Riding in Cars With Girls (2/2)
Title: Riding in Cars With Girls
Author: nearproximity
Rating: M/NC-17
Length: 6,590 (14,015)
Spoilers: Season three
Summary: After Quinn quit glee club and joined a band, Rachel feels the gap Quinn has left and sets out to get her back, whatever the cost. But what happens when Quinn's only condition involves her car and Rachel's lips on hers every day at five?
It was the first day of the seventh week.
Rachel was rarely subtle, and she had been avoiding seeing Quinn alone all day.
Quinn had noticed, her body language making it clear what she thought about it. Nobody dared to say more than what was necessary for a successful rehearsal; frightening even Mr. Schuester off.
She was slightly off on her timing to the choreography but no-one noticed.
No-one but her.
“Stop, stop, stop!”
Rachel's voice brought the production to a halt. They all groaned, looking at her expectantly while she stared over at Quinn.
“Where’s your head today, Quinn?” Her voice was coming out uncharacteristically harsh. “Do I need to simplify the moves for you to get them down?”
Mercedes and Tina glanced to each other with looks roughly translating to: this is going to be good.
Quinn was struggling to read Rachel. She couldn’t tell if this was her simply trying to convince the club that not everything had changed between them. To be on the safe side, she let an average amount of annoyance seep into her tone.
“I was like a second out. Calm down.”
“You suck, and you’re making this entire club suck. Get it together or you’re going to be the reason we don’t place at Sectionals.”
Fortunately -or unfortunately if you asked everyone else, Mr. Schuester stepped in to stop the situation from getting out of hand. He praised Quinn on her efforts and gave her a gentle reminder to pay a little more attention to her timing. He kept Rachel behind after practice, asking her to list about what qualities she thought the best kinds of leaders possessed and then kindly asked her to try harder to incorporate patience and understanding into her leadership skills.
The conversation was forgotten as soon as she left the stage.
She walked down the now deserted corridor and was yanked into the bathroom.
“Talk. Now.”
“As much as you’d like it to be true, I’m not your puppet,” Rachel retorted, overlooking that she’d just gave in to the demand anyway. She looked away; feeling composure slipping away the longer Quinn looked at her. Not that she’d had much since last night.
“I don’t think that. I just want to know what’s going on.”
“Use your head, or did the chemicals from your hair dye kill most of the cells?”
Quinn lifted her eyebrows. “Rachel.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you have any control over me.”
Quinn took a second to ground herself. “I want to know what’s wrong with you. You didn’t meet me after the show last night, and all you’ve done today is blank me or talk to me like a piece of shit.” She brushed some hair out of her eyes. “I’m curious as to why.”
Rachel's breath grew shallow and she turned on her heel, making it halfway across the girls’ bathroom before her wrist was held. She spun around, roughly pulling free.
“Don’t touch me!”
Quinn looked confused to the rage in Rachel's eyes. The outburst had jumpstarted her heart. It was thumping away inside her ribcage, though she appeared mostly calm.
“Why does it always have to be a battle with you?”
The response came after a delayed pause. “What have I done?” Quinn asked quietly, serious now.
“It’s what you haven’t done.” Rachel shook her head and after only a few seconds, she couldn’t hold it in anymore; she was crying. “Or maybe it is me. Maybe I don’t know you, after all.”
“Rachel...”
She gritted her teeth to keep the words inside, but her mouth opened anyway. “Why don’t I make you happy?”
Tears unwillingly gathered in Quinn's eyes.
“Why?” Rachel pressed. “What am I doing wrong?”
“What is this about?”
“It’s about you! You smile -okay, not very often, but when you do it’s never at me and I don’t know why.” Rachel looked physically pained. “Why don’t you like me? Forget the past two years and answer me. Everything I’ve done this year is to make you stop looking like that, and it still hasn’t worked. You still have that same look in your eyes, only this year it’s worse.”
Quinn looked like she was beginning to get defensive. “Looking like what?”
“Lonely!” Rachel accused sharply. “Broken inside because you can’t let go of the past or accept the future.”
Quinn bit her lip, her heart beating faster for a different reason now. She looked miserable and her voice didn’t have the same weight behind it anymore. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do,” Rachel stressed. “I’m the only one in this school who can see it -or the only one who cares enough to try to fix it.” After a stretch of charged silence, she asked, “What do I do that annoys you so much? It must be something really bad if you still won’t acknowledge that we’re friends.”
Quinn wanted to laugh at that.
“You don’t annoy me,” she admitted after a beat. “Well...yeah, but I don’t hate you. How many times do I have to tell you that before you hear it?”
That seemed like a start because Rachel was calming down.
“Fine, so you don’t hate me. I accept that. But you don’t act like you like me all that much, either. I need consistency with that, Quinn. Not just when you want something from me.”
“Okay,” she said softly. They stood there awkwardly for the following seconds it took Quinn to find the courage to ask, “Do you-” Her brows tightened. “What do you need?”
The question was a welcomed surprise. “For starters?” Quinn nodded, and Rachel hesitated for only a second. “A hug would be nice.”
Quinn looked nervous at the request but she closed the distance between them and then they were gently pressed against each other, arms locked around each other’s body.
Rachel's eyes had closed.
* * * *
They slowly worked on the flaws to their dynamic, taking time to recognise when each of them were pushing too hard or being selfish. Rachel had accepted that while Quinn had agreed to work more on their friendship -and she still didn’t understand the reason for Quinn's reluctance to look her in the eyes as she’d said that word- she had to be patient when Quinn was tired from her band.
Similarly, Quinn counted to ten during the times Rachel was particularly high strung and she wanted to strangle her.
Bit by bit, it was starting to work.
Bit by bit, with kisses and sighs and moans and wandering hands, the eighth week crept up on them.
They were together before school, between classes, during lunch, and after school; pressed up against any surface that would hold them, kissing desperately until they were forced to stop.
As the days went on, Rachel grew moodier and snappier with everyone but Quinn.
Following another return of extra- insufferable Rachel Berry for the countless time in the past week, the glee club had finally had enough.
Finn was the one to lose it. “God, we get it, Rach! We’ll never be good enough for you, and you’ll always be better.”
Rachel's shoulders eventually slumped under the weight of her teammates glares. They scattered from their instructed positions, picking up their things before leaving. Even Blaine looked mildly annoyed with her and that didn’t happen very often.
Quinn was the only one left.
Rachel left school in a foul mood.
* * * *
Thirty minutes later when they pulled up in their usual spot and got in the backseat, Quinn couldn’t stop herself from asking, “What’s the matter with you?”
Rachel gave her an unpleasant look at the accusation. “What?”
“You’re moody.”
“I’m not. But if I was, I’d hope it to be obvious that I wouldn’t want to talk about it.”
Quinn shrugged, and then leaned forward to kiss her. She was denied access. “Okay, what?” she sighed.
“That’s all you have to say?”
Quinn stared at her. “You just said you didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Say something that makes it sound like you care,” Rachel said, miserably.
But Quinn didn’t know what to say. She held the side of Rachel's face. “Let me make you feel better,” she murmured, pulling Rachel on top of her as they lay down.
Rachel’s problem was obvious when they were making out and she was moaning and straining against Quinn like never before, kissing her like they’d never do this again. So, without permission, Quinn moved her hand between Rachel's legs.
Quinn rubbed the length of her fingers over Rachel's sex, hearing the instant gasp and strangled moan of pleasure.
Rachel's hand shot down to Quinn's wrist, stilling the movement. She didn’t move Quinn's hand away, just held it in place.
Their eyes were locked when Quinn's hand gently started to move underneath Rachel's skirt, over the wet patch in her underwear. It was instinct for the brunette to shift her hips forward, eyes falling shut at the sensation.
“Quinn, what are you....”
“Shhh.”
They stayed like that for the next few minutes.
Quinn’s eyes were fixed on Rachel's face, how her mouth hung just slightly open in breathless sighs, brows creased as she tried to rock in time to her hand but Quinn never quite let her. She was getting frustrated and it was one of the most beautiful sights that Quinn had ever seen.
Her body was betraying her though, because Rachel didn’t want this. She wanted it to stop. If only her hips would stop moving.
Her head fell forward. “Quinn, please, don’t make me... not here.”
