A/N: Shout out to SilverfoxCFL for that lenghly review! I hope you guys enjoy this one.


CHAPTER 9


What Are You Afraid Of?

"Two tickets please." Quinn rested her left elbow on the ticket booth as she held a twenty-dollar bill on her right hand. Rachel watched her from a few steps behind. This date was kinda perfect in a very Quinn way. Well except for the 'Rebecca Jones' fiasco of course. She should have stopped asking about her when it was obvious it was an awkward topic for Quinn.

Rachel wondered if maybe she could stalk this 'Becca' from Austin on Facebook. Maybe even get a clear look at this pale girl with blue eyes. Rachel stared at Quinn once more, black boots, black jeans, black top, everything was black. Certainly a practical approach when shopping and on Quinn, it looked very badass indeed. She wondered whether this was Becca's attire, maybe Quinn had gotten some inspiration from this girl. She hated that thought.

Rachel thought about Quinn's trip across the country. It would have been amazing to go along with the punk girl. She could imagine it so perfectly well, their hair blowing with the wind, smiles on their faces, both of them simply happy. Ridiculous really, with all the classes she took over the summer, there was no time for fun, less of all for a two-months long trip.

Quinn turned with a cheeky grin holding two tickets up high in her hand, motioning for Rachel to join her. Rachel caught up to her and they both went inside the theater.

"Do you want popcorn? I could just go get it real quick before the movie starts." Quinn asked Rachel in the darkness. Frankly, Quinn just wanted to hold something in her hands before they decided to randomly start touching Rachel. The darkness, well... it was tempting.

"We just ate!" Rachel gave Quinn an incredulous look. "Let's just watch the movie Quinn." Rachel repositioned herself looking straight at the screen. Quinn was unbelievable. after that wrap the last thing Rachel wanted was to eat was popcorn.

Both girls had decided on a romantic comedy. It was, after all "Typical date stuff". Quinn was set on giving Rachel the full experience and on her part, the brunette really did love rom-com movies.

The salty smell of popcorn was in the air making Quinn's mouth water; specially when two old ladies went by, each holding a large bag of popcorn. She had already eaten an Alfredo pasta. This was certainly unexpected. Her mouth was salivating so greatly that Quinn made slurping sounds every time she swallowed. Beethoven the dog went through Quinn's mind when suddenly she felt heat spreading from her leg.

"Are you okay?" Rachel asked, placing her hand on top of Quinn's lap. Concern marked her eyebrows and the light from the propaganda on the screen made her brown eyes flicker with light.

Quinn nodded so very slowly and then placed her hand on top of Rachel's on her lap.

Rachel's eyes widened comically as she rested her head back on the seat. From afar, and turning her head just so, due to her lack of periphery vision, Rachel watched their joined hands on Quinn's lap. This was weird. It was weird because she liked it in a nonsexual way. It was weird because she felt like that's where her hand should be. Rachel thought on how she would feel every time Finn possessively installed his hand on her lap. It felt like brushing her teeth every morning or ordering take-out for dinner. That goes without mentioning that his hand was so big it would cover most of Rachel's thigh, which was just plain uncomfortable. She wondered whether Quinn felt the same way about Rachel's hand being there. -Not the big part of course, that would be absurd- Did it feel routinely for the pink-haired girl or did she liked it?

Rachel decided to test it out by squeezing Quinn's thigh. The girl went rigid and the slurping sounds her mouth was making grew louder. "Interesting." Rachel thought. Quinn's hand was no longer on top of the Diva's but on the armrest and her hold on the soda-holder was -for lack of a better word- deathly. Yet, the pink-haired beauty remained a stoic figure, still looking forward to the Coca-cola commercial. "Why was this so amusing?" Wait no! Rachel released Quinn's leg and busied herself with the hem of her own skirt. This was wrong, she knew Quinn was gay and avidly taking advantage of this knowledge was highly inappropriate no mater how fun Rachel found it. The singer chastised herself for what she had done. Quinn was her friend, the girl who has helped her so much throughout this week. In Rachel's eyes, Quinn Fabray is invaluable. Her willingness to participate on Rachel's crazy plan had shown the brunette another side of her. A side that was kind and fun, sympathetic and honest. There was no way Rachel was risking that over following random whims she had no control over.

