A/N: Well this has taken way too long to write, I kept delaying it because of school and a pretty bad case of writer's block but here it is, although I'm still not sure about it. I'm really sorry about the delay but it's the holiday's now so hopefully I'll be able to update a lot to make up for it
Anyways, hope you enjoy =]
Quinn rang the doorbell of the Berry's house the following afternoon with a smile remembering Friday's dinner and how nervous she'd been. Admittedly she was still reasonably nervous to be stood there again. The door swung open before she had any more time to think.
"Quinn!" Rachel exclaimed with a smile.
"Hey" the blond replied with an equal smile.
"Come in, come in" Rachel spoke happily whilst waving her in before shutting the door behind her new and unlikely friend. It still felt slightly weird to be ushering the head cheerleader into her house but she could definitely get used to the feeling. "Did you have a good day yesterday?" she asked as they walked through the longue and into the kitchen.
"Yeah thanks, the evening was a bit dull but that's probably because I was writing an English essay. Did you finish the 'spring' cleaning?" Quinn said with a smirk, Rachel rolled her eyes prompting the blond to let out a laugh.
"Yes finally, my dad's took forever to clean out the study, they've gone out to buy some replacement furniture after it was decided that it was decided that what was already in there was inadequate."
"Oh, ok then." Quinn said leaning up against the worktop. Home alone; with Rachel. She stopped the trail of thought before it could escalate into something else.
"Would you like a drink? We have water, juice, tea, coffee?" Rachel asked turning to Quinn with a glass and her usual bright smile.
"Um, water'll be fine thanks." Rachel nodded and turned back around to get another glass and pour the water. "So have you done much today?" Quinn asked as the brunette turned away from her.
"The usual routine I suppose"
"And that is?"
"Wake up, exercise for half an hour, practice some scales, have a shower, eat breakfast, do homework and then practice some more singing."
"And you do this every Sunday?" Quinn asked with a raised eyebrow as Rachel turned back to face her.
"Every day," she corrected with a smile, Quinn's eyebrow rose to meet the other one. "How about you? Have a good morning?"
"Well, I slept until about 10.30 and then didn't get out of bed until at least 11.30, then I had a shower and ate breakfast and now I'm here. Sunday's my day off I guess." The blond said taking a sip of water as Rachel smiled at her.
"Shall we go into the living room?" Rachel said formally causing Quinn to smile and shake her head slightly.
"Sure," they walked into the reasonably large room and sat on opposite sides of the sofa facing each other. Rachel brought her knees up and smiled across at Quinn as the room settled into a reasonably awkward silence that Rachel tried to ease away with a smile. This only made things more awkward as both girls sat silently smiling at each other, taking the occasional sip of their drink. Quinn's eyes moved warily around the room as she tried to attempt not to stare at Rachel whereas the diva was obviously straining for something to say. Final a clumsily strung together sentence spilled forth from the compact brunettes mouth.
"Will you play piano for me?" Rachel blurted out before giving Quinn a nervous glance. The blond was surprised at the request to say the least, she was sure this wasn't the normal sort of thing people did together but then again normal people didn't make friends with people who'd tortured them for a year. Quinn's eyebrow raised and she gave Rachel a sceptical look.
"I don't know Rachel, I'm not that good and I don't want to bore you."
"Of course you won't bore me, I love listening to you play." Rachel said with a warm and sincere smile.
"Rachel, you listened to me play for all of five minutes." Quinn said with a shake of the head.
"Well let me listen to you for longer then." Quinn looked at her incredulously before the smaller girl rolled her eyes, huffed and pulled Quinn to the stool before the piano. "Play something." She said after she'd successful pulled the blond onto the velvet covered stool.
"I'll play if you sing." Quinn said with a smirk.
"Of course, what do you want to play?"
"I know how to play mad world if you know it?" Quinn asked glancing back at the piano and running through the tune in her head.
"It's a bit down beat." Rachel said with a dubious look. Quinn shrugged in response.
"I like it" she said glancing back at the diva.
"Ok then, we can try it." Rachel said after a few seconds. Quinn smiled before turning back to the piano and beginning to play. She glanced over at Rachel when she began to sing and gave her a wide grin which the diva duly returned. Quinn silently thanked her parents for forcing her to take lessons in Middle School as she was exposed to the full force of Rachel's voice directed solely at her, the brunette sung with her heart on her sleeve leaving herself totally exposed like she did in ever performance only this was something more, something significant and intimate and trusting. Quinn couldn't help but stare at the diva as she seemed to disappear further into her own world as she progressed through the song her eyes closed tight shut and fists clenching and unclenching.
