I don't own any of the characters (except Jared, who's a figment of my imagination) or Glee.
Puck sat in the Glee practice room, glaring across the room at the guy and girl sitting next to each other whispering. This isn't the way it's supposed to be, he thought angrily. I'm the one who's supposed to be there with her, it's ME who should be sitting there next to her, whispering in her ear, and if I hadn't messed up so badly, it would STILL be me.
If Puck's fairy godmother had come to him right then and granted him a wish, he knew exactly what he'd wish for: That Rachel would come up to him now, put a small, soft hand on his shoulder, and say "Noah" in that intimate way she had. Then he'd be able to swoop her up into his arms, kiss her like never before, and never let her go. Unfortunately for Puck, however, the chances of that happening were about the chances of Rachel suddenly getting up and saying she has decided she doesn't like singing anymore and is quitting Glee. So, no, that wasn't happening, despite how much Puck wished it would. One of the reasons that that wasn't happening was because of the guy sitting next to Rachel, a guy whose name Puck had grown to loathe ever since he'd stolen Puck's girl. Jared.
Stinkin' Jared had come along at just the right moment for himself, and just the wrong moment for Puck. If only everything hadn't gotten so messed up. If only he hadn't completely fallen for Rachel Berry 4 months ago. If only he hadn't gotten Quinn pregnant. If only he hadn't kept it a secret from Rachel. If only Rachel wasn't so perfect, therefore making Jared be instantly attracted to her when he'd come as the new kid to school…
Get control of yourself, man, Puck scolded himself. What are you, a girl?! This Jared guy isn't going to last long. He can't. And when he messes up, you'll be there to comfort Rachel, and she'll realize that you belong together. Then, you'll be together and you'll make sure you stay together, beating up any guy who even looks at her. Yeah, that's what'll happen.
If only Puck could believe it.
It all started way back when he had only recently joined Glee. There was just something about the way that Rachel sang that drew him to her. Even though it took him weeks to admit it to himself, the way that she sang, well, it kind of stripped away all those crazy habits that she seemed to have so many of, and just made her seem normal and talented and, as hard as this was for him to admit, pretty. When Rachel quit Glee, though, and the group was wondering about what to do, Kurt said something like, "We can't do this without Rachel," and when Mr. Schue protested, Artie sided with Kurt. That was when Puck made a big mistake. He said, "Wheelchair kid is right. That Rachel chick makes me want to light myself on fire, but she can sing."
Immediately after saying it, Puck wanted to hit himself in the head. What was he doing saying that out loud?! Who knows what people would think?! They might realize that he doesn't exactly hate Rachel anymore, and flush, there goes his reputation… He breathed a sigh of relief, though, when he realized that everyone thought he meant that as a backhanded compliment, well, the first part being an insult, and the second part being a compliment. Well, it was better than them realizing that he had kind of meant both parts as a compliment. When he said, "She makes me want to light myself on fire," it was only because he was realizing his gradually growing feelings for her, but lucky for him, nobody else interpreted it that way, so he was saved then.
Then, when the girls were singing their Halo/Sunshine mash-up, he couldn't stop staring at Rachel. After they finished, Mr. Schue, Miss Pillsbury, and the rest of the guys were clapping and hooting for them, and Puck had to jerk himself out of his daze, wiping the incredulous look off of his face before joining in with the clapping. How the heck did she get her voice to go that high without cracking?!
The last straw for him had been his dream about Rachel coming through his window, wearing a star of David necklace. It was crazy, right? Except totally not; it was a great dream and he wanted it to be a reality, where Rachel wanted him and came to him, smiling and looking all gorgeous. So he did something about it. After all, he was a stud, he didn't just stand by and wait for things to happen; he made them happen. The next day in school, he approached Rachel with a slushie in hand, straw tucked behind his ear. When she saw him and what he was holding, she scrunched up her face in a kind of weird, but still pretty cute way. He handed her the slushie, letting her know that he was trying to make amends, then asked her if she wanted to work on a mash-up with him. He was surprised when she agreed, and then later that day, they were in her room, with her singing, him playing guitar, and then lo and behold, they were making out on her bed. It was amazing, and just what he'd been waiting for.
With her mouth on his, he didn't care that Quinn was carrying his baby. He didn't care that Quinn thought he was a Lima loser with no hope of ever being anything more. He didn't care that he knew Finn liked Rachel. He didn't care that he'd thrown slushies on her for the past year and a half. All he cared about was what was happening now and keeping it that way for as long as possible. Too soon, however, Rachel pulled away, and he was scared she'd say it was a mistake.
"I can't do this," she said. Ok, she didn't say it was a mistake, so maybe there was still some hope yet.
"Why? We're a couple of good lookin' Jews," he protested. "It's natural," and he started to move towards those delectable lips again, waiting to reclaim them.
It was then that she started babbling something about not being able to give herself to someone who wasn't brave enough to sing a solo. Yeah, right, she just didn't want to make out with anyone who wasn't Finn. Precious Finn, who all the girls liked. Yeah, Finn was his best friend, but that doesn't mean Puck couldn't feel annoyed that his friend took all the girls he liked, did it? Well, Puck wasn't going to take it this time. This time he was going to get the girl, not Finn, stupid, bumbling Finn. Puck was going to make Rachel his and Finn would see that Puck, too, could get the girl.
The following day, Puck skipped football practice to finish smoothing over all the details of the song he was going to sing to Rachel to prove to her that he could do this. He chose Sweet Caroline because of the Jewish composer, and he thought he sounded pretty darn fantastic. Hey, he never claimed to be overly modest, he was just stating the facts.
