A/N: Spotlight Diner is assumed to be the exact same as in Glee season 5 except that it's in L.A. instead of New York.
They decided on a karaoke bar. There was only one Karaoke bar in Lima, and Rachel had lost an audience poll for applause there once, when she was in middle school. It was a meaningless competition, like the winner won a free drink, but Rachel had taken it to heart and never gone back there.
Luckily, it meant, that Finn had never had a karaoke date with her, so this was something new just for him and Santana. And he wanted it to be fun and musically focused, to emphasize what they had in common.
They went to Backstage Bar on Culver Boulevard. It had an Irish Pub atmosphere with dingy lighting, but was sizable, with polished wooden interiors.
"This is gonna be my last Friday night out for the next while," Santana admitted, "I got a job as a singing waitress at Spotlight Diner," She smiled.
"Awesome!" Finn was happy, it meant she was staying, "I'm sure you'll be great at that, and it'll keep your voice sharp for singing and acting gigs."
"I start tomorrow and I'm working every night of the week except for Mondays," She informed him.
"I'll have to stop by," He smiled.
They went in and found a table. All the furniture was polished wood, with extra tall round tables and stools.
"I'm going to sing the first song about how I feel about you," Finn beamed as he put his name down on the list.
Santana went back to her hard facade, "If you sing a love song, I will throw my drink in your face."
"That's totally fair," Finn chuckled.
He put the list for the host down in front of her.
Before saying, "And I think you should do the same."
Santana retorted, "'Oops, I did it… again!'… perhaps?"
Finn gave her a playful shove.
Santana kept going, "'It ain't me, babe?' Keep up the Bob Dylan."
"Totally up to you," Finn played it cool.
"The lesbian classic 'Come to my window'" Santana sniped before looking sad, as if she remembered something.
I know you like me, pretend all you want.
They both sat through a decent version of Thunderstruck, and a terrible version of American Pie that went on for all 17 verses, with Santana making snarky remarks the whole time that were dead on. Finn hadn't laughed so hard in ages.
"Finn," The Host called, "You're up."
Backstage Bar had an rectangular island where the drinks were served in the middle, with one whole end open all set around a decent size raised wooden stage. Finn stepped up and took the microphone.
He heard the keyboard pad, electric piano and bass outlining the chords start to play. He knew he had about 15 seconds of intro before the lyrics started.
"I'm on a first date tonight…" Finn said to the crowd of 150 or so people, "… with a girl I've known for four years. I've just had… the worst time of my life these last few months… and then there she was."
Finn took a step forward, and motioned, "Santana Lopez, could you stand up," He asked, knowing she probably wouldn't want to.
Santana raised her hand and waved, but the crowd encouraged her to her feet, so she did and smiled in a fake 'I'm gonna kill you' way at Finn.
He was beaming, "She was there for me, with her big heart. She'll tell you she's a bitch, but don't believe her."
The crowd reacted to that with shock and laughter.
He blew her a kiss, "Santana, thank you, thank you for helping me see the bigger picture, this one's for you."
Finn loved this song and he loved U2, he'd been singing it since he was ten, but right now, this song was the epitome of where he was at. He started to sing.
"The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town
You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere"
Finn got off the stage and went over to the table he'd been sitting at moments before. He wanted to sing it right to Santana.
"You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace"
He got down on his knees and stared up into her eyes, and Santana was so embarrassed she covered her mouth with her hands. Finn sung on, not deterred in the least.
"It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away"
Finn got up, and took her wrist, and pulled her up to dance with him.
"You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination
You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day"
He held her hand and she twirled under his arm, and then back the other way. The crowd cheered so loud.
"Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case"
Then Santana insisted on sitting back down. He went back to the stage to much cheering from the onlookers. He was singing to everyone, but he was only really seeing her.
"See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day
Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case
What you don't have
You don't need it now
What you don't know
You can feel it somehow
What you don't have
You don't need it now
Don't need it now
Was a beautiful day"
Finn received a standing ovation, and couldn't help but go back to Santana, he pulled her into a hug and swung her around. While she was making a half-hearted attempt to stop him. Needless to say, he won the free drink card based on applause.
