Mercedes sat on her bed with her Ipod turned up; listening to the new song that Shelby had given her. She felt a twinge of excitement, since Shelby hinted to her performing it at sectionals. The song was an interesting pick, not one she would've chosen, but she trusted Shelby's judgment. She stared at her ceiling as she hummed various rifts that she could possible sing, trying to imagine and create her own feel to the song. She felt her eye lids getting heavy and she glanced at her clock. It was close to eleven and seeing as she had nothing better to do, she decided to get ready for bed. She walked over to her closet, which contained her dresser. She reached into the bottom drawer and pulled out a pair of pajamas. She placed her Ipod on her dresser, with the ear buds still in, and began pulling off the clothes that she had been wearing, exchanging them for sweatpants and a tank top. She grabbed a scarf and wrapped her hair and faced herself in the mirror. Though it was time for her to go to bed, she had to admire how cute she looked. Deciding she was satisfied with her bed attire she turned around to actually get in her bed, when she was stopped by the presence of a certain Mohawked boy.

"Puck…" She said with mouth gapping.

"Hey Cede," he said with a small smile. She watched as he shuffled his feet nervously and wondered why he was acting so strange.

"Did my parents really let you in this late? I thought they'd be asleep."

"They are," he smirked. "I know where you're spare key is."

"Of course you do," she giggled. They stood there in a comfortable silence and then she wondered how long he had been standing there.

"Did you just watch me change?" Puck through up his hands up in protest,

"No! I mean I opened the door and I saw you taking your shirt off, but I'm turned around and waited a few more moments until I was sure you were dressed." Mercedes raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms.

"Believe me, I wanted to," Mercedes didn't move, Puck was just being Puck, "but now that Beth's back in my life, I think about the guy I'd want her to date and I'm trying to be that guy." Mercedes relaxed her stance a bit. She knew when he brought his daughter into the picture he was serious. Mercedes was a little surprised. She didn't know that Puck was in contact with Beth. It made sense since Shelby was back, but for some reason she didn't connect the dots.

"I knew Shelby was back, but I didn't know you had seen Beth. That's amazing." She crossed her room and laid her hand on his shoulder,

"I'm happy to hear that you're bonding with her. I always knew you could change, you just had to find the right girl." Mercedes winked at him and turned around and sat on her bed.

"Take a seat, Puck. Anywhere you want. You know you're way around." Puck took a seat at the desk next to Mercedes bed. He swiveled in her chair, rubbing his palms together.

"I would've told you sooner, but we haven't really talked since after Lauren and I broke up."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Things in my life have just recently gotten complicated."

"I noticed." Puck's voice had a slight hint of coldness to it, which surprised Mercedes. Puck was always warm and loving towards her, but she had heard him use that voice when he was crossed with Quinn or Lauren. He used that voice when he was hurt. Mercedes wondered what she had done to make him upset.

"Is everything okay?" Puck looked at Mercedes like she was speaking another language; he quickly looked down into his lap, rubbing his hands along his thighs.

"We need to talk," he said with a little less coldness, but Mercedes could still the feel the chill.

"About what?" Mercedes sighed. She tried to seem genuinely surprised that he wanted to talk to her, but she knew. A lot had changed in the past three weeks. It had been two weeks since she had officially quit the glee club and she had been rehearsing with Shelby every day since then.

"Mercedes don't act like you don't know. What's going on with you?" The coldness was gone and now his voice overflowed with concern.

"Nothing, I'm fine," she said as she avoided eye contact. If there was anyone who could read her it was Puck.

"Don't tell me 'nothing is wrong.'" He spoke as he scooted closer to her bed. "First, you blow up at Mr. Shue, you quit glee club, and now you're working with Shelby. I haven't talked to you in three weeks. A lot has been going on and my best friend has practically been M.I.A. even though I see you every day. You've been distant…I look at you and I see you, but the way you walk, talk, act, sound… it's not Mercedes Jones," he said placing his hand on her thigh, "not the Mercedes Jones I know."

