The first of them being that she gets to teach her relationships class every Monday morning. There are only fifteen students in the elective course, but it's thrilling, opening up young minds to the possibilities life has for them, and she loves to listen to them debate the dynamics of their own relationships.

Second is that she has a standing lunch date with Sam on Mondays. She knows this is a little strange, considering how long they've been broken up for, but he is one of her best friends, and also the next youngest full-time faculty member at the university, her being the youngest, of course. There are a few professors in the music department in their low thirties, and she thinks that the new communications professor might be twenty-nine yet, but she still feels like a baby at twenty-seven, even if she's been here for four years already, and though she's friendly with her fellow faculty members, she hasn't made any real connections with them.

The third reason that Monday is her favorite is that she gets to meet with Kurt, Brittany, and Sunny every Monday afternoon at one-forty-five. She's not ashamed to admit that of all the students that come to see her, Kurt and his little family are her favorites. She had worried, at first, about how she would handle a weekly group counseling session; though she was just as concerned about encouraging the family dynamic in their strange situation as Kurt had been when he had first approached her about meeting, she had often found that there was a wall between group members that prohibited her and them from speaking of anything truly worthwhile. Brittany, however, was the most open and honest young woman Quinn had ever met, and though she could tell that Kurt was not as comfortable as the free-speaking cheerleader in opening up about any issues they might have, he had proved himself ripe for the challenge, and Quinn sometimes wondered if she was getting more out of their sessions than they were. It didn't hurt that Sunny was probably the most delightful little girl Quinn had ever seen, and Kurt was so easy to talk to once he relaxed, and Quinn considered the family to be good friends outside her office, and even in it.

Such good friends they were that it didn't bother her in the slightest that Kurt had left a book in her office after their session, and, as he wasn't answering any texts, she was forced to drop by his room to drop it off. After so much time together, she knew his schedule inside and out, so she figured he was either playing with Sunny or doing his periodic bit of cleaning that he had mentioned calmed him when he was stressed.

The thought caused a frown to cross her brow as she entered the dorm enclosure. Brittany had seemed perfectly fine today when she had broached the subject of her breakdown from the previous Friday, but there was a strange look in her eyes when she had said she was fine, and Quinn had a feeling that the young woman had lied to her for the very first time. She wondered that the cheerleader had never gotten over her high school romance, but considering the nature of her and Kurt's relationship, Quinn would bet that she had never had a transition relationship that would have allowed her to do so.

Not that you ever really had one of those yourself, a small voice whispered inside, but she shook it off as she walked along the pathway, turning right at the fork in the concrete path to get to Kurt's room. Though she and Sam had been 'high school sweethearts,' the stereotype stopped at the label, and if she was perfectly honest, even being married straight out of high school as they had been, she wasn't really sure if she had ever loved him, not the way you should when you were married. She sometimes wondered if she was even capable of loving someone that way, but when she had haltingly broached the subject with Sam, he had assured her she was entirely capable and just hadn't met the right person yet, and assured her as well that no matter what, there were no hard feelings that he wasn't that person.

A small smile crossed her lips as she remembered the conversation that had culminated in their divorce, and she wondered what it said about her that she considered that event to be one of the happier moments in her life. She brushed the idea aside, though as she knocked on Kurt's door.

There was no answer, and she hesitated a moment, a bit indecisive about her next move when she remembered Kurt saying that due to his friend Rachel staying with them, he had left the door unlocked so she could get in if she left without having to have her own key, or knock and possibly interrupt something. She felt a little tug inside at the name, but pushed it aside as she turned the doorknob slowly.

"Hello? Kurt?" she called out as she walked in, but the apartment seemed to be empty. "Brittany?" There was still no answer as she shut the door behind her, and though she figured Brittany was at cheer practice and Kurt had just stepped out, she went on just in case, "I'm here to return the book you left behind? It looks like a math textbook. Though I didn't even know you were taking--"

Her words cut off as she heard a soft voice singing, coming from Brittany's room.

"There are moments you remember all your life.
There are moments you know will be with you all your life."

She frowned as she stepped further into the apartment. That didn't sound like Brittany, though the voice was soft enough that perhaps the volume had distorted her normally bubbly tone. She walked down the small hallway at the back of the apartment and stopped just outside Brittany's door as the voice went on.

"Her face will be written on my mind.
Will be written on my heart.
As long as I live."

What was that from? Quinn's frown deepened as she pushed the door open, ready to ask, only to go still at the sight of the brunette kneeling on the floor by Brittany's dresser. Who--? The thought cut short as she saw the glass around the girl that she was picking up, and she was jolted into motion again, and rushed over to her.

