A/N: Sorry for the delay. Thanks for reading!
Saturday, February 13th, 2010
Rachel woke up with a nervous feeling in her stomach. She attributed it to their interview later in the afternoon. Yet, her mind was more focused on the time that she would spend with Puck this morning. She didn't know why she was feeling so nervous. She saw Puck all the time…though this would be their first time spending time together alone. Not that it really mattered that they were alone, of course. It's not like anything would happen. Still, at the same time, part of Rachel was still reliving the moment the previous evening when Puck had kissed her. It hadn't made sense. The kiss on Thursday in the hallway was to prove to people that they were a couple. What was last night's kiss meant to prove?
Puck hadn't been able to sleep at all last night. He kept thinking about that kiss he shared with Rachel. He didn't know what had possessed him to initiate the kiss, but he just knew that he hadn't wanted to leave her house without kissing her. And now this morning, he worried that it would be awkward during their run and during their interview. They couldn't afford to come off as anything but a young couple in love during the interview. Of course, maybe he wasn't wrong when he labeled the kiss as 'practice'. Perhaps, it was really just helping them get accustomed to kissing each other. After all, if they wanted to pretend to be a couple, they should be used to doing that sort of thing. Yea, just keep telling yourself that.
Rachel arrived promptly at 9:00am at Puck's house. Puck swung open his door to avoid Rachel waking his little sister. The kid was way cranky if she was woken before double digits on the weekend. His jaw dropped at the sight of her. She was casually dressed with her hair in a ponytail and no obvious sign of makeup on her face. And yet, somehow, she looked amazing. Puck wasn't sure why he was so overcome, but figured it was because she usually dressed so strangely that it was odd to see her in normal clothes.
"Good morning, Puck? How are you on this lovely day?"
"Jeez, are you like super-happy all the time…even this early in the morning?"
"Well I figure why waste time being upset or angry when you can just find something to focus on to make you happy?"
"Little too philosophical for me at this hour, Berry. How about we run now and debate the merits of Nietzsche later."
Rachel simply smiled because who would have thought Puck could name a philosopher. She had a feeling that there was a whole lot more to Noah Puckerman than he presented to the world.
Puck and Rachel began their jog and found that luckily, they tended to run at a very similar pace. After some silence, Rachel decided to use this time to find out more about her fake boyfriend.
"So, Puck, tell me about your family."
"Not much to tell. Dad walked out awhile back, so it's just me and my mom and Sarah. Sarah's a great kid though. She's only seven, but she is super-smart and funny as hell. My mom's pretty awesome too…she works really hard though and I feel bad sometimes that I can't do more for her."
"I'm sure she appreciates your efforts to help her and your sentiments to do more."
"Huh, Berry?"
"I just mean that it's obvious that you love her and I'm sure she knows that."
"Well, yea, of course, she's my mom. You have to love your mom. I mean you must love your …oh…sorry…"
"Don't be! I have two wonderful fathers. I couldn't ask for more. Though I admit that at certain times it would've been nice to have a female presence in the home."
"Yea, I know what you mean…but the opposite, you know."
"It must have been tough for you, Noah…without your dad…"
"Yea, well, why waste time being upset or angry when you can just find something to focus on to make you happy?"
Rachel smiled and they locked eyes. An intense moment of understanding passed between them until Rachel broke the silence.
"It must be nice having a sister. It gets kind of lonely as an only child sometimes. And I know Dad would've liked to have another child. Daddy and I have similar personalities and interests, but Dad is completely different. He'd actually like you a lot…he's really into sports. That's why I'm such a huge Buckeyes fan!"
"Wait, you like football? I've never seen you at one of our games."
"Yes, well, the Ohio State football team does not throw slushies at me, so I am more inclined to attend their games."
Puck immediately stopped jogging. He felt like such an ass. Then, he looked up and saw that Rachel was chuckling while jogging in place. She smirked at him while he shook his head. Strange as it may seem, they both knew that for them that was 'I'm sorry' and 'You're forgiven'.
Suddenly, Puck yelled out, "Race you back to my house".
Rachel sputtered as she chased after him, "What? No…you didn't warn me…hey, come back here! Puck!"
Many blocks later, Puck dashed into his house with Rachel fast on his heels. They collapsed side-by-side on the living room floor. After a few seconds, Puck peeled off his shirt in an attempt to cool off. Rachel did not ogle…or at least that's what she told herself. However, the smirk on Puck's face implied that he noticed her looking (not ogling!) at his naked torso and was pleased with her reaction. She was still lying flat on the floor, but he was propped on his elbows. He placed one palm on the other side of her body, leaning slightly over her as he looked at her in a way that no one had ever looked at her before. Rachel found it suddenly more challenging to breathe as Puck pushed the pieces of hair that had escaped from her ponytail out of her face. Puck began to lean down hesitatingly, waiting for her to meet him halfway. Rachel raised herself on her elbows. She moved closer and closer, until…
"Noahhhh, where are you", a voice echoed from the top of the stairs.
Rachel was startled as she pulled away from Puck, while he was just frustrated at his sister's amazingly bad timing.
"Down here, squirt."
