Disclaimer- Puh-lease. If I owned Glee Mark Salling would never, EVER have his shirt on

Open Your Eyes and See

Prologue:

Puck was never, ever playing rock, paper, scissors for control of the remote again. He was moaning and groaning next to his little sister as she watched some stupid Disney channel show when his mom walked in yelling (which really wasn't unusual for her), "Noah Isaiah Puckerman."

Upon hearing their mother calling him by his full name Sarah turned to look at him, eyes wide and giggles fighting to escape her lips, "Ooooh, Noah's in trouble."

Puck rolls his eyes and bumps into her shoulder, throwing her off balance while telling her to, "Shut it squirt," but a small part of him knew that his sister was right. If his mother was using his whole name he was in trouble. Hearing her calling him again, her voice getting closer to the living room Puck sent his little sister up to watch television in his bedroom, the young girl jumping at the chance to spend time in the his room because normally she was banned from coming further than the doorway, except on the occasions when his mother would send her up to wake him up.

"Noah Isaiah!" He couldn't help but cringe at her use of his middle name, knowing that whenever she threw that into the mix things were going to go to shit for him.

As soon as his mother walked into the room she shot up from the couch, "Seriously mom whatever it is I swear I didn't do it."

Her laughing throws him off. He doesn't know what's going on but he knows that whatever it is it should be interesting, "Exactly. You have done absolutely nothing. That's the problem!"

"Umm…what?"

"I went to the dry cleaners today and do you know who I ran into?" Puck didn't have an answer for her but he was saved the chance to even offer one by his mother continuing on her tirade without pausing for more than a second, "Rachel Berry was there and she was dropping off a few outfits with horrible, brightly colored stains on them. Blue, red purple. So I asked her how something like that may have happened and she tried to get out of giving me an answer but eventually she gave in a told me that some of the kids in your school think it'd funny to throw slushies at her and a few other selected individuals."

At that point all Puck could think was 'Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!' Taking a shot in the dark all Puck could do was pray that Rachel hadn't decided to completely rat him out and tell his mother that he used to be one of those kids, "Well shit Ma it's not like I'm throwing them at her," Anymore, he silently amended, "You have heard of this little thing called free will haven't you? 'Cause the thing is people at McKinley have it and that means I can do shit all to make decisions for other people."

"Don't even give me that Noah! I've seen you around your peers. You have influence, plus god knows you've never had a problem getting into fights before, what's so different this time?"

Puck groaned internally. He knew there was no point in fighting his mother on this but he didn't know anyway to get out of the situation either. A part of him, the part that had gotten slushied during their week long relationship that consisted mostly of stolen moments making out, knew that she didn't deserve to get slushied. Knew that she'd never done anything that could be bad enough for her to be showered in slushie every day.

"What do you want me to do Ma, beat on every kid who picks on Berry? 'Cause seriously I'm good but that's a hell of a lot of people, some of them girls, and I'm pretty sure they'll win. Plus it's not like she even really cares that much. I mean obviously she doesn't like it or anything but it's not like she bursts into tears or anything which is more than I can say for Hummel who nearly screeches for a day spa whenever he gets a slushy facial, whatever the fuck a day spa is."

"Noah are you honestly trying to tell me you don't think she cares about all of this? That the fact that her schoolmates think it's funny to douse her in slushy when she's done nothing to even come close to deserving it doesn't upset her?"

"Well…no…I mean sh-"

"And I have a hunch that if they're throwing slushies at her for no reason they probably don't have a problem doing other things to torture her, despite the fact that she probably never even retaliates."

"Well I mean yeah they do some other stuff but seriousl-"

"So let's get this straight, they throw slushies at her, and I'm guessing call her names and make up rumors about her, probably among other things, and you still think she doesn't care? That this all just rolls off her back and it doesn't matter at all?"

"Okay well no I'm sure she cares but…I don't know Ma Berry's one of the strongest people I know. She never lets anyone see that what they do has any effect on her. When she gets slushied she just turns around and gets cleaned off. And it's not like they single her out. Even I've ben slushied." 'And then Rachel was there for me to help me clean myself up and forgive me for ever doing that to her in the first place,' He amended silently, 'And she sat on my knee in the teeny tiny black skirt, and I could tell that all those rumors about her wearing granny panties were total shit. Seriously I think she might have been wearing a thong…fuckin' hot as he-'

Puck was pulled out of his dirty thoughts by his mother speaking again, "Oh Noah…do you really think that the ability to hide your emotions equates to being strong? Do you really think that shoving everything away and never showing anyone how you really feel is healthy let along being strong?"

Puck didn't open his mouth but the look on his face was apparently enough confirmation for his mother, "She's not as strong as you'd like to believe. All the signs of her vulnerability are there. Just open up your eyes and you'll be able to see them. She may want to think she's that strong and you might want to believe it's true but she's not. No one is."

That was how Noah Puckerman found himself standing against his locker Monday morning, watching Rachel Berry as she walked into school.

A/N- I know it's short but this is just setting up the story. Let me know what you guys think while I work on the next chapter. Oh and this story is dedicated to Kuuleialoha1 who was reviewer 159 of my fic Brand New Me. What I was originally planning as her one-shot sort of evolved and became more than one chapter could handle.