"So..." Quinn cleared her throat. "How am I doing so far?" Quinn smiled teasingly as she gently elbowed Rachel's arm.

Rachel exhaled hard through a smile and blushed slightly. "To be honest, you're doing great!"

Quinn smiled back. "Best normal date ever, huh?"

Rachel chuckled lightly. "Yes, best normal date ever!" She continued to giggle lightly.

"Keep it down back there!" A woman upfront yelled.

"You made a hell of a lot more noise trying to quiet us down miss. Besides, it's just the previews." Quinn reasoned.

The woman turned her face around. "You've got a lot of nerve saying that to me Ms. Fabray."

Out of all the places in all of Lima -Okay Lima wasn't that big- why did they have to go to the same movie theater as Sue Sylvester? Quinn could not believe her own luck.

Sue had gone back to facing the front and left both girls looking at each other in awkwardness.

"Maybe we should go watch another movie." The singer suggested.

"Let's just go. It's too weird watching a movie with her in the same place. I feel like she could stare at us in the darkness." Quinn whispered in Rachel's ear.

Rachel shuddered and then nodded her head in agreement. Quietly, both girls left the theater hand in hand. Before they knew it, a microphone was shoved in their faces.

"Anonymous sources told us that this is your first official date. If so, could you please tell us what did you do on your first unofficial date?" Quinn just wanted to die... or kill. Yes, Quinn Fabray wanted to kill, and most specifically, she wanted to kill Jacob Ben Israel.

Quinn shoved Rachel behind her, snatched Jacob's microphone from his weak hands and threw it as far as she could. She grabbed the small boy from the collar with incredible force and held him close to her face. "No. Comments." She then proceeded to shove Jacob back. Once on the floor, Jacob watched the two girls step over him and walk away to the theater's parking lot.

"Did you get all that?" He asked excitedly to his cameraman.


"Fucking assholes. There is no privacy in this fucking town." Quinn muttered to herself as she turned on the car's ignition.

"Where are we going?" Rachel settled her hand on Quinn's shoulder preventing the pink-haired girl from pushing down on the car's pedal.

Quinn changed the car to "Park" mode and turned to Rachel. "I'm taking you home I guess..." She whispered with sadness in her hazel eyes.

"Will you stay?" Rachel's eyes pleaded as well.

Quinn scrunched up her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Would you care to watch a movie with me at my place? My fathers aren't home so it's okay. They won't find out or anything." Rachel started playing with the hem of her skirt. She wanted to keep spending time with Quinn. The date was ending way too soon.

Quinn's brain short-circuited. Rachel and her, alone, at her place. What could be better than that? Well, except for the 'real deal' of course. "S-sure... If it's no problem of course."

"No there's no problem at all. I even got popcorn with vegan friendly butter if you want." Rachel offered.

"Eww! How does that even taste?" Quinn asked as she started the car.

Rachel huffed. "It tastes just the same! Besides you weren't complaining when you ate some of my cookies for lunch and those had vegan friendly butter as well!"

Quinn cleared her throat. "I- I knew that already, I was just teasing."

Rachel rolled her eyes at this. "Just... Don't worry about the food okay? You can eat whatever you want at my house and I promise it's gonna taste good." Rachel inhaled deeply.

Quinn peered at Rachel as she spoke. "Actually, I'm not hungry at all."

"Then what's the point of this conversation?" Rachel huffed soundly.

"I- I well... I don't know. Umm... since when are you a vegan?" Quinn tried to appease the girl.

"Since very recently actually. In a few weeks it'll be two years." After Rachel finished answering Quinn's question, little drops of water started hitting the car's windshield.

After turning the wipers on, Quinn continued. "so like... why? Why are you a vegan?"

