Bit of Sam bashing, sorry! I do like the character but when I wrote this he just seemed like another Finn to me. This was for an LJ community challenge over on rachel_quinn. I exist in the rarefied air of Faberry.
Put your light-hearted glasses on, this is a bit off-beat and not meant to be taken seriously except for the mentions of Faberry existing! Hah hah. Cheers guys!
Unbeta'd.
It was February 5th and Sam Evans was highly aware that he was not single. He and Quinn had been dating, well they hadn't been dating that long, but they were going great. And he knew she was the kind of girl that would want to be spoiled on V-day. The problem was, he had no idea what to do! He didn't think roses and candy would cut it. Roses were cliché, and the candy would probably get him slapped ("are you trying to tell me I'm fat?"). He had tried to ask Finn for advice, since he'd dated Quinn before.
After practice he'd caught Finn shoving his pads into his locker. The big guy had looked down at him, empathy painting his features.
"Man, I had the same problem last year. I freaked out big time before I thought of asking my mom."
Finn smiled his patented big, dopey grin then.
"She helped me plan a picnic in a nice spot out in the national park. It was cool. Quinn didn't glare at me once the whole time."
Sam swallowed nervously. While he did really like Quinn and he genuinely wanted her to have a good time, he was, at least in part, motivated by a tiny bit of fear. Because who in McKinley didn't fear the wrath of the HBIC? In that way he supposed Quinn was a tiny bit high maintenance. Since he couldn't really copy Finn's mom's idea, and he was still drawing blanks when it come to formulating his own plan, he decided to track down the most high maintenance person he knew of to get some perspective.
"Hi Rachel."
He smiled what he hoped was a winning smile as he approached the tiny brunette at her locker.
"Oh. Hello Sam."
Rachel half turned toward him as she withdrew some books from the neat stack inside. She closed the locker with a click before she faced him fully, her books hugged to her chest.
"What can I do for you?" She asked, her smile bright but her eyebrows creased in confusion.
"I was hoping you could help me."
"Oh good! I was waiting for you to come to me. Ordinarily I would just have been forthwith, but I hear that I can be a bit too blunt and 'full on' at times. Let's start from the top, shall we? If you'd just follow me we'll start by running through some scales."
The little diva was already walking past Sam.
"Uh, Rachel. I wanted to ask you about Valentines day?" Rachel stopped walking and rounded on Sam.
"This isn't about vocal training?"
Her expression fell slightly, before she looked up sharply at Sam.
"What do you mean Valentines Day? You're not hoping to ask me out, are you? Because treating Quinn in that manner is entirely unacceptable! You should be ashamed Sam Evans! I'll drag you by your ear to her right now!"
And when Rachel actually made a grab for him, Sam yelped, leaping back and buffering with raised hands as he tried to explain.
"No, no! That's not it at all! Please, just let me explain Rachel."
Rachel's ire seemed to drain away almost instantaneously. Sam breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"I just wanted to ask what you thought might be a good idea for a Valentines date? I've tried thinking of one myself, and asking.. someone else." Sam evaded a possible landmine there, "and I thought I'd ask you, to get a different opinion."
Rachel looked like she was mulling it over. "Because you always seem to know what you want, and yeah." He added, hoping that it would seal the deal.
Again Rachel brightened.
"An astute observation. I am indeed a driven person, Sam." She bit her lip thoughtfully before continuing. "As for taking Quinn out? Try to think of something she enjoys, and feature that in your date, along with some fine dining."
Uncrossing and re-crossing her arms over her books Rachel added, "With some romancing of course. Compliments, sweet talk, turn on the charm. A girl loves to be flattered Sam."
'Of course!' Sam grinned widely at Rachel,
"Thanks so much Rachel!"
She smiled back at him, "Happy to help"
He sped off down the hall, not noticing the way Rachel slumped back into the lockers, her chin coming to rest on her books and the smile sliding off her face.
Sam could have clicked his heels. It was so obvious! The tried and true date formula (Dinner+activity) would be perfect! He just had to put a bit of romantic spin on in, make Quinn feel special and be attentive. He'd have to do something for Rachel too, to show his appreciation. Who knew such a high maintenance chick would suggest such a simple idea? Sam had honestly expected her to go on about serenading Quinn with a one man band gig. The reality was much better. She did kind of assume things at the beginning though, that was weird. He shrugged it off, he knew Rachel was just eccentric.
