Much thanks to all of you for your continued interest, and for your comments. It really keeps me going to see that my work is appreciated.

Rachel found it was hard to relax on nights when Santana was out. She wasn't sure whether she still feared being thrown out, or was starting to welcome it because she could see Finn in the morning, but either way she was anticipating it. One night, as it got later and later, with Santana still not in evidence, she eased her nerves a little by going for a walk down the hall to the lounge.

Everything was quiet. She noted that a couple of other doors had socks hanging from them, giving credence to Santana's claim that sexiling was normal, just a regular part of dorm life. Though the lounge was empty, nobody seemed to have nowhere else to go. A few moans as she passed by one marked door on her way back – Brittany's – certainly made her glad that she had left for all of Santana's prior sleepovers, it wasn't something she wanted to be subjected to any closer than that.

The next morning she woke up still alone, and decided that Santana must have been too far away to bring her latest conquest home. Assuming that nothing had happened to her of course – her behavior was certainly risky, Rachel decided, but surely nobody in their right mind would mess with her. She must be all right, surely. Despite the annoyance that dealing with Santana caused, and her potential for viciousness, Rachel still couldn't wish her harm.

She might even admit to being slightly relieved when she returned from her morning ablutions to find her roommate had returned. And was looking rested, even quite happy for Santana.

"Looking at something?" the other girl asked abrasively, as Rachel's eyes lingered on her a little too much.

"Just glad to see you're okay," Rachel said as she turned away. She heard what might be a snort, but did her best not to react.

Thinking it best not to stick around, she checked the time – and was gratified to see that, despite feeling like she had slept well, it was still only seven-thirty. Finn should be finishing his run soon, she thought, and getting his coffee. It's time I returned the favor.

There was no mistaking Finn's face lighting up when he saw Rachel at the door of the coffee shop. "Hey," he said, coming over to her. "I didn't expect to see you here."

Rachel beamed back. "I was awake and I thought I'd see if you'd let me treat you for a change," she answered.

He flushed. "You don't have to do that."

"I know." She walked to the end of the ordering line, then turned to smile at him again. "I want to."

"Okay then," he gave in, joining her. "Sleep well?"

"I did. Even had the room to myself all night." She nudged him, moving closer. "I was almost sort-of worried about Santana. But she came back eventually."

He smiled at that, but pulled away. "Sorry, I need to get cleaned up." He sniffed a little. "I can't really tell but I'm sure I reek."

And she could smell sweat from his run, and it wasn't the greatest scent but... in some ways she found it exciting. Earthy. Oh well, give the man his dignity. She liked that he wanted to make a good impression.

The line moved quickly, so Rachel soon ordered their coffees, remembering what Finn had once mentioned about his, and then asked him about the upcoming football game as they waited. She admitted she had never been to a game, but wanted to give it a try.

"You can't sit too far down, though," Finn advised her as their coffees arrived. He escorted her back outside. "Well you can, but I don't recommend it. You won't see what's going on if you're right behind the bench, all you'll see is me sitting on it."

"You –" Rachel bit back her comment, but not soon enough.

"I play sometimes. If we have a good lead in the last few minutes and Coach wants to give Collinson a rest." He shrugged, and lowered his head closer to her as she fell into step next to him. "I might get more time in a few weeks, there're a couple of weaker teams we play later in the season. If we get our playoff position locked up early I might even get to start once, get experience in case I have to step in for Colly."

"Like being a Broadway understudy," Rachel said, understanding. "Having to be ready to step in at a moment's notice. And maybe having the occasional matinee."

Finn's demeanor eased. "Yeah, I guess it is like that."

"It's important, quite the responsibility," she continued, happy to have navigated the situation. "And this is in preparation, isn't it?"

"Sure. Colly's a senior, so I'm sort-of 'in training' for first string next year. It's not one of the big programs so they prep us that way."

"That's great."

"It's just hard sitting on the bench so much."

"Does it hurt?"

"Um, not really. Though sometimes I get a stiff back, sure. I meant it's kind of boring, waiting, though I help Coach sometimes. That's good experience too."

Rachel nodded. "So where should I sit, then?"

"I'll get you a ticket."

"You really don't need to do that," Rachel protested, though she was inwardly delighted at the offer.

"No, I want to. Easier than trying to explain, and the team gets special ones. I don't use them as much as the others, not yet anyway, so I'm way past due." He gave her another smile, kind, even a little intimate as their eyes met. "I really want to," he insisted softly.

There was no way she could possibly decline that. She was glad she had tried, though, with her heart warming further at his insistence on doing this for her. And he's so adorable. "Then of course. Thank you."

