Yes, it's back! Sorry for the delay. There will probably be more delays, but I will keep going. Much thanks for all of your support!

"Ahem."

Finn awoke as the covers were dragged off of him, and he opened his eyes to see Santana looking pointedly down at him.

"You've overstayed your welcome, Shamu," she said. "It's walk of shame time. Wham, bam, thank you man, get out."

Santana? What the fuck? But yeah, he was in her room all right. He hadn't... had he? No, he couldn't have. Could he?

He sat up, his mind struggling back to wakefulness, trying to bring up memories of last night as Santana stood there tapping her foot. Hadn't he talked to Rachel, even kissed her finally? Or was that a dream? It was all foggy.

Yet he was in Rachel's bed, next to her Broadway posters... but it was Santana staring at him.

"Uh..." He tried to move, wincing as his back protested a little. "Hold on."

She raised her eyebrow. "That's what you said last night."

"I did?" But all he remembered was Rachel, Rachel confessing she hadn't been with anyone after all, Rachel angry that he'd thought she had been, Rachel's sweet lips on his and her body nestled close.

Rachel standing in the open doorway, carrying two cups of coffee.

That's now.

"Santana!" Rachel came in, flashing him a smile as she protested to her roommate. "I don't kick your guests out. No matter how much I've wanted to."

Rachel. Thank god.

"Well maybe you should have," Santana said, still standing there with her hands on her hips. "Consider this part of the protocol."

Rachel still looked at Santana, her chin tilted up challengingly. "We're not finished," she said. "I need to take proper care of my guest."

Santana growled. "He'd better be gone when I'm back from my shower," she stated, grabbing her toiletries and stalking out of the room. The door snapped closed behind her.

"Hey," Finn said softly as Rachel approached. He took the offered cup and sipped. "That one's yours," he added absently as he tasted nutmeg.

"Sorry, got confused." They traded cups quickly, easily.

"Thanks." He took a deeper pull on this one, the fog dissipating just with the taste of coffee.

Rachel drank a little of hers, standing quietly in front of him, her nearness easing his disorientation. "So..." she said softly. Her eyes roamed over him, and she smiled. "Did you sleep well?"

"Uh.. yeah." He chuckled sheepishly. "At least, until I was, well, awoken."

"Sorry about that. You were still sound asleep after my shower so I figured I had time."

"You did. I mean, I'd probably still be asleep. Your bed's really comfortable." Uh... sounds creepy. "I mean, 'cause it's soft." Is that better...? Shut up.

"Thanks." She hesitated, started to say something more, but stopped.

Huh. Where are we now? Is there even a 'we'? There should be, but – "Thanks for letting me stay."

"It was my pleasure," she answered, and maybe that was a blush, and –

"Did we... do anything?" His memory was hazy. He didn't feel like he had, but with what she said – he kept his eyes on his coffee, unwilling to see her expression.

"No."

Finn looked up, relieved. "Good." But Rachel backed away, frowning.

"If you're so concerned about that maybe you'd better leave," she said, gesturing at the door.

"No!" He caught at her hand. "I didn't mean it like that, honestly. Just – I don't remember it so... I don't want to have forgotten. Not that." Her attitude softened, and he tugged her closer. "I want it to be, like, etched on my brain or something."

"Oh." She bit her lip. "Well... yes. I mean I understand. I'd want that too."

"Yeah."

"So that's – still to come." She blushed. "At least, I, ah..."

Finn smiled. "Yeah." They wanted it, he certainly wanted it and she had said something like that too. Hadn't she? Implied, anyway, as much as anyone ever says.

Should he kiss her now? He wanted to. And they were definitely doing that. He leaned up, but was suddenly conscious of his own state – sure the coffee was covering his morning breath a bit, but she was clean and dressed and beautiful, and he... wasn't. Plus Santana could be back at any moment.

"I'd better get a shower myself," Finn said. He winced at the thought of how long he'd been in those particular PJs – he'd changed to get comfortable after class on Friday, and here it was Sunday morning. Not exactly showing himself at his best, though he supposed there was nowhere to go but up.

