A/n super sorry for the lateness and shortness of this, i've been super busy lately! As always thank you to my lovely reviewers, favourite and review as always please
When Quinn had woken up she had been surprised at to find a mop of brunette hair in her face instead of Kitty's blonde. Of course her immediate thought had been Rachel, but she quickly realised that it was in fact Santana. She was literally on top of Quinn and with a glance to her left she saw Kitty and Marley in a similar position next to her, she rolled her eyes and started tapping Santana to try and wake her up. However she seemed to have no such luck and the weight of her friend on top of her was extremely uncomfortable, especially since she knew Santana would kill her if she let her cuddle up to her a moment longer.
Eventually Quinn heard movement next to her and turned to see a wide eyed Marley with a ridiculously confused expression considering it was her and Santana that sneaked into their tent in the first place.
"Don't know why you're looking so confused, you're the ones who thought me and Kitty would make comfortable beds." Quinn whispered, not caring if she woke up the girl on top of her but knowing that Santana was way too heavy a sleeper.
"It was Santana's idea! I was lonely and it definitely didn't help to come over here and see you cuddling up to my girlfriend!" Marley whispered harshly.
"Hey, it was only because she was lonely too! Plus it's freaking freezing at night!" Quinn retorted.
Marley looked about to reply but Santana began to stir above Quinn gaining both of their attention. Quinn blushed as Santana nuzzled into her neck and began to wiggle uncomfortably as she began to place soft kisses there.
"I don't want to wake up yet, babe." She murmured and Quinn huffed in frustration and tried to lift her off her.
"How long were you alone with her last night?" Kitty's hoarse voice made itself known, Quinn sighed with relief that she didn't need to be quiet anymore.
"Santana Marie Lopez if you don't wake up right now, I swear I'm going to rip your face off." She yelled kicking her legs to shake her.
Santana lifted her face to reveal mischievous eyes and a killer smirk. " Oh don't tell me you didn't enjoy it Fabgay."
"What the hell? You did that on purpose?" Kitty and Marley began laughing hysterically as Quinn could only lie there with an incredulous expression.
"You are so dead Lopez! Quinn's gonna flip when she comes back to reality, so if I were you; I'd run!" Kitty advised through giggles. Santana immediately scrambled up and ran out of the tent with Quinn hot her tails as she eventually snapped out of her daze.
They ran through the forest, not caring if Santana's squeals and Quinn's yells woke up the whole group; although when they passed the campfire it seemed almost everyone was already around it having breakfast.
"I'm going to kill you! You bitch!" Quinn was so caught up in chasing after Santana that she hadn't realise that she was running straight into a rather shocked Rachel Berry. The two crashed into each other with force and with wide eyes they both tore away from each other. "Sorry, I was chasing after Santana." Quinn apologised timidly, looking around to see if she could find where the Latina had actually went. "Err I don't know why she got to actually, did she pass your tent earlier?"
"Yeah actually she's hiding in there with Britt. What did she do?" Rachel couldn't help but smile at how adorable Quinn was when she was nervous, however the smile faded when she realised that last night was the reason for those nerves.
"She, erm, she came into the tent at night and slept on top of me." Quinn scratched her head and paused, unsure as to whether she should tell Rachel the rest of the story. "Then when I woke up she pretended she was still asleep and she was dreaming about some chick and she was all clingy and gross."
Rachel's eyes widened and Quinn could swear she saw a flash of jealousy. "Oh, that sounds traumatic." Quinn nodded awkwardly and began to walk away but Rachel grabbed her hand before she could leave. "Sorry. I'm so, so sorry for last night and everything before that; I know you're not going to just forgive me and I wouldn't want you to but I want you to know that I'm done hiding from this. I'll do whatever it takes to win back your trust." She focused on portraying that she was willing to be vulnerable instead of how perfectly her hand felt in Quinn's when she entwined them.
Quinn's jaw tightened and her gaze tore away from Rachel, she was wary to let herself be weak again in fear that another rejection may just put her back to college in terms of her health and she really doesn't want to risk that. She looked back into those chocolate orbs that had been the centre point of her dreams since high school. "Please can we not go there? Can we just focus on getting to know each other again before we go into the heavy stuff?" She pleaded, knowing full well that she'd end up forgiving her but if they were really going to go there she needed to be able to dictate the pace. So at the moment, just rekindling their friendship was about all she could handle.
Rachel nodded with a triumphant smile as this was pretty much the best outcome she could have hoped for. "Ok, that's fine with me. Britt was wondering if we could have a boys vs girls race to the lake, are you up for it?"
"Yeah sounds fun, might get me away from both the Puckermans and their insatiable flirting. Personally I think they're just bitter because their high school exes turned out to be gay." Quinn joked but she honestly didn't know what any of them saw in the two.
Rachel laughed but before she could say anything Brittany and Santana came running towards them with concerned expressions. "You better not have upset my girl again, Berry." Santana threatened but Quinn simply rolled her eyes. Brittany slapped her arm and pointed to the pairs joined hands.
"Don't be mean, San. Look they're friends now!" The dancer jumped up and down excitedly and bounded towards Quinn, forcefully hugging her. "This means we can be friends again, Q!"
Quinn looked to both Santana and Rachel for help but they both simply shrugged, so she decided to just relax into the embrace and enjoy having her old friend back. Quinn hated to think on how much she had missed because of the ridiculous feuding going on between the four of them, it really was time to bury the hatchet and hopefully this camping trip could help them do it.
"Are you guys doing this race thing?" Quinn asked, gently prying Brittany off of her.
