Puck had insisted that the week before he, Artie and Sam left for LA, they needed a going away party. This was partly because Puck would take any excuse for a party. It was also partly because their friends thought (with good reason) that they were immature idiots who would starve and/or live in filth when left to their own devices. So the chances of the boys being showered with useful crap that they wouldn't ever think to buy for themselves were really high.

So Artie and Sam were totally on board. Because party. And free stuff.

Also they thought they should have a proper goodbye to their friends because, if all went according to plan, they wouldn't be back in Lima for a really, really long time. And they wouldn't be dropping in every other day to give longing looks to past lovers or… to get it on with sophomores ("Yeah, Puck." "Hey! I'm not proud of that either, guys, ok shut up!") because that would be tacky as shit. So goodbyes were definitely in order.

As for The Plan itself, it was something they'd been tossing around hypothetically for ages. They'd all go to LA, write scripts, make movies and make it big together. It didn't seem at all like any sort of reality though... too good to be true, a man can dream and all that.

Anyway, after Sam retook the SATs with Artie's help and actually did quite well, he and Artie were both set on going to college. They told themselves LA could wait. On a dreamy whim, however, they both applied to a couple of colleges in LA. Just in case. Because who knows, right?

So everything changed when they both got accepted.

Sam was to do Music Therapy and Artie got into Film at UCLA. When they caught up with Puck for a late night Minecraft/baking session (Sam spoke for about twenty minutes on how baking was just Minecraft with food blocks and less punching wood, Puck made a penis joke about punching wood and Artie judged them; it was a pretty typical night) they told him the news.

"We're going to LA," Artie and Sam announced together.

Puck beamed at them, then looked thoughtful. "Wait," he said, "Is that 'we' as in you two or we as in all of us?"

Sam and Artie looked at each other. They hadn't thought this far ahead yet, but really… they already knew the answer. They looked back at Puck and said simultaneously, "All of us."

Puck beamed even harder and pulled his two best friends in for an epic hug.

Sam was kind of half expecting they would have one of those high school movie jumping up and down squealing at good news moments. It didn't happen and he was a little disappointed. Next time, he whispered internally.

"This is gonna be the best," Puck said, "I promise."

After much deliberation, Sam and Artie decided to defer their courses for a year so that they could get properly settled into LA and, as Puck kept saying, "establish their brand."

"I'll establish you," Sam retorted lamely after hearing it like twelve times in two minutes.

"Dude, that doesn't even make sense."

"I know. We've established that."

"I fucking hate both of you," Artie groaned.

And then, after a year, depending on how things went, Sam and Artie would head to college in LA they'd all keep living together, working on their projects.

One night when they were scheming in his room, Artie realised there was kind of a gaping hole in their plan. He asked Puck, "So… what'll you do when we're at college?"

And to tell the truth, Puck didn't know. He was glad Sam and Artie deferring their courses for a year meant that they could all work together for a while, and that they weren't leaving him behind yet. It was the 'yet' part that was the problem. But, as a rule, Puck tried to avoid speculating about his future because it nearly always lead to bad thoughts. So he told Artie what he always told himself: "I'll worry about that when it happens."

Artie smiled and, after seeing the falseness in the smile that Puck returned, kind of felt douchy for bringing up the whole college thing at all. Trying to mend the situation, he mentioned that Puck could do some short courses if he wanted to, because he'd totally get in if he applied himself. Artie truly believed that Puck could do anything. And he needed him to know that.

"Nah, dude," Puck said. He was flattered and grateful as always for Artie's relentless urging that he y had potential and was actually worth the effort. It was refreshing and… really great. As he wandered across the room to write something on their evil schemes whiteboard, he gave his friend a friendly clap on the shoulder to show some sort of gratitude. "I'll make my own way… somehow."

Artie understood. Puck never felt the system worked for him so why would he work for the system, Artie thought. He'd go his own way and, hopefully, Artie (and Sam) would be along for the ride.

But before they could properly freak out (in ways good and bad) about all that, it was time for goodbyes. And drinking.

They had the party at Artie's house because Puck's favourite thing to say was "Party at Artie's" ("Jam at Sam's" and "fuck at Puck's" were his other favourites).

