So, back already. Trying to zoom through this, so hopes can expect an accelerated rate of publishing stuff yeah and stuff can't remember where I was going with this thought tired. uuuuuuu

Enjoy.

Rachel was still staring at him.

With a grunt, Puck turned and glared at her. "What?"

Rachel smiled at his anger. "Relax! I'm just still amazed." She looked ahead, calculating how long they had; how far away they were from her house. "Mr and Mrs Weisberg have never once even considered taking one of my newsletters, and now not only did you get them to take two and sign up for a subscription, but you got them to pay for it! For the free monthly school newsletter!"

Puck chuckled. "And I'm cleaning her pool on Thursday. I'm just that god damn good."

With a nod, Rachel bit her lip. He obviously couldn't wait for this arrangement to be over.

"Don't panic." He smirked down at her, reading her face. "No matter how long it takes for us to peddle these newsletters, we'll hang out till I gotta be back at Kid's house."

Rachel couldn't hold the blatant grin back.

Puck held her gaze for a moment, but his face quickly sobered. "Rach…"

There was a long pause and they stopped. "I shouldn't be… doing this. I shouldn't…"

Rachel looked down at her feet. "Why not?" Puck opened his mouth to answer, but she interrupted him before he had a chance. "I know, I know, you think we shouldn't be together. But you know what I realised? Kid would get over it. So why not, really?"

Puck couldn't look at her, because he knew he had to say something that would make her give up trying. Ultimately, a relationship between them would go nowhere for one of two reasons. One; he'd screw it up (the more likely option). Two; he'd be dragged back kicking and screaming to his universe. Since he couldn't tell her about the second, more pressing reason, he just hoped the first would be enough to get her off his back. "It's not about him getting over us being together, it's about him getting over how it ends, because it will. I'm not a relationship guy. It's just a fact."

Rachel refused to accept this. "How do you know? How do you know it wouldn't work out this time?"

"I don't know how to try!" Puck rubbed his hands back and forth over his Mohawk.

They were quiet for a minute.

"Then use me." Rachel stated simply (almost surprising herself, but managing to maintain her composure).

Puck's eyes flashed up at her, shocked. He quickly recovered, though, shaking his head. "That's not the way to make Kid okay with this. It's not fair on you and not fair on… anyone." He threw his hands up, frustrated. "I just need a…" Trailing off, he walked ahead, leaving Rachel standing alone.

She moved to follow him, but he waved her off.

This was all too touchy-feely for his liking, and his badass points were in the negative by now. He needed to hit something; he needed to beat the crap out of something.

He paced, now, twenty feet away from her, feeling her eyes bearing into his soul. Except he didn't have a soul, no, he was an asshole idiot and no matter how hard she looked she wouldn't see into his soul, because it didn't exist.

He kicked a fence and let out a yell. This was way to god damn angsty for his liking. Then he realised he'd put his foot clear through the fence, and the noise from his actions had stirred some movement inside the house.

Shit

"Rach…" He called, smoothly pulling his leg out of the panels and moving towards her. "We should go." He sang the words, a smirk rising from within him.

Maybe badass Puck was still in there somewhere. He always got a rise out of doing something he shouldn't be doing. As he made his way towards a suspicious Rachel, he could feel that familiar rush of adrenaline and undeniable urge to grin through his smirk.

Before he got to her, however, he heard the door to the house with the broken fence open, and knew he had to get the hell out a dodge before they looked to see who'd done it. By this point, they wouldn't be looking for a culprit, just a reason for noise. Through years of practise, he knew it would be okay to fucking run for it!

He had Rachel by the wrist before she had any idea what was going on. The bewilderment on her face made him laugh.

Still laughing, he picked up the pace, Rachel in tow. "Come on!"

Surprised by his change of attitude, Rachel decided to just go with it, pulling her hand free and shifting her body shape so that she could keep up with him. "What are we doing?"

Puck checked over his shoulder to see that an obviously extremely annoyed woman in a nightgown (Lazy bitch, it was 6pm!) was wondering out of her gate onto the sidewalk.

"Oh, crap." Puck broke into a flat out sprint, smiling and patting Rachel on the shoulder to get her to run with him.

She ran, but looked to him for further explanation as they synchronised their steps.

"I, er…" Puck smirked, trying and failing to pull off sheepish, "I may have accidentally broken that there woman's fence." He gave up trying to look like he was sorry and grinned at her. "Oops."

The sarcasm in his tone made her giggle, and soon he joined her, and before they knew it, they were around the corner, pissing themselves laughing, close to rolling on the floor.

In between howls, Rachel got out, "How bad–" Another roar. "–was it?"

This made Puck laugh even harder, but before he had a chance to even try and reply, they heard the woman rounding the bend yell, "I can hear you two! Don't think you're not paying for this! I'll call the police; this is a crime!"

