Baseball Jerseys and Pink Satin

by jennh07

Their story started with a baseball game, a slushy and a kiss. Years later, they're falling into each others lives again.

Because I love baseball so much and the Little League World Championships were on when I came up with this, I thought I'd do a two parter. Definitely don't own anything in this story that could get me sued. Otherwise, I'd be rich as hell. I did a ton of research on this too.

---

When Rachel is five years old, she sees her dads kiss each other goodbye before they left for work and she was left with the babysitter. She sat in the living room, legs crossed Indian style while she looks up at the TV, wondering what it would be like. As she watches Cinderella, and Prince Charming kisses her at the end after the wedding, she starts to think about it even more. Would it be full of fireworks and a bunch of other clichés that movies have filled in our heads. Yes, for her age she knew what a cliché was, but only because a lot of her kindergarten classmate's parents are very hateful towards her parents when they actually have the time to pick her up from school. The ideal happy couple was always a woman and a man that were deeply in love. Well her parents are in love and as long as they loved each other it shouldn't matter right? In all the Disney movies she's watched, and she owns pretty much all of them, they all have the magical kiss. Aurora got awaken by a kiss at the very end and then she got everything she ever wanted. Maybe her first kiss will be like that one.

Everyone around her were having their first kiss. Rachel sits in her classroom, coloring neatly inside the lines when a boy and a girl that were hidden behind the shelf peck each other's lips while playing house. No boy in her class wanted to play house with her because she was a 'freak.' Her babysitter was a girl down the hall who told her repeatedly that Rachel had the prettiest brown curly hair and sparkling brown eyes. She just never understood why no boy liked her if those things were true. Maybe it had nothing to do with her at all.

Rachel was twelve when she got her first kiss. And she remembers it vividly.

Her fathers drove her down to Williamsport, PA for the 2002 Little League World Championships from their home in New York. Their best friends' son, Blaine Anderson, was on the Mid-Atlantic team and today they were up against the Great Lakes region. They made it to the U.S. Championships and whoever won this game would move on to play the International team.

Blaine has been her best friend for as long as she could remember. He was the only boy who really liked her and even played house with her. She never did get her kiss though. Being the only girl between their families besides his mom, she learned to love baseball since her family and Blaine's family made a group event out of it. Blaine was the best catcher and hitter on his team, which brought them to the championship in the first place.

Unfortunately, later that day their team lost to the Great Lakes so they were forced to go home early.

Rachel is wearing her dark blue shirt with Mid-Atlantic written in red and white along her chest, hair in braided pig tails (thanks to Blaine's mom), and white shorts while she waited for the slushy machines. A much taller boy was in front of her, who was from the Great Lakes, his bright orange jersey nearly blinding her from staring at it for so long. Patience isn't her strong suit, especially since her team just lost, so she started to tap her foot against the concrete.

"What are you looking at freak?" He turns around with the biggest slushy cup there was and sipped the red iced drink. "Sad that your team lost?"

"I am sad, but I'd really just like to get a grape slushy before I have to go home. Thank you very much." She moves to grab a small cup but he pushes her. His cup is tipping over, like he's threatening to throw it on her.

"Back off Karofsky." Another boy wearing the same jersey with a terrible mohawk running down his head pushes the other boy's shoulder. "Coach is looking for you anyways, so get out the hell out of here."

"Don't cry on the way home loser. Maybe your team will be better next year." The other boy laughs evilly and tries to saunter away, but he clearly can't pull it off in her eyes.

A tear runs down Rachel's face as she moves to fill up a small cup then looks down at her drink. The boy shifts uncomfortably. "Hey, don't listen to him he's a fucking douche. You guys kicked ass. Especially that Anderson kid, he can really swing a bat." He does a swinging motion before grinning down at the girl but it quickly turns into a frown.

"Don't curse." She sniffles and looks up at the boy in front of her. His hazel green eyes are the most beautiful ones she's ever seen.

He rolls his eyes at her. "I'm Puck. Grape is my favorite flavor too." He turns around and fills up a medium sized cup with the purple liquid.

"I'm Rachel. Rachel Berry." She holds her hand out. He looks down at it then back up at her sucking on his straw. When she sees that he won't be returning the gesture, she grips her cup with both hands. "What kind of name is Puck?" Rachel tilts her head.

"It's my nickname. I don't like my name, ever since my stupid old man left us." He huffs. There are plenty worse names he could call that guy, but he doesn't need this girl coming up with a lecture or something if he cusses again. "Anyways, that guy is a jerk so don't let him get you all mad n'stuff. Sorry you guys lost though." Puck shrugs. He can't be too sympathetic towards this girl, because he wants to win this whole damn championship and shove in his old man's face if he ever has the nerve to come back.

"That's okay. And I'm sorry about your dad. My mommy didn't want me, I was adopted." She looks down at the ground and grips her cup tighter.

"Sucks." He sucks up more liquid while looking the girl up and down.

Rachel fidgets nervously and looks at the Great Lakes lettering on his jersey. He is really cute. "Where are you from?"

"Ohio. Lamest fucking state ever." He snorts.

"Language!" She glares at him before she smiles brightly again. "I'm from New York. This is the first time I've left the city."

"Huh. I've been playing ball for a few years now, but this is the first year we made it to this place. We usually lose regionals because our team blows."

"Rachel! It's time to go." Blaine, a kid with dark curly hair in his baseball pants and Mid-Atlantic jersey, calls out and smiles at her. He turns around and walks towards their parents.

They both look back at each other before she speaks up again. "Thank you for making him go away. And good luck. I hope you guys win." She smiles brightly up at him.

"Yeah, sure." Puck pulls his hat from under his arm and plops it onto her head. The bright orange fabric with capitol navy GL on it stands out from her dark hair and tanned skin. "Have a good life New York."

Rachel lifts up on her toes and kisses him gently on the mouth. She blushes and walks away towards her parents and Blaine.

Puck looks over at the girl walking away. For someone being that tiny, she had the longest legs he's ever seen and pretty brown hair. And her eyes were an attractive chocolate brown. Puck shakes his head, he's here for the championships, not to worry about some little girl he'll never see ever again. Then he notices that he doesn't have a hat anymore, so he walks to find his coach, slurping the purple liquid through his straw.

---

Nine years later

Puck is standing on the field of the New York Mets. Nine years ago he was standing with his team, taking the team photo for the Little League World Championships, putting little Lima, Ohio on the map. When his dad left that year, he put all of his time and anger into baseball. That's why he was able to win that year. Puck practically taught himself how to play baseball until he got to high school where coaches helped him with his techniques. Baseball was his outlet for anything that went wrong in his life. He might have occasionally tossed a geek into a dumpster or got into a fight but he didn't want to screw up any chance he had to make something out of his love for baseball. His senior year, his family moved to Atlanta, GA where his mom's long time boyfriend got a job and he started high school at a fancy high school. Well, fancier than he was used to anyways.

His little sister was starting out as a freshman and when he got there he quickly became known for his pitching that he did in Ohio. The coaches were better than in Ohio and his school had the funding to get the necessary equipment to have better teams. They always started him during games and scouts came just to watch him pitch. Soon enough, he was playing ball with the Gwinnett Braves, the Atlanta Braves AAA team in the minors, after he graduated from high school. They loved how well he pitched and that his batting average was way better than any of the other pitchers, that he blew past all the other guys and moved straight to training for the big leagues.

Two months after he turned 21, he was sent up to the majors when one of the starting pitchers got hurt towards the end of August. His first game at Turner Field, he won. All the coaches and players were shocked at how many strikeouts he had. He kept saying he was just that good, being a cocky guy, when honestly the adrenaline was fueling everything and calming his nerves. He'll never tell that to anyone though. A few rotations in, the coach decided to keep him in the lineup. Teams want him, but the Braves won't give him up. Money didn't really matter to him, as long as he got to keep playing for the team that believed in him enough. With his mom having Brian around, he didn't need to support her or Sarah like he did when they lived in Ohio. Okay maybe he helps his little sister out with college, but that isn't killing him financially.

That lame state would always be home, but this would always be his career home and hopefully his last.

Now here he is, freshly turned 22 and his name is becoming well known in the MLB. The lights in the stadium brighten up the field and there are flashes going off right before the game starts. The National Anthem has been sung and he's standing on the mound. He breathes in the fresh cut grass smell, the dirt is wet and ready to go under his cleats. Puck picks up the sock filled with chalk and then grips the ball in his right hand. His fingers find the red seams on the ball without having to look.

His catcher makes the call for a fast ball so he nods discreetly. As he always does before the first pitch, he looks down at his jersey and the giant Braves logo that sits there. It's still hard for him to believe that he's pitching for a major league team, worried he'll wake up one day sitting in his old house. He's got on his Star of David that he wears on game days and today is the navy blue jersey with their white pants. He has on navy blue socks pulled up so he looks like an old school baseball player. He loves every damn minute of his job. His right hand grips the ball as he pulls up his left leg and his glove towards his chest. Puck throws the ball right down the middle and the umpire yells out "strike one!"

Rachel sits in the stands for the New York Mets game with her best friend Santana Lopez. Out of all the years she's been to a game here, this is the one that's the hardest for her. Tomorrow, she and her best friend will be moving. They just graduated from Juilliard, both majoring in dance but focusing on ballet. The two met when they were roommates their first year. It was difficult at first, but they both knew what they wanted and it ended up bonding them together. After that first year, they got their own apartment not far from the campus with the help of their parents and lived together ever since. A pretty big company noticed them and offered them jobs right away. Her other best friend, Blaine, recently got traded to LA to play with their baseball team, so she was glad she'd have at least one of her friends moving with her. All three were extremely close, but were ecstatic that they got everything they could have ever wished for.

She flips through the program while they wait for the first pitch of the game. Rachel and Santana both know the team roster backwards and forwards so she started to look through the Braves' list of players. Backup catcher, Matt Rutherford was down behind home plate. Finn Hudson is standing by the bag at first. Then there were the other major players that she recognized at the other positions on the field. The picture that caught her eye though was Noah Puckerman, those eyes looked familiar. She glances down at the player profile.

