I Want To Say I'm Just A Little Stuck On You, a glee fanfic

Title: I Want To Say I'm Just A Little Stuck On You
Author: texaswatermelon
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Quinn is eight years old. She's never had a real friend in her entire life, and she knows by the sneer on her father's lips that she's not about to start here, in this town called Lima.
Disclaimer: Glee is property of Ryan Murphy Television and 20th Century Fox. All characters, places, and recognizable names herein have been borrowed for the use of this fanfiction. Title from "Buenos Aires" by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. This story is a work of fiction and is in no way affiliated with the aforementioned groups. No infringement intended.
Word Count: 5,855
A/N: Written for three3littlebirds (threeltlbirds on ff.n look her up!) for her 21st birthday. Happy birthday, Kalliefornia! You said you wanted angst, so I did my best. This pretty much disregards everything canon except for the Beth storyline. So just assume that canon doesn't exist unless otherwise stated. I actually think that's all I have to say about this. Shortest author's note ever. Enjoy!

They arrive during recess. Quinn has always hated recess, resented it really. All the other kids run around happily, playing tag and climbing on monkey bars and skinning their knees. But not Quinn Fabray. Good little girls don't play like that.

The principal, a fat, sweating man with a toupee, shows them out to the playground where the rest of the kids are playing. He yells at two boys who run past to slow down, and they do just long enough for him to turn and beam at her parents before they dash off again.

"I'm sure your daughter will be very happy here. We've got a lot of great kids for her to make friends with."

Quinn is eight years old. She's never had a real friend in her entire life, and she knows by the sneer on her father's lips that she's not about to start here, in this town called Lima.

"We've got to go now, dear, but you'll be okay here," her mother says sweetly, squatting down to straighten out Quinn's dress and kiss her on the cheek.

She looks up at her father. "Be good," he says, which is what a lot of parents say when they drop their kid off somewhere new, but Quinn knows it's not the same. Be good means don't disappoint me. Be good means don't make me look bad, or else.

When her parents finally leave, Quinn turns back to the schoolyard and looks around. She can still see the two boys running around. One of them wears a puffy green vest and the other has his hair spiked up in the middle like a mohawk. There's a skinny little boy in a wheelchair talking to two Asian kids by the swings. Quinn starts walking aimlessly, past the faded merry-go-round and the sand box where two girls are playing.

"Hi!" one of them says brightly as she walks by, and Quinn looks down to see light blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. The other girl has dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes, and an equally dark expression while she looks up at Quinn. "I'm Brittany. Wanna play with us?"

The darker girl gives Quinn a nasty look, probably in the hopes of getting her to decline, or maybe trying to intimidate her into accepting. It doesn't matter anyway.

"I can't. I'll get my dress dirty."

As Quinn walks away, she hears the blonde's quizzical voice behind her.

"Why doesn't she want to play with us, San?"

"I don't know, B. Just forget her," is the reply.

At the edge of the playground is a bench, and on that bench is a girl. She wears a red plaid dress that Quinn finds absolutely revolting, along with white stockings and black Mary Janes. Her hair is straight, dark, long. Her bangs are cut in a straight line across her forehead. She's so tiny that she much be at least a year behind Quinn. She also appears to be talking to herself.

But she is the only person on the playground who is not participating in some activity that will get Quinn punished, and she's also occupying the only bench, so Quinn heads over.

It only takes several feet before Quinn realizes that the girl isn't talking, but singing. She's sitting up very straight and her eyes are closed. She sings like she's the only person in the world and Quinn has to admit that her voice is… pleasant.

The girl snaps open her chocolate brown eyes when Quinn gets within a foot of the bench, as if she sensed the approach by some sixth sense. Her eyes are huge and she regards Quinn with curiosity and some suspicion. She has stopped singing, finally.

"You're new here," she says in a loud, clear, confident voice.

"Yes," Quinn replies quietly.

"I'm Rachel Berry," the girl tells her and extends her hand. Quinn takes it cautiously for a second and lets it go. It's very warm, and it makes Quinn warm in kind. She doesn't like it. "You know, generally when someone introduces themselves, you're supposed to do the same."

