An anonymous reviewer alerted me to the fact that this was all a mess of coding. Sorry, not sure how that happened. Thanks for letting me know though. Here is the actual story.

"He's actually a good laugh".

Whatever, Finn thought as he punched the pads on Rae's hands.

"He's really into his music as well"

Ouch. That one hurt just a little more. Finn's caveman side started rearing its ugly head. Fuck Liam, Finn's really into music as well and that wasn't good enough for Rae, so why the heck is this Liam twat good enough. He punched the pads with a little more force and a bit of a grunt this time, adequately expressing his annoyance at Liam being mentioned in this light. Rae should be talking about him like that not some fucker she only just started hanging around.

"He's pretty cool once you get to know him"

Please stop were the only words running through Finn's head at this moment. He already hurt enough. He only decided to be friends with her again because he couldn't bear not speaking to her, and she wasn't making it easy for him. He continued punching harder, imagining the pads were Liam's face, or maybe even his balls. Finn realised that it was probably best to not be the one punching right now, if Rae was gonna keep going like this, he would end up hurting her unintentionally, and he already felt like he's done enough of that. After all, he must have done something wrong to make her leave him. Finn handed the boxing gloves over to Rae, taking the pads from her, motioning for her to hit them.

"What about you then? Are you seeing anyone else?

"Would you just stop?!" Finn let out completely unintentionally. He hadn't meant to voice those thoughts. They were meant to stay firmly tucked in the recesses of his mind. This was why he often chose to stay quiet, so he wouldn't say stupid things.

"Stop what?" Rae was acting dumb. Which was completely stupid because she knew exactly what she was doing. She saw Finn's reaction, knew it was making him jealous. Sure, she might not have realised it was upsetting him as much as it was, but she knew it was bothering him to some extent. If Finn hadn't have cared at all she probably would have stopped. The fact of the matter was, he did care, he cared a whole lot. And why shouldn't he? But he didn't want to let her know that, he hadn't meant to say anything, he really hadn't, but as most people well know Finn Nelson and words aren't really a match made in Heaven. So he did the only thing he could do, pretend he had said nothing.

"Right then left, then keep your hands up" He instructed Rae to hit the pads, distracting her from his comment. Well, attempting to anyway. Rae hit the pads, albeit a little lazily. She thought about whether she should just let the comment go or not. She did know what he was asking her to stop; she just hadn't expected him to get so emotional over it, over her. Maybe he did miss her as much as she missed him. She stopped her lame attempts of punches at Finn's hands, looking down.

"Stop what?" she asked a little more softly this time.

At this point, Finn realised he wasn't going to get away with his comment. So he decided to man up and confront the issue at hand. He needed to stop pretending that he was fine, that the relationship had meant nothing to him, and that he hadn't spent many a night lying awake wondering what on Earth he had done wrong. So he slowly took the pads off his hands, instructing Rae to do the same with the gloves and leading her by the hand over to the benches, Rae following with trepidation. She knew what Finn was going to say, even if she couldn't believe it. The thing was, she didn't think she could give him an explanation. She was too ashamed.

Rae and Finn both sat down nervously, Rae waiting for Finn to say something. "I was asking you to stop talking about Liam. But I think you knew that. But perhaps what you don't know is why I wanted you to stop so badly."

"Why?" Rae never wanted to assume things with Finn, because she was always scared that she was going to be wrong. There was no way Finn would get so upset about her, she's nobody special, he could have anyone he wants, Archie even mentioned that Finn had a date this Friday with some older woman. All these thoughts ran through her head as she came to the conclusion that what she thought Finn was going to say wasn't what he was going to say, and that is why she had questioned him.

"I still love you, ya numpty" Finn said it so casually; like it wasn't the biggest thing he had been holding in since she had broken his heart. Finn didn't stop there. Rae started seeing a little of herself in him in the moments that followed. The vulnerability and the insecurity. Ranting about what he did wrong and why he wasn't good enough for her, and that he wishes he had another chance to try harder, because she meant everything to him. Rae had never heard that many words come out of Finn's mouth at once. It was like everything had been overflowing and finally the gate had been opened to release it. So she had been right, talking about Liam upset Finn a lot, he was more than just jealous, he was hurt.

Seeing as how Finn was acting so out of character with his constant stream of words, Rae decided she could do something a little out of character too. Re-enacting their first kiss, where Finn had kissed her to shut her up, she grabbed his face and crashed her lips on his. It was brief, but filled with deep affection and love. Nobody's lips felt this good to either of them and they had been longing for this moment the entire time they had been broken up. Pulling away, Rae looked into Finn's dazed eyes and whispered "It wasn't you".

After seeing Finn's reaction to her talking about another guy, she finally realised that she needed to explain to Finn exactly why she had broken up with him. Told him how she couldn't bear the thought of him seeing her naked and vulnerable, how it wasn't fair on him to make him deal with that, with all of her stuff. Finn just shook his head at her, wondering how on Earth she thought that would ever matter to him. He could wait until she was ready; help her be ready by telling her everyday how beautiful and perfect and strong she is. So that's what he told her. To which Rae responded with a smile on her face and a light in her eyes. She still had her doubts but deep down she realised that Finn was special and she couldn't let him slip through her fingers. She was willing to give this another go.

"So, what now?"