A little bit of Finchel family Halloween fluff. :)
October 29th, 2027
"But Mommy, I wanna wear my princess costume for Halloween," Roxanne whined in Rachel's ear as she helped make sure her dress was hemmed properly.
Rachel plastered on a smile, trying to hide her frustration at her six year old's constant whining since she got home from school. "Princess Leia is a princess, sweetie."
Roxanne did not look amused. "I mean my real princess costume!" she threw back in an exasperated tone.
"I know sweetie, but Daddy picked Star Wars for the group costume this year for the school party. You'll get to wear your Rapunzel costume on Sunday when we go trick-or-treating with Uncle Puck and Aunt Anjali."
Roxy stomped her foot and crossed her arms over her chest. "But I wanna wear my pretty princess costume today! This costume is boring and I don't even get a lifesaver!"
Rachel chuckled as she sat back on her heels to look her daughter in the face. "They're called lightsabers, baby. And you get to carry a phaser!"
"Blasphemy!" a deep menacing voice called out from the doorway. Both Rachel and Roxy turned to look at the hulking Darth Vader standing there, looking terribly out of place in the pink and puppy covered room. "They are not called phasers! They are blasters! We are not going as Star Trek characters!"
Rachel cocked an eyebrow at Vader before looking back at Roxy. "My mistake. You get to carry a blaster." She rolled her eyes and stood up being careful not to trip on her long Queen Padmé Amidala costume.
Darth Vader stepped forward and found Roxy's head, feeling around for her honey buns. "Oh, my young Padawan, you look adorable."
Roxy groaned and looked up at Vader in annoyance. "Daddy, you're weird." Without another word, she walked away from her parents to leave her room.
"Roxanne, wait," he called out to her. She turned around impatiently. Vader took three deep breaths. "Roxanne, I am your father."
"Can I go now?" she asked with a slight attitude.
"Go ahead." She turned around and stalked out of her room. "May the force be with you!" Vader called out to his daughter's retreating form.
Rachel giggled and wrapped her arms around Vader's waist. "She's got a point. You are a little bit of a weirdo."
"Hey, hey…that's Darth Weirdo to you." Vader chuckled and leaned forward to give Rachel a kiss. "Now give Daddy some sugar."
Rachel burst out laughing at him. "You are such a cheeseball. And I would but it's kind of hard to see your lips under all that plastic."
"Oh, yeah," Vader said before pulling the helmet off his head and revealing his helmet hair.
"I love when you have helmet hair." Rachel ran her fingers through it and pulled his face down to kiss him, getting a little bit of her lipstick on his mouth. "Sorry, this stuff comes off so easily." She wiped his lips with her thumb. "You look really good in your costume."
Finn smiled at her. "Thanks. So do you. I know Roxy hates hers but she looks cute in it. Like a real mini-Leia and Kurt made the boys look awesome too."
"Where are they?" Rachel asked with a little concern. She was still in super over-protective mother mode as opposed to the usual over-protective mother mode as Ian was barely a month old and Kurt was still getting used to being around newborn babies as their surrogate had just given birth about three weeks prior.
"Kurt and Blaine are with them. Don't worry. Ian isn't even awake right now, Zach is in his playpen chewing on Liam's t-rex and Liam is having a lightsaber duel with Blaine. They're all fine, babe. I think Kurt's girlish screams would be an indication that something was wrong." He rubbed his hands up and down Rachel's arms reassuringly.
"I'm sorry. I know I need to relax. Kurt is still just so new to being a parent and I worry. Ian is just so little still and so fragile."
Finn leaned down to look right in Rachel's eyes. "You realize he's got two kids of his own who are even smaller and younger than Ian right? It's not like Kurt's the homeless guy who lives in the alley near your theatre asking to babysit in exchange for a six-pack."
"I know that. It's just anxiety." She patted Finn's chest control panel. "Now let's go see how cute our little Jedi and teddy bear are."
"He's an ewok, Rachel, an ewok, specifically Wicket. There are no teddy bears in Star Wars."
