Fix me up

A/N: The beginning may be slightly longwinded, but there's a punchline and everything is relevant, I promise.

Rachel was beginning to believe she was in love with Quinn.

It all started with a Gilmore Girls marathon that lasted three days. If Kurt hadn't invited over Blaine, Rachel wouldn't have felt the need to invite another person to cancel out the feeling of being the third wheel. She had wanted to take Tina, but she vetoed the easy choice in favor of the hard one.

Quinn and her had been kind of friends, and while that had been a very satisfying title the first few days, she quickly realized she wanted to lose the "kind of." Kind of friends only smiled at each other in the hallway and made polite conversation when left stuck together, and that was not nearly enough for Rachel to achieve her goal of getting to really know Quinn. The girl seemed like such an interesting person, like one of those books that you knew was going to blow your mind as soon as you managed to crack it open and read it. Besides, there was only so much bragging she could do if she kept calling Quinn her "kind of" friend.

So Rachel invited over Quinn. She even had her initial speech shortened to just three sentences, because she knew Quinn liked it better if people got to the point. Miraculously enough, Quinn agreed, and even offered to take some vegan friendly snacks with her.

Rachel offered Quinn a way out of the marathon about five times in the first three hours alone, but Quinn declined each and every time and remained. It was painfully visible that she needed to adjust to Kurt and Blaine – and let's face it, Rachel as well – but eventually she relaxed into it and it had been a genuinely good time.

It was during the first night that, embarrassingly enough, Rachel had rolled over to Quinn and honest to God cuddled up to her, arm slung across her waist and everything. That morning, Kurt had eyed them with so much mirth that Rachel just wished he'd made the closet jokes out loud. Rachel, of course, had apologized profusely, even though she could not remember actually seeking out another warm body, but Quinn just shook her head in amusement.

The second night, it happened again, but Quinn told her it was fine and that Rachel didn't drool that much anyway. Rachel had never been mortified and relieved at the same time before.

She also couldn't deny how darned relaxing it was to sleep with Quinn like that. She almost felt like a whole other person, waking up next to the blonde.

The marathon had made Quinn a real friend of hers (spending three days with someone had to count for something, didn't it?), because then Quinn called her and told her about how they found asbestos in the ceiling of their house and that they were waiting for a permit to remove it. A permit of all things, Quinn had complained rather pointedly. In the meanwhile, it was in her best interest to stay in another place. Rachel immediately asked her dads for approval and offered the guestroom.

It could take up to eight weeks before the permit came in, so they had lots of time to get to know each other.

Everything remained pretty much the same, but Rachel was confident that they were now friends. She felt great about it. Quinn was a great friend, a thoughtful friend. Quinn made her feel great, because friends were great. Apparently, she made Rachel feel so great, she kept sleepwalking into Quinn's bed, much to the blonde's amusement.

Actually, she felt like a whole other person. In the few weeks Quinn had stayed with her, she had become significantly more calm and alert, much to the pleasure of the Glee club.

Rachel didn't realize how great it was to spend time with Quinn until she stayed over at Finn's one time.

"Uh, Rachel?" Finn asked carefully during breakfast, eying his girlfriend as she bit on her thumbnail and kept bouncing her leg up and down nervously under the table. "Are you okay? You look… pale?"

Rachel glanced at Finn, wondering why she was suddenly so annoyed with Finn's inability to stand behind his own observation. A mostly subjective one at that! What kind of moron couldn't even realize his own opinion—whoa. She reared back mentally at yet another particular harsh insult that entered her mind.

The truth was that Rachel was just feeling plain uncomfortable the entire morning. She had lost her flow. She kept tuning out Finn's stories about—what was it, Code of Wars? And what was worse yet, she kind of kept noticing every annoying habit the boy had. Had he always been this insecure? This clumsy? This big? This—this—

Rachel just wanted to pull her hair out and it scared her.

She shook her head to answer Finn's question. "I don't—I think I need to go home and… lie down."

"Oh, okay." Finn deflated visibly, and Rachel shuddered because what she used to think was a cute, dopey face just annoyed the sense out of her right now. "I'll give you a ride home."

Once home, Rachel grumbled at everyone, even the ever smiling Quinn, and fell facedown into her bed to catch a nap. Maybe she just needed some good ol' fashioned sleep.

