Lament for a Daemon's Soul [Chapter Sixteen]
Title: Lament for a Daemon’s Soul
Author: Sio
Rating: At least R for violence.
Length: 35477 / ?
Spoilers: This is AU, but Season 1 spoilers are possible starting with chapter 6.
Summary: Rachel is a member of an immortal altered race of humans that call themselves the Vanpyr and live in secret alongside normal humans. Murdered years earlier, her outrage over her death gave her the strength of will to step Beyond the Veil and join the ranks of the altered humans known as the Vanpyr as a daemon. Since then she has been hiding the truth of her existence and fighting to control the Beast within her. So far so good, until she enrolls as a student at William McKinley High in Lima, Ohio as the daughter of her “two gay dads”.
Note: This is a loose fusion with an original universe.
For a prompt (found here) at rq_meme.
*****
Chapter Sixteen
“You should give Quinn a hug.”
Rachel restrained her start of surprise and finished putting the books from her last two classes in her locker. She took a deep breath before taking out the binder for English and closing the locker door to reveal the tall blonde looking down at her with a sad pout on her normally cheerful features.
“Good morning, Brittany. To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?” She glanced around the hall, even looking behind the taller girl, but didn’t spot her darker shadow. “And where’s Santana? Normally she is accompanying you.”
“San had a doctor appointment to go to this morning,” Brittany’s voice was sorrowful as she imparted this bit of information to the brunette, “and she’s not back yet.”
“Oh. I see,” Rachel hesitated for a moment, not really looking to be shot down by the taller girl, “would you like to accompany me to our English class in that case?” The blonde nodded cheerfully as she hadn’t really wanted to walk the halls alone any more. Rachel gave her a small smile as they walked along. “What was it you wanted to speak with me about, Brittany?”
For a moment, the leggy dancer looked puzzled, then she remembered why she’d sought out the smaller girl and a bright smile lit up her face. “You should give Quinn a hug.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that would be such a good idea.”
“Why not? She’s going through a lot right now.” She frowned, chewing on her lip. “She’s real sad all the time and you give like the best hugs.”
“While I appreciate the compliment to my hugging acumen, I sincerely doubt that Quinn would appreciate a hug from me, Brittany.” Rachel hugged her binder a little closer to her chest, not looking up at the blonde. She wouldn’t meet the blue eyes looking at her, just knowing that if she did her secrets would all come out. “In fact, I rather believe that the smallest attempt in such a direction would result in violence being performed upon my person.”
Pale brows furrowed for a moment as she processed what Rachel had said. It still took her a moment to get through the big words Rachel always used, but it was getting a lot easier as she got used to hanging around with the petite diva. “You just said that Q would probably hit you if you hugged her, right?” At Rachel’s nod, she smiled for a moment at not needing a translation before the little frown reappeared. “She wouldn’t hurt you, Rach.”
“An admirable sentiment, but I think we both know that Quinn is not predisposed to behaving kindly in my regard.” Rachel reached out with a tenative hand and lightly patted Brittany’s arm before wrapping it back around her binder, offering a tiny smile to the taller girl. “It’s okay, really”
“No, it’s not!” Brittany stopped in the middle of the hall, making Rachel stop as well to avoid being rude. “It’s not okay, Rachel!” For a friendly open girl, she had a terribly impressive glower, but it didn’t last long, and her next words were said in a soft voice with a pout. “You make Quinn sad and I don’t like it.”
“I don’t make Quinn sad, Brittany.” Dark brows furrowed this time, Rachel staring at the girl in confusion. “She’s made it entirely clear that the only thing I make her feel is anger.”
Brittany sighed, reaching out and grabbing Rachel’s wrist before continuing walking down the hall, the smaller girl in tow. “That’s only because Q doesn’t really know how to be with you.”
“B-be with me?” The diva’s normally pitch perfect voice squeaked in her startlement.
The blonde glanced back over her shoulder. “You know, like friends and stuff. Q’s always wanted to be your friend, but you got started bad and it didn’t come out right.”
Rachel couldn’t help the entirely undignified snort of disbelief. “Yes, of course, she’s always wanted to be my friend, which is why she arranged for slushies to be hurled in my face, horrible names yelled at me by the various elements of the school’s athletics department, and terribly graphic pictures drawn in the bathrooms. Because she wanted to be my friend.”
