Fic: Fate, Destiny, and Old-School Meddling.
Title: Fate, Destiny, and Old-School Meddling.
Rating: G
Characters: Will, Finn, Puck, Terri, Kurt, Emma, Rachel.
Word count: 2,000-ish
Summary: Admission. Coercion. Encouragement. Getting them together is a team effort.
Notes: The prompt was ‘Someone unexpected playing matchmaker for Finn and Will’. This is more along the lines of ‘someone unexpected talks them into it’.
Puck
“So,” Puck says, tugging at the collar of his graduation robe. “Now that you’re not a student anymore, which teacher would you make out with?”
“What?” Finn looks around, wide-eyed. “What do you mean?”
Puck rolls his eyes. “Exactly what I said. I mean, it’s not morally wrong anymore - and you know how uptight teacher’s are about losing their jobs - and in a few weeks you’ll have your I’m-not-jailbait-now birthday. So there’s nothing to hold you back. We are two studs that the system can no longer contain.” Puck gives Finn an expectant look. “So?”
Finn looks around, his face hot from a mixture of the sun, the black robe, and embarrassment. “I don’t know,” he says. “I mean, they’re all teachers, you know?”
“Yeah,” Puck says, “but some teachers are less like teachers than others. Like, Miss Pillsbury has never actually taught a class, and Coach Tanaka is sort of like a cross between a dad and an actual coach.” Puck pauses, pursing his lips in thought. “And Mr Schue, right? He’s practically never like a teacher. He’s, you know, one of us.”
Puck watches as Finn thinks this over. “Yeah,” Finn says at last. “I guess he is.”
“I mean, look at him,” Puck says, pointing their teacher out. “He’s the only teacher here not wearing a tie. And he’s got sunglasses on. He’s totally rocking out.”
“Yeah,” Finn agrees, and there’s a kind of vacant, happy tone to it.
“So,” Puck says casually. “He’s the one you’d make out with, right?”
Finn nods, off in a little daydream. “Ye-wait!”
But Puck is crowing with laugher, and punching Finn in the arm. “Dude! You totally have a gay crush on him.”
“I do not,” Finn hisses at him.
“It’s cool,” Puck says, holding both of his hands up. “I mean, we all deal with Kurt’s gay crushes all the time, right? Of anyone you could be friends with, you managed to get the most accepting group of all time.”
“Well, yeah,” Finn admits. “But I don’t-”
“Finn’s got a man-crush! Finn’s got a man-crush!” Puck sing-songs as he darts off through the crowd.
“Damnit, Puck, get back here!” Finn hollers before setting off after him.
Terri
“Oh god,” Terri says as soon as she sets eyes on Will. “You cried, didn’t you? You cry at every graduation.”
Will shrugs, and doesn’t bother to deny it as he sits across from her in the booth. “I’m a sap,” he says. “We both know this. I don’t know what it is, that mix of being proud of my students and being scared for them, you know? Hoping so much for them.”
“You need to get back into a relationship,” Terri says, pointing a finger at him. “That’ll kill some of your excess hope off.”
Will snorts, and rolls his eyes.
“I’m serious,” Terri tells him. “You’re young and energetic and good-looking now, but it won’t last. One day you’ll wake up realising that you’re a divorcee, that you’ve done nothing with your life and that you never will, and that you’re not dying your hair just because it’s trendy anymore.”
Will smiles. “Are you sure we’re still talking about me?”
Terri clears her throat, and sets her hands primly on the table in front of her. “Gray hairs, Will, are a reality.” Her face softens a little, and she tilts her head to the side as she looks at him. “You’re only young once, right? And you should enjoy it.”
“I did enjoy it,” Will tells her. “I’ve had a good life, and I don’t have any regrets, not after all of the counselling. I’m happy being me.”
“Of course,” Terri says in a smooth voice. “But you’d be happier still if you were sharing that with someone. No arguing, Will, I’ve known what you like far longer than you have.”
“Wait, what-?”
