So I've decided to turn this into a collection of small AU one-shots, with most of them taking place in a different universe. I may occasionally add a one-shot sequel if inspired. Please, let me know if there's anything you'd like to see written!
This is dedicated to my twitter friends, who convinced me to write and publish this. Thank you, Mel, for all the helpful ideas! And of course, this is also dedicated to all of you. May you all have a fun and safe Halloween.
Disclaimer: I do not own a thing.
Halloween meant only two things for Finn Hudson: awesome costumes and awesome candy.
So naturally, he wasn't too angry when Kurt and Puck begged him to babysit their kids on Halloween night so that they could attend Santana's Haunted Halloween Bash.
Not that he'd ever let his brother and his best friend know that. No, Finn made them work for his service.
So now, not only does he get to take his favorite kiddos trick-or-treating, but he also managed to score free drinks at the bar for a month and a brand new Best Uncle Ever coffee mug. Not bad, considering he was planning to skip out on Santana's Party anyways. Partying on Halloween has never really been his thing. Not to mention that this year, he actually needs the candy. He's starting to enforce the whole positive reinforcement thing on his students, and he'd be a fool to pass up free candy. That's the good thing about bringing little Andy and Beth him. No one would give him crap about trick-or-treating. And as for the candy situation, well he's got that covered too.
"Remember, hey! Listen! Remember, that absolutely under no circumstances, is Andy allowed to eat more than five! Five! And if he eats just more, even just one tiny little M&M, I will know. Are we clear, dearest brother?"
"Got it," Finn says mindlessly, taking a sip of coffee from his new mug. Chances are that Kurt will have Andy take home a third of the candy he gets. The other two-thirds are all his - and his students of course.
"Here she is." Finn hears, turning his head to see Quinn standing next to her three-foot-tall four-year-old dressed in a red and white cheerleading outfit, complete with the tight ponytail and pompoms. Resisting the urge to laugh at how Beth is the exact replica of her mother, Finn bites his lip as he watches Beth twirl.
"Look daddy! I really looks like a cheerleader, huh?" Beth smiles, running over to her father's lap. The look of shock on his best friend's face is enough to make Finn snort, which he smoothly covers with a cough.
"You uh… you look beautiful, Beth, but your skirt might be just a little too short, right Quinn?" Puck emphasizes, glaring at his wife.
"Hey," Quinn crosses her arms, raising an eyebrow "your daughter wanted to be a cheerleader this year. And honestly, her skirt isn't too short at all."
"Yeah bro, I think you're thinking of a different skirt, you know, the ones back in high school," Finn winks, earning him a glare from both Quinn and Puck.
"Beth looks great, well you know, besides having too much eye makeup and not enough rhinestones, but hey, that costume is perfect for your daughter," Kurt adds. "Now," he furrows his brow, "where the heck is Blaine with our son! I cannot wait to show you guys his costume for this year. It took several agonizinf days of long, hard thinking, when it finally came to me. This year, Andy is going to be... Lady Gaga!"
"Lady… Gaga?" Finn says while Puck bursts out into laughter. "Are you sure about this bro, I mean it's…. it's Lady Gaga."
"Oh, trust me, when you see little Andy in his costume, you'll understand. It has the perfect balance of simplicity through the colors yet eccentricity through the style. It's exactly what Halloween is all about!"
"Isn't Halloween about monsters and sh… stuff like that," Pucks says, carefully choosing his words in front of his daughter.
"Not anymore. Halloween is really about self-expression; it gives everyone to be who they really are and who they want to be - which probably explains why you and Quinn are going as cavemen this year."
"Says the guy that's going as Richard Simmons!" Puck scoffs while Quinn nods in agreement.
Ignoring their bickering, Finn turns to one of his companions for the evening. "So," he smiles, "what do you think Halloween is all about?"
"Hmm… candy!" Beth declares, running over to sit on her Uncle Finn's lap.
"Candy?! Are you sure about that?"
"Mhm," Beth nods. "And daddy said that you'll get me lots of candy! But…," she pauses, looking left and write before she continues in a whisper. "But… mommy says that I can't eat all the candy I get."