Quinn has no idea what kind of kid talks like this, but Rachel Berry is giving her this annoyed look like Quinn has no more manners than a farm animal, so she stands up as tall as she can and raises her chin like she's seen her father do so many times.

"My name is Quinn. Quinn Fabray."

Rachel seems neither intimidated nor impressed with her display. "It's nice to meet you, Quinn," she says, and then closes her eyes and promptly begins singing again.

Quinn wonders if this girl might be crazy, but she's tired of standing around, so she sits on the bench next to Rachel and watches her sing nonsense.

"What are you doing?" Quinn finally asks once she's become bored enough. Rachel shoots her another annoyed glance at being interrupted.

"I'm practicing my scales, clearly."

"Why?" Quinn asks before Rachel can start again. Rachel huffs loudly, but seems to accept the fact that she's not going to be left alone because she turns her body toward Quinn.

"If I want to be as good as Barbara, then I have to practice as much as I possibly can, otherwise my voice will fall into disrepair and I'll never make it to Broadway."

"Who is Barbara?" Quinn asks, which she immediately realizes was a mistake once Rachel splutters and launches into an explanation that lasts until the end of recess. By the time they get into class, which Quinn finds that they actually share, she knows Barbara's life story from birth. Rachel ends the lesson by promising to bring in a few movies tomorrow for Quinn to take home and watch.

Rachel Berry is by far the strangest person that Quinn has ever met, but she's pretty smart and a good singer, and Quinn doesn't have to get her dress dirty during recess, so she spends every day on the bench listening to Rachel talk and sing. And by the end of the year, she thinks she may actually have found her first real friend.

Rachel's never had a real friend, either. She knows that all the other kids in their class think she's really weird because she speaks intelligently and is obsessed with Broadway instead of Barbies and she has two gay dads. But Quinn actually seems to like all the weird things about Rachel, and she always treats Rachel like a normal person instead of a leper.

When they first met, Rachel thought that Quinn's life was perfect. It's obvious that her parents have a lot of money and they look very composed on the surface. But as they get older, Rachel starts to notice things that make her realize that maybe Quinn's life isn't as great as she once thought. For one, Quinn is never really allowed to do anything fun, like run around or play with other kids or go to sleep overs. And Rachel sees the way that Quinn looks at her father, like she's truly afraid of him. Rachel can't even imagine being afraid of her fathers. Whenever Quinn gets to school, instead of being annoyed by it like most people, she always sighs and drops her shoulders like the biggest weight has been lifted off of her. One time Rachel saw Quinn and her mother at the grocery store, and the smile that Quinn gave her was so strange, like she was physically hurting inside, that Rachel actually asked her what was wrong the next day. Quinn had just told her that she wasn't feeling well, but Rachel always notices the difference between Quinn with her family and Quinn without.

When they go to middle school, Quinn starts coming over to Rachel's house after school. They get out earlier now, and Quinn tells her mother that she's over at Brittany or Santana's to work on homework so that she doesn't get in trouble for being in a "house of sin." Rachel and Quinn do do their homework together, but they also watch old musicals and sing and act out scenes from whatever play Rachel is currently trying out for.

Quinn goes out for the cheerleading squad because her sister is on the high school squad and that's what's expected of her. She is tall, much taller than Rachel, and incredibly lean and fit. Rachel notices the flat plane of her stomach when Quinn stands up to stretch after watching a movie without really meaning to. But Quinn is very pretty. Everyone knows that. Her blond hair and perfect nose and hazel eyes have all the boys chasing after her, even in sixth grade. For some reason, Quinn doesn't really seem to notice, and Rachel is glad. She just knows that once Quinn gets a boyfriend, Rachel will lose her best friend forever.

Due to the fact that they're on the squad together, Quinn sort of becomes friends with Brittany and Santana, too. It's not really the same as what she and Rachel have, because hen Quinn is with Rachel she laughs and lets her hair down and sings. When she's with Brittany and Santana, she's quieter, bossy, and she never takes out her ponytail. But still, they hang out together sometimes, and by default that means that Rachel has to spend time with them, too.