“What you need is someone who has the same interests as you, for once. You know, music and all of that crap. And you need someone young. Oh!” Terri’s face takes on an excited glow. “Taking the younger model out for a spin is definitely worth the time. And when you get worn out and have to spend three days in bed, you’ll have someone to keep you company.”
“I don’t think-”
“And tall,” Terri adds. “All of the women you’ve been with have been shorter than you, so you should try something different. Tall, dark, and handsome.”
Will gives Terri an amused look. “Handsome?”
“Blondes are pretty and brunettes are handsome,” Terri explains. “It’s a word that you should get used to, because you’ll be using it a lot.”
Will rests his chin in his palm. “Why do I get the feeling you already have someone lined up?”
“Well,” Terri admits, “there may be someone at Sheets ‘n’ Things who may fit that description perfectly. Especially the handsome and young part.”
Will gives Terri a sceptical look. “Aren’t there a lot of students working with you?”
“They’re not all students,” Terri replies indignantly. “I mean, today was graduation, right?”
Will buries his face in his hands. “Terri.”
“What? Sometimes when I look at you I still see you as being fifteen. How is that any creepier than being with someone who is practically eighteen?”
“We are not having this conversation,” Will says, keeping his face firmly buried in his hands.
Terri sits back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Fine. Even though there’s someone out there interested in you, who shares your interests, and is actually older than I was when you started having sex with me.”
“Terri-”
“I was seventeen, Will. How is one seventeen-year-old fine but the other isn’t?”
“Because I was sixteen at the time.”
“You know what you are? A hypocrite. Yes, Will, you are. You’re perfectly happy to have sex with teenagers one minute-”
“One teenager,” Will corrects. “You. And could you please keep your voice down?”
“- but the next minute, oh no, suddenly they’re not good enough for you! You dated and married someone older than you, but the idea of someone else doing it is disgusting to you? ”
“It’s not like that!”
“So, what then? Hmm? You think that it’s impossible for two people who are just barely over a decade apart in age to fall in love? Is that it? Are you damning all of those sweet old people who found love in nursing homes with someone who was, god forbid, more than nine months older than them?”
“No! I mean, age doesn’t mean everything,” Will says, finding a coherent argument and clinging to it, “but life experience does mean a lot.”
“And you’re not going to be getting any life experience sitting at home on Friday nights and hanging out with your ex-wife,” Terri shoots back, looking extremely satisfied.
Will sighs. “Alright. Okay, I need to get out more. I get it. Now, can we please talk about something else?”
“Sure,” Terri says, giving Will a sweet smile and a chance to calm down a little. “Have you ever considered that you might be fluid in your sexuality? I mean, just because you dance so much. Because I’ve been looking into bisexual males, and they’re kind of hot.”
Will lets his head fall back with a groan, and prepares for a long dinner.
Kurt
“You know,” Kurt says, as casually as he can manage. “This’ll probably be the last summer you’ll ever spend in Lima.”
Finn starts. “Really?”
“Oh sure,” Kurt says, waving a hand breezily. “I mean, once you’re at college you’ll be going on trips with friends - surfing, camping, Europe if you can find the right kind of friends. And if you can’t, you can come with me. And then you’ll be out in the real world. There aren’t that many jobs for graduates in Lima, which means you’ll be heading to one of the bigger cities. And since you’re pulling up roots here, why even stay in Ohio, right?”
Finn’s brow furrows as he lets Kurt’s words sink in.
“I mean, this summer is really your summer, if you get my drift. You need to be spending it with the people you care about, doing the things you want to remember.” Kurt pauses, studying his nails before flicking his eyes up to glance at Finn. “If there’s anything that you want to do, anything that you’ve been scared of doing...”
“Like,” Finn pauses, trying to follow Kurt’s line of thought. “Like what?”
“I don’t know,” Kurt says with a dramatic sigh. “Maybe there’s something you’ve always wanted to say, but you’ve never said it. Maybe there’s someone you’d love to be honest with but you were always too worried. A chance that you weren’t willing to take. Someone who means a lot to you.”
