Just a Kiss

by larksong

Summary: Sam Evans is unlike any other man Quinn Fabray has ever known. And while she thinks he's just one of Kurt Hummel's strange cousins, he's in, actuality, a frog prince who was enchanted into the form of a human by a spell and a kiss. Given until the Spring Equinox, Sam must receive a true love's kiss from the girl who kissed him as a frog or else he'll have to face eternity as a frog. But Quinn doesn't seem to believe in fairytales, or love for that matter. How will Sam win her heart if she's closed it off for good?

Chapter One

A child's heart is full of magic, when we're little we believe in everything. We believe that mommy's kiss can take away the pain, that a flick of a wand and a fairy godmother can make dreams come true and that someday a handsome prince will come to us on a horse and sweep us of our feet. We believed that true love exists and a kiss could change all.

But soon the magic fades, and we grow up to realize that those things don't exist. It takes more than mommy's kisses to take away pain, that there is no such thing as a fairy godmother, and that white knights on trusted steed and true love's kiss don't exist. We come to realize that there's a fine line between reality and fantasy. We grow up and we lose that magic, and soon our hearts of magic and lore are replaced with rational and realistic minds and thoughts.

Soon we lose sight of the magic behind everyday things.

But sometimes, every now and then, we are fortunate enough to have real magic enter our lives. Such happened to a young woman in New York—a young woman who closed her heart to magic. She didn't believe in magic, or in love, but one moment changed everything, and soon she found her world turned upside down and resembling some of the beloved tales of her past.

And it all started with just a kiss..

You would think that "the end of the world" would be marked by devastating storms, natural disasters, important figures' deaths, invaders from outer space—Any scary sounding threat. This was not the case for Quinn Fabray. Her reason for throwing a $146 vintage Tiffany Table lamp to the wall while crying out that "her life was over!" was not even remotely close to any of those. It had all to do with a text message and a lacy white invitation received in the mail.

Sorry Q. This isn't working babe. I think we need to take a break. Permanently.

That was what her boyfriend of a year and a half, Puck, sent her that morning as she took a shower, getting ready to head to the small theater on 47th where she was a seamstress to a small drama crew. Her first reaction to that was to chuck her phone across the room, sending it with a bang to the wall, and a good long cry on the floor of her apartment. Quinn and Noah "Puck" Puckerman had been in a relationship for almost two years and were getting serious on Quinn's standard. Sure, they were highly mismatched. He was a mohawked "bad boy", the bartender at a pretty popular nightclub in the city, and she was the good girl from Charleston, South Carolina's elite upper class. They met when Quinn's two best friends, Blaine Anderson and Kurt Hummel, dragged her to the club for a night of fun, a great change from all the drag club the two gay men took the girl to for a "fun night". And, to her luck, Quinn's night ended with the girl flirting up a storm with the handsome man behind the bar and even giving him her number. That wasn't like Quinn. Normally, she was reserved, not one to give her number out just like that, and yet there she was, handing him her number on the back of a napkin, and a year and a half later and she could've sworn Puck was going to ask her to become Mrs. Puckerman.

Instead, Quinn got dumped, in a text message.

That however, was not what pushed Quinn to her throwing around the contents of her small studio apartment's living room all over the place while declaring her "life and world to be over". The one thing that pushed Quinn to this point of pure anger was when she decided to look past her random and unconventional break up with Puck by getting dressed and heading to the theater, deciding to stop to get her mail before leaving. Thumbing through the short stack of envelopes, she almost missed it when she saw something pink and lacy fall to the floor of the foyer of the apartment building she lived on. Looking down at the ground, her eyes widened slightly as she realized what it was. A wedding invitation… But whose? Picking it up, the air was knocked from out of Quinn as she came to the realization of whose wedding invitation she held.

