Imperfection

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at [Link]

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: F/F
Fandom: Glee
Relationship: Quinn Fabray/Santana Lopez
Characters: Quinn Fabray, Santana Lopez
Additional Tags: AU
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2020-09-08 Words: 3,816 Chapters: 1/1
 Imperfection
by orphan_account

Summary

AU. Quinn discovers that there’s only one thing Santana has yet to master.

Notes
See the end of the work for notes
Quinn was trying her best to focus on the brunette pressing her lips against her neck, an
attempt at engaging intimacy between the two of them. A pale hand tangled in dark hair,
trying to subtly direct Santana towards her pulse point, which was usually one of her most
sensitive spots. Unfortunately for her, Santana did not get the hint and assumed Quinn just
needed something to grasp onto whilst she lay on top of her. She was putting some of her best
moves on the other woman, occasionally grinding her pelvis against Quinn’s own, feeling the
blonde’s legs around her waist as a foot stroked up and down the back of her thigh. Quinn
could sense herself getting more and more aroused at the feeling of Santana’s body against
her own.

In every other aspect, Santana was a goddess and she certainly knew what she was doing
with her hands – and body… But she was one lousy kisser.

She and Quinn had met at a Starbucks just three weeks ago and it was an instant attraction
between the two of them. See, Santana had caught Quinn’s eye from the second she had
stepped foot into the café, hazel eyes watching with endearment as the unfamiliar brunette
awaited her drink from across the store. Almost as though she had sensed someone watching
her, Santana turned her head to catch Quinn’s gaze, smirking with confidence when the
blonde’s head immediately dropped down, blushing at being caught. Moments later, a
shadow washed over Quinn’s table and she looked up only to be met with that same smirk,
only now it was inches from her face and paired with a set of teasing brown eyes. Santana
oozed of confidence and sex appeal, and her cocky attitude was a little irritating but Quinn
would be lying if she said she wasn’t severely turned on by the woman before her. The
brunette then invited herself to sit with Quinn before introducing herself and the rest became
history, as one may suggest.

In these last three weeks, they had managed several dates and countless make out sessions –
or at least, attempts at making out. Their first kiss, though brief, occurred two days after they
had met, following an evening walk at Santana’s request. As they walked through Central
Park, hands in their jacket pockets, a sense of contentment lingering in the air as they
absorbed the peaceful setting… And then Quinn suddenly found her being spun around by
her hand into Santana’s front, swallowing her gasp as Santana’s lips pressed against her own.
As far as first kisses go, it was actually pretty romantic and it had the potential to be one of
the best first kisses Quinn had ever had… If Santana’s lips had been able to maintain a
smooth rhythm instead of imitating a teething baby. Quinn decided to give her the benefit of
the doubt, narrowing it down to pre-kiss jitters because the way tan hands were rubbing
against her hips suggested that Santana was more than an adequate lover.
However, it soon became apparent that maybe kissing was one of the few things Santana had
yet to master… Or even get the hang of in the first place. Quinn felt terrible for the woman.
She had it going on in every way possible and she treated Quinn like an absolute princess.
The blonde was well aware that she shouldn’t take her for granted because in the three weeks
that they had known each other, she’d never felt more adored and prioritised in a relationship
in all of her twenty-one years. Santana went above and beyond any expectations Quinn
usually had for any of her suitors. Some may say it’s too early to tell but Quinn was pretty
confident that she was falling in love with Santana, if she hadn’t already, and they had yet to
sleep together… Only, Quinn wasn’t entirely sure that she was ready to confirm (or deny, she
silently prayed for the latter) that Santana’s bed skills were similar to her smooching
competence. Sure, she was good with her hands but Quinn also thought she’d be good with
her mouth.