The outrage in her voice almost immobilised them, the pair's bodies rocking with amusement, but they managed to pull themselves together enough to run off and make a seemingly clean get away.

"I know what you're thinking. We're not doing that again." Puck had walked her home once they were in the clear, but he stopped at her bottom steps and nodded to where they'd kissed last time he'd been there.

Biting her lip, Rachel looked at him through her lashes. "Do what again?"

Puck chuckled, but still didn't move towards her. "For a girl who's only kissed one guy, you sure know how to be god damn sexy when you need to be."

Rachel returned the chuckle. "Well." Her face sank into seriousness. "You know, you're the only guy I've ever been able to do that around. Be sexy, I mean. Every other time I've tried I end up looking like a total idiot. You bring out the best in my sexy wild side." She winked and did a mock sexy walk forward, as if to prove her point.

"Oh no," Puck teased. "You still look like an idiot, I'm just talented enough to look past that at the boobs and butt that come with it."

She'd gotten to where he was by this point, so she could reach him to slap him on the arm. But she was laughing.

The whole getting-chased-by-a-crazy-lady-in-a-nightgown-who-wasn't-really-crazy-just-quite-mad-about-her-broken-fence thing had lightened the mood between them significantly, and Puck had almost forgotten everything that stood between them. Being with this Rachel, the alternate universe version of her, was so easy. She wasn't stuck up, she didn't mind breaking the rules and she didn't feel the need to enunciate every point and every emotion with a song. It was like the hot bod Rachel he'd always known minus all the bad stuff that had put him off her. Only, he couldn't have her, which made all of that apparently amazing shit suck ass.

While he was thinking this through, Rachel had managed to worm her way past his defences and she was very close to the point of no return. His mind screamed 'Abort! Abort!' but the rest of his body was shrugging 'Eh. Pro-choice.'

"Puck." She breathed his name.

Her want for him made him want her even more. But…

He shoved her away. "No."

Trying to ignore how she was gaping after him, Puck climbed into his truck (Kid's truck, Kid's truck) and drove away.

Rachel could not believe it. She knew he wanted her. She'd initially had her doubts, but upon reflection she'd concluded that she was in fine physical condition, and he was well aware of that fact. So why the hell was he still turning her down?

It obviously wasn't that much to do with his morals, seeing as less than twenty minutes previous he'd put his foot through a fence and hadn't waited around to see what the consequences were, so what was it?

Okay, so he really liked Kid. He also really liked sex, and Rachel had a feeling he wasn't about to give it up for his cousin.

She paced back and forth in front of her house, refusing to go in until she'd figured this out.

He'd said no to unattached sex, so did that mean he wanted more? If so, then why was he so adamant that they couldn't be together?

She let out a frustrated yell. She hated this; this not knowing what was going on in that stupid guy's mind.

He didn't want to be with her. Not in a relationship. But, he wasn't up for free sex. So…

What was it he'd said? "It's not fair on you and not fair on… anyone."

He was talking about himself; it wasn't fair on him! So he was scared. Of what?

Of her hurting him!

That was it!

He didn't want to be with her because he was scared she'd hurt him, that she'd break his heart! It was the only thing that made sense.

Well, she wasn't going to be doing that.

Why did he think she was going to be doing that?

She'd only ever behaved positively towards him; she wasn't even the type of girl to hurt someone like that.

How dare he think she'd hurt him like that!

That's that, then. She was going to have to prove herself to him.

How?

Normally in this kind of situation (If she was honest with herself, in any kind of situation) she'd go to her best friend and most trusted confidant. But Puck had asked her not to tell Noah about this… Well, tough shit. He was just going to have to deal with being outed, because that's exactly what she was going to do.

With that in mind, she settled herself and started a fast march to the Puckermans' house, three blocks down.

This was going to be so good. Finally, after… Had it only been two days since she'd met Puck? Wow, felt like longer. Anyway, finally, she would get to be with Puck, and they could both be happy.

He'd be happy about this, she was sure. Right?

Surely, once Noah knew, and she explained that she'd never do anything to hurt him… Once he knew she could be trusted, he'd agree that they could be together?

The closer she got to Noah's house, the more and more she doubted herself, until she realised at the door that the only way to be certain she'd have the nerve to do this was if she just came out and said it.

So, she threw open the door and announced, "Noah, Puck and I kissed, and I plan wholeheartedly to do it again!"

To a room full of people.

In her focused haze, she'd missed the police car parked outside the house, and so was somewhat surprised to see Miriam and Jonas sitting on the couch, Noah and Puck standing behind it, all of them facing two stern-looking officers. Every face was turned to her, a mixture of expressions greeting her.