It's not always awful. Quinn is captain of the squad and so she's mostly able to keep Santana in line. But whenever Quinn goes to the bathroom or into the kitchen for a drink, all hell breaks loose and the insults fly from Santana's mouth like porcupine spikes that bury themselves into Rachel's skin. Brittany is mostly nice to her; she doesn't have qualms with anyone. But she doesn't stop Santana, either, and Rachel always walks away from the encounters slightly wounded.

It happens freshman year, the moment that Rachel has been dreading since they started wearing training bras. Quinn is second-in-command to her sister on Sue Sylvester's Cheerios. She walks the halls of William McKinley with her head held high and an icy glare that has most people pissing their pants. Everyone except Rachel, of course. For Rachel, she reserves the brightest of smiles and the softest of tones. And Rachel loves that. It stops her from getting slushied everyday like every other show choir loser in the school. Some jock tried that on her once at the beginning of the year, and for the rest of the day he limped around with an ice pack attached to his… privates. Rachel suspects that it was Santana, because while the girl will never admit it, they're sort of friends, and the only person who's allowed to insult Rachel is Santana. Rachel doesn't really mind.

So, things are pretty good. Until the day that Quinn and Rachel are sitting in Rachel's kitchen doing homework and Quinn announces that she's dating Finn Hudson.

"He's really nice, and cute, too. And I kind of like him. So when he asked me on a date, I said yes," Quinn explains, blushing.

Rachel feels something heavy drop into her stomach, and she suddenly feels like she might throw up. This is not how a normal friend should be reacting. A normal friend would be excited, would be asking for details and gossiping and giggling. But Rachel realizes, sickeningly, that she is not a normal friend. She's jealous. And not of Quinn.

"Are you okay?" Quinn asks, brow furrowed with concern. "You look really pale."

She's not okay. She's nowhere in the vicinity of okay. But since she can't really tell Quinn why, she plasters on her best show face and looks at Quinn.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just surprised, is all. But I'm very happy for you, Quinn."

Quinn beams at her. "Thanks, Rach."

That night, Rachel cries. She lays on her stomach with her face smashed into one of her pillows and sobs like someone died. In a way, someone did. She did.

Before, when Rachel thought about what would happen if Quinn got a boyfriend, her biggest worry was that they wouldn't be friends anymore. That slowly Quinn would slip away from her until they never saw each other, never spoke. Somehow, Rachel knows that was a foolish idea. Yes, Quinn will probably blow her off now to spend some time with Finn, but more than likely it will be similar to the situation with Brittany and Santana. They'll all spend time together—Rachel, Quinn, and Finn—and Quinn will still make sure that she and Rachel have their girl time. In her heart, Rachel knows that Quinn will never leave her like that.

No, the problem is not Finn, but Rachel herself. Rachel, who always thought of how pretty Quinn was. Rachel, who used to notice, still notices, how good Quinn looks in a bathing suit. Rachel, who smiles brighter than the sun whenever she sees Quinn, hears her, thinks of her. Rachel, who wakes up with her stomach in knots at the memory of hazel eyes haunting her dreams. Rachel, who has two gay dads and never saw this coming.

Rachel, who is irrevocably in love with Quinn Fabray.

Quinn and Finn date for the rest of the school year, and into the summer, too. And if Rachel thought that might deter her from liking Quinn, might help her move on, she was terribly wrong. Because she was right about Quinn making sure that the three of them spend plenty of time together. Every time she sees Finn put his hands on Quinn's hips or kiss her lips, Rachel imagines that it's her doing those things to Quinn instead. Seeing Quinn in love only makes her more appealing because Quinn is positively the most adorable girlfriend ever.

The worst part is that Finn really is a nice guy. He's polite and considerate and he truly seems to make Quinn happy. He does his best to make Rachel feel included whenever she's around, and he doesn't seem to mind that she's around a lot. Rachel hates the fact that she has no real reason to hate him, except for the fact that he's dating the girl she's in love with. She spends the summer with them beside Quinn's pool, watching them play and kiss. And whenever Quinn looks over at her with sparkling eyes and a smile, Rachel is sure to smile back and look happy for her, even though it feels like she's swallowing glass. She listens whenever Quinn has complaints about the relationship and actually tells Quinn to try to stick it out because she knows that Quinn loves him, and all that Rachel wants is to see Quinn happy, even if it kills her at the same time.