As she tried to relax into Santana’s ministrations, she couldn’t help but sigh. Her eyes
widened as she hoped that Santana didn’t catch the fatigue in it but she could feel the Latina
smiling against her neck and Quinn felt a pang of guilt flow through her. Clearly, Santana
thought her sigh was a gesture of encouragement, that she was actively enjoying the open-
mouthed pecks that couldn’t be further from where Quinn wanted them. Quinn could feel
Santana’s right hand sitting on her thigh that was still wrapped around the Latina’s waist –
her dress having ridden up –, thumb stroking at the bare skin whilst her left hand very
carefully glided up her waist, towards her breast. This wasn’t the first time they’d rounded
bases, Quinn having been the first one to make the move – with permission, of course – a few
days ago, which resulted in Santana squeezing her ass. This was, however, the first time
where Quinn thought it might go that extra step further and though she would’ve loved to
take that step with Santana, she wasn’t quite there yet.

The hand came to a stop directly below her breast, resting on her rib cage and honestly,
Quinn hadn’t expected anything less from Santana. She was the epitome of chivalry. There
was never a hand out of place, a kiss lower than deemed appropriate, no attempts at sneaking
any peaks. Quinn truly felt as though she had hit the jackpot with her.

Santana pulled away from Quinn’s neck when she heard the blonde’s breath hitch. She kept
her hands still, gazing deep into hazel orbs.

“Are you okay?” Quinn’s heart melted at the concern in her lover’s voice. She’d barely even
done anything but still wanted to know that no boundaries were being pushed.

With a small, reassuring smile, Quinn nodded. Humming when Santana leaned closer to
caress the tip of her nose with her own. Every single one of her actions left Quinn feeling as
though her heart was about to beat out of her chest. She allowed her hands to gently slide up
and down Santana’s biceps as she lay propped up above her, fingernails scratching at the skin
lightly. Quinn closed the remaining distance and connected their lips. Santana might have a
lot to work on but Quinn simply couldn’t get enough of her, craving the intimacy.

Much like always, she tried to take control of the kiss but again, like always, that control was
swiftly returned to Santana. It had taken Quinn the whole of five minutes to see that Santana
was a wholehearted giver. The blonde was far too enamoured to care that she was on the
receiving end of what is possibly some of the worst kissing she’d ever had but she couldn’t
bring herself to care when Santana was looking at her like she was the most precious creature
in the world.

A pointed tongue probed at her lips, begging for entry. Quinn granted it but was immediately
met with said tongue invading her mouth, battling her own as if it was a fencing champion.
God, she really sucked at this.

The steaming coffee almost burned her mouth. She began to choke as she struggled to
swallow the near-boiling liquid. Quinn mentally scolded herself for being so careless, her
mind having been focussed on the best way to bring up Santana’s misfortune to her. Rachel
sat across from her, a smirk of amusement written across her face. Quinn looked at her in
disbelief as she finally managed to get the coffee down her without any permanent damage.

“I’m fine, by the way.” She exaggerated.

Rachel let out a snigger. “I just thought you’d enjoy some steamy action in your mouth
seeing as your ‘perfect, sexy, treats me better than life itself’ Latina lover isn’t quite as
impressive as you thought she would be.” Quinn rolled her eyes at the repetition of her own
choice of words from two weeks ago. She’d made the mistake of bringing Santana up to her
friends during one of their wine nights and, with one glass too many, Quinn had let it slip just
how attracted to Santana she was.

That night, Quinn had been very close to revealing her misfortune in the kissing department
but out of respect for Santana – still seeing it as a case of nerves at this point – the blonde
kept her lips sealed on the intimate details.
“But that’s it, she is constantly surprising me and she is so unbelievably sweet and funny
and,” she trailed off, “you know, she even cooks for me regardless of whose apartment we’re
at.” Quinn emphasised the latter part of her sentence, hoping to preserve this perfect image of
her lover.

“You can cook.” Rachel added pointedly, as if that cancelled out the gesture on Santana’s
part.

Quinn rolled her eyes.