Jonas, rather oddly, looked amused. Miriam looked upset, and annoyed, but she looked annoyed about something most of the time, and there was the rather pressing matter of policemen in her house that may well be the reason for her annoyance. Noah, who seemed barely distracted from the two officers in the room, looked shocked, to say the least, so it was hard to say just how he felt about this turn of events. The police officers looked mad at the interruption, but ultimately focused on the job at hand. And Puck was seething, sexy anger sending waves of heat into the air. Maybe she hadn't decided to do this at the best of times.

Miriam, never losing her cool, waved at the only available seat, but still sounded a bit flustered (fair enough, considering). "Rachel, sit down, please."

The officers carried on with whatever they were doing before she'd barged in. "Mr and Mrs Puckerman, we understand that this has never happened before, but Ms Smithson is very upset. She said she will no longer be happy with just payment for the fence. She'd like to press charges."

Rachel, now sat in the chair Noah's mom had gestured at, glanced at Puck, who was looking pointedly. He mouthed 'Don't say anything.' She nodded, confused.

Jonas spoke up now. "Our son has never done anything like this before. Surely you could just give him a warning? I'm sure he'll never do anything like this again!"

Rachel looked up at Puck and Noah expectantly, waiting for them to explain that is was Puck who'd broken the fence, but they stayed quiet. She felt her eyebrows pull together.

The policeman who'd spoken before answered. "I'm sure that's exactly what a judge will do. Nonetheless, we have to take Noah to the station to write this up; otherwise Ms Smithson could file a complaint at another level, which could lead to more trouble for Noah than it's worth."

Miriam let out a sob. Rachel hadn't even noticed she was crying, but Puck's hand was already on her shoulder, comforting her. If he wanted to comfort her, why didn't he just tell them that it was his foot that poked a whole in Ms Smithson's damn fence?

Noah spoke for the first time since Rachel got here. "It's okay. I'll go."

Miriam sniffed a few times, resigned to this fact by now.

As the officers stood to lead Noah out, Rachel shifted forward, intending to tell them they'd made a mistake. But before she could, Puck caught her eye. His head shook infinitesimally, enough to make her pause while Noah left with the police.

How could Puck do this? He was not the person she'd thought he was. Instead of making a scene, however, she stayed silent until they could talk alone.

Miriam obviously sensed they needed to talk, but perhaps assumed it was because of what Rachel had said when she came in. She ushered Jonas out silently, and Rachel waited until she heard them upstairs to start.

She immediately slapped Puck across the chest. "What are you doing? You broke Ms Smithson's fence!"

"I know!" Puck rolled his eyes. "There's an explanation…"

Rachel waited. "Go on then."

Thinking, Puck had nothing. Maybe it was the fact that she was pushing up her breasts as she crossed her arms, maybe it was the way her lips pursed together as she tapped her foot. Whatever it was, his mind had gone blank.

Rachel shook her head. "You've seriously go nothing? What, did you just convince Noah to do this because you could? Because he idolises you, you know that?"

Puck looked up, hurt, but Rachel didn't skip a beat.

"I just don't understand how you can use him like that."

"Like you were going to?" Lashing out was a knee-jerk reaction for Puck, but even as he said it, he knew it was wrong. "What did you hope to achieve by telling the kid about the kiss? You were relying on how he reacted. For your own gain."

"Hey, what I did was immature; what you did was awful and selfish and wrong!" She spat her words at him, hate slowly but surely replacing any feelings of want she'd previously harboured.

Puck couldn't handle her looking at him like this. "Rach–"

"Don't 'Rach' me! How dare you do this to him; he's the nicest guy I've ever known, he doesn't deserve this!"

Puck couldn't stand it. He was going to tell her.

"Rach, listen! The kid and me… We're the same!" He didn't know how to get it out.

Rachel slapped him across the face in a cold, swift movement. "If you were one tenth of the man that boy is, you'd have never let him take the fall for something you did. You appal me. You're disgusting."

"No, Rach!" Puck stopped her as she attempted to storm out. "You're not hearing me! We're the same person, like I'm him, he's me."

She snatched her hand away, trying to leave again.

He moved in front of her. "We, I'm from, like… Well, I'm from…" He didn't know if she'd believe him. Doubt shaded his thoughts.

Rachel sneered at him, for the first time looking something like the Rachel he knew from his universe. "Get it out, then. What could possibly allow you to justify this to yourself?"

Puck looked down, ashamed. "There's… There's no Peter Puckerman."

Rachel from his universe disappeared, thank god, replaced by a confused Rachel from this universe. "What?"

Puck looked back up at her, trying to make her believe him with his eyes. "My name is Noah Puckerman. I'm Noah, but from another universe."

So, y'all best appreciate this chapter. I worked hard and stayed up until 5 last night writing some of this, and now it's 2:22. Because apparently I can only write at night. :/

Please review, makes me feel like it was worth it.

And THANKS FOR READING. of course :D