Author's Note: Thank you so much for the reviews and follows - hope you all like chapter two...
Chapter Two: Christmas in New York
Quinn was rudely awoken shortly before eight a.m. by an enthusiastic chorus of We Wish You a Merry Christmas from the living area. It appeared Rachel had decided not to heed Santana's warning, and had in fact enlisted Kurt as a co-conspirator. Groaning, Quinn quickly pulled on a faded Yale sweatshirt and shorts before padding barefoot into the living room. Luckily, Santana was a much heavier sleeper than Quinn, and hadn't stirred yet.
Rachel and Kurt were in the kitchen, taking out what seemed to be every pan they owned from the cupboards as they sang.
"Rachel!" hissed Quinn, clamping a hand over the brunette's mouth. "Do you have a death wish?"
"But it's Christmas," Rachel pouted when Quinn released her. "I want to get started on making dinner so that we have plenty of time to open gifts later."
Quinn sighed.
"Rachel, it's not even light outside yet," she reasoned. "If you want to eat at seven we don't even need to start cooking until this afternoon. I promise you that if you want a friendly, agreeable Santana, you're going to have to let her sleep for at least another couple of hours."
"Okay," Rachel relented. "I promise I'll be quiet, as long as you help me with chopping the vegetables for dinner."
Shaking her head in resignation, Quinn set to work peeling and chopping a mountain of carrots that seemed like they would feed twenty people, not just the five of them – and she didn't even like carrots.
When Santana finally surfaced and came in search of her missing girlfriend, the sun had risen and was streaming through the loft's windows, condensation trickling down the panes and pooling on the window sills.
Santana's dark eyes gleamed mischievously and her mouth curled into a gleeful smirk as she took in the sight of Rachel, paying homage to her high school wardrobe, in a bright red skirt, argyle knee socks and a hideous reindeer sweater, but before she could make her undoubtedly witty but barbed comment Quinn captured her lips in a good morning kiss.
"Be nice," she murmured against Santana's mouth as they parted. Santana sighed but heeded Quinn's warning and thankfully kept her comments on Rachel's dress sense to herself.
Now that she was no longer at risk of disturbing her girlfriend, Quinn headed back into their sleeping area to get her shower stuff and pick out some clothes. Santana followed and wrapped her arms around Quinn from behind, nuzzling her neck pleasurably as her hands slipped under Quinn's sweatshirt, eliciting shivery sensations across the soft skin of her stomach. Quinn giggled as Santana's hand moved higher to cup her breast, as she suckled on Quinn's neck hard enough to leave a mark. Her free hand was inching under the waist band of Quinn's shorts.
"Santana, we can't," she whispered breathlessly, half-heartedly trying to disentangle herself from her girlfriend, when what she really wanted to do was tear off both of their clothes and lose herself in the moment. She wriggled around to face Santana and planted a soft but chaste kiss against her lips. "Later, I promise you, I'm all yours." Santana pouted but retracted her hands to respectable places, not a moment too soon as Rachel burst through the drapes into the room, practically skipping with excitement. Quinn had a fleeting thought that Rachel was doing it on purpose – playing a game to see how far she could push Santana before she broke.
"Come on, you two, we're waiting to open presents," she said, flashing them a mega-watt smile. Santana glared at the interruption but Quinn's hand on her arm seemed to soothe her anger.
"I need to take a shower, Rach," Quinn told her with an indulgent sigh, as though talking to a hyperactive three year old. "Can't you wait twenty minutes?"
Rachel shook her head and grabbed Quinn by the hand, dragging her towards the living area. "No," she said emphatically. "I've already waited forever, besides, unwrapping presents in your pajamas is traditional."
"One, that's easy to say when you're not the one in pajamas, and two, we were never allowed to open presents until after church," Quinn mused but allowed Rachel to pull her into the living room, where Kurt and Blaine were already dutifully waiting. Blaine too had been accosted whilst still in his pajamas, Quinn was pleased to note.
She sat down on the floor and Santana snuggled in behind her, placing her legs either side of Quinn's. Kurt beamed at the display of affection between them, and Quinn felt her cheeks flush happily.
The next half hour was lost to a flurry of wrapping paper as gifts were opened and delighted in. Kurt, in particular, was thrilled with the Prada cufflinks that Rachel, Quinn, and Santana had clubbed together to buy; and Quinn turned the deepest shade of red when she opened the beautiful but lacy and very risqué underwear Santana had bought for her. Santana simply laughed and shrugged unabashedly at Quinn's discomfort, but then it was her turn to blush as she opened the locket Quinn had picked out and had inscribed for her with the simple phrase you are my heart. Santana kissed her so deeply that their friends cleared their throats and looked away embarrassed, but for once Quinn didn't care.
The letter from Columbia was still safely ensconced in Quinn's dresser drawer as she was planning to give it to Santana that night once they were alone, but the anticipation was enough to make Quinn giddy with excitement as the day progressed.
She joined in with Rachel and Kurt's Christmas carol medley until Santana threatened to rip all of their tongues out. Sidling up to her girlfriend, Quinn leaned over to whisper in her ear.
"But then you'd miss out on what I have planned for tonight," she murmured, delighting as she heard Santana's breath hitch. "My tongue is kind of crucial to proceedings." She chuckled and skipped off to check on the progress of dinner, before Santana could react in any meaningful way.