Unfortunately like all good things the song eventually had to draw to a close and Rachel slowly opened her eyes as Quinn focused on the piano to play the haunting notes of the outro. Quinn slowly pulled her hands away from the keys and turned to face Rachel again who was looking at her with tear glazed eyes.
"You're really good Quinn, why don't you play in Glee? I'm sure Brad will enjoy the break and it will definitely give us an edge in sectionals." Rachel said blinking back any trace of leftover emotion from the song. The transition was so professional it made Quinn smile and shake her head slightly.
"Thanks Rach, you're voice is incredible, that's what'll give us the edge in sectionals, anyone can play piano."
"I can't" Rachel said, surprisingly ignoring Quinn's compliment. The blond smiled warmly at her.
"I'll have to teach you then." She said motioning for Rachel to come and sit beside her. The short brunette happily obliged and perched on the edge of the too small stool, her thigh pressing against Quinn's and causing the blond to blush slightly. Quinn gave a cough and glued her eyes to the keys before her. "You know chords right?"
"I know a few"
"Can you play a C chord?"
"I think so" Rachel placed her small fingers in the correct shape and played the chord, clearly straining to reach all the notes.
"Wow your hands are small." Quinn grinned causing Rachel to huff indignantly.
"There is nothing wrong with my hands!" Quinn laughed quietly.
"I didn't say there was anything wrong with them, their just very small. Maybe we should try some sales, you might find them easier." Rachel gave no reply and instead looked slightly put out, Quinn just shook her head. "C major's easy" she played the scale quickly on two octaves. "Just play it on one octave to start." Rachel played the scale with ease first with one hand and then with two. "C minor" Again Quinn demonstrated the scale with ease and Rachel mirrored it. "See, anyone can play piano." Quinn grinned turning to look at the Brunette.
"Teach me to play what you were playing earlier." Rachel said with a smile, Quinn turned back to the piano and played the main riff to Mad World.
"You mean that one?"
"Mhm" Rachel said with a nod of the head.
"Ok, I'll play the left hand and you play the right. So start on the A#" she instructed, Rachel placed her finger on the key, "Now copy me" Quinn played the riff at full speed and then looked expectantly at the diva.
"Slow down a bit, we're not all piano prodigies." Rachel said with a determined look.
"Sorry" Quinn played it through again slower and waited patiently as Rachel attempted to copy her finger's movements. The attempts continued for a few minutes before Rachel lost the little patients she had.
"I can't play it!" She said in earnest causing Quinn to laugh slightly.
"You've been trying for like two minutes Rachel, Rome wasn't built in a day."
"You can hardly compare this to the building of an ancient and very powerful city Quinn! I'll never be able to-"
"Give me your hand." Quinn cut over the ranting brunette offering her hand out to the diva. Rachel looked at the hand quizzically for a few seconds before taking it. Quinn had to force her breathing to come out naturally as the delicate, warm hand of the brunette melded into hers, she'd been frozen for a few more seconds than was natural before finally snapping out of her daze and moving their hands down onto the keys. She swallowed before beginning to position the diva's fingers in the correct places. "Right, so now you play here," she pushed down on one of her fingers "then this one," another, "and this," she continued to guide the diva's hands around the keys until they'd finished the riff. "You think you can play that on your own?" Rachel merely nodded as Quinn withdrew her hand, the look on her face could only be described as sheer determination.
After about five more run-throughs Rachel had got the riff and was ready for Quinn to add in the left hand however they were interrupted by the ring off Quinn's cell phone. She fished it out of her jean's pocket and checked the caller ID, it was her dad.
"I should probably take this." She informed Rachel before pressing the call button and putting the phone to her ear. "Dad?" she asked curiously.
"Quinn where are on earth are you? You're meant to be at the Church lunch?" Quinn's stomach lurched, she'd totally forgotten about the forth Sunday lunch.
"Uh, sorry, I forgot." The excuse sounded feebler than she'd expected, she ran a hand through her hair and stood from the piano stool.
"How could you forget? Do have any idea how this makes me and your mother look? Where are you anyway? What can you possibly be doing that is more important on a Sunday than God?" Russell demanded; his voice was as threatening as if he were stood in front of her.
"I... Uh, I have homework."
"Where are you!" He practically yelled down the phone, clearly she was a less convincing liar than most of McKinley gave her credit for. Quinn turned back to face Rachel with all the looks of a rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Rachel gave her a concerned look.
"Nowhere, at home." Quinn said weakly.
"I'm warning you young lady."
