Title: Whistle A Tune (Pay In A Kiss)
Category: Glee
Genre: Humor/Romance
Ship: Puck/Rachel
Rating: PG
Prompt: Whistling by lost-n-stereo
Word Count: 1,006
Summary: Rachel and Puck meet as children; Rachel wants to learn how to whistle, Puck says he can teach her, but in true Puckerman fashion he wants a kiss for his hard work.
Whistle A Tune (Pay In A Kiss)
-1/1-
Rachel stomped her foot. The more she tried, the worse she seemed to get.
"What're you doin'?"
Whipping around, she found a boy her age; a sleeveless shirt and Mohawk said he was not entirely like her, however.
Raising her nose in the air, she told him, "My daddy was whistling this morning. It was very pretty. And I can sing and make pretty noises too but Ican't whistle."
"You're doin' it wrong."
She glared at him. "Excuse me?"
He smirked. "You're excused."
Rachel huffed. "You're rude."
"Yeah, but I can whistle!" he boasted, grinning.
Rolling her eyes, she crossed her arms over her chest. "Well then maybe I don't want to anymore."
The boy shrugged. "Whatever," he said, before moving toward the jungle gym sitting center in the park she was visiting. Her dad was on a bench not far away, reading Streisand: A Biography, and since her ballet lesson had been cancelled, he offered to bring her to the park to play. Unfortunately, Rachel didn't have many friends. Or, well, any at all. In fact, she was the only seven year old who was best friends with her dad and daddy and while she didn't see anything wrong with that, she had noticed that sometimes they looked a little worried.
So it was with some uncertainty that she turned toward the boy, now hanging upside down from the money bars, and implored, "Will you teach me?"
He stared at her, crossed his arms over his chest, and gave her a lopsided smile. "What's in it for me?"
Rachel frowned, her brows furrowed. "I don't know…" She dug her hand into her the pocket of her pleated skirt and told him, "I have one dollar, a piece of gum, and this mint…"
With a sigh, he flipped himself off the bars and landed perfectly, looking quite smug about it too. "How 'bout a kiss?"
Rachel tipped her head. "A kiss? You mean on the cheek?"
"No, on the lips, dummy." He rolled his eyes. "That's how boys and girls kiss."
"I have two dads and they kiss on the lips," she told him.
He shrugged. "Well I like girls. What do you like?"
Rachel blinked. "Boys, I think."
"I'm a boy."
She stared at him. "Yes, but you have funny hair."
He frowned at her and reached up. "Is not!"
She twisted her mouth up skeptically. "If you say so…"
"I do," he said stubbornly.
Sighing, she rocked back on her heels. "So if I kiss you on the lips, you'll teach me how to whistle like my daddy?"
He nodded.
Rachel took a tentative step toward him. "Shouldn't we shake on it? Daddy always says when you make a deal, a gentleman shakes!"
The boy held a hand out but then pulled it back in, spat in his palm, and held it out again.
She stared down at it in disgust. "Do I have to…?"
"It's the rules, princess."
With a long sigh, Rachel turned her own hand over, spat hesitantly into her palm, and then reached over and shook his.
The boy held on a second longer and then tugged her in. She stumbled before using her other hand to catch herself on his shoulder. She stared wide- and cross-eyed at his nose. "I… Um…" She met his eyes and swallowed tightly. "You… have very pretty eyes," she told him.
His brow furrowed. "You have shiny hair."
She grinned. "I use special shampoo."
He shrugged.
Her eyes dropped. "What's your name?" she wondered. "I'm Rachel. Rachel Barbra Berry!" she told him proudly.
"Puck."
"Puck?" She tipped her head uncertainly. "That's your whole name?"
"Nah, my ma calls me Noah… But mostly I punch other people who call me that, so… I'm Puck."
"Will you punch me if I call you Noah?" she wondered.
He took a minute to think it over, head cocked, before finally telling her, "Well, ma says I can't hit girls… And I'm strong and you're not, so that'd be dumb… Plus you're pretty and you prolly won't kiss me if I do, so… no."
Rachel grinned. "Then I'm going to call you Noah. I think it's much nicer than Puck."
"My ma's gonna call me home soon… I'm supposed to be cleaning my room but I climbed out my window… So we should hurry up."
Rachel bit her lip. "Okay… But I've never kissed anybody but my daddies so I might—"
Noah cut her off my pressing his lips to hers. Rachel stared wide-eyed as one second, two, and finally six whole seconds went by before he leaned away. For a moment, she just stared at his lips, where her grape chapstick had rubbed off.
"That—That was… Um… Very nice," Rachel told him.
He grinned. "Yeah, I'm a good kisser."
She blushed. "Do you kiss a lot of girls?"
"Only pretty ones."
She ducked her head and smiled.
"Rachel!?" she heard and turned her head to see her daddy calling her. "Rachel, it's time to go."
Her face fell and she called back, "But daddy, Noah was going to show me how to whistle!"
"Later, Bunny, we have to go," he replied, waving her flower power purse at her.
"Fine," she sighed, turning on her heel to face her first kiss. "Well, maybe I'll see you here again… It can be a…" Her brow furrow. "A rain check," she said excitedly.
Noah shrugged. "Okay. But it's a kiss a lesson."
Rachel backed up as she heard her dad call her again. "Goodbye, Noah!"
He waved a hand as she hurried off to catch up with her dad, grabbing his hand when he was within reach.
"Who's this Noah, sweetie?" her daddy asked as they walked back to the car.
"He's my whistle teacher," she told him.
"That's nice," he said pleasantly.
"Uh-huh…" She swung their arms back and forth as she skipped next to him. "He's a very good kisser."
She wasn't sure she'd ever heard her daddy make that strangled noise before. It was quite distressing.
[End.]