“I don’t know,” Finn says. “I mean, I said most of that stuff at graduation. And the party you’re throwing me is next week, and everyone will be there, right?”
“All of Glee, most of football, most of the Cheerios, the few remaining people that I don’t completely hate.”
“That sounds like a lot of people.”
Kurt gives him a wide smile. “We have a big garden. We could even invite more people.” Kurt glances down at his nails again. “I was thinking of inviting Mr Schuester.”
“Really?” Finn perks up, and then visibly tries to seem cool and nonchalant about it. “Uh, I mean, do you think he’d come?”
“For you, Finn? I doubt he could resist coming.”
“Well, okay then.” Finn thinks it over, and then nods to himself. “Cool.”
“Great, I’ll go send off his invitation. And remember Finn: no regrets.”
Emma
Emma nods as Will finishes up telling her about the most excruciating hour of his life to date. “You know, Will, maybe Terri is right, in parts at least. You need to get out more. Have some fun.”
Will smiles a little ruefully at her. “I can remember you telling me off for doing just that.”
Emma gives Will an embarrassed smile in return. “Things were very different then,” she tells him. “And we talked about that, eventually, after a year or so, and I can see now that some of the things that I said may have sent a very negative message to you. Mainly the ‘slut’ part. But we’re not, you know, we’re not like that now anymore and so there’s nothing to stop you or to make it wrong if you were to go out and find someone and maybe get a bit slutty with them. I mean, spending time with someone doesn’t mean that you have to, you know, do things with them. I mean, not if you don’t want to and if you do want to then that’s, that’s more than I fine, I mean-” Emma pressed her lips closed, and gave herself a stern little shake.
“You spend a lot of time on your own, Will. And I know that you don’t like that. You need to get out, spend some time with the people who make you happy.”
Will’s mouth turns up at one corner, a wry smile that shows some bitter vulnerability. “The only people who really make me happy are my students.” He snorts, and shakes his head. “When did my life get so small?”
Emma clears her throat, and very carefully looks down at her hands. “Some of them aren’t your students anymore,” she says evenly. “I heard that Finn Hudson invited you to his eighteenth.”
“Well, Kurt invited me, but-”
“Finn always talked very highly of you. And I know that you think a lot of him.”
“Yes, well, I don’t think of him like that.”
“No,” Emma says with a firm nod. “You just watch him in the showers and blackmail him into joining Glee and then after two years of being really close to him you cry like a little girl after he hugs you at graduation and tells you that he’s going to miss you.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“I was there, Will. You definitely cried like a girl.”
Will runs his fingers through his hair. “It’s not... Okay, so maybe I am closer to Finn than I am to most of my students-”
“Than you are to practically anyone these days. And let’s not forget your habit of dating and occasionally marrying the people you’re close to.”
“I think that we can definitely forget that habit. And would you let me finish?”
“Sorry.”
Will runs his hand through his hair again. “It’s just... it’s not even worth thinking about, you know? It’s not like that and I don’t think of him like that, and he certainly doesn’t look at me that way.”
“He does,” Emma interjects. “He looks at you the way boys his age look at cheerleaders. You know, that kind of hungry mostly dopey look.”
“And he’s half my age,” Will stresses. “More than that. I mean, there is just so much that doesn’t fit and isn’t right and it’s not worth even entertaining the idea.”
“Will,” Emma says, “I know that you like thinking things through. And I know that I told you that you should definitely start thinking before jumping into the sack with someone because there are STIs out there and you really don’t that kind of inflammation in your life. But there are times when you need to stop thinking so much. Some things in life you should just go for.”
Will looks at her for a long moment, and there’s a lot in that look. “And sometimes when you run into things, they end up a big mess.”
Emma smiles at him. “Everything ends, eventually,” she says, placing a hand on his. “And endings are always messy. And you know how much I hate mess, so I hope you understand how much I mean this when I say that sometimes the experience is worth it.”
Will places his other hand on top of Emma’s, and squeezes is gently. “Thanks.”
