Disclaimer: Glee's not mine. Otherwise I wouldn't be as poor as I am at the moment.

A/N: Okay, so this story has apparently decided that it did not need me anymore. Finn and Rachel have taken over and I'm merely there to hold the pen. I have given up plotting the storyline because Finn and Rachel clearly do not want me to end this so fast but would rather enjoy that time they have with each other. So I've no idea how many chapters this will have, but I am HOPING no more than 6. I do hope it's still enjoyable, and in character.

Oh, and I dedicate this to my Beta, Eera (better known as i-am-a-dork, whose birthday it is today) - because ultimately she was the one who convinced me that letting Finchel take the reigns was not a bad thing.

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Chapter 4

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Right opposite the ice cream vendor, hidden away in a corner, was something that caught Finn's attention almost immediately: a photo booth As Rachel was still taking her sweet time discussing what flavours she could actually have that were truly vegan, he simply stood there for a few moments, trying to make up his mind whether he should ask her now or later. It might be more fun with them both still eating their ice creams, but on the other hand – deep down he knew he wanted something different. Something more serious. Something on a grander, more epic scale than silly mug shots.

"How is yours?" she asked when he turned around finally, having made up his mind to just go for it. Today was all about having fun, after all – he'd promised it to himself that she wouldn't spend a moment more on thinking about negative things. So he wouldn't either.

"'s okay," he replied, even though he hadn't even tried it and she could see it – the ice cream was wobbling dangerously on top of the cone, melting so fast that it was running in little streams down the side of the cone.

Noticing it threatening to run over his hand, he quickly licked it off, then took the top scoop off almost completely in one bite. It wasn't until he'd gulped down half of what was in his mouth that he saw her incredulous look. Swallowing the rest, he gave her a lopsided grin before saying with a shrug, "what? It was going to end up on the floor otherwise."

And just to show her that he knew better, he licked off a small bit of the remaining ice cream with a flick of his tongue, still grinning at her.

For a moment he watched her as she followed the movement of his tongue; suddenly it was as if they were playing a game to which neither of them knew the rules. The colour rose to his face as he felt her eyes on him, but he didn't stop grinning – in fact, it made him feel bolder than he had before. She blushed, too, but continued to stare at his tongue licking at the ice cream. Absent-mindedly she nipped at her own ice cream cone, her eyes wandering up to his. He smirked - knowing they were both thinking of the same thing. She cast her eyes down, and grinned back. Looked sideways. Looked back at him. And then both of them broke out in a fit of giggling that several people around them turned and stared at them, but neither of them cared. Then Finn's cone crumbled in his grasp, which made Rachel burst out anew as he stuffed the entire thing into his mouth and puffed up his cheeks as he was chewing.

"So how," he said, chuckling to himself, when he'd swallowed the cone, "is yours?"

Putting on her most dramatic face she held out her cone in front of her, looked at it for a second as if she was contemplating life itself, and then said in her best imitation of Finn's own voice: "It totally sucks."

He snorted out a laugh as she walked over to the next trash can and unceremoniously dumped the whole thing in there. As she looked back to him her face contorted, and then they were both off, laughing so hard he ended up holding on to her shoulder to keep from falling over – which made her stagger sideways and bump against the booth. With a sharp intake of air, she held on to her shoulder with her other arm, and scrunched up her face to bite her lip from the momentary pain.

At once, he was all over her, had his arms around her before she even had time to react, and pressed her head to his chest. "Sorry," he mumbled and closed his eyes, feeling awful at his clumsiness hurting her.

"Finn!" he heard her say, her voice a weird squeaking thing that he couldn't quite place for a moment, and then she boxed him in the ribs – softly. "I need to breathe!" she hissed, and he released her, horrified of having crushed her and hurt her further.

But instead of her retreating from him all he got was two arms snaking around his waist and a face that looked up at him with the most adoring smile – a smile that seemed to fuse all his brain cells together so he lost all power of thought other than of her. A smile that gave him the feeling of his insides being tickled by a hundred thousand butterfly wings all at once. A smile that made the blood in his veins rush into his head until he swore he could hear it like a roaring river inside his ears. Only one thing was louder, and that was the beating of his heart. He leant forward and pressed his lips to hers, his hands running from her neck slowly to the back of her head, threading them through her long hair. For a moment he felt a little unsure of himself at her lack of reaction, but then her own hands were pressing into his back, pulling him closer.

