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Dec 10, 2012

all roads, they lead me here

hello!! this prompt was requested by angie, and it's finn and rachel meeting under the mistletoe five times at a christmas party! it's also supposed to be canon(ish), with this set about a year after everything that has already transpired on the show! i hope you like it!! :)

“Finn’s apartment?” Rachel hisses, digging her fingernails into Kurt’s arm after he rings the doorbell. “We’re going to Finn’s party?”

“Yes,” Kurt snaps, loosening her hold on his arm, “and this is exactly why I didn’t tell you.”

Rachel just huffs, crossing her arms. “Well, don’t expect me to stay for very long.”

“Well, you aren’t the one with a key to the apartment tonight, are you?” Kurt says smugly, and Rachel just huffs because she knows that he’s right. “Plus I worked very hard putting this party together, and I’ve been decorating all afternoon, so the least you and Finn can do is be civil to each other.”

Rachel purses her lips. “Does Finn know that I’m coming?”

Before Kurt can answer, the door swings open, and when Finn’s eyes fall on her, his bewildered expression tells her the answer. He clears his throat, says, “Oh, um, hey Kurt, I didn’t know you were bringing, uh, a guest.”

Rachel glares at him. She’s just a guest now, is she? “Are you going to let us in all night, or has the party been moved to the hallway?” she snaps.

Finn ducks his head sheepishly, stepping aside so they can make their way inside. Rachel lets out a little gasp when she sees the inside of his apartment. He has to admit that Kurt really did a good job of decorating: Christmas lights are strung everywhere, little penguins in Santa hats are on practically every surface, and sprigs of mistletoe seem to be spaced about every five feet.

“Kurt, this is amazing,” she breathes, and Kurt, for his part, just smirks.

“I know,” he says breezily, and then he’s waving to someone she doesn’t recognize across the room, leaving her to her own devices. Finn’s disappeared as well (off to do his hosting duties, she supposes), and so she’s kind of just standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, arms folded and eye searching.

Finally, she spots a table full of refreshments against the wall on one side, so she heads over there, figuring that some food would at least be a good place to start. (And maybe even a drink or two because how could Kurt not tell her this is Finn’s party?)

Anyway, she grabs a plate, grabs a few vegetables off the veggie tray, and tries to look like she doesn’t feel completely awkward and out of place.

Rachel hangs around the table for the better part of twenty minutes before she finally plucks up the courage to at least attempt to mingle. She quickly downs her punch (and she’s pretty sure she’s laced with alcohol, so hopefully it’ll act as liquid courage), before she spots an attractive man probably around her own age just across the room, idly checking his phone.

She takes a deep breath before she crosses the room, smoothing back a few strands of hair from her face. She stands next to him, subtly at first, and she wishes she still had liquid in her now empty cup so she wouldn’t feel quite so awkward.

She sighs, getting out her own phone, scrolling through her text messages (none new, sadly), waiting for the guy next to her to notice her.

He doesn’t.

She tries clearing her throat.

Nothing.

Okay, she supposes she’ll have to try a more direct approach.

“Excuse me,” she says, flashing him her flirtiest smile, “but I don’t think we’ve been probably introduced. I’m Rachel,” she adds, holding out her hand.

“Rachel?” the guy asks, and his eyebrows disappear beneath his shaggy hair as he looks at her in surprise. “As in Finn’s ex-girlfriend, Rachel?”

Rachel’s smile falters. “How – how would you know that?”

“I’m in a few of Finn’s classes,” the guy says, and he still looks kind of terrified.

Rachel forces out a laugh, but the guy just looks even more alarmed, and she notices he’s starting to gradually inch away. “I’m sure he’s only mentioned good things—”

“Actually, I, uh, my girlfriend just texted me and said she needs me to, uh, wash her cat, so…”

Rachel just plasters on a fake smile, nods, says, “Sure,” and as he leaves, she vaguely wonders if he realized just how ‘wash her cat’ could be taken as a euphemism for sex. She bets he doesn’t.

She just sighs, glancing sadly back down at her empty cup. Finn’s made sure that she’s going to be a pariah at this party.

Almost as if on cue, she hears Finn’s voice behind her. “Hey, Rach, sorry I didn’t really, say, um, hi when you first got here or anything, but I’m really glad you—”

“What did you tell your friends about me?” she demands, glaring at him and crossing her arms.

“Um, nothing?”

She just glares some more.

“Okay, like, I might’ve mentioned that you can be a little intense and stuff, but I’ve mentioned tons of other great stuff about you, so, I mean…” He rubs the back of the neck the way he does when he’s uncomfortable, and Rachel’s glad he at least has the decency to feel awkward.

“Then why did that guy practically run away from me like I was a carrier of the plague?” she snaps.

