This is a response to a picture prompt from the puckrachel drabble meme on LJ. I wrote it awhile ago but I forgot to post it here.
Rachel was half asleep when she felt someone slip into bed beside her.
"Noah?" she said dazed, as two strong arms wrapped around her body.
"It's okay Rachel…go back to sleep …" Puck placated her softly, and she closed her eyes breathing in his smell.
She had no idea where he'd been all night. She didn't know what time it was, but it was very late, or early depending on how you saw it, and she could smell the liquor he'd no doubt consumed earlier that night as he breathed heavily through his nostrils, falling quickly asleep.
She didn't know how to feel. Relieved because he had decided to grace his presence here in her bed? Or worried because he didn't tell her anything?
Lately, she felt as if she just lived in a state of limbo in between his visits. She had a secret double life.
He didn't come over every night. He didn't plan his visits. He always just let himself in her apartment in the middle of the night, many times drunk, other times just quiet and sad, and he would take her in his arms and drift off to sleep.
A few times there had been sex. But Rachel knew that wasn't why he came over. More often than not, there wasn't even kissing. He would just hold her, and press his face into her shoulder, or she would press hers into his and they would sleep.
It's not like she couldn't sleep without him, but it always felt better when he was there, it was easier to drift into a dreamless sleep. A content sleep.
But she couldn't stop thinking tonight. She couldn't sleep as well as he seemed to be. Not when she knew nothing about him anymore. When he'd become a stranger who would occasionally share her bed, and slip out in the morning as soon as the sun came up.
Then again, she never stopped him. She always just let him walk away.
The first time was just after they'd ran into each other on the New York streets. She was on her way to her favourite coffee shop when she spotted him, guitar strapped to his back, walking towards her. She'd recognized him instantly and locked eyes with him. Recognition for him had spread slowly through his features until he was grinning at her.
They'd spent four hours in that coffee shop talking (mostly about Rachel), him revealing little about his own situation, but it had felt like they had never lost touch since graduating.
It felt like they were still sixteen, sitting in her bedroom, working on mash-up ideas.
It felt something like home.
So the first time he had crept into her bed when he was supposed to have been sleeping on her couch, she almost thought it was a dream.
It felt as natural as anything.
By the fifth or sixth time, he wasn't supposed to be sleeping on the couch anyway, and had his own apartment in Brooklyn. But Rachel had given him a key to her apartment, claiming she had few real friends in New York, and although she was usually very responsible and organized, it would be smart to have a back-up plan if she ever got locked out of her apartment.
So that night, he let himself in as if her giving him a key had been some sort of unspoken agreement to continue their arrangement.
Now that she thought about it, maybe it had been.
The sun was up when Rachel felt the bed shift again and arms release her. Her eyes fluttered open and she stared at the wall as she heard Puck's pants zip and the rustling of him putting his jacket on.
"Noah…" she said softly and she rolled over to look at him. He looked surprised as he watched her sit up, brushing her disheveled hair out of her face.
"Where are you going?" He sighed deeply holding her steady gaze.
"uhh…home, I guess." He looked down, smoothing his hands on his pants. Rachel asked him what she'd never asked him before.
"Why do you come here, Noah?" He shrugged.
"I don't know. I'm sorry. Look, it won't happen again, don't worry."
"Noah!" Rachel frowned. "Please… don't go. Tell me what is going on with you." Puck scoffed.
"You know you're ruining this. I come here because you don't ask questions."
"Well, I should be asking questions. I feel like I don't even know you. I want to know you again, Noah." Puck sat on the bed next to her as she held her blankets to her chest.
"What if you don't like the guy I've become?"
"I don't think that's possible." A small smile formed on her face and Puck looked at her intensely.
"It's just…things are messed up, Rach." Leaning forward, she rested her head on his shoulder.
"Why do you always leave in the morning? You can stay." Rachel clarified. "I want you to stay." Puck dropped a kiss on Rachel's forehead.
"I didn't think you wanted me to." Lifting her head Rachel brushed her lips against his.
"You never asked." Pulling his jacket off, Puck slipped back in beside her.
"What do you want to know?"