Smell the Roses, Throw Them Down
While her eyes are still held shut...your words echo in her mind, and your words are clear. "In a world I find so hard, you find so beautiful...there's a hope for you deep inside for me."
Weeks after Blaine stops sending flowers, Kurt begins to wonder if he'll ever be happy.
He's still wondering when, a month and a half after the continental divide in his heart, there's a banging at their apartment door. Kurt and Rachel look up from their game of Life (in which Kurt had just started catching up) and to each other in surprised confusion. Half wondering if Blaine had been saving flower-money for another plane ticket, Kurt stops thinking completely when he finds himself standing face to face with a black-clad sexy hunk of a man with the prettiest hazel eyes and a shaved head. It takes an awkward staring match and a question from Rachel for Kurt to finally recognize a matured Noah Puckerman.
There are gasps and dropped jaws and exclamations, and in all of five minutes, Puck is between Kurt and Rachel on the couch being peppered with questions. Puck just takes it, offering cool responses and a glimpse of familiar cockiness all the way up to when Kurt asks, "So what are you doing here?" -and then he sort of gathers himself as he focuses on Kurt with a strange determination in his eyes. Strange, because Kurt thinks he's seen a similar expression but way less intense, and he's only seen it with…Lauren? No...Quinn? Eh, closer but…Beth. That's it…Wait, what –
"Kurt Hummel, I need you to marry me. Please."
"…The hell?"
More shock and a fuck-ton of disbelief almost muffle Rachel's delayed shrieks and Puck's rushed, begging plea to hear him out. Kurt is still gaping as Puck launches into his tale about Sarah. And as Puck speaks, Kurt finally notices how tired the guy looks, with the dark circles beneath his eyes and his jaw's haggard shadow, and the helpless sagging in his shoulders and the nervous clenching of his fists on his thighs. The mature veil is gone, revealing a heartsick boy desperate to make his little sister happy.
"…For Sarah. Please, Kurt, I'll do anything."
Suddenly, Puck's on his knees on the couch, clasping Kurt's limp left hand while fumbling with a small black box from his jacket pocket. Rachel catches a glimpse and yelps again through her horrified tears, while Kurt's heart barely restarts before it begins to crumble all over again. Puck is his friend, and Kurt never thought something could break him more than losing Beth the first time. But 11-year young Sarah is dying of leukemia, the treatment isn't working anymore, and her Wish is to be in Puck's wedding. Altogether, it's obviously too much for Puck who's been putting his pool-money toward Sarah's treatment this whole time.
The wedding has already been arranged, in Disney World as per Sarah's request. Literally, all Kurt has to do is say yes.
And Kurt doesn't at all get why he's Puck's sole choice, or even an option at all, but he once again blames whatever the fuck's in NYC's water because he doesn't know how to say no right now.
A/N: The Puckurt Community at LJ is currently holding a Drabble-Off, and this was my submission for Round Three: Emotions: Hope. (I may or may not continue this one, since I had a slightly longer storyline planned out that didn't fit the 500 word limit.) The link is on my profile, so try to catch the final round! Round Four will be posted sometime next week. I do not own Glee or "Amy Says" by Flyleaf.