"Well, at first I was a vegetarian, and now and then I used to like some milk with my cereal. Not anymore though, now I am a hundred percent vegan." Rachel took a pause to inhale. "In the beginning meat started to become disgusting to me ever since I had a really bad time with this pepperoni pizza, since then, pepperoni really grossed me out. Then meat grossed me out too, but I still ate chicken. Later on though, I read this book called "A New Diet for America" and it was life-changing really. My posture on this is stronger than ever now because of animal cruelty, there is this documentary called "Earthlings" you should watch it Quinn. Plus, it's even about the environment now! Did you know the meat industry is the largest producer of green house gases? I seriously cannot imagine myself not being vegan." Rachel finished, even panting afterwards.

Quinn did not expect such an answer from Rachel. Which was stupid actually because when has Rachel Berry ever been known for chitchat?

"I h-had no idea Rach." Quinn said evenly.

Rachel sighed. "Most of the world has no idea Quinn, why should you be any different?"

Quinn didn't know why, but that comment had stung. She did not want Rachel seeing her as if she was common, she wanted to be special in Rachel's eyes.

"Well, maybe you can change that? Maybe I could turn to veganism as well or something... Who knows really?" Quinn felt out of her comfort zone with this topic.

"I tried with Finn, but there is no use. He looooves his cheeseburger." Rachel said mockingly. "We could give it a try if you really want to of course."

"That would be nice." Quinn smiled gently.

"What's your favorite food though. That one is the hardest one to give up." Rachel warned.

"I really like pasta. Well, who doesn't, right?" Quinn chuckled.

Rachel's eyebrows rose. "Pasta? We can work well with pasta! For all we know you'll be a vegan by next week!"

Quinn grinned back. "That'd be so awesomely random! Hey! Can you believe it's only been a week?"

"Yeah... The first week of school always seems like a long time to me. But it's only till I get used to the routine, next week will probably go faster. At least I hope."

Quinn inhaled. "Gosh do you ever have that feeling at school when you just want summer break to start already and then, when you're finally on summer break you're just wishing school would start sooner?" The pink-haired girl chuckled to herself.

"Believe me! That is the dichotomy of my entire life. I want things to go really fast, at the same time I want them to stay the same. It's frustrating not settling on one, but I guess it's all part of being human."

Quinn half-smiled. "I think you're right. Although that's not one of the things I find most frustrating about being human."

Rachel poked Quinn on the rib. "Then which one is it?"

"Fear."

Rachel scrunched up her eyebrows. "You find fear frustrating? Most people find it... scary."

"Yeah fear is frustrating! It's just this thing that's there and doesn't go away until you do exactly what it's causing it in the first place. I find it very frustrating!"

"Well, now that you put it that way. It does sound frustrating." Rachel conceded. "But what are you afraid of?" She kept to herself.


"Come on in. There's no one home, see? It's dad and daddy's 'date night' tonight." Rachel ushered Quinn inside her home and closed the door behind them.

"When will they be back?" Quinn stood in the middle of the living room without knowing where to go.

"Usually by two in the morning or something like that. They went over to Dayton, I think they were gonna have some dinner and see the local philharmonic at the Schuster Center." Rachel said as she guided Quinn to the couch in front of the television.

"I know that one! I watched a ballet there once. The nutcracker! But that was such a long time ago I don't even remember what is it about." Quinn got herself comfortable on the couch sitting beside Rachel.

"Hey listen do you want something to drink or maybe the popcorn I promised?" Rachel asked absent-mindedly as she stood up from the couch and went over to the kitchen. "The piece's title can be immensely misleading. Nevertheless, The Nutcracker is about this girl Marie who gets a nutcracker from her uncle as a Christmas present. That night she dreams the toy comes to life and battles mice. It's really cute actually! Then the second act it's just several dances that have nothing to do with anything. Anyways, do you want an-" Rachel gasped.

Rachel had turned away from the kitchen cabinets in order to address Quinn, only to find herself against Quinn between both counter's in the kitchen. Heat flushed Rachel's cheek.

"You scared me!" Rachel breathed out pushing Quinn on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry, it's just that you left and I never got to answer that I wanted some water, so I decided to simply follow you." Quinn leaned back on the counter and rested her elbows.

