Fic: Like Longing Feels 6/? (Glee, Will/Finn, NC17)
Title: Like Longing Feels 6/?
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Will/Finn (Puck/Kurt)
Rating: NC17
Word count: 4750 for this part
Summary: Finn Hudson's the quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals. At the beginning of his second season he tears his patellar tendon, ending his season and sentencing him to a year of rehab. Enter Will Schuester, Physical Therapist.
A/N: I'm starting to get the feeling that I am wasting my time posting this fic at the winnners comm. Six parts and still no author tag. ::sadface:: Anyway, today's installment is a little early because I have to go to lunch on time for once. Posting will resume again on Monday, in spite of the holiday here in the U.S. Monteith Monday will also continue on schedule, naturally.
Christmas at his parents’ house went pretty much exactly the way Finn figured it would. Kurt insisted on driving them home, and Finn didn’t argue, because his Navigator was still a lot easier on Finn’s knee than the BMW. Once they got there Kurt disappeared pretty much as soon as they got to town, claiming some kind of last-minute shopping emergency involving his best friend Mercedes.
Finn was pretty sure the 'emergency' consisted of mochas at the Lima Bean and Kurt talking about Puck for hours, but he wasn’t invited, so he couldn't be positive. None of Finn’s high school friends were in town, and with their parents at work all day Finn mostly spent his time hanging around the house, watching daytime TV and wondering what Will was doing.
He thought about calling and asking; Finn had his number, mostly so he could call if he had to cancel their session for some reason. But there was no way he was canceling the only thing he was looking forward to, and he couldn’t think of another reason to call. Well. He couldn’t think of a reason to call that wouldn’t make Will want to cancel, anyway.
After all, it wasn’t like they were friends or anything. They didn’t hang out, and when they talked about personal stuff it was always about Finn. He knew that was all part of getting him healthy, that Will was just checking up on where his head was at while he checked on Finn’s physical progress. Still, it was easy to pretend that Will asked because he wanted to know what was going on with Finn, and Finn wondered what Will would do if he started asking questions about Will’s personal life.
By the time Christmas Eve rolled around he was so distracted by trying not to call Will that even his mom noticed. Burt too, if the looks he kept shooting Finn were anything to go by, at least when he wasn’t frowning at the sight of Kurt’s fingers flying over his phone’s keyboard.
“You sure you’re okay, hon?” his mom asked for like the hundredth time, giving him the ‘concerned mom’ smile as she set a mug of hot cocoa down in front of him.
“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine,” he lied. He picked up the mug and lifted it to his lips, taking a sip and then wincing when he burned his tongue. “Same as the last time you asked.”
“You’re sure your knee feels okay. I can get you some more ice if you like,” she said, like he hadn’t even answered her.
“Seriously, I'm okay,” he said again, rolling his eyes and glancing at Kurt, but his brother was still smiling at his phone and typing like he was going for a record. “I got Will’s permission to come home and everything. You can call and ask him if you want; he’s in town.”
“Your physical therapist’s in Lima?” Kurt asked, glancing up from his phone long enough to frown at Finn.
“His parents live here.” Finn shrugged and looked down at his cocoa, lifting it halfway to his mouth before he remembered how hot it was. “I’m meeting him Wednesday for PT.”
“He’s making house calls now?” Kurt asked, raising an eyebrow in Finn’s direction, and it figured he’d choose now to get involved in the conversation.
“His friend owns a gym in town. I’m meeting him there.”
Kurt’s only answer was a funny humming noise, then he was typing again, and Finn figured Puck was about to hear all about the fact that Will was in town. He felt his cheeks flush and looked away, but when he caught sight of Burt’s expression he blushed even harder and looked back at his mom.
“Will’s here? You should ask him to dinner,” she said, and seriously, he was surprised she wasn’t already dialing Will’s number.
“Mom, he’s visiting his family,” Finn answered, because the last thing Will wanted to do while he was on vacation was sit at Finn's parents' dinner table and answer a million questions about Finn’s injury, but what was really pathetic was that Finn didn’t totally hate the idea. “He doesn’t want to hang around here.”
“Well ask anyway. It’s only polite, considering.”
Considering what, Finn had no clue, but he knew better than to ask. Mainly because if he did he knew she’d tell him, and he didn’t really want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear what Burt was thinking, either, and he really didn’t want to know Kurt’s opinion of his pathetic social life. And that was the thing, because they weren’t even friends, so the truth was he didn’t really have a social life.
“Okay, I’ll ask him,” Finn said, his stomach tying fluttering at the thought, and he couldn’t decide if he wanted Will to say yes or not.
~
Somehow he managed to make it to Wednesday without calling Will and freaking him out so much he canceled their appointment. By the time he got to the gym where he was supposed to meet Will, Finn was starting to drive himself a little crazy, but he got out of the truck he’d borrowed from Burt and headed inside.
Finn walked up to the counter, smiling back at the perky blonde behind the desk. “Hi, I’m supposed to be meeting Will Schuester? My name’s Finn Hudson.”
“Oh, right, Shannon said they were expecting you,” she said, glancing toward the gym just as Finn heard a familiar voice say, “Finn, you made it.”
He turned in time to watch Will walking toward him, smiling like Finn was the best thing he’d seen all day. And he could get used to Will smiling at him like that, which was kind of a problem, because Will wasn’t going to be around to smile at him forever. Finn raised his hand in a wave that he was pretty sure made him look like a moron, and when Will stopped in front of him and reached out to grip his shoulder, he had to swallow a groan.
“Did you have any trouble finding the place?” Will asked, hand on Finn’s shoulder to steer him past free weights and a row of treadmills to the office in the back of the gym.
