A/N: I have barely watched season 4, so just pretend it all never happened when reading this!
"Three years. We have been out of high school for three years, and you are still hung up on her. And that crush has been ongoing for more than five years now."
"Puck! Look, I've told you this countless times, but I can't get over her. Believe me, I have tried so hard, so many times! It just doesn't seem to work. I'm doomed to stay in love with her for the rest of my life, it seems," answered Quinn, loudly. Puck had been one of the only ones she'd kept contact with after high school. They had gotten even closer over the years, especially by their shared visits to Shelby and Beth.
"Q, look, you've not seen, or interacted with that girl for a bit more than two years. You guys drifted apart and now you're old friends, if not acquaintances! Get. Over. It. Rachel Berry is more than amazing, I understand that as well as you do, trust me. But I'm tired of watching my best friend mope around and feel like crap because she can't get over a girl she doesn't talk to anymore. You can't keep holding back on all these opportunities because of her. That blonde you just turned down was hot," Puck continued. He wished his friend would live a little more. And the only thing blocking her from doing just that was her undying love for one Rachel Berry.
Quinn sighed. She knew he was right, of course, but she couldn't bring herself to let go of Rachel. Watching her few interviews and the videos of her most recent play made her fall in love a little bit more every time. She always felt this longing inside her, both wanting to be with someone, anyone, and desiring to be with Rachel. Most of the time, she simply hoped that the two of them had stayed friends, but they had been busy and had gotten caught up in their own business. After a few months of growing distant, the emails had stopped.
At that time, Quinn was actively trying to get over Rachel. She initially thought that putting some distance between her and the object of her dreams was the way to do it, but as they became less and less close, Quinn realised that this definitely wasn't going to be the way for her to fall out of love.
As time passed, the blonde simply couldn't bring herself to contact Rachel again. She wasn't ready to admit to Rachel that she missed her more than she should. She thought that, things were probably better off this way.
But forgetting Rachel had failed, time and time again. She couldn't help it, remembering old memories of the girl, watching this new Rachel live her life, and a strong desire to get to know this new Rachel were constantly pulling her back in.
Quinn was distracted from her thoughts by Puck's voice, ringing in her ears once again: "I could set you up with a girl, if you want."
"Thanks, Puck, I'll think about it. Maybe," Quinn answered with a small scoff. She felt her friend's strong arms wrap around her and she returned the hug, burying her face in his shoulder.
"I love you, Q. I just want you to be happy."
"Yeah," she murmured into his neck.
It was barely a few days later, when Puck ran into a small brunette, while walking to the Starbucks close to his apartment. It took him a few seconds and an exclaimed "I'm so sorry!" to recognize her. He took two steps back and stared at the short girl standing in front of him, mouth agape.
"Noah! It didn't even occur to me that there was a chance I'd run into you!" Rachel all but screamed, her face lighting up at the sight of her old friend.
"R-Rachel?" Puck could not believe his eyes. He'd been talking about her a few days previous, at most, and now she was right there. It was almost as if they'd summoned her. "What are you doing in Connecticut?"
"Actually, I came here for a small vacation. I have a friend that lives a few blocks from here. We became acquainted back in my first semester at NYADA, though her transferred to Yale when he realized that performing was unfortunately not his true passion. I did not know you were here, though." Puck noticed that Rachel's ramblings were slightly shorter. Her face had grown and her feature had changed quite a lot, in those short two years they had been apart. Of course, all those changes had begun back when they had all left high school, but the contrast between now and then was simultaneously surprising and amazing.
The short woman had seemingly left her animal sweaters behind completely, opting for a short blue dress that hugged her curves slightly. Her makeup was still the same as it was a few years ago, simple and discreet. The smile she wore was the same blindingly bright grin she used to flash in high school, whenever she was happy.
It was truly a wonderful experience to witness how much Rachel had grown, Puck thought. He obviously had changed a lot himself, growing from the immature boy he was in Lima. He was as sex and women obsessed as always, but a lot more thoughtful and aware of his own worth.
Rachel was observing the man in front of her, as well. His clothes hadn't really changed, but in his eyes, everything had.
There was this sparkle in gaze that she had only seen in some rare moments in high school. He looked happy, more than she had ever seen him. His features had grown and he really looked like a man, now.
In the way he talked and expressed himself, in the way he seemed to act and move, Rachel could see how evolved he was. He definitely wasn't the same kid she had seen for the last time the summer after their first year of college.
The two adults were just staring at each other, analyzing every little part of the other. They had both changed so much, and it was amazing to reunite by such a coincidence.
Somewhere, in the back of Puck's mind, was the thought of Quinn, and how destructive this could be for her. Seeing Rachel again would only ignite the fire that had never disappeared in the first place. Puck pushed that thought away, thinking simply about how it was a good thing, to see the brunette after all this time.
