Ayyyyyy. We figured it'd be best if we gave you guys two chapters right after each other. Ya know, as an apology for the long wait. ;)
Hope you enjoy!
(Btw This chapter is a personal favourite of mine.)
-DementedPanda
Quinn puts her bag in the cabin compartment, before taking a seat. Luckily the stranger who's going to sit beside her is not on board yet, so she can easily get to her window seat. She buckles her seat belt and takes out the phone from her jeans to type a text to Santana.
I'm boarding and hopefully will be in Louisville Airport at 10 pm. You'll be picking me up right? – Q
Yep. I'll pick you up with my roommate, Elaine. She's got a car. So where are you keeping your sex toys? – S
What are you talking about? – Q
You know, in case your plane crashes and you don't want your mom to see it –S
Jesus, Santana. I don't have any – Q
You're just making this difficult for yourself – S
Quinn rolls her eyes before ending the call as the stewardess starts walking through the aisle checking every passenger to get ready for the flight. Her eyes scan the ticket, checking - once again - the return date, which happens to lie on the day before Christmas. The blonde starts to feel worried if it's a good idea at all to spend a whole week with Santana. They have never done this before, even when they were still hanging out a lot together. Afraid of ripping each other's heads off. They didn't even do sleepovers. Except if you want to count Cheerleading Camp. But knowing that her other choice is staying in Lima with her mom and Frannie (plus husband) far longer than she's able to withstand, she's just going to make the best of it.
She looks outside her window and appreciates the blue sky on the horizon that slowly darkens. Her final exams' week just finished today and now her fatigue finally weighing down on her. If she had chosen a flight tomorrow, she probably wouldn't have the energy to get her ass up to the airport. Might as well do it today, get to Kentucky, and finally have her long-due rest at Santana's.
...
It doesn't take a long time for Quinn to spot Santana when she gets out of the arrival gate. She waves at the dark-haired girl who returns her wave. She can feel the wind outside is slightly warmer than most winter nights in New Haven, but she's grateful that she's already prepared with a shawl.
"Hi", Santana hugs Quinn before offering to carry her bag. Quinn lets her because it's actually quite heavy after the seven-hour flight drained her. She did try to sleep aboard the plane, but kept waking up every hour or so due to neck and shoulders cramps, adding to her feeling of fatigue.
"That's Elaine. We'll be using her car. It'll take about five minutes to get to the Uni", Santana introduces the redhead to Quinn as the girl scurries up the parking lot and catches up with them. The two roommates sandwich the blonde, each walking by her side.
Quinn offers her hand, "Hi, Elaine. I'm Quinn. Thank you so much for the car. I hope Santana is not forcing you to do it."
"Hi. It's my pleasure. I know it's a bitch to take a half an hour train from here after a long flight. Besides, Santana said that you're a very pretty girl", Elaine shakes Quinn's hand but not letting it go while smiling at the blonde. Quinn gives Elaine an appreciative smile, even though she can feel her cheeks warming up from the compliment.
"Careful, Quinn. Elaine is a registered sex offender", Santana reaches out over Quinn to pull their hands from of each other.
"I call dibs", Elaine says to Santana who looks back at her with a frown. Acting as if Quinn isn't in the middle of them.
"She's off-limit", Santana says coolly while flipping her hand dismissively on the air.
"Why? Are you taken, Quinn? Or is there anything going on between you and Santana that I should know about?", this time Elaine looks at Quinn who is strangely entertained with the conversation. The blonde definitely finds Elaine funny.
"Not that I know of", Quinn smirks as she plays along with the red hair playfulness. They reach the car and Elaine opens the lock with the car remote.
"You're not even gay. That's what I meant", Santana scoffs to Quinn before putting the bag in the backseat and enters the passenger side. Santana doesn't really believe that, but as long as Quinn never said otherwise, then it is what it is.
Quinn enters the backseat before answering, "Aren't you a little a bit presumptuous, Santana?"
"Ooh…interesting", Elaine squints at Quinn before getting into the driver seat and punches Santana's arm playfully. When she gets a glare from Santana, she raises her hands up and ignites the car, ready to return to their warm dorm. The blonde's reply lingers in Santana's head throughout the whole ride.
