Kurt grinned as Rachel's head thunked down onto the table. He knew she would get dramatic about it. But it was Rachel Berry, after all, so he couldn't even pretend to imagine her not getting dramatic. Over everything. Especially Finn Hudson.
"And you call me a drama queen," Jesse muttered.
"Babe, do I even need to remind you of our first date?" Kurt asked with a perfectly manicured arched brow.
"It was the wrong meal!"
"You could have been a tad bit nicer about it."
"I ordered pasta," Jesse said with wide eyes.
"So?"
"She brought me beef," he deadpanned.
"Insert clever sexual joke here," Kurt rejoined. He sighed as he looked to Rachel. She seemed really shaken by the entire situation. "Talk to me, Star," he murmured as he reached out and ran a hand over her hair.
"I didn't think it would still hurt so much," she responded softly. "I thought I would be able to look at him and not hear him telling me that he'd met someone else." She sat up slowly and turned her eyes to Kurt. "But it still hurts. The only thing that didn't hurt was singing with him. But even that …" She exhaled loudly. "Just tell me that he's with someone and happy and saving hand over fist for the perfect engagement ring," she begged.
"Rachel," Kurt sighed.
"Tell me he hasn't asked about me, Kurt. Tell me he's well over what we had. Tell me he was only upset you didn't tell him I was coming because he wanted me to meet her."
"There's no her, Rachel," Kurt said sadly. "And there never was. He lied."
Jesse winced and gripped the table, eyes squeezed shut in anticipation of a famous Rachel Berry blow-up.
But it never came.
"I know," she said softly. "Don't you think I could tell when he was lying? But he obviously didn't want to keep the long distance relationship going. So I let him get away with it." She shrugged helplessly. "I couldn't force him to want to be with me, to want to stay with me. I tried that once and I lost him to Brittany and Santana of all people. So I let him go."
"He was upset when I told him you were with Jesse," Kurt pointed out.
"First," Rachel said, "you shouldn't have done that. Second …"
"He hates me," Jesse said matter-of-factly. "Because he thought I was using her for the benefit of VA."
"I'm pretty sure it was because you existed in her world," Kurt countered. "But that's neither here nor there. Let's focus on what we're going to do now."
"Nothing," Rachel piped up. "I'm going to do the concert and then never set foot on the UCLA campus again. He and I both just need this closure. After the concert we'll go back to New York and he'll stay here." She straightened up and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Now, what's good here?"
"Everything, babe," Jesse said with a smile as he patted her on the hand.
-x-
Finn hated karaoke night at the Hotel Café. And after everything that went down that afternoon, he hated it even more.
Rachel. In LA. With Jesse St. Freakin' James. He couldn't quite wrap his head around it. After everything that had happened between them …
But, then again, Rachel always was the most forgiving person he knew. She'd given him more than enough chances to prove that he was a better man than he acted. He would screw up so bad and she would huff and puff at him for a couple of days and then it would all be okay again.
He remembers telling her that he slept with Santana.
Not the best day of their relationship.
Hell, not the best week of their relationship.
He'd expected some kind of huge reaction: yelling, screaming, crying. He remembers bracing himself for a slap or a punch. But she'd done nothing like that. She'd simply nodded and walked away from him.
It made him so scared that he couldn't even move.
Rachel always had something to say: nice, constructive or otherwise.
But after he'd shakily admitted to sleeping with Santana when he'd told her after that he hadn't? She didn't say a word. Didn't yell, didn't cry. She simply nodded her head and walked away, eyes stubbornly refusing to meet his and feet refusing to stop when he desperately called out her name.
And if he thought that was bad, what happened after was way, way worse. She had spoken to Santana about it. She had actually gone to the girl he'd slept with and asked her every question imaginable.
She'd told him that since Santana obviously had something that he wanted, she wanted to do everything she could to make him feel comfortable when they finally got around to it.
He should have just accepted this and moved on.
But, of course, he couldn't do that. So he'd spilled his guts. He didn't like it; it didn't feel right; he wished he'd waited for her; he was sorry, so sorry, that he lied about it.
