December 18th 2013
Rachel wakes up, keeping her eyes shut and taking in everything. She can feel the emptiness of the sheets beside her, but that's okay because she can hear, whom she can only assume is Quinn, cooking in the kitchen. She can smell the aroma of breakfast wafting into her room, and it smells fantastic.
Quinn's standing in the doorway, smiling at Rachel, watching the girl breathe. Quinn's holding a tray with breakfast on it. Homemade tofu scramble.
"Happy birthday, my darling Rachel," Quinn says.
Rachel opens her eyes at the sound of her girlfriend's angelic voice. She watches as Quinn saunters over. She feels the bed dip as Quinn sits down next to her.
Rachel sits up, and Quinn passes her breakfast to her.
"Happy anniversary," Quinn whispers in Rachel's ear, sending shivers up her spine.
Rachel wants to tell Quinn that she loves her. She's been wanting to tell her that for a while, but Quinn hasn't said it yet, and Rachel's afraid of saying it first because what if Quinn doesn't say it back. She's not sure she could handle that.
"Happy anniversary," Rachel says back.
Quinn's been planning this for months. Everything has to be perfect because Rachel deserves nothing less. It's not only her birthday, it's their anniversary, and Quinn has been reminding everyone involved incessantly for the last month or so.
Rachel thinks about how to make their anniversary special. She and Quinn had previously decided that since their anniversary is on Rachel's birthday, that Quinn would plan out everything, though Rachel was allowed to get Quinn a gift. Quinn had stressed that she doesn't need anything, that having Rachel is more than she deserves, but Rachel had gotten Quinn a few things anyway.
Rachel takes a bite of her tofu scramble and moans in delight.
"When did you get so good at making this?" Rachel asks.
"When I started eating mostly vegan," Quinn responds nonchalantly, stealing a bite off of Rachel's plate.
Rachel turns to look at Quinn, her mouth gaping. Quinn stifles a laugh, seeing that Rachel hadn't realized that she still had food in her mouth.
"Close your mouth while you eat," Quinn chastises playfully.
Rachel closes her mouth, quickly chewing and swallowing her food before speaking.
"I apologize for my ill-mannered response, however, I was unaware that you had taken on a vegan lifestyle. I am curious as to when this began and why was I not informed of this."
Quinn smiles adoringly at Rachel's rambling.
"I'm not completely vegan," Quinn says, "I don't think I could give up my bacon, but I started eating vegan meals once a week since I've been at Yale. It was my way of connecting with you even though you weren't around. Now I only eat non-vegan meals a couple times a week." Quinn tells Rachel.
Rachel wants nothing more than to kiss her girlfriend, so she does.
When they surface for air, Quinn chuckles. Rachel attempts to arch her eyebrow in the way that Quinn always seems to do, but it's not the same. Quinn finds it humorous that Rachel seems so surprised despite that they always eat vegan food. Rachel had always assumed that Quinn only ate vegan because of her, and ate normally when they weren't together.
Quinn leaves Rachel to get ready. She knocks lightly on Kurt's door. Kurt opens his door to find himself faced with the infamous raised brow that Rachel had been trying to imitate earlier in the morning. Kurt simply nods. He's ready.
When Rachel emerges from the bedroom, she finds the room covered in birthday decorations. She wasn't expecting much from anyone this year. She figured, after last year, that only Quinn and her fathers would remember, but when Kurt comes out singing 'Happy Birthday' she's happy to be proven wrong.
Rachel spots a pile of gifts on the table. Kurt hands Rachel his gift first. She squeals when she pulls out a pair of shoes that she had been eyeing in the window of a store a few blocks over. Kurt must have remembered them. Rachel hugs him before moving on. She gets an iTunes gift card that appears to be from Noah, a stuffed duck named Mallard from Brittany, a little black dress from Santana, and some books of sheet music from Blaine.
She opens Quinn's presents last. The first thing she opens is a record player, which Quinn informs her will convert her records to mp3s if she so desires. The next gift she opens is a black beret with a gold star on the front of it. The letter 'R' is embroidered in the middle of the star.
Rachel opens her next gift, a print of the two of them from over the summer. Quinn's arm is around Rachel, and Rachel's head is on Quinn's shoulder. Neither of them are looking at the camera, they appear to be looking at the sky, so Rachel surmises it must have been taken during the firework show. She supposes that would explain why she didn't know the picture even existed, but she loves the way it shows how they fit together so naturally. The photo is centered in a heart-shaped frame, in which the words "Quinn and Rachel, forever" were written in Quinn's elegant scrawl.