“I won’t,” Quinn whispered against her ear. “It’s okay.”
Seconds later, she returned Rachel's kiss eagerly and felt her fingers tangle in her hair, tightening with every slight tremor.
Rachel's mouth hovered over Quinn's, their parted lips brushing against each other’s as Rachel gasped softly. She couldn’t speak anymore.
When Quinn heard the shallowness to Rachel's breath and rode her hand harder, she stopped moving. Just like that, before Rachel could finish. She kissed her unresponsive lips softly and let Rachel slump against her, head against her shoulder as she recovered.
“I’m going to drive you home,” she managed to say after a while. Her voice sounded different to even her own ears. She could feel Rachel's heartbeat against her chest, pounding away.
“Already?”
“Yeah. You can go upstairs; get under the covers, and... finish making yourself feel better.”
Rachel still hadn’t caught her breath. She frowned, unmoving from on top of Quinn. If she moved even a fraction in the next thirty seconds, she was going to come. “I couldn’t -I mean, I don’t-”
Quinn didn’t need to know if she was lying. “You’ll feel better.”
“It’s the only time I ever get...embarrassed.”
“Were you embarrassed just now?”
Rachel took her time to admit, “No.”
“Just imagine that it’s me doing it for you,” Quinn whispered. She kissed the top of Rachel's head, and then started to get up because Rachel wasn’t the only one who had to get home. Quinn needed to get into her own bed sooner rather than later.
* * * *
Rachel was in a very good mood the next day.
It lasted a full forty-eight hours until she was sat on her doorstep waiting to be picked up.
Her phone rang next to her. She answered it with a private smile when she saw the caller ID. “Are you stuck in traffic?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
“My car won’t start,” Quinn said; sounding extremely annoyed and put out. She rolled her eyes. “I have to wait for the stupid mechanic to get here.”
“Oh.” It sunk in and her good mood started to vanish. “I see.” How inconvenient.
“Yeah.”
Rachel played with her own car keys in her other hand. “Is your Mom there?”
“No, she’s at the spa.”
“When is she likely to be back?” Rachel asked casually. She heard Quinn laugh softly.
“Not till late. She’s going for dinner and drinks with some friends.” There was silence on the other end. “Rachel?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to come over and wait for the mechanic with me?”
Rachel met Quinn at her at the door twenty minutes later, greeted with a smile no matter how hard Quinn tried to hide it.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
Rachel looked around curiously, trying to see if she’d imaged any part of downstairs correctly. She hadn’t.
They were sat on the sofa a little while later and Rachel was finding it difficult to concentrate on the TV because Quinn was absent-mindedly playing with her fingers, eyes carefully trained on the screen.
Quinn had never held her hand before.
“Thank you for inviting me over.”
Rachel's voice broke Quinn's focus. She smiled and leaned to the side, kissing Rachel's cheek firmly. A cocktail of thoughts abruptly exploded in Rachel's head.
Quinn was being mounted before she knew what was happening.
“Do you mind?” She looked up to Rachel. “I’m missing my favourite movie.”
“What’s it called?”
“Not the point.”
Rachel's teeth scraped against Quinn's ear. “That’s a terrible movie title.”
“Name a better one.”
“Funny Girl.”
“You are so annoying,” Quinn said airily, looking up at Rachel with a smile that developed into a laugh because God she was annoying but Quinn didn’t think she’d like her as much any other way.
“You’re starting to like it,” Rachel accused boldly. She didn’t give Quinn chance to respond before she leaned down to kiss her, but she couldn’t help noticing there was no immediate dismissal.
Quinn's hands were adding to the soft warmth of Rachel's thighs when the brunette’s tongue invaded her mouth, kissing her with so much force that her head had fallen against the back of the sofa. Her nails scratched down Rachel's legs in return.
“What time will the mechanic be here?”
“I don’t know.” Quinn kissed the side of her mouth and flicked the tip of her tongue over Rachel's top lip.
“Guess.”
“I don’t care.” She’d had her hands full of Rachel's thighs before, and right now she couldn’t think of anything better than feeling them slide against her own. “Stand up and take your shoes off.”
“Quinn, it’s terrible to overlook the importance of keeping appointments.”
Once Rachel was talking again she wouldn’t shut up, so Quinn pushed her to the edge of the sofa using only her hips. “Take off your tights.”
That did the trick.
“What?” Rachel asked her to repeat it but she’d got to her feet anyway.
A smouldering stare was enough to leave her molten to the core, so she kicked her shoes off and moved her arms out of the way, letting Quinn's hands disappear under her skirt; fingers slipping under the waistband of her tights to carefully pull them down her legs. Rachel's hand found purchase against Quinn's shoulder as she used her feet to push them the rest of the way off.
Then Quinn's hands were back there, skimming over her skin like a ghost. Her fingers curled around the back of one of Rachel's thighs, the others stroking a patch of skin behind her other knee in lazy, random patterns. Sat on the edge of the sofa, her head was almost level with Rachel's hips.
They were both highly aware of that.
Quinn's stomach twisted violently at the thought.
“Sit back down,” she demanded, eyes growing darker with lust.
But Rachel had other ideas. She kneeled beside Quinn and grabbed her face, abruptly pulling her around into a kiss that sent both of them in frenzy. She leaned back and tugged Quinn with her, hearing a hummed noise of protest for the break in contact lasting a second at most.
Quinn's body covered Rachel's.
Legs tangled, their hands were rubbing, scratching and stroking wherever they could. It wasn’t enough though, because no matter how much they found ways around the material covering their top halves, nothing was making it feel like enough. Quinn's fingers on Rachel’s stomach were like lighter fluid being poured but there was no match to light it.
“Take it off,” Rachel begged unashamedly when her mouth separated from Quinn's with a soft smack. “Please.”
Rachel's top was dropped to the floor.
Her hands gripped Quinn's hips tightly when she made a move to shift down -to focus her attention where she’d been so desperate to since day six of their arrangement when Rachel had made her wet for not the first time, but the first time since she knew what it was like to kiss her.
“Stay there,” Rachel insisted. Her voice was silky and commanding; the one that came out when she was turned on. “Move against me.”
She’d been waiting for this for so long. The thought of Quinn's fingers and mouth on her made her come three days ago; the second and third time had been to the visual of Quinn riding her. And so far, Quinn had been extremely careful to be the bottom when they were making out; even when she knew Quinn was dripping.
“I just want to make you feel good,” Rachel added.
“We shouldn’t.” Quinn's eyes had closed but her face betrayed how much she didn’t want to say that.
“I can tell you need this.”
Their eyes locked. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.”
“So, don’t.”
Quinn's eyes closed again. Her hips were so close to grinding down against Rachel’s thigh that she was nearly dizzy. “Rach...”
Rachel was kissing her again and she could feel it everywhere. It was the reason her top felt like it weighed much more than it did.
“Pull it over my head,” Quinn panted, and then it was gone and all that was left was their bras. Quinn moaned at the sensation of their stomach’s sliding together.
Her hips moved in a slow half-circle and then pressed down hard against Rachel's thigh.
Rachel felt herself clench tightly in return.
Quinn didn’t kiss her right away; she couldn’t. All she could focus on was the pleasure between her legs as she worked up to some semblance of a rhythm, which was really just in her head because the more times she moved against Rachel, the more she felt her control slipping away.
Although she was only wearing her underwear, bra, and skirt, Rachel's skin was hot like they were in the height of summer instead of early December.
Quinn kissed her deeply, each stroke of her tongue making Rachel desperate to pull her leg away and just spread them for Quinn to fall into.
Quinn didn’t moan the way she did when they were making out in her car; she was inhaling sharply and gasping softly at random intervals, eyes squeezed shut when she felt anything else daring to crawl up her throat.
Then Rachel’s hips came alive; rolling up against Quinn's thigh to ease the ache between her own legs. Almost instinctively, Quinn's hips undulated and her mouth covered Rachel's while her hand skimmed up over the brunette’s stomach -muscles jumping under the sensation- until she had a handful of her breast.
There was so much heat gathering between Rachel's legs now that she wasn’t quite sure how she hadn’t spontaneously combusted.
She ripped her mouth away from Quinn's, jerking her head to the side as Quinn massaged gently, sweeping her thumb over the painfully hard nipple.
