Highs and Lows (Quinn/Rachel)
Name: Highs and Lows
Length: 3430
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Journey, I suppose
Summary: Rachel, Quinn, Brittany and Santana go to Cedar Point for a day. Sadly, Rachel is terrified of roller coasters. Interestingly, Cedar Point bears the proud name “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World.” Obviously, this leads to problems.
Author’s Note: Taken from this prompt. I KIND OF HAVE A LOVE AFFAIR WITH THIS AMUSEMENT PARK. To understand it, you might do well to google a map. Or something. Hope you like it!
"I cannot believe you would force me to do this, Quinn," Rachel mutters, shifting back and forth and glaring around at the excited people who had arrived for the special early opening of Cedar Point, the Roller Coaster Capital of the World. Quinn is standing behind Rachel, her arms wrapped around her girlfriend with her head set on Rachel's. The smaller girl has been complaining for the entire two hours they had been awake.
Next to her, Quinn sees Santana Lopez roll her eyes and shake her head at Rachel's complaint. Brittany aimlessly swings their locked hands back and forth, excitedly bouncing up and down as the crowd around them gets more and more anxious for the park to open.
"Rach, this was your idea," Quinn says, kissing the top of Rachel's head and smiling when the girl sinks back against her a little. Santana sneers, and Quinn glares over at her.
"No, it was not!" Rachel says, turning around in Quinn's arms and looking up at the blonde, looking affronted. "I simply suggested that the four of us go on a trip somewhere. I did not suggest we go to the death trap capital of the world!"
"Actually, Rachel, it's the roller coster capital of the world. It says so, right there," Brittany says airily, pointing happily up at the proud bright green and blue sign that proclaims the park as such.
Rachel stares openmouthed at Brittany for a moment, before she turns back to Quinn with a frown.
"I don't like roller coasters, Quinn. My last experience with them ended with me crawling out of one of those infernal car-type things and curling up into the fetal position due to my overwhelming fear!"
"You were five, your dads told me! Come on, we'll be at college this time next year, you can handle a couple of roller coasters," Quinn says, smiling down at a child that bumps into she and Rachel.
"I could handle them, Quinn, if they weren't terrifying," Rachel whispers, leaning closer to Quinn and setting her forehead against the taller girl's collarbone and whimpering unhappily.
Quinn looks over at Brittany and Santana, who are looking at Rachel with amusement and disgust respectively. Of course, those are just the baseline settings for the two of them, so Quinn was unsure as to their real feelings. The four of them had developed a wonderful camaraderie, but at times, Quinn was the only one willing to put up with Rachel's special brand of crazy. She was that stupidly in love.
Brittany gives a sudden shout as a jacketed employee of the park leads a small group of blue-covered friends to the rope holding back the small crowd.
"Okay, strategy. We need to get to Dragster first - "
"S, we need to get to Millenium first, what are you talking about?"
"No! We need to get to Maverick first, it has the longest lines and the smallest cars and it's the newest!"
"Why can't we just get on the carousel?" Rachel asks weakly, looking between the three cheerleaders as they stare contentiously at each other. Santana has her arm flung out, pointed at the four hundred and fifteen foot high behemoth that was Top Thrill Dragster, and Quinn's arm had dropped from around Rachel and raised to go perpendicular to Santana's arm, pointing to the blue steel structure running along the west side of the park. Brittany had her arms crossed as she pointed down at one of the newer editions of the map Rachel had produced, and Rachel herself was weakly gesturing at the carousel just in front of the four girls.
"Look, Berry. We are not getting on the damn carousel. Not until it is park closing time. We are going to ride roller coasters. This is the roller coast, okay? It isn't like you'll be able to get on half of them, with your midget status anyway. So just shut up. And Q, Millenium is not the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the midwest! So no. Dragster it is," Santana says, snapping her fingers a little in victory. Rachel settles her head back against Quinn's collarbone and whimpers.
"First of all, don't talk to my girlfriend like that. Second, Millenium used to be the tallest and fastest, until your stupid eyesore of a boring-ass coaster walked in!" Quinn says, loudly enough for a few people around them to turn and eye her. She smiles sheepishly and hugs Rachel closer.
"Guys, we need to go to Maverick," Brittany whines, pulling Santana up against her and setting her head on the brunette's shoulder. Quinn can see the pout getting to Santana just as her girlfriend, quite unhelpfully, mutters that Brittany somehow had the most logical reasoning.
