Disclaimer: Glee is the property of Ryan Murphy and FOX. I don't own the characters, but most of the storyline is mine and mine only.

Summer of 2012

He really didn't want to go to the Hamptons for the summer break because that meant he would miss football camp, and parties at Puck's house and skinny dipping with the girls and all those things they used to do every summer. But this is important to his mother and step-father and Finn doesn't want to seem like a brat, so he agrees. Even before they leave, he's decided that it's going to be the worst summer ever. They fly to New York, meet up with a large group of people that Burt works with and then they all travel to the Hamptons together. The best part about the Hamptons – Finn decides this on the second day – is that the mansion they're living in is on the beach. Which means that he can roll out of bed and onto the sand. And for someone who has never seen the ocean before that summer, this is the actually the best thing that could happen. They eat at fancy restaurants the first week and Kurt helps him decide what he's going to wear – the perks of having a gay brother – and they sip on fruit juices while the adults drink wine and whiskey and get totally drunk every single night. Luckily for Finn, he didn't show up with any particular plan in mind. He just goes with what his parents tell him and there's really no escaping it now since he's already in the Hamptons. The day the adults decide to go back to the city for sightseeing (for the wives) and meetings (for the husbands), Finn and Kurt are left alone with the other kids. They're the oldest two at this whole summer getaway and it makes Finn feel totally awkward because he's already done with high school and the rest of the gang are pipsqueaks that don't even come up to his knee. They've been left with the job of babysitting, except everyone called it something else. Kurt says to make it sound more dignified. But the adults make it a point to give the older boys time off, time to go do whatever it is they want to do. Leading Finn straight to a beach party where the summer changed for the better.

xxx

When she gets sent off to the Hamptons, Rachel knows that it's because her parents just don't want her hanging around and cramping their style. Every summer she gets driven to her grandparents' house and left there for three months while her parents fix their marriage, destroy their marriage or just do their own thing. And it's been going on for almost ten years now and Rachel knows that there is no way it's going to get better. Rachel knows better than to get involved in their fights because the one time she did stick her head in it, she got slapped across the face and locked up in her room for the whole day. At one point she even believed that they forgot she existed. She also knows that the reason her parents fight so much is because of her. her father wanted her, her mother didn't and when they finally decided after a round of 'rock, paper, scissors', her mother lost and was stuck with the biggest mistake of her life. She's always wanted to know why they can't just get a divorce, but her father mumbles something about staying together for her. Rachel doesn't understand why they would do that when she is clearly the reason they are constantly trying to kill each other. But after that one time, she doesn't ask anymore or say anything. She lets them send her off to the Hamptons and she spends a wonderful summer on the beach, reading, listening to music, partying at night, meeting new people, watching others fall in love while she sits in her little corner waiting for prince charming. She tells herself that this summer it's going to be different, she's going to have more fun and she's not going to hate her parents for going on a cruise that she found for the family without her. Rachel Berry is going to have the best summer of her life and nothing and nobody is going to change that.

xxx

"Finn, this is not a good idea."

"You don't have to come with me, Kurt."

"You'd rather me sit there with those noisy, bratty children and their stuck up parents for another night?"

"You could always find your own beach party."

"You're an amazing brother, you know that?"

"I'm sorry that this isn't your scene, Kurt, but I don't really wanna go bar hopping till we find a gay bar."

"I didn't say that."

"Not in those words, you mean."

"Finn," Finn stops, turning around to look at Kurt as he carefully runs a hand over his hair to settle whatever has blown out of place from their speedy walk to the bonfire that Finn can now finally feel on his back, "Just don't leave me alone."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you do that at every party we've been to in Lima."

"That was different; you always had someone else to hang with."

"Mercedes and Tina are not really perfect to hang out with when they're drunk."

"Kurt," grabs him by the shoulders and looks him in the eyes, "Calm down. We're going to meet a few people, get a couple of drinks and then when the fire dies out, we'll walk back to the mansion, okay?"

"Okay."

"And if your gaydar," Finn grins, totally impressed that he remembers the word the last time Kurt used it, causing him to roll his eyes, "Suddenly goes off, don't panic, just go with the flow."

"Go with the flow, okay."

"I cannot believe I'm giving you advice after you kept telling me what to do when it came to Quinn."

"Thank the heavens you dumped her. she was becoming a headache for me and I wasn't even dating her."

"We're not to talk about her again. At least not till the summer is over. I want this summer to be epic and drama free."

"You better not be hooking up with the first girl that throws herself at you."

