Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or her characters.
Finding a Home
At twenty-one years of age Rachel Barbra Berry was a Broadway success, a NYADA student and homeless.
While the word homeless normally conjures up a vision of a dirty, bearded man sleeping in a cardboard box somewhere Rachel's was much more benign. She didn't even realize she was homeless for a long time. Until the day she showed up at the door for her monthly week long stay with Elliot to find that he had finally gotten a permanent roommate. Rachel stood there staring at the closed door, Elliott's apologetic face burning in her memory, for several minutes. Then she picked up her two large red suitcases and walked back outside.
She texted Blaine only to learn that Kurt and Mercedes were there. It was unspoken that they were there to complain about her. Santana was of course back at the apartment she lived in most of the time having kicked Rachel out for the hundredth time it seemed. Rachel didn't allow herself to think about the fact that the apartment she'd originally found with Kurt, that her name was on the lease for, she was kicked out of for the time being. She picked up her suitcases and caught the attention of a cabbie.
Oh it wasn't permanent. It never was. Kurt, Mercedes, and Santana took turns getting fed up with her and kicking her out. They went to their boyfriends to give her time to pack and get out. She normally went to Elliot's for a week and paid him enough rent money to keep him from losing his apartment but he had even less tolerance for her than the others did sadly. They clashed constantly despite the fact that they did honestly like each other outside of the living situation.
Then she'd leave for Blaine and Sam's model apartment they shared with two other male models. She actually loved living with the guys the best of all. Everyone had tightly regimented diets so her veganism was encouraged. Many of them walked around nearly nude so her own nudist tendencies didn't cause any concern with anyone and everyone tended to get up super early for photo shoots so her early morning vocal warmups and work outs didn't bother anyone. She usually only got to stay with them a week at a time though before Kurt and Mercedes started thinking a little too hard about Rachel staying with their boyfriends and sweetly asked her back pretending to have missed her. Acting like they were good enough performers to hide the seething jealousy in their eyes.
It was so routine that for the last year Rachel didn't even unpack anymore. She lived out of her suitcases in each apartment that let her have a place to sleep. Now those places were down to two and there was no way she could go directly to the guys from the girls.
She got out of the taxi at the Wooden Fish; a bar owned by a former Broadway technician named Russ. She'd gone to this bar with co-workers after shows and knew if nothing else Russ would let her warm herself at the bar for a few hours while she tried to figure out what to do.
She slide a bright red suitcase on either side of her normal stool as Russ came towards her with a frown on his face. "Moving in Fanny?"
Rachel sighed, "Elliot found a permanent roommate. I've been kicked out of Bushwick and I can't move in with Blaine and Sam yet. My whole routine is thrown off now."
Russ looked confused. "What? Start at the beginning." Russ filled a shaker with ice and poured Frangelico and white crème de cocoa over it before shaking it up and pouring it into shot glass slowly. A crispy layer of ice formed over the edges of the shot as Rachel explained.
"When I moved up here I lived in the NYADA dorms but my roommate was a slut. Luckily my friend Kurt, who's gay, moved up here too and we got a large warehouse apartment in Bushwicks. We got in right before that borough exploded so it was surprisingly cheap. Everything was mostly okay. We had our fights but the place is big enough that we could avoid each other until we cooled down. Then Santana, this cheerleader who's always been horrible to me but she was in our Glee Club and therefore was sort of family dropped out of college in Kentucky and moved in with us. The fights got progressively worst but she's also like my only female friend in the city so…" Rachel shrugged like that made it okay. "Occasionally we'd fight and she'd kick me out-"
"Wait she kicked you out? It's your apartment." Russ seemed incredulous.
"You don't know Santana. She was the HBIC, Head Bitch in Charge, in high school. You don't get to tell her no. She's a monster with razor blades in her hair." Rachel took a sip of her shot glass and made a small noise of pleasure at the super sweet drink. "You should garnish this with a cookie."
"And you live with this person? Willingly?" Russ shook his head and headed down the bar to serve another customer before returning to where Rachel was still sipping slowly on her Crispy Crunch. He shook his head. She is too cute sometimes but that was hardly a reason to kick her out of her apartment.
"Anyway I knew my friend Elliot needed a roommate to help with rent on his apartment so I'd stay with him for like a week or so but while we're good friends outside we're terrible roommates. Just rub each other completely wrong. So eventually I had to leave there too." Rachel explained.
"Even though you helped pay rent?" Russ could hardly believe what he was hearing.
"Yeah. Then I moved in with Blaine, Kurt's boyfriend, and Sam, Mercedes' boyfriend. They live with two other guys and they're all models but Blaine who's a NYADA student like me."
"Please tell me you didn't pay rent there too." Russ was confused Rachel was a smart girl. Surely she realized this was wrong.
"No but I did buy some of the groceries. I'm not a freeloader." Rachel defended herself.