Kinda tough to dress-to-impress when the girl lives down the hall. If she hadn't already seen him at his worst, she probably would later. It was oddly comforting.

"How is your back?"

"My back?" He hadn't thought about it, actually, not other than when Santana has startled him. Hadn't taken meds recently either, though he should.

She smiled. "Yes. You don't seem to be in pain, is that good?"

Finn stood, slowly. "Seems okay." He smiled down at her. "I should still be careful. But it's not spasming right now, which is good."

"It's good that you had a chance to rest, then. Glad I could help."

"Yeah." But then he groaned, realizing how this was going to look. "Oh man..."

"What?"

"They're going to think I was dogging it."

"Dogging it?"

"Coach, the team... they're going to think I faked my back to skip out on the game and stay here with you."

Rachel laughed. "No they won't."

"Sure they will. I mean, the whole floor was empty except us, everyone else was at the game."

"So was I."

"What?"

Rachel blushed. "I was at the game, at first. I went to see you."

"You went all the way to Cleveland to see me?" Finn tried to wipe the smirk off his face at hearing this, but was only partly successful.

"Yes!" She poked him. "How else was I supposed to get you to listen to me?"

"Well you could kick my door in..." Finn winced as she prodded him again. "Kidding. Ow."

"Oh I'm sorry... your back?"

"No, I'm fine. Just your nails are sharp. Guess I'd better go. Time for my walk of shame, maybe I'll get lucky and most of the floor will still be hung over."

"Are you ashamed?"

"Of having a back spasm? Well it sucks and I did let the team down, even if they probably didn't miss me much."

"If it were real. If you and I, we had..." she trailed off.

"'Course not. As long as it went well." He reddened. "I mean, I'd be ashamed if I pressured you, or didn't give you a good time, or..." Finn cut himself off. "I think I'd better go get this foot out of my mouth, sorry."

"No, I understand. Appreciated." She smiled shyly "Let me walk you home." Finn raised his eyebrows at her. "Coming back from this room in the morning – I wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea. About who you were with."

He laughed. "Taking care of my rep?"

"I don't care much about reputation, but what kind of girlfriend would I be if I let people think my boyfriend is Santana's latest casualty." She paled. "Um... you do remember that?"

"The part where I asked you out? Yep, got that. Last night wasn't one of my finer moments in general but I got that bit right." He leaned down, happy to only feel a minor twinge coming from his back. He paused, his mouth close to hers. "We still on?"

She nodded, and he closed the last few inches for a kiss. Sweet.

Rachel insisted on tucking her arm into his as they walked down the hall to his room. Not that he minded; having her close against him still felt like something out of a dream. Nobody much was about, just a couple of the players blindly dragging themselves to the showers, easy to ignore.

They parted at his door with a kiss, and Finn went inside.

Mike looked up from his desk, where he was looking over his class notes. "So much for bed rest."

"Well..." Finn demurred, smirking. "Coach didn't say which bed."

"That was fast."

"Not that fast."

Mike waved a piece of paper at Finn, who reached over to take it. In Rachel's handwriting, it read: Don't worry, I'm taking care of him. – Rachel.

Finn grinned.

"Apparently she took really good care of you."

"Yeah, but not like that," Finn protested, sinking down onto his bed. "I was at her room when my back seized up, she wouldn't let me leave."

"She's a foot shorter than you." Mike cocked his head, thinking. "Though yes, I can see it. She's the sort that gets what she wants."

Finn rolled onto his back, a grin plastered to his face. "Can't complain about that."

Mike chuckled and went back to his notes.

Finn took a dose of his medication – just because his back felt okay now didn't mean it would last – and relaxed, letting everything that had happened in the last day assimilate. It had all been really sudden, such a change. Not that he would complain, hell no, this time yesterday he was still nursing that twist in his heart that had come from how messed up things had gotten. Now it was like that had been a nightmare and he'd woken up. Or moved into a much better dream.

Still, as the where-are-we-now fell into place... he felt kind of deflated. Yes he got his girl, or she got him, but –

Yeah. I was all set to be her hero. So much for that.

