AN: It's been a little bit over 16 months since I've posted anything, and I guess this mini one-shot here ends my writing hiatus.

Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.

In the three years that she's spent working at McKinley High School, Rachel Berry has only ever parked in one parking spot.

Parking slot S37.

It's always been hers. Everyone knew that. There might not be assigned staff parking, but there had always been an unspoken rule that parking slot S37 belonged to her.

She chose her spot wisely. See, she was smart enough to figure out that that parking slot S37 was simply the best for both her and her car. It had shade from the tree, was reasonably close enough to the parking lot exit, and was far away from student parking. That's the thing about her, Rachel Berry deserves the best. And everyone knew better than to get in the way of Miss Berry, McKinley's drama teacher.

So you can only imagine her surprise when she sees a car parked in her spot before their first staff meeting of the new school year, two weeks before the first day of school.

She assumes it must be a joke - a prank to start off the new school year. So she shakes off rage building up inside of her. It must be Santana Lopez. She's always been the jokester of them all. She'll get her back, she swears to herself as she parks in the spot right next to it: in parking lot S38.

It's weird and wrong parking there, and part of her wants that damn car towed now. But there's nothing she can do about it, not yet.

She sees a new face at the staff meeting, and she's instantly drawn to him.

He's lean, handsome, and boy can she can get used to seeing his face every day at work.

Finn Hudson's his name - the new music teacher. And if she wasn't interested in him before, she certainly is now that she knows he's involved in the arts. She's secretly been after that job for a while, but she can't complain. No one is more dramatic than her.

As soon as the meeting is over, she shoots Santana one last glare, before she heads on over to the new teacher.

"Hello," she greets, standing next to the chair he's currently sitting on, "I'm Rachel Berry, I'm the drama teacher." She quickly admires every feature on his face before she proudly sticks her hand out. She didn't think it was possible for him to look even cuter closer up.

"Oh, hi" he stands up and grabs her hand. "I'm Finn, Finn Hudson, the new music teacher," he smiles, and she doesn't even mind that he towers over her. It's endearing actually, everything about him - the way his thumbs gently rub the back of her hand as he shakes it, the way his smile curves up and off to the side, the way his eyes still find a way to meet hers despite the height difference.

"Well Mr. Hudson, I'm going to need your help this year," she says, turning away to walk over to the staff break room. She smiles when she sees him follow, mentally giving herself a pat on the back. She stops at the coffee machine, preparing to make two.

"Really?" he says behind her, and she shivers when she feels his hand gently on her back. "And what would that be?" he whispers in her ear.

She pours the coffee into two cups, puts some sugar and cream, and she turns around to face him.

"With the fall play. See I've wanted to do a play since I've been here, but Figgins has always turned me down. I can't blame him though, I mean why spend seven dollars to see a play when you can spend it watching the football game, you know? But I was thinking, maybe you and I can team up… we can even turn it into a musical. I happen to be a very talented singer, and I think with the two of us, we can raise enough money to have McKinley's first musical in over five years! What do you say?" she asks, raising her eyebrows. Teaming up would mean spending more time with him, and as a single twenty-seven year old, she definitely wouldn't be opposed to that.

"I'd say… if you want something Rachel Berry, you got to fight for it. So yes, of course I'll help you." he smiles down at her. She hands him over a cup of coffee and he takes a step back before he thanks her.

"Let me walk you to your car," he says, and wow, Finn Hudson really is something else.

Finn Hudson really is something else.

How dare he take her parking spot?! Who does this giant new teacher think he is?!

There she was, walking with him back to the parking spot, blushing whenever he complimented her. Oh she was fool then.

"Oh, what a coincidence!" he exclaimed when she unlocked her car. "We parked right next to each other!"

"You parked there? In slot S37?" she can still recall how her body went numb. No way... no way.

"Well yeah, I guess so," he scratched his head. She still can't erase those cringe-worthy scratches from her head.

"You can't park there," she said bluntly. "No, that's my parking spot. It always has been, ever since I started working here. Now, I'll let it go this one time, but don't you ever park in my parking spot again, got it?" Don't say she never warned him.

"No," he replied.

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, Rach, I have every right to park here just as much as you do. I don't know if you knew this or not, but there isn't assigned parking. Now, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Bye-bye." She still remembers watching in horror as he climb in his car and drove away.

Looking back now, she should have told him off right then and there. Finn Hudson had crossed a line. And now, it's time that she'd teach him a lesson.

She leaves the house early the next morning - forty-five minutes before she normally would. She sighs. The things she does to defend her parking spot. At least she'll get to see the look on Finn's face when he pulls in and sees her in her rightful spot.

She ends up being the one to wear that look.

As it turns out, Finn left even earlier than her. She ends up parking in slot S36.

She glares at him when he knocks on her passenger window.