“Quinn,” Rachel moaned.
Quinn sobered instantly, realising what she’d just done. She pulled her hand away and began to push herself up off Rachel, ultimately held down by Rachel's hands tightening against her.
“No.” Then Rachel's hands fell away. Quinn got to her feet unsteadily, her face flushed in arousal as she put her top back on. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“What?”
“It’s not part of the arrangement.”
“Quinn...”
Rachel's top was handed to her but she wasn’t looked in the eye. “This shouldn’t have come off.”
Rachel took a few seconds to remember how to say more than one word at a time. “I haven’t just been with you because of that. Not for a few weeks. I would have thought that was obvious.”
It still wasn’t enough. Quinn's head shook. “And I shouldn’t be on you -doing that, or anything.”
Rachel sat up and was a little ashamed of herself when her eyes drifted to Quinn's exposed torso when she was clearly upset. Her fingers dug into the top she was holding. “It was really all ri¬-”
“Acting like some guy who doesn’t even know who’s under him, or the consequences it’s going to have.”
“Like what?” Rachel was trying to understand. She knew how much Quinn wanted her; how different she’d been since they started all of this.
“Don’t be naive.”
“How is this any different to what happened in the car the other day?”
Quinn's face twisted with the memory. Suddenly it seemed like the worst idea she’d ever had. “I had no right to do that, either.”
“Would anyone else have had more right than you?”
Quinn's frown deepened with the thought. “No,” she grit out. “Why, is-”
“So you’re saying you have more right than anyone else to touch me like that?”
“No,” Quinn said again, though she’d just said exactly that. Rachel was raising her eyebrow at her. “You don’t have to be here.”
That was most surprising of all. “You’re asking me to leave?”
“No-”
“Stop saying no.”
Quinn worked her jaw. “I’m saying you can go, if that’s what you want. You’re under no obligation to stay if there’s somewhere else you’d rather be.”
“There’s not,” Rachel admitted softly.
“You’re not ready for this.” Quinn's voice was a strained whisper. “You want me to be your friend, and you think as soon as this stops we’ll go back to the way we used to be. You think sex is going to change that.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because it’s true. You’re so obsessed with making everyone else happy that you sacrifice yourself and what you really want. And don’t tell me that isn’t true because it is.” Finn had told her that Rachel wanted to wait until she was twenty-five to lose her virginity.
Rachel was looking at Quinn like her words had wounded her. But in a sincere voice, she said, “I want you.”
It was Quinn's turn to feel like her heart had been ripped out of her chest. Her face fell, tears gathering in her eyes. “You’re confused.”
“I miss you when I don’t see you.”
Quinn missed her too.
“You miss school during summer vacation.”
“I really miss you,” Rachel amended. “I miss you when we’re in glee club and I can’t sit next to you or touch you however I want. I miss you at night, you know, and I miss you when I’m busy or when I’m doing nothing at all. I miss you when I’m watching TV with my Dads and they flick past something I know you would have watched.”
Quinn missed her all those times, too.
“That’s...not the definition of a friend, Rachel.”
“I know.”
And just for a second, there was a part of Quinn that clung to those two words like her life depended on it. She wanted to live inside them. The other part was still largely in denial. It really was like someone was twisting her heart like they were wringing out a towel.
Rachel swallowed some of her dread. “What are we going to do?”
She sat down next to Rachel, suddenly so tired and sick of herself. She sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Do you ever miss me when I’m not there?”
Quinn looked straight ahead and eventually nodded, teeth pushing down against her bottom lip.
“A lot?”
Her teeth pushed down harder, the physical pain a welcome relief from how she was feeling inside. Eventually, the fractured breath she breathed was like a plug being removed because suddenly everything she kept inside felt like it was going to rush out.
“Quinn?”
Finally, the tears that had been threatening to fall worked their way down her face. She turned Rachel and nodded again.
The truth was that Rachel had saved Quinn the moment she had first tentatively returned her kiss.
“Look, I... I think we should wait until Monday,” Rachel said after a while, her voice a long cry from steady. Her heart was still thumping wildly in her chest from the possibility of what this could lead to. “Start fresh. Take the pretence of why we’ve been doing this away, and see what happens.”
Quinn's voice was still thicker. “We’ll probably fight all the time.”
“Yeah, but we can make up all the time too.”
“I’m not changing my diet.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to.” Rachel added, “Singing is my life. I practice every night at seven-thirty, except on Friday and Saturday where I practice after my piano lesson at two so that I’m free for any plans or Funny Girl viewings.”
“Okay.”
Okay. It was settled.
“Can I wait with you until the mechanic gets here?” Rachel asked. “We can just...sit and watch the rest of the movie.”
“Yeah, but-” Quinn took a deep breath. “Will you get dressed first?”
Rachel just smiled.
* * * *
They placed first at Sectionals -just like Quinn had told Rachel over and over again that they would.
And as the days and weeks went by, they became comfortable enough to be with each other how they used to be. More than. They had talked about it a lot and exhausted most options but sex.
Their biggest fight came when Quinn caught Rachel inadvertently flirting with one of her band mates after one of their practices, to which she vehemently denied. Quinn had caught their lead singer leaning on the wall next to Rachel, using her finger to lift Rachel's unbuttoned cardigan out of the way to see her dress properly. It was rare for her to get a compliment on her clothing; so naturally, Rachel smiled and returned the sentiment on the other girl’s top, except she was barely wearing one. It made both of them laugh.
Quinn wasn’t quite so tickled.
They fought the entire way back to her house, all the way through until they reached the bedroom.
Eventually, exhausted from trying to resist her when her eyes went dark like that, Rachel said, quite forcefully, “You’re being ridiculous,” and had Quinn's top and bra off; her mouth and hands against her breasts without another word.
* * * *
Quinn didn’t have that look in her eyes anymore; the one predicting an abrupt flow of tears and or verbal abuse to the next person who dared to speak to her or challenge her opinion. She didn’t have time to feel lonely because Rachel was always there.
Rachel was good at leaving notes in her books or school notepad and sending random little texts or picture messages with her outstretched arm taking a picture of herself smiling widely, adding on a caption that always went a little something like: I was thinking of you and this got stuck on my face!! X
It was nice. It made Quinn happy.
Rachel would catch Quinn just looking at her sometimes, looking more contented than she’d ever seen her. Sometimes they would be lying on her bed after making out and she would find a topic to talk about in great length, occasionally looking back at Quinn with a quick smile before she’d look away and carry on. Eventually she’d notice Quinn's soft replies become more and more infrequent until they stopped altogether.
The look on her face would kill the words in Rachel’s throat.
Quinn would stroke the side of her face and quietly ask Rachel to kiss her.
They’d kiss slowly, until both of them were bursting to say something neither of them was confident enough to say out loud yet.
It made Rachel happy.
Quinn also stood in front of the entire glee club and put forward the idea of her and Rachel opening for their Regionals show seeing as Finn and Rachel duets were like a bad charm.
Mike was not the first one to smile but he was the first one to nod in agreement.
Mr. Schuester was just glad they were such close friends now. What a difference a summer made.
“What’s the song?” Santana asked.
“Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry Bomb?” Brittany guessed.
Santana smirked. “‘Set Fire to the Israeli?’”
Quinn smiled back. “No, actually, it’s called ‘Get Ben-”
“Quinn!” Rachel cried.
She glared at Santana on the way back to her seat, but a hard slap to the back of Quinn’s legs let her know that she had only been joking. Quinn's retaliated wrench of Santana’s hair two minutes later had been worth waiting for.
Especially when Rachel held her hand and looked at her like she couldn’t wait to get home and brainstorm duet ideas -which was actually just a case of going through the folder they’d made over Christmas with song idea that suited them both.
For kicks over the holidays, Quinn had given Rachel a rap hit, and in return she’d been given a Whitney classic. Both songs were sort of butchered but they’d laughed so hard that it didn’t really matter.
* * * *
Quinn's breath came out in laboured pants, groaning when Rachel's tongue swirled around her nipple again, arching up into her mouth.
They’d gone to Rachel's house after school to do some homework, but as soon as Rachel's bedroom had closed Quinn had pushed her on the bed and covered her body with her own. They kissed in every way, hands exploring carelessly until gentle sighs and moans came from the room.
