Never again (Quinntana)

Chapter 22 - Back and forth

The next day, Quinn joined Santana once again at the gym. They worked on tumbling, Santana spotting Quinn. The captain's eyes stayed on the blonde, steady and focused, ready to catch her.

For hours Quinn tumbled and Santana spotted, both of them enclosed in their own world.

They barely registered the rest of the team fanning out around them, a watchful crowd of admirers. When the rest of the team joined them, they had already been at it for two hours. Santana had skipped her last class, and Quinn had had a free period before training.

"Another backflip." Santana's voice rang in Quinn's ears, and the blonde nodded, already focused on the task ahead.

Quinn's brow was wet with sweat, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she tried to maintain form on her twentieth backflip. Without thinking twice about it, she looked at Santana for reassurance. Her captain nodded.

Quinn jumped. She knew she was going to fall before it even happened. The jump hadn't been powerful enough. Her legs were too tired, her overworked abs didn't hold her body as well as they usually did. She flipped nonetheless, and felt Santana's hand on the small of her back, helping her turn, holding her a moment longer in the air just so that she wouldn't hurt herself.

Hurt herself she did not. Quinn even managed to land on her feet, but her balance was off, and she staggered and fell back. Right onto Santana, who landed flat on her bottom.

Two of their teammates ran to them, worry creasing their brows. "Santana! Are you okay?" Tiffany was one of them. She was gripping the fabric of her uniform, hard. Her eyes were set on Santana, and she reached for the Latina's hand, before stopping herself.

Santana lifted her eyes to meet Tiff's and offered her one of her rare smiles.

"I'm fine, Tiff. Thanks for checking up on me. Now you can go, I'm not a baby." That statement was quickly followed by the iconic eyeroll, and Tiffany nodded and backed off into the crowd of her teammates.

Meanwhile, the other girl had brought Quinn to her feet. The blonde seemed unscathed, and she immediately turned to offer a helping hand to Santana. "I'm sorry, San. Are you okay?" The nickname rolled off her tongue naturally. She hadn't even thought about it.

Santana's mouth twisted into a scowl as she ignored Quinn's outstretched hand. "I'm fine, Quinn. It's my fault. I shouldn't have pushed you as hard as I did. It was obvious that you were tired."

All that she said looking at the side of Quinn's face, avoiding the green eyes and the worry they held. Turning to her herd of a team, Santana yelled: "Back to training, girls! Show's over!"

Just like that, the girls went back to their routine, and Quinn and Santana were left alone once again.

"I think that's enough for today, Quinn. You weren't so bad. From now on, you're going to train with the team. No more personal coaching from me. Despite that little fall today, you're obviously ready. I'll tell Coach tomorrow."

Had it not been for the mention of her name, Quinn would have doubted Santana was even talking to her. The raven-haired girl's jaw was set, her gaze fixated on something far, far away, something that wasn't Quinn. It seemed that somehow, her fall had broken their fragile connection, and Quinn couldn't pinpoint exactly when or why that had happened.

A.N.

Hello again, beautiful people :)

Why do you think Santana reacted that way? Tell me in the comments!

As always, I hope you are all healthy and happy.

Love,

9_Alya_9

PS: Chapter dedicated to Nerd_Gurl06 who just joined us AND voted on all the chapters. Cheers!