Brittany frowned, finally getting irritated with the situation and quickly looking around, dragged Rachel into the nearest girls’ bathroom, jamming the door shut with a rubber wedge. Door secured so they wouldn’t be bothered, she turned to her companion with arms crossed over her chest. “Q tried apologizing to you, Rachel. She told me so. You turned her down. She tried a lot. You were mean.”
“I was mean.” The other girl rolled her eyes. “Brittany, Quinn threw a slushie in my face within the first minute I set foot within this school.”
“She apologized.”
“And then she did it again! She attacked and insulted everything about me and she did it over and over, Brittany.” Rachel wouldn’t meet the taller girl’s eyes, glaring off to the side. “Nothing about that says she ever wanted to be my friend.”
Brittany frowned for a moment at the hurt in the brunette’s voice before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around her. Hugs always made things better. “Q’s bad at showing what she feels and she’s really bad at apologizing. But she tried, Rachel. And she could use a friend right now that she’s all scared about the baby and stuff.”
“She’s got you and Santana.” Her words were muffled by the taller girl’s uniform.
The lanky blonde released her and stepped back, but left her hands on Rachel’s shoulders, studying her curiously. “Well, yeah, but I think she’d really like a hug from you. I think it’d really cheer her up.”
“I don’t know, Brittany.”
“Think about it, kay?” The blonde smiled brightly at her slow nod, wrapping her up in another quick hug before spinning about and kicking the stop out from under the door and heading off to their English class to the sound of the first bell.
*****
Shutting her locker only to be confronted with the slack-jawed visage of Jacob ben Israel leering at her was not high on her list of priorities for the day. In fact, it hadn’t even managed to make it on said list. So when that was exactly what she got stopping at her locker between third and fourth period, she was considerably less than happy.
“The independent polling company in my Dockers has determined that you’re the hotest girl in this school.”
And that made it worse. Just the thought of what was likely going through his rusty puffball of a head was enough to make her want to make Ms. Pillsbury really think she’d turned to bulimia. “Ew.”
“H-have you been reading my blog?” He was following her. The day seriously couldn’t get any worse.
“Of course not. You’re a gossipmonger and your blog is nothing but trash and lies,” she shot him a dark look, “many of them about me.”
“Well, you’ll be happy to know the one I’m working on right now has nothing to do with you or your rumored lust for Jew-fros.” She turned to face him with a practiced roll of her eyes, knowing he wouldn’t leave her alone until she listened. “It’s about Quinn Fabray. Word on the street is that she’s in trouble.”
He actually said the last words in an appalling sing-song. And rubbing his stomach? What kind of nasty creature was he supposed to be anyway? “Where did you hear that?”
He smirked and she damned herself for playing into his trap. “Are you denying it?”
“Yes!” She spun on her heel and marched off.
“Because the same birdie told me you’re heart-broken that Finn Hudson didn’t choose you to carry his litter!”
She felt the claws pop through the flesh of her forearms where she’d dug them in to keep from exposing them to the busy hall, the slow, hot trickle of blood oozing into her sleeves, knowing the pink fabric of her top was darkening as it soaked up the vital fluid. Her eyes snapped shut to hold back the flames that threatened to burst out and her lips flattened into a hard line to hide the rows of teeth filling her mouth. She stood there for a long moment, regaining control, fighting down the rage, before turning to stride back towards him.
“What will it take for you to not run this story?”
The disgusting excuse for a Jewish boy just grinned.
*****
“Are we friends?”
She still hadn’t quite gotten used to the lanky blonde popping up beside her, but it was a far better surprise than the vile little boy and his sick desires. “Excuse me, Brittany?”
“Are we friends?” The blonde was leaning against the lockers, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“Why do you ask?”
“I just want to know. Santana says that friends help each other, and you help me,” She shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t up against the cool metal of the lockers. “so I want to know if we’re friends.”
Rachel rummaged in her locker for a moment, gathering her thoughts before answering. “If that’s what you want, Brittany, I would not be adverse to being your friend.”
“That’s good, right?”
The brunette leaned back to catch baby blue eyes with her own and smiled. “Yes, Brittany, that’s good.”
“So we’re friends?”