Piece by piece, they were stripped of their clothing; everything but their panties.
Rachel heard and felt the tell-tale signs of Quinn approaching her limit before she would ask her to stop. She stopped her ministrations and looked up over Quinn's chest -peppered with similar red marks currently covering her own chest.
“Do you want me to stop?” She dipped her head down to kiss the skin her chin was resting on.
Quinn shook her head, lips parting when Rachel shifted between her legs. Her eyes betrayed that she wanted Rachel with a dizzying, animalistic hunger.
“What do you need?”
“You. Everywhere.”
Rachel swallowed thickly, growing wetter with the thought alone. They’d agreed to wait until they were both ready and comfortable in their relationship to take the next step and Rachel didn’t want the reason for Quinn's willingness to be based purely on her body’s reaction.
“Are you sure about this?” She made a reluctant effort to move from Quinn; a difficult feat when she was fully clothed, never mind naked beside her underwear. “It’s difficult to think clearly when you’re on top of me too, so I’ll-”
Quinn clutched at her. “Please,” she begged with abandon.
“I-I want you to be sure. Really think about it because-”
Quinn's eyes were begging her now. “I haven’t thought about anything else for weeks. Please.”
It was true, she had thought about every single way they could touch each other.
Rachel was kissing her again and Quinn's legs fell open wider when she felt Rachel's fingers dancing over her thighs. She had craved this for longer than she’d still like to admit. It was scary for her to admit just how much she wanted it.
Rachel kissed her slowly, full of care and passion and everything that was needed to have Quinn's hips undulating against her.
“Please tell me to stop if I do something you’re not entirely comfortable with,” was all she asked of her, and then Quinn's hips lifted when Rachel tugged at her underwear.
Quinn's eyes were open, trained on her as Rachel’s hand slid up her thighs and between her legs. Her body tensed with the first experimental sweep against her clit, eyes falling shut now. She shuddered, the only word passing her lips being a whispered sigh of Rachel's name.
Rachel had to look at Quinn's face, unsure if it was because this was finally happening and she couldn’t quite believe it, or because the look on Quinn's face - illuminated by the winter sun creeping in past the blinds; brows tightly pulled together, cheeks flushed as she sighed out heavy breaths before every groan was the most incredible thing she’d ever seen. Rachel was captivated.
She was moving her fingers over Quinn slow enough to make her cry out softly in frustration, asking her to go faster, harder. Rachel obliged with every other stroke, building up the fire at the pit of Quinn's stomach until she was speaking in short, fragmented sentences that were so quiet they didn’t all make it to Rachel's ears.
Rachel’s fingers moved to Quinn's entrance and she waited for permission to go inside, granted by Quinn's heels digging into the bed, raising her hips to meet the intrusion. She moaned when Rachel entered her and she clenched around her fingers in return, opening her eyes for them to lock with Rachel's as they both began to move.
It took Rachel a couple of minutes to have Quinn go from shuddered breaths, lidded eyes trained on her like she’d disappear if she were to look away, to moaning freely, eyes screwed shut as she turned to press her face into the pillow her head was resting on. Rachel increased the pace of her fingers, dazed at the sensation of being inside her.
Quinn strained and writhed against Rachel, drawing in breaths so shallow that she wondered if she was taking in air at all. She kissed Rachel desperately and tightened her arms around her body, holding her more firmly as the heel of the palm pressing against her right there, and Rachel's fingers buried as deep inside her as they could go, made Quinn start to feel it everywhere.
Her hips bucked into Rachel's hand and didn’t stop until after she came with a sharp, breathy cry.
Quinn slackened underneath Rachel, and kept her eyes closed as she regained some semblance of normalcy to her breathing pattern. After a minute, Rachel pressed soft kisses to Quinn's skin and wrapped her arms around her.
It made Quinn feel safe, warm, loved.
Her hands began their journey over Rachel's body, slowly running over her back and arms until their hips were pressed together and Rachel's hands were pushed down against the mattress as they kissed softly, in no rush to separate. Quinn's hands cupped Rachel's breasts and she was rewarded with a soft moan, Rachel's hips moving in a gentle rocking motion against hers.
After some time, Rachel couldn’t take it anymore, and Quinn's name left her lips, pleading in tone.
Positions reversed, Quinn dragged her tongue over Rachel's throat, kissing her in long, wet strokes while her thigh was pushed up to her aching centre. She could feel Rachel's wetness smearing against her and used the hand that wasn’t tangled in her hair to massage one of her breasts.
Quinn kissed her way down Rachel's body and hooked her fingers around Rachel's underwear.
“Wait.” Rachel panted. “Wait, please, can you just-”
But she didn’t finish because Quinn had crawled back up her body and kissed her. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I don’t want you to stop,” she managed to say quietly, throbbing so hard she felt it everywhere. God, she didn’t want to stop. She was just nervous. “Will you stay up here, so I can see you?”
Quinn nodded and kissed her again.
“And can I leave my- is it all right if I stay covered?” Rachel felt ridiculous asking. “Just for now.”
“Of course.” Quinn looked down to her and smiled in reassurance. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.”
“Positive?”
Rachel breathed out Quinn's name in frustration, stuck between a frown and a smile because she was dying. Then Quinn's palm, warm and soft, was spreading her legs apart and rubbing over her thigh until her hand gradually moved higher and slipped underneath the waistband of her underwear.
They kissed deeply, lips slowly pushing and sliding. Rachel pressed up against Quinn's hand and moaned against her mouth at the feel of Quinn touching her where she’d been so desperate to feel her. Imagination was nothing compared to how she was making her feel.
Quinn's mouth was everywhere; on hers, against her neck, ghosting over her collarbone, dipped low to and between Rachel's breasts. It was a new sensation every time she got used to one. It drove her crazy. It made Rachel feel like she was experiencing the breathlessness of a fall.
Her orgasm had been building slowly since the second Quinn had climbed on top of her almost ninety minutes ago. Rachel's body shook violently, coming with Quinn's lips on her neck and a loud moan scratching her throat as she pushed her head back against the pillow.
Quinn didn’t stop kissing her until she felt Rachel's pulse slow under her lips.
“Are you all right?”
Rachel just breathed out a laugh and sighed something that sounded like ‘oh, my God’ before threading her fingers through Quinn's pink hair, kissing her like she never wanted to stop. They didn’t for a while. Ultimately, Quinn kissed her way down Rachel's body and this time removed her underwear -with consent, as well as help, and lowered her mouth between Rachel's legs.
Rachel was a lot louder the second time around.
* * * *
Quinn quit the band. She didn’t need it anymore.
* * * *
One might say it was beginning to be a regular occurrence, being yanked into the girls’ bathroom as she walked past. One might also say Rachel loved it.
“Why do you do that?” Rachel's voice came out light; laughing when she was pressed up against the door. “And how do you always manage to have this bathroom vacated?”
Quinn smiled against Rachel's skin, dragging her lips over her neck without kissing it. She inhaled and sighed out. Rachel always smelled good. Quinn remembered she had been spoken to.
“Because I can and because everyone is afraid of me.”
Rachel smiled and demanded a kiss. She received two; one to the mouth and another to her cheek. “I can’t imagine why.”
“I want you to do something for me,” Quinn whispered against Rachel's ear.
“In a public bathroom? Quinn, do you realise how unsanitary that would be?”
Before Rachel got the chance to sprout off a hundred useless facts about germs -making Quinn want to invest in a hazmat suit, she shook her head. “No, nothing like that.”
“Oh.” Rachel smiled. “Well, of course. What do you need?”
“Uh... your hands.”
“Quinn!”
“What?” Quinn laughed at the look on Rachel's face. “I do!” She pulled her over to the sinks where a chair was set up. She held out a plastic glove for Rachel to put her hand in to. “Put this on.” Another followed.
Rachel was bewildered when Quinn sat down on the chair
“I’m extremely confused.”
It didn’t last too long.
Soon Rachel was carefully pouring warm water over Quinn's hair, only complaining about the smell of chemicals twice. Quinn's arm slipping between her legs shut her up, even if it was only loosely wrapped around her leg, slowly stroking her fingers up and down. Rachel thought it might have been a method to calm her down but it only made her talk more.
