"Married, Blaine." She says as she throws another shirt into her suitcase. "She's getting married. In four days no less."
By now he knows better than to try to get a word in, as he leans on the doorway of her room. Even when she looks at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something, he knows to let her rant.
As if on cue , she continues.
"I haven't heard from her in months!" A purse goes flying into the suitcase. "Not a quick hello, hi, or even ar 'Hey Rach, I met a girl at the farmers market as we both reached for the last persimmon of the season and she had these gorgeous brown eyes that reminded me of you.' I mean anything. But, no. I got a call four days before the big day asking me to fly across the country to meet this Santana."
Once again her eyes find his and he nods, processing the rant as he uncrosses his arms to move closer into the room.
"First, you're not going to need three suitcases for a weekend trip." He says motioning to the utter chaos that has swept the room. "Secondly, how much of this has to do with the fact that your birthday is next month?" He pauses. "A certain 28th birthday to be exact. "
She scoffs as she moves past him to continue packing. "You're just so wise, aren't you Blaine? I just explained verbatim what happened and you are blowing things so far out of proportion. This is a matter of trust. Of friendship."
Blaine only rolls his eyes before stopping her in her tracks by placing his hands on her shoulders. "You've been in love with Quinn as long as I've known you."
She tries to move away, but he doesn't let her. He looks her in the eyes and by God he can see the hurt. So he pulls her in. It takes a moment, but then he hears it and feels it against his chest. A sob. And as she cries softly in his arms he tightens his hold.
"It was supposed to be me." She begins. "It was supposed to be me."
"Have you ever told her you still have feelings?"
She pulls away and shakes her head. "The timing was never right. And I just-. What am I going to do?"
"Listen." He begins, looking into her watery eyes. "You're going to fly to Chicago and show up and be there for your friend. You're going to stand beside her and do what good friends do."
"I don't think I can Blaine. I just told you I can't do it, I can't watch the love of my life marry someone else."
"You can and you will."
"How Blaine?"
"Because I'll be there. With you every step of the way."
She sniffles, her brown eyes widen. "Really?"
"Yeah, I'll move some things around at work and let Joanne know I'll be remote for the weekend."
"I-." She throws her arms around his neck in a hug. "Blaine Anderson, you're the best."
-
The plane touches down at O'Hare and Blaine couldn't be more thankful. Flying never was his favorite.
"Do you see a restroom?" Rachel says as they walk along the moving walkway.
He points one out just up ahead. When they get to it, she leaves her suitcase with him only taking in her purse.
And if he didn't know Rachel, he'd be annoyed. But, he and the brunette had been friends for years now and he knew her like the back of his hand. He looked at the time in the corner of his phone, it had been 15 minutes.
It's another five before she comes out, completely transformed from the woman he'd been on the plane with.
Her makeup, subtle on the plane, is now bold. Striking even with the way her dark eyeliner accentuates her eyes perfectly. And her hair, not a single fly away in place.
She grins at him. "So. How do I look?"
"Gorgeous. As always." He says, pushing away from the wall he was leaned up against. He holds out an arm. "Shall we?"
"We shall."
He holds his tongue as she grabs hold of it and they walk to the terminal. He doesn't ask what she's doing, what she has up her sleeve because he already knows. Instead he asks which way they should go.
They walk silently from then on. He can feel the excitement, the anxiety, and the hope rolling off her in waves as they make their way through the airport.
The automatic doors open and he inhales Chicago air for the first time.
The Chicago summer air is humid, almost suffocating. Walking into it and the abrupt change from the air conditioned airport is like hitting a brick wall.
"There she is!" Rachel is saying and Blaine catches his bearings.He hadn't expected the heat. Still, he looks past the bus and Uber lanes, in the lane furthest from him he sees her, standing beautiful as ever in a casual cream colored dress in front of a black Audi.
And Rachel is off. Rushing across the lanes making sure it doesn't look too desperate, yet still having an urgency.
Blaine finds himself chuckling. That's Rachel Berry for you.
He grabs her suitcase and his, rolling them along the designated sidewalk for pedestrians. Pausing to look both ways before crossing the Uber and bus lanes while glancing every once in a while at the reunion before him.