Mercedes, still avoiding eye contact, contemplated what he said. She wanted to yell at him, tell him he didn't know what he was talking about, that she was perfectly fine. She wanted to tell him that she was too good for the glee club, that the club wasn't letting her grow in the ways she needed to become a star. She wanted to push him away and tell him that the girl he was sitting next to was the new and improved Miss Jones – the one who got the recognition she deserved and was never forced to take the back seat… But this was Noah Puckerman; her best friend—the only person who had stuck with her through everything. He called her out on her crap, comforted her in her failures, and celebrated her achievements. When Quinn was living with her, Puck came over a lot and when Quinn would fall asleep they would stay up, just talking. Mercedes thought it would be awkward due to the fact that she had dumped him, but it seemed to just make him respect her. They talked about the whole baby situation, about life, football, singing, pretty much anything. Then when Quinn moved out after she had the Beth, she thought Puck would be gone too, but he still always came around. She had helped him work through the fact that he gave up his daughter and made sure he didn't go too crazy.

They hung out on a weekly basis and just enjoyed a relationship that wasn't complicated. When school started again last year and Quinn stopped talking to Mercedes, Puck was there. He let her sob about her girl problems, always reassuring her. He was one of the few people had known about her and Sam and when Sam kissed her goodbye for the last time, Puck was over within twenty minutes with her favorite ice cream and a copy of Dirty Dancing. She allowed him to cry on her shoulder when the pain of missing Beth was just too much at times. At school they didn't interact much, but they always knew that the other was around and could count on each other. Puck had even taken a few slushies for her and then gave Amizo a black eye for payback.

Mercedes had actually caught Lauren cheating on Puck with one of the hockey players. She then threatened her within of inch of her life and then told her she needed to end it with Puck. Lauren sobbed about it being a mistake and that it would never happen again and Mercedes saw right through her. Lauren then admitted that it had happened multiple times and that she didn't care about what Mercedes said, she was keeping Puckerman as her boy toy. Lauren then tried to overpower her, saying that Mercedes couldn't do anything. A kidney shot and a right hook to the face changed that opinion. Lauren agreed to end it with Puck and the next day, Mercedes watched from around the corner as Lauren told Puck some excuse about him not being cool enough. Mercedes felt guilty when he saw the hurt in his eyes. She had avoided him the rest of the day; she felt bad about being the reason he was so upset. But Puck called her later on that night and told her to come over to his house. When she entered his room, she pressed herself against his wall. She had seen him upset, but never so angry. She watched as he paced around his room, breaking things, throwing objects across the room.

"What did I do wrong? The fact that I'm not cool anymore shouldn't have mattered. I LOVED HER!" Taking a photograph of the two of them he flung it against his wall, the sound of the glass shattering echoed in Mercedes room. He continued to shout, crying out obscenities at the top of his voice. Mercedes watch as he tormented himself of thoughts of why he wasn't good enough.

"WHY CAN I NEVER DO ANYTHING RIGHT?" She couldn't take him tearing himself apart and spoke up.

"Puck, I made her break up with you," she said in a voice barely above a whisper. He stopped moving and turned to her, rage still flickering in her eyes.

"Why would you do that? Do you not what to see me happy?"

"I do." He took a few steps closer to her. His closing proximity made her nervous and she wished that the wall behind her would swallow her. But it refused, no matter how much she tried pressing herself against it. When he was a few steps away, he spoke.

"Then why did you tell her to," he said gritting through his teeth.

"I caught her cheating on you," Mercedes said so fast, it sounded like one word. She watched as his demeanor began to soften and decided it was safe to continue. "I couldn't let her hurt you anymore and I figured it was better for her to just break up with you than you find out later on." He paused and stared into her eyes. He looked like he was searching for the truth and eventually he took a deep breath in and took a few steps away from he, realizing that what Mercedes had said was in fact the true.

"How did you know she was cheating?"

"I caught her and then she eventually came out and told me."

"Huh…" he said as she watched him sit down on his bed. He sat down for a moment staring at his floor and the he began to laugh. Mercedes relaxed her shoulders and stopped trying to press herself into the wall.

"What's so funny?"

"She was the only girl that I remained faithful to longer than a week and she cheated on me." Mercedes noted the sadness in his voice, but by his body language she could tell that he was going to be alright.

