Chapter Twelve: Compromises
After the excitement of the engagement, life quickly settled back into a normal routine for Quinn and Santana. For both girls, this meant balancing work with school and their encroaching finals whilst trying to find time for each other. It wasn't easy. Santana was frequently irascible when she studied; she repeatedly complained about her professors, her classes, and even her fellow students. She was easily distracted and bored, and she would often use inventive and even underhanded means to try to get Quinn to put down her books and focus on her instead. She would walk around the apartment in her underwear or whisper suggestive comments in Quinn's ear that would leave her instantly hot and flushed with need.
Quinn, for her part, knew she could be intolerant and belligerent when she was trying to study. The slightest disruption could irritate her, and on one particularly stressful Sunday afternoon, she snapped at Santana for turning the pages of her chemistry textbook too loudly, and then had to give up a valuable hour of homework time to make it up to her disgruntled fiancée.
Despite the stresses of everyday life, the girls were happy and in love. Nothing could dent their little bubble of joy for too long. Monday nights had become their de-facto date night. It was the one night that neither of them ever had to go to work, and it had become an unwritten rule that it was a homework and errand free night. Quinn always looked forward to their Monday nights together. They didn't always go out; more often than not they would simply order take out and curl up together on the couch to watch a movie, but it was their night.
So, when Quinn received a text message from her fiancée as she studied in the university library during lunch on the first Monday in December, she was predictably disgruntled. She'd been trying to get ahead of schedule with her finals study schedule so that she could give herself the night off with impunity.
Gonna be late tonight, Santana had written. Don't wait for me to eat. Explain later. Love ya xxxx.
Quinn glared at her phone as though the inanimate object was personally responsible for ruining her day. She'd been looking forward to spending the evening together. The past weekend had been her weekend to see Beth and the little girl's dance class had been performing a pre-Christmas recital. Parents had only been offered two tickets each so Santana hadn't been able to go with Quinn and Shelby. She'd met up with them for dinner afterwards, but dinner with a hyper four year old hadn't exactly given Quinn the quality time she craved with her fiancée.
By the time she traipsed up the stairs to her apartment, soaking wet and freezing due to the icy rain, Quinn was pretty much mad at the world. She showered and put on her pajamas and debated ordering pizza before sighing and heating up unappetizing looking leftovers from their dinner at the restaurant the previous night instead. She sat on her bed and opened up her laptop to get in some last minute cramming for finals as she ate. If Santana was going to bail on their date night, there was no excuse for Quinn to waste the evening in an unproductive funk, she reasoned, but despite her common sense approach she found it hard to concentrate on memorizing her notes.
It was shortly after nine, and Quinn was re-reading a paragraph for the fourth time, finding it still just as mystifying as the first, when Santana burst through the door, dripping wet but grinning from ear to ear.
Kicking off her shoes and dropping her coat into a crumpled heap in the middle of the floor, Santana bounced onto the bed beside Quinn, shaking out her long hair and cascading water droplets all over her fiancée. Quinn squealed indignantly but Santana's good mood was unaffected.
"Hi, baby," she greeted Quinn cheerfully. "D'you miss me?"
Quinn huffed in response and pouted at the brunette.
"Where were you? What was so important that you had to miss our date night?" she demanded petulantly. To her surprise, Santana grinned unrepentantly.
"Uh oh, someone's pissed at me," she teased, and Quinn glared.
"I'm not pissed at you," she retorted, realizing even as she said it how lame she sounded. She sighed. "Okay, so I'm a little pissed. But only because I missed you." She allowed Santana to pull her into a damp embrace, and the brunette kissed her tenderly on the forehead.
"I missed you too," she murmured, kissing the tip of Quinn's nose before capturing her lips hungrily.
"So, where were you?" Quinn asked again when they parted. Santana beamed at her like a child on Christmas morning.
"At an audition," she announced proudly. "And I got it!"
"Got what?" Quinn grinned back at her fiancée, Santana's enthusiasm was infectious. Santana suddenly became coy, squinting at her from beneath her lashes.
"Well, it's a start," she said tentatively. "Everyone's got to start somewhere, right? And it is going out nationally."
"What is?" Quinn wriggled out of Santana's embrace and sat back to study her bedraggled fiancée, holding onto her upper arms and only barely resisting the urge to shake the news out of her.
"It's a commercial," Santana explained, "for... yeast infection treatment." Her dark eyes fixed reproachfully on Quinn as the blonde struggled not to laugh.
"Well... I... um..." Quinn spluttered, unsuccessfully trying to hide her amusement by covering her mouth with her hand, "I... um, I guess... congratulations?" She hadn't meant it to come out sounding like a question, but now it was Santana's turn to pout.