He wanted to come to her rescue, have those big brown eyes look at him adoringly for helping her. But his plan had fallen apart, his back had flared up, and he'd spent the night in her bed so she could nurse him better, her taking care of him instead of him taking care of her.

Not that he had a problem with her taking care of him, especially since she was really good at it, and it was great how supportive she was and all but – he wanted to be a man. Her man.

To be in her bed and sexiling her roommate as more than just a technicality.

And he kind of missed the chase, at least the excitement of it. The potential achievement. It felt like they'd skipped right past the early stages, more frustration than anything else, straight to domesticity, except no sex yet, and... he sighed. It's weird. Not in a bad way, she's great and now she's mine, but – weird.

And what should I do now?

Rachel returned to her room, opting to lie back onto her bed and enjoy a last few moments before Santana returned. She breathed deeply, letting the lingering Finn scent sink into her. She might delay laundry a little; she had rehearsal that afternoon anyway, and she didn't want to wash away the traces of her boyfriend so soon.

Her boyfriend. Rachel gave a small internal squee at this. He'd been very direct at asking for that, for her to be his girl.

"Quasimodo gone?" Santana stood at the door, interrupting Rachel's reverie.

Rachel chose to ignore the insult. "Finn has gone back to his room. As you requested."

"I 'requested' a lot earlier."

"I'm just following the rules," Rachel answered, meeting her roommate's eyes. "Unless you want to change the rules."

"The rules are fine," Santana answered, tossing her head dismissively. "But I hope you don't think this changes anything, hobbit."

Rachel hid her smile. Just in saying that, Santana was acknowledging that things had changed; sexiling wasn't a one-way street any more. "Maybe we need a schedule," she commented. "Though I'll try not to abuse the privilege."

"You won't have much chance," Santana scoffed. "Guys like him make the rounds, you've seen how it is around here. If not now, certainly once he's playing again. Rumor says he's set to start in a couple of weeks, if you don't cripple him further. Then he'll have whoever he wants."

"He already does," Rachel shot back. And I'm good for him. He's feeling better already.

"Familiarity breeds contempt, midget. I've seen it all before, everyone around here has. Hell, last year Bea thought she had Colly all lined up. They hooked up a few times all hot and heavy, then made it official, it was disgusting. Having breakfast together, holding hands everywhere – she was practically picking out china patterns." Santana smirked at Rachel, who did her best to be unmoved by this story. "Then suddenly he says he's not feeling it any more, and a week later he found an apartment so he could move out of the dorms and get away from her."

"That's – " Rachel's voice wavered. She swallowed. "That's not what this is like." Finn isn't like that. He really wants me.

"Fine, be like that. Just don't say I didn't warn you." With that, Santana grabbed her bag, shoved a few books into it, and left.

"You've seen how it is around here..." Rachel shook her head to clear Santana's words from her mind. Yes she had seen how it was, not just with Santana (who had been slowing down) but also with many of the others on their floor, all hookups and short-term flings. She hadn't heard the story about Collinson before, but it did seem plausible.

But that wasn't how things would be with her and Finn. They were... well, she wasn't sure. Things were good, they'd broken through the misunderstandings at last, and being close to him felt like it should have always been that way, but...

What was next? They hadn't gone out on a date, yet. Or even set one, though she supposed Finn's schedule was currently dependent on his training. But he had asked her to be his girl last night, and renewed that this morning... she just didn't know what that meant.

How should she act? What should she do? And how would things be now? Would they just... meet in the hall, and in the cafeteria? Like before, only with kissing. Or more. More.

"Having breakfast together, holding hands everywhere..." But that sounded good, if it worked. If. And the alternatives she'd seen – she didn't want them to be like that, just physical, more hookup than actual dating. Rachel didn't have much experience with dating, just a little in high school, but she had seen enough to know what she didn't want. But what did she want?

Everything, she thought. She wanted everything; the sweetness, the comfort, and yes the excitement. Finn Hudson, in her life and in her bed, but more fulfilling than what she saw around her. And she was his girl, so... that should be the idea.

The situation was just new. And a little – unusual. At least she hoped it was unusual.

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