It is pretty cool of Elaine to offer Quinn a ride, because the trip to Santana's dorm building is literally only five minutes from the airport by car. The short trip is mostly filled with Elaine asking questions of Quinn's feelings towards being a student at Yale. Quinn also learns that the U of L finished their final exams a day before hers. All of them are obviously ready to have the year-end break.
She compliments the dorm after seeing how big the place is compared to her own. She is given a quick tour by Elaine while Santana puts Quinn's bag in her room.
"So there you go, the whole place. Except Monica's room in the corner because she's already gone back home for the holiday", Elaine says.
Quinn stands by the kitchen's island as her eyes scan the whole dorm a second time. "Thank you again, Elaine", she smiles.
"No problem. Now I'm gonna crash. In case Santana is making you bored, feel free to bother me in my room", Elaine says with a wink before walking back to her room.
Quinn turns around and finds Santana standing against the door frame, watching.
"I'm sure you're exhausted. I've put the air mattress beside my bed and it's being pumped right now. You can shower if you want, or just wash up and go to sleep straight away", Santana offers.
Quinn exhales dramatically and massages her stiff neck before walking to Santana's room, "Yea, a hot shower seems like a good idea."
"I prepared a towel for you in the bathroom. It's the white one."
Santana lets Quinn enter her room and unplugs the pump machine after it's done finishing it's job. It's a little a bit stuffy inside her room now because the single mattress is covering most of the floor. She decides to busy herself opening facebook, while Quinn takes a quick shower. When Quinn's done, she's only wearing a towel, looking for her sleeping shorts and shirt in her duffel bag that Santana put near the closet. She groans as she gets up from bending down, and massages her painful neck again.
Santana turns around, eyes leering not-so-subtly at her friend's body. "Plane seat?", she asks, clearing her throat.
"Yeah. It's all the tense muscle from exam week and then wrong position in the plane. Just perfect", Quinn complains.
Santana moves to sit on the edge of her bed and calls Quinn to sit on her air mattress, "Come here. Let me help you with that. Just sit down and let my fingers do the magic."
The blonde doesn't need to think twice to take Santana's offer. The Latina has been known to be an expert in sport massage therapy when they were in the cheerios. So she throws her sleeping clothes to the mattress and tied up her wet hair before sitting down, facing away between Santana's legs.
Santana takes her pain reliever gel from the desk and spreads some on her finger. She always keeps it ready so she can use it after every painful exercise. She starts massaging one of Quinn's shoulder and putting more pressure where she can feel the other girl is having the tensest muscle. "It wasn't this bad this morning", Quinn winces. She then uses her other hand to massage the other shoulder at the same time and slides her hands upward to Quinn's neck.
"How are you so good at this?", Quinn manages to speak with her eyes closed, enjoying Santana's hand doing her thing. She enjoys how Santana's fingers expertly change between hard knead on her tensed muscles and just lightly putting pressures every time she reaches the back of her neck.
"I'm practically an expert on your body."
"What?", Quinn's eye shoot open.
"I mean, you know, with all those sprains and cramps you had in Cheerios, I get familiar with what works on you", Santana answers quickly, hitting herself in the head internally for blurting out something that sounded stupid like that. She can practically feel her under-boob sweating. You don't think things thoroughly when you have Quinn Fabray half-naked between your legs.
Quinn smiles, noticing the uneasiness in Santana's voice. Soon she can't help starting to moan when Santana finds the right spot on her neck where she feels most tense. It just feels so good. Painful, but good. Santana swallows, hearing the little involuntary noises that Quinn makes. And it's all because of what her hands are doing to the other girl.
"Wow Lopez, you definitely don't waste your time!", Elaine suddenly yells from outside the door, surprising both girls in the room.
"Shut up, pervert!", Santana throws her pillow and it bumps her door. She can hear Elaine laughing.
Quinn chuckles and gets up, feeling that her stiff neck feels a bit better. "Thanks, Santana," She smiles appreciatively before getting her sleeping clothes and turns around to take off the towel. Something she's used to do in Santana's presence after years changing together in the Cheerios locker room.