“Now,” Emma says with wide eyes and a bright grin, “Go get ‘em, tiger.”
Rachel
“Hey,” Puck says, sidling up to Rachel. “I know that you and he aren’t an item and more, and I’m totally planning on hooking up with you later because of that, but have you seen Finn anywhere?”
“He’s inside,” she answers primly, holding her plastic cup close to her body so that Puck can’t pour any cheap wine into it.
Kurt walks up to them, an annoyed look on his face. “Have either of you seen Mr Schue? I saw him arrive, but now I can’t find him anywhere, and if he’s left this early-”
“He’s inside too,” Rachel tells him, a touch of a smirk at the edges of her lips.
Puck gives her a long, wary look. “What have you done?” he asks her slowly.
“Well,” Rachel says, gearing herself up. “It occurred to me that Mr Schue is Finn’s favourite teacher, and that Mr Schue clearly had a favourite, and that the two of them could probably use a moment to talk since Finn is worried about going off to college, and Mr Schue has expressed some concern about the fate of Glee now that the upperclassmen and women are moving on to greener pastures. And while the playlist you compiled for Finn’s party is lovely Kurt, it is a little hard to hold a conversation over the music. If it weren’t for the sofa acting as a sound-dampener and my unusually piercing voice, I’m sure you two wouldn’t be able to hear a thing that I’m saying.”
“If only,” Kurt mutters.
“So, in the interests of effective communication and a superior bonding experience I generously aided the two of them in finding an appropriate environment in which to address each other.”
Puck gives Rachel a blank look. “Meaning?”
Rachel smirks quietly into her glass of juice. “I locked them both in the ensuite bathroom.”
Kurt stares at her with an open mouth. “You what? But I arranged candles. Tea candles.”
“Being direct is the only sure-fire way to achieve results,” Rachel tells him firmly.
Puck drapes an arm around Rachel’s shoulders. “On the topic of being direct - wanna go make out on Kurt’s bed?”
“It would be a pleasure.”
“Bah,” Kurt says as they go. “Worst. Party. Ever.”
Rating: G
Characters: Will, Finn, Puck, Terri, Kurt, Emma, Rachel.
Word count: 2,000-ish
Summary: Admission. Coercion. Encouragement. Getting them together is a team effort.
Notes: The prompt was ‘Someone unexpected playing matchmaker for Finn and Will’. This is more along the lines of ‘someone unexpected talks them into it’.
Puck
“So,” Puck says, tugging at the collar of his graduation robe. “Now that you’re not a student anymore, which teacher would you make out with?”
“What?” Finn looks around, wide-eyed. “What do you mean?”
Puck rolls his eyes. “Exactly what I said. I mean, it’s not morally wrong anymore - and you know how uptight teacher’s are about losing their jobs - and in a few weeks you’ll have your I’m-not-jailbait-now birthday. So there’s nothing to hold you back. We are two studs that the system can no longer contain.” Puck gives Finn an expectant look. “So?”
Finn looks around, his face hot from a mixture of the sun, the black robe, and embarrassment. “I don’t know,” he says. “I mean, they’re all teachers, you know?”
“Yeah,” Puck says, “but some teachers are less like teachers than others. Like, Miss Pillsbury has never actually taught a class, and Coach Tanaka is sort of like a cross between a dad and an actual coach.” Puck pauses, pursing his lips in thought. “And Mr Schue, right? He’s practically never like a teacher. He’s, you know, one of us.”
Puck watches as Finn thinks this over. “Yeah,” Finn says at last. “I guess he is.”
“I mean, look at him,” Puck says, pointing their teacher out. “He’s the only teacher here not wearing a tie. And he’s got sunglasses on. He’s totally rocking out.”
“Yeah,” Finn agrees, and there’s a kind of vacant, happy tone to it.
“So,” Puck says casually. “He’s the one you’d make out with, right?”
Finn nods, off in a little daydream. “Ye-wait!”
But Puck is crowing with laugher, and punching Finn in the arm. “Dude! You totally have a gay crush on him.”
