Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Author's note:Some of you were asking about Beth. There was no babygate in this story. Soon, you're going to get a little more background information on Quinn and a little bit of angst is around the corner.
Thank you for all the reviews and favorites.
Rachel lifts her hand to wipe her forehead, which is covered in a light sheen of sweat. In the past dance classes have always been easy for her, but ever since she started at NYADA this has been the only class she didn't enjoy . Her muscles are aching and she silently curses herself when she notices the faint convulsion in her right thigh.
Discreetly, she glances around the dance studio and just like she had expected, the blonde teacher approaches her with the usual vicious glint in her eyes. Rachel turns her head and rolls her eyes as she waits for the sharp comment that usually follows any moment of weakness she shows.
"If this preschool level ballet is already too demanding and straining for you Schwimmer, you should probably reconsider your profession. Maybe a nice 9 to 5 office occupation would be less demanding. Besides, it's not like anyone would ever cast you anyway. Not with that giant schnozz in your face."
The insults don't hurt as much as they used to but the pitying glances she receives from her classmates always make her feel rather uncomfortable. "I'm fine Ms. July. But thank you for the advice," she quickly learned that it's best to ignore the comments, rather than trying to reason with her teacher. Cassandra July will never be her friend or mentor and Rachel became aware of that very early into her time at the prestigious school.
But her obvious indifference to the insult earns her another sharp glance and a light swat of the teachers black cane against the thigh, that had been quivering only moments ago. "Widen your stance," with one more scowl at Rachel, Cassie moves along and leaves her alone. Rachel fights the urge to rub the stinging skin of her thigh and let's out the breath she had been holding since since the muscle in her thigh gave out. Without another glance in the direction of her classmates she continues to concentrate on her own exercises. Thankfully, the class will be over in a few minutes and she will be free to enjoy her weekend.
30 minutes later Rachel walks out of the dance studio and spots Brody at their favorite table right in the middle of the courtyard. As usual he is shoving some kind of greasy food down his throat without properly chewing it first. She lightly swats his shoulder and sits down on the other side of the table, "How could you leave me alone with the beast?"
"Sowwy," he mumbles with his mouth still full. He quickly gulps down the last bites of his bacon sandwich and even has the decency to grin. "I had a long night and overslept. Did she single you out again?"
Rachel gives a solemn look and just shrugs her shoulders in response. "She was rather tame today and just chastised me once, though she did swat me with her weird cane again," she tells him and pulls the salad and apples she prepared this morning out of her bag. "I'm sure it's going to bruise. Someone should probably report her to the school board because I'm certain that physical punishment is no allowed method of disciplining."
Brody notices that her eyes are glancing around the campus, obviously wanting to spot a certain someone, "Is your model girlfriend joining us today?" He chuckles at the bright grin that instantly spreads on his best friends face, just like it had the last five times her asked her that exact same question.
Rachel nods her head excitedly, glancing at her phone to check the time. "Yes, she should be here any minute now." Even though it had been three weeks since they made it official, Rachel still gets excited whenever someone calls Quinn her girlfriend. Her stomach still flutters every time she thinks about that evening three weeks ago.
The far away look in Rachel's eyes tells Brody that she is lost in her thoughts once again, probably circling around a certain blonde.
With a frown on her face, Rachel watches Quinn as she picks around the food on her plate with indifference, "I can prepare you something different if you want. You don't seem to like this."
Quinn's fork drops as her head shoots up and hazel eyes meet Rachel's brown ones. "No," She shakes her head. "This tastes great Rachel," she picks her fork back up, takes a large bite and hums in demonstration. "Really."
This is the first time Rachel has cooked for the blonde and she has learned through past experiences that her vegan diet is not always appreciated by her friends. Even her dads made no secret out of their disdain for vegan meat substitute. But so far she had never received any complaints on her lasagna and had really hoped that Quinn would like it. She had briefly considered preparing two different meals. A vegan version and one with real meat, but the mere idea of having to buy and actually cook meat was revolting to her. And she had never before ignored her beliefs in favor of a date and wouldn't start now, no matter how much she wanted to impress Quinn.