He shook his shaggy fringe out of his eyes as he walked down the hallway, swinging his arms casually with his books in one hand. All that was left to do now was come up with an excellent activity and hit up the nicest place in town for a reservation. Sam grinned as he walked into homeroom.
'Let the romancing commence.' He thought as he spied Quinn in her usual seat at the back.
He sat down, shooting her a smile and watching her return it lazily out of the corner of his eye. His heart thumped loudly in his chest. She was really something, his girlfriend.
In the muted sunlight coming through the tinted lab windows she seemed to glow softly, the golden colour of her hair and the cream of her cardigan lighting up. Her pink lips stretched over her white teeth in a smile that stirred him.
Clearing his throat softly he turned to the front of the room, throwing his books open and busying his eyes with the text.
Rachel Berry was painfully aware that she was single. She had taken a few moments to collect herself after Sam walked away, before she turned and sought out her homeroom. The conversation with Sam had only served to remind her of the fact that she would be on her own for Valentines Day. All the hurt, loneliness, longing and feelings of betrayal came rushing back to her. She'd been successfully keeping them at bay for sometime. Not so anymore.
Rachel grit her teeth against the oncoming emotional onslaught and walked quickly to class. Sometimes it was a burden to be a diva, when one could feel too much. She had a coping mechanism though. Breezing into homeroom she wasted little time getting out her notebook. Onto the creamy sheaf of paper she printed a title in large black letters.
A celebration of all things single, a compilation by Rachel Berry
She glared at the letters skeptically, before letting her face relax and nodding shortly in satisfaction. The brief homeroom period was spent scrawling down ideas beside small, star-shaped dot points.
- One is free to pursue any item of personal interest. No sacrifices need be made to placate another party.
- One is in charge of their own happiness. No need to rely on the fleeting and often hollow highs of a relationship.
- One can engage in any dalliances without fear of the consequences. If a like mind happens to come along, no need to evade them as the petty jealousy of a significant other is not present.
- One can grow as an individual and as such, become a well rounded, successful person in their own right.
Through the next few classes Rachel resisted the urge to chew ponderously on the end of her pencil as she brainstormed for ideas.
Between AP history and calculus she narrowly avoided getting slushied, which shocked her out of her determined thinking mode. Dave Karofsky had been heading straight towards her, a blueberry mega slushie in hand when he had suddenly stopped, contorted his Neanderthal reminiscent features into what looked like an honest to god pout, and turned on a dime, stomping off from whence he'd came.
Rachel stared after him, her jaw slack as she tried to process what had just happened. A throat was cleared behind her, a little off to the left, so she spun around, still gaping.
She found Sam behind her, smiling goofily, if a little shyly.
"Thanks for helping me earlier, Rachel." He said, shrugging his shoulders as he went on. "I'm going to help you back, I guess." With another small smile Sam walked back down the hall, away from the still shocked diva.
As she walked into calculus she came upon a fairly typical scene. Santana (who was surprisingly on time) was whispering into Quinn's ear as the blonder girl stared severely out the window, her lips pulled into a tight line. Upon seeing Rachel Santana drew back with a smirk, her eyes dragging slowly between her and Quinn. Quinn's gaze didn't take long to zero in on her, and she found herself on receiving end of a ferocious glare.
'What did I do now?' she couldn't help but ask herself. She couldn't concentrate on calculations or her list because all she could feel was the burn of Quinn's glare on the back of her neck.
When the bell finally rang and everyone poured out of the classroom on the way to lunch, Rachel found herself being dragged into the vacant lab next door by the collar of her maroon racoon sweater (one of the odder ones her aunt Maureen had gifted her with on her birthday).
"What do you think you're doing, Berry?" Quinn hissed in her ear, breathing hotly over the fine hairs there and sending an involuntary shudder through Rachel.
"I don't know what you're referring to Quinn." She shrugged the taller girl's grip off and spun to face her, arms crossed.
"I know you've been talking to Sam, don't play dumb." Quinn sneered down at her, while still somehow managing to look like a near perfect Arian beauty.
Rachel sighed out loud, absently fingering the Star of David pendant she wore through the thin material of her blouse.
"Sam sought me out, to ask me a question. I did him a favour by answering it and he stopped Karofsky from covering me in blue slush an hour ago in return. There's nothing more to it." Rachel bit out, her tone obviously exasperated.
This seemed to enrage Quinn even more.
"What did he ask you then, Berry?"