Quinn hands Rachel an envelope containing her last present. Rachel squeals when she sees two tickets for The Lion King on Broadway. Quinn tells her that they're for tomorrow because she had other things planned for tonight. When Rachel connects her lips with Quinn's, Kurt excuses himself from the room.
Rachel is somewhat annoyed that she still has classes. She thinks her birthday is too close to the holidays for classes to be held on it, but she knows she has no control over that and hopes that next year she'll receive a respite from classes on her birthday.
With all her classes for the day finished, Rachel makes her way over to the address that Quinn had texted her. It turns out to be a restaurant called Ribs, which instantly makes Rachel feel uneasy. She thinks it must be some sort of Sports Grill, which probably doesn't have many vegan options.
Rachel double checks the address to make sure she's at the right place. She almost doesn't want to go in, but then she remembers that it was Quinn who organized this, so she trusts in her girlfriend, and goes inside.
Quinn is waiting just inside the front door of Ribs for Rachel. Quinn's smile lights up the room when the door opens and she sees Rachel. She quickly pulls Rachel into a hug, giving her a peck on the cheek before she lets go.
Quinn entwines their hands and leads Rachel into the restaurant. It's nothing like Rachel had envisioned. Quinn stops in front of a booth, and Rachel squeals when she sees her fathers sitting in it.
Rachel is beyond thrilled when she realizes that, though the restaurant isn't a vegan restaurant, they do have an entirely different menu for vegans. She and Quinn order off of the vegan menu, and her fathers order from the regular menu. The four of them talk, Rachel and Quinn share their food.
When they finish with their meals, Quinn stands, offering her hand to Rachel.
"Quinn Fabray!" Rachel says, "You are not leaving my fathers to pay for your meal!"
Quinn smirks at Rachel and says, "I'm not leaving your fathers to pay for anything, honey. It's all been taken care of."
Rachel looks at her fathers, whose expressions, Rachel is sure, are just as shocked as her own. Quinn, however, is looking smug.
They're almost to the doors when they're stopped by a tall man. Rachel thinks they're about to get busted for leaving without paying. She silently scolds herself for thinking so little of Quinn; she knows her girlfriend wouldn't do something like that, but she has no idea how the bill had been paid.
Quinn smiles at the gentleman.
"Mr. Ribeiro," Quinn says.
Rachel looks at Quinn curiously.
"Quinn, how many times have I told you to call me Rob?"
"I lost count when I was five. Though that was probably because you had told me more times than I could count at the time," Quinn laughs.
Quinn feels Rachel squeeze her hand.
"Mr. Ribeiro, this is my girlfriend, Rachel, and her parents, Leroy and Hiram."
"So you do know our names," Leroy comments.
Quinn rolls her eyes and continues, "Rachel, Mr. and Mr. Berry, this is Robert Ribeiro. Mr. Ribeiro owns this fine establishment. His wife, Lisa, grew up with my mother."
The five of them exchange pleasantries before Quinn reminds them that they have an elsewhere to be. At least, she and Rachel do.
"It's always a pleasure seeing you, Mr. Ribeiro, but I'm afraid Rachel and I are running late to our next destination." Rachel rolls her eyes, knowing that Quinn was trying to keep everything secret. "Thank you again for dinner, it was amazing."
"Anytime, Quinn, and Happy Birthday, Rachel."
Rachel thanks Mr. Ribeiro, and they leave the restaurant. Quinn informs Rachel that her fathers will not be joining them for the rest of the evening, but they will be staying in New York until Saturday when she and Rachel leave as well.
Quinn and Rachel walk hand in hand through the city, talking about everything and nothing at the same time, as they so often did when Quinn was in New York. Quinn stops in front of the Michelangelo Hotel, which Rachel recognizes as one of the nicest hotels in New York.
A thousand different thoughts race through Rachel's mind. The one she can't seem to shake though is that Quinn expects them to have sex tonight. She can't think of another reason why Quinn might have brought them to a hotel when Rachel has her own room in her apartment that's not too far from the hotel as it is.
"Quinn," Rachel says hesitantly.
"Close your eyes, Rach," Quinn says.
Rachel looks at Quinn, seeing nothing but adoration in her eyes, she complies.
Quinn leads Rachel into the hotel, guiding her to a room somewhere in the middle of the hotel.
Rachel feels Quinn let go of her. After a moment, she feels Quinn's hot breath tickling her ear.
"Open your eyes," Quinn says.