He notes the hug. How genuinely happy the blonde is to see her old friend. He also notes how Rachel is the last to let go.
He watches their conversation and how Quinn's eyes while concentrating on Rachel, flit every once in a while down the line.
He's waiting as a bus goes by in the last lane before he reaches them when he follows her eye-line.
It's there he sees Santana Lopez for the first time.
A few yards away from Quinn and Rachel, talking rapidly into her phone she paces back and forth in a cream sleeveless mock turtleneck and beige pants.
Even from the distance he can tell.
Santana Lopez was a force.
He hadn't even met her yet, yet there was something magnetic about her.
He finally crosses the last lane as it looks like she is finishing her call.
He reaches Quinn and Rachel before she does and understands Rachel a little more than before.
If Santana Lopez was a force, so was Quinn Fabray. No wonder they had found each other.
"So you're Blaine Anderson?" She says, and he's not sure if she's sizing him up or not. Her hazel eyes are intense and she holds her head slightly tilted a bit higher than others.
"I am. And you the illustrious Quinn Fabray?" He says, a slight head tilt of his own.
She cracks a smile, small at first but then a bit wider as it turns into a laugh. "I don't know about all that, but yes. It's nice to finally meet my best friend's best friend." She says, offering her hand for him to shake.She's about to say something else when her eyes catch on something, someone behind them. She lets go of his hand and it's as if he and Rachel fade.
Her eyes soften, her smile becomes easier, and he swears he hears her breath catch.
Blaine Anderson knows that look. He's been in love before. He's both given and received that look before. And while it hasn't always worked out for him, whenever he saw it in others his heart soared.
He was ever the romantic.
"Rachel, Blaine, this is my Santana." Quinn says, her eyes never leaving the woman approaching them, a hand reaching out to clasp hers.
"I'm not yours yet." She says with a smile. And they share a moment, quick and brief, as if they can read each other's thoughts.
"Santana. I just want to say it's an honor to meet you." Rachel interjects.
And Blaine remembers who he's there for.
The interaction is teeming with false pleasantries and fake smiles. He knows and wonders if Quinn can still tell when she's forcing it.
Rachel's eyes fell more than twice on the simple diamond ring on Santana's left hand before she recited a classic Berry line.
"Can I hug you? With Quinn being my dearest friend, you already feel like family."
And if Quinn doesn't sense it, Santana does. Blaine sees her smile, almost as forced as Rachel's as she lets go of Quinn's hand and shrugs.
"Sure. With how much Quinn's talks about you, we're practically sister wives." She says with a low chuckle embracing Rachel.
Rachel is for one of the few times stunned into silence.
It's a simple play on Santana's end. She knows why Rachel's here, what she's planning to do. And this is her letting Rachel know, whichever way it falls she won't win.
Blaine can't help himself to laugh along too as he sees Quinn shake her head with a smile.
"Santana." She admonishes. The look of love never leaving her eyes.
"I only tell true lies, Fabray. Now, can we wrap this 'hello, nice to meet you' up? It's hot and I'm hungry." She says before acknowledges me. Her brown eyes are engaging as she starts to speak. "Who's this dapper gentleman?"
"I'm Blaine. Rachel's plus one." He says.
"You a hugger too?" She asks, smirk in place.
"Relax, I'm kidding." She says, reaching out her hand. "Santana."
He shakes her well manicured hand. "Pleasure to meet you. And congratulations to you both."
She narrows her eyes slightly, in hopes of figuring him out when she takes her hand back. "You're rather charming aren't you." She says and leaves it at that.
They load their luggage and soon before long, they're cruising down I-90.
"So, where'd you guys meet?" He asks.
They both begin to laugh. "It depends who you believe."
"We met at a farmers market, Labor Day weekend." Quinn says confidently. Flashing a daring smile Santana's way.
"We met in early August at a bar in Lincoln Park called Valentino's. She was playing darts and I was at the bar nursing a Jack and Coke.
She paused for a second, almost like she was getting lost in the memory herself. You could hear the smile on her face in her voice.
"She had on this light denim jacket and these suede coffee colored Chelsea boots. The collar on her jacket popped and her hair was bleached."
"Bleached?" Rachel says, her eyes widening.
"Bleached." Santana confirms, turning her body to face the two brunettes in the backseat.
