fanfic: I Wanna Hold Your Hand (5/17)
Title: I Wanna Hold Your Hand (5/17)
Author: wanderinghope & thechroniclady
Pairings/Characters: Quinn/Tina
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 7,367
Spoilers: none
Summary: When paired together for their winter break Glee assignment, Quinn and Tina had no idea what they were getting into.
Previous Chapters: One | Two | Three | Four
Chapter Five
The next week or so, Quinn and Tina shared some pretty successful rehearsals. They mostly had the vocals down and had started figuring out their dance routine (And Quinn might have even let Tina put in a few riffs as a compromise to not do that weird dance move Tina wanted to include in their choreography) so over all things were going pretty successfully for them.
Hanukkah was finally over so when Quinn went to Tina’s house for the afternoon she was a little surprised at how quiet it was. In fact it was just the two of them there. So weird compared to the last week where it seemed like every aunt, uncle, cousin, niece and nephew possible were in attendance. Apparently the holidays really brought her family together. But now the house was quiet and Tina’s parents were away at some medical convention. The blonde didn’t think much of it and they went on as normal rehearsing their song and choreography.
Eventually though it was getting late and Quinn’s mom would be expecting her for dinner so she said her goodbyes and got ready to venture out into the tundra. Except when she pulled open the door her eyes went wide.
“Tina, have you seen how much snow is out here?” Apparently as they had been practicing it had been snowing like crazy. Sure it had been snowing a little when Quinn drove over to Tina’s, but in the past few hours so much snow had come down and the streets weren’t plowed and if she tried driving she would surely get stuck.
“That’s... a lot of snow,” she said after a few moments of gawking. “I can’t go out in that.” There was a hint of annoyance and maybe even disappointment in her voice. While it was true that she and Tina had been getting along much better lately, the thought of being snowed in with her was a weird thought.
Curious, Tina joined Quinn over by the door, her eyes widening when she looked outside. “Whoa, I can’t say I was expecting that.” The problem wasn’t even just her driveway, but the entire block had yet to be plowed. She wrapped her arms around herself as they were still standing in front of the door. “Well, close the door. It’s really cold.” She stepped back into the house. “You can stay here for a while. Until the plows come. I don’t mind.”
Quinn glared out at the snow for a few moments more before retreating back inside and closing the door. “Thanks. I guess I should call my mom though and let her know what’s going on. Even though it’s pretty obvious that no one should be out with snow like this,” Quinn said as she stripped her jacket off again and got out of her boots.
“So what do you want to do while we wait?” Quinn asked, turning to look at Tina.
“Okay,” Tina said, nodding. “That’s a good idea.” She made her way back to the living room and plopped down on the couch. “Um, I don’t know, I guess we could-” But she was cut off when all the lights suddenly went out. She groaned inwardly, “... Damn.”
After trying to make her way into the kitchen to grab two candles and some matches she headed back out into the living room, handing a lit one to Quinn. “Here, keep this. I have a lot more candles upstairs. I’ll go grab them and we can set them out.”
Quinn looked around nervously when the lights went out. She had been to Tina’s a few times by now but she still didn’t want to go tripping over something and get hurt. It’s not like she knew the exact layout of everything in her house. She let out a breath of relief though when Tina produced candles.
“Um, I’m just going to call my mom,” she called up to Tina then pulled out her cell phone. The conversation wasn’t long and the reception was a little fuzzy but Quinn managed to reassure her mom that she was safe at Tina’s and that she would see her when ever she could drive again.
After she stored her phone she walked over to the stairs and started walking up. “Do you need help?” She asked once she was outside Tina’s door.
Tina was having a difficult time trying to carry as many scented candles as she could and still hold onto the one she had lit. So when she heard Quinn outside her door offering help, she was grateful. “Actually, yeah. Come in.”
“Hey...” Quinn said quietly as she stepped in. She wasn’t sure why she was whispering but it just felt appropriate since it was so dark and kind of creepy. “I called my mom. She said power is out over there too. I guess we just have to like, wait it out or something.” After standing there awkwardly for a few moments she remembered she had offered Tina help. “Uh, here, let me take a few,” she said, stepping forward.
“Must be all over town then,” Tina mused before handing over some of the candles to Quinn carefully. Once she felt like they had a decent amount she started to go back downstairs. “Let’s set up most of them in the living room. That’s where the fireplace is, which we’ll need.” Seeing as how the heat went out along with everything else. “There’s some firewood in the garage,” she mumbled, more to herself.
Managing to make it back downstairs, Tina handed the box of matches to Quinn. “Light those. I’ll go get the wood.”
Quinn nodded then worked on setting the candles out around the room and lighting them. When she was all done she stepped back to admire her handiwork. It was actually quite pretty, seeing all the candles lit like this. Almost romantic. Except it was sort of wasted romance because it was just her and Tina. Whatever.
Tina came back into the living room, with a few logs in her hand. Placing three of them in the fireplace she worked on getting it lit. It took a little bit, but it wasn’t long before she had a small, but decent flame going. It would grow. “Okay. That’s... settled then.” Looking around the room, she was satisfied with the set-up. Briefly noting the heart-shaped raspberry scented candle was centered on the table. She’d bought it for her first date with Artie... “Want to help me bring down the futon? We can set it up in front of the fire so we can keep warm.”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Quinn said as she assessed the fire. It was no central heating system but it was better than nothing. “Lead the way.”
With Quinn’s help they were able to carry the cushion downstairs. Placing it in front of the fire, Tina sat down and crossed her legs. The fire had built up nicely now and she instantly felt warmer seconds after sitting down in front of it. Waiting for Quinn to join her she wondered what they could do to entertain themselves. “So... truth-or-dare?”
Quinn raised her eyebrow as she sat down. Really, they were going to play truth-or-dare? It wasn’t like they had much else to do though. Shrugging as she deliberated which she should pick she finally said, “truth.” Best to start off safe and ease your way up.
Tina smirked, glad that Quinn was going along with it. “Okay. That Dita von Teese video I showed you. Secretly, you liked it, didn’t you?” she asked, giggling.
Quinn blinked hard a few times, resisting the urge to let her mouth drop open in disbelief. Finally she gained her wits back she rolled her eyes. “They were interesting,” she said, noncommittally.
“They?” Tina asked, giggling even more. “I only showed you the one,” she said, pretending she hadn’t seen those videos on Quinn’s recommended section when they’d gone onto Youtube. She kinda figured Quinn had watched more than one. But teasing her about it was a little too fun.
Quinn glared slightly at Tina. “You only get one question. So it’s your turn now. Truth-or-dare?” Crap. And now to stop Tina from asking more about her watching the videos she was going to have to pick dare next turn. Maybe they would get bored of this game after another round and she would be off the hook. She hoped...
“Okay, truth,” she replied, wondering what Quinn might ask her.
The first instinct Quinn had was to ask Tina if she was a raging lesbian because no normal person had that many pictures of half-naked women on their wall but something was telling her a question like that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Plus she wanted to steer the subject away from her own fascination for Dita von Teese. Instead she decided to direct the conversation to more neutral grounds. “So, does it bother you that you’ve only gotten like one solo in Glee?” It certainly bothered Quinn that Rachel hogged the stage all the time. Glee wasn’t a one woman show.
Well that was a sobering question. No longer giggling, Tina paused to think of how to answer it. It did bother her, but at the same time she didn’t think she was a great soloist. True Colors had been right in her range, and it was a simple performance. And she never did get quite the right handle on Tonight. Some of the numbers Rachel and Finn did sometimes though...
“I... I guess it does. But I don’t have a voice like Rachel or Mercedes. And I feel like I lack their, uh, spark. But I would like more, definitely.” But she didn’t really know how to assert herself and just ask for them.
“Isn’t the point of Glee the fact that all our voices are different though? And obviously Mr. Schue thinks you have a good voice. A better one than me. I’ve never gotten a solo.” She shrugged, trying to act indifferent. “Anyway, uh, I pick dare.”
“I don’t think so,” Tina answered, quickly. “I mean, you were the first person Mr. Schue gave the Don’t Stop Believing solo to after Rachel quit, that one time.” Although, she guessed that didn’t mean much because as soon as Rachel came back, Mr Schue had given her the solo back as well.
Quinn just shrugged again. “Whatever, I’m too busy with the Cheerios to worry about practicing for a solo anyway.”
Tina shrugged, deciding she’d move past the subject and tried to think of a dare. Her options were limited, considering they were basically trapped in her house. “Uh, okay, I dare you to... prank call Mr. Schuester,” she said, smiling. Sure, prank calling was so middle school, but then again, so was truth-or-dare.