The girl had no idea how sexy that made her look for Rachel. The brunette just stood there as if appreciating a piece of art.

Seeing as Rachel apparently wasn't gonna move anymore, Quinn removed herself from the counter. "It's okay, I can just get it myself. Where are glasses?"

Rachel had already lowered down two glasses from the kitchen cabinets and Quinn leaned over her to get to the one sitting on the counter behind the Diva.

"Gosh she smells good. I wonder what shampoo she uses." Rachel took in a deep breath and then watched Quinn fiddling with the refrigerator's water device.

"What are you up for tonight Quinn?" "Ohmylord ohmylord ohmylord! My perverted ways are seeping through my questions! Rein it in Rachel REIN IT. THE FUCK. IN!"

Quinn took a sip of her water before answering. "Well how about we just watch a rom-com? That's what we were gonna do anyways." the girl reasoned.

"Well my favorite one ever is 'When Harry Met Sally' I've even got it on Blu-ray if you want to watch it!" Rachel beamed.

Quinn's eyebrows rose. "Is that the whole 'fake-orgasm' thing at a dinner?" she chuckled out.

"YES!" Rachel let out in an orgasmic kind of way which made Quinn's eyes widen in surprise.

"Would you ever fake one?" Quinn inquired.

Rachel lifted her hand up to her chin in consideration. "I would not. Of course this I say in theory because I've never actually had sex, but I'm sure I wouldn't. Obviously it'd be great practice for my acting skills, but I'd rather act because I'm working and not because I'm not getting enough pleasure from the other person. Besides, in the end the truth comes out and feelings get hurt. What about you Quinn?" Both girls had already walked over to the living room once again and sat down on the couch.

Quinn's breath hitched. Rachel had said the other person instead of just saying the guy or the man. "That's gotta count for something damn it!" She took another sip from her water and then placed it on the coffee table in front of the couch. "I wouldn't. I'm... I'm not even very loud when I... well y'know."

Quinn's blush rivaled Rachel's for the "Who Looks More Like China's Flag Contest." Both of them would tie for first place right now.

Rachel's brain went to the gutter. She imagined being on top of Quinn, hearing the girl panting next to her ear as she fucked her mercilessly and a final gasp as she came undone under the brunette.

"Let's just watch the movie okay?" Rachel went over to the Blu-ray and put the movie on.

Once she was settled back on the couch, she pressed play on the remote.

Five minutes in, neither of the girls had managed to get into the movie. Rachel kept tumbling and turning on the couch and Quinn kept inching towards the brunette, wanting to get closer and closer. Eventually both girls settled on the middle on the furniture and Quinn decided to risk it by placing her extended arm on top of the couch's back. Rachel immediately got the hint and leaned her head on the punk girl's shoulder.

This was a terrible idea. The warmth emanating from Quinn was making Rachel dizzy. "Dear Liza's mother! Why does she have to smell so good?" Rachel had never found anything more intoxicating than Quinn's smell. It was like a sweet trap for petite Divas such as herself. The smell would allure anyone actually, the victim -or prey- would fall into Quinn's ambush and who could really blame them for falling in the first place? By this point, Quinn had lowered her arm around Rachel and was gently ranking her nails on Rachel's arm. The goosebumps the brunette felt would softly settle on her belly, slowly building up something of greatness. Rachel's breath was hitching in the process, making the brunette just hold it altogether so as to not make any noises. Rachel Berry was literally agonizing from bliss.

"What is this we're doing? Is Quinn being friendly or something more?" Rachel thought without realizing there was no way she could truly know the difference since this was her first close friendship ever. If this was Finn, Rachel would instantly know the boy was pulling something on her. But Frankly, with Quinn Rachel had no idea whatsoever. Fear overtook her. "What if I tell Quinn about my crush and she jut doesn't -wait what?- crush? When had lust developed into a crush? Sweet Barbra I am so fucked right now! I am totally crushing on Quinn Fabray! I can't tell her! She's gonna think I'm just a pathetic little puppy that loves anyone that gives it the littlest amount of attention. I'm so stupid I'm so stupid I'm so stupid. A few days ago I was telling her not to fall for me! You stupid Rachel now you've ruined the only real friendship you've ever known!"

