A/N: I really should have been working on my Rachel/Mike fic, but I have a severe case of writer's block for that story and this just would not leave me alone. I hope you like it!
Disclaimed.
"Crap," muttered Matt as the frisbee sailed just past his fingertips and remained airborne until it reached the other end of the park. "I'll bring it back, guys," he yelled over his shoulder, jogging over to where it landed. Before he was halfway there, though, a brunette in running clothes bent over to pick up the disc and was scanning the park for its owner. His eyes widened when he realized the girl was none other than Rachel Berry.
"Yours, Matthew?" she called. He nodded, and was about to tell her he would come get it when she smiled and tossed it to him calmly. To his surprise, it flew smoothly and evenly all the way to him.
"Thanks," he said with a grin.
"No problem. Enjoy your game," she replied, waving at him in farewell.
"Rachel!" he heard someone holler behind him. Rolling his eyes, he turned to see Mike running over towards them. "You made it!"
Matt was confused at the bright smile that crossed the tiny girl's face when she saw his best friend. She closed the distance between them, laughing when Mike swept her up in a hug. "Yes, Michael, I did tell you I would stop by the park on my run this weekend. Playing ultimate, I see?" she gestured towards the group of guys waiting for them.
"Yup," he said. "Hey, you wanna play? We're short a player on our side."
"I don't know, Michael," she said, looking over at the other players doubtfully.
"Aw, c'mon, short stuff. It'll be fun. None of us are going to bother you or anything, right Matt?"
"Um, right. No hockey assholes here, just some of the guys from basketball and a couple guys from my hip hop class," Matt said, wondering when Mike and Rachel had become friends.
"See? It'll be fun!" exclaimed Mike.
"Well, if you say so," said Rachel, although she didn't sound entirely convinced. "I'll be playing on the same team as the two of you?" she asked, turning pleading eyes toward Matt.
Matt felt a sudden surge of something—protectiveness?—toward the Glee diva, who was clearly uncertain about playing frisbee with a group of guys she didn't know well. "Yeah, you'll be on our team," he said reassuringly, dropping an arm around her shoulders. "Uh, stupid question though . . . you do know how to play, right?"
She nodded up at him in amusement. "Yes, Matthew. I would not consider playing with a large group of males, many of whom I do not know, if I did not know how to play the game."
"Right," he said sheepishly.
"Okay. I suppose I have the time to play a game. What's the score right now?"
"Excellent!" Mike grinned, winking at her. "Score's tied at three each. They won't know what hit 'em."
Matt stared at her suspiciously. "Why do I have the feeling you're a lot better at this than you're letting on?"
He was confused when she and Mike both laughed, but didn't say anything as they walked back to the makeshift field marked by sweatshirts and water bottles.
"Hey guys, Rach here is joining our team as our seventh player!" yelled Mike as they got to the end zone. Matt noted some of the guys staring at her skeptically, but he didn't say anything when she seemed unfazed by it.
"Michael, finish out this point then I'll join you," she instructed. He nodded, and Matt passed the frisbee to a guy on the opposing team, who tapped it back into play. A few minutes later, the other team had scored again, and Rachel was lining up with Matt and Mike at one end of the field.
"Rach, you sure you know what you're doing?" murmured Matt as she surveyed the seven guys lined up opposite them. It wasn't that he didn't think she knew how to play, really. It was just that she was so tiny, and the guys that were playing were not exactly midgets. She could get crushed, or trampled, or something.
She turned to him, reaching over to squeeze his arm. "There is no cause for alarm, Matthew. Honestly," she smiled, as Andrew, one of the basketball players on the other team, raised the disc in the air and called out ultimate.
Her expression transformed to a smirk as he yelled "frisbee!" in response to Andrew. Rachel Berry smirking? Girl has been spending too much time with Puck, he thought wryly.
She darted forward when Andrew pulled the disc, surprising Matt with her speed. Mike made it to the disc and quickly passed it forward to Rachel, who caught it with surprising ease. Matt's jaw dropped when he saw Rachel pivot quickly away from the defending player on the other team, deftly throwing a forehand back to Mike. Well shit, he thought as he ran into the end zone. She really does know what she's doing! Mike was unable to get the disc to him, and flicked the disc back to Rachel in a short lateral pass. She stepped out from her planted left foot, sinking low to the ground, and threw an inside out pass to the end zone, where Matt managed to jump and catch the disc.