"Just to let you know, I gave her the one-two to her face. She'll definitely have a nasty bruise. She didn't know I had been trained by the great Noah Puckerman." She took a seat next to him on the bed. He looked over at Mercedes and smiled. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"That's my girl."

Puck's hand squeezed her thigh, bringing her back to the situation at hand.

"Sometimes people change," she uttered.

"Not the way you have. I understand about you being fed up. Sometimes I want to punch Rachel in the face, but you know you went about this the wrong way." Mercedes could feel his eyes on her and she stood up and turned her back to Puck to escape his lingering gaze.

"I did what I had to do," trying to remain standing tall and with pride in her voice.

"No Mercedes, you yelled and screamed and acted like a child. You were just making up excuses." She cringed at his word and wrapped her arms around herself. Puck had always been blunt, just sometimes she didn't want to hear it. She turned to face him, defiance in her stance.

"Do you think I wanted to leave you guys? I just wanted to win, to be noticed for my talent and not just for a day, this time. There have been so many times that I have been proven better and then the next day it's like everyone caught amnesia and forgot. Kurt's forgotten me, Quinn's forgotten me, I wouldn't be surprised if Sam doesn't even recognize my name anymore." She stared into Puck's eyes as she poured out her feelings. "Puck, I'm tired of settling for being mediocre, for being forgotten – when I should be the one remembered. " When Puck didn't say anything, Mercedes turned back around and hugged herself tighter, as she felt the tears fall down her face. She tried to get her body to stop shaking, so that Puck wouldn't know she was crying. She was getting ready to tell him to get out but then she felt his arms around her, pulling her into his chest.

"I will never forget you." Mercedes cried harder into his chest, at what he said. For some reason those were the words she needed to hear. Puck held Mercedes as she quietly sobbed, never loosening his grip – if anything he held her tighter.

After a while she looked at the clock and noticed it was 2 A.M.

"It's late," she whispered into the spot where she could feel his heartbeat.

"I know, I probably should get going," he said, but didn't actually move. Mercedes took it as a sign that he wanted to stay as much as she wanted him to.

"You can stay here if you want."

"I'll be here for you whenever you need me." Mercedes walked over to her closet and pulled out and old shirt and a pair of her brother's pj pants that she stole from him. She tossed them over to Puck and climbed into her bed as she waited for him to change. She heard his clothes drop to the ground and a few moments later she heard him sigh, signaling that he was finished. She turned around to see him tugging at the shirt he was wearing.

"You didn't watch me undress did you?" he said with an eyebrow raise. Mercedes felt her cheeks flush and her mouth gapped open.

"For your information no I didn't, my back was to you….and no I didn't want to see you." Puck faked being offended then proceeded to do a body roll,

"You know you want to see this sexy body."

"Puh-lease," Mercedes said with a smile.

"Well, I guess this is goodnight," Puck said as he grabbed a pillow off her bed and tossed it on her floor.

"You don't have to sleep on the floor." Puck wiggled his eyebrows and proceeded to try and climb into Mercedes bed. She pushed him out as quickly as he got in.

"There's a mattress under my bed, you perve!" Puck gave a mischievous smile and lifted up her bed skirt and pulled out the trundle bed. Mercedes watched as he raised it off the ground and then climb in. She scooted to the side of bed farthest away from him. She didn't really know why, but it seemed like the right thing to do. With a yawn she realized how tired she was.

"Goodnight Puck," she said as she turned off her light.

"Goodnight Mercy." Mercedes closed her eyes and waited a few moments to let the wave of sleep come over her. When it didn't come she realized it was because she needed to tell Puck something.

"Oh and Puck…"

"Yeah," he said with a yawn.

"Thank you… for everything."

"I always got your back, remember that."

"I will," Mercedes said with a sigh. She listened as Puck's breath evened out and soon after she fell asleep.

Mercedes' phone alarm woke her up at 6 o'clock and when she opened her eyes she realized that she had migrated all the way over back to the side of the bed closet to Puck. She noted that Puck was also on the side of his bed closest to her. She figured she shouldn't make a big deal out it, no need to make it something it's not. She watched him sleep for another minute, giggling at the snores escaping his body. Her snooze alarm went off and she decided to wake him up before they got caught.

