Day 5

Rachel felt nauseas. The guilt in her stomach churning was making her sick. Her palm was starting to sweat and she's feeling like a kid who was about to steal the last cookie in the jar. She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart but it was not working. Quinn was shadowing beside her, with no intention to make any contact. She wondered if the slight tug in her heart was normal. She wondered if the intense need to touch Quinn was normal. She wondered if feeling empty was normal.

She wondered if Quinn was feeling that way too.

The conversation with Finn the previous night was making her re-examine her current situation with Quinn. She had no idea how things were so complicated right now…or maybe, she was being complicated? She bit her lips.

Was she?

The acute ache in her heart made her stop breathing altogether. Was she physically pain or mentally? She couldn't differentiate between the two. It felt like somebody just stabbed her a dagger of brutal truth and reality. Can she even feel physical pain even when all these were happening in her mind? She didn't know what to think. In fact, she couldn't think. Because she was so overwhelmed with the pain that it robbed off her ability to think.

Wait, was she even breathing? She wanted to laugh because it was ridiculous. But she couldn't. Her head felt dizzy and she was beginning to think that maybe it really was physical until the pain in her heart dissolved into a fuzzy warm.

It felt like the first sip of hot chocolate in winter. It slowly spread throughout her body and made her body tingle with intense joy. She closed her eyes so that she could be fully immersed in this feeling. It was such a huge contrast that she felt tears stinging her eyes.

Quinn had draped her hand over her shoulders the way she had grown to love and her hand sought after Quinn's like reflex reaction. When she looked up, she was greeted by a pair of warm hazel eyes that was responsible for the flip in her stomach.

And for a weird moment, she felt complete.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"Hi Ladies and Gentleman, Welcome to Round 2." The organiser greeted and a small squeak escaped Rachel's lips. "We started off with 16 groups two days ago. And now we are down to 8. After today, only 4 groups will survive and move on to the 3rd round tomorrow. This year's competition is very intense – In terms of challenges for each round, team's calibre and judging criteria." He paused and Quinn could hear Rachel's breathing laboured. Quinn, on the other hand, totally stopped breathing. "I'm sure all of you are excited and curious about the task on hand for Round 2. Before I start..." The guy snapped his fingers and his assistants scrambled to pass sheets of paper to them.

Quinn's world basically screeched to a halt. The ice cube in her stomach melted sickeningly in her stomach as intensive hazel eyes bored into the words – A Cake-like story. Rachel and Quinn shared a glance, horrified expression mirroring each other's.

"The task for round 2 was to bake a cake to illustrate your story. All groups will be given 2 hours of baking time and 10 minutes of presentation. Good lucks and all the best." And as dramatic as it could it, the doors behind the organizer flipped open at that exact moment and Quinn and Rachel couldn't be more intimidated. The sparkle of the metal pans and bowls were piercing to their eyes.

They felt like they were competing in Iron Chef instead.

"Do you bake?" Quinn whispered.

"Only vegan cookies."

A little cold reality that made her stomach flip. Great, they had absolutely no idea on how to bake a damn cake and they had to give birth to one by the end of the day. Quinn suddenly felt like agreeing to join the competition was a bad decision. She hated losing and she hated not knowing.

With a soft sigh, she took Rachel's hand into hers and she felt Rachel's grip tightened and her thumb dragged firmly over her palm. A small shiver travelled down her spine. When their eyes were locked, a small amused smile practically took Quinn's breath away.

Then, questions started running through her head like a bullet train.

Why was Rachel giving her that look that Tina often gave to Mike?

What was this weird feeling in her stomach?

But most importantly, why was her body reacting like it wasn't hers?

"What?" Quinn perked an eyebrow, feeling defensive. The need to build up her defense was tremendous.

Rachel raised her eyebrows the way Quinn always does and looked away with a small smirk.

Quinn took in a few laboured breaths, trying to distract herself from the way her heart was beating faster just because of that stupid smirk and her stupid trademark eyebrows-raising on Rachel. She dropped her hand before she could get too comfortable and pressed her hand to her waist.

A moment of silence slide pass them.

"Well, I think…I think we could just imitate the couple beside us... for this round."Quinn suggested. A small frown appeared on Rachel's gorgeous face as she tucked her lower lips under her teeth. Quinn found herself staring at her shiny, white teeth as they nipped and tear at plump, pink flesh.

