Charmed - The entire history of Rachel and Puck's relationship can be retold just from the charms on a simple silver bracelet.
Rating - T
Characters - Rachel & Puck
A/N -Reviews/concrit are loved, as are suggestions as to what you want to see happen. And I'm from the UK, so if anything American is not quite right, please let me know and I'll fix it.
I was going to incorporate this into one of my other fics, but it semed to grow and grow until it was worthy of it's own fiction. I've already got rough ideas for a few chapters, but if anyone has any ideas or anything you'd like to see let me know and I'll try my best to fit it in somewhere.
Chapter 1- It Began With A Picnic Basket
Rachel Berry and Noah Puckerman had always been close, they'd met at temple when they were still in diapers, and had been firm friends, or if you asked their parents, partners in crime, even before they could talk. That all changed when they moved to high school, Noah joined the football team and fell in with the wrong crowd, Rachel joined every after school club that didn't involve sports and knuckled down with her studies. Noah wanted to be popular and so followed in the footsteps of the other jocks, he threw kids in dumpsters, the ones who avoided the dumpster usually ended up with a slushie facial. Rachel wanted to be the best, and didn't stop until she was coming top in all her classes. Unfortunatley this made her a popular target for the bullies and slushie facials and the subsequent clean up soon became as much a part of her day as her morning workout routine or her lunch period.
Everything changed again when Mr Schuester started the glee club, at first things got worse for Rachel, but then cheerleaders and jocks began to join the club, and slowly the hierarchy began to break down. Unfortunatly this meant that Puck was now on the recieving end of the slushie facials he once used to give freely. Rachel enjoyed being able to spend time with her oldest friend once again, and she soon began to see traces of her Noah pushing Puck aside.
They briefly dated after the whole babygate drama had died down, but lasted less than a week before deciding they were better off as friends, but it was Noah, not Puck, that Rachel turned to after Jesse broke her heart, and again when she found out Finn had slept with Santana.
If he was completley honest Puck was a little bit gutted when he found out Rachel and Finn got back together after nationals, but he put on a show face even Rachel would be proud of and told his friends he was happy for them.
The Glee club spent most of the summer together, just hanging out at one anothers houses or at the park, making the most of the free time they had before their final year of school started. This obviously meant Puck spent a lot of time watching Finn and Rachel playing tonsil tennis.
"You're still into her aren't you" Santana asked as they sat in Kurt's basement.
"I don't know what you're on about" he lied before leaving the room to get himself a drink.
Then Puck's mom got sick, and he was overwhelmed with dirty dishes, keeping his sister entertained, and he had absolutley no idea how to work the washing machine and was fast running out of clean outfits for him and his sister to wear. Rachel was his saving grace, coming over without being asked, cleaning all the dishes, teaching him how to do laundry, but not trusting him with the iron, she even taught him how to cook several simple meals, and did girly shit with his sister to give him some time on his own.
He was furious the night she turned up on his doorstep, tears streaming down her face as she explaained how Finn had once again changed his mind and gone running back to Quinn. Puck had held Rachel until she calmed down, and he didn't pull away when she gently bought her lips against his. He'd missed her, truth be told he'd not really been intimate with anyone since he'd broken up with her, he and Lauren had never really done anything physical, and Puck didn't really care too much when she broke up with him because her parents were moving away.
It seemed like everyone else knew Puck and Rachel were meant for each other before they themselves did, the glee club had a sweepstake, which Tina won, on when they would get together and Hiram and Leroy Berry had told him it was about time when he asked permission to take Rachel on a date, yeah he was a badass, but Leroy Berry scared the shit out of him. They'd happily allowed him to take Rachel out, on the condition that he bought her home by 11.30, and even gave him a box of condoms 'just in case', even though Puck knew he wasn't going to do anything on the first date with Rachel, she was Rachel Berry, she wasn't just going to be another one of his hook ups.
"Wow, Rach, you look amazing." He didn't think it was possible, but she actually took his breath away as she walked down the stairs into his line of sight, the dark blue summer dress stopped at her knees and her hair was curled loosley around her shoulders.
