Author's note: So this is Spartie heading off to LA set after S4 graduation. For the record Sam is gay and Artie and Puck are bi in this story. Hope you enjoy reading!

This is dedicated to Jo and Liz my partners in crime and instigators of my insanity 3

It was going to be a warm day in Lima. The morning sun slid over the sleepy Sunday, soaking every ordinary morning thing until it shone with newness and promise.

This was a beginning.

Or… this could have just been how every morning looked and he was just never awake this early to see it – Artie really wasn't sure. He closed his curtains on the scene, wondering why he'd missed out on so many of these fabulous sunrises before. A dull, tired ache behind his eyes answered his question almost immediately. Suddenly exhausted, he slammed his head down on the window sill as he side-eyed his alarm clock where the luminous reminder of this ridiculous hour was blaring at him.

5:15am.

He wasn't sure he'd ever seen those numbers on a clock before.

With a dramatic sigh, he pulled on some travel-friendly clothes and swung open his curtains one last time. His opening scene was still spread out in front of him so he could resume projecting his nostalgia onto the landscape. Today was the day he was going to leave Lima far behind. It was the day he'd start his new life. So he was totally allowed to get all melancholy and thoughtful and hum dramatic movie soundtrack music to himself as imaginary opening credits popped up subtly in the bottom of the frame.

But before he could start scripting the voice over and attributing flashbacks to important items around his room, one half of the dual force propelling him into his future burst his door open.

"Hurry up," his friend Sam urged flatly. His frame took up most of Artie's doorway, which was nice because the light that leaked in from the hallway way too bright and Artie was on the verge of hissing and hiding behind a cape.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," Artie deadpanned with disdain.

Earlier that morning, Puck felt a cool breeze on his head. There was a dim light shining through his eyelids but he rolled over, trying to ignore it. A quiet hand accompanied the breeze in his hair and another landed on his shoulder. As he leaned in to the touch there was a whisper of his name. He considered opening his eyes for what seemed like a really, really long time. Weighing up the pros and cons, he decided to roll over even further and get back to his dream. It was about him baking muffins with Hugh Jackman after they'd wrestled a crocodile. He'd leave the muffins part out when he told Sam and Artie about his dream, though.

The warm hands left him and he went to open his eyes to find out where they'd gone. He could only just make out Sam's shit-eating grin above him before he was shoved off his bed and into a blanket-y pile on the floor.

"Dude," was all Puck could make out. He tried to give Sam a look that told him he had never hated another person in his life more than he hated Sam in this moment. But Sam had his back to him already.

"Dude," Puck breathed scoldingly then rolled over, trying to see if he could catch a few more moments sleep in his blanket-y pile while Sam's back was turned.

But Sam was rummaging through his drawers and throwing clothes at him. "Get dressed," he said. "There's food for you downstairs if you hurry."

Food.

Puck groped at the clothes and tried to sit up.

"You've packed, haven't you?" Sam asked, now leaning on the doorway. He looked impatient.

"Of course," Puck said. He then whistled in disapproval, holding up the clothes Sam had thrown at him. "That shirt with those shoes?"

Not even a chuckle.

Puck wasn't sure how to respond to Sam like this. He tried another joke. "Dude, sometimes I wish you were more like Sassy Gay Friend. He wouldn't let me go out dressed like this."

Sam's mouth was drawn into an unimpressed line. "You'll just have to put up ordinary gay friend," he said irritably, turning on his heel.

"Whoa wait, dude," Puck hastily pulled on his shirt and some pants and followed Sam out. "What's with the cold shoulder?"

Sam kept walking until Puck pulled him by the arm, making him turn and face him. "Are you OK?"

Sam's expression and drawn out hesitation told Puck that he was not. He mumbled a lame excuse, avoiding Puck's gaze. Something about it being early and staying up packing. Puck knew there was more to it, but Sam looked so uncomfortable that he let it go (for now) and tried to be pleasant and civil.

Tried.

But he needed litres of coffee before he could manage such a thing so he wolfed down the omelette, blessing Sam for making him food. Like really, wow. What a bitchin' best friend. He poked his head into his little sister Sarah's room to ruffle her hair in goodbye and then went to give a hug to his mom. She kept her hand on his cheek and gave him one of those happy-sad mom looks.

"Be safe," she said.

After giving her a peck on the cheek, he ducked out.

"I need coffee," he moaned to Sam as soon as they got out the front door, bags in tow, ready to begin the short walk to Artie's house where they would begin their journey to LA.

Sam sighed, checking his watch anxiously even though they had literally no deadlines. Well, we said we wanted to be in Chicago for lunch but when even is lunch it could be 12 it could be like 4 and what if we see cool shit on the way? Puck was concerned, but hoping that coffee would cure everything.

He dragged Sam into the nearest open-at-5am-so-it's-almost-guaranteed-to-be-terrible take-away coffee joint and bought them two of the largest cups of coffee they'd ever seen. Each. Then he bought a huge slice of carrot cake. He had a few mouthfuls and then told Sam he didn't like it (he loved it) and that Sam should finish it (Puck would go on to have mixed feelings about this for days) because Sam loves cake but never buys it for himself because he's 'healthy' or some shit.

Sam had an I-want-it-but-I-don't-want-to-want-it look on his face as Puck shoved it across the table to him.

