Fic: where we sing without music and laugh without sound ('Glee', Quinn/Will)
where we sing without music and laugh without a sound
disclaimed
Notes: Written for 1sentence.
Summary: Fifty times Will Schuester and Quinn Fabray opened themselves to joy, grief and other feelings of the emotional spectrum.
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This fic like many other 1sentence fics does not really follow a chronological pattern and not all the sentences take place in the same universe or timeless. However, if you read from sentences 13, 14, 15 and 21-26, you'll find a pattern. The same goes with sentences 33 to 49. 16, 20, 27 and 28 take place in different realities.
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1. ring
The solid cold sensation of gold on Quinn's finger is transformed into warm heat when Will's lips meet hers in the dimly lit church.
2. gravity
'You're a physics teacher, too, then,' she tells him with all the seriousness of a young Sue Sylvester and he immediately notes that in the future it would be better to avoid pointless conversations about speeding with his TA.
3. lies
When Will gives her that lecture about how he can't ever think of Quinn in that way, she notices the heaviness in his jaws growing as his mouth becomes crowded with lies.
4. fever
Will remembers what it's like to be hormonally charged teenager but when Quinn sings 'Fever' in that bedroom voice … well, he didn't think he would remember it so well.
5. laugh
He laughs when she gives her reply about never mentioning her Jewish lineage before ('and what, have Rachel invite me over for Hanukkah?')
6. ice
Her tongue is chilled and her mouth feels like an igloo but any reservations she has melts away when she sees him on the edge of the bed- his lips are red and his eyes are dark.
7. sacred
'Let her kiss me with the kisses of her mouth: for thy love is better than wine,' his breath ghosts over her mouth and his fingers are warm over the cool gold cross on her heart.
8. talk
She tells him about about how she used to love cheerleading- the sheer joy of kinetic energy of it, the wonderful feeling that spread through at the spectators' applause; (she leaves to receive an imaginary phone call when Mr Schuster tells her that she can try joining the Cheerios again).
9. candle
In the dark, her lips are softer and her skin is smoother; the (barely) man in him wants her, here in her parents' hallway while his students are just a room away; the (hardly) gentleman in him waits, so she can take him to her bedroom where the wax will melt to give light.
10. drink
When her mother invites him over for dinner (something about her college applications), he drunkenly tells her that Quinn has always been the one of the nicest girls in school; 'in vino veritas, my ass' she mumbles.
11. memory
He tries not to talk about Terri but he can't deny that she used to be a huge part of his life- so he ends up blurting out this story about how they ended up with some kid's birthday cake on their anniversary and what lengths they went to to return it (she listens with an amused smile instead of a glare).
12. hurricane
Sometimes, she will remember all the people she hurt; the sum of the devastation will hit her fast and hard; sometimes she will want to talk to him in the hopes that he will understand her but she will remember that he only lost his wife; she lost everything.
13. red
He lets her pick out the tie he's going to wear for the Nationals ('with all due respect, sir, Kurt is right- red is not your colour').
14. journey
They get stuck in traffic for about 4 hours and he's uncomfortable at first because things didn't turn out very well the last time he was with a student in a car.
15. highway
In between red and green lights, she proves herself to be far more interesting than he could have ever guessed; she tells him that she wants to be a social worker; when he looks surprised, she reminds him that she used to be in the Celibacy Club and that she was a pregnant mom.
16. cover
'Jake, I need you to take my Spanish class on Monday and Miss Fabray wants you to take her AP class on the same day, both us have caught a bad cold.'
17. mask
He thinks he might be a failed performer who wants to live out his dreams through children; she thinks she might become that petty person she was if she gets her fairytale ending; she thinks that he's happiest when his students are smiling and he thinks about the saints when he talks to her.
18. unknown
In March, she buys birthday gifts for Matt and Artie; on Rachel's birthday, in April, she gets help from Mr Schuester, Puck and Mercedes ('she never knows I got her this, do we have a deal?')
19. talent
Quinn organizes a charity event for homeless teens at school, and when people (especially Will) praise her she starts to identify with Rachel and Mercedes' need for applause for a second.
20. farewells
He comes back to work a week after his mother dies; the next day, she tells him to take the cup of coffee in her hand and the day off.
21. forgotten
'Oh, I'm sure I can put all that behind me, Mr Schue- it's not like my adulterous father made his pregnant teenage daughter homeless and I don't even fantasize about my mother getting the plague as often as I used to.'
22. wings
'You're a great teacher, Mr Schuester,' she tells him with glassy eyes and he almost takes her seriously but she's wearing the most cheesy looking angel wings that ever belonged to a Glee club member.
23. promise
'Okay, here goes Rachel- I swear on the head of my alleged boyfriend Mr Schuester, I mean William that I will never again call you any of the following: treasure trail, stubbles and man hands.'
24. view
She notices flashes of skin when Mr Schue dances and his shirt rides up; she thinks it's normal until Mercedes catches her doing it; later, she tries not to be so obvious ('seriously, did they not teach you anything at the Celibacy Club?' Mercedes asks in good humour.)
