Fast Car – Tracy Chapman
Set after Duets
"Can I ask you something Finn?" Rachel asks quietly, and Finn nods, though he knows she can't see him since they're both staring up at her bedroom ceiling, which is plain and white and not particularly interesting.
"Course you can," he murmurs, and he brushes his fingers along the bare skin of her arm. He smiles when he feels her shudder.
"When we graduate high school, would you run away with me?" Her voice is meek and shaky and Finn gets a lump in his throat.
"Run away?"
She pauses. "Yes. With me."
He doesn't know how to respond to that, because Rachel has all of her future planned out, right down to the clothes she'll wear when she gives her first Tony acceptance speech, and running away with her... Well, he's sure that was never part of her dream.
"What makes you ask that?" He doesn't get a response, so Finn rolls onto his side to look at her, and he feels his mouth become dry because Rachel looks like she's going to cry. "Rach, what's wrong?"
She sits up and moves to the edge of her bed, turning her back on him as she hugs her knees to her chest. "Is that a no?"
"No." She winces, and Finn shuffles towards her, resting a hand awkwardly on her shoulder. "I mean no, it's not a no."
"You don't have to humour me Finn, it's perfectly fine if you don't want to do this."
Finn stops himself from sighing out loud because he doesn't want to hurt her feelings. He loves her, more than humanly possible, but sometimes she gets insecure, and he isn't great at trying to make her feel better. Usually he kisses her and hugs her and tells her he loves her, but he knows that he needs to make more of an effort this time, without making her feel worse.
"Rachel, would you stop feeling sorry for yourself and just look at me?" Okay, that's probably not the best start, but it works in a sense since she adjusts her position so that she's facing him, though she doesn't look pleased about it. She crosses her arms and sticks out her bottom lip, which wobbles with emotion. Finn clears his throat because he needs to do this properly, and he doesn't need to suck on her lip (not that he wants to take it between his teeth and nibble it and lick it and squeeze it with his fingers).
"Yes?" she asks tersely.
"I'd run away with you right now if you asked me to," he says matter-of-factly, and her eyes widen. "So don't think otherwise." He crosses his arms to mimic her body language. "But why are you asking? What happened to college and New York and Jewish babies?"
She smiles lightly, and her eyes twinkle, and Finn is getting so much better at dealing with this. "I don't know if I want that anymore. To have my life planned out, to know exactly what's going to happen...? Where's the excitement in that Finn?"
You got a fast car, I want a ticket to anywhere
"You don't know everything that's going to happen," he says after thinking about it. "What if we win the lottery? Things would be completely different, right?"
She bites her lip (Finn regrets not biting it himself) and she nods a little. "Yes, that's true I suppose. But the chances of us becoming millionaires are incredibly slim." She looks towards her window and sighs. "I just want to be swept off my feet." She looks back at Finn and shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it."
Maybe we could make a deal, maybe together we can get somewhere
Finn hates that. He hates when something's bothering her, or if something's important to her, and then she brushes it away as if it doesn't matter. "We could go on a road trip," he says. "My truck's old and stuff, but I'm sure it could get us away from here, and we could travel around the country, earning money by busking with our awesome singing talent."
Rachel's eyes fill up with tears. "What are you talking about?"
Any place is better; starting from zero, got nothing to lose
"We could live in motel room to motel room, having hot, wild sex as we slum it in the cheapest, crummiest places we can find." Rachel's eyes widen as it's Finn's turn to bite his lip.
She gulps. "Finn, are you serious?"
He nods, keeping a straight face. "Totally. Or we could stop in a small town and get jobs so that we can afford a little apartment where we play Scrabble and take care of our pets." He frowns. "Though we can't have cats 'cause I'm allergic."
Maybe we'll make something, but me, myself, I got nothing to prove
"I could be a waitress in a diner where people tip me too much because I'm always smiling and I sing while I serve the customers, and everyone loves me," Rachel whispers, a smile forming on her lips.
"I could be a chef in the diner who gets along with all the other workers 'cause I'm always laughing and I sing while I cook the burgers and the veggie burgers, and everyone loves me," Finn whispers back, and Rachel giggles with a nod.
"And we'll both go home to our apartment when the diner closes, and even though we'll both smell of greasy food, we'll make love on our hard, squeaky bed and it'll be perfect and romantic and we'll fall asleep in each other's arms."
You got a fast car, and I got a plan to get us out of here
Finn grins. "And then one day we'll mysteriously disappear to start a new life in a new town where we sing to old people so that they're happy, and on the same day that we're singing some real kickass song, the President will walk in and tell us that he loves our voices and he'll invite us to sing at the Whitehouse."
Rachel nods eagerly and brushes her hair behind her ears. "But we'll decline because we're humble and we don't want to bring attention to ourselves, so the President promises to mention us in his next speech to let the country know how selfless we are." She holds out her hand to Finn, and he takes it and squeezes it and she smiles and he smiles.
I've been working at the convenience store, managed to save just a little bit of money
"After we serenade the old women, we'll move to Europe because we're really intelligent and we want to take in all the sights and history," he smirks, 'cause yeah, he's not exactly the smartest kid in school.
"We'll start with the United Kingdom first, and we'll visit all of the small towns and villages that aren't in the tourist books because we're not interested in seeing the over hyped attractions," she says excitedly.
