Title: Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations
Rating: Eventual T, for language
Summary: After a strange conversation with Rachel in the middle of the night Quinn realizes how deep her feelings have grown for the other girl, and it all thanks to Rachel's glow-in-the-dark stickers.
A/N:So this was written way before Season 3 spoilers came out and later started, so if the references seem outdated, that's why. Please forgive all grammatical/stylistic errors I'm in the process of getting a Beta, so no worries. c:
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this story, this is a complete work of fiction. All rights are reserved to Ryan Murphy and Co. because Lord knows if I owned Glee Faberry would be canon.
Enjoy!
"I'm leaving" Quinn whispered over the phone line.
"Where are you going?" Rachel groggily asked. Her bright-pink, bedazzled iPhone had rung mere moments before while blasting the standard iPhone ringtone on her bedside table, it was a clear indication that the caller wasn't one of her closer friends; she had made sure to carefully outfit specific ringtones for all of those who frequented her with calls… or as frequently as Rachel would ever come to define it. Regardless, she hit the 'Accept' button with her eyes still shut, too heavy to open yet. She didn't have a problem talking so long as the caller wasn't that damned women she'd never heard of before informing her on a payment plan for whatever item of the day it was she'd apparently purchased earlier in the week.
The two didn't need an introduction when Rachel answered the call, her musically trained ears recognized Quinn's voice the second she spoke, as if Rachel could forget the nasally pitch of her past tormentor.
"Away. Far away," Quinn gratuitously paused between fragments, as if she wasn't quite sure she would be able to get to wherever it was she was destined to go.
All of Rachel's naturally gifted talents for reading people through their wavering tones and pitches were out the window, so-to-speak, whenever she had to deal with Quinn. She never knew what that girl was thinking; she was always a mystery- as evident of the prom incident last year. It was even harder to decipher the not-so-natural blonde over the phone because Rachel was blind to Quinn's features as they spoke. There was always a way to get an inkling of the other girl's intentions or feelings through her eyes; the passage way to the soul she'd guess.
"How far?" Rachel inquired while opening her eyes to her ceiling, something about those dinky little faded pink and yellow-green, glow-in-the-dark stars above her unveiled canopy soothed her. Ever since she was a little girl she'd spend endless nights just staring at them, pretending they were a metaphor for her life; how she'd become a star amongst the cosmos or rather a star on Broadway. Often her fathers would catch her awake past her régime strict bedtime and would tell her stories of princesses and princes, wicked villains in high places, and couples' eventual "Happily Ever After" endings to lull her to rest. Each tale was told in a different galaxy caught between the multiple constellations on her ceiling.
And she believed every one of them.
Well, she used to believe every one of them. She wasn't so sure where her loyalties laid anymore when it came to the fantasy versus reality debate. Her reality was definitely storybook material, she already knew it too, but she'd never know if she got her happily-ever-after ending until her deathbed she assumed, so the discussion would have to wait until then.
"Like, Far Far Away?" Rachel added as an afterthought; seems her late night ponderings had affected her more than she knew.
"I thought I called Rachel Berry not Finncompetent." Quinn replied mildly amused, her voice still low; she'd never heard a sleepy Berry but apparently she was loopy and Finn-esque. That boy was seriously more harm than help intellectually.
"I'm not stupid Quinn, I'm fully aware of what I asked" Rachel hazed out without hesitation, eyes still fixated to the ceiling she'd never been able to touch on her own, she had completely ignored the rare use of her birth name and the insult to her boyfriend in her daze. "I'm asking if you're leaving here to finally reach your happy-ending, you know, in that place Far Far Away…" the brunette replied with lost steam as she realized just how ridiculous her thoughts were aloud- they always sound better in your head, don't they?
"Oh"
And just like that Quinn understood everything, even from such a silly explanation. After all this time Rachel still held no everlasting hate and resentment towards her; she still wanted her to be happy, but alas this wasn't her story.
"I'm leaving so you can have yours.
"Don't you see it? I'm the villain here. The giant, shape-shifting monster that blows green flames from her nostrils, the old hag who tries to poison you with an apple, or slushies I suppose, the evil step-mother who forces you into serfdom and forces you to rags." Quinn talked with a quickening pace, her throat constricting as she gushed. She wouldn't be surprised if Berry hadn't caught a word she said, most people wouldn't have been able to.
"Don't be silly, you're not my step-mother" But then again, she wouldn't be talking to Rachel Barbra Berry if she knew she couldn't catch every word.
To this Quinn started laughing. Naturally that would be the only part to register with the other girl. Rachel must've been really tired, how foolish she was to call her at this hour. But of course, being her she needed closure, she needed somebody to know she'd left; she needed somebody to care if just for a second, she needed to be loved. Even if that love was barely platonic and more-likely-than-not heavily one-sided.
Their laughter was highly contagious because before Quinn knew it Rachel was cackling loudly into her ear, "This is the most civil we've been with each other ever!" Rachel exclaimed between guffaws.
Well if that wasn't the biggest turn-off Quinn's ever heard… "Listen, about that-" she activated the "Serious" button in her brain, stopping all laughter at the drop of a dime.
"-Stop" Rachel quickly interrupted her with suppressed horselaughs down her throat. "Don't ruin this moment; the past is the past. Sure it forms who we are today, but there is always room to change. You of all people should know this."
That Quinn did. She knew that too well in fact, she was after-all a living Ugly Duckling.
