Snow gently fell onto the window sill, adding to the large pile of white snow that was already sitting there. In that one moment, the weight of the snow seemed to be too much and the pile of snow collapsed, falling off the window sill and falling onto the ground with a light "thump". Meanwhile on the other side of the window, Rachel slept peacefully, Finn's body curled around hers and a small smile on her face. There was a small rustling in the bed as the sunlight made Finn open his eyes, blinking a couple of times to make his vision clearer. Rachel sighed happily as she kept on sleeping, Finn bringing one of his arms from around Rachel to rub at his eyes, staring at the snow falling outside. It took him one second after waking up to remember what day it was.
"Rachel." He said in a loud whisper, shaking Rachel's shoulders gently. Rachel took her sweet time opening her eyes and looking up at Finn with a tiring expression. It didn't faze Finn's happiness though.
"It's too early in the morning for this Finn. Go back to sleep." Rachel grumbled, clearly not realizing what day it was. Finn didn't listen to her as Rachel closed her eyes again, nestling closer to her pillow. Finn shook her again, ignoring Rachel's efforts to fall back to sleep.
"Don't you know what day it is today? It's Christmas!" Finn said with a grin, and Rachel slowly opened her eyes, looking up at him. Rachel stared at Finn for another moment before what he was saying started to actually sink in. Her eyes went wide when it did, a smile appearing on her face and sitting up, suddenly awake.
"Today's Christmas, merry Christmas!" Rachel said cheerily, and then tackled Finn onto his back and started kissing him everywhere. Finn didn't even get a word in, but didn't care because soon Rachel was stripping herself of her clothes while Finn did the same, glad to receive his Christmas sex. Maybe it would even be better than there Hanukah sex, and that was saying something.
"Faithfull friends that are dear to us, gather near to us once more."
The knock on the door snapped Rachel and Finn out of their little world, snuggled closely together on the bed. Rachel instantly grabbed her clothes on the bed, throwing the matching pajamas on. Finn did the same as Kurt's voice rang through the door, sounding happy and cheery.
"Merry Christmas you two! Time to get up!" Kurt said, and Rachel shoved her shirt on and made sure that Finn was dressed appropriately too before taking a deep breath and opening the door to see Kurt standing there with a grin on his face. Kurt's smile grew even wider when he saw Finn and Rachel there, and Rachel returned it, hoping that he couldn't tell that she and Finn had just been sexed up.
"Merry Christmas to you too Kurt! Finn and I were just-", Rachel stopped what she was saying and turned from Kurt to Finn, trying to think of something her and Finn could have been doing all this time that didn't include the s-e-x word. Kurt raised a knowing eyebrow at them while Finn thought of a lie for him and Rachel to use.
"I know what you guys were doing, so there's no need to make up a lie. I'm not an idiot you know." Kurt said, and Rachel's face went bright red, matching Finn's just as red face. Kurt gave them an a awkward smile, feeling uncomfortable now that he knew for sure what they had been doing only a couple of minutes before he knocked on the door. Finn was the one who broke the silence.
"Okay, so we'll just meet you and the rest of the family downstairs." Finn said after a moment, and glad to have a reason to leave, Kurt left as quickly as possible, closing the door behind him. Rachel and Finn exchanged looks, her giving him a one sided smile. Finn stared at her for a silent second before breaking out into laughter, Rachel joining him. They laughed for a couple of seconds of how awkward but secretly funny that scene had just been, and then Rachel waved her hands in the air as if signaling the laughter to stop.
"We should go downstairs and join everyone so they don't get suspicious." Rachel said after the laughter had died out, and Finn could only imagine Kurt telling everyone about what had just happened in here. He wasn't looking forward much to seeing his parents after they found out about that.
"Yeah, I just hope Kurt won't make too big of a deal about what had just happened." Finn said, and he followed Rachel into putting their robes on and then leaving the room. The second floor seemed empty from other then the two of them, and their footsteps could be heard from downstairs.