“What are we, twelve?” Quinn asked, though she was actually sort of smiling. “Do you think the landlines still work? He has my cell phone number...” She bit her lip. It would just be weird if he knew it was her calling, though she definitely wasn’t opposed to prank calling in general.
Tina smiled and stood up. “Follow me,” she said, leading the way to her father’s office. “My dad’s office phone isn’t wireless,” she explained. Therefore, it would still work. She picked up the phone, checking to see if there was a dial tone; there was, before she handed it to Quinn. “Block the number anyway though. So he can’t call back.”
“I can’t believe I’m really doing this...” Quinn mumbled as she pulled up his phone number from her cell phone. After dialing *67 to block the number she dialed Mr. Schue’s and waited as it rang. She almost thought he wasn’t going to answer but at the last moment he picked up.
Quinn was quiet for a moment or two, nervous and thinking of what to say.
“Hello? Hello?” Mr. Schue must have thought the phone lines were being weird, but it was really just Quinn not talking... “Hello? Are you there?”
Finally Quinn cleared her throat, having thought of something to say. She tried disguising her voice my using a nasal tone and said, “Yes, hello. Do you know karate?”
“Hello? What?” Mr Schue said, utterly confused.
“Because your body is kicking,” Quinn finished before slamming the phone down and bursting into giggles.
Tina could hear Mr. Schue’s voice on the other end and sat down in her father’s chair, trying to stay as silent as possible. But even though she had her hand clamped over her mouth, a few small giggles managed to escape through.
When Quinn hung up the phone, Tina removed her hand, laughing loudly. “Karate?! Oh my god, he’s probably like, what the hell?” She leaned back in the chair and eyed Quinn, feeling a little more daring herself, she decided to go with a dare this time as well. After her laughs quieted down she said, “Okay. I’m going with dare as well,” and awaited her fate.
Quinn continued to giggle as well but finally managed to settle down eventually. Tapping her chin as she thought, she looked Tina over. After a few moments she straightened up and smiled. “I know! I dare you to take all your make up off.” Quinn had never seen her without her goth attire on and was pretty curious about what was under there.
Instantly, Tina’s mouth fell open as she placed her hands over them and gasped dramatically. “Not my face!” It was... rare Tina went without make-up and when she did, she never left the house or ever invited anyone over. Apart from her family there was only one other person who’d ever seen Tina without a spec of make-up on her face. But it was a dare, and she had no choice.
Grumbling to herself she got up and made her way upstairs to her bathroom, expecting Quinn to follow. Applying a generous amount of remover to a large cotton ball, she slowly but surely began to remove her make-up. It was somewhat of a lengthy process to remove everything completely. And when she was done, she turned slowly to face the person responsible. She held the candle up to her face, still glaring, and said without an ounce of humor in her voice, “tada.”
Follow she did indeed. Quinn leaned against the door frame and watched as Tina went through the process of taking her make up off. It was taking a surprisingly long time. Quinn wondered what the point in all that way. It seemed like such a waste of time to have to spend that long taking it off. She could only imagine the ordeal it was to do that in the morning. And it was even more baffling because somehow Tina managed to do it while most likely half asleep. It was maybe even a little impressive, but she’d never say that out loud.
When Tina turned around, Quinn examined her face for a long time. She held a candle up a big higher so Tina’s face had more lighting and nodded in approval. “You look nice.” Well that had sort of just slipped out.
She fidgeted nervously where she stood. “Uh, thanks.” That seemed to be the default response the very few amount of people had to say. But Tina just thought she looked plain. She turned back to the mirror and looked at her face before looking down at the rest of her. “But now my clothes just look ridiculous on me.” There was a stark contrast now between her face and the rest of her.
Quinn smirked. “I could dare you to take those off, too, but it’s kind of cold.” And it would be totally inappropriate. And why would she want Tina to take her clothes off anyway? Bad thoughts, bad thoughts! “Um. Anyway... my turn. Truth I guess.”
Tina, momentarily oblivious to the way Quinn’s suggestion could have been taken and forgetting about the game, actually considered it. “You know, that’s not a bad idea,” she said before turning to leave the bathroom. “I guess I could change into something more... comfy.” She knew it wasn’t very late, but she might as well just get into her pajamas now, since she wasn’t planning on going anywhere anytime soon.
She wondered if she should offer some to Quinn as well, but she didn’t know if Quinn had planned on possibly staying the night at all. But they really had no idea when those plows would be coming by. “Do you want to change into something else too? I could lend you something. You know, just in case.”
Quinn followed Tina into her bedroom, walking carefully with the candle so as not to drip wax on the floor. “Um, yeah, sure. I mean I bet the plows won’t get to the residential streets until morning. I’m probably stuck here tonight. And sleeping in jeans is really uncomfortable... So thanks.” She was really relieved that Tina didn’t take her words the wrong way and was actually looking forward to getting into some comfier clothes.
Tina shivered a little as they entered her bedroom. It was much colder up here already, so she quickly grabbed some pajamas for both of them. “Let’s change downstairs,” she said, before getting out of there as quickly as possible. Leaving her door open, hoping maybe a tiny bit of heat would travel in there. It wasn’t as cold in the hallways.
It was pretty amazing to Quinn how it had maybe only been an hour since the power went out and it was already chilly up here without the heat and fire. “Good idea,” she said, following her back downstairs. She grabbed the pajamas Tina was holding out to her, raising her eyebrow slightly at the silky fabric but worked on changing as fast as possible so she wouldn’t get cold.
The blue drawstring pants were actually really comfortable. She might have to invest in a pair like this for at home. It was a little weird thinking about how she was in Tina’s pants though. Except totally not in that way. Bad thoughts again! She quickly took off her t-shirt and pulled on the white thermal Tina had given her. Oh awesome. Her black bra was totally showing though. Whatever. It’s not like anyone else was going to see them.
“Uh, thanks, again. They’re comfy... and warm,” Quinn said as she pushed the sleeves up slightly.
Tina also made quick work of changing out of her clothes and into her pajamas. Not really focusing on any one point, her eyes did eventually drift over to where Quinn was changing, but when she realized what she was doing she quickly turned her head back, deciding to concentrate on one of the candles sitting on the table. When she was dressed she turned back to Quinn, her eyes immediately drawn to the fact that she was wearing a black bra, under a white shirt.
“Oh, um, no problem,” she said, pushing up her sleeves as well and sitting back down on the futon, sighing as she was quickly warmed up. “Okay, so it was your turn, right? What did you pick? Truth?”
Quinn settled back down on the futon as well, sticking her feet out towards the fire to warm them up. “Uh, yeah it’s my turn. I said truth.”
Tina racked her brain, trying to think of a question to ask Quinn. This was her chance to ask her whatever she wanted, but she was drawing a blank. Finally she decided on something maybe a little too personal, but she was going to just go with it. “Who’s a better kisser? Finn or Puck?”
It sort of felt like she was choking on her own tongue and she couldn’t speak. It had been a while since Quinn had thought about either of them in that way. Clearly things hadn’t worked out with Finn after she lied to him and things had never really happened with Puck either. It’s not like they had to be together to raise their daughter. They both just sort of went their own ways and that was that.
“Um. I. Uh. Finn,” she finally said and paused thinking about that. “Definitely Finn. I only, uh, kissed Puck the one time. But he wasn’t as like... sweet as Finn was about it.”
Tina had been slightly surprised by that answer. She assumed that Puck, clearly being the more experienced of the two would have been the better kisser. But she understood where Quinn’s answer was coming from. “That makes sense,” she replied, after thinking about it. She was just glad that Quinn had actually answered. “Okay. Truth.”
Quinn just nodded, glad that Tina didn’t ask her about it anymore. “Okay. So, who have you kissed besides Wheels? Uh, I mean, Artie.” It was only fair to ask a question about kissing since that was what Tina had done to her.
Tina considered the rules of truth-or-dare to be almost sanctimonious, but for the first time ever, she actually considered lying. She wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed, but she was nervous about Quinn’s reaction in particular. “Um... I...” How was she going to word this? “There was this, uh, girl at summer camp, before Freshman year. Naomi... Klein.” It had been a Jewish camp, of course. “Technically, she was my first kiss,” she said, avoiding Quinn’s eyes.
Quinn’s eyes went wide when Tina said he word ‘girl’ and kept getting bigger as Tina’s story went on. “Is it different than kissing a boy?” Oh crap that had totally slipped out. “Never mind. I was just thinking because of um Brittany and Santana because they obviously like boys too... Uh, never mind...” she trailed off blushing.
