Prompt #056 Smoke

It had been a while since she had last gotten a slushie facial but nothing seemed unusual about this particular one. The way the slimy cold substance hit her skin and dripped down into her shirt didn't seem out of the ordinary at all. The clustered laughs of her peers didn't sound any different either, then what was so different about this time?

Perhaps it was the way her attacker got slammed into the wall of lockers a few seconds after the slushie was thrown into her face, or the large fist slamming into the boy's nose resulting in him howling in pain and clutching the bleeding appendage. But the other thing that she didn't seem to remember about previous slushie attacks was the deep baritone she heard after the guy slid down the lockers to the floor.

"Try shit likes that again and I'll break more than just your nose." The attacker, a nameless boy from the hockey team, cowered in fear as her defender leaned over him. "Now hurry off," he snapped. The boy stood up and ran down the hall, still clutching his nose.

Then it all dawned on her. "Puck! Why did you do such a horrid thing?"

"Well, excuse me, I thought I was helping you?"

"I don't require your services dealing with slushie facials. I'm perfectly capable of handling my own affairs," Rachel proclaimed slowly assessing him with her eyes.

"Oh shut it, Berry," Puck sighed. "You look like a popsicle," he ran a finger down her slushied cheek and licked the slushie that came off from his finger. "Mmm, a cherry popsicle."

The action made Rachel's cheek flush bright red but she recovered quickly and stood up straight. "You're barbaric, Noah Puckerman." She turned around and stomped off towards the bathroom, she really needed to get cleaned up.

"At least let me help you, Berry," he called as he walked with her towards the bathroom.

---

He handed her his letterman jacket, "Here take this, you must be freezing." He turned around to grab some paper towels from the dispenser.

"Thanks," she hesitantly shrugged the jacket over her shoulders. She didn't completely trust him, this was after all the same Noah Puckerman that had started all the slushie madness to begin with.

He handed her the paper towels that he had wet beneath the faucet. She accepted them with a smile and started wiping her face clean. Puck was shaking out his fist, the guy's face had been harder than he had thought it would be.

Honestly, Puck himself didn't even know why he had hit the guy that had slushied Rachel in the hallway. All he knew was that he saw it happen and suddenly he had become engulfed in rage. He watched the petite brunette wipe the slushie from her face, it had dripped all the way down into the blouse she was wearing today. The fabric was white, probably ruined from the red slushie stains.

"Do I need to go find you a change of clothes?" he asked, unsure of what to do.

She shook her head, "No, that won't be required. I always bring an extra set of clothes to school. You know… just in case."

Rachel swore she could see a tang of guilt shoot through his intense green eyes.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I guess?"

She shook her head disapprovingly. "Sorry isn't going to cut it, Noah. But I am willing to give you a chance to prove yourself worthy of my friendship, then we will see if I can forgive you your horrible actions."

"Whatever, Berry." He walked towards the door, "I'll be outside. Go get changed and then give me my jacket back."

Rachel nodded and smiled at the boy. "Of course, I won't take long." She watched him disappear through the door and down the hall, she turned to look at herself in the mirror. Her shirt was ruined and her face was a mess, the paper towels from before not really making any difference. She wiped some her hair that were stuck to her cheek from her face and splashed some water into it.

She stuck her hands inside the pockets of Puck's red and white letterman jacket, her right hand closing around a square pack. Out of curiosity she pulled the object out of the pocket, her eyes widening and her mouth falling when she saw what it was.

The pack was red and white, black letters spelling the name 'Marlboro'.

How nasty, how disgusting, how deplorable.

Rachel suddenly felt herself engulfed with rage. Before she even realized she was doing it she stormed out of the bathroom and sped down the halls to the parking lot. There he was leaning against a wall, searching through his backpack.

"Looking for this?" she held the pack up.

Puck saw the anger in her eyes and he had to admit that it was slightly intimidating. Even for a midget, Berry was just so intense.

"Oh shit," he muttered under his breath.

"How could you do something so loathsome? It's abominable. Do you even know what you're doing to yourself? Your body, your lungs. YOUR VOICE!" She was downright yelling at him now.

He just shrugged it off. She huffed angrily and tossed the pack at his head, she missed him and the pack hit the wall next to his face. "Berry, what the hell?"

"Really Puck, if you show up to Glee rehearsal and your voice is broken I will make sure you'll regret it for the rest of your life. You are not screwing up my Glee. I will not have it."

He walked towards her putting his hands on both side of her face. "Will you shut up already?" and then he kissed her full on the mouth. Rachel was surprised at first trying to back away but his hands held her safely pressed against him. She relaxed into the kiss and returned it, it soon turning into a hot battle of mouths and tongues and hands everywhere. Blood was rushing to all her body parts, seemingly lifting her off the ground as his arms snaked around her waist.

After a while they pulled back, both out of breath, panting.

"You taste like ashtray," Rachel said, wiping her mouth.

The end.

A/N: Okay, so the smoke doesn't really play that big of a part in this standalone, but this was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the word so I just went with it. I hoped you liked it. This is my first time writing Puckleberry and I really love doing it. I've got a feeling that they're kind of out of character so if you have any advice on how to improve that, I'm happy to hear it. Please let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. Haha.