My Name Isn't Irish,
Written by WickedSong.
Disclaimer/Note : I do not own Glee, FOX does. If you're a Samcedes fan this oneshot takes place in the same timeline and is a companion to my chaptered story, 'If It's For Her' so check it out if you want to and haven't. If not, it's not really neccessary. Don't own the song 'Bless The Broken Road' by the Rascal Flatts which is slightly used here.
Rory stopped Brad for what seemed like the millionth time as Sugar continued to sing, dancing around the room, in her own world unaware of the fact that the upbeat music had stopped. The band also stopped when Rory gave the signal.
The Irish boy watched her, intrigued in how long she would continue until she came to the realisation that she was dancing to silence now. He had already counted five seconds when she turned around and put her hands on her hips.
"Why did you stop?" she asked Brad.
The silent pianist only held his arms up in surrender and gestured to the boy standing beside him. Sugar's gaze drifted to him but her hands were still on her hips.
"Look, Sugar, I just...I was just thinking we could try something a bit...slower."
"Why?" she asked sharply. "You don't like the song? Tough, I chose it. It suits me perfectly."
Rory felt himself wilting until her intense glare until Santana walked in and that only doubled his fear.
Santana noticed this. "Again, leprachaun, I'm not going to hurt you." Ever though she said this she still stared at him for an extra moment before telling them both to sit. The two complied to her demand. "I need your help actually. You're friends with Trouty Mouth, aren't you?" She turned to Rory.
"Trouty Mouth?"
"Sam," Santana explained. "There's a funny song behind that nickname that I might sing the second verse to one day," she joked and Rory nervously laughed along with her. She didn't laugh for long though and he stopped quickly, coughing to cover the lingering chuckle. "Anyway, you two are friends. And Sugar, you're my Troubletones sister, right? As well as there for 'Cedes?"
"Of course," Sugar piped up. "What do you want?"
"We have gots to get those two together," Santana said. "You can cut the sexual tension with a knife and I'm tired of couples dancing around each other in our glee club."
Neither Rory or Sugar didn't expand on this. They didn't see the point in arguing with Santana and Rory could even admit that he noticed the lingering looks that Sam sent his ex when he saw her in the hallway.
"What do you need us to do?" asked Rory, feeling brave enough to look Santana straight in the eye and ask.
Santana gave that sweet smile that wasn't all that sweet and tilted her head to the side. "Two things. One, come up with a name for this plan. Two, sing a sickingly sweet song in glee as a duet that will make them remember why they fell for each other."
Rory and Sugar both looked at each other, wondering if they should accept.
"And why should we?" asked Sugar, folding her arms.
"I'd love to say because you'd be helping the path of love but I'm not as corny as Finnocence or Berry," Santana replied. "What about because I'm from Lima Heights Adjacent and I can definitely show you how we do it there." Santana stood from her seat and walked out, shouting out, "Just think about it!"
"Lima Heights Adjacent? What do they do there?" Rory looked confused but Sugar only rolled her eyes.
"I guess we're back to square one. Bummer! I really wanted to sing this!" Rory was still questioning Santana's threats about Lima Heights. Sugar snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Help me find a song for 'Tana!"
"You're helping her?" asked an incredulous Rory and Sugar rolled her eyes again at him.
"I'm helping 'Cedes, you're helping Sam, everyone wins." She shrugged as she spoke. Rory only shrugged as well, walking over to the piano beside her.
"So what do we do?"
"We sing!"
Sugar quickly walked over to Brad to discuss song choices with him while Rory sighed heavily. How was he going to find a song that suited Sugar with the talent she had while also meeting Santana's standards for, as she had put it, a 'sickingly sweet duet'.
Then it hit him.
"Hey, Sugar, have you ever heard a song called 'Falling Slowly?'"
The brunette shook her head. "How does it go?"
Rory nodded to Brad who nodded back, obviously aware of the song he was speaking about. He took Sugar's hand cautiously, wondering if she'd pull away (and he was surprised when she didn't, but not in a bad way) and led her to the seat she had just previously vacated.
When she sat down she folded her arms but looked excited to see what he'd sing. That was the one thing he credited her for. She was always brimming with enthusiasm, even if that could change within a minute and she'd go back to her hostile, 'I'm better than you' attitude.
"Take it away, Brad."
Rory sang the song watching as Sugar's expression changed from one of enthusiam to one of being unimpressed. Before he reached the second chorus he stopped singing. He held his arms out as if asking her what was wrong.
"It's too slow," Sugar commented. "I can't sing slow songs."
"Sure you can," assured Rory but Sugar shook her head.
"No Irish, I really can't." She shook her head and stood from the seat, grabbing her bag and almost heading for the door.
