Set after the Rocky Horror episode.
One-shot. Maybe I'll develop into the clearly disordered eating of Sam and how Finn got into it. Who knows.
D/c: Not mine, as per usual. This could happen though! ... In some Glee-verse...
W: Eating Disorder. Bromance? Baby-almost-not-really-there-angst.
Enjoy.
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When Puck came back from Juvvie, he immediately noticed something was up with his bro. Mainly, Finn was at Sam's side like he usually was to Puck. The jewish boy scowled and took an empty seat at the end of the front row and crossed his arms over his chest.
This was the first time he'd seen Finn in weeks and blubber boy barely said hello. Something was not right. Was he mad at him? Puck was going to have to do something about this.
After glee, Puck caught Finn's arm on his way out the door. He was surprised by how cold the boy's skin was.
"Hey, man. What's up?" Puck asked, dragging Finn back into the choir room and closing them in. He watched Finn wave to golden boy that he'd be there in a moment.
"Hey bro. Glad to see you back, but I gotta go." Finn turned back a little, but Puck pulled him back again.
"Hey," he said softer. He tried to look in Finn's eyes, but he was avoiding him. "Seriously, what's up with you? How come you and Abercrombie are suddenly buddy-buddy?"
Puck knew that Finn couldn't lie to save his life, especially not to him. He watched the quarterback's adam's apple bob as he swallowed.
"It's nothing, dude." Puck wasn't going to take that as an answer. He did the only thing he could think of and grabbed Finn by the ear and forced him to look him in the eye. But when he did, he noticed the rings under the boy's eyes and the skin stretched tight over his cheekbones.
"It's not nothing, what's wrong?" Puck was genuinely concerned now.
"Sam's just been there to hang out with while you were gone." Finn knew that wasn't the answer the punk was looking for, but said nothing else. Puck let him go, but stayed right in his space.
"That's not all." It wasn't accusatory, just matter-of-fact. Finn swayed a little on the spot and Puck's heart jumped a bit from nerves. He watched Finn's eyes unfocus and refocus again on Puck's face. "You wanna sit down, man?"
Finn nodded and allowed Puck to nudge him toward the front row of seats. He fell into one of the hard plastic chairs and what little color was left in his face had drained away. Puck kneeled in front of him. He'd been hanging out with cheerleaders for long enough that he recognized what was going on with Finn, as much as he tried to deny it. He also knew that Finn would never mention it unless Puck asked him directly.
"Dude, when did you last eat?" He tried not to get too touchy-feely with his bro, but couldn't help but rest his hand on his best friend's knee.
"Me and Sam had lunch today." His answer was sort of wishy-washy and Puck knew it.
"Tell me what you ate." Puck demanded as gently as he could.
"Sam said we shouldn't eat the school food because it's full of fat and grease and hollow calories." Puck could feel Finn shaking under his hand.
The shorter ran a hand through his mohawk and sighed. He knew from dealing with the Cheerios that this wouldn't be easy, but he never expected a guy to actually be affected by this body image stuff, at least not like this.
"So what have you been eating?" He asks. Finn shrugs.
"Whatever Sam eats. Rice, nuts, carrots." Puck scowled again.
"You hate carrots." He said deadpanned. Finn nodded slightly.
"But Sam says they help you burn calories." His fingers twitched toward his large pockets and he pulled out a water bottle that Puck hadn't seen. He fumbled with the cap for a moment with his massive paw-hands and took a long drink.
"Since when do you care about that shit?" Puck asked, sitting back on his heels and watching the taller boy swish his water bottle around.
Finn was quiet for a moment, simply staring at the plastic bottle. He didn't look up at Puck, but when he finally answered, his voice was soft and rough.
"While you were gone we did Rocky Horror." He answered. Puck watched as his face contorted in that confused look Finn got when he was thinking. "Sam was Rocky. I was Brad. Sam helped me try to get in shape to wear my underwear on stage."
When Finn didn't say anything else, Puck assumed that was the only answer he was going to get. He glanced to the clock. They had to be to football in less than five minutes, but he wasn't anywhere near done talking. By the looks of it, Finn wasn't in any hurry to get up either.
Puck moved to sit beside his friend, but kept his hand on the boy's knee. Finn still stared at the bottle in his hands.
"So you're trying to get in shape?" Puck asked. Finn nodded silently. "So dude, work out with me. Go running. Swim or something. But you can't starve."
The quarterback's body tensed and his grip on the bottle tightened.
"I'm not starving. I'm still eating, just not as much." Finn was getting defensive, Puck had seen it a thousand times. Next he was either going to get violent or break down and confess. Either one was a possibility with the knuckle-head. Time to change tactics and be sensitive; he didn't need his bro mad at him again.
"Are you working out?" He asked, trying not to sound worried. Finn nodded. "Doing what?"
"Weights. Football. Crunches. Whatever Sam does." Puck was getting really tired of hearing Sam's name.
"How often are you guys hitting the gym?" Play it cool Puckerman. Sound smooth...
"Few times a day." Finn answered softly. Puck ground his teeth a little to keep from saying anything to betray his concern.
Finn must have mistaken his silence for confusion because he seemed to feel the need to elaborate.
"Just for now though. I know you're not s'posed to work out so often, but it's just till I lose some of this." He ran a hand over his stomach to show what he meant. But even though Finn was never really scrawny, Puck could tell he'd already lost some of his baby fat. Actually, most of it, from what he could see through his shirt.
"Dude, you look great, but if you lose any more, you're gonna look scary." Puck tried. He felt Finn's phone buzzing through his pocket, but the boy ignored it. It was probably Sam asking why he wasn't at football.
Finn finally looked up and met Puck's eyes and he knew this was either going to be the moment that Finn would tell him everything or shove Puck away and pretend they'd never talked. He did his best to look as neutral as possible, but still caring. He hoped it didn't come off as jackass-ish.
After a tense minute and a half, Finn's eyes started watering. Puck didn't even wait for him to open his mouth, he just pulled his best friend into a hug and held him tight as Finn clung to his shirt.
"I needed you, bro." Finn mumbled against his shoulder and Puck felt a pang of guilt. "You weren't there. What was I supposed to do?"
Puck pulled back a little.
"Finn, did something happen?" He stroked his hand through Finn's hair like he used to when they were kids and Finn was sad because his mom was over-worked and snapped at him. He felt the bones of Finn's shoulders and ribs poking against him and it bothered him. How long had this been going on?
"I fucked up." Finn sniffled. "Please make me better?" Puck never felt worse about getting in trouble than he did right now. If he hadn't left, Finn wouldn't have gotten into this mess.
"Hey, I'll do everything I can, okay?" He promised. Finn nodded against him. "Let's get you home for now, I'll make you some toast. Sound okay?" He asked gently, like he were talking to a child, which, he may as well have been.
Finn nodded again and let Puck pull him up and guide him from the school to his truck.
"I'm sorry." Finn nodded as they drove toward his house. Puck reached over and took Finn's hand.
"Hey, I've got your back, bro." he said with a smile. "Don't forget it."
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I couldn't not write something after re-watching the RH episode. Sam was just begging to be noticed and Finn is clearly easily influenced.
So here you are. Maybe I'll add more, maybe not. I'm kinda on a roll with angsty little one-shots at the moment.
So, Till next time,
-J X