Next one! For everyone asking why Rachel is being an idiot; hopefully this one explains things a bit more. Although, to be fair, sometimes people are just idiots :)

sosaysthelipless is the lovely person who has been beta-ing for me; if it is a significant relief for you, then go say thanks ;)

Thanks for reading guys.

Kurt has very kindly offered to stay away for the night. Brody suggested Kurt slept in Brody's unoccupied bed for the night, but Kurt seemed to freak out a little at that, and instead made his own arrangements.

He wants tonight to be the perfect night. It's felt like a long time since he and Rachel managed to be perfect, what with one thing and another. They've been a little… out of synch. Partly because of the role, he knows, but also Rachel's been busy, he guesses. Distracted, somehow.

The idea is, of course, that when they live together, it'll be easier to see each other. They'll just be together, no dashing one way or another across the city to find time to spend together, fitting each other around everything else.

Brody has been here since six. Rachel has been kind of busy in her room. The fact that Brody turned up wearing one of his best shirts seemed to throw Rachel into a panic, and Brody thinks she's in there trying to match his outfit.

Brody, meanwhile, is in charge of dinner.

He'd found an apron hanging inside a cupboard, which suspiciously seemed to co-ordinate with all of their dishcloths and oven gloves, but Brody had donned it anyway, concerned for the cleanliness of his shirt. The only real thing he's got to do now is blend the soup, but he's taking no chances.

He's setting the plates when Rachel emerges.

She looks gorgeous. Brody finds himself blinking several times, trying to take it all in. She's wearing a long sleeved dress, that doesn't show any skin, but is so tight he doesn't need to use his imagination at all. Her only concession to the fact that they aren't going out on the town are her lack of heels. She's bare foot instead. It only seems to make the whole picture sexier. Brody wolf whistles.

Rachel rolls her eyes at him, and flaps a hand, dismissing his appreciation, before pacing over to the speakers, and plugging her IPod into the dock. Brody slides up behind her, and kisses her on the cheek, before just staying there, breathing in Rachel's perfume. After a moment Rachel turns into him, and kisses him firmly on the mouth, before looking down at their two bodies.

'Well, I was trying to coordinate with your colors, but I hadn't anticipated you wearing our apron for the evening.'

Brody grins at her, and tips forward to touch his nose to hers.

'You could see if one of the oven gloves could be incorporated into your outfit? Or I could take the apron off, your call.'

Rachel presses at his shoulders after a second, and he spins obediently, so Rachel can unknot the strings behind him. After a second Brody tries to catch her eye over his shoulder.

'Having you take off my clothing isn't how I'd anticipated this evening starting…'

Rachel snorts, and pokes him in the small of the back.

'Come on, what have you burned for me?'

…

Rachel's quiet, as she eats. Brody chalks this up to the fact that both his starter and main dish are delicious. He quite happily fills the gaps by recounting some of the tales and experiences from his new job. He mentions how his cast mates ask after Rachel all the time, he thinks she'll like that.

Rachel smiles and nods and asks after his mom, and Brody almost makes an enquiry about her day, because he isn't very good at keeping secrets.

Instead he ends up ignoring her question, and reaching across the table to grasp her hand. Rachel looks up at him, startled.

'My mom's fine… she thinks we should spend more time together.'

Rachel frowns at him, and then shrugs her shoulders.

'Well, if your mom is offering to do some of my course reading and critiques… or do a couple of shows for you? She'd love that, actually…'

Brody just looks at her, for a moment, watches as the smile plays over her lips as she visualizes his mom on the stage, twirling with the best of them.

He really wants to wake up with Rachel. Every day. He wants Rachel spend her time fussing about how the throws on their couch are sitting, and to fill up their bathroom with inexplicable tubes and tweezers and pots of cream. He wants to not have to slog all the way over here after a show, to fall asleep with her.

Maybe he's being selfish. He knows Rachel is happy living with Kurt. But sometimes he feels like he's entitled a bit of selfish. How else do things move on?

He squeezes at her hand.

'We could spend more time together if all of our belongings were in the place, huh? That way neither of us would have to leave.'

Rachel nods absently, and flexes her fingers beneath his, eyes somewhere over his shoulder.

'Well, yes, that would certainly be more convenient, although it would be pretty foolish to keep two places if all of our stuff is just in one place…'

'Maybe we shouldn't, then. Maybe we should have one place. Together.'

