A/N: I do not own Glee.
So I was going to space these out… but I decided to just post them as I work on them. I'm editing up to chapter 14 I think, but I still have a lot more to write… so after that there might be a hiatus as I write more. We'll see. Either way, thanks for reading :)
Quinn's manager lets her out of work a little earlier than usual due to the "outstanding job in getting the boss to like her". It was also mentioned to her that there was a very high possibility that she had just scored a huge raise of three more dollars an hour.
Quinn smiles at her luck and looks out the window as she rode in the cab home. She figures she can splurge a bit of money on a ride after the night she has had. First Jo, then the "inspector". Her smile begins to fade at the new onslaught of thoughts. Maybe she should look into his background information, he probably isn't even legit. And how can she say no to Jo without giving her a chance? Well she will just have to figure that out on the spot if Jo ever gets the courage to ask. Quinn crosses her fingers that she wouldn't. She doesn't need more dating issues, especially if Rachel will be frequenting her apartment. Rachel. Now she is another issue all on her own.
Quinn lays her head against the cool window and looks at the time on her phone. 11:30pm. She smiles as she begins to scroll through her texts. Apparently Rachel is going to sleep with her again tonight since she threatened her with the couch. The warm feeling Quinn gets whenever she thinks about their night together makes her a little uneasy.
"Thank you." Rachel said to Quinn as she turns her body to face toward Quinn.
"For what?" Quinn asks the ceiling.
"For taking care of me and letting me sleep here."
"Yeah, well. That's what friends do, right?"
"Right." Rachel says to the blonde as she begins to drift peacefully into sleep. Quinn turns her head to look at Rachel one last time before she does the same.
About an hour later Quinn wakes abruptly fumbling around the bed looking for Bunbun. She has just had a nightmare that he and Rachel had been trampled by a crazed herd of tauros. It was like her own personal Lion King/Pokemon related hell. She begins searching under the covers for Bunbun and stares up at the ceiling in fear whenever she feels skin instead of fluff. She feels the skin again, not feeling the affect of her own hand on her leg. Is she paralyzed at the waist? She looks under the covers and down at her hand and freezes. Her hand is not on her own leg.
The leg is tan. The leg is flawless. The leg is Rachel's.
She instantly moves her hand as if the tan legs will burn her and scoots to her side of the bed a little more. Since when does Rachel not put on her pants to sleep? Quinn peers over the side of the bed for the sweatpants that Rachel must have taken off in the middle of the night.
No pants were found. That is whenever Quinn feels cloth by her feet.
Rachel removes her clothing in her sleep.
What.
Quinn sits dumbfounded, all thoughts of stampeding tauros out of her mind. What should she do? Should she just let the pants lay there? What would Rachel think the next morning when she awakes to find no pants? Should she try and fumble around on the bed to try to put Rachel's pants back on? Could she even trust herself with that? What if she woke up and thought that Quinn is trying to take her pants off to fool around with her in her sleep? Oh God.
Quinn peeks under the covers to find where the pants are. After shamefully being distracted by the beauty next to her she finds that the pants in question are still around Rachel's ankles. So all she will have to do is pull them up, right?
Quinn reaches down in the bed to try and pull the pants up Rachel's legs. Oh God. Rachel's legs. They're so tan. So smooth. So perfect.
PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER FABRAY.
The real problem occurs whenever she gets to Rachel's knees. Thankfully her head is not under the covers anymore. She trains her eyes to Rachel's eyelids praying that they won't open as she tries to shimmy the pants up the sleeping girl's legs. When she is about halfway up her calves Rachel turns in her sleep and smacks Quinn in the face with her glorious melons. Well, they aren't really like melons. She hates it when guys call them melons. They are much better than melons. They are soft and bouncy and…
Her face is in Rachel's boobs.
What.
Just.
Happened.
About 20 minutes later Quinn wakes up to her face still in the previous position, internally kicking herself for fainting from the sudden contact. She then closes her eyes tight and focuses on the mission.