And so when the employees finally dropped the ropes and let the early crowd rush in, the four girls ran for Maverick.
//
An hour later, and Brittany had settled her head onto Quinn's shoulder, while Santana impatiently explained to a small child in the line next to them why the roller coaster was so loud when it wasn't even moving. Rachel had long ago settled between Quinn's legs on the ground, her head lolling to rest on the inside of Quinn's thigh while she drew on the ground aimlessly.
Maverick was apparently down for the moment - they had relatively good place in line, it was just that the damn ride had been down right as they were entering into the loading house, and all of them were growing impatient with the waiting. For the first ten minutes after the breakdown, Rachel had complained about death rates until a mother next to them in line had told her to shut up because she was freaking out the kids around them.
And now they were just lazily holding their place in line, moving only when some person in front of them ducked out of line and went to greener pastures. Rachel had just moved her hand to grip around Quinn's ankle, rubbing circles onto the prominent bone (she had sprained her ankles several times, it pretty much looked like a cancerous growth) and Santana was trying to ignore the child's questions about the tattoo on the inside of her wrist (it was a duck), while Brittany and Quinn had entered into a duet on the music playing over the loudspeakers (the song was Walking on Sunshine, coincidentally).
Finally, the ride started up again, eventually, and after a small incident about over what car to choose, the four girls divided up into separate rows. Rachel pulled herself closer and closer to Quinn as the line between them and the gate got shorter and shorter, until she was basically wrapped around the taller girl, whimpering quietly as she watched people get out of the car windblown and shaking.
"Rach, seriously, it's okay," Quinn mutters, setting her hand on Rachel's lower back and rubbing her hand back and forth. "It's not even that high or fast. You'll be okay, I swear. I'll keep you safe."
All that earned Quinn was a kiss placed onto the crook of her shoulder and Rachel drawing closer, somehow.
//
Five minutes later, and Rachel was jumping out of Maverick's car and pointing accusingly at Quinn, shouting in a high-pitched voice.
"Quinn Ivy Fabray, I CANNOT EVEN FEEL MY FACE. Not only was that terrifying, it was painful. You neglected to tell me that the icy cold wind would leave my muscles incapable of forming the look of terror I wish to convey to you! I knew going to this infernal place in the middle of October in some sort of celebration of a ridiculous, often improperly-undertaken holiday would turn out unwell for me!"
At this point, they're standing at the exit of the ride, and Rachel is staring at Quinn, Brittany and Santana with tears in her eyes (But Quinn knows that they're due to the admittedly icicle-inducing wind). Quinn steps forward gingerly, and reaches for Rachel's hand.
"I'll win you a bear?"
Rachel's face lights up in happiness as she bounces happily up to her girlfriend, and Quinn hears Santana groan just as Brittany asks, "Can you win me a bear, S?"
//
"This is cheap. This is ridiculous. This is fucking rigged!" Santana shouts at the game operator, shaking her air compression gun unhappily. Rachel is happily creating a theme song for the bear Quinn had won on her second try at the ring toss, with Brittany's assitance, and Quinn is watching with trepidation as the people around them look reproachfully at Santana's violent hatred of the shooting game.
"S, it's just a game. And there are children, you know. Here. Right next to you?" Quinn says.
Santana turns to face Quinn and raises the gun to Quinn's eye level, and pulls the trigger. The plastic ball being used as the bullet bounces harmlessly against Quinn's forehead, and Santana smirks. Quinn picks it up and throws it right back at Santana, and a small fight breaks out between the two girls that ends with Rachel tugging Quinn away and Brittany accepting the teddy bear the game operator gives up if it means the "crazy girl" will go away.
//
This time, it is Top Thrill Dragster, and Rachel has taken to bothering Santana, spouting facts about brain damage and death rates again.
"A high-speed coaster such as the one we are in the line for does terrible things to a person's body. Not only are they anxious at the shear length and speed of the ride, they return to their baseline instincts of animalistic behavior and that short breadth of feeling, while exhilarating, can affect other people in terrible ways!"
Brittany had started giggling somewhere around "the shear length and speed of the ride" and had earned stares from the rest of the group.
"Rachel," she starts, laughing far too loudly at Rachel's decidedly grim account of the roller coaster experience. "A roller coaster is like sex!"