"Our point!" she crowed, exchanging grins with Mike as they made their way toward Matt. The rest of the guys, including the ones on their team, just stared at her. Matt was pretty sure they were all thinking the same thing. What the fuck just happened? How did this chick do that? That was pure awesome!
Rachel smiled at him as they lined up to start the next point, and he couldn't help smiling back. He had never seen the petite brunette so carefree, and it was nice to see her like this.
By the end of the game, it was clear that Rachel was one of the best players there, and the guys were bantering with her easily, admiration evident in the way they looked at her.
"Yo, Rachel," said Chris, one of Matt's friends from his hip hop class. "We do this pretty much every weekend, you gonna join us? Make it a regular thing?" They all looked at her expectantly as she pulled Mike's water bottle from his hand and took a gulp.
"Oh!" She seemed pleased at the invitation, but looked over at Mike in uncertainty. "Thank you for the offer, but I would have to assume that if you do this regularly then you normally have the requisite number of players. I would not want to impose or take anyone else's place."
Mike shook his head. "Nah. It's the same group of people, but people just show up when they can. We don't have set teams or anything."
Matt nodded, nudging her with his shoulder. "It's just a friendly game on the weekend, you wouldn't be taking anyone's spot or anything like that."
She beamed at the two best friends. "Oh. Well, in that case, I would be happy to join you when I am able to."
"Sweet!" exclaimed Chris, grinning at the brunette, other guys from the game nodding their heads in agreement. Matt narrowed his eyes when he saw the way several of them were looking her up and down appreciatively, and dropped his arm across her shoulders to gently pull her against his side. Surprised, she looked up at him, a question in her eyes, but he just smiled. Mike, on the other hand, quirked an eyebrow at him in amusement, and Chris was visibly trying to rein in his laughter at Matt's show of possessiveness.
"I should be going home now, but thank you for the invitation to play with you. I had a lot of fun," said Rachel.
"Hey, thanks for playing with us!" Mike said.
"For sure. Glad we could talk you into coming back, too," added Chris, stooping to pick up a sweatshirt from the grass. "See you next week!"
She nodded, and moved to step out from under Matt's arm, causing him to frown slightly. "Bye everyone," she said as the group began to disperse.
Mike closed the space between them to pull the brunette into a quick hug, smiling at her as he released her. "See ya later short stuff."
"Bye Mike," she laughed. "I'll see you in school on Monday. Say hi to your sister for me!" She turned toward Matt. "This was fun, Matthew. I look forward to repeating the experience next weekend. In the meantime, I will see you on Monday."
He smiled at her in farewell, but then reached out impulsively to lay a hand on her arm. "You need a ride home?"
"Thank you very much for the offer, but as I mentioned earlier I was just out for a run. We are not too far from my house, so I can walk home. I don't want to inconvenience you."
Matt shrugged. "No inconvenience," he said, placing his hand at the small of her back and steering her towards his car. "I'm happy to give you a ride, really."
"Thank you, then," she smiled.
"So, not to be rude or anything, but howcome you're so good at ultimate?" He glanced over at her as they got into his car. "I mean, I know you're good at singing and dancing and stuff, but this doesn't really seem like your kinda thing."
She chuckled at him, buckling her seatbelt as he started the engine. "I was under the same impression when I first learned to play, but I really do enjoy playing now."
"Where did you learn?"
"Summer performing arts camp, believe it or not. I attended the same three week camp in upstate New York until sixth grade. In addition to a rigorous set of vocal, dance and acting lessons, I was also obliged to do something not related to the performing arts. The camp directors thought it was important."
He laughed at her. "Okay, so you learned to play because you were forced to at performing arts camp? Gotta say that's not what I was expecting. It also doesn't explain why you're so good at it!"
"Please, do you really think I would stand for being anything less than the best, even at something I did not initially want to do?" she said, eyes sparkling as he snorted. "In any case, after the first summer where I tried it, I was hooked. That was in fourth grade. I have been playing every summer since then at camp."
"At camp?" he shot her a confused look. "I thought you said you only went until sixth grade."
"I'm a counselor there now," she said, smiling softly. "I teach singing and dance to the little kids, and I'm also the coach, so to speak, for ultimate."
"Wow. That's pretty awesome. Sounds like you like it?"
"I really do," she replied as they turned onto her street. "It's really wonderful to be surrounded with people that are as committed to performing as I am, and it is incredibly rewarding to be able to teach and encourage the kids there. I think . . ."
"What?" he said curiously when she trailed off.
