Fic: Make It Better With You (Glee, Finn/Puck)
Title: Make It Better With You
Pairing: Finn/Puck
Rating: R
Word Count: ~9100
Disclaimer: The characters of Glee do not belong to me, etc etc.
Summary: Missing his best friend, Finn asks Puck out for the evening in the hopes of rekindling their friendship- and gets more than he bargained for.
A/N: Written for the wonderful fandom_gal who very generously donated to the help_nz auction, for which I am very grateful ♥ I may have strayed from the prompt a little, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Kindly betaed by the lovely mintyfiend; all remaining mistakes are mine.
Finn couldn’t help the strut in his step as he walked through the halls of McKinley. As he passed, guys offered him fist bumps and girls giggled and batted their eyelashes in his direction.
No one could deny that Finn Hudson was king again, and the corridors of the school were his castle.
He high-fived Mike as they passed each other, deftly swerved out of the way of Karofsky carrying a very full cherry slushie, and then made a detour to avoid Quinn (because he was having a good day and didn’t need to feel any more guilty than he already did about turning her down when she’d suggested getting back together in the run-up to the Prom).
Finn’s life was going really well and he was trying a new thing where he didn’t worry about girls for awhile. Things were even getting back to normal with Rachel, whose longing smile when he said “Hi,” as he passed her a moment later wasn’t quite as heartbreaking as it used.
He deftly spun the dial on his locker, yanking it open. A couple of love notes fell out, which was totally understandable- who wouldn’t want to date the star quarterback and male lead of the winning Glee Club? Finn shoved them, along with his books, into his backpack because even though he was done with girls for awhile, it was nice to massage the old ego a little every now and again, and to know he could have a girlfriend again, if he wanted one.
Finn shut his locker door and was about to head home (if he hurried, he might be able to sweet talk Mercedes into giving him a ride) when he spotted Puck by his locker and suddenly everything didn’t seem so perfect after all.
Finn’s life was pretty much together, for a change. He had his popularity back (he’d missed it more than he’d admitted) and he had some great friends to share it with. But he still didn’t have his best friend back. Not really. Sure, they’d teamed up every now and again for the good of the Club, but they were still barely friends, let alone best friends.
Mostly Finn pretended he didn’t care. He had other people in his life he could hang out with. More than before he joined New Directions, really, because before that most of the people he’d spent time with weren’t real friends at all. He knew he could see a movie or go to the mall with any of the Glee Club members, if he wanted. But it wasn’t the same as just hanging out with someone who you knew you could completely be yourself with.
He missed Puck, more than he’d ever admit to anyone. He wasn’t even angry about the Quinn thing anymore, and hadn’t been for a long time. It felt like a lifetime ago, and as if everything had happened to a different person. Maybe it had changed Finn, or maybe he would have changed anyway, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care about old girlfriends and sonograms he used to sing to, not anymore. He didn’t want any of those things back in his life. He just wanted his best friend.
He watched Puck lean against the lockers, simultaneously flirting with Lauren Zizes and threatening Jacob Ben Israel. Finn had always admired Puck’s ability to multi-task. He had a familiar expression on his face- half threatening and half adoring and it made Finn’s chest feel weirdly tight and his stomach start to knot. He wished that Puck was looking at him like that again.
Finn was pretty sure it wasn’t normal to miss your friend that much, but knowing that didn’t really help with his problem. He needed to win Puck back, to convince him to be his friend again. Convincing people to do things was Puck’s thing though- after all, he’d talked a hell of a lot of girls into bed.
As if a lightbulb went off above Finn’s head, he knew exactly how to win Puck over. He’d just have to steal a few pages out of Puck’s handbook, the one he used to seduce girls, but using his own brand of Finn Hudson charm. Once he showed Puck what a good time they could be having, once Puck realised what he was missing by not being Finn’s best friend anymore, they’d be best friends again in a heartbeat and everything would be just like it used to be.
It would be easy- Finn had seen Puck’s moves a thousand times. Plus Finn had managed to convince girls to date him after they’d seen him do stupid things. If he combined their techniques...well, Puck was as good as his again.
Feeling like a genius, Finn headed towards Puck.
“Hey man,” he said, trying not to feel too hopeful when Puck’s smile widened when he saw Finn.
Jacob took advantage of Puck’s distraction to scurry off down the hallway, and Lauren followed after him. Puck blew her a kiss as she went and Finn frowned, feeling that odd, tight knot in his stomach again.
“Sup?” Puck said, grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder.
They turned and walked together down the now almost empty hallway.
“Not much,” Finn answered with a shrug. He tried to stay cool, not sure why his palms were suddenly sweaty. He rubbed them on his jeans and glanced over at Puck.
“I was thinking,” he started, then stumbled a little when Puck looked back at him, eyebrow raised and waiting to hear what Finn had to say.
“You got any plans tonight?” Finn blurted out, words tumbling over each other. He felt stupid as soon as he asked it, because it was a Friday night. Of course Puck had plans already.
“Maybe,” Puck said, and Finn’s heart sank. And then,“What did you have in mind?”
Finn fought to keep the happy bounce out of his step. He tried to play it cool, shrugging. “I dunno. I was thinking grab something to eat, then a movie. There’s that new Vin Diesel one out.”
He knew it was unfair, using blackmail to get Puck to spend time with him, but he was worried Puck would say no otherwise. Puck had some weird obsession with Vin Diesel that he wouldn’t really talk about but the suggestion made Puck nod.
“Sounds good,” he said and Finn smiled in relief.
“What about your other plans?” he asked.
Puck made a face. “Whatever. Nothing that can’t be cancelled for y-...for Vin.”
He covered well but Finn was almost certain he was going to say ‘for you’. It gave him hope, that maybe he wasn’t the only one missing his best friend, that maybe Puck felt the same.
“I’ll pick you up at seven,” Finn said and Puck held his fist out for a bump and then walked off, leaving Finn watching after him.
~~~
Finn was nervous as he stood on the Puckerman’s front porch. He pressed the doorbell, and then quickly undid the top button of his shirt, which helped him breathe a little easier. Plus, hopefully, it looked a little more casual.
Mrs Puckerman opened the door, and smiled when she saw him.
“Come in, Finn,” she said, stepping aside so he could enter. “It’s been awhile since I saw you. You’ve grown!”
“Yeah, I guess,” he said, ducking his head and blushing a little. He’d always felt awkward under Mrs P’s gaze- he knew she thought he was a good influence on Puck and he wasn’t entirely sure that was true. He’d spent a lot of time as a kid egging Puck on to do stupid and often dangerous stuff, so he always felt guilty, like Mrs P thought he was someone he wasn’t.
“Noah’s upstairs,” she said, and Finn was already climbing the stairs two at a time when she added, “Why don’t you go on up.”
Puck’s door was ajar, so Finn pushed it open and walked in, finding a shirtless Puck lying on his bed with an Xbox controller in his hand.
“Ready to go?” Finn asked, sitting down beside him like he’d always done.
Puck glanced at him, then did a double take. “You going to a funeral or something?” he asked, pausing his game.
Finn frowned and looked down at himself. He thought he looked nice- he’d put on a clean pair of jeans and his best shirt, the one he’d worn for the wedding.
“You don’t like it?” Finn asked, wishing he’d put something different on. He’d thought dressing up was the way to go- it had always impressed Quinn whenever she was mad at him for something.
Puck shrugged as he rolled off the bed, bending over to rummage through a pile of laundry on the floor. Finn’s eyes followed the curve of his back, the way his muscles moved as he picked a shirt and straightened up. As Finn watched, Puck sniffed the armpit and made a grossed out face. He dropped the shirt back into the pile, grabbing another one. He took a good whiff, and looked like he was weighing up whether the shirt was clean enough. Eventually he shrugged, then tugged it over his head and climbed back on the bed, un-pausing his game.
“We should probably go,” Finn suggested, turning his eyes from Puck to the TV screen.
“What’s the rush?” Puck asked, distracted.
Finn shifted uncomfortably in his seat. This wasn’t how he’d planned the night would start. He’d spent the past two hours getting ready, thinking about stories he could casually bring up that would make Puck remember the fun times they used to have. He’d hoped Puck had been doing the same thing.
Obviously not.
“Uh,” Finn said, reaching up to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. “I booked us a table. At Breadstix.”
Puck turned and stared at him, forgetting to pause the game. On screen, his character died bloody in a rain of bullets.
“You booked us a table,” Puck repeated, looking at Finn like he’d grown a second head or something. He glanced back at the game, then at Finn and nodded.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go then. We wouldn’t want to be late,” he added with a smirk, grabbing his coat and walking out the door.
Outside, Puck stood in the driveway, raising an eyebrow.
“Your mom let you borrow her station wagon?” he asked, and Finn couldn’t blame him for his disbelief. It had been a long time since his mom would trust him with the car, after that incident with the mailman. But he’d begged her, promising to do extra chores and to bring home at least one B, next report card and eventually she’d relented.
“Yup,” Finn said, trying to sound like it was no big deal as he stopped himself from holding the passenger door open for Puck (something else that had always worked well with Quinn- Finn was beginning to realise that maybe the tricks he’d used to win girls over maybe wouldn’t work on Puck at all).
They’d been on the road for barely a minute when Puck sniffed the air, then leaned in closer and sniffed Finn.
“Dude,” Finn exclaimed, taking his eyes off the road long enough to give Puck a weirded out look. “Why do you keep sniffing everything?”
“Are you wearing cologne?” Puck countered and Finn snapped his head forward, concentrating very hard on the road ahead.
“What?” Finn scoffed. “No!”
“You so are.”
“It’s Axe,” Finn lied. “That’s all.”
“Nuh-uh,” Puck said. “I know all the Axe scents. I’m a fucking connoisseur. That isn’t what you’re wearing.”
“Oh,” Finn said. He didn’t want to admit that, yeah, he’d put on a dab of cologne, and then a few more for good luck. Rachel had always liked it- she’d given it to him, in fact- and the scent seemed to make her smile even when she was annoyed with him about something.
Instead of answering, he went for distraction.
“Hey, I made you this CD,” Finn said, pulling it out of his pocket and tossing it to Puck.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Puck slide the CD into the player, then glance at the track list as Love Gun started to play.
“A Jew rock mix,” Puck said, nodding in time to the music. He gave Finn a wide, warm grin. “Thanks, man.”
Finn shrugged, as if it was nothing, as if he hadn’t spent an hour perfecting the order of the songs.
They smiled at each other for a moment, then Puck turned away, closing his eyes and tapping out the beat on the dashboard as he crooned, “No place for hiding, baby. No place to run...”
Finn laughed and joined in.
They sang along the rest of the way to the restaurant.
~~~
The booth Finn had booked was at the far end of the restaurant and it was a little bit darker than he’d expected.
He squinted down at the menu, trying to read in the dim light.
“Hey,” Puck said, sliding something across the table to him. “Check out my new ID. I’ll use it to order us some beers.”
Finn picked up the ID and stared at it, then back up at Puck. “It doesn’t really look like you,” he said, and Puck reached across the table and snatched it back.