"Honestly Quinn, I can assure you that I won't be offended in any way. I understand that my diet is often considered abnormal and it would be unfair of me to force you into it. If you decide to adapt to the vegan lifestyle, which I would highly encourage by the way, it has to be on your own time." She moves to stand up and reaches over the table to pick up Quinn's plate, "I can order a Pizza or maybe some Chinese, if you'd like."
"No really Rachel, this is delicious." She states once again and pulls her plate out of Rachel's reach. "I was just thinking about something."
When she sees that Quinn is now happily shoving the food into her mouth she concludes that it must be fine and sits down again. "May I ask what it is that you're thinking about?"
Quinn hesitates for a moment but answers anyway. "Well, I was playing out possible scenarios of me asking you to be my girlfriend," she confesses with a shy smile.
Rachel nearly chokes on her last bite, but manages to catch herself right in time to not look so surprised. She holds back the urge to happy dance and keeps a cool face, "And how do these possible scenarios play out?"
In her mind Rachel is already brainstorming possible locations for their first picture as an official couple and of course the mind blowing celebratory kiss that has to follow. The new snapshot will work perfectly on the next page of the scrapbook she secretly started a few nights ago.
"They all end up with you saying yes."
Rachel grins at her and waits for the inevitable question, but to her confusion Quinn simply picks her fork back up and continues to eat without actually asking her to be official.
When Quinn notices the bewildered look on Rachel's face she winks, "I still have to decide on the way I want to ask."
She giggles silently as she thinks about this night. She nearly died inside when Quinn didn't ask her right away after that but decided to wait until the end of their date.
"Okay, try to keep the drool in this time around, but your girl is approaching and she is looking delectable today" he gestures his fork in the direction behind Rachel, who instantly turns around and spots the blonde walking up to them.
"Don't be an ass Brody and don't leer at her like that. As you just said yourself, she's my girl," she chastises and happily waves at Quinn, who indeed looks very beautiful today in her blue patterned sundress and soft blonde hair falling down to her shoulders.
"Hi," Quinn sits down and greets her with a soft kiss on the lips. Rachel picks up her bag and moves it to the other side to make room for Quinn, who sends her a grateful smile and sits down, "Thanks Rach. And hi Brody." With a soft smile Rachel covers the hand that is placed on her thigh with her own and laces their fingers.
"Hey Quinn, how are you?"
"Hungry," she answers shortly and steals a piece of cucumber out of Rachel's salad with a flirty grin.
"Hey," she protests and then gets another box out of her bag, placing it in front of her girlfriend. "I've brought you your own so you don't have to steal from mine again."
Quinn takes the lid of and happily notices that Rachel added pieces of avocado to hers even though she doesn't like it herself, "Thank you Rach, you're the best." She places a sloppy kiss on her cheek and digs in. Rachel watches her with delight, happy that Quinn always seems to appreciate her efforts.
"Are you guys going to Jesse's party tonight?" Brody breaks her out of her Quinn induced trance once again.
"I would like to go." She looks at Quinn for some sort of confirmation. "Jesse personally invited me and it would be impolite not to show up after I told him I would," Rachel explains. She met Jesse during her first weeks in school and they had instantly connected over their love for Barbra. While she has to admit that he can be very overbearing and presumptuous, she still finds that he is very likable.
"We can go if you want to. I don't have to work until tomorrow afternoon and a night out sounds nice."
"Awesome. Since the party is in Williamsburg, I vote Rachel's place for the warm up." He grins at them from the other side of the table, "I'll bring the drinks."
Apart from the chaos that will definitely ensue Rachel doesn't mind the idea so she nods her head in agreement, "Okay, let's meet at my place at 9 o'clock. I'll tell Norah and you can invite your friend Mike. She has a huge crush on him." Maybe he'll finally get the hint and ask her out.
"Alright, I have to get to class now. I'll see you both tonight," he packs up his stuff and gets up to leave.
"See you later, Brody," Quinn waves.
