Puck does a double take when he sees Rachel Berry, her face crumpled in frustration, walking through the halls in…pajamas? How can that be? She never has a freaking hair out of place, and now she looks all messy and undone.
Maybe it's that Jesse kid…God, he has been looking for an excuse to kill the smarmy little bastard forever. Not because he's jealous, or anything…he's just annoying. And he's the reason he didn't get to fuck Rachel Berry before filming "Run Joey Run". Which he only wanted to do out of pure curiosity, anyway. Also, why were Jesse and Finn even in the video? Puck's a good singer, too, dammit. He's just not so gay about it.
After some deliberation, he decideshe cares more about not being a dick than he cares about staying mad about her reputation stint.
"What's up, Rach?" he ends up asking, feeling his oddly smooth head with his hand.
"What's up? What's UP?" she squeals, her head snapping up from her stare contest with the floor.
"Yup," he says, cracking a grin. He'll never admit it, but he finds her crazy kind of… endearing? What, no. Definitely not that. Just... entertaining.
"My life is over, Puck. That is what is UP."
"Really," he says conversationally, swiping the cereal she's been carrying. She responds with and indignant, open mouth and a furrowed brow.
"Yes. I can't sing and I'm perfectly aware that's the only redeeming thing about me," she says with an unmistakable quiver in her voice.
"Hey," he says, "we both know that's not-"
"Finn pretty much said it was. So has everyone else."
"Wash this," Puck demands some random freshman boy, shoving the cup into his chest. The boy nods in mute terror and scurries off.
"Finn's not exactly the brightest candle on the menorah, B," Puck says with a smirk. Rachel emits a tinkly laugh at the Jewish reference and truth of the thing.
"But," he conceded, "you seem a little down, so I'm gonna show you something."
"Well, I'm sure that may cheer SOME girls up, and I'm sure it's nice, but-"
Puck throws his head back in laughter, because he's pretty sure Rachel Berry called Le Puckerone "nice".
"Trust me, it's freaking otherworldly, buy that's not what I'm talking about. Get your mind out of the gutter-" he pauses when he sees her mouth open in protest, "-or stop watching so many chick flicks."
She had nothing to say to that.
"School's almost over anyway. Just follow my lead."
"Noah," she asks, looking bewilderdely at the bench in front of her, arms crossed around her chest, "why are we standing in front of a bench?"
"Quinn and I talk a lot, you know. Kind of comes with the whole parents thing, even though the baby's still…well. You know. She told me what you said to her here, she told me about how…compassionate you were, despite the fact that she had been nothing but horrible to you."
Rachel bites her lip.
"But I outed you guys."
"True, and you definitely could've handled that better" says Puck, nodding, "but remember? I told you it was good that you did. I'm not a coward. It had to come out sometime."
Rachel can see the sadness that flashes across his eyes, and she feels a wave of tenderness towards him, but then he abruptly turns his heel and picks up his pace. Hoping he's not just ditching her, she follows him…all the way to the music room.
"Puck. Remember? No voice."
"I'm not showing you this room to remind you of your musical talent. I'm showing it to you to remind you of how you bring people together…even the people that couldn't be more different."
They look at each other for a second. Jock and diva, boy and girl, slusher and slush-ee, badass and good girl. And yet…they are both going through challenging lives, his as a potential father, hers as a motherless, possibly boyfriendless girl.
"Are you making fun of me?" she asks quietly.
"The fuck? No. Why would you think that?"
"I don't bring people together. People hate me."
"Okay, one? People don't hate you. People either become insecure because you criticize the hell out of them, and that does kind of suck- remember?" he asks, nudging her in his reference to their talk in her bedroom. She blushes.
"That, or they don't understand you and how you deal with what they throw at you."
"Okay…"
"Two, who brought together a renegade sexy Glee and got them to perform in the assembly?"
Rachel smiles shyly.
"All while dressed in a pigtailed-sex-goddess get-up, I might add (he may be addicted to making her blush. This is probably not healthy). Three, whose idea was it to sing 'Lean on Me' when a certain two people were down?"
"Mine," she says, proudly.
"Damn straight. Four, who got the Sunshine Angels outfits ready and made the crazy dance number/mash-up? Also very sexy, I might add."
"Wow…Noah…I didn't think you noticed either Push It or Walking on Sunshine. I know for sure you looked pissed, actually, during Push It."
"I was just mad at Finn. It was pretty hot, not gonna lie. But the point is, you think you're only your voice. I'm telling you you're so much more than that. Believe it."
Finally, the full-out grin he didn't realize he'd been waiting for breaks out, and she throws her arms around him. But whatever, it's just a hug. It's not like he likes it or anything.