“Course it does,” Puck replied. “I mean, sure, my skin’s a bit darker than this guy, and the hair, too, but-”
“That guy’s an albino,” Finn pointed out and Puck rolled his eyes.
“So I used to be albino and then I got a tan. Whatever. Stop being racist against white people,” he said, just as the waitress came over to take their order.
“Can I get you some drinks to start with?” she asked, and Puck turned his million watt smile on her.
“You sure can,” he said easily, flashing his ID briefly at her. “I’ll take a beer. And a soda for the kid,” he added, nodding at Finn.
The waitress, looking amused, reached out and took the ID out of Puck’s hand.
She raised an eyebrow then handed the ID back. “So, two sodas then?” she asked, smirking a little.
Puck sighed, defeated, then changed tactics.
“What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” he asked, and the waitress laughed, ignored him, and asked for their food order.
Finn, flustered and oddly annoyed at Puck’s flirting, pointed randomly at the menu, barely paying attention to what Puck ordered.
Puck watched the waitress walk away and then gave a low whistle. “She’s hot,” he remarked, then glanced over at Finn who couldn’t hide the scowl on his face. “Who got sand in your vagina?” he demanded, and Finn shrugged and looked away.
The night really wasn’t going the way Finn had planned. He wanted to impress Puck, but all Puck seemed interested in doing was getting drunk and hitting on girls. Which, sure, had been a big part of their friendship. But Finn kind of wanted Puck to focus on how awesome Finn was, and what a great best friend he’d been. Which he couldn’t do with people around.
Which was why, when he spotted Tina and Mike walk into the restaurant, he ducked down so they wouldn’t see him.
“What’re you- hey!” Puck followed Finn’s gaze. “They should come sit with us.”
He half stood up, about to wave them over when Finn hissed, “No!”
Puck frowned and sat back down. “Dude, what is your damage? Seriously. It’s just Tina and Mike. They’re cool.”
“I don’t want to hang out with them right now,” Finn said, desperately trying to come up with a reason. “Tina hit on me,” he blurted out, not thinking until after he’d spoken.
Puck stared at him, then leaned in closer, conspiratorially. “Really? What did she do? Was it hot? Was she wearing one of those tasty short goth skirts?”
“No,” Finn said, feeling like the biggest dick in the world for lying. “Nothing happened. I just...I don’t feel like hanging out with them right now.”
Puck nodded. “Gotcha. Always awkward to hang out with a guy whose girl has a thing for...” he trailed off, wincing as he looked at Finn.
Puck gave an awkward laugh and it took Finn a moment to realise what he was talking about. It struck him, for a moment, that maybe it should have been Puck trying to win Finn back, instead of the other way around. After all, Puck was the one who’d fucked things up- literally- and should be begging Finn’s forgiveness. But Finn knew Puck. He knew that Puck wasn’t the kind to slink back with his tail between his legs and admit he’d seriously messed things up. He was much more likely to cut and run, thinking it was easier that way. And Finn didn’t mind, being the one who cared more in their friendship. It had always been that way and probably always would be, if they could get things back on track. He’d forgiven Puck for the thing with Quinn, and the thing with Rachel too. And it had only just occurred to him that maybe, letting Puck know that would be a big step to getting their friendship back to normal.
“It’s cool,” he said, nodding when Puck looked surprise. “Really, it’s fine.”
“We all good?” Puck said, reaching out a hand. Finn hesitated, then clasped it for a minute, clumsily doing the stupid Best Friends Forever handshake they’d made up when they were nine and had promised never to do in public. It seemed like a good idea though, and Puck’s smile seemed wider than it had been before.
It was as if something had changed in the air- Puck was more relaxed, laughing at things Finn said (and not in a mean way) more often. He barely glanced at the waitress when she brought out their food, too intent on adding to Finn’s recount of that time they’d tried to build a go-kart and he’d had to go to hospital for stitches. There was some dispute over how many stitches Puck had gotten- he insisted it was seventeen but Finn was pretty sure it was only nine.
They ate their food and chatted and it was over too soon. Finn glanced at his watch, making sure they had plenty of time to get to the movie theatre and signalled for the check.
“I’ll slip out the back,” Puck said immediately, reaching for his jacket. “You calmly walk out the front, then we hightail it back to your car and peel outta here.”
Finn laughed and shook his head. Puck was joking, he thought. Probably. They’d never done this before, eating somewhere more sophisticated than a burger joint, but he was sure Puck would never run out on a bill. Mostly sure, anyway. And it didn’t matter, really.
“Thanks,” he said, taking the bill from the waitress and reaching for his wallet. “It’s cool,” he added, catching Puck frowning at him. “I’m paying.”
Puck looked surprise. “Damn,” he said with a smirk. “If I’d known that, I’d have ordered dessert.”
~~~
Finn paid for their tickets at the theatre too. Puck didn’t even question, just watched Finn with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Thanks,” he said, taking the ticket Finn handed to him, looking a little puzzled. “I need to take a leak.”
Finn watched Puck walk off towards the nearest bathroom and then moved to stand in line at the concession stand. Even though they’d just eaten and Finn’s stomach kept doing weird flip-flops every time Puck laughed, he desperately needed some milk duds.
By the time Puck returned, Finn was clutching an armful of candy and a couple of drinks.
“Sour patch kids?” Puck asked, snagging a soda and a couple of boxes of candy out of Finn’s arms.
“I remembered you like them,” Finn said, trying to shrug like it wasn’t a big deal and almost upsetting his carefully balanced snacks.
Puck gave him another weird look as they walked towards Screen 3. An employee stopped them as they were about to enter.
“Tickets?” he asked, sounding bored.
Puck handed his over and Finn swore under his breath.
“Uh, mine’s in my pocket,” he said, trying to rearrange his food so he had a free hand.
“I got it,” Puck said, and Finn could move or say anything else he shoved his hand into Finn’s left front pocket.
His hand was in there for less than a second, probably, but it felt like an eternity to Finn as he froze up, not even daring to take a breath.
“Here you go,” Puck said, pulling the ticket out and handing it to the guy like it was the most normal thing in the world to fish things out of his friend’s pocket, hand mere inches from Finn’s junk.
Finn hurried into the darkness of the theatre, grateful that it would hide his embarrassment. His face burned hotly and he was sure his neck and ears were as bright red as his face was.
Puck didn’t seem to notice though, and just led them to a seat.
Finn barely paid attention to the first half of the movie. He was too busy trying to figure out why he’d freaked out so badly, why he’d been so embarrassed. The last time he’d felt that way was when he was worried about fooling around with a girl too much and getting carried away and, well...arriving early. It just didn’t make sense.
Then Puck turned to him, making a low comment in his ear about some dumb thing in the movie and Finn relaxed, barely even noticing when their arms brushed in the brief battle for control of the arm rest between their seats.
In the end they shared it, Puck grinning back at Finn and stealing a handful of twizzlers when he was distracted.
The movie ended up being pretty good. And the night was going much more along the lines Finn had planned for. It was encouraging.
“Well,” Finn said, as they left the movie theatre. “That was fun, right?”
Puck nodded, and gave Finn the same almost thoughtful look he’d been giving him for most of the night.
“You need to head home right now?” he asked, and Finn felt a rush of hope that Puck was going to ask him to hang out, just like they’d always done.
“No,” Finn said, even though technically he was supposed to have the car back by eleven.
Puck’s answering smile had a hint of a smirk. Finn knew that meant trouble- mostly he’d kept out of Puck’s schemes that always lead to bad things happening, but tonight, if it would save their friendship, he’d follow Puck anywhere.
“Gimme the keys,” Puck said. “I know the perfect place.”
Finn hesitated. Puck didn’t have the best track record with cars and his mom would kill him if she found out he’d let someone else drive her station wagon but...
“Sure,” Finn said, and tossed them over, following Puck out to the parking lot.
They drove away from the mall, in the opposite direction from the suburb where they lived. They passed by their school and out to the edges of town. It was late, and there were hardly any other cars on the road as Puck turned off, into a wooded area.
They drove past a playground and some picnic tables and Finn realised where they were. They’d played there as kids, once or twice, but there was another reason Finn knew the place- it was infamous as a make-out spot. Not that he’d ever managed to convince anyone to drive up there with him before, but he knew of its existence- mostly from stories Puck had told him.
“What’re we gonna do?” Finn asked when Puck rolled the car to a stop, nodding further down the clearing where a couple of other cars were parked. “Pretend to be cops and scare some kids who’re hooking up?”
Puck looked like he was considering it, for a moment, then shook his head. “Good idea,” he said, making Finn feel that same burst of pride he’d always felt when Puck approved of things he did or said. “But no. I have something else in mind.”
Finn frowned as Puck unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to him.
“I get what you were doing tonight,” Puck said, and Finn looked away, embarrassed. He hadn’t wanted to be too obvious, for it to seem like he was desperate to have Puck back in his life, even if he was. He knew Puck hated that sort of thing, had always hated it when Finn had tried to push their friendship in one direction or another.
Now Finn would have to face up to the fact that Puck would think he was a loser, trying too hard to win approval. He was sure Puck was going to explain why they could never be real friends again, but instead Puck smiled when Finn asked, “You do?”
“Yeah,” Puck replied. “I don’t totally get it- although I can understand why you’d try, because, damn, I’m fucking awesome.”
Finn nodded and Puck laughed.
“You took me out, showed me a good time, tried to win me over. And the thing is, I have this policy. If I take a girl out, I expect her to put out. And it’d make me a hypocrite not to live by the same rules myself. So...”
Finn was frowning, confused, when Puck moved towards him, crowding up against him. It took him too long to register that Puck’s mouth was against his, that they were kissing and his eventual surprised gasp came at just the right time for Puck’s tongue to take advantage of his open mouth and slip inside.
It would be a lie for Finn to pretend he’d never thought about kissing Puck. But, really, Finn had thought about kissing a lot of people, so it didn’t mean anything. He liked kissing girls, and he was pretty good at it- at least, he’d never had any complaints- but the fact it was Puck he was kissing was throwing him off. Normally he’d take control, use one hand to tilt the girl’s head to the perfect angle, use the other to at least try and graze her boob.
But with Puck he just sat there, unmoving, letting Puck take over. He could feel one of Puck’s hands fisted into his shirt, pulling him in as close as the confines of the seatbelt would allow. Puck’s knee was pressed against Finn’s thigh as he leaned across the seats, and the pressure was just this side of painful, uncomfortable enough that Finn knew he had to move Puck, adjust the angle so he could focus on the kiss and not on the bruise he was sure was slowly forming.
His hand brushed against Puck’s hip, and Puck seemed to take it as encouragement to slide all the way across the car, practically into Finn’s lap. The passenger seat wasn’t the most roomy of places, and they were both big, growing boys but they fit, somehow, and the change in the angle of the kiss made all the difference.
