A/N: I did not mean to start two chapters in a row like this. I don't know how it happened. But it's finals week, so I just rolled with it.
Still off the Key of Reason
Chapter 7: I've Got a Gift and It Blew Me Away
Rachel woke up on the morning of her birthday to find Quinn's blonde head buried between her legs. She groaned loudly and arched her back, automatically twisting her hands into the mess of hair. Quinn chuckled, but she didn't move, and the vibrations just made everything better. She had a hot cheek pressed against Rachel's thigh and her fingers pressed lightly into Rachel's hips, holding her in place.
What a marvelous morning. Birds were chirping outside. Sun was streaming in through the window. It was like a scene from Mary Poppins.
"Oh my- Quuuiinnnnn!" Rachel cried out when Quinn chuckled lowly. "God-right…there, baby."
Quinn hummed in acknowledgement, tickling Rachel's hips. Rachel kicked the blanket off just to be sure she wasn't actually on fire. She struggled to move her hips with Quinn holding her down.
"You're so beautiful." Quinn commented, sticking her head up with a sloppy, adoring smile before dropping back down.
Rachel tried to formulate words, but they just came out as a garbled roar. She tugged on Quinn's hair to get her to hurry up. Quinn whined, pinching the skin on Rachel's hip.
"Oh, fuuuu-" Rachel cried breathlessly. That was kind of pleasant. It sent a shock right through her body. Quinn added fingers to the mix and the fleeting thought crossed Rachel's mind that this was the best birthday ever.
"Al-almost, baby." Rachel keened as Quinn picked up her pace.
With a few more thrusts, Rachel saw stars. She saw stars and birds and hippopotamuses and Mary Poppins. She tightened her hold on Quinn's hair and clenched her eyes closed, shuddering while Quinn slowed down. When she finally relaxed, she might've passed out. There was no way to be sure. Days could've gone by and Rachel would be none the wiser.
Rachel opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling trying to catch her breath. Quinn sat up and climbed up Rachel's body to lie on top of her. Rachel grunted lightly at the weight, and Quinn grinned down at her wife, obviously very pleased with what she'd just done.
Rachel tried to smile, but none of her muscles were working. Quinn leaned down and kissed her mouth. "Happy birthday, baby." She said sweetly, inches from Rachel's lips, hazel eyes dark and shining.
Rachel pursed her lips like she wanted another kiss. Quinn obliged, planting her elbows either side of Rachel's head to do it properly. Rachel chuckled when Quinn nipped her lower lip, and then ran her tongue along it to sooth it.
Quinn's breath was hot on her face. They were both radiating heat. Very intensely, like the sun. Or an explosion of the sun. A supernova. Quinn sat up abruptly, eyes widening as she rubbed herself against Rachel's stomach.
Rachel giggled because she was a little out of her mind.
"We can-we can finish this in a minute." Quinn stuttered, sliding off of Rachel and to the floor very unsteadily. "I have something for you."
Rachel whined. She wanted to finish this now. Quinn smiled brightly and took a few stumbly steps away. Rachel made a half-hearted lunge to smack her thigh, but only managed to graze it with her fingertips.
Quinn spun around and pointed at her. "Stay there." She demanded with a laugh.
Rachel winked sloppily.
So she blinked. Because ten years ago she had deluded herself into believing that she had the ability to wink properly.
Rachel didn't even have the capacity to leave this bed right now. She just watched delightedly as Quinn's naked body scampered out of the room. And then Rachel fixed her eyes on the fan overhead with a contented smile and tried to count how many times it spun around before Quinn returned.
"Quiinnnnn." Rachel called impatiently when she inexplicably reached fifty rotations in five seconds. Was it a jet propeller on their ceiling? That was impossible. Rachel was just making herself dizzy.
She smiled when she heard her wife come thundering back through the hall and into the bedroom. Quinn didn't even slow down when she pounced on the bed, keeping the plate in her hand completely steady and flat. She didn't land lightly, like a cat. She caught a shin on the edge of the bed and tumbled heavily onto Rachel's legs.
