Written for a prompt on Finchel Prompts here: .com/post/9055559762/i-told-you-so
She's five years old when she meets him. It's the first day of kindergarten, and Rachel's wearing her very favourite dress, the jean one with a pocket in the front that has a large star embelished on it, as she makes her way into the classroom. Their new teacher, Mrs. Samson, gathers all the students and has them each say their name out loud, going in a circle, and has them tell one thing about themselves. Most of the kids, with their names, say things like, 'I like puppies' or 'my favourite colour is green'.
When it's Rachel's turn to introduce herself, she straightens out her posture, putting on her biggest and bravest smile, and says "My name is Rachel Berry and I'm going to be a star."
After everyone has gone, Mrs. Samson dismisses them for playtime. Rachel immediately spots the small playhouse in the back corner of the room, where a few other children have gathered, and begins to make her way over to it. However, the moment she reaches it, a boy, Dave she thinks his name is, steps in front of her, stopping her from entering the house.
"You're not allowed to play with us," he says bluntly. Rachel's lips turn down into a small frown at this.
"Why not?" she asks, baffled.
"Because you're weird. We don't want playing with us," he replies cruelly. Rachel peaks behind him and sees the other children simply staring at her, accepting Dave's words. All except for a boy with dark, messy hair, who shifts from foot to foot awkwardly, looking uncomfortable.
"Fine!" Rachel, with a stomp of her foot, indignantly replies, turning around and heading in the other direction, towards a table with some paper and markers. She sits down with a huff, attempting to keep the tears from escaping her eyes, on a vacant chair at the table. It's not long before she hears a shuffle of feet approaching her.
"What do you want?" she asks, her voice cracking, turning her head to see the boy with messy hair from before. He wrings his hands nervously before quickly sitting down beside her.
"I'm sorry that Dave was so mean to you," he says simply.
Rachel looks at him, trying to judge his sincerity. He looks back at her, his cinnimon eyes apologetic. She sniffles, turning her eyes downward to her lap.
"I just wanted to play house," she whispers softly, the hurt evident in her voice.
"I'll play house with you!" the boy pipes up brightly, "We don't need the playhouse. We can play right here and pretend we have a real house! I'm Finn by the way, in case you didn't remember."
Rachel looked up from her lap to see Finn with a crooked grin gracing his freckled face. She couldn't help but return the smile with one of her own, her spirits lifting greatly.
"I'm Rachel. And I'd love to play house with you. Oh! We can pretend to be married! I'll be the wife and you can be the husband." Rachel states, her enthusiasm increasing at the thought of playing with her new friend.
"Okay, cool!" Finn said, nodding his head fervently, then, after a moment, adds, "Maybe one day you'll marry me for real."
Rachel looks at him in suprise, as he stares back at her earnestly.
"But we can just be best friends first," Finn says casually, unaware of the weight of his previous statement, as he flashes a quick grin at Rachel. And that's how Rachel Berry first met her best friend, Finn Hudson.
XXXXX
Rachel hates Mother's Day. She hates it. All it does is remind her that she doesn't have a mother. And now that she's getting older, having just turned twelve, it's worse. Don't get her wrong, she loves her dads, but it doesn't erase the fact that she wishes she could have someone to talk to about training bras and shaving legs without feeling uncomfortable. Sure, Finn's mom had always been super nice, not to mention the closest mother figure in her life, whenever she had a question she didn't want to ask her dads. But it could still be a little uncomfortable, not to mention that it was hard to find a time to ask Carole when Finn wasn't around. Because that would be way too awkward. He may be her best friend, but there were some things he just did not need to know.
Needless to say, Mother's Day is a day that does not sit well with Rachel. Even if year after year, Finn invites Rachel over to his house on the actual day to hang out with him and his mom. Which is still nice, but doesn't help her forget that she's without her own mother.
So when she arrives at Finn's house this particular year, she's somewhat down. Finn opens the door, a large smile on his face, as he was expecting Rachel, he notices that she's sad right away.
"Rach? What's up? Are you okay?" he asks, his brows furrowing in confusion and concern.
She's normally pretty good at putting up a show for people, but not around Finn. He knows her too well and he breaks all her barriers down. As she enters the Hudson home she doesn't even bother trying to hide the sadness in her voice as she mutters a quiet, "Not having a mom sucks."