She was silent for a second as he stopped the car in front of her house, a faint smile playing about her lips as she stared down at her lap. "Promise not to laugh?"
"Promise," he said, wondering what she was about to say.
"Okay. I was simply going to say that if my dreams of stardom do not work out, I think I would enjoy being a teacher. Sometimes I think I would prefer it."
"That's it? Why would I laugh at that?"
She mumbled something he couldn't make out, still focusing on her lap. Frowning, he reached out a hand, placing a finger under her chin to tip her head back up towards him. "What was that?"
She sighed, but looked him in the eye. "I said, I know that people find me to be abrasive and irritating. When I told Finn about maybe wanting to teach, he laughed at me and said it was a good thing I would never have to. Which, of course, I realize he meant as a good thing, that I would accomplish my goal of making it on Broadway, but at the same time—"
He rolled his eyes and cut her off. Seriously? He laughed at her? Idiot. "Rachel, listen to me. Wanting to teach is awesome, there aren't enough people out there that want to be teachers, especially people that are so incredibly awesome at what they want to teach. You're passionate about singing, and I think you'd make a great vocal instructor." He reached out to push a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, searching her expression to make sure she was taking him seriously. Satisfied, he continued. "And, don't take this the wrong way or anything, because Finn is my bro and I know you were in love with him or whatever, but dude is kind of a jackass."
Her eyes widened at his last comment, and she let out a giggle. He grinned back at her. "Besides, this camp wouldn't keep having you come back as a vocal instructor if you were no good, right?"
She considered his words, then smiled brightly. "Yes, that is true. Thank you, Matthew." She paused, her forehead wrinkled as she thought about something before continuing. "You know you are quite correct, Finn really can be quite the—the—horse's behind," she said primly, looking a little proud of herself.
He couldn't help laughing at her ridiculous refusal to swear. She looked at him, clearly pleased that she had made him laugh, and began laughing with him after a few seconds. When they finally calmed down, she smiled over at him as she grabbed her purse from the footwell. "Thank you very much for the ride home, Matthew."
"No worries Rach," he said. "No trouble at all."
She opened the door, but hesitated for a second, turning back to him. "Would you like to come in for lunch?"
He grinned and hopped out of the car. He was enjoying getting to know Rachel a little better, and truthfully had been searching for some reason to prolong their conversation. "Sure, lunch sounds great."
They continued to talk as she made them sandwiches and poured two tall glasses of iced tea. They ate in her backyard, chatting for almost three hours as they enjoyed the unusually warm day. After they finally put their plates and glasses in the dishwasher, he asked the question he had been wondering about all afternoon, trying to keep his voice nonchalant. "So, you and Mike seemed pretty comfortable with each other today. How'd that happen?"
"Oh, I am an assistant instructor in the beginning ballet classes at the dance studio downtown," she said, oblivious to how carefully Matt was studying her as she answered the question. "You know Sarah, Mike's little sister?" He nodded. "She is one of my students, and I have been giving her private lessons twice a week. She really is a talented young girl. In any event, Michael's parents were unable to pick her up from a lesson a month ago, so I took her home and kept her company until her family got home. I was invited to stay for dinner, and Mike and I have sort of become friends since then. I also told him that Sarah would do well at the camp, which led to a conversation about it, which is how he knows that I play ultimate."
Matt released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding, suddenly relieved that her relationship with his best friend appeared to be strictly platonic. "Cool. Sarah's a sweet kid."
"Yes, she is," stated Rachel as they walked into the living room and turned on the TV. After a few minutes of channel surfing in vain, she turned to him with a rueful smile. "Guess there's not really much on. Want to put on a movie instead? I mean, if you don't have anywhere else to be?" She looked unsure of herself.
"Sure, a movie sounds good," he said, inexplicably happy that she had asked him to stay longer. "What do you have?"
She waved a hand, indicating the built-in shelving that took up one wall of the living room. "Daddy's a movie nut, so we have quite a large collection. And if you are unable to find anything there that you want to watch, I also have DVDs upstairs in my room."
"Wow, this is a huge collection," Matt said as he perused the titles. "Awesome, you have The Usual Suspects! That's one of my favourite movies."
"Yeah, that's a good one," she smiled. "One of my favourites, as well."
He grinned. "Well, let's watch it then!" She nodded, grabbing the DVD from the shelf and slipping it into the DVD player. They moved to the couch as the movie began playing, Rachel pulling her hair out of its ponytail and shaking it loose as she settled cross-legged next to Matt.