“Yes, if that’s what you want.” She selected a folder, glancing at through for a moment before shaking her head and putting it back. “Were you going somewhere with this?”
“Quinn says friends tell each other secrets and I want to tell you one, so I had to make sure we were friends first.” The blonde doodled on the locker her head was leaning on with one long finger, eyes on what she was doing and not Rachel.
“Okay then, now that we’re friends, what was so secret we had to be friends so you could tell me?” There it was. She pulled out her history book from the bottom of the locker, rifling through the pages to find a neatly folded piece of sheet music.
“Quinn really likes you, Rachel.”
Rachel sighed, shoving the book back into the locker hard enough for Brittany to feel the vibrations. She swallowed harshly against the sudden wave of feelings crushing down her voice and kept her eyes focused on the back of her locker. “Do we have to talk about this again?”
“She’s really hurting, Rach. And it hurts me to see her hurting. I want her to feel better and I think you can help, but you’re still being mean.”
“I’m not being mean, Brittany. I’m being reasonable.” She composed herself, finally grabbing the folder with her extra sheet music and composition notebook for Glee and closing the door. She didn’t say a word when the taller blonde caught her pinky finger with her own, though she did spare a quick glance around the hall for any jealously angry cheerleaders when it happened.
“I think you’re being mean. I told you it was a secret.”
“It’s such an excellent secret that even Quinn doesn’t know about it,” At the sight of the blonde’s face falling, Rachel felt awful and hurried to try and reassure her, “It’s really okay, Brittany. Quinn and I are a lot like Santana and I. We don’t really get along.”
“But she really does like you.”
“... damn dykes all up on each other in the damn halls...” A gruff masculine voice interrupted from behind them before Rachel could respond, causing the brunette’s eyes to narrow dangerously. Spinning around she spotted the source, an oversized member of the school athletics department that had slushied her a couple of times before Puck caused a resounding halt to the sticky beverage being directed at her person.
“Excuse me, Azimio?”
He sneered. “You heard me, freak. I’m sick of seeing the way you lesbo bitches are all over each other. It’s fucking nasty.”
Rachel glanced around quickly, realizing that the hall was pretty much empty except for her, Brittany and the over-grown brute. There wasn’t anyone to defend them, but that meant there also was no one else to see, and once she caught the look of hurt on the tall blonde’s face her mind was made up. Handing her folder to Brittany, she stalked over to the athlete.
“Listen, you vicious troglodyte, you can call me whatever you want, I don’t care. But do you see that girl?” She pointed back at Brittany, twisting her body away from him to make sure he knew exactly who she was pointing at. “She is off-limits because she is entirely too sweet and caring to be tainted by your disgusting bigotry.”
“Like I give a shit about what you’ve got to say. You’re just a damn dyke who needs to be taught how things fucking work. Whaddya say about a real man, baby?” He smirked over the brunette’s shoulder at Brittany, grabbing his crotch in what Rachel could only assume was supposed to be a suggestive manner, “I’ll show you a good time.”
Her expression had gone blank when he started crudely propositioning her friend. “You are not a man, Azimio.” Her hand shot out with a hideous popping sound as her small hand suddenly grew much larger and wrapped about the meaty fist still gripping his pride and joy. “A real man does not have to insult women.”
His eyes had widened when the first pricks of her claws had registered. When she began to squeeze, he’d mewled like an infant, buckling slowly to his knees. She followed him down, keeping a firm grip, his dark face paled at the pain shooting through him.
“She is off limits,” Her voice was soft as she whispered in his ear, almost sweet if it wasn’t for the horrible harmonics, “do you understand?”
He nodded frantically, unable to form words around the pain, mouth gaping open like a beached fish. She gave a vicious twist of her wrist, not enough to cause permanent damage, but enough to make him think there might be. “You and your disgusting colleagues had best leave Brittany alone from now on, or you’ll answer to me and don’t you ever think I won’t find out.”
She shoved him as she let go, sending him toppling to the ground. She straightened, rubbing her hand to disguise it’s shift back to her normal one before turning to face Brittany.
Who, she discovered, had been found by her shadow.
Santana stood beside the taller girl, looking the other brunette over with an amused smirk on her tanned features. “Damn, Berry. Maybe you do have some redeeming qualities under all that argyle.”