Rachel just shook her head and gripped Finn's hand and pulled him out of Roxy's room and downstairs to the nursery. Her face lit up when she walked in and saw Blaine lightsaber dueling with her two year old who was red in the face from giggling so hard. Roxy was seated in the rocking chair holding a squirming Zachary dressed like the cutest baby Yoda she'd ever seen while Kurt was putting the Wicket hood on her sleeping newborn. Bartie and Ella were fast asleep in their seats and dressed like the cutest little pumpkins.
"You look so cute!" Rachel squealed as she walked further into the room and took Ian from Kurt.
"Thank you, I worked very hard on my costume," Kurt replied with his Kurt chuckle as he looked down at his Kingly ensemble.
Rachel took in his costume and smiled sweetly at him. "I was actually talking about all the kids, but your costume is very nice too Kurt. You look like royalty." She patted him on the shoulder but his face still fell slightly. Blaine came up next to him and clapped him on the shoulder. He was dressed like a knight.
"Are we all ready now? The party at school has to be starting soon, right Finn?" Everyone turned to Finn who was adjusting his control panel.
"What? Oh, yeah, it starts at six but I need to be there by at least five-thirty to make sure my room is set up for the trick-or-treating. It's completely Star Wars themed," Finn explained with excitement.
"I just need to make sure the diaper bag is stocked up if you want to start getting the kids in their coats." Rachel carried Ian over to his crib and laid him down while checking the bag. Finn took care of Zach who Roxy had handed to him while Liam began whacking him in the legs with his lightsaber.
"Dada, I wan play!" Liam yelled at Finn who was ignoring his hits to keep from dropping Zach.
"Liam, we'll play later. We're gonna go to the party now. You gotta get your coat on, buddy."
"Play, now!" he screamed loudly causing Ian to wake up and start crying. Zach, feeling totally left out, decided to throw his own screams into the mix and began crying too which did nothing to keep Bartie and Ella asleep.
"Oh my gosh, babies are so annoying!" Roxy screeched as she ran out of the room and back upstairs to her pink and puppy covered sanctuary. She would wait until the small ones stopped their screeching cries to even attempt venturing back downstairs.
It took nearly 20 minutes to get all four babies to stop crying but finally all the Hudsons were in their car heading toward the school for the Halloween party. This was Finn's favorite event that the school threw every year because of the costume contest. Ever since Roxy had been born and he and Rachel had enough family members to enter in the Best Group Costume category, they had won. It was a title Finn enjoyed having because it was something that his entire family worked together on to win. This year he planned on winning again with their awesome Star Wars theme and he was not going to let anyone sneak in from under them and take it.
When they arrived to the school everyone followed Finn to his room and was pleasantly surprised with the level of craftsmanship to the decorations. The room was done up to look like the room Han Solo was frozen in carbonite in.
"Wow Finn. I didn't know you were this into Halloween," Blaine commented as he walked in and looked around in awe.
"Finn takes the contest very seriously. This is his equivalent of the Tony's every year." Rachel chuckled as she lifted Ian out of the stroller and cradled him to her body as he was beginning to get fussy again.
"Daddy, can I go to the gym and see if any of my friends are here yet?" Roxy asked. She was bored and needed to get away before Ian could start crying again.
"Hey Blaine, do you think you could escort her to the gym for me? I don't need her wandering off," Finn asked.
"Yeah, sure. Come on Honey Buns, show me the gym."
Blaine and Roxy left the group and Finn, Kurt, Rachel and the babies stayed behind. At six o'clock, they decided to finally make their presence known and head into the gym where the bulk of the activities would be held.
"Well, if it isn't the Dark Father himself," a familiar woman's voice called from the punch bowl as Finn and Rachel walked over to it. "And his Queen. Nice costume choice, Finn."
"Thank you Abby," Finn replied through his Vader helmet. "Where's Frankenstein?" He noted that she was dressed as his bride.
"He's currently in the bounce house with Lily," Abby replied. "And who do we have down here?" Abby bent down to look at the babies in the stroller and Liam in Rachel's arms. "We got a little Luke Skywalker and Yoda. Oh my God, is that Ian?"
"Yes, Ian's a little Wicket." Rachel beamed at her baby as Abby went a little crazy over how cute he was.
