The Perfect Date, a glee fanfic

On the first day back at McKinley after summer, it wasn't a surprise to see Finn and Rachel hand in hand walking down the hallway together. Ever since Finn had said "I love you" at regionals, right before they had sung "faithfully" (which Rachel had now made "their song") Rachel had been the happiest she had ever been. She believed that she had finally found the boy she had been looking for, Finn loved her for who she was and wasn't afraid to tell people that, regardless of what it would do to his reputation.

Their summer had been perfect. Finn did everything he could to make Rachel feel even more special than he knew she was. He took her out to dinner, he took her on romantic walks, anything that meant she could have the fairytale romance she had always wanted. In return, Rachel would go to baseball games with Finn, even though she had no idea what was going on. Even when he tried explaining it, and she said she finally understood, she didn't. Finn even knew but he didn't want to start an argument, especially after everything they had been through. Also, Finn thought it was adorable watching her try to work out where the points were coming from. Finn spent a lot of time at Rachel's whenever her dads were out of town for work, watching hours and hours of her favourite musicals, however, most of the time, within 30 minutes of the movie, they had found themselves making out so Finn wasn't complaining.

Walking in to the choir room together, no-one looked surprised. This was the first time since regionals that everyone had seen each other again. "It's about time!" Kurt said, leaving Finn wondering if he was talking about him and Rachel, or the fact that they had arrived 10 minutes late. Rachel's right arm was almost pulled out of her socket with the force of Tina and Mercedes as they pulled her away from Finn so she could tell them everything. "Don't miss anything out. Start with your first date!" Tina asked, excited to learn about a summer romance that actually worked. (Her and Artie hadn't exactly been on the best of terms, especially with him spending the whole summer playing Halo, rather than spending it with his girlfriend.)

The words "first date" made Finn sit up in his seat and look at Rachel with a look that said "please don't tell that story." Rachel just smiled and said "Finn, It's okay." Although in Finn's eyes, it wasn't. "Okay, so..." and Rachel began to explain.

8 weeks before...

Finn was nervous. Maybe even terrified. When he told Rachel he would give her the "perfect date" he didn't think it through very well, but then again, Finn had always been the kind of person that lived in the moment. He had never dated anyone like Rachel before, with Quinn, a typical date would just be dinner and a movie. But he knew, with Rachel, this first date would mean a lot to her so it would have to be perfect. He realized that if Rachel was planning this, knowing her, it would all be arranged weeks in advance, but all Finn had was a few days so he needed to think fast.

When he thought of asking his Mom for help, all she had said was "just be yourself, Finn." Which he didn't think was a lot of help in this certain situation. He tried not to mention the whole thing to Kurt, just because he wanted to do this himself, but it was kind of difficult, especially with them living under the same roof now. When it finally did come out, he realised maybe he should've just asked him in the first place. Within 30 minutes, he had it all planned out. "Thanks dude, I owe you." Finn said as he got up to get everything together. Kurt just smiled and said "Don't mention it."

So, the plan was that Finn would pick Rachel up at around 7pm, take her to the park and have a romantic picnic. Finn thought that to really impress Rachel, he'd sing to her too. Kurt had suggested he sing Bruno Mars' "Just the way you are" because Kurt thought it was the song to best match his voice. Also, Rachel had been telling Finn just how much she loved it for weeks now. For the first time in a while, Finn felt slightly more confident about everything and he realised else he needed to worry about.

Waking up on the day of the date, Finn heard something outside, like something was constantly hitting his window. As he went to open his curtains, a look of sadness came across Finn's face. Rain. It hadn't rained in weeks, so Finn was certain it would hold off even just another day but knowing his luck, he got the worst weather possible. Looking at his clock, he realised it was only 12pm so maybe in the next few hours it would clear up. All Finn knew was, he would need a miracle. He went to make sure all the food was set for the picnic, which it was, giving Finn some peace of mind. Looking at the weather again, Finn realised that it would never clear up by 7, so he needed somewhere else to have their date. Then Finn remembered that his Mom and Burt were going out for their own romantic meal tonight and Kurt was going to Mercedes' to have a movie night. As much as he didn't want to, he acknowledged that maybe the best place to have the picnic, was at home. Just before Kurt left at 4, he went to check that the music was all in order. Kurt had kindly burned the instrumental version of "Just the way you are" on to disc for Finn. He put the disc in the CD player for Finn (Finn told him about his plan B) and wished him luck as he walked out the door. "Thanks, I think I'll need it."