Rachel watches him leave and moves around on the bench, placing one leg on each side to properly face her girlfriend, "You can invite some friends too, if you want. I'm sure Jesse won't mind a few more people showing up."
The other girl turns around as well and places a hand on Rachel's thigh, softly caressing the bare skin with her thumb, "I'll ask Britt and Sam. I've told you about them, right?"
Rachel nods her head and leans forward to catch her lips in a light kiss, not wanting to put on too much PDA on school grounds.
Quinn pulls away with a hum and licks her lips, "Mhhm, you taste like apples."
"Want some too?" She giggles and holds a piece of apple in front of her girlfriend's face, who just leans forward and bites into it.
"Yumm," she happily chews and Rachel pops the leftover piece into her own mouth.
"Do you have anything planned for this afternoon, or are you free?"
"Well, I don't have to work today but I'll have to buy some snacks for tonight and clear up my place. But I would love some company," Rachel tells her with a smile.
"Sounds great, I'll just have to go home for a bit later to get ready."
They take the subway to get to Brooklyn and make a quick stop for groceries before going to Rachel's apartment.
Rachel opens the door and moves to the side to let Quinn inside, "Just put them down in the kitchen."
Quinn is balancing two stuffed paper bags on her hips and makes her way to Rachel's kitchen. "I can bring some more booze tonight. I still have some Vodka and Tequila from my birthday party."
"Yeah sounds good. I only have some wine and I don't know what Brody will bring." Rachel sets the paper bag she'd been carrying down next to the other two and starts to put the groceries away.
"I'm still convinced that you don't need to offer all these snacks tonight. We could have just bought a bag of chips and everybody would have been happy." Quinn laughs as she pulls out the various items Rachel insisted on buying.
"Quinn, a good host always needs to offer different options, in case of allergies or possible dislikes. I'm not yet familiar with the likes and dislikes of your friends and I want to make a good first impression." She wants them to like her because she once read in a magazine that relationships tend to last longer if both partners share a circle of friends. And she desperately wants this relationship to last for a very long time.
She feels Quinn's arms wrap around her from behind as she stretches to put away a bag of Cheetos. She places her hands on the counter and leans back into Quinn's body, who gently brushes her hair away from her shoulder and places a soft kiss on the bare skin. "They'll like you Rachel. I promise." She continues to nuzzle the soft skin of Rachel's neck with her nose, "I don't understand why you're so worried."
"I don't have a lot of friends. Never had and I'm not naive enough to believe that it has nothing to do with my personality." Reluctantly she turns around and meets Quinn's eyes. "I know that I get on peoples nerves a lot and that I'm generally hard to like but I..."
Quinn just shakes her head and cups Rachel's cheek with her hand "Don't say that Rach, you're amazing and I pity everyone who believes that you're not a great friend. I don't have a lot of friends either but the few that I have, I can actually count on."
"You really think I'm amazing?" Rachel asks bashfully trying to hide her pink tinted cheeks in her girlfriends neck.
"You are. And my friends will notice that too and you'll charm your way into their hearts just like you did with me." She presses a kiss against the side of Rachel's head and nudges her forward. "Come on. Let's put the rest of the groceries away and then we'll watch a movie."
When Quinn takes a step back Rachel quickly pulls her back into her own body and connects their lips in a swift move. Quinn let's out a gasp at the sudden move, which allows Rachel to deepen the kiss. A soft moan escapes her at the feeling of Quinn's tongue moving against hers and she tightens her grip on the other girls back. A shudder runs through her body as she feels Quinn's fingers running through her soft hair and she brings one of her hands down to the blondes hip to pull her even closer, who in return moans into their kiss.
They're both heavily panting as they pull away a few minutes later with their heads still against each other. Rachel pecks her lips once more before fully pulling away and takes Quinn's hand to lead her to the couch, "Your turn to pick a movie."
Rachel nervously checked her appearance once again while she waited for everyone to arrive. Quinn had said not to worry, but wanting to make a good first impression Rachel still spent an extra thirty minutes on her outfit, hair and makeup for tonight. She decided to go all out and put on a short dark blue dress and peep toes to compliment her legs.
