a/n: I don't know if you know what halflings are but I got them from Dungeons and Dragons. I don't really play, so I'm not an expert. I also decided this was going to be just from the perspective of Rachel. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Again... I own nothing, besides the story.
It's Friday and Rachel's stuck babysitting Brittany.
What a great way to spend my free time, Rachel thinks bitterly. Spending the night at Jesse's would have been a much better alternative, even if his mother is a little crazy. Jesse lives in Vines, so faeries are welcome there as much as halflings.
Instead she's here with Brittany, while she rambled of about her day at school. Rachel sinks deeper in the couch of the living room, Brittany painting her nails on the floor, trying to block out her incessant talking. She stopped listening when Brittany started recounting her afternoon with her best friend, Santana.
"Santana said the ice crown has been found, the one grandma always talks about. Can you believe it?" Brittany gushes, excitedly.
Rachel picks up her head at this, curious. When Jesse had said this, she thought nothing of it, but now her little sister had heard it, too? Where was everyone getting this? Could it be true?
"Where did Santana hear that?" Rachel asked, trying to sound nonchalant, while Brittany switches hands.
"I think she heard it from her parents. Her parents are part of the counsel, you know." The counsel is a group of mixed races, fighting to keep everyone in check. If Santana's parents are on the counsel, she knows that her parents are probably never home, since the counsel board is in New York. This could be just another rumour as well, but something tells Rachel this is different. It's more.
Rachel likes to lean on her intuition quite a bit. Whenever she chooses to go against it, she always gets bitten in the ass. She likes to call it her sixth faerie sense. As far as she knows, every faerie has feelings like that, just some more prominent than others.
Brittany is all, but the epitome of innocence, talking about this. She has no clue what it would mean if the crown actually was found. The humans would probably try to steal it again, and if that were to happen, hell would break those. Rachel just hopes none of this is true.
"Who found it?" Rachel wondered. It was better to know that on top of other things.
"I don't know," Brittany answers, sounding incredulous. Rachel's sure she only being rational. Who would know these things? Doesn't hurt to ask, though.
Brittany pulls out her feet from under her, and dips the nail polish brush in, readying to paint her toe nails.
"Did Santana say anything about where they're keeping it now?" Whoever they were.
Brittany looks up from her nails. "No. Not that I remember. I hope they keep it hidden or else the bad elves and humans will come after it," she replies, matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, I hope they do, too," Rachel murmurs under her breath.
Brittany goes back to talking about her day with the kids, when Rachel realizes what the time is.
"Shit!" she cursed silently. "Brittany it's time for you to go to bed. Dads will hate me if you don't get enough rest."
"Awww! Do I have to?" whines Brittany. "How come you get to stay up late?"
"Because I'm the boss right now, and you're six. Scoot. Go get ready for bed," Rachel demands. She didn't need her fathers up her butt about Brittany getting cranky. She's sweet, but cranky is never good.
"But it's Friday!" Brittany continues.
"No. Get." Rachel get's up from her position on the couch and shoo's her in the direction of the stairs. "Remember to brush your teeth! And not with soda this time."
Brittany sulkily stands up and slinks towards the wooden spiral stairs, her shoulders hunched. Lord Tubbington opens an eye, and glides up the stairs, at Brittany's feet. How he can even walk with all that meat on his bones is beyond Rachel. She's surprised it hasn't died from obesity.
Rachel goes to the kitchen, when she hears the sink turn on from upstairs. She opens the fridge, when she hears a lot of racket and a high-pitched ringing. She wonders what Brittany is doing up there that's making so much noise.
"Keep it down, will you? You'll disturb the neighbours!" Rachel yells.
"What? I'm not making any noise?" Brittany's voice calls out. If it's not Brittany, then who is it? It could be the laundry dryer again, but Rachel doesn't remember putting anything in there today.
When she thinks it's the neighbours, themselves, she opens the door fuming. How dare they tell her family to stop being so loud, when they are doing the same thing! Such hypocrites! She's about to make it to the front door of Ms. Holiday's house, when she hears the racket again. Except… it's not coming from any house.