Finn kissed back, surprising himself by how hungrily he returned it, focusing on the sensation of his tongue swirling against Puck’s. It never occurred to him to break the kiss, to tell Puck this wasn’t what he’d had in mind, because it was so much better than the hour of Xboxing he’d been hoping for to end the night.
Puck settled himself even closer and Finn somehow found the courage to slide his hand just under the hem of Puck’s shirt to press his fingertips against warm skin. Puck moaned something into his mouth, and his teeth grazed Finn’s lower lip, making him shudder.
Puck’s hand let go of where it had still been clutching Finn’s shirt and there was a click, then something sliding across Finn’s chest. It startled him and he jerked away, breaking the kiss. Looking down he saw that his seatbelt had been released.
“It was getting in the way,” Puck explained, looking down at him. He was a little breathless and his mouth was red and wet like he’d been using that cherry lipbalm that Kurt had gotten mad at Finn for accidentally eating that one time.
Finn stared up at him, not knowing what to say, and after a moment Puck frowned.
“This is why you took me out tonight, right?” he asked, sounding uncharacteristically unsure.
Finn was on the verge of explaining that no, this wasn’t what he’d had planned, that Puck had misunderstood. But he was pretty sure that Puck wouldn’t take that right, that he might stop kissing him, and even if it wasn’t planned, it was the best mistake Puck had ever made.
So instead he said, “Yes.”
Puck grinned. “I knew it,” he crowed. “You’ve always been a total ‘mo for me.”
“You’re the one sitting in my lap,” Finn pointed out, and Puck looked down at how little space there was between their bodies, and shrugged.
“I’m doing this on a technicality,” he reminded Finn. “You’re the one with the big gay crush.”
It was true, Finn realised. Or at least a possibility. Maybe he did have a big gay crush on Puck, but he wasn’t sure if this was something that had always been there, or something brand new, that he’d fallen into the moment Puck had kissed him. Either way, it didn’t matter whether Finn was gay for Puck nor not- not if Puck wasn’t really into it. He remembered almost painfully how awkward it had been with Santana, how bored and unimpressed she’d seemed, and the complete lack of emotion between them. Finn didn’t want to ever be with anyone like that again, with someone who was going through the motions because they thought they should. He only wanted this sort of thing if both he and whoever he was making out with was into it equally.
“Yeah,” Finn said, looking away and shifting uncomfortably in his seat, as much as he was able with Puck’s weight pinning him down.
There was a long, uncomfortable pause. Finn stared out of the window into the darkness, feeling awkward with Puck still straddling his lap.
And then Puck’s fingers snagged under Finn’s chin and turned his face towards him.
“I’m fucking with you,” Puck said, sounding amused and exasperated like he always did whenever he thought Finn was being an idiot. His voice was low and rough, like the words were painful to get out as he continued, “I’ve thought about this for years. You’re the only guy I-”
He stopped, and looked annoyed at himself. Finn recognised the expression- it was the one Puck always wore whenever he’d let his guard down to much, whenever he let someone see that he wasn’t a stonecold badass who didn’t care about anyone or anything. Finn hadn’t seen it in awhile, even though he’d noticed that Puck was mellowing, that Glee Club had been good for him in that way.
This was different though, and Finn wished he could say something, could confess that he’d felt the same, but he didn’t know if that was true. It was kind of hard to think with Puck’s body pressed so close to his. Finn didn’t want to lie, so he did the only thing he could do, the only thing he wanted in that moment.
He reached out and slid his hand behind Puck’s neck, thumb brushing the base of his stupid mohawk as he pulled Puck’s mouth down to his again and kissed him.
It was a better kiss this time, less hurried, more intense and Finn hoped that it told Puck everything he needed to know, even if Finn wasn’t sure exactly what that was.
The kiss didn’t last long. Puck pulled away almost immediately and Finn was worried until he saw Puck’s smile.
“We need more room,” he said, and clambered off Finn’s lap, narrowly missing kneeing him in the dick as he climbed back between the seats.
The rear seats were still folded down from when Finn had been helping his mom move some stuff around earlier in the week. His mom had been nagging him to fix them for days, but Finn had forgotten. Now he was glad he had- it gave Puck plenty of space to spread out, legs stretched out as much as the confines of the car allowed.
He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Finn, who laughed and followed, snagging his foot against the headrest at the last moment and toppling forward. He landed on top of Puck, catching himself just in time to avoid elbowing Puck in the stomach.
“Graceful,” Puck snorted, but his expression was fond. “I like that in a dude.”
Finn smiled and moved enough that he had Puck beneath him, their legs tangled together. This was better than Puck in his lap. This was familiar, looking down at the person he was going to make out with. Having Puck above him, looking down, had felt weird- not in a bad way, but in a way that Finn wasn’t used to. He liked being in control, being the one to guide and push against the boundaries to test how far they’d go.
Normally he worried, a little, that he’d crush the girl as they moved around, or that his big, clumsy hands would hurt her somehow. But it was different with Puck beneath him. Their sizes weren’t that different, really, and Puck’s hands, resting against Finn’s chest and holding him up, felt strong and sure.
“Wait,” Puck said when Finn started press their bodies closer.
Finn stopped, holding his breath. He was worried that Puck had come to his senses and changed his mind but all Puck did was wriggled down a little, until they were hip to hip.
“That’s better,” he said, reaching around to slide his hand into Finn’s back pocket.
Finn ducked his head and giggled at the touch and Puck smirked and squeezed, just a little, to make Finn giggle again. The giggle turned into a gasp as Puck ground his hips upwards, using his hand on Finn’s ass to pull him closer at the same time. It felt amazing, white hot darts of pleasure radiating through Finn’s body and bursting like stars behind his eyelids.
“Wow,” Finn said, breathless. Grinding with Quinn and Rachel had never been like this. It had always been him grinding down into them until they told him it was time to stop. This was someone pushing up to meet him as he ground down- softness and hardness at the same time and it felt amazing.
“Like that?” Puck asked, voice so low it was almost a growl. He didn’t give Finn time to respond, just surged up and kissed him again.
For a moment it was hard for Finn to concentrate on breathing or thinking or anything that wasn’t centred on his mouth or his groin in that moment. His dick was hard, almost uncomfortably trapped between his body, layers of fabric and what he thought (with an odd thrill that made his skin tingle) was Puck’s equally hard dick. But there wasn’t a power in the universe that could have made him stop kissing Puck and move their bodies apart long enough to free it.
Instead he focused on keeping his balance as they kissed, legs intertwined with Puck’s and one arm bracing his body above Puck’s. He had one hand free and he meant to use it to pull Puck closer but instead it drifted, almost under it’s own control, to the bottom of Puck’s shirt.
Finn hesitated, palm pressed to Puck’s abs. He expected Puck to push his hand away, to tell him that going that far wasn’t part of the deal. It was normally what Finn heard at this stage of making out anyway, and he was okay with that. Finn wasn’t a dick- he never wanted anyone to go further than they felt comfortable with. But Puck made an encouraging noise and Finn didn’t wait for a written invitation. He slid his hand up further, exploring with his fingers. He’d always been jealous of Puck’s body, how easy it seemed to be for him to keep looking that good. He’d never touched them though, not like this, and it made him self conscious, suddenly. He hoped he could keep his shirt on as they made out, and that Puck wouldn’t want to copy Finn’s movements.
He slid his hand higher, and Puck broke the kiss, glancing down as his chest as Finn cupped Puck’s pec, spreading his fingers wide.
Puck laughed. “Dude,” he said. “I’m not a chick.”
Finn snatched his hand back, embarrassed. He didn’t want to admit he’d enjoyed doing it. It was probably weird, but he’d liked the solid weight of it against his palm. It was like getting his hands on a girl’s boobs, but better because it was skin on skin and he’d felt the hardness of Puck’s nipple against his fingertips. He’d wondered about Puck’s pecs, once or twice during idle thought. He’d wondered what they felt like, if they were similar to boobs or completely different. Now at least he knew how the firm flesh felt against his own skin.
Puck laughed again and put a hand in the middle of Finn’s chest, moving him away long enough to he could half sit up.
“Hey, if it floats your boat,” he said, grabbing hold of his shirt and yanking it over his head, “go for it.”
He tossed the shirt into the front seat and Finn had a glorious moment of uninterrupted staring at Puck’s bare chest. And then Puck reached for Finn, flicking open the top button of his shirt.
Finn tried to move back. “You don’t have to-” he started.
“Want to,” Puck said, quickly opening two more buttons and rolling his eyes when he saw the white t-shirt underneath the button-down. “Tit for tat,” Puck added, grinning as he slid his hands to Finn’s hips and grabbed hold of both shirts at the same time. “It’s only fair.”
He pulled the shirts up and Finn lifted his arms, laughing as Puck tugged. For a moment he felt like a little kid. And then his shirt was gone and Puck was staring up at him with a hard look in his eyes, and Finn had never felt more like the young adult Mr Schue always insisted they all were.
“Better,” Puck said, resting his hands on Finn’s shoulders for a moment, then letting his hands run down Finn’s chest.
Finn shivered at the touch, and twitched as Puck’s thumb briefly connected with a nipple, but then Puck’s fingers travelled lower, over his stomach and down to the button of his jeans.
Finn stared down as Puck popped the button open and started to undo the fly.
“What’re you doing?” Finn asked. It came out as a whisper, a little scared, and Puck’s hands froze.
“I though we-” Puck started then stopped. “I thought Santana took you for a ride already. What do you think I’m doing?”
Finn swallowed hard. “Oh,” he said, hands suddenly feeling sweaty. He hadn’t expected things to go this far. He’d been happily surprised by the kissing and grinding but that was as far as he’d expected things to go. That was the limit with the girls he’d been with- except for Santana. And he hadn’t done this with her. They’d pretty much gone straight for the main event, and Finn suspected Santana had wanted it over as quickly as possible.
The idea that they’d actually do something, actually get each other off...it was more than Finn had bargained for and he didn’t know what to do.
“Um,” he said, and Puck seemed to get the idea.
“Dude,” Puck said, slowly shaking his head. “Dude. You have no idea what you’ve been missing out on. Let me...” he started to ease Finn’s fly down slowly.
Finn frowned. “I thought you said you hadn’t...with other guys.”
“I haven’t,” Puck said quickly, and Finn didn’t know if it was a lie or not, but the possibility that Puck could have done this with someone else made something flash red and angry inside him. Jealousy. He wanted Puck’s hands on his body, not some other dude’s. He wanted Puck to show him how to do this, not show some other guy.
It helped him push his nerves aside and he nodded.
“Okay,” Finn said, swallowing hard. “Show me.”
Puck’s answering smile made Finn’s mouth go dry.
“We need to move,” Puck said, pushing Finn down as he pulled himself up. It wasn’t exactly easy (the back of the station wagon probably wasn’t designed for two teenage boys to be rolling around in it) but Finn ended up on his back, Puck looking down at him.
Puck sat up as much as the roof of the car would allow and straddled Finn’s thighs.
“If we had more room,” he said, opening Finn’s jeans and tugging them down off his hips, “there’d be blow jobs.”