“No, it was pretty easy,” Finn answered, hands in his pockets to keep himself from doing something stupid like reaching for the hand that was on his shoulder and sliding his fingers through Will’s. “It’s not that far from my folks’ place.”
“Great.” Will stopped in front of the open office door and let go of Finn’s shoulder, but he kept grinning at him for another second or two. “Have you been keeping up with your workouts?”
Finn shrugged, cheeks flushing a little and he wasn’t sure why he was so embarrassed, because it wasn’t his fault he didn’t have access to a bike while he was staying with him mom and Burt.
“Mostly. I mean, I’ve been doing all the stuff on the sheets you gave me, but my folks don’t have a stationary bike. I thought about taking my old bike out and riding around the neighborhood, but I figured if I fell or something and tore up my knee, you’d kill me before Dr. Sylvester ever got a hold of me.”
“Good call,” Will said, his mouth curving into a smirk as he clapped Finn on the back and pushed him forward into the office. “Come on, there’s someone I want you to meet.”
There was a woman sitting behind the only desk in the room, and Finn assumed she was the friend Will had mentioned when he said he worked out at a gym in town. She looked a little older than Will, and she wasn’t exactly what Finn would call beautiful, but when she smiled at him it lit up her whole face.
“Finn, I’d like you to meet my old friend, Shannon Beiste.”
“A little less emphasis on the ‘old’, if you don’t mind, Will,” Shannon said, but her smile got even brighter as she held out her hand for Finn to shake. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m a big fan.”
“Shannon used to coach high school football before she opened this place,” Will said, arms crossed over his chest and grinning back and forth between them like this was the most fun he’d had in forever. “She’s downright unreasonable about OSU ball. As soon as she found out I knew you she demanded I bring you by to meet her.”
As soon as Will said it Finn felt his smile falter, but he caught himself before he looked over at Will and forced the smile he usually pulled out for the press after an exhausting game. He’d done the impromptu meet-and-greet plenty of times since he signed with the Bengals, and he mostly didn’t even mind. But it hadn’t occurred to him until right now that maybe the reason Will had taken time out of his vacation to meet Finn was…well, to show him off.
“Hey, all I said was that if you were coming by to work out, you should stop in and say hi,” Shannon said, casting a stern look at Will that made him shift his weight and look away. “But seriously, you’re welcome to work out here any time you’re in town, Finn. And you don’t even have to bring this idiot with you.”
“Thanks,” Finn said, and this time his smile was a little more sincere. “That’s really cool of you.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Shannon said. “Nobody wants to see you back on that field more than me.”
Finn was pretty sure that wasn’t true, mostly because he was sure nobody wanted him back in playing shape more than Finn himself. But he didn’t say so; instead he just smiled again and glanced over at Will.
“So I guess we should get to it,” Will said, pushing himself off the edge of Shannon’s desk and nodding toward the door. They waved goodbye to Shannon, then Will’s hand was on his shoulder again, steering him past the office to a hallway that led behind the cardio area. “There are some rooms back here the massage therapists use for appointments. They’re mostly empty this time of day, so Shannon’s given us permission to use one of them.”
“Oh,” Finn said, glancing down at the long track pants he was wearing. “I figured we’d just be doing the bike and maybe some stretching. I didn’t bring any shorts or anything.”
Will nodded and guided him into a small room with a massage table in the center, then he closed the door and turned to look at Finn. “Well, as you can see, it’s private, but if you’re not comfortable, that’s fine. I can still check your range of motion.”
“No, I’m good,” Finn said, his whole face heating up and as he pulled his jacket off and set it on the only chair in the room. “I mean, it’s no big deal, right?”
He slid his track pants off without looking at Will, then he tossed them on the chair with his jacket and pulled himself up onto the edge of the table. And he was wearing boxers, so it wasn’t all that different from his usual running shorts. It wasn’t even the first time he’d sat there in his boxers while Will massaged his leg, but it was the first time since he started wondering if he had a shot with Will, and it turned out that made a difference.
“So…uh…how do you and Shannon know each other?” Finn asked, his voice loud in the tiny room.
“I worked my way through grad school as a massage therapist. I did some work for her team when she was still coaching. They were the state champions a few years running.”
Will’s back was to him, his t-shirt wet right between his shoulder blades and under his armpits, and Finn guessed he’d gotten in a run before Finn showed up. He watched Will bend over to reach inside one of the lower cabinets, swallowing hard at the sight of Will’s perfect ass. And he was not getting hard while he was only wearing a pair of boxers, because there was no way Will would miss that.
Finn closed his eyes and remembered the game where he’d torn his tendon in the first place, let himself hear the sickening sound of muscle detaching itself and the pain of his knee bending the wrong way. He mostly tried not to think about it, because it was bad enough trying to recover from it without the constant instant replay of what still might be the last play of his career, but it did the trick when he was faced with Will still sweaty from his run and looking even hotter than Finn remembered.
A hand landed on his knee, and Finn flinched and opened his eyes. “Finn? Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I…yeah. Just thinking about the accident. It kind of sneaks up on me sometimes.”
Will frowned at him for a second like he didn’t really believe Finn, but he didn’t push it. Instead he looked down at Finn’s knee, reaching out and resting warm hands on either side of it. His thumbs found Finn’s scar tissue and dug in, and Finn bit down on his bottom lip to hold back a moan.
“Anyway, I worked with Shannon for a couple years before I graduated and went back to Cincinnati to work at the clinic. We kept in touch, and when she gave up coaching to run this place, I started working out here when I was visiting my parents.” Will’s hands paused on Finn’s knee, then he let out a little laugh and glanced up at Finn. “Shannon always accuses me of taking advantage of her generosity to hide from my mother.”