Full Name: Noah Aaron Puckerman
Born: June 11, 1989 in Lima, Ohio.
Height: 6'
Weight: 190
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
College: N/A
MLB Debut: August 20, 2010

The thing that she notices as she reads his biography, that he first got noticed when he won the 2002 Little League World Championship by hitting a double homerun. That was the same game where a team from Ohio beat Blaine's team. Rachel looks down at the mound and sees a barely grown mohawk peeking out from the underneath the pitcher's hat with 'Puckerman' on the back of the jersey along with the number 20.

"San?" Rachel looks at her friend.

"What?" She sips her beer and eats a piece of cotton candy that she just tracked down a vendor for.

"Remember when I told you about my first kiss?"

Santana looks at her like she's absolutely insane. "Is this really the right time to be talking about our first kisses?" She looks around then back at her friend. "We're at a baseball game. But if we must re-tell..."

Rachel cuts her off. "Exactly. It was the LLWS and this kid pushed away some jerk that was calling me a freak. He gave me his hat and I kissed him." Her friend stares at her and shoves another piece of cotton candy in her mouth mumbling out an 'uh huh.' Rachel pushes the program into her face and points at 'Noah Puckerman.' "That's him!"

"Are you fucking with me?" Someone behind her clears their throat and looks down at the little kid. "This is a baseball game lady. There are going to be men cussing much worse than me." She rolls her eyes and looks back at Rachel. "That guy is way hot. Don't you still have that hat too?" She bites her lip and nods. "Wait…"

"What?"

She looks over at the mound where he's getting ready to pitch. "He plays for the Atlanta Braves." Rachel looks at her friend with wide eyes, wondering what that has to do with anything. "We're," she motions between them, "moving to Atlanta tomorrow. What kind of crazy fucking sign is this?" Santana laughs and sips her beer. "God this is fucking fantastic."

"This is no such thing as a sign. It's just…crazy coincidence." Rachel pulls her beer to her lips and frowns when he throws the first pitch. "God he's hot."

"Did he look that good when he was a kid? Because he looks like he could have gotten into a lot of trouble with girls. I would've gotten into a lot of trouble with him. Look at his arms. Holy shit." She tilts her head and eyes him appreciatively.

"He was in a baseball uniform then too. So yes, he did look that good." Santana moans in approval.

At the bottom of the 7th inning, the Mets are losing by four runs. Rachel watches as Puck walks up to the plate. From what she's seen, he doesn't like to bunt like most pitchers would do, but actually swing at the ball. He's got a full count and at the last pitch, he swings and hits a homerun. The ball comes flying towards Santana and Rachel, and the latter catches it. Santana screams and hugs her friend. Puck points his finger in her direction and smirks. The announcer comes on and announces that, that was Puck's first homerun in the majors. So when a man from the team comes over to her and asks for the ball, she's not that upset. But he says when the game ends and everyone clears out from the stadium that Puck will personally come to them and sign a ball for her. Santana grins at Rachel and pulls her friend up, dragging her to the store to buy a baseball for her own mischievous idea.

Everyone has cleared out and Rachel looks at her friend. "Santana, this is the craziest and dumbest idea you've ever thought of." Santana scoffs while Rachel sits on the bleachers by the away team's dugout.

"Please, you'll probably thank me for it later." She hands Rachel the baseball and raises an eyebrow at her.

"Fine!" Rachel signs the baseball and mutters 'crazy fucking Latina, might as well put my phone number on it' under her breath.

"Hey, you must be the chick who caught my ball." Puck walks out and leans against the railing.

Both of them snap their heads up and look at Puck, still in his uniform. "Yes I am. Good hit by the way. For a pitcher." She grins and squeezes the baseball in her hands.

He rolls his eyes and uncaps the Sharpie he had in his hand to sign the baseball he brought. "I'm real fucking glad you gave it to them. First homerun in the majors and all." He glances up at the brunettes in front of him. The one standing up looks exotic and hot with straight black hair with a Mets shirt on. The other has a NY Mets hat on and soft curly waves falling down her shoulders, white shorts and a blue shirt matching her friend's.

"That's exactly why I let them have it." He hands her the ball. "Noah Puckerman, June 14, 2011, First homerun ever." Rachel laughs and tucks it into her purse. "I have something for you too."

Puck quirks up an eyebrow and smirks at the girls in front of him. "Does it involve a bunch of tan bodies kissing together?"

"Wow, does that line ever work?" Santana laughs and nudges Rachel's shoulder.

"Probably not." She hands him her own baseball.

"What's this?" Puck moves to stand up straighter and glances down at it. 'Rachel Berry*.'

"That ball you just signed for me could be worth a fortune one day. So could mine, well a very small one." She smiles coyly at him. "And you could be the only one that has my signature on a baseball."

Puck looks over to her friend then back down to her. "Right. Well thanks again for coming to the game. Even if you are Mets fans and ya lost." He winks and saunters down the steps so he can jump over the side to return to the dugout.

"C'mon Rach. We have a big family dinner to go to before the big move." Santana moves up the steps while Rachel looks back towards the dugout.

---

Puck sits on the private plane, staring at the ball in his hand. Rachel Berry. Why did that name sound so familiar?

"Hey Hudson." He turns in his seat. The man in front of him turns around and so does the man across the aisle. He shrugs, forgetting that there are two Hudson's on his team. "Do either of you know someone famous named Rachel Berry?"

"Nah man." Finn turns around in his seat while Tim shrugs and leans against the window, ready to fall asleep.

He sighs and stands up, reaching for his laptop bag then sits back down. He tosses the ball between his hands while his laptop boots up. Why does that name sound so familiar? It's been bothering him since he showered and got his shit together. Once it's up and running, he puts the ball down in the bag and pulls up his web browser, typing her name into the search engine. There's a few pictures that pop up and a few news links. He tries those first.

Rachel Berry and Santana Lopez (picture shown below) are the two new ballet dancers for the Atlanta Ballet. Both will be starting rehearsals in a few weeks for the production of Cinderella that will be shown in February. Both are recent graduates from Juilliard and long time residents of New York City. The two graduated at the top of their class.

He ignores the other articles, seeing how they're mostly the same and just show the achievements both have received since they were little. Puck clicks on the images and she's shown in different recitals that have been put up, accepting awards from Julliard, but there's one that really catches his attention. There's a picture of Rachel with her arm around Blaine Anderson's waist while he wears an LA Dodgers hat. He remembers that name from Little League. Then he looks closely to the picture of her, decked out in Mets gear standing next to Blaine with her hair in braided pigtails.

"Holy shit." He stares at the girl's picture. That was the girl who kissed him when he was 13.

---

Rachel collapses onto her bed after a full day of rehearsals while Santana collapses onto the floor next to her. She was too lazy to walk the few extra feet down to her own room, plus Rachel has a mini fridge in hers so they can have all the water they want.

"Let's do something tonight."

"Are you insane?" Rachel rolls over onto her stomach and stares at her friend.

"We've been rehearsing nonstop for weeks! I'm tired of playing the evil step sister and looking into Prince Charmings eyes because he's clearly fucking gay. I haven't had sex since we moved here. And our feet have finally healed from working like crazy. Please Rach?"

"What would we even do?" She breathes out defeated.

"Somewhere we don't have to fucking walk. Oh! Quinn's dad like owns the Braves. She can get us tickets right by home plate. She's dating one of the players anyways and we can watch batting practice." She winks at her friend.

"Call her. I've got dibs on the shower."

"You bitch!" Santana moans from the floor while Rachel runs down the hall towards the bathroom.

Quinn leads them onto the grass field of Turner Field with authority. She has beautiful blonde hair, hazel eyes, and she's one of the top dancers at the ballet company they work at. All of the players pause what they're doing and Puck immediately freezes, holding the ball that he was about to throw to Matt. He wasn't catching today and Puck wasn't pitching, so he nods at Puck to follow him over.

"Hey Q." Matt cradles his mask and leans over to hug her.

"Hi Matt." She moves to kiss him but he backs away and looks around nervously.

"Your dad here?"

"No Mattie." She leans up and kisses him gently on the lips.

Puck realized when he first got to know Matt, that the guy was pretty ballsy for dating the manager's daughter. But since he wasn't a starter, the coaches generally ignored when Quinn paraded onto the field as long as she didn't distract the starting players from warming up. Today, he is extremely glad he isn't pitching, since he can see the long legs he remembers from 9 years ago.

"Hey New York." Puck sees Rachel the second Quinn moves out of his view.

Rachel looks over to Puck, who's standing there with his sunglasses resting on the bill of his hat, a sleeveless workout shirt, gym shorts and cleats. Her eyes widen when she realizes what he called her. Santana pushes her towards him while she moves to talk to Quinn and Matt. Puck looks down at her and smirks. He takes his hat off, sticks it on top of her head and pushes down his sunglasses, which effectively prevents her from squinting her eyes.

"You remember?" She reaches up and touches the bill of the hat, reminding her of the bright orange one she has at home.

"After I kept wondering where I heard your damn name before, I Googled ya. Instead of playing mind games, you could've told me who you were." He tosses her the ball and puts on his glove, motioning for her to throw it.

She holds the ball for a second before she throws it. He's shocked when he catches it and it's thrown a decent speed. Definitely not how a normal girl would throw. Fuck, who is he kidding? She wasn't normal when he met her. Rachel did kiss him after all and he didn't even know her. "Blaine taught me how to throw." She smiles at him.

"He did a damn good job. Saw he made it in the majors too."

"Yeah. And I didn't think you'd remember me." Rachel shrugs then catches the ball and flinches slightly. "Don't throw so damn hard."

"Language." He winks at her. She laughs from one of the only memories that they have from that day. He rubs the back of his head. "But yeah, sorry about that. I'm used to throwing to any of the guys. And how could I forget you? I've been on a search for the past nine years for someone with lips like yours." He catches the ball easily and tosses it back. It feels weird not throwing that hard.

She blushes and laughs. "You're probably more experienced than I am then."

Puck scoffs. "Someone as hot as you? Right. I have a hard time believing that."

"Puck! Heads up." Finn calls out from the plate where he's hitting.