“Blow jobs?” Finn repeated, blushing when he heard how hopeful he sounded. He’d never gotten one before, but Puck had been telling stories since they were thirteen about how amazing they were.
Puck nodded as he slid his fingers under the elastic of Finn’s boxers and Finn’s dick gave a hopeful twitch. “Best feeling in the world,” he said. “Heat and wetness and pressure. You can’t think, can’t do anything except try and push yourself further into it.”
Finn squirmed, forgetting to breathe for a moment. Every word out of Puck’s mouth seemed to run down his spine and straight to his dick which felt almost impossibly hard. He felt like he was teetering on the brink, so close to embarrassing himself and ruining the moment. Puck would laugh, if he came now, with Puck’s fingers mere inches from touching him for the first time. He couldn’t come now, he couldn’t, but he didn’t know how to bring himself back from the edge.
“Down boy,” Puck said, snapping the elastic sharply against Finn’s skin.
Finn winced, and opened his mouth to call Puck an asshole, but it worked- he’d cooled off enough that he didn’t feel ready to explode. He was still achingly hard and wished Puck would actually move his hand and touch him, but he’d at least last more than thirty seconds.
“You’ve gotta keep up with me,” Puck said, knowingly, and Finn wondered if one of the girls had said something to Puck about his problem. He was about to ask, because it was really not cool for people to spread that kind of thing, but then Puck eased his boxers down and Finn’s dick was free and exposed to the cool air.
“Guh,” Finn said, then made a weird strangled noise as the back of Puck’s hand brushed over the head of his dick. All other thoughts left his head. All he could think of was being there in front of Puck, mostly naked, with the promise of getting off at the hands of his best friend in the very near future. Everything else was unimportant. Everything else could wait forever, for all Finn cared in that moment.
“Puck,” he begged, not caring that his voice had an edge of whine to it.
“What?” Puck asked, teasing smirk firmly in place as he dragged the edge of his hand up the length of Finn’s dick. “Did you want me to stop?”
His hand slid down and around, nudging Finn’s balls briefly. And then his fingers wrapped around Finn’s dick, loose at first then tightening until Finn gasped, thrusting up into Puck’s fist, unable to stop himself.
“No!” Finn managed to force out. “Please don’t stop.”
“Then wait just one fucking second,” Puck said, sounding a little bit pissy, but still smirking as he let go of Finn.
Finn propped himself up on his elbows to watch as Puck undid his own jeans, pushing them down enough that Finn could glimpse that he was going commando. Finn didn’t know if he admired that or thought Puck was insane- it always seemed too dangerous to Finn. He’d seen There’s Something About Mary enough times to be terrified at the prospect of getting his junk caught in a zipper.
It didn’t seem to worry Puck though, and Finn sucked in a breath as the jeans fell lower, grateful that there were no other layers of fabric stopping him from getting a full view of Puck, naked. He’d seen Puck’s dick before, of course, in the showers at school or when their moms had given them baths together as kids. But he’d never seen it hard, and knowing he was the cause of it, that it had gotten that way from their kissing and grinding made Finn feel hot and squirmy inside. His mouth was suddenly watering so much he had to swallow hard a few times before he could whisper Puck’s name.
Puck moved forward, blocking Finn’s view for a moment, as he kicked his jeans off, then sat back on his heels. He pulled Finn’s jeans off further, down to his knees, but Finn barely noticed. He was too busy staring at Puck’s dick bobbing up against his stomach as he wriggled forward again to straddle Finn. Their naked thighs pressed together and Puck leaned in towards him, placing a hand by Finn’s shoulder to brace himself up.
“Ready?” Puck asked, then lifted his hand to Finn’s face.
Finn stared dumbly at it.
“Uh,” he said and Puck gave him that fond ‘you’re an idiot’ look.
“Lick it,” he said, and Finn hesitated for a moment, then gingerly stuck out his tongue and swiped it across the middle of Puck’s palm. He guessed it was some weird hand-licking kink Puck had, which he was happy to take part in if it made Puck happy, but he didn’t really understand what he was supposed to be doing.
Puck waited for a moment then rolled his eyes and brought his hand up to his own mouth.
“Like this, dumbass,” he said, licking his hand from base to fingertips, until Finn could see a thin sheen of spit covering it.
He watched, curious, as Puck lowered his hand and then brought it down between their bodies, wrapping it first around Finn’s dick, and then his own too.
Finn’s breath caught in his throat. This was something unexpected- the dual sensation of Puck’s cool slick hand sliding along and around him (and now the hand licking made sense), next to the warm hardness of Puck’s dick. It felt amazing, better than anything he’d ever felt before. Which admittedly wasn’t all that much but still. Fucking amazing.
“Okay?” Puck asked, and for a moment he actually looked concerned. Then, when Finn nodded, wide-eyed and in awe, Puck’s eyes fluttered shut and Finn found that he needed, desperately, to kiss him.
He reached up and yanked Puck down, cutting off the low moan on his lips with a kiss. He’d pulled their bodies closer together, and Puck’s fist was moving slower now, knuckles grazing against Finn’s stomach with each determined stroke. It felt amazing, and Finn closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of the movement of Puck’s hand and on the way Puck’s teeth nipped lightly at his lips as they made out.
Puck’s mouth slid off his, pressing along Finn’s jaw to kiss at his neck. It tickled and Finn pressed his lips to Puck’s skin to stop himself from laughing. It meant he was breathing in the smell of Puck, so familiar that it brought back a rush of memories, reminding him of the real reason they were here together now- the friendship. He wasn’t sure whether this, whatever it was, was going to help those plans or totally destroy them. But it was good, better than good, to have Puck’s attention fully on him again. Finn had missed that, having Puck look at him like he was someone special.
Puck’s hand gave a twist and Finn groaned and thrust his hips up, pushing himself further into Puck’s fist, harder against Puck’s dick. Puck’s mouth slid away from Finn’s neck and when Finn opened his eyes, he found Puck watching him.
His mouth was open, panting a little, and Finn didn’t even think about what it meant when he lifted his hand to Puck’s cheek, thumb rubbing along Puck’s jaw.
“Finn,” Puck said, voice shuddering as he spoke.
It made something inside Finn tighten and he barely had time to stutter, “Puck, I’m gonna,” and then he was gone, to the brink he’d teetered on before and then over, tumbling into the feeling that he never had the words to describe. His mind was a haze of white light, snatches of sensations breaking through- a moan, although Finn couldn’t tell which of them had made it, Puck’s free hand digging into Finn’s shoulder hard enough that it should have been painful if Finn had been able to register it properly, the taste of Puck’s mouth on his as they kissed again.
Distantly, as if it were happening to someone else, he felt something hot spurt onto his chest. It seemed to go on for longer than it should, but Finn couldn’t make sense of it at first, through the haze in his mind and suddenly heaviness pressing down on him.
When he could think properly, he realised that Puck must have come too, that the heaviness was Puck’s chest pressed against one side of his body, lips pressing an open mouthed kiss to his collarbone.
Finn lifted the arm Puck hadn’t pinned to his side, surprised at how much his hand shook as he swiped it across the cooling slickness that striped his stomach. It made everything seem so much more real, suddenly, as if up until that moment Finn hadn’t been totally convinced this wasn’t a wistful dream he was having.
“Wow,” Finn said, thinking he’d be able to string a whole sentence together, and failing. Puck’s shoulders shook, sending reverberations through Finn’s body.
“Wow?” Puck repeated after a moment, pushing himself off Finn. He looked amused though, before turning away. “That all you got to say to someone who just rocked your world?”
Finn’s skin felt cold where Puck had been, and he reached for his shirt, tugging it on as Puck wiggled back into his jeans. As Finn put his own pants on, Puck reached over into the front for his own shirt, and Finn caught himself staring at Puck’s ass. He wasn’t sure if that was something he was supposed to do now- whether it was allowed or whether he was supposed to want to stare at it.
Puck grinned at him when he turned around, as if he knew what Finn had been thinking.
“Well?” he prompted, and Finn shrugged. He wasn’t sure he could put how he felt about everything into words.
Puck’s brows started to knit together into a frown, and Finn shook his head, reaching out and grabbing hold of the front of Puck’s shirt.
A kiss seemed to have worked earlier, speaking for Finn when he couldn’t and he tried it again. Puck hummed happily against Finn’s lips as they kissed, softer and sweeter than any of the earlier kisses had been.
Slowly, they pulled apart and stared at each other.
“I guess I should take you home?” Finn asked after a moment of silence.
“I didn’t take you for the love ‘em and leave ‘em type,” Puck said, raising an eyebrow. “At least give me time to get my breath back before you kick me out. I’ll start thinking you only wanted me for sex.”
“I, no, I didn’t-” Finn spluttered and Puck grinned.
“Chill,” he said. “I’m kidding. I know you don’t. You want me for my awesome intellect and the fact I can kick your ass at anything under the sun.”
Finn started to move towards the front seat and Puck elbowed him lightly in the stomach, nudging him to flop back down onto his back. Puck copied him, casually leaning against Finn’s shoulder.
“That was fun,” Puck said carefully and Finn nodded.
They lay there in silence for a moment then Finn blurted, “I miss you.”
Puck snorted. “Man, does getting off kill your brain cells or something? I’m right here, dumbass.”
Finn shoved Puck off his shoulder, but was secretly pleased when Puck punched him lightly in the arm and moved back to his position.
“I mean, I miss my best friend,” Finn explained. “I missed you. The last year wasn’t the same without having you to hang out with.”
“I know,” Puck said, and then, very quietly, “me too.”
“We’re still...” Finn trailed off. “I mean, after what we just did, are we...”
“Still best friends,” Puck said, “Always. We made a pact, remember?”
Finn grinned hard enough that it made his cheeks hurt.
“We should probably go,” Puck said, after a moment or two of companionable silence, and they got up and climbed back into the front seats.
“Next time we go out somewhere, I’ll drive,” Puck added as Finn pulled back onto the road.
“You saying there’s something wrong with my driving?” Finn asked, lightly. Everything felt lighter now, like the weight of missing Puck, of worrying about their friendship, was gone. And at the same time it felt like something that had been missing in Finn had been returned. It was like no time had passed, as if nothing had changed between them. Except-
“Nah,” Puck said, looking over and grinning. “But my truck has more room.”
“So?”
“So next time, we need some more space. For blowjobs. And if you’re good, maybe I’ll let you fuck me,” Puck said, laughing when Finn almost drove off the road as he stared at him. He grabbed for the wheel and helped Finn straighten the car back out.
“I’m serious,” Puck added, sobering up and gesturing for Finn to look at the road and to try not to kill them.
“Oh,” Finn said, trying to ignore the way his dick twitched in his pants at the idea. “That’d be cool,” he added and shot Puck a bright smile before turning the car towards home.
“And hey,” Puck added, reclining in the seat and propping his feet up on the dashboard, looking very pleased with himself. “Next time you wanna take me on a date? All you gotta do is ask.”
Finn glanced at Puck out of the corner of his eye and bit his lip to hide his smile. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll do that.”