That had not been the reaction Tina was expecting. “No, it’s okay. You can ask,” she reassured her. She was honestly just grateful Quinn hadn’t freaked out on her. “It is different. Not better or worse, but different. I don’t really know how to explain it though.”
“Oh...” Quinn pulled her feet back from the fire, thinking maybe she wasn’t blushing but instead getting overheated by the flame. Yeah, that was totally it. “Okay. Well so you’ve only kissed those two? Artie and that um, girl?”
Tina nodded. “Yeah. I never did go back to camp after that either,” she mentioned as an afterthought. “I aged out.” But now she was getting off topic. She looked over at Quinn, wondering if she was blushing or if it was just a slight shadow. “How many people have you kissed,” she asked, momentarily forgetting that they were still in the middle of a game.
“Just Finn and--” Quinn started but cut herself off. “Wait. Is this your question to me? Because I was actually going to say dare.” She really didn’t need Tina to be asking about her sudden curiosity about girl on girl kissing.
“Oh, uh, no I forgot we were still playing. I was just curious.” And she still wanted to know the answer. “Just Finn and Puck though? Really? I’m kinda surprised.”
“Just because Santana and Brittany are my best friends doesn’t mean I make out with anything that moves,” Quinn said, huffing slightly. And just because she happened to get knocked up the one time she made a really stupid mistake didn’t mean she was a slut.
“That’s not what I meant,” Tina said, shocked at the assumption. “I mean, I just thought because you’re, you know, pretty and popular that you would have had more kissing experience. I wasn’t trying to say I thought you had also made out with half the school.” Although, she had to admit, that because Brittany and Santana were her best friends, she though that Quinn had maybe kissed more... people. She also wondered if Quinn had ever kissed one of them, but she was not about to ask.
Quinn rolled her eyes. “Finn and I were together for like ten months. I lived at his house for a while. It wasn’t like we sat around and played board games.” Though sometimes Finn did get distracted by his video games. Typical boy. Part of her was curious about the fact that Tina had just called her pretty but that was in the ‘bad thoughts’ category so she just left it at that.
“Yeah... I guess. Okay.” That made sense, when she thought about it. “Hmm, so I guess you and I are kind of equal on the experience aspect then,” she teased. She and Artie hadn’t been together for as long as Finn and Quinn, but when they finally did start referring to each other and boyfriend and girlfriend, there had certainly been less Halo grudge-matches going on between them.
Shrugging, Quinn said, “I guess so.” Except in Quinn’s mind Tina kind of had the more experience since she had kissed a boy and a girl while Quinn had only kissed boys. Except as far as Quinn knew (and she didn’t want to know... how would that even work with Artie? BAD THOUGHTS!), Tina had never had sex, while she had. Even if it had been a total and complete mistake, that will still more experience, right? It’s not like it was a competition though.
If someone had told Tina a month ago that she and Quinn would one day be sitting in her living room, talking about their... experiences, she would have considered laughing in that person’s face but then actually just walking away awkwardly. “Yeah...” she said, glancing over at the fire and noticing the lowering flame. She stood up to add another log to the fire. “I mean, I guess it doesn’t really matter much to you, but it’s kind of bizarre, from my point of view,” she rambled, talking more to herself than to Quinn.
What was Quinn even supposed to say to that? After thinking a few moments she decided to say nothing. At least about kissing. “Thanks. For putting more wood on the fire.” There. That was acceptable conversation, right?
“Yeah, no problem,” she said, taking her seat back next to Quinn. “So, are you interested in anyone now?” she asked, completely unaware that Quinn wanted to change the subject.
If she wasn’t slightly annoyed Quinn might have found Tina’s obliviousness kind of amusing. But that wasn’t the case right now.
“Uh, no.” It didn’t really seem like people were interested in her either. Or at least in the genuine way Finn had been. It was more that everyone knew she and Puck had sex and were maybe hoping Quinn would do it with them too. But obviously she had learned from her mistake and wouldn’t be putting herself in any kind of idiotic situation ever again.
“Are you?” Quinn asked after a long pause.
“No,” Tina said, suddenly very interested in her hands. “The only other guys I really know, and like are taken, gay, related to me... or my ex.” She kinda wondered if she’d ever really find anyone who got her as well as Artie had. And if they hadn’t even been able to make it work, she had little hope for anyone else.
“And here I thought you and Mike would make such an awesome couple,” Quinn said, smirking ironically. “There are guys outside of Glee though.”
Tina wrinkled her nose and laughed. “No thank you. Incest isn’t really my thing,” she joked. “And I guess there are, but it’s not like they’re lining up or anything. Everyone outside of Glee still thinks I’m a freak. Hell, even some people in Glee still think I’m a freak.” It was a little sad, she thought that the people in Glee were truly her only friends. But she was okay with that.
“Look, I--” Quinn paused, trying to figure out what she even wanted to say. She just had the weird urge to comfort Tina, but she didn’t know what to say. Finally she settled on just saying something simple. “I don’t think you’re a freak okay?”
Tina looked up, surprised that Quinn was actually trying to make her feel better. “Oh... well, thanks. I... I wasn’t actually talking about you specifically,” but until Quinn said anything just now, she had presumed she was still one of those people. “I mostly meant Santana,” she said, laughing awkwardly to try and lighten the mood. “And I’m sure Puck and Finn probably still think I’m totally weird. But still, thanks for saying so.”
“Oh, well...” Well that was sort of awkward. Quinn had just assumed Tina meant her, but apparently not. “I think it’s like Kurt said that one time when Rachel got egged. Like, how only we could make fun of her? I’m sure that’s what Santana, Puck and Finn think about you. Even if you’re not friends they’d like, still defend you.” Hopefully that was a little reassuring.
“Yeah... yeah, you’re probably right.” At least, she hoped she was. She did like to think that even though not everyone in Glee got along, that they were still a kind of family, and would always be there for one another. “But, um, anyway. Yeah, so the answer to your question is, no. No boys I’m interested in at the moment... no girls either, really,” she added, because now she felt she could talk a bit more openly about that.
“Oh... uh, you would do that? Date a girl? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I mean... I don’t have a problem with what Santana and Brittany do together.” Wow, could she be any more awkward?
“Well... yeah,” she said. She had assumed that Quinn would have figured as much, but she hadn’t really elaborated earlier. “I mean, I guess you don’t have to want to date girls to want to kiss them, but I do.”
“So you wouldn’t kiss a girl if you didn’t want to date her?” Quinn asked, focusing hard on the fire. She wasn’t even sure why she was asking this, but she never really felt comfortable asking Brittany and Santana about this. Plus they definitely didn’t need to be dating people to kiss them, whether it was a boy or a girl.
Getting a little nervous about where this conversation was going, Tina followed Quinn’s cue, and also stared into the fire. “I don’t normally just kiss anyone unless I’m interested in them. I mean, it’s not a rule, it’s just... the norm.” The norm based on the two people she had kissed. “But, I might. I guess it depends. If I was just curious...”
“Oh. Well that makes sense,” Quinn said slowly. “I would probably do the same thing. I mean, if I was curious.” She bit her lip nervously. Because... okay maybe she was curious, but she wasn’t doing that at all. She was mostly just saying obnoxiously cryptic things in hopes that Tina would take the hint and kiss her. Wait, had that thought actually existed in her head? Bad bad bad bad thoughts.
Tina looked over at her, wondering if what she thought was happening was really happening. “Are you... curious?” she asked. She knew the answer had to be yes, but she still felt to need to be absolutely sure.
“No. I’m just curious. Not about getting personal experience. Just how... it works...” she trailed off, feeling like she wasn’t being very convincing.
If Tina actually believed what Quinn was saying, she’d let it go. But she was kind of contradicting herself. “You can’t ever really know how it works without getting personal experience,” she said. Narrowing her eyes slightly and turning her body so that she was actually facing Quinn, she placed her hands on her knees and leaned over slightly. “Okay. I dare you to kiss me. It’s your turn, and you said earlier you were going to pick dare. So this is it.” Her voice was less demanding than her words, but she was being perfectly serious.
“You’re serious?” Except the look on Tina’s face made it perfectly clear that she was. Biting her lip nervously, Quinn shifted so she was facing Tina. She definitely wasn’t about to back down because she was Quinn Fabray and she wasn’t afraid of anything. Except maybe she was a little. She hadn’t kissed anyone in a long time. She had never kissed a girl. What if she was bad at it and Tina laughed at her?