The main problem is as Rachel next turns to roll over; she also catches Quinn in a death trap of a hug. Movement is now barely possible.
Well great.
Not that she minds.
Really. This should happen every night.
But still, Rachel's pride is on the line and she will not be the one to make Rachel upset if she can avoid it. She mentally prepares for what she is about to do and nuzzles herself further into the brunette's bosom in order to reach further down and successfully pull Rachel's pants up to her waist.
SUCCESS!
Moving herself back up to her original position, she tries to get out of Rachel's grip in fear of having Rachel wake up and reject her in the morning. She will need to take baby steps, and baby steps start with the "friends first" concept. If Rachel were to wake up to Quinn snuggling into her chest Quinn will probably scare her away by accident.
She doesn't want that.
She carefully pries the brunette's tiny hands apart and rolls out of her grip instantly missing the warmth of another body. The warmth of Rachel.
It is then that Rachel begins to whimper.
Oh God, that whimper. It breaks Quinn's heart to hear it. She leans toward Rachel and strokes her hair trying to calm the sleeping girl down. She must be having a nightmare. Rachel reaches out and grabs Quinn again, pulling her into the position that she first was in. The tiny girl's heart is racing but Quinn can hear it begin to slow as soon as she is near.
Quinn wraps her arms around the girl and gives in to her senses. She is tired and she has work in the morning, but Rachel is here, the young starlet that she hated to love in high school. Quinn had hated everything about her. Rachel could get out. Rachel had the talent. Rachel was going after the wrong person. Rachel.
Quinn hugs the girl closer letting a few tears loose as she remembers all of the torment she put the girl through and all of the nights Quinn had hated herself for it. All of the nights with her father telling her that she would be kicked out of the house if she were to even smile at the girl. After all, Rachel was raised by "devil worshipers" and Quinn didn't want to fall victim to their evil ways, right? She was a young impressionable kid back then. He shaped her to become the monster that she was in high school. And yet, it is her fault for listening. For being the perfect little Daddy's girl that she was trained to be.
There is so much baggage that Quinn has been carrying around from as far back as elementary school. Rachel doesn't need to deal with all of that. Rachel needs to achieve her dream. Quinn can't allow herself to hold the girl back. She can't get attached now. No. But as she drowns in the whirlpool of her own thoughts the brunette sighs contentedly and hugs her closer. Quinn breathes in the pure smell of Rachel and can't help but feel as relaxed as she had the day she first met her. Like a star was watching over her. Like she was finally home. Safe.
Maybe sleeping next to Rachel for one night will be ok. Maybe it will be alright. Maybe she won't hurt the girl. Maybe she can make it up to her. Maybe this is what both of them need. Maybe Rachel can like her back.
Maybe Rachel can love her too.
Maybe.
Quinn obviously was out of her mind that night. Quinn reads through the texts again smiling at the pure Rachel Berry-ness of every single one of them.
Except the last one. She pauses and reads it over and over, never really registering the words fully. The "I miss you -*" stared at her mockingly. What does that even mean? Was Rachel bored and just sending a text just to send it? She didn't send any more after that one either. She must have gotten busy after that. Well Rachel isn't really there to visit her anyway. She is there for everyone else but her.
It has never been her.
The thought makes Quinn's heart squeeze as she pays the taxi driver and looks up at her home. Her home radiates happiness more than it used to. Rachel is just a beacon like that. She is about to dig into her pocket for her keys whenever she notices that she had given the keys to Rachel in a hurry to save Bunbun..
Well crap. Who should she wake up? That's whenever she notices her phone light up in her hand.
Girl, we need to talk soon. We have much that needs to be discussed. I know you'll be here in like an hour so I left your keys taped under the mat out front. Cliché I know, but I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it. By the way, Rachel is in your room. She told us that you asked her to stay so we let her stay. I don't want to come home to the sound of either of you screaming if you know what I mean. :P
It is here that Quinn chokes. When did Mercedes find out that Quinn has a huge crush on Rachel? She likes to think that she hides that aspect of her life fairly well. After all, she has been perfecting it since elementary school.
