A/N: Made it to Day 3! Quinn watches Funny Girl for the first time.
Day 3: Gaming/Watching a Movie
Finally, the day has come, the day Quinn knows her girlfriend has been waiting for: Quinn is going to watch Funny Girl for the first time.
She has been dating Rachel for just over a month, and it has been the happiest month of her entire life. After Quinn had pined after her for years with no hope of reciprocation, Rachel confessed her feelings for Quinn one random weekend when Quinn was visiting her in New York. Since then, they've talked on the phone nearly every day, facetimed three times a week (at least), and, two weeks ago, Rachel visited Quinn at Yale.
Quinn loves being with Rachel. It has been better than she ever imagined it would be. She gets to hug her, hold her hand, kiss her(!), cuddle with her, cherish her like she deserves to be cherished, do everything she has watched countless men fail to do over the past three years. It's only been a month, and the distance has been difficult, but it's not insurmountable. They are both in their last year of college, and Quinn has plans to do her graduate work in New York (unbeknownst to Rachel). Besides, she's waited so long for this. Now, Rachel is hers, as much as a person can belong to another, and Quinn is doing everything she can to make sure she gets to keep Rachel for good.
Even if that includes spending her night watching Funny Girl with her girlfriend when she hasn't seen her in two weeks. She is coming to realize that she'll do anything to make Rachel happy.
"You ready?" Rachel asks her an hour after Quinn has arrived at Rachel's apartment. (She shares with Kurt and Santana who both went out for the night to give the girls some privacy after saying a quick greeting to Quinn.)
"Ready as I'll ever be." Quinn says, sitting down in the armchair in the living room.
"Don't you wanna sit on the couch?"
Quinn shakes her head and gestures for Rachel to come over. When Rachel's in front of her, Quinn reaches out and pulls her onto her lap, sitting her sideways with her legs draped over the armrest. Quinn wraps an arm around her back, hand resting on her hip, and pulls Rachel tighter against her. Rachel leans into her, pressing a kiss to her cheek.
"This works too." Rachel says, grinning brightly, and Quinn can't stop herself from capturing her lips in a kiss.
She'll never tire of kissing Rachel, Quinn decides. It's only the third time she's been with Rachel since they started dating, but they've kissed enough for Quinn to know that she'll never tire of it. She'll never tire of the way Rachel's lips slide against hers, the little noises she makes when Quinn sucks on her bottom lip, the feeling of her tongue poking out and then sliding against her own.
Rachel pulls back, all too soon in Quinn's opinion, and presses play on the remote. The opening credits begin, and Rachel leans back into her, tilting her head to rest it against Quinn's.
Quinn's senses are overloaded with Rachel, with her scent and the weight on top of her and the sound of her lightly humming along to the intro music, and, yeah, Quinn could never tire of this.
As the movie begins and Barbra utters those famous opening words, Quinn is expecting to hear Rachel quote them along with her, or even mouth them, but she doesn't. Instead, Rachel sits there, still, unmoving, and Quinn is confused.
If she's learned anything about Rachel from the past three years of being friends with her, it's that the girl loves to talk during movies. She loves to give commentary, talk about the actors or certain scenes, give criticisms, even on movies she's never seen before. So, where is that girl? Where is her loud, boisterous, opinionated girlfriend? And who replaced her with this girl who hasn't said a single word for the first five minutes of her favorite movie of all time?
When the first song comes on, If a Girl Isn't Pretty, she feels Rachel begin to fidget, and Quinn begins to worry. Her feet tap along to the beat, but the rest of her body remains still, her mouth remains shut, and Quinn remains concerned.
By the time the second song comes, I'm the Greatest Star, Quinn can practically feel Rachel vibrating with pent-up energy, but she remains silent and unmoving.
"Rach?" Quinn says, and Rachel spins her head to look at her. "You know you can talk and sing along, right? It's okay."
Rachel lets out a heavy sigh and drops her gaze to her hands resting in her lap. "I… I wasn't sure. Finn never liked it when I did that, especially with this movie."
Quinn's heart breaks inside of her chest at the insecurity and mild pain in Rachel's voice. "Baby, I'm not Finn." She says, drawing Rachel's eyes to meet her own. "I'm Quinn, your girlfriend who has watched many movies with you in the past and knows how much you love to talk and sing during them and loves to hear you do that."
Rachel's face lights up with the shyest, cutest expression that Quinn has ever seen. When Rachel kisses her, Quinn responds eagerly, making sure Rachel knows how much Quinn loves her just as she is.
Likes her just as she is.
They haven't said the other word yet, even though the word has been dying on Quinn's lips for the past month. This thing they have is new, and Quinn doesn't want to scare Rachel off with the intensity and depth of her own feelings so soon.