This time it was her who initiated what came next – it was her tongue which met his, snaked around his just like her arms had around his body earlier, daring him to into a dance that was totally unfamiliar but totally exhilarating. As her fingers were moving in circles on his back – dipping lower with every one, pulling up his shirt as they were, her little finger already touching the bare skin right above his pants – it felt as if he was about to fall to pieces, as if he could barely contain- MAILMAN!

With a grunt, he pushed himself away from her, but by the look in her eyes she'd already noticed what was up – literally. He saw the shock in them as she stared at him when he held her at half an arm's length away from him, hands still around her neck – and he couldn't help but feel like a total moron for messing this up again. "Rach, I just-"

He just what? He didn't really know what to say, or how to explain this. How did one explain something this embarrassing to one's girlfriend?

But the look in her eyes turned from shock to something else – something he didn't quite know how to take. She smiled up at him.

"You know…" she began, and seemed to falter. He watched her eyes move from his eyes down to his crotch, linger there for a moment before moving up to meet his eyes again. He'd turned beet-red. "You know, this is perfectly normal. You shouldn't feel bad about having this…. ah… kind of reaction when you're with me."

And before he could do anything, she'd stepped forward again and wrapped her arms around him once more, looking up at him with a shy smile. "It's actually really flattering to think that I can make you have an e-e-erection."

If she'd said that last word any louder, it would've been a shout.

His eyes almost glazed over. He could swear his ears were on fire – she didn't just say what she'd said, right? The ground beneath his feet seemed to want to buckle and give way and he fought for control over his body with every fibre of his being; he had no way of responding to her because it took all he had to concentrate on not jizzing himself right there and then, in full public view. "Ahh… Rach…?" he finally managed to croak, needing desperately to sit down somewhere and get out of her embrace that was all too tight for comfort.

"What?" she asked, her voice hiding a giggle as she turned a shade of red similar to his own face's current colour.

He looked at her imploringly, willing her to somehow understand that this was not helping, that she was only making it harder – don't think of that, don't even use that word, shit, this is bad, this is BAD – and whispered, "…sit?"

His throat felt so dry the rest of the sentence hadn't even managed to get out. She was still only looking up at him, and while it wasn't as if their bodies were touching all the way, he still could feel the extreme proximity of her shoulder to his… erection.

He tried again. "We're in the mall… many people… embarrassing… need to sit down somewhere? Please?"

She'd literally jumped away from him the moment he'd croaked out the word "people" so the rest of that sentence had at least been easier to get out. For a moment he watched her look left and right, her face taking on another, deeper shade of red as the realisation dawned on her that she'd totally lost track of where they were. So had he been – until she'd said that word a little too loudly, and made him acutely aware of all the aspects of his predicament. But it only took her a moment to work out what had to be done – and five seconds later he found himself pushed backwards into the booth, flailing as he tried not to miss the stool: But that he did – it'd been too much of a surprise to see how much strength she really had as she was pushing him, and so he found himself sailing right over the small round chair and crashing against the back of the booth with a resounding crack.

"Jeez, Rach," he mumbled, frowning, after a long moment of just sitting there and staring up at her. "Next time, warn me." Her dark eyes looked like they were drinking him up.

"Owww." He rubbed the back of his head. It didn't really hurt – his back hurt a bit, and his foot, but nothing bad. Her eyes changed to instant concern, her face set in a horrified mask that he'd last seen during their ridiculous scene in that Run Joey Run video, when her character was about to die. And then he couldn't hold his frown in place any longer – it was just that funny.

"At least that's taken care of that little problem," he said, then stared at the iron pole of the seat that was mounted on the floor right between his thighs. "'Seem to have found a larger problem, tho."

He grinned up at her, the corners of his mouth twitching with suppressed laughter. It should have been embarrassing to say stuff like that to her, but it wasn't. Maybe she was getting to him. Her eyes grew impossibly large, and for a moment he thought she was going to lash out at him for behaving like an idiot, then she began to chuckle. And a second later they were both off again, howling with laughter.

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A/N#2: Yes, this is totally gratuitous fluffy filling in between serious chapters.

By the way, thank you all for the lovely reviews – it feels great to see people like what I'm writing, because half the time I'm not so sure myself. Keep 'em coming, especially at this stage, because I feel awfully vulnerable now that I've left the plotted course. I'll try to talk some sense into Finchel so we can have some more seriousness in the next chapter.