She literally bolts for the door when the first knock sounds and rips it open only to be disappointed when she's met with the grinning faces of her two best friends. She steps aside and let's them in with a frustrated huff.
"Well, we're really happy to see you too, Rachel." Norah teases and greets her with a quick one armed hug.
"Sorry, I thought you might be Quinn and her friends," she explains to them and leads them into the kitchen where all the drinks and snacks are placed on the table. "You can put the bottles into the fridge. I made some room earlier."
Her eyes nearly fall out of her head when she sees how many bottles of Tequila and Rum they brought. "You know that we're only going to be 7 people, right?"
Brody just grins at her and continues to empty his backpack, "We want this night to be legendary, right? Let's take a shot to start this night off." He grabs three of the glasses Rachel put out earlier and pours them all a double shot of tequila.
Rachel grimaces as Brody hands her the shot, "Without any salt or lemon?"
"Man it up Berry," Brody mumbles and quickly downs the clear liquid. Without another word of protest Rachel does the same and coughs at the burning sensation the alcohol leaves in her throat.
"Just relax Rachel, everything is going to be fine. And I promise that all vomiting will take place after we left your apartment."
The short brunette is mortified at the mere idea of having to clean up somebodies vomit tomorrow, but another knock interrupts her thoughts. That has to be Quinn. Just as she is about to open the door she is pushed aside by her grinning friend, who rips the door open with an exited squeal, "Quinneth!"
"Norah the Explorer!" Yes, Quinn and Norah sure had taken a liking to each other.
"I didn't even know that you were a triplet. That is so cool. Can you do this weird talking to each other without actually saying anything out loud thing?"
Rachel is confused at that because Quinn only ever told her about one sister, whom she doesn't talk to very often. She pushes her friend away to take a look at her girlfriend.
She blames the double shot of tequila for the uncontrollable laugh that escapes her at the sight of the three blonde, hazel eyed and all equally tall figures outside of her door. "Oh my god. You really are triplets."
Quinn chuckles at her girlfriend's antics while her two friends are looking at each other with confused faces, "These are my cousins. Sam and Brittany," she introduces. "And this is my girlfriend Rachel and her friend Norah," she gestures to the two girls inside of the apartment. "Now are you going to let us in?" Quinn looks at Rachel, who shakes out of her confusion instantly and steps aside to let her guests in.
"I must apologize Quinn. We might have already indulged in some alcoholic beverages, which appear to have gone straight to my head," she explains her weird behavior. "Hello, I'm Rachel Berry. It's very nice to meet you." She holds out her hand to Brittany and is surprised when the tall blonde pulls her into a swift hug.
"You're even cuter than Q described. Can I call you Rachie?" Rachel is a bit overwhelmed by the warm welcome and just nods her head while shooting Quinn a questioning look, who just smiles and shakes her head.
"Hi Rachel, it's nice to finally meet you. Quinn can't seem to shut up about you." Other than Brittany Sam simply offers his hand, which Rachel shakes firmly.
Rachel watches as Norah leads the two guests over to the couch and offers to get them some drinks. With a deep blush rising to her cheeks she turns to her grinning girlfriend, "I'm sorry Quinn. But you really do look freakishly alike."
"Yeah, we get the same reaction whenever we go somewhere together. My father and their father are twins so maybe that's why we look like siblings."
"You never told me that before."
Quinn shrugs and takes Rachel's hand to pull her closer, "They already like you." She leans down and kisses her smiling girlfriend. Rachel hums against her lips before she responds to the soft kiss.
They pull away after a few moments and Rachel has the chance to really look at Quinn for the first time since she arrived, "You look stunning." The blonde is wearing a dark green dress that compliments her hazel eyes perfectly.
"Thank you. You look quite beautiful as well." Hand in hand they walk over to their friends and Rachel rolls her eyes when she sees that Brody is filling up more shot glasses.
"I think I'm going to regret this tomorrow." Still, she takes the glass that is being held in front of her and toasts to her guests, "to an unforgettable night."
Thank you for reading...please leave a review