It had been nearly 10 months since she last saw him. She almost didn't believe her eyes when she looked across the street from her theatre; she almost thought it was Ben, who she'd broken up with mere weeks after the reunion. She let out a heavy breath and watched as it lingered in the cold mid-March air. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she hugged her coat to her body and mustered up as much courage as she could before carefully crossing the street.

He heard the clacking of heels and immediately turned, sensing a difference in this clacking from all the other heels in New York. His eyes met hers and his lips turned up into the first genuine grin to cover his face in almost six years. As she walked into the coffee shop and approached him, he folded up his newspaper and ran a hand over his head. She sat down across from him and unbuttoned her coat in silence, combing her fingers though her hair.

"Rachel," he breathed out, a smile plastered onto his face. She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and looked up at him through her eyelashes. "Hello, Noah. You… you finally made it back to New York."

Nodding, he looked her up and down (as much as he could above the table). "Yeah, been here for almost three months. I was wondering if I'd ever run into you." She smiled shyly with a shrug. "Well, now you have. Though I suppose it was me who ran into you…" Rolling his eyes, he took another sip of his coffee.

"S'really damn good to see you, Rach. Been thinking about you a lot." Blushing, she ducked her head and wet her lips. "I guess I should admit that I've been thinking about you too. Against my own will, might I add."

He smirked. She can't get me out of her head just as much as I can't get her out of mine. Fuck yeah. "Oh yeah? What have you been thinking about, Rach?" She lifted her head to look at him, one eyebrow raised. "I've been thinking about… just about how much you hurt me, Noah. About how much I've missed you and hated you over the last few years."

"Oh. Shit." He ran a nervous hand over his head, chewing the inside of his cheek. So she's still pissed at me? After almost 6 years? "Fuck Rach, you're still mad at me? Are you ever going to forgive the dumbass kid I used to be?"

Her eyebrows knitted together with a mixture of anger, sadness, and confusion. "Noah, I'm not mad. I guess, not at you, at least. More… mad at myself." He sighed, frowning as he stared down into the black liquid in his mug. "Rachel, you have no reason to be mad at yourself. I'm the fuck-up."

Shaking her head, she tapped lightly on the table to get his attention and make him look up at her. "I'm mad at myself for not going after you. For not giving us a second chance. For waiting so long to even let myself think of you as something more than the terrible boy who broke my heart."

He blinked at her a few times, weighing his options before jerking his chair back and leaning over to cups her cheeks as he laid his lips against hers. Her eyes shot open in shock before she reached up to clutch the back of his neck as she returned the kiss with the same level of passion and need. When he pulled away a few moments later and settled back into his seat, breathlessly, he grinned smugly.

"So Rach… you done with not giving us another chance? Because I'm pretty fuckin' sure that that was something worth going after."

She looked up at him, her cheeks flushed and her chest rising and falling with deep breaths, and smile brightly—the way she used to smile when she got solos in glee club all those years ago.

With a soft, light giggle, she let her gaze land on the table between them. "You know, this doesn't make everything okay." He bites the inside of his cheek and nods slowly.

"Yeah, Rach, I know. But I can make it okay. Give me a chance, and I'll make everything okay."