His breath caught as she flashed him a smile. Damn. How have I never noticed how breathtaking this girl is?
An hour later, Rachel opened her eyes, mortified to discover that not only had she fallen asleep in the middle of the movie, but her head had found its way to Matt's shoulder. "Oh!" she exclaimed, jerking herself upright. "I am so sorry, that was terribly rude of me. I did not mean to fall asleep, much less on top of you! It was quite unintentional, I assure you. You should have woken me up, or moved me, or something," she babbled, blushing bright red.
He simply looked at her in amusement, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "It's okay, Rachel. Your head on my shoulder hardly qualifies as you being 'on top of me.' You were comfortable so I wasn't going to move you, and I was fine watching the movie that way." He paused, an inscrutable expression coming over his face. "Besides, it was kind of . . . nice."
She stared at him. "Oh. I . . . oh!" Her face flushed impossibly redder as the implication of his last words sank in. "That . . . this . . ."
"Wow," he chuckled. "I made you speechless. I'm good!" He laughed when she bit her lip, lowering her head in embarrassment. "Relax. Let's just finish watching the movie."
"Um. Okay?" she replied softly.
"Okay," he nodded authoritatively, putting his arm around her shoulders and drawing her back to his side. When he finally felt her relax against him and tentatively lower her head back down to his shoulder, he smiled inwardly and began tracing his fingers lightly up and down her arm.
Hearing her low sigh of contentment when the credits began to roll, he squeezed her against him briefly before letting go so she could sit up. He watched as she ran a hand back through her dark hair, her eyes unreadable as she returned his gaze. "It's almost 6:00," she said quietly. "Would you like to stay for dinner? Dad and Daddy should be home soon, and we were planning on take out tonight. It would be easy to order enough for one more."
He shook his head regretfully and stood up, stretching. "I would love to, but I can't stay, we're having dinner with my grandma tonight. I actually need to take off, now that I'm thinking about it."
"Oh," she said, looking a little crestfallen. "Well, I had a lovely afternoon. Thank you for keeping me company."
"It was definitely a good day," he agreed as they walked to the entryway. He hesitated after opening the front door, and turned to her. "You know I meant what I said, right? I really would have loved to have dinner with you if I didn't have the thing with my grandma."
She blinked at him and cocked her head a little in uncertainty. "Really?"
He frowned, hating the possibility that she thought he was making excuses to get away. "Yeah. Really. I'm not Finn, Rach. I'm not going to make something up to get away from you, and I wouldn't lie to you about enjoying spending time with you."
She smiled up at him then, and threw her arms around his neck for a hug, which he obligingly gave her. "Okay, Matthew. Thank you."
He grinned at the petite brunette, keeping his arms lightly around her waist. "Yeah. Besides, the first time I have dinner with you, I'd rather not have your dads around, you know."
"Oh," she said, and he had to hold back his laugh at the way she wrinkled her brow in confusion, then widened her eyes in realization. "Oh! Like a date?"
"Yeah, like a date," he chuckled. "Maybe tomorrow?" It was his turn to be uncertain.
She beamed at him, her eyes lighting up. "That would be wonderful. I would love to go on a date with you tomorrow."
He sighed in relief and gave her another hug. "Good. I really do have to go now, but I'll call you, okay?"
"Okay," she nodded, pulling out of his embrace. She smiled at him and bounced up onto her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you again for today. I really did have a lovely afternoon."
He grinned and waved at her before turning to walk over to his car. She had just shut and locked the door, when he knocked on it. "Matthew?" she said in surprise as she opened the door. "Did you forget—"
He cut her off, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his lips gently to hers. After she got over her initial shock, she began to kiss him back, and the end of her sentence flew out of her brain as she melted into him, reaching up to twine her arms around his neck as the kiss deepened.
"Wow," she murmured breathlessly when they finally broke apart. She lifted a hand to her lips self-consciously, staring up at the boy who had just kissed her senseless.
"I had a really good day too," he breathed. "Just wanted to let you know that." He leaned down to kiss her forehead, then moved away from her, merriment dancing in his eyes. "I'll call you later."
She nodded, speechless, as he returned to his car. This time she remained in the doorway, watching with a slight smile, until he started the engine and drove off with a wave. As she closed the door again and leaned against it, he was turning off of her street, but they wore identical wide smiles and were both thinking the same thing.
It really was a fantastic day.