a/n: i'm working on venom and such but this idea came to me after spending the day watching community so there. is. that. also, it's rated T because there's smut but it's barely smutty so if sex between a 'gay' guy and a straight girl upsets you you should probably skip it. also, special ty to claddaugh ring who beta'd this for me as i wrote it. and for putting up with my semi-teasers.
"We need an idea to raise money for Nationals guys, and a bake sale or selling taffy isn't going to cut it this year. There are more of us, which means it'll be more expensive." The room is quiet at Mr. Schuesters' words, Rachel's mind running a mile-a-minute as she tries to come up with an idea, shooting them down one by one as they pop in her head.
It's finally Puck who speaks up, not even raising his hand as he goes "We should have a paintball war," Rachel scoffing immediately.
"How would that raise money?" she counters, half the group looking skeptical while the other half looks intrigued.
"We charge 20 bucks a pop to play. There'll be a prize. The entire school would sign up, and we could probably make a couple grand easy."
"That's actually a good idea," Schuester finally says, nodding along as if formulating the event in his head. "I'll talk it over with Figgins, get his approval, but nice out of the box thinking Puckerman!"
Rachel just crosses her arms over her chest as the guys in the group high five, Finn and Mike doing so over the top of her head.
This is going to end badly.
She doesn't know how Schuester does it, but he manages to convince Figgins to allow the game to be played throughout McKinley. They set up a date-a Saturday, from 10am until the last person is standing, and the prize isn't anything too grand, just a gift card to a Best Buy, but it's incentive enough that in the two weeks prior to the event it feels like nearly the entire school signs up.
"We have 342 people signed up," Kurt announces as he tallies up the final roster, grinning at the group. "That gives us around $17,000. After supplies and all that, we have about $12,000-enough for us to all go to National's." The room erupts in cheers, and even Rachel congratulates Noah on a job well done.
"I'm very proud of your idea Noah," she tells him, patting his shoulder. He shoots her a smile in response, quickly distracted by an excited Mike Chang, and she just sighs as Finn goes on and on about the rules to her, explaining so that come Saturday she won't be one of the first ones out.
Rachel stands off to the side as Blaine gives everyone the speech about the basic rules of play. They decided to go with the simple round of last man standing, and while people could group up together, it'd eventually be individuals who would win. Teachers weren't playing, but were patrolling the grounds to make sure no one got injured or hurt, and to coral those who got eliminated off of school grounds so as to not confuse anyone.
She sighs impatiently, decked out in gear that Kurt made her buy the previous night at the mall and trying her best to stay optimistic. She cared nothing about the gift card, had already decided if she won she'd just give it to Finn anyways, but the group had a game plan.
Finn squeezed her hand quickly as Blaine told everyone they had five minutes to find a spot, get ready, and when Figgins announced the game over the intercom, it was every man for himself.
"Ready?" Finn asks, voice low in her ear as the New Directions head towards the choir room where they had left all their equipment, the air palpable with excitement as they threaded through the groups now finding their own places.
"As I'll ever be," Rachel responds quietly, because this is not her game at all. She's proud of them for making the money they needed, but she's nervous about what happens if Finn gets hit and she doesn't, and it's almost as if Blaine reads her mind as he comes towards the pair, grinning at Rachel good naturedly.
"I'll watch out for you if Finn goes before you do," he jokes, and Finn just snorts in laughter.
"As if you could out-last me, hobbit," he jokes back.
"Actually," Mike says as he falls in stride with the rest. "Blaine and Rachel probably have the advantage by being shorter."
"Exactly," Blaine triumphs, beaming at Rachel and she ignores the flutter in her heart she gets when he does that, knowing that the second he turns to smile at Kurt it'll just tear her apart in two. Sure enough, a moment later when Kurt slides between the two of them, interlocking fingers with Blaine, she has to steel herself from the weird pang of jealousy she feels.
Her crush on Blaine was really getting out of hand.
They manage to get back into the room and suited up, Mike and Blaine already pretending to shoot each other as Puck jumps from chair to chair, Tina and Mercedes throwing their hair back into pony tails while Quinn, Santana and Brittany sit on the floor and seem to make a plan of attack. Rachel's just stuck her gun in her belt when Figgins voice calls out over the speaker, a loud "Let the games BEGIN!" before screams are heard down the corridor, the paintball guns firing in all directions, havoc of all sorts already beginning and she wonders how many people are already out of the game.