She looks over to the enormous bush that adorns the side of her home. It's… moving? There is still a god-awful ringing coming from the plant. When the sound finally stops, she slowly tip-toes towards the shrub, scanning it with her eyes. A shiver crawls up her spine and she can feel eyes sweeping over her body. Rachel knows something is here and she is almost scared of what might come out. She pulls the leaves away slowly.
A scream rips through her throat. What the hell is that!? It's huge! The creature freezes and stares at her, while she's shocked into place.
Coming out of her of her temporary paralyzing, she backs away and demands, "Who the hell are you?! What are you?!"
"Uhh, I-I'm Finn. Finn Hudson. I'm a human. That was my phone. It's new and it wouldn't shut off," the being stutters. A human. Every bone, every cell, in her body is telling her to run, but she can't seem to move. This human is here, in Gallo for Christ's sake, and he has yet to strike. More than that, why hasn't he been caught?
"A human," Rachel repeats, dumbly. "Are you going to hurt me?"
The human seems dumbfounded by this question. Stupid humans, Rachel thinks. Haven't they heard of the stories? "Why would I hurt you?"
"Why wouldn't you?" When Finn just continues to ogle at her, she asks, "How did you get into Gallo?"
The human hesitates. Despite the history behind these dangerous creatures, Rachel has to admit, it doesn't look the least bit menacing. Well, besides its size. Going against everything she learned, she offers, "Would you like to come into my house? We can talk there, because if we stay here, we're bound to get caught. I would hate to think what would happen to you, then. I have a little sister named Brittany, so we have to be quiet. She's 6, and she'd probably rat you out."
"Why won't you?" it asks, looking reproachful.
Because I'm curious, Rachel thinks. After a second, she decides to voice her thoughts, "Because I'm curious."
Finn stares at her for a second, before saying, "Okay." She nods, and it stands. It only dawns on her then, how tall this human really is. It towers over her as her eyes follow from his long legs to his head.
"Crouch," she orders. Finn does it, and she leads it into her house. It doesn't get past her how much the human has to duck to make it through the door. When they're in, she motions for Finn to be quiet and to sit on the couch. Once she notices it won't really work. She motions for it to sit on the living room floor. It obliges and doesn't question, which Rachel appreciates. She sits across from Finn, on the sofa.
"I'm going to ask you this again, and I want an answer. How did you get into Gallo?" Rachel asks, once again. She's never been the one for preamble. She wants to know the answer. If Finn can get in here for who knows how long without getting caught, what about the other humans. Though, she chooses to trust Finn, it doesn't mean she trust humans as a whole.
"Well," the creature begins, "I've been coming here since I was 7. It's not hard, there are no gates around Gallo. If you crouch low enough and keep yourself well hidden..." it shrugs its shoulders.
"Why are you here?" Rachel furrows her eyebrows.
Finn looks sheepish for a minute, before explaining, "I actually come here to see the gnomes. I have a friend named Artie that's a gnome, actually."
"You know Artie?" Rachel interrupts. Artie is the gnome she usually meets for her facts. He's a nice guy, really.
"Do you want me to finish?" Finn says. Rachel looks away, embarrassed before letting it proceed, "Anyway, I was going to visit the gnomes yesterday, when I found you and a halfling. I'm sorry, but I've never really seen a faerie up-close before."
"How is that possible? Gallo is filled with faeries." Finn gives her a look, before she clamps her mouth shut.
"Well, I usually come at night, but this time I didn't. I almost got caught by you, but luckily, the halfling distracted you long enough for me to get away."
"Wait, why were you in my shrub? I don't live near the gnomes," Rachel questions. The human averts its eyes, and she gasps as she puts the puzzle pieces together.
"Were you spying on me?" she yells. It's face says it all. Rachel grabs the nearest books, which happens to be a magazine, rolls it up, and gets up to start whacking Finn with it.
"Ow, ow! Please stop!" the human pleads. It's hands are up in futile protection.
