Fairytale of New York
Yes I am the type of person who writes a story based on my favourite Christmas song in august. Deal with it. I just realised how well this song fits to Finchel... apart from the first part but still. AU in parts, but important details are still the same. I know they sing Pretending before Light Up the World but I switched them to fit the lyrics better.
They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
Rachel was rambling about New York. Again. Sometimes Finn found it kind of cute how determined she was, but he was tired and he didn't want the same conversation about things he frankly couldn't care less about. He also thought that Rachel had to be exaggerating slightly; to him New York was just another city.
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
He didn't quite understand his girlfriend's obsession with the place. It was dirty and smelly. The people there were rude and it was impossible to get a taxi. There always seemed to be puddles of some unknown liquid everywhere (he hoped they were rainwater). Everything cost about 100 times more than it should and the subway system was always incredibly hot and there seemed to be a constant smell. The summers would bake you alive and in the winters you'd freeze to death. To be honest, in Finns opinion, New York kinda sucked.
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
Finn remembers when he asked Rachel to be his girlfriend (for the first of many times). It was Christmas Eve and the snow was falling heavily. Glee Club had just finished performing in a shopping mall to raise money for their bus to sectionals. He had taken her hand and serenaded her in front of all of those people. He had sung Faithfully by Journey, and her being Rachel joined in. That became their song. Her reply when he asked was "What took you so long?"
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me
Finn knew that Rachel was destined for Broadway. Destined to be a star. He told her so all the time. He only hoped she took him along for the ride and didn't ditch him for some girly haired man-diva (e.g. Jesse St. James). Whenever Rachel was feeling self-conscious, more often than anyone at school knew, Finn would reassure her. He'd tell her that they were just jealous, or that their comments wouldn't matter when she escaped that town and made it to New York and to Broadway. He told her that one day they were going to see her on stage and regret the words that are currently hurting her.
You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the Glee Club had gone to nationals in New York, Rachel had been so excited. This was where she wanted to spend the rest of her life. They hadn't been dating at the time (that was Finn's fault but it took him a while to get over her kissing Puck). Finn had convinced her to go out with him by telling her it was a work date (it wasn't) He took her for a lovely meal to Sardi's, where she happened to meet one of her idols, and then they went for a stroll with the friends he had bribed playing Bella Notte, one of her favourite Disney songs. He was heartbroken when she had rejected his kiss, but realised that it was his fault for hurting her.
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging
All the drunks they were singing
At nationals they had sung a song that the Glee Club had written together. The group were really proud of it, it was fun to sing and energetic and they got the whole crowd dancing along to the beat. This song strengthened the group and made them all feel really close and it helped them to get past all of the disagreements and drama (which there seemed to be a lot of because in Glee Club, the couples seemed to change every 2 minutes).
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night
It might have been Finn's fault that New Directions didn't win nationals that year. He knew they deserved it. But if he was honest, he didn't regret that kiss, not even slightly. That kiss won back the love of his life, and if he had to trade in the nationals trophy for it, he would do it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately the other members of the Glee Club didn't see it quite that way in the beginning, but they came around. It only took Santana a couple of weeks to stop swearing at him in Spanish whenever she saw him.
The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day
Finn knew that with Rachel being Jewish, she didn't actually celebrate Christmas, but he got her a present anyway. He got her beautiful earrings, which Santana had promised him she'd love. Technically Santana said "Man-hands better love them or I'll make her love them" which Finn supposed was almost the same. He'd also bought her a star called Finn Hudson. He considered naming it after her, but decided that would be way too cliché. Plus, as he said to her, there was already a star named Rachel Berry, so he needed one to guide her to her dreams.
You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
Finn and Rachel had just had another of their seemingly weekly screaming matches. They always made up soon enough, but it was something they'd had to learn to live with. They were both extremely stubborn, but Rachel read into the smallest things and Finn didn't even notice them. They were both stressed recently and to be honest both in bad moods. Rachel had just had another day of dealing with Cassandra July insulting her and it had brought back all of her old insecurities from high school, when she used to be the target of slushies and crude drawings on bathroom walls. Finn had received another letter saying that the army couldn't change his father's discharge status from dishonourable to honourable. Honestly at the moment Finn would celebrate is he received a semi-honourable discharge.
You scumbag
You maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last
Finn had said something to Rachel. She had been rejected from a role in a show that was being put on at NYADA. He didn't know what he'd said but according to Rachel it proved that he "didn't deem her dreams pragmatic." And that he was "unsupportive and disobliging." That was bullshit. Hell, he didn't even know what half of those words meant.
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day
It was strange how even when everything was so different between them, so much stayed the same. The same carollers on street corners, the same faces, the same Santa's in shops asking children what they wanted for Christmas. Finn almost believed that this was a sign that their relationship would recover, as it always did and it always will do.
I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
Finn knew that sometimes Rachel blamed him for her lack of success on Broadway. Maybe she didn't realise it, but deep down he knew it. He also knew that it wasn't true. Anyone in that Glee Club could have made it big. But none of them had yet. Rachel was expecting too much of herself in such a short amount of time. Pretty much everyone in New York the exact same things as her. Finn had faith in Rachel but surely she didn't expect to be on Broadway within months of moving there. There were hundreds of older, more experienced performers competing with her and it obviously hasn't been her time yet.
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
Rachel knew that when she had started dating Finn, she had accidentally started letting her dreams slip from being her main priority. It had taken her time but she had finally found a healthy balance where she wasn't completely focused on either her boyfriend or her career.
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
If you asked Finn what he dreamed of being in 5 years time, he'd say "I don't know." But one thing he knew was that no matter what, Rachel was there in them. A teacher, or businessman, or even just a waiter at a small café. He'd have his Broadway star as either his girlfriend or his wife (depending on whether this was before or after she won her Tony)
Can't make it all alone
I built my dreams around you
He remembers when Rachel had moved to New York without him. Those few months were the longest of his life. He didn't realise quite how much you could miss a person before that. For the first couple of weeks he was in New York, he barely let Rachel out of his sight until Kurt had a go at him for stealing his Diva.
The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day
No matter what, they'd be together. That was what he had promised her, and he intended on keeping his promise. Forever.