Work Text:
It was the third time of the day that Quinn had caught herself staring at Rachel’s lips for god knows why. The girl in front of her had been rambling for about five minutes already about some song probably from some broadway musical or an artist that Quinn has probably never heard of.
Either way, Quinn hadn’t been paying attention and was rather distracted by Rachel’s lips and the very thought of it pressing against her own, against her skin, and down to her—
Woah okay that took quite a turn.
She shook her head as she got rid of such thoughts that were definitely forbidden within the walls of the Fabray household. She blamed Santana and Brittany for this. Well it’s not entirely their fault per se, but walking in on them making out on Brittany’s bed on a Saturday afternoon when all three of them were supposed to be hanging out did trigger her curiosity. She didn’t even dare let her presence be known and left rather quickly and quietly. So yes, she blames them, partly of course.
The rest were mainly on her and her stupid thoughts. Maybe also on Berry and her lips and how the only solution she could think of to get the girl to stop talking was by shoving her own tongue down Rachel’s throat.
“So which of these songs do you think we should perform?”
Rachel’s question brought her instantly back to reality and only then realized that Rachel had already laid out a few music sheets on her bed in front of her.
“Umm–” Quinn picked out a music sheet with the title she had never heard of from an artist she does not know actually exists or existed, depending whether they’re still alive or already dead.
“Were you not listening when I suggested some songs?”
Crap she’s caught.
“I was.” Quinn lied, something that apparently she always finds herself doing so.
“Alright then name at least one song from one artist that I have suggested.” Rachel immediately flipped all the music sheets upside down to prevent Quinn from looking down.
Quinn pretended to think and although she hadn’t been listening, she knew the girl fully well that Barbra Streisand was definitely in one of her suggestions.
“Woman in Love? By Streisand?” She answered with a slightly innocent tone, hoping it’ll get Rachel to stop questioning her
Fortunately, Rachel must have bought it as she nodded her head, “Alright. I apologize for such accusations. Of course you were listening. I understand if my ramblings prevented you from comprehending the words that I have said and the songs that I have suggested. I am just unable to contain my excitement to perform with you. I honestly have been looking forward to this day, especially now that we are on good terms. I never thought we’d arrive at this particular stage of our relationship with our rocky, fighting-over-the-same-teenage-boy start. But I am glad we are friends now, Quinn.”
Quinn smiled softly as she placed her hand over Rachel’s, ignoring the way her stomach twisted and turned at the touch.
“I’m glad we’re friends now too.”
Quinn felt a slight disappointment when Rachel pulled her hand away. She turned her attention back to the music sheets on the bed.
“How about we sing a song from someone our time? You know, like Katy Perry or Beyoncé. Lady Gaga. Taylor Swift.” Quinn suggested, looking at each of the music sheets and realizing that they were artists who made an impact during Mr. Schue’s youth.
“But the assignment is that we have to sing a song from an artist who made a difference in the music industry.” Rachel argued.
“But he did not specify from what time.” Quinn argued back. “Besides, I don’t know most of these songs and I’m really surprised that you do. We’d save time with me memorizing the lyrics if we choose someone from our time. What do you think?”
“Well—” Rachel pondered on for a while. Quinn did make excellent points. If they chose a song that Quinn had never heard of, they’d go through the trouble of remembering the lyrics plus add the fact that Rachel wanted to train Quinn on her vocals.
“Well we can do Taylor Swift.” Rachel said. She picked up the music sheets she spread around and placed them back in her drawer. Quinn turned to the brunette, frowning.
“You’re not mad, are you? I mean if you really want to perform one of the songs from those music sheets you picked, I honestly do not mind. I just thought that maybe the others would enjoy it more if it’s a song from an artist that everyone knows and not just you, Mr. Schue, and maybe Kurt.”
Rachel chuckled as she faced Quinn, “I’m not mad, Quinn. While I admit that I’m slightly disappointed that you chose not to perform one of the songs I’ve chosen, it’s silly and petty of me to be mad about something small like this.”