"Really?!" Finn exaggerates, as if he didn't know this already.
"Yeah," she pouts before she smiles up at him. "But it's okay, I'll give the restes to you! Cuz you're my favorest uncle ever!"
"Aww… thank you dear!" Finn kisses her cheek. His heart melts every time these little kids smile at him. Man does he love being an uncle.
"Shhhh! Everyone, he's coming!" Kurt announces, clapping his hands when his son comes into view, wearing a bright blue top hanging across one shoulder complemented with a white glittery strap on the other shoulder and tight, black and shiny pants.
"Doesn't he look great guys?" Kurt asks, hearing nothing in response. Andy's face matches Blaine's.
"Where's the matching Lady Gaga Halloween bag?" Kurt demandes. "It's supposed to be his matching accessory!"
"It ripped," Blaine mumbles, rubbing his son's back.
"It ripped," Kurt repeats. "You mean to say, that the matching bag I spent hours sewing, is ripped?!"
"Oh, would you look at that it's… already 5! Hey, why don't I just quickly buy one so you guys can get going?" Finn interrupts.
"That sounds like a plan. We'll be back no later than two in the morning because I've got church tomorrow," Quinn says. "Now," she directs to her daughter. "Be a good little girl for your Uncle. And remember what I told you, okay?"
"Yes mommy," Beth answers, getting off Finn's lap to give her parents a kiss.
Standing up, Finn walks over to his brother, picking up his nephew into his arms. "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything," he reassures them, leaning closer to Blaine. "I've got his Captain America costume in my closet. As soon as you leave, we'll put it on, buy the new awesome trick-or-treating mega buckets I saw earlier, and start the O.C. O. as soon as possible."
"Thank you," Blaine whispers back as they begin to exit.
"Hey," Puck walks over, turning towards Finn's ear. "Did you finish our map?"
"I did."
"Good. And remember, anything happens to my daughter, and you're dead," Puck ends with a slap on Finn's back. "Hey Andy, take care of little Beth tonight."
"Hey, he's only four months older than me," Beth complains, holding up four fingers.
"I know, but a pretty girl like you needs two protectors," Puck smiles. "Got it, Andy?"
"Got it!"
"Good. Peace bro."
"Have a good time. Be safe!" Finn yells as the front door closes.
"Uncle Finn, do you really haves a Capan Amercas costume for me?"
"Captain America," Finn emphasizes, being the teacher he is. "Your favorite, right? Now, we better get going you dressed so we can start the O.C.O."
"What's O.C.O?" Beth asks.
"O.C.O, my dear, means Operation Candy Optimization. We are going to get the most candy possible in the time we have. Look, your daddy and I even made a map! We'll start off here, at the store close by, and buy your trick-or-treating mega buckets. Then, we'll go the townhouses right next door for an hour. That's where we'll get the most candy in the least amount of time. Then, we walk over to the bigger houses four blocks away. Don't worry, I'll carry both of you. That's where they give those huge candy bars. Then we eat ten pieces of candy each - don't tell your parents - then it's bedtime."
"Are you dressing up too, Uncle Finn?" Andy asks.
"Of course, dude," Finn smiles.
Operation Candy Optimization was about to begin.
He's at the party store buying the candy buckets when he sees her.
She's wearing a gold, sparkly dress with huge feather-like things coming out of her hair, looking so elegant and well, just sunning. He can't help but stare at her, looking so thoroughly at each shelf. And no matter how hard he tries, his eyes don't dare look away, as if they're afraid that if he does, she'll disappear forever.
But he can't talk to her. His feet stay in place, his mouth dries up, and his palms begin to sweat. He's hasn't been this nervous to talk to a woman in forever. Perhaps it's because it's been awhile since the last time he did. Or maybe it's her own fault. It's her fault that she's gorgeous, and that her beauty would exist even without her beautiful costume too. It's her fault that each breath she exhales makes each breath he inhales sharper. It's purely her fault that she has him under some kind of spell, and now he's afraid to talk to her.
"Hey, hey!"
"What!" Finn yells, louder than he intended. He turns to his niece and nephew, only to find them smiling.
