Chapter seven

"Okay that was… better" Sam said after pausing for a moment to find just the right word to describe their latest dance practice. The guys had just completed their final run-through of their strip tease performance. Puck had graciously volunteered his temporary cougar's home for the dance training. The other guys eagerly jumped at his offer since the living room was spacious enough for them to practice and they didn't want to risk one of their parents or siblings walking in on them while they were rehearsing. The fully polished end result would be embarrassing enough, they certainly did not need someone seeing it while they were tripping and messing up the steps.

The guys all stepped out of their end poses and hurried to the outskirts of the room where all the clothing they had thrown off during the rehearsal had fallen. It was a comically bizarre sight. Four grown muscular men wearing glimmering scarlet underwear in a house full of high end artwork and designer furniture. Sam grabbed his water bottle before he put his pants on. The other guys were still embarrassed at the thought of wearing the underwear but it barely registered in Sam's mind anymore, he was just so used to it. He closed his eyes and took an eager swig of water, some of it dripping down and falling onto his bare chest. The drops traveled downward following the curves and indents of his chiseled abs. He absentmindedly wiped it away with his spare hand. He probably should have been paying attention to the fact that he was leisurely half-naked in a stranger's house but he was lost in thought going over the details of their rehearsal. They had already been practicing for the past nine days and it was true they had come a far way but the show was tomorrow and there were still a lot of flaws left. Mike knew all the steps and had the movements down better than Sam did, but whenever he took some of his clothing off he looked stiff, awkward and like he wished he were anywhere else. Sam was infinitely grateful Puck was here, he was not the best dancer but he was the only one who looked like he was having fun and he could joke around with. Puck had the dance down pretty well but hadn't quite mastered the body rolls and timing and if anyone else made a mistake then all bets were off. And then there was Finn… God bless him. He was trying, it was painfully obvious that he was trying. Finn just lumbered through the dance steps, making the wrong moves half the time and bumping into whoever was next to him. Of course, that was nothing compared to his face, which read as a severe mixture of dread, discomfort and constipation. "Well do we want to try that again?" Sam asked tentatively. None of the guys looked at him, which he knew was either because the guys were mentally done at that point or that he was basically naked except for a little pouch and some string.

"Sorry, but I think I need a break" Mike said as he slid on his trousers. He collapsed back into the couch and bent over to rub his heels, which were still store from all the times Finn had stepped on them.

"Yeah, we ran through it at least six times. I think that's enough." Puck stated. Although it was pretty obvious that Puck didn't want to do it anymore since he had opted to throw on his own t-shirt, instead of the dress shirt. He tried to pull down his Ramones' T-shirt a little more but it barely went past the top of his thong. He suddenly became very glad that Mike had closed the curtains or else everyone passing by on the street would get a lovely view of his ass and that show was no longer free.

Finn had already tossed his clothes back on by the time everyone was half-dressed, except for Sam who was still one-tenth of the way dressed. "I could use a bit of a break too. I really think we are really getting a hang of it." Finn said optimistically as all the guys avoided eye contact"I'm just wondering, we still haven't done the full monty. I mean in practices we always just go down to our underwear and we kind of act out the rest. I'm fine not going whole hog for fun but shouldn't we practice?"

"I don't think so" Sam replied. He spun around to answer Finn, turning his back to Puck. Puck winced since while the underwear was skimpy all around, it did do an alright job of covering Sam's groin in the front, it didn't do much for the back. The thong might be alright for Finn and Mike, but it didn't cover a bubble butt like Sam and Puck had. In fact, both of Sam's butt cheeks were hanging out on full display not that Sam seemed to mind. Puck was especially bothered by this not just because his friend's toned ass was directly eye level but because he knew he was just as visible as Sam must be. "People are coming because it is an amateur show. That way when we tear our undies off, it's going to feel electric and exciting. Then the women are going to make it rain on us like crazy."

"Okay" Finn nodded along "I'm going to bathroom. I'm going to change into some underwear that's a little less uncomfortable." He walked gingerly out of the room. The guys all paused and waited until the heard the bathroom door firmly close.

"We got to talk about Finn." Mike whispered as he stood up as he put on his white shirt and began buttoning it up, covering his spectacularly sculpted abs.

"Yeah, the kid's a disaster" Puck murmured angrily under his breath before stepping into his pants.

