A/N: Alright, this one's a T for masturbation and, of course, language. I might have to up this story's rating at some point. I've written ahead quite a bit and some of my stuff is borderline M. Ugh, it's a hard call.

Thanks for sticking around!

Chapter 7

"We better not see anyone we know at this thing," Puck said warily, glaring at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He pulled the hood of his sweatshirt forward so it cast his face in shadow. "We're totally gonna get our asses kicked if anyone recognizes us."

Finn wanted to disagree and tell him it was all going to be fine, but he just couldn't bring himself to lie like that.

Sarah, dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, had insisted that Puck and Finn dress up with her for the Halloween event. But Mrs. Puckerman put the kibosh on them wearing the costumes they'd made for Santana's party. For some reason, she didn't seem to think Finn going dressed as Moses and Puck as Jesus would be quite appropriate for a shopping mall in Ohio.

So they'd spent the last few hours trying to throw together makeshift costumes that didn't look totally gay. For Finn, they'd found an old pair of black pajamas in the bottom of Puck's closet. Then, after ransacking the neighbor's Halloween decorations for a bale of hay, they stuffed the sleeves and ankles with straw. An old black beanie and a piece of rope around the waist finished the look. For Puck, they'd glued his mom's old I Love Lucy wig to the inside of his Cleveland Browns hoodie and a pair of cat ears they'd found in Sarah's dress up box to the outside. With a makeshift tail stapled to his sweatpants, they'd transformed themselves into the most pathetic bootleg versions of the scarecrow and cowardly lion anyone had ever seen.

"This is humiliating," Puck said, tugging a red curl of his 'lion's mane' over his eye and letting it spring back into place.

Finn stepped into the bathroom with him, peering at himself in the mirror. "Yeah, this is pretty bad," he agreed.

"We're in high school. We can't go out like this."

"I don't see a way out of it," said Finn, scratching at his wrist. The hay was getting kind of itchy.

"Let's just tell my mom," said Puck, turning to look up at Finn desperately. "We'll tell her we just can't do it. That it'll be too humiliating. She'll see our costumes and understand our circumstances, won't she?"

Finn shook his head. "I don't think so, dude. I think she'll get the camera and want to take pictures of us actually…"

Deciding they didn't want this memory immortalized on film for the rest of eternity, they headed out. Sarah was all smiles as they made their way down Murdock Avenue towards the mall. Puck had done her hair in braided pigtails, much to Finn's surprise and amazement. ("Well, who d'you think does her hair for school in the mornings?" Puck had snapped defensively.) She was skipping in her red ruby slippers, singing "Follow the Yellow Brick Road," and clutching Puck's old Optimus Prime action figure in her hand. Someone had to be the tinman, after all. The boys trailed behind her, keeping their heads turned away whenever a car drove by. Fortunately, nobody they knew bore witness to Puck in a red wig or Finn shedding little pieces of straw from his sleeves.

At the mall, they took Sarah around to all the different shops where the clerks gave her candy. Some of the older employees even gave Finn and Puck some too, complimenting them on being such sweet older brothers for making precious memories with their little sister.

"I'm not sweet, I'm a badass," Puck spat bitterly, ducking behind an endcap in Sheets 'N Things when a high school aged employee walked by.

After trick-or-treating twice through the entire mall, they took Sarah to the atrium where several craft tables and activity booths had been set up. The place was swarming with dorky parents who were taking far too many 'precious' photos of their dumb kids in Halloween costumes. Finn and Puck hid on the outskirts of the group while Sarah worked her way through the crafts. Finn found it hilarious when Sarah tugged on Puck's arm, insisting his get his face painted with her. Begrudgingly, Puck allowed himself to be pulled over to a pretty young woman who painted whiskers on his cheeks to go with his pathetic lion costume.

Finally, it was late enough that Puck and Finn could drag Sarah away from a game of "Pin the Legs on the Spider" without feeling like complete jerks for cutting her fun short. They steered her out of the mall and walked her to her friend Anna's house, glad to be off babysitting duty. It was half an hour later before they made it back to Puck's, and they were already running late for Santana's party.

"Never. Again." Puck growled, peeling off his hoodie and struggling out of his pants the moment the made it over the threshold. "I'm never getting roped into doing something like that ever again. Now c'mon. We gotta get a move on before all the alcohol's gone."

"Where? At Santana's party? I thought you said her cousin from Fort Wayne was buying?" Finn asked, stripping off the pajamas and shaking the hay out over the garbage. His wrists, ankles and neck were a little red and rashy from the straw.

Finn could see Puck's reflection shaking his head through the bathroom mirror as he scrubbed the face paint off. "She just texted me. He was only able to get her half the stuff he said he'd get."

"Why?"