A box of blonde hair dye lay discarded in the trash can.
Author: nearproximity
Rating: M/NC-17
Length: 6,590 (14,015)
Spoilers: Season three
Summary: After Quinn quit glee club and joined a band, Rachel feels the gap Quinn has left and sets out to get her back, whatever the cost. But what happens when Quinn's only condition involves her car and Rachel's lips on hers every day at five?
It was the first day of the seventh week.
Rachel was rarely subtle, and she had been avoiding seeing Quinn alone all day.
Quinn had noticed, her body language making it clear what she thought about it. Nobody dared to say more than what was necessary for a successful rehearsal; frightening even Mr. Schuester off.
She was slightly off on her timing to the choreography but no-one noticed.
No-one but her.
“Stop, stop, stop!”
Rachel's voice brought the production to a halt. They all groaned, looking at her expectantly while she stared over at Quinn.
“Where’s your head today, Quinn?” Her voice was coming out uncharacteristically harsh. “Do I need to simplify the moves for you to get them down?”
Mercedes and Tina glanced to each other with looks roughly translating to: this is going to be good.
Quinn was struggling to read Rachel. She couldn’t tell if this was her simply trying to convince the club that not everything had changed between them. To be on the safe side, she let an average amount of annoyance seep into her tone.
“I was like a second out. Calm down.”
“You suck, and you’re making this entire club suck. Get it together or you’re going to be the reason we don’t place at Sectionals.”
Fortunately -or unfortunately if you asked everyone else, Mr. Schuester stepped in to stop the situation from getting out of hand. He praised Quinn on her efforts and gave her a gentle reminder to pay a little more attention to her timing. He kept Rachel behind after practice, asking her to list about what qualities she thought the best kinds of leaders possessed and then kindly asked her to try harder to incorporate patience and understanding into her leadership skills.
The conversation was forgotten as soon as she left the stage.
She walked down the now deserted corridor and was yanked into the bathroom.
“Talk. Now.”
“As much as you’d like it to be true, I’m not your puppet,” Rachel retorted, overlooking that she’d just gave in to the demand anyway. She looked away; feeling composure slipping away the longer Quinn looked at her. Not that she’d had much since last night.
“I don’t think that. I just want to know what’s going on.”
“Use your head, or did the chemicals from your hair dye kill most of the cells?”
Quinn lifted her eyebrows. “Rachel.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you have any control over me.”
Quinn took a second to ground herself. “I want to know what’s wrong with you. You didn’t meet me after the show last night, and all you’ve done today is blank me or talk to me like a piece of shit.” She brushed some hair out of her eyes. “I’m curious as to why.”
Rachel's breath grew shallow and she turned on her heel, making it halfway across the girls’ bathroom before her wrist was held. She spun around, roughly pulling free.
“Don’t touch me!”
Quinn looked confused to the rage in Rachel's eyes. The outburst had jumpstarted her heart. It was thumping away inside her ribcage, though she appeared mostly calm.
“Why does it always have to be a battle with you?”
The response came after a delayed pause. “What have I done?” Quinn asked quietly, serious now.
“It’s what you haven’t done.” Rachel shook her head and after only a few seconds, she couldn’t hold it in anymore; she was crying. “Or maybe it is me. Maybe I don’t know you, after all.”
“Rachel...”
She gritted her teeth to keep the words inside, but her mouth opened anyway. “Why don’t I make you happy?”
Tears unwillingly gathered in Quinn's eyes.
“Why?” Rachel pressed. “What am I doing wrong?”
“What is this about?”
“It’s about you! You smile -okay, not very often, but when you do it’s never at me and I don’t know why.” Rachel looked physically pained. “Why don’t you like me? Forget the past two years and answer me. Everything I’ve done this year is to make you stop looking like that, and it still hasn’t worked. You still have that same look in your eyes, only this year it’s worse.”
Quinn looked like she was beginning to get defensive. “Looking like what?”
“Lonely!” Rachel accused sharply. “Broken inside because you can’t let go of the past or accept the future.”
Quinn bit her lip, her heart beating faster for a different reason now. She looked miserable and her voice didn’t have the same weight behind it anymore. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do,” Rachel stressed. “I’m the only one in this school who can see it -or the only one who cares enough to try to fix it.” After a stretch of charged silence, she asked, “What do I do that annoys you so much? It must be something really bad if you still won’t acknowledge that we’re friends.”
Quinn wanted to laugh at that.
“You don’t annoy me,” she admitted after a beat. “Well...yeah, but I don’t hate you. How many times do I have to tell you that before you hear it?”
That seemed like a start because Rachel was calming down.
“Fine, so you don’t hate me. I accept that. But you don’t act like you like me all that much, either. I need consistency with that, Quinn. Not just when you want something from me.”
“Okay,” she said softly. They stood there awkwardly for the following seconds it took Quinn to find the courage to ask, “Do you-” Her brows tightened. “What do you need?”
The question was a welcomed surprise. “For starters?” Quinn nodded, and Rachel hesitated for only a second. “A hug would be nice.”
Quinn looked nervous at the request but she closed the distance between them and then they were gently pressed against each other, arms locked around each other’s body.
Rachel's eyes had closed.
* * * *
They slowly worked on the flaws to their dynamic, taking time to recognise when each of them were pushing too hard or being selfish. Rachel had accepted that while Quinn had agreed to work more on their friendship -and she still didn’t understand the reason for Quinn's reluctance to look her in the eyes as she’d said that word- she had to be patient when Quinn was tired from her band.
Similarly, Quinn counted to ten during the times Rachel was particularly high strung and she wanted to strangle her.
Bit by bit, it was starting to work.
Bit by bit, with kisses and sighs and moans and wandering hands, the eighth week crept up on them.
They were together before school, between classes, during lunch, and after school; pressed up against any surface that would hold them, kissing desperately until they were forced to stop.
As the days went on, Rachel grew moodier and snappier with everyone but Quinn.
Following another return of extra- insufferable Rachel Berry for the countless time in the past week, the glee club had finally had enough.
Finn was the one to lose it. “God, we get it, Rach! We’ll never be good enough for you, and you’ll always be better.”
Rachel's shoulders eventually slumped under the weight of her teammates glares. They scattered from their instructed positions, picking up their things before leaving. Even Blaine looked mildly annoyed with her and that didn’t happen very often.
Quinn was the only one left.
Rachel left school in a foul mood.
* * * *
Thirty minutes later when they pulled up in their usual spot and got in the backseat, Quinn couldn’t stop herself from asking, “What’s the matter with you?”
Rachel gave her an unpleasant look at the accusation. “What?”
“You’re moody.”
“I’m not. But if I was, I’d hope it to be obvious that I wouldn’t want to talk about it.”
Quinn shrugged, and then leaned forward to kiss her. She was denied access. “Okay, what?” she sighed.
“That’s all you have to say?”
Quinn stared at her. “You just said you didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Say something that makes it sound like you care,” Rachel said, miserably.
But Quinn didn’t know what to say. She held the side of Rachel's face. “Let me make you feel better,” she murmured, pulling Rachel on top of her as they lay down.
Rachel’s problem was obvious when they were making out and she was moaning and straining against Quinn like never before, kissing her like they’d never do this again. So, without permission, Quinn moved her hand between Rachel's legs.
Quinn rubbed the length of her fingers over Rachel's sex, hearing the instant gasp and strangled moan of pleasure.
Rachel's hand shot down to Quinn's wrist, stilling the movement. She didn’t move Quinn's hand away, just held it in place.
Their eyes were locked when Quinn's hand gently started to move underneath Rachel's skirt, over the wet patch in her underwear. It was instinct for the brunette to shift her hips forward, eyes falling shut at the sensation.
“Quinn, what are you....”
“Shhh.”
They stayed like that for the next few minutes.
Quinn’s eyes were fixed on Rachel's face, how her mouth hung just slightly open in breathless sighs, brows creased as she tried to rock in time to her hand but Quinn never quite let her. She was getting frustrated and it was one of the most beautiful sights that Quinn had ever seen.
Her body was betraying her though, because Rachel didn’t want this. She wanted it to stop. If only her hips would stop moving.
Her head fell forward. “Quinn, please, don’t make me... not here.”
“I won’t,” Quinn whispered against her ear. “It’s okay.”
