Home alone. His mother had taken an obnoxiously excited Madison to get some Cold Stone ice cream. There was a documentary on how Super Mario Brothers changed the world playing on Cartoon Network. This was the life. Puck finally heaved himself off of the couch and went into the kitchen to get a bottle of root beer from the fridge. He uncapped the bottle deftly. Part of him knew he would miss the simplicity and boredom that came with life in Lima. Sure, there were those moments of stupid drama and yeah, he couldn't wait to leave behind some of the memories the town held for him, but it was still home. "Home, sweet home," he murmured quietly, taking his time returning to the family room.

It was mid-July, there was just a little more than a month of time until the move to California. And he still didn't know where Mercedes stood with the whole apartment idea. Or the idea of him. Puck sighed to himself. Maybe he'd thought that he was having a streak of good luck when he'd suggested to her the idea of being together. After all, he passed the Geography test, graduated from McKinley against all odds. Maybe he had felt invincible.

Was it better to just forget the whole thing? Dissolve Team Puckerman? Hopefully Mrs. Jones and Maddie wouldn't be too disappointed. He took a long drink of the soda. Maybe it was better to quit now before Evans found out.

There was a series of knocks on the front door; Puck rolled his eyes exasperatedly, calling out as he went to answer it. "Mom, did you forget your wallet again?" He jerked open the door; his brows creased when he saw who was on the other side. "Hey, speak of the devil."

Sam's fist connected with his jaw so suddenly and so hard that he fell flat on his back. The blonde shook out his hand, inviting himself inside. "You son of a bitch."

Propping himself to lean back against his elbows, Puck opened and closed his mouth with a grimace. "Hello to you too."

"Sam, don't do this!" Mercedes appeared in the doorway; she let out a gasp at the sight of Puck on the ground and the blood starting to clot at the corner of his mouth.

Sam barely acknowledged her presence behind him before launching himself at his friend. Puck rolled out of the way so that Sam landed on the floor but still caught a knee in the leg. "Gah! Geez, who told you?"

Mercedes winced as Sam caught Puck by the shoulders and used the leverage to get on top of him. "I did." Sam punched him again. "Well…my dad did. And then I clarified the situation."

Puck lifted his uninjured leg to knee Sam in the crotch, causing the other boy to collapse momentarily on the other side of him. "Great job clarifying the situation then. Really great job." He held up a hand as Sam started to rise. "Evans. I just kneed you in the balls. I understand if you need a time-out."

Sam slowly lowered himself to lie on his back again; his voice was tight with pain. "Yeah, thanks."

"You two are acting like children." Mercedes ran into the kitchen and opened the freezer door, grabbing the first two things she saw.

Puck sat up with a groan, raising an eyebrow at what she handed him. "This is a box of Eggo Waffles."

"It's cold. Put it on your face." Mercedes knelt on the floor between the two boys. "You're lucky I brought you anything at all. This is your fault."

"I wasn't the one who came in like the Incredible Hulk!" Puck narrowed his eyes at Sam.

Sam gave him the look right back, taking the bag of frozen vegetables and gently holding it to his crotch. "Something tells me you know you deserved it. Trying to move in with my girl, trying to steal my girl…seriously, Puckerman? What the hell were you thinking?"

"Oh right, kill me because I want to be there for a friend in a strange, new city! I'm such a bad guy!"

"You just want to get in Mercy's pants!"

Mercedes covered her face with her hand. "Sam!"

"While inside Mercedes' pants is probably a magical, wonderful place to be…"

She immediately dropped her hand, reaching out to smack Puck across the back of his head. "Noah!"

He held up his hands in defense. "Wait a second! I was just gonna say that's not why I want to move in with you!"

Sam looked between the two of them, still apprehensive. "You're telling me that if you and Mercy moved in together, you wouldn't try and make a move on her?"

"No!" He turned to Mercedes at the sound of her scoff. "I wouldn't try anything unless she wanted me to."