“Fine, let’s just get it over with,” she mumbled before leaning her face in towards Tina’s.
Tina couldn’t hide her surprise. She’d expected Quinn to say no. And she was more pleased with her willingness than she expected she would be. I guess I want this more than I thought I did.
She leaned in slowly, meeting Quinn half way before their lips touched. She kissed her softly, and only once, but didn’t pull back, deciding to let Quinn take control of the kiss and decide how far she wanted to take it. At this point, Tina was up for almost anything.
Quinn rested against her arms as she leaned forward, except they were kind of shaking and she didn’t know why. And she also wasn’t sure if she was more upset about this because her arms felt weird or because that might make her have to stop kissing Tina.
It was seriously pathetic how much she was quivering. Coach Sylvester would have killed her if she saw this demonstration of weakness. The only way she could think of making it stop was to move her hands up to cup Tina’s face as she continued kissing her slowly.
Tina adjusted herself so that she was resting on her knees and scooted forward, but without breaking their kiss. Her eyes opened momentarily when she felt Quinn’s hand on her face, but she closed them and moved forward even more so that she could place a hand on the other girl’s waist.
Even though she told herself to let Quinn take control, she couldn’t prevent herself from deepening the kiss slightly, cautiously running her tongue along the opening of Quinn’s mouth as she raised her other hand to run along Quinn’s arm slowly.
It felt like forever since Quinn had kissed someone and Tina was really good at this and she felt really comfortable and safe and didn’t feel pressured to go further than she felt like. And Tina’s lips were really soft and she tasted good and she had pretty much forgotten that this kiss was only supposed to be a dare because now all she wanted to do was keep kissing her.
As Tina deepened their kiss, Quinn moved one of her hands up from the other girl’s cheek so she could run it through her dark hair. She had always been a little jealous of how shiny it was and it felt just as soft as she thought it would.
Just as Quinn was about to open her mouth and meet Tina’s tongue with her own she heard a phone start ringing. She slowly pulled back, breathing a little heavily, and said, “I think it’s yours.”
Tina took a sharp intake of breath when Quinn pulled back. She hadn’t even heard the phone ringing until Quinn mentioned it. Listening more closely though, she automatically knew who it was. “Oh... it’s Artie. That’s his ringtone,” she said, still in somewhat of a daze before she shook herself out of it and stood up, going over to answer her phone.
She managed to pick up just before it would have gone to voicemail. “Hey,” she said, her voice still a little thick. She cleared it and tried to compose herself. She didn’t want him to suspect, though she didn’t know why it mattered anymore. “Uh, no, you didn’t wake me. What’s up?”
Quinn felt her stomach drop when Tina said it was Artie, though she wasn’t sure why. Now that her lips weren’t attached to anything anymore, she remembered that it had just been a dare and didn’t mean anything. Deciding to give them space to talk on the phone, she stood up and padded her way over to the kitchen, shivering slightly since she was away from the warm fire, to get a glass of water and to try and clear her head.
Tina watched Quinn make her way into the kitchen, barely listening to Artie on the other line. “Uh, no, I’m fine,” she laughed suddenly when she realized what time it was. “The power went out like two hours ago, you’re checking up on me now?” And like that, it felt like everything was normal again. She didn’t want to stay on the phone for very long, so she assured him that she was fine and that she was keeping warm by the fire before hanging up and making her way into the kitchen.
“Hey,” she said, tentatively. “He was just calling to check up and stuff.” She slowly approached Quinn, wondering if now was the time she was going to freak out on her, but hoping not.
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Tina,” Quinn said as she stood by the kitchen sink, sipping her water and looking out the window. “It’s still snowing, in case you were curious.” She thought maybe the best approach to this would be to not talk about it. They could just forget about it and go back to normal. They still had to finish their Glee assignment after all.
“I... I’m not,” she lied. “I was just letting you know. He says hi, also,” she said, wondering why she was even bothering. She hadn’t even told Artie that Quinn was there. Deciding that maybe changing the subject was the best thing to do, she also looked out the window and watched the snow falling. It was still coming down, but not as hard now. It was actually really pretty. Tina always liked the winter.
She tried to think of something to say that would lighten the mood, or at least make things less awkward. “So... I know it’s late, but are you hungry or something? We can make popcorn over the fire. And we have one of those portable DVD players. It has a few good hours of battery life. We could watch more Buffy,” she offered, trying to sound somewhat cheerful.
“Yeah that sounds good. I actually am hungry.” She snorted slightly. “I bet my mom had dinner all laid out but she’s home alone now. And the power is out so she probably had to clean up in the dark.” It was a pretty funny image to Quinn for no particular reason.
Still smirking with amusement, she tipped her glass, pouring out the rest of the water then started walking back to the living room. “Say, why haven’t your parents called to check on you? I mean Artie did, but not your parents?”
Tina furrowed her brow; there was something... off about the way Quinn was talking, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. And she didn’t think that story about Quinn’s mom was very amusing, but maybe she was just missing something.
She grabbed the popcorn out of the pantry before following Quinn back into the living room, but stopped suddenly at the mention of her parents. “I... they... they’re in Baltimore. They probably have no idea that there was even a snow storm tonight, or that the power is out,” she said, feeling the sudden need to defend their neglect. “And I talked to them earlier, before you got here,” she lied. She knelt back by the fire and adjusted the wood so she could place the tin on it carefully.
Quinn thought there was something off about the way Tina was talking too, but didn’t know how to call her out on something like that. She was just trying to say it was odd to her when all the other times she had been over it seemed like her family really loved her. So it was just weird to her that they hadn’t called to check. “I guess that makes sense...” she said, before sitting down and turning her gaze on the popcorn tin. She had never seen it popped over an open flame and was curious about how it would work.
Tina kept peeked over at Quinn every so often, but eventually decided that Quinn was just making conversation and there was nothing weird going on at all. Maybe in assuming Quinn would freak out about the kiss, she was simply seeing a freak out where there wasn’t one. When the popcorn started popping Tina got back up, deciding now was a good time to go grab the DVDs and the player. “Okay. Watch that for me. Treat it like a regular popcorn bag. When the time in between popping becomes longer, it’s most likely done. I’m going to go grab the, uh, stuff.”
She quickly made her way upstairs, finding the portable player in her parent’s closet, before grabbing the DVD set still sitting on her own player. Stopping in the kitchen on the way back she grabbed a large bowl for the popcorn something to put the hot popcorn tin on. “Back,” she announced, as she entered the living room. She set everything down on the table, clearing candles to make room, and turned back to Quinn.
The popcorn was interesting to watch and Quinn half expected it to fall a couple times from how intense the sound was, but luckily it didn’t fall into the fire because if that happened she would be bummed. She was actually pretty hungry now that there was promise of food.
“Hi,” she said quietly, still watching the popcorn tin. “I think it’s almost done. You find everything?” She asked as she looked back, seeing that Tina had indeed found the DVD player. She sort of wondered why they hadn’t done that right away. If they had, that stupid kiss never would have happened.
“Yeah,” she nodded and watched the tin herself before realizing she needed something to open it with. “Oh, hold on. I need to grab a knife.” And while she was at it she decided to grab some blankets and two pillows out of the hall closet as well. As she re entered the living room, she tossed the blankets and pillows on the couch.
“Okay, I think that’s done now. Hold this,” she said, handing the knife to Quinn, handle first, of course. She touched the end of the rod sticking out of the tin, checking that it was cool enough to touch, before pulling it out and placing it on the mat. She held out her hand for the knife and moved back before carefully slicing open the bag as all the steam came out. Tipping it over into the bowl she handed it over to Quinn with a smile on her face. “Tada!”
Quinn smiled slightly. That was cute. Wait. No. No it wasn’t. Not cute at all. Zero cuteness. Clearing her throat slightly she nodded in approval. “Cool. Good job. It looks good,” she said before scooping up a small handful to test.
Tina smiled at Quinn’s approval before moving over to set up their DVDs. Once she had everything good to go she reached over and grabbed a small handful of popcorn herself. “Okay, everything’s ready.” She got up to go over and grab the blankets and pillows, munching away, so that they could lie down and relax while they ate and watched Buffy. “So, I think we should do this properly and start at the beginning,” she said, the first disk already in. “It will be more enjoyable that way, in the long run.”
Quinn raised a brow at that last part. Maybe she was just on edge from their unintentional make-out session earlier but that had sounded kind of dirty. Swallowing hard, she just nodded her head and ate some more popcorn. “Sounds good to me.”
Tina lay down next to Quinn on the futon, and made herself comfortable. She gave Quinn a small smile before leaning forward to press play and waited for the show to begin.
