Fic: Pinky Swear (Will/Rachel, PG)
Title: Pinky Swear
Author: vlegal
Pairing: Will/Rachel
Rating: PG
Summary: "I want you to promise me something."
Disclaimer: Glee and its characters are the property of Fox and Ryan Murphy. I intend no rights infringement.
Author's Note: Ok, kids. This one is a little different. It's super outdated and I started it back in July. But I found it again and decided to finish it. A little filler scene from "Journey", following "To Sir With Love". I always was curious what happened after that scene, so I wrote it myself. This one is dedicated to Val who a) is awesome and b) unknowingly gave me the nudge to finish this. Thanks, friend :)
The sniffles echoed in the empty auditorium. They were impossible to hide in such a vast space. Not that it mattered. No one else was there.
“Mr. Schuester?”
Shit.
Will scrubbed at his eyes with his palms and hastily wiped his nose as the soles of her flats tapped steadily towards him. He turned his face from her as she sat down next to him, legs dangling off the edge of the stage like his own, only 6 inches shorter.
“Rach…” He looked down at his lap and cleared his throat, trying to take some of the roughness out of his voice before continuing. “Rachel, what are you still doing here? It’s late.” Running the back of his hand under his nose once more to make sure he was somewhat presentable, he ventured to look at her. Her own eyes were downcast, studying her skirt or her knees, her hands gripping the end of the smooth hardwood and pushing her shoulders up towards her neck.
“Didn’t want to go home. No one did. We were sitting on the bleachers for a while, but it got cold. Everyone’s heading somewhere for pizza.”
“Not everyone if you’re still here.” Rachel shrugged in a non-commital way, perfected by several years of teenagerdom. Will couldn’t see her face behind her veil of dark hair. For a girl who usually wore every emotion plainly across her features, it was a little disconcerting to have her hide like this.
“You can keep crying if you need to. Tina and I just bawled for like 3 hours. I won’t tell any of the guys, I promise.”
Will let out a wet laugh, tears springing to his eyes again. “It’s ok. I’m pretty sure they gave me the ‘Wimpiest Teacher at McKinley High’ award a while ago.” Rachel giggled slightly at this, finally tucking some strands of hair behind her ear and tilting her head to look at him.
“I’m sorry we lost glee club for you,” Rachel said in a voice that matched her size.
Will locked his eyes with hers. “Don’t you ever apologize for what you did the other night. You guys gave me glee club to begin with and I was so proud to say you were my kids while we were standing on that stage.”
Rachel nodded and looked back down at her lap. She raised a hand to push her hair back again and simultaneously wipe some tears off her cheek.
“Still. We lost. And you lost your club. And now you’re upset.”
“I’m not upset I lost the club, Rach.” Rachel gave him a puzzled look, brows furrowed. “I mean, I am, but that’s not what’s making me this upset,” Will explained, gesturing vaguely at his own tear streaked face. Rachel stayed silent, waiting for him to explain. “I’ve lost you guys. Some of you might take Spanish again, sure, but…you won’t be my kids, you know? I dunno, I guess it just really hit me while you were singing. Which was amazing, by the way.”
“It was Santana’s idea,” she stated quietly. She could have told him that she was actually the father to Quinn’s baby and he would have been less surprised.
“Santana? Wanted to sing that? To me?” He hadn’t doubted the snarky Cheerio’s sincerity as she sang to him with the rest of the group. But the fact that she had proposed the whole thing? He felt both his heart and the lump lodged in his throat swell a little bigger. “Wow,” he murmured more to himself than to Rachel.
“She’s pretty upset. Not that she’d ever admit it. But she hasn’t let go of Brittany’s hand since we lost. And she was adamant about us doing something for you.” Will couldn’t trust his voice to respond to that. Rachel turned her face back to her lap and picked at her nails. The silence stretched out, comfortably so, neither of them making a move to leave. Although Will was contemplating asking Rachel if she’d need a ride home when he heard her whisper, “I don’t think I can do this.”
He turned his head in time to see several tears fall silently onto her skirt. “Do what, Rach?”
“Sing. Like I want to.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked incredulously. “You’ve got the most incredible voice I’ve ever heard and you’re only 16. It’s going to take you wherever you want to go.”
“No, I mean…I don’t think I can do this by myself. Get to college and New York and Broadway. Not by myself. Not without you.”
He thought the biggest, brownest eyes he’d ever see would belong to Emma, but when Rachel turned to look at him, he knew he was wrong. “Rach…” he breathed, unsure what to say to cover the cracking sound his heart was making.