“That bad?”
Will shrugged and looked down again, thumbs resuming their slow massage. “She means well. It’s just that she’s still not over the fact that I opted not to marry my high school girlfriend so I’d be free to date men. Mostly it’s the lack of grandchildren that bothers her.”
“It’s not like you can’t have kids with a guy,” Finn said, and when Will smirked at him Finn blushed all over again. “I mean, obviously you’d need some help. Still, people do it all the time. One of my brother’s friends has two dads.”
Will shrugged and flattened one hand on the side of Finn’s knee, keeping it still while he dug in hard with his other thumb. Finn gasped and bit down even harder on his lip, but Will just laughed and leaned into him, bracing his hip on Finn’s good leg so he could put all his weight behind his hand.
“Technically I’m not supposed to tell you any of this stuff, you know. It’s not exactly professional of me.”
“What, there’s some rule that says we can’t be friends just because you get off on torturing me?” Finn said, his voice coming out kind of breathy and strangled as Will really dug into a piece of scar tissue near the edge of his incision.
Will didn’t answer right away. He worked in silence for a few minutes, and after awhile Finn assumed he just wasn’t going to answer. But once he was satisfied that he’d caused Finn enough pain he straightened up, his hand stilling on Finn’s knee and looking up at him.
“No, there’s no rule against being friends.”
Finn knew what he wasn’t saying. He knew there was no rule about them hanging out, watching a game or maybe getting a beer together, as long as that was all it was. But what Finn wanted - what he hoped Will wanted - was a lot more than a beer and a football game, and there was definitely a rule about that.
“Good,” was all he said, and if his voice sounded a little more gruff than usual they both chalked it up to the fact that his knee was still throbbing.
Will turned away from him long enough to grab the towel he’d pulled out of the cabinet earlier. He didn’t take his hand off Finn’s knee when he reached for it, and Finn held his breath when Will’s fingers sort of slid across the top of his leg. A second later Will straightened up again, his hand curving around Finn’s knee to slide under it. Finn didn’t quite manage to swallow a gasp, and when Will looked up at him he flushed and let out a shaky laugh.
“Sorry. I told you, the backs of my knees…”
“You’re ticklish, right. I’m sorry, I’ll try to be more careful,” Will said, and Finn wanted to kick his own ass, because now Will was probably going to stop touching him any more than he had to.
“It’s really no big deal,” Finn started to say, but Will was frowning down at his knee, tugging on the towel and Finn winced when he felt the pull in his muscle. “This doesn’t usually hurt so much.”
“Your range of motion is smaller than usual,” Will said, glancing up at Finn for a second before he looked down at Finn’s leg again. “Have you had any unusual pain or stiffness?”
“No,” Finn answered, wincing again as Will lowered his knee to the table. “But I haven’t been keeping up with the bike, like I said.”
“It could be the limitations on your workouts, I suppose.” Will didn’t look all that convinced, though, and as soon as he pulled the towel out from under Finn’s knee and set it aside, his hands were on Finn again. The heels of his palms dug into the hollow on either side of Finn’s knee, and Finn noticed how careful Will was not to touch the back of his leg.
“Is this okay?” Will asked, glancing up at Finn again.
Finn nodded, his heart pounding loud in his chest and he wasn’t sure if it was from the worry in Will’s voice or the feeling of his hands on Finn’s leg. His hands moved to the front of Finn’s calf, thumbs digging in like Will was looking for something, and Finn gritted his teeth and tried not to let on how much it hurt.
“Everything feels fine,” Will said when he finished, hands resting on Finn’s calf and kind of stroking his skin again, and now Finn was positive Will didn’t know how much time he spent just touching Finn. “It could just be stiffness from the change in your routine. Let’s just keep an eye on it, okay?”
“You’re the expert,” Finn answered, and when Will grinned at him his stomach fluttered.
“Well, in my expert opinion, we need to get you back on the bike. And it’s probably a good idea for you to come by and work out the rest of the time you’re here, if you can. Shannon won’t mind.”
“Sure,” Finn said, shrugging and sliding off the table to put his running pants back on. At least a trip to the gym would break up the monotony of the rest of his trip home, and with any luck he’d run into Will again before he left town.
~
The bike was harder than Finn expected it to be. He’d only been out of his routine for a few days, and he didn’t expect it to make that much of a difference. It turned out he was wrong, though, and when Will finally let him climb off the bike and straighten out his leg it hurt more than usual.
“Guess it’s a good thing you volunteered to meet me this week,” Finn said, wincing when he put his weight on his bad leg. “I didn’t think a couple days would make that big a difference.”
Will had been frowning at him a lot since Finn got on the bike, so he wasn’t surprised to look up and find Will doing it again. “Normally I wouldn’t expect it to either, but you have been pushing yourself pretty hard. Most of my clients generally don’t stick to their workouts as religiously as you. It could be that your body’s just reacting to the sudden drop in activity.”
Will’s hand landed on his shoulder, squeezing for a second and Finn tried not to enjoy the feeling. “Let’s stretch you out a little and see if it helps.”
Finn expected to be led to the mats lining the floor on the other side of the gym, in front of the mirror when people usually worked their abs. Instead he found himself being steered back to the private room behind the gym, Will’s hand on his shoulder the whole time and Finn swallowed hard when he realized that Will wanted to stretch him out in private.
