Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 75th cycle. Now cycle 76!

A/N: Sorry for the delay again, I'm moving this summer, things are already crazy :(

"You Can Breathe Now"
Rachel/Quinn
Runaway Bride series
(no listings yet; sequel to "If Anyone Can")

Rachel knew that at times she could make a bigger deal about things than there really was reason to. She had a personality built for drama, and she had long assumed it with sufficient pride in who she was. But even by those standards, it was fair to say she had been having a genuinely bad day, no over exaggeration involved. If people thought her obnoxious on other days, this time, she was probably repelling them with the sheer will of her mood.

So when Quinn approached her at her locker, Rachel snapped at her before realizing who it was standing there, and as soon as she did, she startled and bowed her head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was you…"

"It's alright," Quinn promised, looking around to see who was in the area before she could do anything. The hallway was blissfully bare, so even if it was only for a second, she gave her girlfriend's arm a squeeze. "Are you okay?"

"It's fine, I don't want to… What's up?" Rachel asked. She needed a distraction, a chance to reboot her day, and at this point Quinn Fabray might have been the only person able to achieve this miracle.

"Well, I…" Quinn hesitated for a moment. She'd known exactly the reason for seeking Rachel out, but then she'd found her this way and she'd forgotten. But then she could see the thing peeking out from inside the textbook in her arms, and she turned a smile back on. "I have something to show you."

"Okay, what is it?"

"Not here," Quinn tilted her head to the side.

"Quinn…" Rachel frowned, not feeling like drawing things out more than they had to be. But then the blonde was already peering into the doorway of the choir room, and with a wave of her hand indicated that it was empty. So, with a heavy sigh, Rachel snapped her locker door shut, picked up her bag, and she went after her. "What did you want to show me?"

"This," she pulled out a white envelope from inside her notebook. The side had been neatly torn open, but this wasn't what she noticed first. Instead, her eyes fell on the logo in the corner.

"I don't get it, why would they…"

"Just look inside," Quinn nodded with a smile. Rachel discovered power in curiosity, and she fished into the envelope, pulling out sheets of paper folded together. She looked at the one on top of the stack, and she barely had to read a line or two before the breath shot right out of her.

"You're going to… But that's… that's…"

"In New York," Quinn finished for her with a smile. It was amazing how fast the old Rachel could emerge from under the dark cloud that had been weighing her down a moment ago.

"I thought you were going to…"

"Changed my mind," Quinn shrugged.

"But we were going to be… long distance pioneers…"

"Well if you want me to go somewhere else…"

"No… No!" Rachel shook her head, and finally it was sinking in. She was going to school in New York. Quinn was going to school in New York, too. Not the same school, but in the same city. Both of them would be living there in the fall, they wouldn't be states away, they'd be… "Quinn!" she blurted out, throwing her arms around her in such a rush that they nearly toppled over before they got their footing back. "That's just… I… I don't know what to say…" Rachel pulled back, her hands shaking as she brushed happy tears from her face.

"Feel better?" Quinn smirked, and Rachel laughed.

"Much," she nodded before looking back at the letter. Somehow she had this fear that she'd look again and discover that she had read it wrong. But she had right, completely right, and she squeaked before leaning in to kiss her girlfriend. They were sufficiently out of sight from the doors to have privacy, and even if they hadn't been, she just might have decided it was worth it to throw caution to the wind. Because now with this news, everything was changing. Plans were bouncing through her head faster than she could keep track of them. "We can get a place together, we… unless that would be going too fast?"

"We could get separate bedrooms for that," Quinn shrugged. "We'd save money if we split the rent."

"Right, yeah, that makes sense."

"Then I can sneak over at night if I miss you," she gave her a pointed look, and Rachel felt a rush of heat in her cheeks.

"I insist that you do," she nodded, and Quinn grinned.

"We can go into the city to look for a place over the summer, maybe make a weekend of it, just you and me… See a show, all that." Rachel didn't have to say a word for Quinn to know she was a hundred percent in agreement. "We should get to class, but we can talk about it when school's done this afternoon."

The rest of Rachel's day had improved exponentially, so much so that it took a while for her to remember why she'd been upset and, when she did remember, it didn't have nearly enough power to get a hold of her again. She was going to New York and Quinn was coming, they would live together…

They went to her house that afternoon, where Quinn discovered that Rachel had spent much of her time in class after they'd spoken to draw up a to do list, what they needed to look into in anticipation of both the upcoming summer and their relocation to New York. It used to be that something like this might have annoyed her, but now she looked at it and all she could do was smile. She was just as excited as Rachel was, even more so to think that only a few months ago, she'd been realizing how she felt for this girl, and how Rachel did feel the same. They had become girlfriends, and finally her life had stopped feeling as though it was riddled with emptiness. Now they had a future to look forward to, together.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!