A/N: Sorry this took me so long to update. I've started university so I don't have as much time to write. Hope you like. Keep reviewing :D
From the moment the words left his lips, Finn Hudson knew that "Oh my God, you're naked!" was going to come back to bite him in the ass. Sure enough, Mrs. Lopez had about as much bite as her daughter and had pointed out that the likelihood of him trying to get in her daughter's pants wasn't that great. It was true though. Finn was a gentleman and he wouldn't think of trying to do that on a first date. He had never had sex before and the stress and pressure of a first date (or hopefully a first date, since that meant that there would be others, as opposed to a one-time deal) was already high enough without him having to deal with the thought that there might be sex after. He was sure to pass out under those circumstances, but hey – he could officially say that he had seen Santana naked. And he was still alive. That was a good thing, right?
Be cool, Hudson. Be cool, he reminded himself as he drove. There was silence in the car, but it was a comfortable silence. Not one of those awkward silences. Santana was checking out her reflection in the mirror for the umpteen gazillionth time and arching her eyebrow in a way he had long learned was a sign of approval. "You look great," Finn assured her, sneaking a glance at her. He was trying to figure out whether or not Santana was the hand holding type of girl and if he should try and hold her hand on the way into the restaurant or just settle for the friendly and yet protective hand on the shoulder. He'd never been so nervous before, even when he was on his first date with Quinn. Alright, that was largely because Quinn had pretty much told him where they were going to go on their first date and what they were going to do. It was hard to be nervous when you were just going along with someone else's instructions. Santana seemed more than happy to let him do the leading on this date, which surprised him. She walked the corridors of WMHS like she owned them, so this was kind of a nice change.
And if he didn't know better, he'd say that she was nervous. She was wringing her hands in her lap and she was chewing on her lip the way she did sometimes before she had to perform in front of the Glee club. It was a nervous tick of hers, one she probably didn't even realize she had, but he had noticed it. She only did it when she was nervous. It was like his tendency to ramble on or lick his lips. Pulling his tongue back into his mouth as he became conscious of the fact that he was definitely doing some lip licking right at that moment, Finn took a quiet yet calming breath. His heart was pounding a mile a minute and he felt like he was going to have a heart attack. Yeah, that was a lame reaction to have, but he was still trying to process the fact that he was on a date with Santana Lopez, a girl who still scared him most of the time, when she wasn't being all hot and cool and stuff.
"Just so you know, I don't do any of that awkward handholding bullshit. We're not in the third grade."
Trust Santana to pierce the silence in the most hostile way possible. "Wouldn't dream of it," Finn countered, shooting her a nervous smile even though he had just been debating over whether to do that very thing in his head. But, she didn't know that. So long as he didn't let onto the fact that he had been thinking about it, he would be alright. Being that this was Santana, this whole thing could definitely go downhill very quickly. But, she had a love of this restaurant as did he, so he was sure if he mentioned the bread sticks, she would start talking and he would be fine.
That was his if all hell breaks loose contingency plan: talk about bread sticks.
I'm so fucking screwed.
Luckily, the self-hate was put to an end by his car turning into the parking lot of Breadsticks. Honestly, he wasn't sure how he had even ended up at the restaurant, because he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts. It was dumb, but sometimes he couldn't help but think that Charlotte, his baby, knew where he had to go just on instinct, having driven there so many times. Yes, his car had a name. Sue him. He had inherited the car from his mom for a dollar, and she had named the car. He wasn't gonna go giving the poor thing an identity crisis. When all else failed in life, he had Charlotte. Even if Charlotte had almost run over the mail man that one time. Whatever. The guy was fine in the end and in return, he had gotten a steady mental image that worked about 98% of the time to keep him from... erupting too early.
"You made us here without killing us, I'm impressed," Santana chuckled. Finn furrowed his brows in confusion at her comment before realizing that Quinn must have told her about the mail man incident. Reason number 36 to hate Quinn. Shaking his head as he got out of the car, Finn ran around to her side to pull her door open for her, smiling at her as she mumbled something about chivalry. Why did all girls seem to like that word and why did they act like he was supposed to know what it meant? He was a boy. Boys weren't good with that kind of thing. Sighing to himself, Finn wrapped an arm around her shoulders, holding the door open for her as she shoved his free hand into the pocket of his letterman's jacket. Honestly, it was such a cliche (he had looked that up in the dictionary after Rachel had pulled that word out on him, so he knew what it meant now) – the quarterback and the girl who was the head candidate for becoming Head Cheerio. But he had been in this position before, just with a different girl.
Hopefully this time, however, everything would end with a better result.
Smiling to himself as he hesitantly felt her arm snake around his waist, a part of Finn was tempted to pinch himself to make sure that he wasn't dreaming. Seriously, like, not even a few days ago she had been so against the idea of going out on a date, now here they were, going for Breadsticks. He was proud that his pers – wait, what was the word? - hard work had paid off. True, almost stalking her and spending some time in her bedroom, refusing to leave until she agreed to go out with him wasn't really hard work but it was close. It was certainly putting his own life in danger, because if Santana had gone into one of her Latina fits of rage on him, he would have been a deadman. Sure, she was smaller than him and light as a feather, but that wasn't the point. She had nails and her fists were pretty strong. Those arm muscles could pack a punch and he couldn't really hit her back because she was a girl. But, her temper seemed to be in check, so maybe they'd make it through this date without one of them dying after all.
Stopping behind another couple in line, Finn pulled her slightly closer to him, almost surprised when she looked up and gave him a small smile. "I still can't believe you suckered me into this," she teased, narrowing her eyes at him.
