"It's perfect." She's sitting in front of their (her) vanity, holding her hand up and staring at the band around her finger. The stream of sunlight glints against the modest diamond on her ring. He's lying on their bed, his head propped up by the elbows. He grins at the giddy expression she wears in front of the mirror.
"It better be. That's rent for the next seven months," he quips. She rolls her eyes at him through the mirror and sticks out her tongue.
"Are you regretting your proposal Finn Hudson?" she asks teasingly.
"After all that hard work? No way." He burrows his body further into the mattress as he yawns. He's thankful that it's a Sunday because he sure as hell needs the extra sleep this morning.
"So I think we should do it next weekend. Both our schedules are clear and the sooner, the better," she says nonchalantly, still admiring the new ring on her finger as she brings it closer to her face, almost touching her nose. He stares at her in amusement.
"Eager, aren't we?" he says teasingly. "Can't wait to be tied down with me?"
"Haha," she retorts dryly "You know what I mean."
"No Rach, I don't. What should we do next weekend?"
"Honestly Finn," she huffs, turning around to face him. "How do you expect our parents to find out? Through a phone call?" He shifts uncomfortably on the bed, feeling the dread welling up in the pit of his stomach.
"Yes?" he asks hopefully.
"We'll do no such thing," she answers scornfully. "My parents will not find out that I'm betrothed to the love of my life through the telephone Finn. We're driving back to Lima next weekend to tell them. Yours too."
"Can't we just, I don't know, get married first?" he offers.
"I'm not even going to entertain that with an answer," she says witheringly. He turns his face into the pillow and groans.
"Your dad hates me," he mumbles through the cotton. He hears her snort.
"He doesn't hate you. Stop being so dramatic."
"Baby," he groans as he pulls his head up to look at her. "He calls me Hudson on a good day. At any other time, it's The Boy."
"It's a term of endearment."
"Yeah, it's endearing alright," he mutters sarcastically under his breath. "He's going to kill me Rachel."
"Don't be ridiculous. We've been together since we were sixteen and we've been living together for almost three years now. If he wanted to kill you, he would have done it when he found out that we've been sexually active."
"Ahh!" he yells, clapping his hands to his ears. He gives her a sour look before exclaiming "Never, ever, ever talk about us having sex and your dad in the same sentence!" Rachel merely snorts as she leans forward on the small bench.
"Sometimes I think that you're still that sixteen year old boy I fell in love with," she says, shaking her head in amusement at his childish antic. "And not in a good way." He sticks out his tongue at her, his hands still clasped against his ears.
"Rachel I'm not kidding. Your dad thinks I'm beneath you or something, and if I tell him I want to marry you?" He shakes his head profusely against the pillows. "I'll be burned alive."
"He just loves me too much. It's nothing against you."
"Yeah I know." She stands up and walks over to the edge of the bed, staring down at his state of despair in amusement.
"Do you really think he's going to kill you?" she asks, bowing her head slightly and looking up at him through her lashes.
"Yes." he grumbles, pouting.
"Well then," she says as she climbs onto the bed and crawls towards him. His head perks up in interest. She reaches him and positions her knees on either side of his waist, one hand splaying across his bare chest. The robe she's wearing parts in the middle and he gets a good view of her breasts. A very, very good view. As she settles herself on his stomach, he places both hands on her waist, under the robe, to hold her steady. The grin on her face is absolutely wicked as she leans in closer.
"We better make the most of the time we have left," she whispers against his lips.
Xxx
"I think I'm going to puke," he mutters as they pull up in the Berry driveway.
"You won't," she answered reassuringly. His grip on the steering wheel tightens, his nails digging into his skin. She places one small hand over his, gently brushing her fingers soothingly over his knuckles. Finn stares intently at the ring around her finger, his ring, trying to look for the strength to face her father. Out of all the people he's met in his life, Leroy Berry is the only one who still makes him feel like the dumb sixteen year old kid he was when they first met.