“This is small to you?” Quinn teased, receiving rolled eyes as a response from the brunette.
“Okay it’s not small to me, but it’s not worth being mad over it. I have other chances to perform them next time, so really it’s not a loss.”
“Alright, great. So which song should we perform?”
“Well, I don’t exactly have some music sheets with her songs with me, so I will have to go to the music store to find a song that suits us and I’ll let you know on Monday and we can practice then.”
Quinn nodded and silence started to fill the room as she sat on Rachel’s bed while Rachel stood awkwardly, both finding something to talk about.
“Do you want to stay for dinner”
“I should go.”
They both said at the same time.
“You want me to stay for dinner?” Quinn stared at Rachel, surprised at the invitation.
“Well, my dads will not be home until tomorrow afternoon so I will be having dinner by myself. But, I mean if you want to go, it’s alright with me. Your mom is probably waiting for you at home.” Rachel said, mentally slapping herself. It’s as if Quinn would ever want to stay for dinner.
Rachel made her way to her door to open it, allowing Quinn to leave but was stopped when the blonde grabbed her hand. She turned to see Quinn smiling at her softly.
“I’ll stay for dinner.”
“Hey, Britt, can I ask you something?” Quinn whispered as she leaned against an unknown student’s locker.
“If it’s about your shampoo, don’t worry I will have Lord Tubbington return it as soon as possible.”
“No, no. Not that. But yes, please have him return it.” Quinn found it better to just go along with whatever the other blonde had said.
“Okay, then what is it?”
“Well it’s about— kissing—” She looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone nearby and leaned a bit closer, lowering her voice, “girls.”
“Oh, well we’d have to ask Santana first if it’s okay with her. Although I’m pretty sure she is also curious about kissing you. I told her your lips would probably taste like a mixture of vanilla and cherry.”
“No, Britt, I don’t want to kiss you. I mean you’re attractive and all but definitely don’t want to kiss you. Also, Santana is what—?”
“She’s curious.”
“Who’s curious?” Santana asked as she opened her locker right next to Brittany’s and grabbed her books, closing the locker after.
“Quinn told me she wants to kiss girls and I told her that you are curious about kissing her and I said that I thought her lips would probably taste like vanilla and cherry."
“Okay first of all, I am not curious about kissing Quinn. No offense, Q. Secondly,” She looked over at Quinn, pointing her index finger at the blonde, “You want to kiss girls?”
“No– that’s not,” Quinn sighed in frustration before grabbing both her friends’ wrists and dragged them to an empty classroom nearby. She closed the door behind her and turned to face Santana and Brittany, “Okay, I do not want to kiss girls. I am curious about kissing girls. There’s a difference.”
“Okay, okay geez calm down, Q. No need to be all defensive.” Santana said, raising both hands in surrender.
“Well, if Quinn is curious then I can give her one of my sweet lady kisses.” Brittany suggested innocently, stepping forward over to Quinn. Santana grabbed a hold of the blonde’s hoodie and pulled her back to her side.
“You are not satisfying tubbers’ curiosity, Britt.”
“But–”
“No buts. She can find others who can satisfy her curiosity. But those lady kisses belong to me and only me.” Santana claimed rather possessively as she pressed her lips firmly against her girlfriend’s. Brittany moved her arms around Santana’s waist while Santana encircled her tanned arms around Brittany’s neck. Quinn sighed at her friends’ inability to keep their hands off each other. Deciding to give them privacy, Quinn turned around and was about to leave when the door suddenly opened.
“Oh, Quinn there you–” Rachel’s words were cut off when she noticed Santana and Brittany making out who immediately parted at the sound of her voice, “are.” Rachel turned her head back and forth between Brittana, avoiding Santana’s glare, and Quinn, “Am I interrupting something?”
“Yes you are, Berry.”
Quinn rolled her eyes and faced Rachel, “Well you interrupted them, not me. What do you need, Rach?”
“Right! Here,” Rachel pulled out a music sheet from her portfolio and handed it to Quinn, “I found a song that we can perform.”
Quinn looked at the title, “Sparks Fly?”