I would not want to clean up that mess. Blood red clearly would not look good on my lime green towels! LOL. But yeah. Kurt, Henry, Trev, and I went out to the bar down the road. Blaine went back to his campus to get some work done. Talk to you tomorrow, Sis. –M 11:05pm
Quinn grimaces at the thought of explaining Rachel to Mercedes. The diva would be as understanding as possible, but the initial shock that she would endure would probably cause Quinn's eardrums to pop. Mercedes tends to scream whenever she hears any news that is out of the ordinary.
Quinn later opens the door at the top of the stairs to find the apartment black and devoid of life. She wonders at the silence and peeks into the living room area expecting to see a comical version of Rachel Berry under a lighted lamp like a parent ready to scold their child when they get home after curfew. Sadly she isn't there. Deciding that the best course of action is to brush her teeth she goes into the bathroom to prepare herself for slumber. The fact that Rachel's new toothbrush is in the holder right next to Quinn's does not go unnoticed.
Quinn walks around the house still brushing her teeth looking for Rachel. Assuming that she must have inhabited her room, the blonde finishes brushing her teeth and sneaks over to her room to open the door quietly.
Inside her room she finds the most adorable scene she has ever laid eyes on. Rachel is curled into the fetal position cuddling a content Bunbun while Adele plays on Quinn's laptop in the background. Rachel's mouth is slightly open and the blonde can hear her snoring gently. Quinn smiles at the scene and giggles internally at the fact that Rachel's pants are slightly askew already.
Deciding that she shouldn't try to crawl into bed with the two of her most prized confidants, she begins to change into her for her night on the couch. Tomorrow is her free day anyway so she won't need a good night's sleep to function. After changing she pulls a blanket out of the top of her closet and lays it gently on Rachel while singing along to the song currently playing.
"I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
but I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I had hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded
that for me it isn't over."
She begins to run her hand through Rachel's hair and Rachel smiles in her sleep as Quinn forms a small smile in return.
"Never mind
I'll find someone like you.
I wish nothing but the best for you, too.
Don't forget me.,' I begged
'I'll remember.,' you said
'Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead.'"
Quinn walks to the door and turns off the light. As she walks to the couch she keeps singing the song to herself.
"Nothing compares,
no worries or cares.
Regrets and mistakes
they are memories made.
Who would have known
how bittersweet this would taste?"
And with that she turns the light off in the living room and curls into a ball on the couch waiting for sleep to come, ignoring the lyrics swirling in her mind.
Rachel wipes a little bit of drool off of her face as she glances at Quinn's clock. It says 1am. "Well, that can't be right" she thinks aloud as she sets Bunbun down on the floor and tears off the blanket. "Where is Quinn?" Rachel looks down at her new companion as he looks up at her. Obviously he doesn't know either.
Rachel quickly adjusts her appearance to look presentable in the mirror on the back of Quinn's door and walks into the living room. It is there that she finds the blonde sleeping on the couch. She goes over to the side of the couch and crouches down to be at the same level as Quinn's eyes.
She looks so serene. Beautiful. Should she wake the girl up? Rachel brushes Quinn's hair out of the way so she can see the smooth face of the woman in front of her. She is flawless. Rachel had disliked that face so much in high school, but not for the reasons most people would think. She just couldn't figure it out. She could figure out Finn. She could figure out Puck. And Kurt. And Mercedes. She could figure out just about everyone.
But this elusive face, the one before her, was a fortitude. It has never shown what is hidden within. It has always had the same expression, regardless of the event. It was a rarity that the expression would be contorted into anything besides sweet indifference. Quinn smiled as she sang. That Rachel remembered. And she would give a broken expression when she sang sometimes too. It was like songs bring it out of her. The songs allow for Quinn to feel. That's something Rachel can relate to. Why hadn't she seen it?