He told himself it wasn’t any different than when Will stretched him out in the gym back at the clinic. Just because they didn’t have an audience this time didn’t mean anything was going to happen. But the audience was what Finn usually focused on to keep him from reacting while Will was practically lying on top of him, and he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to distract himself when it was just the two of them with no chance of interruption.
Finn hopped up on the table anyway, then he laid down and did his best to keep his knee from shaking when Will’s hands slid under it. For a second he regretted not bringing a pair of shorts to change into, then Will bent his knee toward his chest and leaned into him and Finn remembered how much worse it would be if he could feel Will’s hands on his skin.
It was bad enough that Will was leaning over him, staring right in his eyes as he bent Finn’s knee as far as it would go, like he was looking for some kind of reaction. And it hurt, but it always hurt, so Finn didn’t bitch about it. Instead he bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes and tried not to imagine how it would feel if Will was bending him in half so he could push inside Finn.
He bit down even harder on his lip to stifle a moan, then the pressure on his leg let up and a second later he felt a hand on his face. And he knew those hands, felt that touch in his dreams most nights, but he’d never felt it on his face before. He’d never felt Will’s thumb running along his bottom lip, easing it free of his teeth and when Finn opened his eyes Will was staring down at him with a whole new expression.
“Finn, you’re bleeding.”
It took him a second to figure out what Will meant, but when he tasted the coppery tang of blood he knew he’d bitten down too hard. “Oh. Yeah.”
Finn ran his tongue along his bottom lip, and when it brushed across the tip of Will’s thumb he saw Will’s eyes get a little darker. As soon as he did it Will pulled his hand away, then he straightened up and backed off and that was so not the way this was supposed to go. He’d seen the look in Will’s eyes just a second ago, and Finn was pretty sure now that Will wanted him too, but he was still blushing and backing up and clearing his throat like he’d just been caught doing something wrong.
“If I’m hurting you that much you have to tell me, Finn. A little pain is normal, but you’re not on the field right now. You can’t just suck it up and power through. If it hurts that much there’s something wrong.”
“Will, it’s…I mean, it didn’t. Honest. It didn’t hurt any worse than usual.” Finn pushed up on his elbows, but when he tried to sit up he found that he couldn’t get the leverage to do it. And that was just great, because he’d just licked Will’s thumb and now he was getting rejected, and he couldn’t even get off the stupid table.
He blew out a frustrated breath and looked at Will; his shoulders were tense and his hand was resting on the back of his neck, his gaze focused on the wall behind Finn, like maybe Will didn’t even want to look at him. Finn rolled his eyes and tried to sit up again, but when he failed a second time he knew it was no use.
“A little help here?”
Will looked down at the sound of his voice, blushing even harder and moving forward to help Finn up. When Finn swung his legs over the side of the table Will reached for his knee, hands moving in a familiar pattern and Finn wasn’t sure how Will could feel anything through his track pants, but he wasn’t complaining about Will touching him some more.
“Look, Will, I probably just haven’t been drinking enough water since I’ve been home. My lips always dry out in the winter and when I don’t drink enough water they crack. I’m not secretly into pain or anything.”
For a second Will didn’t answer, but he didn’t let go of Finn’s knee again, and Finn figured that was a pretty good sign. Then he sighed and looked up, and Finn’s heart skipped a beat at his expression.
“I realize you think I enjoy causing you pain, but I don’t. It’s true that as a physical therapist you have to develop a certain immunity to people’s complaints. Recovery’s always going to hurt some, after all. But that doesn’t mean I like it, and it doesn’t mean I don’t want you to tell me when something hurts.”
“I know,” Finn said, and the thing was, he kind of did. He knew Will; not nearly as well as he wanted to, and not in the way he wanted, but Finn knew enough about him to know Will wasn’t the type to get off on someone else’s misery.
Will’s hands were still moving on him, sort of massaging the muscles around his knee and it felt good in a way Finn was pretty sure he didn’t mean for it to. He wasn’t looking at Finn anymore, like maybe he was kind of embarrassed about the whole situation, and Finn couldn’t blame him there. But that seemed kind of stupid, considering, so Finn reached out before he even realized what he was doing and closed his hand over Will’s. “Will, I know. Okay?”
For a second Will just stood there and let Finn…well, kind of hold his hand. But he didn’t look up, and before Finn could do anything stupid like tug him forward and kiss him, Will was pulling his hand away and taking a step backwards.
“That’s probably enough for today,” he said, the back of his neck turning red and Finn felt his stomach twist into a hard knot. “Just try to fit in a trip to the gym while you’re in town, and I’ll see you back at the clinic next week.”
“Are you going to be here tomorrow?” Finn asked, and yeah, maybe it was kind of pathetic, but he didn’t really care anymore.
Will shook his head, then he looked up and Finn could tell Will knew exactly what he was asking. “Actually, I’m heading back to Cincinnati tomorrow.”
“Oh,” Finn said, and he hoped he didn’t sound as much like he’d just been punched in the gut as he felt. He slid off the table, doing his best to keep his weight off his bad leg as he reached for his jacket and slid it back on. He reached in his pocket for the keys to the borrowed truck, then he looked up to find Will watching him. “So much for asking you to dinner.”
When Will’s eyes went a little wide Finn felt his cheeks flush, but he just shrugged and head Will’s gaze. “I told you my mom would make me ask if she found out you were in town. It was her idea, not mine.”
“Finn…”
“Yeah?” Finn said, his heart beating so loud he was sure Will could hear it. He was barely a few feet away from Finn, still looking at him like there was something else he wanted to say, but in the end he just shook his head and forced a smile that Finn wasn’t buying for a second.
“Tell your mother I’m sorry. Maybe next time.”
“Yeah, sure,” Finn said, then he turned around and walked out of the room before Will could answer.
