A/N: OMG! Thank you guys so much for the enthusiastic response to this story! I'm glad that you're liking it as much as I'm enjoying writing it! Don't worry; lots happens in this chapter. And I so totally didn't think I'd be writing this from Puck's perspective, but it seems to make the most sense that way, so I'll most likely keep writing it this way. So, here's the chapter where they meet in the house…oooooh!

Heh. But, actually – author's warning – this chapter contains a small homage to Ryan Murphy's other brilliant work of televised art, Nip/Tuck. It also has a brief reference to disturbing subject matter. It doesn't get too bad, but suicide is mentioned and I wanted to warn you guys (not that anyone is thinking of committing it). For those of you who have seen Nip/Tuck and know the song that will be used in this chapter, you'll know what's coming.

So, with all of that out of the way, I now proudly present the next chapter!

Enjoy!

Glee

Kurt's Gamble

3. So Damn Beautiful

Lately, things in Puck's life have gotten pretty damn confusing. Most of this confusion comes from people. This is why he's never really gotten close to people, because they always wanted things from him and then they screwed him over. Witness his dad and his mom. So then he gets all buddy buddy with Finn Hudson, and it just sort of makes him pissed when Finn starts ditching all their time together to get with Quinn Fabray. And it should be the other way around, because Puck's a stud, and she should be with him. And it should be Finn who's pissed that he can't hang with Puck.

Puck was more than aware that the logic leading to his one night stand with Quinn wasn't exactly logical, but it made sense in his mind, so he was still a little confused and a little hurt (not that he would ever admit that to anyone) when he gets to the Hummel house that night and Finn gives him the cold shoulder after reluctantly letting him in.

But Puck doesn't want to dwell too much on that, so he instead turns his attention to more interesting things – like the house that he's in. For a mechanic, Burt Hummel must make a lot of money because it's a pretty damn nice house he's in. But behind all the nice shiny appliances and whitewashed walls, he can feel crackling tension. He's heard through the Rachel grapevine (because damn but that girl can't keep her mouth shut) that Finn was now sleeping on a futon in the office because Kurt point-blank refused to share a room with him ("Which is so totally selfish because Finn is the star of glee club and if he isn't well-rested he won't be able to vocally keep up with me, so if anyone is sleeping on some miserable futon with hard springs it should be Kurt because it's not like he's going to get a solo any time soon—" "Bitch, Imma slap you real quick here," interjected Mercedes).

Burt isn't home, so Carole invites him in. She's a whole lot less cold to him than Finn, but she's still a little more reserved around him than she used to be. But she's practically half-raised Puck the way she raised Finn, so she still hugs him and offers him a cookie. Puck's glad that no one else is around to watch him accept it as she calls for Kurt.

The basement door opens and there's Kurt. Puck surprises himself by thinking that it's almost good to see Kurt in something so…girly, because Kurt is wearing a black fashion-shirt and blue skinny pants, and it looks like he actually took time on his appearance before Puck got there. Slamming the door shut on that line of thought, Puck nods at Kurt's cool greeting and follows him downstairs.

It's still pretty familiar from the last time he was down here. The look on Kurt's face is pretty familiar too – as if he just stepped in something smelly. The only difference is that Finn's stuff isn't on the sofa-bed that had been pushed off to one side.

Three Weeks Ago

Finn had all but begged Puck to help him move his stuff into Kurt's house. It had been one of the first times that they'd talked since sectionals, and Puck had tried to hide how eager he'd been to do it. Finn had seemed relieved about something, but he hadn't really talked about it. Instead, they made some small talk about basketball and glee and going up against Vocal Adrenaline at regionals. Puck managed to get Finn bitching about Jesse for a little while, which seemed to improve his friend's mood dramatically. They'd packed all of Finn's stuff into boxes and loaded it into Puck's beat-up truck and driven to Hummel's house.

The place was empty, and Puck had laughed at him when Finn told him that he was going to have to share a room with Kurt until Burt came up with a way to give him his own. "It's cool that he's going to, though," Puck pointed out.

"Yeah – Burt's a really cool dude," Finn said. "He's got this huge widescreen and we watched UFC last night. Watched Ramirez get his face pounded to jelly, like, up close."

When they went down the stairs, Puck paused. "Huh. Guess I woulda expected Hummel's room to be all pink and unicorns." The basement was actually pretty damn cool – all done over in white with solid metal exposed everywhere. It looked like it belonged in New York City. Except… "Dude. Is that—" Puck gestured toward Kurt's massive vanity, complete with every feminine bathroom product known to man.

"Yeah," Finn said shortly. He dropped his stuff down, and frowned when Puck burst out laughing. "Dude, he isn't…Kurt's okay, you know?"

