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.

Author's Note: I apologize for taking SO LONG, I'll try not to take forever to update the story in the future. Please don't give up on me. All ideas and suggestions are welcome. I want to hear what you like and what you don't. And also what you would like to see.

Summer, 2012

It was a regular date. Two people going to dinner together and nothing else. Rachel was just going to overlook the fact that the only reason they were going on a date was because they had spent the last how many ever nights it was, exploring every curve and kink of each other. Now they needed to do something that made a little more sense. Like go on a date. Rachel spent most of the day with Greg, after his secret guest snuck out, and when Greg finally left for work she had a long shower. Washed her hair, blow-dried it, put on some make-up – just enough to make her eyes and mouth pop – and changed into khaki shorts and a white tank top. She smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror, her fingers tracing the small trimming around low cut neck. Rachel Berry looked pretty good and she was comfortable too, so whatever Finn had planned for them, she was ready for it. As she waited in the living room, one leg crossed over the other, Rachel thought about how easy it had been for her to fall for Finn. He was perfect in so many ways and imperfect in others and what she liked about him the most was that he was not afraid of just being himself. Sighing happily, Rachel continued reading the book she had brought with her. Her whole summer plan was to spend her days reading on the beach and get drunk at night, while meeting cute boys. Now her plans were completely ruined and she was spending her days gushing over one boy and spending the nights drinking till she was drunk enough to be taken advantage of the same boy she gushed over during the day. There were so many things wrong with that, but Rachel knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. Her life wasn't perfect and her history with boys hadn't been all that fantastic either, but there was something about Finn that made her believe that maybe this might be something more. The something more that she really needed in her life.

When the doorbell rang, Rachel jumped slightly on the couch and put her hand over her heart as she calmed herself down. Smoothing down her clothes as she walked to the front door, Rachel glanced at herself in the mirror once more and nodded, "Looking good, Berry." Chuckling at her words, Rachel took a deep breath and pulled the door open, her heart skipping a beat at the sight of the boy in front of her. He was wearing jeans and a black collared t-shirt with sneakers and his hair looked like it always did – a natural mess. "Hi."

"You look amazing."

"You don't look so bad yourself."

"I just need to say it again, I love your legs."

"Stop it," Rachel blushed and grabbed her purse off the table by the door and stepped out, "I would invite you in, but I'm scared that we'd never leave."

"That's probably true," Rachel laughed as Finn led the way down to the car in the driveway and nodded as he opened the passenger side door for her. Her heart was still doing that going out of control thing and it took a lot of effort for Rachel to not just reach across the seat and have her way with Finn. But they were doing this the normal way. A date. She buckled herself in and crossed one leg over the other, placing her purse on her lap as Finn started the car and pulled out of the driveway. She tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled to herself, "So, where are we going?"

"My brother found this place far away from the posh side and he can't stop talking about."

"What's it called?"

"I have no clue. I just have the directions and instructions to look for a shack with a rainbow flag."

"That's not going to be easy, Finn."

"I know, but GPS should always help, right?"

"Right," Rachel giggled as she watched Finn mess around with the GPS. She kept her eyes on him as he stuck his tongue out in concentration and tried to figure out how to work the system. It was actually really adorable watching the changing expressions on his face and Rachel had to admit that despite how old they really were, Finn Hudson looked like such a kid right then. Smiling when he sighed in defeat, Rachel took over and checked the GPS and punched in the address that was on the sheet and then shrugged, "There we go."

"And I'm supposed to be good with cars, gadgets and gizmos."

"It's okay, not all guys have to be good at all those things."

"I'm good with PlayStation and Xbox, everything else just confuses me a little too much."

"Maybe you can teach me," Rachel smiled and shifted in her seat as Finn drove, "I don't do much besides read, practice and sleep."

"Come on, you have got to have hobbies of some kind."

"A few," she smiles and glances at him, not sure if she wants to share her troubles with the guy that she's got this larger than life crush on. After all, he could be considered a complete stranger, "I like to sing, so I'm part of this small choir in the city."

"You know, I figured you were a singer given the fact that you sing instead of snoring."

"Shut up," Rachel met his eyes as he shrugged and she instantly felt a lot easier around him. Maybe telling him the truth about everything wasn't the worst thing to happen to her, "My parents aren't around much, so I do a lot on my own."

"Like what?"

"Why are you so curious about my life?"

"Because that's what people do on dates, they get to know each other, they swap stories and all that other usual stuff."

"So for every random thing about myself, you'll tell me something random about you?"

"Absolutely."

