Better Late Than Never - Chapter Eleven

Finn/Brittany

A/N: This chapter has been finished for a while, but I was having a bit of problem making sure it was ready to be posted. Then once I heard about Cory's passing, editing was the last thing on my mind, and it took me until today to be able to get back into working on it. There should be 2-3 chapters remaining. Things could change, so don't hesitate to review or leave a suggestion. Thank you for the continued patience. This is probably my favorite chapter to date. I loved exploring more of Finn and Brittany's relationship and Finn's feelings about it all. They just come so naturally to me and I love writing them becoming more. This chapter includes a few familiar people as well and they'll all be making appearances in the next chapters. Enjoy!

The next few weeks involved more work than seeing Brittany and Finn hated it. His job was even better than he imagined, though, and they'd continued to go on dates every weekend, so he felt like his life was really looking up. Every time they got together he realized that she didn't want to stop seeing him. They were actually dating and he somehow hadn't done anything to ruin their relationship.

Neither of them had brought up the boyfriend and girlfriend talk, but he knew he would be ready for that whenever she was. The closest they'd been to that sort of conversation was after she talked to Rachel on the phone while he kissed her neck the entire time. Rachel questioned her giggling and Brittany insisted she was just watching television, and once she hung up the phone she kissed him deeper than any time before. When she pulled back, he asked why didn't didn't tell Rachel it was him and she countered by asking why he didn't say anything while she was on the phone. Then they decided that keeping everything to themselves for a little longer was the best idea since their friends and his brother could be a little overbearing when it came to his relationship status. It felt good to be forming a new relationship without anyone else getting involved. They knew their friends would mean well, but they would also make things a little hard.

By the time Rachel's baby shower came around, they had spent the night together a few times. It was the most serious he'd been with a girl in a couple of years, but with Brittany it felt really natural. He quickly became comfortable around her and he was pretty sure she felt the same way, if how she could walk around in just her robe or even less was any indication. And he loved that.

"I think I should get up," Brittany said unconvincingly, not moving a muscle from where she was in her bed with his arms wrapped around her. "Rach will be so upset if I'm late."

He nodded against her head, knowing all too well what it was like to be on the receiving end of one of Rachel's punctuality rants.

"I don't want her to be mad at you."

"I know."

Brittany sighed softly and pressed a kiss to his jaw before slowly and reluctantly pulling away from him to sit up. The single sheet covering them slid down her chest to pool at her waist and he allowed his eyes to linger on her figure while she sat there. They hadn't slept together yet, but they were taking their time and getting to know one another a little more intimately every time they were together. Seeing a naked Brittany quickly became one of his favorites things in the world.

Sitting up and resting on her pillows, he reached out and ran a hand down her back. The smile that formed on her lips caused him to lean forward and press a gentle kiss to her bare shoulder.

"Go get ready. I'll be here when you're finished."

She turned her head to look at him and nodded once, leaning into him and kissing him slowly. Before he could respond, or before either of them could get carried away, she hopped out of the bed and slipped her feet into her house shoes.

Finn was half asleep just a couple of minutes later when his phone rang in his jeans pocket. They were halfway across the room in a pile with the rest of both of their clothes from the night before.

He heaved a sigh as he got up and walked over, grabbing his pants and fishing out the phone.

Boy's day?

It made sense that Puck would want to get away from the baby shower. Rachel probably intended for him to be there, but if he made any plans, Finn knew he would be able to get out of it.

Yeah, sure. Want me to meet you somewhere?

Just come over to our place. Care wants to see you anyway.

The sound of the water in the next room caught his attention and he quickly sent another text through before tossing his phone onto the bedside table.

I'll be there.

Making his way into the bathroom, he smiled at the sight of Brittany in the shower, or at least all of her that he could see. Her yellow shower curtain was pretty sheer and it wasn't a bad sight at all.

"Britt?" He called out, reaching a hand back to knock gently on the door. He'd learned quickly that there were some things that scared her. Climbing into the shower unannounced was one of them. That only happened once and it was something neither of them wanted to experience again. He still had a small scar on his chest from her razor nicking him. "Can I join you?"

Brittany poked her head out of the shower and nodded, her wet blonde hair attaching itself to her cheeks. He picked it away from her skin and smiled. The way she smiled back caused his breath to catch in his throat.

It was constantly surprising him how beautiful she was.

He was pretty sure no one had ever taken him by surprise as often as Brittany did every time they were together.

"Puck wants to hang out today during the baby shower," he said before pushing the other side of curtain aside and stepping in behind her.

Standing there behind her, he reached forward and gently grasped her hips. The resulting giggle from her caused him to smile again and dip his head to kiss her wet shoulder.

"We could take a cab together, if you want." She moved her head to look at him before continuing. "They live in an apartment. They won't even realize it." With a shrug of her shoulders, she turned back to grab her shampoo.

He thought over it quickly and nodded even though she couldn't see him.

"Yeah. I don't want to get two cabs just because they don't know." That would feel weird. Actually, he was sure that would feel bad. They weren't keeping their relationship a secret because they were ashamed, and they were supposed to be friends to everyone anyway. "I like that idea, Britt."

He squeezed her hips and pulled away as she turned and tilted her head back to rinse her shampoo out. Reaching forward for a bar of soap, he was glad that among the bottles of fruity stuff, she happened to keep one normal smelling thing.

"You always use the soap," she observed, squeezing some water from her hair and then grabbing a bottle of some kind of scrubby stuff. "This feels nice." From her grin, he could tell she was trying to dare him to use it. Of course he fell for it.