“Santana, I am seriously not in the mood to indulge your joy of insults right now.” She stalked back over to where the two girls were standing, accepting her folder back from the stunned blonde.
“Who said anything about insulting you?” The darker girl laughed at the confused look on Rachel’s face at her words. “Look, you stepped up and defended my girl,” she stepped up and put a hand on the other girl’s shoulder, glancing past her to sneer at where Azimio was still writhing on the floor, “from a fucking asshole. I didn’t actually think you had that kind of bitch in you.”
Santana turned her attention from the boy on the ground to the girl who put him there, for a long moment they just stood there with only Azimio’s groans breaking the silence. A strange expression was on the darker girl’s face and the tip of her tongue darted out to lick her lips before finally a small smile turned up the corners of her lips.
“You’re alright in my book, Berry.” She turned to her best friend and held out her hand, quickly linking pinkies and headed towards the choir room. A couple steps down she paused, realizing that Rachel wasn’t following. “Well, Berry?”
“W-what?”
Dark eyes rolled as a giggle was muffled in a pale hand. “Seriously, Mighty Mouse? You finally show enough badass to actually be seen in public with us and you start acting all wussy on us?”
Brittany stopped trying to hide her laughter and let go of her best friend’s pinkie long enough to run back to where Rachel was standing dumbfounded. “We’re friends, right?”
“Yes,” the brunette couldn’t help the strange sense of confusion bubbling through her, “we’re friends.”
“Then stop being silly and come on.” Grabbing her hand, she quickly linked their pinkies and started tugging her towards where Santana was waiting less than patiently.
The dark girl looked at their conjoined pinkies with an unreadable expression for a moment before glancing up at Brittany’s happy face, shrugging and linking pinkies with the taller girl’s free hand. Thus connected, the trio headed down the hall, Brittany cheerfully swinging her and her friends’ arms as they walked.
“We so need to do something about your clothes though. Your whole pre-school argyle chic is so not cutting it if you want to hang with us.””
*****
A/N: For those who ran into it, sorry entirely for the double up with C15. It was unintended and is a really good sign of why I shouldn't post when not entirely awake. Sorry! @_@;
Author: Sio
Rating: At least R for violence.
Length: 35477 / ?
Spoilers: This is AU, but Season 1 spoilers are possible starting with chapter 6.
Summary: Rachel is a member of an immortal altered race of humans that call themselves the Vanpyr and live in secret alongside normal humans. Murdered years earlier, her outrage over her death gave her the strength of will to step Beyond the Veil and join the ranks of the altered humans known as the Vanpyr as a daemon. Since then she has been hiding the truth of her existence and fighting to control the Beast within her. So far so good, until she enrolls as a student at William McKinley High in Lima, Ohio as the daughter of her “two gay dads”.
Note: This is a loose fusion with an original universe.
For a prompt (found here) at rq_meme.
*****
Chapter Sixteen
“You should give Quinn a hug.”
Rachel restrained her start of surprise and finished putting the books from her last two classes in her locker. She took a deep breath before taking out the binder for English and closing the locker door to reveal the tall blonde looking down at her with a sad pout on her normally cheerful features.
“Good morning, Brittany. To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?” She glanced around the hall, even looking behind the taller girl, but didn’t spot her darker shadow. “And where’s Santana? Normally she is accompanying you.”
“San had a doctor appointment to go to this morning,” Brittany’s voice was sorrowful as she imparted this bit of information to the brunette, “and she’s not back yet.”
“Oh. I see,” Rachel hesitated for a moment, not really looking to be shot down by the taller girl, “would you like to accompany me to our English class in that case?” The blonde nodded cheerfully as she hadn’t really wanted to walk the halls alone any more. Rachel gave her a small smile as they walked along. “What was it you wanted to speak with me about, Brittany?”
For a moment, the leggy dancer looked puzzled, then she remembered why she’d sought out the smaller girl and a bright smile lit up her face. “You should give Quinn a hug.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that would be such a good idea.”
“Why not? She’s going through a lot right now.” She frowned, chewing on her lip. “She’s real sad all the time and you give like the best hugs.”
