a/n: I know nothing about cars. Loose drabble for babs08. Enjoy.

Puck had been minding his own business. Seriously.

Cruising the streets of Lima was something which he enjoyed. His truck would rattle along loyally, he'd have his ipod fixed up and the windows would be rolled down. Feeling the wind whip across his face was bracing. If he stopped thinking enough, Puck could imagine that he wasn't in Ohio and stuck in the somewhat crappy situation Quinn had forced him into.

So when he saw the small shape crouched beside a car, he just knew all that zen time was going to come crashing to the ground.

Bringing his truck to a stop behind what looked like a Prius, Puck casually got out of his car.

'Hey! You okay?' He called out. The small figure startled upright and let out an almighty shriek, brown hair fanning around. Puck found himself staring into the horrified eyes of Rachel Berry.

He could already feel the headache coming on.

'Oh. It's you,' Rachel said somewhat snottily, a hand bracing against her heart. Puck took in the brown spots on her jeans. 'I thought you were a serial killer.'

Puck refrained from pointing out that Rachel had all the ingredients needed to go all Swim Fan on anyone, but instead swallowed the snappy retort. Getting into a bitch fight with Berry was the last thing he needed right now.

'What's wrong with your car?' Puck attempted to be cordial. Rachel regarded him suspiciously, even going so far as to peer around him. The afternoon sun touched the crown of her head and Puck saw with some surprise that it made her seem almost angelic. Briefly he remembered how her hair had looked that day on the bleachers when she had broken up with him.

'Well, I was driving and there was this weird sound and then Liza-'

'Who the fuck is Liza?'

'My car,' she told him, looking at him as if he were an idiot. 'As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, Liza simply withered like Britney succumbing to the harsh glare of celebrity.'

'Berry, I don't speak crazy,' Puck said flatly.

'My car stopped.'

Puck heaved a heavy sigh. 'C'mon. Let me take a look.'

'Excuse me?' Rachel asked, blocking his path. 'I would prefer if a qualified mechanic-'

'I work at Burt Hummel's part-time after school. You need a reference, go call him,' Puck answered before brushing past her. He popped open the hood, peering inside.

Everything looks okay. Maybe it's the battery.

'I thought you cleaned pools?' Rachel questioned. Puck glanced to the side to find her standing there looking uncertain and shy. He raised his eyebrow, angling his head to give her a bored look.

'I do. Can't do that year round. Besides, I like cars.'

'I remember.' Her answer seemed to surprise him. 'You mentioned you had a subscription to Wheels magazine and one time you launched into what I thought was a rather lengthy oration on Dean Winchester's 1967 Chevy Impala.'

'Huh. I thought you spaced out,' Puck remarked mildly.

'I remember everything people tell me,' Rachel replied.

I remember everything you told me.

Puck shifted his gaze away, clearing his throat. He asked her to get in the car and turn the key. When there was no sound, Puck nodded his head in confirmation.

'Looks like the battery's dead. Just needs a jump,' Puck told her neutrally. 'I'll go get the cables from my truck.' He turned his back on her and wasn't surprised to hear her feet drag against the gravel. Rachel never seemed to take the hint that he didn't want her following him around. He had mentioned this once during their extremely brief relationship, and her answer had haunted him for days.

'Well if I didn't follow you around, who else would?'

Quinn sure as hell didn't want him around, though there were signs that she was softening (he was pretty sure his sexting with Santana had been a bump in the process but whatever). Finn walked around like a zombie and Puck wasn't even sure half the time if his best friend knew what was going on around him. Mike was hung up on Brittany and Matt seemed to have developed some kind of freakazoid crush on Santana (Puck had tried one day to work in a hint that the other teen should get his credit rating checked out, which had earned him a weird look from his teammate). Mercedes looked like she wanted to cut him most of the time. Kurt thought he was hot. Tina was alright but Puck thought her moon eyes at Artie were a tad disconcerting. Not because he thought Artie was weird or whatever – the guy could shred a guitar like Hendrix – but Puck had enough teenage angst in his own life to want to get involved in someone else's.

Which left Rachel. Who was in love with Finn. Who had sat on the bleachers and said Puck and her were nothing but a fantasy, and that she didn't blame him for wanting Quinn so much.