"Alright," Rachel tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled to herself as she looked out the window, "You already know that I sing, and because I'm pretty good, I take classes at the community center for underprivileged kids."

"Pretty good, huh?"

"When I was younger, I wanted to be on Broadway, but those dreams were crushed when my parents…." Rachel closed her eyes and bit down on her lip, trying to get the words out. She felt Finn's hand on her knee and she took a deep breath before looking at him, "My parents aren't perfect and I won't defend them even if my life depended on it, but they are my parents, right?"

"If they don't make you happy, Rachel, you don't have to keep pretending."

"What if your parents fought all the time and were constantly trying to kill each other? What would you do?"

"Probably lash out and find something better to do with my life."

"Precisely," Rachel put her hand over his and smiled to herself as he turned his over and laced their fingers together, "I stay out of the house as much as I can because they blame me for the end of their romance and they blame me for just about everything and anything that is going wrong with them."

"What's up with your parents?"

"They don't want me."

"No parent feels that way about their kid, Rach."

"No, seriously, they don't want me. I'm their biggest mistake, the problem in their marriage. Basically, the reason why they can't be happy."

"We don't have to talk about this, if you don't want to."

"We can talk about it later," Rachel squeezed his hand smiled, "Maybe when the date is over."

"Hey, if I have anything to do with it, this date is never going to end."

"I'm not sure if I'm excited or concerned about this whole wooing process."

"Excitedly concerned," Rachel laughed and shook her head, glancing at Finn as he parked outside the restaurant, "I'm gonna rock your world, Rachel Berry."

xxx

"What do you mean you don't eat meat?"

"Vegan, duh," Finn narrowed his eyes at Rachel as she pointed at herself, "We had this conversation already."

"I must have been drunk."

"You were wasted, yes."

"So what are you gonna eat if you don't eat meat?"

"There are vegan options on this menu."

"Seriously?"

"Thing I've learned about the Hamptons is that everything is available because the rich and famous come here to get away from the city and if you can't provide a fashion designer with his or her choice of food, then you're in serious trouble. Worse trouble than you would be in with the Health Department."

"So you're telling me that every restaurant we go to from now onwards will have vegan options because there are tons of people in the city that are vegan?"

"You learn fast."

"Eh," Finn chuckled and closed the menu and leaned back, "Do your drinks have to be vegan as well?"

"I'm pretty sure there isn't anything in wine that makes it non-vegetarian."

"I would not put that past them."

"I'll have some wine then," Finn nodded and called a waiter over, ordered their drinks and then turned back to Rachel, "What's good in the vegan section?"

"Everything sounds really good."

"Pick something for me."

"What?"

"You're vegan, I'm a hardcore carnivore and I know that when I kiss you later, you're going to taste the meat and while I can be a douche like that, I figured that on our first date, I should at least take your lifestyle choices into consideration."

"Finn…"

"Come on, pick something for me."

"You don't have to do that just because of me."

"You have no idea how badly I want to keep my lips attached to yours right now, so just pick something for me as well."

"Do you do this for all your dates?"

"Nah, only the ones that stop my lungs from functioning pretty much all the time."

"That could turn into a serious condition if you don't look into it."

"If this is going to kill me, then at least I will die knowing that it was you that killed me by just existing."

"You," Finn smirked as Rachel laughed, unable to get all her words out, "You are such a cheeseball."

"Hey, it got you to laugh."

"Am I right to assume that you like the sound of my laugh?"

"Love it," Finn winked as Rachel blushed and put his hands on his lap as the waiter brought them their drinks, "Rach, what are we having for dinner?"

"If you don't like the food, you better not hold me responsible," Finn pursed his lips in thought as Rachel arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him and handed the menu back to the waiter, "What?"

"If it sucks, I'll just stuff my face with regular ice cream."

"But then you can't kiss me."

"I'll find a way."

The conversation went on all through dinner and while Finn was skeptical about eating something that didn't contain any meat whatsoever, he was pleasantly surprised when the food tasted a lot better than the stuff he usually ate. There were no awkward silences, there was a lot of innocent flirting and by the time they had polished off two bottles of wine and every last piece of tofu on their plates, Rachel had kicked off her wedges and had one foot up his jeans, her toes brushing against his skin slightly as they just stared at each other. There was so much more about Rachel Berry that he had to learn, but Finn convinced himself that he had more than enough time to get to know her and more than enough time to understand what made her tick. Right then, he made her tick. Because he could see the way she was looking at him and while he had never noticed girls looking at him like that, he had heard Quinn mumble about other girls checking him out. Rachel had her head cocked to one side, her eyes bright and matching her smile as Finn talked about growing up without a father and his mother meeting Burt and adding Kurt to the family and how difficult all of it was at the start because he didn't know how to deal with the fact that his step-brother had a crush on him. And through it all, Rachel's foot played along his leg while she nodded and listened intently, stopping him to ask questions about how his relationship with Kurt changed and when she was going to meet him. Nobody else had ever cared about his life as much as Rachel and while Quinn knew everything there was to know about the Hudson-Hummel situation, she had never been interested in the family and the family had never been interested in her. Finn was sure that if and when his mother met Rachel, she would love her without a doubt. It was hard not to like Rachel Berry, she was kinda perfect. "Finn?"