Like a puppy trying to climb up the stairs.
Rachel laughed loudly when Quinn blew a raspberry right on her stomach, and then complied when Quinn tugged at her arms to get her to sit up.
"I made you this." Quinn stated with a coy smile, holding out the plate.
Rachel took it, watching her wife suspiciously. She gasped when she saw the giant cookie Quinn had concocted. It was sugar, about twice the size of her face, and covered in frosting that said "Happy Berry-day" followed by a picture of a little bear. Or a glob of icing that Rachel just assumed was a bear.
Berry-day. Rachel was charmed.
"Awwww." She drawled out, smiling impossibly brightly at Quinn's red cheeks. "Quinn!"
"You like it?" Quinn guessed, tapping her fingers along Rachel's thigh enthusiastically.
Rachel didn't need to answer. It was a giant cookie. It would be blasphemous in this house to say that she didn't like it. She scooped up some icing with her finger and tried it, groaning at the taste. Definitely homemade. Quinn had probably added twice the necessary amount of sugar. Rachel smudged some of it on her nose and grinned expectantly.
"What else have you got for me today, lovely bear?" Rachel asked, reaching up to tug on Quinn's unruly blonde hair.
Quinn straightened up, clearing her throat when Rachel's gaze drifted to her breasts. It was natural. Rachel literally could not control it. She raised an eyebrow. Quinn raised both of her eyebrows and stared pointedly at Rachel's chest.
Rachel laughed, poking Quinn in the stomach. "Hurry up." She instructed.
Quinn cleared her throat again. Rachel tried to ignore her glorious sex hair and the icing on her nose.
"Today… I'm running…your…own…personal…" Quinn dragged out the sentence until Rachel slapped her thigh. "Spa!" Quinn proclaimed, grabbing Rachel's hand and giving it a kiss.
She pressed it to her face and held it there while Rachel processed the information.
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked with an excited smile. She wasn't clear on the details, but anything with the word "spa" in it had to be good. Unless it was, like, building one. Drowning in one. Quinn played with Rachel's hand, bending each finger individually.
"Well…first comes a bath in the giant tub with lots of bubbles and candles and this monster cookie and whatever else you want." Quinn described. She shook her head around suddenly. "And me!" she added hurriedly, bouncing a little on the mattress. "I have to be in there too."
Rachel nodded. Of course.
"And then…I'm going to lie you down on this bed and give you the best massage of your life." Quinn continued, stroking Rachel's hand. Her eyes twinkled. "I know a lot of methods. Like the baseballs-pounding-into-your-back method, or the karate chops, and the one where it feels like bullets in your shoulders…But I'll do it the way I know you like best."
Again, Rachel nodded. A little warily this time.
Quinn's eyes sparkled. "After that, we're going to have more of this cookie. We'll watch Funny Girl and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and sing along to all the songs while we paint things on our nails. Like whales and hearts. And then we're-can-a place-we're-"
Rachel grabbed Quinn's knees and rocked her from side to side. "Slow down!" she laughed.
Quinn took a breath. "We're-we're going to bundle up and go out in the cold to a nice little restaurant with twinkly lights for dinner, and I'm going to give you your present, and keep you warm, and you're going to love me so much by the end of today."
Quinn finished with a bright smile, fluttering her hands around and waiting expectantly.
Rachel narrowed her eyes playfully. "More than I love you now?"
Quinn tilted her head. "Pretty sure."
"Because…that's a lot." Rachel proclaimed, tickling behind Quinn's knees.
Quinn shrugged. "There's always more love to give. And I'll give all of mine to you."
Rachel studied Quinn for a moment, smiling when her wife started to squirm and bounce. Rachel laughed and climbed clumsily into Quinn's lap, careful to avoid the gigantic cookie. She vowed to have it eaten by the end of the day.