Finn visibly flinches, and she can see his Adam’s apple bob in his throat. He looks up, avoiding her angry gaze, and he points to something above her head. “Look, mistletoe!”

She glances up, and sure enough, there’s a sprig of mistletoe above her head. She scoffs, but before she knows what’s happening, Finn leans down and presses a quick kiss to her cheek. She’s too shocked to do anything, and he blushes once he pulls away, muttering something about how he has to go.

She stands there for a moment, staring at the spot he had been a few seconds earlier, her skin warm where his lips had brushed. Tentatively, she reaches up to touch her cheek.

She’s not entirely sure of what just happened; she just knows that she needs another drink.

Rachel finally manages to find Kurt again over by a bookshelf in the living room, her cup now half-full with what she’s not naïve enough to believe is purely punch. He visibly swallows as she approaches, and she thinks he can see her anger practically radiating off her skin.

He looks around, as if for an escape, but she gets there before he can formulate a plan.

“You,” she says venomously, pointing her finger at him, “your idiot step brother had the audacity to kiss my cheek a few minutes ago!”

Kurt visibly relaxes. “Oh, is that all?”

Rachel narrows her eyes. “What do you mean?” she demands. “Should he have done something worse?”

“No, no,” Kurt says quickly – a little too quickly, she thinks, “I just have no control over what he decides to do with his lips, I’m afraid.”

Rachel eyes him for a few more seconds, taking a sip from her cup, when suddenly Kurt says that he has to go because the guy he’s been flirting with all night has finally extracted himself from an inebriated girl who just doesn’t seem to get that he’s gay, and once again, Rachel finds herself standing alone in at a party being hosted by her ex-boyfriend.

Since he seems to have uncanny timing tonight, it’s only a matter of seconds before she sees Finn’s tall frame moving toward her in the crowd. She has a half a mind to turn and stalk off, but the apartment’s small and she promised Kurt she wouldn’t leave without him, so it would really be quite fruitless.

He at least has the decency to look sheepish as he comes to stand next to her, hands in his pockets.

“Finn,” she says stiffly.

“Look, Rach, I’m sorry, I’ll just ignore the mistletoe this time, alright, no matter what tradition says has to happen.”

Rachel furrows her brow in confusion, but then he points to the top of the bookshelf, and sure enough, there’s another sprig there.

“Damn Kurt,” she mutters. Then, to Finn, she adds, “Well, good. We don’t need for things to be any more…” She trails off, swallows, takes another drink from her plastic cup.

Finn sighs. “Yeah, things are a little awkward,” he admits.

She just nods, looks out at the party instead of over at him. “Yes, well, I don’t know what you expected, moving out here six months ago without so much as giving me a heads up.”

Finn sighs again, and she glances over at him, watches him run a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t – I wasn’t trying to upset you or – or anything.”

“Then why didn’t you just tell me you were moving here?” she asks. “Didn’t I deserve to hear from you instead of from Kurt?”

“I just…” Finn huffs, and he finally looks her in the eye. “I didn’t want you to think I’d come here to – to like, convince you to be with me or something. Like, I just… I came here for me, because the school I wanted to be at was here, and like... I didn’t know if you’d believe me if I told you that.”

Her heart aches more than it should when he says he didn’t come here for her, but she gives him a small smile regardless. It’s good, anyway, that he came here for him, regardless of their personal history.

“Finn, that’s really great,” she tells him genuinely, and she even reaches over to pat his arm.

He smiles at her, and she feels her heart speed up in her chest, pounding furiously against her ribcage. She opens her mouth, and she’s not sure exactly what she’s going to say – that she’s sorry, that she’s missed him all along – but she doesn’t get to say anything because there’s suddenly a crash in the kitchen.

“Shit,” Finn mutters, “I gotta…"

“Yeah,” Rachel says quickly, “yeah, absolutely. I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”

Finn nods, says okay, and then he disappears.

She stares after him for a moment, then she realizes where she is and what’s she’s doing, so she quickly snaps out of it, trying once again to look for someone, anyone, to talk to.

Rachel finally runs into a girl who’s in one of Kurt’s set design classes named Laura, and Rachel finds her easy enough to talk to, especially since she attends NYADA as well and has been over to the apartment a few times. She compliments Rachel’s performance in the fall production of Les Miserables, and Rachel beams, eagerly asking her what her favorite number was and really just how good was she as Eponine?

Laura looks a little alarmed, and Rachel’s just about to prod a little bit more for answers when she feels a hand pressed against the small of her back, and then Finn’s murmuring in her ear that he could use her help for a second.

She looks up at him, confused, but she sees that he looks kind of worried, so she nods, tells Laura she’ll see her later, and she follows him through the party. His fingers brush her wrist at one point, but she tries not to focus on the way her heart rate increases.