Most of the original members of ND showed up because they all just seemed to appear in Lima when people had milestones. Sam, Artie and Puck were unused to their roles as hosts since they usually spent glee parties huddled up in a corner laughing at each other's bad jokes and taking bets on who'd hook up with whom. But they managed to tear themselves away from each other and actually be social since the whole point was that they'd be living together for the foreseeable future and not be seeing these other people.

Pretty soon after the party started Puck tried to locate Jake and Marley so he could talk to his brother and continue his ongoing argument with Marley about whether Marius should have gone for Cosette or Eponine, but he was cornered by Quinn.

She greeted him with the usual winning smile and familiar hug.

He went to say 'hi' and 'how are you' and 'how many life changing hairdos have you had since we last saw each other', but she cut him off with an earnest hand on his shoulder. "I'm so proud of you," she beamed.

Puck would have been taken aback had it been anyone else. But this was Quinn. She was always real with him. No need for bullshit They were properly close and cared sincerely about each other. Puck winced internally in brief anticipation of all the trivial small talk bullshit he'd have to endure with everyone who wasn't Quinn.

He quickly scoffed and gave her a challenging look. "For what? Totally failing LA? And then coming back and doing literally nothing? Pretending to go to college? Being a huge waste of everyone's time?" There was a laugh in his voice but not his eyes.

"You're scared," Quinn said. It wasn't a question.

Puck didn't deny it. There was no point.

Quinn nodded, understanding. "That's ok." She smiled at him again and went on. "And I am proud of you for all of those things. Because you learned. Because you're going to do LA all over again and not take no for an answer. And because you're doing it with people you love."

Puck's gaze drifted over Quinn's shoulder to where Sam and Artie were sitting at the karaoke machine, screaming 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' at each other and he couldn't help but smile. Even if just for a second… before he gave Quinn a deadpan stare and drawled, "Wow, gay."

Quinn rolled her eyes and grinned. "You're an idiot."

Puck flashed her a smirk. "Yeah, but you love it."

Quinn made a face and retorted childishly, "Not as much as you love Sam and Artie. I can see your broner from here."

And the string of insults continued for an embarrassingly long time. It was more than a little concerning that the only two people in the room who were parents were also behaving the most childishly.

Meanwhile, Artie had cornered Mercedes and was quizzing her about all the action in LA.

"On average how much more attractive are LA ladies than Lima ladies?" he asked seriously, sipping a concoction of alcohol mixed with more alcohol and a crapton of sugar and mostly likely more alcohol. He really shouldn't have let Rachel be in charge of the alcohol to be honest. Apparently even after a year in a pretentious New York college her taste hadn't improved.

Mercedes giggled. "I wouldn't know! It's not exactly something I reserve a lot of brain space for."

Artie sighed. "Straight people," he muttered, shaking his head. "Y'all are cray."

Mercedes snorted and gave his arm a light push, which was apparently enough to make him gracefully spill the bright pink drink all over his giant sweater.

"Oh you did not!" Artie gasped, feeling the stickiness seep onto his stomach. Mercedes tried to apologise but she couldn't keep the giggles in. Artie joined in and they soon were scream-laughing so hard that they spilled everything else that was within reach.

Eventually Artie regained his composure and returned to the pressing issue at hand: "No but seriously, how hot are the LA guys?"

Mercedes smirked. "Now that is a good question."

"You totally owe me an ex-boyfriend's number now," he insisted, gesturing wildly to his newly pinked sweater and all the other surfaces that were now covered in pink. "Preferably a newly dumped, needy one. With a nice ass."

"You think I would date someone who didn't have a nice ass?" she sassed.

"You dated Puck," Artie retorted, snapping his fingers in a z formation as she giggled.

"How dare you," Puck had suddenly appeared and was standing over them with a dangerous expression.

"That's kind of creepy," Artie muttered.

"My ass sense was tingling," Puck said. He leapt over the couch that separated them and brandished an air sword at Artie. "Do you dishonour my ass, sir?"

Artie grinned. "I do dishonour your ass, sir."

"Do you dishonour my ass, sir?"

Artie looked at Mercedes. "Is the law on my side if I say aye?"

"What is happening?" she whispered.

"That's as much as I know of the scene," Puck admitted, sheathing his imaginary sword somewhat meekly. But in a moment he had regained his ferocity. "Now, Artie," he took a dramatic step towards Artie and knelt to be at his level. "You have to look me in the eyes and tell me I don't have a great butt."