Gradually, though, Quinn begins to look less happy when she's with Finn. In fact, she begins to look less happy all around. More often than not, her eyes have dark circles under them, which Rachel can see even through the makeup. She smiles less, and when she does smile it's never as big as it used to be. She's meaner to Finn every day; they fight a lot despite Finn's efforts to appease Quinn. Rachel knows it has something to do with home. Now that Frannie has graduated and is off to college, it's up to Quinn to carry on the legacy. She spends hours and hours at Cheerios practice every day, working her ass off to ensure that she becomes captain for their sophomore year. She starts studying for their upcoming classes early, which even Rachel doesn't do. She goes to church more.

Less than a month after school starts, Quinn shows up on Rachel's doorstep with bloodshot eyes and tearstained cheeks. Rachel invites her in and takes Quinn into her arms without a word, choking back tears when Quinn sobs into her shoulder.

"I slept with him," Quinn mumbles once they're upstairs and sitting side by side on Rachel's bed with a mug of tea each.

"Finn?" Rachel asks, feeling like she might be sick.

"Puck," Quinn replies, and then Rachel actually has to swallow back bile.

"Oh, Quinn," she whispers, looking over at her friend, whose hair is fraying out of its ponytail and whose makeup is streaked down her face.

"I was drunk and sad and he made me feel good about myself for once," Quinn says with a sniffle. Rachel sighs. She just wishes she could take Quinn away from it all. "I'm just tired of being so sad all the time, Rach." Quinn rests her head on Rachel's lap and Rachel can only stroke Quinn's hair softly.

"I know, Quinn. I know."

Three weeks later, Quinn's back at her door in a panic.

"I'm late," she says, and Rachel didn't really think her life could get any worse, but apparently she was wrong.

She walks to the convenience store and buys a pregnancy test, and an hour later Quinn comes out of her bathroom with a positive stick in her trembling hand and collapses into Rachel's arms.

"It's okay," Rachel whispers as they sink to the floor together, hot tears streaking down her own face. "It'll be okay."

"What do I do?" Quinn asks through her tears.

Rachel is almost sixteen and doesn't know the slightest thing about babies, but she knows one thing.

"You have to tell Finn."

Quinn does tell Finn, and as nice as he is, even he can't abide being cheated on. He yells and punches some lockers, and that is the official end of their relationship. Even though Quinn is somewhat relieved, she still goes to Rachel and cries, and Rachel promises her once more that it will be okay.

It's not okay.

When Quinn finally tells her parents that she's pregnant, her father gives her an hour to pack her things while her mother sits by and says nothing. Quinn goes to the one place she can think of, the only place that's ever truly been home to her.

Rachel's fathers welcome Quinn into their home with open arms, literally. They both wrap her up in a hug, and Quinn cries into their chests for a good five minutes. When they finally step aside, Rachel is waiting there with a soft smile that makes Quinn feel better immediately. Rachel is there for her, has always been there for her, and Quinn can't imagine going through these next nine months with anyone else in the world.

Living with Quinn is like sweet torture for Rachel. She gets to help Quinn through her most vulnerable moments—from morning sickness, to getting kicked off the Cheerios, to late night discussions about Quinn's fears about the pregnancy and the baby and her future. Rachel knows that she's the only person in the world who gets to hear these things, who gets to hold Quinn while she cries, who gets to know her so deeply. It only makes her love Quinn more, to the point where she feels sickened by it. She gives every ounce of herself to Quinn, to making sure that Quinn is healthy and happy. Day by day she feels a little more drained, and day by day she gives a little bit more.

When Quinn goes into labor, it's Rachel that she takes into the delivery room with her, along with Puck and a newly single Judy Fabray. Rachel can barely stand watching Quinn writhe and scream as Beth forces her way out, but she stays by Quinn's side the entire time and holds her hand. When it's all said and done and Beth is lying in Quinn's arms, Rachel cries and kisses the top of Quinn's head because they're just so beautiful.