She follows him into the kitchen, and it immediately becomes clear as to what Finn needs her help with. Kurt’s sitting in a chair, but his front half is slumped forward onto the table, his eyes half closed. He slurs out Rachel’s name when he sees her, giving her a loopy grin, but then his eyes slide shut again.

It’s pretty clear that he’s completely and utterly drunk.

“Oh God,” Rachel groans, “I’m never going to get him home in this state!”

“He can stay here,” Finn tells her, “it’s not a problem. I mean, I have a guest room. I just… I might need some help actually getting him into the guest room.”

“I can do it myself!” Kurt declares, but he practically falls over just trying to get up out of the chair, and both Rachel and Finn rush to him, one on each side to keep him steady.

“I see what you mean,” Rachel remarks dryly, and Finn gives her a small smile.

“Please don’t flirt in front of me,” Kurt slurs, his eyes slipping in and out of focus, “because I just might barf if you two start flirting. I certainly feel like I could blow at any moment.”

“Noted,” Finn says with a roll of his eyes. “Let’s get you to bed now, okay?”

Kurt just looks kind of confused, but he doesn’t fight them as they start to gradually move him out of the kitchen.

Once they’re back out in the living room where the party is still in full swing, however, it becomes a different story.

“Let’s dance!” Kurt shrieks suddenly, and he tries to grab hold of Rachel’s waist, and she laughs despite herself, slapping his hand away.

“Kurt!” she reprimands. “Maybe you’d be better off trying to dance with Finn!”

Kurt frowns, glancing over at Finn, his head lolling a bit, then back at her. “But Finn only ever likes dancing with you.”

Rachel can see Finn’s cheeks turn red, and she feels heat flooding her own as well.

“C’mon, let’s get you to bed,” Finn says gruffly, hooking his arm around Kurt’s more firmly. Rachel loops her own arm around Kurt’s bicep and does her best to help him.

“Finn really misses you, you know,” Kurt continues on loudly, seemingly oblivious to the discomfort that both Finn and Rachel are exuding. “He talks about you all the time, and he hasn’t even had sex in ages because all he can think about is y—”

“Kurt, shut the fuck up,” Finn says through his clenched jaw, yanking him more firmly in the direction of the guest room.

“I’m just telling the truth,” he says empathetically as Finn pushes open the guest room door. He looks over at Rachel meaningfully. “He’s a little touchy about the subject because he thinks you don’t love him anymore,” he stage whispers, as if Finn can’t hear, but Rachel sees Finn tense nonetheless, “because he never really stopped loving you.”

Rachel feels her heart stop, feels like she can’t breathe. Finn still has his back to her, and he looks like he’s taking deep breaths, in and out. She’s not sure what to do, or what to say, or if she should comment on it at all. Kurt’s drunk, after all, and Finn’s clearly uncomfortable with all of this.

Rachel touches Finn’s back lightly, causing him to jump. He looks kind of sheepish as he turns to look at her, but there’s something deeper in his eyes. Something she hasn’t seen in a long, long time.

“I can take it from here,” she tells him quietly.

“You sure?” Finn asks. He still seems tense.

Rachel nods. “I’ve done this for him many times before, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Look!” Kurt points out gleefully, pointing at the top of the doorway they’re standing under. “Mistletoe!”

Rachel glances up, and sure enough, there is a sprig of mistletoe in the doorway. She turns to glare at Kurt.

“You have to kiss,” Kurt says gleefully, and he looks like a small child as he bounces on the balls of his feet, watching them expectantly.

Finn sighs. “I don’t think so, Kurt.”

Kurt pouts. “But you have to!"

“Come along,” Rachel says instead, ignoring his protests as she grabs his arm, “it’s time for bed.”

Finn moves out of the doorway, stuffing his hands back in his pockets. “Thanks for the help, Rach,” he says, and he gives her a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

“It’s not a problem,” she assures him. “I mean, I have some sort of obligation to – to Kurt, as his roommate and best friend.”

Finn nods once. “Right, obligation, yeah. I just – I hope this doesn’t ruin your night or – or anything.”

Rachel thinks of the kiss he pressed against her cheek earlier, the way his lips felt against her skin: warm and soft and so, so familiar. “It won’t,” she promises.

He gives her one last fleeting smile, and then she helps Kurt inside, getting him into the bed right before he collapses. He curls up into a ball, mutters something about it being sleepy time.

Rachel sighs, sitting down on the edge of the bed for a moment. Did Kurt really mean what he said? Is Finn really not over her?

She shakes her head. Kurt’s drunk. He didn’t know what he was saying. She mustn’t get her hopes up.

She waits until she’s completely sure Kurt’s asleep before she leaves, heading back out into the party. The crowd seems to be thinning out a bit, not as many people milling about, and she wonders if Finn told people to start heading home.