Which sucked because after babysitting Mrs Schue's Bellevue escapee sister's spawn, Puck didn't think he wanted Quinn so much. He wanted the baby inside Quinn. Quinn the girl was too into Finn. Puck knew a lost cause when he saw one and it was why he had sexted Santana. The girl was a grade A bitch when she wanted to be, but Lopez let him be a seventeen year old boy high on hormones without a care in the world. She afforded him a taste of what his life had been like before Babygate. So he'd been a complete asshole when Quinn had confronted him about it and something inside him had broken when he realized that Finn was always going to come in first.

No matter the girl, Puck thought peering at Rachel out of the corner of his eye.

'It's really nice of you to do this. I thought it was a flat at first and since my fathers thought it highly necessary that I learn to change a tire-'

'Here, hold this,' Puck interrupted, tossing her the jumper cables as he twisted the key in his truck after popping the hood. The engine came to life with a loud sound before settling into a hum. Checking to make sure the posts were clean, he extracted the positive jumper cable from Rachel and fixed it to her battery. Making sure that was secure, he fixed the other end to his truck. He did the same for the negative jumper cable. Rachel fidgeted as she watched him work.

Three, two, one.

'Is it working?'

Lift off. She could never stay quiet for long.

'Give it a minute,' Puck replied, digging his hands into his pocket. A warm hand settled over his bicep and Puck found Rachel looking up at him through her insanely long lashes, lips fixed into a soft smile.

'Thank you Noah.' She said it so seriously that Puck thought she was accepting a Tony.

'Whatever. It's nothing.'

'Helping someone in need is not nothing,' she commented lightly, letting her hand fall to the side. Her smile was still in place as she brushed a stray strand of hair over her ear. 'Honestly Noah, I fail to see why you find it so hard to accept praise when it is handed to you. With your constant proclamations of your stud status and badassness, I thought you'd be used to it.'

'Yeah well…self-praise is no praise right?' He didn't know what possessed him to mutter that under his breath but Rachel whipped her head around so fast Puck was surprised she didn't have whiplash.

'Go start the car. Should be fine now,' Puck got out before Rachel could say anything in response.

Shit. What is it about this chick that makes me want to, like, share?

Rachel pinched her mouth shut and gave him a brief glance before getting into the driver's seat of her Prius. The tiny pink rubber star on the antenna bobbed briefly in the wind. Puck couldn't resist letting out a snort.

'It worked!' Rachel exclaimed, her head popping over the roof of the car and her teeth gleaming white as she gave him a grin.

Thank god.

'Told you,' Puck shrugged, disconnecting the cables from both cars. He threw them carelessly in the back, hearing the metal ends clang against the floor.

'Thank you again Noah! If you hadn't come around when you did, who knows what degenerate could have decided that I was suitable pray for their sadistic fantasies,' she informed him matter-of-factly.

'Right. What were you doing out there anyway? You know no one ever comes down this place right?' Puck asked, trying to mask his curiousity. He was surprised to see something like a blush touch Rachel's cheeks.

'Occasionally the demands of becoming a young ingénue become too much. Since I have yet to purchase the villa in Madrid to recuperate from the harsh glare of the masses, I find that driving along somewhat aimlessly aids in helping me center myself. The isolation of this place was an added benefit,' she admitted sheepishly.

'Yeah,' Puck said, his voice hoarse. 'Look bring your car by Burt's Garage tomorrow or whatever. I'll take a look and make sure you don't need a new battery.'

Rachel seemed surprised by his offer and gave him a hesitant upturn of the lips.

'That's very thoughtful of you Noah. I'll be sure to do that.'

'Bye,' was all he said, his tone short. Rachel gave him a small wave as she drove away, Puck leaning his head against the frame of his truck.

You and Berry are more alike than you think Puckerman.

The thought scared the crap out of him.

While he had told her they were never really friends, Puck realized that if there was anyone who understood what it was like to be him, it would be Rachel.

Rachel Berry. Description friend. That sounds so fucking wrong.

But, Puck admitted to himself as her Prius disappeared over the horizon, it may also be right.