But Quinn knows that she's still just a kid, and not ready to take care of one herself, so when Shelby comes to her looking to be a real mother again, Quinn signs the adoption papers and decides to move on with her life.

Junior year is much better for Quinn, and in return it's much harder for Rachel. Quinn has moved back in with her mother. She decides not to rejoin the Cheerios and just focuses on being a good student and glee. Rachel had gotten so used to spending every second of her days with a Quinn who was broken and devastated that she mostly just feels hollow and purposeless now. She's used to giving everything to Quinn. Now that Quinn is happy, the only thing she needs is Rachel's easy friendship again. But Rachel doesn't know how to be a friend to Quinn anymore. After everything that's happened, she doesn't know if she can.

Things become difficult between them. Rachel gets moodier, more distant. She gets irrationally jealous, and she snaps at Quinn for no reason. Then she feels awful and apologizes and things are fine for a little while until something else sets her off.

She sees Brittany and Santana together, knows that those linked pinkies and lingering glances mean a whole lot more than anyone thinks. They are best friends, but so are Rachel and Quinn, and they never made the sounds that Brittany and Santana do at sleepovers when they think everyone else is asleep. Rachel doesn't understand why she and Quinn can't have that, too.

Quinn still comes to Rachel's after school. She doesn't have to lie to her mother about it anymore. In fact, Judy is quite grateful to Rachel and her fathers for taking Quinn in when she had nowhere else to go. She frequently drops by to visit with the Berry men and bring them baked goods. She even invites Rachel over for vegan-friendly dinners.

"What do you think of Sam?" Quinn asks one day while Rachel uploads her latest performance video to her Facebook.

"He's nice," Rachel says with a shrug. "His voice is frequently flat, though."

"I mean," Quinn clarifies while picking at her cuticles, "what do you really think of him? Do you think he's cute?"

"I suppose he's attractive. Why?"

"I think I kind of like him," Quinn says, looking up for Rachel's reaction.

Rachel, however, appears to have no reaction at all.

"Hmm," she replies tonelessly.

"Hmm? What's hmm?" Quinn asks, somewhat annoyed.

"I just think it's a bit soon for you to be jumping into another relationship, don't you?" Rachel says, and her voice is detached and clinical in that way that it gets when she doesn't approve of a topic. Quinn hates it.

"What do you mean it's too soon?" Quinn bites. "I haven't been with anyone since I fond out I was pregnant. I wouldn't really call that soon, Rachel."

"I just don't see why you feel it's necessary to have a boyfriend, Quinn. It's not all that bad being single like the rest of us losers," Rachel snaps back.

"Okay, what the hell is your problem?" Quinn asks, jumping off of Rachel's bed and crossing her arms. "Ever since I had Beth and moved back in with my mom you've been really bitchy with me. Are you mad at me for moving out or what?"

"Oh God, are you really that clueless?" Rachel mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Well apparently I am, so why don't you spell it out for me, Rachel?" Quinn growls.

"I like you Quinn!" Rachel yells, and at some point she must have spun around and hopped out of her desk chair because now she's standing across the bed from Quinn, fists clenched and chest heaving. "Don't you get it? I. Like. You. And not like friends, either. I like you like I want to be with you. Like I want to hold your hand when we walk down the hall and I want to kiss you at your locker and sing songs to you in glee. I like you."

Quinn is motionless as she stares at Rachel with wide eyes and her mouth half open. Rachel finally releases the tension in her body and drops her shoulders.

"I… how long have you felt this way?" Quinn asks, her voice barely a whisper.

Rachel shrugs and stares at the floor. "Freshman year. Probably longer."

Quinn is silent again and Rachel doesn't dare look at her. She knows she won't like what she sees.

"Rachel… I don't…" Quinn stops to clear her throat and starts over again. "I don't feel that way about you. You're my best friend in the whole world, but…"

She doesn't finish, mercifully. Rachel just shakes her head.

"I know. But now you know."

She turns to sit on the edge of her bed and barely notices when Quinn silently leaves the house and drives away.

They don't talk for the next couple of days. In the meantime, Rachel scintillates between being relieved and mortified that Quinn finally knows. On the one hand, she doesn't have to hide it anymore. On the other hand, things will probably never be the same between them again.