Rachel opens her eyes. Her mouth drops in shock. She sees Santana, Noah, Mercedes, Kurt, Mike, Finn, the entirety of New Directions, Brody, and a number of her classmates from NYADA. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it hadn't been this.
"Happy Birthday Rachel!" everyone shouts, though Rachel distinctly hears Santana say 'hobbit' instead of her name.
Rachel can feel herself tearing up. She never imagined that all these people would come to New York to celebrate her birthday, though she had a feeling that the New Directions were missing school, because she was sure that it hadn't let out yet. It was touching, and she knew that Quinn had organized everything.
Rachel feels Quinn's strong arms wrap around her. Quinn's lips connect with the top of Rachel's head, and Rachel feels as if she's floating.
It's nearly ten by the time the party ends and Rachel and Quinn get back to Rachel's apartment. Rachel had thoroughly enjoyed her birthday. It was nice seeing everybody from Lima, and she now has an abundance of gift cards to various places such as Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and mostly for the iTunes store.
Now that they're back at the apartment, it's no longer Rachel's birthday, well it is, but they had agreed that after Rachel's birthday festivities were over, it would be solely about their anniversary. It's nothing big, because Rachel's birthday and her classes had taken most of the day, but they have gifts to exchange, and Quinn, once again, has a few surprises up her sleeve.
Rachel stops in her doorway. She sees a blanket on the ground, with a picnic basket and champagne glasses in the middle. There are several unlit candles scattered about the room as well.
Quinn comes in with a lighter, a bottle of sparkling apple cider and a container. She quickly lights the candles, pours the cider, and opens the container, which holds several vegan chocolate covered strawberries.
Quinn feeds Rachel a strawberry, and her smile widens when she sees a bit of juice from the strawberry running down her chin.
Rachel decides she wants to give Quinn her present first.
Quinn carefully unwraps the gift. It's Romeo and Juliet. But better than that, it's an old tattered copy of Romeo and Juliet. Quinn knows it must have cost a lot of money, and been really hard to find.
"I'm not sure what edition it is," Rachel says, interrupting Quinn's thoughts. "Though with things like Shakespeare, it's almost impossible to tell."
Quinn opens her mouth to thank Rachel, to tell her that she loves it because she does, but Rachel keeps on talking.
"I got it for you because, aside from your love of old, musty classics, I feel like, we're not so different from them. You were the head Cheerio, and I was the loser Gleek. We were supposed to be enemies; we were expected to be enemies, but somewhere along the way we fell in love. Only we'll get a happier ending than Romeo and Juliet did."
"I love it, "Quinn says, "And I love you."
Rachel beams at Quinn, so relieved to hear those three words, and to now be able to say them without worrying. "I love you, too, Quinn."
Quinn leans over and takes Rachel's lips in her own. When the need for air becomes too much, she breaks the kiss, leaning her forehead against Rachel's.
"My turn," Quinn says.
"Right from the start, you were a thief, you stole my heart and I your willing victim" Quinn sings.
Quinn pulls out a small box and opens it, revealing a necklace. It was white gold, in the shape of a heart. On the front there was a small 'Q' engraved towards the bottom, so small that if you didn't look closely, you wouldn't see.
"My heart is yours," Quinn says to Rachel.
Rachel looks at it in awe. She picks it up, running her fingers across it. She feels more engraving on the back, so she flips it over. The back reads 'I can take all the madness this world has to give, but I won't last a day without you.'
"I hope you don't mind that I borrowed a few words from Barbra," Quinn says.
Rachel shakes her head.
"It's kind of ironic, because we spend so many days apart, and after everything that's happened. But at some point, I realized it's true. In high school, there were days where I felt like giving up, but then you'd appear, and somehow, you'd make me feel like everything was going to be okay."
"Quinn," Rachel says quietly.
"I got this for you for several reasons. The first and most important reason is to remind you that I love you, and that my heart will always be yours. I know it gets hard with our colleges being so far apart, even if it is only 83.3 miles. I can't always be there in person because of classes and stuff, but I'm always here for you. The quote on the back, I mean that. But I also know that Barbra sings that song, and she represents your idol, your passion, and your future. You're already a star, baby, and someday everyone will see how bright you shine."
"Can you put it on me?" Rachel asks.
Quinn carefully puts the necklace on Rachel. She pulls Rachel into a kiss as soon as she's done.
"Happy anniversary, my love," Quinn says, as they break for air.
"Happy anniversary, baby," Rachel says.
The pair fall asleep in each others arms on the blanket on the floor.