"You suck, Fabray," she said sulkily, and Quinn instantly felt bad for her. She stroked a gentle, soothing hand over Santana's arm, as though her fiancée were a particularly skittish wild animal.
"I'm sorry, San," she said, shaking her head. "Really, I'm proud of you. A national commercial? Who cares what you're advertizing, it's still amazing."
Santana had obviously anticipated Quinn's reaction and she seemed easily mollified by her contrition. Her pout was quickly replaced by the same child-like grin she'd been sporting when she'd entered the apartment.
"It is amazing," she agreed. "My agent says I should be able to book more jobs once I get this one under my belt. I'm actually doing something, Q, not just wasting time sitting in a classroom trying to cram my head full of useless... stuff!"
Quinn was momentarily speechless, not knowing which of Santana's statements to tackle first. They'd had many conversations about the brunette's disdain for education, and she really didn't want to ruin Santana's good mood, so she decided to ignore the second pronouncement and focus on the first... for tonight, at least.
"Your agent?" she asked curiously.
Santana nodded. "The casting people hooked me up," she explained. "It was an open call but when I told them I didn't have representation they recommended someone. It's going to be so cool, Q. I can't wait to tell Berry that she's not the only professional actress to come out of McKinley!"
Quinn silently thought Santana's definition of 'professional' was a bit of a stretch after just one commercial, but she wisely decided to keep that thought to herself.
"I'm proud of you, sweetie," she said happily, sharing Santana's excited smile. "Have you eaten? I could make you something while you tell me all about it?"
"That would be good," agreed Santana. She looked hopefully at Quinn, licking her lips subconsciously. "Can I have pancakes?"
"For dinner?" chuckled Quinn. Then she sighed indulgently. "Sure."
She busied herself in the kitchen whilst Santana hurried off to take a quick shower and get out of her wet clothes. She was pouring the fluffy batter into the pan when Santana returned, dressed casually in sweats and her Care Bear t-shirt. Santana wrapped her arms around Quinn from behind and began to kiss and lick a meandering path over her neck and shoulder.
"Mmm," murmured Quinn appreciatively, as Santana's hand moved under Quinn's camisole to stroke the soft skin of her stomach. "That feels good, baby, but I thought you were hungry." She disentangled herself from her fiancée and grabbed the spatula to flip the pancakes. Santana contented herself with sitting on the kitchen counter and swinging her long legs as she watched Quinn work. "So, start at the beginning," Quinn encouraged her, as she started to plate up the pancakes. "I want to know everything."
"Okay," said Santana agreeably. "So, I was at work last Tuesday and Melody told me about this audition that her roommate was going to..." she began, pausing to smother her pancakes in syrup and taking a huge bite. "Hmm, Q, these are good."
"Do I know Melody?" Quinn asked with a frown as she wracked her brain. Santana's co-workers at the Spotlight Diner seemed to turn over at an alarming frequency, and whilst she trusted Santana implicitly, Quinn was still a little wary of her fiancee's female colleagues after the whole Dani debacle.
"I told you about her," Santana reminded her, her mouth full of pancake. "She moved here last month, her boyfriend Jason goes to NYU - he's a freshman living in the dorms. Remember, I told you she swears Melody is her real name but I don't buy it. She's even more of a wannabe than Berry."
Quinn nodded, vague memories of the conversation coming back to her.
"So anyways," Santana continued, without even noticing Quinn's momentary anxiety, "I pressed her for the details, which she didn't want to give up out of loyalty to her roommate, so I may owe her a double shift or two by the way, and I went down there this morning. I've never seen so many girls in one place. I waited, like, three hours, then I saw the casting people and then I had to hang around for ages with about a dozen other girls. Late afternoon they called us all in again, then there were just three of us left. They left us in the holding room for ages, then they came out and sent the other girls home and offered me the part." She shrugged like it was no big deal, but her happiness radiated out from her whole body. "We're shooting next Friday," she added as an afterthought.
"Isn't that during finals?" Quinn asked, feeling her stomach twist uncomfortably. She knew what the brunette's answer would be before she gave it.
Santana was nonchalant, not even breaking off from devouring her dinner as she answered. "It's just chemistry. So, I figure I'll take an incomplete, it's not like I was going to get a good grade anyway. I was looking at a D after the last quiz."
"Santana," Quinn began warningly, but her fiancée's eyes flashed darkly.
"Don't, Q," she said sternly. "It's my choice. I know you're Little Miss Pro-education, but I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions. I just want you to be supportive." She finished her pancakes and leapt lightly down from the counter to dump her plate in the sink.