"Why not? And my name's not Irish, it's Rory," he asked back, hands in his pocket.
Sugar faltered at the door, turning around and glaring at him for what was probably the hundreth time in their short practice. She looked just about ready to rip him a new one.
"I'm too talented for a duet anyway!"
"Really? Then why did you ask me?"
She gave an annoyed, angry sound and declared, "Because I think you're kinda cute for the spineless little puppy you are. But you obviously can't keep up with my talent so I'm going to have to just sing alone."
"Santana asked us to do a duet," Rory said. "Otherwise she's going to do something that involves some place called Lima Heights Adjacent, whatever that is."
His confused look garnered a laugh from Sugar. She looked down. "Fine, Irish, let's do your song." She put her bag down beside the chair.
"My name is-"
She turned to look at him with wide eyes and he found himself forgetting his own name.
"-Irish."
"Sam, my man, I think I have a problem," Rory told his friend as they were walking back from lunch. They had just revealed the plan to Sam and he had been on board with the glee club helping out with his fight for Mercedes' heart. Of course, all helping Sam had done was make Rory think more about the increasing time he had spent with Sugar.
After rehearsing their duet, he had walked her home. She had then thanked him in her own way. Obviously her straight talking behaviour had only been encouraged by all the time she spent with Santana in the Troubletones.
"Girl problems? It's Sugar right?" Sam asked, as he put books in his locker and Rory leaned on the one next to him. When Rory gave him a look that asked how he knew Sam shrugged. "Dude, I know that look. I've had that look for the last two months."
"Yeah, but you know that Mercedes still loves you. All I know about Sugar is that she likes to make fun of my accent and calls me Irish."
"Sounds like someone's got a crush."
"Well, that's why I'm asking-"
"I'm not talking about you," Sam said as he closed his locker. "Come on."
"So wait, you think that Sugar-"
Sam interrupted his friend for the second time. "Yeah, I do." He gave the brown-haired boy a reassuring slap on the arm. "Just be yourself. She'll appreciate you for that. I gotta get to class."
Rory nodded and headed off to his class all the while thinking about what his friend had said.
Walking into glee later on that day Rory found that he was one of the first to arrive. Quinn, Artie and Puck were gathered in a corner and Kurt and Blaine were in deep conversation while Sugar was sitting at the piano, precariously playing the notes, smiling every time she hit a wrong one, unaware of the sound it was making. Everyone else in the room seemed to spare her feelings by not telling her.
"You can play piano?"
"Daddy says I'm very multi-talented." Sugar gave a shrug. "I guess I can't help it."
Rory gave a quick nod, sitting down on the bench beside her, tracing the notes with his hands.
"Can you play?"
"Not at all," Rory confided. "My mam can and so can my brother but I can't."
"Your mam?"
"My mum."
"Mum?"
"Mom."
Sugar nodded in understanding. "I don't get why all you Irish people can't just speak American. It would make things a whole lot easier. I think I'd be able to tell what you were saying most of the time."
Rory didn't even bother to show offence or correct her. She continued to play the piano, as best as she could, while singing loudly. Her voice had apparently improved, according to Finn, from her first audition from the New Directions, thanks to her time in the Troubletones.
More people began walking into the choir room and when Brad did, silently standing behind the duo sitting at the piano, Rory and Sugar got up to sit on one of the seats.
Glee was uneventful. Rory and Sugar would be performing their duet next week sometime and all the rehearsals so far were for either the proposal from Mr. Schue to Ms. Pillsbury or for Regionals.
For the second time that week the two were practicing their duet when Sugar stopped mid song.
Rory groaned. "What's the problem now?"
"I just don't know if I'm being featured enough. Maybe I should have a verse to myself." She shrugged. She looked to Brad for his comments but he gave none, shaking his head as he looked down at the sheet music, which Rory was pretty sure he didn't have to study.
Rory wasn't sure how to respond. "But-but the song works best when it's simple," he tried to counter. "You singing the harmonies works because-because it's simple."
She looked down, her bullshit radar obviously going off. Instead of glaring at him though, or putting her hands on her hips or going off on one of her rants she sat down. Looking at her feet her voice sounded quieter than ever before. "I know I'm not good."
"Wha-?"
She looked at him. "I really like the fact that you've been trying to spare my feelings. But ever since Mr. Schue told me I couldn't be in glee club I started to notice that I wasn't as good as I thought."
Rory sat down beside her and tentatively put a hand on her arm but she shook him off. He wasn't sure how he was meant to comfort her. "You may not have the best voice in glee but you have the most confidence. You don't have a bad voice anyway."
Sugar laughed. "You're sweet, Irish."