"But first, we finish what you started ten minutes ago." She stated, tapping her finger against Quinn's chest.
Quinn nodded wordlessly. She grinned and held her arms open, and Rachel tumbled backwards with her into the pillows.
~oooooooooo~
Rachel leaned back against Quinn in the tub. She watched contentedly as Quinn's feet played with the faucets before slipping abruptly back into the water with a splash, jerking them both forward. Rachel reached behind her head to tap Quinn's cheek.
"Hold still, bear. You'll drown us." She chided softly.
Quinn shifted side to side, making the water lap around the edges. Rachel reached into the depths and squeezed the thigh next to her own.
"Do you need your toy cars? Maybe a rubber ducky?" Rachel asked jokingly, lolling her head back onto Quinn's shoulder so she could see her eyes.
Quinn scoffed. "You're my rubber ducky."
She said it like it was so obvious. Rachel nodded sagely and kissed the droplets on Quinn's neck. Quinn squeezed her arms around Rachel's stomach tighter.
"You know, if we were in New York, I'd give you a really special birthday." Quinn murmured, tapping her thumbs against Rachel's belly button. "I'd take you to a show, and we'd go ice skating, even though I was terrible last year and you had to hold me up. And then we'd sit and watch the lights on the Christmas tree at Rock Center. And we wouldn't even have to go near the zoo."
Rachel smiled. She was so relaxed she was about to go subsurface and drown, but she figured Quinn would rescue her. "This is perfect." She said simply.
Quinn sighed. Rachel felt the warm breath on her ear.
"And I love going to the zoo with you." Rachel added honestly.
She'd been so many fucking times it was like exposure therapy. There was no way not to enjoy it.
Quinn swayed her from side to side, creating little waves in the water again. "Of course you do." She stated. "I'm marvelous."
"But…you have a big head." Rachel drawled. Quinn bit her shoulder lightly, and then licked the water off, and Rachel giggled. She nudged Quinn's foot until it pressed against the edge of the tub, out of the water, and put her own next to it.
She appreciated the difference. Her foot was only slightly smaller, and it was darker than Quinn's. But Quinn had longer toes.
"You have kitten paws." Quinn commented, pointing unnecessarily down at their feet.
Rachel chose to take that as a compliment. She squeezed Quinn's foot between both of her own, winding their legs together.
"When do you think we'll go back?" she asked impulsively.
Not that she would have stopped herself. It was just a question Rachel fixated on quite a lot. That, and "what the fuck is wrong with my pets?"
"To New York?" Quinn checked, unwrapping her arms so that she could draw soap patterns on Rachel's shoulder. Rachel nodded. Quinn brushed her dark hair behind her ear and moved it off to the side.
"After I graduate." She answered easily, veering her fingers a little off course to tickle under Rachel's arm. "Why, baby?"
"What if you can get a job at the zoo in San Diego?" Rachel pressed. She slowly walked one of her hands along Quinn's right leg.
"They have bears in New York." Quinn said plainly. "I'll go play with those bears instead. And my own little bear."
Rachel chuckled. "What are you making?" she asked. It felt like Quinn was building a masterpiece of bubbles on her shoulder. She tried to twist her head around to see, but it just looked like a blob of soap.
"It's a horn." Quinn stated bluntly. "But all the bubbles are disappearing so it's wilting."
Rachel hummed, wholly unsurprised. "Why are you putting a horn on my shoulder?"
Quinn held her still. "Because the bubbles slid off when I tried to do a heart. So I'm doing a rhinoceros instead."
Well. It was understandable.
Rachel tilted her head back and pursed her lips for a kiss. She snorted when she saw that Quinn had given herself a bubble beard.
Quinn grinned, scrunching up her face as the soap went in her mouth. "Jealous?"
"Mmm." Rachel hummed, turning around in Quinn's arms so that she was kneeling in front of her. "Can I dunk you? Because I'm ready for my massage."
