Next chapter! A few more characters introduced and a bit more bonding :D

Enjoy!


Quinn and Kurt share a sideways glance as their respective clients sit on either end of the couch, arms folded and faces sporting a mutual expression – frustration. They look like two angered children who've just had all of their toys taken away.

"Why are you ignoring each other?" Quinn asks desperately, rubbing her sore forehead, "Rachel, please explain to me." The brunette sends a killer glare to Finn, who mimics the action instantly. "Rachel!" Quinn claps her hands together loudly in order to drag Rachel's attention from Finn, "tell me what happened. It's been a week."

"Well," the woman starts pointedly, her eyes becoming suddenly darker. "It was last week when you forced me to spend a mind-numbingly long night at Mr Hudson's apartment."

"You weren't complaining then, dollface," he breaks out of his anger a moment to smirk and she merely huffs in annoyance.

Her story must be heard. "So, it was fine, I suppose, for being there against my will. And we were going to go to sleep. Originally, I intended to sleep in the guest room, but Noah was occupying it, so naturally I took the next best thing…Finn's bed." Kurt chokes on his drink and stares at her wide eyed. "We had to keep the act up," she defends her herself, "and so Finn slept on the floor. It would have been okay if he hadn't tried to molest me in the middle of the night!"

He rolls his eyes, "Rachel, I sleep walk. I must have got up in the middle of the night and just forgotten that you were there. It is my bed after all."

"How could you just forget about me?" she scoffs.

Finn turns away from her, "easily. That is, until you punched me in the face!"

"What?" Quinn interjects, "Rachel Berry!"

"It was an accident. I was half asleep," she defends herself, looking more than sheepish, "and my natural instinct was to hurt whoever came into the bed with me."

Kurt looks thoughtful before his eyes bulge and he grins, "That's where your black eye came from? I knew that it wasn't Puck!" He remembers holding in his hysterics when hearing that Puck had supposedly thrown a bowl at Finn's face during an argument about baseball. Now it all made sense because Finn had been more than embarrassed about his black eye. And he gets why, seeing as it was given to him by somebody half his size.

Beside him, Quinn is stifling some giggles too as Finn's face flushes pink.

"Look, it's not that funny," he mumbles. Rachel sits there smugly as his torture increases.

"So, that's the reason that you're not talking?" Quinn questions, still smiling a little, "because you sleepwalked into the bed and then Rachel punched you in the face?"

Their responses come equally appalled and annoyed.

"He wrapped his arms around me!"

"It really hurt, okay?"

"You two are supposed to be going on a date in a few hours," Quinn groans, saying it more to herself than Finn and Rachel – the petulant children.

Kurt sighs, sitting in the large space between the "couple". They're glaring at each other once more, as if Kurt isn't even there. "Look, guys, let's just both apologize and then you can go back to being nice to each other again." He doesn't bring up the fact that they weren't exactly nice to the other before the incident either.

The pair sits in a stony silence.

"Rachel," Quinn begins in a sing song voice, "come on, why don't you be the bigger person here?"

"But she's a midget – how can she be the bigger person?" Finn chimes in, instantly ducking when Rachel throws her cushion directly at his head.

"I'm vertically challenged!" she screeches, "which is better than being a lumbering giant!"

Finn's face scrunches up tightly in confusion as he tries to figure out what lumbering means, while Kurt's head drops to his hands in defeat. Quinn, one of the only rational people in the room, holds up her hands to silence the pair. "Stop it! I don't understand why you dislike each other so much. You're pretending to date. Haven't you found a mutual ground in which you're friends?"

The expressions of said "couple" bring her to answer her own question with a big fat no.

"Right," she places her hands on her hips, "from now on, our most important priority is this. You need to know everything about the other person, especially for when you announce to the public that you're dating. I want you to learn all you can, from favorite color down to childhood memories, got it?"

The brunette nods reluctantly while Finn visibly winces.

"You never know," Quinn smirks, "maybe you'll actually like each other afterwards."

Rachel scoffs, "not very likely."

His head snaps up to stare at her, eyebrows dropping, "what's that supposed to mean?"

Quinn and Kurt share a look – they have a bad feeling about this. "You're probably just as crude and abhorrent as you seem. I mean, why would I want to be your friend? I've seen what you do to women, Finn Hudson, and the idea isn't so farfetched now that I've actually spent the week within your company. You're rude and horrible. I just don't understand how you came to be like that. Didn't you father ever teach you what it was like to be a gentleman? To not act the way you do? I think that it's appalling!"

Many things happen at once.

Rachel shoots up from her seat and steps away from them, as if being close to Finn is physically hurting her.