A little brunette dashed down the stairs and threw herself into her brother's arms. Rachel smiled to herself as she watched Puck's affectionate behavior with his sister.
She finally stood up and faced Puck, who was holding his sister upside down by her ankles.
"Thanks for the run, Puck. I should head home to get ready so we can get to the radio station on time."
Puck merely nodded in affirmation, but watched Rachel through the window as she walked away from his house and entered a jog to head home.
"Um, Noah, are you ever going to let me down. My head feels all funny."
"Oh! Sorry, kid", he responded as he let Sarah down.
"Who was that?"
"Oh, just a friend."
"She's pretty", Sarah responded innocently as she wandered into the kitchen.
"Yes, she is", Puck commented to himself.
A couple of hours later, Rachel and Puck found themselves in a waiting room at the local radio station. Rachel was clearly experiencing some nerves about the interview. Suddenly, she startled at the sensation of Puck's hand against hers.
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing", he said raising their clasped hands up. "I'm holding your hand."
"Oh, but after the fight you put up…"
"Is this about the other day, Berry? I was just kidding. I was always going to hold your hand."
Rachel suddenly felt bold and whispered in his ear. "Good, because I was always going to let you slap my ass."
Puck felt his body react to this immediately, but his fantasy was quickly interrupted by the reality of a woman entering the waiting room.
"Mr. Puckerman? Ms. Berry?"
Rachel jumped up, pulling him along with her.
"Yes, we're ready!"
"Okay, well we really enjoyed getting to see you interact together as a couple on your video. Today, we're going to interview you separately to see how you talk about each other when you're apart. I'll be just a minute and then I'll see Ms. Berry first."
Rachel waited until the woman stepped out of the room before beginning to royally freak-out.
"Separately?! What if we say something that contradicts what the other of us says?"
Puck tried his hardest to calm her down.
"Rachel. We can do this. It's just like a role in a play."
Rachel smiled. "Yes, of course, you are correct. I am an excellent actress and I am certain we can execute our roles thoroughly enough for them to perceive that we are in a real relationship."
The woman returned and brought Rachel into a small office.
"Well, this will actually be quite short. We have just two questions for each of you to answer. What do you like most about Mr. Puckerman in your relationship?"
"His honesty. I really appreciate that Noah is so upfront because sometimes I think people can sugarcoat things. Sure, sometimes his honesty is brutal, but he always tells it like it is. He never lies to me…even if the lie would be less painful. He knows I can handle it. I like that most about him."
"Great. Okay, now, tell us something we would be surprised to learn about Noah."
"Well, Noah has kind of a tough exterior and he calls himself a 'badass', so most people would be surprised to see him with his younger sister. He is so sweet and kind to her. It's really amazing to see them with each other", Rachel responded in an increasingly dreamy voice.
The woman brought Rachel back to the waiting room and brought Puck to her office, issuing the same instructions.
"What do you like most about Ms. Berry in your relationship?"
"Definitely her optimism. Rachel's just always so happy about things, even when things in her life kind of suck. I'm not really like that, so it's nice to have her reminding me to look at the bright side of things. It's like a good balance, you know? And she's really determined and motivated and stuff. She keeps me on my toes…in a good way. Sorry, that's more than one thing, right?"
"That's fine, Mr. Puckerman", the woman said smiling. "Okay, now, tell us something that we would be surprised to learn about Rachel?"
"She's a huge Buckeyes fan. Rach has this beautiful singing voice and she dances and all this artsy stuff, so it surprises people that she's into college football. It's funny how intense she is about it sometimes", Puck responded with a fond smile on his face.
The woman returned Puck to Rachel in the waiting room.
"We will be making our decisions shortly and we'll be in touch. Thank you so much for coming in today."
"Thank you. We look forward to endeavors that we will enter upon together in the future", Rachel responded.
After they had made it down the hallway and out of earshot, Puck said, "What the hell did you say back there, Berry?"
"Oh, I was just placing in her mind the idea that we will meet again…because obviously the only time we'd ever see her again would be tomorrow at the contest. I am certain we will get a call from her shortly inviting us to the competition."
Puck laughed as he slung an arm over Rachel's shoulder and walked her to his car. "Yea, definitely her optimism and determination", he said to himself as he walked around to the driver's side.
True to Rachel's word, two hours later, she received a phone call inviting them to participate in the contest. So she went right over to Puck's house and upon being sent into the kitchen by his sister, she walked up and kissed him full on the lips. If he can go around kissing me whenever he wants, then I can do it too!
Her arms snaked around his neck as his arms pulled her body closer to his. The kiss was slow and sinfully sweet. She broke the kiss and was already halfway out the front door of the house by the time Puck recovered enough from this unexpected move to speak.
"Berry…not that I'm complaining, but was that?"
Rachel looked over her shoulder. "Practice, Puck. Had to make sure we're ready for tomorrow."
"We got in?"
Rachel yelled her response from the front yard. "We got in!"
Puck shook his head and laughed. That girl really does keep me on my toes…
A/N: Up next, the final chapter. There is a possibilty for an epilogue...depends on whether I think the story is better is with it or without it.