Quinn didn't need to be told twice. She stood up abruptly, grabbing the safety bar and slip-sliding her way over the edge of the tub. Rachel was just waiting for her to pull down the shower curtain. It had been a week since it last happened. Some kind of record.
Quinn held a hand out for Rachel, and then wrapped her in a fuzzy towel and lifted her off the ground with her arms around her waist. Rachel squealed happily, kicking her legs out when Quinn carried her back to the bedroom.
"Your feet shouldn't have to touch the floor today, Rachel. Your little kitten paws." Quinn explained laughingly. "If I could carry you around in a giant egg, I would."
Rachel did not doubt that. If there was any possibility of being carried around in a giant egg by anybody, Rachel would take it. She was flung onto the bed, only because she was squirming so much, and she landed on her stomach, towel completely undone.
She turned around to see Quinn climbing up behind her, wearing the remnants of a bubble beard. Quinn leaned over, wrapped in a shark towel, to kiss a line up Rachel's back before straddling her.
"Rub me, baby!" Rachel demanded with a laugh.
Her phone rang as soon as Quinn's fingers dug into Rachel's shoulders. They moaned simultaneously and Rachel dropped her face into the mattress.
"Ignore it." Quinn urged, flicking bubbles onto Rachel's back. Their bed would be soaked by the end of this escapade, but, really, who had extra time to dry off?
"It'll be my dad." Rachel said. She reached up and grabbed her phone from the nightstand, waving her hand for Quinn to keep up her ministrations.
"Can I moan and groan? Add in some 'harder's and 'faster's?" Quinn whispered. Rachel reached back and slapped her leg.
"Hi, daddy!" she greeted brightly, right as Quinn switched to the "karate method." Rachel twisted and jabbed her in the ribs, trying not to smile when she puffed out her cheeks.
"Hi, sweetheart!" Hiram answered. Rachel heard her dad in the background yelling something else. They were probably fighting over the cell phone right now because they had yet to figure out how their land line worked.
Like fathers, like daughter.
"We just wanted to wish you a happy birthday, baby girl." Hiram continued. "Make sure you're enjoying Quinn's plans for today."
Of course her fathers knew of the plans. Quinn was their favorite daughter. But she was also Rachel's favorite person, so that was okay. There was some kind of muffled scuffle on the other end of the line and Rachel waited patiently for it to be resolved.
Leroy's voice came through a moment later. "Rach? We're going to sing you happy birthday, okay?"
Rachel chuckled and rolled her eyes a little. "Okay."
She was slowly being turned into butter by Quinn's fabulous hands. Quinn released an exaggerated groan from her back, and Rachel was glad her dads were busy preparing for their song. She bucked her hips and delighted in Quinn's squeak. Quinn seized her shoulders to prevent herself from toppling over.
"Ohhhhhhhhh…" Leroy's voice led off the song in a baritone and Rachel smiled into the mattress. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Rachel Barbra Berrrrrrrryyyyy…Happy birthday to you!"
Rachel didn't say anything yet. She knew it wasn't over.
It was a good five seconds before Hiram finished the song. "And many moooooooooorrrree."
"That was very nice." Rachel complimented with a laugh. "Thank you."
"Of course!" Hiram enthused. "Our baby's twenty-seven!"
Rachel sighed contentedly as Quinn's fingers dug into the knots in her lower back. Guest teaching a section of dance classes gave her some kind of chiropractic issue. Or chasing pets around. Or chasing Quinn around. Quinn could be her doctor. She was fixing all of her problems.
Quinn leaned low over her back and whispered in Rachel's ear. "Do you want some cookie, little bear?"
Rachel laughed loudly because of how huskily it was whispered, and how euphemistic it sounded. But it was totally innocent, and she twisted around and tapped Quinn's oblivious smile and mouthed "in a second."