"I don't think Kurt will mention this again. He might make things more dramatic than needed most of the time, but I think this is one of those things he's going to try to forget about." Rachel said as they stepped off the stairs and walked into the family room where everyone was sitting around the glistening Christmas tree, presents under the tree and Christmas music gently playing in the background. Carole and Burt immediately stood up and went over to hug Finn and Rachel good morning.
"Merry Christmas Finn, merry Christmas Rachel!" Carole said as she hugged each of them, a grin on her face. Rachel was a little surprised when Carole put a kiss on her cheek, looking at her in a motherly way, something that Rachel wasn't used to, but welcomed all the same. Burt gave her a warm hug, which she took gratefully, and then Blaine wished her a "Merry Christmas" with a hug and smile. After everyone had said their "Merry Christmas" and had asked if everyone slept well and what they did after Burt and Carole had went to sleep, Carole laughing at the story of the snowball fight, the six of them all sat down, circling the Christmas tree and the gifts.
"Err, this is Blaine's." Finn said, going through the gifts and separating them into piles for each person. Rachel wondered what was with this family and separating everything into piles, but found that it didn't really bother her all that much. Finn and Burt kept separating the presents, Rachel surprised to see that she had a pile of gifts just as big as Blaine's; she wasn't expecting that many presents. Rachel was so surprised by how many gifts she was getting that it took her an extra moment to see that Finn had put a small, wrapped up box on top of her pile, a slight smile on his face.
This was the same box she had found in his closet; not the velvet black box that had been in the center of the top shelf, but the one that was wrapped in Christmas paper and had been sitting in the corner of the shelf. Rachel had been sure that the engagement ring had been the one in the black box, but that box was nowhere in sight, and Rachel started to think that maybe this wrapped up box had the ring in it. It would make sense; Finn to propose to her on Christmas morning with his entire family watching them. Rachel suspected it to be on Christmas morning; what was more romantic then Christmas anyway (though she still thought that Christmas Eve would have been much more romantic), but Rachel didn't expect it to be like this.
She had always thought that when Finn proposed, he would do it in private so it was just the two of them. Yeah, he loved his family and Rachel loved them too, but he wasn't the kind of guy to do something as intimate as asking your girlfriend to marry you in front of his parents. Finn seemed like the kind of guy who did marriage proposals at quiet times where it was just the two of them probably while eating Chinese food or something, not the kind of person who would flash around the ring for everyone to see during the proposal itself. But nonetheless, Rachel would accept anywhere Finn decided to propose to her, as long as he did.
"Are you actually going to open your gifts or just stare at them?" Finn asked, breaking Rachel of her daze and thoughts about the small box in front of her. Her head snapped up to look at Finn, who was smiling shyly at her, and looking from Rachel to the small present from him.
"Yes. I'm sorry; I guess I just blanked out for a second." Rachel said, and looked around to see that everyone else had already started opening their presents, Blaine giving Kurt a kiss as a thank you for the new bow-tie he had gotten him. She reached for the top present, the small one from Finn, but Finn's hand reached out, stopping Rachel from picking up the gift.
"No, that one's from me. I want you to open it last." Finn said with a smile, and Rachel shrugged as she took the present from underneath the small one. That must have been the engagement ring then, if Finn wanted her to open it last. What would be the point of her opening it now and having nothing to look forward to for the rest of the gift opening? No, it made sense that she should open the ring last, as some sort of finale. It just seemed more traditional for her that way.
Rachel was happy with the rest of her presents; the CD soundtrack of Les Mis from Kurt, a pretty heart shaped necklace from Carole and Burt, a new skirt that Rachel was surprised she liked so much from Blaine, and Finn had even got Quinn and Puck's gift from home to come up here without Rachel knowing, which was an antique typewriter. Rachel was surprised to see it, but just as much as she was excited; she had always wanted to use a typewriter before, and according to the note attached to the gift, Quinn and Puck were both aware of this and knew they had to get it for her when they saw it in an antique shop. Her dads had even sent something to Finn for Rachel to open on Christmas morning (which was really weird once Rachel considered the fact that they had never given her a Christmas gift before, but then again Rachel had never celebrated Christmas until now), and they had sent her homemade candies, something her daddy had a talent for making. Finally, the only present left in Rachel's pile was Finn's gift, which she was more than ready to open. Rachel had been waiting for this moment all week!
Taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself for what was about to happen, Rachel reached for the small box, a sudden burst of excitement taking over her. This was it! Rachel had always imagined ever since she was a little girl what it would be like when the love of her life asked for her hand in marriage, and now it was about to happen. Her years of fantasizing about it was now completely coming true, and Rachel couldn't wait to spend the rest of her life with Finn as her husband! This was it; that fantasy of hers was officially starting to become her reality!
"Oh, you're opening mine now, awesome!" Finn said with a grin when he noticed that Rachel had picked up the small box that held the ring inside of it. He put down the new symbol Carole had gotten his for his drum set to closely watch Rachel open the present. Biting her lip and trying to keep her excitement under control, Rachel delicately untied the blue bow on the box and slipped it off, staring at the wrapping paper for a moment before tearing it off.
Finn watched her with an intent look on his face. Rachel looked up at him once more before taking the wrapping paper off the gift, giving him a small smile, which Finn returned. She thought he looked a lot calmer for a proposal than expected.
She threw the wrapping paper on the floor, a surge of energy running through her as Rachel quickly took off the lid of a velvet black box, identical to the other box in Finn's closet, and for one moment Rachel wondered what this ring would look like. Finn wasn't the kind of guy to get her a flashy, big diamond ring, and that wasn't what Rachel wanted anyway. She wouldn't feel comfortable with this huge weight on her finger all of the time. No, Finn had probably got her a subtle, small diamond but still beautiful ring. Rachel prepared herself in that last moment before opening the box to see the ring, and her imagination had already came up with how it would look. Her eyes landed on the jewelry inside, and Rachel's throat closed up. Rachel could literally feel her heart dropping to the bottom of her stomach.
"Do you like it?" Someone said in the distance, sounding like an echo in a tunnel. Rachel couldn't take her eyes off of it; it felt like it was literally staring at her, silently mocking her. She couldn't talk; her mouth wouldn't open, and even if it did, nothing would come out because Rachel couldn't think of words. This was just…there was nothing to say about it. This was everything that it wasn't supposed to be; this was anything but Rachel's fantasies. This seemed like something out of a girlfriend's worst nightmare, hell, it was a nightmare.
This was terrible.
This was unacceptable.
No. No. NO!
"No." Rachel said softly, repeating the word that kept going through her head. Finn's eyebrows pulled together in confusion; he was worried that this meant Rachel didn't like his gift. He was sure she would.
"Wait, you don't like it? I saw it that time in the mall when we went Christmas shopping before we left for here, and I immediately thought of you when I saw it. It just says Rachel Berry, don't you think so?" Finn said, and his voice became clearer in Rachel's head. She could finally comprehend what was happening and that there was a not engagement ring in the small little box, but an unfortunate pure gold star keychain. Well, it wasn't like Finn had gone totally cheap on her this year.
"No, I…do like it." Rachel stuttered out, her eyes never leaving the keychain. Finn gave a half smile, something Rachel did not see because she was too busy looking at the keychain. She wasn't sure if she looked like she liked it; Rachel was a little bit too torn up about the absence of the ring to actually appreciate the keychain.
"Then why are you crying?" Finn asked with concern in his eyes. Rachel then noticed that Finn was right; she did have tears in her eyes. Maybe she was a worse actress then Rachel had originally thought; she couldn't even stop crying.
"They're tears of joy." Rachel whimpered, knowing that it was a pathetic lie, but hoping Finn wouldn't push the topic. He seemed to not have believed her, but the moment had past and now Finn wore a smile, knowing that Rachel didn't want to talk about it right now, and left himself a mental note to talk about it with her later.