“While I appreciate the compliment to my hugging acumen, I sincerely doubt that Quinn would appreciate a hug from me, Brittany.” Rachel hugged her binder a little closer to her chest, not looking up at the blonde. She wouldn’t meet the blue eyes looking at her, just knowing that if she did her secrets would all come out. “In fact, I rather believe that the smallest attempt in such a direction would result in violence being performed upon my person.”
Pale brows furrowed for a moment as she processed what Rachel had said. It still took her a moment to get through the big words Rachel always used, but it was getting a lot easier as she got used to hanging around with the petite diva. “You just said that Q would probably hit you if you hugged her, right?” At Rachel’s nod, she smiled for a moment at not needing a translation before the little frown reappeared. “She wouldn’t hurt you, Rach.”
“An admirable sentiment, but I think we both know that Quinn is not predisposed to behaving kindly in my regard.” Rachel reached out with a tenative hand and lightly patted Brittany’s arm before wrapping it back around her binder, offering a tiny smile to the taller girl. “It’s okay, really”
“No, it’s not!” Brittany stopped in the middle of the hall, making Rachel stop as well to avoid being rude. “It’s not okay, Rachel!” For a friendly open girl, she had a terribly impressive glower, but it didn’t last long, and her next words were said in a soft voice with a pout. “You make Quinn sad and I don’t like it.”
“I don’t make Quinn sad, Brittany.” Dark brows furrowed this time, Rachel staring at the girl in confusion. “She’s made it entirely clear that the only thing I make her feel is anger.”
Brittany sighed, reaching out and grabbing Rachel’s wrist before continuing walking down the hall, the smaller girl in tow. “That’s only because Q doesn’t really know how to be with you.”
“B-be with me?” The diva’s normally pitch perfect voice squeaked in her startlement.
The blonde glanced back over her shoulder. “You know, like friends and stuff. Q’s always wanted to be your friend, but you got started bad and it didn’t come out right.”
Rachel couldn’t help the entirely undignified snort of disbelief. “Yes, of course, she’s always wanted to be my friend, which is why she arranged for slushies to be hurled in my face, horrible names yelled at me by the various elements of the school’s athletics department, and terribly graphic pictures drawn in the bathrooms. Because she wanted to be my friend.”
Brittany frowned, finally getting irritated with the situation and quickly looking around, dragged Rachel into the nearest girls’ bathroom, jamming the door shut with a rubber wedge. Door secured so they wouldn’t be bothered, she turned to her companion with arms crossed over her chest. “Q tried apologizing to you, Rachel. She told me so. You turned her down. She tried a lot. You were mean.”
“I was mean.” The other girl rolled her eyes. “Brittany, Quinn threw a slushie in my face within the first minute I set foot within this school.”
“She apologized.”
“And then she did it again! She attacked and insulted everything about me and she did it over and over, Brittany.” Rachel wouldn’t meet the taller girl’s eyes, glaring off to the side. “Nothing about that says she ever wanted to be my friend.”
Brittany frowned for a moment at the hurt in the brunette’s voice before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around her. Hugs always made things better. “Q’s bad at showing what she feels and she’s really bad at apologizing. But she tried, Rachel. And she could use a friend right now that she’s all scared about the baby and stuff.”
“She’s got you and Santana.” Her words were muffled by the taller girl’s uniform.
The lanky blonde released her and stepped back, but left her hands on Rachel’s shoulders, studying her curiously. “Well, yeah, but I think she’d really like a hug from you. I think it’d really cheer her up.”
“I don’t know, Brittany.”
“Think about it, kay?” The blonde smiled brightly at her slow nod, wrapping her up in another quick hug before spinning about and kicking the stop out from under the door and heading off to their English class to the sound of the first bell.
*****
Shutting her locker only to be confronted with the slack-jawed visage of Jacob ben Israel leering at her was not high on her list of priorities for the day. In fact, it hadn’t even managed to make it on said list. So when that was exactly what she got stopping at her locker between third and fourth period, she was considerably less than happy.
“The independent polling company in my Dockers has determined that you’re the hotest girl in this school.”
And that made it worse. Just the thought of what was likely going through his rusty puffball of a head was enough to make her want to make Ms. Pillsbury really think she’d turned to bulimia. “Ew.”
“H-have you been reading my blog?” He was following her. The day seriously couldn’t get any worse.
