Title: You Hit Like a Girl (15/?)

Rating: PG 13

Pairing: Quinn/Rachel Puck/Rachel Friendship

Spoilers: Season 1 Compliant, AU Season 2

Summary: The summer after her sophomore year, Rachel Berry has three goals: 1. Prepare for Glee 2. Befriend Quinn Fabray 3. Create a Lasting Romance with Finn Hudson. By the fourth week of summer she's completely failed two of them. Now what is she supposed to do?

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: I can't apologize enough for how long it's been since I updated. It's been a mix of several bouts with serious illnesses, moving to a new state, and grad school. Thank you for all your kind notes. This chapter is one I'd started to write before I got really sick the first time. It's a little shorter than usual because it is only half complete, but I figured you all deserve something for your patience. I am picking this story back up but it might take me a little bit to really get back in the groove. My goal is a chapter every two weeks at least.

Only an hour left until Rachel's congratulatory dinner and she and Puck were in her living room playing Mortal Kombat. Both of her father's were in the kitchen preparing for the night's festivities and, frankly, Rachel was a little nervous for multiple reasons, never mind the Flaming Cacciatore Incident of the previous Fall. The first few reasons were small, like Santana would know where she lived and she hoped she and Brittany wouldn't try to christen any of the rooms in her house. Then there was the fact that Noah and Quinn would be in the same enclosed space for an extended period of time, which was already disastrous, and then adding a sharp-tongued Santana and an overly affectionate Brittany—there was a good chance that someone would end up bleeding tonight.

Something that bothered here even more was that she knew Sue was behind her party in some way. While her family typically celebrated all of her successes, the fact that her aunt showed up at football tryouts and mentioned the party that Rachel wasn't even sure she was having meant she was up to something. Possibly something huge. Usually, a week before school started, the Berry-Sylvester family sat down and formulated a basic plan for the school year. The plan ensured that both Sue and Rachel were able to complete their goals without completely destroying each other. Bumping heads was part of the game, as was keeping people in the dark about their relationship. While nobody would bully Sue Sylvester's niece, people probably wouldn't willingly talk to her either, or she would be "befriended" by a mass of sniveling sycophants. Neither outcome was desirable, so they planned carefully. But now it was a week before school started and Sue had instigated a party and made sure Puck, Quinn, Santana, and Brittany were all there. Rachel had a feeling that her aunt was going to be there as well. But in what capacity? And how exactly would her girlfriend and her bro react? She had a feeling Puck would be impressed. But Quinn…Quinn could be…anything.

The blonde cheerio could be angry, scared, happy (doubtful), annoyed, disgusted, or maybe just plain confused. It might very well break her and their relationship. And that lead Rachel to the thing that made her most nervous—despite the tackle and the slight bruising on her side, would Quinn consider her to have made it through the tryout in one piece? If so, would the blond show her how sure of herself she was? And would it involve tongue and maybe a little groping?

"Dude, I just kicked your ass with Johnny Cage, the absolute lamest Mortal Kombat character ever invented, and I didn't hear one peep of 'misogynistic pig'."

Rachel blinked. "What?"

"Exactly my point."

"I had a perfect win-loss record with Scorpion!"

"You should have been paying attention."

Rachel huffed and hit the continue button. Puck changed his player back to Katana and Rachel decided to change to Sub-Zero.

Puck nudged her. "Relax, okay? Everything is going to be awesome. Now focus so I can kick your wimpy little ninja's ass fair and square."

Rachel narrowed her eyes. "Wimpy little ninja? Scorpion and Sub-Zero are the best characters in the franchise."

"Please," he rolled his eyes, "Katana and Liu Kang are the shit."

"They're mediocre at best."

"It's the freakin' hot badass princess and the chosen one! And at least they're free! Scorpion is basically a ghost enslaved by a weak ass magician. He's like a freakin' bunny getting pulled out of a hat. And Sub-Zero is just a shitty assassin who can't even kill his targets."

"Noah Puckerman! You take that back! Scorpion is a deeply tortured soul whose whole clan was murdered in front of his eyes and Sub-Zero constantly struggles with his role as a leader and the decisions he makes for his tribe and himself. He is torn between what he wants and what his people want."

"You're ridiculous. Besides, Liu Kang and Katana, OTP forever."

"OTP? OTP? You are such a hypocrite! I have no idea how you can judge me for kitten calendars, Mr. Matchy-socks-and-shoes-and-OTPs!"

"Hey!"

