fanfic: I Like You Better Without Pants, PG-13 (Artie/Quinn)
Title: I Like You Better Without Pants
Author: ipickquinn & backitup_baby
Pairings/Characters: Artie/Quinn
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,211
Spoilers: none
Summary: In which deciding to marry Artie Abrams is a hell of a lot easier than deciding what's for dinner.
A/N: This fic was written by ipickquinn (as Quinn) and backitup_baby (as Artie)!
( Artie/Quinn 'verse masterlist)
I Like You Better Without Pants
It was midway through senior year of college and despite all odds Quinn and Artie were still going strong. After graduating from McKinley they both went off to college together at Miami Universtiy, Artie to study Architecture and Quinn to study Business and Marketing. Sure sometimes there were rough patches, like when Artie got jealous of guys around campus hitting on Quinn or when Quinn got lonely with Artie working so much to get in all his hours done in the studio, but despite the challenges, things were clearly going well enough for them because they moved in together at the beginning of the year.
It wasn't as if they hadn't practically lived together before this point. Artie never had a roommate in the dorms so Quinn was always over anyway. But now it was official. Now both of their names were on the lease, they paid the bills together. This was just the next logical step for them. And according to Artie's parents it was "inevitable" which was... special. But it felt good to know that they believed in them that much as a couple (or whatever that was) considering how Quinn's relationship had started with Artie's parents. Luckily that was all in the past and things were currently pretty damn good.
It was just another normal night for them. Quinn was sitting in bed with Artie, idly flipping through channels looking for something to watch, while he... well Quinn wasn't too sure what he was doing. Okay so maybe they had spent the afternoon in bed and he was most likely getting his breath back or something. Quinn didn't find the idea amusing at all. Nope. And if Artie looked over he wouldn't find her smirking in the slightest. But it wasn't her fault that he had been working so hard lately and they hadn't really seen a lot of each other. They had had some catching up to do... Turning to lay on her side facing him, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "You know I love you, right?" She grinned as she pulled back.
Artie smiled back at Quinn and shook his head slightly, feigning ignorance. "No, I have no idea. Who are you? Why are you in my bed?" He stretched his arms above his head and yawned a little; his latest project had meant he'd needed to recently pull several all nighters in the studio and he was really looking forward to getting a good night's sleep tonight. "What do you want to do for dinner, by the way?"
Quinn faked a gasp of shock. "Who am I? So when you were babbling that I was the most amazing person ever and the love of your life, that wasn't real?" She pretended to pout. "I am hurt. Shocked and sad and... hurt," she tried to go on pouting but the whole situation was just too silly. She fell back against him giggling. "I say we order in. Chinese? Italian? Doesn't matter to me," she continued in normal conversation tone as if none of that had just happened.
Artie was kind of used to Quinn's random moments of crazy by this point so he just grinned and did his best to pull her back on top of him. "I kind of think life would've been so much easier if I started sophomore year knowing that you were actually like this instead of your whole ice queen thing you had going on," he said contentedly. "And you know I do think you're the most amazing person ever. Especially since you just suggested getting Chinese food delivered because I really didn't want to cook tonight."
Quinn shifted herself so she was in a more comfortable position and let out a contented sigh. "But where would the fun in that have been?" She joked. Truthfully though there were a lot of circumstantial reasons that Quinn and Artie were together most likely, which included (but was not limited to) her getting pregnant, cheating on her first serious boyfriend with her boyfriends best friend, her joining the glee club to keep an eye on her boyfriend while simultaneously lying to him about the paternity of her baby, her getting kicked out of the house when her parents found out about her situation, well... and lots of other things. Those were just the main points. "I wouldn't take it back though, you know? I think things happened for a reason," she said resting her head on his shoulder. "And I am the most awesome ever because I know you so well to know you'd say that. So do you still not remember who I am?" she lifted her head up to grin at him, clearly pleased with herself.
Artie thought about this a little, then nodded in agreement. It had been actually kind of fun to convince Quinn to go out with him and it was sort of a personal triumphant moment for him that he'd gotten her even when all logic said she probably should've started dating Puck or something. "I wouldn't take it back either," he agreed, running his fingertips up her back and down one of her arms. "So, yeah. I guess I remember who you are: my super hot girlfriend without whom I'm sure I would be pretty boring and lame and lonely." He smiled at her for a moment, then turned suddenly serious. "I love you, by the way."
Leaning forward again, Quinn kissed Artie for a few moments. "I'm glad you remember. I was prepared to force you to. But I guess that won't be necessary," she smirked down at him. Quinn was pretty sure that half of their conversations consisted of going back and forth saying 'I love you' but it was sort of one of her favorite things. It didn't matter that most of their friends just rolled their eyes at their sappiness. Besides, they were just acting like they weren't impressed. Focusing again on Artie, she grinned. "Love you too. So... dinner? Or..." she trailed off, waiting for Artie's input.