"Dude, I have way more class than that."

xxx

Except that's exactly what happens and Finn wakes up how many ever hours later as the sun falls on his face and discovers that he's tangled in the sheets with a brunette who smells so good he just wants to taste every inch of her. he turns onto his side to avoid the sun from burning his face off and watches the brunette sleep, his fingers itching to push the hair out of her face, but afraid that if he does that she'll wake up and then they'll have to have the conversation about what the hell happened. Then again, he could just leave and pretend like it didn't happen and hope to god that he never sees her again. In the middle of his full body scan, he notices the tattoo on her left side. it's right below her boob and its one gold star with a line of stars leading to her back. kind of like the string on a kite. It makes him smile and without even thinking about it, he reaches out and traces the long line of stars all the way to her back, cursing himself silently as she stirs beside him. he pulls his hand away and watches her, ready to close his eyes when she opens hers, but when she pushes her hair out of her face and glances at him groggily, he's lost all power to breathe. She's beautiful and not in the conventional sense like Quinn, but she's literally knocked the wind out of him. Finn wonders if he can remember how they got to where they are right then, but he's distracted by the way her tongue darts out to wet her lips, the way she scrunches up her nose as she forces her eyes open slowly and the soft moan that escapes her lips when she pushes herself up on her elbows. And then she turns to look at him, her eyes widening and her lips forming a perfect O and Finn forgets what the hell he was supposed to say or do because those gorgeous chocolate brown eyes are sucking him in and he's feeling completely short of breath. He blinks twice as he catches her mouth moving to form words and watches her frown as he doesn't respond. When she lifts her hand to push the bangs out of her eyes, Finn instinctively reaches out to do the same, their hands brushing, jolting him out of his staring game, "What?"

"Where are we?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Last night….did we?"

"I'd like to think so given that we're both completely naked and there's a box of condoms open on the bedside table."

"Oh god," he smiles to himself as she drops her head onto the pillow, groaning loudly before lifting her head to look at him, her bangs falling in her eyes again, "I'm Rachel."

"Finn."

"It's nice to meet you."

"I wonder if we had this same conversation last night."

"I hope our first meeting was better than this."

"I kinda like the way we just met," Finn smiles, letting his dimples show and is about to open his mouth to say more when the door opens, causing Rachel to squeal and turn onto her side, pulling the sheet to cover her exposed area. Finn groaned inwardly as her back pressed against his front and it took him a few minutes to focus on the newcomer in the room, "Glad you're up. Coffee and breakfast?"

"Seriously Greg, you could knock."

"And miss seeing you press yourself up against the hottie there? Hell, no."

"Go away."

"Don't make too much noise now," Finn frowned, totally confused, as the blonde dude shut the door and walked away. looking down at Rachel as she turned slightly, still pressed against him, Finn smiled, "Coffee and breakfast?"

"I'm sorry about that."

"It's cool, my best friend always walks in on me with a strange girl," Finn bit down on his lip as Rachel laughed and it took so much control to not just kiss her right then. And of course she beat him to it, leaning up to kiss the corner of his mouth before sliding out of bed, leaving the sheet she had been clinging to dear life abandoned on the bed. Finn sat up, watching her move around the room, picking up her clothes before she turned to look at him, "You don't want coffee and breakfast? Greg makes a mean pot of coffee and an even meaner breakfast if you eat meat."

"You don't eat meat?"

"Only when I'm drunk," Finn realizes his eyebrow is arched only when Rachel rolls her eyes and tosses him his clothes. He gets out of bed, pulls them on just as Greg walks in again, holding two large cups of coffee that Finn can't wait to taste, because from where he's standing, they smell pretty amazing. "Nice to meet you, tall guy, I'm Greg, Rachel's personal bodyguard."

"Finn, Rachel's new friend?"

"You're lucky you're hot, or you'd be out on your ass already."

"Lucky me," Finn offers him a smile and glances at Rachel as Greg sways his way out of the room, "Wonder if he's met my step brother yet."

"Greg will never admit to anyone but me that he's gay, so good luck with that."

"Kurt has a gaydar, or something," he shrugs and takes a sip of the coffee, unable to control the happy moan that escapes his lips and swallows, as he looks at Rachel who has her bottom lip tucked between her teeth, "That is pretty good coffee."

"It's almost like I have to compete with coffee now."

"I'm pretty sure you were better than the coffee."