"Totally! Aren't we, San?" She squealed and turned to look at Santana with expectant blue eyes.
Santana opened her mouth to say something but clearly changed her mind when she saw Brittany's insatiable puppy dog eyes. "Yeah, sure. Anything to get away from the Puckermans." She shrugged .
"I said the exact same thing!" Quinn exclaimed.
"You two have been spending way too much time with each other." Rachel grinned at how similar the two really were. She realised that her hand was still firmly in Quinn's and began to pull it away but she felt the other hand grasp firmer.
Quinn smiled at her when she furrowed her brow. "Wait, what were you guys doing in the tent?" She asked, noticing that Brittany and Santana had their arms around each other. Though, noticing the flustered look they shared; she decided she definitely didn't want to know.
"Gross, Britt. How am I meant to sleep in there now?" Rachel whined.
"You can share with Q!" The Dutch girl suggested excitedly.
"Wait, are you sure that's a good idea? Can you deal with that Q?" Santana checked concernedly , while it was great that Quinn was beginning to get closure she really didn't want her to get hurt anymore. It had been hard for her and Puck to keep her protected by unwanted attention when she last relapsed, it would be practically impossible now the paparazzi were part of all of their daily lives.
"What are you talking about? If we're meant to be worried about anyone it should be Rach. I mean Q has been ignoring her all these years." Brittany frowned adorably in confusion and Santana would have laughed if she wasn't already furious.
"What? Is that what she told you?" He voice was a mix between horrified and incredulous. Although with one look at the thinly disguised hurt in Quinn's eyes she knew there would be no mercy in her impending rage.
Quinn saw Santana's posture change and heard the low growl in the back of her throat. She moved her hand to grip her left bicep in an attempt to hold her back. She was hurt that Rachel had told Brittany that but she wasn't surprised. "Leave it San, we're putting that behind us now."
"Don't you dare be forgiving her Quinn. I was there when you left those messages on our answerphone , I was there when she blanked you at Finn's funeral and I thought it was your fault. I was there when you were in hospital when you attempted to kill yourself, I saw how ashamed you were and you still thought it was you're fault. Every call never answered, every letter sent back and every damn time when you'd try and see one of her shows only to have a load of beef heads tell you that you can't go in; I was there. Now I'm sorry Britt but that bitch over there," Santana pointed at Rachel with contempt in her eyes. "She's been lying to you and I won't spend five seconds near her if she doesn't give me a damn good reason as to why."
Brittany frowned and turned to Rachel. "No San, it was Quinn who was being the mean one. Rachie wouldn't lie to me, especially for all this time."
Santana scoffed and looked at Rachel expectantly, waiting for her to even attempt to make things right.
"You've got it wrong, Santana. Britt's right. I should have made more effort, she's worth fighting for and I gave up." Quinn's voice was a strange mix between defeated and confident as she met Rachel with desperate eyes.
"What the hell? Have you all lost your god damned minds, look at her! You fell apart by her hands Quinn! And to make things worse she's been lying to Britany all this time! How could you ever stand up for someone like that?"
Rachel turned on her heel and ran in the opposite direction from the attack, she was completely unprepared to have to face the reality of what her actions had really done to the people around her. She ran as tears began to well up again, the idea that Quinn had been so badly hurt and yet was still willing to stand up for her was as heart breaking as it was reassuring. It seemed she really had changed.
Once her legs couldn't take her any further she collapsed against a tree; the area of the forest was beautiful as it was alien, the towering trees simply replicated itself for miles giving no way of telling where she was. She cried even harder when she realised that she was now both lost and alone with no hope of finding her way back without a map to guide her.
"You shouldn't have ran, it'll only give her more ammunition. You know how she works, if you show her weakness then she'll use it no matter how much of a sore spot it is." Quinn's voice was soft, softer that she'd ever heard it. It wasn't laced with pain and resentment, nor was it with anger and fear; it seemed for the first time since she first visited New York it was just Quinn that was in front of her.
"I don't know why you keep on coming after me, I've been vile." Rachel muttered, still secretly hoping that Quinn would give her an easy way out by saying that she hated her; god knows she deserves it.
The blonde sat down next to her and moved her chin so that she could meet her chocolate eyes. "I'll always come after you, plus I think I deserve this after all I've put you through."
"But," Rachel began, desperate for Quinn to realise that she isn't in the wrong but with a stern look she was silenced.
"It may have been a long time ago but it would still have had an impact on your life. Everyone has issues with their past Rach and I gave you more; I don't deserve you to forget about that. The only difference between our situations is I had time to work past everything, I got myself better; you were shoved into the limelight when you were still in college, before you could even find your feet there were already a thousand eyes watching your step! If you try and tell me that didn't have an effect on you then I don't know what could."
"You need to stop justifying my actions. I hurt you. Therefore this is my fault. There isn't any excuse for what I put you through, I got slushied and humiliated; you had your entire world took from under you. My fame or my past doesn't change that."
Quinn straightened up and her hands reached up to cup Rachel's face. " We hurt each other then, but we can heal each other as well; forget what I said earlier, I still care for you and I'll always forgive you."
Rachel gazed into the amazing green eyes that swam with love and expectation. "I'll always forgive you too." She realised that the only way she was going to completely prove to Quinn that she was up for this was to be the one to take the next step. She leant forward and shut her eyes as she saw Quinn so the same, their lips connected in the most magical of kisses. It was everything she had wished their first kiss could have been; fire and ice, torture and bliss, sweetness and passion.
To both of them, it seemed they were home.