Pairing: Finn/Puck
Rating: R
Word Count: ~9100
Disclaimer: The characters of Glee do not belong to me, etc etc.
Summary: Missing his best friend, Finn asks Puck out for the evening in the hopes of rekindling their friendship- and gets more than he bargained for.
A/N: Written for the wonderful fandom_gal who very generously donated to the help_nz auction, for which I am very grateful ♥ I may have strayed from the prompt a little, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Kindly betaed by the lovely mintyfiend; all remaining mistakes are mine.
Finn couldn’t help the strut in his step as he walked through the halls of McKinley. As he passed, guys offered him fist bumps and girls giggled and batted their eyelashes in his direction.
No one could deny that Finn Hudson was king again, and the corridors of the school were his castle.
He high-fived Mike as they passed each other, deftly swerved out of the way of Karofsky carrying a very full cherry slushie, and then made a detour to avoid Quinn (because he was having a good day and didn’t need to feel any more guilty than he already did about turning her down when she’d suggested getting back together in the run-up to the Prom).
Finn’s life was going really well and he was trying a new thing where he didn’t worry about girls for awhile. Things were even getting back to normal with Rachel, whose longing smile when he said “Hi,” as he passed her a moment later wasn’t quite as heartbreaking as it used.
He deftly spun the dial on his locker, yanking it open. A couple of love notes fell out, which was totally understandable- who wouldn’t want to date the star quarterback and male lead of the winning Glee Club? Finn shoved them, along with his books, into his backpack because even though he was done with girls for awhile, it was nice to massage the old ego a little every now and again, and to know he could have a girlfriend again, if he wanted one.
Finn shut his locker door and was about to head home (if he hurried, he might be able to sweet talk Mercedes into giving him a ride) when he spotted Puck by his locker and suddenly everything didn’t seem so perfect after all.
Finn’s life was pretty much together, for a change. He had his popularity back (he’d missed it more than he’d admitted) and he had some great friends to share it with. But he still didn’t have his best friend back. Not really. Sure, they’d teamed up every now and again for the good of the Club, but they were still barely friends, let alone best friends.
Mostly Finn pretended he didn’t care. He had other people in his life he could hang out with. More than before he joined New Directions, really, because before that most of the people he’d spent time with weren’t real friends at all. He knew he could see a movie or go to the mall with any of the Glee Club members, if he wanted. But it wasn’t the same as just hanging out with someone who you knew you could completely be yourself with.
He missed Puck, more than he’d ever admit to anyone. He wasn’t even angry about the Quinn thing anymore, and hadn’t been for a long time. It felt like a lifetime ago, and as if everything had happened to a different person. Maybe it had changed Finn, or maybe he would have changed anyway, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care about old girlfriends and sonograms he used to sing to, not anymore. He didn’t want any of those things back in his life. He just wanted his best friend.
He watched Puck lean against the lockers, simultaneously flirting with Lauren Zizes and threatening Jacob Ben Israel. Finn had always admired Puck’s ability to multi-task. He had a familiar expression on his face- half threatening and half adoring and it made Finn’s chest feel weirdly tight and his stomach start to knot. He wished that Puck was looking at him like that again.
Finn was pretty sure it wasn’t normal to miss your friend that much, but knowing that didn’t really help with his problem. He needed to win Puck back, to convince him to be his friend again. Convincing people to do things was Puck’s thing though- after all, he’d talked a hell of a lot of girls into bed.
As if a lightbulb went off above Finn’s head, he knew exactly how to win Puck over. He’d just have to steal a few pages out of Puck’s handbook, the one he used to seduce girls, but using his own brand of Finn Hudson charm. Once he showed Puck what a good time they could be having, once Puck realised what he was missing by not being Finn’s best friend anymore, they’d be best friends again in a heartbeat and everything would be just like it used to be.
It would be easy- Finn had seen Puck’s moves a thousand times. Plus Finn had managed to convince girls to date him after they’d seen him do stupid things. If he combined their techniques...well, Puck was as good as his again.
Feeling like a genius, Finn headed towards Puck.
“Hey man,” he said, trying not to feel too hopeful when Puck’s smile widened when he saw Finn.
Jacob took advantage of Puck’s distraction to scurry off down the hallway, and Lauren followed after him. Puck blew her a kiss as she went and Finn frowned, feeling that odd, tight knot in his stomach again.
“Sup?” Puck said, grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder.
They turned and walked together down the now almost empty hallway.
“Not much,” Finn answered with a shrug. He tried to stay cool, not sure why his palms were suddenly sweaty. He rubbed them on his jeans and glanced over at Puck.
“I was thinking,” he started, then stumbled a little when Puck looked back at him, eyebrow raised and waiting to hear what Finn had to say.
“You got any plans tonight?” Finn blurted out, words tumbling over each other. He felt stupid as soon as he asked it, because it was a Friday night. Of course Puck had plans already.
“Maybe,” Puck said, and Finn’s heart sank. And then,“What did you have in mind?”
Finn fought to keep the happy bounce out of his step. He tried to play it cool, shrugging. “I dunno. I was thinking grab something to eat, then a movie. There’s that new Vin Diesel one out.”
He knew it was unfair, using blackmail to get Puck to spend time with him, but he was worried Puck would say no otherwise. Puck had some weird obsession with Vin Diesel that he wouldn’t really talk about but the suggestion made Puck nod.
“Sounds good,” he said and Finn smiled in relief.
“What about your other plans?” he asked.
Puck made a face. “Whatever. Nothing that can’t be cancelled for y-...for Vin.”
He covered well but Finn was almost certain he was going to say ‘for you’. It gave him hope, that maybe he wasn’t the only one missing his best friend, that maybe Puck felt the same.
“I’ll pick you up at seven,” Finn said and Puck held his fist out for a bump and then walked off, leaving Finn watching after him.
~~~
Finn was nervous as he stood on the Puckerman’s front porch. He pressed the doorbell, and then quickly undid the top button of his shirt, which helped him breathe a little easier. Plus, hopefully, it looked a little more casual.
Mrs Puckerman opened the door, and smiled when she saw him.
“Come in, Finn,” she said, stepping aside so he could enter. “It’s been awhile since I saw you. You’ve grown!”
“Yeah, I guess,” he said, ducking his head and blushing a little. He’d always felt awkward under Mrs P’s gaze- he knew she thought he was a good influence on Puck and he wasn’t entirely sure that was true. He’d spent a lot of time as a kid egging Puck on to do stupid and often dangerous stuff, so he always felt guilty, like Mrs P thought he was someone he wasn’t.
“Noah’s upstairs,” she said, and Finn was already climbing the stairs two at a time when she added, “Why don’t you go on up.”
Puck’s door was ajar, so Finn pushed it open and walked in, finding a shirtless Puck lying on his bed with an Xbox controller in his hand.
“Ready to go?” Finn asked, sitting down beside him like he’d always done.
Puck glanced at him, then did a double take. “You going to a funeral or something?” he asked, pausing his game.
Finn frowned and looked down at himself. He thought he looked nice- he’d put on a clean pair of jeans and his best shirt, the one he’d worn for the wedding.
“You don’t like it?” Finn asked, wishing he’d put something different on. He’d thought dressing up was the way to go- it had always impressed Quinn whenever she was mad at him for something.
Puck shrugged as he rolled off the bed, bending over to rummage through a pile of laundry on the floor. Finn’s eyes followed the curve of his back, the way his muscles moved as he picked a shirt and straightened up. As Finn watched, Puck sniffed the armpit and made a grossed out face. He dropped the shirt back into the pile, grabbing another one. He took a good whiff, and looked like he was weighing up whether the shirt was clean enough. Eventually he shrugged, then tugged it over his head and climbed back on the bed, un-pausing his game.
“We should probably go,” Finn suggested, turning his eyes from Puck to the TV screen.
“What’s the rush?” Puck asked, distracted.
Finn shifted uncomfortably in his seat. This wasn’t how he’d planned the night would start. He’d spent the past two hours getting ready, thinking about stories he could casually bring up that would make Puck remember the fun times they used to have. He’d hoped Puck had been doing the same thing.
Obviously not.
“Uh,” Finn said, reaching up to scratch the back of his head sheepishly. “I booked us a table. At Breadstix.”
Puck turned and stared at him, forgetting to pause the game. On screen, his character died bloody in a rain of bullets.
“You booked us a table,” Puck repeated, looking at Finn like he’d grown a second head or something. He glanced back at the game, then at Finn and nodded.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go then. We wouldn’t want to be late,” he added with a smirk, grabbing his coat and walking out the door.
Outside, Puck stood in the driveway, raising an eyebrow.
“Your mom let you borrow her station wagon?” he asked, and Finn couldn’t blame him for his disbelief. It had been a long time since his mom would trust him with the car, after that incident with the mailman. But he’d begged her, promising to do extra chores and to bring home at least one B, next report card and eventually she’d relented.
“Yup,” Finn said, trying to sound like it was no big deal as he stopped himself from holding the passenger door open for Puck (something else that had always worked well with Quinn- Finn was beginning to realise that maybe the tricks he’d used to win girls over maybe wouldn’t work on Puck at all).
They’d been on the road for barely a minute when Puck sniffed the air, then leaned in closer and sniffed Finn.
“Dude,” Finn exclaimed, taking his eyes off the road long enough to give Puck a weirded out look. “Why do you keep sniffing everything?”
“Are you wearing cologne?” Puck countered and Finn snapped his head forward, concentrating very hard on the road ahead.
“What?” Finn scoffed. “No!”
“You so are.”
“It’s Axe,” Finn lied. “That’s all.”
“Nuh-uh,” Puck said. “I know all the Axe scents. I’m a fucking connoisseur. That isn’t what you’re wearing.”
“Oh,” Finn said. He didn’t want to admit that, yeah, he’d put on a dab of cologne, and then a few more for good luck. Rachel had always liked it- she’d given it to him, in fact- and the scent seemed to make her smile even when she was annoyed with him about something.
Instead of answering, he went for distraction.
“Hey, I made you this CD,” Finn said, pulling it out of his pocket and tossing it to Puck.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Puck slide the CD into the player, then glance at the track list as Love Gun started to play.
“A Jew rock mix,” Puck said, nodding in time to the music. He gave Finn a wide, warm grin. “Thanks, man.”
Finn shrugged, as if it was nothing, as if he hadn’t spent an hour perfecting the order of the songs.
They smiled at each other for a moment, then Puck turned away, closing his eyes and tapping out the beat on the dashboard as he crooned, “No place for hiding, baby. No place to run...”
Finn laughed and joined in.
They sang along the rest of the way to the restaurant.
~~~
The booth Finn had booked was at the far end of the restaurant and it was a little bit darker than he’d expected.
He squinted down at the menu, trying to read in the dim light.
“Hey,” Puck said, sliding something across the table to him. “Check out my new ID. I’ll use it to order us some beers.”
Finn picked up the ID and stared at it, then back up at Puck. “It doesn’t really look like you,” he said, and Puck reached across the table and snatched it back.
