It wasn't like Rachel was cheating. Just because she had a natural… edge…over others, she still hadn't taken the easy way out. She'd worked for where she was, and she knew she still had a lot of work to do to continue being where she was. She wasn't like her ancestors (in many ways, thankfully), and, you know, Rachel was happy she didn't have it as "easy" as her ancestors had. She actually liked her friends.
But perhaps she should keep that specific ability to herself. At this moment in time, they really wouldn't understand. And, perhaps, they'd never understand.
Sighing, Rachel decided she'd start on the other spectrum, then. "I can breathe underwater," she announced without preamble. After a pause, she corrected herself, "Salt water." Fingering her sleeve, she continued again, "Chlorine burns, but if I don't try to breathe, well, like you don't try to breathe, I'm fine."
The bass player sat up, and Rachel glared at him. "No. No tentacles." Then, taking a deep breath, she widened her scope of vision to see how everyone was reacting.
'Breathe underwater,' Finn was mouthing to himself, and she could hear the name Aquaman being furiously whispered between Sam and Mike and Artie.
"Salt water." Quinn frowned. "That's… Random."
Tina nodded, slowly raising her hand. "Uhm… Do you have gills?"
Shaking her head, Rachel really wasn't lying when she said no. She was just… Fibbing a little. She did have little strips of extra skin on both sides of her neck that if she really needed to she could retract, but it had been years since she had, and she was almost sure they'd grown over by now. They were only attached to her secondary systems, after all, unlike her airway which managed to connect to both her secondary and primary sets of lungs.
When Brittany whispered, "Starfish," to herself, Rachel had to stifle a grin. Sliding her gaze from the blonde over to Santana, she tried to decipher what the brunette was thinking. Looking a little pensive and tapping a finger against her knee, Santana's head was tilted as she studied Rachel, and when she noticed that Rachel was looking back at her, she smoothly transitioned into an unimpressed, suspicious expression.
Sighing mentally, she nodded at Lauren, "Yes?"
"Do you have webbed hands and feet?"
"Fins?" Kurt added, Mercedes adding a second later, "Scales?" and Brittany quickly following with, "A tail?"
Rachel held back a snort. Crossing her ankles again, she shifted to make herself more comfortable on the piano bench. Instead of answering outright, she asked, "Who here has held my hand?"
When she paused, Finn, Puck, Sam, Mike, Brittany, and Mercedes slowly raised their hands. Rachel rolled her eyes. "The answer to that is everyone," she corrected, "Alright, mostly everyone, minus Mr. Schuester and the members of the jazz band. At one time or the other, be it for dance or a performance, the rest of you have held my hand. You have touched me. So tell me." She smiled, "Do I have webbed appendages or scales?"
Mostly everyone nodded. However, "That doesn't cover the tail," Santana challenged.
Rachel put a hand to her face, pinching the bridge of her nose. "If you think about it," she sighed, raising her head to glare balefully at Santana, "I have worn numerous skin tight things over the course of my time in high school and this club. No. I do not have a tail. Nor fins." She straightened, firming her shoulders and lifting her chin; whatever the reason, this line of questioning was annoying her, "I am not the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I am not a mermaid. I am not a selkie."
"…Fabric?" Brittany leaned over and whispered to Santana.
Santana glared at her. "How the hell should I know?"
"Seal fairy," Mr. Schuester offered, and Rachel smiled at him in acknowledgement, "Yes. I do not have a seal skin to slip back into."
Sam stared at her. "Okay, now you've completely lost me."
Rachel waved him off. "It doesn't matter." Time to get everything back on track. "The only important thing is that I have, essentially, the same skin you have. Only I…" She blushed, looking away, "I…" Oh how she wished this wasn't as utterly embarrassing as it was. Pushing her hair back from her face, she absently started petting it, "Well, a side effect of being as pale as I really am, as well as being a little phosphorous, I, well… I glow in the moonlight."
There was a beat of silence, and then everyone other than Mr. Schuester and Brittany let out an amused sound or started laughing. "You mean," Quinn smirked, "You're like a… Nocturnal vampire?"
Rachel groaned. "Please stop." Yes, this was the exact response she hadn't wanted.
"So is being a whiny emo going to be the next of your super powers?" Santana added.