"You really don't know, do you?" Puck asked, staring at Finn in shock. Though, he shouldn't be shocked, he reminded himself; he was best friends with Captain Oblivious who thought that the hot tub conception story was actually for reals (even Puck had had a hard time believing Quinn when she told him that Finn had bought into the cover story that she'd told him – because, seriously?)

"Know what?" Finn asked, confused.

"Dude, Hummel's had, like, a huge, gay crush on you for years," Puck informed him. It really shouldn't have been as enjoyable as it was to watch that dawning look of realization and panic spread across Finn's face, but it was sort of like informing the clueless quarterback that yes, they did have a math test next period, and no, girls didn't like to be treated like porn stars in bed.

"What?" Finn asked, looking kind of staggered. Puck rolled his eyes skyward.

"Seriously, dude? Everyone knows – his dad knows, most likely! You really don't notice the way he looks at you or defends you whenever anyone says anything about you or well, you know, hangs all over you?"

"Finn?" And there was Kurt, coming down the stairs in his usual glamorous look, looking at Puck like he was something the cat had dragged in. Puck smirked – he liked the way that Kurt looked at him because there was always something new; Kurt never gave him the same look of loathing twice because he was always fiddling with it to impart ever more levels of disgust. It was kind of refreshing. "I thought that you were going to use Dad's truck to get your stuff here."

Well, that explained Finn's wanting Puck's help – even if he hadn't known till Puck had told him, he'd still had an idea and he hadn't wanted Kurt's help moving himself down to the dungeon o' gay luv. Puck was almost inspired to laugh meanly, but Finn took care of that for him.

"I gotta go to the bathroom." The panicked footballer all but ran up the stairs and out of the basement, giving Kurt as wide a berth as if Kurt was a carrier of the plague. And for just an instant, Puck almost felt…sorry for Hummel, because the look on the kid's face was the same look on Puck's face when his dad had walked out on them. And it made him kind of pissed off, too – after telling Finn that the most his blockhead friend could think to do was something that thoughtlessly hurtful? And it was so Finn, too, to stomp all over someone without really thinking that he had stomped all over someone. And it made Puck mad that even though Finn had done shit like that to Hummel numerous times over the years the gay kid had been crushing on him, Hummel still looked at Finn like he was the answer to all his prayers and all Puck got was people looking at him like he was a piece of trash.

And so two words that Puck had never, ever thought would leave his mouth around Kurt Hummel just sort of danced out there without conscious though: "You okay?" He really wished that they had just stayed in there like good little unused words, because the look that Hummel gave him was something that Puck wasn't prepared to deal with – anger, desperation, humiliation, fear, almost hopelessness.

"Go to hell, Puckerman," he said softly, but there was none of his usual sting in it.

"Why do you care about him so much?" Puck asked. He actually wanted to know, too, because, really, what was it about that big clueless idiot that had everyone throwing themselves at him left right and center?

"Please go away." Kurt was trembling now, no doubt expecting a beating. And it made Puck kind of mad at himself, because in the past he maybe would have beat him up for looking like that, and suddenly Mercedes' words were popping in his head: I don't think that you like him very much, either. Puck sighed and stretched up, and when his shirt rode up he caught Kurt flicking his eyes in an unforgivable glance at his muscled stomach.

And, well, because he's a stud and also kind of an attention whore, and because really, Puck goes about this comforting thing all wrong, he figures that maybe he could make Kurt forget about Finn for a minute, and he'd have done something good for the day. So he looks at Kurt and waggles his eyebrows invitingly and says "You like what you see?" in a sexy sort of purr.

Okay, maybe Puck's had sex with one too many girls, because Kurt's looking at him with a look of horrified disgust and self-anger, and Puck's not really sure how to deal with this. It strikes him that Kurt's really not a girl, no matter how much he kind of is one some days, and he isn't sure what's going to happen next.

"You'd just love that, wouldn't you? For me to throw myself at you the way all of those bimbos at school do?" Kurt is shaking, he's so mad, and Puck figures that his mouth started this mess so he shuts the hell up. "Well, you can get over yourself really fast, Puck, because I'm not interested."

"Why? Because I'm not him?" Puck asks. He's not sure when he got so pissed off, but, damn it, Puck's never had anyone outright reject him like that, not even Quinn (and she was actually with Finn as opposed to crushing on him like, apparently, the rest of the student body).

"No, Puck – because you're an arrogant, cruel, small-minded idiot. And you're also a manwhore," Kurt informed him, his lip doing that curling thing.

"Hey! I'm not a manwhore," Puck said. Well, he didn't have a really defensible position here, but for some reason that he couldn't even articulate, Kurt's words were cutting into him, especially with a cold and rejecting Finn somewhere upstairs still getting Kurt's favor. Shit.