The three other girls stare unabashedly at Brittany, until Rachel finally breaks the silence.
"I would much rather be doing that than standing in this line. In our hotel's hot tub," she says, eyeing Quinn appreciatively despite the blonde's attire of jeans and a sweatshirt. Quinn immediately reverts to teenage boy mode, while Brittany cocks her head and wonders aloud as to what sort of position she means, and Santana groans unhappily at the images assaulting her.
//
Twenty minutes later, and Rachel is clinging to Quinn around the middle, mouth agape as they stumble out of the ride.
"You know," Quinn whispers into her ear. "You do sort of look like this after sex."
//
"Aren't there condoms named Magnum?" Brittany asks absently, looking up at the signs around them, in line for Magnum XL 2000. Rachel burrows further into the sweatshirt she had stolen from Quinn while the blonde has her hands under the edge of it, ostensibly for warmth.
"Britt," Quinn asks carefully, looking around the group. "Do we really look like the correct people to ask about condom names?"
Brittany takes a moment to think about this, her eyes flitting from the way Rachel and Quinn are thoroughly entwined, to Santana's hand in hers, then turns to tap the college boy next to them in line on the shoulder.
"Aren't there condoms named Magnum?"
//
"I cannot even begin to describe how angry I am at you," Rachel mutters, sinking into Quinn's side as Brittany playfully feeds Santana the huge plate of nachos they had ordered for the four of them. Quinn wraps her arm tighter around Rachel, kissing the smaller girl on the top of the head.
"You didn't have to come with us, you know," Quinn says quietly, reaching for some of the nachos and glaring at Santana when the girl tells her not to eat the ones with all the cheese. "I've gone with these two idiots for a long time. You shouldn't feel obligated to go places just because you're my girlfriend."
"Says the girl who allows herself to get dragged to Cleveland every time a viable Broadway touring company comes through," Rachel mutters, eyeing the cheese that Quinn is greedily stealing despite Santana's protests with disgust.
"I like most of them," Quinn shrugs. "And they make you happy."
Rachel smiles, leaning over to settle her head on Quinn's shoulder.
"When did you turn into such a soft-hearted person, Quinn Fabray?"
"Probably around the time I realized I loved you, Rachel Berry," Quinn whispers, dropping another kiss on the girl's head.
"You guys are just like a Hallmark channel lesbian love special," Santana says, throwing a napkin over at her companions. "It's sickening."
//
"Um."
Quinn is standing stock-still, looking up at the devilish skull hovering over the foggy, strobe-lit entrance to the Scare Zone. She looks over at Santana, who for once looks sheepish as Brittany slinks closer to her at the sounds of teenage girls screaming from within the void. She looks to Rachel, who is looking entirely apprehensive of the entrance, and then looks down back to the train tracks.
"Okay," Quinn starts, jumping at a particularly loud scream. "Right. We don't have to go through here, but the train's been down for hours and it would take a while to go back the other way to get to Millenium."
"Let's just go," Rachel says, puffing her chest up and setting her hands on her hips in a heroic pose. "I have been dealing wonderfully with the assorted torture devices you have made me ride. In fact, some of them were mildly pleasurable - "
She was interrupted, once again, by Brittany giggling.
Rachel is unamused by Brittany's mind in the gutter.
"I will have you know, Brittany, that the devices you are thinking of are both highly pleasurable and not forced on me."
Once again, Quinn reverts to teenage boy mode, while Brittany contemplates this new knowledge, and Santana is disgusted.
//
Halfway through the Scare Zone, Quinn loses it and grabs one of the scaresters by the collar. His makeup smears off on her knuckles as Rachel curls into Santana, whimpering at the scary monster people all around them.
Quinn had tried to coach Rachel on how to go through the Zone, knowing that the employees preyed on the people who were more freaked out, but Rachel hadn't listened and screamed every time one of them came near her.
Every time she had screamed, Quinn's nerves frayed a little more - she was ridiculously protective of the people she loved, and she loved Rachel more than most people - and it wasn't as though she could truly protect Rachel from scary monsters. She could deal with a roller coaster - at least she could hold Rachel's hand and glance down at the obviously secure seatbelts and lap bars and shoulder harnesses and take comfort that if Rachel's seat belt fails, than Quinn's is probably failing too, or else she's holding Rachel in the seat with an obviously achievable bout of superhuman strength.