"You're staring at her," Beth smirks, similar to that of her father this time. "But it's okay," she adds. "Cuz now she's staring at you too!"
"He was looking at you!" Andy yells to her, making Finn turn red from both his anger and blushes.
"Andy!" Finn yells, covering Andy's mouth while turning around, only to notice that the woman is now heading this way. Panicking, Finn holds up the trick-or-treating bucket in his other hand.
"It's a jack-o-lantern," he says, feeling stupid. He sighs, letting Andy go free from his hand. "I was uh- looking at pumpkins you were buying. They look nice," he spits out, wanting to slap his forehead at how lame he sounds.
"Thank you," she smiles, and if he wasn't paying close attention to her face, Finn would have missed the blush on her face this time.
"So, what you guys this year?" the woman asks.
"I'm a cheerleader!" Beth proclaims, doing her standard twirl.
"I'm Captain America! See, look at my shield." Andy says, holding up his prop. "And he's Superman!" Andy continues, pointing at Finn.
"Really?" she asks, tilting her head slightly. "I don't see his cape."
"That's because I'm Clark Kent right now. With the dress suit and glasses and everything," he manages to reply, thanking his choice of costume. "But I have the Superman S-thing underneath!" he explains, opening the top of his shirts where the top three buttons are to show her.
"I see. Well, you look very nice," she smiles, nodding, and he swears that her smile gets bigger when he smiles back.
"I gotta pee! I gotta pee!" "Me too! Me too!" He hears the two kids yell.
"I should go," she says, giving him one last smile. "It was nice meeting you," she says walking away.
Shaking his head, Finn leads the two kids to the bathroom at the back of the store, thinking of ways that the conservation could have gone better, disappointed in the fact that he didn't get a name, number, nothing.
Halloween wasn't turning out so great after all.
He's still busy thinking about her forty-five minutes later, when they're well into the townhouses part of O.C.O.
He can't even be excited about the amount of candy they've gotten so far because he's too disappointed in himself. He blew it. He really did. In the twenty-nine years that he's been alive, never has he felt so instantly captivated by someone. She could have been the one. Someone to hold at night. Someone to raise children with. Someone to grow old with. He's been thinking about the one a lot lately, and the more he thinks about it, the more he can picture her owning that role. It crazy. He's only really talked to her for about two minutes, after you know, staring at her for ten, but something that powerful has to mean something, right? But there's no point now. Who knows where she is?
He's all alone and… and…shit.
It's only then that he realizes that none of those two kids are with him anymore.
Shit. Shit. Shit!
Panicking, he sprints up and down the street a few times, looking for any signs of pompoms and a shield. Seeing nothing, he goes door-to-door down the street. He's out of breath, but he doesn't care at all. He's been to three of the townhouses already and they've all seen the cheerleader and superhero recently, but who knows if they're his cheerleader and superhero.
He's running to the front door to another townhouse when he hears it.
"BOO!"
Finn's so caught off guard that he his foot gets caught in the mouth of a jack-o-lantern and falls, crushing the jack-o-lantern and wetting his dress pants with pumpkin
juice in the process.
"Andy! Beth!" he yells at them from the floor. "Where were you? What did you let go of my hand!"
"Daddy said to do it," Beth says.
"Yeah. Uncle Puck said to scare you like that cuz it's Halloween."
"Are you mad at us, Uncle Finn" Beth pouts, but it isn't going to work.
"Yes," he says sternly. "Very, very mad." He yanks the crushed pumpkin off his foot before he gets up. "Now we have to apologize. But you will be punished."
"Sorry Uncle Finn," they say in unison as they take his hand and walk to the door.
Finn rings the doorbell, preparing his apology speech, when he nearly drops the pumpkin.
It's her.
"We're sorry we ruined your jack-o-lantern!" Andy and Beth say. "Hey, it's the lady you was staring at!"
"Don't worry about it," she says, and Finn really can't believe that he's inside her house. "You really don't need to do this, your apology was more than enough."
"I want to," he says, placing his hand on her forearm, amazed at feel of her skin on his. "Hey, I ruined your pumpkin, the least I could do is finish carving your other one."
