Title: Pebbles and Penguins
Spoilers: General
Warnings: F-bomb
Summary: Rachel looked at Noah's retreating back, completely baffled as to why he had just put a pebble into her hand.
Word count: 2,311 words
A/N: I don't own anything. This is a fill for a prompt at the PuckRachel drabble meme by gabi_in_wndrlnd.
Pebbles and Penguins
Rachel looked at Noah's retreating back, completely baffled as to why he had just put a pebble into her hand. Thinking about it, he had been acting kind of weird around her lately. It was quite unnerving actually. All the other girls in glee still got crude remarks and innuendos that would make Rachel blush if they were directed at her, but that was just not the case. He would hardly look at her, sometimes even straight up ignoring her.
And now this!
"Berry, what the hell have you done to Puckerman?" Santana asked standing next to her. Turning towards the girl that had once ridiculed her in any way possible, Rachel could only shake her head. She really had no idea. Looking down at the small pebble in her hand she frowned. It was a very pretty pebble, she had to admit that. It was white with fine grey-black lines. Looking a little more closely, she saw that some of the small lines on the stone looked like they were little music notes and hearts. Huh.
"I don't know, Santana…"
"He never reacted that way to me. What is it with you and everybody getting fucking stupid around you?"
"Excuse me? Everybody getting stupid around me?" Rachel exclaimed.
"Yeah, well I got stupid around you and look at me now! I like you! I voluntarily spend my free time with you! You make everybody fall in love with your crazy, though some of us want express that love through fucking… I know, I'm a part of that group and now I'd definitely say Puck belongs there as well." Santana responded while glancing at Rachel out of the corner of her eye.
Rachel had absolutely no idea how to respond to that.
Three days had gone by and Puck had now gone on to not only ignoring her but avoiding her entirely. She only ever saw him at the other end of the hall, disappearing as soon as he noticed her looking. During glee he always stayed on the other side of the room. Just yesterday he even went so far as to switch places with Sam to get even farther away from her. Sure, it was funny to see Noah arguing with Mercedes about 'totally' wanting to dance with her. But this was getting ridiculous.
She did not know how to get him to speak with her, though. She really did not want to go to his house because his mom always kept hinting at wanting them to get married. They were not even done with high school, so how could this woman possibly think that they wanted to get married, maybe she should hope for them to get together first. Just a thought.
Santana was no help either. Puck had taken to avoiding her as well and not even with the help of threatening everybody in this school to tell her where Puck was, none of them did. Rachel was honestly getting frustrated and not only because she wanted to know what was going on with Noah, but also because she missed her friend. It had been a long time since she had gone without talking to him for more than one day at the most. Next to Santana he had become her best friend and she felt alone. She missed his innuendos and, yes, Santana was just as good at that, but it was just not the same. Although she probably would not say no to Santana if the situation ever came up and it felt completely right in that moment. Noah would love that thought. See, things like this made her miss him so much more. She wanted to tell him that, to make him feel like she felt whenever he told her something dirty, all bubbly inside. She loved their friendship.
She had camped out at his locker as long as she could without missing any of her own classes and did not see him. She was getting desperate because it had been five days now since she last spoke to Noah. He would not even text her. Having convinced herself that it would not be that bad, she went over to his house hoping that he was there and she could avoid his mother as best she could.
Of course, he was not at home and his mom did not know when he would come back. Mrs Puckerman offered her a cup of tea while she waited and some of the cookies she had been baking for some fundraiser at Rebeccas's school.
"So, Rachel, what brings you here? I haven't seen you in a couple of days." Mrs Puckerman said not looking at Rachel. Rachel did not know what to say… Your son's crazy? That would not go over that well with Mrs Puckerman. She was always criticizing him, but if someone else did she became Mama Bear or something.
"I wanted to talk to Noah actually. We haven't had a chance to speak during school because we've both been so busy with glee and he with football." There was no way that Rachel would mention the pebble when she had no idea what that meant.
"Well, I could call him for you." Mrs Puckerman offered.
"No, that's absolutely not necessary, Mrs Puckerman. I'll just come by tomorrow again if that's alright."
"Rachel, you're always welcome here."
With that Rachel got up, waved goodbye to Mrs Puckerman and ventured outside to make her way home when Rebecca almost ran her over. She adored that girl. She remembered all the times Mrs Puckerman would ask her to look after Rebecca when she had to work and she did not really trust Noah to look after his little sister. Now though Rebecca was twelve and could mostly take care of herself so she deemed Noah fit enough to look after her. He basically just needed to make sure that she ate something and went to bed at an appropriate time.
"Hey, Rachel!" Rebecca squealed while letting the books she was carrying fall down and hugging the only slightly taller girl. When she finally let go of Rachel the two girls bent down to pick up the books and Rachel could not help looking at the titles.
"Penguins?" she asked the younger girl.
"Yeah, we're doing birds at the moment in school and everybody is supposed to present one bird in class and I chose penguins. They're really cute and romantic." Rachel furrowed her brow at that. She had never known that birds and especially penguins could be considered to be romantic.