"I've only seen the pictures Finn has showed me of the little guy. He's so cute!" Abby exclaimed. Ian just stared at her like she was insane which wasn't far off with the way she was dressed. She made googly eyes at him and used the baby talk voice until Frankenstein showed up looking tired already.
"'Sup man? Nice costume!" he said to Finn.
"Thanks, man. I like yours too, Jason."
"Whoa! Even got a voice changer! Nice. There's no way Harrison is going to beat you."
Finn ripped his helmet off quickly and tucked it under his arm. "What's Harrison here as?"
"His family came as the Addams Family. I saw them in the locker room earlier."
This really displeased Finn. He couldn't let Harrison win his event! The guy was a dick and for some reason had hated Finn ever since they first met. The rivalry had started out simple enough. At first it was over coffee in the teacher's lounge. It was a courtesy that the person who finished the pot would make another one. No one had a problem with this rule except for Harrison and when Finn mentioned it to him after entering the lounge and seeing that the pot was being emptied and not replaced for the fifth time by him, Harrison got in Finn's face and said it wasn't his job to make coffee. From there the rivalry escalated.
Harrison would belittle Finn's work on a daily basis saying that the arts were not as important as sports, he would accidentally spill his food on Finn, steal his favorite chair in the teacher's lounge and Finn could handle all this stuff to begin with. He would just focus on his work and the kids and leave Harrison at work when he came home for the night choosing to focus instead on being a dad and husband. Unfortunately, Harrison started to get more personal with his jibes after Rachel came to visit him with Roxy and Liam just after he was born.
They had been in the lounge showing Liam off when Harrison came in, took one look at him and called him an 'ugly baby'. Finn nearly flipped his chair over and knocked the douchebag out until Rachel intervened and got him to calm down. With two kids in the house they couldn't afford for Finn to go to jail for assault. Harrison just laughed at Finn who was turning red, trying not to beat the shit out of the guy.
Harrison could insult Finn all he wanted but call his baby ugly and you were looking to get a beat down. He seethed all day and from then on it was war. Hudson versus Harrison and there was no way Finn was going to let him win.
On top of that, Harrison had the balls to try to take Finn's title from him for Best Group Costume. For the past three years they had been in competition for it but the Hudsons had always come out victorious and it really stuck in Harrison's craw. This year was going to be no different. Finn would not let him win.
"You're missing one though," Jason said, breaking Finn out of his anti-Harrison thoughts.
"What?"
"Where's Leia? I'm assuming that's who Roxy is dressed as."
Finn nodded. "Yeah, she's around here somewhere with my brother-in-law." He glanced around the gym until his gaze caught on Gomez Addams. He narrowed his eyes as his jaw set and his nostrils flared. "Harrison…" he gritted out.
Rachel turned around to see him too and was just as annoyed. She wasn't as hardcore about the rivalry between her husband and the gym teacher but she couldn't stand Harrison. He brought out a monster in Finn that she didn't particularly care for and he had insulted her child. Who calls a baby ugly?
"Finn, calm down. We're going to win this. Star Wars is way more popular than the Addams Family," Rachel said, trying to calm her reddening husband down. She ran her hand up and down Finn's arm comfortingly before turning his face so she could look him in the eye. "Finn, relax."
He just smiled tightly at her and slammed his helmet back down on his head. "I'm going to find Roxanne."
With that Finn stalked off leaving Rachel, Abby and Jason behind. "Men…" Rachel scoffed.
"Tell me about it," Abby replied while Jason rolled his eyes.
Finn wandered through the crowd looking for Blaine or his daughter. Throngs of children were amassed in the gym playing Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin, bobbing for apples, doing other arts and crafts and going through Zombie Training 101, etc. Finally he was able to spot Blaine popping out from behind a prop bush and scaring a bunch of little kids in the Monster Make-A-Scene. Then Roxy came out and shot him with her blaster, killing the monster and saving the town. Finn smiled at how cute Roxy was as she celebrated while Blaine dramatically fell to the floor 'dead'.
When their scene was over, Blaine and Roxy walked off the little stage and Finn scooped her up, pulling his helmet off to give her a kiss on the cheek. "You did it, Roxy! You saved the town!"
"Daddy, can we do a scene together?"