"I'm glad you like it." He said, looking from Rachel to the expensive keychain. Rachel nodded in agreement; yes, she remembered now. The key chains had been right next to the rings, and Rachel had only assumed that Finn had bought her a ring when he was really buying her a keychain. Dammit, how could she have been so foolish to think that Finn would propose to her on Christmas day? Christmas day wasn't romantic, proposing on Christmas day was just plain cheesy!
"I do; it is very me. Gold stars are my thing, you know." Rachel said with a smile, some of the fresh sadness diminishing. The aftermath sadness was to come later that day. "You spoil me too much."
"I don't spoil you; I just adore you." Finn said back with a bright smile, and with a giggle Rachel reached out to give him a hug and kiss. So if Finn wasn't planning on proposing to her (just the thought of no engagement ring hurt Rachel's heart), what was the other small box in his closet for? That was probably some more jewelry, like a nice necklace or something that Finn was no doubt going to give to Rachel at the end of the night. He did those kind of things; surprised her with gifts at times where Rachel least expected it.
"Thank you." Rachel whispered into the kiss, because it wasn't like Finn hadn't given her anything for Christmas. He just didn't get what Rachel was looking most forward to; engaged to be married to him. Rachel pulled away from the kiss as Finn thanked her for what she had gotten him (the new Assassins Creed video game which Finn practically jumped up and down for when he opened it), and gave the star a closer look. It was rather beautiful; Rachel wasn't sure how many carats of gold it was, but she could tell that it was a good few.
The rest of the morning went just fine, the absence of no engagement ring always lingering on Rachel's mind. She found herself watching Finn closely during breakfast (homemade, warm pancakes made by Carole), wondering why Finn didn't want to marry her anyway. They loved each other, and Finn had made it obvious many times that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Rachel, but why wasn't he asking her to marry him? It was frustrating really; Finn knew that he wanted to marry Rachel, but he still wouldn't propose to her! Why wouldn't he propose?
"A toast, to Rachel!" Burt announced in the beginning of breakfast, standing with his fresh orange juice and smiling down at Rachel. Everyone else followed and held up their glasses, every pair of eyes moving from Burt to Rachel, Finn smiling proudly. Rachel smiled shyly, a blush creeping upon her face. "It has been a joy having her with us this Christmas, and I wish for many more Christmases to come!"
"To Rachel," Everyone chimed in together, and they all took a sip of their orange juice, Rachel smiling to herself. She was sure that there was going to be more Christmases to look forward to with Finn's family, but now she wasn't so sure if there was a marriage to look forward to as well, other than Blaine and Kurt's of course.
"I just want to thank you all for being so welcoming to me. I was so nervous about meeting Finn's family, and I thought you would all hate me, but now I realize there was nothing to worry about." Rachel said, and Finn took her small hand into his, intertwining their fingers above the table for the family to see. Carole smiled warmly at Rachel's words.
"Well we thought about hating you but decided that took too much effort." Burt joked, and Rachel laughed, glancing at Kurt quickly before looking back at Burt. Kurt popped in another piece of pancake into his mouth, chewing guiltily.
"There really is nothing to hate about you Rachel; you're a wonderful girl, and Finn is lucky to have you." Carole told her, and Rachel smiled, looking at Finn who was smiling at her proudly. She thought they were doing a lot more talking about her then they were doing about Christmas.
"I am." Finn agreed with is mom, and Rachel felt her face get red. Yes, Finn was most definitely in love with her, but he wasn't proposing. It was just something that Rachel was going to have to accept, except she couldn't accept that at all.
The rest of breakfast was filled with laughter and talk about how perfect this Christmas had come out. Rachel had always imagined what Christmas must have been like for children and families, and while she always had the magical, "Santa Claus is coming to town" Christmas in her head, she thought this family oriented, in the mountains of Canada Christmas was so much better. She really hoped this wouldn't be her first and last Christmas in Canada.