He moves towards Rachel and catches the ball before she gets hit. He throws it to Matt who throws it around the bases. "I saved your life." He laughs.

She's kind of surprised at how sexy his laugh is. "Don't flatter yourself. I could've caught it."

"And you'd bruise your tiny little hand." He reaches for her left hand and instantly notices that there's no ring. Secondly, she has some damn soft skin.

"Locker team guys! Time to get into uniform." The coaches call out and all the guys start to disappear into the dugout. Quinn pulls Matt into a deep kiss while Santana tilts her head, staring at the two.

"Well good luck." Rachel smiles and pulls her hand away. She turns around and starts to walk towards Santana.

"Hey, New York. Wanna grab a drink sometime?" He's taking a risk here, but she's a ballet dancer. One word. Flexible. Plus, she was the first girl to kiss him and that in itself unlocked a whole shit storm.

Rachel looks him up and down. His muscles are clearly toned from all the baseball he's been playing over the years. The shirt is tight across his chest and she can only imagine what his abs look like. Plus his mohawk isn't as pronounced anymore. It's mostly shaved down. She shrugs and hands him her phone. "Sure. I wasn't planning on seeing you after that day anyways, so we have some catching up to do I suppose. I can send you a text so you'll have my number."

"You and me both." He winks and walks away towards the dugout.

"Oh! You're hat."

"Keep it. You live in Atlanta now anyways. Can't have you wearing anything Mets in my stadium." He winks and disappears.

Rachel walks up to their seats behind home plate where Santana has a bag of cotton candy and a beer, her designated treat at baseball games. Quinn has water and a pretzel. Her best friend raises her eyebrow. "Another hat? You're going to have a Puckerman collection at this rate. And it looks as though my idea worked out perfectly." She smiles deviously.

"Wait, how do you know Puck?" Quinn looks around Santana.

"We met years ago at a baseball game. Nothing serious." She shrugs and watches as the stadium begins to fill up.

Puck stands up against the makeshift fence of the dugout, watching as Finn tries to hit the ball, every now and then he spits out a sunflower seed shell. He sneaks glances over at Rachel. She's still wearing his hat, but she's laughing and leaning against her friend. Quinn is smiling and watching the game, but sending little glares at the two girls next to her. What's up with that? He ignores it and looks back at the mound.

Rachel can't help but look over to the dugout as the game goes on. Santana and Quinn are talking about each of the players that come up to bat or who's pitching. Puck looks amazing in his uniform and she catches him glancing at her every once in awhile that makes her blush.

---

A few weeks after Puck saw Rachel again at that game, he sits in his apartment staring at the TV, watching some shitty movie that he's never seen before. She still hasn't called him or sent him a text about wanting to grab that drink yet. Tonight he's just bored enough that he's tempted to call her. But he could go out and get any girl he wanted. Decisions. After a few minutes, Puck reaches for his phone and types out a text asking what she's up to.

Rachel: Just got out of practice and I'm pretty tired. Santana is going out with Quinn.

He keys in a response, asking if she's too tired to grab some food.

Rachel: Not at all! I'll just hop in the shower and you can drive over.

The thought of this girl in the shower? He's going to have to take a cold one before he even attempts to leave the house. He keys in a response, telling her to let him know the address. She was still new in town and the thought of her trying to find something in Atlanta somewhat terrified him. He barely knows her, but he still feels the urge to protect her just like he did that day when Karofsky was being an asshole.

Puck brought her to a local drive in/restaurant saying that she had to try the hotdogs there. Shit's good. They're in a booth in a corner where no one can really see them and he's watching her, absolutely amazed that she's tearing into her fries. "So, it's been nine years and really when we first met I didn't know shit about you except you're from New York. So catch me up." He tosses a fry into his mouth while she smiles at him.

"Where to start? Um…" She sips her drink and drums her fingers onto the counter. "I have two dads. I'm not sure if you remember from when we were younger, but I was adopted. I looked for my mother when I turned eighteen, but I saw that she adopted a baby girl so I just moved on. For the longest time I wanted to be on Broadway, but after a severe case of laryngitis in high school, my doctor advised me that it wouldn't be best to sing professionally anymore. That absolutely killed me, but I kept up my ballet classes and I've been in love with it ever since. I'm currently working on a production of Cinderella."

"Wait, two dads? That's fucking intimidating."

She scrunches her eyebrows together. "I suppose they could be. My dad is an orthopedic surgeon and my daddy is a pediatrician." Rachel laughs when he mumbles out a 'fuck' under his breath.

"What part do you play in Cinderella? Well, is it even a play? I mean, you're dancing so…" Puck shrugs. He's never been to the ballet in his life. The only thing he knows about it, was his sister took it when she was five and hated every minute of it. The shoes hurt her feet.

"It still tells a story line, just through dance. Much like Romeo and Juliet or The Nutcracker." He grimaces and she smiles. "And I play Cinderella. Santana and Quinn are my evil step sisters."

"Sounds boring as fuck."

Rachel rolls her eyes. "Anyways. Blaine is my best friend, since you remembered him. His parents actually worked with my dads and they introduced the two of them. His mom gave birth before they found me when my daddy saw me at work. He claims that he fell in love with me the second he walked by the nursery. They made quick work with the adoption thanks to a friend of theirs. We were always together, his mom being the mother I never had and he got a dad and two uncles who had a fascinating obsession with baseball." She laughs quietly to herself. "I wasn't generally liked in school, but Blaine always stood by me. We were both only children, so it was nice to have him around. I met Santana when I got into Julliard, we were roomed together. At first it was a struggle, but now I can't imagine being without her." She smiles at the thought of her two best friends. "And here I am. Your turn."

"Well you knew about my shitty father leaving when I told you that day. I harbored all my anger into pitching. Turns out, that was the best thing I ever did with my life. Anyways, lived in Ohio up until my senior year when we moved here when my ma's boyfriend got a job. Didn't go to college, got drafted straight out of high school."

She tilts her head back and laughs. "What a life story. Mine seemed to go on forever. I am sorry about your father though. You've done extremely well for yourself."

"So have you. Boyfriend?"

"Obviously not. I just moved here and long distance wouldn't do well."

"I'm not the relationship type of guy." He shrugs. Figured it'd be smart to get that out there just so she knows that they're either going to get it on or just be friends. She's actually not bad, so he wouldn't even mind having her as a friend, though his mind will always wonder what her body would be like underneath his.

"Neither am I. Our rehearsal schedule is rather strenuous at times. As I'm sure with you playing baseball, it's not easy either."

Puck smirks. "Basically. So I gotta ask. I'm kinda shocked that you sat here and ate all that greasy shit. Aren't ballet dancers usually very picky about their weight?"

"Yes, but I'm different. Santana and I have a very strict workout plan so that we can eat whatever we want without going to the bathroom and sticking our fingers down our throats. Well…Santana could probably do that anyways. I can't." He furrows his eyebrows, but she keeps going on so it completely slips his mind to ask. "We do yoga when we wake up, which also serves as a way to warm up before rehearsal even though we still warm up there, then afterwards we'll go to the gym every other day at the company. But if our feet are too injured, we'll go home and do sit ups, crunches and free weights."

"If your feet are too injured? What the hell does that mean?" Puck leans back in his seat and sips at his drink.

"Well…I didn't want to say this because it's rather gross, but if we're practicing new choreography or dance moves that we're not used to for a long time, we can get blisters and what not on our feet. Sometimes we crack toe nails and it can just be a big mess that's really damn difficult to work with."

"Oh shit." He points his drink at her. "That's nasty."

"You have no idea." She pouts. "At least you don't have to wash them." She winks at him and finishes off her drink.

---

Puck: Phoenix blows. It's so damn hot!

Rachel laughs when she sees his text. It's been a month since the first time they got together for dinner and caught up on their lives. Rehearsals had been getting a little more demanding, but when they weren't practicing, they were hanging out with Santana, Finn, Matt and Quinn.

She quickly caught on that he would pick up random women to go home with, effectively leaving her alone but it didn't really matter. That's how he was. She and Santana had just gotten home and her friend called dibs on the bathtub since her feet were aching. Their director made her and Quinn redo one of their scenes over and over again until both their feet were nearly raw, but thankfully no blisters.

Rachel lies down on the couch in her sports bra, shorts and tights and pulls her phone up to her face so that she can text him back.

Rachel: I'm laying under the fan, just got done with rehearsal. San & Quinn aren't happy with the director.

Puck: Sucks. They can keep their nasty feet I'm pitching tonight.

Rachel: I know.

Puck: Gonna watch? I look ten times sexier on TV.

Rachel: Yeah, I guess I can. She laughs to herself, imagining that he's scoffing while reading that.

Puck: Damn right. Almost game time. Gotta head out to the field. Not supposed to be texting. Oops. Drinks when I get back?

Rachel: Of course. I won't be your wingman this time.

Puck: We'll see 'bout that. Lata.

---

Puck isn't sure when it happened exactly. He never really had a best friend, sure he had a few close friends in Ohio and he was real close to a few guys on the team, like Finn and Matt. But ever since Rachel Berry came back into his life, she quickly made her way to being his best friend. Santana was close just like Finn and Matt.

But the day he knew for a fact, was when he was pitching one night and Santana and Rachel decided to sit with Quinn at a game in their usual seats. It was the top of the third inning and he breathes out, wiping the sweat off his brow with his right forearm. Matt gives him the sign, so he nods and pulls up his left leg. Puck throws the ball and it must have at least been 100 mph to the plate. But just as quickly, the player hits the ball and he doesn't have any time to react before it comes back.

Rachel watches as Puck winds up and throws the ball, but in a split second after the batter hits it, the ball goes back and hits him on the side of his head. She screams loudly and grips Santana's arm.

"Oh my God." Santana pulls Rachel in close, holding the head full of brown curls to her chest.

The managers and players rush around him, Finn squats down while the medical staff surrounds him. They can only see his legs, but they're not moving at all. Tears stream down her face while she watches him on the ground. It's then that it really hits her, Puck is one of her best friends.

A gurney is being wheeled out and they lift him onto it, a neck brace is on for precautionary measures, she's assuming so his head doesn't roll around. They wheel him off the field and Matt runs over to them quickly.