The difference now is that Quinn has a very visible surgery scar along her spine and it makes her put on the clothes in a hurry.
"Don't mention it", Santana says as she lies down on her own bed, catching a glimpse of Quinn's naked back before diverting her gaze elsewhere.
Unfortunately, Santana doesn't fail to notice the scar and something in her chest tightens, remembering the accident that happened only a year ago. A flash of a bruised and broken Quinn in the hospital bed makes her uncomfortable. Santana and Brittany visited Quinn a couple of times when the girl was still unconscious, but the moment she woke up, she didn't want anyone to visit. Santana feels like she needs to say something but pushes the thought away.
Quinn knows that it's impossible for her friend not to see her scars but there's nothing she can do about that. She only hopes Santana won't try to talk about it. So she doesn't waste time dressing up, throws back Santana's pillow and immediately lies down on her mattress after turning off the light.
The room is thankfully warm enough that they don't need a blanket but the temperature in the room feels colder than it actually is. The tension of an unspoken thought from both cause it.
"Night, Santana", Quinn manages to say before letting her body ease up to the slumber she needs.
"Night, Quinn".
...
Quinn wakes up the next morning feeling more rested. She's happy that it's the first time after months that she doesn't have to check for the time and can do whatever she wants for the next week. Well, planned activities of whatever she wants. Which she knows will be a reason to argue with the sleeping Brunette on the bed above her. But that's not a problem for hopefully another hour.
She gets up carefully and checks on Santana, who is curling up in her sleep. Apparently sometime during the night, Santana took her clothes off out of pure habit. Quinn stares at the familiar silky tan skin, thinking how she's never seen it this close. It only takes a moment before she realizes that she's being a creep and decides to get some breakfast.
"Morning", Elaine greets her as she closes the bedroom door. The chirpy roommate is already sitting by the kitchen island table with her bowl of cereal.
"Morning", Quinn replies with a polite nod and sits right across Elaine. She's thinking that the dorm is not a penthouse, but she can imagine even with three girls, the dorm is actually pleasant to live in.
"So, what's the story between you and Santana?", Elaine inquires.
"Um.. We were co-captains of our high school cheerleading squad", Quinn answers with whatever comes to her mind first. There's "Frenemies", but she doesn't want Elaine to think that they're unfriendly. She wants to say Nemesis too, but then that means Santana is unbeatable and she's sure that she can kick her friend's ass if she needs to.
"Funny. That's the exact answer Santana gave me when I asked the same question. Sounds pretty cold to be honest. But acquaintances don't spend their Christmas holiday together", Elaine comments while continuing her breakfast.
Quinn gives a sheepish smile, "It's complicated."
Elaine laughs at her answer but the blonde realizes how her answer come across, "No, it's..try Deadpool and Spider-man."
"You don't look like a Marvel girl", Elaine raises her eyebrows, surprised with Quinn's choice of analogy.
"I'm not one of those comic nerds, but I know enough basics after watching their movies", Quinn immediately clarifies after looking at the redhead's expression.
Elaine squints at the girl's reply. There's no Deadpool movie.
"So, who's who?"
"She's the sassy one and I'm the crazy one", Quinn answers with a proud smirk. Elaine snorts out her drink upon hearing Quinn's self-deprecating comment.
"What about you though?", Quinn feels compelled to ask back. The Latina never told her that her roommate is into women.
"Oh, if you're asking if Santana and I ever had sex, the answer is no. But I wouldn't mind tapping that," Elaine smirks.
I wouldn't either.
Unfortunately their conversation is cut short when a grumpy Latina roughly opens the door, "Could you be any louder? I couldn't hear you in my peacefully sleeping state."
Quinn rolls her eyes and slips off from her seat, feeling a little annoyed, she actually had more questions that she wanted to ask the redhead before they were so rudely interrupted. "I'll make you a coffee, grumpy face."