"So, Rach, don't forget our Skype schedule for the holidays." Leroy instructed seriously. "Because, you know, we'll be hanging out with your grandma and she turns into a little firecracker when she doesn't hear from the family's own Broadway star."
Rachel's grandma was always a firecracker. She turned into a full-blown explosion around the holidays. Maybe a bomb. Rachel didn't know how long she had left, but that woman would go out with a bang.
"And tell miss Quinn that we love her!" Hiram called. "She's probably sitting right next to you, right?"
Rachel smiled to herself. Quinn was on top of her, rubbing her down, and both of them were naked and soaking wet. Her fathers did not need that mental image. She hummed an affirmative.
"Miss Quinn's right here." She stated.
"Hi, dad and daddy!" Quinn yelled sweetly, pitching forward so her mouth was next to Rachel's ear. "I love you guys!"
Rachel winced at the volume. Quinn kissed the back of Rachel's head, which was still dry, and rubbed it with her own head to make it wet. Rachel squirmed away and relaxed again when Quinn kept up her massage.
"Is she taking care of you, sweetheart?" Hiram asked, smile in his voice.
Rachel nodded to herself. She was jelly in Quinn's hands. The blue kind, because that was Quinn's favorite. "She's making everything perfect." Rachel said quietly.
Quinn's hands stilled slightly, and Rachel felt a few kisses pressed to her shoulders, but then the massage picked back up. When she hung up, Quinn cut the section of her giant cookie with the little bear on it, and Rachel ate it while her wife loved on every inch of her body.
~oooooooooo~
The restaurant Quinn selected was called Jupiter's. She said it was exactly where a star should go on her birthday when she was absent from her own galaxy. Rachel wasn't completely confident in her knowledge of the solar system, or Quinn's for that matter, but it was a good idea. Bunch up the galaxy into a cozy, twinkly-lights café.
Rachel sat in her comfy seat, smiling quietly as Quinn completed their order and thanked the waiter. When Quinn looked back at her, Rachel folded her hands on the table and shot her a mischievous grin.
"So, where's my present?" she asked brightly.
Quinn raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "Patience, Rachel." She stated. Then her eyes drifted away, probably looking for straws. This place did not have straws. They were drinking wine.
Rachel had drank wine with a straw before, but she'd been performing an experiment to see if Puck was right when he said that using a straw would get a person drunk faster.
The experiment was inconclusive. Rachel had gotten drunk and lost her ability to think straight.
"Should I tell them it's your birthday?" Quinn asked, taking Rachel's hand across the table with a smile. "Maybe they'll come out dancing and singing with a crown for you to wear and a chocolate cake. And you could join them. Lead a rousing rendition of 'Don't Rain on My Parade.'"
Rachel hummed and nodded. This place didn't actually do things like that, so she felt safe. And she could confidently out-sing anybody in here. Or anybody in general. In fact, she might jump up on the table just to prove that.
"Or if they don't sing and dance, I'll get up on the table and do it for you." Quinn added, reading Rachel perfectly.
Rachel laughed and shook her head. "You know you wouldn't get up on this table, bear."
Quinn's eyes dropped to the painted stripes on Rachel's nails. They'd tried to do animals, but lacked the patience and talent, which is why Quinn's nails were decorated with blue polka dots that had previously been whales.
"For you, I will." Quinn said, looking back up with a small smile. "I-I might have a nervous breakdown later, but I'd do it."
"Well, I don't want that to happen." Rachel proclaimed, shaking her ehad. She tapped Quinn's boots under the table and admired the flush on Quinn's cheeks. Maybe it was from the cold. Maybe it was from the thought of drawing loads of attention by tabletop dancing.
Rachel squeezed Quinn's fidgety fingers. She was probably thinking about being the center of attention. Shanghaied into singing publicly. Quinn reached across the table to wipe something off of Rachel's cheek.
"Frosting." She explained with a chuckle.
