A/N- Set during the glee clabber's junior year with baby gate already having been over and Quinn and Rachel became close friends during the whole baby gate. This is just going to be a short one shot. Reviews are love! Hope you enjoy!

What had she been thinking? What the HELL had she been thinking?

She had been drunk, that was it. Nothing would have happened if she had not been drinking. She always made bad decisions when she was inebriated.

But she was inebriated quite often recently. One beer really shouldn't have been enough to impair her judgement that much. Which left only one explanation.

She meant to do it. She made a conscious decision and acted upon it.

Where am I? After she did it she had run. Turned around and just run. The girl was in impressive shape from years of cheerleading practice so she didn't tire quickly but she was in an unfamiliar neighborhood late at night. The street lamps were few and far between and she realized with a stoke of stupidity that she had left her phone in her bag at the party.

I think I am going to die. She was suffocating on thin air. Her emotions welled up in her windpipe creating a blockade she could not breathe past. Regret, fear, insecurity, and remorse lodged somewhere between her lungs and her throat and threatened to choke her out.

Finally she stopped running and hunched over in the middle of the street. Blonde hair fell forward to form a curtain around her face as she drew in air sharply, each breath brought a stabbing pain.

Without running to distract her the image of what happened earlier came back. The party, the dancing, talking to the brunette in the living room, moving out to the front lawn. Quinn could still see how perfectly the moonlight stuck the brown eyes making them sparkle with light, she had just gotten lost.

Her stomach churned at the memory of what came next.

I know I am going to die. The blonde's gut fell at the feeling of emptiness that hit her when she realized she would never have a chance. That she had blown everything. Nothing she did or said now could repair the damage she had already done.

She stood straight and began walking. It was a cold night and all she had on was a light sweater and jeans, her jacket- like her phone- was still at the party. But she relished the cold. Enjoying the goosebumps that blossomed on her unprotected skin, the gentle stinging in her fingers that meant numbness wasn't too far away, and the gentle shivering that was threatening her shoulders. After what she did, she deserved to be cold.

The blonde had to have run for a solid ten minutes but she swore she could still hear the music from the party beating in her ears, but then again maybe it was just the pounding of her heart.

She couldn't think straight, her head was spinning and she felt as though she was going to fall over. So she sat down. In the middle of the road.

That kept her head from spinning but the world had decided to start. She gently laid back and stared up at the sky. It was dark enough for a few stars to be visible but she had laid down near a streetlamp so she had to crane her neck way back to see the bright balls of gas.

Something cold and wet landed on her cheek and the blonde let out a hoarse laugh that sounded alien coming from her lips. It's snowing, of course!

After a few minutes her breathing evened out but the pounding in her head refused to quiet. As a result she didn't hear the approaching footsteps. The blonde was only alerted to the presence of another person when they blocked the light from the street lamp. With the lamp behind the mystery person, the blonde couldn't make out their face but the soft outline of hair was a dead giveaway.

"What do you want?" she asked bitterly.

"Why are you laying in the street?"

"Why do you think?"

"Oh hell no!" the mystery visitor's voice rose in disbelief. "You do not get to be mad at me, you do not get to blame me for this! You should be thanking me for coming after you. You aren't exactly easy to follow."

"I'm so very sorry to inconvenience you. Why did you come after me then?"

"I don't really know."

The blonde snorted in disbelief.

"I don't! I guess I just wanted to ask you why."

"Why I ran away? I think that should be painfully obvious to you of all people."

"Yes that part is. Why did you do it? And don't play coy, you know what I'm talking about."

"I don't really know."

It was the brunette's turn to snort in disbelief.

"People don't do that without a reason." she reasoned.

The blonde just shook her head. "When I was younger I used to love the snow. It was so perfect and pristine, you wake up in the morning after a big snow and the world was white as though it was brand new. It was full of second chances and promises of tomorrows and possible happy ever afters. But now I can't stand it. It is not pristine, not in the slightest. One little bit of dirt enters the equation and what was once perfect is now worthless sludge. It is inevitable that way. In the end everything is reduced to it's darkest moments."

The brunette slowly, reluctantly dropped to her knees at the blonde's side and with one last apprehensive look at the wet gravel, laid down on the road.

"When I was a kid I used to hate the snow because every year in the winter the other children would go out and sled, make snowmen, have snowball fights, but I never had any friends to go out with. I would sit in my room or in the living room with my dads and read. They were concerned at first, tried to get me to go out but I rebuked them and insisted I was more comfortable inside. I still resent the winter."

Silence fell between them as they just watched the stars overhead and the leisurely path of snowflakes from the sky to the road.

The brunette was the one to break it, "Quinn, I don't think that you are going to be sludge. In the end I mean. You are too good for that."

"How could you possibly say that after tonight? After what I did?"

"Because it's true. And you are one of my closest friends."

"Really?"

"Of course I am." the brunette smiled at Quinn's adorable need for confirmation. "Will you please tell me why you did it?"

"I was telling the truth earlier when I said I'm not sure why." Quinn began, "I guess that I have wanted to for a long time now and it just seemed like the perfect time. You looked so pretty and we have gotten so close. I just- I just really like you Rach. I don't know what made me do it, but I don't regret it anymore."

"You really like me?"

"Yes Rachel. I supposed that I have since the first time I met you but I was afraid and it was easier to just hide behind my cheerios uniform and bully you. Now that we have become friends I couldn't be vile to you so the walls I put up around to keep my emotions in check just came crashing down and, well, I guess everything came out tonight."

A single tear rolled down the brunette's cheek but Quinn didn't notice, she couldn't tear her eyes from the sky for fear of losing her confidence. "I really do like you Rachel. I am so very sorry for what happened tonight. I know it was probably crossing lines but even if I could go back, I wouldn't change a thing because I think you need to know."

Rachel couldn't bring herself to say anything, she just laid there next to the girl she hated for two years but in the last few months grown closer to than anyone else in her life.

"Please say something Rachel." Quinn's stomach was beginning to start churning again and she had issues breathing.

"Me too." the words were barely higher than a whisper.

"What?" Quinn was sure she had heard wrong.

"Me too. I really like you too." Rachel's voice gained confidence now, "At first i resented you. You made school a nightmare and I dreaded going each day but then I felt sorry for you. I thought, how broken does someone need to be to do what you did to me. Once that thought entered my mind there was no getting rid of it and I started to fall for you Quinn. I fell for your devotion to your friends, for your innocent vulnerability, for your classical beauty. I just wanted to tell you everything would be all right and help fix whatever broke in you so long ago."

"Are you sure?" Quinn popped up into a sitting position to look down into the brunette's eyes, "You aren't just saying it because you feel obligated to after what I said?"

"I do feel obligated." the blonde frowned, "I feel obligated to tell the truth. After you were so upfront and honest with me I had to do the same for you."

Rachel peeled herself off of the road to stand up, she offered her hand to the blonde and helped her to her feet.

"I am truly happy that you did what you did. My reaction was a bit, unpleasant, but that doesn't mean that I don't reciprocate your feelings Quinn. You just caught me off guard. But I'm ready now."

Still grasping one of Quinn's hands in hers, Rachel cupped the blonde's face with her free palm before rocking on her tiptoes to connect their lips for the second time that night.

"Now let's get back to the party before we freeze to death." They walked the three blocks back with their hands linked and didn't let go until they had to part ways on Rachel's doorstep the next morning.

"See you soon?"

"Always Berry."

I hope you liked this, let me know if you would be interested in more one-shots like this or if you have any good prompts :) Thank you for reading.