Part Seven
Fandom: Glee
Pairing: Will/Finn (Puck/Kurt)
Rating: NC17
Word count: 4750 for this part
Summary: Finn Hudson's the quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals. At the beginning of his second season he tears his patellar tendon, ending his season and sentencing him to a year of rehab. Enter Will Schuester, Physical Therapist.
A/N: I'm starting to get the feeling that I am wasting my time posting this fic at the winnners comm. Six parts and still no author tag. ::sadface:: Anyway, today's installment is a little early because I have to go to lunch on time for once. Posting will resume again on Monday, in spite of the holiday here in the U.S. Monteith Monday will also continue on schedule, naturally.
Christmas at his parents’ house went pretty much exactly the way Finn figured it would. Kurt insisted on driving them home, and Finn didn’t argue, because his Navigator was still a lot easier on Finn’s knee than the BMW. Once they got there Kurt disappeared pretty much as soon as they got to town, claiming some kind of last-minute shopping emergency involving his best friend Mercedes.
Finn was pretty sure the 'emergency' consisted of mochas at the Lima Bean and Kurt talking about Puck for hours, but he wasn’t invited, so he couldn't be positive. None of Finn’s high school friends were in town, and with their parents at work all day Finn mostly spent his time hanging around the house, watching daytime TV and wondering what Will was doing.
He thought about calling and asking; Finn had his number, mostly so he could call if he had to cancel their session for some reason. But there was no way he was canceling the only thing he was looking forward to, and he couldn’t think of another reason to call. Well. He couldn’t think of a reason to call that wouldn’t make Will want to cancel, anyway.
After all, it wasn’t like they were friends or anything. They didn’t hang out, and when they talked about personal stuff it was always about Finn. He knew that was all part of getting him healthy, that Will was just checking up on where his head was at while he checked on Finn’s physical progress. Still, it was easy to pretend that Will asked because he wanted to know what was going on with Finn, and Finn wondered what Will would do if he started asking questions about Will’s personal life.
By the time Christmas Eve rolled around he was so distracted by trying not to call Will that even his mom noticed. Burt too, if the looks he kept shooting Finn were anything to go by, at least when he wasn’t frowning at the sight of Kurt’s fingers flying over his phone’s keyboard.
“You sure you’re okay, hon?” his mom asked for like the hundredth time, giving him the ‘concerned mom’ smile as she set a mug of hot cocoa down in front of him.
“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine,” he lied. He picked up the mug and lifted it to his lips, taking a sip and then wincing when he burned his tongue. “Same as the last time you asked.”
“You’re sure your knee feels okay. I can get you some more ice if you like,” she said, like he hadn’t even answered her.
“Seriously, I'm okay,” he said again, rolling his eyes and glancing at Kurt, but his brother was still smiling at his phone and typing like he was going for a record. “I got Will’s permission to come home and everything. You can call and ask him if you want; he’s in town.”
“Your physical therapist’s in Lima?” Kurt asked, glancing up from his phone long enough to frown at Finn.
“His parents live here.” Finn shrugged and looked down at his cocoa, lifting it halfway to his mouth before he remembered how hot it was. “I’m meeting him Wednesday for PT.”
“He’s making house calls now?” Kurt asked, raising an eyebrow in Finn’s direction, and it figured he’d choose now to get involved in the conversation.
“His friend owns a gym in town. I’m meeting him there.”
Kurt’s only answer was a funny humming noise, then he was typing again, and Finn figured Puck was about to hear all about the fact that Will was in town. He felt his cheeks flush and looked away, but when he caught sight of Burt’s expression he blushed even harder and looked back at his mom.
“Will’s here? You should ask him to dinner,” she said, and seriously, he was surprised she wasn’t already dialing Will’s number.
“Mom, he’s visiting his family,” Finn answered, because the last thing Will wanted to do while he was on vacation was sit at Finn's parents' dinner table and answer a million questions about Finn’s injury, but what was really pathetic was that Finn didn’t totally hate the idea. “He doesn’t want to hang around here.”
“Well ask anyway. It’s only polite, considering.”
Considering what, Finn had no clue, but he knew better than to ask. Mainly because if he did he knew she’d tell him, and he didn’t really want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear what Burt was thinking, either, and he really didn’t want to know Kurt’s opinion of his pathetic social life. And that was the thing, because they weren’t even friends, so the truth was he didn’t really have a social life.
“Okay, I’ll ask him,” Finn said, his stomach tying fluttering at the thought, and he couldn’t decide if he wanted Will to say yes or not.
~
Somehow he managed to make it to Wednesday without calling Will and freaking him out so much he canceled their appointment. By the time he got to the gym where he was supposed to meet Will, Finn was starting to drive himself a little crazy, but he got out of the truck he’d borrowed from Burt and headed inside.
Finn walked up to the counter, smiling back at the perky blonde behind the desk. “Hi, I’m supposed to be meeting Will Schuester? My name’s Finn Hudson.”
“Oh, right, Shannon said they were expecting you,” she said, glancing toward the gym just as Finn heard a familiar voice say, “Finn, you made it.”
He turned in time to watch Will walking toward him, smiling like Finn was the best thing he’d seen all day. And he could get used to Will smiling at him like that, which was kind of a problem, because Will wasn’t going to be around to smile at him forever. Finn raised his hand in a wave that he was pretty sure made him look like a moron, and when Will stopped in front of him and reached out to grip his shoulder, he had to swallow a groan.
“Did you have any trouble finding the place?” Will asked, hand on Finn’s shoulder to steer him past free weights and a row of treadmills to the office in the back of the gym.