"Dinner sounds good," Artie replied, staring up at her, his face still serious. "Will you get my bag for me, please? I have to finish up some work but I can call and place our orders before I do that. I'm kind of hungry. Well, I'm definitely hungry. I'm assuming you're hungry?" He knew he was kind of rambling now but he'd just decided that maybe this would be a good time to make important, life-changing decisions (although, really, weren't they practically already married?).
Artie sometimes got a little babble-y but Quinn was definitely used to it by now. It was actually one of his most endearing qualities. Some of their most honest conversations had probably been a result of his babbling. "Baby, you work too hard but sure, I'll go get it. Can you make sure to get wontons though?" Quinn said before kissing Artie again and moving off of him to get out of bed.
She grabbed Artie's discarded button down and shrugged it on before leaving the room to retrieve his bag. It wasn't that she had a problem walking around naked in front of Artie but she wasn't too sure that the blinds in the other room were closed and if someone looked in that would just be a bad scene. She quickly located his bag then stopped in the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Reentering the bedroom she lifted the cup, "Thought you might be thirsty."
Artie pulled his boxers on, then defensively half-called, half-shouted, "I do not work too hard" as Quinn walked away. He kind of wished that she hadn't taken his shirt. When she told people about this he really didn't want her to have to say, 'So Artie was sitting there practically naked asking me to marry him, except he was so scrawny that I was getting the giggles during this otherwise very solemn moment.' Except that logically he didn't think that Quinn thought he was scrawny. Except that he was pretty sure that he was a scrawny dude. Scrawny was such a weird word...
"Thanks," he said, probably a bit too cheerfully, when Quinn came in with his bag and some water. She'd kind of taken him by surprise and he hadn't even planned out what he was going to say when he asked her. And then she'd continue her story by saying, 'And then Artie just said something that sounded a lot like gibberish and I wasn't sure what was going on. And then he shoved a ring on my finger. It was very strange and I took pity on him by saying yes. And now I'm stuck with this scrawny fiancé.' He swallowed nervously, then asked, "What do you want to eat?"
Quinn crawled back into bed, first setting the water on the night stand, and handed Artie his bag. She wasn't sure why it couldn't wait until the morning. He really just needed to take a night off and get some sleep. She wasn't really going to boss him around though because she understood how important this was to him and genuinely wanted him to succeed. "Do you keep bricks in here, these days?" She teased, motioning towards the bag.
She figured she might as well get comfortable and maybe actually pick something to watch on tv now that Artie was going to be otherwise occupied. Before she went back to flipping through channels though she bit her lip, thinking of what to eat. "Uh well like I said, definitely wontons. And maybe that like beef and broccoli, or lo mein is really good. It doesn't matter. Just order what you want."
Artie nodded a little for no reason, trying to fight the panic that was quickly rising in his stomach. "Um, okay. That sounds good." He set his bag on his lap (it wasn't that heavy...) and put a hand on it protectively in case Quinn decided that she needed to go through it looking for suspicious things in boxes. Not that she would do that. But he was really starting to freak out now and he kind of wanted to just pull the ring out and chuck it at her instead of actually asking her to marry him. He reached for the water and drank it slowly, draining the glass, in an attempt to postpone asking her. "Do you.... want me to call them now?"
Quinn wasn't really paying attention to Artie fiddling around with his bag but when he picked up the glass of water she was going to ask for a sip. Except he drank like the whole glass. That was really weird. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah you can call them now. Are you okay? Do you, um, want more water? I didn't realize you were that thirsty." She continued looking at him, her eyebrows creasing slightly with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," Artie replied, except that he actually really wasn't. His lungs felt like they were on fire, which was weird. Okay. He needed to pull himself together now because Quinn deserved a lot more than him fumbling all over himself trying to ask her. "Is it okay if I do my work here? Are you going to leave? You should stay here."
Quinn continued to look at Artie a little oddly but decided to just go with it. Sometimes he just got in these moods but as long as he wasn't visibly in a distressed mood, all she could really do was wait until he decided to explain. "Yeah that's fine. As long as you don't mind if I watch tv. I'll keep it low."
"Yeah, I don't mind if you do," Artie said, biting his lip a little as he thought to himself. Maybe he just needed to do it and get it over with now that he had kind of stopped panicking so much. "I just have a lot to do tonight, actually," he said, opening his bag and pulling out some graph paper, a few notebooks, and some books for his out-of-program classes. Quinn's gaze was fixed on the television for now so he reached back into his bag and took the ring box out, setting it on top of the little pile he'd made between them. "See, I have all this stuff to take care of," he said, kind of slowly. "Which one do you think I should tackle first?"