"Where do you use it?"

"Anywhere, everywhere. And it smells good." She poured some into the palm of her hand before spreading it onto one of his shoulders. "See?"

He laughed softly and stood there, content to be there with her, especially when she was softly massaging his shoulder. It didn't really matter what kind of soap he used that day.

=/=

Finn knocked on the door, his hand still wrapped around Brittany's from their walk up. He didn't even think about it until he heard the doorknob and dropped it just in time for Puck to appear on the other side. Puck let out a sigh when he saw him before glancing over at Brittany.

"Hey, guys. Did you see each other downstairs?"

They both nodded slowly (hey, it wasn't a lie) before stepping into the apartment.

This was the moment neither of them brought up on their way over. How did they say bye to each other in front of Puck?

Feeling Brittany's hand on his arm brought him out of his thoughts and he looked down.

"I'll see you later, Finn." She smiled brightly and he could tell that this little moment was exciting her in some way. It was pretty cool to have a secret. It would be cooler if they could somehow sneak away for a kiss. No one would even know.

"Bye, Britt."

Watching her walk over to the rest of the women in the apartment, he tore his gaze away from her to look at his best friend.

"How's Rach? You look kind of worn out."

"She's nesting, man. She made me rearrange the furniture in here 3 times before everyone got here."

His eyes surveyed the room and his features contorted in confusion.

"It looks the same."

"Don't remind me. You ready to go? I need a beer."

With a nod, Finn's eyes traveled back over to Brittany, Rachel, and everyone else.

"I should say hey to Rach. She won't let me live it down if I don't."

Puck snorted before letting him know he was going to slip out while he could. Then Finn walked over and awkwardly made his way over to Rachel.

"Hey," he said with a small smile, reaching forward to hug her quickly. "There's a lot of people here. Kurt here yet?"

"Did I hear my name?"

Turning around, he smiled at the sight of the brother he hadn't seen in weeks.

"I was wondering when you were getting here."

After talking to everyone for about ten minutes, and a much requested visit to Caroline's princess pink bedroom to play a few minutes of tea party with her, he walked out of the apartment and downstairs to meet with Puck. It had been a little weird to stand there with Brittany, wanting nothing more than to tell his brother and friend that they were kind of together. He found that he was itching to tell them.

Pushing the door open, he stepped out onto the sidewalk and found Puck standing against the building.

"Ready?"

"Let's go grab some food."

=/=

"You still seeing the girl?" Puck asked between bites of his burger. The thing was almost gone before he'd even said a word. He probably only ate them when Rachel wasn't around.

Looking up from his half eaten one, he nodded slowly.

"The girl," he said with a nod. "Yeah. We've been on some dates since I told you about her." He could feel himself smiling a bit and he looked down before Puck could notice and ask him for details. Brittany was so much more than just a girl, and he could sit there and talk about their dates, but they'd agreed not to do that just yet.

"That's cool," Puck said a moment later, grabbing his napkin and lazily wiping his hands. "There's this girl Rach knows, though, and she wants to set you up on a blind date. It's some actress she knows and she thinks you'd really hit it off."

The suggestion took Finn by surprise. If Puck knew that he was already seeing a girl, and he had gone on several dates with her, why would he and Rachel think he needed to go on a date with someone else? He briefly wondered if either of them would be bringing up the idea if they knew he was seeing Brittany.

"I can't do that, man," Finn replied. "This girl I'm seeing is great. She's beautiful, gorgeous, and talented, nice, funny." He lifted his shoulders in a shrug before sitting back in his chair. "I want it to work out with her. If I went out with that girl Rach knows, it wouldn't be fair to her."

It wouldn't be fair to either of them, Brittany or the other girl. Wouldn't he be leading her on? He'd made his mistakes in relationships in high school and he refused to do that again.

Puck was staring at him once he finished speaking, furrowing his brow. Then suddenly a broad grin formed on his friend's face.

"You really like her, don't you? I haven't heard you talk about anyone like that in a long time, man." Puck popped a fry into his mouth and Finn took a drink of his beer before nodding.

"Like I said, she's great. Perfect, actually."

"Are you two, like, together or just hanging out?"

Looking down, he pushed a couple of the fries around his plate as he thought about the question.

"I don't know. Kind of both?" Shrugging again, he stuffed a fry into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. He wouldn't mind saying that he was with Brittany, but they hadn't talked about anything that far. "Dating, but I guess we're not exclusive."

He swallowed roughly when that went through his head. It would hurt if Brittany was going out with someone else, but she had every right, didn't she? There were probably tons of people that she met through work, single parents or other dancers, even people in clubs and around the city, and she could easily go out with some of them. It was almost like a pang in his heart just thinking of it.

Puck was looking at him yet again, but this time the other man didn't say a word.

"I hope she's not seeing anyone else," Finn muttered.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes as they both finished up their meals and drinks. There was still some fries and burger on his plate and he noticed Puck give it a glance before a look of understanding passed over his face. Once Puck checked his watch and decided that the baby shower should have been over by then - they did waste about three hours somehow - they both stood from the booth and threw down a couple of dollars each onto the table.

"Maybe you should talk to her, buddy." Puck slapped his shoulder and looked at him pointedly before they headed back toward his and Rachel's apartment.

Yeah. Maybe he needed to do that.

He knew he was falling fast, but he didn't realize how hard until the thought of her with someone else made him feel sick. There was no one else he wanted to be with, that he was completely sure of already. Letting her know didn't feel like a bad idea. It was either talk to her now or get hurt later.