Mr. & Mrs. Edgar Berry request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their daughter
Rachel Barbra
to
Finn Christopher Hudson,
son of Mrs. Carole Hudson,
Sunday, the Eighteenth of March Two Thousand and Twelve
Five o'clock in the afternoon
Kiawah Island Resort,
South Carolina

Finn Hudson—her Finn Hudson, the boy she had loved since her childhood days in Charleston, South Carolina—was getting married. Married! Here she was, heartbroken from a text message only to find out that the boy she had left behind in South Carolina, who she had envisioned either marrying her or living alone, was now getting married, and to Rachel Berry of all people! Her memories of Rachel were of a short, stick thin, big nosed and loud-mouthed teenage drama queen whom no one really liked. How did Finn, the captain of the football team and most popular boy in school, son of one of Charleston's most well known District Attorneys—now deceased—and Historic Preservers, end up falling in love with the abrasive and annoying Rachel Berry? The captain of their high school's loser Glee Club? It made no sense to her, but that wasn't what killed her so much. Finn was marrying someone else.

Quinn experienced the furry of two heartbreaks in the span of twenty minutes and her only solution was to scream, throw her mail all over and take the invitation up to her apartment where she butchered it with a pair of scissors, stomped on it, and threw it into the filthy kitchen trash can. But that wasn't the end of her fury. She followed it by grabbing that expensive vintage lamp and thrusting it across the room to collide with the wall. Soon after, her bookcase was turned over, the floor littered with dozens of books, a coffee table laid upside down on the floor, and remnants of a glass vase lay scattered on the floor. Her entire living room was turned over and the girl lay, a crying mess, amongst the many pillows of her queen sized bed, face buried into the pillows as she let out her last bit of heartbreak into tears. "Why me?" she whimpered pathetically. This was uncharacteristic of Quinn. She hardly ever was the victim, hardly ever let this kind of heartache bring her down. Normally she'd curse the man to hell and drown her sorrows away with drinks with her two best friends in the world. But that wasn't the case this time, not when Finn was getting married and her presence was requested not as the bride but as an attendee to the wedding. How was she supposed to stay poised and collected? If her mother saw her now, she'd be ashamed, and Kurt and Blaine would try desperately to remind her of the strong confident woman she was. But Quinn didn't want to hear that now. She wanted to cry her heart out and forget how her day started.

"Love is a curse," she hissed, sitting up and talking to no one. She sniffed and wiped her running mascara off her cheeks, not at all bothered over the smudge on her sleeve. "This is why I don't do love. You fall for some guy and he breaks your heart over text. Then you can't get over some silly childhood crush and feel heartbroken over it when you find out he's getting married," she grunted. "Stupid, stupid love." She would've sounded crazy, talking to the wall, if it weren't for the soft whimper and the golden dog jumping up onto her bed. She sighed and sniffed as she ran her hand over the back of the puppy, feeling his soft fir below her fingertips. "The only kind of love in this world I want is the love of a pint of Ben and Jerry's—double fudge—and you, Arthur. I love you boy!" The French bull dog's tail wagged in delight as she scratched behind his ears, smiling through her tears as she pet him all over.

It was then that she noticed the rolled up leash caught in his jaw. She raised an eyebrow, "Ah. You want to go out for a bit, boy?" She sighed, getting up and reaching for her tan trench coat she threw to the floor. Pulling it over her shoulders and using a napkin to wipe off her face, she smiled at the dog as he sat at the edge of her bed, taking the leash and attaching it to his collar. "A walk through central park sounds wonderful," she sighed, leading the dog out the apartment and towards the busy streets of New York City.

Many things were instant cures to heartache for Quinn. Audrey Hepburn marathons, sizzling bacon, a good book, but most of all would be a stroll through Central Park. Back home a walk along the beaches of South Carolina was always a cure for her pain. Quinn generally loved the outdoors, and fresh air always did wonders for her headaches caused after crying. So walking through Central Park was definitely a good idea. She smiled to the faces passing by, glad she fixed her appearance and made herself more presentable. It was kind of cold out, being mid February, but Quinn honestly didn't mind. She was wearing her favorite Audrey-esque trench coat and thick stockings. And she was more than willing to go out into the cold to walk through the park. It looked good regardless of the leafless trees or the mush of snow off the side of the sidewalk. Arthur enjoyed himself, sniffing at the slightly damp grass as they strolled along.

