So this is my first Glee fic, I hope you like it! It's set in the present, which is 7 years since Rachel and Puck have seen each other and 10 years since the current episodes. So I suppose that makes Rachel 26 and Puck 27. The first few chapters are going to be confusing because it starts and ends with the present but the middle is made up of flashbacks which tell the story of how they got where they are. The actual "scandal" which happened won't be shown for a while in since I need to set up the relationship first and the "scandal" doesn't occur until very late in their relationship. So if you are unbelievably confused reading this, don't worry. You're supposed to be
Rate and Review please!
Disclaimer: I own none of Glee
A/N: Italics is flashback, bold is singing, regular font is the present. You're all smart cookies though (you watch Glee) so you probably could have figured that out yourselves. Enjoy!
Have you ever had that moment, where something, anything just causes memory after memory of your past to come flooding through your mind, drowning your brain in nostalgia? Details from a time whether it was yesterday or 7 years ago take over every inch of your thoughts and leave you breathless, in a disbelief that it ever truly occurred? As Rachel Berry curiously opened the front door to her cramped, one bedroom apartment, she felt that feeling for the first time in years.
"Noah?" Rachel exclaimed.
~Glee~
"So today, we're going to work on a duet for regionals" Mr. Schue, announced carrying a manila folder nearly exploding with paper to handout, "Finn and Rachel, you got this?"
"Mr. Schue, I'm sorry but I really don't feel like it," Finn mumbled from the corner of the room he had managed to find as far away from Puck and Quinn as possible in a room this size. It was only with extreme nagging from Rachel he had agreed to come back in the first place. Mr. Schue sent a sympathetic look towards to Finn and nodded.
"Okay, Artie?" Mr. Schue asked, glancing towards the boy in the wheelchair. Artie shook his head sadly.
"He h-h-has a cold," Tina explained, gesturing towards Artie.
"Hmm, Mike? Matt?" Mr. Schue asked hopefully glancing towards the boys in the back whose eyes were widened with alarm. They shook their heads quickly, glancing at the ground. Mr. Schue sighed and glanced unsurely at Kurt.
"Kurt…?" he asked, clearly not expecting a positive answer. Kurt let out a bark of laughter, glancing at the song.
"Not only would I be disgusted to sing this song to anyone, especially a girl and especially Rachel, I'm a soprano anyway," Kurt huffed, straightening his sweater.
"Well then, I guess it's up to you, Puck" Mr. Schue said quietly, averting his eyes from Finn. Everyone in the room could immediately feel the tension rise.
"Mr. Schue…" Puck groaned, glancing at the song and then at Rachel.
"Please Noah?" Rachel whined, "I need a male who can keep up with me and at this rate I need a male who will sing at all," Puck sighed, glancing around the room for support, with no luck. No one would even make eye contact with him.
"Fine," he muttered, ignoring Rachel's squeal of glee as she dashed up to the center of the room. Puck trailed after her, attempting to delay the upcoming performance. As soon as the percussion started in, Puck knew he had no choice.
"I miss the sound of your voice, I miss the rush of your skin, I miss the still of your silence, as you breathe out and I breathe in" Rachel began, voice flowing smoothly with the melody.
"If I could walk on water, if I could tell you what's next, make you believe, make you forget," Noah sang quietly, glancing over at Rachel. Her eyes were closed as her head bobbed softly to the music. Noah couldn't help but notice that when she was singing, she was kind of pretty. He couldn't help but flash back to the memories of them on her bed, giggling and rolling around in the joy of how wrong what they were doing really was. Noah felt a slight stirring in his pants area. Quickly leaning against the piano and crossing his legs, Noah continued.
"So come on get higher, loosen my lips. Faith and desire with the swing of your hips just pull me down hard and drown me in love," Noah harmonized with Rachel, letting her voice overtake his but not enough that his couldn't be heard. Without realizing it Noah had walked over to Rachel, now singing directly to her.
"So come on get higher, loosen my lips .Faith and desire with the swing of your hips, just pull me down hard and drown me in love," Noah sang again, letting his voice gain some momentum. He felt his hand brush against Rachel's sending a parade of goosebumps up his arm. Good goosebumps though.