Seconds later, she returned Rachel's kiss eagerly and felt her fingers tangle in her hair, tightening with every slight tremor.
Rachel's mouth hovered over Quinn's, their parted lips brushing against each other’s as Rachel gasped softly. She couldn’t speak anymore.
When Quinn heard the shallowness to Rachel's breath and rode her hand harder, she stopped moving. Just like that, before Rachel could finish. She kissed her unresponsive lips softly and let Rachel slump against her, head against her shoulder as she recovered.
“I’m going to drive you home,” she managed to say after a while. Her voice sounded different to even her own ears. She could feel Rachel's heartbeat against her chest, pounding away.
“Already?”
“Yeah. You can go upstairs; get under the covers, and... finish making yourself feel better.”
Rachel still hadn’t caught her breath. She frowned, unmoving from on top of Quinn. If she moved even a fraction in the next thirty seconds, she was going to come. “I couldn’t -I mean, I don’t-”
Quinn didn’t need to know if she was lying. “You’ll feel better.”
“It’s the only time I ever get...embarrassed.”
“Were you embarrassed just now?”
Rachel took her time to admit, “No.”
“Just imagine that it’s me doing it for you,” Quinn whispered. She kissed the top of Rachel's head, and then started to get up because Rachel wasn’t the only one who had to get home. Quinn needed to get into her own bed sooner rather than later.
* * * *
Rachel was in a very good mood the next day.
It lasted a full forty-eight hours until she was sat on her doorstep waiting to be picked up.
Her phone rang next to her. She answered it with a private smile when she saw the caller ID. “Are you stuck in traffic?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
“My car won’t start,” Quinn said; sounding extremely annoyed and put out. She rolled her eyes. “I have to wait for the stupid mechanic to get here.”
“Oh.” It sunk in and her good mood started to vanish. “I see.” How inconvenient.
“Yeah.”
Rachel played with her own car keys in her other hand. “Is your Mom there?”
“No, she’s at the spa.”
“When is she likely to be back?” Rachel asked casually. She heard Quinn laugh softly.
“Not till late. She’s going for dinner and drinks with some friends.” There was silence on the other end. “Rachel?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want to come over and wait for the mechanic with me?”
Rachel met Quinn at her at the door twenty minutes later, greeted with a smile no matter how hard Quinn tried to hide it.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
Rachel looked around curiously, trying to see if she’d imaged any part of downstairs correctly. She hadn’t.
They were sat on the sofa a little while later and Rachel was finding it difficult to concentrate on the TV because Quinn was absent-mindedly playing with her fingers, eyes carefully trained on the screen.
Quinn had never held her hand before.
“Thank you for inviting me over.”
Rachel's voice broke Quinn's focus. She smiled and leaned to the side, kissing Rachel's cheek firmly. A cocktail of thoughts abruptly exploded in Rachel's head.
Quinn was being mounted before she knew what was happening.
“Do you mind?” She looked up to Rachel. “I’m missing my favourite movie.”
“What’s it called?”
“Not the point.”
Rachel's teeth scraped against Quinn's ear. “That’s a terrible movie title.”
“Name a better one.”
“Funny Girl.”
“You are so annoying,” Quinn said airily, looking up at Rachel with a smile that developed into a laugh because God she was annoying but Quinn didn’t think she’d like her as much any other way.
“You’re starting to like it,” Rachel accused boldly. She didn’t give Quinn chance to respond before she leaned down to kiss her, but she couldn’t help noticing there was no immediate dismissal.
Quinn's hands were adding to the soft warmth of Rachel's thighs when the brunette’s tongue invaded her mouth, kissing her with so much force that her head had fallen against the back of the sofa. Her nails scratched down Rachel's legs in return.
“What time will the mechanic be here?”
“I don’t know.” Quinn kissed the side of her mouth and flicked the tip of her tongue over Rachel's top lip.
“Guess.”
“I don’t care.” She’d had her hands full of Rachel's thighs before, and right now she couldn’t think of anything better than feeling them slide against her own. “Stand up and take your shoes off.”
“Quinn, it’s terrible to overlook the importance of keeping appointments.”
Once Rachel was talking again she wouldn’t shut up, so Quinn pushed her to the edge of the sofa using only her hips. “Take off your tights.”
That did the trick.
“What?” Rachel asked her to repeat it but she’d got to her feet anyway.
A smouldering stare was enough to leave her molten to the core, so she kicked her shoes off and moved her arms out of the way, letting Quinn's hands disappear under her skirt; fingers slipping under the waistband of her tights to carefully pull them down her legs. Rachel's hand found purchase against Quinn's shoulder as she used her feet to push them the rest of the way off.
Then Quinn's hands were back there, skimming over her skin like a ghost. Her fingers curled around the back of one of Rachel's thighs, the others stroking a patch of skin behind her other knee in lazy, random patterns. Sat on the edge of the sofa, her head was almost level with Rachel's hips.
They were both highly aware of that.
Quinn's stomach twisted violently at the thought.
“Sit back down,” she demanded, eyes growing darker with lust.
But Rachel had other ideas. She kneeled beside Quinn and grabbed her face, abruptly pulling her around into a kiss that sent both of them in frenzy. She leaned back and tugged Quinn with her, hearing a hummed noise of protest for the break in contact lasting a second at most.
Quinn's body covered Rachel's.
Legs tangled, their hands were rubbing, scratching and stroking wherever they could. It wasn’t enough though, because no matter how much they found ways around the material covering their top halves, nothing was making it feel like enough. Quinn's fingers on Rachel’s stomach were like lighter fluid being poured but there was no match to light it.
“Take it off,” Rachel begged unashamedly when her mouth separated from Quinn's with a soft smack. “Please.”
Rachel's top was dropped to the floor.
Her hands gripped Quinn's hips tightly when she made a move to shift down -to focus her attention where she’d been so desperate to since day six of their arrangement when Rachel had made her wet for not the first time, but the first time since she knew what it was like to kiss her.
“Stay there,” Rachel insisted. Her voice was silky and commanding; the one that came out when she was turned on. “Move against me.”
She’d been waiting for this for so long. The thought of Quinn's fingers and mouth on her made her come three days ago; the second and third time had been to the visual of Quinn riding her. And so far, Quinn had been extremely careful to be the bottom when they were making out; even when she knew Quinn was dripping.
“I just want to make you feel good,” Rachel added.
“We shouldn’t.” Quinn's eyes had closed but her face betrayed how much she didn’t want to say that.
“I can tell you need this.”
Their eyes locked. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.”
“So, don’t.”
Quinn's eyes closed again. Her hips were so close to grinding down against Rachel’s thigh that she was nearly dizzy. “Rach...”
Rachel was kissing her again and she could feel it everywhere. It was the reason her top felt like it weighed much more than it did.
“Pull it over my head,” Quinn panted, and then it was gone and all that was left was their bras. Quinn moaned at the sensation of their stomach’s sliding together.
Her hips moved in a slow half-circle and then pressed down hard against Rachel's thigh.
Rachel felt herself clench tightly in return.
Quinn didn’t kiss her right away; she couldn’t. All she could focus on was the pleasure between her legs as she worked up to some semblance of a rhythm, which was really just in her head because the more times she moved against Rachel, the more she felt her control slipping away.
Although she was only wearing her underwear, bra, and skirt, Rachel's skin was hot like they were in the height of summer instead of early December.
Quinn kissed her deeply, each stroke of her tongue making Rachel desperate to pull her leg away and just spread them for Quinn to fall into.
Quinn didn’t moan the way she did when they were making out in her car; she was inhaling sharply and gasping softly at random intervals, eyes squeezed shut when she felt anything else daring to crawl up her throat.
Then Rachel’s hips came alive; rolling up against Quinn's thigh to ease the ache between her own legs. Almost instinctively, Quinn's hips undulated and her mouth covered Rachel's while her hand skimmed up over the brunette’s stomach -muscles jumping under the sensation- until she had a handful of her breast.
There was so much heat gathering between Rachel's legs now that she wasn’t quite sure how she hadn’t spontaneously combusted.
She ripped her mouth away from Quinn's, jerking her head to the side as Quinn massaged gently, sweeping her thumb over the painfully hard nipple.