"No you're certainly not that." 'But you are getting taken advantage of.' Russ thought to himself.
"But then after a week or so Mercedes and Kurt-"
"Who's Mercedes?"
"Another member of our old Glee Club. Her and Kurt are besties. She's working on getting an album out but mostly sings backup at concerts and such. She moved in with us maybe a year ago."
"Never heard of her." Russ deadpanned.
Rachel shrugged.
"She a bitch to you too?" Russ asked.
Rachel shifted uncomfortably on her chair. "We've never gotten along. She's a really good singer and we fought for the spot light a lot. Kurt did too. We're all huge divas."
"And yet you let her live with you?"
"She kind of just showed up and told us she was moving in."
"Do Santana and Mercedes pay rent?"
"Yeah. We split it four ways."
"Why do I have a feeling you pay most of it?" Russ crossed his massive arms and dug his fingers into his biceps.
"Well I have the best paying job. It's $1800 in total. I pay $600 because the lease is in my name and they pay $400."
"You realize how insane that is right? You're paying rent and buying groceries at three different places one of which is in your name and these bitches keep kicking you out."
"I'm really hard to live with." Rachel explained but she looked sad.
"I don't think I really believe that."
"I do my vocal exercises early in the morning. The air is better and I sing every day. I have to be prepared." Rachel pointed out the most common complain.
"The rest of these 'divas' are singers too. They don't do vocal exercises?"
"No." Rachel pouted.
Russ rolled his eyes. "Well now we know why I've never heard of them. They don't practice?"
Rachel shrugged. "Not in my hearing. They complain about my vegan food and my time in the bathroom and all my neurotic perfectionist tendencies and my casual nudity."
"And they don't have things you find annoying."
"Oh G-d so many. In a way I kind of like moving so often cause I get to get away from them just as much as they get to get away from me."
"Why don't you just get your own place?"
Rachel was quiet for a moment and bit her lip pensively. "I don't like living alone. My dads were away a lot when I was younger. I hate empty places."
"Then get a pet. Look Rachel when's your lease up on the Bushwick apartment?"
"Next month."
"Go talk to the apartment manager and tell him you're not renewing the lease in your name that he'll need to contact the other occupants for that. For tonight you're crashing on my couch. Tomorrow you're going to Hell's Kitchen. I got a buddy who's a super out there. He'll hook you up with an apartment of your own."
"Okay." Rachel looked at him with wide eyes.
"And Rachel?"
"Yeah."
"Stop letting people take advantage of you and beat you down. You're an amazing woman and a phenomenal singer. Don't forget it."
Rachel blushed but finally smiled at him widely. "Thank you Russ. So much."
"No problem." Russ moved down the bar to take care of another customer before pulling out his cell and calling his buddy Mark, a superintendent in Hell's Kitchen, and explaining the situation before handing the phone to Rachel to give him her information. She had to pass a security check of course but she could move in tomorrow with Russ vouching for her. She would have to pay last month and this month's rent by the end of the month.
"I can do that. I've been putting some money back anyway. It was for my student loans but I'll probably save money moving in instead of paying rent at two different places. Oh are the apartments sound proof by any chance because I do my vocal exercises and- they are? That's great. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. Bye."
Rachel smiled as she handed Russ his phone back. "How can I ever repay you?"
Russ chuckled. "Got a free night you could come and sing? I'll pay ya."
"If you're paying me it's not really me paying you back."
"If I have Rachel Berry singing in my bar once a week I'll draw in more revenue that I pay you. I guarantee it."
"I'm free tonight."
"Alright. Let me update the bar's Facebook page to say you're singing tonight and every?"
"Thursday."
"Every Thursday. I always post whenever you're singing and typically business immediately picks up. Thank you."
"No. Thank you. Hmm any requests?"
Russ laughed. "How about Stand By Me for starters given my actions tonight and then you can take requests from the audience or sing whatever." He pulled a hat out from behind the bar. "Here's your tip jar for now."
Rachel smiled and let Russ put her suitcases behind the bar. He offered to run them upstairs to his apartment later.
Rachel hopped up on stage and watched as people's interest perked up. She put the hat in front of the mic and turned it on before heading over the amps to adjust things so her voice wouldn't be distorted.
"Hello everyone I'm Rachel Berry and I'm singing tonight and every Thursday night from now on. I'll be taking requests from the audience but the first song goes out to Russ. 'When the night has come…"
As Rachel's sweet voice filled the bar and leaked out on to the street Russ saw people stop outside and come in to listen. His phone started pinging with responses to the Facebook post and he propped it up under the bar so he could respond as much as possible in between serving the influx of customers. Rachel's genre's cycled through Broadway classics, pop songs, heavy metal and even a rap song once which was hilarious to watch. His hat was soon overflowing and Russ smiled. Yes this was going to work out great.