"But Rachel can't be a vampire," Brittany frowned, "She eats human food."
"Oh, then how about one of those blue Smurfs?" Puck threw out, "Didn't they, like, glow?"
The Na'vi? In some ways, that felt… Speciesist. Rachel slightly raised her voice. "Please stop. This is not the way to hold a successful discussion." When no one listened to her, she sighed and stood up. Almost immediately the atmosphere of the room changed, most of her audience shifting backwards in their chairs. The voices tapered off. Though that wasn't surprising, it still stung.
She really had a lot to do to earn back their trust. Their… Acceptance.
But first, she needed a drink of water. And that meant Mr. Schuester.
As she took a couple of steps towards her teacher, she could feel the burning focus of everyone watching her movements. When she got close enough to be polite but far enough away not to scare him, she asked politely, "Mr. Schuester, would you mind if I left to get a drink of water? I promise to come back in a timely fashion."
Taking in the rest of the class and staring at her searchingly, Mr. Schuester finally sighed and inclined his head. He gestured towards the nearest door. "Go ahead."
"Thank you." Turning on her heel, numb tingling in her arm socket warned her, and she huffed, sending more concentration to that area, pushing on her arm with her other hand for good measure. Annoying second phase. Once assured it would not fall off, she strode quickly out of the room.
When she heard the drummer's hesitant, "Should we try to escape now?" she slowed, then forced herself to continue on. There wasn't anything she could do. If they tried to escape, she'd let them, of course. Though it would really be a worse waste of glee club, trying to force her wishes in this matter, at least, wouldn't be beneficial for anything. And maybe it was better if she left them the rest of the day and night to think about everything that had happened. She had a reasonable expectation no one would talk…
Coming upon the water fountain, she stared at it. Though non-salted water wasn't the nicest to her stomach, it wouldn't kill her. Especially since after she got her implant. Insofar as her species had adapted to Earth and its chemical makeup, there were still some issues; as it was, Rachel had always thought herself lucky for being born as far along the occupation as she had. A couple of thousands of years later, their integration wasn't perfect, but it was good.
Allowing the cool water to gather in her mouth, waiting for her implant to kick in and realize what she was drinking had to be treated, Rachel looked up when she heard the sound of heavy boots walking up the hall towards her. She blinked and straightened, her surprise making her swallow before she meant to. Grimacing at the icky feeling of her insides trying to shrink away from the liquid, she nonetheless tried to smile when Tina stopped a couple of feet away from her. "Tina?"
Tina tentatively smiled back, then frowned when Rachel couldn't stop another grimace from crossing her face. "Are you okay?" she asked with real concern, a halting request for permission to ask underneath the words.
Rachel nodded. "I just have to, uhm, wait for my body to adapt. I…" she glanced down at the water fountain then looked at Tina again, "I rushed a little."
Tina's expression turned guilty. "I'm sorry."
"No, no, it's fine."
Still looking unsure, Tina nodded faintly. "If you're sure…"
"Oh, I am." Realizing her response was a little abrupt, Rachel took a deep breath, finally feeling her implant sending the right signals to the lining of her stomach. It always tingled oddly, and she turned a shiver into a fidget, smiling apologetically when it drew Tina's eyes back to hers. "I'm sorry; this is a little strange for me. Being able to say the truth. I mean…" She stepped away from the water fountain, thrilling when Tina's body only barely reflexively tensed as she walked towards her, "I suppose I could say the only difference now from me will be a willingness to share more about myself than I have before."
"I think I can understand that." Another smile crossed Tina's face. "It's like my stutter," she said with certainty. "As soon as it came out that it wasn't real – that essentially the person I had been presenting wasn't real, it was incredibly difficult for me to understand I couldn't hide anymore." She paused, then took a deliberate step closer to Rachel. She slowly put her hand out. "Like you can't hide."
Rachel stared at Tina's proffered hand. She had to ask. "Do you even know what you're doing?"
Tina shrugged. "To be honest…" Her lips quirked up, and she smiled at Rachel, looking beautiful and open and nice, "No. Not really."
After a second, Rachel smiled widely. "We really underestimate you, don't we?" she asked, gently wrapping her hand around Tina's and squeezing before letting go.
Tina grinned, sitting back on her heels. "Do you really have to ask?"