"Maybe later, Roxy doll. Right now we need to go find Mommy though so we can sign up for the costume contest."
They slowly made their way through the screaming children back to the bleachers where Rachel, Kurt, Abby and the kids were sitting. Finn put Roxy down and she and Blaine had just begun relaying their monster scene to the group when Finn's least favorite person spoke from behind him.
"Well, Hudson, I see you're going for Best Group Costume again."
Finn turned around slowly trying to compose himself. "Yes, Harrison, we are and like usual, we will be winning." He smiled smugly at him and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Ha, doubt it. My family will be taking home that honor tonight."
Finn scoffed. "You came as the Addams Family. That will never beat Star Wars. Everyone loves Star Wars, it's a classic."
"The Addams Family is more classic than Star Wars! And you've got a bunch of babies in your group, literally!" Harrison stuck his hand out and pointed to the boys.
"Yeah, because they're my kids. There's no age limit for the group costume, Harrison and my kids always look adorable in their costumes."
"Your kids aren't as cute as my kids."
"My kids are way cuter than your kids and I have four of them! You only have two!"
"So? At least mine can walk!"
"Your kids are nine and eleven! My wife just had two babies in one year!"
Rachel, Kurt and Abby watched the two men bicker back and forth about who would be winning and why. "They're acting like squirrels fighting over a nut," Abby whispered to Rachel who thought it was a weird analogy but agreed nonetheless. She stood up ready to break the pissing contest up until Harrison's next words made her freeze.
"Well at least my kids don't have you and your wife's ugly mugs."
Now Rachel was pissed. "Excuse me? How dare you? My husband is a thousand times more attractive than you and I'm a MILF, as I've been told by numerous fans of mine and our friend Noah, and my children are fucking adorable! So you better step off and get back to your family before I beat you with my husband's lightsaber and if you ever speak like that to me or my husband again, I will make it my mission to destroy you, capeesh?"
Harrison looked at little scared as the tiny woman yelled at him but quickly composed himself. "I'll see you at the results, Hudson." Harrison turned away and left Rachel steaming behind him.
Finn had a growing smirk on his face as Rachel turned around to face him haughtily. "That man is a real piece of work."
"You seemed to handle him pretty well. Your Italian even surfaced." Finn pulled Rachel in for a hug and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "I love you."
"I love you too and I love winning so let's go sign up for this contest and kick Harrison's ass all the way back to Staten Island." Rachel giggled as she left Finn's embrace and picked Liam up while Finn grabbed the stroller. "Come on family, there's fun to be had!"
Over the course of the next two hours, Roxy had succeeded in picking out seven apples while bobbing for them, Liam had been deemed the gayest Luke Skywalker ever by Kurt as he had dumped purple glitter and gold stars all over himself at the Make A Mummy table, they had a family caricature portrait drawn of them, Roxy and Finn made a monster scene with Finn as a werewolf and Roxy keeping him as her puppy and little Zach and Ian stole all the ladies of the teacher lounge's hearts with their chubby little faces and costumes.
Then the event of the night arrived and it was time for the moment of truth. The Hudsons stood at one end of the stage while the Harrisons stood at the other end out in the audience. Every so often Finn and Harrison would toss evil glances at one another while the winners of other categories got called until finally Best Group Costume: Faculty was the next one up.
"If we could have the contestants up on stage please," Mr. George, the principal said into the mic. Finn took Zach and Ian out of the stroller while Rachel held on to Liam and ushered Roxy up the stairs. Two other faculty members had entered with their families as well but their costumes were nowhere near as good as the Hudsons.
"This year for Best Group Costume: Faculty we have Mr. Ungermeyer and his family as the Power Rangers, Mr. Harrison and his family as the Addams Family, Mrs. Harlow and her family as characters from Shrek and Mr. Hudson and his family as characters from Star Wars."
The audience clapped and everyone waited eagerly for the result.
"And the winner is…"
Finn closed his eyes and prayed that if they couldn't win that at least Harrison wouldn't. He would be humiliated if the students of Wilson thought that Mr. Harrison had a better costume than he did. Finn couldn't be sure, but he was under the impression that most of the kids at school didn't care for Harrison either.
"Mr. Hudson and family!"