"Do you even want me to dignify that with a response?" Kurt asked, raising an eyebrow challengingly.

"It was your eyes lookin' at me, Hummel," Puck said, his voice going low and sexy, stepping forward. For the first time in what was probably years, Kurt didn't back away from him. Instead, he stepped forward.

"And it was you noticing and talking about it, Puck," Kurt said. They were only inches away from each other, glaring. "Or are you just not used to not getting your way?" When Puck looked away, irritated at the force behind those cold, hazel eyes, Kurt tossed his head back and laughed elegantly. "Oh, Puck – isn't that just tragic?" And then Kurt was stepping into his space and Puck was backing away. His head was spinning in confusion; when had this all gotten turned around and confusing?

"Because I'm the only one you've come on to in the past year that's even worth your time, and you'll never get me." And with that, his head held high, Kurt walked away, leaving the basement and a very confused, very angry, and unfairly aroused Puck to watch him go, his rounded ass doing obscenely right things in those seemingly skin-tight jeans.

Present

But things were different now. This was a different Kurt Hummel staring at him from across his basement, which was once again whitewashed and almost obsessively clean, with absolutely no traces that Finn had ever even existed down here.

"So," Puck began, because the silence was somehow not-awkward, and that was making Puck feel confused. "Guess we better pick a song."

"Guess so," Kurt said, looking away from him. It was almost a relief that Kurt wasn't looking at him with his piercing eyes anymore. "You guys actually did a good job doing that KISS number few weeks ago, and, well, I'm me, so I don't think the theatricality aspects of this assignment will be too hard," he continued, sounding cold and professional. His voice was back to being guarded and shielded like it always was, instead of warm and husky and impassioned like it'd been when he was losing control. Puck decided that husky-Kurt was much more interesting than ice-prince-Kurt.

"Yeah, sure," he said, moving to look around the room. "Can't even tell that Finn used to live in here," he remarked casually. Bingo. Kurt's back stiffened and his voice dropped dangerously.

"That was kind of the point. Now, about the assignment—"

"'Cuz he's definitely not telling me why you're not talking to him, and there isn't anything in this room telling me. You're not keeping one of his shirts to sniff, are you? Because, that'd be creepy." Puck watched with interest as Kurt turned to face him, his face reddened and his mouth open to blast him. "You could just tell me, you know, because otherwise I'll be bugging you about this." It was a totally reasonable request, Puck thought.

"As you've learned down here before, I hope you're used to disappointment," Kurt returned, and Puck felt sort of sucker-punched by Kurt's casual use of that memory just to throw him off-balance. "Now, I'd like you to look through these two CD's and find something that you can sing because these are the songs I have sheet music on hand for," Kurt continued, holding out two mix CD's with tracklists printed on them in obsessively neat handwriting. "We can sing one of them and see which of our voices needs more solo time in order to sound better."

"You're really in this thing to crush Rachel, aren't you?" Puck asked happily as he started ticking through song titles.

"Like I'd need your help making her look bad," Kurt said waspishly.

"So, why are you even bothering asking me?" Puck asked, looking up. Kurt looked confused. "What I want to sing. I'm pretty sure that you're gonna end up choosing the song and dance, anyway."

"I guess I just figured you'd fight me on it," Kurt said after a moment.

"You know, I'm not really the guy that you all seem to think I am," Puck said softly.

"I don't know you at all, Puck," Kurt said. "You've thrown me in dumpsters for years, that doesn't exactly make me privy to your thought processes. If you have them."

"My brain works just as well as yours," Puck countered. "Now, see, Finn wouldn't have even known that you insulted him right there."

"Good for Finn," Kurt said dismissively. And for reasons that Puck refused to decipher, it felt good having Kurt focus on him instead of crumbling into a gooey mess at the mention of Finn's name.

"Why don't we not sing and play something more fun?" Puck asked, pushing his luck.

"Like what? Truth or dare?" Kurt asked, mocking him.

"Right – like you could come up with a dare that I couldn't handle," Puck said dismissively.

"I so could," Kurt insisted.

"Are you questioning my badassness?" Puck asked. They seemed to be getting closer. Had he told his feet to move? Why was his voice dropping lower?

"And what if I was?" Kurt asked. His voice was getting all husky and low and shivery again…

"You come up with a dare for me, and I'll let you direct this whole thing," Puck countered.

"Deal," Kurt said flatly. Then he smirked. "Now stop stalling and pick a song, or are you just too afraid that I'll outsing you anyway?"

"What about 'So Damn Beautiful'?" Puck asked, picking the first title with a curse word in it at random.

"Done deal," Kurt said, plucking the CD from Puck's fingers and popping it into the player. As cold electronica filtered in through the bass-heavy speakers (Nice system, Puck thought appreciatively), he turned a look onto Kurt.