Quinn had settled on some stupid reality show and concentrated on listening to the tv since Artie was kind of distracting her with all the paper rustling and book stacking. She glanced quickly at the pile of work he had out and laughed. "I don't know, just do eenie meenie or something." Why was he asking her this? It's not like she really knew anything about architecture after all. After a few moments though, she decided to answer his question genuinely since he had even bothered to ask her. Looking down again with more attention this time she noticed a little box sitting on top of his books and papers. "Uh, what's that?" There was no way it was... No. She wasn't even going to think it. That was just ridiculous.
Artie was pretty sure that he had stopped breathing. He tried to figure out what Quinn was thinking about this from the look on her face, but it was cryptic and puzzling and he had no idea whether she wanted to marry him or not. But he'd gotten this far now. He couldn't just back down. "It's an engagement ring," he said, his voice shaking a little, picking up the box and opening it.
Quinn just blinked, unsure if this was really happening. It's not like she didn't assume they would get married one day but she hadn't really thought of it happening like... now. "For me?" She asked then mentally kicked herself for asking such a dumb question. Who else would it be for?
Artie raised his eyebrows. That definitely hadn't been the reaction he'd been expecting. "Yeah, for you. Do you see anyone else in here that I've been in love with since I was 15?"
Quinn laughed slightly, feeling incredibly stupid for her questioning him, and also for the fact that she was tearing up. She sniffled quietly then looked up at Artie, biting her lip in anticipation. "Well don't you have something to ask me?"
Okay, now Quinn was beginning to look like Artie had imagined she would be during this moment. He rehearsed the words in his head so he wouldn't actually say anything else, then took a deep breath. "Will you marry me?"
The tears were coming a bit more now and Quinn wiped under her eyes before nodding at Artie, grinning. "Yes. Of course I will," she said before holding out her left hand. "Um, will you put it on?" She had always dreamed about the day she got engaged and it certainly didn't involve her putting her own ring on.
Artie reached out and took her hand, but didn't make any moves to put on any rings (though he liked it... okay, that was enough with the stupid Beyonce song). "Well, I was going to, but since you asked..."
Quinn looked at Artie, slightly confused as to why he hadn't put the ring on her finger yet. She wiggled it a little in anticipation, while chewing her lip. "So how does Quinn Abrams sound?"
He was really planning on making her wait for it, but he couldn't help himself from taking the ring out of the box and putting the ring on her finger. He thought it looked pretty good but he was worried all of a sudden that she didn't. "It sounds good," he said, smiling at her hopefully. "Do you like the ring?"
Once it was on her finger, Quinn couldn't stop looking at it. She hadn't even realized how much she wanted his ring on her finger until it was right there. She looked up, briefly feeling all teary eyed again, and nodded. "It's beautiful. I love it." It wasn't the most extravagant ring, but she liked simple, elegant things and this ring was certainly that. The band was silver and the diamond was circular and really, Quinn just couldn't stop staring at it and couldn't believe that this had really just happened. After some more gawking she finally looked up at Artie and made eye contact. "I love you."
"I love you too," Artie said, grinning. She looked so happy and Artie kind of was wondering if this was seriously happening because it was way too good to be true. Plus, she kept looking down at her hand, which meant that that whole day he'd spent going shopping with Santana over Christmas break had definitely paid off... even the really frightening phone conversation they'd had with Quinn's mother trying to figure out what her ring size was. He leaned in and kissed her then, partly because he felt like he should, to seal the deal or something, and partly because he always just wanted to be kissing her. He broke the kiss eventually and reached out to hold her hand, still grinning. "I love you. I know I just said that. But I do."
Quinn reached between them, grabbed his pile of books and papers and moved them to the other edge of the bed before scooting closer and kissing him again more properly. "I love you. I love you. I love you," she repeated between every few kisses. This was seriously like the best/night day ever.
Artie was very contentedly kissing her back when all of a sudden he remembered what he'd been freaking out about earlier. "Hey," he said, breathing a little heavily now. "Can we censor the engagement story for people? Because I don't think my parents or your mom for that matter are going to want to know that I asked you to marry me while I was in my underwear and you were just in my shirt. And while we were in bed. I mean, they can probably put two and two together."
Quinn giggled, looking down at their lack of clothing. She had been too wrapped up in the moment to even remember that they were barely clothed. It still didn't seem like an important detail to her, but she could understand Artie's worry. "What should we tell them then?" She asked, tracing along his collar bone absentmindedly. It would be pretty embarrassing telling their parents this version of their engagement story now that she thought about it. "Actually, I'm pretty sure my mom still believes that we're not having sex... but yeah, I'd rather not tell this story to your parents," she said, blushing slightly.