“Yes. I was contemplating among that or Fearless or Two Is Better Than One. But–” As usual Berry instantly went into a rambling mode and Quinn’s mind suddenly shut off and all she could think again is shoving her tongue down Rachel’s throat.
You know, to shut her up.
Quinn’s eyes darted from Rachel’s eyes to her lips a few times, an action that did not go unnoticed to Santana and Brittany who looked at each other and smirked. Thankfully Rachel was too busy rambling to ever notice Quinn’s eyes.
Santana made her way forward to interrupt Rachel from her nonsensical rambling.
“Okay congratulations for finding a song after a thorough and careful discussion with yourself that most definitely earned you crazy stares from others. But Q and I have something important to discuss so if you please leave, that will be highly appreciated.”
“Wait, but we have to prac–” Rachel was unable to finish whatever she was saying as Santana pushed her out of the room and locked the door.
“Bye, Rachie!” Brittany waved quite enthusiastically.
“You know that was unnecessary, right.” Quinn said. She stepped to leave but was blocked by Santana.
“I need to practice.”
“You can practice later. The hobbit won’t mind.”
“Do you not know Rachel?”
“Okay she will mind, but I don’t give a flying fuck about it. Now,” Santana pointed at one of the seats, “Sit.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow, “Are you ordering me, Lopez?”
“Lose the eyebrow, Q. You know that doesn’t work on me anymore.”
Quinn rolled her eyes but decided to take a seat anyway. Knowing Santana, she can tell where the discussion will be heading and she is definitely not ready to talk about it let alone admit that she had thoughts of kissing Rachel Berry despite the numerous times she had thought of kissing Rachel Berry.
“Now let’s discuss your curiosity,” Santana began, air quoting the word ‘curiosity’, “You’re not curious about kissing girls, Q. You are curious about kissing a girl. Rachel Berry in particular.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, San.” Quinn denied, turning her head to avoid Santana and Brittany’s gaze.
“I think it’s nice that you want to give her your sweet lady kisses, Q. Rachie tasted like strawberry.” Brittany said innocently causing both heads to turn at her
“You’ve kissed her!?”
Quinn and Santana exclaimed together. Brittany nodded, confused at the reaction she’s receiving.
Quinn looked at Santana, “Why the fuck do you sound jealous?”
“Because Brittany is my girlfriend. Why do you sound jealous?”
“I’m not jealous.” Quinn turned to Brittany, “When did you kiss her?”
“Jealous.” Santana mumbled, earning a glare from the blonde.
“Freshman year. I saw her crying after she was slushied so I kissed her to make her feel better.”
Quinn and Santana stared at Brittany and her rather ridiculous yet innocent way of making people feel better.
“Well, there you are, Q. A five star review from my girlfriend.” Santana teased playfully. “I hope that’ll get you to kiss the midget.”
“Okay please stop calling her that. Also what makes you think I’m curious about kissing her?”
“Do you know how many times your eyes moved from her eyes to her lips? Five! Honestly, I was half expecting you to shove your tongue down her throat.”
Quinn groaned, realizing that there was no use denying it anymore.
“Okay, fine! I’m curious about kissing her. This is your fault.” Quinn pointed at the couple.
“Us? What did we do?”
“I saw you two making out when I came in last Saturday because you said we’ll have an unholy trinity sleepover. Turns out sleepover in your dictionaries means shoving tongues down each other’s throat!”
“Okay, but what does that have to do with Britt and I? What you saw us make out and then suddenly you want to kiss Berry?”
“Well, when I saw you two, I got, well–” Quinn trailed off, trying to find a more appropriate term for the word she had in mind
“Turned on?” Santana smirked
“No.” Quinn scoffed, looking away. Santana and Brittany stared at her silently. “Yes.”
“And out of all the girls that you know, Berry was the first girl to pop in that head of yours?”
“Well, not technically. After I left I headed to Lima Bean to grab some coffee and I saw Rachel there, we hung out and suddenly I thought her lips looked kissable.”