Rachel seems to zone in on him, after a second.

'What? What, you mean… what?'

Brody squeezes again, maybe subliminally he's also trying to do this morse code.

'We should get a place together. I want to live with you.'

He realizes he's nervous, when Rachel just blinks at him for long moments, lips parted.

'What? Are you… are you serious?'

Brody grins, and nods, trying to demonstrate that this isn't a hypothetical scenario.

'Yes. I've been looking around, and as long as you were willing for a place slightly smaller than this cavernous space, we could afford somewhere closer to Manhattan. And I've run it past Kurt, and he's happy to look into finding a different apartment, or we could all live together if it's really important to you. But I'm hoping you want to just be with me, Rach, that way you could walk around naked, which would be completely okay with me.'

Okay, so possibly the naked line was slightly too far, but he's nervous.

Shit, he'd planned on being suave. Rachel's not helping matters at all by just sitting there, staring.

'Rach?'

'But… how would we afford this? Finding money for the deposit, money to buy out our current leases, money to move… I haven't got any of that.'

'My parents want to help, that won't be a problem. And I've only got a month left on my lease before I have to sign again, and Kurt says there's only two months and a bit left on yours.'

Rachel blinks at him, and makes to move her hand away.

'You've told your parents? You've spoken to Kurt?'

Brody tips his head to one side, shrugging. 'Yeah, I mean, I wanted to just sound Kurt out, to check it wouldn't cause him any major problems, I don't want him to be inconvenienced. He says he could find somewhere, if necessary, and he'd be visiting every other day, regardless. I know you'd miss him.'

Rachel eyes her cutlery, and pushes her plate away from her slightly.

'I… how long have you been thinking about this?'

These aren't quite the squeals of delight Brody had been anticipating. He frowns, uncertain.

'Since a while, I guess. It makes sense, we both want to stay in the city long term, and we're ready for it, aren't we? There's no point being stuck in limbo. Come on Rach, why aren't you excited? Anyone would think you didn't want to live with me…?'

He's joking, teasing her a little, trying to get her to snap out of whatever mood she's in. He knows she's not great at new ideas. She tends to need a little adjustment time.

Rachel scrunches a napkin, and presses it to her lips, eyes bright. When she put it down she's smiling and she squeezes back at Brody's hand, for the first time.

'Oh my gosh, of course it's exciting. I'm just, well, trying to be practical, I guess. You've had a lot of time to work this idea around your head, but, I mean, wow.'

Brody grins at her. 'So that's a yes, then? If all the practical side of things can be settled? You'll live with me?'

Rachel swallows a couple of times, and then nods her head. Brody doesn't care that she isn't looking at him, but at her plate, because he knows she's just trying to keep her emotions in check. They're going to live together. Brody stands, and leans awkwardly over their plates, to press kiss to Rachel's cheekbone, and then her mouth.

When he sits down again, he's managed to get a stain on his shirt from his plate, but he really doesn't care.

…

They wind up on the couch, and Brody throws an arm out towards her, and pulls Rachel in to him, so her head is resting on his chest. He runs gentle fingers through her hair, and she sighs, after a moment.

The film he's brought over for the occasion is The Notebook, which Brody remembers watching with a previous girlfriend, who'd seemed to cry with joy throughout the entire thing. Brody doesn't remember much about it beyond the endless discussion of feelings, but Rachel likes discussing feelings, so he figures it can't be far off the mark.

Besides, every girl in the world has seen this film at least once, which means they don't need to get concerned with following plot, if they get a little…distracted.

He runs a hand down her arm, and he really can't keep it in any longer.

'So…today. The call back? Did you get a good feeling, do you think they were impressed?'

Rachel lifts her face, and squints at him.

'How did you know I was auditioning today?'

Brody grins at her, and presses a kiss to her mouth. He murmurs against her lips 'I may have suggested you? I know one of the casting assistants…'

Rachel sits up straight, pressing one hand to his chest.

'I thought they'd just heard about me. I thought, I don't know, people were starting to notice me. But, you organized it?'

Brody nods, and smiles, soothingly.

'Yeah, he did it as a favor to me. So? Did they say when they'd tell you?'

The hand that is pressed flat to his chest tightens, and then lifts altogether. Rachel moves herself away from him, to the other end of the couch.

'I didn't get it. They told me I wasn't right. But I had thought that that was okay, because at least I had been in the running, at least they'd heard about me. But now….dammit Brody, what is wrong with you?'

