A short but sweet future!fuinn for Fuinn Week, Day 2 prompt: Falling Back In Love
Falling in love with Quinn Fabray has always been ridiculously and dangerously easy for Finn Hudson. The first time he saw her she'd walked into his Math class, strode right past him and taken the seat behind his. All he'd really caught was a flash of gold-blonde hair and the sweet smell of her perfume, but it was enough, and turning to introduce himself – something that seemed to surprise her and earned him a very slightly flustered response – had only served to confirm that this was love at first sight.
She gained a lot of confidence during their first year of high school, but he would always keep the image of that first meeting with him, and every now and then he would catch a glimpse of that girl still hiding just beneath the hard exterior she created for herself.
Through school they dated, twice.
It ended badly, twice.
Every time he'd convince himself that they were over, that he was with someone else, that he was happy, and then she'd smile that smile that made her eyes sparkle and his head would fall into his hands. He wasn't over her, of course he wasn't; how could he ever be over her? One time he even asked Sam how long it took him to move on after breaking up with her. Sam had given him a funny look and shrugged, saying he wasn't sure, but he guessed around about when he escorted Mercedes to Prom. When Finn asked if he ever thought about getting back together with Quinn he shook his head and walked away before Finn could ask anything else.
He decided to put it to the back of his mind. Focussed himself on his relationship with Rachel, on getting into college, on what songs to do for nationals; on anything that wasn't Quinn Fabray. It worked for long enough; he stayed away from her, only allowing himself a brief hug after coming second at nationals and after graduation. Then they all went their separate ways and he thought that would be the end of it all. He couldn't fall back in love with her if she wasn't there after all.
It didn't work out with Rachel.
New York was just too much of a strain on their relationship; Rachel adored it and Finn felt more lost than ever. It was okay, the break up was mutual, in the end they both realised they were holding onto something that never really existed; that they were holding each other back. Rachel hugged him tightly before he boarded the plane back to Ohio and Finn promised to come see her in every role she landed. They both cried a little, but not enough... not the way Finn had cried the first night in his house after Quinn had moved to Puck's.
Over the next year, with help from his mother and Burt, he gets himself sorted out. He gets himself into Ohio State University in Columbus studying Mechanical Engineering. It's good, because it's only an hour and half drive back to Lima every weekend, and he spends all the time he's not doing course work helping Burt in the shop.
Burt has just stepped into his office with a customer when he hears a small "Oh!" of surprise to his left, and he glances up from the car he's currently working on and see's Quinn standing there looking shocked. He's pleased to find that a couple of years of training himself not to so much as think about her seem to have paid off. At least, he doesn't drop the tools he's holding and race forward just so he can hold her again. Instead he feels his pulse speed up slightly, and tells himself it's just the shock of seeing her so suddenly.
"Quinn?" He manages to get out after a few seconds of silence, "I didn't... what are you doing here? Weren't you going to Yale?"
She jumped slightly as he started to speak, her fingers knotting themselves together in front of her nervously.
"I was... I mean I am," She says, stumbling uncharacteristically over her words. Drawing a small breath in and out she tries again. "I'm visiting mum, and our car broke down the other day, we came to pick it up. I thought..." she takes another breath, "I didn't realise you'd be here,"
"I'm at Ohio State so I come back at the weekends,"
"I heard about the break up," She says, stepping further into the garage. She looks good. Not that she didn't always look good, but there's something about her now, maybe something in the way she holds herself. Finn can't place what's different precisely but the fast pace of his heart hasn't gone down yet even though he's over his surprise, and he's relatively sure whatever it is, is to blame.
"Yeah..." He says slowly.
"Rachel told me... I'm sorry it didn't work for you guys," She sounds genuine, which is a surprise. Funny what time can do.
"Well, er," He turns his head back to stare under the car bonnet, but doesn't really do anything, "High school relationships rarely work out after all,"
His mind flickers to Kurt and Blaine who are still almost disgustingly in love with each other and living together just a few blocks away from Rachel; and then he brushes them off as the lucky one in a million.
"I guess," she responds quietly.
There is silence for a minute or so, in which Finn tries to do some actual work before Burt comes back out of his office with, Finn assumes, Quinn's mother Judy.
"So what are you majoring in?" He hears her say, and she's definitely closer to him now. He glances up again, and finds her right beside the car he's working on; a step back, probably to avoid getting grease or oil on her dress. It's a blue dress, and it reminds him vaguely of the one she wore to junior prom. He feels a pang of guilt for the way he treated her that night.
"Mechanical Engineering," He says, waving his hand lightly at the garage, "Seemed a good choice,"
"That's great Finn," she replies, enthusiastically.
Then she's smiling that smile again.
"I'm so happy for you,"
That's all it takes. Years of denial and pushing his feelings away until he almost believed they were gone, and that damn smile is all it takes for Finn Hudson to fall hopelessly back in love with the little blonde standing in front of him.
He notices that her fingers are still twisting together occasionally, and realises suddenly what it is about her that caught his attention. She's Quinn again. It's as if over the last few years she's found who she is, and high school has just fallen off her. She's the flash of blonde hair and sweet perfume; the girl who was surprised that anyone would want to speak to her. She's the girl he fell in love at first sight with.
He smiles widely back at her.
"It's really great to see you again Quinn," and he knows she doesn't understand precisely what he means but she bows her head ever so slightly and responds that it's great to see him too.
They arrange to meet up for coffee the next day after Quinn comes back from church and that's when Judy and Burt come walking out of the office and they have to say goodbye. Quinn leans up to give him a light kiss on the cheek, and he notices that she's blushing as she pulls away and walks briskly away towards the car.
As he watches the car pull away he tries to tell himself that it's just coffee, it was just a friendly kiss between old school friends, they're at different universities, they've been here before... but this time it all fades into white noise, and he thinks maybe he's finally ready to admit that the reason it's so damn easy to fall back in love with Quinn Fabray is that he never fell out of love with her in the first place.