“Exactly, that’s my point!” Rachel narrowed her eyes in confusion, not quite understanding
what Quinn was getting at. “What I’m saying is, she does all these things for me because she
wants to and not because there’s something in it for her or because she expects it to be
returned. You know how many times Puck cooked for me?” She didn’t wait for an answer.
“Once… And it was a frozen pizza… And when he put it down in front of me, he said, and I
quote; ‘does this mean I can finally motorboat your boobs?’ You know how many times
Santana has asked to motorboat me? None.”

The other woman looked as though she was trying not to laugh at Quinn’s comparison of her
ex and her current person of interest. “Maybe that’s something you could suggest, who
knows, it might even be better foreplay than kissing.” Rachel chuckled into her coffee before
taking a sip.

Quinn tightened her jaw at the quip.

“Quinn, honey,” Rachel sat forward. “Just talk to her. Tell her that whenever you make out,
you’re not feeling it and-”

The blonde groaned loudly.

“I can’t do that, she’s going to look at my with those damn eyes and I’m going to be able to
see the exact moment her heart breaks.”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic? She won’t be heartbroken, in fact, she’ll
probably be grateful that you’re being so honest.”

Quinn felt nauseous at the mere thought of breaching this with Santana, not wanting to pop
their blissful bubble out of fear that she’d lose the Latina. She’d much rather take a lifetime
of sloppy, poorly timed, out of place kisses than to sucker punch Santana right in the chest
after feigning pleasure in each peck against her lips.

“How are things going with Quinn?” Blaine asked from his place atop a ladder, stocking up a
bare shelf with vinyls.

Santana handed him up another one, lips curling at the mention of the blonde who had been
invading her thoughts ever since their eyes met at Starbucks.

“We’re good. I spent the night at her place last night for the first time.” She realised what she
had just implied as soon as the words were out of her mouth and tried her best to control the
blush breaking out across her face.

Blaine winked suggestively as he looked back from her to the shelf he was still filling up.
“Oh yeah? How’d that go?”

“We just slept.” She clarified. “And made out a little but that was it. I don’t think Quinn’s
ready for anything more than that right now.” There was something about her tone that had
Blaine watching her with fond eyes. “What?”

Blaine shrugged.

“Nothing, I just never thought I’d see you look so…Smitten.”

This time, the blush spread, burning her skin. Santana swore it would be imprinted onto her.
Before she could shift the attention onto Blaine and attempt to humiliate him as a defence
mechanism, her phone pinged in her back pocket. She pulled it out, her face lighting up at the
sight of Quinn’s name.
Quinn

14:11pm

Come over to my place tonight after work?x

Santana’s face almost split in two, sending back a quick ‘Always’ with the kissing emoji
before pocketing her phone. When she looked up at Blaine, he stood grinning on the ladder,
albeit a little too smugly for Santana’s liking.

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes but bit her lip to prevent from mirroring his expression.

If Quinn felt nauseous earlier, she felt close to blacking out now. This was not a conversation
she wanted nor was prepared to have. She knew that there could not possibly be a positive
outcome in this scenario, having convinced herself that Santana would either break down in
tears or get pissed and leave… Either way, she’d probably dump Quinn on the spot out of
humiliation… Or anger… Or both. Quinn checked the time. 18:20pm. Santana would be here
at any minute.

The blonde could feel her palms begin to sweat, wiping them on her jeans, hoping that the
motion would also calm her heart rate down. As she tried to convince herself that this wasn’t
even that big of a deal, a knock at door echoed through her apartment. With a deep breath,
Quinn made her way to the door, pausing to take one final moment to compose herself before
opening it.

Her breath caught in her throat. Santana stood, one hand resting against the door frame, the
other holding a bottle of wine and she had the most winsome look on her face. Yep… Quinn
had well and truly fallen for this girl.

“Hey,” she managed to breath out.