Rachel hesitates wanting to touch the porcelain features. They look so soft. And warm. Something others would never have thought of Quinn Fabray. Maybe there is a time that she had seen the warmth, but that was a long time ago. That time is lost now.
But now Quinn seems to be like how she was back then. Like the first day they met.
"Now Rachel, we will be here after school. There is no reason to cry, little star."
"Elijah, are you sure we should leave her here like this?"
"Will you relax, love? It is the first day of school. What did you expect? Sunshine and rainbows? She does this every time we drop her off at the babysitter's too."
"But that's because that latina picks on her. I honestly think that child is pressed."
"KEVIN! They are kids. Don't go judging kids yet."
"Are you saying our little star is not desirable by both sexes?"
"No. I'm not. I'm just saying…"
"Hello."
The two men look down at a little blonde striding over to their family.
"I am Quinn Fabray. I know all of my letters already. Do you need help with your letters?"
Rachel nods her head from behind Elijah's leg.
"I can help you. What's your name?"
"Rachel. Rachel Berry." Rachel then looks up at her Dads silently asking them for help from this new terror. Will they come with her?
"I like your shirt. What is that on it?"
"It's a star."
"It's kind of like you."
"Santana said that too. She said it's stupid like me."
"No. It shines, like your eyes. I found things that look like that over there. One of them has my name on it! You want to see it? Maybe there is one for you too!"
And with that Quinn takes her by the hand and drags her into the room. Rachel forgets about her fears of a new class. She never notices her parents leave and say good-bye. She doesn't even notice the harsh words that are thrown her way. Not with Quinn around. With Quinn's hand in hers she is safe. She is home.
A month later, Quinn is taken out of her class and placed into a new one.
"Rachel? What are you doing here?" Quinn asks her with a voice heavy of sleep.
"I could ask you the same question."
Quinn looks confused. The expression is so endearing Rachel can't help but smile. "Huh? I'm sleeping, obviously." The blonde begins to rub her eyes. "Or I was. What's wrong? Are you ok?"
"Why did you leave me?"
Quinn's confused expression only deepens. "I had work?"
"No. In Elementary school. Do you remember?"
"What's going on? What are you talking about?"
"Forget it." Rachel stands up and looks down at Quinn. "Come to bed, please?" It's lonely without you.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I am. Come on. It's your bed."
Quinn rolls off of the couch and grabs Rachel's hand before she gets too far away.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"I know that look, little one. What is wrong?"
Rachel looks down at their hands and feels the warmth. She holds onto the contact taking in the safety of it. Why did things screw up so much back then?
Quinn notices her looking down at their hands and instantly lets it go looking away. "You don't have to tell me. It's fine. I understand. Let's just go to sleep." She walks past Rachel and into the room.
Whenever Rachel walks into the room she notices Quinn lying with her back against the wall waiting for her on the bed. Rachel turns off the light and climbs into the covers next to her, rolling to face the other direction.
She hears Quinn make a huffing noise before pulling Rachel backwards into the blonde's arms.
"There is no reason for you to perch on the side of the bed. By now you know I don't bite." Quinn begins to lift her arms and makes shuffling movements as if she were about to move away from Rachel again.
"You can stay where you are you know."
"Huh?"
Rachel is silent for a little while as Quinn stays still.
"You can keep your arms around me. You know, if you are more comfortable that way or something. I'm ok with it."
With that Quinn tightens her arms slightly around the brunette for a moment before nuzzling her head into the crook between her shoulders.
"Thank you." The blonde mumbles into Rachel's shirt. "I'm here you know. I'm not going anywhere again. I'm staying."
"Again?" Rachel asks the darkness. There is only quiet breathing as an answer. Quinn has fallen asleep. Rachel begins to fall asleep to the heartbeat behind her, taking comfort in the arms wrapped around her rather than thinking about the very real possibility of her sleeping alone at school the next night.
