"Yo, so Q, babe. I found something to help with the college thing. There's a way to test out of generalized courses. So you'd only have to pay for the classes that focus around your actual major. And Yale accepts those credits. But since it's technically a transfer they accept even fewer applicants. Plus it's gonna mean a lot and I mean a lot of fucking work. But it's possible. I think you can do it. Here, I printed out some info for you last night after you and Rae fell asleep."
"It's called college level placement exams. But I believe Yale only takes twenty or thirty transfer students a year." Santana nodded the affirmative, Quinn's head down as she read through the applicable information.
"Yea. You have to have everything squared away by March, too. But since it's a transfer program, I'm confused about that. Like does it mean next march? Or March 2013? This shit is all pretty complicated, Q. But we'll figure it out." Rachel nodded her head in agreement while Quinn's head finally lifted from her intense study of the documents in her hands.
"What if I don't get in? Even with the CLEP credits and all. Twenty or thirty students...that's a narrow window. And there are without a doubt people with more to offer than I."
"In that case, here. I printed these out for you. It seems you have your heart set on Ivy League, which is something I truly think you can achieve. So this is a list of schools that accept the credits you'll have that are in the general area of Yale, as I was under the impression that you would like to attend in New England. For example, Barnard College. It's a women's liberal studies college, and it's a part of Columbia so you could take courses there as well. They have a theatre major, Quinn. And comparitive literature." The blonde looked at her like she thought Rachel had opened her skull up and taken a look around her brain while she was sleeping last night.
"How did you know about that? That I want to act? I've never told anyone about that or my interest in literature."
"Your interest in literature was simple to discover long before I walked into your room and found full book shelves lining all the walls. When you get bored in glee you tend to sit and read and ignore whatever's going on around you. And as for the theatre, the bookshelf nearest your bed's top shelf appears to be dedicated to stage acting books. How to to project your voice, blocking, learning how play out your character through body language, etcetera. There were quite a few books, so I thought it must be a legitimate interest of yours. I woke up first this morning, so I thought I would look these things up for you. Here. The first few pages concern Barnard College because it's...you know, close. It's on the upper west side."
Quinn just nodded. A women's liberal arts college was just the kind of thing her father would utterly disapprove of. Never mind that whether or not he approved of anything she did was finally becoming the last thing on a long list of things she cared about.
"Santana. Here. For you, Juilliard, the AADA, Tisch, among others. For music, drama, and perhaps even dance. Juiliard even has Jazz studies and composition. Both of which I know hold interest for you, Tana. You are both fantastically talented young women, and I have no doubt that you'll both be successful in whatever you shall choose." They both looked at her like a quite literal godsend. Quinn set her well organized folder full of papers aside and launched herself into Rachel the way the star had kept doing to her yesterday, wrapping her arms tight around her and knocking her over until the shorter brunette was giggling from her position being bear hugged from her back.
"Told you you're a lion, babe. That was a straight up pounce. I wants my hugs too. I guess we're both gonna pile on top of poor tiny Rachel." The Latina joined pile and all three girls lay there giggling until they heard Leroy and Hiram's laughing voices downstairs, followed by the intro to Is It A Crime, Santana's audition song. Rachel wiggled out from under them and shot off down the stairs, leaving both taller girls to follow.
"Stop the music dad!" Rachel stood there at the entrance to the living room, hands on her hips and an all too serious look on her face.
"Baby girl, what's the problem? I was about to dance with your daddy."
"I know you were, but you simply have to hear Tana's rendition of this song. It's her audition piece, and it's magnificent. I would be remiss if I did not offer you the chance to experience it." She turned towards Santana and indicated for her to plug her phone into the sound system on the wall and then ran into the kitchen to retrieve one of the bar stools that served as seating for the large island they often used as a table.
"You three are going to love this, I'm so excited!" She took Quinn's hand and pulled her close, having every intention of dancing with her while the Latina played the lounge singer role for a few minutes. She nodded over at Santana, and the Latina pressed play. The saxophone streamed out of the surround sound speakers in the room, accompanying Santana's voice as she sang the opening lyrics and filled the space around them. She kept with the switched pronouns and let her voice sooth over all of them.
"Is it a crime? Is it a crime? That I still want you, and I want you to love me too. My love is wider, wider than Victoria Lake. My love is taller, taller than the Empire State." The Berry men had looked shocked when the girl started to sing, but were just dancing together now. Quinn and Rachel both had these looks of pure adoration on their faces as they danced close together. When the song finished, Santana pulled her phone from the system, skipped to the next song on the Best of Sade album, and hopped down from her stool.
"Good?" She asked Quinn and the two men who stood a few feet away.
"Good? Santi, it was amazing. You've gotten even more talented. I'm so proud of you."