"I'm not really at liberty to discuss it with you Quinn, but believe me when I say it was a completely harmless question, the answer to which you will directly benefit from."
Rachel made to move past the taller girl, but was stopped by a firm hand on her shoulder.
"We're not donehere."
"I think we are, Quinn." The brunette replied shortly, reaching up to remove the hand on her shoulder. Before she could so much as blink she was pinned up against the closed door of the lab by a snarling head cheerleader.
"Just tell me, Berry." Everything seemed to be going terribly wrong, until the hitch in Quinn's voice registered. Rachel looked up into the hazel eyes that had been pinning her with the force of their gaze to see that they were brimming with tears.
"Oh,." She murmured quietly, "Oh, Quinn."
The blonde looked down at her, her breathing harsh as the tears began to slip free to track down her cheeks. Rachel was slipping the handkerchief out of the cuff of her blouse before she quite knew what she was doing. The next moment she was dabbing away the tears from Quinn Fabray's cheeks.
The other girl was trembling, her body shaking with contained sobs. As Rachel wiped her tears gently, she fell forward onto Rachel, crying in earnest.
"Oh, Quinn. It's nothing, I promise. You have my word, I swear."
"You,.. you don't." a sniff "understand."
"If you think Sam and I were going to engage in anything behind your back, you're sorely mistaken. So I think I do understand. I think you'll also find that your boyfriend loves you very much and only wants the best for you."
To Rachel's genuine mystification Quinn only cried harder.
"I know!" she bawled into Rachel's shoulder, sounding very much like she wished she didn't.
It was a few moments until she realised she was rubbing soothing circles on Quinn's back. Once she'd realised she concentrated on making those circles as soothing as possible, wanting to be out of the increasingly awkward situation quickly. After a minute or so, Quinn seemed to have mostly cried herself out, but she still remained flush up against Rachel, pressing her into the door.
When she finally spoke Rachel twitched at the humming vibrations that Quinn's voice sent out across her skin from where her face was pressed into the wool of her sweater.
"You just can't go near him, ok? If Santana or anyone says anything to anyone else, everyone else will think he's cheating. It doesn't matter if he actually is or not."
Rachel concealed her gasp poorly.
"I just need him Rachel, you know?"
Rachel thought she did.
"Of course Quinn, you think you need him, but really, you're your own person and you don't need anyone to validate your existence." She drew inspiration from her list, remembering how she felt like she needed Finn, when she didn't, damn it.
Quinn's voice was hoarse when she replied, "Sure, Rachel."
There was a brief silence before Quinn drew back, her eyes a little pink from crying but as beautiful as ever. Rachel stared into them earnestly, feeling true empathy for her long time enemy.
"God." Quinn ground out, her voice catching as she looked down at Rachel, her teeth worrying her lower lip.
"What's the matter, Quinn?" Rachel asked innocently, cocking her head to the side.
The next moment Quinn was kissing her with a quiet urgency, their lips pushing together, warm and a little chapped in Quinn's case, their teeth clacking. Rachel was taken by surprise in more ways than one. She felt the wetness of Quinn's cheeks against her own, was aware of the harsh breathing coming from both of them, but most of all she was focused on the tingling radiating from her lips.
A hand was cupping her jaw, drawing her further into the kiss, and she allowed herself to be led, entirely overwhelmed by the warmth she was feeling. It was just a pressing of lips, over and over, each press a burst of sensation that Rachel saw in colour behind her closed eyelids. When the fervor calmed and the hand on her jaw slid around to toy with the fine hairs at the nape of her neck, Rachel sobered suddenly. Her eyes fluttered open, to find that Quinn's eyes were still closed, her lips slightly parted and glistening in the low light of the deserted lab.
Rachel swallowed thickly at the realisation of what had just happened. Seconds later Quinn's eyes opened and their gazes met, the gravity of what had just occurred slowly pressing down on them both.
"Now you know why I need him." The blonde said quietly, twirling a fine brunette curl around her fingers before reluctantly sliding her hands from around Rachel's neck to rest at her sides.
Rachel stepped aside demurely as Quinn reached for the door.
"You should tell him Quinn. It won't be as bad as you think, I'm sure." She offered from the shadow of the open door.
Quinn stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the harsh fluorescent lights in the hall. Quinn sighed softly. "It's not that simple, Rach." She said, reaching out to touch a fingertip to Rachel's cheek, letting it trail down gently until it fell away.
