A/N 1: Thanks for the favs, alerts and reviews (thanks wagner710, Jay, and C for your comments. Keep the reviews coming :-)
Rachel's POV
I stretch out on my sun lounger smiling widely. Now that I have finally had the chance to give Quinn a proper welcome home I am feeling far more relaxed. I had been so tense and was fretting about playing hostess all day but now I am just chilling out for once and enjoying the company of my friends.
Friends. I'm not sure I will ever get used to the concept that I actually have any.
I glance over at Quinn, my best friend. My best friend with benefits, very fun benefits. My best friend who is currently watching me with a soft gaze.
"What?" I ask, wondering why she is looking at me like that.
"You're happy today." She smiles contentedly. "You're all relaxed and smiley."
"Well what's not to smile about?" I beam at her giddily. "We have friends, sun shine, cold drinks." I give her a pointed gaze. "You're home."
"It is good to know that I make it so high up on your list." She teases.
"I was saving the best til' last."
"Mmm hmm, sure you were." Quinn smirks as I roll my eyes playfully at her.
"Okay guys, the food is officially ready." Puck announces triumphantly, cutting off any further retort from me.
Everybody takes a seat around the large outdoor table and start piling up their plates.
"We made veggie burgers for you Rach." Finn tells me proudly as he takes a seat beside me. He looks so pleased with himself but all I can do is stare at him in confusion. He had never been that considerate when we were dating. Not to say that he was purposely neglectful, he just had a tendency to forget things and not pay attention.
"Really?" I look quizzically at him.
"As if Quinn would let us forget." Kurt laughs, oblivious to the pointed look that Finn is now throwing him. "She must have text me at least fifty times in the past week to make sure we had a vegan selection for you."
"In that case thank you Quinn, that was very thoughtful." I beam a smile at her, giving her a quick look to let her know that I would thank her properly later.
Finn visibly deflates beside me at my words whilst on my other side Quinn smirks at him. I give her a light nudge to let her know that I have caught the look but as she locks gazes with me I can't help but giggle with her.
As we eat everyone starts to tell the stories of what they have been doing over the summer. As all of Quinn's stories involve me I end up butting in and we talk over each other and laughing together over the various memories. Quinn's re-enactment of our attempted game of softball with my Dads has everyone in stitches. The others all howl with laughter at Quinn's impression of my attempts at swinging a bat and her imitations of the fear on my Dads' faces, clearly terrified that the bat would fly out of my hands at any moment during one of my wild swings. I scoff and huff appropriately as she tells the story but really I am loving seeing her so happy and animated and can't help but end up laughing along with everyone else. The only person who doesn't seem to be enjoying her tales is Finn who is being very quiet, then again it could just be due to the attention that he is paying to his burger. He always was easily distracted by food... sports... anything that wasn't listening to me talking.
"I'm so going to teach you how to hit a ball." Quinn murmured in my ear as Puck began to regale the group with tales of his summer.
"Quinn." I protested in a 'I don't think so' tone.
"It will be fun Rach I promise." She smiles sweetly at me. "Please?"
I gaze at her doubtfully as she gives me her full pouty lipped, puppy eyed killer combination that she knows will get me every time.
"Fine." I sigh, rolling my eyes in defeat.
As if I ever stood a chance against Quinn Fabray and her sneaky little tricks. Damn her cuteness.
"Yay!" She cheered happily.
Seeing the huge smile on her face I realise that no matter what this will be worth it. I will happily make a complete fool of myself and potentially risk hitting myself in the face with a bat if it puts a smile like that on her face.
Once we are done eating I decide to live up to my reputation of being annoying by pulling out my camera. At first there are a few moans and groans but now everyone seems to actually be enjoying it as we all goof around. I can't help but be thrilled. This has easily been one of the most fun, enjoyable days of my life and I will definitely want photos to remember it by.
Quinn's POV
I let out a content sigh. This has turned out to be an amazing day so far. The weather is perfect, Puck did an amazing job with the food and I am surrounded by friends who are more like family to me than my real family are. Best of all though is seeing how happy Rachel is. She is positively giddy today being surrounded by friends. The smile that hasn't left her face all afternoon is the reason I made the suggestion earlier that once school starts we should make a point of having get-togethers of just the Gleeks from time to time. I honestly thought Rachel would explode with happiness when the others all enthusiastically agreed.
As I relax back into my sun lounger I smile at the sound of Rachel's happy squeals and giggles of delight. My eyes follow her as she runs and dodges around the yard as she enjoys a water fight with Puck, Mike, Tina, Brittany and Finn. I laugh loudly as Puck manages to hit her square in the face. The look of shock on her face is priceless, only making me laugh harder. She turns towards the sound of my amusement and narrows her eyes at me before smiling deviously, eyes twinkling mischievously.
Uh oh.
She stalks her way over to me slowly predatorily, her eyes fixed on me as her smirk doesn't fall for even a second.
"No Rach." I plead with wide eyes as I hold my hands up in surrender. "No!" I squeal as she squirts her water gun at me, catching me directly in the face. She soaks my hair and then trails the flow down over my body. I squeal at the cold water against my skin as I try to protect myself from the onslaught as Rachel laughs wickedly the whole time.
I stand up scowling at her as I wipe the water from my eyes. Rachel's smile suddenly falls as her laughter fades away as she holds her hands up protectively.
"You are going to pay for that Berry." I growl as I launch myself in her direction.
Rachel lets out a squeal as she quickly runs away from me as I sprint after her. She manages to successfully dodge me a few times, the slippery little customer. Rachel may be fast, however I am faster. I feint left and dodge right, catching her around the middle and knock her to the ground. Landing on top of her I grin down at her maniacally.
"Quinn?" Rachel squeaks nervously and my grin widens at the sound.