"Really?" Hiram nodded, opening his arms up for her. She didn't hesitate to launch herself into them.
"Missed you both." She said quietly into his chest when Leroy wrapped his arms around her as well.
"We missed you too, baby girl. Promise you won't go running out on your old dads again?"
"Promise." While she was locked up in the arms of two men who had effectively been the only fathers she'd ever known, Quinn threw a confused look at Rachel.
"You know that Tana's father left them before we even met right?" The blonde nodded and pulled the brunette to sit down on the couch.
"So, after a while, they became father figures to her. And when something happened where she just needed a dad, like all kids tend to at multiple points in their lives, my fathers stepped up to fill that role. She was like a daughter to them. The same could be said of Maribel and I. It's part of the reason Santana abandoning me hurt me so badly. Because she took away the only mother I had ever known as well. It's one of the things that led to my mental and emotional instability. Just please don't tell her. I don't want her to have something else to feel so horribly guilty over. Besides, we're friends again now. I'm sure I'll see her soon." God did she hope she would. She knew it was written all over her face, because Quinn gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
"See who?" Santana asked, sitting down next to Rachel. Her fathers were up and dancing with each other again. This time to Kiss Of Life.
"Your mom. Rachel was thinking we could have a family dinner since it's Sunday. She could meet Eduardo and see your mom, and we could cook dinner for the parents. She's already proposed recipes. Roasted garlic herb potatoes and a standing rib roast for we omnivores, and a quick and simple vegan lasagna for the herbivores. Although, sounds good, Rach. I may have try some of yours." Quinn said, letting the expansive lie slip from her lips confidently. Rachel looked back at her and grinned, placing a quick kiss against the corner of her lips before she turned back towards the Latina, leaving Quinn quiet and more than a little confused.
Because that had felt good. Too good, and now she just wished Rachel would actually kiss her. Something to think about later.
"Quinn is right, that is the menu, but now I think about it, I doubt a five year old will like much of that. Perhaps I'll make him oven fries instead and give him some of dad's guilty pleasure frozen chicken tenders. They're of high quality and organic free range. Would he like those?"
"Are you kidding, Eddie loves chicken tenders. He'll get ketchup all over his face and then try to thank you with a hug. And btw, where the hell is my kiss?" She tapped against the center of her lips and Rachel pressed her own against them.
"Now, dad, would you please call Santana's mother and invite her and Eduardo over for dinner? I'm going to get started with all the cooking." Her dads nodded and headed to Leroy's office to make the call. Santana looked over at Quinn, who had a pretty substantial pout on her lips.
"What? She gave you that little corner of the lips kiss and then kissed me straight up?" Quinn just nodded, moving to stand. She'd rectify this her damn self. It wasn't like Rachel was the only one who could go around randomly kissing people. Or just...you know, them. Preferably.
"Nuh uh, get back down here." The Latina pulled her back down and gave her the kiss she'd wanted. Pillowy lips pressed against hers and an she hummed out the pleasure of it. God everything just felt so effortlessly good with these two girls.
"Quinn would you mind helping me with the- Whoa. What's happening." Rachel had walked back to ask for help with peeling and slicing the potatoes for Eduardo's fries when she saw the two taller girl's lips locked together in a kiss that she could only describe with one word.
"Hot." Santana pulled back, winking up at Rachel before she stood, making sure to run both her hands along the shortest girl's hips as she passed towards the bathroom.
"Should...um I mean I suppose I could cook alone if the two of you need privacy."
"Huh? Priva-what? Without you? Oh...oooh...no, Rachel it isn't like that. I was pouting because you gave her a real kiss and you kissed me like, here." She pointed to the corner of her lips.
"Right, understood. But...am I the only one who thinks it's a bit, not strange, but out of the ordinary that we all have the desire to kiss each other constantly? Not that I'm necessarily indicating that you have any proclivities to towards women instead of men, Quinn, but..."
"I don't. I mean...I don't know. It's just more complicated than I thought it was. I always thought people were born gay and they figured it out pretty young and they came out of the closet if or when they want to. But now I'm realizing it's just as irritatingly complex as everything else." The blonde admitted. The last person she had to be afraid of regarding that was anyone inside this house.
"I understand your confusion, Quinn. But you should know it's not something to worry so much about if it's stressing you out. Things between the three of us are unique, surely. But you aren't alone. If you ever need help even just to find out how to address any of this with yourself, I'll never turn you away. Anyway, um, I came in to ask if you and Santana wouldn't mind helping me cook. It's a pretty expansive little menu."
"Yeah, sorry about that. I'm kind of hungry, and it just came out." Rachel shook her head and reached for a pale hand, pulling Quinn behind her into the kitchen.