"Rachel, how about a little catching up? Want to grab a coffee?" Puck asked, smiling at the smaller girl.
"Yes, of course! That would be perfect."
"Do you have a significant other, someone in your life?" Rachel asked. They had sat down at a small table, in the Starbucks Puck intended to go to in the first place.
"No, not really. You know, I still do my thing. Everyone wants a piece of the Puckasaurus and I get the profit. Well, all those girls too, of course. How about you?"
"I've got no one either. I have been mildly searching, but the few fans that throw themselves at me are the only ones who seem interested," Rachel answered honestly. "There doesn't seem to be any girl, or guy, for that matter, interested."
Puck ran her last sentence in his head a few times, before realising she really had said 'girl'. He was flabbergasted, and lost in his own thoughts, only brought back to reality by his ringtone. He checked the screen, to see that Quinn was calling him. He looked back to Rachel and, somehow forgetting that Quinn and Rachel actually knew each other –looking back, he still doesn't know how he forgot that-, he said: "I have to take this call. It's a friend, I'm afraid it's important."
Rachel nodded her understanding and Puck brought the phone to his ear.
"I think I'll take you up on your offer. Set me up with someone, anyone, Puck." Puck couldn't believe his ears. Quinn had just given his permission! He looked briefly at the girl sitting in the seat, in front of him, sipping her coffee, and had the best idea.
"Yeah babe, sure. I think I know the exact person for you," he said, still looking at the brunette.
"Thank you, Puck. You're great," Quinn answered, voice slightly defeated. "I'll see you later."
Puck put the phone down on the table between him and the short girl. If his plan worked, it could have two issues. First, it could help Quinn get some closure and maybe, finally, move on from her love for Rachel. Second, it could make Rachel suddenly realise she had feelings for Quinn. The other issue would be that nothing would change, but Puck brushed the thought away. That one was no fun, really.
"Rachel, I think I've got the perfect answer to your dating problems. You see, I've got this friend, who's in search of someone, exactly as you are," Puck said.
"So… It would be a blind date? I'm only here for the next three days, so if that friend lives here, you would have to plan that date in those dates."
"Yeah, yeah, she's here. I'll call her, but how about tonight?"
"Tonight is perfect, I think."
Rachel stood in front of the long mirror of her hotel room. She fixed the hem of her dress and applied a bit of her bright red lipstick, finishing up her outfit.
She had brought two fancy dresses with her on the trip, in case she wanted to go out, and had chosen her favourite of the two for that date. It was a cute, short black dress she had bought a few months ago. It was a classic, very simple, with spaghetti straps, that hugged all her curves perfectly, and fell down after her hips.
She was trying not to dwell on the stress that twisted her insides. Besides her excitement for having a date with someone that, as Puck had said to her, was searching for the same things and had similar interests, she was anxious at the idea that this might, yet again, not work out. And we wasn't sure she completely trusted Noah Puckerman to find her a date.
Rachel took one last good look at her outfit, grabbed her purse and left the room, taking a cab to the place Puck had told her to go.
"Puck, you know I hate blind dates! Why won't you tell me just one little thing about her?" Quinn was starting to be really afraid of this 'date' Puck had found her.
"Well, I can tell you that she just texted me she's wearing a short black dress with short heels. But I want you to have the surprise! She's really awesome, you'll love her, I promise," Puck answered. He was having fun with this, but he knew how angry Quinn could get at him, when she discovered who was actually her date. "What table are you sat at? Just so that she can find you."
"I'm at the last booth in the corner of the restaurant, tell her I have blonde hair, or something so that she recognizes me," the tall blonde said. She wasn't wearing anything special, just a simple dress she'd found in the back of her closet.
"Well, she just texted me, she's at the restaurant," Puck said, right at the moment that Quinn saw a short brunette she knew far too well push the door to the small restaurant.
"Noah Puckerman, I am going to kill you," Quinn said, hanging up on him. Rachel's eyes finally found hers and they stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds. Quinn was both happy to see her, but far too angry at Puck for setting up this 'date' that obviously wouldn't be one, and for tricking her. Rachel was dumbfounded. She couldn't understand Noah's motivation to set the two of them on a date. If they were to catch up, they could have done so over coffee, why was all this trouble necessary?
The confused brunette walked to her old friend, who got up to meet her in the middle. Neither was smiling, they were both caught up in their own thoughts. They stood, facing each other, for a few minutes. Rachel finally broke the silence.
"I don't know why Noah did this. It must be a simple crude joke of his. It was nice seeing you, Quinn," she said, eyeing Quinn's obviously angry expression.