“I do not,” Finn hisses at him.
“It’s cool,” Puck says, holding both of his hands up. “I mean, we all deal with Kurt’s gay crushes all the time, right? Of anyone you could be friends with, you managed to get the most accepting group of all time.”
“Well, yeah,” Finn admits. “But I don’t-”
“Finn’s got a man-crush! Finn’s got a man-crush!” Puck sing-songs as he darts off through the crowd.
“Damnit, Puck, get back here!” Finn hollers before setting off after him.
Terri
“Oh god,” Terri says as soon as she sets eyes on Will. “You cried, didn’t you? You cry at every graduation.”
Will shrugs, and doesn’t bother to deny it as he sits across from her in the booth. “I’m a sap,” he says. “We both know this. I don’t know what it is, that mix of being proud of my students and being scared for them, you know? Hoping so much for them.”
“You need to get back into a relationship,” Terri says, pointing a finger at him. “That’ll kill some of your excess hope off.”
Will snorts, and rolls his eyes.
“I’m serious,” Terri tells him. “You’re young and energetic and good-looking now, but it won’t last. One day you’ll wake up realising that you’re a divorcee, that you’ve done nothing with your life and that you never will, and that you’re not dying your hair just because it’s trendy anymore.”
Will smiles. “Are you sure we’re still talking about me?”
Terri clears her throat, and sets her hands primly on the table in front of her. “Gray hairs, Will, are a reality.” Her face softens a little, and she tilts her head to the side as she looks at him. “You’re only young once, right? And you should enjoy it.”
“I did enjoy it,” Will tells her. “I’ve had a good life, and I don’t have any regrets, not after all of the counselling. I’m happy being me.”
“Of course,” Terri says in a smooth voice. “But you’d be happier still if you were sharing that with someone. No arguing, Will, I’ve known what you like far longer than you have.”
“Wait, what-?”
“What you need is someone who has the same interests as you, for once. You know, music and all of that crap. And you need someone young. Oh!” Terri’s face takes on an excited glow. “Taking the younger model out for a spin is definitely worth the time. And when you get worn out and have to spend three days in bed, you’ll have someone to keep you company.”
“I don’t think-”
“And tall,” Terri adds. “All of the women you’ve been with have been shorter than you, so you should try something different. Tall, dark, and handsome.”
Will gives Terri an amused look. “Handsome?”
“Blondes are pretty and brunettes are handsome,” Terri explains. “It’s a word that you should get used to, because you’ll be using it a lot.”
Will rests his chin in his palm. “Why do I get the feeling you already have someone lined up?”
“Well,” Terri admits, “there may be someone at Sheets ‘n’ Things who may fit that description perfectly. Especially the handsome and young part.”
Will gives Terri a sceptical look. “Aren’t there a lot of students working with you?”
“They’re not all students,” Terri replies indignantly. “I mean, today was graduation, right?”
Will buries his face in his hands. “Terri.”
“What? Sometimes when I look at you I still see you as being fifteen. How is that any creepier than being with someone who is practically eighteen?”
“We are not having this conversation,” Will says, keeping his face firmly buried in his hands.
Terri sits back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Fine. Even though there’s someone out there interested in you, who shares your interests, and is actually older than I was when you started having sex with me.”
“Terri-”
“I was seventeen, Will. How is one seventeen-year-old fine but the other isn’t?”
“Because I was sixteen at the time.”
“You know what you are? A hypocrite. Yes, Will, you are. You’re perfectly happy to have sex with teenagers one minute-”
“One teenager,” Will corrects. “You. And could you please keep your voice down?”
“- but the next minute, oh no, suddenly they’re not good enough for you! You dated and married someone older than you, but the idea of someone else doing it is disgusting to you? ”
“It’s not like that!”
“So, what then? Hmm? You think that it’s impossible for two people who are just barely over a decade apart in age to fall in love? Is that it? Are you damning all of those sweet old people who found love in nursing homes with someone who was, god forbid, more than nine months older than them?”