"Isn't that cheating?" She said, lowering her voice.

Quinn blinked, missing her question altogether. She paused, boring into the chocolate brown-eyes who was waiting for her. She cleared her throat, stalling time while trying hard to recall Rachel's question.

"And you had a better suggestion?" She let go a breath she didn't knew she was holding when she saw Rachel pouted. Yeah, she still had the magical intuition of saying the right thing at the right time although she had no idea where the was the conversation leading to. Something which she had picked up after dating the boys.

"Fine, we don't have to win this round anyway, just maintain our lead is good enough."She puffed out, a cute pout was still on her face. Quinn found herself staring at her lips and they looked so soft and...She shook her head.

She felt so off today.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Things looked like it could actually worked out, especially when Rachel's dough turned out looking decent. Except, it wasn't because Rachel was now looking at Quinn like she had just said a bad word.

"Eggs?" She exclaimed and Quinn had to hush her down. "Quinn, do you have any idea what kind of condition these chicken live in to produce them?" She continued and Quinn scowled in frustrated when Rachel got louder instead.

"Rachel, cakes have eggs in them." Quinn enunciated with a tight, annoyed voice.

"Not in mine!" She whispered harshly and turned to Quinn with anger scribbling over her face. Quinn rolled her eyes at how drama Rachel could be. Why does Rachel just have to be different from the rest? Her scowl deepened.

She could feel the frustration was balling inside her and the urge to snap intensified. She turned around, words of insults was at the tip of her tongue before something else caught her attention.

The annoyance and frustration quickly morphed into amusement. She bit her lips to resist the urge to laugh. The flour stains on Rachel's cheeks reminded her of the time where Rachel was playing for the football team and painted her cheeks blue. But this time round, she looked like she was from a vegan tribal instead. Before she knew it, hands surged forward and gently brush against the stains. It was so innocent and intimate that it made Rachel's heart skipped a beat, especially when Quinn was looking at her like she was, dare she say, adorable.

She blinked, a shy blush crawling up her face at Quinn's gesture. Then Quinn paused at her action, like a sudden realization weighted upon her. The look in her eyes changed and her hands were down before Rachel could blink. "You looked ridiculous with the flour stains on your face." Quinn snapped weakly and shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. But the bashfulness lurking around the corners of her dark eyes said otherwise. Rachel scowled and turned away before swiftly turned back again, looking dead serious. "Did you just stain my face further?" Panic swimming in her enlarged brown eyes. Quinn could see her intense urge to wipe her face with her hands, which was unfortunately stained with flour.

The struggle on Rachel's face was comical and Quinn had to bite her lips from laughing out loud. Her hand draped across Rachel's shoulder and pulled her closer, previous slight awkwardness dissolved into thin air. She whispered teasingly, "I kinda like your new look better. A whole new meaning to make-up..." And before she could react, Rachel cupped her face with both hands causing Quinn to shut her eyes. Some of the flour managed to get into her nose and she coughed in irritation.

That was unexpected, knowing how hygiene conscious Rachel was.

But hygiene seemed to be the last thing in her mind as Rachel took a deliberate step back and admired her masterpiece.

"Definitely a whole new meaning to make-up." She agreed.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

They ended up missing most of the steps. This left them with Plan B - go with the flow and hoped for the best. Thus, after skipping the eggs, adding lotsa sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and forgetting the baking powder altogether, their cake turned out looking like a mash of dry sponge.

"What the hell is that?"Quinn whispered in disbelief.

"A vegan faberry cake?"

"Are you using this...thing to represent our relationship?" Quinn murmured with offense.

"Oh my god, we were supposed to present a cake...not a ball of... God, I don't even have a word for it."

"Junk?"

Rachel nodded in agreement. "Yes, junkcake. We are so screwed."

"We will just need to come out with something else. We can't present this...junkcake."

"Quinn, we only have about 30 minutes left. Furthermore, we have absolutely no idea how to make a proper one. The next junkcake could be worse than this."

Silence engulfed them as the reality sank it.

They were definitely fucked up.

"Will we have sufficient time to make the cookies?"

