Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third, fourth, and fifty cycle. Now here's cycle 6!

Valentine's Day is coming, of course I couldn't ignore it! So I picked ten couples (some with OC characters) and set them for a love fest! :D Then on Valentine's Day, a group story! (not that kind of group, minds out of the gutter!) *cough* Anyhoo...
Valentine for the Gleeks, 8 of 11: Finn & Rachel

"Keep Staring"
Finn/Rachel

She'd thought it was going to be easy. Why not? They'd break up, it was inevitable. They'd break up, and then he could be hers. That was all it was: A, to B, to C… a straight line without any deviations, detours, spirals, roadblocks… a straight line.

The universe made quick work of showing her just how wrong she was. Before long, she'd had to own up to the fact that Quinn wasn't the person she thought she was, not completely. She'd also had to face how it wasn't just a run of the mill 'quarterback plus cheerleader' kind of thing. He did genuinely care for her. That was not going to just go away… especially with her being pregnant with his child.

She hadn't given up on him, not completely… she couldn't. Even if all her efforts brought her back to where she'd started, no closer to… whatever. And she continued…

And then had come the discovery, that the baby wasn't Finn's. That she had to find out and choose whether she should tell him or not… her motives weren't completely in an effort to tell him what he needed to hear; it was for her to try, as always, to create a place for herself with him.

It had all gone so fast, so not as she had thought it would. Seeing all the pain in Finn's face, in Quinn's… she just wanted to take it all back. Finn was just broken, and she felt she'd done the breaking. He wasn't going to let her in, not now… not like this.

The weeks started to pass, and they could feel everyone start to settle in their new reality, move along, fix the breaks they had felt. Finn was becoming his old self again in a lot of ways, but with one marked difference… he was single now. There wasn't that obstacle anymore. It should all have started to change then, they should have started to become as they had tried to be before…

They became closer friends, yes, but that was all they became as the weeks went by. It was as they were meant to be, together, but something in them kept stalling.

As much as they'd done so well to ignore it, they were very much aware of it, aware of how the other knew. And there the boosted friendship suffered.

Finally, Rachel had enough. After Glee practice one day, she'd moved to halt Finn as he was about to leave. He looked back at her, and she quietly motioned for him to hold up while everyone else left. Both of them nodded to Mr. Schuester as he left and they were now alone.

"I'm sorry, I just… we need to talk," she nodded to him. He hesitated for a moment.

"Alright," he nodded back. Now that she had him there, she found she wasn't sure how to move ahead.

"H-how are you?" He frowned, and she sighed. "What are we doing?"

"I don't…" he still looked confused.

"I think you know," she nodded, taking a step toward him. He followed her with his eyes. "Right?" she asked with some sort of hope.

"I do," he spoke simply. She smiled. "I… I don't know how to…" he started. She held up her finger then, opening up her bag. He watched as she pulled out a few sheets, a song. She handed it to him. "What are you…" he started another question, and she smiled.

"Neither of us seems to really know how to deal with this, so we have one thing we can rely on," she nodded to the sheets. "I thought it might help start us talking. He looked down at the sheets then finally smiled at her.

"Sounds good." She breathed out with relief. He thought about something then. "What about the music?" She had the answer to that as she pulled out her iPod and unfurled the headphones, handing him one of the buds.

"I arranged for the instrumentals to back us up," she explained. At this point, he wasn't surprised anymore. Rachel was about as prepared of a person as you could ever hope to get. "Ready?"

"Just give me a bit," he continued scanning through the lyrics. Already he could see what had led her to it. "Alright," he nodded. She nodded back, and she hit play. Connected by the cord feeding the music into their ears, they stood more or less facing each other as Rachel began.

[R] "You know you're stunning/ You're absolutely stunning / And I'm running always running.

And now I'm crying / You know only 'cause I'm caring / And if you were more daring, maybe you'd stop staring / Come over and talk to me / And tell me about how you've been waiting so patiently / And how you tried but I just turned away / And I'll say, "yeah well you know, I'm shy that way"

Shy that way / Baby I am shy that way."

As she sang, he watched her, not for the sole reason that the cord limited his periphery, but maybe because he felt he finally could. He hadn't completely prevented himself before, but it didn't change the fact that when he did look at her, he would remember Quinn, and it wouldn't matter, whatever he'd seen, it would have changed.

Then, the breakup… his mind had been turned over and sent spinning… it didn't matter where he looked, nothing was ever going to stick… nothing good.

And then, slowly, the veil had lifted, and he could see again. And what he saw was Rachel. He'd always been drawn to her, but it was different now. There was still the one problem though… they had to take that step. They'd waited so long…

[F] "You know you're stunning / You're absolutely stunning / But you're always running / But I'll catch up to you…

The way you keep your distance / Is keeping my interest / So I'll keep it persistent and go on…

Mhhm… maybe someday, someway, somehow, and sometime / We'll get together and we'll break it down / And I'll ask, "why you've been so shy, gotta be that way / Well maybe, baby, oh love, I like it that way / Oh oh / Shy that way.

You know I love you so shy, shy that way."

They'd shared the stage before, time and again, shared the lead, but it had never been the case before that it meant what this one performance meant between the two of them.

They had their chance now, they had to take it. They just had to stop being so worried…

[R] "So keep it coming, coming, coming, coming / Shy that way.

There's always too much talking / And I wanna just keep walking / But I keep staring, baby, keep staring / Though I may not know the right thing to say / I'll get it out to you one day."

The song-as-ice breaker plan was doing its part. The vicinity caused by the headphones was more and more of a benefit. As they sang, Finn lightly held on to her hand.

[R] "I'm shy that way." / [F] "You're shy that way."

[R] "Do you like it? Do you like it when I'm shy this way." / [F] "Yes I like it, yes I like it, when you're shy."

[F/R] "Shy that way."

[F] "I like it, I like it, shy…" / [R] "Yeah it's okay 'cause we're shy that way."

When the music in their ears faded away, they went on looking at one another. They remained silent for a moment.

"Hey, Finn?" she asked. "Still holding my hand," she pointed out, in careful breaths. He smiled.

"I know," he gave it a squeeze. She smiled.

THE END