Title: A Special Christmas Present
Rating: PG
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Noah Puckerman, Kurt Hummel / Puckurt
Genre: Romance
Warning: None
Spoilers: None
Author Notes: beta-ed by xlessxthanx3x. This was written for fearfullt for the Chrismukkah fics exchange over at the Puckurt community on livejournal.
Summary: Puck doesn't know what to get Kurt for Christmas and with some help he's able to make the perfect gift. He just hopes Kurt will wear it!
Word Count: 2250Puck never paid much attention to holidays and anniversaries with his girlfriends mostly because it was never serious and also because he was a badass and worrying about presents wasn't his style. However that, along with lots of other things, changed when he gets together with Kurt.
He asked Kurt out in September and any important anniversary is still far away by the time December rolls around so he thought he had all the time in the world before turning into Finn and worrying about birthdays and important dates to circle on the calendar or any other of those couple-y things. That is until Rachel approaches him a few weeks before Christmas break to ask him if he has thought about what he is getting Kurt because Kurt has his gifts already wrapped.
"But I'm a Jew."
"So? I still give a gift to Finn every year and he gives one to me. You have to buy something for Kurt, Puck, this is your first Christmas as a couple." Rachel takes in Puck's perplexed face and sighs heavily. "Kurt bought you eight presents."
"Why?"
"Because you're Jewish and he wants to celebrate Hanukkah with you even though he doesn't believe. He's the perfect boyfriend," she adds with a smile.
Puck stares at Rachel in silence for long moments before finally saying, "I didn't think about anything and besides Kurt doesn't believe so Christmas it's not a big deal, right?"
"Oh Noah," she pats his arm as if she is talking to a child and smiles at him indulgently. "It is important. Whether Kurt believes or not is not the point. What matters is that on Christmas you give him something, whatever it is."
The first thing that comes to Puck's mind is the expensive clothes that Kurt loves to buy and how he always says that one can never have enough scarves or shoes. He could buy something nice and Kurt would be happy except for the fact that he is penniless. "I can't afford anything, Rachel."
"Then make something. C'mon, Puck, you've gotta work for it."
Puck watches her walk away, his mind still full of expensive things he can't buy.
Two days later Puck finds himself sitting with Finn at the Hudmel's house waiting for Kurt to come back from the bathroom. He glances at his best friend and casually asks, "What are you getting Rachel for Hanukkah?"
Finn shrugs. "I just get her one present for Christmas."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah." Finn looks at him with a raised eyebrow. "Why? Did Kurt get you a present for each day?"
"Rachel said so."
"I wouldn't know what to buy for eight gifts but Kurt wouldn't have that problem."
When Puck leaves a few hours later, he has definitely started to feel pressured. Kurt is awesome and Puck is sure he is going to get eight amazing gifts while he can't even come up with one. He even tried asking Rachel and Mercedes for help but they both told him that it had to come from him, no suggestions.
On Saturday he goes to temple with his family and afterwards spent the afternoon helping his Nana to knit, something he wouldn't admit to doing even under torture. He's sitting on the couch, red wool wound around his raised hands and his mind still fixed on what could be a good gift for Kurt.
"Something on your mind, Noah?"
"I have to buy Kurt something for Christmas but I have no idea what," he says, shrugging.
His Nana shakes her head laughing. "I never thought I'd see the day you were so serious about someone. Make him something," she adds after a moment.
"Rachel said the same thing," he mumbles.
"That's because it's a great idea." She keeps knitting for a while glancing at Puck from time to time until she finally says, "Maybe you could brush up on your knitting abilities."
"What?"
"I taught you when you were little, Noah, and I'm sure it won't take you much time to remember. You could make him a sweater."
Puck scoffs because that really is the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. "Yeah, right. Kurt wears expensive stuff."
"Just because your gift won't come from a shop doesn't mean that it's less valuable."
And Puck is really surprised to find himself actually thinking about it.
It takes him almost a week to remember how to knit anything more complicated than a scarf and to actually think about some sort of design. It's been so long and he knows exactly how bad he is at it that he decides to go for a deep blue wool for the sweater because it will work perfectly with Kurt's pale skin, and use white wool to write a K in the center. It's a bit too much Harry Potter but he doesn't have lots of time to brush up on everything and he's sure that anything more would be overestimating his skills anyway.
Every day as soon as school is over Puck rushes back home to work on the sweater and Kurt is always looking at him confused but Puck is confident that it will be worth it in the end. So he sacrifices some make out time and hopes that Kurt won't start thinking that he's losing interest.
The first day of Hanukkah, Puck invites Kurt over for dinner. It's crazy to see Kurt getting along with Puck's too-many-to-count relatives, but he just fits right in and Puck thinks that if there's a moment when he knows for sure that he's in love with Kurt, it's while watching him play the dreidel game with all his cousins giving Sarah the gelt he wins.
Around midnight, Puck takes Kurt home and they spend half an hour making out in Puck's pick-up before Burt turns on and off the porch's light twice to let them know that it's time to say good night.
"Here's your first present," Kurt tells him right before opening the door. He takes a square thin wrapped package from his bag and hands it to Puck. "It's nothing special because Rachel told me that on the first day it's the smallest of gifts." He's blushing while he waits for Puck to tear open the wrapping.
Inside the package there's a frame with a photo of two kids covered in dirt glaring at each other.
"My Dad found it when we moved in the new house and he told me it was you and I just kept it. I didn't remember that we went to the same kindergarten."