Xxx
The first time Finn met Rachel's parents, he had his hands on her ass and his tongue down her throat. It was two days after the first time he found out that Rachel Berry's tongue was magic (Seriously. He could see stars when that tongue was in his mouth). Naturally, all of the next 48 hours of his life was spent thinking about Rachel and the fact that he had mde out with Rachel and how much he really, really, really wanted to make out with her some more.
So when she had called him up on a Monday morning and asked him if he would like to spend the evening with her watching Rent, he had agreed almost immediately. When she told him her parents had a meeting that was going to run late into the night, he may or may not have done a little jig. He didn't even care that he had no idea what the heck Rent was about and that it was probably going to be another pansy-ass musical because all her movies were pansy-ass musicals. Because it was a pansy-ass musical they 'watched' two days before and it was during this pansy-ass musical that Finn had received the thrill of his young adult life, which was Rachel Berry's tongue in his mouth.
He wasn't dissapointed. The movie wasn't all that bad, to be honest. At least, he assumed. He could have dug it he tried. He didn't have to though, because before they even heard the first song, he already had her giggling underneath him, begging for mercy in a tickle war. It took only a second for him to realize that he was lying on top of her and that his you-know-what and her you-know-what were totally pressed up together, which almost made him blow his you-know-what in the you-know-where. And she seemed to notice it to, because suddenly she wasn't laughing anymore and she was staring up at him with this intense look on her face that kind of made him want to kiss her senseless. So he did.
So he had to summon the mailman a few times, she totally got it. They'd just stop for a few minutes and then start again after that and things just got better and better. By then, the only thing he knew about Rent was that some girl was called Mimi and she had AIDS or something. But he did find out that when he bit Rachel's neck (Just a gentle bite, not like a vampire bite or whatever), she would totally make this sound that turned him on like you wouldn't believe.
They had been going at it for almost an hour, probably, and he had just worked up the courage to put his hands on her butt when it happened. He'd been thinking of touching her butt for months, because Rachel Berry's ass was unreal. It didn't help that she walked around school with those tiny skirts all the time (Although, that definitely helped sometimes in the middle of the night). But he wasn't sure if she would let him because Quinn used to slap his hands away every time he even tried to move them south. But when he had cautiously laid one hand on that amazing curve, all she had done was moan into his mouth and ran her hands over his chest. So he laid his other hand there. And that was when he heard the sound of clearing throat.
Rachel froze in his arms like she turned to stone or something. He figured he was probably just as frozen, if not even more so. They stayed in their horrified positions for another five seconds before she seemed to regain her motor skills and jumped up off him from the couch.
"D-dad, da-daddy," she had stammered, attempting to work a large smile on her face. All she had managed was a terrified grimace. He had melted himself further into the couch, wishing he wasn't so tall and that his legs weren't sticking out because that way, he could have pretended they never saw him. There was a minute of absolutely excruciating silence where he wished that lightning would strike him dead or something.
"Tell the boy to go home," he heard one of her fathers say (Her dad, but he didn't now that yet).
She was grounded for a whole week. Which was one entire week of torture for him because it was seven days of remembering the feel of Rachel's butt under his hands and not being able to do anything about it. She had never been grounded before and was appalled when she realized it meant not seeing each other. At all. When she almost threw a fit at how ridiculous that was, he had soothingly told her that it was going to be okay, because if it was his mom that found them, just one week would have been a miracle.
He didn't know it yet, but it was also the beginning of his life under the mental torture of her dad.
Xxx
They started with the easy parents. Finn had been adamant that they break the news to his mom first, saying that it might the last time his mother was going to see him alive. Rachel smacked his arm but indulged him anyway. By the time they reached the Hummel-Hudson household, it was already one in the afternoon and so it was in the middle of lunch that he had casually dropped the news.
"I asked Rachel to marry me," he said nonchalantly, before shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes in his mouth. Rachel had kicked him under the table and sent him a glare before turning to smile at the surprised Carole Hummel.
"Finn's lack of finesse aside," she began, but Carole was already squealing happily and getting up to rush to the other side of the table and envelope them both in a bear hug, Finn almost choking on his potatoes as his mom strangled the life out of him with her arm. Carole cried, Burt broke out the champagne and it was all a very peachy affair. He knew there wasn't going to be a problem because his mom loved Rachel to pieces.