"Dude got busted by some Hoosier cop for selling alcohol to minors. Can you believe that shit?"

Finn snorted. He actually could believe it. Santana's cousin was an idiot, and like Santana, felt he was above the law. But Finn wouldn't dare say that to Puck. He knew Santana was Puck's best friend after him and insulting her would only piss him off. Secretly, Finn couldn't care less if there was alcohol at this party or not. But he knew enough to pretend to look disappointed anyway.

He heard the shower turn on and Finn stepped into the bathroom, rummaging through the medicine cabinet for some kind of lotion for his itchy skin. He found a bottle of knock-of Aveeno from Walmart. Shrugging, he squirted some into his hands, sighing in relief as he spread it across his neck and wrists.

The bathroom was starting to heat up, and Finn looked down at Puck's discarded pile of clothes and then through the mirror at the shower curtain. His buddy was behind it, buck naked and soapy, and for some reason, that idea was very exciting to Finn. He glared at himself in the foggy mirror, feeling angry and somewhat guilty for having that thought. Seriously, Puck showered all the time after practice at school and Finn never gave two shits about it there, so why was he thinking about it now all of the sudden?

A moment later and the shower shut off, and Finn could see Puck's hand groping around for a towel. He stepped out, dripping wet with the thing tied loosely around his waist. Finn swallowed thickly, staring for slightly longer than he meant to before tearing his eyes away. Puck was looking at him curiously, his head cocked to the side and eyebrows raised. If he noticed Finn staring, he mercifully refrained from commenting.

"Your turn!" He said instead, jerking his head towards the shower as he left the room.

Finn cleared his throat, nodding awkwardly before getting in. He stripped his boxers off and threw them over the curtain rod, turning the water on cold. He stood under the icy jet for a moment, but that did nothing to put out the fire under his skin. As he began shampooing his hair, he shook his head at himself in disgust. Why on earth should he be popping a semi over his best friend? Well, Puck is kind of cute, the more indulgent side of his conscience whispered as he slowly lowered his hand and gripped himself tight. But he's also a dude, and a ladies' man, and definitely not a faggot, insisted the more realistic side angrily.

But eventually the indulgent side won out. He turned the heat up and settled into a rhythm, stroking himself up and down, stuffing the knuckles of his free hand into his mouth to keep from moaning. He pictured Puck in that towel, water droplets dripping down his chest as he looked up at Finn with those big hazel eyes. He imagined what it might be like to kiss him, running his hands across the raspy sides of his head only to tangle them roughly in his mohawk, pulling him in hard. He wondered what it would feel like to have Puck squirming under his hands, sweating and panting and writhing. He bet it would be fun as hell to pin him down and kiss his neck. After all, they always did like to wrestle…this would be like the greatest wrestling match of all time.

All these thoughts were going to his head, and Finn felt himself spiraling out of control. Just as he was getting dangerously close to finding a release, he heard footsteps enter the bathroom. Mortified, he turned away in case Puck decided to poke his head around the curtain like he'd done in the past.

"Dude! What the hell are you doing in there? Beating off? Hurry it up!" Puck shouted.

"I—I'm coming!" Finn called back, his voice oddly strangled. And it was actually the truth. He bit down hard on his knuckles, stars erupting behind his eyes as a rope of cum hit the wall. Breathing hard, he had to hang on to the soap dish to stop himself falling. The pleasure was so intense that for a moment, he forgot to feel ashamed of himself for getting off to the idea of doing questionable things to his best friend.

When he came back to his senses, he did his best to clean the shower wall before shutting the water off and grabbing himself a towel. He stepped out, wearing just the towel and a bemused smile, only to come face to face with a smirking Puck, already dressed in his Jesus costume.

"Had fun?" he asked with a knowing smile.

Finn could feel his cheeks burn but he did his best to play it cool. "Uhh, I guess? If you think taking a shower is fun, then yes I did."

Puck gave him a look that clearly said 'Suuuuuure.' "Alright, whatever, dude. Get dressed."

Five minutes later and Finn was in his Moses costume, looking like a beardless Charlton Heston from The Ten Commandments. Puck was waiting for him by the door, pulling his boots on, a homemade crown of thorns they'd made from vines in the backyard around his head.

"Bro, drink that," he said, gesturing to a can of beer next to him that he'd nicked from his mom's mini-fridge.

Shrugging, Finn picked it up and chugged down half of it. He pulled a face before handing it back to Puck. "I've never seen a Jesus with a mohawk before," he said.

"Shut up! I'm pretty sure Moses wasn't supposed to have a dopey face!" he retorted, grinning as he downed the rest.

"Ah, screw you!"

Laughing about their ridiculously blasphemous costumes, they tossed the empty can on the neighbor's lawn and headed out into the night.