Artie stared wide-eyed as Puck slowly edged closer and closer towards him.

"Say it," Puck dared. Artie could feel his breath on his face.

A tense moment passed. Puck's face was barely inches away from Artie's, eyes boring into him.

It seemed as if utter silence had engulfed the party. There wasn't a pair of eyes that wasn't fixated on the conflict. Every heartbeat echoed like a drum. Every breath hurricane through the room but still could not quake the tension. This was a mighty battle indeed.

But it soon became too much for poor Artie.

"FINE," Artie cried, defeated, "YOU HAVE A NICE ASS."

Puck took a moment to smirk at Artie before climbing grandly onto the back of the couch. He opened his arms wide and proclaimed, "BALANCE IS ONCE AGAIN RESTORED. ALL IS WELL."

Mercedes was already walking away from them. "I'm suddenly," she began, as she backed off, giving an affected pause, "inexplicably less keen on you two hauling your crazy asses down to LA. Where I live. And will have to see you. Regularly."

"You know you'll love it!" Artie and Puck chimed together.

"No," she whispered, still backing away.

At the other side of the room, Kurt sighed. "Your friends are so weird," Kurt chuckled at Sam who was sitting cross legged on the floor next to him, eyeing his two idiots fondly.

"Says Mr. Boyfriend Pillow," Sam grinned devilishly.

Kurt gasped and immediately turned on Blaine, eyes wide with accusation. "You told him?"

Blaine looked like he wanted to hide. "It just… came up?" he tried.

"It's OK, dude." Sam clapped Kurt on the shoulder and smiled reassuringly. He went on, proclaiming in a dramatic voice and gesturing grandly around the group: "Your secret is safe within the Circle of Gay."

Santana, who had also been sitting next to Kurt and filling her nails, looked around as if she had just realised where she was and who she was sitting with. "Oh wow," she said. "This is so not a thing."

She promptly stalked off to join Unique at the foosball table.

Sam giggled. "That really didn't last long."

Blaine nodded and sang the chorus of 'Rolling in the Deep' under his breath.

"So, Kurt?" Sam began after a moment's silence. "What's it like not being the only gay in the village?"

Kurt looked offended. "I can't believe you just quoted Little Britain without doing the accent."

Sam chuckled and asked again in the accent.

"Much better."

"I'm serious, Kurt," Sam said. "Is it everything we've ever dreamed of or should I not get my hopes up too much?"

Kurt smiled. "I think the best moment for me was when I was on the subway in like… the first couple of days I was there. And I saw this guy; really cute, well dressed, nice smile, you know? And I smiled at him. Not on purpose, it just sort of happened. And I felt sick straight away. Because I still had Lima brain thinking that if I looked at a guy I'd be chased down the street with torches and pitch forks."

The three of them chuckled darkly.

"But he smiled back," Kurt went on. "Like properly smiled. He was totally checking me out. So from then on I kind of started to feel less… afraid."

Sam was smiling widely. "Awesome."

"It's not going to be all sunshine and daisies and rainbows," Kurt said diplomatically. "But it's better than here."

The party went on mostly as expected for the next few hours. The karaoke machine got a real workout and after four loud ballad duets Blaine and Rachel were banned completely. Across the room, Finn and Puck had Joe, Kitty, Sugar and Jake gathered around them cross-legged as they told stories of their… fruitful experiences at college. It looked like a scene from kindergarten if you removed the dubious subject matter. After three slow dance numbers during which they'd eyed each other longingly and after 4 courage shots each, Ryder and Unique were making out in an armchair and Sam owed Tina twenty bucks. After the fifth Michael Jackson song in a row Artie and Mike too were banned from the karaoke machine. And Quinn and Tina conspicuously disappeared together for an hour before returning looking quite dishevelled and Artie owed Santana twenty bucks.

As the party began to wind down Artie suddenly had a brilliant idea. He rolled up to the little pile of presents that had grown at the edge of the room and tried to launch himself at them like a flying fox. Emphasis on the 'tried'. Drunk wobbles had gotten the better of him and he just sort of slid out of his chair cackling. Which was rather fortunate because a pile of appliances wasn't really the softest landing. Sam wasn't together enough to help him back up to the chair so he ended up pulling him onto his lap and the two sat there laughing stupidly loudly until everyone eventually came over.