Author: wanderinghope & thechroniclady
Pairings/Characters: Quinn/Tina
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 7,367
Spoilers: none
Summary: When paired together for their winter break Glee assignment, Quinn and Tina had no idea what they were getting into.
Previous Chapters: One | Two | Three | Four
Chapter Five
The next week or so, Quinn and Tina shared some pretty successful rehearsals. They mostly had the vocals down and had started figuring out their dance routine (And Quinn might have even let Tina put in a few riffs as a compromise to not do that weird dance move Tina wanted to include in their choreography) so over all things were going pretty successfully for them.
Hanukkah was finally over so when Quinn went to Tina’s house for the afternoon she was a little surprised at how quiet it was. In fact it was just the two of them there. So weird compared to the last week where it seemed like every aunt, uncle, cousin, niece and nephew possible were in attendance. Apparently the holidays really brought her family together. But now the house was quiet and Tina’s parents were away at some medical convention. The blonde didn’t think much of it and they went on as normal rehearsing their song and choreography.
Eventually though it was getting late and Quinn’s mom would be expecting her for dinner so she said her goodbyes and got ready to venture out into the tundra. Except when she pulled open the door her eyes went wide.
“Tina, have you seen how much snow is out here?” Apparently as they had been practicing it had been snowing like crazy. Sure it had been snowing a little when Quinn drove over to Tina’s, but in the past few hours so much snow had come down and the streets weren’t plowed and if she tried driving she would surely get stuck.
“That’s... a lot of snow,” she said after a few moments of gawking. “I can’t go out in that.” There was a hint of annoyance and maybe even disappointment in her voice. While it was true that she and Tina had been getting along much better lately, the thought of being snowed in with her was a weird thought.
Curious, Tina joined Quinn over by the door, her eyes widening when she looked outside. “Whoa, I can’t say I was expecting that.” The problem wasn’t even just her driveway, but the entire block had yet to be plowed. She wrapped her arms around herself as they were still standing in front of the door. “Well, close the door. It’s really cold.” She stepped back into the house. “You can stay here for a while. Until the plows come. I don’t mind.”
Quinn glared out at the snow for a few moments more before retreating back inside and closing the door. “Thanks. I guess I should call my mom though and let her know what’s going on. Even though it’s pretty obvious that no one should be out with snow like this,” Quinn said as she stripped her jacket off again and got out of her boots.
“So what do you want to do while we wait?” Quinn asked, turning to look at Tina.
“Okay,” Tina said, nodding. “That’s a good idea.” She made her way back to the living room and plopped down on the couch. “Um, I don’t know, I guess we could-” But she was cut off when all the lights suddenly went out. She groaned inwardly, “... Damn.”
After trying to make her way into the kitchen to grab two candles and some matches she headed back out into the living room, handing a lit one to Quinn. “Here, keep this. I have a lot more candles upstairs. I’ll go grab them and we can set them out.”
Quinn looked around nervously when the lights went out. She had been to Tina’s a few times by now but she still didn’t want to go tripping over something and get hurt. It’s not like she knew the exact layout of everything in her house. She let out a breath of relief though when Tina produced candles.
“Um, I’m just going to call my mom,” she called up to Tina then pulled out her cell phone. The conversation wasn’t long and the reception was a little fuzzy but Quinn managed to reassure her mom that she was safe at Tina’s and that she would see her when ever she could drive again.
After she stored her phone she walked over to the stairs and started walking up. “Do you need help?” She asked once she was outside Tina’s door.
Tina was having a difficult time trying to carry as many scented candles as she could and still hold onto the one she had lit. So when she heard Quinn outside her door offering help, she was grateful. “Actually, yeah. Come in.”
“Hey...” Quinn said quietly as she stepped in. She wasn’t sure why she was whispering but it just felt appropriate since it was so dark and kind of creepy. “I called my mom. She said power is out over there too. I guess we just have to like, wait it out or something.” After standing there awkwardly for a few moments she remembered she had offered Tina help. “Uh, here, let me take a few,” she said, stepping forward.
“Must be all over town then,” Tina mused before handing over some of the candles to Quinn carefully. Once she felt like they had a decent amount she started to go back downstairs. “Let’s set up most of them in the living room. That’s where the fireplace is, which we’ll need.” Seeing as how the heat went out along with everything else. “There’s some firewood in the garage,” she mumbled, more to herself.
Managing to make it back downstairs, Tina handed the box of matches to Quinn. “Light those. I’ll go get the wood.”
Quinn nodded then worked on setting the candles out around the room and lighting them. When she was all done she stepped back to admire her handiwork. It was actually quite pretty, seeing all the candles lit like this. Almost romantic. Except it was sort of wasted romance because it was just her and Tina. Whatever.
Tina came back into the living room, with a few logs in her hand. Placing three of them in the fireplace she worked on getting it lit. It took a little bit, but it wasn’t long before she had a small, but decent flame going. It would grow. “Okay. That’s... settled then.” Looking around the room, she was satisfied with the set-up. Briefly noting the heart-shaped raspberry scented candle was centered on the table. She’d bought it for her first date with Artie... “Want to help me bring down the futon? We can set it up in front of the fire so we can keep warm.”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” Quinn said as she assessed the fire. It was no central heating system but it was better than nothing. “Lead the way.”
With Quinn’s help they were able to carry the cushion downstairs. Placing it in front of the fire, Tina sat down and crossed her legs. The fire had built up nicely now and she instantly felt warmer seconds after sitting down in front of it. Waiting for Quinn to join her she wondered what they could do to entertain themselves. “So... truth-or-dare?”
Quinn raised her eyebrow as she sat down. Really, they were going to play truth-or-dare? It wasn’t like they had much else to do though. Shrugging as she deliberated which she should pick she finally said, “truth.” Best to start off safe and ease your way up.
Tina smirked, glad that Quinn was going along with it. “Okay. That Dita von Teese video I showed you. Secretly, you liked it, didn’t you?” she asked, giggling.
Quinn blinked hard a few times, resisting the urge to let her mouth drop open in disbelief. Finally she gained her wits back she rolled her eyes. “They were interesting,” she said, noncommittally.
“They?” Tina asked, giggling even more. “I only showed you the one,” she said, pretending she hadn’t seen those videos on Quinn’s recommended section when they’d gone onto Youtube. She kinda figured Quinn had watched more than one. But teasing her about it was a little too fun.
Quinn glared slightly at Tina. “You only get one question. So it’s your turn now. Truth-or-dare?” Crap. And now to stop Tina from asking more about her watching the videos she was going to have to pick dare next turn. Maybe they would get bored of this game after another round and she would be off the hook. She hoped...
“Okay, truth,” she replied, wondering what Quinn might ask her.
The first instinct Quinn had was to ask Tina if she was a raging lesbian because no normal person had that many pictures of half-naked women on their wall but something was telling her a question like that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Plus she wanted to steer the subject away from her own fascination for Dita von Teese. Instead she decided to direct the conversation to more neutral grounds. “So, does it bother you that you’ve only gotten like one solo in Glee?” It certainly bothered Quinn that Rachel hogged the stage all the time. Glee wasn’t a one woman show.
Well that was a sobering question. No longer giggling, Tina paused to think of how to answer it. It did bother her, but at the same time she didn’t think she was a great soloist. True Colors had been right in her range, and it was a simple performance. And she never did get quite the right handle on Tonight. Some of the numbers Rachel and Finn did sometimes though...
“I... I guess it does. But I don’t have a voice like Rachel or Mercedes. And I feel like I lack their, uh, spark. But I would like more, definitely.” But she didn’t really know how to assert herself and just ask for them.
“Isn’t the point of Glee the fact that all our voices are different though? And obviously Mr. Schue thinks you have a good voice. A better one than me. I’ve never gotten a solo.” She shrugged, trying to act indifferent. “Anyway, uh, I pick dare.”
“I don’t think so,” Tina answered, quickly. “I mean, you were the first person Mr. Schue gave the Don’t Stop Believing solo to after Rachel quit, that one time.” Although, she guessed that didn’t mean much because as soon as Rachel came back, Mr Schue had given her the solo back as well.
Quinn just shrugged again. “Whatever, I’m too busy with the Cheerios to worry about practicing for a solo anyway.”
Tina shrugged, deciding she’d move past the subject and tried to think of a dare. Her options were limited, considering they were basically trapped in her house. “Uh, okay, I dare you to... prank call Mr. Schuester,” she said, smiling. Sure, prank calling was so middle school, but then again, so was truth-or-dare.
