"Hey, Berry," Rachel heard from behind her as she put her unneeded books into her locker at the end of the day. "Hold up a minute."

Rachel smiled brightly as she turned to see the newest member (and vocal powerhouse to almost match Mercedes and herself) standing over her. "Hello, Lauren! If I may just say that your rendition of Nancy Sinatra's These Boots Are Made for Walkin' was superb. The way you …"

"Yeah," Lauren interjected. "Thanks. Whatever. We're hanging out this weekend."

"I –" she paused, brow furrowed. She took a moment to survey her surroundings, idly wonder if Lauren's mistaken her for someone else. "Me?"

Zizes rolled her eyes and sighed in annoyance. "Yes you. Since I started, I don't know, dating Puckerman or whatever, I decided I should be friends with his friends or something."

"So you chose me?" the shorter girl asked in stunned disbelief. She then narrowed her eyes. "Did Puck put you up to this?"

Lauren, exasperated, sighed again. "Listen, if you don't wanna hang …"

"No!" Rachel cried. She took a breath to collect herself. "What did you have in mind?"

"Movies," the larger girl responded. "I was thinking that new thriller or horror, whatever, flick."

"I love horror movies," Rachel confessed. "Though they are admittedly more enjoyable when you have someone to hold on to during the more frightening moments."

Lauren rolled her eyes but reluctantly smiled. "You can hold on to me if you get scared, Berry. I'm probably more of a man than anyone you've ever dated."

"I dated Noah last year," Rachel pointed out.

"First, that was, like, for thirteen seconds. And second, you dated Noah; Puck is the real man."

The short diva laughed but didn't disagree. "So, Friday or Saturday?"

"Friday," Zizes answered. "I have a wrestling match on Saturday."

"Excellent. I'll see you tomorrow. I have to get to piano."

"Later, Berry," Lauren responded before pulling out her cell phone and sending a simple text that read "it's on".

"Dude. Let's hit the movies up on Friday."

"You askin' me on a date, Puck?" Finn asked with a furrowed brow as the two practiced their chest passes.

"Screw you," the boy with the mohawk retorted with a scowl as he passed the ball back (with a little too much force). "I got me a whole lotta badass woman. I don't need a sissy chick like you."

"Insulting me isn't a good way to get into my pants," Finn grinned cheekily. "We're not all Lauren Zizes." He paused then, a confused frown crossing his face. "Why don't you go with her?"

"Wrestling match on Saturday and she doesn't go out the night before. Something about her game face," Puck shrugged. "'Sides it's much more badass to watch a movie about hot chicks with your best bud."

"What hot chicks?" Finn asked with interest as he snapped the ball back.

"Meester. Kelly. That movie about the roommate chicks. I bet we get some tits, at least," Puck offered as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Less gossip, more game, ladies," Coach Beiste said as she passed by them, hands clasped behind her back.

"Yes, Coach," the chorused. When she was gone, Finn smiled. "I'm in."

You have no idea, Puck thought with an internal smirk.

"D'ya think it's gonna work?" Puck asked her later that afternoon.

Puck and Lauren were at her house, on the enclosed back deck. It was a lazy Thursday and Puck really didn't feel like doing his homework. (When did he ever?)

She was leaning back against the wall that connected to the house, legs extended in front of her and a small, old radio in her hands. She had the back panel off and was fiddling with some wires in an attempt to get it to work. He was reclined beside her, head on her thigh, fingers absently plucking at the strings of his guitar to a melody neither knew. "Thanks for doin' this for me."

"It's gonna blow up in your face," she told him seriously, eyes narrowed at the inside of the radio. "They're both gonna be pissed at you."

"Not just me, babe," he said with a grin as he tiled his head back to look up at her. "You're in it too."

"A reluctant accomplice."

"Reluctant enough to ask Rachel before I asked Finn," he scoffed.

She sighed and said, "I honestly don't care. I'm only doing this so you'll shut up about it."

"You're such a liar," Puck snorted. "Just admit Berry's grown on you and you want her to be happy or some shit."

Lauren snorted herself before putting down the radio and absently running her fingers through his 'hawk. "I just think it might be a bad idea. I mean, Rachel's happy right now. Happier than I've seen her since right after that creepy music teacher Mr. Ryerson got fired for feeling up that sexually-ambiguous dude. I just think we should leave well enough alone."