Quinn heard Rachel took in a sharp gasp even before she looked up. She spun around in one swift motion, so fast that her hair was literally in the air while she speak. "Quinn, are you kidding me? They wanted a cake, not cookie!" Rachel exclaimed, her eyes widened in disbelief.

"We will first be penalized for being out of context. And then we will drop from the top of the chart faster than we can say "Glee". To top it up, we will be named as the couple-who-cannot-differentiate-a-cake-from-a-cookie."Panic sank to the bottom of her pit as she rambled, pacing up and down their working station with her hands on her hips.

"Rachel, calm down."

"There goes our reputation. And if we lose this, we can't get the money and then we are more screwed than screwed..." Rachel continued, ignoring Quinn totally.

Frustrated, Quinn grabbed her by her hand and cupped Rachel's face as she looked into the panic brown eyes.

"Hey..." She whispered and a small charming smile crept up her face. "Have faith." She continued and bumped their foreheads together while remaining eye contact. She watched as a string of emotions played in hers eyes. Quinn could feel the warm radiating from Rachel's face and it felt like it may be one of the best feelings in the world. Then she nodded and the smile on Quinn's face grew wider.

That moment, she never thought that Rachel's eyes could be any more stunning.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Rachel bit on her nails nervously as her eyes flickered to the clock for third time that minute. Other couples were hanging around, seemly relaxed. Rachel would be if she were them. She swore some of them were actually secret pastry chef!

When she felt like her panic was about to explode inside of her, Quinn draped her hand across her shoulders and suddenly, she felt grounded than ever in the last 20 minutes. Her hand sought for Quinn's and they intertwined the way they used to. Rachel's hand was on Quinn's hips and she tilted her head to lean against her shoulder. She didn't really know whether or not friends hugged each other the way she was clinging to Quinn. The sound of Quinn's heart slowly beating against her ears had a calming effect on her.

"Have I ever tried your vegan cookies?"

A small smile appeared on Rachel's face. "You did. Last year's Valentine's Day? The cookie which Sam baked was actually from me."

She felt Quinn lifting her head away from hers. "You're kidding."

But Rachel just snuggled closer towards her and closed her eyes. A contented sigh escaped her lips. "Sam needed help, so why not? You certainly looked like you need to eat more. With all the torture under Ms Sue Slyvester..."

Quinn's body shook as she chuckled and Rachel tried hard to remember this moment. Because listening to that while pressing her ears against her heart had to be one of the most unique experiences she ever had.

She never ever want to forget this moment.

"I only have Glee now."

"Our Glee."

"Our Glee." She agreed.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

They would have laughed at the judges faces if they weren't nervous enough. Rachel was gripping Quinn's hand tightly and their palms were getting sweaty.

Certainly not a good sign.

"Well well, what do we have here..."A slightly bald man, Lionel, peeped up from his glass, a small frown on his face as he looked at their masterpiece. A cough of displeased escaped the lips of a middle age woman, Sandra, who was scribbling rapidly beside him. The last judge, Daniel, was the nicest of all as he tried to give them a smile. But even that was bad because he was smiling at them pitifully.

Quinn cleared her throat and squared his shoulders to look confident. Quinn Fabray intimidates and she refused to have it play the other way. "Hi, we're Team Faberry." Good, her voice sounded confident yet casual at the same time. "We are aware that the rule was supposed to bake a cake. But other than the fact that we suck at baking one..."

"Yeah, our cake turned out looking like a junk."Rachel injected and Quinn began to relax as he saw Sandra cracked a small smile.

"We also felt that this kind of mirrors our story." She watched as all three judges threw them curious looks and she paused for her words to sink in. "I was brought up in a family which I have a mould to follow. I was supposed to turn out to be the perfect cake, like my sister. With whipped cream and lacing and top up with strawberries and icing. That was how Fabrays are supposed to be. And I tried, my very best, to be a Fabray. I was taught that that's how you can achieve happiness, and I believe." She said and she dropped her gaze to the ground, feeling suffocated suddenly. Like the room was constricting and compressing into her. She was never comfortable in talking about herself but she felt like she needed to for this competition... and Rachel. All about the winning...right? She felt Rachel drawing random patterns on the back of her hand and she willed herself to continue.