She'd nodded through his whole (tearful, though he would never tell the guys that) admission. And then she'd kissed him softly on the lips, thanked him for being truthful, and walked away again.
He had gotten really sick of her walking away.
He remembers setting up a date for that Friday – one of many "sorry I'm such a screw up and it'll never happen again" dates – and planned on trying to reinforce their fragile relationship. He was ready to beg for her forgiveness. He was ready to go back to his place and ask Burt if they could have the living room so that he and Rachel could watch Funny Girl.
Dinner was great and they did go back to his place. But to the basement. And to his bed. And he wondered, even to this day, what Santana had told her, because she completely blew his mind (among other things) that night.
He remembers being nervous that Kurt could come in at any time.
It took months for Kurt to fess up that Rachel paid him off to stay out of the house that night.
Sometimes he loved how easily his step-brother could be bribed.
A loud cheer brought him out of his reverie and he looked up to see Rachel, St. Buttmuch and his step-brother standing in his bar. His. Bar.
His only thought was FML.
-x-
"Let's go in here," Jesse said with a grin as he opened up the door to a place called Hotel Café. He had frequented here when he was a student at UCLA and karaoke night always rocked. "It's karaoke and I think all three of us could use a little song and dance number. I'll even sing It's Raining Men with you two, if you want."
"Jess, I don't think this is the best idea …" Kurt said. "Maybe we should go somewhere else."
"Nonsense, Kurt! I know this city and this is the best karaoke in town! Let's go," he said with a big grin as he grabbed his boyfriend's hand and pulled him through the door, checking over his shoulder to make sure Rachel was following. "We'll get up there, do a song or two, and then head back to the hotel. It'll be great!"
"Jesse …"
"Shh …" he whispered before leaning in to press a kiss to Kurt's lips. "Booze, karaoke, and then hotel."
"But …" Kurt tried again, only to be silenced with another kiss. Jesse sure could be persuasive. What the hell? he thought before giving in to the sensation of his boyfriend's lips against his own.
When he heard the loud cheer, Kurt pulled away from Jesse, a bright pink blush staining his cheeks. He saw everyone in the bar staring at him.
Everyone.
Including his step-brother.
Shit.
-x-
It wasn't that she minded when Jesse and Kurt kissed. She was pretty used to it by now. But she didn't want the attention focused on the group she was with. Hell, she wanted to be back in the hotel with the mini-bar cracked open and a few empties littering the countertop.
But she could never really say no when Kurt and Jesse combined forces.
She wishes tonight that she could have.
Because Finn was standing right there, eyes locked on the scene in front of him. Well, eyes locked on hers, really. And neither of them was looking away.
She noticed his reluctant steps as he moved towards her, eyes still focused intently on her own.
When she started walking to him as well, she realized that neither of them could possibly have control of their bodies. They had gone four years without really seeing each other and now, in the span of twelve hours or less, they had seen each other twice and couldn't keep any kind of distance between them.
She told herself that she wasn't relapsing. She told herself again.
"Hey," he said, eyes wide, when he reached her.
"Hello," she responded as she looked up into his nervous eyes. "I- we didn't know you would be here. I didn't know you worked here," she added as she nodded to the towel he clenched in his fist.
"Yeah," he nodded jerkily. "But Kurt knew I was here. I told him."
She turned her eyes back to see Kurt, hands on his hips and Jesse, head bowed in either humor or embarrassment.
Both looked a little pink in the face.
"So, I'm guessing you and Jesse aren't still dating," he said in a rather accusing manner, if Rachel did say so herself. And she did.
"Jesse and I haven't dated since high school," she told him flippantly. "And you would have known that if you'd just asked me yourself instead of going through Kurt."
"I don't want to fight with you tonight, Rachel," Finn said with a weary sigh as he dragged his hand over his slightly sweaty face. "We're packed and I need to get back behind the bar. Do you three want anything?"
"Three cosmos," Rachel replied.
"Not virgins, I suppose," Fin said with a little grin.
"Not since high school," she rejoined with a wink before walking back over to her friends.