They don't leave the room for a couple minutes, hesitating near the door before Sam finally says he'll take the shot, he'll go out first to see if anyone's there, and they're glad when he's not immediately fired at. "Anyone that's still alive meets back here in two hours, got it?" Noah reminds them, and they all nod, muttering a quiet 'got it' as they slip off in groups of two and three's, Kurt and Blaine heading in the opposite direction of where Finn is now dragging Rachel.
She shouldn't want to go the other way, shouldn't want her hand connected to Blaine's, but there's a lot of shoulds and shouldn'ts she figures as she lets herself be whisked away.
They see Quinn get hit in the middle of the cafeteria as they try to run through it, her scream of "Fuck!" louder than Rachel had ever heard the girl sing, Santana and Brittany almost immediately hit when they try and avenge their friend. There are people strangling out of the halls in dozens, the school being evacuated faster than Rachel could have imagined.
By the time an hour has passed, Rachel and Finn are pressed against the wall in the library, and the entire area seems quiet-too quiet, really, for Rachel's liking.
"How many do you think are left?" Finn whispers, and she knows before he even finishes his sentence that it was a fatal mistake, a blue paintball hitting him square in the chest as she screams and ducks, rolling away and running as he tells her to find someone else to cover her. She's tearing through the door as she hears his overdramatic cry of "Go on without me!", sure that he's playing it up for his own amusement with the full on theatrics people only expect out of Kurt or Rachel herself.
Once she's halfway to the auditorium, she slows her pace, moving stealthily and quietly as she opens the door. She can hear people talking, and quickly ducks behind a row of seats so as not to be found, only to hear Kurt and Blaine's voices reaching across the room. "I don't know what you're trying to tell me, Blaine," Kurt's snippy tone says as it reaches her ears, and she feels slightly ashamed for eavesdropping on what is clearly a fight, only to remind herself that Kurt has done the same time and time again.
"I'm trying to tell you that I just don't think-"
"-that you want to be in a relationship with me? And you're telling me this now?"
"Would you have preferred I just shot you?" Blaine asks, sounding slightly annoyed, and Rachel's torn between agreeing with him and hating him for Kurt's sake.
"It would have hurt less!" Kurt's high pitched squeal of anger sounds out, and Rachel feels bad for him, she does, because she's not a horrible person who only cares about herself, despite what everyone thinks. She may have feelings for Blaine, but she'd never act on them, and she knew how much Kurt loved him.
She just had no idea Blaine apparently didn't care as much back.
"Gotcha!" Someone who yells startlingly like Azimio yells as Kurt screams before starting to yell explicatives in the direction of the football player, surely for ruining his outfit, Blaine running down the aisle and ducking next to Rachel as Azimio starts to defend himself.
"Hiding?" Blaine smirks, keeping his voice quiet, and Rachel just nods, the shame at being caught welling over her. "Guess it makes it easier to tell you Kurt and I broke up then," he joked, kneeling and turning around to glance at the stage where Azimio and Kurt's voices were becoming even louder than before. "Come on, let's find a safer place to hide out," he says as he reaches for her head, and ignoring the jolt of butterflies in her stomach, Rachel lets him pull her away, to safety, trusting him more than she probably should.
They head back to the choir room, knowing it's earlier than the group had said to meet up but finding Mike and Noah there anyways, both looking grim.
"We lost Tina awhile back," Mike says forlornly, and Blaine just pats his back in sympathy. "Haven't seen Artie since we all dispersed."
"I was with Quinn for a minute before she disappeared with the other two-" Noah starts, but Rachel just shakes her head.
"She went down with them in the cafeteria about an hour ago. Finn in the library about 10 minutes ago."
"Kurt, just now," Blaine adds, and Rachel can't help the skip that her heart does this time when he doesn't even sound that sad.
"What about the rest?" Rachel asks after a moment, and Noah just shrugs.
"I think Sam went down in the football field," he says, Mike nodding in confirmation. "Sugar never stood a chance, I think she was one of the first gone."
"Mercedes and Rory were with me and Tina," Mike continues. "I was the only one to make it free." Rachel hugs him quickly, wrapping her arms around him in remorse. It's funny to her how real this all seems, like they're really in the midst of this war, the causalities seeming so much larger than they really are.