Rachel is pressing her lips together, like she does when she is really angry, and Brody sits up, startled.

'Hey, it's no big deal. I was rejected all the time too. It doesn't matter. I'm sorry I mentioned it, here, come here.'

He pats the cushion next to him, suddenly anxious to put this entire incident behind them, but Rachel stands up instead.

'You can't just do that Brody. It's… I'm not okay with you going behind my back like that. I don't need you to do that for me.'

Brody squints at her. 'What? How is this going behind your back? You… I was doing you a favor? It's hardly crime of the century. Now sit down, will you? You're being ridiculous.'

Rachel scoffs at him, suddenly frantic out of nowhere. 'I'm ridiculous? You're the one who… I mean, who do you think you are, really? That you get to just decide to hand out roles to people, on the basis of whether they sleep with you or not?'

Okay, what the hell? Brody thinks about standing up too, but adding more drama into this is hardly likely to get them anywhere.

'Rachel. Seriously. I know you are disappointed, but you are being unreasonable right now. Next time I'll ask you before I do something for you, okay? Now, I'm just going to sit here and watch this crappy film, and you can decide when you're done with whatever this is.'

He doesn't know what he's done, but Rachel is all over the place at the moment. And he remembers the pressure of reaching senior year and not having anything lined up for the future, but he's pretty sure it didn't cause him to lose all rationality. Brody stares resolutely at the screen, and let's Rachel do whatever she needs to do to snap the fuck out of it.

…

This isn't how it usually goes. Usually Rachel starts the sex.

They had been sitting, frosty silence, on the couch. Rachel has been playing with the corner of the throw and trying to remember that it was legitimately her right to angry, because Brody had been way out of line, arranging a call back for her. She isn't some kind of charity case.

Rachel has not been thinking about the fact that she was being a complete bitch to Brody for no reason other than her pride was wounded, and she wanted to be by herself. Or the fact that this was not how this was supposed to go.

Or that she'd just said yes to living with Brody.

She just needs… a bit more time. She's been happy with Brody for nearly three years. She's been…overwhelmed with Quinn for three kisses. How is anybody supposed to make a rational judgement on the basis of such limited data?

Rachel is not feeling rational.

In fact, if she thinks about it for long enough, the anger that she is feeling starts turning into guilt.

Which is why, when Brody turns to her, and tugs her over towards him with a look on his face which is almost demanding, and kisses her firmly without smiling, the easiest thing to do is to lose herself in it.

…

He's still good at it. Sex. She just doesn't quite… until she thinks of someone she shouldn't, and then she does.

…

Afterwards, Brody lifts his head from her chest, and looks into her eyes.

'Are we okay, Rach?'

Rachel nods, and sighs, and lifts two hands to slide down his jaw line, so that Brody smiles and kisses her again, gentle this time.

Because that's easy. Being okay is easy.

She just isn't sure if she wants just okay anymore.

…

There's an email in Quinn's account from Rachel when she wakes up that morning. It says it was sent at two thirty am, which seems to indicate that it must be a message of some significance.

Hi.

I'm struggling with this, at the moment.

Not because of anything you are doing, god knows I'm completely the one at fault here. But, I'm having a problem figuring out what we are doing, other than turning into friends who kiss each other.

It is coming up to three years with Brody. Three years in which I have been very content, excluding the last month or so.

And you… the idea of you and me makes me feel so much more than content. But this is brand new. How am I supposed to see into the future? I don't know what this is leading towards.

It's late. I'm talking nonsense, and this is really an email I'll almost certainly regret the second after I press send, but. Do you think we could be something? Something that means more than where we currently are? I can't figure out if I'm just being a moron, and risking hurting someone who is important to me for a crazy infatuation with a girl who is… I don't know. Does this just feel easy because it is you and me, and we're good friends?

Part of me keeps saying be sensible. Because the last time I rushed into something because it felt right at the time, I nearly ended up married, and you nearly died.

Oh god, I'm just going to press send.

It's a lot, too much, almost, at once, and Quinn reels a bit after, having taken in nothing except I'm struggling and just being a moron and sensible.

She re-reads, carefully, and then goes to make breakfast, and then re-reads again.

It's on the second piece of toast that Quinn decides she isn't qualified to deal with this. For goodness sake, this is the sort of discussion you have with close friends about the romantic dilemma you are involved in. Trying to have it with one of the main parties in the dilemma is unlikely to garner unbiased advice.