"And that's not likely." She crossed her arms against her chest.

" 'Cedes is my girl…platonically speaking," he corrected quickly, seeing the looks they gave him. "You know I wouldn't do anything to hurt her and I wouldn't let anything happen to her, Evans."

No one else spoke. The only sound in the room was the television. Sam stared down at the bag of peas in his hand, deep in thought. Mercedes' gaze kept flitting from one boy to the other; Puck raised a hand to massage his sore jaw.

After a few minutes, Sam lifted his eyes to Puck's face. "I love her, Puckerman."

"I know. I do too." Mercedes looked to him sharply. "Platonically," he lied.

"It's bad enough she's going…I don't want to have to worry about the two of you hooking up."

Puck nodded. "It's not like that, man. Even if I did want to be with 'Cedes, it wouldn't just be for…that."

"She's amazing."

"Yeah. Incredible."

"Not a better girl out there."

"You don't have to tell me that."

"Y'know, I'm actually sitting right here."

"We know." Sam patted Mercedes' leg and rose to his feet, reaching down a hand to help her up. He looked down at Puck for a moment and then offered him a hand as well. "Sorry about your face."

"Sorry about your junk."

He glanced over his shoulder at the television. "Is that the Super Mario documentary you were telling me about?"

"Yeah, it started about half an hour ago. Wanna watch the rest of it?"

"That'd be cool."

Mercedes stared after the two as they sat down on the couch together. "Are you two serious right now?"

Sam patted the space between them. "Take a load off. We'll get back to your house when it's over."

She shrugged, utterly defeated by the sheer lack of logic, and walked over to sit in between them. Almost seemed fitting.

Summer of Junior Year

"Hey! Hey, Lil' Mama!" Puck pointed the garden hose in his hand at Maddie; she squealed his name in protest as water splashed all over her. "Put your shoes back on. This is not your pool."

His little sister put her hands in her hips. "I can't even swim?"

"No, you can't!" He continued rinsing the deck with a shrug. "Mom needs me to watch you, so I'm watching you. But you're not about to get me fired because you wanna swim. No way. I don't care if it is a freaking huge, awesome pool."

Maddie just stood watching him. After a moment she sighed and turned to look at the house. "Is this a mansion or something?"

Puck looked up from his work and followed her gaze, chuckling. "Or something."

"I didn't know Dr. Jones was rich."

"He's a dentist," Puck said as if that explained everything.

Her face showed that it clearly explained nothing. "Are all dentists rich, Noah?"

His half-ass answer was interrupted by the sound of a door sliding open. Mercedes stood on the deck, clutching a book to her chest. "Sorry. Mom didn't say you were coming today. If you're still working, I can…"

"Nah. It's good. Pool's cleaned. Deck's swept. I do awesome work."

"Of course you do." She noticed the eight-year-old timidly looking up at her and smiled. "I'm guessing this is your sister. Madison, right?"

Puck gestured between the two of them. "Hot Mama, meet Lil' Mama. You could probably teach each other a thing or two about back sass."

As horrible as he was at detecting when something was wrong with a girl-he hadn't picked up on a single one of the hints Zizes kept dropping about their impending split and, in hindsight, they weren't all that subtle-Puck easily noticed that Mercedes' smile wasn't reaching her eyes. She motioned for Maddie to have a seat in one of the three pool chairs near the pool, sitting in the closest one while lifting the book in her hand with a little wave. "Just thought I'd get out of the house. Breathe the fresh air. Sit by the water. Read a good romance novel."

"Classic summertime moping." Puck jogged over to the side of the house to turn off the hose and then jogged back to plop himself in her lap.

"Oh God, Noah, why?"

He threw an arm around her shoulders. "Please. Mom did this same thing last year when Nelson dumped her. Except instead of sitting by water she sat at a bar. And instead of reading she watched TV. But it's basically the same thing. What's bugging you?" She lowered her gaze to the newly cleaned deck; his eyes widened. "No way. Trouble in paradise with you and Sammy boy?"