“Seriously? Berry? Rachel Berry’s lips are kissable to you?”
“I think it’s sweet. You should just go and kiss her, Q.” Brittany suggested.
“I can’t exactly do that, Britt.”
“Why not?” Brittany frowned. “I did that to Rachel, and Santana. Tina—”
“Woah Woah! Tina?” Brittany nodded innocently at Santana’s sudden outburst. “How many of the glee girls have you kissed, Britt?”
“Everyone except Quinn.”
“Okay, can we get back to me and my dilemma?” Quinn quickly interrupted before looking over at the other blonde, “I appreciate the suggestion, Britt. But I cannot just walk over to Rachel and kiss her. Besides, we just started to be on good terms. I don’t want to ruin that. It’s not that simple.”
“Yes it is. Seriously, just kiss the girl, Q. Kiss your girl.”
“She’s not my girl.”
“Not yet.”
Santana winked before taking Brittany’s hand and walked out of the room. Quinn remained seated for a short while, thinking hard. She’s only curious, right? She doesn’t exactly want to kiss Rachel. It’s just pure curiosity of the female sexuality that she needs to satisfy and Rachel just seems to be the right person to give her that satisfaction.
Okay, that sounded wanky.
Quinn made her way to the choir room where Rachel texted to meet her, Santana and Brittany’s words still ringing in her head.
Just kiss the girl. It’s not like Rachel will actually slap her. Oh god, what if Rachel does slap her? It doesn’t seem like something she would do, but then again the idea of kissing girls isn’t exactly something she thought she’d be thinking so I guess there’s a first time for everything.
Quinn was definitely sure that if she would grab Rachel’s face and kiss the living crap out of her, the girl would run away and never talk to her.
She decided to just stop thinking about it and chose to focus all her energy in practicing the song.
A romantic song, she might add. A song that entirely talks about falling in love with someone and getting that ‘spark’ whenever they are near.
Quinn entered the choir room to see Berry sitting by the piano, tickling the keys and writing some notes on the music sheet in front of her. Suddenly, feeling the sudden rush of ‘spark’ in her at the sight of Rachel.
She cleared her throat, allowing her presence to be known causing Rachel to turn her focus from the music sheet to the door.
“Hey!” Quinn greeted as she entered the room and placed her bag on the nearby chair, walking over to the piano. Rachel scooted a little, giving Quinn a space on the piano bench.
“I’m glad you’re here now. I was beginning to worry that Santana would not let you out of that room.”
“We just had some girl talk, no big deal.” Quinn shrugged as she sat down beside Rachel
Rachel stared at the blonde.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just never thought you and Santana were capable of having a girl talk.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, for starters girl talks usually involve talking about feelings, and you and Santana, and I do not mean this to sound offensive, but you two just do not seem to be the type of people who talk about their feelings.”
“Are you implying that Santana and I do not feel anything, Berry?”
“No, of course not. You two are humans capable of feeling anything like others do. You just don’t know how to express them. You both hide your feelings. You keep it inside yourselves because you think that showing feelings is a sign of weakness, so you both put on this facade to make everyone think that you are okay. Maybe that’s why it makes sense why you and Santana are still friends despite the endless competition between you two. You seem to understand each other even without having to talk about your feelings.”
Quinn looked at Rachel, amused. She had always wondered how and why she and Santana were still best friends when all they do is bitch to each other. From an outsider’s perspective, her friendship with Santana is a mystery. They are two bitches who are willing to kill each other to get to the top of the pyramid.
“Now, let’s start practicing, shall we? I want to win that Breadstix coupon.” Rachel said, turning her attention to the piano
“You do realize that Santana is willing to kill you to get that coupon, right?”
“Well, luckily Mr. Schue is handing out 4 coupons so we just have to make sure we are one of the winners in this duet competition.”
“I don’t understand why you want to win the coupon. They have limited vegan items in their menu.”
“I know.”
“You don’t actually care about the coupons, do you, Berry? You just want the competition.”
“Aww, you know me so well.” Rachel teased. “And yes, I want to win so I expect that you, as my singing partner for this duet, will give your best performance.”