Rachel disentangled herself from Quinn immediately, they watched the rest of the movie in silence from a safe and polite distance between them.

Quinn felt disgusted by herself all through it, she had obviously pushed it too far. "What was I thinking putting my arm over Rachel?" Clearly, she wasn't. Now Rachel was sitting awkwardly at the sofa's end and the punk girl did not know what to do in order to change that.

"YES! YES! YES! YES!" Both girls really focused on the movie at this point. Meg Ryan was screaming loudly in the middle of the dinner while everyone watched her. Quinn and Rachel looked at each other and full on laughed at the Blonde actress' fake-orgasm. They laughed even more when an old woman asked to be served whatever 'Sally' was having.

After the laughter quiet down, Rachel stood up and made some popcorn. When she sat back once again, she wasn't as far away anymore, this appeased Quinn, plus the popcorn wasn't bad at all. Both girls continued to watch the movie in a pleasant silence.


After a while Quinn's phone rang.

"Is it midnight already?" The pink-haired girl said to the phone.

Judy Fabray sighed. "Yes Quinnie, say goodbye to your friends and come pick me up already!"

"Coming!" Quinn hung up the phone and gave Rachel half a smile. "I've gotta go Rach. I'm sorry I couldn't finish the movie." Both girls stood up and hugged each other at the door. Rachel never wanted to let go, which only made her let go of Quinn faster. When Quinn finally turned around to walk back to her mom's car, she saw Rachel's dads come up through the driveway. Quinn panicked and turned around to see Rachel like a deer on the headlights standing under the door's frame.

Both men waved from inside the car, both girls waved back robotically.

"Dad daddy, this is Quinn Fabray." Rachel introduced once the men were standing in front of them.

While Hiram's eyebrows went up, LeRoy's went down. "Quinn, these are my fathers." Rachel continued with the introductions. "This is LeRoy." Said the brunette pointing at the taller of the two men. "and this is Hiram." Rachel finished, pointing at the smaller man. Quinn smiled as best she could but it just came out as constipation. -Hey! It's easy to get confused between the two! Give Finn a break!-

"Nice to meet you." Quinn acknowledge.

Rachel took a hold of Quinn's elbow. "Actually, she was just leaving. She has to pick up her mom from her friend's house." The brunette finished giving a gentle push forward to Quinn's arm and smiling brightly at her fathers.

"Are you Quinn Fabray the cheerleader's captain?" Hiram asked while subconsciously pointing at Quinn's pink hair.

"She's no longer a cheerleader dad." Rachel clarified.

LeRoy stepped forward as Quinn took a step back with discretion. "What happened to your hair?" The tall man decided to acknowledge the elephant in the room -or in the Berry's driveway if you want to be more specific-

"She dyed it daddy! Isn't it nice? You know how pink has always been my favorite color!" Rachel tried her best to keep things slightly less awkward. Let's just give her a sticker star because she at least tried.

"You mean she dyed it for you or something?" LeRoy crossed his arms over his chest, looking big and almighty because of his considerable height.

"No! No no nononono of course not daddy! That's just crazy. Quinn did it for herself, her mom even helped her out!" Rachel kept what she thought was a gentle smile on her face but actually looked like the face most women make when removing a tampon.

Hiram scowled at this. "You mean her mother approves of this look?"

Rachel felt as if she was being interrogated but instead of the 'Good cop/Bad cop' routine, she was getting the less popular one: 'Bad cop/Worse cop'. Quinn awkwardly cleared her throat to make clear she was still present.

"Really dad, she's just leaving." Rachel decided to ignore the question altogether. "She's running late already." Rachel pushed Quinn's arm towards the car once again. Before walking away, the pink-haired girl looked at the brunette's parents as if asking permission and since she didn't get a response from either men, she decided to just go. "Goodnight." Was the last thing they heard from her.

Once her car was out of the Berry's driveway. Rachel's parents looked at her disapprovingly. "Get inside young lady, we have a lot to discuss!" Hiram ordered.