"I can't believe you just did that!" Santana was smiling but couldn't help but convey her shock, mostly that anyone could be so open about their feelings.
"You're starting to like my corniness though, right?" Finn asked cheekily.
She shook her head, exaggerating her disbelief at how he could wear his heart on his sleeve like that.
This is so foreign to her.
Finn was back to deciding he shouldn't drink, so he gave Santana the drink card and she got herself a white wine. Half an hour later and lots of crappy renditions of songs neither of them liked, or songs they liked until the singers ruined for them from this moment on.
The Host finally called out, "Santana, hit the stage."
She received a huge amount of applause, probably just because the audience remembered her from Finn's performance. She walked very slowly, and for Santana, she actually looked nervous, which was odd, because she didn't usually look nervous, even at big competitions. She always knew how to bring it when under pressure.
"Hi, umm," Santana shifted her weight awkwardly from one foot to the other, "this song is actually a duet, Finn, I'm kind of hoping you will sing it with me."
The slow thudding piano started to play. There was more cheering as Finn got up to join her, and she handed him the other microphone.
He saw the song title on the screen and smiled, looking right into her eyes for a moment, and he saw it, just a brief flash, she's happy.
Santana looked at the screen rather than anything else, even though she no doubt knew the words, she seemed to have every Rhianna song ever written memorized. If Finn didn't know her better, he'd think she was shy. She had the perfect voice for Rhianna, even better than Rachel.
Santana started in with her soulful rasp,
"All along it was a fever
A cold-sweat hot-headed believer
I threw my hands in the air, said, 'Show me something'
He said, "If you dare, come a little closer"
Round and around and around and around we go
Oh now, tell me now, tell me now, tell me now you know"
Santana finally looked over at him, and sung the words right to him now. Finn felt a flutter.
"Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you
It takes me all the way
I want you to stay"
He just felt so happy. He took a breath ready to sing the Mikky Ekko part, he had a highish classic rock voice so it was perfect.
"It's not much of a life you're living
It's not just something you take, it's given"
He turned to look into Santana's eyes as he sung.
"Round and around and around and around we go
Oh now, tell me now, tell me now, tell me now you know
Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you
Yeah, it takes me all the way
I want you to stay"
And then they joined their voices together.
"Ooh, ooh, ooh, the reason I hold on
Ooh, ooh, ooh, 'cause I need this hole gone
Funny you're the broken one but I'm the only one who needed saving
'Cause when you never see the light it's hard to know which one of us is caving"
Santana started the final chorus alone,
"Not really sure how to feel about it
Something in the way you move"
Finn joined her again for the next two lines, copying Rhianna and Mikky.
"Makes me feel like I can't live without you
It takes me all the way"
Then Santana went on to sing the remainder of the song's Rhianna part alone,
"I want you to staaaay
Staaaay
I want you to stay
Ohhh oh"
She nailed the vocal theatrics and runs in the last few notes and the bar went wild clapping for her. Finn reached out his hand, and Santana took it, he held up her hand in victory, and then they both bowed.
He couldn't help but be thrilled she'd sung that song, with those lyrics. That was as close as he was going to get to a love letter from Santana Lopez any time soon.
When they got back to the table, he kissed her cheek, "That was beautiful."
Santana was clearly embarrassed so felt the need to push him away, "Oh, I wasn't singing that to you, I was singing to the hot blonde bartender in the green dress," She replied.
Finn looked over and smiled.
Sure you were. You just have to tell me you are one foot out of this relationship all the time. He smiled. I know you like me, pretend all you want.
Santana won another drink card, of course, and got herself another wine. He'd said he wanted to take it slow, and somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that was good advice. But, he wanted to leave the bar now, so he could be alone with her. Short of putting his name down and waiting again so he could sing 'How can I get you alone'.
"Do you want to get out of here?" Finn asked, when she hadn't even finished her drink.
She looked at him, with those sad eyes, with a small smile and nodded. She took a long swallow of her fermented beverage, and Finn put his arm around her and they walked back to his car.