Quinn could not remember any of her family Christmases as a child being half as enjoyable as her faux-Christmas with her friends. Everything was perfect, a chaotic day filled with music and laughter, and she gave Rachel a run for her money in the "most-excitable" stakes as the celebrations went on. Her family Christmases had all been ordered, organised, and predictable – church, then dinner, then gifts which she would dutifully thank her parents for before escaping to her bedroom alone.
By the evening, all of their energy had (thankfully, according to Santana) dropped and they sat in the living room in companionable peace and quiet, watching Christmas specials on TV and ignoring the huge pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen.
Kurt and Blaine drifted off to bed first as they would need to get up early the next morning to leave for their ski trip, and Rachel disappeared into the bathroom to take a shower. Quinn suddenly felt inexplicably nervous about the Columbia letter in her dresser, and her inner control freak flared up as she disentangled herself from Santana and headed into the kitchen to make a start on the dishes that they'd all agreed to leave until the morning. Suddenly, the mess and the clutter was making her anxious. She knew she was being silly, but she couldn't stop the what if's from creeping into her mind. What if Santana was upset that Quinn didn't discuss her transfer plans with her first? Sure, they'd talked about it during the summer, but since they'd gotten back together the subject hadn't come up once. Or, what if Santana didn't want her to move to New York at all? What if she was happy with the status quo? What if it was too much pressure, too soon?
She could feel Santana's eyes on her from the couch but it was several minutes before her girlfriend made her move. Quinn was up to her elbows in soapy water when Santana sidled up behind her and rested her chin on Quinn's shoulder.
"'S'up, Q?" she murmured against Quinn's ear. "What's with the sudden domestic goddess routine?"
Quinn bit her lower lip. She couldn't explain it to Santana when she didn't really understand it herself. Without pressing the issue any further, Santana brought her hands to Quinn's shoulders and started to rub away the tension in her muscles, and instantly Quinn felt herself start to relax under her girlfriend's ministrations.
A low moan escaped her lips as Santana's talented fingers found a particularly tight knot, and Santana chuckled softly, pressing the length of her body against Quinn's back.
"You know, I could do a much better job of this if you were lying down," Santana advised, "and wearing fewer clothes," she added mischievously, causing Quinn to shiver at the thought of Santana's hands stroking and caressing her bare skin. "Come to bed," Santana demanded, obviously not convinced that Quinn understood her not-so-subtle innuendo.
"I have something for you first," Quinn said breathlessly, taking the plunge before she could chicken out again. She turned to face the smirking brunette.
"Is it something dirty?" Santana asked, raising a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. Quinn slapped her playfully.
"No, Gutter-brain," she chastised gently. Then she grinned. "That part comes after." She silently added the word hopefully as she prayed that Santana would be happy about her college transfer. She'd been so sure that Santana would be thrilled, but now that the time had come, insecurities were creeping in. Her mind instantly imagined the worst possible outcomes and suddenly it was all she could think about.
Swallowing her fears and wiping her soapy hands, Quinn led Santana into the bedroom and, shutting out her anxiety she shoved the letter rather unceremoniously into Santana's hands. It wasn't exactly the way she'd planned, and her heart thumped rapidly in her chest as she watched Santana's face for clues to her reaction.
Anxiety gave way to impatience as Santana continued to study the letter for what seemed to Quinn like an age. Finally, Santana looked up from the page, an unreadable expression in her dark eyes. Then, she grabbed Quinn around the waist and spun her around in a dizzying circle, capturing her lips in a breathless kiss. Quinn felt all the tension leave her body in a rush as Santana ran her tongue teasingly over Quinn's lower lip, requesting access to her mouth. Quinn responded willingly, tangling her fingers into Santana's hair and deepening their connection. When they finally parted, both girls were breathless and Santana's eyes were shining.
"You're really moving here?" Santana asked disbelievingly. Quinn nodded.
"Well, to Manhattan," she corrected with a small shrug. "Commuting from here to Columbia for work over the summer nearly killed me, but we'll be so much closer, and I'll have an apartment so if you wanted to stay over…" she broke off and blushed furiously, "or if you just wanted to… um… stay… period…"
Santana grinned at her.
"You're so cute when you're tongue-tied," she said with a laugh. "We'll talk about it over winter break, okay?" She smiled as she read the letter again. "It's going to be amazing, Q," she whispered. "I can't wait to share a bed with you more than two nights a week."
Quinn felt a rush of heat at Santana's words.
"So, don't wait," she said, fixing her gaze on Santana through her eyelashes. "We have a bed right here."
"We do," Santana agreed, wetting her lips and letting her eyes wander hungrily over Quinn's figure as she started to remove her clothes, tugging her dress over her head and tossing it carelessly onto the floor.
"And I seem to remember you promising me a massage," Quinn added huskily, as she unhooked her bra and let it fall at her feet.
"Later," Santana said eagerly, throwing her full weight against Quinn so that they fell back onto the bed in a tangle of limbs.
When their desire for each other was finally sated, Quinn snuggled sleepily against her girlfriend, revelling in the warmth of her body. She was always cold when she slept alone.
"Best Christmas ever," she mumbled into Santana's shoulder, planting a gentle kiss against her bare skin.
"Right back at ya, Q," Santana replied, stifling a yawn.
"Still waiting for my massage though," Quinn teased, grinning in the darkness.
"Go to sleep," Santana ordered. Quinn giggled but obediently closed her eyes and curled up tighter against her girlfriend, wishing they weren't leaving for Lima the next day. She couldn't wait to start her new life in New York with the girl she loved more than anything in the world, but the next three weeks in Ohio felt like a trial she was being forced to endure, and she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was going to go wrong.