"Vanilla scone?" he offers, and she unlocks her doors to let him in. How can she resist a vanilla scone?

Since leaving early didn't work out, she devices another plan.

Making sure to avoid using her normal loopy handwriting, he leaves a note in his teacher's mailbox: Please buy new dry-erase markers. Oh and a pack of gold star stickers. Thank you, Principal Figgins.

She hides behind the secretary's desk when she sees him heading towards the teacher's mailboxes.

It isn't until she hears him tell the other teachers he's leaving that she goes out from under the desk and discreetly follows him out into the parking lot, hiding behind cars.

She grins when he pulls out, and she quickly heads on over to her own car and parks in her rightful spot. It's good to be home.

She's leaning on her car thirty minutes later when Finn comes back, and the look on his face when he sees her is priceless.

"I should have known!" he yells when he gets out of his car. He walks up closer to her, and she keeps leaning against her car with her arms crossed. "I mean come on, gold star stickers? I should have known that the note from the woman with gold star vinyl stickers on her car."

She shrugs. "Finn, if you want to win this game, you're going to have to do a lot more than waking up early."

"Fine. You win this round," he smirks, and before she can stop him, he takes one of the gold star stickers and places it right on her cheek.

"Finn!" she shrieks, giving him a playful slap on the chest.

"Rachel!" he mocks right before she aims for another slap. Mentally cursing him for being ever so skillful at dodging her slaps, she stops trying to slap him and grabs his face instead, and pulls it closer to hers.

She smiles at his shocked face. "Do not mess with me, Finn Hudson."

She takes a moment to study his face again, her eyes drawing to his. She can't move. She can't even blink. No, she's too busy sketching the exact shade of his eyes into her mind.

"We should go back, you know, to fix our classrooms up," she hears him say. She nods, and they both take a step back.

"But just so you know, I'm totally going to win the next round," he continues, turning to walk back to the school.

Feeling her cheeks burn up, she places her hand on it, feeling the outline of the sticker there as well.

She's an adult, she reminds herself. Finn is her coworker she repeats over and over again in her head. The same coworker that's after her parking space.

She removes the sticker from her cheek and smiles when she sees it shine in the light.

She places it on the back of her hand instead. Wouldn't want a perfectly good gold star go to waste, right?

"Finn wait up!" she calls out, rushing over towards him. He stops and smiles when she catches up to him. "Could you maybe," she begins, placing her hand on his forearm, "help me set my classroom?"

It's been two weeks into the new school year, and she's still fighting for S37.

Finn has definitely stepped up his game. Putting fake animals there, bribing her with dinner, he's certainly tried it all.

But she's determined. She's won most of her matches through late-night phone calls with him. What Finn doesn't know is that she takes a long nap during the day so that when can stay up well past 12 to talk to him. Finn sleeps in, she gets the parking spot.

Right now they're about neck and neck. She won the spot this morning, but she's positive Finn has something up his sleeve for tomorrow.

Right now though, she's more focused on convincing her boss to finally let her have the fall play she's been wanting for years.

"But there are dozens of students involved in both the music and drama department! How is that fair to them!" She argues, putting on her best 'convincing face.'

"My hands are tied, Rachel," Figgins says, and she shoots him one of her famous Rachel Berry glare. "Unless you can raise three hundred dollars in four weeks to cover up the rest of the expenses, there is not going to be a play."

She stomps out of his office.

How is she supposed to tell her kids that there isn't going to be a play again this year? No, she can't tell them that. She'll just have to work harder.

Finn visits her during lunch.

"Hey Rach," he says warmly, and she's too irritated at the world to even look at him. "How's about we get out here? Grab a quick bite to eat at the mall..."

She huffs at him. It's hard to ignore him when he's smiling at her.

"Come on, we'll be back before the next class starts, I promise," he urges. "Oh, I see now, okay, we can take my car so that your car doesn't have to leave the spot. Please, Rach? It'll be fun," he smiles, poking her. But she snaps.

"You'll know what would be fun?" she starts, "A school musical. That'll be fun. But no, we can't have one. You know why? Because I'm too busy stressing out over my parking spot that I don't even have the time to think about fundraising for it. And you're certainly no help in that aspect. So can you please just give me my spot back so I can focus on more important things?" she spats at him, and she ignores the hurt look on his face because she's just so angry.

"Okay," he starts, standing up. "You're right, you were here first. The spot belongs to you. So… I'll stop. And I… I guess I'll tell my students to help fundraise and all. I'm sorry." He walks away from her, and she pushes away the heavy feeling in her chest and starts brainstorming fundraising ideas.

She comes to school the next morning and sees the spot empty. It isn't until she's closer to the school entrance that she sees Finn's car, parked in slot S15.

Finn ignores her, but she's too stubborn to talk to him anyways.

She doesn't call him anymore. He doesn't take her out for dinner anymore.