Puck licked his lips as he approached the pile of presents. "I'll do the honours," he announced, plonking himself firmly on the ground next to Artie and Sam and greedily grabbing the nearest gift.

It was a totally good haul, just as they had expected. Blaine, Mike and Tina had got them a toaster that they had drawn a big cartoon face on in permanent marker. Ryder and Jake put together a road trip mix tape which was actually really sweet and resulted in bro hugs all around. Unique gave Artie a tiara as a reminder that the other two needed to bow to his fabulous self. And she and Marley had got caped superhero socks for the other two. Kurt and Mercedes gave them a compact indoor washing line and like three boxes of washing powder because "yes you need it and no we don't trust you to buy it yourselves and Sam I will not allow you to soil the good name of all that is gay". Rachel gave them autographed pictures of herself because "they'll be worth a lot really soon". Santana, Brittany and Quinn got them a bunch of cookbooks. Santana's was called 'Cook to Bang: The Lay Cook's Guide to Getting Laid'. Brittany's was a basic kids' cookbook which would probably turn out to be extremely useful since the three of them were actually children. And Quinn's was called 'Microwave Gourmet' and had everything from scrambled eggs to full on impressive meals in there.

By then the three of them were pretty emotional about how thoughtful all the gifts were and they really thought they'd had their fill of long, drawn out 'aw's and semi-teary hugs.

The last present wrapped simply in a brown paper bag sat quietly by them. Puck picked it up an read Finn's scribble of a card out to everyone. "To my brothers Artie, Sam and Puck. I owe you everything."

Finn had already turned bright red and was making excuses. "It's totally lame but… I couldn't think of what else to get you."

Sam reached over Artie, who was still sitting in his lap, and punched Finn in the shoulder. "Shut up. We'll like it."

Puck grinned encouragingly as he tore apart the paper bag it was in and out fell a large, black book.

"A book?" Puck groaned.

"It's not a book," Finn mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

Puck opened it up to see a picture of himself and Finn when they were 11 at one of their little league games. Finn still had his stupid long haircut and Puck had freckles.

Puck's breath hitched. "Dude, what is this?" The rest of the party quickly gathered around him to peer over his shoulder and point and laugh.

He kept flicking through as, in the photos, he and Finn evolved from middle schoolers to only slightly more baby faced versions of themselves, in high school. And on the next page the Glee photos started and there was Artie – looking basically the same as he did now and making some gang sign at the camera. Soon Sam's face was popping up in the pictures too. There were about four pages dedicated to the over 300 selfies Sam and Finn had taken with Artie's camera when he hadn't been watching them carefully enough in photography class. There were photos from glee club, football, Artie's various short films they'd all been cast in, 4am Halo tournaments in which they all looked like zombies, and all of the proms and dances and graduations and long nights at Scandals and Breadstix they'd done together.

And after a gratuitous selfie that the four of them had taken just days ago (they were all wearing the same colour t-shirt and thought it was the coolest thing ever), the pages became blank. There was a blue sticky note plastered on the first empty page that simply read: "I guess you'll just have to photoshop me in now. Good luck. You'll be great."

There was a moment of silence. And then an audible sniff. And then another. And another still.

"Finn that is so sweet," Tina wailed through sobs.

Kurt quietly wiped his eyes.

Santana scowled. "Way to make all of our presents look bad, Frankenteen."

Sam went to call her out on crying at everything, but the knot in his own throat told him he'd probably start too if he tried to speak. There was an audible crack in Artie's voice when he said, "Thanks, Finn." Puck remained tight-lipped as he pulled Finn into a tight hug. And before long, the rest of the room had piled in on the hug as well.

"I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH I'M GOING TO DIE," Artie shrieked from the middle of the hug. He was an emotional drunk.

After they broke apart there were insistent yells of, "SPEECH, SPEECH, SPEECH, SPEECH."

But after years of knowing Sam, Artie and Puck they really should have known they had something prepared. And 'something' this time, as always, meant an elaborately choreographed boyband song.

Tonight it was 'As Long As You Love Me' by the Backstreet Boys and although Sam messed up the dance moves more than usual due to his intoxication, all their friends got up and sang and danced and laughed along.

Because it didn't matter who they were, where they were from or what they'd done - as long as they loved each other.

And that was kind of the point, really.

In the next chapter the road trip actually begins hooray! I hope you enjoyed this one!