A/N: Sorry this chapter took me so long. I had trouble with it. Again, obviously Glee is not mine.

The Seduction of Kurt Hummel

Part XI: Concessions

The weekend went quickly, and Puck still hadn't figured anything out. What was the problem?

He liked Kurt.

A lot.

Like, really a lot.

And he thought Kurt liked him. The other boy was definitely attracted to him. He remembered back to the time in Kurt's basement.

"Do you want me, Kurt?"

"Yes."

"Do you want me to touch you, Kurt?"

"God, yes."

He relived those moments more times then he should have, but he couldn't help himself. He knew Kurt wanted him, but did he really like him?

Kurt really liked Finn … and always had.

What if Kurt really didn't like him? Puck wasn't used to caring about what someone else thought. In fact, he wasn't used to caring at all.

And there was a good reason for that.

He thought back to when his dad had left them a long time ago. His mom had been devastated. It had been a difficult time, and Puck would never forget it. His mom had cried all the time, and he had been the one holding everything together.

Puck had decided long ago that he would never give anyone that much power. Wasn't it better not to get close to anyone? Then you didn't have to worry about getting hurt.

But when he was around Kurt, he thought maybe it would be worth the risk…

Puck thought about things until he wanted to bash his head against the wall. Nothing was making any sense to him anymore.

Kurt had not called him again. Puck had been somewhat relieved, but he still couldn't resist calling Finn. Of course, he tried to be nonchalant when he asked Finn if he'd heard from Kurt, but he had the feeling the other boy was not fooled at all.

Finn had not heard from him either.

So, when Puck went to school on Monday, he wasn't really surprised by the other boy's reaction. Kurt ignored Puck completely. He was obviously still pissed.

Any time he saw him, Kurt's icy gaze looked right through him. And while Puck was glad that he was no longer asking him questions, he felt … upset that Kurt was so angry with him. He thought about talking to him, but really what was he going to say?

Finn seemed oblivious. That wasn't really a surprise though.

And although Kurt ignored Puck, he didn't ignore Finn. At all. Quite the opposite, in fact. He seemed more determined than ever give Finn the attention he loved. He touched Finn as much as possible, almost to the point of the other kids noticing. Finn should have been suspicious of all the attention, but instead he was loving it.

Puck tried not to react. After all, he knew Kurt was doing it just to get back at him. At least that was what he thought. Another suspicion surfaced, though, as the day wore on. What if Kurt was tired of Puck? Tired of dealing with all of Puck's hang-ups? Puck was the one who had wanted to do all this, and now he was acting crazy. Maybe Kurt was tired of it … tired of him.

That thought hurt more than anything else. Maybe now he just wanted to be with Finn. Puck was angry at the thought.

But he was mostly angry at himself. Kurt wanted him, and he just kept pushing him away.

He tried not to think about it as he went to his biology class. That was the one class he really wanted to miss. Watching Finn and Kurt flirting together… well that was something he could do without.

"Oh my God, Kurt," Finn said, "you are so funny." They were both laughing, and Puck found he was actually looking forward to the arrival of the biology teacher, so that Kurt would have to turn around and concentrate on something other than Finn.

"Puck, did you hear what Kurt was saying? Kurt… tell Puck what you said." They both really looked at each other then, for the first time that day.

As his eyes locked with Kurt's, he could see past the smile to the anger beneath. He started to say something. He wasn't even sure what …

Mr. Bell walked in and commanded everyone's attention.

***

Finn and Puck were enjoying their lunch when Kurt walked into the cafeteria. Finn gestured wildly for him to join them. The fashionable boy did not really look pleased about the idea. If he didn't know better, Puck would think that Finn was doing it on purpose just so the two of them couldn't avoid each other anymore. But that would take a lot of thinking ahead, and Puck wasn't sure Finn was capable of doing that.

Once Kurt got his food, he sat down with the two boys.

"Hey, Kurt," Finn said enthusiastically.

"Hey, Finn," he said with a smile. Then he turned to Puck and the smile vanished.

"Noah."

"Kurt."

Finn chatted happily while they ate, oblivious to the other boys' withdrawn moods. After a while, Finn was able to get Kurt laughing. Puck didn't know if that was a good thing or not. He loved Kurt's laugh, but it brought back all those annoying feelings he was trying so hard to avoid. Then Kurt leaned forward and touched Finn's arm. It was a simple gesture, but it seemed to convey a lot of meaning. It seemed so … intimate. Puck found himself getting annoyed with his best friend even though he had not really done anything wrong.

"So I have a great idea," Finn said. "Let's get together tonight. We can work on the song we're doing for Glee Club and talk about our other thing." He smiled that cute lopsided smile he had.

Neither of the other boys looked impressed with the idea.

"What do you think, Kurt?" he asked.

"Sure, Finn. Sounds great," Kurt said. "What about you, Puck?"

He really didn't have any choice but to agree.

"Sure," he replied. He didn't point out the obvious … that Matt and Mike wouldn't be there, so it wouldn't be a true rehearsal. He knew that wasn't the main reason for the get together.

"You guys can come over to my house," Kurt said. "It will be easier to practice our routine there."

The rest of the day was uneventful. Puck wasn't sure how he felt about going to Kurt's house later. He wanted to be around him, of course, but he was also wary. And Finn was just irritating the crap out of him. He was always touching Kurt and flirting with him. Of course, just last week Puck had asked Finn to flirt with Kurt, but this was different. It was on a whole new level. What was the deal anyway?

It was especially evident during Glee practice. They were back in their groups, and it was so evident that Mr. Schuester even noticed.