A roller coaster was designed to terrify, that she could deal with. On some level of her brain, she knew that this was sort of like a ride too - but they were human beings terrorizing her girlfriend.
She just couldn't deal with this extra variable - and now she had a Frankenstein-esque monster by his collar and was shouting unhappily at him about messing with Rachel, until Santana was pulling her away forcibly, and dragging her out of the Zone with Rachel and Brittany in tow.
"Q, what the hell? Do you want us to get lifetime bans like your baby daddy?" Santana asks, shaking Quinn by her shoulders until Rachel shoves Santana away and pushes Quinn backwards until she sits on a bench.
"Quinn," she says, taking Quinn's face in her hands and smiling when Quinn connects their eyes. "There are two things I need to say. One, that was incredibly rash and I can only imagine the consequences if you actually assaulted that poor man. And two," she says, kneeling so she and Quinn were basically eye-level. "You are so getting laid tonight, because that was hot."
Their impromptu makeout session is broken by Santana's shout.
"God, you guys make me want to throw up my intestines!"
//
Rachel straps herself in on the ride easily, frowning at the employee who has to walk down the line on Quinn's side and hopes that the woman's digging for Quinn's seatbelt to give it a firm tug is truly committed to safety and not interested in the groping of her girlfriend. She looks over at Quinn after the woman walks further down, and smiles at Quinn's bright smile lighting up her face as the audio starts up, warning the riders to keep their hands and feet in the car at all times and to enjoy America's Roller Coast (Rachel can practically hear the copyright symbol floating into the air after that).
She truly did hate roller coasters - she hated the feeling they gave her as her stomach dropped out, and she had a feeling that this amusement park had not been the best choice if she had wished to avoid them. She hated the way they made her brain feel like mush and like her head was going to spin off. They were too fast and too tall and too everything - but every time she felt like curling up into the fetal position (as well as anyone could in the elaborate safety measures she was subjected to), she would look over at Quinn, and see how truly excited she was.
And, something in her told her that it would be okay. It was terrifying, plunging into open air with nothing but a few buckles holding you down, but it wasn't so bad when Quinn was right at her side.
Riding up the lift hill for Millenium, of which Quinn possessed an inordinate amount of knowledge about, Rachel watched her girlfriend prattle on about weight capabilities and drop angles and heights and the history of roller coasters, and she smiled, despite the fact that she was (apparently) about to get propelled over a 310 foot high, 70 degree angle hill.
She grabbed for Quinn's hand as the lift hill was dropping away, and that moment of anticipation that made Rachel want to cry for mercy settled over the quiet track, as the lake alongside them sparkled in the October night.
And Quinn looked over and smiled, gripping Rachel's hand tighter and kissing it.
And then they were falling.
//
"You said we could ride the carousel, Santana!" Rachel shouts, triumphantly bounding towards the old centerpiece of the park, inadvertently pulling Quinn with her due to their hands being locked together. Brittany, who is excited by any sort of enthusiasm, bounds after the two girls, pulling a groaning Santana with her.
Rachel settles herself onto a white, shiny horse with a light blonde mane, while Quinn hoists herself up onto the horse next to hers, a black horse with blue adornments. In front of them, a mother is lifting a child up onto a stationary horse, smiling as the kid squeals happily at the reins that he whips around easily.
Quinn watches Rachel as the ride starts up and the tinkling music plays, as Rachel hums happily, her eyes trained on the child in front of them with her head cocked to the side, obviously considering something.
When the ride stops and Rachel slides down off her horse, it takes Quinn a moment to realize that maybe she should move, and she jumps off with a flourish, landing easily.
Behind them, Santana is sliding off her horse with a grim smile, as Brittany shouts happily that her horse finished ahead of Santana's, due to her horse's nose being ahead of Santana's by a fair amount.
//
That night, before Quinn falls asleep after a few spirited rounds that Rachel had promised earlier in the day, she hears Rachel whisper in her ear.
"Just so you know, Quinn, I still hate roller coasters. And when we have children, you will be the one taking them on the rides, until we have an even amount and I must accompany them. And they will not be allowed on until they are at least seven and it must be their choice. I hope these conditions are acceptable to you."
Quinn smiles, slipping her eyes shut and tugging Rachel closer to her.
"Deal," Quinn whispers, kissing Rachel on the top of her head.
the end.