"Grady Memorial." He looks at the girls then lastly to Rachel. "You should meet him there. We'll come by when we can." Matt gives her a sympathetic look.

"Got it. Thank you Matt." Rachel pulls her purse to her shoulder and starts to leave.

"Want me to come?" Santana looks at her friend worriedly.

"It's okay San, stay here with Quinn so she's not alone. I'll call you. Love ya." She races up the stairs so she can rush to the hospital as fast as she possibly can.

Rachel rushes into the hospital, looking around the E.R until she finds a nurse. "Excuse me, can you show me where Noah Puckerman is?"

"Are you family?" She looks down at her confused. They certainly don't look related.

"No, but…" The nurse shakes her head.

"I'm sorry, only family can visit."

"Excuse me!" She taps the nurse on the shoulder until she turns around. "He's my best friend and his family is out of town, so would you kindly show me to his room?" Rachel glares at the woman until she sighs and nods towards a hall.

When she walks into the room, he's asleep but she can see the deep bruise forming on his right temple. Dropping her purse by the bed, she pulls the chair up next to him and holds his hand. The nurse who showed her in stands near her under the dim light of the room.

She whispers and bends over so Rachel won't have to strain to hear her. "All of his scans were clean, no fractures or anything. We don't see any signs of a concussion but we'll be keeping him overnight. He'll probably wake up shortly, if not we'll be in, in about an hour to make sure everything is still going well."

"Thank you." Rachel smiles gratefully then pulls out her phone to send a text to Santana. Bending over, she lays her head down on the bed and kisses the back of his hand before lacing her fingers with his.

Puck wakes up and his head is throbbing, way worse than any hangover he's had. It's shitty that he can't have his mom or Sarah here, hell even Brian would be welcomed right now, but he'd have to call them later. Preferably when his head didn't feel like it got railed by a train. He doesn't remember what happened. Last he remembers he was about to pitch a fastball and now he's here. He hates hospital smell.

His eyes shift down and he sees Rachel sleeping, her lips dangerously close to his fingers. That's when he notices that she's holding his hand and tears are falling down her cheeks. Even when she's sleeping and crying, the girl is so damn beautiful. Gently pulling his hand out of hers, he runs his hand through her soft curly hair. She stirs slightly and reaches for his hand where it used to be, but he just brushes her hair back behind her ear. She wakes up and looks up at him with her chocolate brown eyes. He had hoped he would never see those eyes with tears in them ever again. That's when it hits him and just knows.

"Noah?" She whispers and her voice cracks slightly. It's the first time she's ever called him that. She must be freaked out.

"C'mere." He pats the left side of the bed.

Rachel stands up and moves to the other side of the bed and climbs in. She curls up next to him and puts her head on his chest. Puck can feel her shaking and the tears soaking through his hospital gown. "Are you okay? I was so scared."

"I'm fine babe." He'd kiss the top of her head to reassure her, but he's 100% sure that if he tried to move his head at all…well let's just say he'd regret it to hell and back. "How about a kiss on the cheek?" He taps his left cheek for added effect and smirks.

She moves her head and kisses his cheek, letting her lips linger there for a minute. "You're ridiculous, but I'm glad you're safe." Rachel buries her head in the crook of his neck as softly and gently as she can, breathing in the mix of his body wash, deodorant and sweat. It's so much better than the sterile hospital smell that she hates.

"Thank you for being here Rach."

"Where else would I be?" Rachel says quietly, falling asleep on his chest. Puck smirks and closes his eyes, pulling her in close then running his fingers through her hair. Damn her lips are soft.

---

After being on the road for ten days, Puck settles onto his couch and turns on the TV. He really doesn't care what's on, but he just relaxes and rotates his right shoulder. He pitched two games and he lasted until the 6th inning both times before they demanded a reliever took over. His phone starts to ring and he absentmindedly answers it without looking.

"Yeah?"

"Noah?"

Puck really doesn't like how she sounds like she's in pain. "What's wrong Rach?" He opens his eyes and sits up a bit straighter, leaning over so he can mute the TV.

"Oh, um, nothing. I had a long day of rehearsal and Santana is out with Finn and Quinn getting drinks since they didn't have to do much today. Anyways. I was hoping you'd come over and keep me company. I'm ordering pizza."

"Yeah, sure. I'll be over there soon." The moment she said pizza, he was in. He may be exhausted but free food can never be ignored. Plus he likes hanging out with Rachel.

He shows up half an hour later, beer in hand and knocking on her door. He barely hears her say that it's open. This is Atlanta, doesn't she know that she doesn't need to keep the door unlocked? Walking into the living room, he sees the pizza there but she's nowhere to be found.

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the bathroom. Just give me a few minutes."

Puck looks down the hall, noticing that the door isn't closed so he knows she's not like on the toilet or anything. He looks around and notices just how nice the apartment is. He doubts that ballerinas make enough for a place like this, so they must have help from their parents. He knows that her dads are doctors and Santana's parents are big time lawyers. There's no other explanation. Shaking his head, he peers into the bathroom and sees her sitting on the edge of the tub, water splashing around while she leans over.

"What are you doing?"

"You probably don't want to come any closer." She turns and gives him a warning look.

He sits on top of the toilet seat and glances over. The water is completely red, including the white washcloth in her hands. Her feet are emerged down in the water and she's looking away from him. "Rachel…"

"I don't want you to see it, so please, just go under the sink and grab the first aid kit for me."

Puck nods and moves. Biting her lip, she pulls her feet up and sets them on the edge of the tub, moving over to pull the plug and letting the water drain out. Grabbing the shower head that she had down on the edge, she rinses out the tub and leans her head forward on her knees.

He comes back, looking up from the 'first aid kit' that had 'Rachel's ballet kit' underneath it. Her head is down on her knees so he looks over at her feet. She has blisters along the side of her feet and on the tops of her toes. All of them popped so he knows that her feet must be hurting really bad. His stomach is clenching a bit, but he sets his hand down on her shoulder, handing her the kit.

"Thank you." Rachel pulls out all the necessary things that she'll need. Antibacterial ointment, band-aids, gauze, and adhesive tape.

No matter how many times she does this, tears still form in her eyes. Applying the ointment is the worst part and she usually releases a small sob. Santana always squeezes her shoulder reassuringly or hugs her, never disgusted by it, but today she didn't know that Rachel was in so much pain. Her pointe shoes are covered with blood inside, so she'll have to break in a new pair. She releases it anyways then throws the cotton swab into the trash can next to the toilet. After she puts on the band-aids then wraps her feet in the gauze then the tape.

Puck watches from behind her back and his heart clenches when she releases a sob that reminds him of the time when he was in the hospital. She's done wrapping her feet and she closes the box, turning on the edge of the tub then grabs the rod that holds their towels trying to stand up.

"Shit Rach." He pulls her to him then lifts her up easily.

"I can walk Noah." She wipes away a tear.

"Yeah, sure you can." Puck sets her down on the couch then walks back into the bathroom to grab some medicine for her to take. When he walks back in, she's trying to get up so they can have plates to eat on. "Sit your ass down." Her eyebrows shoot up and he glares at her, handing her the pills then going to grab some plates.

"You're my guest, really, I can do that."

Plopping down on the couch, he hands her a plate then pulls the pizza box closer to the edge of the coffee table. "And you're obviously in pain. Fuck, I don't know how you'll even be able to practice tomorrow." He bites into a slice and looks at her. "You should tell your director."

Rachel scoffs and takes a bite of her own slice. "We're supposed to be professionals. We don't complain about this kind of thing. Me and Santana are lucky that we take such good of our feet so that they're not ugly like all of the other dancers I've known. I'll be fine, I've done this a long time."

He ignores her the rest of the time they're eating until she's lying down, using his thigh as a pillow, and she's rubbing her calf. Puck nudges her with his leg and motions for her to sit up. Confused she does and he pulls her legs into his lap, then motions for her to lay down again. Rubbing her calves carefully, he can't help but smirk at the moan she lets out.

"That feels amazing."

"Don't they have personal trainers or something to do this for you?" He even ventures down to the arch of her foot and rubs gently.

"Oh my God." She closes her eyes while he uses his thumb on her foot. "Yes but I've never used them. In our contracts we can go get massages and a multitude of other things, but we're just used to doing it ourselves from our classes at Juilliard. San just didn't know that the practice was rough on me tonight." She shrugs and sinks into the couch.

"Well shit Berry, take advantage of that. Free massages? C'mon." He smirks and massages her other foot.

"I don't want random strangers touching me. What if someone tried to cop a feel. No thank you."

He laughs. "Want me to give you one?" What? He's been told he has magical fingers. Okay maybe because he uses them in other applications and he's an amazing pitcher, but she's his best friend and shit, he doesn't like seeing her in this much pain.

"You'd do that for me?" She opens one eye and peers at him with her eyebrow raised.

"Yep." He pops the 'p' and grins.

Rachel rolls her eyes and moves her legs. "I want to lay on my bed for this." She stands up and hisses in pain before slowly moving to her bedroom.

Puck follows her slow pace, flinching every time she whines. It gets to the point where she's walking on her heels to get to her room. That in itself is kind of sad.

"Rachel…" He moves to pick her up but she holds out her hand.

"I can do it Noah, I'm fine."

He sighs and follows her slow pace, breathing out once she flops down onto her bed. Puck tells her to take her tank top off. He's not being a perv because he knows that she has a sports bra on underneath. She moves up the bed and lays on her stomach, moving her arms underneath the pillow while Puck toes off his shoes, then straddles her thighs.

His fingers sink into the skin of her lower back and she lets out a long, strangled moan. Puck's eyes widen when he can feel all the knots in her back. "Damn babe, you're tight as hell."

She giggles. "That's probably way past the truth than what you're just implying."

"What?" He pauses and stares down at her sports bra. "That makes no sense." Puck just figures it's because she's exhausted.

"What I mean, is that I haven't had sex since I moved here. I don't even understand how Santana finds the time."

"She's fucking Finn."

Rachel laughs. "That sounds nice." Her eyelids close and she concentrates on how his fingers feel.