"I miss the sound of your voice, the loudest thing in my head, and I ache to remember all the violent sweet, perfect words that you said," Noah crooned, letting Rachel's hand explore his now, from the palm all the way out to each finger. It felt amazing to have her stroking them. He glanced up and saw passion in her eyes. He didn't know whether it was for the song or for him. Either way she looked damn hot.
"If I could walk on water, if I could tell you what's next, make you believe, make you forget," Rachel resounded, her voice echoing majestically off the walls and vibrating Noah down to his very core. He was close to beating himself up for not making her sing to him the 30 seconds they were together.
"So come on get higher, loosen my lips. Faith and desire with the swing of your hips justpull me down hard and drown me in love. Come on get higher, loosen my lips. Faith and desire with the swing of your hips, just pull me down hard and drown me in love." At this point, the Glee club sitting in front of him had vanished. All that was there was him and Rachel facing each other, hands intertwined, singing from their hearts.
"I miss the pull of your heart," Rachel blared.
"I taste the sparks on your tongue" Noah sang back sincerely, feeling the truth behind these words.
"I seek angles and devils and God when you come on," Rachel sang, holding the note while Noah responded with the harmony of,
"Hold on, hold on, hold on,"
"Sing sha la la la, sing sha la la la," Rachel murmured so quietly you barely hear her.
"So come on get higher, loosen my lips. Faith and desire with the swing of your hips justpull me down hard and drown me in love. Come on get higher, loosen my lips. Faith and desire with the swing of your hips, just pull me down hard and drown me in love." Noah stared into Rachel's huge eyes, not bothering to deny the unbelievably rate his heart was pounding at and the fluttery feeling he felt in his chest.
"Come on get higher," Noah crooned against Rachel's resounding,
"It's all wrong,"
"Faith and desire and the swing of your hips,"
"It's all wrong,"
"Pull me down hard and drown me in love,"
"It's so right"
"Come on get higher, come on get higher, because everything works love, because everything works in your arms" Rachel and Noah trailed, off gazing longingly into each other's eyes. The sudden plethora of whooping and clapping pulled Puck out of his trance with a start glancing around at the people in the room whose eye's were filled with astonishment and adoration.
"Guys," Mr. Schue exclaimed, his face lit up with delight, "That was absolutely incredible," Puck felt a quiet blush sweep across his face and felt the old Puck slowly returning, to replace Noah who had appeared.
"Whatever," he mumbled, shuffling back over to his seat, "I'm a stud, of course it was great"
"We've definitely got our new duet for regionals!" Mr. Schue declared happily, stuffing his bag full of papers and he got ready to leave.
"Wait I never," Puck began but was cut off by the quiet hum of everyone exiting the room.
"Puck," a sharp voice snapped from behind him. Puck spun around to see Santana standing behind him, arms crossed with weight on one leg.
"Look, San, I know you got turned on by that stud performance but when I said we we're over, we're over," Puck announced before she get a word in. Santana just rolled her eyes and strolled up to Puck staying one level above him so she was eye-to-eye with him.
"I get you're in love with man-hands now, but don't date her again. It was embarrassing enough the first time I had to tell everyone my ex was with dating Rachel Berry. They figured I was lesbian" Santana snapped, twirling around towards the exit so her skirt blew up enough to show some serious thong. If Puck hadn't been so distracted by her statement, he would have totally been banging that chick right now.
"What do you mean?" Puck growled, sprinting to block Santana's exit.
"I mean that whole damn song you had your sex face on and you weren't even having sex. I'm pretty sure that means love," Santana barked, clearly not happy about this occurrence.
"Shut up Santana. You don't know shit," Puck growled, turning to exit the room.
"Fine," Santana drawled, "prove it,"
"What?" Puck snarled, "how exactly do I prove it?"
"I don't know. Just prove it," Santana said with a maniacal smile crawling onto her face.