"Yes!" Darth Vader's voice yelled loudly startling the babies Finn was holding in his arms. He handed Zach off to Rachel and ripped his helmet off his head. A huge smile was spread across his face and he dropped his helmet and lifted an un-amused Ian up, dancing around with him.
The way Finn was acting, Rachel would have thought he'd won the lottery or an Oscar or something. She loved that an event like winning a costume contest with his family brought such joy to Finn's life. Rachel smiled at her husband who was elated at winning and was currently making their kids giggle before suggesting they take the celebrating to Finn's classroom as the final part of the night, trick-or-treating, would be starting immediately after the contest was over.
On the way off stage, Finn glanced at Harrison who was not pleased with the way the voting had gone down and was talking to Mr. George about how he believed the results had been rigged. Kurt and Blaine met them at his classroom, their twins sleeping away soundly despite the noise.
"Apparently everyone thought your kids were cuter," Kurt said with a chuckle as they walked in victorious with their ribbon stating they were first.
"That's because they are," Finn stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I'm so excited for candy!" Roxy bellowed when she poked her head out of the room and saw kids grouped together getting ready to trick-or-treat. "Mommy, can Uncle Blaine and Uncle Kurt take me and Liam around this year?" She bounced on her toes in excitement.
"Did you ask Uncle Blaine and Uncle Kurt if they could take you?"
Roxy ran over to Blaine and Kurt. "Uncle Kurt, Uncle Blaine, can you take me and Liam around the school for trick-or-treating this year?" She looked up at them with the same puppy dog eyes Finn would use whenever he tried to get Kurt to do something he didn't want to do and they had no choice but to give in. The kid was just too cute.
"Sure Little Princess, we'd love to take you around," Blaine accepted, putting his arm out for Roxy to take.
She smiled brightly at her uncles. "Thank you, Uncle Blaine and Uncle Kurt!"
"Well, grab your pumpkin bucket and I'll grab Mr. Sparkles." Kurt picked Liam up off the floor and grabbed his bucket too.
"Candy now?" he asked Kurt with excitement.
"Yep, candy time. And guess what? You can eat as much as you want of it tonight because you'll be Mommy and Daddy's sugar problem!" Liam clapped happily as he thought about chocolate. Kurt turned to Rachel. "If they wake up, there are bottles and diapers in their diaper bag," he said motioning to his sleeping infants.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Roxy squealed, taking Blaine's hand and dragging him out of the room. "Bye Mommy, bye Daddy!" She waved to her parents and disappeared out of the room until she ducked her head back in the doorframe. "Daddy?"
"Yes, baby doll?"
"Save me some Reese's. They're my favorite and you ate them all last time!"
Rachel just laughed at her daughter's indignation. "I'll make sure Daddy doesn't eat them all. Go have fun trick-or-treating."
She left again and Rachel crossed the room to Finn. "Will we be celebrating our victory later tonight?" she asked rather suggestively.
"Don't we always?" Finn cocked an eyebrow at her.
"When we're not being interrupted."
Finn pulled Rachel against him. "Thanks for doing this with me every year. I know it's not the Tony's or Grammy's but it's important to me."
"That's why I do it. I love you and I know it makes you happy and of course I will support you. Plus it's always nice to see the sour look on Harrison's face when he loses." Finn laughed before placing a kiss on Rachel's lips. "I love you so much, Finn."
"I love you too, Rach." He kissed her once more. "We should turn the fog machine on and the lights off. We'll be getting kids soon."
"Let me just make sure the babies are taken care of first."
Rachel and Finn busied themselves with their tasks and five minutes later their first trick-or-treaters arrived. They walked into the set and found Darth Vader and Amidala by the candy bowl.
"Mr. Hudson, your costume is so cool!" one of the boys said as he stuck his hand in the large bowl of candy.
"Thank you, Andy," Vader replied. "Hey! Save some for the rest of the school! Don't make me use the force on you."
Andy put a few pieces back and thanked him for the candy. "Thanks Mr. Hudson! Happy Halloween!" Andy and a few other kids called back to him before leaving the dark room.
Finn and Rachel waved at them with their own calls of Happy Halloween for a happy Halloween it was indeed.
Happy Halloween everyone!