"Quinn what's going on?" Rachel asked with concern.
"Whose that you're with?" Russell demanded down the line.
"No one, just a friend, she stopped by to give me the sheet our Math teacher asked us to do."
"Quinn?" the blond shot Rachel a pleading glance however the brunette mistook it for a call for help and walked towards the taller girl.
"Rachel" she breathed without thinking and instantly regretted it.
"Whose Rachel?"
"She's just a girl in my class dad."
"Is that the Berry girl? She's called Rachel." Russell's voice rose dramatically.
"No dad she's-"
"What do you think you're doing Quinn? Skipping church to visit the Berry girl!"
"I didn't skip church!"
"How dare you go behind your mother and I's back!"
"I'm not going behind your back, I'm trying to do math homework."
"Quinn, what's going on? Let me talk to-"
"Get back to church this instant and I'll be damned if you're allowed out of the house again for the next month!"
"Please Rachel!" Quinn snapped pulling the phone away from her ear and her dad's ranting, this was possibly the most unsuccessful phone call she'd ever made.
"I'll talk to him!"
"No!" Quinn pulled the phone back to her ear. "I'm not going back to church dad, there's no point now, I've missed lunch, I'll see you and mum at home."
"Don't you dare speak to me like-" Quinn closed her eyes and pressed the end call button silencing her father mid rant. She pushed the phone back into her pocket and looked back up at the diva who was giving her a concerned look.
"I've gotta go." Quinn said reluctantly, walking towards the door. Rachel grabbed her shoulder and turned her.
"What's going on?" she questioned with evident worry.
"I forgot I was meant to be at some church lunch." Quinn said with a shrug, trying to play herself off as being totally relaxed however Rachel obviously wasn't buying it. "My dad was just annoyed at me for forgetting."
"Dad's don't get that annoyed over forgetting a lunch." Rachel had heard most of the shouting from the other end of the line.
"You haven't met my dad." Rachel looked as though she was going to say something along the lines of 'well let me' so Quinn decided to cut her off. "And you don't want to, trust me."
"He can't be that bad." Quinn raised an eyebrow.
"I need to get back." She said while again making her way across the room to the door.
"Why doesn't your dad want you to see me?" Rachel asked before Quinn got to the doorway. "I mean, I know I have two dads and all but it's not that big a deal. He's never even met me." Quinn stopped walking.
"I don't know; he takes everything pretty far I guess. I think he thinks that just being in your house will turn me gay or something." Quinn smirked at the irony of the situation; she'd been pretty gay before she'd even heard of the existence of the two Berry men.
"Oh" Rachel sounded slightly sad which surprised Quinn, she hadn't expected Rachel to be disheartened by the beliefs of her close minded farther.
"It's only my dad Rach, it's not like I'm going to listen to him or anything." The blond turned back around to face her newly recognized friend.
"I'm just sick of people judging me and my dad's before they even meet us, not that anyone wants to meet us after they find out about my dad's." She looked down at the carpet blinking back tears.
"I want to meet you."
"It's taken you a year to get that far." Quinn felt guilt weigh in her stomach, she paused before speaking again.
"Rach, this is just some dumb old cow town, some people still believe it's wrong for women to vote, my dad included. What does it matter what anyone thinks of you or your dads, you're great people and it's everyone else's loss that they don't know that."
"It's kinda lonely here though." Rachel had succumbed to her tears now and Quinn walked forward and pulled the girl into a hug, she guided her to the sofa where they sat and Rachel cried into her shoulder.
"I'm here Rach, don't be lonely." Quinn said earnestly while rubbing the shorter girls back trying to contain her sobs. Rachel began to calm down after a good ten minutes of tears. Quinn had felt her phone vibrate a good three times during the time and was even more apprehensive to return home.
"I'm sorry" Rachel sniffed after regaining some of her composure. She pulled away from the taller girl and wiped her eyes with her hands. Quinn just gave her a warm smile and ran her hand up the girls arm in support.
"Don't be, I wish I could take back the last year Rach, I really do. You never deserved any of this."
"Thanks Quinn." The brunette said getting up from the sofa and sighing.
"I guess you should go then before I get you into more trouble with your parents."
"I'll call you tonight" Quinn smiled as she exited the room closely followed by the diva, "And remember you're never alone" Rachel smiled warmly and opened the door for her friend.
"I know, thanks for everything and I hope you're dad's not too harsh,"
"So do I, see you tomorrow"
"Bye" Rachel said as Quinn walked to her car and waved as she reversed off the driveway. Life was definitely looking up for Rachel however not so much for Quinn.