Length: 3430
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Journey, I suppose
Summary: Rachel, Quinn, Brittany and Santana go to Cedar Point for a day. Sadly, Rachel is terrified of roller coasters. Interestingly, Cedar Point bears the proud name “The Roller Coaster Capital of the World.” Obviously, this leads to problems.
Author’s Note: Taken from this prompt. I KIND OF HAVE A LOVE AFFAIR WITH THIS AMUSEMENT PARK. To understand it, you might do well to google a map. Or something. Hope you like it!
"I cannot believe you would force me to do this, Quinn," Rachel mutters, shifting back and forth and glaring around at the excited people who had arrived for the special early opening of Cedar Point, the Roller Coaster Capital of the World. Quinn is standing behind Rachel, her arms wrapped around her girlfriend with her head set on Rachel's. The smaller girl has been complaining for the entire two hours they had been awake.
Next to her, Quinn sees Santana Lopez roll her eyes and shake her head at Rachel's complaint. Brittany aimlessly swings their locked hands back and forth, excitedly bouncing up and down as the crowd around them gets more and more anxious for the park to open.
"Rach, this was your idea," Quinn says, kissing the top of Rachel's head and smiling when the girl sinks back against her a little. Santana sneers, and Quinn glares over at her.
"No, it was not!" Rachel says, turning around in Quinn's arms and looking up at the blonde, looking affronted. "I simply suggested that the four of us go on a trip somewhere. I did not suggest we go to the death trap capital of the world!"
"Actually, Rachel, it's the roller coster capital of the world. It says so, right there," Brittany says airily, pointing happily up at the proud bright green and blue sign that proclaims the park as such.
Rachel stares openmouthed at Brittany for a moment, before she turns back to Quinn with a frown.
"I don't like roller coasters, Quinn. My last experience with them ended with me crawling out of one of those infernal car-type things and curling up into the fetal position due to my overwhelming fear!"
"You were five, your dads told me! Come on, we'll be at college this time next year, you can handle a couple of roller coasters," Quinn says, smiling down at a child that bumps into she and Rachel.
"I could handle them, Quinn, if they weren't terrifying," Rachel whispers, leaning closer to Quinn and setting her forehead against the taller girl's collarbone and whimpering unhappily.
Quinn looks over at Brittany and Santana, who are looking at Rachel with amusement and disgust respectively. Of course, those are just the baseline settings for the two of them, so Quinn was unsure as to their real feelings. The four of them had developed a wonderful camaraderie, but at times, Quinn was the only one willing to put up with Rachel's special brand of crazy. She was that stupidly in love.
Brittany gives a sudden shout as a jacketed employee of the park leads a small group of blue-covered friends to the rope holding back the small crowd.
"Okay, strategy. We need to get to Dragster first - "
"S, we need to get to Millenium first, what are you talking about?"
"No! We need to get to Maverick first, it has the longest lines and the smallest cars and it's the newest!"
"Why can't we just get on the carousel?" Rachel asks weakly, looking between the three cheerleaders as they stare contentiously at each other. Santana has her arm flung out, pointed at the four hundred and fifteen foot high behemoth that was Top Thrill Dragster, and Quinn's arm had dropped from around Rachel and raised to go perpendicular to Santana's arm, pointing to the blue steel structure running along the west side of the park. Brittany had her arms crossed as she pointed down at one of the newer editions of the map Rachel had produced, and Rachel herself was weakly gesturing at the carousel just in front of the four girls.
"Look, Berry. We are not getting on the damn carousel. Not until it is park closing time. We are going to ride roller coasters. This is the roller coast, okay? It isn't like you'll be able to get on half of them, with your midget status anyway. So just shut up. And Q, Millenium is not the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the midwest! So no. Dragster it is," Santana says, snapping her fingers a little in victory. Rachel settles her head back against Quinn's collarbone and whimpers.
"First of all, don't talk to my girlfriend like that. Second, Millenium used to be the tallest and fastest, until your stupid eyesore of a boring-ass coaster walked in!" Quinn says, loudly enough for a few people around them to turn and eye her. She smiles sheepishly and hugs Rachel closer.
"Guys, we need to go to Maverick," Brittany whines, pulling Santana up against her and setting her head on the brunette's shoulder. Quinn can see the pout getting to Santana just as her girlfriend, quite unhelpfully, mutters that Brittany somehow had the most logical reasoning.