"He'd be alright if he could just get over his nerves" Sam said.

"Well, how does that happen? The show is tomorrow, he doesn't have a lot of time left to figure it out." Mike asked his voice full of tension.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get him ready." Puck said.

Sam stared at him curiously with his big blue eyes. "Are you sure? That's a lot of work."

Puck nodded to himself "Yeah I can do it. I just need you to do me a favor."

"What?"

"Put some damn clothing on Sam!"

"Why? Does my body intimidate you?" Sam posed dramatically, flexing to highlight his muscled frame.

"Not exactly. One of your balls just popped out."

Sam's hands immediately shot down to readjust himself. "Woops, I thought I was feeling an unusually strong breeze down there." After that Sam quickly threw on all of his clothing without much any complaint. Even he was a little embarrassed by his rogue testicle. He and Mike made a beeline out of the home with all their stuff before they had to deal with Finn's dancing anymore. Puck just heard their cars pull out of the driveway when Finn sauntered back into the living room.

"Did Mike and Sam head out already?" Finn asked curiously.

"Yeah they did. They wanted to rest up for the show." Puck said, quickly thinking on his feet. "Anyway I'm beat from that rehearsal. I was thinking we could order a pizza, drink a little and just chill here."

"Sure" Finn shrugged "a few beers sounds great right about now."

Puck smiled and nodded with as innocent an expression as he could muster. Puck left the room and dialed the pizzeria a few streets over, ordering a large Meat Lover's Pizza. He slid his phone back into his jean pockets and casually looked over his shoulder to check on Finn who was sitting absentmindedly on the couch looking at his phone. Puck quickly stepped over to the thermostat and despite how warm it already was, cranked the dial up about ten more degrees.

A few hours later, the floor around the coach was littered with the discarded pizza box and eight or so empty beer bottles. Finn laughed and reached over for a fifth beer and cracked it open. He had forgotten just how much fun it was to hang out with Puck. It was almost midnight and he had barely even noticed that time had passed at all. The two were just hanging on the couch playing Call of Duty like they used to in high school. Puck slouched back into the seat and tossed his controller down in mock-frustration as he watched his player explode on the screen. Finn was drunk off his ass and he was still beating him handedly.

"Good Game" Finn leaned over and reached his hand over to Puck in a sign of good gamesmanship. Puck slapped the hand away and took another swig out of his bottle. They sat silently for a moment, listening to their own thoughts and the faint hum of the gaming console.

After a few moments, Puck broke the silence sounding like he was speaking off the cuff "So tomorrow's the big night, how are you feeling about it?"

Finn sleepily stared off into the distance in front of him. "I don't know, man… I mean it's fine…I'm ready."

"Wow, don't sound so excited there bud" Puck's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Finn rolled his eyes "Hey! I'm doing it, aren't I?" He shot back defensively.

"Yeah but it's not a bad thing. You are acting like you are going to have your head chopped off tomorrow. We are doing a little dance, that's it. The world isn't ending or anything."

"I know. I know. It's just a little weird for me." Finn murmured "I'm not exactly used to this kind of thing. I mean I know it's dumb but I've always been a little…touchy about my body. This is just a little harder for me than you guys."

Now it was Puck's turn to roll his eyes. He was making a conscientious effort to encourage Finn tonight, but that comment just pissed him off. "You think this is easy for me and Mike. I'm just as used to this as you are."

Finn looked up at Puck and blinked slowly "So are you scared?"

"Hey Puckerman isn't scared of anything" he shot back before softening his tone "I'm just saying I think this type of thing is a little weird no matter how good looking I am."

Finn hung his head low for a moment. He had spent the past two weeks being a nervous wreck and obsessing over how it would go for him, but he never had thought to ask Puck how he was feeling. "Sorry, I didn't even think of that" he muttered guiltily.

"Don't worry about it" Puck waved Finn's concerns aside "I'll be fine…no fan-freaking-tastic. Besides, I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for Glee."

"God, I can't even imagine what Mckinley would be like without Glee." The guys were normally not this open and honest with each other but something about the combination of the night air, nerves and beer were having that effect on them.

"Me neither. So hey I'd do anything for those kids. Never mind, what I have to do." Puck said cockily.

Finn laughed and sat up, starting to feel more awake and full of energy. "Yeah! That's exactly right! I couldn't imagine what it would feel like to fail Mr. Schue and those kids…still a little weird though."

