Fic: Assumptions
Title: Assumptions
Author: alicebluegown16
Rating: PG-13
Character/Pairing: Will/Finn, OFC
Summary: Will and Finn are sort of like high school sweethearts.
AN: I started wondering how Finn would explain his relationship with Will to an outsider who wasn't there from the beginning, especially when you consider the age factor and the teacher/student aspect. And this is what I came up with. Quotes from Casablanca, Firefly, and Shrek within. Lyrics to Hot for Teacher. As usual, this is part of my big ol epic Winn AU series.
Warning: Original character, which I know isn't some people's cup of tea.
When Ellie knocks on the door to his office, Finn reluctantly tells Will he has to go. (And let’s take a moment to reflect on the fact that he has an office now and how cool that is.)
“See you tonight. Love you, too.”
Ellie drops the files on his desk and nods at the phone.
“Wife?”
A split second of indecision before he corrects her. “Husband, actually.”
Finn’s tone is matter-of-fact. Very ‘this is how it is. I’m putting it out there and it isn’t going to be a thing, right?’ But on the inside he’s slightly nervous. Even at a place like this, where everyone seems to proudly wear their earnest do-gooder credentials on their sleeve, it’s still slightly daunting. After all, if Ellie freaks it’s going to suck considering she reports to him directly at least three times a week.
He’s been working with her for less than a month. At this point all he knows about her is that she’s really good at her job, that she's a year younger than him, that she grew up in the suburbs of Chicago but graduated from Brown, that she seems to be nice enough (or at the very least she always offers to pick up a cup for anyone else when she goes for coffee) and she’s a fan of Journey.
And he only knows the last thing because one day, to her complete and utter mortification, he caught her rocking out in her office to Open Arms (he knows he’s been with Will way too long when he’d not only immediately noted that her voice was actually pretty good but that he’d also been able to think of at least three songs that better suited her range off the top of his head.)
But Ellie’s expression seems to be more ‘I never would have guessed’ than ‘I’m secretly damning you to hell’, so he breathes a sigh of relief.
“I didn’t-I guess I just ass-“She cuts herself off and gives a little embarrassed smile.
“There is no way I can end that sentence without sounding like an idiot, is there?”
Ellie covers her face, slightly chagrinned.
“Is this where I attempt to redeem myself by tactfully working in a mention of my gay cousin?”
“You can if you want to. Seriously though, it’s cool. I can understand it being kind of a surprise. I tend to leave the feather boas at home.” He teases her gently.
By now he’s gotten used to the fact that he doesn’t exactly meet most people’s stereotypes.
Finn figures if the conversation ends now it’s already going better than he thought it would, his first outing of himself to one of his new co-workers.
But then Ellie asks him if he met Will in college and he’s telling her no it was actually high school and she gets this look on her face, like it’s taking everything in her not to swoon and starts gushing about how he married his high school sweetheart, that’s so amazing.
He can almost see the elaborate back story she’s clearly building up in her head, twin prom king crowns and walking each other to homeroom holding hands, picture perfect teenage homo puppy love.
And this is totally absolutely one hundred percent his own hang-ups and his own history, but he can’t help it, the sudden flare of resentment. Because kids tossed into dumpsters or having slushies thrown in their faces, being disowned by their parents, getting pregnant in high school and then having to make the hardest decision ever and give that baby up, being fucking terrified you’re never going to get out of your shitty dead end hometown, all of it is clearly so far outside the realm of understanding from her idyllic safe upbringing in the ‘burbs and he suddenly isn’t in the mood to educate her. Not to be an asshole or anything, but that isn’t really his job, now is it?
So instead he tells her “Yeah, something like that” and picks up one of the files she just handed him.
**
“Sorry about that. I didn’t know ‘Hold on, this’ll just take a second’ would turn into ‘Abandoning you for fifteen minutes.’”
However, it turns out that Ellie found a way to amuse herself. She’s behind his desk examining the pictures on his bookshelf and she looks as if she’s just won the fucking lottery.
“You were in show choir in high school? Like singing, dancing, so cheesy it hurts show choir?” Ellie holds up the group photo from their last competition at Nationals and smirks. “Wow, Finn. If I’d known I was performing in front of a professional, I would have really given it my all that day. And you were called New Directions? Is that the reason you took the job here? Please tell me it wasn’t.”
When Finn reluctantly confesses that it wasn’t the only reason, Ellie cracks up.
"I'm being nosey, aren't I? I'm sorry."
"No, no it's fine. It's kind of part of the job description, right? Wouldn't have the picture out if I were ashamed of it. And that stuff is nothing.Three words for you: College. Musical. Theatre."
“Aren’t you just full of surprises?”
“I’m like an onion. I have layers.”