“No, it was pretty easy,” Finn answered, hands in his pockets to keep himself from doing something stupid like reaching for the hand that was on his shoulder and sliding his fingers through Will’s. “It’s not that far from my folks’ place.”
“Great.” Will stopped in front of the open office door and let go of Finn’s shoulder, but he kept grinning at him for another second or two. “Have you been keeping up with your workouts?”
Finn shrugged, cheeks flushing a little and he wasn’t sure why he was so embarrassed, because it wasn’t his fault he didn’t have access to a bike while he was staying with him mom and Burt.
“Mostly. I mean, I’ve been doing all the stuff on the sheets you gave me, but my folks don’t have a stationary bike. I thought about taking my old bike out and riding around the neighborhood, but I figured if I fell or something and tore up my knee, you’d kill me before Dr. Sylvester ever got a hold of me.”
“Good call,” Will said, his mouth curving into a smirk as he clapped Finn on the back and pushed him forward into the office. “Come on, there’s someone I want you to meet.”
There was a woman sitting behind the only desk in the room, and Finn assumed she was the friend Will had mentioned when he said he worked out at a gym in town. She looked a little older than Will, and she wasn’t exactly what Finn would call beautiful, but when she smiled at him it lit up her whole face.
“Finn, I’d like you to meet my old friend, Shannon Beiste.”
“A little less emphasis on the ‘old’, if you don’t mind, Will,” Shannon said, but her smile got even brighter as she held out her hand for Finn to shake. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m a big fan.”
“Shannon used to coach high school football before she opened this place,” Will said, arms crossed over his chest and grinning back and forth between them like this was the most fun he’d had in forever. “She’s downright unreasonable about OSU ball. As soon as she found out I knew you she demanded I bring you by to meet her.”
As soon as Will said it Finn felt his smile falter, but he caught himself before he looked over at Will and forced the smile he usually pulled out for the press after an exhausting game. He’d done the impromptu meet-and-greet plenty of times since he signed with the Bengals, and he mostly didn’t even mind. But it hadn’t occurred to him until right now that maybe the reason Will had taken time out of his vacation to meet Finn was…well, to show him off.
“Hey, all I said was that if you were coming by to work out, you should stop in and say hi,” Shannon said, casting a stern look at Will that made him shift his weight and look away. “But seriously, you’re welcome to work out here any time you’re in town, Finn. And you don’t even have to bring this idiot with you.”
“Thanks,” Finn said, and this time his smile was a little more sincere. “That’s really cool of you.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Shannon said. “Nobody wants to see you back on that field more than me.”
Finn was pretty sure that wasn’t true, mostly because he was sure nobody wanted him back in playing shape more than Finn himself. But he didn’t say so; instead he just smiled again and glanced over at Will.
“So I guess we should get to it,” Will said, pushing himself off the edge of Shannon’s desk and nodding toward the door. They waved goodbye to Shannon, then Will’s hand was on his shoulder again, steering him past the office to a hallway that led behind the cardio area. “There are some rooms back here the massage therapists use for appointments. They’re mostly empty this time of day, so Shannon’s given us permission to use one of them.”
“Oh,” Finn said, glancing down at the long track pants he was wearing. “I figured we’d just be doing the bike and maybe some stretching. I didn’t bring any shorts or anything.”
Will nodded and guided him into a small room with a massage table in the center, then he closed the door and turned to look at Finn. “Well, as you can see, it’s private, but if you’re not comfortable, that’s fine. I can still check your range of motion.”
“No, I’m good,” Finn said, his whole face heating up and as he pulled his jacket off and set it on the only chair in the room. “I mean, it’s no big deal, right?”
He slid his track pants off without looking at Will, then he tossed them on the chair with his jacket and pulled himself up onto the edge of the table. And he was wearing boxers, so it wasn’t all that different from his usual running shorts. It wasn’t even the first time he’d sat there in his boxers while Will massaged his leg, but it was the first time since he started wondering if he had a shot with Will, and it turned out that made a difference.
“So…uh…how do you and Shannon know each other?” Finn asked, his voice loud in the tiny room.
“I worked my way through grad school as a massage therapist. I did some work for her team when she was still coaching. They were the state champions a few years running.”
Will’s back was to him, his t-shirt wet right between his shoulder blades and under his armpits, and Finn guessed he’d gotten in a run before Finn showed up. He watched Will bend over to reach inside one of the lower cabinets, swallowing hard at the sight of Will’s perfect ass. And he was not getting hard while he was only wearing a pair of boxers, because there was no way Will would miss that.
Finn closed his eyes and remembered the game where he’d torn his tendon in the first place, let himself hear the sickening sound of muscle detaching itself and the pain of his knee bending the wrong way. He mostly tried not to think about it, because it was bad enough trying to recover from it without the constant instant replay of what still might be the last play of his career, but it did the trick when he was faced with Will still sweaty from his run and looking even hotter than Finn remembered.
A hand landed on his knee, and Finn flinched and opened his eyes. “Finn? Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I…yeah. Just thinking about the accident. It kind of sneaks up on me sometimes.”
Will frowned at him for a second like he didn’t really believe Finn, but he didn’t push it. Instead he looked down at Finn’s knee, reaching out and resting warm hands on either side of it. His thumbs found Finn’s scar tissue and dug in, and Finn bit down on his bottom lip to hold back a moan.
“Anyway, I worked with Shannon for a couple years before I graduated and went back to Cincinnati to work at the clinic. We kept in touch, and when she gave up coaching to run this place, I started working out here when I was visiting my parents.” Will’s hands paused on Finn’s knee, then he let out a little laugh and glanced up at Finn. “Shannon always accuses me of taking advantage of her generosity to hide from my mother.”
