Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Glee; I gain no profit from this.

A/N: Written for the puckrachel drabble meme, which really does steal lives.

Prompt - Puck's new rule of just being nice to Jews becomes just being nice to Rachel after Jacob harasses her over the break up.

Hope you enjoy it!

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He's trying to be a better person. (Really, he is.)

He meant what he said to Rachel last year, when they were doing that super lame (but maybe just a tiny, little bit badass) Run Joey Run video … he doesn't know why things happen the way they do. But sometimes it's like he zones out, and when he zones back in, bad things have happened – like, really bad things. His knuckles will be bruised, some dude will have a black eye (or he'll have a black eye), and his mom will be looking at him with that expression that lets him know without words that she's disappointed in him.

Juvie was a wake-up call, for sure. (And not just because he can't go back to living without waffles, and because it's fucking terrifying as hell in there; not that he's ever going to admit that again the way he did to Artie.) He knows he can't get into another fight and violate his parole, no matter what he told Karofsky when he was promoting Glee club to the football team (right before he'd been shoved in a Port-a-Potty and left there to rot for twenty-four hours). But his fists are clenching, and he thinks he might just have to make this exception.

He'd meant what he said to Rachel last week before Sectionals, too … about being nicer to Jews. But he thinks he might have to revise that promise he made under duress, because Jew-fro's getting all up in Berry's face with his video camera for that stupid blog of his (or maybe just the disturbing as hell Rachel-Berry-shrine he no doubt has, which should be reason enough in itself to kick his ass) and she looks like she's about to cry. And nobody gets to make Berry cry on his watch, especially not when she's still upset over Finn (stupid fucking Saint Finn; why does no one but him see that the douche bag's the one in the wrong here, after what he did?)

He slams his locker door shut furiously, storming across the hall (admittedly feeling a little pride at the way people clear out of his path in fear) and none-too-gently shoving into a row of lockers, interrupting this impromptu little 'interview'. (And shit … since when does he know what impromptu means?)

Ben-Israel's annoying, seedy voice cuts out immediately, and Puck only takes a moment to smirk at the widening of his beady little eyes before glancing at the grateful look on Rachel's face and announcing, "I think you're done here, loser; don't you?" Jacob nods shakily, turning and bolting toward the other end of the hall.

Yeah, so … he's not really there yet; (a good person, that is). He still pushes people around, because he's shit with words and it just works, okay? But in his defense, the creep totally had it fucking coming; besides, he barely even laid a hand on him this time.

"What happened to that little promise between you and God?" Rachel asks him quietly, but she's worrying her lip between her teeth, so he knows she's just trying to draw the conversation away from what just happened (or, more likely, the entire topic that Jew-fro was trying to get her to spill about).

"I was thinking," he informed her, ignoring a well place barb (oh really, did it hurt?), "that I might have to change that again. From Jews in general, to just being nice to you. Because there's no way I'm going to be able to sit back and watch them be assholes to you, even if I wanted to."

She rolls her eyes and says something like 'You'd be capable of so much more if you'd believe in yourself, Noah, the way I do', but he isn't really listening. (He's more interested in the way her lips are moving, and how shiny they are today. And maybe wondering what they taste like … If it's the same cherry lip gloss as the first time he kissed her, or the grape kind he remembers from just a little over a week ago …) He doesn't miss the quiet whisper that falls from her lips as he walks her to her next class (what, it's just on his way, that's all), though.

"Thank you."

He could spew some shit about owing Jew-fro for that dumpster dive he took last spring after the 'hawk was shaved off (temporarily), or some other lame excuse, but he doesn't. And maybe that's where being a better guy comes in; maybe.

What he knows for sure, is that this totally was for Rachel and he's not even going to bother pretending it wasn't.

(But he doesn't think he was really meant to hear her thanks, so he doesn't let the 'Anytime, Berry' that's sitting on the tip of his tongue slip out; even though he means it.)

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Please, pretty please with a cherry on top, review!