She doesn’t recognize any of the people who remain in his living room, and she doesn’t even see Finn. She heads into the kitchen to see if he might be there.

He’s the only one in the room sitting at the kitchen table, staring at a clump of mistletoe in the center of the table, lost in his own thoughts. He doesn’t even look over when she comes in.

“Finn?”

He blinks, turns to look at her. Gives her that same sad smile. “Hey. Kurt okay?”

She bites her lip. “Sleeping.” Why does this feel so awkward? It’s Finn, the same Finn who was once the person she felt most comfortable with than anyone. She still feels that way, she thinks, and she doesn’t really know what that means.

“It’s pretty crazy, what Kurt said,” she finds herself saying instead, sitting down in the chair next to him.

“Which bit?” Finn asks. He looks tired, she decides. Older. More worn. His hands, still large and rough and very much as she remembers, press against the wood of the table.

She swallows, glancing up so she’s looking him in the eye. “The part where he said that you’re still in love with me.”

His lips twitch, and he just kind of looks at her, and she wonders if she should’ve said anything at all. Maybe she should’ve just pretended like it had never happened.

“Is that so crazy?”

She blinks at him in surprise. Honestly, an admission is the last thing she expected. “I – I don’t—”

Before she can say anything else, his hand is covering hers, his other hand coming up to cup her cheek as he presses his mouth against hers. Her eyes initially widen in surprise, but it’s only a few seconds before she’s kissing him back, her lips moving in time with his, almost like it hasn’t been over a year since they’ve kissed, since she’s been so close to him.

All too soon, he’s pulling away, and her eyes flutter open in time to see him hurriedly standing up.

“Finn, wait—”

“I’m just, I’m really sorry, Rachel,” he says, and then he leaves without so much as giving her a backward glance.

She’s sitting on the couch in his now empty living room, her heartbeat the only sound she can hear, a constant thrumming in her chest. The last of the party goers left a few minutes ago, and Finn’s cleaning up in the kitchen. He probably thinks that she left, too, but she’s still here, because her entire body still feels like it’s on fire, has ever since he kissed her.

She hears footsteps from the kitchen, and within a few seconds, Finn enters the room. He freezes when he sees her, his eyes wide.

“Rachel, I thought… I thought you left.”

She shakes her head. “I just… I think we need to talk, Finn.”

He swallows, his Adam’s apple visibly bobbing. “What about?”

She just gives him a look.

He sighs, crosses the room to sit on the couch next to her. She waits for him to say something, but they sit in silence for several minutes.

Finally, he sighs, and he doesn’t look at her, but he says, “Everything Kurt said was true.”

She doesn’t reply, just watches him, watches the way his jaw moves when he talks, watches his fingers curl into the cushion of the couch.

“I didn’t – I didn’t come to New York to get you back or anything. I mean, I wasn’t lying before. I just…” He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I just never really got over you either.” He glances at her. Shrugs. “I guess I didn’t know how, and – and I didn’t really want to. And I know it’s stupid of me,” he says quickly, “and I shouldn’t have kissed you, so I’m really, really sorry—”

“Finn,” she says quickly, “Finn, how could you possibly think that I ever fell out of love with you?”

He just kind of stares at her, his eyes wide.

“It’s always been you, Finn,” she whispers, and then she’s the one kissing him.

It’s not so hesitant this time, not so guarded, and soon his tongue is in her mouth and her hands are in his hair and she wonders how she went without this feeling, this sensation of being on fire in the best way possible, for so long. It was never like this with anyone else, and she knows now it never will be.

He pulls away after a few minutes, his breathing heavy, his lips swollen, and she takes the opportunity to stand up and take his hand, pulling him up off the couch. He looks confused, but he follows her over to the bookshelf.

She stops, turns to face him, takes both of his hands in hers. She looks up, and then she grins. “Mistletoe.”

Finn smiles, the biggest smile she’s seen him wear in over a year. “Thank God for Kurt,” he breathes, and then he’s kissing her once more.

She smiles against his mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck. She squeals in surprise when he scoops her up off the ground and starts heading to his bedroom.

Later, when her bare leg is hooked around his calf, her head on his chest and his lips pressed against her hair, she thinks that maybe the past year led to this moment, that maybe all of the ups and downs, the bad and the good, led to this ultimate good: her finally being back in Finn’s arms.

Finn tightens his hold on her, his fingers brushing the skin of her shoulder. “I love you,” he tells her, and she smiles.

“Merry Christmas, Finn,” she whispers, leaning up to kiss his chin. “And I love you, too.”

#merry christmas angie!!!!#christmas project #the ending is a little bad im sosrry #drabble #twoforonedeal

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