When breakfast was over and Rachel and Finn washed and dried the dishes while singing Christmas carols to each other, the family seemed to disperse to their gifts, finding themselves busy with figuring out how to work the new vacuum cleaner and playing that new video game. Rachel sat on the couch, watching Finn play his new video game with a serious intent look on his face. She held the gold star keychain in her hand, turning it over in her hand over and over again, trying to figure out how she had convinced herself that Finn was going to propose to her, and how he in reality didn't.
"Hey Finn," Rachel asked quietly, her eyes still on the rather beautiful gold star. Finn didn't even look away from the screen of the TV, making a little sound through his mouth, indicating that he was listening to Rachel, "Will I come back here for Christmas next year?"
Finn paused, silently and slowly turning to face Rachel with a confused expression on his face. It took him a moment to answer her, Rachel waiting patiently for Finn to say something.
"Where else would we go for Christmas?" Finn asked, and then he turned back around, pressing the play button and going back to playing his game. Rachel let out a sigh of relief; clearly Finn had not actually understood what Rachel was trying to say (which was if she was still going to be in Finn's life by the next time Christmas rolled around; the absence of the proposal had Rachel doubting Finn's love for her just a little bit right now), and had understood her question to mean if they would be going anywhere else for Christmas. Either way though, Finn knew Rachel wasn't going anywhere, so that means he was at some point was planning on marrying her, right? Right?
Rachel was distracted to ask Finn anymore questions after that because then her cell phone rang, Quinn calling to wish her a merry Christmas. They talked together for a while; Puck taking over the phone at some point to ask Rachel jokingly if her and Finn had done it yet in every room in the house yet. According to him, it was an essential couple thing to do in the house of the parent's, something Quinn and Puck had done many times in his mom's house. Quinn took the phone back from Puck after that, apologizing to Rachel for Puck's rude words and imagination. Rachel was used to Puck though; she had known him for a long time now ever since he started dating Quinn and had to see even more of him afterwards once she started dating Finn, and the two guys had become good friends.
"Rachel, I need your help with something. It's important." Finn said suddenly, turning off his game and coming towards Rachel while she was still on the phone with Quinn. Rachel held up her pointer finger at him, signaling to Finn to wait a couple of seconds so she could finish her conversation with Quinn before hanging up. Once she had said her last goodbye and merry Christmas, Rachel allowed Finn to pull her up from the couch, and followed him upstairs.
"Is this going to take long Finn, because I want to call my dads." Rachel said as she walked up the stairs, Finn leading. He didn't answer as he opened his bedroom door, and slipped in, Rachel doing the same. Inside the bedroom, Finn jumped onto the bed, a grin on his face as he stared at Rachel for a moment before patting the spot on the bed in front of him. Rachel joined him on the bed curiously.
"What's going on?" Rachel giggled and Finn nervously bit his lower lip, trying to figure out his words. He had to do this perfectly or his entire plan was going to backfire on him. But staring at Rachel's happy face, he realized this was a lot harder to do in front of her then it had actually had been in front of the mirror. Like for example, she could think he was insane.
"I need to ask you something that asks for your serious importance." Finn said slowly, and Rachel nodded, not sure that Finn had used the correct words, but not wanting to make him more nervous by telling him so. She honestly did not know what this was all about; Rachel knew Finn wasn't going to propose. First of all, that moment had already come and passed and Rachel was more sure than ever that proposing was the last thing on Finn's mind and even if he were to ask Rachel to marry him, this would not be the right place to do it.
"Okay. What is it Finn?" Rachel asked, and Finn took another deep breathe, as if preparing himself for something big. Rachel tried to wait patiently as she stared at Finn, watching him closely. What was going on here?
"We've been dating for a long time, Rachel, and I love you very much." Finn started, and Rachel nodded in encouragement for him to continue, "You're all that I think about, and when I'm with you, I feel, um, whole. Okay, that didn't come out right. What I mean is that when I'm with you, I feel good about myself, and really, really happy. You are, Rachel, you're everything to me, and I knew since the moment I met you that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Well, I might not have known it the moment I met you since you weren't very nice in that first moment, but I knew it by the end of the day. And I just love you a lot, and I love spending time with you. Am I making any sense here?"