Finn runs a finger across the palm of her hand. "And then we'll fall in love with a cottage in the countryside, and we'll start our own farm with sheep and pigs and cows and chickens, though I'll have to collect the eggs 'cause I wouldn't want you to have flashbacks of some guy who we don't give a crap about anymore, the one with shit hair."
Rachel giggles, and covers her face with her spare hand. "Future Finn is incredibly thoughtful," she murmurs, and she looks at him with love and, Finn feels his stomach growl with lust, and he pulls her into his lap, where she settles her face against his chest, sighing. "We'll sell some of the milk and eggs to the local village because I'm a vegan and there's too much for you to consume, but we'll refuse to slaughter our animals for the meat because neither of us have the heart to kill such cute creatures."
Finn runs a hand along her leg and presses a kiss to the top of her head. "We'll give them all names, and we'll cry when they give birth 'cause we're incredibly emotional and caring, and we'll cry when one of the piglets doesn't make it 'cause the animals are our family."
Won't have to drive too far; just across the border and into the city
"Then, when one of our oldest cows passes away in her sleep, we'll realise that we can't take the heartache that's associated with farm life, so we'll find a nice couple who want to buy the farm, and though it's hard to say goodbye to all of our animals, we'll travel to Paris because it's supposed to be incredibly romantic." Rachel runs a hand under Finn's shirt so she can feel his lightly defined abs, and she feels him shake, and can't help but smile to herself.
"But when we get there, we'll see that it isn't that romantic after all 'cause we're madly in love all the time, and some metal pointy thing won't make any difference, but we'll screw each other in a park 'cause it's Paris and it's like, the law that you have to have sex."
Finn has no idea what they're doing. Rachel is usually so shy when he talks about getting past second base, never mind doing it, but they're talking so nonchalantly (he learnt that word from her) about it all, and she's touching his chest and he wants to do things to her, but he doesn't know if that's what she wants.
You and I can both get jobs and finally see what it means to be living
"Sadly, we'll get caught by a police officer because it's an offence to have sex in a public place, but we'll sing him a beautiful song and he'll forgive us because we're such an amazing couple." She traces a circle around his nipple with her finger, and even though she's keeping her cool, she's shaking like a leaf inside.
Finn has to try and stop his voice from breaking. She isn't doing much, but it's more than she's ever done before, so he tries to focus on what they're talking about. "We'll travel to Spain so that we can see if Mr Schue was actually a good teacher, and I'll struggle with the language but you'll wow everyone with your ability to understand what the locals are saying, and they'll give us complimentary sombreros."
Rachel laughs under her breath. "My sombrero will be too big for my head, and you'll try and help me to get it to fit, in which time a tourist will take our photo because we're insanely adorable and we'll make love on the beach, even though you'll complain that the sand is chafing your perfect butt."
You've got a fast car, but is it fast enough so we can fly away?
They blush simultaneously because Rachel's never complimented Finn's butt before (at least not out loud), and in response, he lifts her out of his grasp and presses her down onto the bed. He hangs over her, his arms supporting him, and he stares into her big brown eyes, noting the way her chest is heaving because his is doing the same thing.
"And after we visit every other country in the world," he whispers as he leans into her, his lips brushing at her collarbone, "we'll come back to Lima, Ohio, and I'll tell you how much I love you for the rest of my life."
Rachel guides his face towards hers and presses her lips tenderly against his. "And I'll tell you how much I love you for the rest of my life."
We've gotta make a decision; we leave tonight or live and die this way
Finn returns her kiss, and with no resistance, his tongue eases into her mouth, tracing a pattern on the inside of her top lip. She makes a gasping noise and pulls him closer until their bodies are pressed against each other, and she arches into his touch, her tongue now colliding with his as her hand grasps at his shirt.
"Or we can stay like this," he murmurs against her mouth, and he feels her smile as she makes a noise of approval. She tugs at his shirt, and Finn helps her pull it over his head. Her eyes widen and she whimpers, which makes him growl and bite on her neck, She squirms, but in enjoyment, and he runs his teeth along her skin while her hands claw at his chest.
"Please let us stay like this," Rachel pants. She feels Finn laugh, because his breath brushes over her body and makes her shudder with longing, and she guides one of his hands to her chest before everything comes to a standstill, and Finn's suddenly sitting upright on the bed, smiling sweetly at her instead of covering her in kisses. She sits up with a frown and with swollen, happy lips, and cocks her head at him in slight frustration.
"That was pretty hot," he says, reaching for his shirt. He hurries to dress himself then smiles at her again, and she wonders if she's done something wrong. "Don't pull that face Rach, you're not ready to go any further."
She huffs and crosses her arms. "How could you possibly know that?"
"You tensed up as soon as you let me touch your boob," he says simply, and she frowns, and he leans in to kiss the tip of her nose. "If you're not comfortable with it, don't sweat it babe; we can take it as slow as you want, just as long as we do it before we start motel jumping." And he starts talking about some movie she's never heard of, and Rachel has trouble keeping her mind off of what could have happened.
She also swoons a little because she didn't realise Finn was such a gentleman, even if he wants them to 'do it' in a Parisian park, and while he's in the middle of some big speech on the pros and cons of zombie massacres, she wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him again because she's definitely comfortable with that.
I remember when we were driving, driving in your car, the speed so fast I felt like I was drunk, city lights lay out before and your arm felt nice wrapped round my shoulder and I had a feeling that I belonged, I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
"Maybe one day."