"I don't want to talk about that," Artie said almost immediately, pouting a little as he remembered how Quinn had told her mother that his penis didn't work so she would let them hang out unsupervised. "And I don't know." He paused for a moment, then asked, "Do you mind that I did it this way?"
It still amused Quinn that her mother had believed that lie, but it really had paid off over the years because she never got suspicious about them being alone. She knew it bugged Artie though so she let the subject drop. "No I don't mind. This was perfect. It was just us, we were happy--" she paused momentarily then corrected herself, "We are happy. I don't need some ostentatious display to know how much you love me," Quinn concluded then gave him a peck on the lips. "We can worry about story details later right? We should like, revel in the moment," she smirked.
"Okay," Artie said, feeling pleasantly reassured by what Quinn had just said. He kind of felt like this too but he had suddenly gotten worried that she'd had some grand expectation she'd been waiting for her whole life and that he'd just dashed her hopes and dreams against the wrongs... or something. "And yes. We are happy." He glanced down at the ring on her hand and grinned some more, then brought his gaze back up and noticed the smirk on her face. "Why do I get the sense that you want to 'revel' revel in the moment?"
Quinn just giggled, scooting even closer to him if that were possible. "Because you know me," she said, twirling her hair flirtatiously. Smirking even more she continued talking. "So, I was thinking... We could... get two appetizers for dinner instead of just one. That's really reveling in the moment isn't it?"
"Oh, the possibilities are endless," Artie said, mulling this over. "We should also get dessert. Yeah, we should definitely get dessert. Except that they probably don't have dessert so we should order from somewhere else and get dessert. Or I guess we could just eat whatever's in our apartment that's sweet... but that would be boring." He leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Just let me know what you want and I can order."
Listening with an amused expression on her face, Quinn waited until he was done thinking out loud before she leaned over him to grab the take out menu from their night stand drawers. So maybe they had done this before. She flipped to the back page and located the small dessert section. "Sorbet? It's kind of our only option... I could run out and get something but that would require pants," she said laughing. "What should we do?" Quinn paused, thinking for a moment. "We could order from that Italian place and get cannolis."
"I like you better without pants," Artie said very seriously, running one of his hands down her leg as he was pondering their options. "So get Chinese food for dinner and then Italian for dessert? I don't know if you can just order dessert."
"And I like you better without a shirt, so I guess that's just another thing to add to the list of reason of why we're getting married," Quinn said, bringing her hands up to rest on his chest. It didn't really make any sense but she just wanted to say the words 'getting married' so she threw it into whatever context she could. "Your plan is good though. And we're getting married..." she paused to grin for a minute before continuing, "so they will bring us just dessert." Besides, Quinn could be very convincing if need be.
"Well, you can handle that phone call, then," Artie said, gesturing for her to come sit on his lap. He was really amused by the way that she kept talking about how they were getting married. Clearly she'd gotten over the shock and confusion after she figured out that he was proposing to her. "Hey, guess what?"
Quinn nodded in agreement then moved onto Artie's lap, smirking. Maybe they would revel in the moment after all. She leaned in to kiss him, too happy to stop herself really, before pulling back. "What?"
Artie grinned and moved his arms around her, pulling her a little closer to him. "I love you. And we're getting married."
She grinned back and looped her arms around his neck, pretty content just hugging him like this. "We are getting married," she said, not even caring that he was probably just making fun of her for saying it over and over. "And I love you. And I'm so happy right now."
Artie leaned back a little, letting go of her and propping himself up on his arms. "I'm glad. I was kind of worried when you started crying but then I figured they were probably tears of joy or something." He'd been so nervous asking her that it felt hours had passed after he'd done it, even though it had definitely been really recent. Artie wasn't sure if that made sense, so he kept it to himself.
Quinn stayed on his lap though leaned back as well. She actually didn't know how Artie put up with her clingyness (Was this clingyness? She just wanted to be close... Okay yes that was definitely clingyness) but she was grateful. "Well I was like in shock and stuff. Sorry if I made you doubt yourself... I was being kind of stupid. But you can be reassured that they were definitely happy tears."
Artie leaned forward after a moment and placed his hands back on her legs. "Okay. That's good to know. I've had it for a while. The ring. But I didn't know how I was going to ask you but I just felt like doing it tonight. I don't know why, though, but I'm glad I did. Thank you for saying yes."
Smirking, Quinn kissed him again. Pulling back, she was still looking at him, clearly amused. "You're welcome. Thank you for asking me to marry you. I'm glad you waited for the right timing. I couldn't have imagined it going better." Leaning in, she kissed him again. Finally though she pulled back and laughed. "So are we going to get some food? Your finacée is getting hungry." Damn she couldn't wait until she could say wife.