He's not sure what that's supposed to mean. Is it nice that her roommate is actually having sex? Or the fact that she's having sex with Finn. It's not like he's completely innocent, he can go out and have sex whenever he wants, well when he's got breaks. Being a professional athlete boosts the fact that he's a complete stud.

He sits there, having an internal debate about what 'that sounds nice' could possibly mean that he barely notices that Rachel's breathing has evened out. Puck looks over at her alarm clock and sees its past 1 a.m. so he pulls off his shirt and jeans, laying down next to her and throws his arm over her back, falling asleep instantly.

Santana walks into Rachel's room to find her and Puck laying there asleep. She notices that her feet are bandaged up and she instantly feels like shit. She's always been there to comfort her, knowing the ointment part kills her, but she was busy with Finn. This girl is her best friend, so she needs to find a way to make it up to her. Kneeling beside the bed, she shakes her best friend.

"Rach?"

The smaller girl opens her eyes and smiles at her friend. "Hi. I think I fell asleep."

She laughs and brushes her friend's hair back. "Are your feet okay? I didn't realize that Holiday was pushing you so hard today."

"I'm fine. Noah was there when I applied it." She knows that Santana will know what she's talking about. The girl's shoulders dropped, worried she's being replaced. "I missed you being there though. I didn't want him to see."

"I'll help you out in the morning. Get some sleep." Santana kisses her forehead and walks out of the room.

"Night San."

Santana waves her hand back at her, glad to know that Rachel isn't mad at her. That girl is family and she likes being protective over her.

---

Puck's team doesn't make it to the championships. He's a bit upset, but overall they had an amazing season. He's actually kind of relieved to just have some time to chill and be lazy. Of course they have to keep up their workouts and all that fun shit, but he's actually considering taking a vacation. Matt is completely whipped by staying here with Quinn, but it's getting to where they're doing twelve hour rehearsals and he knows that she's not going to go home and have sex with him, because he'll be hanging out with Rachel and she falls asleep mid-sentence. He doesn't even know how she does that. And he knows that Finn will be over at hers and Santana's place, or at his, sexing it up with her.

---

On a rare weekend that their director gives them off, she has the shittiest night ever on that Friday. Rachel can't even go to Santana with it because she's going out of town for the weekend with Finn. She couldn't get angry if she tried because she's so damn jealous. Sure their relationship is strictly friendship and sex, but they're still going away together. They may have everyone else fooled, but Rachel has known Santana long enough to know that she doesn't normally do this type of thing. She really likes Finn so they're basically lying to themselves if they think it's just sex.

The lead from another production in the company asks her out on a date. It's her first since she moved here in June. The baseball season has been over for weeks and it's nearing Thanksgiving, so seeing how she has the weekend off, she figures why not?

The mood of the date was set as soon as she sat down at dinner and the wine comes out. It's all about sex. She'd learn why later on after though. They talk about their productions, directors and who they think is the best in the company. He offers up his name as the best male dancer. He asks if she's liking Atlanta and about her life in New York. Rachel doesn't offer up much because she doesn't wanting anyone at the company knowing more than needed. Why did he care about where she went to high school? He obviously didn't go there and it doesn't apply to her career now.

After their second bottle of wine, they head back to his place. He peels off her clothes once they reach his room. They're naked on his bed and she works his length with her hand, a little irritated that she's naked and he isn't hard. But once he is, he slips on a condom and enters her. Rachel doesn't let out a gasp but she wraps her legs around his waist so he'll go deeper. She's nowhere near close to her release when he grunts and spills into the condom.

Rachel is so frustrated, sexually, that she laughs bitterly when he mumbles something to himself that he thinks she didn't hear. Getting up and putting her clothes on, he tries to explain himself. She flips him her middle finger and moves out the door and straight to the nearest liquor store to buy more wine.

She ends up in front of Puck's door, knocking until he opens it, looking like he's a little out of breathe with some spit on his lips. It really shouldn't be as sexy as it is.

"What a pathetic night. Wanna get drunk-ish?" She giggles and grins, moving the bottle side to side.

"Um, I'm kinda busy." He licks his lips and smirks.

Pinching her eyebrows together, she notices he's only in boxers. God, those abs. As her eyes move down, she quickly notices the bulge under the thin fabric. His lips are glistening and, "Oh God." She turns and runs to the stairs as fast as her high heeled boots let her, ignoring his calls.

Never has she been so thankful that Matt lives two floors above Puck. She knocks on the door and he opens it, rubbing his eyes. "Rachel?"

"I'm so sorry, but can I stay here?"

"Of course. Guest room has clean sheets, but I'm going back to bed. Quinn and I had a fight tonight."

"Thank you so much Matt."

Rachel strips down to her bra and panties, sipping her wine out of the bottle while she dials Blaine's number, knowing his game is over. She leans against the headboard as the dial tone continues in her ear, wiggling her toes around.

"Hello beautiful." She starts to cry automatically and takes a long pull from the bottle. It's already dangerously close to being halfway gone. "Lemme guess, your date?"

"Yes. God, I'm such an idiot Blaine."

"What happened? Wait, let me get something out of the mini fridge so we can drink together." She lets out a watery laugh. "Okay, go."

"He used me!" She spits out harshly but not enough to wake up Matt. "I've never felt so…used and disgusting and unsatisfied!"

"Used? What the hell are you talking about?"

"We had sex." Blaine grunts and she knows he's taking a sip of his beer. "The man wasn't even hard with my naked body against him." She takes a few long pulls. "He didn't even get me off. Talk about rude. So once he finishes, he mumbles out, 'wow, I guess I really am gay.' Can you believe that?"

"He said that?"

"Yes!" She hears him mumble something about ballet dancers. "And I wasn't supposed to hear it, which makes it ten times worse. So while I'm putting on my clothes he said that if I didn't make him want girls then he knew for a fact he was. The jerk pictured himself fucking a man while he was in me."

"Oh Jesus. Did you call San?"

Rachel shakes her head even though he clearly can't see her. "She's in Savannah with Finn."

"Puck?"

She scoffs and rolls her eyes, drinking more wine. "I went over there. He was busy with some skank. Her juices were on his lips and he was quite aroused. I ran away."

"On his lips, like he was…before you…"

"Exactly." She drains the rest of the bottle, suddenly aroused by the fact that Puck would've gotten her off if he was here easily. Curse her mind…

"Where are you?"

"Matt's. He lives in the same building. And I knew your game was over by now and that you'd be in your room."

"I'm sorry. Want me to help you get off?" He chuckles into her ear.

"Blaine Anderson!" She laughs and puts the bottle on the nightstand.

"C'mon, it'll be like old times in college. You're drunk enough to not remember."

"Fine." She's so tense that she doesn't even care at this point. Plus it's a bit of a thrill since she's in Matt's place. Plus he knows what she likes to hear.

The sun filters through the window, waking Rachel up. She's got a slight hangover but when she taps the screen to check the time, that's when she notices her call with Blaine is still connected. His even breathing fills up her ear, so she hangs up and sends him a text. Then she sends off a quick, vague text about her date to Santana before sitting up.

Standing up however, is a bad idea. She massages her temple and tries to ignore the voices talking down the hall, but she has to get to the bathroom. The first step she takes sends her running down the hall to the bathroom and emptying out the contents of her stomach. She reaches for the toilet paper, wiping her mouth before she flushes the toilet, only to have the sound make her head hurt more.

Puck hears the bedroom door fly open while he's talking with Matt, only to hear the bathroom door close and the sound of Rachel puking shortly after. They both jump up to check on her, just to find her in her underwear, laying with the side of her head against the toilet seat with tears going down her cheeks.

"Rach, baby, what's wrong?" Puck kneels down and pushes her messy curls aside. She's probably the only person besides family that he'll talk to like this. Everyone else gets a 'fuck off' and don't get puke on any of my shit.

"I hate you." She sniffles and looks over to Matt. His eyebrows shoot up questioningly.

"What'd I do babe?"

"I bet even lesbians would sleep with you. All you'd have to do is lick her down there and they'd be a puddle, wanting you even more. Hell they'd have a damn threesome with you."

"Rachel, what are you talking about?" Matt really wants to avoid anything Puck might say next.

But it doesn't work.

"Rachel, you could turn a gay man straight." He smirks.

She gasps and pushes him away with all her strength before she pukes again, crying even harder. Puck tries to hold her hair back and rub down her spine but she shoves him away again. "You're so fucking wrong, it's not even funny."

Rachel pushes herself up and wedges herself between them at the sink and begins to rinse out her mouth.

"What?"

"My date decided after we had truly horrible, horrible sex, that he's gay." She spits out and moves to the bedroom to get dressed.

They exchange a look before following her into the room. At the same time they ask "He said what?" That one came out as a yell actually and Matt saying "Are you okay?"

"Thank you for asking Matt, but no I'm not okay." She pulls her shirt over her head. "He used me to confirm he's gay! I had to work to get him hard and have you seen my body?" They both nod since they both just saw her in her underwear. "He imagined he was fucking a man when he was in me. I'm disgusted and mad that everyone is having sex except me. Then to make things even more interesting, I have phone sex with my best friend."

"Santana?" They ask, Puck with a hopeful smile, and Matt just genuinely curious.

She gasps and turns around staring at them. Puck gets what she means and looks pissed. Matt is trying not to smile, but fails miserable. Puck shoves Matt out of the room and closes the door.

"No sex in there!" He calls out on the other side of the door.

"Rachel, phone sex with Blaine?"

"I needed the release and it's not like we haven't done it before." She hears Quinn's voice out in the living room. "Can we finish this discussion at your apartment?"

He nods and leads her out, throwing her empty wine bottle into the trash before nodding at Matt and Quinn. Once they're secure in his apartment, he looks over at her sitting on the couch.

"What did you say in there? You've done that before with him?" He stares at her with an eyebrow quirked up.

"Do I really need to explain myself to you? It's not like you tell me who you sleep with."

"You've slept with him?" His voice raises up an octave.