She woke up to Quinn placing a tray on her bedside table and that's when she first started suspecting that she might be in love with the girl. Previously, any interruption or loud noise had been a reason to snap (at least mentally), but as she saw Quinn leave the tray with tea and sandwiches, that familiar serene feeling overcame her once again. It no longer felt like she was drifting around. She had been grounded by none other than Quinn Fabray.

Rachel looked up at Quinn with big, uncomprehending eyes, but when Quinn returned the look, she simply smiled. "I'll leave this here for when you're feeling better."

Or maybe it had been one heck of a rejuvenating nap that fixed her right up. It needed testing.

Over the course of the next week, Rachel kept finding reasons to stay out of the house. Which really just meant a girls night with Tina and a tutoring session with Finn that went out of control, making her arrive at home at 3am.

Both times, she had been unusually irritable and uncomfortable in the morning until she spent the night with Quinn. Or, as the night she slept in her own bed proved, spending the night in Quinn's bed.

It was a case of unconscious longing if she ever saw one. Freud would've been mighty glad with her.

After yet another case of waking up in Quinn's arms – Rachel wasn't even surprised anymore. Whenever she woke up alone, she even pretended to sleepwalk into Quinn's room – Rachel decided to confront whom she had considered as one of her best friends for a while now. "Quinn?" she whispered, silently enjoying the effortless closeness they had grown into.

"Hmn?" Quinn hummed sleepily, her arms tightening around the smaller girl.

A hardly noticeable shiver ran down Rachel's spine when Quinn's hand unwittingly caressed a sensitive patch of skin just below her neckline, between her spine and shoulder blade. "I've been thinking."

"Yeah?" Quinn spurred on, but Rachel was becoming increasing distracted with the fingers gently circling and scratching at that spot.

"I really like you," Rachel said, mentally smacking herself over the head for losing her eloquence at such an important moment.

"I really like you, too, Rachel," Quinn purred, and Rachel melted just a little.

"I mean—" Rachel composed herself and lifted her head so that she could look at Quinn. She could do this. Quinn and herself were practically living together already. Temporarily, yes, but still. "I like you so much, I broke up with Finn."

Oh God. She might as well just sign up to be the next Lizzie McGuire with her level of insightfulness.

Quinn stilled her hand and shot Rachel a wide-eyed look, caught entirely off guard.

"I know, I'm sorry," Rachel began, disentangling herself from Quinn's embrace and sitting up. "I've been taking advantage of your good nature and I feel despicable for it, but that doesn't change the fact that I've been developing feelings for you," she said, looking down dejectedly into her lap, fully expecting Quinn to reject her. She even intended to stand up and get out of the girl's face if it hadn't been for Quinn softly calling her name. Rachel couldn't help but watch Quinn hopefully as she sat up as well.

"You're kind of catching me by surprise here." Quinn smiled that smile of hers that Rachel had gotten intimately familiar with, and instantly, Rachel felt reassured. Even if Quinn didn't return her feelings, everything would be okay. "I think I may have been developing some feelings as well," Quinn said softly, briefly averting her eyes as a shy smile played on her lips.

Rachel stared at Quinn, jaw unhinged, until hazel eyes looked up at her. She leaned forwards unconsciously. "I—I know I may be jumping the proverbial gun here, but would you perhaps be comfortable with a kiss right now?"

Quinn bit her lip, and Rachel couldn't contain her joy when she eventually nodded her head.

It was only a short, chaste kiss, but it made Rachel smile dopily nevertheless. She surprised Quinn by running off with the very realistic excuse of having morning breath, and the promise of continuing that very conversation.

As soon as Rachel was out the door, Quinn heaved a sigh of relief. Opening her hand, she revealed a folded piece of thin, skin-coloured plastic. She had almost been caught scraping off the nicotine patch this time. Getting Rachel addicted to the patches, and even carrying her over to her bed every night, had been a surprisingly easy task with how heavy she slept.

She only wanted retribution for the way Rachel made her feel, but this? This was much better.

Quinn grinned wickedly at the sound of Rachel singing a love song in the distance.

She could keep her leashed for a little while longer.

Maybe I should've called this fic "on the edge of reality" instead, because I have no idea if this is possible.

But LOL, QUINN ADDICTION.

Ps. Just to be clear, Rachel is getting addicted to the nicotine, and mistakes it for feelings for Quinn because Quinn keeps applying them when Rachel sleeps in her bed.