Yeah sure, when they were sixteen she had been a little alarmed and slightly concerned by Rachel's exuberance, but just like his son, she had learned to appreciate that about Rachel Berry, particularly after the change she could see in her son's grades. When she found out that Finn was going to college, she had made a special dinner just for his girlfriend to thank Rachel for taking Finn under her persistent and optimistic wings. Sometimes he thought his mom might just love his girlfriend (fiance) more than him. He would have felt insulted, but he figured it didn't hurt to have his mom love her almost as much as he does. Rachel certainly seemed to revel in all that motherly affection.
Then again, Rachel didn't seem to have a perpetual streak of bad luck when it came to meeting the parents.
Xxx
The second time Finn Hudson met Leroy and Hiram Berry, it was to officially meet the parents. He felt more like the sacrificial goat being led to certain doom rather than a boyfriend trying get the approval of Rachel's fathers. He figured that had something to do with the way Leroy Berry stared at him as he walked through the door. He had let go of her hand immediately.
"Daddy, dad," Rachel began excitedly, although he could hear the undercurrent of strain in her voice. "This is Finn," she said, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards her. His body molded into hers and Finn had backed off faster than you could say "Whoa there!".
"Mr Berry," he nodded to her dad, hoping that it was a nice nod, a nod that said please-don't-kill-me-because-my-hand-was-on-your-daughter's-very-nice-ass. "Mr erm, Berry."
"Call me Hiram," her daddy said, not unkindly as he shook Finn's sweaty and shaking hand.
"Leroy," her dad nodded. "Call me Mr Berry." Finn could practically feel the laser beams the man was shooting through his gaze.
"Erm. Okay." The four of them stood there in front of the doorway awkwardly for a minute or so before Rachel began a nervous ramble about some musical or other as she practically dragged him towards the living room.
From the moment the introductions were over, it had been a disaster. Finn had never been good with dads. He was okay with moms, but dads? Not so much. Quinn's dad didn't like him. Well, Quinn's mom didn't like him either but that wasn't the point. Most dads either ignore him or look at him like he was about to steal their daughters or something. He figured being around Puck so much kind of had something to do with it. That dude's reputation was wild and he had gotten caught in the crossfire once or twice. He wondered if Rachel's parents knew about that. From the way Leroy was giving him the icy glare like Finn had corrupted his kid, he probably had. Or it could just be that Finn did kind of corrupt his daughter. Even though that had totally been a mutual thing.
The thing was, he was a large boy. So he bumps into things a lot. Like that lamp he broke in his haste to reach the couch. Apparently, it was a family heirloom. Rachel's eyes had been round as saucers when his arm had swiped that thing to the floor. He could hear her daddy's dramatic gasp like the echo of a gunshot. And the frown lines on her dad's face had gotten even deeper than he thought possible as the old man told him to not worry about it. Finn couldn't help thinking he wasn't being all that sincere though.
Things were already crazy enough as it is without him pretty much setting himself up for failure when her daddy asked what his favorite subject was. He didn't mean to say lunch. It was just the first word that came to mind. But then Hiram and Rachel both started to laugh uncomfortably, trying to pass his little fluke of as a lame joke. Her dad didn't crack a smile.
His armpits started sweating like he was in the pits of hell halfway through (which really wasn't that far off the mark), so then he kept walking in this really stiff way, trying not to move his arms so much so nobody could see his pit stains, which made Leroy look at him funny. By the end of the night, Finn was just glad it was over. They had sent him to the door, and even though Leroy was three inches shorter than him, Finn felt about four inches tall in front of the guy. Her daddy said that it was nice to meet him and Finn had smiled a little painfully at the man. He liked her daddy because Hiram was kind of like Rachel in a way, he had a warm smile and he was really friendly. Leroy just grunted a response when Finn said goodbye.