The blonde's face fell, her anger slipping away. "Rach, wait." The brunette turned around, to see Quinn's defeated features. "Stay, please. We could catch up, at least?" Her voice sounded vulnerable and Rachel couldn't help herself but nod and walk back to the small booth.
"I'm sorry about how things ended between us, Quinn. We both didn't make the effort to stay in contact, and I apologize for that," Rachel started, hoping to get the awkwardness out of the way.
Quinn quickly returned the sentiment: "Well, things fall apart. It's the way life works, I guess. But for what it's worth, I have to say that I'm sorry, as well. For not calling you in the past two years, too." The two girls smiled at each other, glad to be on the same page. Quinn decided to take a step forward, continuing: "I've missed you."
"I've missed you too," Rachel said, smiling at the other girl. Their eyes met and Rachel realised just how much she had missed looking into those beautiful hazel eyes. "What have you been up to, these days?"
"Well, I'm still at Yale, of course. I've been taking a lot of photography and literature classes, and although I've gotten an internship in a small book publishing company, I don't yet know which of those two paths I'll choose," Quinn said. It felt weird to say all these things to Rachel. Quinn felt as if, somehow, Rachel should already know. They really shouldn't have let their relationship fall apart.
"Oh, I guess it's true that you've always had a passion for both of those," Rachel remarked. "Has anything new happened, in your personal life, I mean?"
Quinn had been trying to avoid the subject, but she answered truthfully, nonetheless. "There hasn't been much, to be honest. I've been focused on my studies and I've gone out with friends, but I haven't dated."
"Did you end up coming out to your parents? You always said you would do it after you graduated from uni, but I recall you getting warmer to the idea of coming out sooner," Rachel asked. She had been one of the first persons Quinn had come out to. Quinn had grown a lot to the idea of coming out, once she'd been out of Lima, and in college.
"No, not yet. I guess I've been waiting to have someone for them to meet. I think it'll make things easier to accept for them, if I have someone that makes me happy. I could always be wrong, though," the blonde told Rachel. The brunette was observing her with interest. It was obvious how far Quinn had gone. While being afraid, there was a lot more thought behind her opinions and how she told her experiences. It was refreshing, for Rachel, to see her friend grown and obviously happy in the life she led. "But enough about me. How have you been?"
"Well, as you may have seen in, I must say, quite a few newspapers and popular blogs, I have been cast as Elphaba, from Wicked, in an off-Broadway revival of the show. We have gotten a lot of media attention, which I am obviously very proud of, obviously. I also played in a few amateur plays at NYADA, but that was solely in an academic perspective, sadly. I was amazing, you should have come seen me," Rachel added, not noticing Quinn's nostalgic and regretful expression. "Kurt and Blaine moved in together, as you may have learned, and I am now living with one of my co-stars, from Wicked, who I have also studied with at NYADA."
"Have you kept in contact with a lot of the old Glee Club members?" Quinn asked. Having herself not kept in contact with most of them, she often wondered what they all were doing with their lives. Making a Facebook account could have been an option, but Quinn Fabray was never one for social media websites.
"Well, Mercedes, Tina and I visit each other once in a while, but we have mostly seen each other when we go back to Lima, these days. Other than those two, I am of course still very close to Kurt and Blaine, but I believe those are the only ones I still talk to often. How about you?"
"As you know, Puck and I are still friends. We lived together for a while, but we ended up annoying each other so much we stopped talking for two months. Now, we've moved out and found other roommates and apartments, and we're closer than ever," Quinn scoffed. Their experience as roommates really had been a disaster. Quinn couldn't handle Puck bringing people home most nights, and Puck despised Quinn's rules about cleaning up and her organisation. He sometimes thought he was rooming with Rachel herself. "I'm still close to Santana and Brittany, too. They come here to visit often."
The waitress came to take their orders and their food came a few minutes later. They kept talking, though they mostly were joking, finding again the old chemistry they had left behind. Having both grown as individuals, they found their exchanges to be still fun and teasing as ever, but also deeper, and their conversations often took more serious turns, that neither minded.
Their deserts came and a comfortable silence installed around them. They were both caught in their thoughts again. Rachel was wondering 'What if this had really been a date?'. That thought had been in the back of her mind for the whole night, but she had pushed it away time and time again. Now that they weren't talking, it had come up again, and Rachel couldn't deny it anymore: She really wished that this was a date. Actually, what she really wished was that she could meet someone as amazing as Quinn, who wasn't Quinn. Because, well, Quinn was her friend, and it'd make things weird, right? Right?
Quinn, on her side, was wondering how the hell she could have gotten herself in a fake date with the girl she'd been in love with for years. And of course, what she had apprehended would happen, did happen, and she fell in love with the brunette all over again. This 'new Rachel' was simply a more mature, but just as perfect version of the girl she used to know. It felt really good, to rekindle with her old friend, but it hurt, because she wasn't sure she wanted to put herself through all this again.