Santana grunts in response, walks to the kitchen counter and starts making instant pancakes, while Quinn grabs the Latina's WMHS mug and fills it with coffee. Quinn then walks to the refrigerator and takes out the low fat milk carton before pouring the liquid to the coffee mug.
She comes back to sit across Elaine with the coffee and not long after, Santana slides her a plate with two layers of warm pancakes, complete with a spoon size of peach jam on top and maple syrup dripping. The Latina then takes the mug from in front of Quinn and sips it in silence. All these were being watched by an amused Elaine with how these two girls just automatically knows what's the other preferences for breakfast.
Quinn glances up to catch Elaine's expression and somehow feels her cheeks warmer. Being in a cheer camp for a month forces them to know these things about each other (and tag team on breakfast when someone is late). Elaine raises one of her eyebrows and that's when Santana looks at her, then Quinn.
"What now?"
"Nothing. By the way, I have to inform you that we have a reservation on the Waverly Hill Sanatorium tonight", Quinn speaks while enjoying her pancakes, not bothering to look at Santana.
"Did you just say reservation on a sanatorium? Do you have a disease I should know about?", Santana dramatically makes a step back while raising her palm up.
Elaine's face lights up. "That place is totally cool. When I was there, I keep seeing something in the corner of my eye. It was freaky."
Santana's face turns in horror. "What in the name of Xena are you girls talking about?" She asks gayly, feeling fairly worried.
"Duh, just one of the most haunted places in America if not the world. Closed in the 80's and now it's a tourist place", Elaine explains excitedly to the dark-skinned girl that's looking paler by the second.
"I've paid for our tickets because I know you'll act like a 4 year old about this", Quinn points her fork at Santana before smiling at Elaine, appreciating a fellow admirer of the place. She has always been a horror buff and one of the main reasons for her to go to Louisville is being able to visit the infamous Sanatorium. Santana will never admit that she's a wimp when it comes to paranormal stuff but after being friends with the raven-haired girl for years, Quinn knows.
On numerous occasions during their movie nights, Santana always found a reason to choose another genre. She doesn't even want to watch horror movies in daylight. Santana Lopez is one badass motherfucker when she has to deal with any kinds of living beings. Heck, she was ready to cut Karoffsky only armed with a razor hidden in her hair (allegedly). She just can't deal with things that are not able to be seen or touched.
"I'm not going. You can go Fabray yourself. You're crazy. Sane people go to clubs at night. Not abandoned sanatoriums", Santana folds her hands in defiance trying to look unfazed.
"You can choose our next activity if you go with me tonight", Quinn tries to buy her way.
"Why would I even want to choose an activity? Why can't we just chill here for the whole week?"
Quinn takes a breath. "Because I know you, Santana. And you are not able to sit still. So before I let you drag me to all kind of unsavory activities, I want you to earn it."
There is a silent moment and both girls are staring at each other almost like trying to change the other's girl mind only by pure will, as if whoever breaks eye contact loses. Elaine doesn't even want to move, afraid of changing the intense atmosphere she is vastly enjoying in front of her.
Santana finally clears her throat. "I'll go only if I have the veto of all the activities for the next week", she bargains.
Quinn raises her fingers, "Two activities. You can veto two of my ideas and that's it. Because if you're not agreeing to this, all I have to do is put up a status on facebook saying that Santana Marie Lopez is actually has a phasmaphobia."
Santana makes a face."What the face-what phobia, dork?"
"A wuss. A fucking wussy weakling chicken, wimpy scaredy cat, softy namby pamby bird", Quinn raises her phone and makes a gesture as if she's ready to type.
"I am not! And put that goddamn phone down you sadistic freak", Santana snaps the moment she hears the word "softy" and tries to snatch Quinn's phone. Only when she is able to grab Quinn's hand, the blonde yanks it back and she loses her balance over the stool. Quinn quickly grabs Santana's hand for balance and they end up holding each other hands close to their chest with faces only inches apart.
Silence fills the room. The two girls stare at each other, before a shutter sound brings them back from their catatonic state and notice Elaine looking down at her phone, "That's actually a pretty nice picture. Hey, you can use this as your first Christmas card together", Elaine comments before she manages to run away from an angry Latina.