And so when the employees finally dropped the ropes and let the early crowd rush in, the four girls ran for Maverick.
//
An hour later, and Brittany had settled her head onto Quinn's shoulder, while Santana impatiently explained to a small child in the line next to them why the roller coaster was so loud when it wasn't even moving. Rachel had long ago settled between Quinn's legs on the ground, her head lolling to rest on the inside of Quinn's thigh while she drew on the ground aimlessly.
Maverick was apparently down for the moment - they had relatively good place in line, it was just that the damn ride had been down right as they were entering into the loading house, and all of them were growing impatient with the waiting. For the first ten minutes after the breakdown, Rachel had complained about death rates until a mother next to them in line had told her to shut up because she was freaking out the kids around them.
And now they were just lazily holding their place in line, moving only when some person in front of them ducked out of line and went to greener pastures. Rachel had just moved her hand to grip around Quinn's ankle, rubbing circles onto the prominent bone (she had sprained her ankles several times, it pretty much looked like a cancerous growth) and Santana was trying to ignore the child's questions about the tattoo on the inside of her wrist (it was a duck), while Brittany and Quinn had entered into a duet on the music playing over the loudspeakers (the song was Walking on Sunshine, coincidentally).
Finally, the ride started up again, eventually, and after a small incident about over what car to choose, the four girls divided up into separate rows. Rachel pulled herself closer and closer to Quinn as the line between them and the gate got shorter and shorter, until she was basically wrapped around the taller girl, whimpering quietly as she watched people get out of the car windblown and shaking.
"Rach, seriously, it's okay," Quinn mutters, setting her hand on Rachel's lower back and rubbing her hand back and forth. "It's not even that high or fast. You'll be okay, I swear. I'll keep you safe."
All that earned Quinn was a kiss placed onto the crook of her shoulder and Rachel drawing closer, somehow.
//
Five minutes later, and Rachel was jumping out of Maverick's car and pointing accusingly at Quinn, shouting in a high-pitched voice.
"Quinn Ivy Fabray, I CANNOT EVEN FEEL MY FACE. Not only was that terrifying, it was painful. You neglected to tell me that the icy cold wind would leave my muscles incapable of forming the look of terror I wish to convey to you! I knew going to this infernal place in the middle of October in some sort of celebration of a ridiculous, often improperly-undertaken holiday would turn out unwell for me!"
At this point, they're standing at the exit of the ride, and Rachel is staring at Quinn, Brittany and Santana with tears in her eyes (But Quinn knows that they're due to the admittedly icicle-inducing wind). Quinn steps forward gingerly, and reaches for Rachel's hand.
"I'll win you a bear?"
Rachel's face lights up in happiness as she bounces happily up to her girlfriend, and Quinn hears Santana groan just as Brittany asks, "Can you win me a bear, S?"
//
"This is cheap. This is ridiculous. This is fucking rigged!" Santana shouts at the game operator, shaking her air compression gun unhappily. Rachel is happily creating a theme song for the bear Quinn had won on her second try at the ring toss, with Brittany's assitance, and Quinn is watching with trepidation as the people around them look reproachfully at Santana's violent hatred of the shooting game.
"S, it's just a game. And there are children, you know. Here. Right next to you?" Quinn says.
Santana turns to face Quinn and raises the gun to Quinn's eye level, and pulls the trigger. The plastic ball being used as the bullet bounces harmlessly against Quinn's forehead, and Santana smirks. Quinn picks it up and throws it right back at Santana, and a small fight breaks out between the two girls that ends with Rachel tugging Quinn away and Brittany accepting the teddy bear the game operator gives up if it means the "crazy girl" will go away.
//
This time, it is Top Thrill Dragster, and Rachel has taken to bothering Santana, spouting facts about brain damage and death rates again.
"A high-speed coaster such as the one we are in the line for does terrible things to a person's body. Not only are they anxious at the shear length and speed of the ride, they return to their baseline instincts of animalistic behavior and that short breadth of feeling, while exhilarating, can affect other people in terrible ways!"
Brittany had started giggling somewhere around "the shear length and speed of the ride" and had earned stares from the rest of the group.
"Rachel," she starts, laughing far too loudly at Rachel's decidedly grim account of the roller coaster experience. "A roller coaster is like sex!"