Santana’s responded with a small smile accompanied by a nose scrunch before she leaned in
to place a kiss on Quinn’s cheek.
“Hey,” was whispered just an inch from the blonde’s ear as Quinn willed herself not to shiver
at the sensation. When she pulled away, she smirked at her lover. “I brought wine.” Santana
held the bottle up, putting a little space between them.

Quinn let out a breathy chuckle. “You didn’t have to bring anything, you know?”

Santana shrugged. The Latina walked further into the apartment, allowing Quinn to close the
door behind her. When she heard the click of the latch, she turned back around to face the
other woman, depositing the bottle on a side table with a quiet clunk.

Quinn’s could feel her entire body heating up with the way Santana was looking at her. She
crossed the remaining distance slowly, letting Santana’s arms come to rest around her waist,
hands spreading flat across her back as she was pulled in closer. Quinn raised her hands to
clasp Santana’s leather-clad biceps. She was more than prepared to just throw caution to the
wind and let Santana do whatever she damn well pleased to her but as the brunette leaned
closer and closer, head beginning to tilt, eyes closing, Quinn was reminded of her agenda.

A split second before Santana’s lips could meet her own, Quinn jilted her head back. The
Latina’s eyes opened in bewilderment at the lack of contact. She pulled her head back, eyes
filling with concern as she took in Quinn’s look of turmoil.

“Are you okay?” Her hands began to rub comforting, abstract shapes on Quinn’s back.

Quinn found herself getting lost in brown eyes, swooning at how much care Santana held for
her. She nodded wordlessly, too afraid to voice what was practically screaming at her in her
head.

“Santana,” she began, her voice uncertain. It didn’t help with the way the brunette was
looking at her. Hazel eyes dropped down before she gathered the courage to look back up,
telling herself that she needed to look Santana in the eyes to get through this. “Santana, I…
When we…” Quinn was mentally kicking herself at her inability to formulate a sentence.
“Has anyone ever…”

Santana’s brow furrowed, hands still trying to soothe Quinn.

“Babe, are you sure you’re okay?”

Quinn let out a heavy sigh, pulling her hands away to rub at her face. She removed herself
from Santana’s embrace and took a step back. Santana stood patiently in front of her. The
blonde opened her mouth to speak but Santana beat her to it.

“Quinn, I think I know what this is about…” She began, crossing her arms over her chest.

‘No, I don’t think you do,’ Quinn thought to herself.

“And before you have a total freak out, I just want to you know that it’s cool and I completely
understand if you don’t wanna see-”

‘Wait, What?’ Quinn’s heart plummeted. Her eyes went wide as she shook her head in rapid
disagreement.

“What? No, Santana’s that’s not what I was getting at at all!” Her voice came out in a higher
pitch than usual.

Santana gave her a perplexed look.

“So, this isn’t about the fact that I can’t kiss to save my life?” Santana said it slowly as if that
would somehow certify that they were on the same page. The brunette had seemed so sure
that this was where Quinn was going.

Her suspicions seemed to be confirmed when Quinn’s face dropped. The blonde’s jaw
dropped, mouth opening and closing as she stuttered out incoherent words. She rubbed at her
forehead with her hand.
“Wha-, you knew?” Her voice reached a higher pitch than before. Santana winced at the
sound. “Oh thank god,” a sigh of relief, “I mean,” she mentally slapped herself, “Not that… I
just mean, I really didn’t want to be the one to tell you because I didn’t want to hurt your
feelings but you knew this whole time and, and… Oh my god, I’m being an insensitive bitch
right now.”

In amidst her rambling and slight panic, she failed to notice the look of amusement that
covered Santana’s face. The Latina’s lips quirked, brown eyes were playful yet Quinn was far
too distracted to realise that her lover wasn’t even remotely offended. Eventually, Santana
had enough of watching Quinn fret, despite how cute she found it, and stepped closer to her.
Quinn jumped when she felt hands wrap around her arms lightly.