And then there was that two minutes of silence when he stepped out of the door and Rachel followed. Leroy had followed right behind her, as did Hiram. Finn had stood there like a dumbass, his hands in his pockets for the longest time before Hiram finally managed to drag his spouse inside.
"That was horrible," he groaned, as they walked towards his car, the second he was sure they were out of ear-shot.
"It wasn't that bad," she tried to say soothingly as she laced her fingers through his. Finn looked down at his girfriend and snorted.
"Rachel. Your dad looked like he wanted to swallow me whole." She gave him a helpless smile as he leaned back against the door of his mom's car and sighed as he closed his eyes.
"You're not going to break up with me are you?" she asked in a small voice. That made his eyes flew wide open. He stared down at her in confusion. Rachel had bowed her head, her hair falling over her face so he couldn't see her. He grabbed her jaw and gently forced her to look up.
"I'm not breaking up with you because of this Rachel," he said incredulously. "I love you."
The smile on her face was just wide enough to make everything that had just happened okay. She stood on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him down for a kiss, and Finn thought that scary fathers were nothing if he could have her lips all to himself all the time.
Xxx
With the turn of the lock, Finn feels the pounding in his heart increasing in its vehemence. Rachel turns to smile encouragingly at him as she laces one hand in his and turns the knob with the other.
"I'm home!" she calls out and Finn can hear an indistinct squeal coming from the kitchen. Barely a minute later, Hiram Berry's small figure practically barrels into his daughter's as the both of them envelope each other in a hug while he looks on in amusement.
"Honey we weren't expecting you until dinner!" Hiram gushes as he pulls back to give his daughter the once over. The last time they saw each other was almost three months ago when in a fit of anger, Rachel's daddy had impulsively purchased a one-way plane ticket to New York City after an apparently explosive fight with his other half. He had stayed with them in their small, cramped apartment for three whole days before tearfully announcing one morning that he was going to return to Lima. Not that he didn't enjoy the company of her daddy, but Finn was definitely glad for it. Sex just wasn't the same with the knowledge that one of her parents was camping out in their living room. Hiram releases his hold on Rachel and turns to him, shaking his hand exuberantly.
"Finn honey, have you lost weight?" he asks in concern. Finn grins at him ruefully.
"I've been doing a lot of overtime these past few months," he answers, glancing meaningfully at Rachel. She beams right back.
"Of course,"Hiram answers. The smile on his face is a knowing one. "Well come on in. I'm still in the middle of preparing for tonight's dinner."
"Let me help you," Rachel offers as she links an arm around Hiram's and leans her head on his shoulder. The both of them are walking in front of him, chatting away merrily while Finn hangs back and looks around. The house is exactly the same as the last time he saw it. He grins as they walk past the hallway littered with framed photos of Rachel, posing with her various achievements. He walks towards the third photo from the left and grins. It's probably his favorite picture of her ever. Rachel at three years old, beaming proudly with her third place ribbon from her first Tiny Tots beauty pageant. There was a gash on her forehead, just slightly to the left, courtesy of a fall while she was performing on stage, with vague traces of dried blood still visible. But that didn't seem to phase the little girl at all, judging from the way she seemed to be showing off her teeth so happily.
Another photgraph catches his eye, a new one he's never seen before. It's Rachel at her graduation, with her degree in one hand, the ribbon on her graduation cap falling over her face. It would have been the perfect picture, but Rachel wasn't smiling at the right direction. Instead, she was grinning up at the boy next to her who had one arm around her shoulders, lips stretched in a proud smile as he stared into the camera. He wonders why that picture, out of the hundreds that had been taken on that day, is the one framed on the wall right now. He decides to take it as a good sign. He looks up to find both Rachel and Hiram gone and strides quickly towards the kitchen.
"Hiram?" he calls as he stands in the doorway, watching as father and daughter moves swiftly around each other in the kitchen. "Is Leroy home?" Both of them stop what they're doing to look at him and Finn catches the way her daddy's eyes stray towards the ring on her finger. Hiram looks up, and there's a faint smile playing on his lips.