"Arthur, I'm getting tired," she said to the dog, whose ears perked at his name. He gave her a large and happy looking puppy grin as she directed him towards a fountain. Sitting on a dry edge, she ran her fingers over Arthur's furry head before unclipping his leash from his collar. "No don't you wander too far and give me a heart attack," she said, lifting him up a moment to kiss his moist nose. Setting him back down, Quinn watched with a smile as Arthur walked a small distance away from her and sniffed at the ground curiously as he did, barking as he stumbled upon an ant or something. She giggled and sighed, looking up at the sky. It was late afternoon by now, but the sky was grey with thick clouds. "Wonder if it'll snow," she thought aloud. A sigh escaped her lips as she was left alone to her thoughts.

Finn Hudson, getting married. Quinn was still unsure about her feelings towards that. Walking with Arthur reminded her that she didn't need to cry a river over Puck breaking it off with her. In some ways, Quinn saw that coming from the womanizer. He'd begged her that they were to the point where sex should be introduced into the relationship, but she wouldn't give it unless he put a ring on it. The break up, at this point, was long forgotten… But news that Finn Hudson, her darling Finn Hudson, was to tie the knot, and with Charleston's biggest loser, definitely set Quinn on edge, and she just couldn't shake it off. Why her? She wondered to herself. Why Rachel? Last time she'd seen Finn, he wanted nothing to do with the brunette who seemed to have an obsessive crush on him. In fact, he wanted Quinn. They were Prom King and Queen, both Junior and Senior years. They were the most popular kids in school; he was captain of the football team and she captain of the Cheerleading Squad. They made sense together, he and Quinn. Finn and Rachel, though… That made no sense in Quinn's book. How that match was made was beyond her.

Once more full of frustration and the fresh searing pain of heartbreak, Quinn was almost too distracted to hear the giggles and whispers of a group of little girls to the side. For some reason, a cluster of four little girls, possibly no older than eight, seemed more interesting than her sorrows. Possibly because she wanted not to think about Finn's upcoming nuptials anymore, but for whatever reason Quinn's attention was turned to them. They appeared to be huddled around something, something that had to be moving since they would let out a squeal and fit of giggles before shifting further along the side of the fountain. Quinn even heard one girl say, in a not so low whisper, "It's getting away! Beth, go after it!"

In that moment, the blonde woman saw a flash of green followed by an adorable girl with blonde hair and big round, deep brown eyes. The girl—this "Beth"—was chasing after the quick greenish thing and it didn't take long for Quinn to realize what was going on. Beth was following after a frog, a small and green frog. The frog didn't seem much like the frogs Quinn had seen in her lifetime. Most frogs she had seen were a dull brownish green, dirty looking, but this frog was smooth and a deep forest green color. He wouldn't be noticeable amongst the rich colored blades of grass in the south, but against the cream colored stones below he stood out.

The girls were rushing after him as he leapt far ahead. Quinn couldn't help but smile and laugh softly at the sight, turning herself to watch as Beth and the girls huddled quietly about a foot from the frog, who had stopped hopping, preparing to catch him slowly. They whispered to one another, attempting to plan out how to trap him and catch him, but Quinn didn't pay attention before getting up and going to kneel beside him. "Are you trying to catch him?" she asked, causing them to jump a little. The frog leapt ahead by a foot or so and Quinn laughed, "I'm sorry. I scared him away." The girls exchanged odd looks before Beth, the blonde one, stepped towards Quinn.

"Miss, do you think you can help us? We really wanna catch Mr. Froggy and see if he's a prince," she said. Quinn held back an urge to roll her eyes, though she wouldn't normally display such an action for little girls. She looked at the frog, sitting still a couple feet away, before looking back at Beth. The girl's big doe eyes were pleading and Quinn, while not one to easily give into puppy faces, could not refuse that. With a small nod, she turned her attention to the frog, smiling at the hushed gasps and sounds of excitement elicted from the small girls behind her. Slowly, she crept up to the frog. At barely a foot away, Quinn waited silently and carefully before nearly jumping forward.