"It's carrot cake dude," Puck insisted. "There's like nuts and stuff in it as well. This is basically a salad. But baked."

Sam smiled properly for the first time that morning. "Ok," he gave in.

And the two got to work finished their awful coffees and wonderful cake (well, Puck didn't have any and he had an internal I Dreamed a Dream montage of him eating the cake going on in his mind) in silence before stumbling along to Artie's house and the start of their journey.

An hour or so earlier, Sam's own alarm clock had sounded. Sam, unlike his friends, was usually a morning person. Many a time had he braved the dawn hours for a jog, to finish some last minute homework after a late shift at work, or just to get to synchronised swimming practice on time. This was nothing new.

Normally, he'd get up easily. He'd do a couple of jumping jacks, some push ups, make himself a decent breakfast and leap out the door to embrace the day. Even when he was down (especially when he was down), Sam always tried to make the effort to start the day in the best way possible. That way there'd be a better chance of the rest of it going well.

Today, however, Sam didn't budge from his bed for a good ten minutes. He stared at the ceiling where the glow in the dark astronomy stickers that Stacy and Stevie had got him for Christmas stared back at him. Their glow was fading in the beginnings of morning light. Sam tried to name all the constellations and planets like he had many times before. It was how he calmed down. And judging by the sick feeling in his stomach, the pounding of his heart and his shortness of breath, he really needed calming down.

We're starting new life so far away with so little support and so much opportunity to fail.

The average galaxy contains 40 billion stars. Most stars are as big as or bigger than the sun.

Puck's already been to LA and Artie's good at everything he tries. He knows about movies and TV and he's so fucking talented. They both are. And then there's me.

The light that comes from the Sun is actually 30,000 years old and only half a billionth of it reaches Earth.

My parents won't be getting any money from me and if anything happens with dad's job again it's going to be even harder than before…

If you compare the sizes of the sun and the earth it's like comparing a basketball and a mosquito. And humans are like mosquitos (or smaller) to the Earth's basketball.

I am so fucking scared.

But before he could drown that one out, his snooze button went off. Sam sat up and crawled out of bed, did a couple of push ups and jogged on the spot. Made an omelette. Stopped to reconsider. Made another omelette because only food would get Puck out of bed at this hour. Congratulated self on being a great fucking friend. Went to wake up Stevie and Stacy. Hugs and kisses, promises of letters and emails and tickets to red carpet events. A few tears. From all of them. A brief goodbye to his parents, who were used to letting him go and had gotten good at pretending it didn't still hurt. And vice versa.

And then Sam strolled out the door, luggage towing heavily behind him.

This was a beginning.

And he was so fucking scared.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine."

Sam laughed off Artie's scowl.

"I can't think of any reason you made us get up at this time other than you knew it would piss us off," Artie grumbled at the newly arrived Sam, moving to grab his luggage which contained his life for the foreseeable future. Sam, chivalrous as ever, beat him to it. He easily swung the two large suitcases up and strolled out of the room, leaving Artie charmed as he always was at Sam's gestures like this.

"Hey," Sam said defensively, leading Artie down the hall, "At least you got an extra 20 minutes since I picked up Puck first."

"That's cos I'm your favourite," Artie said matter-of-factly.

A faint murmur of "wow gay" came from down the hall, alerting Artie of Puck's presence.

Sam, ignoring Puck, challenged Artie. "Maybe Puck's my favourite and I picked him up first to spend more time with him."

"Them's fighting words," Artie said.

There was another echo of "wow gay" and then a sigh from Puck, who could sense a long-winded bickering session between his two friends that he was too tired to handle right now. "How about we're both his favourite," he suggested diplomatically.

"That could work," Sam agreed.

And it did.

Eventually.

The goodbye at the Abrams household lasted much longer than Sam's or Puck's because 1) Artie was the only one who'd never been away from home for an extended period of time before and 2) Artie's parents were serial worriers and terrified at the idea of their baby, fresh out of high school, heading off to the big city with nothing but a dream and his two idiot friends.

"You can come back any time," Artie's dad insisted while Artie's mom nodded fervently. He hugged Artie lightly and shook hands with Puck and Sam. Then he ushered them to bunch up as he took a series of blurry, thumb-framed photos with Artie's camera.

"Thanks, Dad," Artie smiled as he quickly skimmed through the photos to see if he looked too bad in them and found that he really couldn't tell either way.

His mom gave them each a mother-y kiss on the cheek as she urged, "You don't have to win this time; LA will always be there for you to go back to if things don't work out."

Artie felt Sam, who sat on the arm of Artie's chair, grow tense next to him. There was a sharp inhale of breath and a quiet change in his forcedly polite smile to an uncomfortable grimace as Artie's mom tactfully listed all the ways they could fuck up and still be welcomed home. Puck, who was on Sam's other side and had an arm still slung over him from posing for the photo, noticed too. He gripped Sam's shoulder a little tighter and pulled him a fraction closer. Artie leaned in slightly to Sam so that his shoulder touched Sam's hip. On both counts, it was just a touch. But Sam instantly felt better. Or… not better. But just not so alone.

His shit to deal with was no longer just his shit. It was their shit.

They were in this together now.

This was a beginning.

And as nervous, uneasy, terrified or hesitant they were and would soon be - they would at least never be alone.

So I hope you enjoyed reading! There will be much much more very soon. Up next is the start of the road trip featuring me furiously googling American geography.