Author: ipickquinn & backitup_baby
Pairings/Characters: Artie/Quinn
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 4,211
Spoilers: none
Summary: In which deciding to marry Artie Abrams is a hell of a lot easier than deciding what's for dinner.
A/N: This fic was written by ipickquinn (as Quinn) and backitup_baby (as Artie)!
( Artie/Quinn 'verse masterlist)
I Like You Better Without Pants
It was midway through senior year of college and despite all odds Quinn and Artie were still going strong. After graduating from McKinley they both went off to college together at Miami Universtiy, Artie to study Architecture and Quinn to study Business and Marketing. Sure sometimes there were rough patches, like when Artie got jealous of guys around campus hitting on Quinn or when Quinn got lonely with Artie working so much to get in all his hours done in the studio, but despite the challenges, things were clearly going well enough for them because they moved in together at the beginning of the year.
It wasn't as if they hadn't practically lived together before this point. Artie never had a roommate in the dorms so Quinn was always over anyway. But now it was official. Now both of their names were on the lease, they paid the bills together. This was just the next logical step for them. And according to Artie's parents it was "inevitable" which was... special. But it felt good to know that they believed in them that much as a couple (or whatever that was) considering how Quinn's relationship had started with Artie's parents. Luckily that was all in the past and things were currently pretty damn good.
It was just another normal night for them. Quinn was sitting in bed with Artie, idly flipping through channels looking for something to watch, while he... well Quinn wasn't too sure what he was doing. Okay so maybe they had spent the afternoon in bed and he was most likely getting his breath back or something. Quinn didn't find the idea amusing at all. Nope. And if Artie looked over he wouldn't find her smirking in the slightest. But it wasn't her fault that he had been working so hard lately and they hadn't really seen a lot of each other. They had had some catching up to do... Turning to lay on her side facing him, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "You know I love you, right?" She grinned as she pulled back.
Artie smiled back at Quinn and shook his head slightly, feigning ignorance. "No, I have no idea. Who are you? Why are you in my bed?" He stretched his arms above his head and yawned a little; his latest project had meant he'd needed to recently pull several all nighters in the studio and he was really looking forward to getting a good night's sleep tonight. "What do you want to do for dinner, by the way?"
Quinn faked a gasp of shock. "Who am I? So when you were babbling that I was the most amazing person ever and the love of your life, that wasn't real?" She pretended to pout. "I am hurt. Shocked and sad and... hurt," she tried to go on pouting but the whole situation was just too silly. She fell back against him giggling. "I say we order in. Chinese? Italian? Doesn't matter to me," she continued in normal conversation tone as if none of that had just happened.
Artie was kind of used to Quinn's random moments of crazy by this point so he just grinned and did his best to pull her back on top of him. "I kind of think life would've been so much easier if I started sophomore year knowing that you were actually like this instead of your whole ice queen thing you had going on," he said contentedly. "And you know I do think you're the most amazing person ever. Especially since you just suggested getting Chinese food delivered because I really didn't want to cook tonight."
Quinn shifted herself so she was in a more comfortable position and let out a contented sigh. "But where would the fun in that have been?" She joked. Truthfully though there were a lot of circumstantial reasons that Quinn and Artie were together most likely, which included (but was not limited to) her getting pregnant, cheating on her first serious boyfriend with her boyfriends best friend, her joining the glee club to keep an eye on her boyfriend while simultaneously lying to him about the paternity of her baby, her getting kicked out of the house when her parents found out about her situation, well... and lots of other things. Those were just the main points. "I wouldn't take it back though, you know? I think things happened for a reason," she said resting her head on his shoulder. "And I am the most awesome ever because I know you so well to know you'd say that. So do you still not remember who I am?" she lifted her head up to grin at him, clearly pleased with herself.
Artie thought about this a little, then nodded in agreement. It had been actually kind of fun to convince Quinn to go out with him and it was sort of a personal triumphant moment for him that he'd gotten her even when all logic said she probably should've started dating Puck or something. "I wouldn't take it back either," he agreed, running his fingertips up her back and down one of her arms. "So, yeah. I guess I remember who you are: my super hot girlfriend without whom I'm sure I would be pretty boring and lame and lonely." He smiled at her for a moment, then turned suddenly serious. "I love you, by the way."
Leaning forward again, Quinn kissed Artie for a few moments. "I'm glad you remember. I was prepared to force you to. But I guess that won't be necessary," she smirked down at him. Quinn was pretty sure that half of their conversations consisted of going back and forth saying 'I love you' but it was sort of one of her favorite things. It didn't matter that most of their friends just rolled their eyes at their sappiness. Besides, they were just acting like they weren't impressed. Focusing again on Artie, she grinned. "Love you too. So... dinner? Or..." she trailed off, waiting for Artie's input.