"She'll be happier when they get back together," he said seriously. "Honest truthful I know my boy and I know m- that girl. They ain't them if they ain't together."

"I resent that you think a woman can't be happy without a man."

"S'not what I'm sayin', babe," Puck responded with a heavy sigh as he placed his guitar on the floor beside him. "I'm just sayin' now that Finn has his shit with Q sorted and Rachel knows she doesn't need him, they can be a super awesome couple. Like us," he added as he tilted his head back and grinned at his girlfriend.

"You're lucky you're kinda hot," she responded before shoving him off her lap and standing. "Want some dinner?"

"Hell yeah, baby!" he said with a wide grin before getting up off the floor and following her into the house.

"I'm really glad we decided to do this, Lauren," Rachel said as she and her friend stood in line to buy tickets. "It's nice, just hanging out with a friend."

"Yeah," Lauren responded, eyes on her cell phone as she texted to Puck saying the line was long but he'd better get his ass there because she would probably kill herself if she had to spend the entire movie alone with Berry.

He responded that he got the tickets on Fandango and would be there just before the previews.

The girls were there twenty minutes early because Rachel Berry didn't know how to be late.

"Hello. Two for The Roommate, please." She watched as the cashier put in their ticket order. "I've hear the movie is very frightening."

"Mmm-hmm," the cashier hummed.

"Did you see it?"

"Sixteen dollars, please."

"Oh, of course," Rachel responded as she reached into her purse and pulled out a twenty. She handed it to the cashier and turned to Lauren. "I've got it."

Lauren shrugged and continued to text Puck.

"Thank you very much," the small brunette said as she took the tickets and her change. She stuffed the four dollars into the can for The Jimmy Fund and then headed towards the concession stand. "I wonder if they have any Sour Patch Kids."

"They do," Lauren said confidently.

"Good," Rachel replied as they stood in line. "I don't know why I want them though," she added with a furrowed brow. "I've never really been one for sour things."

"Who knows?" the larger girl said absently, fingers tapping away at her cell phone.

The two girls ordered their treats and headed into the theater, taking a seat in the middle of the middle row. It wasn't very crowded, but they were far from the only ones in the theater. It looked like they were the only same-gender pair there, however, and they were being stared at by the kids who had gotten someone older to purchase their tickets and by an odd elderly couple in leather jackets and ripped jeans.

The girls sat in a companionable silence, Rachel sipping on her water and picking at her Sour Patch Kids every now and then. Just as the commercials before the previews were coming on she heard Lauren say in a flat voice, "Oh look. Puckerman and Hudson. What a coincidence."

Rachel's head snapped up and her eyes met those of a stunned Finn Hudson.

"Rachel?" he asked, eyes wide. He opened his mouth to speak again but stopped when his candy fell out of his hand. When her eyes followed the plastic package she saw that they were Sour Patch Kids. She immediately stuffed her own into her purse. Now she remembered why she started liking them; Finn loved them.

"I-I …" she started, eyes turning to Lauren and Puck for a second before her eyes snapped back to Finn's. "Hello, Finn."

"Hey," he responded. "You're, uh, here."

"I am," she nodded. "So, um, so are you. With – with Puck."

"And you're with Lauren."

"Yeah."

"Beat it, Berry," Puck said sternly. "I wanna get my mac on with my girl."

"But …" Rachel said, brow furrowed.

"You too, Hudson," Lauren added.

"But we …"

"Bye," Puck said with a little grin before plopping down in the seat next to his girlfriend and turning to press his lips to hers.

Lauren rolled her eyes but complied with his silent request.

"Awkward …" Finn said, eyes glue to the kissing couple. He thought it was kind of like a bloody car wreck – it felt wrong to watch but he just couldn't look away.

Rachel bent over to pick up her purse and slid it over her shoulder before she lifted her sweater and draped it over her arm. "I'll just … I'll go and, um, come back to pick you up," Rachel said to Lauren.

Zizes broke her kiss with Puck and was about to answer when Finn said, "Don't go."

"What?" Rachel asked.

"We're friends, right?" he shrugged. At her nod, he continued. "So let's be friends and watch the movie together."

