Beaches
Pausing as Santana held her face, Quinn let most of the words she was speaking blur out into a collected mumble. Not that she meant to, but right now, the way the light was seemingly hitting her face, and how her eyes shone, how she practically glistened in the water, Santana was without a doubt, the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Letting her breathing slow, the blonde nodded before giving a weak smile, “yeah. Yeah, I promise.” With that, she once again let her eyes wander, taking in every detail as much as she could for as long as she could. Starting with Santana’s eyes, to the small, barley visible scar, she had on the inside of her brow. To the shape of her nose, the small dimples she had in her cheeks when she smiled. To finally, her lips.
Pausing, Quinn gave caution, careful not to upset or annoy her friend, and easily wrapped her arms around her waist, making sure that if the brunette decided to let go of her face, Quinn would at least be able to keep her close. Wading forward, a small, sad smile spread across her own lips and she closed the distance between them with a long, soft kiss. Only one of her hands laving Santana’s waist and finding her cheek instead. She savoured it. The usual overpowering cherry she had tasted so many times falling weak in comparison to the salt that now graced her friend’s lips. That same salt she felt on the tips of her fingers, as they managed to just barely graze the brunette’s hair. Everything about this felt so different to each time she had kissed her soberly before. The sheer pain in her stomach growing at the fact that tomorrow they would have to go their separate ways. The sheer desperation and want that the blonde willed into every small gesture and movement she made, begging Santana to at least think about changing her mind.
Not that she would, Quinn knew. She had made up her mind weeks ago, and honestly, the blonde was surprised they hadn’t went home months back. Pulling away, she momentarily lingered where she was. Her lips inches away from Santana’s, her hand ever present on her cheek, and her other drifting slightly by her wait. Leaving her eyes closed a little longer, she savoured the feeling and sensation she just had before bringing herself back to reality. Pulling herself away, she waded in the water and finally, brought herself to look upon the face opposite her. “I’m not sorry this time. Nothing you can say or do will make me apologise for that.” Nodding her head, she gave a faint smile, and began making her way back to shore. “Come on, you were right. We’ll catch our death out here if we’re not careful.”
Before that moment, if you’d asked Santana if she believed a kiss could stop time, she would have rolled her eyes, and said that’s just bullshit that some poet had made up centuries ago. But as Quinn kissed her, she couldn’t feel the freezing water, whatever seaweed and other unimaginable things that were probably wrapping around and swimming through her legs. And clearly, with time frozen, so was every muscle in her body. She was still in the same position she’d been in before by the time the blonde was pulling away. She didn’t move when she spoke, when she waded around her, heading back toward the shore, continuing to stare out at the ocean in a trance. Had that actually just happened? Had Quinn-- her Quinn, this woman who had become her entire world, actually just kissed her? Not a peck for fun, or a sloppy, drunken smooch, but a real, almost perfect kiss?
Slowly, she lifted a hand to her face to run a fingertip over her bottom lip, the sensation finally jolting her back into reality. Turning around, she sloshed through the water quickly and clumsily, only barely registering the sharp pinch of what she hoped were shells. The water only reached her knees by the time she caught up to Quinn, and she couldn’t ignore how cold the air was against her skin, but her need to stop Quinn from walking away outweighed the discomfort. Catching her by the arm, Santana pulled her around so they were face to face, and then her lips were on Quinn’s before she could offer any explanation or even wait for a response. There was nothing soft or gentle about her actions, but right now, she was being selfish. There was a jail cell waiting for her back in Vermont, she should at least be allowed this last moment of indulgence, consequences be damned. Her nails dug lightly into the arm she was still gripping, the other tangled in wet hair while she alternated between working Quinn’s bottom lip between her teeth and surely bruising both their lips in her attempt to get impossibly closer.
She pushed herself when her lungs started to burn with her inability to get a full breath until she absolutely couldn’t anymore and she was forced to step back, drop her arm, and let go of the back of her neck. Reality further settled in as she stood there, attempting to catch her breath, and any confidence she’d had shriveled. It was just a kiss. Different than the types of kisses they’d shared in the past, but a relatively innocent kiss nonetheless. Nothing Quinn had done warranted that type of reaction. With a nervous chuckle, she shrugged and started to shuffle the rest of the way out of the water. “I wasn’t going to ask you to apologize.”