They talked further as they went back up to their floor, Rachel bidding him goodbye in the lounge before retrieving her books for the day from her room. Santana was nowhere in evidence.

As she waited at the elevator to go back down, another of the football players came up, a young Chinese man. "Hi there," he said.

"Hello." She gave him a smile.

"You're Rachel, right?" He smiled back. "I'm Mike, Finn's roommate."

Rachel nodded. She had seen Mike's name on the team listing – Mike Chang, Wide Receiver – especially once Finn had mentioned his name in passing. "Pleased to meet you."

Mike nodded. "Same here." The elevator arrived, and they entered and started to descend. "I'm sorry to hear you're having to deal with Santana," Mike went on, giving a sympathetic wince. "She's a piece of work. Rules the cheerleaders even without being official captain, and seems to make it a point of pride to try to bed the entire football team."

"Try?" Rachel's ears perked up at this.

"Well sure. We're not all musclebound morons. A few of us have steady girlfriends anyway, and besides that once you've seen her with everyone else I don't see what the charm would be." He laughed. "Just as well she's so obvious, like Finn says."

"Finn says?" Rachel did her best to keep her composure. "Is there some history there? I mean," she went on, tamping down her eagerness to know and rolling her eyes in a way that she hoped showed worldliness-with-a-touch-of-cynicism, "just about everyone else seems to have been through our room at some point."

Mike shrugged. "Maybe if she'd tried him right away, I don't know. She was really persistent, with each of us actually, but we kept refusing so eventually it started looking pathetic and she moved on down the hall. The name-calling hasn't stopped since. Especially for Finn since he doesn't have another girl as a 'lame excuse' like I do."

No girlfriend. Rachel filed that away happily as they left the elevator and parted ways. Though the implication that Finn hadn't had one last year either made her wonder a little, was he a I-only-play-the-field kind of guy? But no, he was so genuine. He just wouldn't have a real girlfriend until he found the right girl, she told herself. And sure he would have been with a few girls but never someone like Santana.

On Saturday Rachel eagerly made her way to the place in the stands corresponding to the ticket Finn had given her the day before. She'd had an active dislike for football in high school, but she had to admit she had completely prejudged the game - along with basketball and hockey and basically everything else with status at her school – because the jocks she'd run into had all been so mean. Being assigned to a jock/cheer floor in the dorms had seemed like her worst nightmare coming true, she was now having to live with the same sort of people who had tormented her in high school. But things were easing; a few cheerleaders even gave her a smile sometimes, and knowing Finn was making her life so very much brighter.

Rachel found her seat and looked down at the field. It didn't seem that complicated, at least not the general idea of having to move the ball back and forth along the measured field. The rules seemed a lot more involved, though, and she hoped she wouldn't embarrass herself by saying the wrong thing.

"You must be Rachel." The small Chinese girl standing next to her was bubbly, and gave her a welcoming smile. "I'm Tina. Mike's girlfriend. He said you were probably coming."

"Oh, hi!" Rachel enthusiastically greeted Tina, happy to have someone to talk to. And to be expected, too – that was so thoughtful. She also rather liked that it meant Finn had been talking about her to his roommate again. They chatted a little, just the usual getting-to-know you things, with Rachel finding out that Tina was a senior in high school, there in Dayton. Then they joined in with the cheering crowd as the players took to the field.

Rachel easily found Finn by his height and build, though of course she had looked up his number. Mike was also easy to spot, but she let the exuberant Tina point him out anyway. They did have good seats, close to the middle of the field (50 yard line, she remembered from her research) with a little height so they could see the plays develop (or so Tina told her).

In the first half Rachel watched the game, for the most part, prompted by Tina's commentary. The other girl didn't get too technical, fortunately, and Rachel was happy to join in with her celebration when Mike scored. Her eyes kept straying back to the bench, though, looking at Finn's broad number-5-clad back. He did help out his coach, from time to time, looking over some binder they had mostly. Once he got up to fetch something, and she winced as she saw his body jerk a little. Sitting around was clearly harder on him physically than he had wanted to let her believe. Well her daddy was very tall too, and had back trouble sometimes, she understood the issues a bit and... maybe she could help. Rachel blushed a little at the thought, because helping Finn with his back would be very unlike how she sometimes assisted her daddy.

As the players returned after the half-time break, Rachel was happy to see Finn more active, throwing the ball with one of the other players. "Oh, is he going to play?" she asked Tina.

"Just getting a few throws in, I think. It's far too early, and look there's Colly." Tina pointed to where the player wearing 6 was also warming up again.