Puck can't help but smirk because it looks like he always had his eyes set on Kurt, it just took him a while to realize why. "It's awesome. Mom is going to love it too."
"I'm happy you like it."
"Listen, about the gifts," Puck says quickly but stops when Kurt just holds up a hand.
"I didn't do it to have something back."
"I'm going to give you a Christmas present. You do Hanukkah for me, I do Christmas for you."
Kurt smiles and leans forward to give Puck another brief kiss before Burt turns off and on the light again. "I better go."
"I'll see you tomorrow at school."
He waits until Kurt is inside his house before driving back home.
Every time Kurt gives him a new gift, Puck wonders if the sweater he's making it's going to be enough. He's pretty sure Kurt won't ever wear it outside of the house, but Puck hopes that he will at least appreciate the gesture. His Nana keeps telling him to stop worrying and keep knitting and that Kurt will love it because it's going to be something completely unexpected.
"Why are you so evasive lately?" Kurt asks him while they're walking out of school on the last day before break. "You won't come over, I can't come over... Is something going on?"
Puck shakes his head and slides his cold fingers through Kurt's gloved ones. "Nothing's happening, it's just that the house it's a mess and we won't have time for ourselves anyway and Ma needs my help so I can't come over."
Kurt doesn't look completely convinced but ends up nodding and leaning up for a kiss just as they reach his Navigator. "I have your fourth gift, wait, here." He goes on the other side of the car and Puck is left there waiting wondering what he will get after a jacket and new strings for his guitar.
When Kurt is standing in front of him again, he hands over a heavy packet and waits for Puck to unwrap it.
Inside he finds a book on how to succeed in the music business and how to write your own hits. "This is great," he says and actually means it because Kurt's gifts aren't like the ones from his relatives where he has to say they're awesome even though they suck.
"I'm glad you liked it." Kurt is smiling so brightly that Puck can't stop himself from kissing him.
Two days later, on the morning of the 25th, he gets up early, gives his gifts to his Nana, to his mother and to his sister and then leaves to go over to Kurt's because they decided that Puck was going to spend the day with them and then get back home in time for dinner so his mother wouldn't be upset about him missing the 6th day of Hanukkah.
Carole opens the door wearing a bright red sweater and a Santa Claus hat, the white stripe adorned with flashing Christmas trees.
"Noah! Come on in." She rushes him inside and closes the door before the cold air can enter. "Happy Hanukkah, dear."
"Thank you, Mrs. H." He hugs her awkwardly because he's not used to this kind of things and follows her into the living room where Finn and Kurt are sitting on the floor and Burt is watching them from his recliner.
As soon as Kurt spots Puck he gets up and picks a flat packet from under the tree. "Happy Hanukkah," he wishes, kissing him chastely.
Inside the box there's a coupon for a free check-up at the garage that Kurt will personally do. "This will be hot," Puck mumbles under his breath making Finn scrunch up his nose, Carole laugh and Burt shake his head.
"Come sit with us." Kurt grabs his hand and drags him towards the tree and makes him sit down before he hands a packet to Carole and one to Finn before taking a seat next to Puck.
Puck is really happy that he has left his gift in the car because there's no way he's going to say that he knits in front of the whole Hudmel family. He waits until there aren't gifts left under the tree before asking Kurt to follow him outside for a moment.
"What's the matter?" Kurt asks while he's buttoning up his coat. He has a red scarf tightly wrapped around his neck so only his eyes are peaking out. "It's freezing out here."
"I just need to give you your gift." Quickly, he gets the misshaped packet from the passenger seat and stares at it for a moment before he feels Kurt peeking from over his shoulder.
"What is it?"
He turns around and hands it over before slipping his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looking at anything but Kurt. He hears the wrapping being opened and then Kurt doesn't say anything. When Puck glances at him, he's running his fingers over the badly knitted K.
"I made it," he quickly says, "Took me ages but..."
"You knit?" Kurt asks and he doesn't look like he's about to laugh at him, but just looks surprised in a good way.
"It's my Nana's fault."
Kurt smiles. "So you made this?"
"I had no idea what to get you and..."
"I love it!" Kurt exclaims excitedly and that's a reaction Puck never thought he'd get. He was thinking more about a polite 'this is nice' than actually joy. Kurt unfolds the sweater and looks at it as if it's something actually valuable. "Let's get back inside, Carole has to see this!"
Before Puck can say that there's no way Kurt is telling anyone that he knits, he's being dragged up the driveway and back inside. Kurt quickly gets rid of his coat and pulls on the sweater and the only thing Puck can think is that it's horrible, because one sleeve is shorter than the other, the K is badly shaped and the attempt of a snowman that his Nana made him do looks more like scrambled eggs.
But Kurt is grinning and running his hands over it and the horrible sweater suddenly looks kind of alright.
"I love it," Kurt says again and when they look at the other occupants of the room, they find Carole, Burt and Finn staring at them as if they're crazy.
"That's..." Finn starts, "Is that supposed to be a sweater?"
"Puck made it for me, isn't it awesome?" Kurt is still looking completely giddy and Puck thinks that it really doesn't matter if the others find the sweater the most horrible thing ever because Kurt actually appreciates it.
Afterwards, while Kurt is kissing him goodnight, Puck thinks that he's the perfect boyfriend and has the whole holidays and gifts thing covered. Then he reminds himself to buy an extra gift for his Nana and for Rachel because they totally saved him.