Three-quarters of the cookie was gone. They'd have the rest for dessert, and then bragging rights for a lifetime. Not that it was such a difficult feat to eat it in a day. Rachel was more proud of the fact that four years ago, she wouldn't have been able to handle more than a few bites. Quinn had given her a massive cookie tolerance, and Rachel was reaping the benefits.
If they could be called benefits.
Rachel was trying to trap Quinn's foot between her own when a shadow fell over the table. Or a presence that Rachel felt with her sixth sense. She looked up and smiled at the woman standing there in case she was a fan who wanted an autograph.
"Hi, Quinn!" The woman greeted, leaning a little obscenely over the table and skipping right over Rachel with her eyes. She was like an Amazon. Seven feet tall? Rachel contemplated as she watched her wife say hello to the woman with a stiff smile.
"Rachel, this is Kelly." Quinn explained, looking apologetic for the interruption. "We're-we go to-to school together."
Rachel nodded. She smiled reassuringly at Quinn and held out her hand to Kelly.
"Ohhh, so this is Rachel." Kelly stated, not entirely enthusiastically. Rachel fought the urge to roll her eyes. She stared at Kelly while she gripped her hand, maintaining eye contact.
"It's Rachel's birthday!" Quinn informed sweetly, smiling adoringly at her wife. Rachel's expression softened, and she took Quinn's hand back off the table and kissed it.
"Well, you caught my eye in those sparkly lights, Quinn, so I just wanted to come over and say hi." Kelly spoke again, gesturing to the twinkle lights outside the window.
Rachel likened the woman to a brontosaurus. Her neck was abnormally long, but she wasn't cute enough to be a giraffe. She probably wasn't cute enough to be a brontosaurus, but Rachel was no dinosaur expert.
Quinn said goodbye, eyes focused on Kelly's chin the whole time.
"Is she a friend, bear?" Rachel asked curiously when they were alone again.
Quinn met her eyes and shook her head. "No. She talks to me too much. It's annoying when people talk to me all the time."
Rachel laughed. "I talk to you all the time."
Quinn banged her knee on the table in her rush to sit forward and squeeze Rachel's hand. "No, no. You-you don't count." She stammered with a smile, running her polka dot fingers along Rachel's palm. "I want to hear your voice all the time, every day. But-but she talks about asinine things like…like what kind of shampoo works best for her hair type, or…I don't know, she asks me about relationships that I don't care about…And she doesn't apostrophize things correctly."
"Quinn." Rachel chided with a chuckle. "Does she know you have Asperger's?"
Quinn shook her head, still tracing Rachel's palm.
"Just tell her to leave you alone." Rachel said simply. "Or talk about something else. Like lions."
Always lions. Or bears. Rachel knew Quinn was very quiet when she was around people she didn't know. She had no empathy or sympathy for superficial problems, but she'd cry a river if somebody's dog died.
"Central Park got a new lion yesterday!" Quinn exclaimed, knocking her knee against the table again. Rachel laughed loudly at the subject change and Quinn grinned in delight, tugging her hand back onto the table. Quinn wouldn't let go, even when the waiter brought their appetizers.
"Her name's Madge." Quinn added. Her eyes were bright as she stared at Rachel, waiting for a response.
Rachel nodded sagely. "Like Madonna."
Quinn hummed. She rocked forward and traced her fingers around Rachel's hand.
"Are you reading my palm?" Rachel asked.
Quinn nodded immediately, smiling at the idea. "Yes. I am." She said slowly. "It says…Oh, look! It says you'll be married to the most glorious person in the world for the rest of your life!"
Rachel's eyes widened. "I get re-married? You're divorcing me?" she asked, looking overly distraught.
Quinn's smile dropped for a moment until Rachel laughed at her stricken expression. She'd brought it on herself. Quinn knocked her in the shin with her boot and looked back at her palm, lips quirked up.
"Let's see…It also says you're going to win more Tonys. Lots of them, too." Quinn stated, feigning surprise. Rachel bit her lip to keep from laughing. "Because you're so talented." Quinn continued seriously. "And your voice is my favorite sound. And your face is my favorite face."