"And, and Katana/Liu Kang is a ridiculous pairing! It's so boring. Give me something interesting like—"

"Katana and Sonja Blade?"

Rachel thought for a moment, "That would be acceptable."

"Now that's ridiculous. It's obvious why you would be happy with them."

"What's obvious is that I'm kicking your hind end."

"Bullshit. Lucky punch. And you like them because it's an angry blonde chick with trust issues and an ethnic chick who's a badass ninja warrior."

"What does—"

"Think about it."

"Are you implying—"

"It's totally you and Quinn with less clothes and more blood."

Rachel sputtered, "This has nothing to do with my original premise about Scorpion and Sub-Zero."

Puck smirked, "So?"

"The whole point of this discussion—"

"Shhh. Change your character to Sonja. We'll pretend they're having wild angry sex. I bet you and Baby Mama—"

Rachel dropped the controller and launched herself at him. She put him in a headlock and scrubbed her knuckles viciously across his head.

He started flailing. "No! Make it stop!"

"Fiend! Vicious, crass fiend!"

"Joking…I…a joke! My hawk!"

"I'll show you angry sex!"

A loud exaggerated cough made them freeze and when Rachel looked up she let go immediately. She smiled nervously. Puck winced.

"Quinn! How did you get in here?"

The blonde raised her eyebrow. " Well, there's this thing called a door…"

Rachel blushed, "I meant—"

Quinn's lips quirked, "Your dad let me in."

"Oh."

She searched Quinn's face for any trace of an impending blow up, but it was almost perfectly blank. Finally the lips quirked.

"Do I want to know why you're propositioning Puckerman?"

Puck snickered and Rachel's jaw opened and closed before she smacked him in the arm.

"That is utterly ludicrous. We were having a heated discussion about the compatibility of two of the characters in the game and the general 'badassery' of certain characters in general that lead to a slightly physical altercation."

There was that eyebrow again. "You were fighting over characters on Mortal Kombat?"

"Precisely."

Quinn shook her head, "God…you two are such dorks."

Puck frowned, "We don't do dork, Fabray. We're badasses."

Quinn rolled her eyes and walked around the couch. Rachel took the opportunity to really examine her. Her hair was up this time and she was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a blouse. Really, Rachel didn't get to see her in jeans that often and she'd never gotten to consciously admire them before. She's probably subconsciously admired them plenty of times. Quinn stopped in front of her and smirked, her eyes dancing for a moment. Rachel tried not to blush and Puck snickered again. Quinn shot him a quick glare before turning back to Rachel.

"So, are you too engrossed in fighting over fictional characters to say hello or…"

Rachel scrambled to her feet and Quinn immediately pulled her into a tight embrace. "Eyes up front, Puckerman."

He grumbled but did it anyways.

Rachel could feel some of the tension from the tryouts finally leave Quinn's body as she clung to her. Rachel rubbed her back gently, hoping Quinn would be able to relax. It worked and Quinn leaned back keeping her arms wrapped loosely around Rachel.

The brunette smiled, "Hey."

"Hey."

Puck cleared his throat and Quinn shot him another glare.

He smirked, "So, Fabray, you want to play? I have the perfect character—"

"Noah!"

Quinn rolled her eyes, "I'll leave that to you two." And sat down on the couch in Rachel's spot.

Rachel pouted, "Quinn, where am I supposed to sit? I chose that space specifically for its optimum screen viewing capabilities."

Quinn raised her eyebrow and patted her lap.

Rachel fidgeted, "Are you certain? I'm probably too heavy and I wouldn't want—"

She was cut off when Quinn grabbed her by the hips and pulled her down. Rachel could help it as her body immediately relaxed into Quinn's. The blonde's arms wrapped themselves around her waist and pulled her snuggly against her torso. Rachel could feel Quinn's breasts pressed against her back and her chin resting on her shoulder as she smirked, "There, that's better."

Rachel nodded furiously, forgetting her initial objections. Really, what was she thinking? Why would anyone want to sit anywhere besides Quinn's lap?

"Superstar, snap out of your Baby Mama induced haze and pick a freaking character."

Rachel flushed and quickly locked on Scorpion, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Quinn chuckled lightly in her ear.

Puck grinned smugly, "You'd better watch your ass because your soul is mine!"

The next fifteen minutes passed in a flurry of mashed buttons. Rachel wasn't exactly concentrating on the game, more on the way Quinn's thumb rubbed circles on her hip. Or the way it felt when she breathed, or how she smelled. She was distracted between Quinn and the game that she nearly jumped out of her skin when her dad hollered at her to answer the door.