A/N- Hey! Midterms suck, and I haven't seen my family in nearly three months, but college is still amazing! Hopefully your November is going well.
This is just a short story that may slightly be inspired by real events...
Rachel has somehow drawn the short straw. It's nothing official, more sort of an unstated pecking order that leaves Rachel sleeping on the floor on the fringe of the group. Quinn, Santana, and Brittany are all piled on the couch, and other members of the glee club are scattered across the basement floor of the Pierce home.
The ends of the action movie that the boys had picked is playing out, but nobody's really watching it still. Most everyone has fallen asleep, and Rachel is quickly on her way to joining them, her eyes droop and she curls tighter around the pillow she's brought and pulls her blanket more secure.
She wakes up hours later because of a distinct shivering- her shivering to be more exact.
It isn't too cold in Brittany's basement, but she is wearing a short pair of sleep shorts, and her blanket has somehow disappeared in the night.
Rachel rolls over, groping through the dim glow of the light streaming through the window well on the wall beside her. She distinctly makes out a mess of blonde hair somewhere between where she's laying against the wall, and the couch.
Quickly scanning the room, Rachel determines it must be Quinn. In the middle of the night she must have somehow slid off the couch, scooted across the floor, stolen Rachel's blanket, cocooned herself inside of it, and managed to not wake anyone up.
Rachel rolls her eyes, and reaches around Quinn to grab the blanket the blonde had discarded earlier, and wraps it around herself.
When the rest of the glee club wakes up the following morning, nobody notices the blanket swap, but Quinn distinctly blushes when she realizes that she is wrapped in a pink blanket with gold stars decorating it.
…
Schuester gives the students a final warning talk before handing out room keys. In New York for Nationals, the girls rooms are all on one floor, and the boys rooms on the floor just above theirs. The six girls take the elevator up, talking the entire way.
Mercedes and Tina quickly break off, claiming the room with two twin beds. Rachel glares at them, but dutifully trails Santana, Brittany, and Quinn to the final room which reveals two queen sized beds.
Santana and Brittany don't say a word before dropping their things on the bed closest to the bathroom. Quinn just sort of shrugs at Rachel before placing her purse on the right side of their bed.
The two have been getting along well this year, and Rachel isn't opposed to sharing a bed with the blonde so much as she is apprehensive of it.
But she keeps her concerns to herself, and later that night, curls up on her side, back to Quinn, as close to the edge as she can justifiably scoot herself to prevent her from falling off or touching Quinn in the middle of the night.
Her position works well enough, until a sharp tug in the middle of the night results in Rachel falling to the floor with a distinct thud. Her fall doesn't wake anyone, and Rachel hoists herself back up, feeling for the blanket to cover herself with again, but coming up empty.
When she squints in the faint light being thrown off by the alarm clock, Rachel can hardly make out Quinn wrapped tightly in the blanket. The blonde must have pulled on the covers in the middle of the night, jerking Rachel off the edge of the bed.
Rachel considers ignoring the lack of sheets and trying to go back to bed, but a chill in the air erases this option from her mind. Instead, Rachel grabs an edge of the blanket, and yanks hard, managing to recover a sliver of the covers.
Quinn groans in disappointment, and Rachel gives one more harsh pull to get enough blanket to sleep in. Quinn half growls, and edges backwards towards Rachel.
When they wake up in the morning, the blanket is wrapped tightly around the both of them, and their backs are pressed together from shoulder to hip to facilitate their sharing of the blanket.
Neither girl says anything, and Santana and Brittany studiously pretend that they haven't seen anything.
…
Quinn is the first to use her metro pass. She visits Rachel halfway through their first semester. The brunette happily shows her around the small space that is her dorm room, the entire tour taking under a minute.
They spend most of the day being tourists in New York, Rachel shows Quinn her favorite spots, they walk through Central Park, and that evening Quinn insists on buying them dinner in the city because 'goodness knows we could all use a break from that dining hall food.'
That night when they return to Rachel's dorm, it isn't even a conversation as to their sleeping arrangements. Both girls squish into the narrow twin xl, and Rachel does her best to keep her limbs to herself.
Quinn does the same, the two hardly managing to squeeze in without touching each other. They fall asleep quickly, and when Rachel wakes up with goosebumps, it's not because Quinn has moved in the middle of the night to spoon Rachel like in some great Rom Com. No, Rachel has goosebumps when she wakes because Quinn has somehow managed to wrap Rachel's Crate and Barrel comforter around herself leaving the brunette totally uncovered.
Rachel grabs a corner of the blanket and tugs, "Give me some." She demands quietly.
