A.N. As promised here is the final chapter ... now just to warn you all, when I first planned this story I had no intention of it being so ... cheesy (really cheesy like the four cheese pizza kind) but this is how it came out lol.
Chapter Four
The next day was Friday and Finn walked into the school feeling that things were finally starting to fall into place. He had talked with the florist, who she insisted that he called Luce, for a good half an hour last night as they had figured out the perfect plan for him. She had even agreed to do some personal deliveries and make sure the flowers arrived exactly where they were supposed to at exactly the right time. He smiled as he walked by her locker and noticed it hadn't been graffitied and continued on to his. Waiting for him was Kurt.
"Hey Kurt!" he greeted cheerfully as he pulled his locker open, "What's up man?" he asked.
"Good morning Finn, I was just checking to see how your plan was going," he said, shifting his bag up on his shoulder a little.
"Everything's going great Kurt," he grinned. Kurt raised his eyebrow slightly at this before he replied.
"Have you been taking those vitamins again Finn?" he asked. Finn just laughed and slapped Kurt on the shoulder as he walked by. He spent the rest of the day walking around in a happy bubble, ignoring the usual slurs from the hockey team and certain members of the football team. He ate lunch with the rest of Glee, as was becoming his habit. He watched Rachel as she ate her lunch and reached for her apple only to have her arm accidentally knocked by Kurt's as he was reaching for his drink. Her apple bounced off the table and rolled right over to the hockey guys who immediately picked it up and threw it as hard as they could at the nearby wall causing all of Glee to be flecked with bits of apple as it exploded on impact. As everyone muttered about 'those hockey jerks' and tried to wipe the bits of sticky apple from their hair or clothing, Finn reached for his own apple and offered it to Rachel.
"Here Rach, have mine?" he offered. Everyone on the table seemed to stop at this comment and he was uncomfortably aware that Mercedes was nudging Kurt in his side.
Rachel blinked and hesitated, "Are you sure you don't want it?" she asked softly.
"Nah," he shrugged and smiled. She reached out and took the apple from him, her fingers gently brushing his.
"Thank you Finn." She blushed as she pulled away. Finn's grin widened, she was so pretty when she blushed. As Rachel bit into the apple she glanced back at Finn who was smiling widely at his food tray. Rachel knew she was starting to cave in response to Finn's relentless kindness and seeming interest in her. She dropped her gaze back to her own tray as she munched on the apple and as she did she was happy to see, out of the corner of her eye, that the rest of Glee has returned to their own lunches and conversations but she could hear Kurt excitedly whispering to Mercedes and was sure she had heard her name at some point.
Glee practice went without a hitch. It seemed that everyone on the team was finally happy with where they were on the team and this showed in their performance.
That weekend was the longest one in history for both Finn and Rachel. Finn because he knew that on Monday the final part of his plan would start and Rachel because she spent the whole weekend debating with herself over whether she should call Finn. Either way Monday arrived and as Rachel walked into school and towards her locker, she saw a crowd around her locker and her heart sank. Someone had graffitied it again. She squared her shoulders and idlely wondered what they had written this time and she made her way through the crowd.
"Excuse me," she said as she side stepped one student after another before she stepped in front of her locker, but there was no graffiti on her locker. Kurt was stood in front of her locker and was heatedly talking to one of the hockey players.
"... No! It's Rachel's. I'm not letting you take it!" he snapped, and then his face broke into a smile as he saw Rachel emerge from the crowd. "Rachel!" he exclaimed as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer, stepping out of the way of her locker. Her breath caught in her throat. Tied to her locker by a pink ribbon was a beautiful yellow rose. She reached out and untied it, her hands shaking. "This was attached to it but I had to take it before this idiot took it," he told her as he handed her a small slip of card and rolled his eyes at the backs of the retreating hockey players. Obviously now that Rachel knew about the rose, there was no point in hanging around. She shakily opened the card and printed inside were the words, 'Your friendship means the world to me ...' she read the words over and over trying to imprint them in her memory as Kurt was telling her how romantic it was. She smiled and opened her locker to carefully place the rose inside with the card. She hoped that this was from Finn; she really hoped that this was him but she couldn't say that she had ever seen Finn act in any way that could be considered as romantic. She shook her head to rid herself of these thoughts as reality hit her. This was probably another joke; she had to keep her wits about her.
As Rachel was trying to convince herself not to get her hopes up, Finn stood a little way down the corridor. He took a calming breath. Ok, so the first flower had been delivered and she had looked happy before she had gone all neutral. He knew he couldn't give this away, he had to see this plan through, so when Rachel was giving him searching or hopeful looks all day, he just pretended like it was just an ordinary day, hoping she would forgive him.