"We're going to have to go back out there eventually," Rachel finally says quietly with a small sigh, turning towards the door. Blaine's hand falls protectively on her back, and even through her shirt she can feel the heat radiating from the simple act.
"I'm surprised you've lasted this long Berry," Puck chuckles, and Rachel just rolls her eyes in response.
"I bet she'll outlast us all," Mike jokes along, and now she just lets out a heavy sigh, ignoring the both of them as they start going back and forth about what kind of world she'd rule if she had to start civilization over again.
"You okay?" Blaine asks quietly, so that the other two don't pay attention, and she just nods in response.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" she counters, and he just shrugs.
"It was my decision," he assures her. "And it's been a long time coming."
"What's been a long time coming?" Mike asks, and Rachel silences the innuendo about to slip out of Puck's mouth with a glare.
"Nothing important," Blaine says with a wave of his hand. "Come on, let's go win this thing."
They wander through the halls soundlessly, Noah in the front, Blaine behind him, Rachel behind him and Mike trailing behind her. She feels oddly safe in the company of the three, knowing that if worse comes to worse, she's protected before she'll get hit.
They travel around the building, listening for any and all sounds. They duck into a classroom when they hear the firing of guns a hallway over, waiting until the massacre is over, walking past a macabre group of people looking sullen as they make their way out of the building, covered in splotches of paint. "Dude," Puck says quietly as they pass, shuddering a little at the thought of getting hit.
It isn't until they hit the gymnasium that a group catches them by surprise, Blaine and Mike immediately firing before the others even get a chance, Puck grabbing Rachel and running in the opposite direction, for safety. She doesn't calm down until the other two find them ten minutes later, pacing in the boys locker room where Puck had taken her and ignoring his requests to stop moving.
"Thank god," she breathes when the two enter the room, flinging her arms around Blaine as he tries to steady them both, his hands automatically falling to her waist as he glances over at Puck, Rachel not missing the raised eyebrow between the three boys as she pulls herself together, pulls herself away from Blaine. "I was just worried is all," she mutters quietly, and Puck lets out a huff of air that might resemble a snort if they let themselves make any more noise than absolutely possible.
"We got the group that was hiding," Mike finally says, Rachel curling in on herself on the floor while Blaine takes a seat next to Puck on a bench. "There was a close call-Blaine may have taunted one of them too much and about seven ran after him-but we managed to escape unscathed, and that group is out."
"How many do you suspect are left?" Puck questions, Mike only shrugging in response.
"I'd say at this point there's not any groups larger than us, which could both be an advantage and a disadvantage. But since we walked across the entire school and only ran into one or two other groups, I'd say there's not that many else left. And they're probably outside."
"Are we going to go out there?" Rachel asks, and the boys look amongst each other as if trying to come to a silent decision.
"You're not," Blaine finally says, and Rachel just scoffs.
"This isn't a real war," she reminds him, because she sure as hell isn't going to be left alone while they try and get rid of everyone else. "I can take care of myself."
"Has your gun once left your belt?" Puck asks her with a smirk, and she just rolls her eyes at him.
"That doesn't mean it can't," she retorts.
"Why don't Blaine and Rachel stay in here, head back to the choir room and Puck and I will meet you back there after we see who else is left?" Mike suggests, and Blaine just nods, pulling Rachel off the ground.
"Be safe guys," he warns as they head out first, making sure the coast is clear before waving them out the other way.
Rachel's finding it harder to be quiet as Blaine's hand is wrapped around hers, his eyes always three steps ahead as he makes sure that they're still in the clear. She doesn't see why, she's pretty sure they're the only two left in the building now, and she wonders which one of them will turn on the other first. She'd gladly take the hit, she doesn't particularly want the gift card, but she does hate losing.
Of course, if I could win him in the process, she thinks as he pulls her close to him at slight squeaking ahead of them, their chests flush against each other as she tries to breath normally. He's not looking down at her, not like she's looking up at him, licking her lips without realizing it as she examines his own, noticing not for the first time just how long his eyelashes are. "Think we're in the clear now," Blaine mutters, his mouth barely moving as his eyes finally turn down to see her, widening a bit in surprise as they take her in. She quickly backs away from him, wrapping her hands in each other, but he just grabs one again anyways and pulls her along some more, bringing her to safety once more.