She considers sending an email back that says I don't know either, I can't predict the future, I don't know how happy you are with Brody, I don't know whether we could work as a relationship, all I know is that I can't stop thinking about you, but decides against it.

Instead she picks up her phone.

Not fair, Rachel. If you are looking for a declaration of love to make everything easier, I'm not providing it.

She gets into the shower, and when she returns to her room, carefully wrapped in a towel, there's a message waiting for her.

Is that necessary, Quinn? I wasn't fishing for anything, I just need to process this with someone, and I don't know how Kurt and Santana are going to react. Everyone else up here doesn't know you, or us.

This could quite easily turn into an argument, Quinn realizes, because she'd be lying if she said it hadn't been bothering her, and she isn't the one trying to maintain the pretense of a happy relationship. And she doesn't want to argue with Rachel.

Instead she just sends Try Brittany. You'll be surprised how good she can be at this.

…

Brittany is rearranging the magazines on her shelf so that the spines make a rainbow.

This is in honor of her favorite gay lady, her favorite everything, Santana, who arrives in…. thirty seven and a quarter hours.

And like, so what if Santana never notices or compliments Brittany on her décor choices? It matters that Brittany's done it. And it might seep into Santana, like that osmosis thing which Brittany thinks is something to do with potatoes, from what she remembers about Biology class. Seep into her so that Santana knows she is super welcome. And not at all resembling a potato.

Brittany's just deciding whether or not to put out a selection of sweaters to force Santana to wear, so that she has clothes that smell of her, when her phone rings.

Huh. It's Rachel.

'Hi Rachel. Sup?'

Rachel clears her throat, momentarily.

'Quinn thinks I should speak to you.'

Oh gosh, progress. Brittany does a little skip up and down, and then sits on her bed.

'Okay…about what?'

Rachel speaks cautiously, the way Brittany does to Lord Tubbington when he has kidnapped Brittany's laptop mouse.

'Well… she won't tell me… how much do you know, Brittany?'

Brittany is totally unprepared for a pop quiz, but her laptop is on, and she could just google the answers, if needed.

'Everything. I know everything.'

'What?' Rachel seems startled, and enquires further. 'You really know everything? How?'

Brittany eyes her laptop, checks its connectivity, and then puts her cursor in the search bar, prepared.

'I have my sources…'

There's a pause, and Rachel asks, as if probing for quicksand, 'You know everything about… me and Quinn?'

Oh. Brittany types Rachel's name into the search engine, but all she gets is a load of links to NYADA and a few reviews and McKinley stuff. She turns away, admitting defeat.

'Well, ahh, I don't know everything about you two, I mean, I could guess the basics, like, you sometimes secretly worry that you'd be in Slytherin, and the only thing that Quinn has ever completely failed at is learning to juggle.'

'Brittany! I would not be in Slytherin, I am very compassionate to those less fortunate than myself, and… actually, this isn't relevant. I mean, how in the loop are you? With regards to Quinn and I, as a combination?'

Brittany goes back to her bed, because she had guessed that things were leading up to this, somehow.

'I'm, aware of the loop. Just not all the details, because Quinn's no good at details, or, you know, words, sometimes.'

Rachel hums a bit in agreement, and there's a pause in which Brittany can only assume that Rachel is imagining Quinn, and everything that she is very good at. She coughs after a second, and it seems to spark a response from Rachel.

'So… you are aware of the concept of Quinn and myself. As a romantic item.'

Brittany nods, remembers Rachel can't see her, and then says 'Yes. That concept has been in my radar since I saw you two kissing at my party. Which was pretty cool. And just pretty, you guys have lovely faces.'

This seems to make Rachel hesitate for a second, and Brittany rushes to fill some more gaps.

'I mean, no stress. I told no-one. Like; zero. Although if Santana had directly asked me whether I saw you two kissing, I'd have probably told her, but she hasn't, she doesn't really ask questions like that.'

Brittany listens to more silence for a few seconds, and vaguely scans her room for anything that could possibly be a hidden microphone, because Quinn has impressed upon her the need to everything to be hush hush, and Brittany does not want to experience Quinn's angry face. As a precaution, Brittany tugs the comforter up and over her head, so she is tented inside.

'Rach?'

'Okay, so, if it is okay with you, I really need to talk to someone about this. In fact I have a great deal of words that just need to come out, so if you could just be on the end of the phone, and then maybe help me process at the end, that would be much appreciated.'