By the time he’s moved to stand next to her, she’s intently examining another picture, this one of the Hummel, Hudson, and Baker clan. And God, it makes it sound like his family is a freaking law firm or something.
“Are you trying to figure out who I resemble the most?”
She takes another long look, seeming to really want to get it right.
“Mmm, your dad? Maybe? You’ve kind of got the coloring and height thing in common. You don’t look anything like your brothers, to be honest. Well, sort of the younger one-just a bit around the eyes a little?”
Swing and a miss, but her answer makes him unreasonably happy and he thinks they’d both get a kick out of it too.
“Huh, that’s kind of interesting since my father, who I actually do look like, died when I was a baby and that’s my step-dad, Burt. And here we’ve got my mom Carole, my step-brother Kurt---shut up I can hear the joke you’re about to make about the rhyming names, and this is Max, my ‘he kind of showed up on our doorstep and his parents were jerks so we decided to keep him’ brother. Or you know, long story short, also known as my parents and my two brothers.”
“That sounds really wonderful. I was an only child and I always wanted a bunch of siblings.”
“Well, I was an only child too until I was sixteen and believe me, at first I wasn’t exactly crazy about suddenly having to share a room with Kurt.”
“And now?”
“And now he’s my brother, same as Max. Just one big modern day Norman Rockwell painting.”
When he absently places the picture back on the shelf, Ellie leans down and shifts it so it’s sitting just right.
She starts to stand up. And then she spots the third picture and freezes.
It’s actually one of his favorites, Will sprawled out on the couch with his finger marking his place in a book, glasses sitting on top of his head, a soft lazy smile directed at the camera.
Ellie’s gaze goes back and forth between that picture and the one from Nationals, Will’s arm thrown over his shoulder and he’s staring at Will and not at the huge ass trophy everyone else in the shot is pointing at and by now he knows Ellie’s nobody’s fool and it’s not going to take her long to realize this is totally not in any way, shape, or form the sort of picture anyone has of their former teacher, and she’s not saying anything, why isn’t she saying anything and why is she looking at him like that?
Fuck.
He’s suddenly remembering that stupid little white lie from all those weeks ago and his stomach drops down around his toes.
“So…yeah…um...” She lets out a strangled little laugh. “Is this what sort of being high school sweethearts means?”
“It’s not what you’re thinking.” He immediately insists.
“Really? Because right now I’m kind of thinking you lied to my face.” She crosses her arms and gives him an ‘explain yourself’ scowl. Considering she’s almost a foot shorter than him, it has no reason to be so intimidating. But then again, for two years Rachel had him jumping to do her bidding with nothing but the quiver of her bottom lip, so maybe it’s just him.
“Okay, it’s actually sort of exactly what you’re thinking. But it’s not-it’s not creepy or anything, I swear.”
Another strangled laugh.
“Look, Finn, I’m a social worker, but I’m not your social worker. You don’t have to justify anything to me, and if you feel like you do, it’s not really doing much for your claims of ‘It’s not creepy, I swear.’ I’m not saying we have to be BFFs or anything, but why the lying? Did you think I’d freak out and demand you show me on the dolly where the bad man touched you?”
“Wow. And the gold medal for the That’s Just Wrong Olympics goes to…”
At her glare, he gets serious.
“I don’t know…maybe? I’m sorry, alright. I didn’t mean to lie. I guess I’ve been spoiled the last few years with everyone who needed to know already knowing. I’ve gotten out of the habit of having to tell people about us. And when I first met you, I wasn’t sure how you’d react since you came off as kind of…”
“Judgmental?”
“Sheltered.” He’s not sure how he expects her to respond to that, but he has to say her punching him in the arm isn’t on the list.
“Owww! What was that for?”
“What do you think it was for? Didn’t anyone ever tell you that when you assume it makes an ass out of you and me? I grew up in Naperville, Finn. Not a convent.”
He kind of figures (which totally isn’t the same as assuming) that’s the end of the matter. But then Ellie gives him an expectant look.
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Tell me about how it wasn’t creepy.”
Oh. Okay. They’re actually going to have this discussion. Alright then.
“First of all, let me just assure you that despite appearances, Will is extremely immature for his age. So, that definitely evens the playing field some.”
This gets him a weak smile.
“Seriously, though. Nothing ever happened while I was in high school.”
“But you wanted it to.”
Finn takes a moment because that kinds of throws him, the way she just says it like you’d say the sky is blue and ignoring the whole ‘It was illegal at the time’ aspect, if she got that from a fucking photograph, how had he been able to deny it for two fucking years?
What was he? Headless?
But hey, whatever. He figured it out eventually, right?