Before the frog was able to react, Quinn had him caught in her fists. She heard the girls squeal in delight as Quinn straightened and cradled something in her closed hands. She watched them circle her, all speaking at once with requests to see him and thanks for her catching him. She smiled as she knelt down between them and carefully opened her hand to reveal the emerald frog sitting in her hands. "Wow," the girls gasped, looking at him for a long moment. He was sitting still in Quinn's hand, which shocked the blonde as she showed him off to the girls.

"Yeah, he's pretty cool, hm?" she asked, smiling as some of the girls brushed their fingers over his slightly moist back. "What should we name him?"

The girls all gave thoughtful looks, but it was Beth that spoke up. "Sam! We'll name him Sam!"

Quinn raised the frog to the level of her face, looking him over closely. Her expressions caused the girls to laugh. "Sam seems like a perfect name," she declared. The girls all cheered at that. Quinn just smiled, finding her day to have turned infinitely better.

For a moment, the girls turned their backs to Quinn. She was about to set the frog down and grab Arthur when she felt someone tug at her sleeve. She looked down to see Beth once more looking at her with pleading doe eyes. "Miss?" she asked, Quinn nodding to show her she was listening. The girl bit her lip before looking back at her friends, the others urging her to talk. With a pleading glance, Beth looked up at Quinn, asking, "Well, my friends and I want to know if Sam's a prince… Could you kiss him?"

Quinn blinked. While the girl in front of her was adorable and Quinn didn't find it in her heart to say not to children, the request was insane. She couldn't help but think about how insanitary that would be, pressing her lips to the back of the frog. She had no idea where it had been for Christ's sake! And lord knows that odd deep green tone of his skin was probably the product of some venomous toxic waste or something. Her nose wrinkled in disgust at the thought, but Quinn couldn't verbally refuse just yet, not when she met four pairs of large pleading eyes. Damn her for not being able to refuse that.

She swallowed, "I don't know, what if he's not a handsome prince?"

The girls frowned after that. It appeared they understood that Quinn had no desire to kiss the frog. For a moment she found a sense of relief, but she couldn't help but feel bad when she saw their heads hung and saw them looking away in sadness. Biting her lip, Quinn felt she was at a crossroads. Throw all sanitary warnings aside and kiss the frog? Or break these little girl's hearts and not kiss it? Her gaze wandered to the green creature sitting still in her hands. How odd, his eyes matched that emerald green of his skin and seemed to catch the sunlight in the most beautiful way. They were strange and once more she wondered where this animal had been.

With a soft sigh, Quinn looked at the girls. "I guess we can only find out if he is one with a kiss, right?" She saw their faces light up as they came around to crowd Quinn as she knelt down. Arthur had snuck up behind her as well, trying to push into the crowd to see what Quinn was holding. With a deep breath, Quinn looked at the still frog. Something in its odd eyes seemed so… Inviting. It was as if he was asking her to kiss him. She threw away the way her skin crawled at that and slowly lowered her head towards him.

Millimeters away, she heard the girls suck in sharp and excited breaths as, slowly, Quinn's soft lips touched the moist and slimy back of the frog. The second she made contact with it, she felt the creature shiver beneath her, and felt a tingly sensation along her skin. It was odd and she couldn't quite place if it was good or bad, but it caused her to instantly pull away. She blinked and stared at the green frog, hearing a low croak escape it.

"Aw, no prince," one of the girls said, though Quinn hardly paid attention. In a flash second, the frog was in the air, leaping out of Quinn's hand and towards the grass. Soon he was gone, vanishing like a chameleon that changed color. The girls let out sounds of disappointment, but Quinn just shrugged as she stood up. With the shouts of their mothers calling them away the girls each offered Quinn a thank you and their apologies for her not gaining a prince.

She laughed, "I guess it just wasn't meant to be." She waved at them as they left, seeing Beth turn around and offer a toothy grin. Her smile, while sweet, seemed odd and peculiar, and caused Quinn to shiver in a strange sense.

She watched the blonde girl walk away, following after another girl and her mother, until she felt something jump onto her leg and heard whimpers. She smiled down at Arthur, patting his head. "Alright, boy. Let's go. I should stop by the theater to let Kurt and Blaine know I'm alive anyway." With one last wistful glance to where the blonde girl disappeared to, Quinn clipped the leash onto the dog's collar and began walking away, forgetting all about the moment she kissed the frog or the strange look in the small girl's eyes.