"I love you very much too Finn." Rachel said with a smile, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as Finn let out a nervous laugh. It was just like him to be this nervous about something as simple as being honest about his feelings for Rachel. Instead of telling Finn if he was making any sense (in all honesty, he really wasn't, but Rachel knew what he meant to say either way), she simply nodded her head in encouragement for Finn to continue. He let out a sigh of relief as if he hadn't known Rachel loved him, and opened his mouth to speak again.
"I know you do, and I know we've been very serious for a while. And so I was thinking…." Finn dragged out into silence, going red in the face and looking everywhere but at Rachel. She pulled her eyebrows together in thought; was Finn talking about what Rachel dared not to think about? He couldn't have- but no; why would he be talking about that? If Finn wanted to propose to her, he surely would have done it this morning when he had the perfect moment. But he missed that perfect moment, and now Finn was left with an empty space of no engagement ring.
"Finn, what are you trying to say?" Rachel asked, slowly getting more excited. Maybe this was a proposal; it would be very Finn to trip around his words and sweat bullets while doing so. She let herself be filled up with that hope, that possibility that this might be the moment where she saw the engagement ring and was asked to marry Finn. She sat up more, trying to keep the smile off her face while Finn still sat there as nervous as ever.
"What I'm trying to say is that I think it's about time that we…" Finn hesitated for a second, shifting his eyes to look into Rachel's excited ones, "I think it's time that we moved in together."
No; that was not what Rachel was expecting to hear.
"What did you say?" She asked quickly, her voice hard like stone. Finn's eyes widened when he heard the tone in Rachel's voice. She didn't sound happy, in fact, she sounded angry. Rachel felt the hope and excitement in her diminish and be replaced with a large emptiness in which Rachel felt her entire body burning with anger. That was it; Finn had so many moments to propose to Rachel, and he missed every single one of them! She was sick of this, yes, Rachel loved Finn more then she could ever think possible, but she wasn't going to wait anymore! This was very much the last straw!
"Um, I said I wanted to move in together. You don't like that idea? That's not okay with you?" Finn asked, watching Rachel's expression closely. She frowned at him, trying to keep her temper down, but dammit, this was a joke! One year and half of nothing but love, and Finn wouldn't even ask her to marry him! Weren't you supposed to ask the person to marry them if you truly loved them and knew you wanted to spend the rest of your life with them? Wasn't that how it worked? And even if it wasn't, Finn still loved her and wanted to marry her, didn't he?
"No Finn; it's not okay." Rachel said in a strained voice, and Finn opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come out. He was so confused; he thought Rachel would love the idea of them moving in together. Finn had been thinking about it for a while now, and he really did think Rachel would agree with him, but this reaction was something he hadn't called for. Where had he gone wrong?
"I've been waiting all week, and I've been quiet about it and patient and expecting, but it hasn't happened yet, and I don't think it will and that frustrates me so much! I don't understand it Finn; you talk about how much you love me and that there's no one else you would want to spend the rest of your life with, but oh, look at that! still no engagement ring! Still no marriage proposal, still no 'will you marry me Rachel Berry?', still no little, black, velvet box with a beautiful engagement ring in it! Actually no, there is a little black velvet box in this room, in fact, it's in that closet over there," Rachel points to the closed closet, Finn's wide eyes following her hand and then shifting back to her angry face, "But I guess that's not an engagement ring because you still haven't asked me. I guess that's just there for the heck of it, right Finn? Right, I'm right, you obviously don't want to marry me, the only thing you want to do is give me stupid star key chains."
Rachel huffed loudly once she was done speaking, breathing heavily as she stared daggers at Finn. He was speechless; Finn's hands were up in the air as if to say something but nothing would come out of his mouth. Rachel kept glaring at him, her arms crossed over her chest as she waited for Finn to say something in response. She couldn't believe she had actually admitted that much to Finn; Rachel didn't mean to word vomit and say everything she was thinking, but she just couldn't stop herself. It just felt so good to get everything out in the open.