His rendition of Sweet Caroline went over pretty well with everyone, with Rachel smiling and nodding her head at him at the end. She was really the one who mattered, so he ignored the rest of the clapping. Ok, that's a lie, no he didn't. He felt pretty good when he heard how much everyone liked his singing, but he really wanted to know how Rachel felt about it. So when he asked her later what she thought, and after a bunch of stuff he can't remember, she admitted that she was proud of him and proud to walk with him. Crazily enough, that meant a lot more to him that he thought it would. Maybe that's why he took a slushie for her a few seconds later. The plus side of that was that she took him to the bathroom to get him cleaned up, getting all the slushie out of his hair and wiping him off. If he got to have her massage his hair, which felt ridiculously good, and sit on his lap like this all the time, he wouldn't mind taking a slushie for her more often. He told her that he wouldn't be at practice later, that he was choosing football, and she took it in stride. He saw the little flicker of sadness in her eyes, and that made him increasingly happy. In reality, he knew he wasn't going to go to football practice, he was going to choose Glee, but to know that Rachel wished he'd choose Glee, even when she was under the impression that he wasn't going to, comforted him.
At 3:32 that afternoon, he walked into the Glee practice room, hands in pockets, head down, and there, ready to greet him with a joyous smile, was Rachel.
"Are you sure about this, Noah?" she asked. " I mean, choosing us means that you might get a slushie in your face every day."
He looked at her, her innocent eyes shining hopefully and happily, glanced at the others in the room, and looked back the beauty standing in front of him. "Bring it," he said, and then Rachel was enveloped in his arms and it felt good, better that anything had felt for a long time. It was only when someone asked where Finn was that he noticed that his nemesis (for Rachel's heart, that is) wasn't there; he'd apparently chosen football. Puck felt bad that everyone else was disappointed, but couldn't help but be slightly relieved (ok, maybe more than slightly) that Finn wasn't going to be a contender anymore. If Finn wasn't there, Puck didn't have to worry about watching Rachel and him be the lead singers, dance with each other while staring into each other's eyes…That left more opportunity for him to be the lead, for him to be the leading man in Rachel's life.
Everything was good then. It was like things fell into place. He and Rachel were together, Finn was still on the football team, but the Gleeks didn't really associate with him. It was like now he, Puck, was the prince of Glee club, and to be honest, he liked it, he liked it a lot. Everything was going well, until he went by the field to watch football practice one day. Rachel arrived after he'd been there for 25 minutes or so.
After a little bit of mindless chit chat, she said, "I hope you choose Glee over football for me."
Puck had a really bad feeling about this. He wanted to tell her, "I did it for you and for me. I did it because I wanted to have a chance with you. I wanted to be the one who could sing and dance with you." Instead what he said was simply, "Why?"
"Because I don't think this relationship is going to work out," she said.
Puck again found himself wanting to say a lot of things to her, some of them being, "Please don't. I don't want to break up with you. Give me another chance, I'll show you that I can replace Finn in your heart." But, yet again, he found himself choosing another way of getting out of the situation, this time with a complete lie. "It's okay; I was going to break up with you anyway." Her skepticism unnerved him and he made up some excuse, but really he wanted to beg her to take him back. For once, he had felt somewhat accepted. After all, if someone who he had made fun of and tortured with slushie showers for years could accept him and see the good in him, that must mean that he really wasn't such a loser, right? He needed something or someone to tell him that, to show him that Quinn was wrong about what she said about him.
Yet, when he tried to get Rachel to see that Finn wasn't going to leave Quinn, she resolutely kept to her decision. It was only later, after Finn had come to his senses and rejoined Glee (of course being accepted back in immediately, as if almost nothing had happened….Puck couldn't imagine what would've happened if he had been the one to choose football….it'd probably have taken him months to get people to look at him again. But Finn came back, brought slushies for everyone, and everything was okay again. It just wasn't fair.), that Puck decided he'd better approach Rachel before Finn sucked her in even more.
"Rachel? Could I talk to you for a minute?"
"Um, ok. What's up, Noah?"
He sucked in a deep breath. "Remember when we were together, but you broke up with me and I told you it was okay because I was going to break up with you, anyway? I lied."
He saw her looking at him, surprised, yet with another indescribable emotion in her eyes, as well. He continued, "I didn't want to break up; I was just too afraid to tell you. I think you should give us another chance, Rachel. I think we could be good together. If you gave us a chance, I think you'd see that we could possibly really work out. Please. Let me at least try to show you…" He trailed off, gazing hopefully at her.
"Noah, I don't know what to say. Wait, yes, I do. First of all, it takes a tremendous amount of strength to admit to cowardice; that was a really herculean thing that you just did, admitting to your fear. Second of all, well, I guess I may have been a bit hasty in breaking things off. I guess I thought that if I didn't get over Finn in those few days we were together, then it'd never happen and it was fruitless to just continue with the façade. But maybe you're right…maybe I should give us another chance." She smiled shyly at the end of her soliloquy.
While he wasn't sure about some of the stuff she said in the middle, what Puck got out of Rachel's babbling was that she thought he was a strong person (emotionally, I guess…physically was never really a question) and that she was giving him another chance. That was enough for him! He broke out in a grin.
"So, you wanna go out tomorrow night?" he asked.
"Sure," she said. "Pick me up at 7:00."
And that was the start of their beautiful relationship…It was the best 3 months of Puck's life, and he was ready to get it all back, if only it weren't for this stupid guy Jared getting in the way of everything.
A.N: This is a lot less dialogue than I plan on putting in in future chapters, so don't get scared away. Since I was basing this off of quotes from the show, it was annoying to try to find out the exact quotations…However, when I can make up my own dialogue, like in the future chapters, it'll be a lot easier and so there'll probably be more of it.