25. overwhelmed
He talks to a pregnant Quinn after she does an unexpected rendition of a Nine Inch Nails song; before he falls asleep, he remembers the edge of her voice when she sang 'and the pigs will all sleep soundly as long as everything is all right'.
26. strength
He gets her a cupcake for her birthday; she wants to reject it but he's being nice and she's already fat from being pregnant; when she blows out the candle he asks her what she wished for
('strength').
27. fall
'They teach you in cheerleading that it's okay if you fall as long as someone catches you,' she says before pulling her hands away from his shoulder so that she can abandon her balance with grace; he catches her, on cue (he's not sure why he's dancing with an ex-student in a small cafe, but maybe he'll find out)
28. eclipse
'Congratulations,' she touches his shoulder and the lights shine on his eyes- he and the Glee Club are on Oprah- and when the audience asks him questions and laughs at his jokes, he understands what it means to truly to shine.
29. silk
Emma didn't understand this about him until much later but Quinn has always known that he - and she - were like all the other beautiful people- they could melt people into butter and weave their feelings into silk.
30. hero
Will hits her father when he says something particularly insulting about them and she wants to tell him that she does not need him to fight her battles; later, she remembers that she would have done the same for him so she quietly tends to his wounded fist.
31. run
'Okay, that's it, I'm not going to debase myself and run after the new and improved Mrs Schuester so that my Cheerios will get an extra day of practice in the auditorium so you can tell William Woody Allen to suck it.'
32. whisper
Everytime he wants her to stay- he'll hear an ugly accusation in his head; as long as he is in school, it will hang around him like a vicious whisper.
33. temptation
When Quinn serenades Artie with a rather riveting version of 'Be my husband', Mike cheers, Puck leers, Tina laughs and Will wants to send Artie away so he can take his place.
34. cold
In the end, they don't kiss each other; after he leaves, her back is pressed against the wall and the places in her body where his warm hand touched her feels cold.
35. forever
He can't be in a relationship with someone who lives 3 hours away, who will get introduced to young boys with big cars, who won't think about kids for the next 10 years; he won't be in a relationship that won't last.
36. wait
She'll tell everyone about how she'll finish college in 3 years to move back to Lima and about how she'll want to start a family as soon she can because it's what her mother did and you can't have kids when you're too old; he might listen if she tells everyone.
37. music
He teaches his students about harmonizing so he can try to forget the sound of her voice shouting at him; consonance, dissonance and from the top.
38. formal
She fixes his tie, straightens at his suit and ignores jokes about how people at her graduation ceremony at Ohio State University are going mistake him for her father.
39. dream
When he was 16, he dreamed of a house full of a children, a job that made him happy and a blonde woman who made him smile- years later, he gets all those things, just not how he imagined them.
40. silence
On their first date he falls asleep on the couch; she holds him in her arms during the period of quietness that follows.
41. dance
Mercedes sings 'You've got the love' at their wedding dance; it's a shame that the world won't know that it's probably her most understated and heartwarming performance.
42. midnight
For a few months, they can't have dinners or lunches together because of her projects and his work but sometimes they share soda and leftovers as midnight snacks.
43. box
She keeps her knick-knacks and old photos (small things about her) in a box in a corner of the closet (some place he can't reach); she loves sharing her life with him but there's a good saying: cherish the distance.
44. body
Sometimes, he will look at her like she's the most beautiful woman in the world and she will want to bury herself into him (beneath skin, muscles and bones) because then she might find the man she fell in love with.
45. fire
There's passive-aggressive and then there's full-blown aggressive- if you want to find a way to have a happy home life, you have to find a middle ground, William Schuester.
46. lock
Sometimes, he'll look at her in a certain way and she'll wish that he had not known her as a teenager because perhaps then she could have locked away the part of her that lied about Beth to Finn somewhere no one would find it.
48. search
She never puts him down for making far less money than she does; she'll remind him that she is not a damsel in distress so will he please stop treating her like one; and just when it seems like she's immune to his charms, she'll soundlessly laugh at his cover of 'P.Y.T.' ('where have you been all my life?').
48. hope
At Christmas, he reads her 'Gift of the Magi' and they watch 'Beauty and the Beast'; at night, he dreams about the baby-to-be, her potential promotion or the regionals.
49. breathe
The doctors, her mother and Will- they all tell her to keep breathing as Will and her son tries to finds his way into a new world; her throat is constricted and it hurts almost as much as the rest of her- it's an oh-so-terrible and wonderful feeling all at the same time.
50. world
He tells her that her whole life is ahead of her and the future's looking bright; when he asks her if she wants anything else, she presses her lips to his; she can feel the world cheering when he kisses her back.
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AN: The title for the fic was inspired by a Molly Fisk poem, which was very charming. I'm pretty sure Will and Quinn did something kinky in ice. In 'overwhelmed', Quinn sang 'March of the Pigs'. In 'temptation', Quinn covers a Nina Simone song. Lisa Hannigan has a cover of the same song; it makes me go 'guh' and I am resonably straight. And Florence Welsh sings 'You've got the love' like no one's business.
Flames, fawning etc make me happy :).
Many thanks to pizzazzical for betaing and being an awesome friend. I love you. ♥