They don't say anything for nearly twenty minutes when they reach the choir room, and it shocks Rachel to discover they've been at this for nearly three hours now, Blaine standing guard by the door as she sits down in a chair and watches him. She loves how in control he is, how even in this set up where they're not in any real danger he's trying his best to protect her, that he chose to go with her instead of Mike. It's little things that attracts him to her, she knows. Sure, he's a great kisser-and she'd know better than almost anyone, with the exception of Kurt, but it's more in the way his hands always find a way to keep her steady, keep her balanced when she feels like she's about to teeter out of control.
"Shouldn't they be back by now?" she finally asks, and he just nods in response, a grim look on his face. "It's too bad someone had the clever idea of banning cell phone usage," she teases.
"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Blaine mutters in response, but he has a grin on his face to match her own. He finally lets a sigh out, shutting the door completely and locking it behind him as he moves across the room to a chair next to her, laying down and placing his head in her lap before she even notices what's going on.
"Isn't locking the door cheating?" she asks, but he just shrugs in response.
"But now I can nap safely. Unless, of course, you decide to turn on me."
"I would never," she laughs. "But honestly, Blaine, it's only been about three and a half hours."
"It's the end of the world Rachel," he replies seriously. "Three and a half hours feels like three and a half years. I think I've aged about 40 years during this. I'm practically an old man now."
"Well, be careful," she retorts. "Wouldn't want you breaking a hip or anything trying to do some outlandish dance move to Katy Perry." He simply laughs in response, the sound practically soaring through her and lighting her on fire as her fingers gently run through his hair-she's glad he decided not to gel it down today, his hair soft as she plays with it.
"Thanks for not being mad at me," he whispers, his eyes closed as he keens slightly into her touch.
"Why would I be mad at you?"
"For breaking up with Kurt," he tells her, and she tenses slightly at his words. It seemed like forever ago that he had done so, the game warping all sense of time and reality for them.
"Oh," is the only response she can muster, nodding slightly. "I mean, you must have had a reason. It's not my right to implore why."
He hesitates, sitting up and letting her hands fall to her lap as he seems to fight inwardly over whatever he wants to say to her. "Actually, it probably is," he finally admits, and she raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything as she waits for him to continue. "I, uh, the reason I ended things with Kurt-"
"You don't have to tell me," she promises, but he shakes his head, eyes widened.
"He was cheating on me," Blaine blurts out, and now her veins definitely turn to ice. She hadn't seen that coming, though out of the two Kurt was definitely the more likely one to stray.
"He told you?" she finally asks, but he shakes his head once more.
"I caught him, in the middle of-Rachel, that's not even really the important part."
"I think cheating is kind of important," she retorts, but Blaine's shaking his head again, so she waits for him to gain the courage he needs to let out the important information.
"He was cheating with Finn." She scoffs, waving him away with a dismissive hand, but for some reason she's not that surprised at his words. He grabs the hand, suddenly ready to spill everything as he goes into the details about how he went to the Hudmel house a few weeks ago, only to see the two of them making out in Kurt's room. He didn't go in, walked away in hopes that he was mistaken. But when the same thing happened a few days later, Kurt's hand disappeared into Finn's pants, Blaine couldn't take it anymore.
"Did you confront him about it?" she asks after a couple quiet minutes, processing the fact that Finn had been busy getting off with his step brother instead of her, trying to figure out if she was just surprised or actually hurt.
"No," Blaine admits, "I didn't mention it. Didn't want to bring up any drama with the situation."
She hums quietly in agreement, thinking about how much better of a man he is than Kurt or Finn could ever hope to be, wondering just what to do about her own boyfriend now.
They sat there in silence for another hour before Rachel finally gave up hope, pushing Blaine gently off of her. "There's no way anyone else is still out there," she says quietly as she heads towards the door, Blaine a step behind her. He unlocks the door quietly, pushing his way in front of her as they exit the room once more.
They don't even try being quiet anymore as they wander the halls, surveying the damage. There are desks upturned in the hallways, paint splattering the lockers, half of which were opened during the first hour of battle. They pass by the cafeteria where tables are knocked over as if used like forts, trays scattered all around the floor that had been used as shields. She can only imagine how much of the money they made will have to go towards a professional cleaning service, grimacing at an unfortunate paint mark on their school statue.
