entitled; if i broke your heart last night
summary; Quinn was determined to have a great Valentine's Day.
rating; T
disclaimer; i own nothing.
notes; dedicated to kara. happy valentine's day, love~
if i broke your heart last night (it's because i love you most of all)
.
you always hurt the one you love
the one you shouldn't hurt at all
you always take the sweetest rose
and crush it till the petals fall
you always break the kindest heart
with a hasty word you can't recall
so if i broke your heart last night
it's because i love you most of all
- you always hurt the one you love michael buble
Quinn was determined to have a great Valentine's Day.
Last year's had been entirely horrible.
No Rachel. No Klaus. No Bekah.
Everything was hectic.
Saying Damon was day drinking had been a massive understatement. Elena had taken time away from all the insanity to go visit Jeremy. Caroline had left to go find Tyler, wherever it was that he disappeared to, to deal with his sire bond problem. Bonnie was working on sorting things out with her mother, who had decided she wasn't going to be going anywhere any time soon. Rachel had cracked under pressure after being turned, and ran off with Kol and Rebekah to God know where. Stefan was still struggling with his humanity - or lack thereof - and getting his revenge on Klaus. And Klaus was just… gone.
She'd gone to the Mikaelson manor and found it empty of all Originals.
She'd gone to the hotel he'd stayed at when he was having the manor worked on, only to find they had been compelled to say there was no record of him ever having stayed there.
She searched the town for every single one of his annoying hybrids she knew of and was unable to find a single one.
She tried calling him and found his cell phone was always turned off until she called a final time to find the number had been disconnected.
She had been entirely alone.
It was the most horrible feeling in the world.
Of course that only lasted until Elena returned; the girl came back seeming a lot better than she had previously been and immediately flew to Quinn's attention, wanting to do all she could to cheer her up.
Caroline followed soon after, and though they never really got along too well, she decided to help as well, dragging Bonnie away from her mother every now and then for the three of them to have the occasional Girl's Night together.
Of course those nights were usually plagued by the elephant in the room that was Rachel's absence.
It was difficult to ignore the fact, because all three of them knew they had a part in Rachel's leaving.
There was no mistaking that she'd simply given into the bloodlust because of the hurt she was feeling since her fallout with Damon, but when she let Klaus take her in, the girls had done nothing to try to convince her otherwise.
Elena had been paying far too much attention to her problems with Stefan, Bonnie was arguing with her mother over that stupid coffin, Caroline was dealing with the death of her father and Klaus's sudden attention, and Quinn was devastated over they way Klaus was diverting his attention towards Caroline after having finally agreeing to turn her into a vampire. That and his sudden need to use her best friend against everyone in town.
It drove a wedge between them.
Caroline and Quinn had never been particularly close, and though the blonde guaranteed that she wasn't interested in whatever Klaus was trying to pull, Quinn had been hurt. She was so sure that Klaus loved her. He'd finally agreed to turn her and suddenly he was paying more attention to Caroline.
And then he force fed Rachel his blood, and killed her.
He killed Rachel. He took her hunting. He coaxed her into giving up on her humanity and that had ultimately been what broke Quinn.
How could he do that to her best friend?
Instead of helping Rachel deal with this, she was to preoccupied with her broken heart, and that was what had led to Rachel leaving Mystic Falls with Kol.
And Klaus as well, for all she knew, seeing as she hadn't the slightest clue where either of them were.
And then there was Rebekah, as well. She and Quinn had become great friends, and for a while there, she'd been off the radar, leaving her hurt and confused.
Only when she reappeared did she learn of Elena, Damon, Stefan and Klaus all lying to her about not knowing where she was.
Elena had daggered her, and Klaus had kept her that way.
That was horrible.
Hectic, remember?
But things had progressed.
Her friendship with Elena had stabilized, she spent a good amount of time with Bonnie, submerging herself in learning all things witchcraft, even though she wasn't a witch - she supposed she just wanted to distract herself from thoughts of Klaus and Rachel - and her friendship with Stefan and Caroline had grown stronger since he'd begun regaining his humanity.
They were there to help her deal with the vampire process, not wanting her to end up the way Rachel had.
She supposed that what made it a little harder for Quinn.
Knowing that she was being helped so much by Caroline and Stefan and not one person they knew had tried to help Rachel.
"Are you going to stand there staring at the mirror all day?"
Quinn jumped, spinning to meet Stefan's green eyes, full of amusement at having caught her off guard; she had gotten so good at avoiding being snuck up on lately.
"Stefan!" she breathed, holding a hand to her chest, "Stop doing that."
"Well, I wouldn't have had to come over here if you hadn't locked yourself up here for the past hour." Stefan told her, a faint smile on his lips as he walked up to her, "You're supposed to be having fun today, remember?"
Quinn let out a soft sigh, but nodded, "I know… It's just… It's Valentine's Day, how can I not think about him?"
"It's not a crime to think about the person you care about, Quinn." Stefan told her, reaching up to cup her face in his hands; a gesture that on a regular basis she wouldn't have allowed herself to sink into.
But today she did.
She leaned into his touch and let a soft sigh leave her lips as she let her eyes fall shut; she knew it was bad. Leading him on like this when she was determined to hold onto Klaus.
"Stefan…" she murmured, feeling her chest constrict at the look in his eyes when she finally opened hers again.
"It's fine." he mumbled, a weak smile on his lips as he pulled his hands back slowly, slipping one into his front pocket and pulling out a blue velvet box, "Here, before I forget."
"You got me a gift?" Quinn asked, taking the box from him with a faint smile on her lips, "You didn't have to."
"I wanted to." he shrugged, "If there's one thing Klaus knew when he was around, it was that you deserve to be spoiled."
