Rachel was very, very warm. She could hear people starting to move around, tents unzipping and birds chirping. Her back was sore from sleeping on the ground and she briefly thought about how glad she was that she was moving to a big city.
That's when he moved and her eyes flashed open, wincing a bit as sunlight streamed through the tent. She was snuggled against his chest, his arms wrapped around her as he slept contently, and she had to force herself to look up and see exactly who she had spent the previous night sleeping with.
Oh shit, her heart seemed to both stop and beat three times as fast when she was greeted with light stubble and an overflow of dark curls on the pillow next to her, Blaine's eyes still closed. If Kurt finds out-this is bad, she worried, biting her lip compulsively.
He moved a little, one of his arms leaving her waist as he laid on his back, mumbling incoherently in his sleep. Kurt had mentioned before what a heavy sleeper Blaine was, and how often Blaine liked to sleep. But she couldn't for the life of her figure out why Kurt would see this as a problem-Blaine looked, for lack of a better term-hot in his sleep.
She blushed as the thought crossed her mind, slowly sitting up so as to not wake him up. She gathered her hair at the base of her neck, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She had fortunately slept away most of her hangover, though she vaguely remembered making a very bad decision in kissing Noah the previous night.
The memory of being in the clearing reminded of her one other thing-Kurt and Blaine's fight. She wasn't sure what had come of it, but it couldn't have ended well if Blaine was asleep in her tent instead of Kurt's. She knew things were getting worse between the two as more time went on, but all she could really do was hope that they'd get their acts together and realize they were wonderful together and the three of them could live happily in New York.
She sighed heavily and unzipped the sleeping bag a little, shuffling around to grab a sweatshirt-she realized it was Blaine's after it was halfway on, but she knew it was cold out there so she wasn't too worried about that-accidentally kicking him in all her movements.
"Ow," she heard him mutter and she froze, leaning over him as she was trying to find pants in her backpack, because she was sure she hadn't brought just shorts to wear.
"Um," Rachel replied, intelligent as ever when he finally opened his eyes and looked at her.
"You kicked me," he said simply.
"You fell asleep in my tent," she pointed out.
He shrugged noncommittally, yawning as he sat up and moved out of her way so she could grab her bag. "I didn't really feel like dealing with-" he started, then stopped when he realized what he was saying.
"Kurt?" she finished for him, and he made an uncomfortable nod.
"Yeah. Sorry I hogged your tent though," he told her genuinely, and she shrugged.
"It wasn't the most horrible thing in the world," she replied. "At least you didn't roll around all night or snore obnoxiously."
"Finn?" he asked simply, and she nodded.
"But that's Quinn's problem now," she added on as she tried to pull a pair of sweatpants on over her shorts, standing up and having to bend awkwardly over him.
"You're wearing my sweatshirt," he commented and she nodded, blushing.
"I hope that's okay, I just kind of grabbed something and threw it on." He smiled up at her.
"I think I can handle that since I stole your sleeping bag," he joked. She laughed quietly, leaning down to grab a hair tie from her bag. The tent was only made for one person, really, and it wasn't very tall. Still, she was surprised when she fell over, crashing on Blaine as she lost balance.
He laughed and she winced slightly in pain, trying to apologize for landing on him. "It's fine," he told her, still laughing.
"I can't believe she fell," she muttered embarrassed. She hadn't moved off of him yet, staying where she had landed on his legs, her face sure to be a bright red.
"Rachel?" she heard Kurt's voice from the other side of the tent flap, moments before his face peeked in as he unzipped it.
"Kurt!" she announced much louder than was necessary.
"Is there a reason you're sitting on my boyfriend?" Kurt asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, uh," she bit her lip anxiously. "I kind of fell."
"I meant more of why is he in your tent," Kurt voiced, but she could tell that he wasn't really asking her, his eyes focused on Blaine who had quieted down since Kurt's arrival.
She looked awkwardly between the two, Blaine's face seemed so much more strained and stressed compared to the carefree way he had looked just a moment ago. "I'll let you two talk," she said, though she was sure neither were listening. "I'll go help pack up or something." Kurt let her walk past before sliding into her spot, walking far away as fast as possible so she didn't have to hear what was sure to be another large fight.
It didn't take long for everyone to finish cleaning up. Soon cars were packed up, aspirin and water bottles being passed around as hangovers started to kick into high gear. Kurt and Blaine had exited Rachel's tent-and dismantled it for her-within a few minutes of her departure, though she was busy helping Tina and Brittany clean the general area free of beer cans and bottles, cups and general garbage.
"I can't believe this is really almost over," Tina sniffled, and Mercedes let out a scoff from her position over by Kurt's car.
"Oh no, we are not starting the water works," she declared.
"I'm sorry!" Tina cried out as tears started to fall more and more. "I can't help it, you guys have-have been like my family, and now we're-" she hiccupped, the tears definitely falling freely now, "-we're all going to different places to be different people and who knows when we'll all be together again."
Rachel started getting a little misty at her declaration, she had to agree with her.
"We'll like, totally see each other at Christmas. We can go sing Christmas carols somewhere!" Brittany decided, and Santana nodded besides her.
"I mean, most of us will have cars and travel and shit. We can all visit or something. God knows I'll need some distraction from the hell hole my apartment will be in Chicago," she stated, and Puck snorted.
"I'll come and distract you," he offered with a wink, ignoring her 'fuck off Puckerman'.
Finn and Quinn hovered awkwardly on the edge of the group, hand in hand, Finn shooting apologetic glances at Rachel. She smiled in response, glancing over at Kurt and Blaine. "I love you guys," she said to the group, and that seemed to break the tension of goodbye in the air, Mercedes and Kurt coming over to hug her, Brittany and Mike joining in soon afterwards. She heard Finn and Puck argue over who should join the hug first, but eventually Santana shut them both up as they joined what was now turning more into a group huddle. Quinn rolled Artie into the midst so everyone could hug him too, hugging Sam as she joined the group.
It was a mess of arms and knocking into others, Rachel was sure she was getting bruised by Quinn on purpose, tears were falling from all of the girls and even a couple of the guys. It was a sweet goodbye, much messier than the one they had allowed that last day of school-but then there was the promise of summer, of cook outs and gatherings. This, this was their final goodbye before they went off into the world and grew and changed.
This was their last chance at being together as naive high schoolers instead of reasonably matured college students.
"You know," Rachel told Blaine as the group started to dwindle down, people heading towards their cars wiping away their tears and shouting last goodbyes. "When I first joined Glee, I said that I wanted to be special. And that being a part of something special made you special. And I think our group was special."
He smiled as he opened the passenger side door for her-he was driving her home, Kurt's car full with Kurt, Mercedes, Finn, Puck and Quinn. "I'm pretty sure you were always special Berry," he told her, and she grinned sheepishly, watching him walk around the front of the car. "But I have to say, I may have only been a part of New Directions for a year, but I think you're right. It made us all special."
She hit him playfully as he started up the car, "Now you're mocking me."
"Me?" he said in fake shock. "I would never." He pulled out onto the path, and she looked back and waved to Santana, Brittany and Artie who were still in the clearing. She lost herself in her thoughts as they drove off, saying goodbye mentally to all the things she was going to miss when she moved to New York in just two short days.