Nighttime fell over New York, like a blanket of twinkled darkness falling over the sky. The streets were alight with lampposts, streetlights, and cars, and while it was late, the city was very much alive with sounds. Car horns blared in the distance and people shouted across the way. To his acute senses, the frog didn't seem highly phased by the noises outside of the park he lived in. Then again, he didn't seem to think much of anything—he was a frog, for crying out loud! The area by the fountain was empty tonight and he carefully crept out from where he'd stayed hidden in the dark grasses that blended with his skin. Hopping, he made his way back to the fountain, making a large and powerful leap off of his hind legs to reach the edge of it. Instantly, he fell beside a small girl who had been sitting there since sunset. After the blonde woman had left, leaving a kiss on the back of the frog behind, the blonde girl had returned. She smiled at her old friend, gently lifting him up onto her lap and carefully brushing her fingertips over the back where the soft lips of Quinn Fabray had previously been.

The spot began glowing beneath Beth's fingertips and the glow slowly began to expand up along the girl's fingers until, soon, it engulfed her body, a bright green glow. Slowly, the glowing figure began to change until, soon, she was a whole other figure. She was taller now, with more pointed features. Her skin was paler, much like the moon, and her body was more curved, with round curves, much like an hourglass. As the glow left her skin, going back to that spot on the back of the frog, she became clearer in view. Her pointed facial features were far different than the soft girlish features she had just a few moments before. The only thing that made her remotely similar to before were those large and deep brown eyes.

Smiling sweetly down at the frog, she continued to stroke that glowing spot, watching the light dim beneath his skin. "She was a good one," Beth said softly and lowly, "This Quinn. Perfect to trap and use to bring you to life." She let out a laugh, an airy and happy sounding one, as she slowly brought the frog up to her own lips, kissing over the spot. "My spell has been activated, dear frog. With her kiss, you shall be brought to life, but only for a short time. It's the twenty first of the last month of Winter. You have exactly one month until the Spring Equinox." She set him down on the edge of the fountain, patting him gently. "Go now. If she gives you one more kiss, this time a kiss of true and infinite love, upon your human lips, then you will be free."

With another pat to his back, the frog went flying, long and powerful limps taking him farther than before. "But heed my warning," Beth's voice carried with the wind, echoing in his mind, as he flew farther and farther away with each leap. "If you do not gain a kiss of true love by the day of the Spring Equinox, you shall resume the shape of a frog for all time and eternity. Such is the price you pay for making a deal with the Queen of Fae." The threatening declaration echoed in his mind but it was far from the frog's thoughts as he jumped farther and farther, soon leaving the park and leaping into the busy streets of New York. He had his wish granted, the Queen of Fae's spell was activated and would soon take effect. Now all he had to do was gain a kiss of true love in a month. That couldn't be hard to come by. A princess had kissed him once, surely she would do it again.

With the luck of the gods in his heart, the frog leapt and leapt, following the path of his heart through the dirty crowded streets of New York—coming closer and closer to Quinn…

Exhaustion had taken Quinn the previous night. After her stroll through Central Park with Arthur, the woman returned to her apartment to drop off the dog before heading to the theater on 47th. She knew if she had not made an appearance, Kurt and Blaine would think the worst. Working as the only female member of an all-gay drag queen Theater Company seemed an odd job, but the blonde enjoyed it. She always had a knack for fashion, specifically design, and had found much pleasure in the strange job of designing and creating outrageous outfits for the gay studs who played infamous roles in drag queen productions of Broadway's finest. Currently they were working on an all gay production of West Side Story. Blaine would be Tony and Kurt would be Maria, the couple that had been together for nearly four years, when Quinn first arrived in New York, and having started the company together, starring in everything. Today was to be the first dress rehearsal and Quinn was supposed to be there to fix any wardrobe malfunctions.