“I can take lessons and stuff. And I know my dads and Finn and people will support me, but…it’s not the same. They just think I’m good because they love me. They don’t get me. Not like you do. You…you know what I need. You push me and make things hard so I have to try more and when you say something sounds good I believe it. And you don’t get all shocked and mortified when I screw up. You don’t think I’m perfect and you don’t expect me to be.” Her voice grew small and quiet in the end, “You’re the only one who doesn’t expect me to be.”
Will swallowed hard and looked to his lap. He didn’t want to start crying again, but the young girl beside him, in describing what he brought to her life, unknowingly hit on exactly what she brought to his. He had no greater critic and no better equal than Rachel Berry when it came to certain aspects of his life. Music. Learning. Growth. Pushing boundaries. She kept him honest and kept his feet on the ground. And it looked like the thought of losing that was just as terrifying to him as it was to her.
“Rachel?” he said gently. Her gaze remained fixed on her fingers as they picked at each other nervously. “Rachel, look at me,” he coaxed. When she did look up, he kind of wished she hadn’t. Her eyes were pooled with tears and chin wobbled sorrowfully. This couldn’t be over, he resolved. What they had, what they did for each other, it wasn’t going to end. He wouldn’t let it.
“I’m not going anywhere. Ever,” he promised. The tilt of her head told him exactly what she was about to argue. “I know what I just said. With glee gone, it won’t quite be the same. For the club,” he clarified. “But you and me? I still want us to be you and me. I...I’ve lost a lot of things this year, Rach. And if I lose…” he had to pause and swallow again, “I need us to still be you and me, you know?” She gave him a solemn nod, eyes locked with his. He felt a couple more tears slide down his cheeks. He didn’t know why he was bothering to fight them. It’s not like he had some macho image to uphold anymore, not after today. He laughed at himself and wiped at his eyes. “So!” he exclaimed with a lighter tone and a smile, “I want you to promise me something.”
“What?” she asked with wonderment.
“I want you, Rachel Berry, to promise me, that from now until you graduate, you are going to meet me here once a week. Right here,” he nodded at the stage on which they sat. A smile crept over her face. He reached forward and wiped the remaining tears off her cheeks with his thumb. “We’re gonna meet right here and we’re gonna sing. We’re gonna sing anything and everything. And I’m not going to let you just belt your brains out on every diva ballad you can find, and you’re going to slap some sense into me when I want to do some Milli Vanilli or get hopelessly stuck in the Eighties. We’re gonna sing jazz and rock and classical and showtunes and anything else we can get our hands on.” Her smile had turned into a full on grin that spread a warmth through his chest that he hadn’t realized he needed. He looked at the girl before him and had a flash of several images go through his mind. “And when you get into Julliard,” he told her, “you’re going to send me every programme of every crappy choir concert they make you sing in. And you’re gonna e-mail me your audition rep for when they finally let you out into the real world and you can’t decide which Evita solo you want to debut with.” She laughed and looked down at her lap, blushing at having her teacher know her so well. “And when you’re huge on Broadway? And I mean huge,” he emphasized, making her giggle, “once a year, I’m gonna come find you. I’m gonna come find you, wherever you are and no matter how much you’ve forgotten about me, and we’re going to grab a piano, and we’re gonna sing all night. Just you and me. Being us. Okay?” he finished quietly.
Rachel looked at him for a second, eyes still glittering with tears. “You won’t have to find me,” she said quietly. “I’ll be there. Wherever you are, I’ll come. I’ll be there.”
Will didn’t doubt her for a moment. The look in her eyes and tone of her voice told him this was a life pact they were making. Still, he raised his hand towards her, finger outstretched. “Pinky swear?”
Rachel choked a combination laugh-sob and nodded, linking her little finger with his. “Pinky swear.”
Will smiled at her, their deal lifting unknown weights off his shoulders. “So, everyone was meeting for pizza, hunh?” He jumped off the stage and reached up towards her. He lifted her down with ease before grabbing his satchel and adjusting it on his shoulder. “You think anyone would mind their old man music teacher crashing the party?”
Rachel grabbed her knapsack and slung it over her arms. “Why do you think they sent me to come find you? Puck is saving us seats.”
By the end of the evening, Will had thought that the combination of pizza and laughter and youth had washed away all of his worry and sorrow from earlier. So the reprieve he and the club received the next day from Sue was more than unexpected, but entirely welcome. The joy that exploded in the choir room when he told them, his kids, that they had another year was unlike anything he’d seen. He couldn’t help laughing uncontrollably himself as high fives and exclamations flew, making him completely off guard when Rachel launched herself into his arms. It had taken him a second to regain his balance on his chair, but he quickly wrapped his arms around her.
“Pinky swear?” she whispered near his ear, holding onto him tight.
He let his lips press against her cheek for a second before whispering back, “Pinky swear.”