Mercedes looked at Maddie, at him, and then back at his sister again. "You look about the same size as my cousin. If you want, you can borrow one of her swimsuits and hop in the pool."

Maddie's face lit up. "Really?"

"Sure. Just go right inside. My mom's in the kitchen; she can show you where everything is."

She jumped up from the pool chair and ran toward the glass sliding doors leading into the house, pausing only to look expectantly at Puck. He waved her on nonchalantly, not bothering to take his eyes off of Mercedes. "Knock yourself out."

"Thanks! Be right back!"

It was funny really. He hadn't been jealous at all when he'd found out about Sam dating his girl. After all, Evans was a good guy who'd just had a rough few months, and Mercedes was obviously one of the best girls in Lima. They both had a heart of gold. The dork and the diva. It seemed to work. Brows furrowing, Puck frowned down at her. "Got a question for you. Why'd you two try to hide it?"

She didn't bother clarifying what he was talking about, choosing simply to shrug. "You know me. I don't like drama."

"You didn't want Santana coming after you?"

Mercedes tilted her head to the side. "Actually, I'm pretty sure 'Tana's over Sam. She's got eyes for a different blonde now."

"Luke Michaels? But he plays hockey!"

Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him. How was it that no one else caught on to how much Santana really cared about Brittany S. Pierce? Finally, she shook her head. "I don't even know who that is. Anyway, we just didn't want everyone in our business."

"Oh yeah, I definitely got that vibe. Making out at Breadstix. That screams 'we're trying to keep this to ourselves'."

Mercedes' cheeks warmed. He was one of the first glee club members to discover her and Sam. They'd been on a date, gotten caught up in each other. Puck had stood there sputtering his confusion at them for a full five minutes. "It was a good plan…anyway, he's gone now."

"What do you mean he's gone? What did he do, insult one of your idols and you killed him?" Puck's jaw dropped in dramatic shock. "That's it, isn't it? Was it Whitney? Did he insult Whitney?"

"He moved." Her voice was suddenly monotone and low. "To Kentucky of all places. Should be happy, right? His dad finally found a job. It's a good job too. I can't remember what he's gonna be doing but…" She sighed. "It's everything I've been praying for, Noah. Sam deserves to be happy. His family deserves to have something good happen to them. And now it is."

Puck blinked; his arm tightened slightly around her so that her forehead rested against his chest. "He broke up with you before he went?"

Mercedes let out a muffled noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. He bent his head toward hers to make sure it wasn't the latter. "No. He wanted to stay together."

"You didn't?"

"I don't want to hold him back."

"You? Hold someone back?" Puck gave his head a firm shake, his chin brushing the top of her head. "Trust me, Jones. Sammy boy can't do better than you. No one could."

"Sweet words from the self-proclaimed Sex Shark," Mercedes said with a genuine chuckle.

Maddie came bursting out of the house, immediately cannon-balling into the pool. Mercedes pressed her back against the pool chair to get as far away from the splashing water as possible. Puck grimaced as most of it got on him. "Watch the 'hawk!"

"Sorry, Mercedes!"

He retracted his arm from around the girl and pointed at his sister. "See that? No respect."

That earned another chuckle. "Absolutely none." She raised a hand to flick his mohawk teasingly. "Thanks for letting me talk about this stuff. I think Quinn's the only other one to know that he's gone but she's kinda losing her mind right now."

"Well, that's a huge surprise."

"Be nice." Mercedes lowered her hand to his arm and gave him a gentle push. "And get off my legs, boy. I'm losing circulation."

He grinned and stood, bending to retrieve her book from the deck. "You know what? If Sam doesn't fight to get you to reconsider this thing, he's slow."

"But…"

"Slower than slow." Puck placed the book into her hands. "You're worth fighting for, Jones. And don't you forget it."

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