The two started practicing which lasted for over an hour with side commentaries from Rachel about Quinn’s vocal performance. Quinn had to admit their voices go well together— with probably a little more practice on the blonde’s side, according to Rachel.
Quinn couldn’t help but stare at Rachel as they sang together, confused at the so-called spark that Taylor Swift is talking about in her song. If she was being completely honest, and which wasn’t always, this was not the first time she felt the spark inside her whenever she heard Rachel sing or laughed, or looked at her.
Quinn felt it when she watched Rachel’s myspace videos. She felt it when she heard her sing ‘Don’t Stop Believin’ at the auditorium. The spark was there when Rachel sang ‘Keep Holding On’ to her. The other members were there as well, but all she could think then was that it was just Rachel singing to her. She felt the stupid spark when Rachel sang ‘Get It Right’ during Regionals.
Maybe this wasn’t curiosity anymore. Maybe it wasn’t even curiosity to begin with. But she was not ready to unpack all that, at least not yet.
“I’ll go get us some slushies at the convenience store nearby.” Quinn volunteered when they ended the practice after a fifth run. She noticed Rachel stiffened and quickly said, “Or something to drink from the cafeteria.”
Rachel shook her head and smiled at Quinn, “No, a slushie is good.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I guess whenever I think of slushie and you, my mind just automatically goes back to—”
“I know.” Quinn did not need to hear the end of the sentence to understand what Rachel meant.
It broke her heart to think that there was actually a time in their lives when she had been Rachel’s tormentor.
Sometimes she wondered to herself if she did deserve Rachel’s endless kindness.
Quinn took a seat again beside Rachel, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, Quinn. I have forgiven you already. We’re in a good place now.”
“I know. But I just realized that I have never actually apologized to you. Weirdly enough, we just became friends out of the blue. You were always so kind to me no matter how harsh I was to you. You once told me you don’t hate me. How could you not?”
“Because I know deep inside that it was a facade. Even before I got to know you, I knew that the bitchy head cheerleader Quinn Fabray was never the real Quinn. Did it hurt me? Obviously. But I forgave you every day even when you did not apologize to me. Now I am glad, and so incredibly proud, that you’re introducing me to the real Quinn.”
Something clicked inside Quinn and she blurted out without thinking, “I want to kiss you.”
Rachel stared at Quinn incredulously. She blinked multiple times, unsure if she just heard the words that came out of Quinn’s lips.
“I mean,” Quinn started when she finally realized what she just said. Well guess she’s unpacking it now.
“You want to kiss me?” Rachel repeated.
Quinn could only nod, her eyes lowering down to Rachel’s lips.
“Why?”
“I really don’t know. Half of me just wants to satisfy this curiosity about kissing girls. I do not trust anyone outside of glee and I trust you, a lot.”
“And the other half?” Rachel asked, her heart breaking a little at realizing that she was just a mere outlet for Quinn to satisfy her out-of-nowhere sapphic curiosity.
“The other half is that I really do want to kiss you. I do not want to kiss girls, Rachel. I just want to kiss you. I want to and am curious about how it feels to kiss you.”
A soft smile formed on her lips as she found herself moving closer to the blonde. She placed one hand on Quinn’s cheeks, feeling the softness of her skin against her fingertips.
“I guess we have to satisfy that, shouldn’t we?” Rachel grinned before moving in and closed the gap between them.
The kiss was only short but it was enough to allow everything inside of Quinn to burst. This wasn’t her first time kissing someone, but this was definitely her first time feeling strongly about a kiss. She didn’t even feel this when she kissed Finn, or Puck, or Sam.
“Satisfied, Quinn?” Rachel teased playfully.
“Yeah.” Quinn nodded absentmindedly, still tasting Rachel’s lips against hers.
Brittany was right. Rachel did in fact taste like strawberries.
“You know, I also want to and am curious about how it feels to kiss you.”
“I guess we just have to satisfy that.” Quinn smirked before lowering her head, closing the gap once more between them.