Disclaimer: I do not own Glee. Seriously.
Spoilers/Warnings: Just to be safe, all aired episodes, AU, babygate, established Finn/Rachel, established Quinn/Sam.
A/N: Thank you to air_one_23 and a few other unnamed friends for making sure that this chapter is post-worthy. I hope everyone will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I adore Quinn/Rachel and it is my new mission in life to spread the sentiment! Also, reviews would make me and the muse very, very happy. Cheers!
The development of a genuine understanding of sorts – for to describe whatever was happening between the two of them as anything more or deeper than that would be foolishly optimistic and simply tempting one Quinn Fabray to revert to her HBIC persona – had taken everyone aback. They knew that Quinn had forgiven Rachel for hastening the inevitable demise of what remained of her relationship with Finn and they also woefully noted that Rachel had persisted in being true to her nature. The logical collusion of the two factors would not make a budding friendship between the newly reinstated head cheerleader and the pint-sized diva at all possible, but consider the following and attempt to comprehend the situation.
Quinn had walked in late for Biology and Rachel, unsurprisingly enough, had been the only one left unpaired for the month-long assignment they had just been given. Santana had offered Quinn a mildly sympathetic look before she remembered that she was supposed to be furious with the blonde. Brittany was waving enthusiastically at Quinn before she was promptly stopped with a glare from Santana. Rachel had looked up from her notebook and offered Quinn the empty seat next to hers. Quinn thought of protesting, but figured she could chalk it up as her one good deed for the day. The aging Biology teacher beamed at the two of them and proceeded to proclaim them the last group and allocated the only remaining topic: human anatomy. Quinn blanched, Rachel winced and the two began a fight so tellingly half-hearted from its lack of aggression and the speed with which they ultimately accepted their fate with minimal genuine fuss.
The eager audience that their class had been was petrified into first silence and then launched into a hushed bout of wild speculation, Santana was later reported to have made her first visit to church in years, Brittany took to carrying around a duck plushie for protection, Puck steered clear of both Rachel and Quinn, screaming like a girl when the two of them approached him simultaneously, and Finn remained as blissful as ever until he ran into an open locker door at the sight of Rachel and Quinn holding a civil conversation without the presence of an intermediary.
Quinn would never admit it aloud, not even under threat of another dishonourable discharge from the Cheerios, but she enjoyed spending time with Rachel. A few months earlier and she would have been willing to commit murder had someone even had the nerve to suggest the possibility to her. Granted she had been more than a little wary when they were arbitrarily thrown together for the Biology assignment and she might have expected the worst the first time she stepped foot in the Berry household, but the combination of a perfectly pleasant Rachel and her disappointingly agreeable room ("I am both impressed and slightly let down that your room is so normal.") had finally calmed Quinn down somewhat that, the next time Quinn came by for one of their study sessions, the blonde no longer felt the urge to turn around and run home on foot if required.
Quinn had heard enough stories from the rest of the Glee kids to formulate a general picture of what Rachel in person might be like, but the brunette was nothing like what Quinn had built her up (or down, depending on one's perspective) to be. She was a decidedly more subdued presence without an audience and Quinn had come to understand, recognise and respect that every waking moment of Rachel's life was an opportunity for her talent to shine and – dear God, how is it even possible for so much of it to be successfully contained in such a tiny frame? Quinn was not quite sure what to make of Rachel evidently not considering her enough of a spectator to expend her efforts on.
The diva retained those qualities that the rest of the school found vexing and Quinn was slowly discovering to be endearing. Still, there was a decided restraint to the volume of Rachel's voice, a check on the expansive gestures she routinely employed, a sparkle in the brown eyes that Quinn had never before seen directed at anyone else, that made her feel strangely special to be on the receiving end.
The most glaring distinction, Quinn had determined, was the way Rachel sang. She sang softly, starkly, with a rawness that the Rachel Berry on stage or in school or amidst Glee Club could never (or would never) muster. The Rachel Berry in private was a Rachel Berry not a soul was meant to bear witness to. Quinn had simply been lucky enough to find herself in the right place to catch that very same Rachel singing under her breath (as if she were exhaling a secret and hoping the very air would not tell on her) as they toiled away on a potential outline for their project despite Quinn's express warning that Rachel better not disrupt her focus with an impromptu rendition or two of some obscure musical number.
Quinn had literally been rendered speechless and the thought of telling Rachel to shut up did not even cross her mind. She had always begrudgingly acknowledged Rachel's talent and she had also secretly taken a liking to Rachel's singing since joining Glee Club, but nothing had prepared her for the force of nature Rachel had revealed herself to be. So, it became her guilty pleasure – listening to Rachel sing under her breath while Quinn pretended to work. She's not singing show tunes after all, was how Quinn justified this allowance to herself.
Quinn paused her writing once again as she strained to make out the words that Rachel was crooning with an intimacy that would not be at all out of place in a much less platonic context, with someone other than Quinn listening in. Quinn had, by now, enough provisions in her mental arsenal (and the reality of Rachel singing just a few feet away from her helped a lot) to imagine how it would feel like to have Rachel singing love and forever directly into her ear and how, with no physical distance separating the two of them, easily Quinn could lean forward and brush her lips against –
The tip of Quinn's pencil broke against the surface of her notebook as the thought registered more completely. Her cheeks were inflamed with dawning realisation and she scrambled to process that most unwelcome notion (she was fervently ignoring the shy voice in the back of her mind claiming otherwise), but failing spectacularly to utilise her extensive repertoire of Fabray-approved excuses for the circumstance at hand.