entitled; breathe for me
summary; "If there's one thing I will always need you to do is breathe. Just breathe for me."
rating; T
disclaimer; i own nothing.
notes; dedicated to the lovely kara, also known as the kluinn queen.

breathe for me

.

show me why we won't let go and why we still must pray
this is our lovers' requiem
as wings unfold, just breathe for me...

- lovers' requiem i am ghost

There was a strange feeling in the air as Quinn walked through the small town of Mystic Falls; it was a feeling of dread, a sense of foreboding. She knew just about everything there was to know about this town - she did now, anyway.

There was a time when things were much simpler. A time when she was a normal teenage girl; popular, beautiful, on the Cheerios with Caroline, Elena, Santana and Brittany - her best friends along with Bonnie, who wasn't on the team. She was the head cheerleader, dating Finn, the quarterback of the school's football team.

She was at the very top of the social hierarchy and things were as perfect as they could be.

But then Stefan Salvatore came into town. He came into town with his irritating dolt of a brother, Damon, and things started to change. She was still uncertain as to whether or not they had changed for the better. Sure, she and Rachel had become much closer friends after everything they went through together this past year. Especially with the two of them realizing that Finn was the problem with their inability to form a friendship, and not them. That was definitely something better. She'd given birth to Beth about a year and a half ago. Getting pregnant didn't exactly count as good, but getting to see that beautiful baby girl every week was now one of the highlights of her life. There were, however, just as many horrible things that had happened as there were good. Sometimes she ended up counting much more cons than pros.

But something bad was coming. She knew it. Something bad always came along and now that Klaus wasn't terrorizing everyone, she knew something worse had to come along eventually. Even if people thought he was still the enemy.

Everyone was having trouble accepting the fact that she was in love with Klaus. That she was with Klaus. But she didn't care. He wasn't a saint. She knew that. He was far from it. She was still having trouble inside dealing with the fact that he'd turned Santana into a vampire when he refused to turn her.

It infuriated her.

With a frustrated sigh, Quinn ran a hand through her hair and pulled herself from her thoughts, realizing that it was those thoughts that brought her absent-mindedly to the one place she really wanted to be.

Klaus' apartment.

She had a key; he gave it to her in case she ever went over when he wasn't there. Quinn had used his apartment as a bit of a safe haven whenever things got too over-whelming for her. Sure, she'd known about everything for a year now, but there were still moments when she broke down, wanting the simple things back.

Then he would arrive, see her in that miserable state, and do his best to comfort her. It was something he did fairly well, even though he never actually spoke during that time. He was just there, laying with her in his bed, her head on his chest. He would run his fingers through her hair, slowly as she sniffled. It was such a simple thing, but she always felt a lot better when he did it.

"Are you just going to stand there all day, sweetheart?"

Quinn blinked as Klaus' voice filled her ears, the smirk he was wearing sounding loud and clear through his tone of voice; she'd been so into her thoughts that she hadn't even heard the door open.

"I was thinking." Quinn replied, walking up to him and then into the apartment when he stepped aside to let her in.

"I can see that." he nodded once, that smirk never leaving his lips as he moved to shut the door.

Quinn knew he was probably waiting on her to say something else, because she usually showed up on his doorstep sputtering about some plan or other that Damon was formulating to try to kill him, but that had stopped the moment Rachel found out that Quinn was in love with him.

That brought a small smile to her lips; Rachel, despite almost being killed by Klaus himself, twice, wouldn't let Damon do a single thing the minute she realized that he actually cared about Quinn.

But sometimes Quinn wasn't so sure of that herself; if he loved her, why wouldn't he turn her? Didn't he want to be with her as long as his immortal life gave him?

"Why won't you turn me?" she blurted out, her brows furrowing in frustration as she looked up at him, looked up at the way he tensed and pursed his lips immediately.

"What brought this on?" he asked, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Answer the question." Quinn insisted, taking a step towards him as he crossed his arms over his chest; he was getting upset, she knew, but she had the right to know, didn't she? She wasn't going to stick around if he didn't truly love her. She wasn't going to have this end like another Finn or Puck. She'd grown stronger than who she was then and despite the fact that she knew she loved this man enough to die for him, she wasn't going to lose her dignity by sticking around where she wasn't wanted.

It would kill her inside, but she would get through it. She just hoped she didn't have to.

"Why is this so important to you?" he asked taking a step forward as well, looking her in the eyes as he spoke.

"Because I love you, Klaus." Quinn answered simply, smiling weakly at the way his eyes widened; she'd only ever said those words to him once before, when they'd first been intimate with each other and he still hadn't said the words aloud, "And though normally your actions are enough to reassure me that you care about me the same way, I just don't know if that's enough when you refuse to turn me. Am I not good enough to spend all of eternity with?"

There was a flash of pain in those azure eyes and Quinn almost told him to just forget everything she'd said. Almost.

"You've made Tyler a hybrid. You turned Santana because you 'liked her spunk'. Brittany because Santana refused to do it herself, and you knew she would have gone against you if she had to watch Brittany die. You came close to turning Rachel twice because you wanted to get back at Damon for being an insufferable ass." she continued, her arms crossed over her chest as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "So why won't you turn me?"

Before she'd even finished the question, he was holding her by the arms, his grip tight as he held her close. His eyes narrowed dangerously as he spoke in a hushed tone, "Because I need you breathing."

Quinn's eyes widened the slightest as she looked up at him, her brows furrowing slightly as she bit down on her lower lip for a moment before mumbling a soft, "What?"

The expression on Klaus' face became unreadable; it was definitely saying something, because it was usually so easy for Quinn to tell what he was thinking from the expression on his face. This time it was different. He was far too conflicted and even she couldn't read him.

"You are easily the only constant thing in my life - if that's what I can call it…" he started, his voice sounded strangled, like he was having a hard enough time getting the words out, "The only one at fault being me, of course, but you are the only thing I have not tainted and I will never taint."

Quinn felt her heart clench painfully at his words; it was hardly the 'I love you' that she wanted, but it was so much more intense and emotionally raw that it made her heart break at how hurt he sounded, "Klaus…"

"I need you alive." he murmured, his eyes falling shut as she watched his expression become one of anguish, "Alive. I need to be able to hear your heart beating, see the rush of blood to your cheeks whenever you blush, feel your breath against my skin, the heat of your skin against mine... I need you to breathe for me, love."

Not able to take anymore of his words, Quinn leaned in to press her lips against his, urgently as she shut her eyes to keep the oncoming tears at bay. His hands slid down her arms, to her waist and he gripped tightly as he pulled her body up against his. Pulling back, he let her breathe, placing his forehead against hers as she rested her arms around his shoulders, "If there's one thing I will always need you to do is breathe. Just breathe for me."

"I will…. For now." Quinn answered, meeting his eyes as they darkened, with an intense glare of her own, "I'll breathe for you. I'll stay alive. But there's going to come a time when you're going to have the choice of turning me, or letting me die and I know now that you won't let me die. Not unless you knew I was coming back, and even then you'd try to prevent it."

She could see the anger in his eyes, in the way his jaw set and felt it in the way his grip on her waist tightened significantly, but he nodded, "You're too clever for your own good, sweetheart."

Quinn let herself smile at that, finally relaxing just a bit and melting into his arms as they pulled her in for a gentle embrace.

"I'll do all that I can to keep breathing for you, Klaus." she murmured, letting her eyes fall shut as she rested her head on his chest.

"Can I take your word on that?"

"Always."

[end.]