Quinn couldn't help the soft giggle that left her lips as she moved to open the square box; inside, was a thin sterling silver bracelet that - beside it's clasp - seemed to be link together by a small infinity symbol, "This is amazing."
"Here let me…" he mumbled, moving to grab the bracelet with nimble fingers and quickly clasping it around her left wrist, "I saw it and immediately thought of you."
"Really?" Quinn asked, tilting her head to the side with a small smile, "Why is that?"
"Well…" he trailed off, running a hand over his face as if he was contemplating how to word things when he started again, "You turning into a vampire… Was not something I ever wanted. You know that, Quinn. You meant - and still do mean - so very, very much to me. But I wanted you to live a normal, happy human life."
"But Klaus came along." Quinn nodded, a sad smile on her lips.
"Klaus came along." Stefan nodded, "Things went from being relatively okay, to complete Chaos. Elena. Katherine. You all finding out about the vampires. Katherine turning Caroline. Damon actually falling in love with someone who deserves him, and who loved him the way he deserved to be loved. You falling in love with Klaus, willing to turn into a vampire to spend all of eternity with him… Anyway. Things got hectic. Everything changed and here we are. And I've come to accept the fact that you're a vampire, that I might get to spend the rest of my existence with a friend as amazing as you. And seeing that symbol, sort of made that acceptance a solid tangible thing. If that makes any sense."
There was a fluttering in her stomach, and Quinn found herself in an all too familiar internal struggle; it was no mystery to the people of Mystic Falls - or at least the people that mattered - that she'd had some very serious feelings for Stefan before Klaus walked into her life. Of course she'd held back, because he was with Elena, and he was too important a friend to simply throw away on the off chance that he didn't feel the same way she did.
But things were different now.
Far, far different.
"I'll always love you, Stefan, you know that, right?" Quinn found herself whispering, her eyes on the beautiful bracelet on her wrist; she didn't think she could look up at him at that moment.
"I know…" He murmured, slipping his index finger under her chin and lifting it up slightly, making her look at him, "I… There's another gift waiting for you outside, but before you walk away from me completely I want… I want to try just one thing…"
She should have stopped him the moment he leaned in, but Quinn found herself responding to the feel of his lips against hers; they were so much softer than she'd expected, and felt really, really good.
But it still wasn't Klaus.
Pulling back, she sighed, letting her gaze fall as she licked her lips, "I'm sorry, Stefan…"
"I had to try once." Stefan murmured, slipping his hand into hers and tugging lightly on her hand, "But now to the real gift."
Quinn's gaze shot up, her eyes narrowing suspiciously at her friend, "Real gift?"
"Alright, so they're both real. Both very important, but I have a feeling you might like this one a lot more." Stefan offered with a light chuckle as he led her out of his room and downstairs, where Damon was walking around with half a bottle of bourbon in his hands.
"S'outside." he slurred, taking a long swig from the bottle as he eyed Quinn and Stefan with glazed eyes, a laugh leaving his lips as he wiggled his eyes at them, "Unless you two aren't done with you're little experiment."
Quinn felt her cheeks grow hot, "God, Damon, how can you not have anything better to do?"
Damon shrugged, walking towards the stairs and tugging on Stefan's arm, "Come on, let's leave her to it. She won't need you."
There was a flash of hurt in his green eyes, but he nodded, smiling at Quinn before leaning forward and pressing his lips against her forehead, "Go. Your gift's right outside."
Quinn watched in confusion as Damon dragged Stefan upstairs, shaking her head as she headed towards the front door and pulled it open.
She honestly didn't know what surprised her more; Klaus standing right there, after so damn long, or the fact that he was standing there with Rachel arguing about something or other.
"Ohmygod…"
The two turned to face Quinn, a shameful expression on both of their faces, "Quinn…"
"I wasn't supposed to be here." Rachel mumbled, a frown on her lips, "It was supposed to be you and Klaus alone. That was Stefan's gift to you apparently, locating Klaus. I had went to your house but you weren't there, so I was coming to find Damon…"
"You're here." Quinn whispered, her hazel eyes watering, "You're both here…"
"I shouldn't have left…" Klaus started, seeming to be struggling with his words as he stepped towards her, "I… was disgusted with what happened, how things happened. I couldn't deal with knowing that I'd destroyed any chances of you having a proper future, and right after I'd turned Rachel without telling you… I had to leave."
The tears were streaming down her cheeks by that point, her head slowly shaking back and forth before she shot forward, wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight embrace as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, "Oh my god, you're back. You're back."
"I'm back. And I'm not going anywhere." Klaus mumbled, pulling her closer and nodding, shooting a glance towards Rachel, who was shifting uncomfortably at the display in front of her, "You should go find your Salvatore, Miss Berry, before I decide to spill the beans on that little… gift exchange between you and my brother."
Rachel's cheeks flushed bright read and she was gone in an instant, leaving Klaus alone with a sobbing Quinn.
Pulling back, he held her by the shoulder with one hand, as he brushed her tears away with another one, "I'm so very, very sorry sweetheart."
Sniffling a bit, Quinn shook her head, "I can't forgive you for leaving. Not yet. You know that."
A grimace on his face, Klaus nodded, "I do."
"But I'd obviously be lying if I said I wasn't happy you were back." she murmured, leaning into his hand as it lightly cupped the right side of her cheek, "And it is Valentine's Day…"
Klaus gave her that smirk she loved all too much and nodded, "That it is."
Biting down on her lower lip, Quinn leaned forward to press her lips against his, murmuring a soft, "I love you." against his lips.
"And I you." he sighed, pulling her closer, "Happy Valentine's Day, love."
"Happy Valentine's Day, Klaus." Quinn mumbled, the thought that things were finally starting to go back to how they should be running through her mind.
Yeah, she'd definitely had a good Valentine's Day.
[end.]