"It's fine, really. You get started on prep, and I'll make you a snack, okay? When Tana returns from the ladies room we'll get truly underway." Rachel leaned up just enough to connect their lips, letting her right arm come around to rest possesively on Quinns waist, and reaching her left hand up to bury it in the taller girl's golden hair. Tentatively, she swept her tongue along the pink lower lip trapped between hers, smiling against the throaty moan she'd produced. She pulled back to lean against the kitchen island behind her, smiling softly at the now motionless girl before her.
"Was that okay, Quinn?" Hazel eyes fluttered open and focused on her and a soft, open smile followed.
"It was so ok...but what made you... I mean why?"
"I don't want you to feel like I don't want you. And maybe I was afraid that you may have taken the half kiss verses full kiss situation between Santana, you, and I in a way that isn't true to how I feel about you. Does...does any of that make sense?" Quinn just nodded and hugged her before pulling back, giving in to her desire to caress the adorable dimple on Rachel's cheek.
"It makes perfect sense, Rach. Worry not. And...I care about you too. About both of you. I know that for sure. I don't really know how long I've felt this way about you in particular, or how to internally justify the way I've treated you despite my feelings. Something is really wrong with me I think..for me to behave the way I have and still...it just kind of reminds me of my father and the way he did things. I don't want to treat you that way. I don't want to hurt you the way he hurt me." Rachel just nods, but her eyes display that unique, alluring, vulnerability that always just seemed to make Quinn desire her more.
The kind that would have the former celibacy club queen on her knees at the foot of her bed every night begging god for her feelings, her overwhelming desire, to be a test of some kind. It's only now that Russel Fabray is gone from her life that she wonders if he was...is her true test. An impenetrable wall, an obstacle to fight against. One that she won against by an unimaginable technicality.
"Not to disregard the many things I know we should talk about, but...it's okay if I kiss you, too, right?" Rachel just stood from against the island and pressed their bodies together, ensuring that she would be in the blond's arms if she chose to close them around her. Which she immediately did, squeezing the smaller girl as tight as she knew would be comfortable with one palm pressing against the flat of the singer's back and the other falling to just above her waist.
"Yes. Please do." Rachel would never advertise it unless the three of them got to a point in their relationship in which it was appropriate, but she had long ago admitted to herself that being held like this by Quinn was a very prominent fantasy of hers. It was possessive, borderline aggressive. She realized that there was probably something odd about that given how aggressive Quinn's behaviour had been towards her in the past and even recently, but it turned her on, god did it turn her on. She had absolutely no problem with it.
So when Quinn leaned down to cover the few inches that separated them and pressed their lips together, Rachel pushed past what she knew for sure the blonde was comfortable with and swiped with a sure tongue, pushing it inside to taste the taller girl's own when her mouth opened in a quiet moan.
Suddenly, they were exploring each other's mouths and Rachel was lifting up onto her toes to be closer. As a result, Quinn's hand shifted down onto her ass and the taller girl squeezed, tearing a raw, throaty moan from Rachel's lips. She pulled back and fell back to the flats of her feet, her head pressed against the blonde's collarbone.
"God, Quinn..." The taller girl nodded into the Rachel's raspberry scented hair, sighing out her worries and holding the smaller girl to her even closer.
"I really like kissing you. It's new for me, actually really enjoying this kind of stuff with someone. It always just kind of felt like I was supposed to like kissing guys instead of thinking about how much I didn't. It feels good to be doing something because I want to. Especially with you and San."
"It does feel amazing, although I'm sure you can tell I feel that way. Speaking of, where is she? It's been quite a while since left for the bathroom."
"I'm right here, I totally admit I was watching the two of you getting sexy. Couldn't help myself really. You two are...delicious. And anyway, as much as I want all up on you both many many times, we should probably get started on dinner if we want it to be ready when mi familia gets here. I'll get my kisses later."
"I think I speak for the both of us when I say that sounds like a really great idea." Rachel leaned up to press a quick kiss to Quinn's cheek then turned away, reaching into the pantry to grab the potatoes.
"You're right, it's a date, but lets get to work. San can you get started on the potatoes? I'm going to make Quinn a quick snack and then we can get started."
"Got it Bear. Make dinner, eat dinner, have family time, and then I get my kisses. I'm excited," The Latina admitted, already grabbing a few potatoes to wash in the sink.
What she didn't mention however, was how nervous she was. This night was like a family reunion, and that was amazing, really. That they'd all be coming back together again. The problem was that she and everyone else here knew it was her fault that they hadn't really seen each other in six years. She knew it'd be just like old times again and then everyone would wonder for a moment why they'd ever been apart in the first place only to remember that it was her and all her fear and stupidity which had led them there.