On Friday afternoon Quinn shows up at her locker, picking at her cuticles again. She doesn't speak until Rachel has finished pulling out everything she needs, shuts the door, and turns to face her.

"I just wanted to let you know that this doesn't change anything for me. You're still my best friend," Quinn tells her.

"Okay," Rachel says quietly.

"Okay. So… can I come over today?"

Rachel smiles. "You know you never have to ask, Quinn."

Quinn grins, and just like that things are mostly back to normal.

There are some things, though, that just aren't the same. For instance, Rachel doesn't want to make Quinn uncomfortable, so she spends a lot more of her time thinking before she speaks, and a lot less just being herself. She still gets angry and jealous, though she tries to hide it a lot more now. She's mostly unsuccessful, especially as Quinn begins to spend more time flirting with Sam during school.

Rachel still gives as much of herself to Quinn as she possibly can. No matter what, if Quinn needs it, Rachel will find a way to get it for her, even if she doesn't ask for it. It's mostly a lot of reassuring whenever Quinn is feeling insecure about something, and Rachel is happy to help. Slowly, she begins to feel like she's running on empty again, only this time she doesn't have a glowing, pregnant Quinn around 24/7 to refuel her; just the horrible, gnawing knowledge that Quinn doesn't, will probably never, feel the same way that Rachel does.

It takes a long time for Rachel to realize that she truly despises the person that she's become through the process of loving Quinn. It takes even longer once she does for her to accept the fact that if she ever wants to be happy again, she has to let Quinn go.

They're seniors when Quinn comes to Rachel with a question. Rachel can already tell it's going to be awful just by the way that Quinn is picking at her nails when she approaches.

"I wanted to get your opinion on something," Quinn says nervously as she leans up against the lockers and looks down at Rachel.

"Okay."

"Sam asked me out."

To her credit, Rachel only feels like she's being punched in the gut, rather than stabbed, like she used to.

"Okay," she repeats, because what else is there to say?

Quinn sucks in a breath. "So, I wanted to see if you were, you know, okay with that."

Rachel frowns. "Quinn, you know you don't have to ask me for permission to go out with someone."

"I know, but… I mean, I don't want to hurt you, Rach, and I thought it might be kind of hard for you if you had to watch Sam and I together all the time." The look on Rachel's face makes Quinn falter. "Unless you don't still feel that way about me…"

Rachel responds with the saddest smile that Quinn has ever witnessed.

"You should say yes, Quinn," she says, and closes her locker and walks away.

Quinn can't for the life of her explain why she feels like she's just been slapped in the face.

Sam and Quinn date for a little while, and then like most senior couples they realize that their after-school plans don't mesh and that it would be better if they just went back to being friends.

Everyone is excited about graduating and moving on. Finn is going to OSU on a football scholarship while Artie is going to USC for film. Brittany and Santana are both headed to UCLA—Brittany for dance, Santana for law. Sam and Puck are going to try their luck with the music business in Tennessee, while Mercedes is going to do the same in L.A. Mike is going to Julliard for dance, Tina and Quinn to NYU for drama, and Rachel and Kurt are both off to NYADA, just like they always wanted.

Kurt, Quinn, and Rachel all get an apartment together, and it works pretty well for them. They're all incredibly busy their first year, and even busier the years after, but through it all Rachel and Quinn are still best friends, and honestly it's the most normal they've ever been since Rachel first realized she was in love with Quinn.

They make sure to do lunch every Wednesday, just the two of them, in case their schedules get really crazy and they don't have time to hang out during the rest of the week. That doesn't happen too often, but it's still their thing and Quinn loves it. She's heard so many horror stories of people slipping away from their best friends during college, and she's determined to make sure that never happens to her and Rachel.

Quinn misses one Wednesday during their junior year because of an audition, and when she shows up to lunch the following Wednesday, she finds Rachel sitting next to a blue-eyed redhead girl, laughing one of those loud Rachel Berry laughs. For some reason, Quinn immediately bristles and approaches the table slowly.