Rachel lowered her head in surrender and turned around to enter the house, her fathers right behind her. After the men took off their coats they motioned for Rachel to sit down on the living room's couch, both men remained standing.

"First of all." Hiram started. "What was she doing here without us knowing?" The smaller man placed his hands on his hips much like Rachel does sometimes.

"Why did you get home so early anyways?" Rachel bit back. She was upset for the way the men had treated her friend. Quinn had been nothing but kind to her, she didn't deserve to be judge solely on her looks.

LeRoy did an adult face-palm. That was Rachel's first strike. "You mean to tell us that if we hadn't gotten here earlier Hiram and I would've never found out about this? How many people do you bring to our home without us knowing?" the taller man stood straight beside his husband, both of them making a strong front.

"If you only knew." Rachel thought to herself. From Jesse to Puck and Finn to a whole party without them knowing and on the day she had literally done nothing she was caught. That's just her luck.

"No one daddy! Just her I swear." Rachel lied.

"You only swear when you're lying!" Hiram pointed out. Strike number two for Rachel Berry.

Rachel mentally face-palmed at this. She needed to step up her game! "I'm telling the truth dad. It was just her and we were just watching a movie."

Hiram took off his glasses and started to wipe them with his shirt while LeRoy stared Rachel down. "Then why keep it from us?" the taller man countered.

After Hiram had put his glasses back on he interrupted. "Why are you hanging out with her anyways? Wasn't she the one that had you in tears all sophomore year? Since when do you guys hang out? Since she dyed her hair?"

Rachel gulped down hard at this. She didn't know what to say, they weren't supposed to know they were girlfriends.

"I broke up with Finn!"

Both of her parents gave Rachel a grown-up 'What the fuck?' look. "What does that have to do with anything?" LeRoy questioned suddenly with a very high-pitched tone.

"Quinn is helping me out with that. He won't leave me alone -Well now maybe he will because I told him I didn't want to marry him -oh yeah! He asked me to marry him on Wednesday or was it Thursday?- I don't know! Everything is going too fast!- The point is that Quinn is helping me out by pretending to be my girlfriend for a while. It keeps him in line. Sort of. -Actually, she didn't have a choice I forced her, and after that... a tentative friendship has started between us and I've been giving her rides on my car and that's why I started to leave early in the mornings and I'm just- Please forgive me. I'm sorry, I really am. What you guys saw was just a date -not really a date, a fake-date! Because Quinn is gay and she wanted to practice having a date with a girl and I agreed. But we're McKinley's new "It Couple" and I don't even know how that happened since we are a lesbian couple and Ohio is a very closed-minded town, but it did and Jacob Ben Israel won't leave us alone and Coach Sylvester was at the movie theater we went to and it was too awkward so we came over here and watched 'When Harry Met Sally' instead. That was all. We're just fake-girlfriends." Rachel placed her right hand on top of her chest trying to even out her breathing after having given the monologue of her life.

Hiram and LeRoy Berry stood in front of the girl in utter silence and complete shock.

"FINN ASKED YOU TO MARRY HIM?" and "WHAT DOES A FAKE-GIRLFRIEND EVEN MEAN?" Were heard very loudly throughout the house.

"Dad, daddy... I love you. I am your daughter and I love you okay? And as the Beatles used to say "All you need is love." So how about I just go upstairs to my room and we talk about this some other time?" Rachel smiled brightly at her parents and managed to scurry between the two. She thought she had achieved her goal when both of her feet had gone through the 'Berry-Barrier', but she was wrong. Both men took a hold of both her arms before she was completely gone. "You better sit back down daughter." Hiram warned.

Rachel reluctantly sat back down. "Okay, I will oblige you in this endeavor, but just for your information it's not really as crazy as it seems." the brunette crossed her arms over her chest in silence protest.

Hiram and LeRoy looked at each other with a raised eyebrow and then back to Rachel.

"Okay Rae, start at the beginning and go slow. It's already Saturday and we have all night." LeRoy requested.


A/N: Let me know what you think? I love hearing your theories for what happens next!