a/n: finchel christmas drabble. this is what i hope happens for finn cause he deserves a happy christmas cause it's his favorite holiday and stuff. so this is for my lovely olive. she is awesome and i love her and i decided that i needed to write again and so i started this and she loved it and now it's finished and so yay.
He hates this. And not like in the “this blows” kind of way. He feels the hate seeping into his heart. Christmas is his favorite holiday. The lights and the snow and the smells, they’re what makes his year complete. This time last year, he and Rachel were happy, and he was buying her a Christmas pig and stuff. But now he’s in Lima, and she’s in New York and everything’s just all messed up. So yeah, he kinda hates Christmas now.
He hopes that maybe it won’t be as bad as he thinks. That maybe when his mom puts up the tree in the corner, he won’t remember how he and Rachel spent hours decorating it because “You can’t just throw on the decorations willy nilly, Finn. You have to make it look presentable!” And he really hopes that when his mom asks him to put the star on top, he doesn’t notice the little “RB” Rachel had written on it last year, “it’s a GOLD star Finn, you know how important of a metaphor they are to me.” And he had just smiled and put it on top of the tree where it belonged.
Then it all kind of hits him at once when he walks into the choir room and sees the kids decorating. ‘Cause they all did this last year, and Rachel was wearing this cute little red dress and her hair was in a braid on top of her head. And God, did he love the way that she kissed him under the mistletoe. And she was right that it was the best Christmas ever, because as far as Finn was concerned, this was going to be the worst.
It sucks cause they were sitting right there when she held his hand and told him she loved him when he told her how pretty she was. And it kinda killed his heart some more when he walked past what used to be her locker and remembered the look on her face when he gave her her presents and how much she loved them, and then he goes home because he can’t stand to think about that stuff anymore.
When he gets home he gives his mom and attitude about decorating. He knows he’s being selfish ‘cause his mom knows how much he likes to help with the decorating. And he hopes that she can forgive him when he mopes around the house, cause Rachel’s not the only one who’s gone and stuff. Kurt decided last minute that he’s not coming home either cause he can’t just leave Rachel alone in the city on Christmas. And just like that he’s the only kid in the house to celebrate with Burt and his mom. But they haven’t been home ‘cause they had been touring for Burt’s job. And it all just kind of sucks because it feels like he’s celebrating his favorite holiday alone. And he knows Rachel would be right next to him if they were together, but they’re not and she’s not even in the same state so he just kinda gets up and leaves the house because he’s staring at the tree again and it’s making him sad.
Finn doesn’t mean to end up at the Berry’s house, but his feet just kinda lead him there, and then he’s knocking on the door. Mr. Berry answers it with a smile and invites him in. “So what brings you here Finn?” Hiram asks. And Finn thinks it’s weird that they still want him to call them by their first names but he still does. ‘Cause hey, he almost married their daughter this year, so maybe there’s some sort of leeway or something. But to be honest Finn doesn’t know why he’s there, and he tells Hiram that and Hiram just gives him a pat on the shoulder and tells him to make himself comfortable, so Finn does.
He smiles at the picture of Rachel sitting on the piano as he passes it, because she’s still Rachel and he still loves her, even though he hasn’t talked to her in months. And that’s what he talks to Hiram about, how much he misses her and how he doesn’t know what to do. Hiram just listens as he talks nodding his head, and Finn doesn’t really know what to make of it so he just keeps talking. When Finn runs out of things to say he just looks at Finn with a gentle look in his eyes and says “Finn, I think that you love her more than any boy has loved any girl at your age. And maybe that scares her and she just doesn’t know what to make of it.” And Finn smiles because her dad is right. He loves Rachel more than any boy has loved any girl ever. But then he gets sad because he doesn’t think she loves him like that anymore. An hour later, he leaves her dad’s house then with a promise to spend the first night of Hanukkah with them, ‘cause he probably would have been doing that with Rachel anyway.
Finn doesn’t go home right away. Instead he kinda just wonders around Lima in the snow. It’s become something of a tradition for him that he’s loved doing since he was a little kid and him and Puck would throw snowballs at each other. And he’s not gonna lie that walking past all of the lights on people’s houses make him feel like a kid again. He stops when he passes the bus stop because instead of the normal medicinal ads that are usually plastered all over the overhang, there’s now and ad for visiting New York City for Christmas. And Finn thinks that this is a sign and makes the decision that maybe it’s time to call her.
He takes out his phone and dials her number, and of course he still knows it by heart, it’s embedded in his brain. It takes him three minutes to get up the nerve to press the little green phone and then the line is ringing. And then it rings again, and then three more times and then she answers with a surprised “Hello?” And then he hangs up because he just called Rachel and he promised himself that he wouldn’t but the snow and the lights and the walk, they just all remind him of how they held hands and did this last year. He’s just sliding his phone back into his pocket when it starts to ring again, and he knows that it’s her calling back, but he doesn’t know if he can answer it, if he can bear to hear her voice again. But he answers because it’s Rachel and he knows she would just probably keep calling if he didn’t. “Hey, Rach.”
“Finn are you okay? What about Carole? Burt is fine right?” It all kinda comes out as one big sentence because she says it really fast. And he smiles because it’s so Rachel and he knows she still thinks of them as family, and he can’t say he hates the feeling he gets when he thinks that maybe one day it will be their family.
“They’re all fine.” He hears her breathe out the breath she was holding. “I just…” he sighs cause he doesn’t want to cry but he can feel the tears welling up in his eyes. “I just wanted to call and wish you a Happy Hanukkah. It wouldn’t feel right for me to just pass it on through Kurt.”
“Well that’s, uh, very sweet of you, Finn.” She says, and he knows he made a mistake calling her. And he tries to tell her that she has to go but she stops him. “You’re walking through the streets right now aren’t you?” And just like that, he’s even more in love with her. So he tells her yeah he’s walking through the streets. “I figured. Most of the neighborhood usually has their lights up by now.” And just for a second he thinks he hears sadness in her voice.
“Yeah, they look really good this year. The Peterson’s, they added a dancing snowman to their lawn this year.” He laughs, because the Peterson’s decorations are probably the most over the top and crazy one’s you’ll ever see. Rachel pointed out that they’re like the Taylor’s from Home Improvement and Finn laughed, ‘cause it was true. Rachel must have thought about that too cause he heard her laugh.
“My goodness, is it next to the giant reindeer or the hippo dressed as Santa?”
“Neither actually it’s by the arch that says “This Way to the North Pole.” And then they’re both laughing and it doesn’t feel weird. Then Rachel has to go because Kurt has a fashion emergency and he lets her. “Thank you for calling, Finn. It wouldn’t have been the same if you didn’t call.”
Then the line goes dead and he stands there looking at the Peterson’s tacky lawn decorations and he smiles because maybe this Christmas won’t be as bad as he thought it would be.