"What can I say? No one can resist these dimples," he chuckled, flashing her a smile just to prove a point.
"Hmm, guess you're right. They are pretty cute," she admitted, shaking her head as she pulled him along with her as the hostess gestured for them to follow her. Letting her pick which side of the booth she wanted to sit on, Finn filed into the other side, removing his jacket and setting it down beside him as he took a quick glance around. There were a few other kids from school, but in case he really screwed everything up, there wasn't anyone important around to see it.
Handing her her menu, Finn pulled his up in front of his face to take a long, steadying breath. He seriously already knew what he wanted – he had been craving pasta hardcore over the past few days and now he had the chance to have it, so he pretended to look over his choices for another moment before setting the menu down gently and resting his chin in his hand as he waited for her to make up her mind. Smiling at her as she set down her menu, Finn absentmindedly licked his lips as he gave her a quick once-over. He was seriously, seriously lucky to be out on a date with her right then and there.
"Can I ask you something?" It was barely louder than a whisper, just loud enough for him to be able to hear. Setting down his menu, Finn nodded. "Why did you want us to go out on a date so badly, Hudson?"
Finn bit his lip as he thought. "I don't know," he shrugged. Okay...not the best way to start this off. "I mean, I do know, I guess it's just hard to explain. But... I like you. Like a lot. Most of the time, when you're not making fun of me, you're actually pretty nice, and you're like super pretty and stuff and I was kind of hoping that if I could get you to go out on one date that maybe it could be like, a regular thing."
He could see that she was sussing him out, trying to figure out if his words were some kind of ploy, like he was just telling her what she wanted to hear. Her eyes were narrowed and dark, and she was pursing her lips in the way he had associated with her being unhappy. Honestly, if he wasn't still really scared of her, he would have just leaned over and kissed her, but he could just picture his head getting smashed into the table, so Finn decided against it. He just gave her a second to process, breathing out a nervous sigh of relief as the waitress gave him a valid reason to break away from her intense stare. Letting her order first, he followed, adding two iced teas to the order because seriously, who didn't like iced tea? He couldn't think of anyone off the top of his head. Iced tea was just like the drink of drinks.
Watching the waitress walk away, Finn turned his attention back to Santana. At least she wasn't doing that odd staring thing anymore. She was just resting her chin in the palm of her hand. "Can I ask you a question now?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Is it really going to matter if I say no?" she sneered, putting her free hand on her hip.
"Not really," he admitted. "Why – How come you didn't want to go out with me?" There. He said it. Finn just didn't understand. They'd been playing this game for weeks now. Clearly there was something going on between them. There'd been something going on between them from the first time she had told him to kiss her and make it count. He didn't understand why she was so resistant.
"Because I don't do this dating thing, Finn. I fuck and bail. It's kinda my thing. Relationships are kind of bougie," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest, but Finn knew that she didn't really mean what she was saying. She wasn't like, doing that head thing that she did where she like threw her neck and he always wondered how she didn't end up like pinching a nerve or hurting herself. That thing she did when she was really trying to be bitchy.
"No, they're not. At least, not with me," Finn assured her. Sure, he'd only been with Quinn so it wasn't like he had a whole lot of dating experience, but still. He had this good boyfriend shit down. If he could find a job and support a baby who wasn't even his then he could totally deal with like a normal relationship for once.
Santana seemed to let the issue drop, turning her attention over to someone with ridiculously bad fashion sense, criticizing their every fashion faux pas. Finn was no fashion expert, but he knew that socks and sandals were most definitely a no-no. Dinner was quiet, with a small game of footsie and they decided to split a piece of cheesecake for dessert. And by split, it actually meant that Finn took two bites and left the rest for her because she looked like she was really, really enjoying it. That was what a good boyfriend did, and while he wasn't sure that he was her boyfriend yet, he really wanted to be so Finn figured that he had better not take any chances. Santana was trying to fight him over this whole thing so for all he knew, she would hold even the two fork fulls he took against him.
But it was this after dinner part that was really beginning to freak him out. He hadn't made any plans beyond dinner so they had ended up at Faurot park on the hood of his car just looking up at the stars. She was wearing his letterman's jacket because it was freaking cold. He was freezing but he could deal with a cold if it came to that. It would be worth it. It was already worth it just to have her snuggle into him that little bit extra.
Wrapping his arm around her, he put his hand out for hers. "Give me your hand," he smiled, looking down at her.
"Why?" she inquired, narrowing her eyes in a way that told him he had better not be trying to pull a fast one on her.
"Just give me your hand," he insisted, watching as she begrudgingly gave him her hand. Curling all her fingers except for her index finger, Finn moved their fingers to trace an F + S = ? in the airs across a patch of stars, arching an eyebrow at her.
"It equals I should punch you for that cheesy bullshit," Santana chuckled, to which he pouted. He was aware that that was the equivalent to a five year old's reaction but whatever. He was Finn Hudson. His childlike nature was part of his charm. Or something. At least that's what his mom had always said.
Watching as she snuggled into him, she moved her finger to his chest and traced a small F + S =, but he didn't recognize what the last part was. "Uh, San... I don't quite know what that means," he admitted, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. "It kind of seems like banana, but Finn plus Santana equals banana doesn't make very much sense..."
Finn was unprepared for the fit of laughter that seemed to overcome her. "You're a banana," she countered, which causes them both to arch an eyebrow simultaneously. Watching as she leaned in closer to him, he barely heard the "It was a pair of lips, stupid," before her lips were pressing against his and he was pulling her closer. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he sighed as she pulled back slowly. "Finn and Santana equals kisses," she smirked, leaning in to kiss him again. Yep. This was officially the best first date, like ever.