"Dinner sounds good," Artie replied, staring up at her, his face still serious. "Will you get my bag for me, please? I have to finish up some work but I can call and place our orders before I do that. I'm kind of hungry. Well, I'm definitely hungry. I'm assuming you're hungry?" He knew he was kind of rambling now but he'd just decided that maybe this would be a good time to make important, life-changing decisions (although, really, weren't they practically already married?).
Artie sometimes got a little babble-y but Quinn was definitely used to it by now. It was actually one of his most endearing qualities. Some of their most honest conversations had probably been a result of his babbling. "Baby, you work too hard but sure, I'll go get it. Can you make sure to get wontons though?" Quinn said before kissing Artie again and moving off of him to get out of bed.
She grabbed Artie's discarded button down and shrugged it on before leaving the room to retrieve his bag. It wasn't that she had a problem walking around naked in front of Artie but she wasn't too sure that the blinds in the other room were closed and if someone looked in that would just be a bad scene. She quickly located his bag then stopped in the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Reentering the bedroom she lifted the cup, "Thought you might be thirsty."
Artie pulled his boxers on, then defensively half-called, half-shouted, "I do not work too hard" as Quinn walked away. He kind of wished that she hadn't taken his shirt. When she told people about this he really didn't want her to have to say, 'So Artie was sitting there practically naked asking me to marry him, except he was so scrawny that I was getting the giggles during this otherwise very solemn moment.' Except that logically he didn't think that Quinn thought he was scrawny. Except that he was pretty sure that he was a scrawny dude. Scrawny was such a weird word...
"Thanks," he said, probably a bit too cheerfully, when Quinn came in with his bag and some water. She'd kind of taken him by surprise and he hadn't even planned out what he was going to say when he asked her. And then she'd continue her story by saying, 'And then Artie just said something that sounded a lot like gibberish and I wasn't sure what was going on. And then he shoved a ring on my finger. It was very strange and I took pity on him by saying yes. And now I'm stuck with this scrawny fiancé.' He swallowed nervously, then asked, "What do you want to eat?"
Quinn crawled back into bed, first setting the water on the night stand, and handed Artie his bag. She wasn't sure why it couldn't wait until the morning. He really just needed to take a night off and get some sleep. She wasn't really going to boss him around though because she understood how important this was to him and genuinely wanted him to succeed. "Do you keep bricks in here, these days?" She teased, motioning towards the bag.
She figured she might as well get comfortable and maybe actually pick something to watch on tv now that Artie was going to be otherwise occupied. Before she went back to flipping through channels though she bit her lip, thinking of what to eat. "Uh well like I said, definitely wontons. And maybe that like beef and broccoli, or lo mein is really good. It doesn't matter. Just order what you want."
Artie nodded a little for no reason, trying to fight the panic that was quickly rising in his stomach. "Um, okay. That sounds good." He set his bag on his lap (it wasn't that heavy...) and put a hand on it protectively in case Quinn decided that she needed to go through it looking for suspicious things in boxes. Not that she would do that. But he was really starting to freak out now and he kind of wanted to just pull the ring out and chuck it at her instead of actually asking her to marry him. He reached for the water and drank it slowly, draining the glass, in an attempt to postpone asking her. "Do you.... want me to call them now?"
Quinn wasn't really paying attention to Artie fiddling around with his bag but when he picked up the glass of water she was going to ask for a sip. Except he drank like the whole glass. That was really weird. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah you can call them now. Are you okay? Do you, um, want more water? I didn't realize you were that thirsty." She continued looking at him, her eyebrows creasing slightly with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks," Artie replied, except that he actually really wasn't. His lungs felt like they were on fire, which was weird. Okay. He needed to pull himself together now because Quinn deserved a lot more than him fumbling all over himself trying to ask her. "Is it okay if I do my work here? Are you going to leave? You should stay here."
Quinn continued to look at Artie a little oddly but decided to just go with it. Sometimes he just got in these moods but as long as he wasn't visibly in a distressed mood, all she could really do was wait until he decided to explain. "Yeah that's fine. As long as you don't mind if I watch tv. I'll keep it low."
"Yeah, I don't mind if you do," Artie said, biting his lip a little as he thought to himself. Maybe he just needed to do it and get it over with now that he had kind of stopped panicking so much. "I just have a lot to do tonight, actually," he said, opening his bag and pulling out some graph paper, a few notebooks, and some books for his out-of-program classes. Quinn's gaze was fixed on the television for now so he reached back into his bag and took the ring box out, setting it on top of the little pile he'd made between them. "See, I have all this stuff to take care of," he said, kind of slowly. "Which one do you think I should tackle first?"
