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"I don't think I can do this," Finn says, throwing his hands in the air. "You should ask Mike or something."
"Don't be ridiculous," Rachel says. Her fingers dig harder into his shoulder, and it just makes him nervous, so he takes a step back until Rachel gives up and rests her palms on her own hips. "What's wrong?"
"I'm serious," Finn says. "This was a bad idea. I don't know why Mr. Schue thinks anything he can do I can do too, but I can't dance. I just can't."
"That is a preposterous assumption, Finn," Rachel says sharply, "and frankly less courageous than I would have expected from you."
Finn frowns. "Is that a bad thing?"
Rachel sighs a little in a way that sounds like an aborted whimper. It's cute; it makes Finn chuckle.
He tries to focus.
"I've already stepped on your foot three times," he says. "You should probably check your toes, make sure I didn't give you, like, gangrene or something."
"This is protective footwear, Finn; you can step on my feet as many times as you want," Rachel says, stepping closer to Finn. "And I can totally see through your attempt at creating a diversion. I should inform you now that your amateur ploys to shift my focus won't work."
She drags his hand back to her waist and picks up where they left off, and he tries to get back into the right headspace for rehearsing.
It's just waltz. He should be getting the hang of it pretty easily; every Glee number has some choreography, and Finn hasn't messed up too badly before. But that was group stuff and like, step forward around this person then hold this other person's hand, and this is like, serious dancing. He doesn't want to embarrass Rachel in front of other people.
He just feels so huge around her. Like, her waist is so tiny under his hand, and he feels like he's gonna crush her. It's like if Shrek tried to dance with Tinkerbell. He feels heavy and like he's stomping all over the floor while she manages to move in this awesome, determined, graceful way. He could, like, grab her and spin her around and wow, those are so not the kind of thoughts he should be having right now, but the moment he tries to keep a rhythm or follow Rachel's tips, his brain, like, short-circuits and makes his body do weird things. Like step on his own big toe.
"Ouch."
Rachel rolls her eyes. "You're not taking this seriously," she accuses.
"I am!" he says. "That's why I think I should sit this one out. There's no way I'm going to figure this out in less than at least a year. When I signed up for Glee I didn't think there'd be ballroom dancing."
Rachel grins at that; her entire face lights up. She looks really pretty when she's happy. "Isn't it wonderful that Mr. Schuester encourages us to widen our horizons as a glee club? I for one am thrilled those waltzing classes I took when I was nine will finally come in handy."
"Right," Finn sighs. He's not sure why Rachel's so set on dancing with him. He could just sing and let someone else do the stuff that requires limb coordination. But, for some reason, she is, and every time Finn tries to bring it up to anyone other than her, he thinks about how hot she looks when she's all frustrated and flustered and decides he might as well give it another go. It's not like this is a number they're going to compete with.
So he sets his arms and hands the way Rachel taught him to, having to wait only for a split second before Rachel steps into place, and tries again.