"My name isn't Irish. It's Rory."
It seemed as if Sugar was mulling this over in her head but when she shook it she grinned. "Nah, you're Irish to me."
Rory shook his own head but couldn't stop the small smile that formed on his lips.
Sugar poked his arm, teasing him. "You like it. You're now Irish to me!"
"Come on," Rory said, not responding to this. "Let's practice the song."
"Will, of course I will."
Rory could feel Sugar jumping on his arm when Ms. Pillsbury accepted the proposal from Mr. Schue.
"It's so romantic!" exclaimed the sharp tongued brunette. She gave a quick high five to Santana and Brittany who passed by to go to the girls locker room. She also offered Rory her hand for a high five and he accepted. She also hugged him, an action which caught him by surprise but something he returned happily anyway. When they pulled out of the hug she gave him an excited smile and walked away.
Staring at her as she left, Rory gave a sly smile before he felt Finn pull his arm. "Come on, dude, enough time for staring later."
Rory felt himself go scarlet at Finn mentioning it but walked with the guys anyway, noticing a dejected Sam trailing behind them, obviously thinking about Mercedes.
Hopefully the duet he and Sugar had planned would give him a reason for a smile on his face.
Finishing to the applause of the glee club, Rory was content to sit down and let Sugar take the spotlight for their successful duet. She surprised him however by pulling him up from his seat and forcing him to take a bow.
When he didn't bend low enough for a proper bow she corrected him, excitably forcing him to do it again. He did so and then she took her own bow.
"Come on Irish," she said to him as glee finished, "I'll walk with you."
"I'd love to but Sam said-"
"Do it man, do it," Sam whispered furiously as he walked out of the choir room. When he was at the doorway the older boy turned around, flashed him a grin and a thumbs up.
Rory smiled back.
"What are you so happy about?" Sugar asked. "Let's go." She took his arm and looped her own through his, walking with him. "So come on, tell me about yourself."
"What?"
He was surprised. Usually their conversations hadn't expanded outside of glee club, music or something to do with the plan to reunite the couple known as Samcedes. But now she was asking him about himself?
What was that about?
"You heard me, leprechaun, I wanna know about you."
"My name is-"
"Irish, I know," she teased.
He didn't argue this time.
"Well, I guess...I grew up in Ireland. Beautiful place, not too different from here. People think that just because I'm from Ireland that we're different, we're all drunks who eat potatoes or something like that but we're not. Although I did grow up on a farm, so I guess that one's true," he told her. She seemed to be listening intently. "I do love America, all the things you have here are amazing but sometimes I wish I was back home. I miss my mum, my dad, my brother."
"You have a brother."
"Seamus," Rory said. "He gets lost sometimes so he wears a bell."
Sugar laughed.
"Hey, that's my brother!" Rory exclaimed but even he was smiling.
Almost too quickly they were outside the Motta mansion. Rory looked up at it. "Nice house."
Sugar nodded. "It's home, I guess. There's only daddy and me right now. Mom's on business a lot and my older sister lives in New York with her husband."
"Ever get lonely?"
She shrugged. "When I was in the Troubletones, not really. 'Tana, Britt and 'Cedes were good to me and we still talk but it's not the same."
"Well, if you do, call me," Rory said, almost too quickly. He almost wanted to retract the words but when she brightened up, he continued, "I live with Brittany. I'm sure you have her number."
Sugar nodded, pressing the button to open the gate to the expansive mansion she called home. "Hmm, maybe I will. Goodnight, Irish."
"'Night Sugar."
He walked away, on his own way to Brittany's and couldn't help to the smile that he couldn't wipe off his face.
They had grown closer, definitely. Sugar was still herself, or what she wanted people to believe she was, sharp, rude, conceited, around other people but with Rory she would relax. He slowly learned more and more about her and what made her tick. Her sister was a talented musician, a glee club legend, known for leading her glee club to Nationals almost ten years ago.
"I had to step out of her shadow," said Sugar. "Daddy tells me that I can so I believe I can even if that means stepping on some toes along the way."
Rory nodded. "I sort of understand that actually." He leaned back in his seat.
They were sitting in the choir room during lunch, something which had become an occurrence for the two of them.
The bell rang.
"Walk you to class?"
"If you want," Sugar said with a small smile, turning around slyly and walking. Rory caught up with her and walked her to her English class.
"I'll see you in glee."
"See you in glee," she repeated back to him and quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek.
He was late to his Biology class but boy, was it worth it.
"God blessed the broken road, that led me straight to you."
It was obvious that Sam was singing this to Mercedes but Rory only had eyes for Sugar who had began the song by waving her arms in the air and swaying. Noticing that this wasn't exactly catching on among the group she stopped with the arms and just swayed, until finally she felt comfortable enough to lean her head on Rory's shoulder, something that sent his heart racing at hundred miles per hour.