"Thank you," she smiles. "I did the mouth already, I just need the eyes and nose done. I should have done it earlier, but I got stuck at work, and I was lucky enough to make it at the store when I did and oh, I'm rambling again."
"It's totally okay," he grins, taking her 'carving apron' from her. "I like to listen to you talk. I'm interested in everything about you."
Yeah, he's definitely not going to ruin his chances with her this time. The forces of Halloween must have heard his cries and have given him a second chance. There's no way that he's not going to get to know her.
"You know, it's funny," Finn starts. "I'm in your house, wearing your apron, but I don't even know your name."
She giggles. "It's Rachel. Rachel Berry."
"I'm Finn. Finn Hudson." He smiles down at her, and not even a height difference like theirs could stop his eyes from meeting hers. He takes her hand, intending to only shake it, but somehow, their hands become intertwined. Taking it one step forward, he strokes the back of her hand with his thumb.
"Your pants," she says randomly, puzzling him. "Uh, your pants are all dirty. Take them off. I'll personally wash it for you, while you carve my pumpkin. Not that I want you to be uncomfortable, or anything, and you definitely don't have to take anything off, and I'm going to stop talking now."
He smirks at her. "You want my pants off?"
She bites her lips. "Honestly, yes. The pumpkin juice is seeping through and I really just want to wash it."
"Okay, it's coming off," he says, thankful that he's wearing boxers. Funny though, that the apron goes down to the center of his thighs.
"I'm going to be really honest with you, Finn" Rachel says, and for a moment he thinks that he's being way too forward with her. "You make me really nervous. But it's not the bad type of nervous. It's the good type of nervous."
"The good type of nervous?"
"The really good type of nervous."
"Oh. Well, Rachel Berry, you make me really nervous too."
"You don't need to be nervous about me. I'm just Rachel Berry, the overly dramatic woman who was born and raised here, someone who left for New York to be on a Broadway, only to come back ten years later to work at the theater here."
"Well, you don't need to be nervous about me. I'm just Finn Hudson, the dorky guy who was born and raised here, someone who traveled to several states only to find his dream of being a teacher right where he came from."
"So, I guess we since we don't need to be nervous, we can just skip that entire phase out."
"I guess so," he winks.
"I should probably go wash this now" Rachel says. "And you should probably take your kids out of time-out and let them watch some television in the living room. I mean, banning trick-or-treating for the rest of the night is punishment enough, you think?"
"Wait, no, Andy and Beth aren't my kids. I'm their uncle, Uncle Finn. But not by blood. I'm supposed to take them trick-or-treating while their parents are out at a party," Finn quickly replies, wondering how she viewed him when she thought that he was a father.
"Oh. Well, you'd make a great father someday, Finn," Rachel says, walking away from the kitchen. He can't help but to think that she'd make a great mother someday too - alongside of him.
Rachel comes back down fifteen minutes later, telling him how he can pick up his pants tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow with Rachel.
He's finishing carving the pumpkin when she declares that she's making all of them sandwiches, and yeah, he can totally see himself getting used to this.
He continues to stare at her a lot, and every so often she'll catch his eye and do something really cute, like play with her hair, wink at him, lick her lips, and he just really wants to kiss her.
He only really met her, but he's yearning to know the feel of her lips on his, again and again.
While still carving, Finn watches her reach up to get some plates, getting the perfect view of her ass in her gold dress.
Pop.
Crap. Looking down as the pumpkin, he realizes he cut too far and now the nose is a part of one eye.
"Uh, Rachel, I um… I may have ruined the jack-o-lantern."
"No way," she laughs, running over to look at it. "Hmm. Well, it looks scary, that's for sure," she jokes, running her hand up and down his back.
Suddenly, something else overtakes them. Something that's been pushing its way to the forefront.
Rachel's the one that grabs his face, but he's the one that dives in so that their lips meet. Gently, and tenderly at first. But then his arms start go around her back and she pulls him down harder and their kisses become harder, more insistent. The two of them alternate between types of kisses, doing them all, with each kiss just as amazing as the next.