“Quinn,” Rachel moaned.
Quinn sobered instantly, realising what she’d just done. She pulled her hand away and began to push herself up off Rachel, ultimately held down by Rachel's hands tightening against her.
“No.” Then Rachel's hands fell away. Quinn got to her feet unsteadily, her face flushed in arousal as she put her top back on. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“What?”
“It’s not part of the arrangement.”
“Quinn...”
Rachel's top was handed to her but she wasn’t looked in the eye. “This shouldn’t have come off.”
Rachel took a few seconds to remember how to say more than one word at a time. “I haven’t just been with you because of that. Not for a few weeks. I would have thought that was obvious.”
It still wasn’t enough. Quinn's head shook. “And I shouldn’t be on you -doing that, or anything.”
Rachel sat up and was a little ashamed of herself when her eyes drifted to Quinn's exposed torso when she was clearly upset. Her fingers dug into the top she was holding. “It was really all ri¬-”
“Acting like some guy who doesn’t even know who’s under him, or the consequences it’s going to have.”
“Like what?” Rachel was trying to understand. She knew how much Quinn wanted her; how different she’d been since they started all of this.
“Don’t be naive.”
“How is this any different to what happened in the car the other day?”
Quinn's face twisted with the memory. Suddenly it seemed like the worst idea she’d ever had. “I had no right to do that, either.”
“Would anyone else have had more right than you?”
Quinn's frown deepened with the thought. “No,” she grit out. “Why, is-”
“So you’re saying you have more right than anyone else to touch me like that?”
“No,” Quinn said again, though she’d just said exactly that. Rachel was raising her eyebrow at her. “You don’t have to be here.”
That was most surprising of all. “You’re asking me to leave?”
“No-”
“Stop saying no.”
Quinn worked her jaw. “I’m saying you can go, if that’s what you want. You’re under no obligation to stay if there’s somewhere else you’d rather be.”
“There’s not,” Rachel admitted softly.
“You’re not ready for this.” Quinn's voice was a strained whisper. “You want me to be your friend, and you think as soon as this stops we’ll go back to the way we used to be. You think sex is going to change that.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because it’s true. You’re so obsessed with making everyone else happy that you sacrifice yourself and what you really want. And don’t tell me that isn’t true because it is.” Finn had told her that Rachel wanted to wait until she was twenty-five to lose her virginity.
Rachel was looking at Quinn like her words had wounded her. But in a sincere voice, she said, “I want you.”
It was Quinn's turn to feel like her heart had been ripped out of her chest. Her face fell, tears gathering in her eyes. “You’re confused.”
“I miss you when I don’t see you.”
Quinn missed her too.
“You miss school during summer vacation.”
“I really miss you,” Rachel amended. “I miss you when we’re in glee club and I can’t sit next to you or touch you however I want. I miss you at night, you know, and I miss you when I’m busy or when I’m doing nothing at all. I miss you when I’m watching TV with my Dads and they flick past something I know you would have watched.”
Quinn missed her all those times, too.
“That’s...not the definition of a friend, Rachel.”
“I know.”
And just for a second, there was a part of Quinn that clung to those two words like her life depended on it. She wanted to live inside them. The other part was still largely in denial. It really was like someone was twisting her heart like they were wringing out a towel.
Rachel swallowed some of her dread. “What are we going to do?”
She sat down next to Rachel, suddenly so tired and sick of herself. She sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Do you ever miss me when I’m not there?”
Quinn looked straight ahead and eventually nodded, teeth pushing down against her bottom lip.
“A lot?”
Her teeth pushed down harder, the physical pain a welcome relief from how she was feeling inside. Eventually, the fractured breath she breathed was like a plug being removed because suddenly everything she kept inside felt like it was going to rush out.
“Quinn?”
Finally, the tears that had been threatening to fall worked their way down her face. She turned Rachel and nodded again.
The truth was that Rachel had saved Quinn the moment she had first tentatively returned her kiss.
“Look, I... I think we should wait until Monday,” Rachel said after a while, her voice a long cry from steady. Her heart was still thumping wildly in her chest from the possibility of what this could lead to. “Start fresh. Take the pretence of why we’ve been doing this away, and see what happens.”
Quinn's voice was still thicker. “We’ll probably fight all the time.”
“Yeah, but we can make up all the time too.”
“I’m not changing my diet.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to.” Rachel added, “Singing is my life. I practice every night at seven-thirty, except on Friday and Saturday where I practice after my piano lesson at two so that I’m free for any plans or Funny Girl viewings.”
“Okay.”
Okay. It was settled.
“Can I wait with you until the mechanic gets here?” Rachel asked. “We can just...sit and watch the rest of the movie.”
“Yeah, but-” Quinn took a deep breath. “Will you get dressed first?”
Rachel just smiled.
* * * *
They placed first at Sectionals -just like Quinn had told Rachel over and over again that they would.
And as the days and weeks went by, they became comfortable enough to be with each other how they used to be. More than. They had talked about it a lot and exhausted most options but sex.
Their biggest fight came when Quinn caught Rachel inadvertently flirting with one of her band mates after one of their practices, to which she vehemently denied. Quinn had caught their lead singer leaning on the wall next to Rachel, using her finger to lift Rachel's unbuttoned cardigan out of the way to see her dress properly. It was rare for her to get a compliment on her clothing; so naturally, Rachel smiled and returned the sentiment on the other girl’s top, except she was barely wearing one. It made both of them laugh.
Quinn wasn’t quite so tickled.
They fought the entire way back to her house, all the way through until they reached the bedroom.
Eventually, exhausted from trying to resist her when her eyes went dark like that, Rachel said, quite forcefully, “You’re being ridiculous,” and had Quinn's top and bra off; her mouth and hands against her breasts without another word.
* * * *
Quinn didn’t have that look in her eyes anymore; the one predicting an abrupt flow of tears and or verbal abuse to the next person who dared to speak to her or challenge her opinion. She didn’t have time to feel lonely because Rachel was always there.
Rachel was good at leaving notes in her books or school notepad and sending random little texts or picture messages with her outstretched arm taking a picture of herself smiling widely, adding on a caption that always went a little something like: I was thinking of you and this got stuck on my face!! X
It was nice. It made Quinn happy.
Rachel would catch Quinn just looking at her sometimes, looking more contented than she’d ever seen her. Sometimes they would be lying on her bed after making out and she would find a topic to talk about in great length, occasionally looking back at Quinn with a quick smile before she’d look away and carry on. Eventually she’d notice Quinn's soft replies become more and more infrequent until they stopped altogether.
The look on her face would kill the words in Rachel’s throat.
Quinn would stroke the side of her face and quietly ask Rachel to kiss her.
They’d kiss slowly, until both of them were bursting to say something neither of them was confident enough to say out loud yet.
It made Rachel happy.
Quinn also stood in front of the entire glee club and put forward the idea of her and Rachel opening for their Regionals show seeing as Finn and Rachel duets were like a bad charm.
Mike was not the first one to smile but he was the first one to nod in agreement.
Mr. Schuester was just glad they were such close friends now. What a difference a summer made.
“What’s the song?” Santana asked.
“Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry Bomb?” Brittany guessed.
Santana smirked. “‘Set Fire to the Israeli?’”
Quinn smiled back. “No, actually, it’s called ‘Get Ben-”
“Quinn!” Rachel cried.
She glared at Santana on the way back to her seat, but a hard slap to the back of Quinn’s legs let her know that she had only been joking. Quinn's retaliated wrench of Santana’s hair two minutes later had been worth waiting for.
Especially when Rachel held her hand and looked at her like she couldn’t wait to get home and brainstorm duet ideas -which was actually just a case of going through the folder they’d made over Christmas with song idea that suited them both.
For kicks over the holidays, Quinn had given Rachel a rap hit, and in return she’d been given a Whitney classic. Both songs were sort of butchered but they’d laughed so hard that it didn’t really matter.
* * * *
Quinn's breath came out in laboured pants, groaning when Rachel's tongue swirled around her nipple again, arching up into her mouth.
They’d gone to Rachel's house after school to do some homework, but as soon as Rachel's bedroom had closed Quinn had pushed her on the bed and covered her body with her own. They kissed in every way, hands exploring carelessly until gentle sighs and moans came from the room.