Rachel sighs and looks down at her hands. "All throughout high school I wasn't liked for my determination. Blaine was just as determined to get a scholarship for baseball but they just took it as him being a jock. Anyways, one day we decided to lose our virginity to each other. We made it special and everything. Then in college, if we ever needed a release we would call each other. Last night he offered when I told him about what happened with Jesse." She shrugs and looks at the TV. "Do you have anything I can change into? I don't feel like going home."

"Yeah, sure." He leads her to his room, thinking about everything she just said while grabbing boxers and a shirt out of his dresser and tossing them onto the bed. Blaine could do that with her, but he can't? Does Santana get special sexual privileges? Oh God, don't think about that. He shakes his head.

She shimmies off her jeans and reaches for the boxers then feels his strong hands on her hips. Her breathing shortens. "Noah…"

"We're best friends. You can come to me if you have any needs that need fixin." Puck moves his hands down to the lace right under her hip bones.

"We shouldn't."

"Let me make you come like you should've last night. Like a real man would."

"This could ruin our friendship."

"I won't let it." He leans down and kisses her neck underneath her ear. He smirks when she shivers.

"No kissing."

His hands stop. But her lips are so damn soft. "Fine, I won't kiss you but I'll kiss everywhere else on your body."

"And we're going to forget this ever happened."

"You won't be able to forget this, but whatever you wanna tell yourself baby." He grinds his erection into her lower back, feeling her shiver with anticipation.

Puck moves her towards the bed, laying her on her back. He pulls off his shirt while she does the same. Looking down at her body, he wonders if this is really going to happen. She swallows and reaches for his hand, lacing her fingers with his while pulling towards her. Puck gets the hint and moves over her body, kissing up her stomach. Rachel gasps as he kisses the bottom of her ribs while she arches into him. His hands trail up her sides then to her back to unhook her bra and pull it off. He's never seen anything more perfect than her breasts. Perfect? What the hell is wrong with him.

Rachel moves her hands so that she's unbuckling his jeans then pushing them down with her feet. He's completely naked in front of her and she can't think of any words to describe how perfect his body is. Puck smirks and kneels down on the floor by the edge of the bed, pulling her towards him then pulling down her lacey underwear. He hooks her left leg over his shoulder, kissing his way up to her mound.

"Noah." She gasps when he licks down her strip of hair to her clit, making her hips jerk in response. Blaine never did this with her. In fact no one has, so when he licks her again, she pulls her other leg up and closes her thighs. "Don't."

He looks up at her. "Why not?"

Biting her lip she looks away from his eyes. "I've never…"

"Rachel." He moves up her body and looks down into her eyes. "You trust me right?" She nods. "Then let me make you feel good babe."

Her thighs tense under him before she moves her right leg back over to his side. He can see her swallow and close her eyes while he kisses back up her thigh. Not holding back, he licks up her center then probes her with his tongue. Rachel's hands grip his sheets, thighs twitching underneath his hands. Puck looks up and sees her chest rising and falling rapidly while she bites her lip. He ghosts his hand up her leg, loving the moan she lets out when he inserts a finger into her. Rachel rolls her hips and he adds in another finger. Her left leg is squeezing around him while he curls his fingers up and she's so close.

"Stop. Please stop." She gasps for air and looks down at him.

Immediately he pulls away and puts his hands up. "What's wrong?"

She shakes her hand and motions for him to come up to her. He hesitates at first but climbs over her body. Rachel moves them so that she's straddling his hips then kisses down his chest. Her hand moves over his length, happy to feel that he's hard. Her lips move down, taking him into her mouth. Puck moans and his hand finds her hair, gripping it almost too roughly. But she likes it from the way she moans around him. He jerks his hips, moving deeper until he feels the back of his throat.

"Oh my God." He starts to fuck her mouth while she increases her suction. He's getting dangerously close to releasing in her mouth so he pulls her off and takes deep breathes.

Rachel looks down at him, panting. "Fuck me Puck."

He nods and pulls her up. "Need a condom."

She shakes her head. "I want to feel you, I'm on the pill. You clean?"

He nods. And it's sad that he knows that she needs to have absolute control over that because of her dancing. But he's just really damn excited to go bareback with her. He pulls her closer so their faces are really close then enters her quickly. Her head drops down to his shoulder, moaning while she clenches around him. Puck starts to move at a fast past as she bunches the sheets into her hands while she bites his shoulder. He's never been so turned on in his entire life.

"You're so tight." He kisses her ear while he talks dirty to her.

She sits up and starts to move up and down on his length. His hands go up her sides, rubbing his thumbs over her hardened nipples. Puck flips them over so he's on top and starts to pump into her faster.

"Puck." She whines and arches up, wrapping her legs around him.

Her saying 'Puck' instead of 'Noah' makes him that much harder and makes him thrust into her faster. "Fuck Rach, so close."

"Harder."

He gives in to her demands, doing it just hard enough to where she won't be in a huge amount of pain, but to make her fall over the edge. Her mouth forms a small 'o' before she squeezes her legs around him tighter and trembles underneath him. Two quick thrusts later, he empties into her and collapses, his elbows resting on either side of her head. He pulls out slowly, both of them whining at the loss, then flops over onto his back.

"I haven't…like that…in a really…long time." She manages to get out between gasps of air.

"Me either." His eyes are closed and he can see little white spots bursting under his eyelids. Puck swallows and then turns his head to look at her. "You good?"

"I need a shower." She laughs and looks up at the ceiling. Closing her eyes, she really hopes that she just didn't completely ruin their friendship.

"My sister has some stuff in there from when she came down last time she came up from school."

"Thanks."

He's settled on the couch and just put in an order for some BBQ, turning on some game on TV. The only thing that bothers him about what just happened, was that he didn't get to finish her with his mouth. Sure, she hasn't ever had that done before, but she said she trusted him. Or did he hallucinate that part? No, he's pretty sure he didn't.

Puck pinches himself to make sure he's not asleep. And he's not.

Rachel walks out, running her hand through her still wet hair, in his high school t-shirt and rolled up boxers so that they just look like tiny shorts on her. She lays down and sets her head on his gym shorts, rolling on her side to watch the game.

"You're getting my shorts wet." He quirks an eyebrow at her as he looks down.

She rolls onto her back and looks up at him while he fake pouts. Rachel reaches her hand up and pinches his cheek. "Poor baby." She coos. "It'll be okay."

He pushes her arm away. "Jesus fuck, I've had that done enough when I was a kid, don't need ya doing it now." He rubs the side of his face.

Rachel laughs and sets her elbow on the other side of his legs so she's practically laying across his lap. "You must've been the cutest little kid ever if they pinched your cheek all the time."

"You're bat shit crazy." There's a knock on the door. "That's probably the food. Better be nicer to me or else I'll eat your pulled pork."

She gasps and pulls away, pouting. "You wouldn't do that. You need someone else to be a bad Jew with you."

His head drops forward and he lets out a groan. "Why do I put up with you?"

"Because I'm awesome." She calls out to his back in a sing song voice.

Puck pays the guy and moves over to the table, dumping the contents out. And just like that, they go back to normal, not even thinking about the sex they just had and just enjoying being around each other. Bad jokes and all.

---

Before she knows it, opening night of their production is finally here. Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years, it's all a complete blur in her mind as she sits at the little vanity backstage in one of the dressing rooms. Santana is finishing up her makeup while Quinn works on Rachel's eyes.

"I can't believe it's finally here." Quinn shivers and smiles down at Rachel. "Are you nervous?"

"Nope. I'm actually really excited." Yes, she's completely nervous. How is anyone not nervous right now?

"I am." Santana turns towards them, sitting in her ugly stepsister nightgown for the first act of the production. It's pink and completely unappealing, well from what a typical ballerina would wear. Quinn is wearing the exact same thing, but it's green and they even have little nightcaps over their curls.

But what worries Rachel even more, is that Santana was never nervous when they were in school and she chooses now to be nervous? That absolutely frightens her. Now she's extremely nervous.

"No need to be. Because we are going to kill it." Quinn smiles and moves over to a chair to make sure her pointe shoes are fitting well enough.

"Five minutes Rachel!" A guy who's walking by their dressing room rattles off before he starts to scream at someone else.

Rachel smiles at her friends and walks towards the warm up bar that's located near the stage. She prevents herself from looking out into the crowd as she stretches. Taking a deep breath, she moves to her place on stage once the stagehand comes over to tell her they're almost ready.

It's opening night for Cinderella and for some reason, Puck agreed to come. Okay, so his reason for coming might be the 'petite' (her words) brunette that threatened to chop off his boys if he wasn't sitting in that audience. But spring training is right around the corner, so his balls will recover from this by then. He hopes.

Puck hasn't seen Rachel perform, like ever, so he's actually kind of nervous. Her dads (Nathan, the white one and Mark, the black, tall, and scary one) are seated next to him along with Blaine and his parents. Then to his right is his sister, his mom and Brian. Then it goes to Santana's parents, Quinn's parents, then Matt and Finn. Hell all of them take up their own damn row, but since they're the guests of three of the main dancers, it's to be expected he guesses. They're not in the front row seats, but he thinks that if they were, his neck would hurt from looking up a bit. Actually, now that he realizes it, the first rows have been removed somehow, really how did they even get those up and out of here, and the orchestra sits there. They're in the third row in the front/middle of the theater with a great view of the stage. Did he just think of 'great view' for a ballet? Shit.

The house lights dim and he can feel Sarah sit up straighter, her arm bumping into his. The music starts and the curtains open, showing a single person standing there. It must be Rachel, since there's a broom in their hand. A conductor counts off quietly and the music for 'a dream is a wish your heart makes' begins. The stage lights up and he sees Rachel start to move gracefully across the stage with a makeshift kitchen behind her. She's dressed in a blue dress, a white bandana in her hair with a little apron across her hips. He's never seen anyone move like she does when she dances. Rachel is flitting across the stage, dancing on her toes with a broom and she makes it look so easy and flawless. Damn he's proud that she's his best friend.

When Santana and Quinn appear on stage, fighting over the envelope from the palace, he's amazed that someone could make them appear somewhat ugly. Sarah is snickering next to him and he can hear Rachel's white dad laughing quietly to himself at how Santana looks. But he's shocked by how graceful she is too. Rachel starts to dance, moving towards her stepmother to try and go to the ball too.