Quinn hands flies to her mouth as she takes in the anger of Finn's face and she cautiously peers back at Rachel.

Kurt gaps, placing a hand on Finn's arm to calm the man.

And Finn, he flings out of the seat too. He sends one look to Rachel, who is positively startled, before growling in frustration and going to leave the room, not before kicking a chair over in its place. It clatters to the ground, the sound almost enough to distract their eyes from following him as he walks into the bedroom and slams the door shut after him.

Guilt is all over Rachel's face. "W-what did I say?"

"You mentioned his dad," Kurt says plainly, "it's kind of a sore spot for him."

Her stomach drops, "…why?"

The man's eyes meet hers, full of sadness. "His dad died when he was a baby. He never knew him."

She drops back onto the couch, "God, I'm such a horrible person!" She doesn't like Finn and he's clearly shown the same feelings, but she would never have brought that up if she'd known. Completely conflicted, she turns to Kurt and Quinn for answers.

"Why didn't you say anything about this?" she asks quietly.

"I didn't think that you were going to bring it up," Kurt comments, "especially like that. Poor Finn," he adds, with a glance to the bedroom.

Inside said bedroom, Finn is crying.

He holds his baby blanket with care between his fingers, running his thumb over the soft material.

How dare she! She doesn't know him – anything about it. And then she goes and says all those things without batting an eyelid. For someone who goes on and on about respecting feelings, she's sure got some double standards when it comes to his, or is he not important because they're not friends, nor will they ever be.

But still, what she said about his dad, it really stung.

He'd never had what most kids have growing up. It'd been just him and his mom. She'd done her best with him, but sometimes there was only so much that she could teach him. There'd never been a permanent male role model in his life and by the time that his mom actually remarried, he was fifteen and already in with the wrong crowd.

Maybe if there'd been someone there to show him what it's like to be a man – to do the right thing – then he might not have ended up in the mess that he was in.

Not to mention that his relationship with his mom became strained when she started to date Burt Hummel, and he may have strayed more than he should have. There isn't a day that goes by when he doesn't regret some of the stupid decisions that he's made in the past, but who is Rachel Berry to call him out on that?

He's angry at her, but he's upset too. Why else would there be tears rolling down his cheeks?

But Finn hates crying and he wishes that he could stop, but the past hurts so fucking much that he can't.

There's a small knock on the door before it creaks open slightly, letting light flood into the otherwise dingy bedroom. He expects to see Kurt, so is surprised when Rachel is timidly standing in the doorway, looking pained and conflicted. It serves her right for shoving her nose in everyone else's business.

"Hey," she whispers, "can I come in?"

He shrugs, hiding his face from her so that she can't see just what her words did to him. Rachel bites her lip, closing the door after her slowly and then moving to join him on the bed. It hardly moves as she sits herself down beside him.

They let the silence fall over them once more and he takes a small peek at her face to see practically a hundred emotions move over her features in the matter of a few seconds. Her eyes meet his and he tenses. "I'm sorry," she begins, her voice unusually quiet and gentle, "I really didn't mean to make you upset."

"Well you did," he mumbles quickly, showing her that she isn't going to be forgiven so easily. She should think before she opens her mouth.

"Finn – "

The man cuts her off, his voice breaking, "you shouldn't have said that…about my dad."

"I know," she sighs, "it's just that you get me so frustrated and then I just feel like I want to explode."

"Gee, thanks," he mutters, although he understands the feeling too.

"I didn't know…"

Finn's jaw locks and he gently shakes his head, "of course you didn't. Nobody does – I don't want people knowing that I'm even more screwed up than they think." He runs a hand through his hair and then wipes his eyes at the same time.

She finally seems to notice some tears which haven't quite fallen yet, "oh my, have you been crying?" Her hands fly up to her mouth while she stares with those wide eyes again. He wishes that she'd stop doing that. "You have! Finn, I'm so sorry." The amount of sincerity in her voice is overwhelming, almost bringing him to tears again but a holds up a hand to silence her.

"It's okay," he says quietly, "I'll get over it. As we already clarified, you didn't know."

Rachel's large eyes never leave his face, "I still feel terrible though."

He can't exactly do anything about how she feels, so he just shrugs . Noticing the blanket in his hands, she smiles, "is that yours?"

"Yeah, my dad bought it for me when I was a baby," he says, "and I've just kept it around for all these years. It's just…something to remind me of him. And, you know, maybe my kid could have it?"

"You want kids?" she sounds genuinely shocked, but he can understand why.

"One day."

Her fingers clasp around his shoulder and she finds herself leaning into him without thinking. "That's really sweet. I hope that it works out for you."