The next day, Rachel got in a little earlier than usual because she had to finish some work in the library and just as she opened the door a woman opened the door and almost hit Rachel.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry," The woman apologised, pushing an escaped strand of her untidy ponytail behind her ear. Rachel could hear the woman's accent right away. "I'm such an idiot, I didn't check it was clear ..." she trailed off. Rachel smiled at her.
"I'm fine; honestly, I think I was just surprised more than anything." Rachel assured her. The woman smiled again and said goodbye before happily walking away with a quick wave back at Rachel. Rachel shook her head, wondering what that woman was doing at school but she quickly shook this off and walked into the building. The corridor's were practically empty except for the odd student who had the same idea that she had so she could see the item hanging off her locker as she rounded the corner. She paused for a split second, mid step, but carried on to her locker, curiously. There was a second rose tied to her locker, this time it was a white rose. There was another card attached to it so she opened it and read '... I hope I'm worthy ..."
Now she was really curious. Who was sending these to her? Was it Finn? But Finn had shown no recognition over this whilst Kurt had happily speculated over who it could be during lunch yesterday. She put this rose in her locker again and knew that when school ended and she got home it would end up in the same vase as yesterday's yellow rose. She kept a close eye on Finn all day, hoping he would give something away so she could be sure it was him but he mainly seemed distracted all day like he was going over and over something in his mind. Unknown to Rachel this was exactly what Finn was doing. He was trying to perfect what he was going to actually say to Rachel, he still had no idea; he just knew that as of Friday morning he would have to tell her something.
The next day's rose was a pink one with a note that read '... please believe me ...'. Kurt was once again with Rachel when she found the third rose and he squealed in delight as he saw this and dragged the truth from her that this was the third rose and there had been a second the day before.
"So there's been 'Your friendship means the world to me ... I hope I'm worthy ... please believe me ...' whoever this is must really like you Rachel," he grinned. Rachel ducked her head and her vulnerability showed through slightly as she asked.
"Kurt ... do you ... I mean ... has ... is it possible ..." she stuttered, uncharacteristically. She stopped abruptly, clearly frustrated. Kurt took pity on her.
"I honestly don't know if it's Finn that's behind this Rachel, he hasn't told anyone what he's doing and when he asked my help I told him he'd have to come up with something on his own." Kurt told her kindly.
The next day Rachel approached her locker apprehensively and just as she was about to take the card from the yellow rose with red tips, Kurt arrived next to her. He looked at the rose and turned to her excitedly.
"So what did he want you to believe?" he asked quickly, referencing yesterday's card. She shrugged as she took the piece of card and opened it slowly. She read the card at least five times, not daring to believe the words that were printed there. Kurt grew impatient as she stared, "It's not bad is it?" he asked. Wordlessly, Rachel handed him the piece of card and he read it aloud as Mercedes and Tina had just arrived. "'... I've been falling in love with you ...' oh my God Rachel, this is so sweet!" he grinned and gave her the card back as he quickly started gossiping with Mercedes and Tina. Rachel was still staring at the card when Finn arrived with Mike.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" he grinned. He didn't know whether Rachel was happy with this last card but when she looked up at his voice and looked him right in the eye, he could finally see how she felt about him for the first time since well before Sectionals. He smiled back at her as she grinned at him and watched as she carefully placed the rose and note in her locker. He recovered himself quickly. "Can I walk you to Spanish?" he grinned gesturing a hand down the corridor towards their class.
"That'd be great," she grinned back and they both walked away leaving Kurt, Mercedes and Tina to gossip whilst Mike looked on, amused at the whole situation in general. Why he couldn't just tell her rather than this flower sending thing was beyond him.
Although Rachel was convinced that the rose/letter sender was Finn she didn't want to risk finding out it wasn't so she decided to wait and see so the next morning, she cursed her luck as she walked into school with just a few minutes to spare before the bell rang. Normally she didn't mind running errors for her Dad but he really picked the wrong day. She almost ran to her locker and sighed in relief when she saw that Kurt was stood next to it. He was practically jumping with excitement as she walked up to him and he moved aside to reveal a perfect red rose.
"I didn't read it, I swear," he promised, grinning. Rachel smiled back but as she started to reach for the card, another much larger hand reached past her and snatched the card away first. She spun around to face the smirking face of Karofsky.
"Well, well, well," he smirked, "What do we have here?" he asked, "It looks like our little drag queen has a secret admirer," he taunted and went to open the card to read it aloud but before he could, Finn was suddenly standing between him and Rachel. He snatched the card out of Karofsky's hand and quickly passed it back to Rachel before turning his full attention on the hockey player.
"Something else to say Karofsky?" he asked dangerously, "Or have you just never met a real woman before?" he continued, ignoring the sniggering of the crowd, "After all, if the only girls you ever date ARE drag queens then I can see how meeting a real woman like Rach might be confusing for someone like you." He raised an eyebrow as Karofsky turned red in anger. He was about to continue taunting him when he felt a soft hand on his arm.