When the stepsisters are ripping apart her dress, he's never been so pissed off. And it's just a ballet, so he figures since it's happening to Rachel, it just gives him the right. Okay, so it's not like they're doing it intentionally, but since she was bullied it bothers him. She looks extremely graceful, doing pirouettes while they pull off things from her gown. And really, he only knows what it's called because Sarah leans in and says 'I've never seen anyone be able to do that many pirouettes in a row' into his ear. And when her fairy godmother comes, the stage is being covered by sparklers with the other dancer moving around, before it shows Rachel spinning around with a white costume dress on. She looks beautiful.

During the second act, he honestly thought he'd be asleep or bored to tears being at a ballet. But he can't seem to take his eyes off of Rachel dancing. It's at the part of the ball and Prince Charming looks like a grade A douche. Yeah, Puck knows that it's his job to look at her all dreamy but he wants to run up there and punch him. And it sucks even more, knowing this guy gets to kiss her super soft lips. They're dancing around at the ball, but then a little sideways curtain falls down, separating them from the rest of the dancers. They eventually leave, but then it's her and the jerkwad dancing around to 'oh this is love.' Rachel is leaning in to kiss him and then the clock strikes midnight. He's never been more thankful for the fake clock. The thought of someone kissing those soft lips makes him nauseous, but he knows how the story ends, so this shouldn't make him feel that bad.

There's a brief intermission as they get ready for the third and final act. He stands up and stretches. The guys gather around and talk about baseball with Blaine. They never really met, so once they're properly introduced, he thinks this guy is actually pretty badass. But he's never been so relieved to think about sports in his life than right now.

"I didn't know the guys wore tights too." Finn looks around nervously. "That guy's junk is seriously freaking me out."

"God I know. And I thought our baseball pants were too tight." Puck cringes.

"The girls look great though. I feel like it's been awhile since I've seen Rachel or Santana dance. I hate living so far away sometimes." Blaine shrugs and looks over at the stage.

Matt smirks and pats Blaine's shoulder. "Both of them are great man. You did a great job looking over Rachel."

That statement shouldn't make Puck as uncomfortable as it does. Blaine has had sex with Rachel. They even have phone sex. Has this guy had sex with Santana too? His mind is going to go insane if he keeps thinking in circles. What if they had a threesome? Shit, that would be hot…Santana and Rachel together. He shakes his head and glances over at Blaine. The guy is about his height, if not a bit shorter, and his hair is a little more slicked back than it should be, but a good looking guy. He's hotter.

The lights flash and Puck retreats back to his seat, trying to push all of those things from his mind. He shouldn't care, he got to sleep with Rachel. Even if she did refuse to kiss him. He hopes that this will pass by fast, because he's got someone bringing by flowers when this thing is over so that he can give them to Rachel. That'll make him look better than Blaine. Where is this competitive thinking coming from? Luckily, he knew that her favorite flowers are peonies and lilies, so he got some white and peach/coral peonies (he only knows those colors exist thanks to the florist, thank you very much) with white lilies. He might have had some help, but he'll never tell.

What seems like hours later to Puck, she's kissing Prince Charming and running out of the chapel, happily ever after. He looks over to Finn and mouths 'thank fuck'. Finn just shakes his head and laughs. Puck moves outside and finds the teenage delivery boy with the flowers in his hand and snatches them, handing him a pretty big tip for standing out here with them. Moving back inside, he meets up with everyone and they all magically have flowers in their hands too.

Well shit, so much for that one. Luckily, his bouquet at least looks way different. He's damn proud of himself but he'll never tell anyone that because he thinks his bouquet for Rachel looks better. Even her dads are eyeing him with jealous eyes.

The director, a hot young blonde, comes out on stage. She looks at everyone left, which primarily makes up mainly the family of all the dancers and smiles brightly. "Everyone! If you'll follow the man at the door out in the lobby, he'll lead you to the dining room where we'll be serving a dinner for our dancers." Her heels click across the stage.

They shrug and follow the group into an extravagant room that has tables set up. There's candle light everywhere and the room is dimly lit. Rachel's family, Blaine and his family, him and his family are set at one table while Santana's, Quinn's, Matt and Finn are right next to them.

Holly walks out and holds a glass of wine, looking out at all the families that are seated. She smiles brightly. "We saved seats at everyone's families table correct?" Everyone nods. "With that being said, thank you for being so incredibly supportive of us on opening night. Even though we'll only have a few shows, we're already planning our new production which I hope will involve many of the dancers from Cinderella. Please give a big round of applause for our dancers!" She claps the best she can while they all come out to stand next to her.

Rachel walks out and tears up at everyone clapping for them. She holds hands with Santana and they all curtsy and bow before dispersing to their families. The three of them rush over to their families, whom all stand up. Quinn runs into Matt's arms while Santana hugs Finn then moves on to her parents. Rachel walks over to her table a bit timidly before she hugs Blaine quickly, then moves to hug Puck, lingering there a few seconds longer while he tells her she was amazing in her ear. They all move around to hug each other before sitting down.

"Rachel, honey, you were absolutely beautiful up there." Nathan smiles and sips his wine.

"You really were. I haven't seen a dancer that graceful in a long time. Brian and I would go every so often when Sarah was busy with school." Puck's mom smiles at her before glancing over to him and raising her eyebrow.

"Thank you all so much. I'm just sad it'll be over in two weeks. All that work." She sighs.

"What are they planning on doing next?" Mark looks down at his salad that was just placed in front of him and grins.

"The Sleeping Beauty I think. Holly actually has that and her next one planned out. I think she wants to do Alice in Wonderland after that. She said after Cinderella is done, auditions will start two weeks after."

"Wait, you don't even get a break? You just start getting ready for a new production?" Puck stares over at her.

"Well yes. Holly wants us to make our own audition piece with a song of our choice." Rachel picks at her salad.

"You'll come up with something Rach. This comes easily to you." Blaine smiles and reaches over to squeeze her hand. "Eat something. I know you probably didn't eat all day because you were nervous about the show. I know enough of your preshow rituals."

Puck stares down at Blaine's hand stretched out in front of him. Rachel smiles and squeezes his hand. "I know. And I will."

Why doesn't Puck know her pre-show rituals? He really shouldn't be as jealous as he is.

---

One of the days that Rachel has a studio to herself to practice her choreography, she gets two sets of 'good news' but to her they're just…terrible. But in a jealous kind of way.

She was working on some moves for her audition that wasn't working out the way that she wanted. Santana was down the hall in another studio working on her audition too, so it's not like she could ask her for help or opinion. Rachel rewinds her music and goes back into position, moving across the floor until she comes across the speed bump where she can't think of a good transition move and her phone goes off.

Rachel stomps over to her purse, as much as she can in her pointe shoes, before turning off the music and picking up her phone. "Hello Blaine."

"Hey Rach. How's the audition choreography going?"

Scoffing, she takes off her shoes and wiggles her toes around. "Horribly. Nothing is working out."

"You'll figure it out. Anyways, I have amazing news."

"Do tell, a distraction would be nice." Rachel stands up and stretches on the bar by the mirrors.

"Remember that girl I started to date? Amanda?"

"Victoria's Secret model, how could I forget?" She mumbles.

Blaine laughs. "Yeah, her. Well guess what?" She hums and looks in the mirror, frowning at her hair. "I asked her to marry me."

Her phone drops onto the hardwood floor and her foot slips from the bar, causing her to fall on her back. "Shit!" She rolls onto her stomach and groans.

"RACHEL?" The muffled voice comes from down by her feet.

"Sorry Blaine, I slipped. You're getting married?" They've been dating for six months and she doesn't even remember if he told her that they said I love you yet.

"Yeah I am Rach. I'm so excited and she wants you to be in the wedding party. We're so happy."

"That's amazing Blaine." She wipes away a tear. "I'm so happy for you two. I'd love to chat some more but I really need to finish this choreography."

"Of course. I just wanted you to be the first to know. I love ya, thank you for being so supportive. We'll talk soon."

"Bye Blaine."

Rachel tosses her phone away from her, looking over when the door opens. Santana runs over and sits down on the floor with a big grin on her face. "What? Did Blaine just call you?"

Santana tilts her head. "Why would he call me?"

"Because he's getting married."

"Are you serious? They've been together like two months."

"Six."

"Whatevs. But that's not the reason I came in here." She smiles and grabs Rachel's hand. "First off, I heard a crash in here, are you alright?" Rachel nods. "Okay, so Finn surprised me in the studio. He brought me a bag of cotton candy and asked me to be his girlfriend." Rachel's eyebrows shoot up. "It's incredibly cheesy and he has that damn goofy grin but I'm so excited."

She smiles tightly. "That's amazing San. Are you two going out to dinner?"

"We are, after I go home and change because I smell gross. But we'll reschedule for girl's night okay?"

"Of course."

"See ya later Rach. Love ya bitch!"

Santana runs out of the room and kisses Finn, whom Rachel sees once the door is open. He waves and puts his arm around her friend then they walk away, leaving her all alone in a big studio. She falls onto her back and stares up at the fluorescent lights.

---

One day after a rough day of trying to make her audition choreography actually work, Rachel finds herself standing in front of Puck's apartment door, banging on it. He opens it and looks shocked to see her standing there in her gym shorts, pointe shoes, a sports bra on under her jacket, and her hair thrown up in a messy, curly bun. Doesn't she know it's freezing outside?

Rachel looks up at him, jeans unbuttoned and his shirt messily pulled on. She pushes past him, despite his protests, and walks into his room. A girl is laying there with her top off, bra laying somewhere on the floor and her jeans unbuttoned. She sits up and pulls the pillow to her chest.

"Puck what the hell?"

She laughs at the girl on the bed and picks up her shirt on the ground. "Get the fuck out of here."

"You can't kick me out. You're not his girlfriend." She eyes Rachel then looks over at Puck who looks completely horrified but turned on.

"How do you know if I'm his girlfriend or not?"