“That bad?”
Will shrugged and looked down again, thumbs resuming their slow massage. “She means well. It’s just that she’s still not over the fact that I opted not to marry my high school girlfriend so I’d be free to date men. Mostly it’s the lack of grandchildren that bothers her.”
“It’s not like you can’t have kids with a guy,” Finn said, and when Will smirked at him Finn blushed all over again. “I mean, obviously you’d need some help. Still, people do it all the time. One of my brother’s friends has two dads.”
Will shrugged and flattened one hand on the side of Finn’s knee, keeping it still while he dug in hard with his other thumb. Finn gasped and bit down even harder on his lip, but Will just laughed and leaned into him, bracing his hip on Finn’s good leg so he could put all his weight behind his hand.
“Technically I’m not supposed to tell you any of this stuff, you know. It’s not exactly professional of me.”
“What, there’s some rule that says we can’t be friends just because you get off on torturing me?” Finn said, his voice coming out kind of breathy and strangled as Will really dug into a piece of scar tissue near the edge of his incision.
Will didn’t answer right away. He worked in silence for a few minutes, and after awhile Finn assumed he just wasn’t going to answer. But once he was satisfied that he’d caused Finn enough pain he straightened up, his hand stilling on Finn’s knee and looking up at him.
“No, there’s no rule against being friends.”
Finn knew what he wasn’t saying. He knew there was no rule about them hanging out, watching a game or maybe getting a beer together, as long as that was all it was. But what Finn wanted - what he hoped Will wanted - was a lot more than a beer and a football game, and there was definitely a rule about that.
“Good,” was all he said, and if his voice sounded a little more gruff than usual they both chalked it up to the fact that his knee was still throbbing.
Will turned away from him long enough to grab the towel he’d pulled out of the cabinet earlier. He didn’t take his hand off Finn’s knee when he reached for it, and Finn held his breath when Will’s fingers sort of slid across the top of his leg. A second later Will straightened up again, his hand curving around Finn’s knee to slide under it. Finn didn’t quite manage to swallow a gasp, and when Will looked up at him he flushed and let out a shaky laugh.
“Sorry. I told you, the backs of my knees…”
“You’re ticklish, right. I’m sorry, I’ll try to be more careful,” Will said, and Finn wanted to kick his own ass, because now Will was probably going to stop touching him any more than he had to.
“It’s really no big deal,” Finn started to say, but Will was frowning down at his knee, tugging on the towel and Finn winced when he felt the pull in his muscle. “This doesn’t usually hurt so much.”
“Your range of motion is smaller than usual,” Will said, glancing up at Finn for a second before he looked down at Finn’s leg again. “Have you had any unusual pain or stiffness?”
“No,” Finn answered, wincing again as Will lowered his knee to the table. “But I haven’t been keeping up with the bike, like I said.”
“It could be the limitations on your workouts, I suppose.” Will didn’t look all that convinced, though, and as soon as he pulled the towel out from under Finn’s knee and set it aside, his hands were on Finn again. The heels of his palms dug into the hollow on either side of Finn’s knee, and Finn noticed how careful Will was not to touch the back of his leg.
“Is this okay?” Will asked, glancing up at Finn again.
Finn nodded, his heart pounding loud in his chest and he wasn’t sure if it was from the worry in Will’s voice or the feeling of his hands on Finn’s leg. His hands moved to the front of Finn’s calf, thumbs digging in like Will was looking for something, and Finn gritted his teeth and tried not to let on how much it hurt.
“Everything feels fine,” Will said when he finished, hands resting on Finn’s calf and kind of stroking his skin again, and now Finn was positive Will didn’t know how much time he spent just touching Finn. “It could just be stiffness from the change in your routine. Let’s just keep an eye on it, okay?”
“You’re the expert,” Finn answered, and when Will grinned at him his stomach fluttered.
“Well, in my expert opinion, we need to get you back on the bike. And it’s probably a good idea for you to come by and work out the rest of the time you’re here, if you can. Shannon won’t mind.”
“Sure,” Finn said, shrugging and sliding off the table to put his running pants back on. At least a trip to the gym would break up the monotony of the rest of his trip home, and with any luck he’d run into Will again before he left town.
~
The bike was harder than Finn expected it to be. He’d only been out of his routine for a few days, and he didn’t expect it to make that much of a difference. It turned out he was wrong, though, and when Will finally let him climb off the bike and straighten out his leg it hurt more than usual.
“Guess it’s a good thing you volunteered to meet me this week,” Finn said, wincing when he put his weight on his bad leg. “I didn’t think a couple days would make that big a difference.”
Will had been frowning at him a lot since Finn got on the bike, so he wasn’t surprised to look up and find Will doing it again. “Normally I wouldn’t expect it to either, but you have been pushing yourself pretty hard. Most of my clients generally don’t stick to their workouts as religiously as you. It could be that your body’s just reacting to the sudden drop in activity.”
Will’s hand landed on his shoulder, squeezing for a second and Finn tried not to enjoy the feeling. “Let’s stretch you out a little and see if it helps.”
Finn expected to be led to the mats lining the floor on the other side of the gym, in front of the mirror when people usually worked their abs. Instead he found himself being steered back to the private room behind the gym, Will’s hand on his shoulder the whole time and Finn swallowed hard when he realized that Will wanted to stretch him out in private.
He told himself it wasn’t any different than when Will stretched him out in the gym back at the clinic. Just because they didn’t have an audience this time didn’t mean anything was going to happen. But the audience was what Finn usually focused on to keep him from reacting while Will was practically lying on top of him, and he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to distract himself when it was just the two of them with no chance of interruption.