Quinn had settled on some stupid reality show and concentrated on listening to the tv since Artie was kind of distracting her with all the paper rustling and book stacking. She glanced quickly at the pile of work he had out and laughed. "I don't know, just do eenie meenie or something." Why was he asking her this? It's not like she really knew anything about architecture after all. After a few moments though, she decided to answer his question genuinely since he had even bothered to ask her. Looking down again with more attention this time she noticed a little box sitting on top of his books and papers. "Uh, what's that?" There was no way it was... No. She wasn't even going to think it. That was just ridiculous.
Artie was pretty sure that he had stopped breathing. He tried to figure out what Quinn was thinking about this from the look on her face, but it was cryptic and puzzling and he had no idea whether she wanted to marry him or not. But he'd gotten this far now. He couldn't just back down. "It's an engagement ring," he said, his voice shaking a little, picking up the box and opening it.
Quinn just blinked, unsure if this was really happening. It's not like she didn't assume they would get married one day but she hadn't really thought of it happening like... now. "For me?" She asked then mentally kicked herself for asking such a dumb question. Who else would it be for?
Artie raised his eyebrows. That definitely hadn't been the reaction he'd been expecting. "Yeah, for you. Do you see anyone else in here that I've been in love with since I was 15?"
Quinn laughed slightly, feeling incredibly stupid for her questioning him, and also for the fact that she was tearing up. She sniffled quietly then looked up at Artie, biting her lip in anticipation. "Well don't you have something to ask me?"
Okay, now Quinn was beginning to look like Artie had imagined she would be during this moment. He rehearsed the words in his head so he wouldn't actually say anything else, then took a deep breath. "Will you marry me?"
The tears were coming a bit more now and Quinn wiped under her eyes before nodding at Artie, grinning. "Yes. Of course I will," she said before holding out her left hand. "Um, will you put it on?" She had always dreamed about the day she got engaged and it certainly didn't involve her putting her own ring on.
Artie reached out and took her hand, but didn't make any moves to put on any rings (though he liked it... okay, that was enough with the stupid Beyonce song). "Well, I was going to, but since you asked..."
Quinn looked at Artie, slightly confused as to why he hadn't put the ring on her finger yet. She wiggled it a little in anticipation, while chewing her lip. "So how does Quinn Abrams sound?"
He was really planning on making her wait for it, but he couldn't help himself from taking the ring out of the box and putting the ring on her finger. He thought it looked pretty good but he was worried all of a sudden that she didn't. "It sounds good," he said, smiling at her hopefully. "Do you like the ring?"
Once it was on her finger, Quinn couldn't stop looking at it. She hadn't even realized how much she wanted his ring on her finger until it was right there. She looked up, briefly feeling all teary eyed again, and nodded. "It's beautiful. I love it." It wasn't the most extravagant ring, but she liked simple, elegant things and this ring was certainly that. The band was silver and the diamond was circular and really, Quinn just couldn't stop staring at it and couldn't believe that this had really just happened. After some more gawking she finally looked up at Artie and made eye contact. "I love you."
"I love you too," Artie said, grinning. She looked so happy and Artie kind of was wondering if this was seriously happening because it was way too good to be true. Plus, she kept looking down at her hand, which meant that that whole day he'd spent going shopping with Santana over Christmas break had definitely paid off... even the really frightening phone conversation they'd had with Quinn's mother trying to figure out what her ring size was. He leaned in and kissed her then, partly because he felt like he should, to seal the deal or something, and partly because he always just wanted to be kissing her. He broke the kiss eventually and reached out to hold her hand, still grinning. "I love you. I know I just said that. But I do."
Quinn reached between them, grabbed his pile of books and papers and moved them to the other edge of the bed before scooting closer and kissing him again more properly. "I love you. I love you. I love you," she repeated between every few kisses. This was seriously like the best/night day ever.
Artie was very contentedly kissing her back when all of a sudden he remembered what he'd been freaking out about earlier. "Hey," he said, breathing a little heavily now. "Can we censor the engagement story for people? Because I don't think my parents or your mom for that matter are going to want to know that I asked you to marry me while I was in my underwear and you were just in my shirt. And while we were in bed. I mean, they can probably put two and two together."
Quinn giggled, looking down at their lack of clothing. She had been too wrapped up in the moment to even remember that they were barely clothed. It still didn't seem like an important detail to her, but she could understand Artie's worry. "What should we tell them then?" She asked, tracing along his collar bone absentmindedly. It would be pretty embarrassing telling their parents this version of their engagement story now that she thought about it. "Actually, I'm pretty sure my mom still believes that we're not having sex... but yeah, I'd rather not tell this story to your parents," she said, blushing slightly.