“What are we, twelve?” Quinn asked, though she was actually sort of smiling. “Do you think the landlines still work? He has my cell phone number...” She bit her lip. It would just be weird if he knew it was her calling, though she definitely wasn’t opposed to prank calling in general.
Tina smiled and stood up. “Follow me,” she said, leading the way to her father’s office. “My dad’s office phone isn’t wireless,” she explained. Therefore, it would still work. She picked up the phone, checking to see if there was a dial tone; there was, before she handed it to Quinn. “Block the number anyway though. So he can’t call back.”
“I can’t believe I’m really doing this...” Quinn mumbled as she pulled up his phone number from her cell phone. After dialing *67 to block the number she dialed Mr. Schue’s and waited as it rang. She almost thought he wasn’t going to answer but at the last moment he picked up.
Quinn was quiet for a moment or two, nervous and thinking of what to say.
“Hello? Hello?” Mr. Schue must have thought the phone lines were being weird, but it was really just Quinn not talking... “Hello? Are you there?”
Finally Quinn cleared her throat, having thought of something to say. She tried disguising her voice my using a nasal tone and said, “Yes, hello. Do you know karate?”
“Hello? What?” Mr Schue said, utterly confused.
“Because your body is kicking,” Quinn finished before slamming the phone down and bursting into giggles.
Tina could hear Mr. Schue’s voice on the other end and sat down in her father’s chair, trying to stay as silent as possible. But even though she had her hand clamped over her mouth, a few small giggles managed to escape through.
When Quinn hung up the phone, Tina removed her hand, laughing loudly. “Karate?! Oh my god, he’s probably like, what the hell?” She leaned back in the chair and eyed Quinn, feeling a little more daring herself, she decided to go with a dare this time as well. After her laughs quieted down she said, “Okay. I’m going with dare as well,” and awaited her fate.
Quinn continued to giggle as well but finally managed to settle down eventually. Tapping her chin as she thought, she looked Tina over. After a few moments she straightened up and smiled. “I know! I dare you to take all your make up off.” Quinn had never seen her without her goth attire on and was pretty curious about what was under there.
Instantly, Tina’s mouth fell open as she placed her hands over them and gasped dramatically. “Not my face!” It was... rare Tina went without make-up and when she did, she never left the house or ever invited anyone over. Apart from her family there was only one other person who’d ever seen Tina without a spec of make-up on her face. But it was a dare, and she had no choice.
Grumbling to herself she got up and made her way upstairs to her bathroom, expecting Quinn to follow. Applying a generous amount of remover to a large cotton ball, she slowly but surely began to remove her make-up. It was somewhat of a lengthy process to remove everything completely. And when she was done, she turned slowly to face the person responsible. She held the candle up to her face, still glaring, and said without an ounce of humor in her voice, “tada.”
Follow she did indeed. Quinn leaned against the door frame and watched as Tina went through the process of taking her make up off. It was taking a surprisingly long time. Quinn wondered what the point in all that way. It seemed like such a waste of time to have to spend that long taking it off. She could only imagine the ordeal it was to do that in the morning. And it was even more baffling because somehow Tina managed to do it while most likely half asleep. It was maybe even a little impressive, but she’d never say that out loud.
When Tina turned around, Quinn examined her face for a long time. She held a candle up a big higher so Tina’s face had more lighting and nodded in approval. “You look nice.” Well that had sort of just slipped out.
She fidgeted nervously where she stood. “Uh, thanks.” That seemed to be the default response the very few amount of people had to say. But Tina just thought she looked plain. She turned back to the mirror and looked at her face before looking down at the rest of her. “But now my clothes just look ridiculous on me.” There was a stark contrast now between her face and the rest of her.
Quinn smirked. “I could dare you to take those off, too, but it’s kind of cold.” And it would be totally inappropriate. And why would she want Tina to take her clothes off anyway? Bad thoughts, bad thoughts! “Um. Anyway... my turn. Truth I guess.”
Tina, momentarily oblivious to the way Quinn’s suggestion could have been taken and forgetting about the game, actually considered it. “You know, that’s not a bad idea,” she said before turning to leave the bathroom. “I guess I could change into something more... comfy.” She knew it wasn’t very late, but she might as well just get into her pajamas now, since she wasn’t planning on going anywhere anytime soon.
She wondered if she should offer some to Quinn as well, but she didn’t know if Quinn had planned on possibly staying the night at all. But they really had no idea when those plows would be coming by. “Do you want to change into something else too? I could lend you something. You know, just in case.”
Quinn followed Tina into her bedroom, walking carefully with the candle so as not to drip wax on the floor. “Um, yeah, sure. I mean I bet the plows won’t get to the residential streets until morning. I’m probably stuck here tonight. And sleeping in jeans is really uncomfortable... So thanks.” She was really relieved that Tina didn’t take her words the wrong way and was actually looking forward to getting into some comfier clothes.
Tina shivered a little as they entered her bedroom. It was much colder up here already, so she quickly grabbed some pajamas for both of them. “Let’s change downstairs,” she said, before getting out of there as quickly as possible. Leaving her door open, hoping maybe a tiny bit of heat would travel in there. It wasn’t as cold in the hallways.
It was pretty amazing to Quinn how it had maybe only been an hour since the power went out and it was already chilly up here without the heat and fire. “Good idea,” she said, following her back downstairs. She grabbed the pajamas Tina was holding out to her, raising her eyebrow slightly at the silky fabric but worked on changing as fast as possible so she wouldn’t get cold.
The blue drawstring pants were actually really comfortable. She might have to invest in a pair like this for at home. It was a little weird thinking about how she was in Tina’s pants though. Except totally not in that way. Bad thoughts again! She quickly took off her t-shirt and pulled on the white thermal Tina had given her. Oh awesome. Her black bra was totally showing though. Whatever. It’s not like anyone else was going to see them.
“Uh, thanks, again. They’re comfy... and warm,” Quinn said as she pushed the sleeves up slightly.
Tina also made quick work of changing out of her clothes and into her pajamas. Not really focusing on any one point, her eyes did eventually drift over to where Quinn was changing, but when she realized what she was doing she quickly turned her head back, deciding to concentrate on one of the candles sitting on the table. When she was dressed she turned back to Quinn, her eyes immediately drawn to the fact that she was wearing a black bra, under a white shirt.
“Oh, um, no problem,” she said, pushing up her sleeves as well and sitting back down on the futon, sighing as she was quickly warmed up. “Okay, so it was your turn, right? What did you pick? Truth?”
Quinn settled back down on the futon as well, sticking her feet out towards the fire to warm them up. “Uh, yeah it’s my turn. I said truth.”
Tina racked her brain, trying to think of a question to ask Quinn. This was her chance to ask her whatever she wanted, but she was drawing a blank. Finally she decided on something maybe a little too personal, but she was going to just go with it. “Who’s a better kisser? Finn or Puck?”
It sort of felt like she was choking on her own tongue and she couldn’t speak. It had been a while since Quinn had thought about either of them in that way. Clearly things hadn’t worked out with Finn after she lied to him and things had never really happened with Puck either. It’s not like they had to be together to raise their daughter. They both just sort of went their own ways and that was that.
“Um. I. Uh. Finn,” she finally said and paused thinking about that. “Definitely Finn. I only, uh, kissed Puck the one time. But he wasn’t as like... sweet as Finn was about it.”
Tina had been slightly surprised by that answer. She assumed that Puck, clearly being the more experienced of the two would have been the better kisser. But she understood where Quinn’s answer was coming from. “That makes sense,” she replied, after thinking about it. She was just glad that Quinn had actually answered. “Okay. Truth.”
Quinn just nodded, glad that Tina didn’t ask her about it anymore. “Okay. So, who have you kissed besides Wheels? Uh, I mean, Artie.” It was only fair to ask a question about kissing since that was what Tina had done to her.
Tina considered the rules of truth-or-dare to be almost sanctimonious, but for the first time ever, she actually considered lying. She wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed, but she was nervous about Quinn’s reaction in particular. “Um... I...” How was she going to word this? “There was this, uh, girl at summer camp, before Freshman year. Naomi... Klein.” It had been a Jewish camp, of course. “Technically, she was my first kiss,” she said, avoiding Quinn’s eyes.
Quinn’s eyes went wide when Tina said he word ‘girl’ and kept getting bigger as Tina’s story went on. “Is it different than kissing a boy?” Oh crap that had totally slipped out. “Never mind. I was just thinking because of um Brittany and Santana because they obviously like boys too... Uh, never mind...” she trailed off blushing.