Finn hopped up on the table anyway, then he laid down and did his best to keep his knee from shaking when Will’s hands slid under it. For a second he regretted not bringing a pair of shorts to change into, then Will bent his knee toward his chest and leaned into him and Finn remembered how much worse it would be if he could feel Will’s hands on his skin.
It was bad enough that Will was leaning over him, staring right in his eyes as he bent Finn’s knee as far as it would go, like he was looking for some kind of reaction. And it hurt, but it always hurt, so Finn didn’t bitch about it. Instead he bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes and tried not to imagine how it would feel if Will was bending him in half so he could push inside Finn.
He bit down even harder on his lip to stifle a moan, then the pressure on his leg let up and a second later he felt a hand on his face. And he knew those hands, felt that touch in his dreams most nights, but he’d never felt it on his face before. He’d never felt Will’s thumb running along his bottom lip, easing it free of his teeth and when Finn opened his eyes Will was staring down at him with a whole new expression.
“Finn, you’re bleeding.”
It took him a second to figure out what Will meant, but when he tasted the coppery tang of blood he knew he’d bitten down too hard. “Oh. Yeah.”
Finn ran his tongue along his bottom lip, and when it brushed across the tip of Will’s thumb he saw Will’s eyes get a little darker. As soon as he did it Will pulled his hand away, then he straightened up and backed off and that was so not the way this was supposed to go. He’d seen the look in Will’s eyes just a second ago, and Finn was pretty sure now that Will wanted him too, but he was still blushing and backing up and clearing his throat like he’d just been caught doing something wrong.
“If I’m hurting you that much you have to tell me, Finn. A little pain is normal, but you’re not on the field right now. You can’t just suck it up and power through. If it hurts that much there’s something wrong.”
“Will, it’s…I mean, it didn’t. Honest. It didn’t hurt any worse than usual.” Finn pushed up on his elbows, but when he tried to sit up he found that he couldn’t get the leverage to do it. And that was just great, because he’d just licked Will’s thumb and now he was getting rejected, and he couldn’t even get off the stupid table.
He blew out a frustrated breath and looked at Will; his shoulders were tense and his hand was resting on the back of his neck, his gaze focused on the wall behind Finn, like maybe Will didn’t even want to look at him. Finn rolled his eyes and tried to sit up again, but when he failed a second time he knew it was no use.
“A little help here?”
Will looked down at the sound of his voice, blushing even harder and moving forward to help Finn up. When Finn swung his legs over the side of the table Will reached for his knee, hands moving in a familiar pattern and Finn wasn’t sure how Will could feel anything through his track pants, but he wasn’t complaining about Will touching him some more.
“Look, Will, I probably just haven’t been drinking enough water since I’ve been home. My lips always dry out in the winter and when I don’t drink enough water they crack. I’m not secretly into pain or anything.”
For a second Will didn’t answer, but he didn’t let go of Finn’s knee again, and Finn figured that was a pretty good sign. Then he sighed and looked up, and Finn’s heart skipped a beat at his expression.
“I realize you think I enjoy causing you pain, but I don’t. It’s true that as a physical therapist you have to develop a certain immunity to people’s complaints. Recovery’s always going to hurt some, after all. But that doesn’t mean I like it, and it doesn’t mean I don’t want you to tell me when something hurts.”
“I know,” Finn said, and the thing was, he kind of did. He knew Will; not nearly as well as he wanted to, and not in the way he wanted, but Finn knew enough about him to know Will wasn’t the type to get off on someone else’s misery.
Will’s hands were still moving on him, sort of massaging the muscles around his knee and it felt good in a way Finn was pretty sure he didn’t mean for it to. He wasn’t looking at Finn anymore, like maybe he was kind of embarrassed about the whole situation, and Finn couldn’t blame him there. But that seemed kind of stupid, considering, so Finn reached out before he even realized what he was doing and closed his hand over Will’s. “Will, I know. Okay?”
For a second Will just stood there and let Finn…well, kind of hold his hand. But he didn’t look up, and before Finn could do anything stupid like tug him forward and kiss him, Will was pulling his hand away and taking a step backwards.
“That’s probably enough for today,” he said, the back of his neck turning red and Finn felt his stomach twist into a hard knot. “Just try to fit in a trip to the gym while you’re in town, and I’ll see you back at the clinic next week.”
“Are you going to be here tomorrow?” Finn asked, and yeah, maybe it was kind of pathetic, but he didn’t really care anymore.
Will shook his head, then he looked up and Finn could tell Will knew exactly what he was asking. “Actually, I’m heading back to Cincinnati tomorrow.”
“Oh,” Finn said, and he hoped he didn’t sound as much like he’d just been punched in the gut as he felt. He slid off the table, doing his best to keep his weight off his bad leg as he reached for his jacket and slid it back on. He reached in his pocket for the keys to the borrowed truck, then he looked up to find Will watching him. “So much for asking you to dinner.”
When Will’s eyes went a little wide Finn felt his cheeks flush, but he just shrugged and head Will’s gaze. “I told you my mom would make me ask if she found out you were in town. It was her idea, not mine.”
“Finn…”
“Yeah?” Finn said, his heart beating so loud he was sure Will could hear it. He was barely a few feet away from Finn, still looking at him like there was something else he wanted to say, but in the end he just shook his head and forced a smile that Finn wasn’t buying for a second.
“Tell your mother I’m sorry. Maybe next time.”
“Yeah, sure,” Finn said, then he turned around and walked out of the room before Will could answer.
Part Seven