"That didn't suck," Santana admitted.
Santana Lopez for 'I had a good time.'
"I had a great time," Finn knew he was grinning like an idiot, he couldn't help it, he felt all warm and fuzzy.
He was about to get in the driver's side, when he felt her grab his jacket collar and started to kiss him, pushing him up against the window. He was about to remind her they were taking things slow, but he didn't really want to in that moment either. Santana could make him feel alive, just from kissing, his whole body would pulse and he'd feel like his cheeks were flushed and everything seemed brighter or more real or something. They remained embraced joined at their mouths for a long time, before Santana pulled his wrist to encourage him to get in the front seat.
"You can't drive, you've been drinking," two wines for someone her size was plenty.
"No, there's more room in the front seat, get in and recline the seat all the way," She ordered.
Finn obliged even though he thought this was silly. Santana got on top of him, a knee either side of his hip. She leaned forward and began kissing him again.
Finn managed to say when she moved her lips to his neck, "This is so high school, you have a room."
"Mercedes is great, I love her," Santana explained, "but they're both being really weird about this, and I'm sure she's going to tell everything to Kurt, and he's going to tell Berry… and it'll be a whole thing, and before you know it, she'll fly over here and confess her undying love for you…"
Really?
"You're being a bit dramatic," Finn thought that was ridiculous, well not the gossiping part, that is probably right. "Rachel hates L.A."
"But she loves you," Santana said sadly.
She'd stopped kissing him. This conversation had killed the mood. Finn wanted to tell her that he had instituted a 'no contact' policy where Rachel was concerned, but he just didn't want to talk about it at all. Rachel had tried calling, texting and emailing, but he hadn't responded. It was a lot harder actually doing it than it was to say you were going to do it.
Santana opened the door again and got out. And Finn took a moment to realize he needed to drive them back to Mercedes' place now.
"I heard you two had kind of a blow up that led to you being asked to leave," Finn stated, they probably should have had this talk before their date. He got out and went around to the driver's side now.
Santana just shrugged, "Doesn't matter now."
But he needed some answers, "How did Rachel know?"
"She didn't, she just had a suspicion," Santana said, "she was obviously watching you very closely."
"And you admitted it," He tried to ascertain.
"Shit went down, I admitted it," Then Santana looked guilty, "and I may have told Berry what I really think of her."
Worse than when the Beatles proclaimed to be bigger than Jesus.
Santana looked sheepish, "Neither of which was very smart, but at the time… let's just say sometimes I forget to leave the Lima Heights Adjacent in Ohio."
"So, you didn't like… brag and put it in her face or anything?" He just wanted to be sure.
"Why would I?" Santana was rightly annoyed at his question, "I had a good thing going in New York, I didn't want to mess that up."
"How bad was it?" He wondered aloud.
Santana's quipped, "Worse than Mariah Carey's acting in Glitter."
Finn didn't get that reference but he knew her intent was to say 'really bad'.
Santana elaborated, "Her obsession that everything is about her, and everyone being jealous of her talent…" The frustration in Santana's voice was evident, "just makes me want to take her down a peg."
"Rachel's is always going to be important to me," Finn reminded her.
Santana stopped, "I know… it's just…" Santana got flustered, "how about we just agree not to talk about Berry… like ever."
"Rachel called me about it already," Finn confessed.
Santana's eyes went wide for a moment, like she was worried what he'd been told about it.
"Whatever, it's done now," Santana didn't want to dwell on it.
Santana seemed pissed. They drove back in silence.
))))))
Finn parked, and reached out his hand, to stop her immediately storming off.
But it was Santana who spoke first, "I can't do this, if she's going to be… in our… whatever this is."
"Rachel and I are taking some space, no contact," He admitted, "for the last month or so."
She was still a while, before she finally nodded, "Good."
Santana went straight to her room and that was how the night ended. He slept on the couch again, and it was the world's most uncomfortable sofa ever invented, it didn't pull out, and it was too short for Finn to lie stretched out on, he had to sleep with his knees bent.
The date went better than he'd hoped it would. The other stuff, well it would just need time. They would grow to trust each other.