"Say you're sorry." I demand.
"No." Rachel huffs stubbornly, automatically slipping into her usual defiance.
"Say. You're. Sorry." I order warningly, pinning her hands to the ground as she squirms under me to try to break free.
"No." She stubbornly refuses again. "I'll never apologise for getting you all wet." She husks sexily, directly into my ear. She almost has me at that, especially with the way she is wriggling beneath me. She almost had me. Almost.
I move as though to get up, letting her believe that she has won. Just as Rachel smiles smugly up at me I smirk at her and shift my weight to attack her. I tickle her relentlessly as she wriggles and squeals below me. Panting breathlessly she tries to grab at my hands to end the torture but I manage to evade her, keeping up the torment.
"Quinn!" She squeals gleefully. "Get off! Stop, stop!" She giggles as my fingers wriggle against her sides.
Suddenly I feel a pair of arms circle me and lift me off of the ground. I flail uselessly before being set down and turning to see Finn.
"What the hell Hudson?" I fume at him.
"Yeah what the hell man? When two chicks start rolling around together you don't stop them!" Puck scoffs indignantly. "Throw jello on them maybe, but never stop them!"
"Rachel was telling her to stop and get off." Finn protests. "I was protecting her."
"Yeah real knight in fucking armour." I mutter under my breath.
"Finn I have told you a hundred times." Rachel huffs as she gets to her feet and advances on him angrily. She comes to a stop in front of him in full diva stance and I have to stifle a smile at how cute and sexy she looks when she gets all incensed. "I have told you over and over again that I don't need you to protect me. I most certainly don't need you to protect me from Quinn."
"It's okay Rach." I mumble awkwardly.
"No it's not okay." Rachel stomps her foot in agitation as she turns her attention back to Finn, her eyes full of fire. "Whether you understand it or not, whether you like it or not, Quinn is my best friend Finn and I won't have you keep acting this way."
"Whatever. Take her side!" Finn yells before storming off.
Everyone stands silently for a few moments, watching him stalk off. I wonder to myself if anyone else is listening for the sound of chairs in danger of his wrath.
"And people say Rachel is a drama queen." Kurt muses and just like that any tension in the air is broken as we all burst out into fits of laughter.
Rachel's POV
Since Finn's storm off that could rival one of my own diva tantrums everyone has spent the afternoon messing around. Puck has repeatedly tried to start splash fights with anyone that goes close to him in the pool, Artie has been showing us all that you don't need functioning legs to swim when you have super human upper body strength. Meanwhile Brittany, Santana and Quinn have all been showing off their athleticism with various dives, flips and somersaults into the pool. Whilst the others have been playing in the pool I have sat with Mercedes and Kurt watching the rest all splashing around. Kurt and Mercedes refused to go in the pool as it would mess up their perfect hair so instead were sat rating the boys' bodies whilst I sat trying and failing not to stare at Quinn.
Speaking of the toned goddess herself.
"Rach, why don't you come in the pool?" Quinn asks as she plops herself down on my lounger.
"Eww Quinn, you're getting me all wet." I protest as I try to push her away. Quinn gives me a little raise of her eyebrow at my choice of words and smirks as she flicks drops of water off her fingertips at me.
"Quinn!" I protest with a squeal as the cold water hits my sun warmed skin. She grins as she starts to tug me towards her. "Quinn no." I giggle.
"Come on Rach, I just want to hug you." She taunts as she pulls on me determinedly.
I quickly jump up from my sun lounger and start to back away to get away from her as she laughs mischievously. She stalks playfully towards me as I keep backing away from her.
"Nowhere to run Munchkin." She grins triumphantly and I realise to my horror that she has somehow backed me over to the pool.
"Oh no." I hold my hands up in surrender as Quinn walks purposefully towards me. "Quinn no." I plead futilely. Seeing Quinn's determined smirk I decide to switch tactics and launch myself at her, throwing my arms around her. "If I'm going down, you're coming down with me." I warn her.
"I'm already wet." She smirks.
Suddenly I find myself airborne and then I land in the pool with a loud splash. The cold hits me immediately as the water engulfs my body. I break to the surface, coughing and spluttering as I wipe the water from my face.
"You're dead Fabray." I growl as Quinn surfaces with a cheeky grin.
"What?" She asks innocently. "I just wanted you to play with me."
I smile at her cuteness but she isn't going to get off that easy. I grin at her as I pounce and dunk her under the water. I laugh joyously as she comes back up coughing and glaring at me. The smile drops from my face as she stalks slowly towards me and I brace myself for a dunking. However just as she has almost reached me she suddenly disappears below the surface. I look around me wildly, suddenly feeling like an extra in jaws as I try to work out which direction the attack is going to come from. I shriek as I feel something brush against my leg and spin around frantically.
"Boo!" Quinn suddenly says in my ear as she grabs my waist from behind and pulls me under the water. She keeps her hold on me and I desperately flail and wriggle to try to get free until I suddenly feel her lips against mine. The kiss is only fleeting before we have to break the surface but the small smile that I see on her face tells me that the game has just changed. I grin back at her as I advance towards her, planning my dunking strategy as I go.
It's so on Fabray.
Rachel's POV
Towelled off and dry we are all now dressed and relaxing around the living room as we sleepily watch movies. Today has been wonderful but surprisingly exhausting. I rest my head on Quinn's shoulder with a yawn, not paying any attention to the action movie that the boys have put on.
I wriggle myself closer to Quinn and let my eyes fall shut as she tightens her arms around me, resting her head on mine. I smile as she nuzzles my head slightly, her lips lightly brushing against my hair for a moment.
Awesome day.
With that last thought I fall asleep.
A/N 2: Hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought.
Next chapter... some teasing, some Santana, some embarrassed Quinn