"I do support you, San," Quinn said softly. "I just want to make sure you've thought this through." She gazed at Santana, her brow furrowed with worry, and the brunette's expression softened in a heartbeat.
"I have," she promised, reaching for Quinn and holding her close. Quinn instantly relaxed into the familiar embrace. "I want this, Q, more than anything... well, almost anything."
Quinn nodded against her fiancee's shoulder. "Okay," she whispered. "Well, I guess in that case we should celebrate." She still wasn't convinced that Santana's decision was the best one for her future, but Santana was right - it was her choice to make - and it was only one class, after all. Quinn pushed her doubts aside and focused on the beautiful woman in her arms. "So," she said with a gentle grin, "what do you want to do?"
Santana licked her lips wolfishly. "You," she said simply, and Quinn chuckled.
"I think that can be arranged."
Santana didn't need a written invitation. Her lips crashed against Quinn's in an instant, her tongue snaking out from between her teeth and stroking over Quinn's lower lip. Quinn parted her lips invitingly, and gasped as a hot wet tongue began massaging the warm recesses of her mouth. Santana's hands were already working their way under her camisole to palm her breasts determinedly. Instinctively, Quinn knew that Santana didn't want slow, tender love-making this time. She wanted hard, and fast, and intense, and Quinn was more than willing to oblige. Their kisses and touches were hot, messy, and deliberate, and Santana tore her mouth from Quinn's just long enough to rid her of her lacy camisole. The night air was cool against Quinn's heated skin but, before she could protest, Santana's hands covered her breasts once more, stroking and squeezing urgently and sending a flood of desire straight to Quinn's core.
One hand still on Quinn's breast, Santana slid her other hand down Quinn's spine, eliciting a delicious shiver from her fiancée. With no preamble, she slipped her hand under the waistband of Quinn's shorts, tugging them down over her hips. Eagerly, Quinn used her own hands to push her shorts and underwear the rest of the way down until they pooled at her ankles and she could step out of them.
Santana's eyes raked over her naked figure hungrily, before kissing her again fiercely, pushing Quinn gently backwards until she was pressed against the wall.
"You have too many clothes on," whined Quinn, pulling ineffectively at the hem of the brunette's t-shirt. Santana merely chuckled and bit down on Quinn's shoulder hard enough to leave a mark. "Oh God," whispered Quinn as another rush of need washed over her, leaving her panting and squirming.
"Wrap your legs around me," urged Santana breathlessly, running her hands down over Quinn's rear and settling against her upper thighs.
"I'm too heavy," protested Quinn, shaking her head, her chest rising and falling raggedly as she took in her fiancee's swollen lips and desire-darkened eyes.
"Trust me," Santana begged, ghosting a gentle kiss over Quinn's mouth. "I'm strong, remember junior year in the Cheerios - when you got me demoted to the bottom of the pyramid?" Quinn couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret at the memory but now was neither the time or place to make amends. Swallowing hard, she complied with Santana's request, and the brunette lifted her easily, bracing her against the wall. Santana's left hand was supporting her thighs, whilst her right slipped between their bodies, down over Quinn's stomach to settle determinedly between her legs. "Oh, Q," murmured Santana, closing her eyes as her fingers stroked through wet, velvet heat. "You feel so good."
Quinn couldn't do more than mewl in response, rolling her hips against her fiancee's ministrations. From the waves of pleasure already beginning to coil low in her stomach, Quinn knew that she wasn't going to last long. Santana's fingers moved hard and fast against her as Quinn clung to her like she was drowning and Santana was a life raft. Moments later, she came apart with a ragged gasp, eyes closed and head back as Santana pressed demanding kisses to the column of her throat.
After a long moment where all Quinn could focus on was the buzzing in her ears, the pounding in her chest, and the radiating pulses of pleasure throughout her body, she unhooked her ankles from around Santana's waist and stood up gingerly, unsure whether her shaky legs would support her.
"That was... you were..." she babbled breathlessly, unable to form a coherent thought, but Santana understood. Tenderly, she led her fiancée over to their bed and Quinn collapsed gratefully onto the mattress.
Santana climbed into bed beside her, gathering her close and waiting for Quinn to come down from her orgasm. As Quinn reveled in blissful detachment, she became aware of Santana's wonderful fingers ghosting over her thigh and hipbone. She groaned and tried ineffectually to still the brunette's touch.
"San, it's my turn," she giggled, as her fiancée licked teasingly at her nipple.
"Uh uh," murmured Santana, her voice muffled against Quinn's breast. "I wasn't done with my turn yet."