Quinn wasn't born with her family's naturally good-looks; she was quirky and awkward, acne-ridden, witch-nosed, crooked-teethed, near-sighted, and heavy. Her hair was flat, rust-colored and constantly tangled into impossible knots. She was ostracized by her own family, the slim, 20/20 blue-eyed, blonde, flawless-nosed, wavy-locked perfects that they were. Thanks to them she drastically changed her physique to match them, not that anyone was complaining because you'd have to be visually impaired not to appreciate her angel-like form now. But, the only piece of original beauties left about her are her voice and her eyes, despite the need for corrective lenses. Some people would be turned away from a voice caused upon by a deviated septum, but that's what gave her character. It's utterly unique and no one in the universe will share it with her ever, it is hers and only hers. But moreover with her eyes, they are a pair of magnificent hazels that change colors with the seasons and moods of the year. Together they formed an unbeatable duo of beauty and originality.
Perhaps that's another reason why Rachel knew Quinn's eyes were the only way into her soul because they are the only original part of her. Besides, who'd be opposed to staring into liquid gold fields with fall colored leaves, looking at those same leaves blow through her pupils moving from one eye to the other?
"I think you've got this all backwards Quinn" Rachel began easy, "you're certainly not the 'villain' in my story, but rather the heroin in your own".
"You've been through a lot, I dare say more than I, and as we both know when it comes to fairytales and happy endings the people who deserve it most get them against all odds. I don't need to be the main character of a story to know I'm going to make it on Broadway; I'm just a sub-character in your story. You know that sub-character that makes it to the Big Time? Yeah, that one. And if that's not true well then we are just two separate stories that sit side-by-side, that use each other's heroin for the other's story's advantage. Like two fates that almost became one.
"We're both going to be successful, we're both going to get out of this place, with or without a man on our arms- Streisand only knows how reliable Finn is, and we will both be happy Quinn. It's inevitable. We'll get our 'Happily Ever After'". Rachel sounded so sure of the success for the both of them it truly surprised Quinn.
"You're lying, you don't know this" Rachel didn't know what Quinn wanted her to say anymore, so she figured she'd just talk until they came to an answer, rambling sometimes worked out in the end.
"You know I used to stay up late at night and look at the glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling" Rachel swore she heard Quinn mutter 'of course' but decided to ignore her and continue, "as a little girl I was very gullible, I believed every fairytale told to me like it came from a history textbook, like they were fact. My fathers told me that there were multiple, parallel universes between the constellations where each one of these stories took place, all with different heroes and villains, and all with different outcomes. And just recently the strangest thing happened, I couldn't help myself, I started wondering what if there were other people like us: another Rachel, another Quinn. What if they're enemies like us? And if they are is it for the same reasons? Maybe Other Rachel is the HBIC. Maybe Other Quinn is the Broadway geek. Maybe Other Rachel had gotten the nose job. Maybe Other Quinn has gay fathers. Maybe Other Rachel had gotten pregnant." Rachel heard Quinn's breath hitch a little at the last statement and decided to hurry to her point, if there was one to rush to at all. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't somewhat winging it.
"But then I started thinking deeper than that. What if- what if Other Rachel and Other Quinn were friends? What if they were more than friends? Maybe Finn doesn't exist in that universe. Isn't he the center of our problems here? Well, maybe not the center but he definitely plays a major part, so just imagine what our lives would be like if he wasn't here. What if their school didn't revolve around popularity statuses? What if their society was accepting of everyone, no matter the race or religion?" Rachel was quickly picking up her pace as she got more invested into the questions she was posing, her eyes flickering a game of pinball with her stars, as she thought rapid-fire, "What if Other Rachel and Other Quinn are like the Santana and Brittany here? What if-
"-Shut up Berry! No more 'what ifs'" Quinn interrupted heatedly, her voice unsteady and breathy. "You don't know what you're saying. Quit while you're ahead and shut up. Just stop," her voice was getting smaller, "Just stop…"
After some time of listening to the static of silence, Rachel whispered "Don't leave Quinn" like she was on a snow-covered peak and didn't want to cause an avalanche, "You can have your happy ending here.
"We're members of the same tale. It's clear to me now, just now actually. We aren't two different heroines in two different stories using each other to make the other's tale come true".
"Don't say anything more Berry or I hang up, leave, and never look back. I'm warning you," Quinn tested Rachel like her life depended on it, but as luck would have it Rachel wouldn't stop.
"We're the same story. We are one" Rachel had her "Eureka!" moment, "Of course! What was I thinking, in all the fairytales I've ever heard never were there two distinct heroines battling out happily-ever-after's on the same plane; clearly this means we are a duo. Like the Prince and the Princess. We're supposed to fight together to get what we want.
"Isn't this a fantastic discovery!" Quinn could practically feel Rachel's thousand-watt smile through the phone, sleep long forgotten. Why had she called this girl again?
Quinn's finger was now hovering over the "End Call" button but she just couldn't bring herself to push it, with or without the threat, Rachel had always been able to call her bluffs.
She had been following Rachel's thought process, however scrambled it appeared, and she understood it all…she thinks, the whole 'I got all this from glow-in-the-dark stars' thing kind of threw her off. Letting out a sigh into the phone she reflected on all her past years, why she transformed herself, why she tormented Rachel for years with words and drew crude pictures, and threw slushies, she thought of all her failed attempts to be in relationships with men, her religion, Beth, and then just Rachel again. Just her. Then, like a light bulb went off in her head she realized what she was doing.
"Wait a second. I don't want to be the man!"
And then like that, Rachel and Quinn were laughing like they were earlier, like they were in that other parallel universe Rachel was talking about, like they were Brittany and Santana, like Other Rachel and Other Quinn.
Thanks for reading! The next chapter should be up in a few days, don't expect more that two to accompany this.
Until next time, ciao!