Finn was nervous.

He and Rachel were doing a decent job being civil to one another, generally. She gave him some long Rachel-rant about how their friendship and duties as glee captains were more important than their romantic issues. She promised to give him the space he wanted so long as he didn't let it get in the way of their obligations. So they helped arrange meetings and conversed pleasantly enough. It was hard, but not as much as he'd expected.

But this, a Friday evening meeting at Brittany's house? This was NOT Finn's idea. He knew her parents were away and that once Mr. Schue left it would devolve into a party. And parties mean alcohol, which usually leads to a clusterfuck of random, obnoxious, dramatic, slutty, and other crappy behavior. With him still pissed as shit at Rachel and not at all interested in watching all the glee couples and their PDA, it was bound to be a disaster in one way or another.

He tried to leave, but Puck cornered him.

"Come on, man." He offered him a cold beer. A nice, name-brand beer in a bottle, Finn noticed, suddenly concerned that the dude was stealing glee treasury money. "My treat, it's all kosher," he explained. "You need to just relax and move on with this shit. We haven't just chilled in a while or whatever."

Finn appreciated the gesture. Puck could be shitty when it came to certain things but he always came around and tried to make it right.

The two guys rejoined their glee-mates in the living room. For a while there was just the usual idle conversation and banter that went on in the choir room. Finn didn't really add anything to the conversation from his perch on an armchair in the corner of the room, but it was nice to hang with everyone.

Then, after an hour or so (and several more beers) Santana said the four words he'd been dreading all night.

"Berry. Truth or dare?"

Rachel gasped in response, except it came out as a hiccup combined with an exasperated "What?"

Finn instinctively smiled. He couldn't believe they'd gotten her to drink vodka of all things, but it seemed like girls would drink anything if it involved pink or red juice. She looked really cute, her eyes a little glassy and her small body slumped against the couch as she sat on the floor.

His smile faded, naturally, when Rachel squinted as if in deep in thought, and said "Truth."

Of course she'd pick truth, he thought.

And what the fuck is wrong with Santana? The chick was seriously out to ruin his life.

"Who's a better kisser - Puck or Finn?" Brittany blurted out.

"Whoaa! Someone must be done for the night, maybe we should take this party elsewhere!" Artie patted the blonde's shoulder gently, clearly trying to diffuse the upcoming shitstorm of drama such a question was going to cause.

"It's okay."

Finn had been so quiet most of the evening that everyone turned to look at him, shocked.

"It's okay," he repeated after clearing his throat. "She should answer. To keep the game going." He half-heartedly shrugged, still under the careful gaze of the rest of the glee clubbers.

Rachel just snickered her answer. "Is that really a question?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "Obviously, Finn is the better kisser in my" - she hiccuped again - "opinion. The only time I ever kissed Puck was to make Finn jealous. With no feeling as the" - hiccup - "basis for our interactions, it's like it never even happened."

Finn couldn't even process Rachel's latest attempt to beg for his forgiveness before Puck abruptly asked "Hudson, truth or dare?"

Finn rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man. Dare." He looked down at his bottle and scratched at the label.

Puck scoffed as everyone else looked on, completely quiet. "I dare you to locate your balls and get back together with Berry already."

Finn looked up, staring at Puck blankly while a nervous chill rippled through the room.

"What?" Puck offered, looking around. "Someone has to at least try to end this bullshit drama."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Noah, seeing as Finn and I have been perfectly cordial and pleasant to one another -"

"Yeah, you're fine around each other, but on your own you've both been total bummers. Don't you think that says something?"

"Hold up, just hold up!" Mercedes interrupted Puck's attempted intervention.

Mercedes is totally cool, Finn decided.

Having the room's attention, she continued. "First of all, your immature white-people drama is boring me. And second... that's not a real dare. If Finn wants to forgive Rachel that's his business. In the meantime his dare has to be something more interesting."

"I don't know," Tina interjected. "It would be nice if Rachel wasn't moping all the time and spouting about 'the despair of love's departure..'" She embellished the last few words, clearly imitating Rachel in one of her more dramatic moments. Finn couldn't help but chuckle, although it stopped abruptly when he saw Rachel trying to stop the anger spreading across her face.

"I do NOT sound like that!"'she protested, stumbling to her feet.

"I got it! Oh man, I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!" Santana piped up, half-chuckling herself. "Remember the Beiste incident? We determined that if everyone put out we'd have a winning football team? I know how to make this bullshit stop." Everyone looked around, confused, as the cheerleader turned towards Finn. "Hudson, I dare you to make the midget orgasm."

Fuck. My. Life. were the only words that came to mind as the rest of the glee club members ooh-ed and ahh-ed and otherwise reacted to Santana's idea.

"It's definitely a great way to release tension and stress," Lauren Zizes offered, matter-of-factly before turning to Santana. "Did Finn make it good for you? I don't see him as having the capacity to be very good."

"Nah, he sucked. But really, no one else is willing to touch her, proven conclusively by the fact that even Puckerman wouldn't go there," Santana continued.

"Need I remind you that Jesse wanted to do it with me but I turned him down!" Rachel shouted.

Finn couldn't listen to any more of this, he was certain. He sprung from his chair like he'd been shot out of a cannon and grabbed Rachel's hand, dragging her through the kitchen and into the small laundry room. He closed the door behind them and started pacing as much as the small space would allow, running a hand through his hair.

"Um, thank you, I think," Rachel offered with a shrug, staring awkwardly at the floor.

"Yeah, I couldn't just stay there while they talked about us like that." He stopped pacing to look at her and he felt his chest flutter.

"Well, I'm used to everyone insulting me as though I weren't even in the room. Sorry you had to experience that as well." She paused and stared off to the side, hazily. "For the record I always thought our first time would be amazing and you'd be very... sensitive to my needs."

Finn was beginning to regret his decision to drag her away from the party, not wanting to hear her vodka-induced rants about how she had all these expectations and he just disappointed her. When he didn't react to her statement, she snickered and added, "At least now I know that my expectation" - hiccup - "was severely misguided."

That was it. "Yeah, well, with Santana all I could think about was you getting it on with that asshole St. James. Didn't exactly put me in the sexiest mood." He shouted bitterly. Dammit, he thought, why was he spilling his guts to her like this? She didn't deserve it.

"Well, as you said yourself, if you weren't such an ass I wouldn't have taken an interest in Jesse in the first place!" Rachel countered, her voice tense and louder, but still slurring a bit.

"For fuck's sake, Rachel! Don't you get tired of fighting over the same shit over and over again?"

Rachel's face went blank for a second. "I don't. Because I LOVE you. And I won't stop fighting for you."

"Oh, and I don't love you anymore? Why so you think this hurts so much for me?"

"Oh, you think you can just say that you still love me and it excuses all of your immature pouting? If you still love me, show me! Do /something/ besides whine about how much it hurt you that I went to Puck."

Finn felt himself filled with rage at her audacity. (Assuming he was accurately remembering the definition of audacity.) His anger seemed to propel him forward, until they were standing facing one another, a terrified look on Rachel's face. He felt an odd satisfaction as he hovered for a moment, before a familiar sensation came over him and he did the only thing he could think of.