She stared at him skeptically but nodded and left the row, moving to find other seats, closer to the front so she wouldn't have to watch Puck and Lauren making out. She was all for them both finding love, as unconventional a couple as they were, but she didn't want to see them in their private moment regardless of how public they were making them.

When Finn and Rachel found a pair of seats they slowly sat down, Finn on the end so he could stretch his long legs into the aisle if necessary.

"You didn't get any snacks?" he asked as the previews ended.

Rachel smiled tentatively and pulled her Sour Patch Kids from her bag. She was pretty glad the lights were down so he couldn't see her blush.

"Always knew I would convert you," he grinned before ripping open his own bag and digging in.

They made it half way through the movie before something really scared Rachel and she turned into Finn without thinking. Her fingers grasped onto the fabric covering his abdomen and shoulder, face buried in the tiny space between his arm and his side. She let out a little squeak and whimper and burrowed as deep as she could.

"Uhh, Rach," Finn chuckled a few moments later, entirely too amused by her antics. "I think it's safe to look now."

Slowly she unclenched her fists and pulled away. Her cheeks were stained with a bright blush and her hair was slightly static-y from her cardigan as she looked up at him. "Sorry."

"S'okay," he smiled. "You got scared."

"Perhaps this movie wasn't a good one for me to see in the theater. I probably should have waited to be able to watch it in the comfort of my own home where my screams would likely fall on deaf ears."

Finn smiled again before bringing his arm around her shoulders and tugging her closer. "You can hide you face on me," he told her. "That what friends are for, right?"

"Right," she nodded surely. "Exactly. I would be doing the same thing with Lauren had you and Puck not arrived."

They both turned back to watch the movie.

"When did you stop calling him Noah?" Finn asked about twenty minutes later, after a few more Rachel squeaks and episodes of her hiding her face in his armpit. (He was never gladder that he remembered putting on deodorant. It would have been really embarrassing if he hadn't.)

"What?" she asked as she lifted her head from his shoulder.

Huh. He hadn't noticed she was sitting like that. Felt natural.

She must have noticed their positions too because she straightened slightly and look at him.

"I asked when he became Puck to you."

She was quiet for a moment, eyes trained on her lap. Finn was nervous about the answer. Was she going to say they had sex and he left right after? (Which would have been a very Puck thing to do. He thought that if that was the case, he was going to have to beat the shit out of his best friend. Sure, he and Rachel weren't together but that just wasn't cool. Rachel wasn't one to just "give it up" and if Puck had taken her virginity and then walked out her, Finn would be sure to make him understand exactly how not okay that was.)

"The moment I asked him to help me cheat on you and he did," she whispered. "Because Noah would have known it was wrong and wouldn't have done it." She shrugged one shoulder and turned back to the screen, shifting until she wasn't touching him anymore. "Puck kissed me. Noah stopped it." She took a small sip from her water. "But Noah waited too long and let me go too far. So it's like he wasn't there at all."

"How far did you go?"

"Just kissing," she answered honestly. "Noah … Puck … he stopped it before it could go any further."

"Would it have?" Finn asked in a shaky voice, wondering if he really wanted to know the answer.

"No," she said immediately. "I wanted – want – to be in love when I do it for the first time."

He stopped himself from asking her why she didn't have sex with him when she told him she loved him almost every day.

When the next scary part came on and she gasped and turned away from him he decided he wasn't a fan of that, of her turning her back on him. Her not turning to him for comfort during the movie kind of opened his eyes to the fact that she didn't turn to him for much of anything anymore. Sure, they were friends. But she didn't ask him for help getting the group together in glee – she and Mercedes formed some kind of crazy diva power duo thing and basically whipped everyone into shape during each rehearsal. She didn't ask him for help with her free throws in gym class – she got Mike or Sam to help her out. She didn't even ask him what he thought of her outfits anymore – she had Kurt on speed dial and looked dressed to impress, even in her animal sweaters and knee highs, every day.

He realized, in that moment, that she didn't really need him at all anymore.

And he didn't like that at all.

"Here," he whispered as he gripped her opposite shoulder and pulled her back towards his body. "Use me. I'll …" he cleared his throat. "I'll protect you."