Kissing Rachel is more than his mind could ever describe.
"Uncle Finn!" he hears, and he doesn't want to break apart, but she puts a pause to it anyways.
"I think it's time for some sandwiches," she says, leaving a lingering hand on his face before she pulls away.
The kids fall asleep around nine o'clock on Rachel's couch, giving them time to make-out in the kitchen.
They don't just kiss though.
Sometimes, last-minute trick-or-treaters come by, and since Rachel ran out of candy thirty minutes ago, Finn just put a large bowl of his candy outside for them to take. His students don't need candy anyways.
They talk too.
He never knew he'd be comfortable telling someone so much about him before Rachel. Now, he want Rachel to know everything about him. And he wants to know everything about her.
Like experience in Broadway. She's actually dressed up as Dolly, from Hello Dolly! Because she was Dolly on Broadway. But she's dressed a Barbara Streisand's Dolly from the movie, because Barbara is her idol.
He likes knowing the things that make Rachel who she is.
"Do you think this is going too fast?" he asks her after another intense make-out session.
"Do you?"
"No," he admits. "I like our pace and everything. But, I have to tell you something, and it may scare you off, but I have to tell you."
"You can tell me anything," she reassures him.
"I'm ready to settle down. I want to, you know, get a wife, raise a couple of kids, and have a real family. Andy and Beth, they're my family, but I think I'm ready to have kids of my own in a couple of years. I'm turning thirty soon, and I'm done being by myself. And from the moment I met you, Rachel, I couldn't help but think that you could be that person who makes this all come true. You could be. I want you to be. And if that scares you, I need to know now, before we get any deeper than we already are and-"
She cuts him off with a kiss. "I haven't told anyone this, not even my dads, but the main reason why I came back here was because I too, was ready to settle down. I did everything I could possibly do in New York, but there was something missing. And I knew what it was. Something told me to move back here a couple months ago, and I'm so glad I did. I don't think it's coincidence, Finn. That we're both here at the same place, wanting the same things. We were brought together for a reason, Finn. And I don't know what will happen in the future. But what I do know is that I've only known you for a couple of hours and I've already told you more than some of my closest friends. And I don't care if other think that we're going too fast, because we're not. We're going our pace, the pace that's right for us. And that's a mutual understanding between us. This is real. I know it."
"I know it too. And honestly, it's scary."
"I'm terrified," she admits. "This is the scariest thing I've ever done. Especially on Halloween," she jokes. "But I willing through this, if you are."
"Rachel Berry, you will be my partner in this terrifying road, where others have been doomed before?"
"Only if you make me a better jack-o-lantern next year."
"Deal," he says, lifting her on the kitchen counter, and kissing her hardly.
He ends up going back home around one-thirty in the morning, with two sleeping kids in his arms, wearing only his dress shirt and a blanket wrapped around his waist.
But he'll get his pants, (and the Superman undershirt that Rachel pulled off of him during one of their many make-out sessions) in a couple of hours.
And yeah his friends will probably ask him what happened, but he won't tell them everything just yet. It'll take too long, and besides, they'll meet Rachel face-to-face soon enough.
He doesn't even care that O.C.O was a complete fail. He got something so much better.
"Here we go," Finn hold up for her to see, "another perfect jack-o-lantern four years in a row."
"Can you believe that it's been five years since you ruined two of my pumpkins?" Rachel asks, subconsciously rubbing her slightly protruding stomach.
"Better believe it, Lois Lane," he winks.
"Oh Superman, what would I ever do without you? But I'm a little concerned about Supergirl. Do you think that it was a smart idea for our little three-year-old to go out trick-or-treating with Puck?"
"Babe, she's almost four. Besides, she'll be with Andy and Beth. You know they love her," Finn says, kissing his wife's forehead. "And I love you. And you baby," he whispers to her stomach, giving it a kiss.
"We love you too. Now, how about you just put the bowl of candy outside for the kids and then take your damn pants of whatever superhero thing you've got on. Quickly!"
"Okay, okay," he smirks. "Commencing our fourth annual O.H.: Operation Halloween."
Thank you for reading! Feel free to review!