"Tell them the way we met though" Quinn says, "According to you."
"According to what's true, Fabray." She started. "Like I said I was at the bar with my friends. I was on the verge of a breakup and had every intention to get plastered that night." She looks back at Quinn. "But then from across the room, our eyes met for a brief moment. And I knew then and there."
"Knew what?" Blaine asks, intrigued and hanging on to every word of her story.
"That she was the love of my life." She says, plain as day. Like it was something she always knew. "That she was the woman I was going to marry."
"That's beautiful." He says at the same time Rachel starts to speak again.
"Wait, what? You knew off a look?"
"Santana has a gift for those things." Quinn says, glancing her fiancées way.
"It's my Mexican third eye. We had an energy exchange." Santana says confidently.
"A what?" Rachel asks.
"An energy exchange."
"And Quinn, you felt it too?"
Quinn looks up in the rear view mirror, her eyes catching Rachel's as they come upon a red light. "Yeah. I mean, I don't remember much about that night but I do remember Santana. I-," she stops for a moment to laugh. "I went to look for her a little later in the night. But, she had left already."
"You left?" Blaine asks, incredulous. "But you felt something, just off a look. And you left!"
Santana chuckles as Quinn starts driving again, the light turning green.
"It's complicated. Long story short, my ex had called and despite what I felt, I knew I had to work on that situation before anything else. But it wasn't long before we ran into each other again."
"And that's where we first met."
"At the farmers market?" Rachel clarifies, trying to keep up.
"It's where we first introduced ourselves, we met at Valentino's."
"Tomato, tomatoe, baby." Quinn says.
"So, how did that go?" Blaine asks. "Who introduced themselves first?"
"Q." Santana says with a laugh. "She was checking out my ass."
She shrugs. "What can I say? It is a fine ass."
Santana beams and mirrors Quinn's shrug. "Well, if you say so."
She starts to begin her story when her phone starts to ring. She answers it and Blaine can follow with the little Spanish he knows.
He catches Quinn's eyes briefly in the rear view mirror as Santana continues her conversation on the phone.
"Like I mentioned yesterday we're meeting her parents for lunch, so we'll drop you off at the hotel and swing back around four." Quinn says.
"Thanks for the accommodations. Especially, on such short notice." Rachel says, leaning forward a little. "Although a little forewarning would have helped."
Blaine recognizes the laugh that comes with it and finds himself narrowing his eyes."Rachel." He hisses.
"It's okay, Blaine." Quinn says with a chuckle. "I know Rachel. Besides, we all have our reasons."
"And yours would be?"
"A good one." She responds with a quickness.
-
"The audacity." She says slamming the dresser drawer shut.
And Blaine laughs to himself at the moment.
It's almost a repeat of her meltdown yesterday. Instead of this time being in Rachel's cramped New York apartment, they're in a spacious suite at the Waldorf Astoria Chicago.
"And don't think I didn't notice that snide comment from Santana. And yes, I'll admit, she's stunning, but what else does Quinn see in her? I mean did you hear the way she talked to her?"
He sits back further into the couch and shrugs. "I think it's just banter. Besides, we were only with them briefly. You can't judge them based on one car ride."
"But they can fall in love at first sight?" She pauses in front of him.
He sighs. "Rachel. She's your best friend. I trust you know her better than anyone."
She nods her head. "Mhm."
"But, you're also in love with her. There are conflicts of interest clouding your judgment. Wait, let me finish." He says as he sees her trying to interrupt. " I'll make you a deal. If for any reason in the next couple of daysI see just cause for them not to be together, I will stand up and object on your behalf."
"You wouldn't."
"I swear."
He watches as she considers. The thoughts tumbling over in her mind as she gets acquainted with the plan and he really believes he has her seeing reason. How ridiculous she's being.
But, Rachel Berry takes him by surprise. Squaring her shoulders, looking him dead in the eye, she reaches out her hand for him to shake.
"Deal."
-
What is this? Not the AU I promised and I'm sorry! Lol work life got busy and I started this at the beginning of this year and am just getting back to it. I'm just having fun with this ship and it's crazy how many random story starts I have for Quinntana. I'm going to truly try to stick this one out! Thank you all as always for reading.