"Finn it's really not worth it ..." Rachel told him. He glanced back at her and then back to Karofsky.
"It's your lucky day Karofsky, now get lost." He told him.
"We'll see about that Hudson," Karofsky growled, but he left with no further complaints as the first bell rang and everyone started to get to their classes. Rachel grabbed her bag and put the red rose in her locker and closed the door quickly, before shooting a bright smile towards Finn.
"Thank you Finn," she smiled.
"It was nothing," he smiled back and then she disappeared into her class, leaving Finn staring after her. Did she read the note?
Rachel sat down in her English class, smiling widely at how Finn had come to her rescue. She hadn't needed him to, of course, but it was really nice that she now knew he cared more about her than his popularity. She sat listening to her teacher, dutifully taking notes until she suddenly remembered that she hadn't read the note that came with the rose. She sent a quick glance at the teacher who was so into her reading that she wouldn't have known if the whole class disappeared out of the door. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the card. As she opened it the first thing she realised was that this time the card was written in someone's handwriting, a very familiar handwriting but any further thoughts of this was thrown right out of her mind at the words that were written in this writing.
'I love you, always Finn'
It was Finn. He had sent her all these flowers and these notes. He had taken the time to do this. The next few hours dragged as she couldn't wait for lunch so she could talk to him, find out if he truly meant what he was writing. She walked into the cafeteria at lunch and over to their table where Finn was sat laughing with the rest of Glee. He looked up as she arrived and his laugh abruptly stopped as he looked into her eyes. He knew she had read the note. As they stared at each other Kurt noticed Rachel had arrived and spun around in his seat to face her as she still stared at Finn over the table. He was smiling softly at her. Kurt cleared his throat.
"So?" he asked, looking from Rachel to Finn and back to Rachel again, "What did this one say?"
Rachel didn't answer but instead spoke to Finn, "Do you mean that?" she asked. At this point every conversation on the Glee table had stopped and they all stared at Finn and Rachel as Finn cleared his throat and stood up.
"That and more," he told her. There was another pause as Rachel was sorting her thoughts out and Finn was waiting for her to do that. Everyone else was trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
"But you ... you can't!" she exclaimed, almost stamping her foot. Finn just smiled and he started walking around the table.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because you don't know me well enough to say that ... we're too different." She said defiantly, watching him get closer with a wary look in her eyes.
"I want to know everything Rach, that's the point, everything I know so far I love and I want to know the rest," by now he was standing in front of her and he reached forward to cup her cheek with his hand, "And about the too different thing ... don't opposites attract?" he asked with a lopsided grin. Rachel giggled at this but kept smiling at him. "I love you Rach," he whispered, fully aware that everyone at the table were listening to every word, and despite his whisper he heard several gasps but ignored them, focusing on Rachel. "Can I kiss you know?" he asked leaning forward, leaving a small gap between their lips as Rachel lifted her hand to rest in on his that was covering her cheek.
"Yea ..." she started to say but didn't get to finish the word before Finn closed the distance and kissed her. At this there were so many other gasps around the cafeteria and they could literally feel the stares of the students but as Rachel wrapped her arms around his neck and Finn wrapped his arms around her waist all this disappeared into the background. This was so much better than the other times they had kissed; there were no girlfriends or social expectations, no disappointment or regret. Finn pulled her closer, not wanting to let her go and in doing so he lifted her a few inches from the ground, her feet dangling as they kissed. To Finn and Rachel the kiss lasted hours but to everyone else in the canteen it had been a few seconds when they broke the kiss. Finn kept her in his arms and dropped his head into the crook of her neck. He could smell the shampoo she used and his lips brushed against the soft skin on her neck. Then he whispered, just so she could hear it.
"I love you." He was about to set her back down on her feet when her hold around his neck tightened.
She whispered into his ear, "I love you too," and then, both of them grinning like fools he put her down and took her hand. It was at this point they both became aware of the people watching them. Finn took her bag and led her back around the table and almost smiled as everyone followed these movements. He sat down and pulled Rachel next to him and then he finally looked at them all.
"What?" he asked innocently, causing Rachel to giggle next to him and his own grin to stretch across his face at this sound. He squeezed her hand softly under the table as everyone started asking them both questions at once. Their duet was going to be really good now.
Maybe he should take her to meet his Mom soon ...
The End.
A.N. So there ya have it ... all finished. I hope you guys enjoyed this and that the cheesiness didn't distract from the story too much lmao ... tomorrow I will be posting a one shot called From Afar that is basically these events from Finn's Mum's POV so you might wanna check that out too if ya enjoyed this :) Please review, thanks Nicki