Rachel's heart lurched at the familiarity of the name and the way Quinn had said it. She imagined that Quinn had wanted to call her that many times, but thought she couldn't. She blinked slowly and Quinn was already gone from the doorway, striding down the hall in a cavalcade of red, white and black uniforms that had seemingly materialised from nowhere. Rachel was left stunned, leaning back against the wall behind the door as she touched the fingers of her right hand to her lips. They were still warm, tingly and were throbbing slightly with each beat of her heart.
Quinn strode down the hall, doing her very best to seem completely unaffected and indifferent (and seemingly succeeding) after having revealed her deepest, darkest secret to its source herself. She prayed that Rachel would keep her mouth shut. There really wasn't any way she could threaten the girl into silence. Not after what they'd just shared. It would have been different if Rachel hadn't been so sweet, so accommodating. She'd put herself on the line and unlike all the fantasies she'd conjured it hadn't ended badly. Except maybe for the fact she was still dating Sam, and that she'd dropped a prime piece of ammunition into the lap of a girl whom she had tortured relentlessly for years. But if her eyes told the truth (and Quinn didn't think that Rachel's eyes could ever lie) then her secret was safe.
Quinn let out a steadying breath, dismissing her flanking team mates with a nod at her locker. She opened it and peered in, hiding her face as she, too, reached for her lips. They were warm from the sweet kisses she'd just shared with Rachel. Her heart leapt. Not taken, but shared. Maybe she should come clean. How could she ever know if she didn't go there?
Glee that afternoon started out as usual. Mr Schue outlined their weekly project on the board and Artie put his hand up for a number, swinging easily through a bluesy roots song, accompanied by some tricky scaling riffs on his guitar. At the end there was a buzz of conversation, everyone partitioned off in their own little groups.
Rachel sat alone, her focus on the notebook in her lap that she was writing in. She'd noticed Sam talking with Finn and Noah, all three boys in deep conversation with their heads close together. He looked up every now and again to glare and pout at Quinn. The other two boys had large, comforting hands on the blonde boy's shoulders. Quinn sat by Mercedes, her arms crossed over her body as she looked down at Rachel. With a little smile and a nod Rachel looked up from what she was doing. Tearing out the page she'd been writing on she folded it in half and stuck it into her binder. Quinn looked on, curious.
When Mr Schue dismissed them Quinn found herself lingering, nodding at Mercedes to go on. Rachel walked up to her without any preamble, holding the folded sheet of paper out.
"Good afternoon, Quinn." She said, smiling as the blonde took the note from her outstretched hand. Quinn nodded as the other girl walked by her, a small smile daring to tug the corners of her lips up.
A few minutes later found Quinn in her car, unfolding the note like it would explode at the slightest provocation. Upon opening it fully she found written in small, neat hand the following:
A Celebration Of All Things Single, a compilation by Rachel Berry
- One is free to pursue any item of personal interest. No sacrifices need be made to placate another party.
- One is in charge of their own happiness. No need to rely on the fleeting and often hollow highs of a relationship.
- One can engage in any dalliances without fear of the consequences. If a like mind happens to come along, no need to evade them as the petty jealousy of a significant other is not present.
- One can grow as an individual and as such, become a well rounded, successful person in their own right.
But should you ever think to follow a different path, Quinn…
The Advantages of Dating One Rachel Berry, by Rachel Berry.
-You will be gaining a partner in all things, an ally, confidant, friend and lover.
- You will be allowed to seek penance for all you've done in the past, to avoid any hang ups in the future, and will be met with forgiveness if you are genuine.
- You will have the best voice in Ohio on call to sing any song that your heart desires at any time, from romantic ballads to punk rock anthems.
- You can be whoever it is that you are with me, Quinn Fabray. Just say the word.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Rachel Berry.
Quinn's lips trembled as she tried to hold back the sob of disbelief and jubilation that threatened to loose itself from deep within her chest. She didn't succeed and fell forward onto the steering wheel, the note still gripped in both hands as she cried. It was more than she ever felt she deserved, but it was there right in front of her. Maybe it would work out, and maybe it wouldn't, but Quinn was exultant that she had a chance to try. And if dating Rachel Berry didn't kill her, it sure as hell would make her stronger.
Thanks for reading! Drop me a line if you like, and check out rachel_quinn on LiveJournal! New members/stories/art/comments welcome! Just don't be a jerk and you'll fit right in, lol (that is to say we're all lovely people over there). Hit up rainbowruse for the rest of my Faberry contributions. Sorry for the shameless plugging!
:)