That had not been the reaction Tina was expecting. “No, it’s okay. You can ask,” she reassured her. She was honestly just grateful Quinn hadn’t freaked out on her. “It is different. Not better or worse, but different. I don’t really know how to explain it though.”
“Oh...” Quinn pulled her feet back from the fire, thinking maybe she wasn’t blushing but instead getting overheated by the flame. Yeah, that was totally it. “Okay. Well so you’ve only kissed those two? Artie and that um, girl?”
Tina nodded. “Yeah. I never did go back to camp after that either,” she mentioned as an afterthought. “I aged out.” But now she was getting off topic. She looked over at Quinn, wondering if she was blushing or if it was just a slight shadow. “How many people have you kissed,” she asked, momentarily forgetting that they were still in the middle of a game.
“Just Finn and--” Quinn started but cut herself off. “Wait. Is this your question to me? Because I was actually going to say dare.” She really didn’t need Tina to be asking about her sudden curiosity about girl on girl kissing.
“Oh, uh, no I forgot we were still playing. I was just curious.” And she still wanted to know the answer. “Just Finn and Puck though? Really? I’m kinda surprised.”
“Just because Santana and Brittany are my best friends doesn’t mean I make out with anything that moves,” Quinn said, huffing slightly. And just because she happened to get knocked up the one time she made a really stupid mistake didn’t mean she was a slut.
“That’s not what I meant,” Tina said, shocked at the assumption. “I mean, I just thought because you’re, you know, pretty and popular that you would have had more kissing experience. I wasn’t trying to say I thought you had also made out with half the school.” Although, she had to admit, that because Brittany and Santana were her best friends, she though that Quinn had maybe kissed more... people. She also wondered if Quinn had ever kissed one of them, but she was not about to ask.
Quinn rolled her eyes. “Finn and I were together for like ten months. I lived at his house for a while. It wasn’t like we sat around and played board games.” Though sometimes Finn did get distracted by his video games. Typical boy. Part of her was curious about the fact that Tina had just called her pretty but that was in the ‘bad thoughts’ category so she just left it at that.
“Yeah... I guess. Okay.” That made sense, when she thought about it. “Hmm, so I guess you and I are kind of equal on the experience aspect then,” she teased. She and Artie hadn’t been together for as long as Finn and Quinn, but when they finally did start referring to each other and boyfriend and girlfriend, there had certainly been less Halo grudge-matches going on between them.
Shrugging, Quinn said, “I guess so.” Except in Quinn’s mind Tina kind of had the more experience since she had kissed a boy and a girl while Quinn had only kissed boys. Except as far as Quinn knew (and she didn’t want to know... how would that even work with Artie? BAD THOUGHTS!), Tina had never had sex, while she had. Even if it had been a total and complete mistake, that will still more experience, right? It’s not like it was a competition though.
If someone had told Tina a month ago that she and Quinn would one day be sitting in her living room, talking about their... experiences, she would have considered laughing in that person’s face but then actually just walking away awkwardly. “Yeah...” she said, glancing over at the fire and noticing the lowering flame. She stood up to add another log to the fire. “I mean, I guess it doesn’t really matter much to you, but it’s kind of bizarre, from my point of view,” she rambled, talking more to herself than to Quinn.
What was Quinn even supposed to say to that? After thinking a few moments she decided to say nothing. At least about kissing. “Thanks. For putting more wood on the fire.” There. That was acceptable conversation, right?
“Yeah, no problem,” she said, taking her seat back next to Quinn. “So, are you interested in anyone now?” she asked, completely unaware that Quinn wanted to change the subject.
If she wasn’t slightly annoyed Quinn might have found Tina’s obliviousness kind of amusing. But that wasn’t the case right now.
“Uh, no.” It didn’t really seem like people were interested in her either. Or at least in the genuine way Finn had been. It was more that everyone knew she and Puck had sex and were maybe hoping Quinn would do it with them too. But obviously she had learned from her mistake and wouldn’t be putting herself in any kind of idiotic situation ever again.
“Are you?” Quinn asked after a long pause.
“No,” Tina said, suddenly very interested in her hands. “The only other guys I really know, and like are taken, gay, related to me... or my ex.” She kinda wondered if she’d ever really find anyone who got her as well as Artie had. And if they hadn’t even been able to make it work, she had little hope for anyone else.
“And here I thought you and Mike would make such an awesome couple,” Quinn said, smirking ironically. “There are guys outside of Glee though.”
Tina wrinkled her nose and laughed. “No thank you. Incest isn’t really my thing,” she joked. “And I guess there are, but it’s not like they’re lining up or anything. Everyone outside of Glee still thinks I’m a freak. Hell, even some people in Glee still think I’m a freak.” It was a little sad, she thought that the people in Glee were truly her only friends. But she was okay with that.
“Look, I--” Quinn paused, trying to figure out what she even wanted to say. She just had the weird urge to comfort Tina, but she didn’t know what to say. Finally she settled on just saying something simple. “I don’t think you’re a freak okay?”
Tina looked up, surprised that Quinn was actually trying to make her feel better. “Oh... well, thanks. I... I wasn’t actually talking about you specifically,” but until Quinn said anything just now, she had presumed she was still one of those people. “I mostly meant Santana,” she said, laughing awkwardly to try and lighten the mood. “And I’m sure Puck and Finn probably still think I’m totally weird. But still, thanks for saying so.”
“Oh, well...” Well that was sort of awkward. Quinn had just assumed Tina meant her, but apparently not. “I think it’s like Kurt said that one time when Rachel got egged. Like, how only we could make fun of her? I’m sure that’s what Santana, Puck and Finn think about you. Even if you’re not friends they’d like, still defend you.” Hopefully that was a little reassuring.
“Yeah... yeah, you’re probably right.” At least, she hoped she was. She did like to think that even though not everyone in Glee got along, that they were still a kind of family, and would always be there for one another. “But, um, anyway. Yeah, so the answer to your question is, no. No boys I’m interested in at the moment... no girls either, really,” she added, because now she felt she could talk a bit more openly about that.
“Oh... uh, you would do that? Date a girl? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I mean... I don’t have a problem with what Santana and Brittany do together.” Wow, could she be any more awkward?
“Well... yeah,” she said. She had assumed that Quinn would have figured as much, but she hadn’t really elaborated earlier. “I mean, I guess you don’t have to want to date girls to want to kiss them, but I do.”
“So you wouldn’t kiss a girl if you didn’t want to date her?” Quinn asked, focusing hard on the fire. She wasn’t even sure why she was asking this, but she never really felt comfortable asking Brittany and Santana about this. Plus they definitely didn’t need to be dating people to kiss them, whether it was a boy or a girl.
Getting a little nervous about where this conversation was going, Tina followed Quinn’s cue, and also stared into the fire. “I don’t normally just kiss anyone unless I’m interested in them. I mean, it’s not a rule, it’s just... the norm.” The norm based on the two people she had kissed. “But, I might. I guess it depends. If I was just curious...”
“Oh. Well that makes sense,” Quinn said slowly. “I would probably do the same thing. I mean, if I was curious.” She bit her lip nervously. Because... okay maybe she was curious, but she wasn’t doing that at all. She was mostly just saying obnoxiously cryptic things in hopes that Tina would take the hint and kiss her. Wait, had that thought actually existed in her head? Bad bad bad bad thoughts.
Tina looked over at her, wondering if what she thought was happening was really happening. “Are you... curious?” she asked. She knew the answer had to be yes, but she still felt to need to be absolutely sure.
“No. I’m just curious. Not about getting personal experience. Just how... it works...” she trailed off, feeling like she wasn’t being very convincing.
If Tina actually believed what Quinn was saying, she’d let it go. But she was kind of contradicting herself. “You can’t ever really know how it works without getting personal experience,” she said. Narrowing her eyes slightly and turning her body so that she was actually facing Quinn, she placed her hands on her knees and leaned over slightly. “Okay. I dare you to kiss me. It’s your turn, and you said earlier you were going to pick dare. So this is it.” Her voice was less demanding than her words, but she was being perfectly serious.
“You’re serious?” Except the look on Tina’s face made it perfectly clear that she was. Biting her lip nervously, Quinn shifted so she was facing Tina. She definitely wasn’t about to back down because she was Quinn Fabray and she wasn’t afraid of anything. Except maybe she was a little. She hadn’t kissed anyone in a long time. She had never kissed a girl. What if she was bad at it and Tina laughed at her?
“Fine, let’s just get it over with,” she mumbled before leaning her face in towards Tina’s.