"I don't want to talk about that," Artie said almost immediately, pouting a little as he remembered how Quinn had told her mother that his penis didn't work so she would let them hang out unsupervised. "And I don't know." He paused for a moment, then asked, "Do you mind that I did it this way?"
It still amused Quinn that her mother had believed that lie, but it really had paid off over the years because she never got suspicious about them being alone. She knew it bugged Artie though so she let the subject drop. "No I don't mind. This was perfect. It was just us, we were happy--" she paused momentarily then corrected herself, "We are happy. I don't need some ostentatious display to know how much you love me," Quinn concluded then gave him a peck on the lips. "We can worry about story details later right? We should like, revel in the moment," she smirked.
"Okay," Artie said, feeling pleasantly reassured by what Quinn had just said. He kind of felt like this too but he had suddenly gotten worried that she'd had some grand expectation she'd been waiting for her whole life and that he'd just dashed her hopes and dreams against the wrongs... or something. "And yes. We are happy." He glanced down at the ring on her hand and grinned some more, then brought his gaze back up and noticed the smirk on her face. "Why do I get the sense that you want to 'revel' revel in the moment?"
Quinn just giggled, scooting even closer to him if that were possible. "Because you know me," she said, twirling her hair flirtatiously. Smirking even more she continued talking. "So, I was thinking... We could... get two appetizers for dinner instead of just one. That's really reveling in the moment isn't it?"
"Oh, the possibilities are endless," Artie said, mulling this over. "We should also get dessert. Yeah, we should definitely get dessert. Except that they probably don't have dessert so we should order from somewhere else and get dessert. Or I guess we could just eat whatever's in our apartment that's sweet... but that would be boring." He leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Just let me know what you want and I can order."
Listening with an amused expression on her face, Quinn waited until he was done thinking out loud before she leaned over him to grab the take out menu from their night stand drawers. So maybe they had done this before. She flipped to the back page and located the small dessert section. "Sorbet? It's kind of our only option... I could run out and get something but that would require pants," she said laughing. "What should we do?" Quinn paused, thinking for a moment. "We could order from that Italian place and get cannolis."
"I like you better without pants," Artie said very seriously, running one of his hands down her leg as he was pondering their options. "So get Chinese food for dinner and then Italian for dessert? I don't know if you can just order dessert."
"And I like you better without a shirt, so I guess that's just another thing to add to the list of reason of why we're getting married," Quinn said, bringing her hands up to rest on his chest. It didn't really make any sense but she just wanted to say the words 'getting married' so she threw it into whatever context she could. "Your plan is good though. And we're getting married..." she paused to grin for a minute before continuing, "so they will bring us just dessert." Besides, Quinn could be very convincing if need be.
"Well, you can handle that phone call, then," Artie said, gesturing for her to come sit on his lap. He was really amused by the way that she kept talking about how they were getting married. Clearly she'd gotten over the shock and confusion after she figured out that he was proposing to her. "Hey, guess what?"
Quinn nodded in agreement then moved onto Artie's lap, smirking. Maybe they would revel in the moment after all. She leaned in to kiss him, too happy to stop herself really, before pulling back. "What?"
Artie grinned and moved his arms around her, pulling her a little closer to him. "I love you. And we're getting married."
She grinned back and looped her arms around his neck, pretty content just hugging him like this. "We are getting married," she said, not even caring that he was probably just making fun of her for saying it over and over. "And I love you. And I'm so happy right now."
Artie leaned back a little, letting go of her and propping himself up on his arms. "I'm glad. I was kind of worried when you started crying but then I figured they were probably tears of joy or something." He'd been so nervous asking her that it felt hours had passed after he'd done it, even though it had definitely been really recent. Artie wasn't sure if that made sense, so he kept it to himself.
Quinn stayed on his lap though leaned back as well. She actually didn't know how Artie put up with her clingyness (Was this clingyness? She just wanted to be close... Okay yes that was definitely clingyness) but she was grateful. "Well I was like in shock and stuff. Sorry if I made you doubt yourself... I was being kind of stupid. But you can be reassured that they were definitely happy tears."
Artie leaned forward after a moment and placed his hands back on her legs. "Okay. That's good to know. I've had it for a while. The ring. But I didn't know how I was going to ask you but I just felt like doing it tonight. I don't know why, though, but I'm glad I did. Thank you for saying yes."
Smirking, Quinn kissed him again. Pulling back, she was still looking at him, clearly amused. "You're welcome. Thank you for asking me to marry you. I'm glad you waited for the right timing. I couldn't have imagined it going better." Leaning in, she kissed him again. Finally though she pulled back and laughed. "So are we going to get some food? Your finacée is getting hungry." Damn she couldn't wait until she could say wife.