Brittany wonders whether Rachel has prepared her own flashcards for this. Maybe she's typed up a speech. Brittany lifts the corner of the blanket, stretches for her banana, and re-adjusts.

'So, that's cool, but make sure you breathe, because sometimes your words can run into a long sentence, and I can't put in the punctuation fast enough.'

Rachel breathes in deep for a second.

'I will endeavour to maintain good enunciation throughout, however I guarantee nothing. As you are aware, Quinn and I kissed at your party. I enjoyed this, although I am uncertain who really started it. Since then we have kissed twice more. I will not bore you with the details, beyond the fact that they were spectacular. However, as I am sure you are aware, Brody is very nice, and we have been together for a long time. I am struggling to justify ending things with Brody purely because there's a chance of something with Quinn. And equally, I'm not even sure Quinn is open for a relationship at this point; she's never really struck me as the romantic type, and it would be foolish in the extreme to end a perfectly good relationship for the mere possibility of a relationship with someone who doesn't even do relationships. But I really like kissing her. Which means I've cheated on Brody. In both thought and deed. And I'm also apparently now going to live with Brody; I don't know how that happened. But no one knows that. Don't tell Quinn. In fact, tell Quinn none of this, please?'

Man, Brittany hates it when people paragraph at her. It's like, when the flight attendants say blah de blah, here is your life jacket, blah de blah, don't try and open the windows, Brittany zones out after ten seconds. The last few times she tried to put her hand up to ask questions, but whoa, that wasn't a hit.

She snaps the top off her banana.

'You like kissing Quinn? I mean, that's a given, that's like saying, you like oxygen, but you do, huh?'

Rachel sighs. 'Yes. Very much.'

'But you don't know whether you could have a relationship with her? Or she could have a relationship with you? And Brody is a decent guy, so you want to play it safe?'

Brittany wonders whether she could be an advice columnist. That might be her field.

'He's a good person. Compared to my previous track record in men, he's amazing. And I don't want to hurt him.'

Brittany takes a mouthful of banana, and chomps thoughtfully.

'Well, kissing people behind his back isn't exactly ethical. Like, I'd be hurt.'

Rachel lowers her voice, and Brittany wonders if Brody is in her apartment. Wow, that would make this whole phone call even worse.

'I know that Brittany. I never… intend to end up kissing her. It just keeps happening.'

Brittany rolls her eyes.

'Sure Rachel. There's like, and sudden gust of gravity and you fall and your lips accidentally land on her mouth. That happens all the time.'

There's pause, and Brittany decides to clear things up.

'You've already fucked up, Rachel. It's not as if you have to decide whether to hurt Brody. It's about whether you want to carry on hurting him.'

Rachel's voice goes all whispery. Brittany feels a bit bad, but then, what, she's supposed to say cheating on people is totally fine?

'I just…can't stop thinking about Quinn.'

Brittany presses her lips together, because Quinn deserves to be thought about all the time.

'Does Brody feel right, since you kissed Quinn?'

Brittany knows the answer, but Rachel probably needs to say it out loud.

'No…it's nothing like her.'

Aww. Brittany feels her nose scrunch up, despite her strict anti-cheating policy, because aww, you know? Rachel and Quinn. It would make an awesome conclusion.

'Maybe you should see her. Like, on an unofficial date, thing. Soon, before you can think more cheating thoughts. To figure out if you really want to properly date her, rather than just kiss her a lot? And then, if you do, dump Brody. Nicely. Gently.'

Rachel answers immediately.

'But what if she doesn't want to date me? What then?'

Wow. Brittany rolls her eyes, because clearly dating Brody for this long really has numbed her romantic senses.

'Rachel? Since when do you play safe? You were the one who was always singing really loudly in everyone's ears about love? You can't fall in love without risking heart hurts. That's like, the first rule of love. In fact, I think that is the moral of every romantic film, ever. Love can punch you in the heart. And then you get to kiss attractive people.'

Rachel sniffs at her, and Brittany can imagine her sad little wobbly face.

'Thanks Brit. I mean, I still don't know how to get out of this mess, but you help, you know?'

Brittany brightens up, and tugs the comforter off her head, because things were getting stuffy. Maybe she's fixed it. Maybe Rachel might actually do something.

'Oh, you are welcome. I'm going to be an advice columnist. Can I put you down as a reference?'