Blaine's hand never leaves her own, his thumbs tracing lazy circles against her skin and she has to fight off the desire to feel his thumb on other parts of her body, of feeling the need to be even closer to him. He seems to sense this, keeping her arm pinned down a little closer to his own, causing her heartbeat to start racing a little more as they walk into the library, taking a quick survey of any potential hiding spots before deciding that they're ultimately alone. "I figured this would be more comfortable than the choir room," he tells her as he locks the doors again, and Rachel is still pretty sure that's blatantly cheating, not to mention a potential fire hazard, but she doesn't argue matters.
"So you can nap some more?" she jokes, and he immediately falls to the ground at her words, an 'I'm so tired Rachel,' coming from the spot where he was. She lets out a laugh, but decides that while they have time-and they have all the time in the world, really, if it's down to the two of them now-before pulling him back up. "I feel too exposed with all the windows," she tells him, this time dragging him to the stacks of books she's often hidden in before.
He doesn't argue, finally collapsing when they find a spot where she feels safe in the almost complete darkness. He pulls her with him, and with a laugh she falls on top of him, smirking a bit at his exaggerated groan of pain as she settles herself on the floor next to him.
They're close, too close for her to be 100% comfortable, his breath practically teasing her skin where his mouth lingered over her cheek, his hand resting comfortably on her hip. She's not even sure how they ended up this close, or why she's not protesting this more, why she's not telling him he should really respect personal space, only knowing that when his hand slides upwards, over her back and towards the nape of her neck, she won't stop him from kissing her.
When their lips do meet, she sees those fireworks Finn once told her about, the ones he had seen with Quinn. She can't help but let out a small moan, the feeling of his mouth against her own overpowering any sense she may have had to stop this from happening, but now that it is, all she can want is more.
He deepens the kiss, leaning over her now as his hand tangles in her hair, their mouths slipping open to try and let the other in more, Rachel's hands moving to grab his shoulders, pulling him closer to her.
It didn't take them long before she was on top of him, their hands wandering places neither had allowed before, his fingers trailing skin on her torso under her shirt, her own working quickly on his belt buckle, the urgency and desire overpowering anything else. This wouldn't be something they would take their time with, that much was obvious, but she's still surprised as a hand left its place where it had been teasing and kneading at her breasts to drop to her jeans, undoing the button as she got his own down just as quickly.
It's only moments later that his hands are gripped tightly on her hips and she's sinking down on him, his name falling from her mouth in a breathy moan. It's so much different than it was with Finn, so much better, Blaine reading her body and it's needs better than Finn ever had before. His hips move in time with her own, and it doesn't take either long to reach the edge, for Rachel to feel her entire body tighten before seeming to relax into a puddle of goo, Blaine's own breathing still heavy as they come down from their spontaneous sex.
"That was new," he says a few moments later, Rachel in the process of putting her jeans back on.
"Thanks?" she replies, not sure of what this means for either of them, for their friendship, for her relationship.
"No, shit, Rachel-" he takes a deep breath, pulling his own jeans back on before pulling her forward, placing a small kiss on her lips. "I just meant that-"
"It's okay Blaine," she says, placing a finger on his lips. "It's not like this could be anything more than what it was anyways, I mean-you just broke up with Kurt, and I haven't even broken up with Finn yet, and you're gay, and-"
"None of that means that I don't want it to happen again," Blaine interrupts, and she fights off a smirk.
"Give a guy an orgasm and he'll always come crawling back for more," she teases gently.
"It wasn't just a way to get off Rach," he promises, and she nods, because she knows. She knows now, in those moments when they were together, that it was their way of saying everything they couldn't vocalize.
"It's just too complicated right now."
"I wish it weren't," he whispers, fingers trailing delicately along her cheek, and she hums quietly into his touch, a soft 'I know' coming from her mouth.
They spend another hour or so, trapped in the library, entertaining themselves by figuring out who would last if this was the real apocalypse, trying to determine who would lead them all to safety, how they would survive. Eventually, though, they face the facts that they're the last two standing, and ultimately it's Blaine who takes the shot, Rachel standing across the room so it hurts less for both of them as she aims.
When Finn kisses her in congratulations, her smile is just as fake as Blaine's is beside her, and she hands off the gift card to some freshman who walks by her.
She already had her prize.