Puck inched forward until he was on the edge of couch cushion. "Nah, I think we are looking at this all the wrong way. I mean we are acting like we are dreary old guys. We are out of high school and in our primes. This is our one chance we can be as young and stupid as we want without looking like immature assholes. We should be running this show not sulking in the corner."

"Hey I never sulked!" Puck shot Finn a dubious look. "Okay, maybe a little. So what do we do?"

"I'll tell you. We should get on that stage and shake ourselves like the hot badasses we are."

"Yay!" Finn interrupted, overflowing with excitement as he shot up "God I feel ready!"

Puck jumped up and slapped him on his back "Atta boy!" he cheered, wondering if this attitude was going to stick or just slip away when Finn's drunkenness wore of. Nah, I got to find a way to make this last til tomorrow.

Finn swayed back and forth as he stuffed his hand into his pocket looking for his keys. "I should head out of here."

"Wow, slow down there bud. It's going to be a little while before you are good to drive. Just chill here and do something to sober up…" Puck let his last suggestion linger in the air.

"Yeah that's probably smart." Finn nodded a little too long, as he swiped a line of sweat of his forehead. "God it's so hot in here."

"yeah, but what are you going to do about it?" Again the last line hung in the air.

Finn breathed heavily and looked around when an idea popped into his head. "Hey can we use the pool?"

Puck fought hard to repress a chuckle as his plan unfolded, luckily Finn was too drunk to catch up on this. "That sounds fantastic. Let's jump in."

"Awesome!" Finn said as he followed Puck out of the living room towards the backyard. "should we grab some of your suits. I mean I've got my briefs on but you…"

"Don't worry about it" Puck quickly blurted out cutting him off, Finn shrugged. Puck walked across the living room and slid the glass door open and stumbled into the yard. Like the rest of the house, the backyard was beautiful with a cement patio, high fences that completely blocked the neighbors from view and Puck's pride and joy, the pool. The pool was sunk deep into the cement and was light up with colored LED lights that rang along the edge of the pool. So even though it was nearly pitch black outside, the yard was illuminated with a faint purple light. Puck peeled his socks of and tossed them into a pile, as Finn admired the pool. By the time he turned around, Puck's shirt was off and atop the pile of clothes. The pool lights flickered across his muscular chest. Finn followed suit, stumbling as he hoped on foot to take his sock off before jumping to his other foot and getting his other sock off. He pulled his shirt over his head and let it fall haphazardly to the ground. Puck stepped out of his jeans as Finn was fumbling with his belt buckle. The purple light reflected and shone on all of the glitter on Puck's underwear. Finn opened his mouth as he took his jeans off, trying to think of a joke to make when before he could think of anything Puck had grabbed the waistband of the g-string and took them off.

"Woah there" Finn blustered as he turned away from his now naked friend.

"What? I can't jump in in that" he gestured towards the discarded thong "I don't want to have to clean up bits of stripper glitter." He said all of this strikingly casual as if his cock wasn't dangling halfway done his thighs.

Finn felt himself blushing, unsure of how to react. He had seen Puck undress and quick glimpses of his body before in the locker room before but that was always brief with both of the guys looking at the ground or pretending it wasn't happening, but this was different. Puck was practically showing himself off and looked like he had just stepped out of some Playgirl Magazine centerfold. Puck stood in front of his friend running his hand through his Mohawk leaving himself totally exposed to Finn and anyone who might be peeking over the fence. It was dark but there was enough light to illuminate all of his features, the carefree look on his face, his muscular arms, chiseled stomach that descended in a perfect V-shape to his crotch and his thick legs. Puck walked past Finn so that his perfectly round ass was in view he stopped just in front of the pool to dip his toe in.

"Ooh that feels nice" he whispered. The pool lights shone against him causing Finn to only see the silhouette of his body and although he had his back turned towards Finn, the tip of Puck's cock could still be seen between his legs. "Well you coming?" he asked innocently to Finn who was awkwardly standing there one foot still in his jeans' pants' leg.

Finn stammered "I di..didn't realize you were going to be going naked."

"Yeah? Is something wrong with that?" Puck asked and without waiting for an answer strode over to the diving board. He climbed on and walked to the edge so he was just above the water. He began lazily bouncing up and down causing his cock to flop around with each jump.