Quinn paid the bill and Rachel couldn't help commenting: "You're paying for both of us, now?" Her tone was playful, but a part of her was nonetheless curious about the reason pushing Quinn to pay for the whole meal.
Before Quinn could bite her tongue to keep herself from talking, the words were out of her mouth: "Well, we're on a date, right?" She winked at the smaller girl, covering the truth in her words by the playfulness of her tone and attitude.
Rachel wondered when Quinn had become so perfect. 'Probably around the time she was born,' Rachel thought. 'Well, it is true that I've always had a particular interest in her, but then again, it would make things weird, if I had a crush on her. So, I can't do that, right? Right?'
Once they were out of the restaurant, the blonde spun around, to find that the short diva was far closer than she had initially expected. She blinked a few times and took a few steps back, unable to stand the brunette in her personal space. Not if their faces were that close, at least.
Rachel was unable to move. She didn't understand what had just happened, at all. First, there was her own reaction to Quinn's face being so close to hers. The deep hazel eyes had stared into hers and she didn't know how she had managed to restrain herself from kissing the pink lips that had been so close to hers. Secondly, she couldn't quite understand why Quinn had moved away from her, as if she'd had the plague.
The blonde shook her head, ignoring all her thoughts of pushing Rachel against the closest wall and kissing her senseless. They were friends, goddammit. 'I managed to do this for years! Where had all my self-control suddenly gone,' Quinn thought, exasperated at herself.
"Quinn, I must admit, I had one of the greatest nights I have had in a long while. I'd hate to see it end this early," Rachel said, suddenly feeling very courageous to ask her friend so bluntly. "Since this is your city, show me around. As you know, I've only been here a few times."
"Well, if I remember correctly, I have already showed you everything there is to see in this town, the last few times you came to visit. How about we just go back to my apartment and watch a movie?" Quinn thought herself very adventurous, and she didn't know if this felt more like asking a friend to come over, or asking a date to 'go back to hers'. At that point, she wasn't really sure she cared.
Rachel smiled brightly, a bit too widely, in her own opinion, and nodded excitedly. "I forgot I hadn't seen your apartment, yet, since you moved out of your old one, I imagine?" At Quinn's nod, answering her question, she continued. "Who's your roommate, by the way?"
"No one, actually. I found a small apartment downtown, for a cheap rent, a few months ago. I've been living there, alone, ever since. It's not great, but I like it. I also appreciate being alone and not having to deal with someone else," Quinn answered. "It's actually quite close to here, so we can even walk."
"Sure!"
They crashed on Quinn's couch twenty minutes later, their ribs hurting from laughing too much. They wrestled and pushed each other the whole way home, which usually took Quinn no more than ten minutes to walk. They teased each other endlessly and almost had become closer that night, than when they were still friends.
Rachel was the first to jump on the remote, flipping through the channels. "Oh, Quinn, look! What's Up, Doc? is on!" Quinn groaned and tried to take the remote away from Rachel. "But Quinn," Rachel whined. "It's Barbra!"
It only took Quinn two minutes to pin Rachel on the couch, her right hand holding Rachel's wrists above her head, and remove the remote from her gently, pulling her tongue at the shorter girl.
Rachel huffed and sat back at her place on the couch, while Quinn chose what seemed to be a horror movie. The brunette finally relaxed and shrugged. She had to admit that horror movies were a guilty pleasure of hers.
Barely half an hour into the movie, Rachel's body was curled around Quinn's and Quinn had her arms around the brunette. Neither was sleeping, but they weren't listening to the movie, each girl focusing on the other's breathing. They were completely relaxed and had let go of all their inhibitions.
They cuddled for a long while, and when the movie ended and the credits started rolling on the screen, Rachel removed her face from the crook of Quinn's shoulder. "Quinn, I- I've had a great time, tonight."
Quinn felt a smile form on her face, not feeling the need to respond. "It's weird, I kind of see you in a new light," Rachel continued. Quinn's expression carved into one of confusion, and the tall girl let the brunette talk. Rachel looked up into Quinn's eyes and all the words she had been thinking of saying left her mind.
Rachel slowly leaned in and, without uttering a word, she pressed her lips to Quinn. "I think, I think I really like you," she said when she finally pulled away.
Quinn's body was tense, like she couldn't believe what was actually happening. Rachel's voice brought her out of her trance, by whispering her name. The events of the last minute finally washed over Quinn and she grinned at the smaller girl, who was sitting beside her, confused.
Their lips met halfway and their hands wrapped in long hair and curled around small hips. They pulled away simultaneously, foreheads touching and breaths mingling. Their shared smiles confirmed what they'd both been feeling that night. It was love.