"Quinn!" Rachel exclaims brightly once she notices her. "I'm glad you're here. I want to introduce you to my friend Stacey, the one from my class that I was telling you about. She kept me company last week when you were at your audition, so I invited her again today. I hope you don't mind."

Quinn minds. She really fucking minds.

"Of course not," she replies with a fake smile plastered to her face. "It's nice to meet you," she says, reaching out to shake Stacey's hand. If she squeezes a little harder than necessary, it's not really her fault.

Stacey starts intruding upon more and more of their Wednesday lunches, until it goes from being a Rachel-and-Quinn thing to a Rachel-Quinn-and-Stacey thing. She starts invading other parts of Quinn's life, too. Like her apartment. Quinn comes home after pulling a shift at the nearby coffee shop on top of a full day of classes to find Rachel and Stacey sitting a little too closely on the couch, supposedly "studying" for something. She doesn't even stop to say hi, just grabs a bottle of water from the fridge and slams her bedroom door shut behind her.

"Who the hell does this girl think she is?" she complains to Santana for the umpteenth time on the phone, because yeah they still talk when they get a chance. "First of all, Wednesday is our day. Rachel and I agreed upon that a long time ago to make sure we always had time for just each other. And I see the way she looks at Rachel, like she's some piece of meat. I'm sure she's just looking for some way to sabotage Rach during their next audition. I don't trust her."

She stops bitching once she hears Santana's chuckle coming through the phone.

"My God, Q, you really are clueless, aren't you?"

Quinn remembers the last time someone called her clueless. She doesn't like it anymore this time around.

"What are you talking about, S?"

"You're jealous, babe," Santana says like it's obvious.

Quinn frowns. "I'm not jealous. Rachel and I are best friends. Some ginger bitch isn't going to change that."

"Ay dios mio," Santana growls, and Quinn can practically hear the eye roll. "I'm not talking about that, Quinnocence. You're jealous of Berry liking this girl because you want Berry to like you. You have the hots for Treasure Trail."

Quinn scoffs. "What the hell do you know?" she barks, and hangs up on the sound of Santana cackling. She throws her phone onto the nightstand, flops back onto her pillows, and doesn't move for the rest of the night.

A few weeks later they have dinner at the apartment, just the two of them. Kurt is at an audition, and Stacey is thankfully absent. They order takeout from the Thai place down the street and eat at the table like normal human beings for once. It's actually really nice, until…

"I'm thinking about asking Stacey out. On a date, I mean," Rachel says casually before taking a bite of her drunken noodles.

"Don't," Quinn says immediately, without actually meaning to, and Rachel chokes on her food.

"Excuse me?" she coughs once she's gotten things under control.

"Don't ask Stacey out," Quinn repeats, because now that she's started this, she might as well follow through.

"Why?" Rachel asks, eyebrow raised.

"Because," Quinn says, taking a deep breath, "I want you to ask me out instead."

She doesn't look up to see Rachel's reaction, because she's pretty sure she's crossing some kind of line here and she's afraid of the consequences. Instead, she stares down at her hands while she picks at her cuticles and listens to the awful silence that blankets the apartment, thinking that this must have been how Rachel felt when she confessed her feelings to Quinn all those years ago, and hating it.

"Quinn," Rachel says, and Quinn can't discern anything from her tone, so she refuses to look up. "Quinn," Rachel tries again, firmly this time. Quinn's eyes flicker up to Rachel's face. "Would you like to go out with me sometime?"

"Yeah?" Quinn breathes in total disbelief.

"Yeah," Rachel replies, cracking a smile.

Quinn laughs and nods vigorously. "Yes. I would love that."

"Okay," Rachel grins, and Quinn laughs again.

"Okay."

It's far from perfect. There are things about a person that you never have to deal with when you're just best friends, but they become definite obstacles in a relationship. Both girls are incredibly possessive and jealous. Rachel likes to move way too fast for Quinn's comfort, and Quinn is ridiculously weird about PDA. Sex is another issue entirely.

Somehow, though, they make it work for them. And sometimes, when they're on the couch watching SNL and Quinn looks down to find Rachel passed out and snoring on her lap, she thinks back to those days on the playground when they were eight years old, and wonders if she and Rachel Berry were always meant to be.