"Puck! Put some clothes on, someone could see you!" Finn attempted to defiantly whisper, but it came out as hoarse shout.

Puck rose both of his arms in exasperation "So what?! God, you sound like an old grandmother you can't have any fun." He promptly dove in headfirst causing a mini-splash that reached Finn who was still standing dumbly on the patio.

"That's not true" Finn said defensively "I have plenty of fun, but jumping in a pool with a naked guy isn't really my idea of a good time."

Puck swam over to the shallow water, as he swam his backside rose to just an inch or so beneath the surface. Once he could stand, he placed his hands over his heart in mock-hurt. "Please you have been a wet blanket all week. Now get your ass and not a damn thing more in this pool."

Finn hesitated and weighed his options, which was especially difficult considering his addled state of mind. He did want to go swimming after all and he didn't want Puck to think he was chickening out on him. Plus, he'd only be naked for a few seconds then he would be covered by the water. Puck was navel-deep in the pool and the water was in fact blurring his body. You couldn't see too many specifics but you could certainly tell that he was naked. Finn began to feel his old boyish enthusiasm rising in himself again as he slipped his thumbs into his waistband preparing to pull his briefs of, but at the last moment he began to hesitate.

"Come on Hudson don't whimp out on me after I gave you that whole spiel on being young and dumb." Puck challenged. Finn smiled and nodded. It was true how many times would he be able to go skinny dipping in some cougar's mcmansion in the middle of a night? So Finn, whose prudishness was incapacitated by his drinking, yanked his briefs to the ground and threw them over his shoulder as Puck let out a little cheer. Finn streaked over to the pool and hastily cannon-balled in. The pool felt like a warm bathtub that completely enveloped his entire body as he sank to the bottom. He let go of his legs and kicked upwards, quickly springing to the surface. He shook his hair sending drops everywhere and took a greedy gasp of air.

"So how does it feel?" Puck inquired as he swam around along on the opposite end of the pool, again his butt breached the water's surface with each stroke.

Finn began laughing despite of himself "I gotta say. It feels pretty nice." He tread water just by the diving board. He suspiciously looked down at himself, suddenly wondering how exposed he was. Beneath the water his chest and legs were a little distorted, but he could still make out his crotch and he was sure Puck could too if he wanted to. Then again he didn't really care at the moment. He closed his eyes and dipped down under the surface letting out a stream of bubbles as he descended. He felt like he was being suspended until he felt the soles of his feet brush the bottom of the floor. He opened his eyes, squinting as the tinge of chlorine stung a little. He felt like he was just gently drifting lost in a lavender-tinted light. He looked down at his naked body. The tepid water was quickly sobering him up. Now that he wasn't stumbling drunk he began to become extremely aware of the fact that he was naked in a pool with his best friend. It occurred to him that he should have felt embarrassed, but he just felt so relaxed. He felt free and young…He felt the need for some air so he kicked off from the pool floor and gradually rose to the surface.

With his first breath of air he let out a laugh that seemed to fill the night air. Puck shot him a quizzical look that was practically asking for an explanation. Finn felt a boyish smile appear on his face "I'm naked" Finn said.

Puck laughed at Finn's enthusiasm and his explanation, which was unnecessary considering the fact that he had just seen his friend's bare ass jump into the pool. "Atta boy! I told you it was no big deal."

"You're right." Finn admitted "I mean I'm NAKED HERE!" Finn's excitement took over him as he shouted the last few words.

I can't believe my plan actually worked Puck smiled Thank God, drunk Finn can be talked into anything. He was just thinking to himself this really couldn't have gone any better when he began to hear some grumbling commotion just over the fence. "What the heck is going on over there?" some senior sounding neighbor just shouted. Puck and Finn looked at each other nervously as their smiles instantly vanished. They instantly rushed over to the edge of the pool, lifted their bare butts out of the water and sprinted towards the house being in no state to fight or talk down the old man. Puck grabbed his clothes as he went, while Finn stumbled and nearly skinned every inch of his skin as he slid on the wet cement. Puck threw the sliding door open as he and Finn barreled through it. They closed the door and rushed over to a room without any large glass panels.

Finn breathed heavily, leaning on the marble kitchen counter for support. He shot Puck a dubious stare "So is that what you had in mind… when you told me we need to do something dumb and stupid?"