Quinn growls, "Go to hell, Berry." The blonde replies, still mostly asleep.
The brunette rolls her eyes, and slides out of bed. She wanders around her room in the dark to pull on a pair of jeans and a cardigan, she goes down the hall to the bathroom brush her teeth, and then sits down in the hall across from her door.
She pulls out her phone and calls her father, it's only a few minutes into catching Hiram up on her day when Quinn peeks her head out into the hall with a concerned expression on her face. Rachel hangs up, "Quinn?"
"I was concerned, I thought you were gone."
Rachel smiles at the blonde's bed head and sleepy expression, "I'm right here. Do you want to go get some brunch?"
"Yeah."
"Ok, you get dressed, and I'll be here when you're ready."
Rachel will always be there when Quinn is ready, and even when she isn't.
…
Rachel has been dating Quinn for nearly three years when they move in together. It's simultaneously a big step, and far overdue. They're both living in New York, Rachel is trying to get a breakout role, and Quinn is still in the world of academia.
They do the shopping to furnish their new home in incremental pieces, it begins as a necessity, from the initial 'we can't sleep on a mattress on the floor forever' to the 'we need a coffee table, we've been using a cardboard box for nearly a month now.' Until they find the perfect duvet for the master bedroom that will completely 'tie the room together' as Kurt insists. (He's really the one who found it and bought it for the couple as a 'late housewarming, but early wedding' gift).
Rachel laughs and playfully slaps him when he says this, and Quinn blushes bright red.
The first night that they sleep with their new duvet, Quinn does not steal the covers. Rachel does not wake up in some sort of contorted position, half covered in the blanket. Rather, she wakes up to an empty bed, Quinn's side is practically untouched.
Rachel wanders through the apartment, and only begins to get concerned when she doesn't find Quinn anywhere. She shoots the blonde a text, and doesn't get a reply. It's a Sunday, and the musical Rachel is workshopping has the morning off, she was looking forward to spending a lazy day with Quinn.
Rachel pours herself some cereal, and tries not to worry too much. She knows that sometimes Quinn just needs to get out of her head, all the same she can't help but wonder where the blonde has gone so early in the day. Her question is only answered when Quinn pushes through the door.
The blonde is sweaty and breathing heavily.
Rachel merely raises her eyebrow in question when Quinn walks into the kitchen to get some water.
"I went on a run." Quinn explains.
"I see that." The brunette smiles, "Was it good?"
"Yeah."
Quinn falls silent for a moment, sipping her water, clearly mulling something over. Rachel just waits for her.
"Do you think we're going to get married?" She finally asks, clearly Kurt's comment has stuck with her.
"One day, maybe. Not today."
Quinn nods, finishing her water, "Alright."
Rachel smiles, she knows without a doubt that she will marry Quinn Fabray. But she also knows that if she tells Quinn this, the poor girl will never get up the courage to propose.
…
Rachel is exhausted when she gets home, it's a Saturday which means an afternoon matinee as well as an evening show. She doesn't actually perform in the afternoon matinee, but she is at the theatre regardless because the choreographer wants to talk about changing the opening number.
It's been a sixteen hour day for her by the time she stumbles through the door, drops her bag in the entryway of the brownstone, drags her feet up the stairs and down the hall to the master bedroom.
Quinn is still awake (she always is when Rachel is out late) reading in bed. She pulls off her reading glasses and smiles at her tired wife, "How was it?"
"It was alright, Gregory forgot his lines at the beginning of the second act, but I think we covered well."
Quinn nods, and puts down her book while Rachel drops her jacket, ignoring putting on pajamas, and crawling into bed. She falls asleep nearly instantly, and is so tired she hardly wakes up with a tiny hand knocks on their bedroom door.
"What?" Quinn asks the darkness.
"I had a bad dream."
"Get in here."
Their door opens, and small feet patter across the floor until a little body tries to pull itself up onto the bed. Rachel is too exhausted to try to help, so Quinn reaches across her, and pulls their three and a half year old, up onto the bed. He burrows down between them, snuggling in the warmth of his mothers.
Rachel fell back asleep nearly instantly after a quick kiss to her son's forehead.
When she wakes up in the morning, it is to a sight which is quickly becoming one of her favorite- Quinn splayed across as much of the bed as she can possibly take up, with their son, Henry, laying on her chest, the blanket cocooned around both blondes. Ever since he was born, Henry has been a complete momma's boy, and the first time Rachel had to go on the road with a show, the poor boy was in tears.
But Quinn was there, Quinn has always been there.
Rachel shakes her head at how much of blanket hogs those two are, but she gets up anyway, going to whip up some pancakes.