Tina couldn’t hide her surprise. She’d expected Quinn to say no. And she was more pleased with her willingness than she expected she would be. I guess I want this more than I thought I did.
She leaned in slowly, meeting Quinn half way before their lips touched. She kissed her softly, and only once, but didn’t pull back, deciding to let Quinn take control of the kiss and decide how far she wanted to take it. At this point, Tina was up for almost anything.
Quinn rested against her arms as she leaned forward, except they were kind of shaking and she didn’t know why. And she also wasn’t sure if she was more upset about this because her arms felt weird or because that might make her have to stop kissing Tina.
It was seriously pathetic how much she was quivering. Coach Sylvester would have killed her if she saw this demonstration of weakness. The only way she could think of making it stop was to move her hands up to cup Tina’s face as she continued kissing her slowly.
Tina adjusted herself so that she was resting on her knees and scooted forward, but without breaking their kiss. Her eyes opened momentarily when she felt Quinn’s hand on her face, but she closed them and moved forward even more so that she could place a hand on the other girl’s waist.
Even though she told herself to let Quinn take control, she couldn’t prevent herself from deepening the kiss slightly, cautiously running her tongue along the opening of Quinn’s mouth as she raised her other hand to run along Quinn’s arm slowly.
It felt like forever since Quinn had kissed someone and Tina was really good at this and she felt really comfortable and safe and didn’t feel pressured to go further than she felt like. And Tina’s lips were really soft and she tasted good and she had pretty much forgotten that this kiss was only supposed to be a dare because now all she wanted to do was keep kissing her.
As Tina deepened their kiss, Quinn moved one of her hands up from the other girl’s cheek so she could run it through her dark hair. She had always been a little jealous of how shiny it was and it felt just as soft as she thought it would.
Just as Quinn was about to open her mouth and meet Tina’s tongue with her own she heard a phone start ringing. She slowly pulled back, breathing a little heavily, and said, “I think it’s yours.”
Tina took a sharp intake of breath when Quinn pulled back. She hadn’t even heard the phone ringing until Quinn mentioned it. Listening more closely though, she automatically knew who it was. “Oh... it’s Artie. That’s his ringtone,” she said, still in somewhat of a daze before she shook herself out of it and stood up, going over to answer her phone.
She managed to pick up just before it would have gone to voicemail. “Hey,” she said, her voice still a little thick. She cleared it and tried to compose herself. She didn’t want him to suspect, though she didn’t know why it mattered anymore. “Uh, no, you didn’t wake me. What’s up?”
Quinn felt her stomach drop when Tina said it was Artie, though she wasn’t sure why. Now that her lips weren’t attached to anything anymore, she remembered that it had just been a dare and didn’t mean anything. Deciding to give them space to talk on the phone, she stood up and padded her way over to the kitchen, shivering slightly since she was away from the warm fire, to get a glass of water and to try and clear her head.
Tina watched Quinn make her way into the kitchen, barely listening to Artie on the other line. “Uh, no, I’m fine,” she laughed suddenly when she realized what time it was. “The power went out like two hours ago, you’re checking up on me now?” And like that, it felt like everything was normal again. She didn’t want to stay on the phone for very long, so she assured him that she was fine and that she was keeping warm by the fire before hanging up and making her way into the kitchen.
“Hey,” she said, tentatively. “He was just calling to check up and stuff.” She slowly approached Quinn, wondering if now was the time she was going to freak out on her, but hoping not.
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Tina,” Quinn said as she stood by the kitchen sink, sipping her water and looking out the window. “It’s still snowing, in case you were curious.” She thought maybe the best approach to this would be to not talk about it. They could just forget about it and go back to normal. They still had to finish their Glee assignment after all.
“I... I’m not,” she lied. “I was just letting you know. He says hi, also,” she said, wondering why she was even bothering. She hadn’t even told Artie that Quinn was there. Deciding that maybe changing the subject was the best thing to do, she also looked out the window and watched the snow falling. It was still coming down, but not as hard now. It was actually really pretty. Tina always liked the winter.
She tried to think of something to say that would lighten the mood, or at least make things less awkward. “So... I know it’s late, but are you hungry or something? We can make popcorn over the fire. And we have one of those portable DVD players. It has a few good hours of battery life. We could watch more Buffy,” she offered, trying to sound somewhat cheerful.
“Yeah that sounds good. I actually am hungry.” She snorted slightly. “I bet my mom had dinner all laid out but she’s home alone now. And the power is out so she probably had to clean up in the dark.” It was a pretty funny image to Quinn for no particular reason.
Still smirking with amusement, she tipped her glass, pouring out the rest of the water then started walking back to the living room. “Say, why haven’t your parents called to check on you? I mean Artie did, but not your parents?”
Tina furrowed her brow; there was something... off about the way Quinn was talking, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. And she didn’t think that story about Quinn’s mom was very amusing, but maybe she was just missing something.
She grabbed the popcorn out of the pantry before following Quinn back into the living room, but stopped suddenly at the mention of her parents. “I... they... they’re in Baltimore. They probably have no idea that there was even a snow storm tonight, or that the power is out,” she said, feeling the sudden need to defend their neglect. “And I talked to them earlier, before you got here,” she lied. She knelt back by the fire and adjusted the wood so she could place the tin on it carefully.
Quinn thought there was something off about the way Tina was talking too, but didn’t know how to call her out on something like that. She was just trying to say it was odd to her when all the other times she had been over it seemed like her family really loved her. So it was just weird to her that they hadn’t called to check. “I guess that makes sense...” she said, before sitting down and turning her gaze on the popcorn tin. She had never seen it popped over an open flame and was curious about how it would work.
Tina kept peeked over at Quinn every so often, but eventually decided that Quinn was just making conversation and there was nothing weird going on at all. Maybe in assuming Quinn would freak out about the kiss, she was simply seeing a freak out where there wasn’t one. When the popcorn started popping Tina got back up, deciding now was a good time to go grab the DVDs and the player. “Okay. Watch that for me. Treat it like a regular popcorn bag. When the time in between popping becomes longer, it’s most likely done. I’m going to go grab the, uh, stuff.”
She quickly made her way upstairs, finding the portable player in her parent’s closet, before grabbing the DVD set still sitting on her own player. Stopping in the kitchen on the way back she grabbed a large bowl for the popcorn something to put the hot popcorn tin on. “Back,” she announced, as she entered the living room. She set everything down on the table, clearing candles to make room, and turned back to Quinn.
The popcorn was interesting to watch and Quinn half expected it to fall a couple times from how intense the sound was, but luckily it didn’t fall into the fire because if that happened she would be bummed. She was actually pretty hungry now that there was promise of food.
“Hi,” she said quietly, still watching the popcorn tin. “I think it’s almost done. You find everything?” She asked as she looked back, seeing that Tina had indeed found the DVD player. She sort of wondered why they hadn’t done that right away. If they had, that stupid kiss never would have happened.
“Yeah,” she nodded and watched the tin herself before realizing she needed something to open it with. “Oh, hold on. I need to grab a knife.” And while she was at it she decided to grab some blankets and two pillows out of the hall closet as well. As she re entered the living room, she tossed the blankets and pillows on the couch.
“Okay, I think that’s done now. Hold this,” she said, handing the knife to Quinn, handle first, of course. She touched the end of the rod sticking out of the tin, checking that it was cool enough to touch, before pulling it out and placing it on the mat. She held out her hand for the knife and moved back before carefully slicing open the bag as all the steam came out. Tipping it over into the bowl she handed it over to Quinn with a smile on her face. “Tada!”
Quinn smiled slightly. That was cute. Wait. No. No it wasn’t. Not cute at all. Zero cuteness. Clearing her throat slightly she nodded in approval. “Cool. Good job. It looks good,” she said before scooping up a small handful to test.
Tina smiled at Quinn’s approval before moving over to set up their DVDs. Once she had everything good to go she reached over and grabbed a small handful of popcorn herself. “Okay, everything’s ready.” She got up to go over and grab the blankets and pillows, munching away, so that they could lie down and relax while they ate and watched Buffy. “So, I think we should do this properly and start at the beginning,” she said, the first disk already in. “It will be more enjoyable that way, in the long run.”
Quinn raised a brow at that last part. Maybe she was just on edge from their unintentional make-out session earlier but that had sounded kind of dirty. Swallowing hard, she just nodded her head and ate some more popcorn. “Sounds good to me.”
Tina lay down next to Quinn on the futon, and made herself comfortable. She gave Quinn a small smile before leaning forward to press play and waited for the show to begin.