"No!" she shouts. "You invaded my privacy, you dirty peeping Tom-"
"Rachel?" she heard Brittany call from up stairs. Rachel and Finn freeze, Rachel's hand mid-hit, and look to each other. After a short second, Rachel scrambles to pick Finn up and shove him in the nearest room (the bathroom).
Right as she closes the door, Brittany comes down the steps, the floorboards creaking under her weight. Rachel quickly leans her arm against the bathroom door, trying to act casual.
"Who were you talking to?" Brittany wonders.
"No one," Rachel answers, maybe a little too quickly. She points at the discarded magazine on the floor, "Just reading to myself aloud."
"Okay," Brittany says, but is still looking at her quizzically. She dismisses it though. Thank God.
"You should go back to bed, Brittany."
She nods before, turning to shuffle back up the stairs. When the sound of her bedroom door clicking is heard, Rachel spins to the bathroom door. When she opens it, Finn stumbles out.
"I told you to be quiet!" Rachel whispered harshly.
"Me? You were the one assaulting me with a magazine!" Finn hushes back.
"I did no such thing." Rachel crosses her arms. Finn glances at her like she has three heads. "Look, I don't know about you, but I have to sleep. What are you going to do?"
"I guess I'll go home."
"You can't be serious. It's pitch-black outside."
"So? I do it all the time." Rachel watches as he heads for the entrance.
She has no clue what comes over her, but before he reaches the door, she offers, "You can stay here if you'd like."
It turns around and stares at her. "Are you sure?"
"Yes," Rachel responds.
"Where are your parents?"
"They're out. You'll be gone before they get back," she assures the human, as she fiddles with the bottom of her skirt.
Finn stays silences for a few seconds, before relenting, "Okay."
Rachel claps happily, then informs him, "But you'll have to stay in my room. You can't stay out here on the couch... or on the floor, since the couch is too small. Brittany tends to wake up early, and I once heard humans sleep a lot. We don't her waking up, to find you. That'd be a disaster. If we both sleep in my room, one of us will have to sleep on the ground. It's probably gunna be you since you definitely won't fit on my bed. You got that?"
Finn look to be struggling to take in everything she just said, but nods nonetheless.
Rachel waves it over and leads it to her room just off the kitchen. When Finn ducks into her room, she's suddenly self-conciois. No creature has ever been in her room besides her family. Jesse would have but this is Gallo. Halflings aren't exactly welcome.
Finn looks around her room, then turns to her and says, "Small but homey. I like it." The creature smirks an adorable half smile.
Rachel breaths a silent sigh of relief, that she didn't realize she was holding in.
"Well, make yourself at home," she announces, as she tosses him as pillow and blanket. She's never a sleepover with anyone, so she's not sure what to do next. Instead, she just goes the way of how she would normally get ready for bed.
When Rachel's in her nightwear, she settles on her pillow soft bed. She turns her head to see Finn trying to find a comfy spot on her floor. She clicks of the light of her bedside lamp and closes her eyes.
Her brain refuses to shut up, and sleeping is proving itself to be a difficult feat.
"Finn," she whispers.
"Yes?" he whispers back.
What's it like being a human, she wants to ask, but instead voices a question that's been bothering her all night, "Do humans have genders?"
"Um, yes."
"What kind of genders?"
"Male and female?"
"Oh, so like the faerie's genders. I was just wondering. Some creatures have just one gender or more than two. I'm a female by the way."
"Yeah, I gathered that."
"What are you?"
He or she laughs for a second, before responding, "A dude."
A dude? "What's that?"
"Male" Oh, so he. That makes it much easier. Girls tend to stay away from Rachel. They say she's too intense, though Rachel can't see why. That's why her best friend is Jesse. He's a male. Rachel thinks they tend to understand her better.
There's a comfortable silence.
"Thank you," Rachel thanks.
"Why?"
"For telling me that. I really wasn't sure if you were either."
"If you were human, I would resent that."
There's another long, comfortable silence.
"Goodnight Finn."
"Goodnight Rachel."
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