The next few hours were the busiest Finn had ever been in his life. He had moved all the furniture so he could set out the picnic on the floor, cleaned the house from top to bottom, sung over his song about 50 times to make sure it was perfect, and spent about an hour choosing what to wear as he wanted everything to be perfect. He had chosen out the shirt that Rachel had told him time and time again was his favourite. Checking again that everything was in place, he went to pick Rachel up(Even though he was just coming back to his own house, he still wanted to go and get her). He wasn't surprised that it hadn't stopped raining, but now, he didn't care. Everything was perfect.

Arriving at Rachel's at precisely 7pm, he knocked on the door remembering that her dad's weren't out of town and that either of them could open the door. For the first time today, he was lucky enough to escape the twenty questions about their date as Rachel opened the door. At first, Finn was speechless, she looked amazing. She was wearing a dress like the one she had worn at sectionals, only this time, the ribbon was gold. "Rach, you look beautiful," Finn said once he had finally found the words to speak again. "Thanks Finn, you don't look too bad yourself." Rachel replied, collecting her things and walking with Finn to his car. "So where are we going?"

Finn had managed to put off telling her by starting up a new conversation about what she had done with her first days of summer. She told Finn all about how she and her dad's had gone to see the community production of "Les Mis" starring none other than Mr Schue's old rival Bryan Ryan. She also told Finn that all the actress' in the play's acting was okay, but she could've done so much better, which made Finn smile. One of the many things he loved about Rachel was how much she believed in herself and also, how much she believed in him.

Pulling in to his driveway, Rachel looked confused. "Do you need to pick something up?" Finn just laughed nervously, "Not exactly Rach. Can you come with me?" "uh, sure!" Rachel replied, still confused as to what was going on. As they walked in to Finn's house, this time, Rachel was the one who was speechless. "Finn...it's perfect." Finn just smiled as he showed Rachel to her seat (like the gentleman we know he is) as they settled and started having their romantic meal, Finn started freaking out about the CD. "Finn are you okay? You seem worried about something..." "Yeah, don't worry about me Rach, I'll be right back," and with that, he rushed upstairs to the bathroom. Looking at himself in the mirror, he kept telling himself "You can do this." Feeling bad about leaving Rachel, he went downstairs and pressed play on the CD player. Nothing. "Shit." Finn had said it so quietly that he didn't think Rachel had heard. Although, she had. "Finn, are you sure everything's okay?" "Yeah, it's all good." Finn realised that he was going to have to do this without any help. He took a deep breath and started singing.

Oh, her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they're not shining
Her hair, her hair, falls perfectly without her trying
She's so beautiful, and I tell her every day

Yeah, I know, I know, when I compliment her she won't believe me
And it's so, it's so, sad to think that she don't see what I see
But every time she asks me do I look ok, I say

When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change
Because you're amazing, just the way you are
And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while
Because girl you're amazing, just the way you are

Rachel, for the second time was speechless. It even looked like there were tears forming in her eyes, but Finn didn't understand why. He began to put more heart in to this than he had in any performance before.

Her lips, her lips, I could kiss them all day if she let me
Her laugh, her laugh, she hates but I think it's so sexy
She's so beautiful, and I tell her every day

Oh, you know, you know, you know, I'd never ask you to change
If perfect's what you're searching for then just stay the same
So, don't even bother asking if you look ok
You know I'll say

Finn felt as though he had hurt Rachel. There were tears coming from her face. "Rach, what's wrong? Look, I know this wasn't the perfect date, but I had it all planned out, I mean the picnic was supposed to be at the park, candles and all, under the stars, but then of course knowing my luck, it rained, in summer, I mean when has that ever happened? And the song, Kurt put it on to a CD and then it was working all day.. and now..." Rachel stopped him by placing a small kiss on his lips which made Finn realise maybe he hadn't messed everything up. "Okay, I'm going to stop you right there. Finn, this date was perfect. The fact that you tried this hard means the world to me. No-one's ever done anything like this for me before." And just like that, she had tears coming down her face again. Finn took his thumb and wiped away all her tears which made her smile, yet again.

The rest of their night was perfect. They finished their picnic and when it had finally decided to stop raining, they went to the park and sat under the stars and just talked, for hours on end.

In Finn's eyes, it could've gone so much better, but to Rachel, it was perfect.

Present day:

The whole room was quiet. No-one anyone had expected Finn to come up with something like that. Quinn decided to break the silence. "Wow Finn, who knew you could be such a romantic? You never did anything like that when we were together. You must really love her right?" Rachel looked at Finn with that smile that always seemed to make his day better. "Yeah, I do." With that, the whole room broke in to "awh" and "WHY CAN'T YOU BE MORE LIKE THAT?" (Tina to Artie) and Puck just groaned and said "seriously guys, get a room. Ugh, where's Mr. Schue to end this lovefest?" and Like clockwork, Mr Schue walked in shouting "okay guys, lets get to work."