Rachel flushed and smiled. Quinn hooked a foot around her ankle.
"And…oh no…" Quinn said with a disappointed expression. "It looks like you're gonna have to buy me a grizzly bear." She looked at Rachel sympathetically, and Rachel just laughed loudly.
She could actually see it happening. She could see a giant bear killing them both.
Rachel kept laughing all through dinner, listening to Quinn's predictions. She only stopped when they sat down at a bench in downtown Davis to watch a Christmas light show. The wind was blowing Rachel's hair around her face, and she was freezing, but it was beautiful. Quinn kept puffing out her breath, trying to make it into shapes. She was failing.
"Here, baby." Quinn said quietly, pulling the rubber band off her wrist and using it to tie Rachel's hair back. She tucked the ponytail into Rachel's coat and pulled the scarf up to her ears. "Better?"
Rachel nodded, eyes crinkling with a smile.
Quinn kissed her red nose. "You look like an Eskimo."
Rachel didn't say anything. If she spoke, she'd get scarf fuzz in her mouth. But she tugged on one of Quinn's ears with her mitten-clad hand.
Quinn pulled out a small booklet from her purse and held it out for Rachel. "Happy birthday, little bear." She whispered.
Rachel pulled the flaps of Quinn's wooly hat before taking the booklet. It was a playbill. From her own show. The Funny Girl revival. She was about to ask why this was a birthday present when she caught sight of it.
The signature on the front. The autograph.
"Tina helped me get it." Quinn explained, probably aware that Rachel would need some time to process this. "I mean, it wasn't that hard. You were playing her character, so…If you feel like you're going to pass out, please warn me, okay?"
Rachel wasn't going to pass out. She might die, but no, she would not ruin this moment by fainting.
She was holding a playbill signed by Barbra Streisand, with the message "From one Fanny to another, you're a star, darling."
Rachel pressed her hand over the scarf covering her mouth, trying not to burst out into tears or song or laughter or anything else that might bubble its way up without her consent. The tears came anyway, and she turned and put an arm around Quinn's neck and buried her face there. Quinn chuckled and rubbed her back, swaying her from side to side on the bench.
"You deserve it, baby. She's right." Quinn whispered, tickling Rachel's ear with her breath.
Rachel pulled back and looked tearfully up at her wife. "I'm so happy." She cried out, muffled a bit by the scarf.
God, she was a fucking mess. She couldn't feel her nose. But she was pretty sure it was running, along with her eyes.
Quinn laughed. "I couldn't tell!"
"I love you so much." Rachel whined, looking down at her new prized possession. Quinn tapped her chin to get her to look back up.
"The playbill or me?" she asked, shaking her head around to get her hat flaps to hit Rachel's head.
"You!" Rachel cried, wrapping her arms back around Quinn. Quinn pulled her into her lap and held her as the Christmas light show continued.
"Love you too, little bear." She murmured happily. "My little Eskimo. Or penguin. Polar bear…orca…arctic fox…walrus-"
"Shh." Rachel pulled back enough to place a mitten over Quinn's smiling mouth. She drew the line at walrus, knowing that Quinn could carry on forever. "Just keep me warm." She said quietly.
"Did you know arctic foxes change color with the seasons?" Quinn asked softly. "I wish I could change color with the seasons."
Rachel snorted a laugh into Quinn's shoulder. She could see it now. A blue Quinn. A green Quinn. Quinn basically did change color with the seasons. She turned red in the summer and her hair got darker in the winter. She called herself an iguana. Rachel kept smiling.
"Happy birthday." Quinn whispered. She hummed along to the Christmas music that went with the light show, and sang a few of the choruses right into Rachel's ear.
Rachel clutched the playbill in one hand and the back of Quinn's jacket in the other until she was able to pull herself together enough to go home and finish off the giant cookie.