The three other girls stare unabashedly at Brittany, until Rachel finally breaks the silence.
"I would much rather be doing that than standing in this line. In our hotel's hot tub," she says, eyeing Quinn appreciatively despite the blonde's attire of jeans and a sweatshirt. Quinn immediately reverts to teenage boy mode, while Brittany cocks her head and wonders aloud as to what sort of position she means, and Santana groans unhappily at the images assaulting her.
//
Twenty minutes later, and Rachel is clinging to Quinn around the middle, mouth agape as they stumble out of the ride.
"You know," Quinn whispers into her ear. "You do sort of look like this after sex."
//
"Aren't there condoms named Magnum?" Brittany asks absently, looking up at the signs around them, in line for Magnum XL 2000. Rachel burrows further into the sweatshirt she had stolen from Quinn while the blonde has her hands under the edge of it, ostensibly for warmth.
"Britt," Quinn asks carefully, looking around the group. "Do we really look like the correct people to ask about condom names?"
Brittany takes a moment to think about this, her eyes flitting from the way Rachel and Quinn are thoroughly entwined, to Santana's hand in hers, then turns to tap the college boy next to them in line on the shoulder.
"Aren't there condoms named Magnum?"
//
"I cannot even begin to describe how angry I am at you," Rachel mutters, sinking into Quinn's side as Brittany playfully feeds Santana the huge plate of nachos they had ordered for the four of them. Quinn wraps her arm tighter around Rachel, kissing the smaller girl on the top of the head.
"You didn't have to come with us, you know," Quinn says quietly, reaching for some of the nachos and glaring at Santana when the girl tells her not to eat the ones with all the cheese. "I've gone with these two idiots for a long time. You shouldn't feel obligated to go places just because you're my girlfriend."
"Says the girl who allows herself to get dragged to Cleveland every time a viable Broadway touring company comes through," Rachel mutters, eyeing the cheese that Quinn is greedily stealing despite Santana's protests with disgust.
"I like most of them," Quinn shrugs. "And they make you happy."
Rachel smiles, leaning over to settle her head on Quinn's shoulder.
"When did you turn into such a soft-hearted person, Quinn Fabray?"
"Probably around the time I realized I loved you, Rachel Berry," Quinn whispers, dropping another kiss on the girl's head.
"You guys are just like a Hallmark channel lesbian love special," Santana says, throwing a napkin over at her companions. "It's sickening."
//
"Um."
Quinn is standing stock-still, looking up at the devilish skull hovering over the foggy, strobe-lit entrance to the Scare Zone. She looks over at Santana, who for once looks sheepish as Brittany slinks closer to her at the sounds of teenage girls screaming from within the void. She looks to Rachel, who is looking entirely apprehensive of the entrance, and then looks down back to the train tracks.
"Okay," Quinn starts, jumping at a particularly loud scream. "Right. We don't have to go through here, but the train's been down for hours and it would take a while to go back the other way to get to Millenium."
"Let's just go," Rachel says, puffing her chest up and setting her hands on her hips in a heroic pose. "I have been dealing wonderfully with the assorted torture devices you have made me ride. In fact, some of them were mildly pleasurable - "
She was interrupted, once again, by Brittany giggling.
Rachel is unamused by Brittany's mind in the gutter.
"I will have you know, Brittany, that the devices you are thinking of are both highly pleasurable and not forced on me."
Once again, Quinn reverts to teenage boy mode, while Brittany contemplates this new knowledge, and Santana is disgusted.
//
Halfway through the Scare Zone, Quinn loses it and grabs one of the scaresters by the collar. His makeup smears off on her knuckles as Rachel curls into Santana, whimpering at the scary monster people all around them.
Quinn had tried to coach Rachel on how to go through the Zone, knowing that the employees preyed on the people who were more freaked out, but Rachel hadn't listened and screamed every time one of them came near her.
Every time she had screamed, Quinn's nerves frayed a little more - she was ridiculously protective of the people she loved, and she loved Rachel more than most people - and it wasn't as though she could truly protect Rachel from scary monsters. She could deal with a roller coaster - at least she could hold Rachel's hand and glance down at the obviously secure seatbelts and lap bars and shoulder harnesses and take comfort that if Rachel's seat belt fails, than Quinn's is probably failing too, or else she's holding Rachel in the seat with an obviously achievable bout of superhuman strength.