"Never figured you for music like this."

"Never figured you for 'Sweet Caroline' – would've thought you'd try to get Rachel in bed singing Buckcherry's 'Crazy Bitch,'" Kurt rejoined cuttingly as he handed him sheet music. "I'll take the first voice and chorus, you take the second verse, and then we'll duet the rest."

"I never slept with her," Puck said softly.

"Good," Kurt said, equally softly. And then the music kicked in, and Kurt was singing, his unearthly voice making Puck feel all sorts of things he wasn't used to feeling, and he realized that this song choice wasn't necessarily a good one.

Kurt: What do you think of me?

Are you quite proud of this make-believe

Curtain, that hangs around everything

You can admire in that girl—

She's so damn beautiful

.

You will see me rise again

You will see me fly again

You're so wonderful

I will be there by your side

.

I see before the race you've run

And jump ahead too far

You're so damn beautiful

Puck: What do you see in me?

Are you quite proud of this

Make-believe feeling

That hangs around everything

That you once admired in that girl?

You're so damn beautiful

.

I will see you rise again

I will see you fly again

You're so wonderful

I will be there by your side

You're so wonderful

I will be there by your side

Together: I see before the race you've run

And jump ahead too far

You're so damn beautiful

I see before the race you've run

And jump ahead too far

You're so damn beautiful

.

What do you think of me?

Are you quite proud of this make-believe

Curtain that hangs around everything

You can admire in that girl

She's so damn beautiful!

By the time the song was over, they were both flushed, and Puck felt something coursing through his veins like acid. He wasn't sure if he loved the song or he hated it, but he hated hated hated the pain going through Kurt's eyes as they both understood the lyrics and the way that they talked about Finn.

"I'm sorry," Puck said softly.

"Don't be. You have a beautiful voice. We should be able to work really well together," Kurt said, trying desperately to regain his composure.

"That song really means something to you," Puck guessed.

"Yeah." Kurt sighed. "Have you ever seen Nip/Tuck?"

"Um. No," Puck said. Kurt shot him a look, but he was almost smiling.

"It's a show about plastic surgeons. It's pretty realistic, actually. Anyway, there was this girl who was fat and wanted to get plastic surgery to look good for her high school reunion, to see…to see if the prom king would actually look at her…" Kurt wasn't meeting his eyes, and Puck wanted to go upstairs and bash Finn's face in so badly that the feeling took him by surprise.

"What happened to her?" Puck asked. Kurt looked up with tears threatening.

"The doctors wouldn't give her the surgery because she was in an unsound mental state when she made the request. She blew her brains out while this song played." He said it so coldly and factually, but his body was trembling, and Puck did not like that turn in the conversation or how affected by it they both were, so he stepped closer. They were so close…Puck reached out a hand toward Kurt's trembling face…

"What's going on down here?" said a loud, not happy voice, and Kurt and Puck both leapt apart as if they'd been burned. Standing not ten feet from them was a large, angry looking mechanic holding a really heavy-looking wrench, and damn if Puck's knees weren't shaking worse than that time that Mrs. Johnson's marine husband came home early one day and he'd had to jump out the window where his clothes were sitting by the pool just to not get shot. Mr. Hummel was looking at him like he was going to kill him. Puck belatedly remembered Mercedes joking about how fiercely overprotective Burt Hummel was toward his fragile son.

"We were practicing for glee club. In fact, we'd just finished for the night. Puck was about to leave," Kurt said after a moment, his voice regaining its cold composure.

"Right," Puck said.

"Puck…Noah Puckerman? The one that pissed Finn off so bad?" And damn it if Finn suddenly didn't have an overprotective dad, too, and Puck began calculating his chances of darting around the wrench before it cracked his skull open.

"Yes, dad. But, seriously, it's okay," Kurt said calmingly. "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon, Puck." He pushed Puck toward the door. Burt Hummel gave him one last terror-inducing glance before stepping to the side. "And don't forget our agreement," Kurt said. Puck glanced back despite himself and was surprised to see Kurt giving him a mischievous smile before the basement door closed and he and his dad began to talk.

His knees weak, Puck staggered out to his truck. What the hell was he getting himself into?

Song Note: The song Kurt and Puck sang to in this chapter is called "So Damn Beautiful", originally performed by Poloroid. The part about it being in Nip/Tuck is completely true (it's on the soundtrack); I love that show so much I couldn't help tossing this part in there. For those who'd like to see that (amazing) episode, it's titled Nanette Babcock and is the third episode of the first season, I believe (it could be the second episode).

A/N: Intense! I just really wanted to keep saying thank you for all of the warm responses and the staggering number of reviews. Gleeks united! Thanks so much, and I'll see you next chapter – where the title of the story is explained. Biddy bum! See you soon!