When she got there, she was greeted with a mountain of wardrobe issues, as well as the desperate and concerned cries of Kurt Hummel. He was much like her best girlfriend, always looking out for her well being and always there to offer the best lady advice Quinn could seek no where else while in New York. It was far unlike Quinn to be as late as she was without notice, and only Kurt could draw conclusions that that meant it was something serious. After hearing of the break up and the wedding invitation, Kurt was the first to engulf Quinn in a hug and offer her a margarita instantly prepared by their snobby newcomer, Sebastian Smythe. Quinn accepted the drink before sitting down to have a long girl chat with Kurt. It was Blaine who had to pull Kurt away for rehearsal and get Quinn to sit down and work on the costume malfunctions. It wasn't until the end of the day that they got a chance to talk again.

After a lengthy discussion about Finn and the wedding, Quinn highlighting everything about herself and Finn that made them far more perfect for one another than the tall quarterback of her past and the loser he was marrying, Kurt and Blaine's only offer of advice was to forget about him and get drunk with them. The cast was off to a drag bar in order to celebrate a successful dress rehearsal, but Quinn wasn't interested in that. Besides, forgetting about Finn was something she couldn't do. With a promise she was fine and needed a classic movie and a pink of double fudge ice cream, Quinn left the theater to go back home. And she did just that; she settled in bed with those two things and stayed up half the night crying over Casablanca and An Affair to Remember. Once her pint was gone and her wine glass had gone dry, Quinn's only solution was to cry herself to sleep and, before dawn, she was fast asleep in her bed.

So when morning had finally come, it was expected of the girl to be annoyed at the loud blaring of her alarm clock. The blonde reached over and smacked the snooze button, groaning a "I'm awake, I'm awake," as if the object were alive and interested to know this. Grumbling under her breath, she slowly relaxed back into her pillows, disproving her exclamations of being awake by slowly drifting back to sleep. Her senses were still alive, though, and Quinn swore she heard faint breathing, breathing that wasn't her own. She figured it was Arthur at the foot of the bed, but the breathing didn't fit the deep sleepy breaths of her companion.

It was then that she felt something shift behind her. Yes, that's Arthur. She felt the shifting continue, feeling something move up closer to her body. She took no notice in the size of it, imagining her pooch creeping up behind her. Put then she felt something on her shoulder, what she just assumed to be his paw. "Arthur, let me sleep a bit and then I'll take you out front," she mumbled. To her surprise, she wasn't met with a bark or whimper, really any sound that the dog would make. There was no noise at all, just the breathing.

Before she could say anything, Quinn felt hot breath against her ear, and heard a low and unfamiliar voice whisper, "Wake up, Princess." Her first instinct was that she was simply imagining it, that this was a dream. But she realized the slight weight on her shoulder was not a dream, nor a paw. It was larger, with long fingers that folded over her shoulder. It was a hand. In an instant, her eyes flew open. She sucked in a breath as she turned over, her wide honey colored eyes meeting with a pair of the richest and deepest emerald eyes she'd ever seen in her life. And while these eyes were beautiful, they, along with the handsome face they belonged to, were anything but familiar. It was then that she realized that laying beside her was a tall and gorgeous man, with a mess of blonde hair, broad shoulders, a muscular physique, and a pair of oddly large and plump pink lips that were turned up in the most brilliant smile she'd ever seen.

Frozen in the spot, Quinn just stared at him, unable to move or think as he smiled down at her. "I'm so glad you're awake. You see, I—" His deep voice was quickly drowned out in a loud and piercing shriek that came from the blonde woman as she jumped out of the bed. It had been as she ogled him and listening to him talk that Quinn came to two realizations: One, there was a stranger in her bed. And two, he was not wearing any clothing.

The man, whoever he was, seemed shocked as she got up, but Quinn ignored that as she shouted, at the top of her lungs, "Who the hell are you and why are you laying naked in my bed!"

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. This is my first story on and I'm a little nervous. lol.

Anyway, please leave a review. I already have Chapter two finished, but I'll post it after I hear what you guys have to say about Chapter One. :)

Also, this story is dedicated to my pals The Fabrevans Bubble. Chuck, Winnie, Brie, Bria, Krys, and Aly. Love you guys forever. 3
And also, dedicated to my Arlene. My Charlie. My Quinn. My best web-friend. 3