This one-shot excludes the whole Lucy Caboosy storyline. In other words, Quinn always lived in Lima.
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The first time Puck sees her, he knows he's in love. He doesn't care if he's only five years old. He offers her his juice box when she forgets hers. He's never done that for another girl before, and he knows he never will again.
And then she thanks him. Her crooked grin is adorable without her two front teeth. The fact that they're missing makes her talk in a small lisp that he lives to hear.
Two days later he gets an invitation to her princess birthday party; he's so ecstatic he dances around the kitchen. His mom just laughs at him and smiles before taking his hands and dancing along.
He begs his mom to let him wear his nice Hanukah suit to the party because he wants to look like a prince. He even gets her to take him to Burger King so he can get a crown.
That Saturday afternoon his mom pulls up in front of her house. He swears it's the biggest house he's ever seen; at least four times bigger than his own. There is a bouncy house that looks like a castle in the front yard on the left and real ponies to ride on the right. Almost his whole class is there, but he is determined to have a conversation with her.
It's then that he spots her waiting in line at the bouncy house. She is wearing a shimmering blue Cinderella dress. Her blonde hair is pulled into a neat bun and she has a Cinderella crown atop her head along with plastic silver heels to match. He swears he's never seen anything more beautiful.
His mom is already chatting with another mom, so he takes the opportunity to slip away to the bouncy house.
"Happy birthday, Quinn," he says as he joins her in line.
She turns and smiles her toothy grin. "Thanks, Puck."
"Looks like I'm the only one who dressed up to be your prince. I guess this you my princess, too."
"I guess it does," she smiled shyly.
"Lucky me; I have the most prettiest princess at the party," Puck said.
"And I have the most prettiest prince," Quinn added.
X-X-X-X-X
Three years later and the pair are inseparable. They play soccer together, they ride bikes together, and they bother Quinn's older sister, Frannie, together. Anything and everything they do is together.
Puck's favorite game they play is a game they call "royalty". They go into the tree house in his back yard and pretend it's their faraway castle. It's a magical place where no harm can reach them. Every once in a while they decide to throw a ball; these are Puck's favorite days. He always sneaks into the house, stealing his mom's boom box and Neil Diamond CDs. They stand at the door and greet their guests (his stuffed animals). Once everyone has arrived the dancing begins. If it's not too late, sometimes the two can get through a whole CD before Quinn has to leave. He loves watching her dance her ballet, as graceful as a swan. She teaches him how to dance with a girl. At first he steps on her toes a lot, but after a couple of these balls he is a pro.
He's always sad when Quinn's mom comes to pick her up, but he knows he'll see her the following day and everything will be good again.
X-X-X-X-X
Before Puck knows it, two more years have passed and suddenly it is no longer 'cool' to be best friends with a girl. Besides, he's in middle school now, which means he gets to join the football team. It doesn't take long before he starts spending less time with Quinn and more time with his teammates.
Quinn has new friends, too, it's not like he's completely blowing her off. She's a cheerleader and has cool cheerleader friends to hang out with. Sometimes he catches her staring at him from across the classroom, and he knows she misses him. He misses her, too. He misses her when he's bored and goes up into his tree house alone. He can almost hear her laugh as he twirls her around to the music or tells her a new joke.
Puck hates growing up.
X-X-X-X-X
Puck's twelve and the only time him and Quinn hang out are on the weekends when their friends go to the movies or the mall; never alone anymore.
His dad left, too, and he's angry all the time. He wishes he could talk to Quinn, she always knows what to say to make him feel better, but he can't. His friends would make fun of him.
So instead, he decides to channel all that anger into a new bad boy persona. He convinces his mom to let him shave his hair into a mohawk. He starts picking on kids who are weaker than and not as cool as himself.
One day at lunch Quinn walks over to his table. "Hey Puck, can I sit with you today? We haven't talked in a long time and I thought maybe we could catch up," Quinn asked.
Puck looked around at his group of friends. They were giving him a look, telling him to say no. "No, Quinn. You can't sit here," he said. The look on her face made him want to bury himself in a whole for the rest of his life. Her green eyes, usually so confident shown with embarrassment and rejection. How could he do this to her? He knows how much she hates rejection; she gets it from her parents all the time. He's supposed to be different; he's supposed to be her prince.
"Oh, okay," she says, trying to act composed, but he can see her insides falling apart. Without another word she turns around and heads to her usual table. He doesn't stop her either, even though his heart was telling him to.
X-X-X-X-X
He's fourteen years old now and high school is finally starting. It is rare that Puck talks to Quinn anymore. He'll see her on the weekends sometimes and give her a slight smile, but mostly she just ignores him. He spends a lot of time thinking about her, though. He never can seem to get her out of his head.
And then one day he sees her walking down the hall, hand-in-hand, with his best friend, Finn, and something inside his heart breaks. He didn't think he would care so much that she was with someone else. She was never really his anyway. But it does; it hurts. So to keep away the pain he begins to hook-up with any and every girl he can. He also starts to steal his mom's alcohol.
Two months later she starts to date Finn officially. Puck decides to have sex for the first time. It makes him feel better.