"And then Rachel came along..." Rachel felt her heart rate picking up as she heard her name rolling off Quinn's tongue. A warm spread across her chest. She decided that hearing Quinn speaking about her to others would definitely be on the top of her "feels good" list.

"Bashing all my beliefs and thoughts about how somebody can be happy. I was resistant as first, I was dead on making her life living hell because...this was not the way to achieve happiness and I make sure she doesn't." She smirked shamefully. "Yet, the more I hit her, the harder she bounced back. She was intriguing. Rachel stood up for what she believes in and always readily offering help even when she knew she was not appreciated." She turned to Rachel. The brown eyes were staring at her like she was hanging onto her every word.

"How could anybody that small have such a big heart?" Quinn asked with intense eyes and so much sudden emotion that Rachel felt like she might fly, if Quinn wasn't holding on to her hand and anchoring her. Could Quinn Fabray be anymore charming?

"Rachel was the cookie, able to give alittle bit of herself to people who she loves. I'm the cake, you have to slice me to take a part of me." Quinn turned back to the judges and shrugged helplessly. "So while I've planned all my life to be a cake which I thought I would be happy being, Rachel came and flipped my beliefs upside down. And now...as we stood here infront of you judges, we know we probably would screw up this round. But if you're looking for something that best mirrors our story, I would say this is that best that we've got. The truest, purest dose of Faberry in the form of cookie. When life demanded you to be a cake, try being a cookie. Because as long as you are true to yourself, you can be a vegan cookie and still be happy."

The silence in the room was deafening. It was like the world literally stopped and everybody was hanging by the thread. Daniel and Sandra looked mildly convinced and may she say, mildly impressed. Lionel, however, was wearing a look which she couldn't decipher. Then, as though the world was waiting for this moment, Daniel picked up a cookie and gave them an encouraging smile. "You know what, this is the first time in 3 years after being a judge for this competition that I've got a cookie instead of a cake. Surprises, surprises..." He chuckled and took a big bite, which what Quinn would interpret as a dose of confidence in them. That didn't stop the both of them to hold on to their breath, however. They watched as he chewed slowly...before a huge smile spread across his face.

"Wow, they were great. And these are vegan?"

Quinn felt Rachel tensed in excitement and her words were out before Quinn could stop.

"Yes! They are. Despite common misconception that vegan food are disgusting, they are actually very delicious. Furthermore, I couldn't stress how much good it would be to the world if all of us were just vegan instead. Do you know that despite the common belief that drinking milk or eating eggs does not kill animals, commercially-raised dairy cows and egg-laying chickens, whether factory-farmed or "free range", are slaughtered when their production rates decline. The same factory farm methods that are used to produce most meats are also used to produce most milk and eggs. These cows and chickens live their short lives caged, drugged, mutilated, and deprived of their most basic freedoms. Also let me-" Quinn yanked their joined hands in slight annoyance and Rachel swallowed the rest of her speech.

The immediate silence that follows was awkward.

"Don't you just know when to shut up?"Quinn whispered in irritation. It felt exactly like they were back to their first day, infront of Dude. She almost had them and Rachel had to be such a word vomit. "Quinn, I thought you admire my strong beliefs and always readily to stand up for what I believe in!" Rachel whispered back, indigence evident in her voice. Quinn could contradict herself so much sometimes.

"Rachel, do you honestly think this is the best time to give a 2 minutes speech on veganism? Gosh, can your EQ be any lower?" Quinn huffed out an exasperated breath with a scowl on her face which just made Rachel pout. What happened to the charming Quinn Fabray just minutes ago? "Quinn, you don't choose the occasion to stand up for what you believe in. You just always stand up for what you believe in! It wasn't a 2 minutes speech by the way." Rachel said through gritted teeth which Quinn snorted. "And that wasn't enough? Are you going to start singing the veganism song?"

As the mumbling continued, Lionel pushed up his glasses and with cautious movement, took a piece of the cookie and placed it apprehensively into his mouth. And then a small surprised smile flashed on his face as he turned to his fellow judges.

"Those are really good."

XOXOXOXOXOXO

I apologized for the late update. I'm facing a serious writer block right now. For this chapter, I've rewrite it four times.

I know it's still alittle rough somewhere. But I'll amend it later again.

Sorry for the late update! Appreciate all comments.