“No! I mean, age doesn’t mean everything,” Will says, finding a coherent argument and clinging to it, “but life experience does mean a lot.”
“And you’re not going to be getting any life experience sitting at home on Friday nights and hanging out with your ex-wife,” Terri shoots back, looking extremely satisfied.
Will sighs. “Alright. Okay, I need to get out more. I get it. Now, can we please talk about something else?”
“Sure,” Terri says, giving Will a sweet smile and a chance to calm down a little. “Have you ever considered that you might be fluid in your sexuality? I mean, just because you dance so much. Because I’ve been looking into bisexual males, and they’re kind of hot.”
Will lets his head fall back with a groan, and prepares for a long dinner.
Kurt
“You know,” Kurt says, as casually as he can manage. “This’ll probably be the last summer you’ll ever spend in Lima.”
Finn starts. “Really?”
“Oh sure,” Kurt says, waving a hand breezily. “I mean, once you’re at college you’ll be going on trips with friends - surfing, camping, Europe if you can find the right kind of friends. And if you can’t, you can come with me. And then you’ll be out in the real world. There aren’t that many jobs for graduates in Lima, which means you’ll be heading to one of the bigger cities. And since you’re pulling up roots here, why even stay in Ohio, right?”
Finn’s brow furrows as he lets Kurt’s words sink in.
“I mean, this summer is really your summer, if you get my drift. You need to be spending it with the people you care about, doing the things you want to remember.” Kurt pauses, studying his nails before flicking his eyes up to glance at Finn. “If there’s anything that you want to do, anything that you’ve been scared of doing...”
“Like,” Finn pauses, trying to follow Kurt’s line of thought. “Like what?”
“I don’t know,” Kurt says with a dramatic sigh. “Maybe there’s something you’ve always wanted to say, but you’ve never said it. Maybe there’s someone you’d love to be honest with but you were always too worried. A chance that you weren’t willing to take. Someone who means a lot to you.”
“I don’t know,” Finn says. “I mean, I said most of that stuff at graduation. And the party you’re throwing me is next week, and everyone will be there, right?”
“All of Glee, most of football, most of the Cheerios, the few remaining people that I don’t completely hate.”
“That sounds like a lot of people.”
Kurt gives him a wide smile. “We have a big garden. We could even invite more people.” Kurt glances down at his nails again. “I was thinking of inviting Mr Schuester.”
“Really?” Finn perks up, and then visibly tries to seem cool and nonchalant about it. “Uh, I mean, do you think he’d come?”
“For you, Finn? I doubt he could resist coming.”
“Well, okay then.” Finn thinks it over, and then nods to himself. “Cool.”
“Great, I’ll go send off his invitation. And remember Finn: no regrets.”
Emma
Emma nods as Will finishes up telling her about the most excruciating hour of his life to date. “You know, Will, maybe Terri is right, in parts at least. You need to get out more. Have some fun.”
Will smiles a little ruefully at her. “I can remember you telling me off for doing just that.”
Emma gives Will an embarrassed smile in return. “Things were very different then,” she tells him. “And we talked about that, eventually, after a year or so, and I can see now that some of the things that I said may have sent a very negative message to you. Mainly the ‘slut’ part. But we’re not, you know, we’re not like that now anymore and so there’s nothing to stop you or to make it wrong if you were to go out and find someone and maybe get a bit slutty with them. I mean, spending time with someone doesn’t mean that you have to, you know, do things with them. I mean, not if you don’t want to and if you do want to then that’s, that’s more than I fine, I mean-” Emma pressed her lips closed, and gave herself a stern little shake.
“You spend a lot of time on your own, Will. And I know that you don’t like that. You need to get out, spend some time with the people who make you happy.”
Will’s mouth turns up at one corner, a wry smile that shows some bitter vulnerability. “The only people who really make me happy are my students.” He snorts, and shakes his head. “When did my life get so small?”