"You can share my mom with me," he says, "I don't mind."
She gives him a small smile, replying, "I love your mom, but it's not the same. She's not really my mom."
Finn sees her shoulders slump and instinctively steps closer and hugs her. She clings to him as he whispers in her ear, "Well, don't worry. One day we'll get married and then she'll really be your mom."
Rachel doesn't really know how to respond, but she knows that Finn's her best friend and that he's the sweetest guy. He'll do whatever it takes to make her feel better. So she just remains quiet, hugging him tighter and allowing him to comfort her.
XXXXX
It's her first day of highschool when Rachel officially comes to the realization that her peers will never like her. She had hoped that starting highschool would mean that they would mature; become kinder and more aware. It's apparently quite the opposite. She knows this for sure after spending the first half of her lunch hour in tears in the girls washroom trying to scrub grape slushie out of her sweater. Despite her best efforts, a large, purple stain remained on the front of it.
Exiting the bathroom, she can hear the snickers of her classmates, but she chooses to ignore them, walking forward, her head held high. She decides right then and there to never let them break her. She knows she's meant for more than this town. It's then that she hears the voice yelling from behind her.
"Rach! Rachel, wait up!"
She stops as a disheveled Finn arrives next to her.
"I was looking all over for you. You weren't waiting by the - What's on the front of your sweater?"
She looks up at his confused face, which quickly turns to concern, as she's unable to hold her tears back now. Not in front of him, she can't. He softly grabs her arm, dragging her from the middle of the hallway to an empty classroom. He places his hands on the tops of her shoulders in a comforting matter.
"What happened?" he asks softly.
She tries to get out her story of the group of kids that called her an ugly freak before proceeding to throw a slushie all over the front of her, but she's pretty sure it all comes out a garbled mess. Somehow, Finn seems to understand her. She sees a quick flash of anger on his face, before she remembers the humiliation, a new set of tears falling down her face.
He gently cups her face, using the pad of his thumb to wipe away her tears, as he says genuinely to her, "Rach, they're stupid. Don't listen to them. They're just a bunch of losers. They're never gonna get out of this town. And you, Rach, you're gonna prove them all wrong, I know it."
"But what if I don't? Maybe I'll always just be a weirdo in this place," Rachel says, her insecurities creeping to the surface. He shakes his head at her.
"Not gonna happen. You're too good for that. Besides, I wanna get out of here, too. You know I'll just marry you and then force you to ditch this place with me," Finn says, with a playful glint in his eyes.
Even as she feels a blush rises in her cheeks, she can't help but chuckle softly at her best friend.
"Thanks, Finn. I don't know what I'd do without you," she says sincerely, looking up into those bright eyes that are so full of emotion, and she truly doesn't know where she'd be without him.
His only response is to pull her face forward and lightly kiss her forhead.
XXXXX
Rachel's a smart girl. So, it's strange for her to be so confused. Which she currently is. Because her best friend just kissed her. Right on the lips. He just layed one on her.
It all started out simple enough. They were spending the warm afternoon, in the summer before their junior year of highschool, in his backyard jumping on his trampoline (yes, he still had a trampoline he liked to use frequently, which Rachel could admit, she enjoyed using as well). They had been trying to one up each other on their tricks. Rachel had been winning that competition. After all, she had taken dance and gymnastics growing up. Finn, beginning to get desperate, was trying the most ridiculous things to try and catch up to Rachel, causing her to bust a gut laughing at the ludicrous things he was coming up with. Then it turned into a game of Finn seeing how hard he could make Rachel laugh.
After a spectacularly terrible attempt at a pirouette, Finn found himself landing firmly on his face on the trampoline, as Rachel cracked up, laying on her side clutching her stomach. Finn turned his face to find his own face only a few inches from hers, his eyes looking directly in her deep brown ones. Her hair was splayed around her shoulders, a smile still on her lips as her laughter died down. And he couldn't help himself. He reached out, grabbing her face, gently placing his lips on hers.