“Hey, hey, calm down,” Santana’s voice was warm as she waited for Quinn to look at her
before continuing, “Quinn, it’s fine. I’m not gonna beat myself up over it.” A small laugh
escaped mid-sentence. “Actually, I’m glad you were going to be honest with me.”

Quinn smiled softly in response, her eyes filled with mild despair. “How did you know?” It
was barely audible.

Quinn had never felt more awful in her life but also couldn’t help but relax at the relief from
not having to break the news to Santana. It was at this moment, Santana managed to confirm
that she was indeed the most perfect person Quinn had ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Santana shrugged.

“After I’d made out with a couple of different girls and they practically blocked my number
in front of me, I asked my best friend if I was doing something wrong. Not so long story
short, but Britt and I kissed a little and she told me that I sucked.”

Quinn tried not to let the jealously blossom inside of her at hearing about Santana kissing
other girls.

“It only happened one time, so you don’t have to worry about any reoccurrences.” Quinn was
grateful that Santana had reassured her as if she had read the blonde’s mind. Tan fingers
tangled with her own before Santana continued. “Listen, I meant what I said before. It’s
totally cool if you don’t want us to see each other anymore… But I’d appreciate it if we could
still be friends? You’re a pretty awesome chick, Quinn. It’d be really crappy if I couldn’t see
you anymore.”

Santana went quiet for a moment.

“You want to know why I kissed you two days after we met?” She started. “It’s because I
knew you’d be disappointed if we waited. So, I figured I’d kiss you and then we could bail
without any feelings involved… But then you called the next day and you were like a breath
of fresh air… And I can’t apologise enough for not kissing you the way you should be
kissed.”

At Santana’s disheartened tone, Quinn felt her heart drop for the second time in the space of
ten minutes. She couldn’t believe that Santana would even humour the idea of Quinn being
so shallow but the blonde narrowed the insecurity down to all of Santana’s previous hookups.
Quinn removed her hands from Santana’s and brought them up to cup her lover’s face, brown
eyes looking at her in confusion.

Before either of them could say anything, Quinn brought their lips together. It took a second
for Santana to respond, her hands quickly finding Quinn’s waist before her lips moved
against the blonde’s. This time, Santana seemed more than willing to give up control to
Quinn, allowing her to take the lead in trading slow, gentle pecks.

A few moments later, Quinn reluctantly pulled away but kept her hands where they were.

“Santana, I don’t care how you kiss me,” she was quiet. “I just need to know that you’ll never
stop.”

Sure, it was cheesy and maybe a little cliché but Quinn had never felt this sort of contentment
in her life before… And when Santana responded with most dazzling smile, Quinn knew
what her answer would be to the Latina’s next question without a second of doubt.

“I’m going to assume this means you’ll be my girlfriend, right?”

Quinn giggled, her stomach doing flips in the best way possible. She nodded. “Yes, I’ll be
your girlfriend.” With that, the couple sealed the deal with a series of kisses, occasionally
having to stop so that Quinn could assist in leading a steady rhythm.

A whole week and two days later, Quinn lay panting in the bed, mussed hair clinging to both
her forehead and her pillow, the bed covers long forgotten on the floor. She felt sloppy, open-
mouthed, irregularly timed kisses being placed up her stomach and closed her eyes. A hum of
satisfaction escaped from her throat as she loosened her grip on the sheets beneath her. The
pecks were now making their way between her breasts until lips landed against her neck.

She opened her eyes, lifting her hands lazily before tangling one in Santana’s hair and letting
the other rest on her cheek as the Latina pulled back. The brunette looked at her with a
confident smirk and self-assured look in her eyes. Before she could make a quip, Quinn
tugged her closer, joining their lips together as they let out hushed moans of pleasure.

Santana may be one lousy kisser… But Quinn was grateful to discover that the brunette’s
mouth was adept in other places.
End Notes

Thank you all for reading. Hope you enjoyed it and please, leave a comment and let me know
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