Emma clears her throat, and very carefully looks down at her hands. “Some of them aren’t your students anymore,” she says evenly. “I heard that Finn Hudson invited you to his eighteenth.”
“Well, Kurt invited me, but-”
“Finn always talked very highly of you. And I know that you think a lot of him.”
“Yes, well, I don’t think of him like that.”
“No,” Emma says with a firm nod. “You just watch him in the showers and blackmail him into joining Glee and then after two years of being really close to him you cry like a little girl after he hugs you at graduation and tells you that he’s going to miss you.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“I was there, Will. You definitely cried like a girl.”
Will runs his fingers through his hair. “It’s not... Okay, so maybe I am closer to Finn than I am to most of my students-”
“Than you are to practically anyone these days. And let’s not forget your habit of dating and occasionally marrying the people you’re close to.”
“I think that we can definitely forget that habit. And would you let me finish?”
“Sorry.”
Will runs his hand through his hair again. “It’s just... it’s not even worth thinking about, you know? It’s not like that and I don’t think of him like that, and he certainly doesn’t look at me that way.”
“He does,” Emma interjects. “He looks at you the way boys his age look at cheerleaders. You know, that kind of hungry mostly dopey look.”
“And he’s half my age,” Will stresses. “More than that. I mean, there is just so much that doesn’t fit and isn’t right and it’s not worth even entertaining the idea.”
“Will,” Emma says, “I know that you like thinking things through. And I know that I told you that you should definitely start thinking before jumping into the sack with someone because there are STIs out there and you really don’t that kind of inflammation in your life. But there are times when you need to stop thinking so much. Some things in life you should just go for.”
Will looks at her for a long moment, and there’s a lot in that look. “And sometimes when you run into things, they end up a big mess.”
Emma smiles at him. “Everything ends, eventually,” she says, placing a hand on his. “And endings are always messy. And you know how much I hate mess, so I hope you understand how much I mean this when I say that sometimes the experience is worth it.”
Will places his other hand on top of Emma’s, and squeezes is gently. “Thanks.”
“Now,” Emma says with wide eyes and a bright grin, “Go get ‘em, tiger.”
Rachel
“Hey,” Puck says, sidling up to Rachel. “I know that you and he aren’t an item and more, and I’m totally planning on hooking up with you later because of that, but have you seen Finn anywhere?”
“He’s inside,” she answers primly, holding her plastic cup close to her body so that Puck can’t pour any cheap wine into it.
Kurt walks up to them, an annoyed look on his face. “Have either of you seen Mr Schue? I saw him arrive, but now I can’t find him anywhere, and if he’s left this early-”
“He’s inside too,” Rachel tells him, a touch of a smirk at the edges of her lips.
Puck gives her a long, wary look. “What have you done?” he asks her slowly.
“Well,” Rachel says, gearing herself up. “It occurred to me that Mr Schue is Finn’s favourite teacher, and that Mr Schue clearly had a favourite, and that the two of them could probably use a moment to talk since Finn is worried about going off to college, and Mr Schue has expressed some concern about the fate of Glee now that the upperclassmen and women are moving on to greener pastures. And while the playlist you compiled for Finn’s party is lovely Kurt, it is a little hard to hold a conversation over the music. If it weren’t for the sofa acting as a sound-dampener and my unusually piercing voice, I’m sure you two wouldn’t be able to hear a thing that I’m saying.”
“If only,” Kurt mutters.
“So, in the interests of effective communication and a superior bonding experience I generously aided the two of them in finding an appropriate environment in which to address each other.”
Puck gives Rachel a blank look. “Meaning?”
Rachel smirks quietly into her glass of juice. “I locked them both in the ensuite bathroom.”
Kurt stares at her with an open mouth. “You what? But I arranged candles. Tea candles.”
“Being direct is the only sure-fire way to achieve results,” Rachel tells him firmly.
Puck drapes an arm around Rachel’s shoulders. “On the topic of being direct - wanna go make out on Kurt’s bed?”
“It would be a pleasure.”
“Bah,” Kurt says as they go. “Worst. Party. Ever.”