“Of course not. You’re a gossipmonger and your blog is nothing but trash and lies,” she shot him a dark look, “many of them about me.”
“Well, you’ll be happy to know the one I’m working on right now has nothing to do with you or your rumored lust for Jew-fros.” She turned to face him with a practiced roll of her eyes, knowing he wouldn’t leave her alone until she listened. “It’s about Quinn Fabray. Word on the street is that she’s in trouble.”
He actually said the last words in an appalling sing-song. And rubbing his stomach? What kind of nasty creature was he supposed to be anyway? “Where did you hear that?”
He smirked and she damned herself for playing into his trap. “Are you denying it?”
“Yes!” She spun on her heel and marched off.
“Because the same birdie told me you’re heart-broken that Finn Hudson didn’t choose you to carry his litter!”
She felt the claws pop through the flesh of her forearms where she’d dug them in to keep from exposing them to the busy hall, the slow, hot trickle of blood oozing into her sleeves, knowing the pink fabric of her top was darkening as it soaked up the vital fluid. Her eyes snapped shut to hold back the flames that threatened to burst out and her lips flattened into a hard line to hide the rows of teeth filling her mouth. She stood there for a long moment, regaining control, fighting down the rage, before turning to stride back towards him.
“What will it take for you to not run this story?”
The disgusting excuse for a Jewish boy just grinned.
*****
“Are we friends?”
She still hadn’t quite gotten used to the lanky blonde popping up beside her, but it was a far better surprise than the vile little boy and his sick desires. “Excuse me, Brittany?”
“Are we friends?” The blonde was leaning against the lockers, a thoughtful expression on her face.
“Why do you ask?”
“I just want to know. Santana says that friends help each other, and you help me,” She shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t up against the cool metal of the lockers. “so I want to know if we’re friends.”
Rachel rummaged in her locker for a moment, gathering her thoughts before answering. “If that’s what you want, Brittany, I would not be adverse to being your friend.”
“That’s good, right?”
The brunette leaned back to catch baby blue eyes with her own and smiled. “Yes, Brittany, that’s good.”
“So we’re friends?”
“Yes, if that’s what you want.” She selected a folder, glancing at through for a moment before shaking her head and putting it back. “Were you going somewhere with this?”
“Quinn says friends tell each other secrets and I want to tell you one, so I had to make sure we were friends first.” The blonde doodled on the locker her head was leaning on with one long finger, eyes on what she was doing and not Rachel.
“Okay then, now that we’re friends, what was so secret we had to be friends so you could tell me?” There it was. She pulled out her history book from the bottom of the locker, rifling through the pages to find a neatly folded piece of sheet music.
“Quinn really likes you, Rachel.”
Rachel sighed, shoving the book back into the locker hard enough for Brittany to feel the vibrations. She swallowed harshly against the sudden wave of feelings crushing down her voice and kept her eyes focused on the back of her locker. “Do we have to talk about this again?”
“She’s really hurting, Rach. And it hurts me to see her hurting. I want her to feel better and I think you can help, but you’re still being mean.”
“I’m not being mean, Brittany. I’m being reasonable.” She composed herself, finally grabbing the folder with her extra sheet music and composition notebook for Glee and closing the door. She didn’t say a word when the taller blonde caught her pinky finger with her own, though she did spare a quick glance around the hall for any jealously angry cheerleaders when it happened.
“I think you’re being mean. I told you it was a secret.”
“It’s such an excellent secret that even Quinn doesn’t know about it,” At the sight of the blonde’s face falling, Rachel felt awful and hurried to try and reassure her, “It’s really okay, Brittany. Quinn and I are a lot like Santana and I. We don’t really get along.”
“But she really does like you.”
“... damn dykes all up on each other in the damn halls...” A gruff masculine voice interrupted from behind them before Rachel could respond, causing the brunette’s eyes to narrow dangerously. Spinning around she spotted the source, an oversized member of the school athletics department that had slushied her a couple of times before Puck caused a resounding halt to the sticky beverage being directed at her person.
“Excuse me, Azimio?”
He sneered. “You heard me, freak. I’m sick of seeing the way you lesbo bitches are all over each other. It’s fucking nasty.”