"He's in his study," the older man answers airily. "He's been waiting for you." Finn nods, the nerves returning before he turns around and walks left, heading towards their study room.
"Good luck!" he hears the both of them call out in unison and grins. He can do this.
Xxx
The summer they were apart, Finn was a mess. He had been a mess ever since the day he made the phone call and he had known that going back to Lima for the holidays was going to make things even worse. When he found out that she wasn't returning, he didn't know if he was relieved or thrown into a deeper state of misery. Finn spent the first week holed up in his room, barely leaving for meals and worrying his mom half to death. The thought that he had failed Rachel, failed himself, just refused to leave his mind and haunted his every waking moment. Two weeks later, after being given a stern talking to from his mom, Kurt and practically every other soul living in Lima, he finally found enough strength to leave the house.
It was just a trip to the grocery store and his face bore the evidence of three day's worth of not shaving, but he was out nonetheless. Truthfully, he did it for his mom's peace of mind more than his own. The juvenile taunts of Lima loser still accompanied his every step as he slowly made his way through the store. It was at the aisle in between the cereal and the condiments that he bumped into them. Finn had bit back a groan when he saw the familiar backs of the two men. He was just about to back-pedal when Leroy had turned around and caught his gaze. Well hell. - there was no way he could ignore them at that point. Squaring his shoulders, Finn made his way slowly towards the two men who were now both staring at him. Maybe they'd take him outside to beat the living daylights out of him. It would definitely be less than what he deserved. He stood in front of them, one hand holding an empty basket and the other in his pocket, in silence.
"Hi," he finally said, a little awkwardly as he stared at the 'Dairy' sign over Hiram's head.
"Hello Finn," Hiram answered in a friendly tone as he grasped the boy's hand. Finn dared himself to look them both in the eye. Leroy gave a slight nod, his expression unreadable. But when had his expression ever been otherwise?
"How are you guys?' he asked. He stood awkwardly on one foot, leaning against the row of Frootloops and Cheerios.
"We've been well," Hiram answered. "Leroy and I are just about to pick up some things for our Book Club meeting tomorrow. We're attempting to go through the complete works of the Bronte sisters."
"Oh," he answered stupidly. He wanted to know where Rachel was staying. He was dying to ask them how she was doing. But something seemed to stop those words from coming out of his mouth. Hiram made a sudden strangled noise and Finn watched in helpless surprise as tears seemed to fill the older man's eyes.
"I'm sorry," Hiram muttered before he swiftly turned and headed for the exit, leaving Finn standing awkwardly next to Rachel's dad. He gawked helplessly at her daddy's retreating figure as an uncomfortable silence filled his atmosphere. Somehow he couldn't turn that extra inch to look into the face of the man next to him. He felt like they had been standing there in that position for years. He knew he shoudn't have left the safe haven of his bedroom.
"They don't understand," Leroy finally said, breaking the silence.
"Sorry?"
"We're the same, you and I. And people like Hiram and Rachel, they don't understand." Finn finally looked at him, and there was a new kind of softness in the man's eyes he had never been on the receiving end of before.
"I-"
"They have courage. Not like us. Fearless people just don't understand people like us," the old man continued, smiling almost ruefully. Finn could only stare back stupidly, unsure of what he meant exactly and wondering if Leroy Berry had really just told him that they were the same or if it was just a bizarre dream.
"She's living with her mother. See you around Finn," he continued, clapping Finn gently on the back before he turned and walked towards the cashier. Finn was in too much of a daze to realize that it was the first time her dad had ever called him by his name.
Xxx
He stops in front of the door and takes a deep breath. This is it. The moment he finds out once and for all whether Leroy Berry will ever accept him into the folds of his small family. After all these years, he knows well enough that all of the elder man's actions are driven mostly by his fierce need to protect the two people closest to his heart, his only family. That fact makes it easier for Finn to swallow the grim and distant reality of their relationship. He knows (or hopes), deep down, that he already has one foot in the metaphorical door. It's the going all the way part that's tricky. He raps respectfully against the door three times. A safe number of knocks. Too little, and the man might not hear him. Too much, and he might get annoyed. Three is pretty neutral.