X-X-X-X-X
Sophomore year comes around and Puck's hooked-up with almost every girl in the school, except for the one he wants to the most. She's still dating Finn.
He wonders, sometimes, if she misses him as much as he misses her. What if it wasn't love at first sight for her like it was for him?
One weekend he's at a party in some kid's basement. Quinn and Finn are there, too. She's softly sipping on a wine cooler while Finn chugs a beer. Then Finn whispers something in her ear, she nods, and he walks away. Puck's across the room, with some chick by his side (he doesn't remember her name…Lindsey or Lydia or something) when a Neil Diamond song comes on. For a second he's confused as to why this happens (who listens to Neil Diamond anymore?) but then the old memories of him and Quinn dancing in the tree house flood his mind. He looks across the room and sees she is staring at him nostalgically. She gives him a little smile and he gets all the courage he needs to walk over to her.
"May I have this dance, my lady?" he asks as he holds his hand out for her.
She blushes and nods, placing her hand in his. They start to dance like they used to in the tree house. He's a little rusty but he soon works out all his kinks.
"You're beautiful," he whispers into her ear.
She looks up at him, tears brimming her green eyes. And that's when he knows, he just knows, that she still loves him, too.
"I can't do this," she says more to herself than to him. She lets go and stares at him for at least a minute before she shakes her head and walks away to find Finn.
X-X-X-X-X
Two weeks later he gets a call from Quinn. She's upset because she and Finn got in a fight and she ate half a tub of cookie dough, and now she's feeling fat. He doesn't know why she called him, but he's glad she did. He tells her he's coming right over. He grabs his keys and a pack of wine coolers and heads to his truck.
Puck is surprised when Quinn downs three of the wine coolers like it's nothing. She drinks while Puck assures her, over and over again; she is beautiful and nowhere near fat.
"Thanks for coming over," Quinn says. They're sitting on the couch in her living room, only centimeters apart. She leans closer, so close that her moist, cherry red lips are so close he can practically taste them. He can't take it anymore so he leans in the rest of the way, their lips connecting in a mind-blowing kiss.
The kisses keep coming and get more intense each time.
"Let's go upstairs," Quinn suggests. He nods, anticipation and excitement filling his whole body. It's finally going to happen; he's finally going to have sex with Quinn Fabray. Nothing could be better than this moment.
There's a moment when she freaks out, not sure if they're doing the right thing. He knows he's being selfish when he convinces her otherwise. He knows she'll regret what they're about to do, but he wants it so bad he doesn't think rationally enough to care.
And he's right. When he sees Quinn in the hallway at school the following day she can't even look at him. Suddenly everything hits him, and he is afraid he has ruined his chances of ever being with her for real.
X-X-X-X-X
Ten weeks later, Puck is walking down the hall with Finn when Finn tells him the news; Quinn is pregnant. Immediately he knows it's his kid. There's no way Finn and Quinn had sex, Finn would have told him.
Puck confronts Quinn in the hall and sure, maybe he was insensitive in his approach, but he was hurt and angry and scared all at the same time and he wasn't really sure how to act.
The thing that hurts the most is that Quinn wants to stay with Finn, pretend its Finn's kid, and maybe even raise it with him. She's not even going to give him a chance to prove he'd be a good dad! Well, chance or not he's going to prove it to her.
Months go by and Puck does small things here or there to show her he will be there for her and the baby (which is apparently going to be a girl). He knows he has to be patient; that her secret will come out sooner or later and Finn will be gone.
He never expected it to come out right before Sectionals, though. He can't say he feels bad, especially when Quinn is forced to move in with him.
His house is small and he has no extra rooms, so Quinn has to share a bedroom, and bed, with him.
Luckily, Quinn is very acquainted with his mom and sister. The first couple weeks are awkward between the two of them, though, but each day they get more and more comfortable around each other.
He hurts each time she reminds him she doesn't want them to be together. She is dead-set on being independent. So he does what he does best; he hooks-up with other girls.
It's not until after he sings her Beth that they get really close. They stay up late into the night talking about anything and everything that happened in those years where they weren't talking. Quinn opens up about her parents, so Puck opens up about his dad. Neither of them are used to this kind of thing, opening up that is, so it feels foreign at first.
Sometimes, when neither of them feel like talking they just lie on his bed, Quinn's head resting on his abs, and the two of them rubbing her gravid stomach, feeling the baby's kicks.
X-X-X-X-X
Watching Quinn give birth was one of the most amazing, yet terrifying moments in Puck's life. Seeing his baby girl was like a dream come true. It was bitter sweet, though, knowing he wasn't going to keep her and get to see her grow up.
Afterwards was the worst. Quinn moved out. He didn't have his baby. He didn't have anything anymore. So he did something stupid and got himself sent to juvi. He's not proud of that.
And then Lauren came to Glee club and Puck tried to convince himself he could like someone other than Quinn. It didn't work out well.
He knows Quinn was trying to protect her heart by avoiding him the past year, but by protecting herself she was hurting him more than ever before.
He knows, though, he will always love her, and that she will always love him. She is his princess after all and he is her prince. Besides, every great love story has a great beginning, a rocky middle, and an end where they live happily ever after. He just has to wait patiently for his own to end that way.
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