"From the movie?" she asked with a tiny grin, though she leaned into him nonetheless, her right hand reaching across her body to fist his shirt once more.

"From anything," he said quietly, eyes trained on the screen so he didn't have to see the look on her face.

She didn't react and he was kind of glad for it. He didn't know if he would be able to explain the mixed emotions coursing though him. Quinn had mentioned something (before that stopped doing whatever it was that they did) about Rachel moving on and Finn was happy about it; he was happy for her. He meant what he said about her being better than anyone in the school and that he thought she was right for wanting to be alone for a while. It had led to a pretty awesome friendship with his brother and Mercedes, had brought back the girl who would fight anyone for a solo, had brought back the girl who would take a slushie to the face and keep her chin up.

Had brought back the girl who was going to leave Lima in her dust and take New York, and the world, by storm.

But he thought it felt kinda shitty that she was doing it all without him by her side.

He figured it was time he man up and do something about it.

"Need a ride home?"

"Lauren drove," she whispered. "And it's probably not a good idea anyway. Daddy's home and he probably wouldn't be thrilled if I left with Lauren and came home with you."

"Why not?"

She turned her head and looked up at him, wondering if she should tell him why. When his eyes were so open an honest, she couldn't help but whisper, "I told him what I did. How I kissed Puck and how you broke up with me. Regardless of that, he thinks you broke my heart and, you know, Daddy can be kind of …"

"Violent?"

"Aggressive," she corrected with a frown. "So I don't … I don't want him to think you're going to try to get some sick revenge on me for what I did. Like bring me home and be nice to me and then break my heart."

"You said he thinks I broke your heart already. Did I?"

"I think I did that well enough on my own," she whispered sadly. "You weren't wrong in breaking up with me, Finn."

"I wasn't?" he asked in confusion.

"No," she shook her head. "What I did was wrong and there had to be consequences." Her eyes moved to the screen at the moment something truly frightening happened. She gasped loudly and turned into Finn, fingers digging into his abdomen, eyes clenched shut and her face pressed deeply into his chest.

Finn tightened his hold on her, his hand absently running up and down her back.

He promised himself as soon as the movie was over he would tell her that yes, what she did had consequences. But every punishment, self-imposed or not, had to come to an end eventually.

And he wanted to end hers. He wanted to support her and protect her. He wanted to know that, at the end of the day, no matter how good or bad it was, he could share it with her.

He wanted her, plain and simple. And he would do whatever it took to get her back.

Because he didn't like not being needed by her.

Puck grinned from his position next to his girlfriend, his arm around her shoulders. "You totally have to reward me if this works out."

She snorted. "Yeah, you can still be my boyfriend if Hudson and Berry get it together."

"If they don't?" he asked fearfully.

She just smirked and stuffed a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

"C'mon, Hudson. Nut up and get the job done," he whispered.

When the movie ended, Finn reluctantly removed his arm from around her shoulders. He was about to ask her if maybe she wanted to hang out or something the next day when she grabbed her sweater and purse and moved past him into the aisle.

She stopped when she was beside his seat and smiled down at him, "Thanks for protecting me, Finn."

He knew she wasn't flirting, not intentionally, but he could help but flirt back a little. "Anytime, Rach. It's one of the advantages of being so big."

She smiled again and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. She opened her mouth to say something when she saw Lauren and Puck enter the aisle near the back of the theater and head for the doors. "Lauren!" she called. "Wait for me."

"Sorry, Berry. I need some alone time with my man. Hudson can take you home or whatever."

"I … But … I …"

"It's okay, Rach," Finn said with a smile as he placed his (large) hand on the (tiny) small of her back. "I'll get you home safe."

"You're so cheesy," she said with a smile and a shake of her head. "But thank you. You've been a real hero tonight, Finn."

He just grinned and guided her up the aisle towards the back of the theater.

He knew when he got home tonight he would be Googling songs with "hero" in the title so he could sing one to her in glee club on Monday.

Because he did want to be her hero.

Every day for the rest of forever, if he had any say in it.

.xo.

Huge thanks to my best pal tjcrowfoot for basically telling me to nut up and finish this thing.

I'm a total Luck shipper now, btw, so get used to that pairing showing up a lot.