"Thanks," he says.

And then they return to more silence. He hates how it can become so awkward between them in the matter of seconds – usually that's when he'll start to tease her so that she'll at least say something, but maybe that'll just lead to another one of them being hurt, and it kind of sucks. But what's he supposed to say? They're two completely opposite people and he's pretty sure that they have nothing in common other than the fact that they both sing. How's that supposed to make them bond?

He clears his throat, "maybe we should…like call a truce or something. 'Cause we've gotta keep this up for a while and we don't want this to happen again."

She's nodding enthusiastically to his words, "yes, I know."

"Okay, so peace then? For now?"

He holds out his hand for her to shake.

Rachel surprises him, pulling the man into a tight hug instead. "Deal." She leans back, "are you okay though?"

"I'll be fine," he tells her honestly, "now let's get out of here before those two think that we've killed each other." The woman giggles softly and he can't help but think how much of a wonderful sound it is. She leaves the room before him, leaving him time to take a deep breath and relay the events over in his head before he joins her with the others.

When he gets outside, she animatedly talking to Kurt and Quinn, telling them exactly what had happened.

"Yeah," he agrees, "we're cool now." But for how long?

"Good," Kurt gives a sigh of relief, "because you've got to go out soon."

Finn's head snaps to his brother, "what? No. It's the game tonight!"

"W-what game?" Rachel frowns, standing between the two men. He notices that she's almost pouting a bit, too.

"The Rangers are playing. I've gotta go man – they're my team!" Kurt rolls his eyes at the man, before turning to Rachel and Quinn with a frown.

He points to Finn, "ignore him. Rachel, honey, you need to get ready for your meal."

"No!" Finn argues, "I'm not going for a meal. I'm going to the game."

"You and Rachel are going for a romantic date!" Kurt insists, clearly becoming exasperated with Finn, who isn't ready to back down either. They've both been quite stubborn people, Kurt more so than Finn, but when it comes down to something that he is passionate about, they can argue about it for hours.

Quinn, foreseeing the carnage, steps between them, "maybe we could compromise?"

The smaller man shakes his head, "no, we can't derail from the plans anymore. They are going on this date."

"What about if they still go on the date," she begins, "but just not to the restaurant?"

Finn catches on quickly, "you want me to take her to the game?" He laughs loudly, "no offence dollface, but it is not your scene."

She huffs, folding her arms, "and why is that going to stop me? Perhaps I'll enjoy it."

"Perhaps you won't," he counters.

"Is that a challenge?"

"Maybe it is," he smirks, moving closer to her, "or can you not take a challenge?"

Rachel gasps, "I most certainly can!" To Kurt and Quinn, "we're going to the game, okay? That's my final decision. Now, I need to go home and get changed. I have the perfect heels for this!" She grabs her bag and coat, excitedly hurrying from the apartment.

He immediately calls after her.

"No!" Finn faceplams, "no heels! This is a hockey game. Don't you have any normal clothes?" But she's already gone.

Quinn laughs, "don't worry. I'll hide all the heels and I'll have her at the game soon." He can feel Kurt staring at him, but he doesn't care. They're still going somewhere, right? Isn't that the point of all this – so that they can be seen together in public? And now Finn can enjoy it too because it'll be in a comfortable place, instead of one of those clichéd and overly romantic restaurants. He only hopes that this truce with Rachel lasts.


"Move, move!" he shouts at the player nearest him, who gets distracted long enough for another player to hit him straight into the clear screen before them, shaking it violently. Rachel winces once more, hiding behind her drink. "Rach, you're missing it!" he nudges her, trying to get the woman more involved with the game.

She sighs, "I don't understand how barging people into barriers is considered a sport."

Finn chuckles, "they're doing other stuff. Look, he's about to make a shot!" he points to the player nearer the goal, shouting loud words of encouragement and then cursing when he misses, "I could have made that shot with my eyes closed!" He turns to Rachel, who is clearly more than daunted by this environment, "at least try to have a little fun."

"I am," she insists, "I'm just not the biggest fan of violence." She covers her face with her hands now, peeping only occasionally so that she can try to keep up with the game. He thinks that the sight is kind of adorable.

She doesn't really follow the game or the rules, and by the second intermission she's kind of sick of hockey. "I'm cold," she whines, hugging herself and peering up to Finn sadly.

He thinks for a minute before pulling off his jersey and helping her into it, "better?"

Rachel only nods, ignoring the warmth of his hand on her arm and resisting the urge to smile brightly. Finn was right – this is not her scene, but she supposes that she must make an effort since he went through the whole date at Sardi's for her. Well, maybe not for her solely but it's the same principal.