“I don’t know if at that point I could even tell you what exactly we wanted. It was more of a mutual awareness that we both enjoyed spending time together coupled with a mutual decision not to examine too closely all the implications of that. Then I went to college and tried dating other people, but it was still there in the back of my mind, that I’d always like him best.”
“So…You came home for Christmas break and jumped his bones? Not that I’d blame you. If any of my teachers looked like that, I would have banged it like a gong.”
He lets out a shocked laugh and really, he’d swear he can almost feel the scales tipping from work colleague into the ‘Louis, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship’ territory.
“Actually, it was Thanksgiving break and it took some convincing on my part, but basically, yeah.” And because he is a ginormous sap, he can’t help it; he touches his wedding band and smiles. “Here I am six years later and I still like him best.”
Ellie takes this all in and seems to be very carefully weighing her words.
“Does it ever scare you? Marrying the person you fell in love with as a teenager? That’s kind of…hopelessly romantic. When I think of some of the guys I dated in high school, I wouldn’t want to share a seat with them on the bus, let alone spend the rest of my life with them.”
“Not really. I mean yeah, I’m a romantic in terms of the usual stuff--remembering anniversaries, wanting to spend time with him…but hopeless romantic, that makes it sound like it’s just ‘And they lived happily ever after. The End.’ That’s static. It ignores all the hard work and time it took to get where we are, the fact that sometimes Will drives me fucking crazy, that we’ve changed over the years, changed each other, that we’re going to keep changing, and that none of that is necessarily a bad thing. Think about those couples during World War II who got married at eighteen and then were together for the next sixty-something years. No one ever doubts them. Why should we be any different?”
Finn has shared this philosophy with a few people and has heard everything from “Don’t you think that’s a little naive?” to “Wow, seriously? You’re totally cool with the possibility that you’re never going to fuck anyone else ever again?” (By the way the answers to these questions are: “Maybe, but who cares?” and “Yes. Especially considering the fact that we’re both really, really good at it.”)
Ellie’s response is a new one.
“Well, you must be doing something right since you’ve so far managed to last two years longer than my parents.”
“Oh. Ellie…Jeez. I-I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”
“Don’t be. I’m certainly not.”
The hard edge in her voice makes him very much wish he could take back his earlier word choice. He has to remind himself sometimes that all sorts of people gravitate towards this kind of career for all sorts of reasons. And yeah, did he get his degree from a cereal box or what? Because godfuckingdamn did he read her all fucking wrong.
He thinks about the way she looked at the photograph of his totally crazy big gay dysfunctional happy family, like it was one of those magic eye pictures and if she just stared long enough, she’d find the dolphins.
It has him making lists in his head of all of his acceptable single male friends (basically everyone except Puck), reminding himself to ask Will about inviting Ellie to dinner, maybe having his mom send her a care package with some of her brownies in it.
Crap, maybe there is something to Will’s insistence that he has a bit of a hero complex.
“You’re kind of not what I expected, Finn.”
“Two way street on that one.” He bumps their shoulders together and his tone makes it sound more like an apology.
**
So, it’s this thing called kamikaze karaoke in which you let someone else choose the song for you and you don’t know what it is until you get up to the stage.
And when Finn sees the screen, he suddenly remembers why kamikaze pilots have fallen out of favor over the years.
Because it was a really fucking stupid thing to do in general.
But when he whips his head around and glares at Ellie she simply toasts him with her drink and honest to god cackles.
Like full on ‘mine is an evil laugh’ cackling.
It’s pretty clear she assumes he’s going to punk out.
And that if he does, he’ll maybe hear the end of it sometime around the fifth of never.
Oh, it is so on.
He is going to fucking own this shit and then he’s going to have Ellie counting paperclips for the next six months because he’s technically still her boss and he can totally abuse his power like that.
Really, the epic spit take Will does when he immediately recognizes the opening notes almost makes it all worth it.
By the time he gets to the end of the song, he’s straddling Will in his chair, the other patrons are cheering, stomping their feet, whistling, and in the case of a table full of about a dozen drunk sorority girl screaming “Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!”
Whoa! Got it bad,
Got it bad,
Got it bad,
I'm hot for teacher!
I've got it bad, so bad
I'm hot for teacher!
One last glance at Ellie who apparently long ago conceded defeat, waving her napkin like a white flag and laughing so hard she’s actually crying.
And then he grabs Will and gives the crowd exactly what they want.
A flash of tongue, the click of teeth, and Will (who didn’t even hesitate to kiss back and that’s like, reason number eleventy thousand and one Finn without a doubt wants to get old and wrinkly with him) grabbing his ass and rocking forward, grinding their hips together.
They pull apart only when that pesky need for oxygen becomes an issue.
“And that” He says to Ellie, who at present is staring at him with jaw hanging open, her eyes roughly the size of dinner plates. “And that is the other thing that happens when you assume.”