********************************************************
Would love to hear what you think about this one :)
Author: vlegal
Pairing: Will/Rachel
Rating: PG
Summary: "I want you to promise me something."
Disclaimer: Glee and its characters are the property of Fox and Ryan Murphy. I intend no rights infringement.
Author's Note: Ok, kids. This one is a little different. It's super outdated and I started it back in July. But I found it again and decided to finish it. A little filler scene from "Journey", following "To Sir With Love". I always was curious what happened after that scene, so I wrote it myself. This one is dedicated to Val who a) is awesome and b) unknowingly gave me the nudge to finish this. Thanks, friend :)
The sniffles echoed in the empty auditorium. They were impossible to hide in such a vast space. Not that it mattered. No one else was there.
“Mr. Schuester?”
Shit.
Will scrubbed at his eyes with his palms and hastily wiped his nose as the soles of her flats tapped steadily towards him. He turned his face from her as she sat down next to him, legs dangling off the edge of the stage like his own, only 6 inches shorter.
“Rach…” He looked down at his lap and cleared his throat, trying to take some of the roughness out of his voice before continuing. “Rachel, what are you still doing here? It’s late.” Running the back of his hand under his nose once more to make sure he was somewhat presentable, he ventured to look at her. Her own eyes were downcast, studying her skirt or her knees, her hands gripping the end of the smooth hardwood and pushing her shoulders up towards her neck.
“Didn’t want to go home. No one did. We were sitting on the bleachers for a while, but it got cold. Everyone’s heading somewhere for pizza.”
“Not everyone if you’re still here.” Rachel shrugged in a non-commital way, perfected by several years of teenagerdom. Will couldn’t see her face behind her veil of dark hair. For a girl who usually wore every emotion plainly across her features, it was a little disconcerting to have her hide like this.
“You can keep crying if you need to. Tina and I just bawled for like 3 hours. I won’t tell any of the guys, I promise.”
Will let out a wet laugh, tears springing to his eyes again. “It’s ok. I’m pretty sure they gave me the ‘Wimpiest Teacher at McKinley High’ award a while ago.” Rachel giggled slightly at this, finally tucking some strands of hair behind her ear and tilting her head to look at him.
“I’m sorry we lost glee club for you,” Rachel said in a voice that matched her size.
Will locked his eyes with hers. “Don’t you ever apologize for what you did the other night. You guys gave me glee club to begin with and I was so proud to say you were my kids while we were standing on that stage.”
Rachel nodded and looked back down at her lap. She raised a hand to push her hair back again and simultaneously wipe some tears off her cheek.
“Still. We lost. And you lost your club. And now you’re upset.”
“I’m not upset I lost the club, Rach.” Rachel gave him a puzzled look, brows furrowed. “I mean, I am, but that’s not what’s making me this upset,” Will explained, gesturing vaguely at his own tear streaked face. Rachel stayed silent, waiting for him to explain. “I’ve lost you guys. Some of you might take Spanish again, sure, but…you won’t be my kids, you know? I dunno, I guess it just really hit me while you were singing. Which was amazing, by the way.”
“It was Santana’s idea,” she stated quietly. She could have told him that she was actually the father to Quinn’s baby and he would have been less surprised.
“Santana? Wanted to sing that? To me?” He hadn’t doubted the snarky Cheerio’s sincerity as she sang to him with the rest of the group. But the fact that she had proposed the whole thing? He felt both his heart and the lump lodged in his throat swell a little bigger. “Wow,” he murmured more to himself than to Rachel.
“She’s pretty upset. Not that she’d ever admit it. But she hasn’t let go of Brittany’s hand since we lost. And she was adamant about us doing something for you.” Will couldn’t trust his voice to respond to that. Rachel turned her face back to her lap and picked at her nails. The silence stretched out, comfortably so, neither of them making a move to leave. Although Will was contemplating asking Rachel if she’d need a ride home when he heard her whisper, “I don’t think I can do this.”
He turned his head in time to see several tears fall silently onto her skirt. “Do what, Rach?”
“Sing. Like I want to.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked incredulously. “You’ve got the most incredible voice I’ve ever heard and you’re only 16. It’s going to take you wherever you want to go.”
“No, I mean…I don’t think I can do this by myself. Get to college and New York and Broadway. Not by myself. Not without you.”
He thought the biggest, brownest eyes he’d ever see would belong to Emma, but when Rachel turned to look at him, he knew he was wrong. “Rach…” he breathed, unsure what to say to cover the cracking sound his heart was making.