"Mhm?"

"You're staring?"

"Is that a problem?"

"It's pretty flattering, but a little daunting at the same time."

"I have nothing else to do but watch you, anyway."

"Stop it," Finn smiled as Rachel blushed and when their big bowl of vegan ice cream appeared on the table, she pulled her foot away from his leg, "You're gonna love this."

"I don't get it though, how do you make all the same things without using meat and dairy products?"

"It's called magic, Finn."

"Basically, you're a witch."

"I have been called worse."

"I take it you can cook vegan food?"

"If Greg will ever let me use his kitchen, I will cook something for you."

"I think I can find a way to convince him to let us do that."

"He's not going to be seduced by Kurt, Finn."

"Now that you mention it, I should use Kurt as a distraction."

"I doubt your brother will appreciate it."

"Trust me, Kurt wants to meet new people."

"Open up," Finn widened his eyes slightly and opened his mouth, leaning forward as Rachel scooped up some ice cream and put the spoon in his mouth, "Tell me what you think."

"Mhm," Finn swallowed and licked his lips, "That is actually really good."

"I can make better, but this is pretty good."

"I definitely need to convince Greg to let us have the kitchen now."

"Well, then I look forward to cooking for you," Rachel smiled and scooped some ice cream for herself and took her time licking it off the spoon, distracting Finn completely, "We'll make a date of it."

"I better get to work on distracting Greg soon, because I don't think I can wait too long for another date."

"Unfortunately for you, he's out tonight, so you'll have to try again tomorrow morning."

"Tonight is about us, so let's just leave Greg out of it for now," Finn grinned and opened his mouth for another spoon of ice cream.

"Okay, back to getting to know each other."

"Right," Finn licked his lips, bent down a little to pull Rachel's foot onto his lap and as he massaged the balls of her feet he smiled at her, "Favorite color?"

"Pink. What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"A professional drummer. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?"

"Paris. Who is your favorite actress?"

"Catherine Zeta Jones. Your favorite actor?"

"Hugh Jackman. Favorite band?"

"That's a tough one, but for the sake of answering it, I'll go with Pantera. Favorite Broadway musical?"

"Funny Girl. Who is Pantera?"

"They're a metal band. Well," Finn shrugged and continued massaging Rachel's foot, "They were a metal band, one of the best, really. Their lead guitarist was murdered by a fan during a concert."

"What?"

"Yeah, it's not an important story, but that's what happened."

"Metal music is noise, Finn."

"We'll make a deal," he smirked and licked his lips again, "You can make me sit through Funny Girl and in turn, I'll introduce you to some of my favorite music."

"I can already tell you that I won't enjoy it."

"Don't kick it till you try it," Finn wiggled his eyebrows and smiled when Rachel tilted her head back and laughed.

"Fine, only because you insist so nicely."

"Thank you," he winked and was about to say something more when the manager came to tell him that they were closing up shortly and handed him the bill. Finn thanked the man and checked the bill as Rachel dropped her foot to the floor and straightened up.

"What's the damage, Mr. Hudson?"

"A lot better than I expected," he left some money on the table and smiled at her, "Ready to go?"

"Yup," Finn stood up and held his hand out to her, smiling as Rachel linked her fingers with his, "Where are we going?"

"I'm not sure what comes after drinks, dinner and dessert, so what do you think?"

"Well, there's…." Rachel pursed her lips and walked with Finn to the car, "A walk on the beach, star gazing, sex… the list just goes on and on here."

"How about we do all of that?"

"Think you can handle all of that?"

"I can definitely handle the last one, but I could give the other two a try."

"You know…" Rachel tugged Finn to a stop and it down on her bottom lip, "I could do with some of the last one too."

"We do have the house all to ourselves," Finn smiled as he looked down at Rachel, "We probably shouldn't waste such an opportunity."

"I agree."

"Home it is," Finn leaned in and kissed Rachel, wrapping their linked hands around her waist and pulling her against him.