Piece by piece, they were stripped of their clothing; everything but their panties.
Rachel heard and felt the tell-tale signs of Quinn approaching her limit before she would ask her to stop. She stopped her ministrations and looked up over Quinn's chest -peppered with similar red marks currently covering her own chest.
“Do you want me to stop?” She dipped her head down to kiss the skin her chin was resting on.
Quinn shook her head, lips parting when Rachel shifted between her legs. Her eyes betrayed that she wanted Rachel with a dizzying, animalistic hunger.
“What do you need?”
“You. Everywhere.”
Rachel swallowed thickly, growing wetter with the thought alone. They’d agreed to wait until they were both ready and comfortable in their relationship to take the next step and Rachel didn’t want the reason for Quinn's willingness to be based purely on her body’s reaction.
“Are you sure about this?” She made a reluctant effort to move from Quinn; a difficult feat when she was fully clothed, never mind naked beside her underwear. “It’s difficult to think clearly when you’re on top of me too, so I’ll-”
Quinn clutched at her. “Please,” she begged with abandon.
“I-I want you to be sure. Really think about it because-”
Quinn's eyes were begging her now. “I haven’t thought about anything else for weeks. Please.”
It was true, she had thought about every single way they could touch each other.
Rachel was kissing her again and Quinn's legs fell open wider when she felt Rachel's fingers dancing over her thighs. She had craved this for longer than she’d still like to admit. It was scary for her to admit just how much she wanted it.
Rachel kissed her slowly, full of care and passion and everything that was needed to have Quinn's hips undulating against her.
“Please tell me to stop if I do something you’re not entirely comfortable with,” was all she asked of her, and then Quinn's hips lifted when Rachel tugged at her underwear.
Quinn's eyes were open, trained on her as Rachel’s hand slid up her thighs and between her legs. Her body tensed with the first experimental sweep against her clit, eyes falling shut now. She shuddered, the only word passing her lips being a whispered sigh of Rachel's name.
Rachel had to look at Quinn's face, unsure if it was because this was finally happening and she couldn’t quite believe it, or because the look on Quinn's face - illuminated by the winter sun creeping in past the blinds; brows tightly pulled together, cheeks flushed as she sighed out heavy breaths before every groan was the most incredible thing she’d ever seen. Rachel was captivated.
She was moving her fingers over Quinn slow enough to make her cry out softly in frustration, asking her to go faster, harder. Rachel obliged with every other stroke, building up the fire at the pit of Quinn's stomach until she was speaking in short, fragmented sentences that were so quiet they didn’t all make it to Rachel's ears.
Rachel’s fingers moved to Quinn's entrance and she waited for permission to go inside, granted by Quinn's heels digging into the bed, raising her hips to meet the intrusion. She moaned when Rachel entered her and she clenched around her fingers in return, opening her eyes for them to lock with Rachel's as they both began to move.
It took Rachel a couple of minutes to have Quinn go from shuddered breaths, lidded eyes trained on her like she’d disappear if she were to look away, to moaning freely, eyes screwed shut as she turned to press her face into the pillow her head was resting on. Rachel increased the pace of her fingers, dazed at the sensation of being inside her.
Quinn strained and writhed against Rachel, drawing in breaths so shallow that she wondered if she was taking in air at all. She kissed Rachel desperately and tightened her arms around her body, holding her more firmly as the heel of the palm pressing against her right there, and Rachel's fingers buried as deep inside her as they could go, made Quinn start to feel it everywhere.
Her hips bucked into Rachel's hand and didn’t stop until after she came with a sharp, breathy cry.
Quinn slackened underneath Rachel, and kept her eyes closed as she regained some semblance of normalcy to her breathing pattern. After a minute, Rachel pressed soft kisses to Quinn's skin and wrapped her arms around her.
It made Quinn feel safe, warm, loved.
Her hands began their journey over Rachel's body, slowly running over her back and arms until their hips were pressed together and Rachel's hands were pushed down against the mattress as they kissed softly, in no rush to separate. Quinn's hands cupped Rachel's breasts and she was rewarded with a soft moan, Rachel's hips moving in a gentle rocking motion against hers.
After some time, Rachel couldn’t take it anymore, and Quinn's name left her lips, pleading in tone.
Positions reversed, Quinn dragged her tongue over Rachel's throat, kissing her in long, wet strokes while her thigh was pushed up to her aching centre. She could feel Rachel's wetness smearing against her and used the hand that wasn’t tangled in her hair to massage one of her breasts.
Quinn kissed her way down Rachel's body and hooked her fingers around Rachel's underwear.
“Wait.” Rachel panted. “Wait, please, can you just-”
But she didn’t finish because Quinn had crawled back up her body and kissed her. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I don’t want you to stop,” she managed to say quietly, throbbing so hard she felt it everywhere. God, she didn’t want to stop. She was just nervous. “Will you stay up here, so I can see you?”
Quinn nodded and kissed her again.
“And can I leave my- is it all right if I stay covered?” Rachel felt ridiculous asking. “Just for now.”
“Of course.” Quinn looked down to her and smiled in reassurance. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.”
“Positive?”
Rachel breathed out Quinn's name in frustration, stuck between a frown and a smile because she was dying. Then Quinn's palm, warm and soft, was spreading her legs apart and rubbing over her thigh until her hand gradually moved higher and slipped underneath the waistband of her underwear.
They kissed deeply, lips slowly pushing and sliding. Rachel pressed up against Quinn's hand and moaned against her mouth at the feel of Quinn touching her where she’d been so desperate to feel her. Imagination was nothing compared to how she was making her feel.
Quinn's mouth was everywhere; on hers, against her neck, ghosting over her collarbone, dipped low to and between Rachel's breasts. It was a new sensation every time she got used to one. It drove her crazy. It made Rachel feel like she was experiencing the breathlessness of a fall.
Her orgasm had been building slowly since the second Quinn had climbed on top of her almost ninety minutes ago. Rachel's body shook violently, coming with Quinn's lips on her neck and a loud moan scratching her throat as she pushed her head back against the pillow.
Quinn didn’t stop kissing her until she felt Rachel's pulse slow under her lips.
“Are you all right?”
Rachel just breathed out a laugh and sighed something that sounded like ‘oh, my God’ before threading her fingers through Quinn's pink hair, kissing her like she never wanted to stop. They didn’t for a while. Ultimately, Quinn kissed her way down Rachel's body and this time removed her underwear -with consent, as well as help, and lowered her mouth between Rachel's legs.
Rachel was a lot louder the second time around.
* * * *
Quinn quit the band. She didn’t need it anymore.
* * * *
One might say it was beginning to be a regular occurrence, being yanked into the girls’ bathroom as she walked past. One might also say Rachel loved it.
“Why do you do that?” Rachel's voice came out light; laughing when she was pressed up against the door. “And how do you always manage to have this bathroom vacated?”
Quinn smiled against Rachel's skin, dragging her lips over her neck without kissing it. She inhaled and sighed out. Rachel always smelled good. Quinn remembered she had been spoken to.
“Because I can and because everyone is afraid of me.”
Rachel smiled and demanded a kiss. She received two; one to the mouth and another to her cheek. “I can’t imagine why.”
“I want you to do something for me,” Quinn whispered against Rachel's ear.
“In a public bathroom? Quinn, do you realise how unsanitary that would be?”
Before Rachel got the chance to sprout off a hundred useless facts about germs -making Quinn want to invest in a hazmat suit, she shook her head. “No, nothing like that.”
“Oh.” Rachel smiled. “Well, of course. What do you need?”
“Uh... your hands.”
“Quinn!”
“What?” Quinn laughed at the look on Rachel's face. “I do!” She pulled her over to the sinks where a chair was set up. She held out a plastic glove for Rachel to put her hand in to. “Put this on.” Another followed.
Rachel was bewildered when Quinn sat down on the chair
“I’m extremely confused.”
It didn’t last too long.
Soon Rachel was carefully pouring warm water over Quinn's hair, only complaining about the smell of chemicals twice. Quinn's arm slipping between her legs shut her up, even if it was only loosely wrapped around her leg, slowly stroking her fingers up and down. Rachel thought it might have been a method to calm her down but it only made her talk more.
A box of blonde hair dye lay discarded in the trash can.