The girl looks around the room, hoping to find some evidence that this girl isn't in his life till she sees a picture of him with a ballerina who looks like the girl in front of her then another one with him and some guys from the team and she's in the picture again with two other girls. She pales and pulls on her shirt, running out of the room.

"Um, Rachel, the thought of a threesome was hot until you ran her out of here…" Puck scratches his head. "Are you okay? Because if you're fine then you got some serious explaining to do about why the girl I was about to fuck is now gone and I'm left with a raging boner." He motions down to the tent forming in his pants.

She strips off her jacket and walks up to him. "I'm frustrated that my audition piece is going to look like shit and I can't figure out what's wrong with it."

He blinks at her. "Can't help ya there babe."

"Yes you can."

"Just in case you didn't know, I play ball, I don't dance around in tights." Rachel is standing close to him and there's way too much tan skin on her body that isn't hidden that he desperately wants to touch. She fists his t shirt in her hand and he can feel his abs tightening just from the heat radiating off her hand. Jesus, he wants to touch her so bad.

Rachel slips her other hand under his shirt, feeling the way his muscles react to her touch. She leans up and kisses his neck. "You don't have to dance to help me."

Puck reacts instantly, grabbing her hips and pulling her up so her legs wrap around him while his lips attach to her neck. Pushing her onto the bed he hovers above her, pulling his shirt off. He shoves her bra off and attacks her breast. She moans and arches her back, holding his head in place there.

"Noah, more."

"What do you want baby? Tell me." He kisses down her stomach and dips his fingers into her shorts, finding that she has no underwear on. She's going to be the death of him.

"Use your tongue on my pussy Puck."

He pulls off her shorts and licks at her folds, loving how she tastes. Puck just now realizes how tense she is when she's shaking underneath him, about to come just from him tonguing her and sucking on her clit for a few minutes.

Rachel pushes his jeans and boxers off, pulling him on top of her and wrapping her legs around his hips. "I need you in me, now."

Puck looks down into her eyes then her lips, moving until his are hovering over hers. Her labored breathing fans out on his lips, then he moves to kiss her but Rachel turns her head, making his lips touch a spot behind her ear. That pisses him off a little bit, so he enters her roughly. This no kissing thing is stupid. He's a fucking amazing kisser. Many girls have told him so.

She watches as his muscles move in his arms and his eyes close as he thrusts into her. Rachel lets out a breathy moan, asking him to fuck her harder. His eyes snap open. "What?"

He just looks down at her, pausing his movements. "Fuck just let me kiss you."

After hesitating for a minute, she nods her head. Rachel gasps into the kiss and her entire body tingling. His hand finds her face, cradling it and threading his fingers through her hair, melding to her lips. She's trying to push it out of her mind of how perfect they fit together. His tongue traces her bottom lip and thrusts his tongue, battling dominance when he starts to move again.

"Shit baby, you're perfect." Puck's lips attach to her neck again, listening to the small moans that she's making.

Rachel pushes that compliment out of her mind, no matter how much she loves how her heart flutters. Her nails scratch down his back as his lips find their way back to hers. He thrusts harder into her, her thighs tightening around his waist. Puck feels her walls tightening around him so he thrusts harder into her until they're both releasing at the same time and she's screaming his name (his given name, not his nickname which makes it ten times hotter). He's surprised he didn't even need to press against her clit for her to come this hard. She's panting when he pulls out and she moves to the bathroom to clean up.

When she gets back, Puck has his eyes closed with his arms under his head. Rachel moves to straddle his lap and he opens up an eye.

"You're a good kisser."

She blushes and sets her chin on his chest looking at him. God, he's so hot. It should be a crime for him to be so attractive. "So are you."

Her legs kick back and forth in the air and Puck looks past her shoulder to her legs. "Can't believe I fucked you with your shoes on."

Looking back at her shoes she frowns. "I forgot I still had them on."

"S'hot." He leans forward to kiss her, pulling her against his body.

"Noah." She whispers against his lips. He grinds up into her hips and distracts her from whatever she was going to protest, even though they both hate that they'll ignore that they've had sex again.

---

Spring training for Puck was right around the corner. Which meant, he wasn't going to have much time off to fuck around with Rachel, Santana, Quinn, Matt and Finn like he had been. Especially since the girls had the two weeks off. They mostly spent time listening to different songs and thinking of choreography, stuck in a studio during the mornings. He'd still get to hang out with his boys when his job started, but Rachel time would be limited. She just finished her run doing Cinderella and she was busy trying to land Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. Santana was busy with Finn, now that the two were officially dating. He didn't even know when the fuck that happened but they made it official. No one even knew. Well Rachel claimed she knew, saying she was psychic, but he just looked at her then pushed her off the couch. He learned later that she really did know.

Puck's busy kissing the side of some girl's neck that he found at the bar. His phone starts to ring and he's tempted to ignore it until he looks over at the caller I.D. Rachel answers all excited telling him she wouldn't take no for an answer to going to get dinner.

He looks at the girl next to him and shrugs. "Gotta go."

The girl glares at him and huffs, throwing his jacket at him and rolls over in her bed. Puck laughs and walks out, getting into his car to meet her at a restaurant.

"What's the big emergency?" He sits down and peels off his jacket since it's warmer in here.

"Nothing. I just wanted someone to hang out with. Santana and Quinn are off with Matt and Finn doing their own thing. I didn't want to be alone tonight."

"You're a shit liar, so what's this really about?" Puck smirks at her when she pales a bit.

"How about I tell you after we eat?" Rachel smiles at him then looks down at her menu.

Rachel stands outside bundled up in her jacket and scarf, skinny jeans and boots on. She's dancing around by the fountain and he can't help but grin at her. "Hey, besides seeing your opening show of Cinderella, I've never seen you dance. Why don't you show me some moves?" He folds his arms over his chest and smirks at her.

"Sure." She grins. Rachel has been so excited to tell him her news, so this would be a great opportunity to do it. "I've been so busy in the studio, I didn't think to invite you along. But then I probably would've been really nervous." Dropping her purse to the ground, she pulls out a pair of ballet shoes and slips her boots off. Puck raises his eyebrow at her. "They're not disgusting or anything. It's just a backup pair I have that are broken in. I can't show you in boots."

Puck nods and watches as she slips her feet into them and laces the satin up her legs before putting her jeans back down over her calves. "Why would you have been nervous in front of me? I thought we were closer than that Rach." He puts his hand over his heart like he feels hurt.

Rolling her eyes, she stretches lightly and looks up at him. "Because I didn't know half of what I was doing when I was coming up with it." She pauses and looks him up and down. "Do you know how to waltz?"

He narrows his eyes at her. "Yeah, why?"

"You'll see." She pulls out her phone and starts an acoustic version of 'With Arms Wide Open' that she used as her audition piece. Using something with a waltz type tempo helped the director pick out who could pull off Aurora, in her opinion. She thinks Holly is a bit psychotic at times. At one point she jumps up onto the fountain, spinning around and dancing while the water pours down.

He watches as she moves with poise around the fountain. Rachel's hair spins around when she does and he's amazed by how she's concentrating so hard. In the middle of the song she stands in front of him and motions for him to move over in front of her. She grabs his arms and jumps down, starting to waltz with him while she's still up on her toes. Rachel smiles as he quickly takes the lead and twirls her around the fountain. Puck can't help but be shocked when she starts to add in ballet moves while they dance.

At the end of the song, Rachel lowers herself so she's not on her toes anymore, but her hands are resting on Puck's shoulders. She smiles up at him. "I got the part."

His eyes widen as he looks down at her. "You fucking serious?" She bites her lip and nods. Puck looks into her eyes and leans down to kiss her. It's like their first kiss in Pennsylvania all over again. Short and completely innocent.

Rachel gasps and looks up at him after he pulls away. It felt like she got shocked through her lips and she can feel the heat radiating from his hands through her jacket and shirt. When he starts to pull away she shakes her head no then smoothes her hands up to his face and pulls him down to her to kiss him deeper. Puck pulls her to his body so that she raises onto her toes. Soon enough they hear a bunch of clapping and she pulls away from him. Quite a large crowd had gathered and saw.

"Um…" Puck looks around at all of them. "Did all of you just see that?"

"You two are wonderful dancers." A woman dabs at her eyes while the crowd disperses.

"Thank you." Rachel smiles and blushes at the woman. She waves to them then leaves, leaving Rachel to look up at her best friend. Her tongue darts out to lick her lips and she pulls away to sit down and take off her pointe shoes.

He watches as she slips off the pink satin and slips on her boots. Kissing her again was electric. Out of all the women he has been with, he's never felt anything like that. He just waltzed in fucking public with her. Puck felt flustered, just like that day when she leaned in and kissed him after his little league game. Then there was a week ago when she finally let her kiss him again. There was no way he could live without kissing her again that wasn't during a random fuck that she needed. Maybe he had fallen for Rachel Berry all those years ago and just now realized it. Everything changed when she slept with him in the hospital, when she gave him and his family tickets to her opening night, when she would get him tickets for anyone who wanted them on the team during the few weeks that it was on, when she introduced him to Blaine and her dads. The sex was way better than any of his other lays. He actually spent a lot of time trying to find someone better than her.

Holy shit.

He looks down at her and kneels down, gently cupping her chin to look at him. She looks at him oddly, but he leans in to kiss her again.

"Noah, I don't understand…" Rachel looks into his eyes.

"You're my best friend, seriously Rach, you are. But something changed. Probably after I kissed you last week." He laughs nervously and rubs the back of his neck. Is he a fucking pussy now? Damn the things she does to him. "I want you Rachel."

"Really?" She looks into his eyes, seeing that he isn't lying.

"Yes really."

Is she going to give him an answer? He's dying a bit right now.

Rachel smiles at him and scoots closer to the edge of where she's sitting on the fountain, grabs his jacket and kisses him deeply.

"So…" He looks at her confused.

"I want you too."

"So you're my girl?"

Rachel laughs and wraps her arms around his neck. "Yes I'm your girl."

---

Part two might take a little while to post since this took me weeks to do, but I'll try not to take too long since I have my other two stories to do ;)

It almost seems perfect the way it is, if you guys agree let me know. Otherwise, I'll be working on the next part!