And that's how Rachel finds herself kissing her best friend. It's slow and sweet and perfect. As he pulls away, his breath fanning over her face, he looks at her intently. She'd be lying if she said she didn't have feelings for Finn. She'd known him so well, and for so long, and she knew everything about him. So it was inevitable that she fell for him over the years with her knowledge of how amazing he is. She just never really wanted to screw things up, for the fear that he didn't feel the same way, which didn't seem to be the case.
As a small smile tugged on her lips, one grew on his own face. As happy as she is, Rachel can't help but wonder about what would happen if crossing the friend line ends up ruining their whole friendship. Her concern must have show on her face, because Finn then pulls her close, quietly whispering into her ear, "Don't worry, this kiss isn't ever going to be a waste. I plan on marrying you one day."
XXXXX
It's during her sophmore year of college, after an incredibly stressful week of rehearsals , a night of cramming to finish a major assignment, and dealing with her roommate's ridiculous habit of consistently sexiling her, that Rachel is fried. And all it takes to push her over the edge is one Finn Hudson calling her to say he feels like he hasn't heard from her in forever, and why does he feel like he's the only one ever calling her, not the other way around? With him being at Ohio State and herself at NYU, the distance had taken a toll on their relationship, and fighting had become more frequent for them.
"You know what, Finn? I am beyond stressed. I have been stretched thin and I don't have time to always make sure you're happy and content when I have my own stuff to deal with. I'm so sorry I can't always call and check up on you," she spits out at him over the phone, her voice dripping with sarcasm. It was quiet on Finn's end of the line, and Rachel suddenly just felt tired.
After a moment, Finn was then says quietly, "Rach, don't be like this. I didn't mean it like that."
She sighed heavily before speaking again, "Finn, why are we doing this to ourselves? Why are we even putting ourselves through this?"
"Because we're going to be married one day," is his quick reply.
Rachel just sighs again, drained.
"Rachel, I love you. I'm in love with you. I want to be with you. I've always wanted to be with you. That hasn't changed for me," Finn hesitates before he continues, asking cautiously, the fear in his voice clear, "Has it for you?"
She takes a moment to think about not being with him. She doesn't like it. And despite their current seperation and fighting, she knows that it hasn't changed for her either.
"I don't think I can be without you. I don't want to," she lets out softly, before continuing, "Look, I have to get to class, but I'll call you later, okay?"
"Okay, I'll talk to you soon. Love you."
"Love you, too," she says, ending the call on a tentative reconciliation.
Rachel can say he certainly suprises her when he she finds him at her door at nine o'clock that night, after making the ten hour car trip to see her. Needless to say, they spend the night fully making up, turning the tables and sufficiently sexiling her roommate.
XXXXX
After graduating college, Rachel had been so excited for Finn to finally to New York to live with her. They were renting an apartment together, one with a little balcony, where they liked to snuggle, on the little wicker couch Rachel had fallen in love with, on Sunday mornings. Everything was falling into place and just felt right.
It's on one particular Sunday morning that Rachel wakes up, to find Finn already out of bed. She gets up to see him standing on the small balcony, anxiously tapping his fingers on the railing. Her feet quietly pad along the floor as she makes her way onto the balcony, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind, placing a kiss on his back, before coming beside him and looking up at him smiling. He gives her a small hi. He looks a little bit antsy, or nervous, or something.
"Finn, is everything okay? What are you doing up so early?"
His only response is to gesture towards over the edge of the balcony.
Rachel peaks over the railing only to see, in big chalk letters on the side walk, spelling out, 'Marry me?' She lets out a small gasp, turning back to Finn to find him on one knee, holding out a velvet box with a ring inside of it.
"Rachel, I always knew that I was going to marry you. I've always felt confident in that," Finn says, nervously chuckling and adding, "that is, assuming you don't shut me down now. But I've never doubted for one minute my love for you. You're everything to me. And I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Rachel, will you marry me?"
Despite his multiple voicings of marriage throughout their friendship and relationship, Rachel still can't quite believe this was all real. Rachel's eyes are wet and glossy, as she nods her head eagerly, her voice caught somehwere in her throat.
And that's all Finn needs, standing up and grabbing her face in his hands, kissing her passionately, pulling away to slip the ring on her finger. As the both of them look at the ring sitting on her hand, they realize that it was always only a matter of time.