His jersey smells like him, all manly and appealing, much like him she thinks. Not that she'd ever say that to his face. She's still got the events from previously that day on the front of her mind, trying to think of a better way to apologize. He's already told her to forget about it but she just can't. She was out of line and she knows it, yet Finn's probably too proud to let her make it up to him properly.

So, for now, she'll be nice, though she'll allow herself a few slip ups. Old habits die hard as they say.

She watches him become excited at the game when his team comes back out onto the ice – she still doesn't know which is which and is scared that he'll exile her from the rink if she gets it wrong. From what she gathers, this is the final part of the game so Finn is even giddier than before.

He yells and screams passionately at his team, as do all the other fans, and he points a lot. She ignores his curses because there are way too many to reprimand.

"We won!" he screeches at the end, lifting his hand up in the air. She stares at it blankly. "…you're supposed to give me a high five."

"Oh," she says, doing as he says and having to jump a little to reach his hand. "I'm really glad that the team, well…," she realizes that she's too vague here, "our team won!"

He grins, "hell yeah, our team own this game."

After a good ten minute lecture on why the team, the Rangers if she remembers correctly, are the best, he reroutes their pathway to a small café, Finn insisting that there's stuff that she can eat too.

"Yo, Blaine," he shouts as they step into the relatively quiet café, "how're you doing man?" Her eyes wander to the small man behind the counter, with his curly dark hair and mischievous smile, who walks over to Finn where the two hug.

"I'm great," he replies enthusiastically, "it's been a while since I saw you." He suddenly realizes that Rachel is there too, and becomes considerably star struck. "Y-you…I-I – hello."

She giggles, holding her hand out to him, "it's lovely to meet you."

His shaky hand takes hold of hers. "Blaine Anderson. I'm a huge fan, Miss Berry, and I'm honored to meet you." Now that he's found his words, he can think straight, "so it's true? You two are dating?"

"Yeah," Finn laughs, "but we're keeping it quiet so don't tell anyone, okay?"

Blaine nods his head vigorosly. He then remembers that he actually works there, "can I get you guys anything? You've just been to the game, right?" He glances at the jersey which Rachel is still wearing.

She feels her stomach grumble, "have you got anything vegan?"

He grins, beginning to recite a whole menu full of vegan treats and Rachel quickly orders, while Finn gets his usual of a hamburger and fries.

"So, how's Kurt?" Blaine asks casually as he totals up the cost.

"He's great. You should call him some time," Finn says, "he could do with a night out to get away from all the stress of life as my manager." He chuckles to himself, taking hold of Rachel's hand to lead her to a table. He grins at how tiny her hand is, matching the rest of her, and how it locks into his perfectly – not that he's over thinking it or anything.

"The game was good," Rachel comments as she sits down.

"Even though you spent the most of it hiding behind your fingers?" he raises his eyebrow, smirking.

Rachel grows slightly bashful, "I still saw some of it. I'm just…new to it, that's all."

"Oh yeah," he chuckles, "what were our team called?" He knows that she's forgotten, especially when the confusion slips onto her face.

She struggles to think of a name, messing with the hem of her jersey as she thinks. Wait, the jersey! Peering down at it, she grins, "Rangers! We like the Rangers!" His proud grin makes her smile back at him, but they're then distracted by Blaine bringing their drinks.

"Hey," he produces an old looking book, "could I get your autograph, Miss Berry? It's just…"

"Of course!" she smiles, quickly taking the pen from his fingers, "and you can drop the formalities. Call me Rachel."

The man looks like all his dreams have just been handed to him at once.


"Well, here we are," he slows outside of her apartment, looking around the make sure that it is empty, "looks like everything's clear."

"Thank you," Rachel smiles, turning to get out. But she instantly stops and faces him again, "I had fun tonight. Lots of fun. It made me think that maybe we can convince people about this whole publicity stunt."

"Yeah," he laughs, "you are a Broadway actress, after all."

She beams. "I'll see you then Finn. Have a great night!" She does leave this time, unable to wipe the grin off of her face as she enters her apartment, the doorman greeting her on the way in. Through the windows, she gives Finn a small wave and watches as he drives off. They can do this. She actually believes it now.

Hurrying up the stairs, she gets to the third floor and pulls out her keys, frowning when the door is already open. Wouldn't Quinn text her if she was in there?

Rachel, with a large amount of caution, lets the door creak open and gasps when she sees her familiar friend.

"Well, Rachel my dear, it's been too long."

She kind of forgets how to breathe. "Jesse?"


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