"Oh, right."

"You like him, don't you?" Tina nudged Rachel. "You like Finn."

Rachel demurred, doing her best to hide her blush. "He's a very nice person."

"Nice. Uh-huh." Tina giggled. "Don't worry, I won't tell." But she let Rachel ignore this, and switched to talking about the community theater group that was putting on Les Miz. The group had a good reputation for their productions, apparently, and it was well worth Rachel trying her best to get a part. They then settled down to watch as the game resumed.

Rachel's attention strayed to Finn even more in the second half, with the on-field activities looking pretty much the same as each other despite Tina's helpful descriptions. Finally the game finished with a score of 24-18. Rachel had no idea if that was good other than the obvious fact that they had won; the crowd and the team seemed very happy.

Tina was definitely happy, bidding her a quick warm goodbye before making her way down to the field to hug and kiss Mike. Rachel followed behind partway, but this was clearly a 'girlfriend' thing, with other players getting similar greetings. She wouldn't know what to do if approaching Finn now, and anyway he was helping the coach again, this time with the equipment. So she settled for giving him a smile and wave, and headed back to the dorms. She would see him again soon, if not that day then the next morning.

As the evening wore on, she certainly looked very much forward to seeing Finn again, and the sooner the better really. It was even getting to the point where she welcomed Santana's return with her loser-of-the-night, quickly grabbing her things (well organized ahead of time) and setting up to spend another night on the couch. She still rolled her eyes at them, of course, but once she was on her own in the lounge, she looked down the boys' hallway with an anticipatory smile. Finn was so attentive those mornings after she had been kicked out, and she really liked spending the extra time with him. Soon, hopefully, they could move beyond using these excuses to be together. He was so kind, so considerate – Rachel found herself blushing as her thoughts went to how attentive and sensitive a lover he surely would be. He's so strong but so gentle... and with the way his hands cradled the football... mmm. Rachel drifted off to some very sweet – and rather hot – dreams.

She awoke the next morning at hearing a door close, somewhere midway down the boys' hall. She smiled a little as she heard it, the cue now familiar. Finn must be going for his run early. She had noticed he had been going earlier some days, fancying that it was so they could have more time together afterwards. She certainly liked when they could have breakfast together, especially once when it was early enough that the dining hall wasn't crowded and they had some space just for themselves.

She glanced down the hall – but no, the shape she saw was a man too short to be Finn. Rachel lay back down, intent on going back to sleep, but became suddenly alert at what she heard next.

"Make sure you visit soon, Finn honey."

Finn honey? Rachel looked at the slim man that had called that out, as he made his way down the hall towards her. He was coming from Finn's room, Rachel realized. He had stayed there overnight, and he called Finn 'honey', and was leaving very early... and, from the looks of him and how he was dressed and held himself, his careful coif (even at that time of day) and his chic shirt and colored jeans, he certainly seemed gay.

Oh no.

"Oh." His voice startled her, and she realized she had been staring, her mind racing. She blinked and did her best to return his smile. "Hello there," he continued, coming towards her. He gave her a sympathetic look. "Roommate kick you out?"

And he's even nice. Dammit. "Yes," she mustered as a reply, giving a small shrug that she hoped covered her dismay and her internal turmoil.

He nodded to her. "Kurt Hummel."

"Rachel Berry."

"Come here often?" he asked archly, a warm smile on his face.

Rachel giggled a little despite her discomfiture. "Often enough."

"Perhaps we'll meet again then. Sorry for disturbing you." He nodded again and went to the elevator, which came mercifully quickly. All the better to leave Rachel alone with her dashed hopes.

She had thought Finn was interested in her, she truly had. Not just as a friend, but romantically. Certainly she was very interested in him, enough to have started thinking that maybe the night would come when Santana could happily have their room to herself because Rachel would have somewhere else to spend it, somewhere much more welcoming. Not too soon but – well this was college, time to grow up and be mature about things, and she was extremely attracted to the sweet tall backup quarterback. And she wanted to start exploring her new mature college self with him.

But now all the details coalesced into something far different than what she had been expecting. Finn's sensitivity, his interest in her program, how he'd known about Les Miz... even his little stylish touch with the nutmeg in her coffee. How he'd befriended her, especially after finding out about her dads, but made excuses not to get too close. What Mike had said about him avoiding Santana's come-ons despite not having a girlfriend. And of course he wouldn't be open about it, not a football player.

Rachel groaned. Naturally she knew of the theories that girls who were close to their daddies often fell for a similar man. She had just expected that to mean "tall, charming, kind, nice voice" rather than gay.

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