As Sam finished, his eyes full of tears, Rory was one of the first to stand and applaud for his friend, who only had eyes for the girl he was trying to win back. Rory knew the feeling as he watched Sugar jump up happily and clap, before looping her arm through Rory's and lean her head on his shoulder again in a content way.
Sugar was staying behind with the glee girls to talk to Mercedes about something so Rory took this as his cue to talk to Sam.
He caught up with his friend at his locker.
"That song was really good."
"Thanks." Sam didn't sound like he agreed but he smiled anyway. It was sad though.
"Don't feel down," Rory told him. "Hey, you gave me advice and look at how well things are going with me and Sugar."
Sam smiled genuinely, still a bit sad but overall happy. "How are things going with you two anyway? You two dating yet?"
Rory shook his head. "I don't know when to ask her."
Sam nodded his head, as the two walked out of the school. "Oh, don't I understand that...It took me a month after prom to finally ask Mercedes out. I just kept telling myself that I didn't deserve someone as wonderful and she deserved a whole lot better than a guy who lived in a motel room," he revealed. "But then I thought, if I didn't ask her then I never would. And the rest, you can say, is history."
Rory smiled encouraged. "You're right, Sam. I think I'll just ask her. Thanks!"
Sam smiled back. "No problem."
"I was wondering if you wanted to be my girlfriend or go on a date. I know I'm weird and you sometimes don't get what I'm talking about but I think that we'd be-"
"Who are you talking to?"
A confused Sugar walked into the choir room to find Rory having that furious internal debate with himself about how best to ask Sugar on a date.
"No, I just wanted to ask you something."
"Go for it," she told him, still standing, warily looking over at the piano.
"We're friends, right? Or we've grown closer since we sang that duet..."
"Yes," she answered not sure where he was going with this train of thought.
Rory shook his head. "Do you want to go on a date with me?"
She looked confused for a moment, then happy but then that changed. "Why do you want to go on date with me?"
"Well, I like you. I thought you-"
"I'm not a nice person. I make comments. I think I'm better than everyone. Why do you want to go on a date with me?" she repeated the question, looking concerned.
"But I know you're not really like that. C'mon, Sugar, listen to me-"
"No, Rory, you're too sweet for me." She shook her head. "I knew that duet would be a bad idea."
She left without a second thought.
He wished she had called him Irish.
Rory sat at the table with most of the glee kids at the reception for Mr. Schuester and the new Mrs. Schuester, as Mercedes was singing her song for the first dance, when Sugar walked up to him, hand outstretched.
"Would you like to dance with me, Rory?"
"Time stands still, beauty and all she is, I will be brave, I will not let anything take away what's standing in front of me, every breath, every hour has come to this, one step closer."
He looked at her stifly, resisting the temptation to take her hand as he had wanted to many times before. Sam nudged him to go for it but he refused, gaining him strange looks.
"Come on, Irish, don't ignore me. Dance with me!" she demanded it this time and even though she used that nickname he didn't budge.
Not until she took his hand in her own and pulled him up.
"I have died everyday waiting for you, darling don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years, I'll love you for a thousand more."
Sugar adjusted his hands so that they were on her waist and hers were around his neck.
"Why do you want to dance with me? Thought I was too sweet."
She rolled her eyes. "Yeah and I'm a bitch. I guess we even each other out, huh?" she commented smartly, tilting her head as she swayed to the music. "I didn't say no because I don't like you. I said no because of the opposite."
He gave her a 'huh' look and she sighed.
"I am very good at hurting people. I let my mouth run away with me and I say stuff I don't mean. I'm trying to be a nicer person, I promise."
"I know."
She smiled. "So, about that date. What do you think?"
He nodded. "Irish thinks that's a good idea."
She laughed, smiling genuinely up at him. "Your name is-"
He couldn't help the smile as he replied. "Irish."
This was long, wasn't it? I just ship Flanamotta so hard now but of course I had to have some Samcedes in there. OTP and all that jazz. I hope I wrote Rory OK. I didn't really know how to go about writing him with the accent and stuff so whenever I wrote something I said it with an Irish accent in my head and thought if it sounded alright. I'm a quarter Irish so hopefully nothing's out of character for our dear Rory.
The idea of the nickname just came to me and wouldn't get out of my head. So there it is.
I hope my characterisation of Sugar is good too. I don't know. We don't know a lot about her so I just put in what I'd like to see.
Hope you enjoyed. I'm in the process of writing another Flanamotta/Samcedes so keep an eye out for that.
WickedSong x