"I thought you liked key chains." Finn finally said pathetically, and Rachel growled, pushing passed him to leave the room. But before she could walk pass him, he gripped her arm tightly, stopping Rachel in her tracks. Slowly, she turned to face him in confusion, hoping for some sort of answer from him, but Finn's expression was unreadable.
"You know Rachel; you've never had much patience. Maybe if you had more, you wouldn't have thrown a fit and instead have waited until tonight." Finn said casually, putting his hand in his pocket, and taking something small out of it, clutching it in his hand. Rachel's eyes followed the box he was holding. "I was going to give this to you tonight, but it's clear to me that you just can't stand to wait any longer."
"Is that…?" Rachel started, but she couldn't finish her question because Finn had opened his hand for Rachel to see the small black velvet box. She let out a little squeak of excitement, covering her hands with her mouth as Finn slowly opened the box lid to reveal the ring inside.
"The whole surprise part is kind of ruined now, so why not just spoil the entire plan, huh? Besides, I think I like it this way better." Finn said, still in that casual tone as if he didn't realize what was happening around them. And holy crap; he had just bended down on one knee and Rachel felt faint coming. This would not be a good time to faint. She moved her eyes from Finn's smiling face to the ring sitting within the small box, a smile slowly appearing on her face.
It wasn't a huge ring like women receive in the movies; it was a thin silver band with a small beautiful diamond that seemed to sparkle with color. Rachel thought that the sparkling colors was probably from the lights in the room only, but something told her it was more than that. This ring looked different from other rings and jewelry Rachel saw in the glass cases of Tiffany & Co.; this ring seemed to have an ancient beauty to it that Rachel couldn't even understand. It was breathtaking really.
"This ring was my mother's, given to her by her first husband and my father, Christopher. She hasn't worn it since she remarried Burt, but instead she gave it to me so that when I find the woman I wanted to spend the rest of forever with, I could give it to her. My father had this ring especially made for my mother, and he said it was made for the finger of the woman in which he loved. And so, I want this ring to sit on your finger, because you are the woman in which I love. In which I will always love. Marry me, Rachel, and I promise you will not go one day without being loved." Finn said gently, Rachel's eyes moving from the ring to Finn's face. He smiled at her, surprised that those words actually came out alright. He was worried they would come out as scrambled as his own thoughts were, but that was actually pretty good. Rachel kept staring at him, clearly in shock.
"It's funny really; I had imagined you doing this and I get so excited just thinking about it, but I've never actually thought of how to answer this." Rachel said thoughtfully, and worried lines appeared on Finn's forehead. The way Rachel put that didn't sound good.
"You don't want to marry me?" He asked, his voice deflated and saddened. At hearing those words, Rachel quickly shook her head, assuring Finn that that was not the case at all.
"No that's not what I meant! Of course I want to marry you, I do! I meant that I just never thought of what would happen after I said yes. But I do want to marry you, and I accept your proposal. Yes Finn Hudson, I will marry you." Rachel said, waving her hand as if she was blowing away the idea that Finn might think that Rachel didn't want to marry him, and then bringing herself back to the moment that mattered. She would deal with whatever was to come after this later.
"That's good." Finn said with sigh of relief and then stood up, taking the ring out of the box delicately and taking Rachel's hand to put it on her finger. He slipped it on slowly, both Finn and Rachel staring at the finger intently. "It's a perfect fit. I was worried."
"I wasn't." Rachel said, looking up at Finn with a grin, and he grinned back at her, wrapping his arms around Rachel's waist to pick her up off the floor, diving in for a kiss. He held on to her hand the entire time too. She giggled into the kiss, pulling away for a moment to whisper something to Finn.
"Best Christmas ever." Rachel whispered, and Finn gave her a bigger smile, going in for another kiss.
AN: All I have left is the epilogue now, which I'll be publishing tomorrow (on Christmas Eve). By the way, Finn's line in the last chapter, "What is this?" was a reference to The Nightmare Before Christmas, and the song that Jack sings when he discovers Christmas Town (What's This?).