only thing missing was the ominous music.

"Well then, this could work out after all…"

Rachel nods "Speak."

"Well, Berry… it seems like Quinn Fabray had lost her mind."

"I do not know what that has to do with me or Finn, Quinn's with Noah Puckerman so I do not see the relevance."
"If you'd shut your big mouth maybe you will."

Rachel huffs "very well."
"So… you do now that I was the captain of the cheerios before Quinn stole it from me, by, I don't know, probably bribing Sylvester or whatever." Rachel mutters 'by talent' under her breath but nodded for the other girl to continue.

"I want that position back and you're going to help me. You hate Quinn, she's been tormenting you since first year and well, I'm about to tell you why."

"Please." Rachel gestures with her hand for the other to stop pausing and continue on "I have dance class."

"Fabray's a light weight, a few bottles of wine cooler and Santana and Brittany running off to make out somewhere, had little miss perfect spilling her guts out to moi." She points to herself, Rachel twitches to remind her to hurry up again. "… and you won't ever believe the repression going under that 'I love God' façade. Quinn-captain- of- the- celibacy- club- Christ- crusader- Fabray is in love with… wait for it—"

"I don't have the time to wait for it!"

"It's a fucking expression, Berry! You ruined the damn moment! YOU! Ha! Bet you didn't expect that!"

Rachel gapes for a moment because of the sheer happiness on the cheerleaders face, then she snorts.

"Oh yeah, sure. She's in love with me, the big gulps must have had love letters underneath."

"Have you never heard of repression, Berry, and I'm this close to slapping you so stop the sarcasm."

Rachel wipes a hand over her face in exasperation and then stared at it disgustingly, such an unhygienic habit to pick up. "Is Quinn behind this? Please tell her to stop being a child."

She moves to stand up. Tony pushes her shoulder's down, she swats at her hands, "Berry. Believe me, Fabray's got it so bad for you." Rachel snorts again.

"Finn and revenge… Rachel. You can have everything you wanted, you just have to ask."

Rachel looks away, she knows that it would be idiotic and laughable for her to fall for this, but Finn keeps giving her puppy eyes in practice, keeps throwing her longing looks as he got hauled away by the arm by Tony or as he sat with her on the cafeteria staring across the room to Rachel. She wanted him and she always wanted too much.

"O…kay. I'll hear this out."

"Awesome. So, you're going to ask Quinn out on a date—"

"Wait, why me?" she whined.

"Didn't you hear me say R-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N. So, ask her out, believe me she'll say yes. You can't even imagine how far gone she already is. Ask her, get in a secret relationship with her, because well, you've seen her parents, they're the ones who constantly glare at your fathers during PTA meetings. Pressure her into telling the school, her stocks would plummet like woah and then I'll seize it. Break up with Finn, Break up with Quinn. You, Finn, Me, Captain. The end."

"Do you even have substantial proof that Quinn likes me?"

The cheerleader rolls her eyes, "We are going on a pathetic, infuriating circle. Yes, I have. The drunken love declaration as I said, and she fucking joined that loser black hole of a club!"

"With Quinn's GPA I have no doubt that she realized that glee club is an excellent place to hone her talents. Furthermore, Brittany had already slipped that they were moles. "
"that's her reason to coach but she's there to moon at you subtly, Berry. Trust me."

"Fine, let's say that that flimsy argument actually reeled me in. That's it? I date her, I make her tell, I break up with her? What if she doesn't tell?"

"Then take pictures of you kissing or whatever."

Tony shrugs, Rachel fumes. "This is obviously not a well thought out plan.

"Whatever Berry, you in?"

Rachel inhales deeply, telling herself not to give in to temptation but suddenly Finn's by the door, saying 'come on, babe' to Tony but looking at Rachel so sadly it breaks her heart.

Rachel looks up to Tony's smug smile. "I am 'in'".