Disclaimer: I don't even remotely own Glee a little bit. Ryan Murphy/Fox et. al do. If I owned Glee or was making any money off of this...well...there'd be a few changes in the works.
Prompt: Lil!Puck & Lil!Rachel run away from home - PuckRachel drabble meme at LJ (by: greydawning )
"Now Rachel, are you certain you have everything you need?" Hiram Berry asked his five year old daughter seriously as he handed over her pink Barbie lunchbox.
"Yes Dad," she replied sweetly, grinning broadly, while hopping in place. "I gots my toothbrush and a change of clothes and a snack and a barbie and Max my stuffed bunny and some crayons and paper. New York here I come."
"Well, if you're sure that's all you'll need," Leroy Berry added, chuckling under his breath and trading amused glances with his partner. "We will miss you dearly Rachel."
"It'll be okay Daddy," she told him with a sad smile before reaching over and patting his hand. "I have to do this."
"Yes dear, we know. New York waits for no one," he replied dryly. "But are you sure we can't convince you to stay?"
"Nope! I'm running away and no one will stop me!" she shouted, waving a finger in the air dramatically and almost broke the masks her parents composure. Luckily, they managed to contain their laughter and Hiram simply reached over and opened the front door. They both waved as she skipped down the front walk, her bright pink Barbie backpack bouncing around on her back, and turned right down the sidewalk.
"How long before she comes home you think?" Leroy questioned as they both watched her walk primly down the street.
"An hour? Maybe two?"
"Tell me again why we aren't concerned about this?"
"Because it's Rachel. She asked permission before she ran away from home," was the only answer Leroy received. "Trust me. I ran away from home when I was five too. She'll be fine."
"If she gets kidnapped I will never speak to you again."
Hiram simply snorted and went back inside once he saw his daughter turn onto the front walk of a house five down from theirs.
Rachel stood on her tip toes and reached up to push the door bell of the Puckerman home before waiting patiently for the door to be answered. When Elena Puckerman pulled open the door she smiled brightly and waved, "Is Noah ready?"
Elena covered up her laughter and nodded solemnly, "Yes sweetheart Noah's ready."
Immediately after she answered a small figure, clad similarly to her with a backpack and lunchbox (only his were Batman) ran out of the house and nearly plowed into the even smaller girl, "Hi Rachie."
"Hi!" she chimed back "What'd you bring?" she asked, pointing at his backpack.
"Ummm...toothbrush, clothes, my cars, crayons, a coloring book, Mommy gived me a flashlight, a hammer and food."
Both children looked up when they heard Elena snickering behind them and frowned in response. Noah's mother immediately schooled her expression into one of sorrow and sighed, shaking her head, "Oh my Noah. How I will miss you so."
"S'okay Mommy. I gotta go with Rachel. She's a girl."
"Yes, I know. You have to protect her. You explained that already."
"Yup! Hey...you think we need a tent? We gots one in the garage."
Both children lit up at the idea and Elena frowned for real this time, racking her brain for excuses so she didn't have to drag the camping gear out, "It's not going to rain for days so you won't need a tent."
"Oh," Rachel replied, deflating. "Okay then. Let's go Noah," she added, grabbing her best friends hand and tugging him down the front stoop. "Bye Elena."
"Bye kids. Be careful! Don't forget to write...when you learn!" she yelled after them, keeping with the sorrow filled tone Hiram had told her to use when he spoke with her that morning.
She watched as both children turned right out of the gate and walked side by side, hands linked and swinging, Rachel chattering excitedly while Noah kicked rocks and nodded every few seconds.
She quietly sat down into a lawn chair on the porch, watching as the two children made their way past the three houses left on their block before they reached the corner and smirked opening the book she had been holding and settled back for a quiet afternoon of "reading". If she instead happened to be mentally planning a future wedding, well, no one else needed to know that yet.
She glanced up a few minutes later to double check that what Hiram expected had in fact happened. Once she was certain, she pretended to keep her eyes on her book; all the while keeping watch over her son and his best friend who it appeared had reached a small road block in their plans.
"Rachie?"
"Yes Noah?"
"What're we gonna do now?"
"I do not know," she replied quietly, glaring at the sign post as if that would change the situation. "I hate being five," she added, stomping her foot.
"Yea," he agreed before sitting down on the corner and opening up his lunchbox. "Maybe we can run away when we're six. Mommy said when I'm six I can cross the street so's I can go to Finn's house as long as she watches," he explained, pointing further up the block across the small neighborhood intersection, towards his other friend's house.
Rachel huffed out a sigh and carefully sat down next to him, quickly arranging her yellow sundress around her and kept pouting, "But I want to go to New York now Noah! You said you'd take me."
"I will!" he replied quickly, looking at her as seriously as a five year old can. "I'm gonna getcha to New York Rachie. I promise."
"When?"
"Told you. When we're six. 'Cause then I can cross the street and your Dad'sll probably let you cross too if I hold your hand."
"Okay," Rachel mumbled. "Can I have your apple? Daddy gave me a pear."
Noah nodded and the two traded fruit before digging into their snacks and the toys they had each packed for their trip to New York until they got bored and shuffled back to Noah's an hour later to watch cartoons.
"Told you I'd get you to New York one day," Noah whispered into Rachel's ear in the middle of JFK as they waited to leave for their hotel.
Rachel laughed lightly, remembering promises made between two five year olds, and nudged his side with her elbow before joking back, "You're a little late Puckerman."
"Yea, well, six, sixteen; who cares? I got you here didn't I?"
Rachel grinned back up at the boy that had at one time been her whole world before puberty came into play in junior high and rolled her eyes lightly, "Yes, you and the rest of New Directions Noah."
"Technically," he agreed with a shrug. "But I'm the one who promised you first."
"Yes, you did," she whispered softly. "Thank you Noah."
"Anytime Rachie," he whispered back with a wink before walking off to join the rest of the group.
Rachel watched her one time best friend walk away and ignored the familiar pang in her chest as he did so. Shaking the feeling off quickly she looked up and met Finn's confused expression from where he was standing a mere foot away, ignoring the slight ire she had over him spying on a private conversation, and put a bright smile on and hurrying over to join the rest of the group as well.
They had National's to win and reminded herself, much like her father had once had when she was five years old, New York waits for no one.
A/N: I based this entirely off a small dilemma my best friend and I had when we were five years old and decided to run away from home because Kindergarten was just horrible. Unlike the ever so organized, even at five, Rachel Berry we had no set destination other then "no more school."
I've been using these little drabble one-shots to prove to myself that my brain hasn't completely petrified itself in my head. All the neurons are still firing! (I'm 27, unemployed and as a result living back at home again - thank you wonderful economy - there's a strong possibility I will lose my mind soon.)