"Oh, my god. Are you okay? Wait, don't touch that, I'll find a dustpan or--"

"I already found it," the voice replied, and Quinn felt something strange start in her stomach. She shook off the feeling, though, as she knelt beside the girl and looked at the photo she was painstakingly taking from the frame. It was one of her, Kurt, Brittany and Sunny, shortly after they had met for the first time. There had been an art walk downtown, and on a whim, Quinn had invited the trio to go with her and Sam, hoping to get to know them better, and to make them feel a little more comfortable with each other, since they were all of them so far from home. Sam had snapped this photo just after they had stopped and gotten coffee, and they were laughing at something Brittany had said, she couldn't remember what now, but it had been a good night, and the start of a beautiful friendship.

"Oh. I remember that day," she said softly. "Sunny spent half the night glaring at me, trying to figure out who this stranger was that was talking to her mommy and daddy. She came around towards the end, though, after I got her a vanilla ice cream cone. And lord, wasn't that a mess."

She grinned at the memory, only to have it falter as the girl before her slowly raised her gaze to meet her own. It felt like her breathe had been suddenly slammed out of her, and she blinked as she found herself drowning in warm, brown eyes.

"You're Rachel," she breathed out after a moment, and the girl smiled, her eyes wide with surprise and disbelief, and also an immense amount of delight.

"And you're Lucy. Nice to finally meet you in the real world," she grinned, and then they both started laughing.

~ + ~ + ~ + ~

Rachel wasn't sure if she should pinch herself to wake up, or if she was risking bruising herself if she did. Their laughter had quickly petered off as Lucy --or Quinn, as she had introduced herself as-- had fussed over the broken glass. Never mind that it was Rachel's fault; she had only been trying to do a little cleaning while Kurt and the girls were out, and then she had seen that photo on Brittany's dresser and had dropped it almost immediately after picking it up. Which was how Quinn had found her, trying to pick up the bigger pieces before brushing up the smaller ones and then going over the area with a vacuum just in case. Quinn had insisted on doing the vacuuming herself, and Rachel, nervous and excited at meeting the woman she had only just admitted to Kurt the other day might be her soulmate, had gone into the kitchen to fix them a drink or something, and now, here they sat, on opposite ends of the sofa, steaming cups of coffee on the table before them, and neither one of them seemed to know what to say.

"So, you..." Quinn began, before trailing off into nothing.

"Me."

They both grinned, and then turned away, and Rachel reached out for her coffee cup. She noted out of the corner of her eye that Quinn hadn't done the same, and she flushed in a delayed sort of horror.

"Oh my god. You don't drink coffee. I'm sorry, I knew that, you've told me so many times, and I forgot, and I just--" she had reached out for Quinn's cup to remove it or something, when her hand caught hers in her own, and she froze.

"Rachel."

She hazarded a glance up into the most beautiful green eyes she had ever seen, waking or sleeping, and she flushed again, now in embarrassment at her outburst.

"I'm sorry. I'm just..."

"Nervous?"

She returned the small grin Quinn gave her and nodded.

"Which is outrageous, of course, because as a performer, I simply can't afford to be nervous in any context."

Quinn's grin grew at the haughty tone.
"Now there's the Rachel I know and lo--" She cut off, and they both flushed at her almost-confession.

Rachel coughed to clear her throat before asking, "So, what are we, exactly?"

"Besides previously figments of our imaginations?"

"I never really considered you to be a part of my imagination," Rachel said softly.

Quinn looked at their still-clasped hands and sighed.

"I'm a bit too practical to think you could have been anything else. It's part of why I went into psychology. I thought if I could cure my own delusions, I could cure anybody else's."

"And how's that working out for you?"

They both grinned before a solemn air took over the room.

"Um...well," Quinn began after a moment, "Now that I've ascertained the reality of our situation, I have to admit, I really have no problems with this sort of thing." She nodded between them, squeezing her hand a little, and Rachel nodded in return.

"Neither do I. I have two gay dads, so this is nothing out of my grasp."

"And Kurt is one of my best friends. Is it weird to be best friends with a student?" she asked, and Rachel rolled her eyes at the clearly rhetorical question.

"Yeah, he's my best friend, too. He talks about you a lot, by the way. It's a wonder I didn't connect the dots."

"I'm counseling him, and I didn't connect anything."

"Guess we're both a little slow, huh?"

They both laughed a little and Rachel found herself scooting a little closer to the other woman.

"So this is totally natural," Quinn began.

"Absolutely."

"Except."

"I've never kissed a girl before," Rachel admitted. "Not even on stage."

"Neither have I, stage or otherwise."

There was a small pause before Quinn held up their joined hands and smiled.

"This is nice. We can take it slow. Get to know each other in the real world."

"Yeah. It's just really great to finally meet you Lu--I mean, Quinn."

"No, Lucy's fine. It's great to finally meet you, too, Rachel."

Do you believe in soulmates, Kurt? Rachel thought as she edged even closer, and a bright smile crossed her lips. Because I totally do.