"Thank you" she stepped into his waiting embrace, "you look very handsome too" she told him, taking in his dark jeans and pale blue shirt.
Rachel smiled and slipped on her sandles before picking up her cardigan and clutch bag from the stairs, "Are you ready Noah?" she waved her hand infront of his face to get his attention.
"What?"
Rachel laughed softly, "I said are you ready? I just need to say goodbye to my daddies and then we can go" she turned to walk into the living room where her fathers were watching tv to give the young couple space.
"No" Puck reached out for Rachel's arm, "I mean before we go, I erm got you this" he handed her a long thin velvet box.
"Noah" she gasped, "you shouldn't have".
"Open it" he encouraged, "My sister helped me choose it, if you like it I'll take the compliments, if you don't like it she takes the blame" he grinned.
Rachel laughed and punched his arm lightly before opening the box to reveal a silver charm bracelet, "Oh Noah" she sighed, her eyes filling with tears as she ran her fingers over the charms already on the bracelet, "it's so beautiful".
"I thought we could kinda add to it as we went along" he explained as he wiped the tears from Rachel's cheeks, "but this is where it starts" he told her gesturing to the charms already on the bracelet, a silver 'R' hung from one end of the bracelet, a matching 'N' at the opposite end with a silver heart hanging exactly in the middle of the two letters.
"Noah" Rachel began to sob, she'd always felt like she and Finn were meant to be, but he'd never done anything this thoughtful, he'd never given her jewlery, he'd never really bought her anythign, not even flowers or chocolates.
Puck began to panic, "If you don't like it Rach I can take it back, you can come too, choose something else, I don't mind"
"No, no" she shook her head, "it's just, I love it Noah, thank you so much".
"Come here" Puck laughed, pulling Rachel into a tight embrace, kissing her hair and wiping her cheeks as her tears finally stopped.
"Will you put it on for me?" Rachel whispered as she pulled away.
"I thought you'd never ask" he grinned, carefully fastening the bracelet around her delicate wrist, the silver complementing her tanned skin perfectly. He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed it gently, "beautiful" he smiled.
Rachel smiled too before excusing herself to say goodbye to her fathers and leaving the house hand in hand with Noah.
He'd surprised her with a picnic by the lake, everything was home made, vegan friendly and in Rachel's eyes absolutley perfect. Once they'd eaten they laid on the blanket gazing up at the stars as they spoke about nothing in particular. Puck felt Rachel shiver beside him and slipped off his jacket, wrapping it around her tiny shoulders before pulling her closer to him, holding her tightly as she moved her head to lie on his chest. He began to sing softly to her, and was surprised to find she'd fallen asleep. He carefully lifted her into his truck and drove her home. It was 10.57 when he knocked softly on Rachel's door, hoping her fathers were still up.
Hiram raised an eyebrow as he saw Rachel in Puck's arms, "she fell asleep" the young boy explained, "she looked so peaceful I didn't want to wake her." Hiram smiled and directed him up to her bedroom where he laid her in the bed, slipped off her shoes and pulled the overs over her, leaving his jacket wrapped around her. He glanced around the room before finding a notebook on her desk. He tore out a sheet of paper and grabbed a pen before scribbling a note, kissing Rachel's cheek and leaving her sleeping peacefully.
Rachel frowned as she woke the next morning, she didn't remember coming home, she remembered lying by the lake with Noah, she remembered him sining to her but then nothing. She gasped as she threw back the covers, finding herself in last night's clothes and Noah's jacket. It was only when she returned from the bathroom that she noticed the note on her bedside table. 'Rach' She recognised Noah's handwriting instantly, 'you fell asleep by the lake so I drove you home, your dad's know you're back, and you were home before curfew. I had a great time, and I'll ring you in the morning. N x p.s. I thought you'd like a permenant reminder of our first date.'
Once again she was confused, she had a reminder, he'd got her the bracelet. Her left hand instinctivley went to her right wrist, it was bare. She almost broke down in tears, she couldn't believe she'd lost the bracelet already. It took a moment for her to notice it sat on the edge of her bedside table, and when she picked it up she noticed something was different, a silver picnic basket hung between the 'R' and the love heart.