The Drama Department has their third bake sale three weeks later.

Their only customers are students from the Music Department.

"So that's forty-five from the bake sale, and sixteen dollars and eighty-one cents from donations for a total of sixty-one dollars… and eighty-one cents," one of her students adds up.

"Only two hundred and thirty-eight dollars and well nineteen cents to go," she sighs.

"But Miss Berry," another student starts, "isn't the deadline in a week?

"Don't worry about guys," she says. "I'll cover the rest up with my own money."

"But Miss Berry!"

"You guys deserve it. I know a lot of you are only here because we had planned on doing a musical, and I'm not going to let a couple hundred bucks get in the way of that. And we'll find a way to pay me back… eventually."

"Three hundred dollars," she declares to Figgins proudly after school that day. "Four days before cutoff date."

"Why, Rachel," he begins. "I'm a little confused as to why you are here."

"Why?" she frowns.

"You've already been cleared to do the play."

"Excuse me?"

"Finn came in yesterday with the money. I presumed he told you that I gave him the all clear. But I can't take more money from you guys. No, no. Three hundred was the deal. Use the extra money for something else."

Finn paid for the play. Finn spent his money for the play.

"I'm sorry… I… I got to go," she tells her boss, standing up to leave in a haste.

She runs to his classroom, but frowns when she sees tries to open the locked door. No, he can't be too far away.

The parking lot.

She hurries to the parking lot, but his car isn't where it was that morning.

She just missed him.

She shakes her head and slumps it down as she heads to her car.

She doesn't even hear the sound of a car running until someone honks at her.

"Rachel Berry," she hears someone yell, and she'd know that voice anywhere.

She turns her head and sees him get out of his car and walk straight to her. Her heart thuds with every step he takes.

"Are you trying to get yourself hit by a car?" he touches her arm. "You're lucky I was following the painfully slow speed limit."

"Why'd you do it?" she asks, looking straight at the floor.

"I don't want to get a speeding ticket-"

"No, why'd you pay for the play?" She takes a deep breath and looks up at him. "Why?"

"Because it's my play too. When we first met, you said that we should team up. And it's important to you, so it became important to me. And when you snapped at me that one day, I realized that I haven't been much of a help. So, I decided to give private music lessons. And you know, it really adds up. And don't worry about paying me back, it's no big deal."

"No," she shakes her head. "No. You don't get to waltz into my life and steal my parking spot just to save the day. No." She pokes his chest. "You can't just be my hero and make me fall for you or make me miss the days when you would steal this parking spot! No, I won't let you do that. Not until I can make you feel the same way about me." She doesn't stop the tears from rolling down her hot cheeks as she walks back to her car.

She hears fast footsteps chase after her before she feel a hand grab hers and spin her around.

She gasps, but she doesn't move. Not even when his hands move to her hips.

She ignores everything else - her angry coworkers that are yelling at Finn to get his car out of the middle of the road, her car that she is less than an inch away from her back, she ignores it all. All she sees is Finn.

His eyes search hers, and she already knows his eyes. She's got it printed in her mind. But this time, it's like he's having her mark it in her heart. And somehow, she knows that she's having him do the same.

His eyes move to her lips, and she isn't sure who moves first, him or her, but before she knows it, their lips are crashing together.

He backs her up against the car against the car she forgot was there, and her hands move to his hair to pull his face closer to hers.

And they continue to kiss right then and there. With his hands on her waist and her back pressed against her car. Right in parking spot S37.

"I've always felt the same way about you, Rach," he whispers when they break apart, pressing her forehead against hers. "Ever since I saw you at our first staff meeting. And when I saw you flare up because I took your parking spot, I knew I had to have you, and I'd do whatever it takes."

"Even steal my parking spot?"

"Oh don't act like you didn't enjoy it."

She kisses him, and she can feel him smile against her lips.

"I actually miss it. You bribing me with dinner, me calling you late at night…" she pouts, and he instantly kisses it away.

"I think I've got a solution."

They begin to carpool.

Sometimes it's him that picks her up, sometimes it's him, but they all end the same way - making out in their parking spot before school starts.

It is better this way, she decides. It saves them gas, it's better for the earth, and it's easier for them to go to dinner after a long rehearsal for the musical.

By the spring play, they both decide to make life easier for the both of them by just moving in together. Convenience and all.

Two years later, when the new principal decides to have assigned staff parking, Finn gets dips on choosing.

Because Finn Hudson comes before Rachel Hudson.

But Finn convinces Will to let them share a parking spot, and parking slot S37 officially becomes Rachel and Finn Hudson's parking spot.

(Her name goes first, because it technically was her spot first)

AN: Thank you for reading! I might turn this into a collection of mini AU one-shots. We'll see! And if you remember my story, As Endless As Forever, I haven't forgotten about it.

Thanks again!