“Course it does,” Puck replied. “I mean, sure, my skin’s a bit darker than this guy, and the hair, too, but-”
“That guy’s an albino,” Finn pointed out and Puck rolled his eyes.
“So I used to be albino and then I got a tan. Whatever. Stop being racist against white people,” he said, just as the waitress came over to take their order.
“Can I get you some drinks to start with?” she asked, and Puck turned his million watt smile on her.
“You sure can,” he said easily, flashing his ID briefly at her. “I’ll take a beer. And a soda for the kid,” he added, nodding at Finn.
The waitress, looking amused, reached out and took the ID out of Puck’s hand.
She raised an eyebrow then handed the ID back. “So, two sodas then?” she asked, smirking a little.
Puck sighed, defeated, then changed tactics.
“What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” he asked, and the waitress laughed, ignored him, and asked for their food order.
Finn, flustered and oddly annoyed at Puck’s flirting, pointed randomly at the menu, barely paying attention to what Puck ordered.
Puck watched the waitress walk away and then gave a low whistle. “She’s hot,” he remarked, then glanced over at Finn who couldn’t hide the scowl on his face. “Who got sand in your vagina?” he demanded, and Finn shrugged and looked away.
The night really wasn’t going the way Finn had planned. He wanted to impress Puck, but all Puck seemed interested in doing was getting drunk and hitting on girls. Which, sure, had been a big part of their friendship. But Finn kind of wanted Puck to focus on how awesome Finn was, and what a great best friend he’d been. Which he couldn’t do with people around.
Which was why, when he spotted Tina and Mike walk into the restaurant, he ducked down so they wouldn’t see him.
“What’re you- hey!” Puck followed Finn’s gaze. “They should come sit with us.”
He half stood up, about to wave them over when Finn hissed, “No!”
Puck frowned and sat back down. “Dude, what is your damage? Seriously. It’s just Tina and Mike. They’re cool.”
“I don’t want to hang out with them right now,” Finn said, desperately trying to come up with a reason. “Tina hit on me,” he blurted out, not thinking until after he’d spoken.
Puck stared at him, then leaned in closer, conspiratorially. “Really? What did she do? Was it hot? Was she wearing one of those tasty short goth skirts?”
“No,” Finn said, feeling like the biggest dick in the world for lying. “Nothing happened. I just...I don’t feel like hanging out with them right now.”
Puck nodded. “Gotcha. Always awkward to hang out with a guy whose girl has a thing for...” he trailed off, wincing as he looked at Finn.
Puck gave an awkward laugh and it took Finn a moment to realise what he was talking about. It struck him, for a moment, that maybe it should have been Puck trying to win Finn back, instead of the other way around. After all, Puck was the one who’d fucked things up- literally- and should be begging Finn’s forgiveness. But Finn knew Puck. He knew that Puck wasn’t the kind to slink back with his tail between his legs and admit he’d seriously messed things up. He was much more likely to cut and run, thinking it was easier that way. And Finn didn’t mind, being the one who cared more in their friendship. It had always been that way and probably always would be, if they could get things back on track. He’d forgiven Puck for the thing with Quinn, and the thing with Rachel too. And it had only just occurred to him that maybe, letting Puck know that would be a big step to getting their friendship back to normal.
“It’s cool,” he said, nodding when Puck looked surprise. “Really, it’s fine.”
“We all good?” Puck said, reaching out a hand. Finn hesitated, then clasped it for a minute, clumsily doing the stupid Best Friends Forever handshake they’d made up when they were nine and had promised never to do in public. It seemed like a good idea though, and Puck’s smile seemed wider than it had been before.
It was as if something had changed in the air- Puck was more relaxed, laughing at things Finn said (and not in a mean way) more often. He barely glanced at the waitress when she brought out their food, too intent on adding to Finn’s recount of that time they’d tried to build a go-kart and he’d had to go to hospital for stitches. There was some dispute over how many stitches Puck had gotten- he insisted it was seventeen but Finn was pretty sure it was only nine.
They ate their food and chatted and it was over too soon. Finn glanced at his watch, making sure they had plenty of time to get to the movie theatre and signalled for the check.
“I’ll slip out the back,” Puck said immediately, reaching for his jacket. “You calmly walk out the front, then we hightail it back to your car and peel outta here.”
Finn laughed and shook his head. Puck was joking, he thought. Probably. They’d never done this before, eating somewhere more sophisticated than a burger joint, but he was sure Puck would never run out on a bill. Mostly sure, anyway. And it didn’t matter, really.
“Thanks,” he said, taking the bill from the waitress and reaching for his wallet. “It’s cool,” he added, catching Puck frowning at him. “I’m paying.”
Puck looked surprise. “Damn,” he said with a smirk. “If I’d known that, I’d have ordered dessert.”
~~~
Finn paid for their tickets at the theatre too. Puck didn’t even question, just watched Finn with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Thanks,” he said, taking the ticket Finn handed to him, looking a little puzzled. “I need to take a leak.”
Finn watched Puck walk off towards the nearest bathroom and then moved to stand in line at the concession stand. Even though they’d just eaten and Finn’s stomach kept doing weird flip-flops every time Puck laughed, he desperately needed some milk duds.
By the time Puck returned, Finn was clutching an armful of candy and a couple of drinks.
“Sour patch kids?” Puck asked, snagging a soda and a couple of boxes of candy out of Finn’s arms.
“I remembered you like them,” Finn said, trying to shrug like it wasn’t a big deal and almost upsetting his carefully balanced snacks.
Puck gave him another weird look as they walked towards Screen 3. An employee stopped them as they were about to enter.
“Tickets?” he asked, sounding bored.
Puck handed his over and Finn swore under his breath.
“Uh, mine’s in my pocket,” he said, trying to rearrange his food so he had a free hand.
“I got it,” Puck said, and Finn could move or say anything else he shoved his hand into Finn’s left front pocket.
His hand was in there for less than a second, probably, but it felt like an eternity to Finn as he froze up, not even daring to take a breath.
“Here you go,” Puck said, pulling the ticket out and handing it to the guy like it was the most normal thing in the world to fish things out of his friend’s pocket, hand mere inches from Finn’s junk.
Finn hurried into the darkness of the theatre, grateful that it would hide his embarrassment. His face burned hotly and he was sure his neck and ears were as bright red as his face was.
Puck didn’t seem to notice though, and just led them to a seat.
Finn barely paid attention to the first half of the movie. He was too busy trying to figure out why he’d freaked out so badly, why he’d been so embarrassed. The last time he’d felt that way was when he was worried about fooling around with a girl too much and getting carried away and, well...arriving early. It just didn’t make sense.
Then Puck turned to him, making a low comment in his ear about some dumb thing in the movie and Finn relaxed, barely even noticing when their arms brushed in the brief battle for control of the arm rest between their seats.
In the end they shared it, Puck grinning back at Finn and stealing a handful of twizzlers when he was distracted.
The movie ended up being pretty good. And the night was going much more along the lines Finn had planned for. It was encouraging.
“Well,” Finn said, as they left the movie theatre. “That was fun, right?”
Puck nodded, and gave Finn the same almost thoughtful look he’d been giving him for most of the night.
“You need to head home right now?” he asked, and Finn felt a rush of hope that Puck was going to ask him to hang out, just like they’d always done.
“No,” Finn said, even though technically he was supposed to have the car back by eleven.
Puck’s answering smile had a hint of a smirk. Finn knew that meant trouble- mostly he’d kept out of Puck’s schemes that always lead to bad things happening, but tonight, if it would save their friendship, he’d follow Puck anywhere.
“Gimme the keys,” Puck said. “I know the perfect place.”
Finn hesitated. Puck didn’t have the best track record with cars and his mom would kill him if she found out he’d let someone else drive her station wagon but...
“Sure,” Finn said, and tossed them over, following Puck out to the parking lot.
They drove away from the mall, in the opposite direction from the suburb where they lived. They passed by their school and out to the edges of town. It was late, and there were hardly any other cars on the road as Puck turned off, into a wooded area.
They drove past a playground and some picnic tables and Finn realised where they were. They’d played there as kids, once or twice, but there was another reason Finn knew the place- it was infamous as a make-out spot. Not that he’d ever managed to convince anyone to drive up there with him before, but he knew of its existence- mostly from stories Puck had told him.
“What’re we gonna do?” Finn asked when Puck rolled the car to a stop, nodding further down the clearing where a couple of other cars were parked. “Pretend to be cops and scare some kids who’re hooking up?”
Puck looked like he was considering it, for a moment, then shook his head. “Good idea,” he said, making Finn feel that same burst of pride he’d always felt when Puck approved of things he did or said. “But no. I have something else in mind.”
Finn frowned as Puck unbuckled his seatbelt and turned to him.
“I get what you were doing tonight,” Puck said, and Finn looked away, embarrassed. He hadn’t wanted to be too obvious, for it to seem like he was desperate to have Puck back in his life, even if he was. He knew Puck hated that sort of thing, had always hated it when Finn had tried to push their friendship in one direction or another.
Now Finn would have to face up to the fact that Puck would think he was a loser, trying too hard to win approval. He was sure Puck was going to explain why they could never be real friends again, but instead Puck smiled when Finn asked, “You do?”
“Yeah,” Puck replied. “I don’t totally get it- although I can understand why you’d try, because, damn, I’m fucking awesome.”
Finn nodded and Puck laughed.
“You took me out, showed me a good time, tried to win me over. And the thing is, I have this policy. If I take a girl out, I expect her to put out. And it’d make me a hypocrite not to live by the same rules myself. So...”
Finn was frowning, confused, when Puck moved towards him, crowding up against him. It took him too long to register that Puck’s mouth was against his, that they were kissing and his eventual surprised gasp came at just the right time for Puck’s tongue to take advantage of his open mouth and slip inside.
It would be a lie for Finn to pretend he’d never thought about kissing Puck. But, really, Finn had thought about kissing a lot of people, so it didn’t mean anything. He liked kissing girls, and he was pretty good at it- at least, he’d never had any complaints- but the fact it was Puck he was kissing was throwing him off. Normally he’d take control, use one hand to tilt the girl’s head to the perfect angle, use the other to at least try and graze her boob.
But with Puck he just sat there, unmoving, letting Puck take over. He could feel one of Puck’s hands fisted into his shirt, pulling him in as close as the confines of the seatbelt would allow. Puck’s knee was pressed against Finn’s thigh as he leaned across the seats, and the pressure was just this side of painful, uncomfortable enough that Finn knew he had to move Puck, adjust the angle so he could focus on the kiss and not on the bruise he was sure was slowly forming.
His hand brushed against Puck’s hip, and Puck seemed to take it as encouragement to slide all the way across the car, practically into Finn’s lap. The passenger seat wasn’t the most roomy of places, and they were both big, growing boys but they fit, somehow, and the change in the angle of the kiss made all the difference.