"Come in Hudson." Finn turns the knob and steps inside, finding Rachel's dad sitting on an armchair, his head bent over the book in his hands. He stands awkwardly in the doorway for a few seconds before he opens his mouth.
"Hey Leroy," he greets. Leroy merely nods, acknowledging his presence. Finn is itching to ask how the man knew it was him.
"Nobody else in this house ever knocks. They just barge in and talk your ear off," Leroy says simply, finally looking up at him. Finn wonders if he really is that obvious or if Rachel's psychic tendencies had been passed on from this parent. He sits on the couch next to the armchair when Leroy gave him the greenlight.
'How are you?" he asks carefully.
"Fine," Leroy answers, finally looking up at him. There's a lighter shade of grey sprinkled across his head that wasn't there before. "It's been a slow week. Rachel told us about your possible promotion. How's that going?"
"As well as I can hope," Finn answers easily, glad that the older man is steering the conversation into a direction that will benefit him. "I'll find out this Monday."
"Good luck."
"Thank you."
"Where's Rachel?"
"She's helping Hiram out in the kitchen."
"And how's her play doing?"
"Really well actually. There are rumors that they might be debuting on Broadway in a year or so." Leroy nods and returns to his book.
This is the problem, Finn notices, when trying to make a conversation with Leroy Berry. You need to be the one constantly keeping it up, because he feels no need to shoulder that responsibility with you. It had led to many moments of blunder and floundering on his part, especially during the early stages of their relationship. Every time Rachel had left the two of them alone together, she would always return to find her boyfriend blushing like a fire hydrant and deep frown lines occupying her father's forehead. Thank God he learned to tamper down his awkwardness along the way until they've reached this stage of silent acknowledgement on Leroy's part and a deep-rooted respect on his. With Leroy Berry, it's easier if you just get to the point.
"I'm going to marry your daughter."
xxx
His eyes opened slowly by degrees when he felt her jostling around on the mattress. Reaching his hand to his right and finding empty space, Finn looked around in confusion. He smiled when he found her sitting cross-legged at the foot of the bed, hunched over her lap top. Propping his head on one elbow, Finn stared at the way the morning sunlight fell over her body. He knew underneath that thin sheet she had wrapped around her, Rachel was wearing nothing. And the way the light outlined the contours of her figure made it easy for him to appreciate the good things in life.
Whatever it was the she was looking at, it had her full attention. She didn't notice that he was awake, even as he slowly crawled over to where she was. Rachel squealed in surprise as he wrapped one arm over her torso, pulling her body flush against his.
"Finn!" she reprimanded. "I almost dropped my lap top."
"I'll buy you a new one," he mumbled as he slipped one hand underneath the thin cotton, his fingers lightly stroking over the expanse of skin along her side. He smiled against her hair as she purred in content before pushing his roaming fingers away.
"Stop distracting me," she said in annoyance. "I need to book our plane tickets."
"Why did Hiram's brother move all the way to Nashville again?" he asked, ignoring her order and grazing his fingers softly across her stomach instead.
"Uncle Ira had wanted to try to break in to the country music scene- stop laughing!" she said exasperatedly, as his laughter shook both of their bodies. He knew she was smiling though, because her voice was light.
"Sorry baby. That just never gets old."
"I'm glad my family entertains you so," she answered shortly, squirming against his firm hold. "Now let me go."
"Nuh-uh," he mumbled, pulling her even tighter against him.
"Finn!" she whined.
"Rachel." he replied in a mocking tone. "I'm missing a very important game to go to your cousin's wedding. Indulge me a little."
"How is some football game comparable to family?" she asked incredulously, as she tried to pry his arms away, but only half-heartedly.
"It's comparable when your desk buddy has tickets to the playoffs and offered one to you. Do you want another hour long lecture on the importance and impact that good ole' football has had on the American way of life?"