Although it is certainly hard to keep herself from uttering those words when her girlfriend is as amazing as she is. When she hops off of Quinn's lap to perform (not sing, perform) the rest of I'm the Greatest Star, Quinn falls for her all over again. And when she's done and comes to sit back down in Quinn's lap, Quinn kisses her again, because she can, and delights in the smile she receives.
After that, Rachel doesn't shy away from giving commentary on the movie, spouting random facts about the actors, recalling memories she has associated with the scenes. Her love for the movie is evident, and Quinn thinks she is adorable. And, she's not going to lie, she is enjoying the movie. It's funny, the music is great, and Rachel's undying passion for it definitely makes her more inclined to like it.
When Fanny comes on stage during the wedding scene, revealing her fake pregnant belly, Quinn laughs out loud, and Rachel squeals with excitement at her reaction. When the song People comes on, Rachel stays sitting on Quinn's lap and belts her tiny little heart out. (Quinn isn't afraid to admit that it brings tears to her eyes. It's definitely her favorite song thus far.) When You Are Woman, I Am Man comes on, Rachel complains about the heteronormativity and general pervasiveness of rape culture in the song, but she still sings along and kisses Quinn at the end, a long, deep kiss that has Quinn wanting to turn the movie off and engage in some decidedly less G-rated activities.
But she is quickly shut down, Rachel throwing a wink at her as she insists that the best song is coming up. When Quinn hears the intro to Don't Rain On My Parade, Rachel throws herself off of Quinn's lap, and Quinn knows that she's about to witness another performance. And she is not disappointed. Rachel belts out the song like she was born to do so (and Quinn believes that perhaps she was). Quinn watches with awe as Rachel holds out the final note; she stands up, walks over to her girlfriend, and wraps her in a hug, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around. Rachel laughs brightly, and Quinn is reminded just how lucky she is to be dating someone as talented as Rachel Berry.
The rest of the movie passes in a similar manner, the second act a bit more somber than the first. Rachel still sings along with every song, and Quinn gets a bit more invested in the plot than she's willing to admit.
She listens to Rachel sing along with the title track, remembering when they went to Carmel High with Mercedes, when Shelby sang the same song. it feels like a lifetime ago, sophomore year of high school. Now, looking at Rachel, eyes closed, lost in the song, Quinn gets overwhelmed with pride for how far they have come since then.
Then, the final song comes, and Rachel gets up from the armchair and stands directly in front of Quinn, taking one of her hands.
Rachel grins and begins singing, "Oh, my woman, I love her so. She'll never know."
Quinn's heart flips at the words that they have yet to say out loud to each other. Then, she realizes that Rachel changed the pronouns, and she realizes that she is being sung to. She is being serenaded by Rachel Berry with a love song from her favorite movie of all time.
Quinn is so in love with this girl.
Once she gets to the chorus, Rachel drops her hand and fully commits to her performance. Her eyes shut, her head tilts back, and Quinn watches her perform this song in all of her glory. And she's incredible. Just like Quinn could never tire of kissing Rachel, she could never tire of hearing her voice.
"When she takes me in her arms, the world is bright, alright," Rachel belts out with all of her heart. "What's the difference if I say I'll go away when I know I'll come back on my knees someday? "
Rachel opens her eyes, making eye contact with Quinn, smiling widely. She sings, "For whatever my woman is, I am hers, forevermore."
She finishes the note, and Quinn reaches out, grabs her hands, and pulls her onto her lap. Rachel squeals as she falls on top of Quinn, and Quinn lets her adjust before she presses a searing kiss to her lips. Rachel kisses her back, and Quinn relishes in the feeling.
She pulls back and tilts her forehead against Rachel's. "I can't believe you changed the words to My Man for me."
Rachel smiles. "Well, it was just the pronouns. Besides, I couldn't possibly sing a love song about a man when I'm in–" She cuts herself off and blushes. "When I'm happily dating a woman."
"I would agree." Quinn smirks.
"So…" Rachel says, "Did you like it?"
"I like you." Quinn responds. "But, yes, I did like it. I wouldn't be opposed to watching it again."
Rachel smiles. "Well, I hope so because I will never stop watching this movie."
"Oh?" Quinn asks. "And how does this affect me?"
"I told you, Quinn," Rachel explains, "I plan to be with you forevermore."
Rachel kisses her before she can respond, and Quinn truly can't complain. She'll watch Funny Girl a hundred more times if it means she gets to be with Rachel, like this, for the rest of her life.
A/N: Go watch Funny Girl (1968) starring Academy-Award winner, Barbra Streisand.