"Flattery will get you anywhere."

xxx

it's the fifth morning in a row that she's woken up and found herself staring into those adorable brown eyes and the dimples that accompany them when they light up. She knows that one night stands are supposed to end with one night, but they manage to keep doing this even after that first night. the only problem is neither of them remembers how they even get back to Greg's guestroom every single time. And every single time, Rachel squeals and turns, pressing herself against Finn as Greg comes to check on them. And every single time he mumbles something about locking the bedroom door when she resists the urge to let her hands roam over his bare skin. But they never get further than coffee and breakfast in Greg's kitchen, because somehow they know that they'll find each other again. However, that morning, Greg doesn't come to wake them up and it's only because she can hear him having the time of his life in the other room while she watches Finn sleep. She's not sure how anyone can sleep through Greg chanting, fuck me harder, fuck me faster, fuck me deeper over and over and again, but Finn manages to do just that. He's got his arm around her waist and his face is half buried in the pillow as he snores lightly. Just watching him makes Rachel smile and the sounds of his snoring becomes her focus as she drowns out Greg and his sex noises. She took a chance on tracing his jaw, smiling at how perfectly shaped it was, and pulled her finger back as he stirred and woke up, blinking as he clearly tried to focus on her. "Hey."

"Hi, didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's okay, feels like I've slept too much anyway."

"We're not getting coffee and breakfast today."

"I hear that," Finn chuckled and Rachel bit down on her bottom lip, smiling up at him, "What?"

"Do you remember anything from last night?"

"Surprisingly, yeah."

"What?"

"You called me baby and refused to let me use a condom," Finn nodded and Rachel shook her head, her eyes widening as she tried to process this, "Serious."

"Finn!"

"What?"

"I'm not on the pill!"

"And I'm supposed to know this how?" Rachel poked him repeatedly in the chest as he frowned and looked down at her, "If it makes you feel any better, you made me pull out before."

"Just a little better," Rachel sighed heavily, covering her face as Finn's hand moved along her back slowly, "Sorry for poking you so hard."

"It's cool, I'm a football player, that's nothing compared what I usually endure."

"You're a football player? Like a real jock?" Rachel looked up at him, totally confused as Finn shrugged like it was no big deal, "You don't get it."

"Get what? I'm totally confused right now."

"You're this popular guy and I'm a nobody."

"You're not a nobody."

"If you knew me in high school, you'd agree that I'm a nobody."

"But I know you now and I can tell you that you're not nobody material."

"What does that even mean?"

"Look at you," Finn pulled back slightly as Rachel frowned, watching him stare her up and down before looking back at her, "You're beautiful and perfect and I'm pretty sure you sing in your sleep instead of snoring, like regular people."

"That's not funny."

"What? You don't see the way the guys around here look at you?"

"Finn," Rachel rolled her eyes and pulled out of his embrace and rolled out of bed, wrapping the sheet around her body, "The guys in the Hamptons don't give a crap about a girl like me from Queens."

"That's where you're wrong," she sighed as she moved around the room, picking up her panties and bra, trying to locate her clothes as she half-listened to him rambling, "I've seen the way the guys here watch you, check you out and talk about you. Sure, it's a little frustrating to know that they talk about how perfect your butt is and the things they would do to you on any given day, but they talk. And while that's not flattering for you because it's degrading and I know how you feel about stuff like that, you're not a nobody."

"Are you saying you don't participate in these conversations?"

"That is what I'm saying, but I'm also saying that you're selling yourself short. You're beautiful and any guy would be lucky to have you in his life."

"What are you saying, Finn?"

"Let's do something without getting drunk first," Rachel turned around to look at him, the sheet sliding off as she chewed on her lip, watching him climb off the bed and walk to her, "Go out with me. We'll go for dinner, walk on the beach and then we can come back here, or go to your place or mine and get to know each other really well."

"Why?"

"Because I think it'd be good for us to do more than just have sex."

"Isn't that what most guys want when they come off to the Hamptons for their summer break?"

"I'm not most guys."

"So you want to woo me?"

"I want to show you a good time with our clothes on."

"And we can maybe take them off afterwards?"

"If you still want to, yeah, sure."

"Okay."

"Perfect," Rachel smiled, pushing herself onto her toes as she met him halfway for a quick kiss, before dropping back onto her feet, letting her hand rest on his chest as she chewed on her lip, "You can pick me up from here."

"At 8?"

"That sounds good."

"Good," they shared a long look before Finn stepped back, picking his clothes up off the floor as he glanced at her occasionally, "You're going to have to put clothes on if you want me to leave."

"I'm in shock; I can't do anything that involves me moving."

"You're making this really difficult for me, Rachel," Finn looked up from pulling on his shoes as Rachel dropped the sheet and she had to bite down on her lip from smiling at the sound of the growl that came from him, "I'm gonna go now before our date never happens."

"I'll see you tonight."

"Wear something comfortable."

"Bye, Finn."

"Bye, beautiful."