"Fine," she huffed witheringly as she settled back into that familiar space against his body. He grinned. She was making it out like she wasn't enjoying it just as much as he did. She was such a bad liar. He bit the edge of her shoulder playfully as she let out another withering sigh and grinned when the giggle escaped her lips. She laced her fingers through his underneath the sheets and brought them up against her lips, brushing them over his knuckles. He felt the curve of her smile against them.
"Baby?"
"Hmm?"
"Why don't we ever go to anything from your dad's side of the family?" He felt her froze against him and wondered if he had just ruined the moment.
"Hey you don't have to say anything if you don't want to," he said when he felt her shoulders tense against his chest.
"It's not that." she muttered softly. Finn buried his nose into the nape of her neck and nuzzled the space gently, taking in a deep breath of Rachel's shampoo. "Dad never goes to see his family. I don't know any of them." He felt her relax against him as she continued.
"When I was eight, I asked daddy why that was, and he told me it was because he had very different views of how the world worked and that his family saw things differently. I didn't really know what he meant, but daddy told me to never ask questions like that anymore, so I never did after that."
"Was it because of-"
"I think so. What else would it be, right?" She sighed and he felt awful for asking the question in the first place.
"I'm sorry for asking," he whispered against her ear, his warm breath fanning across her neck. Finn felt her slight shiver and tightened his hold around her.
"That's okay. I just feel bad for dad sometimes. He must miss his family so much. It makes me sad to think about it."
"Well he has his own family now. And believe me baby, trying to wedge a way in between the three of you is hard. And I'll say he's pretty damned lucky to have you as his daughter."
"Thanks Finn." she said as she turned her head to smile at him. He swooped down for a kiss, slipping his tongue in for good measure. He still woke up in the morning sometimes forgetting that she was his again. Even after almost a year, the thought of that particular year still scared him, which was why he sometimes clung to her a little too tightly. She didn't seem to mind. Sometimes she did it too. She moaned as he deepened the kiss and Finn forgot all about their conversation as she turned in his arms and he laid them both down.
Xxx
He didn't mean for it to come out like that. Finn freezes when those words slip out and Leroy finally looks him the eye, staring at him thoughtfully. He hadn't known exactly what he was going to say, but it had pretty much stayed within the regions of asking instead of stating it like it's a fact. Not that it's not. It's definitely a true fact, or one in the making anyway. The longer he thinks about it (under the older man's persistent scrutiny, nonetheless), the more he realizes that those words really were supposed to come out the way it did.
Because let's face it, he's going to marry her either way. He hadn't come to ask for Leroy's permission, Finn finally realizes, he had come for the man's blessing. With or without it, a wedding is going to happen. He just really, really prefers that it's a with. Finally, after what feels like decades, Leroy Berry moves in his chair.
"You know I'll never think you deserve my daughter?" Ouch. That was blunt. Finn meets his gaze gravely, wondering if the man could see it in his eyes that he knows he'll never truly deserve Rachel.
"I'm aware," he answers evenly. Leroy acknowledeges his answer with a barely perceptible nod before continuing.
"That being said, I'm fairly certain nobody else will ever be smart enough to love my daughter as much as you do, and she does seem immensely fond of you." Finn stares dumbly at him for almost five seconds as he turns his attention back to his book, before the realization and the relief that comes with it washes over him. He's got the blessing. And he didn't even have to try all that hard. Leroy likes him more than he let on, he figures, and almost bursts out laughing at the air of indifference that surrounds him.
"You know," he begins in a teasing tone, finding it easy to be around her dad for the first time in his life. "You could have just said "Okay". It's a much shorter answer." Leroy looks up once more, an unmistakable twinkle present in his eyes.
"Okay."
xxx
It took almost a year, three epic breakdowns for Rachel, five separate nights of sleeping on the couch for Finn, and seven different occasions of mind-blowing make up sex for them both, before the wedding finally happened.
And it was as they were walking towards their car (decorated within an inch of its life with cheesy little signs of "Just Married" and "Newlyweds" and strings of cans all over the bumper, courtesy of Tina's third grade class), and as they were saying goodbye to her parents, that Leroy had suddenly grabbed him in a side hug and said the four magic words.
"Welcome to the family."