A roller coaster was designed to terrify, that she could deal with. On some level of her brain, she knew that this was sort of like a ride too - but they were human beings terrorizing her girlfriend.
She just couldn't deal with this extra variable - and now she had a Frankenstein-esque monster by his collar and was shouting unhappily at him about messing with Rachel, until Santana was pulling her away forcibly, and dragging her out of the Zone with Rachel and Brittany in tow.
"Q, what the hell? Do you want us to get lifetime bans like your baby daddy?" Santana asks, shaking Quinn by her shoulders until Rachel shoves Santana away and pushes Quinn backwards until she sits on a bench.
"Quinn," she says, taking Quinn's face in her hands and smiling when Quinn connects their eyes. "There are two things I need to say. One, that was incredibly rash and I can only imagine the consequences if you actually assaulted that poor man. And two," she says, kneeling so she and Quinn were basically eye-level. "You are so getting laid tonight, because that was hot."
Their impromptu makeout session is broken by Santana's shout.
"God, you guys make me want to throw up my intestines!"
//
Rachel straps herself in on the ride easily, frowning at the employee who has to walk down the line on Quinn's side and hopes that the woman's digging for Quinn's seatbelt to give it a firm tug is truly committed to safety and not interested in the groping of her girlfriend. She looks over at Quinn after the woman walks further down, and smiles at Quinn's bright smile lighting up her face as the audio starts up, warning the riders to keep their hands and feet in the car at all times and to enjoy America's Roller Coast (Rachel can practically hear the copyright symbol floating into the air after that).
She truly did hate roller coasters - she hated the feeling they gave her as her stomach dropped out, and she had a feeling that this amusement park had not been the best choice if she had wished to avoid them. She hated the way they made her brain feel like mush and like her head was going to spin off. They were too fast and too tall and too everything - but every time she felt like curling up into the fetal position (as well as anyone could in the elaborate safety measures she was subjected to), she would look over at Quinn, and see how truly excited she was.
And, something in her told her that it would be okay. It was terrifying, plunging into open air with nothing but a few buckles holding you down, but it wasn't so bad when Quinn was right at her side.
Riding up the lift hill for Millenium, of which Quinn possessed an inordinate amount of knowledge about, Rachel watched her girlfriend prattle on about weight capabilities and drop angles and heights and the history of roller coasters, and she smiled, despite the fact that she was (apparently) about to get propelled over a 310 foot high, 70 degree angle hill.
She grabbed for Quinn's hand as the lift hill was dropping away, and that moment of anticipation that made Rachel want to cry for mercy settled over the quiet track, as the lake alongside them sparkled in the October night.
And Quinn looked over and smiled, gripping Rachel's hand tighter and kissing it.
And then they were falling.
//
"You said we could ride the carousel, Santana!" Rachel shouts, triumphantly bounding towards the old centerpiece of the park, inadvertently pulling Quinn with her due to their hands being locked together. Brittany, who is excited by any sort of enthusiasm, bounds after the two girls, pulling a groaning Santana with her.
Rachel settles herself onto a white, shiny horse with a light blonde mane, while Quinn hoists herself up onto the horse next to hers, a black horse with blue adornments. In front of them, a mother is lifting a child up onto a stationary horse, smiling as the kid squeals happily at the reins that he whips around easily.
Quinn watches Rachel as the ride starts up and the tinkling music plays, as Rachel hums happily, her eyes trained on the child in front of them with her head cocked to the side, obviously considering something.
When the ride stops and Rachel slides down off her horse, it takes Quinn a moment to realize that maybe she should move, and she jumps off with a flourish, landing easily.
Behind them, Santana is sliding off her horse with a grim smile, as Brittany shouts happily that her horse finished ahead of Santana's, due to her horse's nose being ahead of Santana's by a fair amount.
//
That night, before Quinn falls asleep after a few spirited rounds that Rachel had promised earlier in the day, she hears Rachel whisper in her ear.
"Just so you know, Quinn, I still hate roller coasters. And when we have children, you will be the one taking them on the rides, until we have an even amount and I must accompany them. And they will not be allowed on until they are at least seven and it must be their choice. I hope these conditions are acceptable to you."
Quinn smiles, slipping her eyes shut and tugging Rachel closer to her.
"Deal," Quinn whispers, kissing Rachel on the top of her head.
the end.