AN: Super special thanks to Harley Quinn Davidson, Angel Kruger, Princesakarlita411, Dreamsilver, May996, livbuk1900, LaurenKnight13, Mm-Butny-Toast-mM for the amazing reviews! This is one of my favorite chapters. Mucho fluff. You will be happy at the end I promise.=)
Chapter 9
Quinn strode into the halls of McKinley High the next morning with a new surge of confidence. There was an extra bounce in her step and she even bothered to fix her hair this morning. Why? Because Rachel Berry liked her. The whole Berry clan seemed to like her actually. She could see that this day was going to be a good day. Puck had told her to woo Rachel, and that's exactly what she was going to do. She had even bought Rachel a tiny stuffed black and white cat that she saw when she was at the liquor store trying to buy cigarettes.
She rounded the corner and saw Rachel standing at her locker, pulling out books. A small smile graced Quinn's face until she felt like she was being hit in the face with a block of ice. She stopped in her tracks, purple slush falling slowly off her face. She sputtered and did her best to wipe the slush off her face. She managed to wipe enough out of her eyes to see Finn standing in front of her with an empty cup in his hand.
"What the fuck, Hudson?" Quinn yelled, knocking the cup out of his hand. The rest of the hall turned to look at the ruckus in the middle of the hall, forming a sort of circle around the two students.
"What? You can dish it but you can't take it?" Finn said, his face screwed up in anger.
"I haven't done this shit in a long time, Finn. You know why? Because it's fucking immature!"
"You deserve it, Quinn," Finn yelled back at her.
"For what? I haven't done anything to you!"
"No, but you're planning on doing something."
"Why the hell would I waste my time on you?"
"Not to me. To Rachel!"
Quinn felt like he punched her in the stomach too, "Excuse me?"
"I saw you hanging out with Rachel yesterday. There's no reason that you would be hanging out with her unless it was with to do something mean to her."
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
"What? No. You're a bitch and she's a glee loser. You hate her-"
Quinn couldn't contain herself anymore and she leaped onto Finn, her fist colliding with his face. He fell to the ground, writhing and covering his face with his hands. Quinn kept hitting him wherever she could. His shoulders, his face, his arms. Nothing was safe.
"Quinn Fabray! Stop this instant!"
Tiny hands blindly reached for her flailing arms as they came down on the pathetic boy beneath her. Rachel managed to grab both of her arms and pull her off the football player who was still cowering on the ground. Quinn made another leap for him but Rachel's arms were firmly around her waist. Rachel began to drag her back towards the bathroom.
"Don't you ever call her a loser, motherfucker! She's more than you'll ever be!" Quinn yells to him as Rachel dragged her into the girls bathroom. It's not until the door has closed that Rachel lets Quinn go. She practically leaps out of her arms and slams her fist on the door in anger.
"Fuckin' Husdon."
"Quinn, calm down, please," Rachel said running some water in the sink and waiting for it to get warm. Quinn paces back and forth in the bathroom, kicking one of the stall doors. Rachel grasped her shoulders and spun the punk girl to face her. She placed a hand on either side of her face and looked her straight in the eyes. "Stop. Please."
Quinn breathed deeply through you nose, her eyes never moving from the brown ones staring straight into her. "He's an asshole."
"I know," Rachel said simply, "But I'm pretty sure you gave him a nice black eye."
Quinn sighed and felt her heart rate start to normalize. "I hope so."
Rachel looked at her one last time and let go of her face, reaching into her back to take out a towel. She caught Quinn's questioning look and shrugged, "For emergencies such as this, Quinn."
The brunette began to carefully wipe the remaining slush from Quinn's shirt. When most of it was gone, she pushed her towards the sink.
"Put your head under the faucet, please."
Quinn sighed but did as she was told, the warm water feeling good on her cold skull. Small fingers began to move over her scalp, scratching and pulling at the hairs and she shivered.
"Is the water cold?" Rachel asked.
"No, it's perfect," Quinn said biting back a moan when Rachel pulled at the small hairs on the back of her neck, trying to get some purple ice out. It was a disappointment but a relief when her fingers disappeared.
"Okay, dry your hair out a little, Quinn."
Rachel handed her the towel to dry with but instead, Quinn whipped her hair back and shook her head like a dog, spreading water droplets all over the bathroom. Rachel squealed and tried to cover her face.
"Quinn! That was unnecessary!" Rachel said trying to wipe the water from her eyes. Quinn smiled wryly at her through a mess of pink hair.
"Sorry," she said with smirking. In reality she wasn't sorry because now there was water dripping down Rachel's chest and towards the tops of her breasts. How she wished she was that droplet of water.
"Quinn!"
Her eyes looked up to see Rachel looking at her frowning, "My eyes are up here, you know."
Quinn blushed, "Sorry."
"I don't appreciate being objectified. You know this."
"I wasn't objectifying you. I was admiring you."
Rachel rolled her eyes, "It was rude, Quinn. What happened to the sweet girl that was at my house last night?"
Quinn didn't answer. Instead she went over to her bag and pulled out the stuffed cat she had gotten yesterday, double checking that he didn't smell like smoke. She walked up to Rachel and handed the cat to her.
"I'm sorry I was being inappropriate," Quinn said softly, watching Rachel's eyes light up when she saw the stuffed animal, "Even though it's really hard not to be when you're so damn gorgeous.*
Rachel blushed and held the kitten to her chest, "You got this for me?"
Quinn nodded and Rachel took a step closer to her.
"You..you think I'm gorgeous?"
The insecurity and fear in Rachel's eyes was enough to break Quinn's heart and she wrapped the smaller girl in her arms loosely.
"I think you're more gorgeous than any girl I've ever seen."
Rachel nuzzled her shirt and she hoped that she didn't smell too badly of smoke. Maybe having that cigarette on the way to school was a bad idea. The tiny beaded eyes of the stuffed cat dug into Quinn's chest but the feel of Rachel's light breath on her collarbone made it all worth it. Rachel played with the frayed collar of Quinn's shirt, her soft fingers occasionally grazing the bottom the the punk girl's collarbone.
"Quinn," Rachel said softly, "We have class."
Quinn groaned and held her tighter, "I just want to stay like this."
Rachel turned her face into Quinn's shirt in embarrassment and she couldn't help but find the most enduring thing ever. Quinn really just wanted to lean down and take Rachel's lips in hers but in reality she didn't even know if Rachel liked her at all. The brunette looked up at her through her eyelashes and Quinn felt her breath catch in her throat.
"Quinn?" she said softly.
"Yes, Rachel?"
"I'm going to kiss you now."
The way that Rachel was looking at her, like she was the only thing that mattered, and the way she could smell her lavender perfume along with the fact that those words had just come out of Rachel's mouth rendered Quinn speechless. So she just gave her a short nod.
The front of Rachel's body brushed against hers when the shorter girl lifted herself up on her tip toes, even after Quinn bent down to shorten the distance between them. When Rachel's lips pressed into her, Quinn could have sworn she was in heaven. Her lips were as soft as those stupid cashmere sweaters her mom made her wear and she smelled sweet like fresh picked flowers. Hell, even the damn cat eyes digging into her chest were perfect. Because Rachel was kissing her. And it was the best feeling in the world.