"What do you mean romantic?" she asked Rebecca.
"Well, a couple of weeks ago Noah and I were watching this documentary. You know how he's obsessed with birds. And there was this part about penguins and they said that when a male penguin falls in love with a female penguin, he searches the entire beach to find the perfect pebble to present to her. And when he finally finds it, he waddles over to her and places the pebble right in front of her feet. Kind of like a proposal. And then when our teacher told us to choose a bird I chose the penguin." Rebecca gave a mini-rant that could almost rival those of Rachel when she was her age.
Rachel, though, was frozen to the spot when everything clicked in her head. Noah had given her a pebble. Noah had given her a PEBBLE. NOAH HAD GIVEN HER A PEBBLE!
"I would really love to hear more about that, Rebecca, but I have to get home. My dads are waiting." She told Rebecca in a daze and slowly made her way home without acknowledging Rebecca's shout of goodbye as the younger girl entered her home.
Rachel's mind was completely focussed on the fact that Noah had proposed to her in his own unique way and they were only in high school. They were not even dating. What was going on? Now she really needed to talk to him. He could not propose to her like that; not without her knowing that he was proposing. That was not how she imagined that to go over. Not that she had ever imagined that. Much.
"He did what?" Santana gasped out between laughing and almost choking on the water she was drinking. Rachel was starting to regret telling Santana about what she had found out that afternoon, but she could not wait until she could talk to Noah and she was slowly going crazy not knowing what was really going on.
"He proposed to me. Rebecca told me. Male penguins give a pebble to the female penguins they love. Like a ring." Rachel told her again.
"I told you. Everyone's getting stupid around you and Puckerman really put the cherry on top of that." Santana told her. "Look, do you like him?"
"He's my best friend beside you."
"No, I mean do you like him like him?"
Rachel thought about that. Most of her time was spent with Noah and she always felt a warm sensation running down her back when he would put his arm around her shoulders and pull her tight against him. She absolutely loved when he would kiss her forehead. Sometimes she would even think about him at night, but she would not tell Santana that. Oh my god! I like Noah!
"Oh my god…" she whispered and looked at Santana with wide eyes and took in the smirk on the other girl's lips.
"Yep, that's what I thought. If you like him, go get him. I guess this really shows you that he wants you, and not just for the sex." Santana told her.
That was what Rachel liked about Santana. When she cared about you, she was the best person to go to for advice. And although she would sometimes mock you, she would always have your back.
"I need to talk to him…"
Monday morning at school Rachel was wringing her hands nervously as she waited at Noah's locker again. This time he would not escape her. She would wait all day even if that meant she would miss all of her classes that day.
Luckily, she did not have to wait that long. Only ten minutes later Noah was making his way over to her. As soon as he saw her, he stopped in his tracks and stared at her. She could almost hear his thoughts running around in his head, debating whether to talk to her or turn back around.
"Noah…" Rachel whispered but she was sure he had heard her. Making her way over to him she took the pebble out of the pocket of her cardigan and held onto it tightly.
"Thank you for the pebble." She told him without preamble. "Although I really don't think I look anything like a penguin, Noah." She told him while smiling at him. "Also, I think we're a little young to get married yet. Maybe you have spent a little too much time with your mother. Even though I like your mother, sometimes I think she really needs to get her own life and stop meddling in ours. But anyway, Rebecca told me about that documentary and the penguins and finally everything made sense and at the same time it didn't. You're Noah Puckerman! I've never seen you have a problem with asking anyone out in a normal way. And then this? You couldn't have asked me out on a real date first? Why are you proposing to me without even going out with me? I really think this is a little inappr…" she was cut off by Noah's lips on hers and she could not help but immediately kissing him back.
She had forgotten how good a kisser he was and she could not stop the shiver from running down her spine as he put his arms around her to pull her closer. When they came up for air he rested his forehead against hers. "Fuck. I'm sorry, but you were starting to ramble and I really wanted to do that." He whispered to her and she could feel the his breath ghosting over her lips.
"It's okay." She whispered back. "So… What about that pebble?"
She felt his low chuckle rumble in his chest from her position in his arms. "When Becs and I were watching that documentary I thought that it was fucking awesome and then I thought I could use that to tell you how I feel. Of course, I get fucking scared, run away and hide from you for a week. Thinking about it, it was fucking dumb. I mean, I didn't want to propose to you. I wanted to tell you that I really really like you. Maybe even love you." He took a deep breath after he had finished and Rachel had to think whether she had ever heard him talk so much at a time. But then she thought about what he had told her. He likes me! He maybe loves me!
"I'm glad you didn't propose." His smile faded a little at that. "But I really really like you, too, maybe even love you. And I would love to go out with you this Friday and have you on my arm in front of the whole high school again." Rachel told him with a little mischievous grin.
"Yeah?"
Biting her lip a little she nodded at him and then leaned up to kiss him again. She did not let go of the pebble with the small music notes and hearts once. She would not let go of it for a long time. And when Noah took it out of its box ten years later when they were living in New York, then only to give it back to her. Like a proposal. For real this time.