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 73rd cycle. Now cycle 74!
"Tales of New Things"
(Rachel/)Quinn, Santana
Runaway Bride series
(no listings yet; sequel to For All We Know)
They had not touched on the subject yet, not once since the day in the hall. She could see her sometimes, looking her way, or Rachel's way, and she wondered what was going through her mind at the time. Either way, it was not being brought up, and Quinn wasn't going to give Santana reason to.
So then of course it happened another way. Glee Club came along, and as Mr. Schuester got around to pairing everyone up for an assignment, part of her knew what was coming, because she just had that kind of luck in life. Sure enough, the wandering hand of fate had partnered her with Santana.
It wasn't as though she was expecting Santana to tear her apart about this. She had been very quiet about it, and downright helpful, with the date Rachel had set up for the two of them. Maybe it helped that the thing both she and Brittany were being made to keep secret was something they sympathized with themselves.
They'd quickly set up a time and place to work on their assignment. Santana would come by her house that afternoon. When she arrived, she was on her best behavior, which could have meant one of several things. She could just have been trying to be nice, which did happen, or she could not care, or she could be trying to get on Quinn's good sides so she wouldn't have to work her over too hard for what she needed to know.
They had found a song soon enough, one which they were both easily ready to perform together, and within two or three practices they were good to go.
"You're being very helpful about this," Quinn finally found herself saying, and she had to roll her eyes at herself that she was doing exactly what she figured Santana wanted her to do.
"What, it's what we're supposed to do, isn't it? I'm not going to get on Schuester's good side and convince him to let me solo more often if I don't do his assignments when…"
"You know that's not what I meant," Quinn turned back to her, and Santana stood up taller.
"Oh, like you and your girlfriend?" she started, almost teasing, but then she just shrugged. "Did I forget to insult you or something? I'm so good at keeping up with that usually," she joked, and Quinn sighed. "You thought I was going to say something, didn't you?" She said nothing, which was as good as saying yes. "But, see, I think what really happened here is you wanted me to ask, because you wanted to be able to talk, to gush about your girl to someone, because who can you gush to, really, if no one's supposed to know?" Quinn hadn't realized this, and the worst part might have been that Santana saw through her first. "Wait, so is your car actually in the shop? Now that I think about it, Rachel's been giving you a ride for a while… Is there any metaphor in this?" Santana gave her a curious look, more like intrigued.
"Santana…"
"I told you about me and Britt, didn't I?"
"Even though I never asked you to…" Quinn countered.
"Come on, I'm sure you got off on it, especially now that I know we're playing on the same team. I should have known," she shook her head. Quinn's silence spoke for her once again. "Come on then, you know I won't tell anyone," she crossed her heart. "I've given you plenty of ammo to get me back." Quinn hesitated. On the one hand, it would be almost thrilling to get to talk about it, but on the other hand, would it be disrespecting what she and Rachel had if she talked about any of it? She would be praising her, wouldn't she?
"I'm not going to tell you everything, not… like that," Quinn frowned, hating that she could feel herself get warm just having to talk about it with her.
"Wait," Santana blinked. "If you're being so flighty about it, then that means there's something to be flighty about, isn't there? Have you two actually done it, like…"
"Yes," Quinn heard herself confess before she knew whether or not she was going to say it. "Just once… well, twice, but the one day… so far," she could feel the smile so wide on her face she wouldn't have been able to cover it if she tried.
"The whole thing?" Santana was looking so amused to witness her being so coy, and if it wasn't so friendly of an amusement, Quinn might have shut her out, but it was that, so her smile was allowed to keep reign of her face. "How was it?"
"Confusing at first, clumsy, definitely, but then better… then incredible… then…" She couldn't even come up with a word. "We took it so slow, us getting to that point, like… we would kiss… we did a lot of that, then we tried some touching, and contact, and then… everything else just happened that one night." She'd been just as nervous as Rachel was, but she didn't want Rachel to have to be unsure, or to feel unsafe, so she'd stowed her nerves, the better to be there for her. As decisions went, it had proven to be one she didn't regret at all. Being so attentive to Rachel had brought on an element of intensity that had led to the wordlessness of it all.
"Damn…" Santana breathed. "See, this is why I'm not messing with you right now. If I did, I'd be the world's biggest as…"
"But you're not," Quinn cut her off, and Santana bowed her head.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm happy for you. I'm happy that you're happy."
"You better put a stopper in that or people are going to think you're turning into a sap," Quinn told her, still smirking, and Santana laughed.
"Thanks for keeping me in check."
"Anytime."
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!