"Look," Puck said gruffly, "Berry is my go to slushie facial. I don't even give a shit about her. I only dated her in the first place since she's a Jew and to try and make Quinn jealous. Quinn is who I want, not some motherfucking ugly-ass bitch who prances around dressed like my grandmother. Okay? Now shut your hot little ass up and leave me alone," Santana smiled happily, and bounced out the door.
Noah collapsed on the chair, panting. Saying that shit about Berry felt like someone punched him in the nuts. He didn't know why. It was Berry. Sure, her legs were from a goddess and her ass was sculpted from Donatello or something but it was still Berry. And she was the only one who knew what he was going through, since Finn had been dragging her along through this since the beginning. He should sock Finn in the gut for doing that to her. Noah was disrupted from his thoughts by a slamming door. He looked up to see Rachel standing at the door, a look of fury across her face and tears of anger prominent in her eyes.
"Well Noah, it's great to know you think so highly of me," Rachel exclaimed, dashing out the door.
"Wait, Rachel!" Noah cried, as Rachel ran out the door.
It's just Berry. It doesn't matter what she thinks of me, Noah thought to himself but he could not keep the overwhelming wave of guilt from crashing over him and drenching him. Before Noah could stop himself he dashed out the door after Rachel.
"Rachel!" Noah yelled, looking down the deserted hallway for her, "Rachel I'm sorry!"
"Oh great. You're sorry," a voice snapped from inside the girl's bathroom, "no you're not. You're just the jackass football playerl who uses girls like me for his own personal gain. You disgust me Noah Puckerman," Noah sighed and leaned against the door.
"Look Berry, don't tell anyone but I actually didn't mind dating you," Noah growled, refusing to believe he actually just admitted that.
"Yeah, that's exactly what it sounded like when you were talking to Santana." Rachel snapped sarcastically.
"I just told her that stuff to shut her up," Noah called through the door, "she would go parading her fat ass around the school spewing shit about us if I didn't say all that crap. I didn't mean it. I swear. You're hot,"
"Oh great, so now you only appreciate me for my body." Rachel exclaimed. Noah slammed his head against the door.
"No, I don't! Look I really don't mind you Rachel," Noah groaned, hoping to god there was no one else in the hallway.
"Know what Noah, I don't even care. You made my high school career a living hell and I don't expect you to change that now."
"I'm sorry about that. It was before I knew you. Rachel…I like you okay?" Noah felt like someone punched him the guts. He just admitted to Rachel Berry that he liked Rachel Berry. He admitted it to himself too. The sniffles coming from inside the bathroom quieted.
"You what?" Rachel asked quietly, in shock.
"I like you. As in…like you. More than friends," Noah snarled, absolutely despising himself. What the hell was he doing? He was stud, not some pussy in a romance novel.
"You do?" Rachel gushed, throwing the door open to face Noah.
"Maybe," Noah muttered, staring at the ground.
"Noah, if you actually like me then admit it. To my face." Rachel barked, looking up into Noah's eyes.
"Berry," Noah groaned. Rachel did not flinch but looked demandingly into Noah's eyes.
"Fine. Berry, I like you," Noah felt a part of his soul die as he admitted that, but strangely another part of his soul seemed to come alive. Rachel squealed happily and flung her arms around Noah's neck.
"Noah, I like you too!" Rachel exclaimed happily. Noah chuckled and wrapped his arms around her in return. Rachel pulled back suddenly.
"What, babe?" Noah asked, confused.
"Quinn," Rachel mumbled, "you like her," Noah smiled softly.
"I like her baby. Quinn, not so much," Noah assured her, pushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Rachel blushed lightly, the prettiest color Noah had even seen.
"So…does this mean we are going to try us again? For real?" Rachel asked hopefully, her eyes melting into Noah's.
Noah groaned, "It looks like it," Rachel squealed and pressed her lips roughly to Noah's.
~Glee~
As Noah's hazel eyes locked with Rachel's in her tiny apartment foyer that memory flashed through his mind as it did every night before he fell asleep. Except now, he was looking straight into those brown eyes he remembered.
"Hi," he whispered.