Sam/Rachel
Disclaimer: I don't own Glee
"Stay Beautiful"
He considers her his friend. He actually thinks he might be the one of the only few that do.
Whenever he does things like offers a ride home or asks her if she wants to hang out, her response is always a strange smile, as if the concept is foreign to her. It kind of irks him. He knows the last guy who would do that stuff for her ended up breaking her heart countless times (Finn) but he hates that she belittles herself into thinking no guy would want to be anything with her.
His goal is to change that.
"I still think that the entire thing was a set-up," Rachel finishes her thought as they are walking towards the parking lot.
He lets out a laugh. "That's a totally biased opinion. You're in love with Barbara."
She scoffs. "Clearly I haven't shown you enough of her performances for you to just agree with me. She is a legend. The public is just fickle and shoves veterans of the arts for raw material."
"But… when you hit Broadway, won't you be 'raw material' too?" he questions. She makes this noise that's halfway between a gasp and a laugh and shoves his arm playfully.
"Sam Evans, I can't believe that you just—"
However, she is cut off by a slushee hitting her square in the face. They both pause in shock and his fists are curling together, his knuckles turning white. Two guys he recognizes from the football team are guffawing as they stroll right by, depositing the Big Quench cup into the trash as they go.
"You should thank us! That's the best you've looked all week!"
He wants to go after them and give them a piece of his very pissed off mind, but he catches sigh of Rachel while turning and all of his rage just melts seeing her like that.
He takes her elbow and pulls her into the nearby bathroom, leading her to the sink. She fumbles for the knob, wiping what she could off of her face before getting the water running. They stand in silence for a few minutes as she takes her time to scrub her skin clean of the corn syrup, reaching for the paper towels as she finishes.
"I look like a wreck." She frowns at her reflection. "I wonder if Dad and Daddy will notice much. Do you think?"
"You just had a slushee thrown in your face. I think you'll get the benefit of the doubt."
"They don't know I get slusheed," she informs. "They would have a fit and call Principal Figgins and the entire school will just hate me more for trying to punish the inevitable."
He looks at her. "Is that really what you think?"
She shrugs a shoulder.
"Rachel, that's crazy," he insists, coming to stand right beside her. "You have to stop acting like this."
She blinks and looks at him like he's crazy. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about how you act like this doesn't bother you, when I can imagine you just want to let it all out. You don't deserve this treatment."
She smiles a bit tightly. "That's immensely sweet of you to say. But I've gotten far used to this, and I've decided that they aren't worth my tears. One day, I'll be just like Barbara, and bigger and greater than all of them, and when they see me so successful then I'll get my revenge. All of this stuff in between now and then will just have to be tolerated."
She's confident as she says this and he just looks at her through the mirror. "I guess nobody's told you this before, huh?"
"Told me what?"
"Well, don't take this the wrong way."
She chews her lip tentatively and watches him. "Okay," she says slowly, hesitantly.
"You are a very, very beautiful woman."
She turns around to face him, first with an expression of complete shock. Then her eyes start to water and she breaks into a wide smile. It's the happiest one he's seen in a long time, and when she pulls him into a tight embrace, he wraps his arms around her and holds her firmly, resting his chin atop her head.
"Stubborn, but very beautiful."
A/n. Re-posted.
Quote Prompt: The Proposal (2009) "Don't take this the wrong way." – "Okay." – "You are a very, very beautiful woman."