"Finn? Please stop touching Kurt. You need to be working on your songs."

"Sorry, Mr. Schue," he said, but Puck didn't think he looked sorry at all.

Really, he shouldn't care. He had no claim to Kurt or Finn, for that matter, so they could do what they wanted. It just seemed almost as if Finn was doing it on purpose. Maybe Finn really liked Kurt. That thought just irritated him even more.

****

The boys filed down to Kurt's room in the basement. His dad wasn't home yet, but he would be soon.

Puck knew he still seemed "pissy" as Finn called it, but he couldn't help it. He felt like he had no control over the whole situation. He almost refused to go, but that would have been worse. He would have just wondered what Kurt and Finn were doing all this time. That would have driven him even crazier.

Once they got settled, they practiced their routine until it was perfect. That didn't actually take very long at all.

When they were finished, Puck sat on the white couch in the corner and ignored the other boys. He sifted through the magazines on the table. He wasn't sure he wanted to read anything that Kurt had since there obviously weren't any sports magazines. He found some fashion magazines and picked up the latest issue of GQ. Surprisingly, he found it interesting. Not the clothes of course, but there were some fairly hot guys in it.

"Comfortable, Noah?" Kurt asked.

"Yup."

Kurt rolled his eyes and turned back to Finn. So I think we should get together at your house, Finn," he said. "It seems kind of neutral."

"My mom will be working tomorrow night. We could do it then."

"So soon?" Noah said. He had tried not to comment, but found he couldn't help himself.

"Is that a problem, Noah?"

"Nope," he said, flipping the pages of the magazine.

"Great," Finn said with enthusiasm.

"Hey, Finn," Kurt said looking at the other boy shyly. "I wonder if you could help me with something."

"Sure Kurt. What's up?"

"I … well, I was wondering if you could help me practice kissing."

Puck's head jerked up in surprise.

"You're a good kisser, Kurt," Finn replied.

"But you guys are so much better at this," he said. "I just haven't had much practice … well on another person that is."

That really got Puck's attention. He thought of Kurt practicing and wondered what he practiced on. Was it a mirror? Maybe it was his bedpost … He tried to ignore the images now going through his mind.

"Please?"

"Sure," Finn said with a laugh. "We'll make a game out of it. I'll kiss you, and then you have to kiss me back the same way."

Kurt smiled at him. Finn reached down and kissed Kurt on the cheek.

"Now you kiss me on the cheek."

Kurt had to stretch to reach Finn. Puck watched as Kurt kissed his best friend on the cheek.

"Very good," he said with a smile.

Finn then leaned in close to Kurt… and rubbed his nose against the other boy's nose.

Kurt giggled.

"Eskimo kisses," Finn said with a smile.

Kurt reached up and touched his nose to Finn's.

"Are you sure you haven't done this before? You're really good."

Another giggle from Kurt.

Puck tried to ignore them, but it was really hard to do.

"Okay, Kurt, are you ready for a real kiss?"

Kurt nodded his head. Finn placed his hands on Kurt's face and kissed him softly on the lips. Although their mouths were closed, they still managed to make it look hot.

Puck watched carefully as Kurt reciprocated the kiss. His lips brushed against Finn's delicately.

"Was that okay?" Kurt asked, shyly.

"It was awesome, Kurt," Finn said with a smile.

Puck turned the page of the magazine he was no longer reading … rather loudly. Both boys turned toward him.

"Are you sure there's not a problem, Noah?" Kurt asked.

"Nope," Puck replied. "No problem."

They proceeded to ignore him.

He looked up again just in time to see Finn going in for another kiss. This one was more intimate. Kurt had his mouth open slightly. Finn kissed him, gently coaxing his mouth to open even wider. He caught Kurt's bottom lip in his as he pulled away.

"Wow," Kurt said. Puck silently agreed with him.

"Ready to try?"

Puck could not turn away as Kurt tried to coax Finn's mouth open. He had his hand behind Finn's head and seemed to be really getting into the kiss.

They pulled apart but only for a second. Finn brought Kurt's mouth to his own and kissed him once again. This time when Kurt opened his mouth, Finn used his tongue to deepen the kiss. Kurt groaned and the sound caused a physical reaction in Puck.

He could, at times, see their tongues touching and for Puck there was nothing more erotic than that.

He couldn't help it; he groaned… and swore… loudly.

They pulled apart and looked over at him.

"Would you like to join us, Noah?" Kurt asked softly.

And for a second he considered doing just that. He was torn between the need to kiss Kurt … touch Kurt, and the … hesitancy he still felt.

A knock at the door caught their attention, and then the door opened.

Kurt's dad peeked through the opening.

"Kurt?"

"Yeah, Dad?"

"It's time for your friends to leave."

"Oh, okay, Dad." he said as the older Hummel left them alone once again.

It was a good thing Kurt's dad didn't show up a few minutes earlier. They would have been asked to leave and never come back.

"So 5:00 tomorrow, at Finn's house?" Kurt asked.

They were all in agreement as they walked out the door. Puck pouted moodily as he made his way to Finn's car.

Puck really tried not to be irritated, but he couldn't help it. The emotional and physical reactions that he was trying to push away, along with the worry about how the next evening would go, and his irritation at his friend … he wouldn't label it jealousy at all … made him feel extremely frustrated.

As he got into Finn's car and slammed the door, he realized he wasn't the only one in a bad mood.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" his friend asked, uncharacteristically harsh.

It was going to be a long ride home.

Operation: Seduce Kurt Hummel within his grasp.