“I can take lessons and stuff. And I know my dads and Finn and people will support me, but…it’s not the same. They just think I’m good because they love me. They don’t get me. Not like you do. You…you know what I need. You push me and make things hard so I have to try more and when you say something sounds good I believe it. And you don’t get all shocked and mortified when I screw up. You don’t think I’m perfect and you don’t expect me to be.” Her voice grew small and quiet in the end, “You’re the only one who doesn’t expect me to be.”
Will swallowed hard and looked to his lap. He didn’t want to start crying again, but the young girl beside him, in describing what he brought to her life, unknowingly hit on exactly what she brought to his. He had no greater critic and no better equal than Rachel Berry when it came to certain aspects of his life. Music. Learning. Growth. Pushing boundaries. She kept him honest and kept his feet on the ground. And it looked like the thought of losing that was just as terrifying to him as it was to her.
“Rachel?” he said gently. Her gaze remained fixed on her fingers as they picked at each other nervously. “Rachel, look at me,” he coaxed. When she did look up, he kind of wished she hadn’t. Her eyes were pooled with tears and chin wobbled sorrowfully. This couldn’t be over, he resolved. What they had, what they did for each other, it wasn’t going to end. He wouldn’t let it.
“I’m not going anywhere. Ever,” he promised. The tilt of her head told him exactly what she was about to argue. “I know what I just said. With glee gone, it won’t quite be the same. For the club,” he clarified. “But you and me? I still want us to be you and me. I...I’ve lost a lot of things this year, Rach. And if I lose…” he had to pause and swallow again, “I need us to still be you and me, you know?” She gave him a solemn nod, eyes locked with his. He felt a couple more tears slide down his cheeks. He didn’t know why he was bothering to fight them. It’s not like he had some macho image to uphold anymore, not after today. He laughed at himself and wiped at his eyes. “So!” he exclaimed with a lighter tone and a smile, “I want you to promise me something.”
“What?” she asked with wonderment.
“I want you, Rachel Berry, to promise me, that from now until you graduate, you are going to meet me here once a week. Right here,” he nodded at the stage on which they sat. A smile crept over her face. He reached forward and wiped the remaining tears off her cheeks with his thumb. “We’re gonna meet right here and we’re gonna sing. We’re gonna sing anything and everything. And I’m not going to let you just belt your brains out on every diva ballad you can find, and you’re going to slap some sense into me when I want to do some Milli Vanilli or get hopelessly stuck in the Eighties. We’re gonna sing jazz and rock and classical and showtunes and anything else we can get our hands on.” Her smile had turned into a full on grin that spread a warmth through his chest that he hadn’t realized he needed. He looked at the girl before him and had a flash of several images go through his mind. “And when you get into Julliard,” he told her, “you’re going to send me every programme of every crappy choir concert they make you sing in. And you’re gonna e-mail me your audition rep for when they finally let you out into the real world and you can’t decide which Evita solo you want to debut with.” She laughed and looked down at her lap, blushing at having her teacher know her so well. “And when you’re huge on Broadway? And I mean huge,” he emphasized, making her giggle, “once a year, I’m gonna come find you. I’m gonna come find you, wherever you are and no matter how much you’ve forgotten about me, and we’re going to grab a piano, and we’re gonna sing all night. Just you and me. Being us. Okay?” he finished quietly.
Rachel looked at him for a second, eyes still glittering with tears. “You won’t have to find me,” she said quietly. “I’ll be there. Wherever you are, I’ll come. I’ll be there.”
Will didn’t doubt her for a moment. The look in her eyes and tone of her voice told him this was a life pact they were making. Still, he raised his hand towards her, finger outstretched. “Pinky swear?”
Rachel choked a combination laugh-sob and nodded, linking her little finger with his. “Pinky swear.”
Will smiled at her, their deal lifting unknown weights off his shoulders. “So, everyone was meeting for pizza, hunh?” He jumped off the stage and reached up towards her. He lifted her down with ease before grabbing his satchel and adjusting it on his shoulder. “You think anyone would mind their old man music teacher crashing the party?”
Rachel grabbed her knapsack and slung it over her arms. “Why do you think they sent me to come find you? Puck is saving us seats.”
By the end of the evening, Will had thought that the combination of pizza and laughter and youth had washed away all of his worry and sorrow from earlier. So the reprieve he and the club received the next day from Sue was more than unexpected, but entirely welcome. The joy that exploded in the choir room when he told them, his kids, that they had another year was unlike anything he’d seen. He couldn’t help laughing uncontrollably himself as high fives and exclamations flew, making him completely off guard when Rachel launched herself into his arms. It had taken him a second to regain his balance on his chair, but he quickly wrapped his arms around her.
“Pinky swear?” she whispered near his ear, holding onto him tight.
He let his lips press against her cheek for a second before whispering back, “Pinky swear.”
********************************************************
Would love to hear what you think about this one :)