Rachel glanced around quickly, realizing that the hall was pretty much empty except for her, Brittany and the over-grown brute. There wasn’t anyone to defend them, but that meant there also was no one else to see, and once she caught the look of hurt on the tall blonde’s face her mind was made up. Handing her folder to Brittany, she stalked over to the athlete.
“Listen, you vicious troglodyte, you can call me whatever you want, I don’t care. But do you see that girl?” She pointed back at Brittany, twisting her body away from him to make sure he knew exactly who she was pointing at. “She is off-limits because she is entirely too sweet and caring to be tainted by your disgusting bigotry.”
“Like I give a shit about what you’ve got to say. You’re just a damn dyke who needs to be taught how things fucking work. Whaddya say about a real man, baby?” He smirked over the brunette’s shoulder at Brittany, grabbing his crotch in what Rachel could only assume was supposed to be a suggestive manner, “I’ll show you a good time.”
Her expression had gone blank when he started crudely propositioning her friend. “You are not a man, Azimio.” Her hand shot out with a hideous popping sound as her small hand suddenly grew much larger and wrapped about the meaty fist still gripping his pride and joy. “A real man does not have to insult women.”
His eyes had widened when the first pricks of her claws had registered. When she began to squeeze, he’d mewled like an infant, buckling slowly to his knees. She followed him down, keeping a firm grip, his dark face paled at the pain shooting through him.
“She is off limits,” Her voice was soft as she whispered in his ear, almost sweet if it wasn’t for the horrible harmonics, “do you understand?”
He nodded frantically, unable to form words around the pain, mouth gaping open like a beached fish. She gave a vicious twist of her wrist, not enough to cause permanent damage, but enough to make him think there might be. “You and your disgusting colleagues had best leave Brittany alone from now on, or you’ll answer to me and don’t you ever think I won’t find out.”
She shoved him as she let go, sending him toppling to the ground. She straightened, rubbing her hand to disguise it’s shift back to her normal one before turning to face Brittany.
Who, she discovered, had been found by her shadow.
Santana stood beside the taller girl, looking the other brunette over with an amused smirk on her tanned features. “Damn, Berry. Maybe you do have some redeeming qualities under all that argyle.”
“Santana, I am seriously not in the mood to indulge your joy of insults right now.” She stalked back over to where the two girls were standing, accepting her folder back from the stunned blonde.
“Who said anything about insulting you?” The darker girl laughed at the confused look on Rachel’s face at her words. “Look, you stepped up and defended my girl,” she stepped up and put a hand on the other girl’s shoulder, glancing past her to sneer at where Azimio was still writhing on the floor, “from a fucking asshole. I didn’t actually think you had that kind of bitch in you.”
Santana turned her attention from the boy on the ground to the girl who put him there, for a long moment they just stood there with only Azimio’s groans breaking the silence. A strange expression was on the darker girl’s face and the tip of her tongue darted out to lick her lips before finally a small smile turned up the corners of her lips.
“You’re alright in my book, Berry.” She turned to her best friend and held out her hand, quickly linking pinkies and headed towards the choir room. A couple steps down she paused, realizing that Rachel wasn’t following. “Well, Berry?”
“W-what?”
Dark eyes rolled as a giggle was muffled in a pale hand. “Seriously, Mighty Mouse? You finally show enough badass to actually be seen in public with us and you start acting all wussy on us?”
Brittany stopped trying to hide her laughter and let go of her best friend’s pinkie long enough to run back to where Rachel was standing dumbfounded. “We’re friends, right?”
“Yes,” the brunette couldn’t help the strange sense of confusion bubbling through her, “we’re friends.”
“Then stop being silly and come on.” Grabbing her hand, she quickly linked their pinkies and started tugging her towards where Santana was waiting less than patiently.
The dark girl looked at their conjoined pinkies with an unreadable expression for a moment before glancing up at Brittany’s happy face, shrugging and linking pinkies with the taller girl’s free hand. Thus connected, the trio headed down the hall, Brittany cheerfully swinging her and her friends’ arms as they walked.
“We so need to do something about your clothes though. Your whole pre-school argyle chic is so not cutting it if you want to hang with us.””
*****
A/N: For those who ran into it, sorry entirely for the double up with C15. It was unintended and is a really good sign of why I shouldn't post when not entirely awake. Sorry! @_@;