Finn kissed back, surprising himself by how hungrily he returned it, focusing on the sensation of his tongue swirling against Puck’s. It never occurred to him to break the kiss, to tell Puck this wasn’t what he’d had in mind, because it was so much better than the hour of Xboxing he’d been hoping for to end the night.
Puck settled himself even closer and Finn somehow found the courage to slide his hand just under the hem of Puck’s shirt to press his fingertips against warm skin. Puck moaned something into his mouth, and his teeth grazed Finn’s lower lip, making him shudder.
Puck’s hand let go of where it had still been clutching Finn’s shirt and there was a click, then something sliding across Finn’s chest. It startled him and he jerked away, breaking the kiss. Looking down he saw that his seatbelt had been released.
“It was getting in the way,” Puck explained, looking down at him. He was a little breathless and his mouth was red and wet like he’d been using that cherry lipbalm that Kurt had gotten mad at Finn for accidentally eating that one time.
Finn stared up at him, not knowing what to say, and after a moment Puck frowned.
“This is why you took me out tonight, right?” he asked, sounding uncharacteristically unsure.
Finn was on the verge of explaining that no, this wasn’t what he’d had planned, that Puck had misunderstood. But he was pretty sure that Puck wouldn’t take that right, that he might stop kissing him, and even if it wasn’t planned, it was the best mistake Puck had ever made.
So instead he said, “Yes.”
Puck grinned. “I knew it,” he crowed. “You’ve always been a total ‘mo for me.”
“You’re the one sitting in my lap,” Finn pointed out, and Puck looked down at how little space there was between their bodies, and shrugged.
“I’m doing this on a technicality,” he reminded Finn. “You’re the one with the big gay crush.”
It was true, Finn realised. Or at least a possibility. Maybe he did have a big gay crush on Puck, but he wasn’t sure if this was something that had always been there, or something brand new, that he’d fallen into the moment Puck had kissed him. Either way, it didn’t matter whether Finn was gay for Puck nor not- not if Puck wasn’t really into it. He remembered almost painfully how awkward it had been with Santana, how bored and unimpressed she’d seemed, and the complete lack of emotion between them. Finn didn’t want to ever be with anyone like that again, with someone who was going through the motions because they thought they should. He only wanted this sort of thing if both he and whoever he was making out with was into it equally.
“Yeah,” Finn said, looking away and shifting uncomfortably in his seat, as much as he was able with Puck’s weight pinning him down.
There was a long, uncomfortable pause. Finn stared out of the window into the darkness, feeling awkward with Puck still straddling his lap.
And then Puck’s fingers snagged under Finn’s chin and turned his face towards him.
“I’m fucking with you,” Puck said, sounding amused and exasperated like he always did whenever he thought Finn was being an idiot. His voice was low and rough, like the words were painful to get out as he continued, “I’ve thought about this for years. You’re the only guy I-”
He stopped, and looked annoyed at himself. Finn recognised the expression- it was the one Puck always wore whenever he’d let his guard down to much, whenever he let someone see that he wasn’t a stonecold badass who didn’t care about anyone or anything. Finn hadn’t seen it in awhile, even though he’d noticed that Puck was mellowing, that Glee Club had been good for him in that way.
This was different though, and Finn wished he could say something, could confess that he’d felt the same, but he didn’t know if that was true. It was kind of hard to think with Puck’s body pressed so close to his. Finn didn’t want to lie, so he did the only thing he could do, the only thing he wanted in that moment.
He reached out and slid his hand behind Puck’s neck, thumb brushing the base of his stupid mohawk as he pulled Puck’s mouth down to his again and kissed him.
It was a better kiss this time, less hurried, more intense and Finn hoped that it told Puck everything he needed to know, even if Finn wasn’t sure exactly what that was.
The kiss didn’t last long. Puck pulled away almost immediately and Finn was worried until he saw Puck’s smile.
“We need more room,” he said, and clambered off Finn’s lap, narrowly missing kneeing him in the dick as he climbed back between the seats.
The rear seats were still folded down from when Finn had been helping his mom move some stuff around earlier in the week. His mom had been nagging him to fix them for days, but Finn had forgotten. Now he was glad he had- it gave Puck plenty of space to spread out, legs stretched out as much as the confines of the car allowed.
He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Finn, who laughed and followed, snagging his foot against the headrest at the last moment and toppling forward. He landed on top of Puck, catching himself just in time to avoid elbowing Puck in the stomach.
“Graceful,” Puck snorted, but his expression was fond. “I like that in a dude.”
Finn smiled and moved enough that he had Puck beneath him, their legs tangled together. This was better than Puck in his lap. This was familiar, looking down at the person he was going to make out with. Having Puck above him, looking down, had felt weird- not in a bad way, but in a way that Finn wasn’t used to. He liked being in control, being the one to guide and push against the boundaries to test how far they’d go.
Normally he worried, a little, that he’d crush the girl as they moved around, or that his big, clumsy hands would hurt her somehow. But it was different with Puck beneath him. Their sizes weren’t that different, really, and Puck’s hands, resting against Finn’s chest and holding him up, felt strong and sure.
“Wait,” Puck said when Finn started press their bodies closer.
Finn stopped, holding his breath. He was worried that Puck had come to his senses and changed his mind but all Puck did was wriggled down a little, until they were hip to hip.
“That’s better,” he said, reaching around to slide his hand into Finn’s back pocket.
Finn ducked his head and giggled at the touch and Puck smirked and squeezed, just a little, to make Finn giggle again. The giggle turned into a gasp as Puck ground his hips upwards, using his hand on Finn’s ass to pull him closer at the same time. It felt amazing, white hot darts of pleasure radiating through Finn’s body and bursting like stars behind his eyelids.
“Wow,” Finn said, breathless. Grinding with Quinn and Rachel had never been like this. It had always been him grinding down into them until they told him it was time to stop. This was someone pushing up to meet him as he ground down- softness and hardness at the same time and it felt amazing.
“Like that?” Puck asked, voice so low it was almost a growl. He didn’t give Finn time to respond, just surged up and kissed him again.
For a moment it was hard for Finn to concentrate on breathing or thinking or anything that wasn’t centred on his mouth or his groin in that moment. His dick was hard, almost uncomfortably trapped between his body, layers of fabric and what he thought (with an odd thrill that made his skin tingle) was Puck’s equally hard dick. But there wasn’t a power in the universe that could have made him stop kissing Puck and move their bodies apart long enough to free it.
Instead he focused on keeping his balance as they kissed, legs intertwined with Puck’s and one arm bracing his body above Puck’s. He had one hand free and he meant to use it to pull Puck closer but instead it drifted, almost under it’s own control, to the bottom of Puck’s shirt.
Finn hesitated, palm pressed to Puck’s abs. He expected Puck to push his hand away, to tell him that going that far wasn’t part of the deal. It was normally what Finn heard at this stage of making out anyway, and he was okay with that. Finn wasn’t a dick- he never wanted anyone to go further than they felt comfortable with. But Puck made an encouraging noise and Finn didn’t wait for a written invitation. He slid his hand up further, exploring with his fingers. He’d always been jealous of Puck’s body, how easy it seemed to be for him to keep looking that good. He’d never touched them though, not like this, and it made him self conscious, suddenly. He hoped he could keep his shirt on as they made out, and that Puck wouldn’t want to copy Finn’s movements.
He slid his hand higher, and Puck broke the kiss, glancing down as his chest as Finn cupped Puck’s pec, spreading his fingers wide.
Puck laughed. “Dude,” he said. “I’m not a chick.”
Finn snatched his hand back, embarrassed. He didn’t want to admit he’d enjoyed doing it. It was probably weird, but he’d liked the solid weight of it against his palm. It was like getting his hands on a girl’s boobs, but better because it was skin on skin and he’d felt the hardness of Puck’s nipple against his fingertips. He’d wondered about Puck’s pecs, once or twice during idle thought. He’d wondered what they felt like, if they were similar to boobs or completely different. Now at least he knew how the firm flesh felt against his own skin.
Puck laughed again and put a hand in the middle of Finn’s chest, moving him away long enough to he could half sit up.
“Hey, if it floats your boat,” he said, grabbing hold of his shirt and yanking it over his head, “go for it.”
He tossed the shirt into the front seat and Finn had a glorious moment of uninterrupted staring at Puck’s bare chest. And then Puck reached for Finn, flicking open the top button of his shirt.
Finn tried to move back. “You don’t have to-” he started.
“Want to,” Puck said, quickly opening two more buttons and rolling his eyes when he saw the white t-shirt underneath the button-down. “Tit for tat,” Puck added, grinning as he slid his hands to Finn’s hips and grabbed hold of both shirts at the same time. “It’s only fair.”
He pulled the shirts up and Finn lifted his arms, laughing as Puck tugged. For a moment he felt like a little kid. And then his shirt was gone and Puck was staring up at him with a hard look in his eyes, and Finn had never felt more like the young adult Mr Schue always insisted they all were.
“Better,” Puck said, resting his hands on Finn’s shoulders for a moment, then letting his hands run down Finn’s chest.
Finn shivered at the touch, and twitched as Puck’s thumb briefly connected with a nipple, but then Puck’s fingers travelled lower, over his stomach and down to the button of his jeans.
Finn stared down as Puck popped the button open and started to undo the fly.
“What’re you doing?” Finn asked. It came out as a whisper, a little scared, and Puck’s hands froze.
“I though we-” Puck started then stopped. “I thought Santana took you for a ride already. What do you think I’m doing?”
Finn swallowed hard. “Oh,” he said, hands suddenly feeling sweaty. He hadn’t expected things to go this far. He’d been happily surprised by the kissing and grinding but that was as far as he’d expected things to go. That was the limit with the girls he’d been with- except for Santana. And he hadn’t done this with her. They’d pretty much gone straight for the main event, and Finn suspected Santana had wanted it over as quickly as possible.
The idea that they’d actually do something, actually get each other off...it was more than Finn had bargained for and he didn’t know what to do.
“Um,” he said, and Puck seemed to get the idea.
“Dude,” Puck said, slowly shaking his head. “Dude. You have no idea what you’ve been missing out on. Let me...” he started to ease Finn’s fly down slowly.
Finn frowned. “I thought you said you hadn’t...with other guys.”
“I haven’t,” Puck said quickly, and Finn didn’t know if it was a lie or not, but the possibility that Puck could have done this with someone else made something flash red and angry inside him. Jealousy. He wanted Puck’s hands on his body, not some other dude’s. He wanted Puck to show him how to do this, not show some other guy.
It helped him push his nerves aside and he nodded.
“Okay,” Finn said, swallowing hard. “Show me.”
Puck’s answering smile made Finn’s mouth go dry.
“We need to move,” Puck said, pushing Finn down as he pulled himself up. It wasn’t exactly easy (the back of the station wagon probably wasn’t designed for two teenage boys to be rolling around in it) but Finn ended up on his back, Puck looking down at him.
Puck sat up as much as the roof of the car would allow and straddled Finn’s thighs.
“If we had more room,” he said, opening Finn’s jeans and tugging them down off his hips, “there’d be blow jobs.”