"Puck," she whispered. He stirred a little bit, but remained asleep.

"Puck," she spoke up a little louder. He turned stirred more and proceeded to turn his back to her.

"PUCK!" she screamed as she grabbed his shirt and pulled him off his bed. He flailed onto the floor with a yelp.

"Mercedes, what the –"

"You wouldn't wake up! You need to get out of here before my dad finds you…or worse my mom." Puck shuddered at the thought. He pulled himself off the floor and climbed on top of the Mercedes bed, pulling her into his arms.

" But can't we just stay here, I stay in your bed we just snuggle all day?" he groaned. Mercedes gave a playful laugh as she pushed herself away from him.

"Alright, what have you done with Puck?" Puck looked at he like she was crazy and then realized what he had said,

"Oh crap, I sound like a chic; must be these purple sheets!" He shook his body out of them and quickly hopped up and searched for his clothes.

"Plus you have morning breath," Mercedes said as she watched get ready to put the trundle bed back,

"And I have a boyfriend. " Puck stopped moving and Mercedes observed the twinge of pain that flashed across his face. But as quick it was there, it was gone and he continued putting the bed back.

"Is this going to make things weird with you and Shane?"

"Is what?"

"Me spending the night."

"I don't think so. I mean he knows we're close and we are just friends." Mercedes watched as Puck's face showed pain again and Mercedes, again, decided against saying anything. But it did make her think. What made Puck so mad about being friends?

"Right," was all he said – no coldness, no warmth, no nothing; there was no emotion in his voice. Mercedes felt some curiosity and almost asked the question in her mind, but their relationship was supposed to be uncomplicated and the question might complicate things.

"Well I think all evidence of me is gone, I guess I'll be heading out," and just like that Puck was back. She walked over to him and he pulled her into a hug. After a moment she pulled back and went to unlock her window.

"Just to let you know Puck, I'm not coming back."

"I get it Mercy, just don't leave me behind." He leaned in and kissed her on the forehead and pushed the window open. She watched as Puck climbed out of her window and down the side of her house. She had no idea how he could escape her 2nd floor bedroom but he seemed like he was pro. She continued to watch him through her window as he ran behind her bushes, walked across the street to where his truck was park. She saw his brake lights come on and waited until she couldn't see him anymore.

She walked over to her desk and sat down to print a last minute assignment off her computer. While she waited for the pages to print she looked at the various frames on her desk. She picked up the picture of Shane and her on their most recent date. It was a cute picture, them sitting in the park, smiling. He had taken on a standard date – Breadstix, movie, park and they had a good time as always. She looked at her smile and felt like something was different about it, but thought it was her imagination.

She put the photo back down, trading it for the picture of her and Puck. It was a candid one that Tina had taken in glee club last year. She and Puck had been paired up to dance for a number they were thinking about doing at regionals last year. They were in the middle of a waltz style dance when Mr. Shue told them to stop, but stay in their position so he could make sure they were correct. Mercedes and Puck were one of the last groups to be checked and Mercedes was beginning to get frustrated. While standing there Puck made a goofy face, trying to imitate Finn gassy baby look and Mercedes lost it. Puck started laughing at her laughing and that's when Tina took the picture. This picture was their relationship, so close and so carefree. She observed it closely and saw the look in his eyes. Though he was laughing he was looking right at her. She thought she could see the shimmer coming from them. She turned her attention to herself and looked at the smile on her face and for some reason this one looked right. She kept looking at the photo, bouncing between her face and his, practically memorizing it, until her alarm officially went off at seven, and the entire time one thought occupied her mind.

We're just friends…right?

AN: I do not own glee or whatever I'm suppose to say so I don't get sued. Also for right now this is a one shot. I know I felt out some details and it's kind of a cliff hanger, but I don't want to say I'll complete this and not. So just fill in the ending yourself!

I'd like to thank Bana05 for the motivation to write a Puckcedes story!

I hope you enjoyed it :) I would greatly appreciate it if you reviewed!