“Blow jobs?” Finn repeated, blushing when he heard how hopeful he sounded. He’d never gotten one before, but Puck had been telling stories since they were thirteen about how amazing they were.
Puck nodded as he slid his fingers under the elastic of Finn’s boxers and Finn’s dick gave a hopeful twitch. “Best feeling in the world,” he said. “Heat and wetness and pressure. You can’t think, can’t do anything except try and push yourself further into it.”
Finn squirmed, forgetting to breathe for a moment. Every word out of Puck’s mouth seemed to run down his spine and straight to his dick which felt almost impossibly hard. He felt like he was teetering on the brink, so close to embarrassing himself and ruining the moment. Puck would laugh, if he came now, with Puck’s fingers mere inches from touching him for the first time. He couldn’t come now, he couldn’t, but he didn’t know how to bring himself back from the edge.
“Down boy,” Puck said, snapping the elastic sharply against Finn’s skin.
Finn winced, and opened his mouth to call Puck an asshole, but it worked- he’d cooled off enough that he didn’t feel ready to explode. He was still achingly hard and wished Puck would actually move his hand and touch him, but he’d at least last more than thirty seconds.
“You’ve gotta keep up with me,” Puck said, knowingly, and Finn wondered if one of the girls had said something to Puck about his problem. He was about to ask, because it was really not cool for people to spread that kind of thing, but then Puck eased his boxers down and Finn’s dick was free and exposed to the cool air.
“Guh,” Finn said, then made a weird strangled noise as the back of Puck’s hand brushed over the head of his dick. All other thoughts left his head. All he could think of was being there in front of Puck, mostly naked, with the promise of getting off at the hands of his best friend in the very near future. Everything else was unimportant. Everything else could wait forever, for all Finn cared in that moment.
“Puck,” he begged, not caring that his voice had an edge of whine to it.
“What?” Puck asked, teasing smirk firmly in place as he dragged the edge of his hand up the length of Finn’s dick. “Did you want me to stop?”
His hand slid down and around, nudging Finn’s balls briefly. And then his fingers wrapped around Finn’s dick, loose at first then tightening until Finn gasped, thrusting up into Puck’s fist, unable to stop himself.
“No!” Finn managed to force out. “Please don’t stop.”
“Then wait just one fucking second,” Puck said, sounding a little bit pissy, but still smirking as he let go of Finn.
Finn propped himself up on his elbows to watch as Puck undid his own jeans, pushing them down enough that Finn could glimpse that he was going commando. Finn didn’t know if he admired that or thought Puck was insane- it always seemed too dangerous to Finn. He’d seen There’s Something About Mary enough times to be terrified at the prospect of getting his junk caught in a zipper.
It didn’t seem to worry Puck though, and Finn sucked in a breath as the jeans fell lower, grateful that there were no other layers of fabric stopping him from getting a full view of Puck, naked. He’d seen Puck’s dick before, of course, in the showers at school or when their moms had given them baths together as kids. But he’d never seen it hard, and knowing he was the cause of it, that it had gotten that way from their kissing and grinding made Finn feel hot and squirmy inside. His mouth was suddenly watering so much he had to swallow hard a few times before he could whisper Puck’s name.
Puck moved forward, blocking Finn’s view for a moment, as he kicked his jeans off, then sat back on his heels. He pulled Finn’s jeans off further, down to his knees, but Finn barely noticed. He was too busy staring at Puck’s dick bobbing up against his stomach as he wriggled forward again to straddle Finn. Their naked thighs pressed together and Puck leaned in towards him, placing a hand by Finn’s shoulder to brace himself up.
“Ready?” Puck asked, then lifted his hand to Finn’s face.
Finn stared dumbly at it.
“Uh,” he said and Puck gave him that fond ‘you’re an idiot’ look.
“Lick it,” he said, and Finn hesitated for a moment, then gingerly stuck out his tongue and swiped it across the middle of Puck’s palm. He guessed it was some weird hand-licking kink Puck had, which he was happy to take part in if it made Puck happy, but he didn’t really understand what he was supposed to be doing.
Puck waited for a moment then rolled his eyes and brought his hand up to his own mouth.
“Like this, dumbass,” he said, licking his hand from base to fingertips, until Finn could see a thin sheen of spit covering it.
He watched, curious, as Puck lowered his hand and then brought it down between their bodies, wrapping it first around Finn’s dick, and then his own too.
Finn’s breath caught in his throat. This was something unexpected- the dual sensation of Puck’s cool slick hand sliding along and around him (and now the hand licking made sense), next to the warm hardness of Puck’s dick. It felt amazing, better than anything he’d ever felt before. Which admittedly wasn’t all that much but still. Fucking amazing.
“Okay?” Puck asked, and for a moment he actually looked concerned. Then, when Finn nodded, wide-eyed and in awe, Puck’s eyes fluttered shut and Finn found that he needed, desperately, to kiss him.
He reached up and yanked Puck down, cutting off the low moan on his lips with a kiss. He’d pulled their bodies closer together, and Puck’s fist was moving slower now, knuckles grazing against Finn’s stomach with each determined stroke. It felt amazing, and Finn closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of the movement of Puck’s hand and on the way Puck’s teeth nipped lightly at his lips as they made out.
Puck’s mouth slid off his, pressing along Finn’s jaw to kiss at his neck. It tickled and Finn pressed his lips to Puck’s skin to stop himself from laughing. It meant he was breathing in the smell of Puck, so familiar that it brought back a rush of memories, reminding him of the real reason they were here together now- the friendship. He wasn’t sure whether this, whatever it was, was going to help those plans or totally destroy them. But it was good, better than good, to have Puck’s attention fully on him again. Finn had missed that, having Puck look at him like he was someone special.
Puck’s hand gave a twist and Finn groaned and thrust his hips up, pushing himself further into Puck’s fist, harder against Puck’s dick. Puck’s mouth slid away from Finn’s neck and when Finn opened his eyes, he found Puck watching him.
His mouth was open, panting a little, and Finn didn’t even think about what it meant when he lifted his hand to Puck’s cheek, thumb rubbing along Puck’s jaw.
“Finn,” Puck said, voice shuddering as he spoke.
It made something inside Finn tighten and he barely had time to stutter, “Puck, I’m gonna,” and then he was gone, to the brink he’d teetered on before and then over, tumbling into the feeling that he never had the words to describe. His mind was a haze of white light, snatches of sensations breaking through- a moan, although Finn couldn’t tell which of them had made it, Puck’s free hand digging into Finn’s shoulder hard enough that it should have been painful if Finn had been able to register it properly, the taste of Puck’s mouth on his as they kissed again.
Distantly, as if it were happening to someone else, he felt something hot spurt onto his chest. It seemed to go on for longer than it should, but Finn couldn’t make sense of it at first, through the haze in his mind and suddenly heaviness pressing down on him.
When he could think properly, he realised that Puck must have come too, that the heaviness was Puck’s chest pressed against one side of his body, lips pressing an open mouthed kiss to his collarbone.
Finn lifted the arm Puck hadn’t pinned to his side, surprised at how much his hand shook as he swiped it across the cooling slickness that striped his stomach. It made everything seem so much more real, suddenly, as if up until that moment Finn hadn’t been totally convinced this wasn’t a wistful dream he was having.
“Wow,” Finn said, thinking he’d be able to string a whole sentence together, and failing. Puck’s shoulders shook, sending reverberations through Finn’s body.
“Wow?” Puck repeated after a moment, pushing himself off Finn. He looked amused though, before turning away. “That all you got to say to someone who just rocked your world?”
Finn’s skin felt cold where Puck had been, and he reached for his shirt, tugging it on as Puck wiggled back into his jeans. As Finn put his own pants on, Puck reached over into the front for his own shirt, and Finn caught himself staring at Puck’s ass. He wasn’t sure if that was something he was supposed to do now- whether it was allowed or whether he was supposed to want to stare at it.
Puck grinned at him when he turned around, as if he knew what Finn had been thinking.
“Well?” he prompted, and Finn shrugged. He wasn’t sure he could put how he felt about everything into words.
Puck’s brows started to knit together into a frown, and Finn shook his head, reaching out and grabbing hold of the front of Puck’s shirt.
A kiss seemed to have worked earlier, speaking for Finn when he couldn’t and he tried it again. Puck hummed happily against Finn’s lips as they kissed, softer and sweeter than any of the earlier kisses had been.
Slowly, they pulled apart and stared at each other.
“I guess I should take you home?” Finn asked after a moment of silence.
“I didn’t take you for the love ‘em and leave ‘em type,” Puck said, raising an eyebrow. “At least give me time to get my breath back before you kick me out. I’ll start thinking you only wanted me for sex.”
“I, no, I didn’t-” Finn spluttered and Puck grinned.
“Chill,” he said. “I’m kidding. I know you don’t. You want me for my awesome intellect and the fact I can kick your ass at anything under the sun.”
Finn started to move towards the front seat and Puck elbowed him lightly in the stomach, nudging him to flop back down onto his back. Puck copied him, casually leaning against Finn’s shoulder.
“That was fun,” Puck said carefully and Finn nodded.
They lay there in silence for a moment then Finn blurted, “I miss you.”
Puck snorted. “Man, does getting off kill your brain cells or something? I’m right here, dumbass.”
Finn shoved Puck off his shoulder, but was secretly pleased when Puck punched him lightly in the arm and moved back to his position.
“I mean, I miss my best friend,” Finn explained. “I missed you. The last year wasn’t the same without having you to hang out with.”
“I know,” Puck said, and then, very quietly, “me too.”
“We’re still...” Finn trailed off. “I mean, after what we just did, are we...”
“Still best friends,” Puck said, “Always. We made a pact, remember?”
Finn grinned hard enough that it made his cheeks hurt.
“We should probably go,” Puck said, after a moment or two of companionable silence, and they got up and climbed back into the front seats.
“Next time we go out somewhere, I’ll drive,” Puck added as Finn pulled back onto the road.
“You saying there’s something wrong with my driving?” Finn asked, lightly. Everything felt lighter now, like the weight of missing Puck, of worrying about their friendship, was gone. And at the same time it felt like something that had been missing in Finn had been returned. It was like no time had passed, as if nothing had changed between them. Except-
“Nah,” Puck said, looking over and grinning. “But my truck has more room.”
“So?”
“So next time, we need some more space. For blowjobs. And if you’re good, maybe I’ll let you fuck me,” Puck said, laughing when Finn almost drove off the road as he stared at him. He grabbed for the wheel and helped Finn straighten the car back out.
“I’m serious,” Puck added, sobering up and gesturing for Finn to look at the road and to try not to kill them.
“Oh,” Finn said, trying to ignore the way his dick twitched in his pants at the idea. “That’d be cool,” he added and shot Puck a bright smile before turning the car towards home.
“And hey,” Puck added, reclining in the seat and propping his feet up on the dashboard, looking very pleased with himself. “Next time you wanna take me on a date? All you gotta do is ask.”
Finn glanced at Puck out of the corner of his eye and bit his lip to hide his smile. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll do that.”